Outside is free. Inside a gym costs money. Why do people choose a gym? I don’t get it? Is it because they are scared of the weather? Getting wet for example.

Let me tell you something you may find hard to believe. I run 6 days a week, sometimes twice a day, and I very rarely run in the rain. I live in England which is notorious for it’s regular rainfall, but I rarely get wet.

So it can’t be the weather forcing people to run on a treadmill. If you live in a large town or city, you may think that there is nowhere to run. I can guarantee that you are wrong.

Have a look at my post, ‘Stop Thinking Like a Motorist’, for ways to find traffic free runs in urban areas.

I have run regularly for 23 years and find it impossible to have negative thoughts while running in the countryside, connecting with my body and nature. Now a scientific study has backed up my own experience. The journal ‘Environmental Science and Technology’ published data from researchers who conducted 833 trials on adult runners.

They found that running outdoors is better than exercising in the gym, because it has a positive impact on mental health. “Around 75% of the European population live in urban environments, so increasing efforts need to be made to reconnect people with nature.”

Running outside is the way to quickly overcome two curses of modern life; Obesity and depression.

It’s best to have a route planned before you leave home. The easiest way is to run to your nearest park, canal or river, and exercise on the footpaths in a pleasant traffic free environment.

Click here for more tips on finding good traffic free routes. Happy running.

John McNally
Running in Leamington Spa, England

Running marathons is a mental, as well as a physical challenge, particularly after the 20 mile mark. In the last 6 miles of a marathon every fibre in your body is saying stop, stop, but you have to overcome those messages and stay focused on continuing your run.

Marathons are very technical running events. Before you even line up at the start, you should have a race strategy already worked out. You know your pace per mile, and you know what time you should reach various markers in the race 5 miles, 10k, 10 miles, Halfway, 15 miles and 20 miles.

As you reach each of these predetermined checks, you look at your watch and hopefully the time is on plan. If the time shows you are faster, you should slow down, on the other hand if the check time is slower you need to gradually speed up.

All these adjustments are made to keep to your Plan A target of the perfect marathon, and the fastest race time. However although you have prepared properly with at least 4 months of training, you don’t have control over all the race day variables.

The weather may be too hot, you have a cold or are feeling unwell, an old injury is starting to niggle at you, someone trips you up in the mass start. There can be loads of things to prevent you from running the perfect race. This is where you need a Plan B . An alternative plan that will keep you focused and get you to the finish line.

I recently ran the Gloucester Marathon on 23rd January, and it is the first race I got a DNF (Did Not Finish), I pulled out at 18 miles. I only had one plan. Plan A was to run the marathon with Carolyn, an excellent marathon runner who runs a perfectly paced race. Unfortunately Carolyn was ill and did not run. I only found this out 15 minutes before the race start.

I didn’t have a Plan B. I didn’t know what pace I should run, and I didn’t know what time to aim for. That is a disastrous mental attitude to have in a marathon. Marathons need 100% focus. Without any alternative plan to focus on, I obeyed  my bodies signals as soon as I started to hurt. At 18 miles I dropped out.

I’ve learn’t my lesson. ALWAYS have a Plan B.

John McNally
Still training for marathons in Leamington Spa, England

Thousands of men die every year because they didn’t want a finger up their bum.

It’s true, thousands of men die of Prostate Cancer every year, because they were scared of having a bloke put a finger up their bum.

I think some of it is the homosexuality thing. Homosexuality. Finger up the bum. See what I mean?

But is it worth dieing,  just because you don’t want people to think you’re gay?

Well, I’ve been a coward all my life. And given the choice between being called a raving poofta, and dieing, I would choose…….let me think about it……DIEING….oh no, LIVING that’s the answer I meant.

Do you want to know the really tragic thing about Prostate Cancer? Apart from all those men dieing from it…….. IT’S CURABLE.

Actually for the doctors among you, I know that’s not technically correct. Doctors cut the cancer out. So it wasn’t cured. But YOU DIDN’T DIE, and I don’t know about you, but I reckon that’s important.

Anyway, back to your homosexual tendencies that you don’t want anyone to find out about.

Here’s what I do. I take a PSA blood test every year. No finger. Clever eh? Here’s my slogan, it’s not very catchy, but I think it hits the spot.

Get a PSA test every year and DON”T DIE.

John McNally
A Rugby Playing, Beer Swilling, Real Man WITHOUT a finger up his bum,  in Leamington Spa, England

I mean, I don’t know about you, but I don’t fancy having a finger up my bum, and that’s what it takes to prevent early death.

No thank you. No finger up the bum for me. I’m a real man me. Come on Grim Reaper bring it on. I’m not scared.

Alright scared isn’t the right word, but I definitely don’t want to die before my allocated appointment.

And me and the Grim Reaper have a deal. I get to receive the Queens Telegram (100th birthday greetings), and all he gets is my soul.

Great eh! I hope he doesn’t spot that I conned him, he could turn nasty.

Anyway, back to your homosexual tendencies that you have been hiding all your life. Here’s what I do. I take a PSA blood test every year. No finger.

John McNally
Without a finger up his bum, in Leamington Spa, England

Why aren’t I worried? Well for a start, this is my 18th marathon, so I think I know the ropes. Also I’m not even training for this one, my training is focused on the Brighton marathon which is 10th April 2011. Trevor from Spa Striders suggested Gloucester because he had a bad experience  in the Edindburgh marathon last year. Edinburgh is run in May and it was very hot, too hot to get a decent race time. 

I don’t like running in the heat either, so here I am looking forward to a nice cold January marathon.

OK. That’s enough preamble. Here’s my marathon training:

I want to run 7 minute miles which will give me a time of 3 hours 4 minutes. I definitely want to be under 3 hours 10 minutes. If I’m not, I will be devastated, and I will have to think up a whole load of excuses.

John McNally
Leamington Spa, England

Three weeks before your marathon you should start resting. If you haven’t trained enough before this, I’m sorry it’s too late now. The best thing you can do is get plenty of rest, preserving your strength for the marathon race ordeal.

New runners who enter marathons make two basic mistakes, they;

1) Don’t train hard enough.

2) Don’t rest enough.

Again, this seems like an oxymoron. How can new runners be criticised for not training hard enough, when they are also not resting enough?

What often happens is that as the marathon race gets nearer, new runners start to panic realising that they haven’t done enough training. So they start to increase their long runs and train harder,  just at the moment they should be doing the reverse.

They compound the error of insufficient training by making themselves tired just before the marathon.

If you’re a marathon runner and this sounds familiar, you need to concentrate on one of the most important aspects of marathon training - the taper.

What all runners should understand is that it takes three weeks before the effect of training gets into your legs. In other words the peak weekend for fitness is 21 days before the marathon. 

After this you should be concerned with preserving your fitness and resting, so that you can unleash all your energy during the race.

Three weeks before the race, start to reduce the total training mileage, the length of your runs, and the frequency of your runs leaving more rest days. How you do this depends on your normal weekly mileage.

If you have been running 100 miles per week, 50 miles is a taper. On the other hand if you have run 40 miles per week, then you need to reduce to 20. You could simply half your mileage, and this would be a taper, however I prefer to cut back more than this. 

My own rule is to reduce by a third, for each of the three week taper, so by the final pre-race week I am hardly running at all, just resting. 

Let’s look at different tapers I have tried, my marathon race time, and how I felt:
During your race preparations don’t try anything new, it might not work! When I was 40 I wanted to run a marathon at 6 minute mileing and get a time of 2 hours 38 minutes. I missed this by 3 minutes, and I’m sure its because I tried a carbo bleed diet for the first time. The marathon felt hard from the first mile,  and that’s definitely not right.

I’m not going to describe the carbo bleed and load diet, because I don’t think it’s good for the body. You must however carbo LOAD. That’s absolutely vital.

The best carbohydrates for running is pasta, so eat as much of it as you can. If you get fed up with pasta try rice and bread, but concentrate on complex carbohydrates. It’s your fuel for the marathon. 

Marathons are normally run on Sundays, so here’s your diet plan for the last week:

Monday – Pasta
Tuesday -  Rice
Wednesday - Pasta
Thursday - Rice
Friday - Pasta
Saturday -  Pasta
Sunday - Marathon

You have now prepared properly to race a good marathon and can enjoy the experience.

John McNally
Leamington Spa, England

The other group of new runners are those that have signed up to run a marathon in 2011. In the UK the traditional marathon season is Spring time with London and Brighton marathons in April, and Stratford upon Avon plus Edinburgh marathons in May. 

I am racing the Brighton marathon and running the Edinburgh marathon. I make this ‘racing’ and ‘running’ distinction because I shall run as fast as I can in Brighton, which will be around 3 hours 3 minutes, and pacing my girlfriend around the Edinburgh course in just under 5 hours.

When I met Margaret in March 2009 she didn’t exercise regularly and hadn’t run since she was in school. Margaret is 54 years old so that was a long time ago! In May 2009 Margaret couldn’t run more than 100 metres without getting out of breath and needing to walk.

We both started to train together, gradually building up the distance until by September Margaret completed her first 10k race, and in October she ran the Coventry Half Marathon. Margaret went from 100 metres to 13.1 miles in just six months.

That proved to me that anyone who can walk, can also run. You just need to take it a little bit at a time and build up gradually. During the training Margaret lost 5 stone, took 10 inches off her waist, and feels much better and more positive.

Age can’t stop you running, and nor can most illnesses. Exercise builds a stronger body which will help fight illness. Margaret has arthritis in her knee, back and neck, and was on pain killers when I met her. Since running she has stopped taking tablets, and her knee, back and neck are now pain-free.

If you can walk, you can run. Just do it.

John McNally
Leamington Spa, England

Part of a natural weight loss plan is making sure that the foods you are eating are nutritious. Whenever you are on a diet you need to eat foods that are nutrient rich and that contain the optimum amount of vitamins and minerals.  That’s because with reduced consumption you need to make each meal count.

It’s easier to cut over 500 calories a day from your usual intake  if you are eating well because foods that are good for you do not leave you with that craving to eat even more. As you are eating less you need to make sure that the foods that you consume are as jam packed with nourishment as possible.

Broccoli is another food that is great when you are on a diet.  The roughage helps you from getting constipated. The folic acid in broccoli also  keeps you from developing iron poor blood.

Eat as much fruit as possible when you are dieting. Cantaloupe is a very nourishing choice as it supplies you with all the Vitamin A and C that you need in a day.  Blend this with ice to make a great shake. Melons of all kinds are crammed with the vitamins that you need to be very healthy.

Yet another great thing to eat when you are on a diet is oranges. These have vitamin C, folic acid and fibre.  Oranges are stacked with Vitamin A too.

In fact if you need Vitamin A any orange coloured fruit or vegetable goes a long way towards optimizing your nutrition.  Drinking the juices of orange fruits of any kind is also recommended for optimum nutrition and to improve your immune system.

Make sure you eat plenty of salmon, avocadoes and fish. Catfish, swordfish and rainbow trout are also good sources of protein and omega 3 oils that can help keep your brain healthy and prevent heart attacks.

If you drink milk then consider that it is one of the best sources of protein. Skimmed milk is the healthiest option, and tastes great with tea or breakfast cereal, once you get used to it. 

If you try and make educated choices on all your foods, you will not only lose weight you will feel great and be healthier.

John McNally 

This works by the organiser estimating each entrants finishing time. If you have to run, walk, run, walk for example, your 5 mile time may be 1 hour 15 minutes. A regular runner like myself can complete the course in 34 minutes. So in the race you would start off 41 minutes before me, and we would both approach the finishing line at the same time.

You only have to improve your handicapped time slightly, for you to win, maybe by finishing in 1 Hour 13 minutes.

I have just completed a handicapped race, and had forgotten how enjoyable they are, especially for new runners, who suddenly have a chance to beat experienced athletes. I organised the handicapped race for my local pub, the Hope and Anchor in Leamington Spa.

You may have realised by now, that the handicapped time you are set largely determines who wins. I was setting the handicapped times and was quite open about my potential for corruption. I was quite willing to give a good time for anyone who buys me a beer.

Nobody bothered to bribe me, so I tried to make sure my girlfriend won the race. I gave her a handicapped time 4 minutes slower than I thought she could run it. Margaret DID win the race, but I needn’t have cheated. She actually finished 9 minutes in front of everyone else, so she had raced 5 minutes faster than I thought she could.

If you live anywhere near Leamington Spa in Warwickshire, come along to our next race. It starts from the Hope and Anchor 11am on Saturday 18th December. Runners and non-runners all welcome, and it’s free to enter.

John McNally

‘Scotland’s Biking Heaven’

Unfortunately star gazing in June is a waste of time because it doesn’t get dark until 11pm and even then the sky has a blue tinge to it. Dawn is 4am, so you have a very short window for star gazing. If it’s a cloudy day you can forget it.

Luckily I took bikes with me, and I’m really glad I did. The roads are very quiet which makes cycling a pleasure. Scotland has a small population compared to England, so you have the countryside and roads all to yourself.

However it’s not just the quiet country roads that make this part of Scotland a ‘Biking Heaven’, it’s the well maintained forest trails. I ride a Hybrid bicycle which is a combination of road bike and mountain bike. Inside the Kirroughtree forest are different trails, colour coded from green (easy) to black (severe).

The green and blue (moderate) routes are suitable for hybrid bikes and they are fantastic. I am now thinking about getting a mountain bike, because I would like to cycle the red (difficult) and black routes. 

I shall return in the Autumn to cycle during the day, and star gaze at night. Sometimes it’s possible to see the Northern Lights (Aurora Borealis) from here and that would be a life’s ambition achieved.

John McNally