MAGS Day 2024 is on Sunday, September 29, 2024: Getting gains on hard running days?

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Be careful with this one mate. There are times when that is correct, and times when that is slightly misleading. At times, if all you think you need to do is get some sugar into you that you're doing more damage than helping yourself out.

Now, a really hard run, are you referring to a short and hard run, or a longer hard run?

For long runs->

Important things to think about are the basic biological processes of aerobic respiration. You can find yourself incredibly tired after a long (especially when it's harder, but that's common sense) run. During long runs most of your activity will be aerobic, meaning that your body uses glucose and oxygen to go through it's normal respiration. Your body doesn't have that much glucose in your bloodstream though, so where does it get it from? Glycogen is a larger molecule used to store glucose in your muscles. As your body uses up the glucose in your blood, the glycogen is released, and therefore more glucose is available. Glucose = sugar. You're pretty much not going to be using up your glycogen supply unless you go around 18-20 miles (you'll notice in marathons that for some reason a huge portion of the dropouts stop in that range when they "bonk" or "hit the wall" ... this is the wall, and the reason for that).

So you say, what does this have to do with eating sugar? You need to replace all this used up glycogen (called glycogen replenishment) in your body. This is where you hear about carbo-loading and similar things. That's an attempt to store all the glycogen you possibly can before a race or game or whatever you may be doing. Carbohydrates are what they call complex sugars. Complex sugars are what make up glycogen, and are basically long strings of glucose bonded together that your body can break apart and have a very efficient fuel source from. On the other end of the spectrum, you have your simple sugars. Things like table sugar, the sugar in an apple (or any fruit), sugary candy, etc etc are all examples of simple sugars. This is just glucose (or another sugar molecule, but that's getting into unnecessary complications) and does not form glycogen in your body. It hits your blood stream as simple sugars, and this is the reason for the "sugar high". Ingesting this sort of sugar after a long run has it's purpose as well, but much less so. If you've ever felt like taking a nap after a long run, you're feeling the effects of the lower glucose levels after you run and use so much of it. A little simple sugar hits the bloodstream quickly and helps to keep you going until the complex sugars can provide your true, longer term energy.

So ... long running = you need to replenish glycogen stores in your body, and you're kinda crashing a bit. Drinks like powerade contain simple sugars, but also your more needed complex sugars. Don't rely on powerade alone though, the ratio is all wrong there, and one little bottle is not enough after a run. This is where the idea of eating something after a hard/long workout comes into play. Complex sugars need not be ingested immediately, but remember that eating pasta (full of carbs aka complex sugars) doesn't give you an immediate energy boost, but the sort that lasts all day. Only simple sugars and no complex will serve as a quick boost, but only drop you even lower. You run the risk of all sorts of unhealthy complications, but most commonly (aka it happens everytime, the complications happen rarely) is that you are just that much more exhausted. You really can run as long as 20+ miles in the morning and be awake for the day ... that wouldn't be the way though.

For short runs->

Much of shorter/hard running is anaerobic. This means that your body needs so much energy so fast that you simply can't afford to be going through the normal aerobic respiration cycle. Here your muscle cells switch to anaerobic respiration also called fermentation. Yep, just like yeast. This uses the glucose and converts it to energy in a way that is much much faster, yet far less efficient. In order to do so, it also gives up the ability to convert glycogen into glucose, as you'll run out of the glucose far before you'll be able to convert a useful amount of glycogen over. This is the reason you can only sprint so far. Running a 2 mile race at the same pace as you could run a half mile is just not an option, but people can indeed legitimately sprint for 400m at a pace amazingly close to that of their 100m times. That's because the 100m and 400m are both completely anaerobic, and the 3200 simply isn't (until perhaps you kick it in harder).

After these shorter runs, you're body will start to replace the glucose from glycogen stores, but benefits can be had when you help the process along. Your body needs energy to do things like clear lactic acid out of your muscles after this work (anaerobic respiration, or fermentation, creates lactic acid as it's byproduct), and to repair the damage done to the muscles. You build muscle by making microscopic tears in it when working out, and when it is repaired in your body it grows back slightly more than it had been (assuming you leave it at microscopic tears and don't legitimately tear a muscle, but you'd notice that one and have a lot more on your mind all of a sudden). Giving your body energy supplies sooner after a workout allows these processes to start sooner, which is clearly preferable.

Another useful thing before/after either distance!!! What I've found to be more important that simple sugar in either situation (And yes, this is a proven need as well, I'm not throwing out my random theories. There's proof, and it's also common knowledge to an extent) is protein! Protein is what helps you rebuild the muscles. I took to eating a small protein bar before, and a more average size one after workouts, and for me the change was amazing. The "next day soreness" feeling decreased amazingly. You might feel the effect a bit less, maybe a bit more, but it's strong. You give the muscles what they need to rebuild themselves as they're being worked, and then just after when they are starting to repair themselves, suddenly the materials are all there ... clearly they get rebuilt better, stronger, faster. Personally I like long runs, and (after getting myself in shape of course and training up to the distances) this allows me to run my schedule of back to back 20+ mile runs and sometimes back to back to back 20+ runs. When doing my schedule, it helped impressively so that I just don't get so sore at all after what is clearly a vicious workout. Some thing goes for the runner who runs shorter, and gets sore the day after a 5-miler. There's much benefit to be had here, but it also depends on the time frame. Try to ingest it in the next 30 minutes after a run, after this its less than half as effective, and after 2 hours is no more beneficial at all than a high protein diet would be to begin with.

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SUMMARY (because you know that was more than you wanted to know):

Long runs: Aerobic respiration means you need to replenish glycogen. A small amount of simple sugars will get you through the post run fatigue (gatorade/powerade is enough for that), but focus on complex sugars. Most foods actually can help you out here as anything is converted into glucose and stored, glucose is your bodies only real way of getting energy and as such your body converts all food sources to it. Protein is immensely helpful.

Short runs: Anaerobic respiration means glycogen won't be too depleted unless runs are repeated and repeated after recovery time is allowed. If so, treat like a long run. If not, this is where your sugar can come in as seen in the magazine (powerade has enough for most cases, only when you are actually worried about things like passing out do you actually need to add to it). Protein will be your best friend as well. No need to gorge on a feast as soon as you're done running (would make most people sick), but a small protein bar or similar would be benefitial.

Best of luck to you and all your running efforts mate. I hope this helps you out in some way or another. :)

How many Push-Ups a day should I do to get stronger?

I think most fitness mags and books will mention something like 3 sets of 8 reps per set for strength (fewer sets with much higher reps per set for toning).

I've only been working out about 16 months now, but what i've found helpful is starting out with a goal of say, 10 pushups, done from a kneeling position (even easier, esp. for people who have never worked out, would be doing "wall" push ups). Check youtube for proper form - there are lots of videos on there which will show you how to do it right. When i am able to do my 10, maybe i'll add one or two more pushups per week. The next level of difficulty is doing the push ups on your toes. Do as many as you can and then add one - push yourself to do "just one more."

Again, consult books, mags and youtube for info. I've found youtube to be helpful, too, for pushup variations to really challenge myself.

Good luck!