Shoe selection:
For most sports, (and especially running), your feet are a key component. Before you commence on your athletic journey URL strongly recommend visiting a specialist footwear company who carry out Gait Analysis.
Selecting the right shoes for you is critical to mitigating certain injuries - it's not all about selecting the most attractive pair of shoes, they need to do the best job for your feet.
One such company, based in Worcester, is The Active Foot Company. The Owner, Oli Davey, is knowledgable, friendly and an England Athletics Endurance Coach.
If you can't get to Worcester, there will surely be a specialist shop in your locality, but where possible always go on recommendation.
Don't forget that your feet, like everybody else's, are UNIQUE.
Choices are many, depending on the type of running that you are doing:
Get advise from your specialist shoe seller to see which footwear best suits you are your running conditions.
Unless you choose to go barefoot - you need socks!
What options are there?
The choice is yours!
All of Ultra Running Limited events are now CUP-FREE
This means that you must provide your own drinking vessel to benefit from water, cola, squash etc from check-point stations.
Many other races are also adopting this 'green' initiative.
Please click on our shop link on the main menu tab to see options that we have available.
Keep your head warm during those cold running sessions.
Check out our shop for the Green Man Ultra woolly bobble hat.
Or for hot weather running try our Polyester Cool Cap.
Headtorch - An essential and mandatory piece of equipment. (assuming your race falls into the hours of darkness)
Any responsible race director won't let you continue on a race if you are unlikely to reach the next check-point station in the daylight and you don't have a torch.
In addition, if it is discovered through a pre-race bag check that you don't have a torch, your race is over before it has begun.
If you can afford to, invest in a good quality torch, there are many choices out there.
Once you have the torch, try it out! Get used to it, and check how long the battery life lasts for. On race day make sure you have adequate batteries for the torch-life you need, plus that emergency set of batteries just in case.
Hydration:
Even during your normally daily life, you need to stay hydrated to perform at your best. Most studies indicate that males require 3.7 ltrs of water and females 2.7 ltrs of water each day. But this does include the water element found in foods.
The choice of how you carry your water on a run is yours, and the options are many:
You need to decide which water carrier works best for you!
Regards how much water you need to drink on a run - weigh yourself before the run, don't take any water with you, weigh yourself immediately you finish the run. One litre of water weighs the same as 1 kg, so do the maths.
On hydration Nancy Clark was asked a couple of questions:
"When training in summer heat, what’s best to drink"?
A study with active young adults had them exercise lightly for 3 hours in a simulated heat wave. In 4 trials, they were given either 1) cool tap water to drink as desired, 2) ice cold water (40° F/4°C) to drink as desired, 3) no fluid replacement, or 3) program-med drinking with full replacement of sweat losses. Obviously, those who drink nothing suffered the most strain. Those who drank ad libitum consumed enough to prevent dangerous levels of dehydration. Preliminary findings indicate the athletes drank more of the cool tap water. The ice cold water seemed to blunt thirst. Be careful how much ice you put in your water bottle?
"I’m afraid of becoming dehydrated when I train hard in the heat".
I plan to push fluids. How much is too much to drink? While drinking an extra-large volume of fluid before endurance exercise might seem advantageous, the question arises: would doing so actually trigger a diuretic effect and, thus, not provide the desired benefit (hyper-hydration). To test that theory, subjects drank 5, 10, 15 or 20 ml/kg of a sodium-containing beverage That’s about 12 to 50 ounces (350 ml to 1,400 ml) for a 155-lb (70 kg) athlete. The data suggest that the athletes retained about half of what they drank, regardless of the volume consumed. Thus, if you will be exercising in the heat, tank up as tolerated.
Navigation Aids:
A GPS device is a must have if you are running and recording routes and entering race events where navigation is required.
There's nothing more disheartening to enter your first 50 mile race and end up doing bonus miles because you went astray!
With a GPS device you can easily down load pre-recorded gpx routes to follow, and the more modern options actually vibrate or beep when you accidentally stray off track.
But they offer much more than just keeping you on the right track, as a GPS watch will provide you with a wealth of information both during your run and afterwards, helping you track your progress and plan your training.
An accurate GPS devise is a must, as are excellent biometrics (including heart rate and blood oxygen saturation), plus training tools to help you get the most from your sessions.
Technology is moving at a rapid pace so new models are continually being launched. This is good news because some of the older models can get discounted to a more sensible price.
Top manufacturers are Garmin and Coros, with endless design choices.
Newbie runners can get away with any old shorts and t-shirt, but, of your clothing accessories, don't skimp on your shoes! (see our 'shoes' tab).
Getting more adventurous and entering races, the need for better quality kit increases. Move into ultra races and your choices for kit can go stratospheric in costs.
And the old saying - "a good workman never blames his tools", is so appropriate to you as a runner.
You will thank yourself for investing in good quality clothing, if you can afford it.
It can be an expensive game, but if you wait for the sales or new designs replacing old, the bargains can be had. Indeed, using online marketplaces such as eBay, there's a perpetual offering of unused, or worn just a couple of times items that can be massively discounted.
But when you are starting out, take it a little easy on the spend button! The kit you see other people wearing and using may not be right for you.
Mandatory Kit List:
Most ultra marathon races include a madatory kit list for the competitor to carry.
Each events will have it's own requirements, i.e. no point carrying a torch if the race starts and completes in daylight.
Here is a typical example from some of our own URL races:
The above may not all be applicable to the race that your entry, but whatever you need, you can generally source quite compact items so the overall bulk and weight is manageable.
As your experience grows, so your list of contents can deminish. For example, most back-packs have a built in whistle - so there's possibly a box ticked!