Ep 13 - Running Gear with Jamie

In this podcast episode, the hosts discuss the running gear they used for their recent running events. They talk about the different shoes they wore, including the Saucony Endorphin Speed, Brookes Ghost, Hawker Carbon X3, and On Cloud Gold. They also mention the importance of choosing the right shoes for comfort and performance, and recommend getting fitted at a running store. They briefly touch on the importance of wearing running socks to prevent blisters. They clarify that they are not sponsored by any of the companies mentioned, but wouldn't mind testing out trainers from Nike if given the opportunity. Hello and welcome to episode number 13 of the progress pod and today I am joined again by Jamie McReady. So, welcome Jamie mate. Glad to have you back. Thanks for having us. Hopefully this one goes down as well as the last one. I think I had a decent bit of feedback across Instagram and people messaging and saying that they just enjoyed the podcast. Lots of takeaways that they could implement themselves going forward. So, I'm just hoping that we can do the same again. Definitely mate. So yeah, the last podcast that we did just a couple of weeks ago on Sub3 Marathon, just running events in general. We had good feedback for that but quite a lot of the questions I was getting and I know you were getting as well was we didn't really dive into too much detail on the running gear that we had, the shoes, watches, what gels we had, all that sort of thing. So, this is a follow-up episode where we are going to be chatting through all the running gear that we had during our running events. So, just to kick things off, we're going to run through shoes. So, it's going to be quite a good episode in the sense that myself and Jamie wore different shoes, had different gels, different accessories. So, it's just to show that we both achieved the same goal but completely different running gear. So, it's not one size fits all but Jamie, do you want to dive in and run through your shoes first of all? Yeah. So, first off, you notice when you sign up for an event, shoes and your trainers are the most exciting part of it. Going online, doing your shopping online and there's so much out there, so many different pairs of trainers. You do all your research and I ended up, I was actually talking to Scott who's in your running club about this at the weekend and Nick Bear who is a famous YouTuber, he ran, I believe he ran a sub 250. Yeah. But he's a massive guy. Yeah. So, he had the best coaches in the world, he had the best nutritionists, he had the best data analysts, he had all the best gear and I can remember watching one of his videos and he was wearing for his training runs the Saucony Endorphin Speeds and it just always stuck in my head that if he's wearing that and he's got all of the top minds behind him, there must be something in these. So, yeah, I went and did my research on them, watched YouTube videos and they had rave reviews. So, yeah, that was my initial training trainer. They don't have a carbon plate in them but they were fantastic. Like, I must have ran about 700km in them. Yeah. I didn't want to get rid of them but they ended up, not meaning the toes were burst out of them, the bottom of them were completely like felty pieces but comfort wise they were a fantastic trainer. I could not recommend them and for the price that you can get them now, I think you can get them for like £125 or something which for a running trainer is quite reasonable. So, yeah, Saucony Endorphin Speed was my go-to training trainer that I used for all my longer kind of training runs. Brilliant stuff, mate. Yeah, so I've never actually ran in Saucony. So, I had a couple of different trainers. So, if we went back to Loch Ness, I started with Brookes Ghost. So, Brookes have always been sort of the running shoe I've went for like over the years and I just kind of never went to anywhere else because I was like, right, they work well with my feet. So, I started off with that but decided just before Loch Ness, six, seven weeks out, to change it up and actually go for, what is it, a Carbon Plate. So, I changed to Hawker Carbon X3, I think it was. And one thing I will say about the Carbon Plate shoes is I did enjoy wearing them. They did feel quicker on them but they don't feel as sort of sporty and they won't last as long as a more sort of solid training shoe. Like I'd say, the Carbon Plate ones, I did use them for the sort of last half of the training and the race itself but I don't think I would get a Carbon Plate shoe again just for like the sort of long runs and things like that. You're wanting a more kind of solid, everyday sort of running shoe. But yeah, my Loch Ness training was between Brookes Coast and the Hawker Carbon X3 and then I actually changed to On Clouds Gold for the Manchester Marathon. So, again, I knew the on-running shoes, you'll probably see, becoming more popular. That was the first time I'd ever tried them. One thing I will say about shoes, and Jamie mentioned earlier, he's ran like 700 kilometers in his socks. Add your shoes to Strava. If you can, you can go into your profile and add in your shoes and when you do a run, you just put what shoes you ran in and it tells you how many kilometers that you've been in them. They normally talk somewhere between 500 to 800 kilometers and you're going to need to change them up. So that's a really good way of tracking it so that you know, because the foam and the sponginess, the bounciness, all does wear off. Yeah, that was the kind of shoes that I had worn. And I must say, with the on-running, On Cloud Gold, they were absolutely excellent. First time I'd ever worn them and I actually just wore them for training and racing. For the Manchester Marathon, they were all great. They don't have a carbon plate, but I just felt they were really good all-rounders. Like my long runs, quick hard runs at the track or whatever, I felt they just were really, really good. So I definitely recommend them. But what were your race day shoes, Jamie? So, Loch Ness, I went and used the Nike Vaporfly Mixed Percent 2. And it's funny as well, I can remember when we were lining up to start the race and there was a guy doing the big Tannoy announcement. And he was like, everybody that was wearing the Nike Vaporfly, get down the front. Everybody else, don't talk to them, they're all wankers. Don't talk to the people wearing Nike Vaporfly. So I was one of them. So, yeah, the Nike Percent 2. And I don't know if it's just placebo affecting me, but when you put on a pair of expensive Nikes, you feel as if you can run really fast. You can't go out and run slow in them. And again, I don't know if that's just a mindset thing. As soon as you put on a pair of Nikes, you feel as if you're a flying machine. So yeah, wore them. I was planning on wearing them again at Manchester, but they ended up really splitting the sole. So I actually changed up and I went to the Saucony Endorphin Pro version. Because I enjoyed the speed so much, the Pro version is the same trainer, essentially, but with a carbon plate. So a wee bit lighter, carbon plate. And like you say, you don't need to be wearing a £280 Supershoe to run a stuff wheel. Because yourself, you didn't wear Nikes. And I didn't wear Nikes the second time. And it was funny, when we were in the train heading to the Manchester Marathon, and obviously you're looking at everyone's feet to see what they're all wearing. In our group, at the top end, I would say 90% of people were wearing Nikes. Yeah, definitely. She was at the time, she was like, what's all these bright pink and orange shoes everybody's wearing? Like every single person's got them. But yeah, if you like wearing them, and they're comfy and suit your feet, great. But don't feel that, just because you've shined up from the minute that you have to buy the most expensive pair of shoes. As long as you are wearing a pair of running shoes anyway. Because I've spoken to some people that are running about just in standard trainers. Which is not ideal. But what we'd probably do in the days is, if you're going to be getting your first pair of running shoes and you're not too sure, go into a running shop that analyses your step, your gait. Most running shoe shops would put you on the treadmill, get you to run, and they'll recommend shoes for you. I can't advise how important it is having good footwear. Because the last thing you want is to be wearing shoes that are cutting up, giving you blisters, not great on your joints, and it'll just completely take the enjoyment out of the run. So just make sure that you are being careful with what shoes you pick. But overall, we've covered a few. Saucony, On Cloud, Hawker, Nike. So we've tried a good few pairs. And like we said as well on the previous podcast is, don't buy trainers for the event without testing. Absolutely. Don't break them straight out of the box. You need to do a good 3-4 weeks of running in them to make sure that there's no rubbing, no blister issues. You need to make sure that they're tested and you can get out and have no issues in them at all. Definitely. Definitely. If anyone's got any questions on shoes or whatever, maybe you're thinking about buying a pair, or about any of the ones that we've just mentioned, just give us a shout. And I just need to confirm as well, we're not sponsored by any of the companies here that we're endorsing. But if Nike do want to send us trainers to test out, then yeah, we're more than happy to take them up on their offer. Definitely, mate. That's a good shout. Actually a good shout, if you're listening. But the other point, we'll just kind of touch briefly on this with regards to socks. So make sure that you are wearing running socks as well. Like specific running socks, no cotton socks that you'd wear normally, because that's going to really result in blisters and this is it. I know it's not the fanciest thing, nobody really worries about what's my socks, but it is pretty important that you're wearing specific running socks. I think I wore ones called More Miles, I think they're called. I just got a good few pairs of them, but there's loads of different you can get. Nike running socks, whatever. I don't think it really matters too much in terms of the brand as long as they're a running sock. Yeah, as long as they're not 100% cotton, I believe. So there's a synthetic, and I think it's called polyamide, I think it is, the socks are made from. And also as well, I wore for Loch Ness, because I had a wee bit of issue at the start with blisters, and I got recommended twin skins. So essentially, it's a sock within a sock, so instead of the sock rubbing against the sole of your foot, the sock rubs against the sock and doesn't cause any friction. And as I say, I wore my twin skins and absolutely zero issues. I actually even wore the twin skins when I had a blister. I was able to run and it didn't make the blister any worse. So wee tip for you as well, if you do get a blister and you don't want to stop your training for two to three weeks while it heals, if you get it really bad, get a wee pair of twin skins, a wee bit of Vaseline on the sole of your foot, and that will stop the blister getting any worse. I've not even tried those twin skin ones, but that's a good shout. So yes, that's my shoes and socks. And then on to the tech side of things, watch-wise, mate, what watch were you wearing? So I wore the Garmin Forerunner 245, which is essentially the most basic watch. It does exactly what you need it to do. It does your pace, does your splits, does your training zones, your overall distance. Just the absolute basics of just what you need. It's not overbearing. The nice wee interface on it is just so simple. You have a wee glance at it and it just gives you all the data that you just need. Yep, definitely. I think Garmin, really, really recommend it. You can see if you search Garmin watches, you'll see loads of different styles up to thousands of pounds probably. There's various different ones, but I'm similar to Jamie. I must say that I got the Garmin Forerunner, I don't even know if it's 245 or 255, I'm not sure. But again, it's one of the more entry-level ones. It doesn't have everything, but in terms of running, it's got everything you need. I've actually tried a few. So I had a Polar watch for Loch Ness, and then I also, prior to that, not run an event in it, but I did have an Apple watch. And I must say, for me, Garmin, definitely the easiest to use. In terms of the Garmin app as well, all the data you get from it is just excellent. I think Garmin, in comparison to Apple Forerunner, is night and day. I would definitely advise getting a Garmin watch on that basis. Just all the splits it can give you, the time, what you can put on the interface so you can keep a track on, the notifications you can get, like buzzing each kilometre, everything like that. I think Garmin was fantastic. It's got a great app as well for tracking your runs. Obviously, we use Strava predominantly, but through Garmin, you can track a lot of stuff, like your VO2 max levels and make sure that you're progressing just fitness-wise. Your aerobic capacity, you can track all of that as well. So there's a lot of good wee things on that that you can implement to make sure that your data stops up to date. Definitely, and I think we can touch on heart rate in a minute, but with regards to the Garmin watches, I think the heart rate that it gets from the wrist is a lot more accurate as well than, say, an Apple watch, for instance. So if you're not wearing a heart rate monitor but you've got a Garmin watch, the data in terms of heart rate is going to be a lot better than an Apple watch, for instance. So yeah, I would definitely recommend it. If you are going to be taking up running seriously and you want to track your data and you want to see progress, I'd say definitely invest in a watch like a Garmin. I think Polar gets a good name as well, but with regards to the ease and simplicity and how it looks and feels, I think the Garmin wins it for me. Yeah, agreed. And then, in terms of fueling during the runs, what gear did we have? Firstly, what gels, what food, drink, what did we take, and what did we store it in? So yeah, this was a bit of a trial and error. I used a website, again, no affiliation, but if you want to send us a couple of bits and bobs, it's down there, called xMiles, to buy all my gels and whatnot, but I went through so many different brands because, I'll be honest with you, I tried some of them and some of them weren't my thing. You know what I mean? So I initially started with Science and Sport, and for whatever reason, I just didn't feel that their sort of glucose gels were having really any effect on my performance. So I then swapped out to a brand called Hi5 and started using their glucose gels, and yeah, settled on them. I think it was the raspberry ones, took a bit of getting used to, but once I just started using them, my body was used to it, didn't get any stomach issues, didn't get any stitches or anything like that. So yeah, I went from Science and Sport, wasn't really a fan personally, and then settled on Hi5. Once I knew that my body was okay with that gel, then yeah, that was my gel that I would go to. Good. No, actually, I think I actually watched a YouTube video. I think Ben Parks is a big running YouTube channel. He was running through the gels, and he actually scored Hi5 as the top one, just in terms of it went through a few different metrics in terms of taste, carb content, everything like that, and Hi5 actually scored top. So I've not actually tried it, but they do get quite a good rating. Like Jamie said, if you can find a gel that works for you, just find that and try to stick with it. I've went through a few different types as well, try to work out ones that work. I use the same site, Xmails. It's got loads of different, every gel basically you can get from there. You can pick up some from Home Bargains and things like that, and you can get the Science and Sport ones from there, but yeah, online, tend to, if you want to try some of the different ones. So I tried Humor gels, H-U-M-A. They're all natural, and so they are like chia seeds, it's like honey and stuff like that. So they did taste nice. Some people say they're a wee bit gritty, because they are just natural, but they were nice that their carb content was 22 grams per gel. So what I did was, on the way up to Manchester, I wanted to try and see if I could try one that had a bit more. So I tried one that had a bit more carbohydrate in it, and I started using Precision Fuel and Hydration gels. So they're 30 grams of carbs per gel, so quite a significant amount more. But I must say, they did not taste very good. I could describe it, if you squeezed it out, it would look like the kind of gel you'd use to get an ultrasound scan. They don't really taste of anything. They just taste like really nothing. So I'm not really selling that on the taste front. But for me, I just got quite quickly used to them, and the high carb in them. So I've been using them since that, so I've settled on those. But you can get a lot nicer ones. I might actually try the High 5, because they have a really good recommendation. So I've tried Humor, and I've tried Precision Hydration gels. And I would say, Humor, really good tasting. Loads of different flavours, but not as high carb content. Precision, not the best tasting, but really high carb content, and it didn't really cause me any stomach issues or upset. So that's what I've settled on. Yeah, and also as well, mate, we... Well, I know what I did, because they came in very, very handy towards the end of Manchester. But I also carried salt tablets. So essentially, just an electrolyte tablet that's got salt, magnesium, zinc inside to replenish anything that you lose throughout the event. So yeah, I carried them as well. So just a simple, I cannot... I think they were called Salt Sticks was the brand, if I can remember, mate. But yeah, simple, tiny wee packet. Just wee kind of sweeties, like, more or less. And yeah, they come in very handy. Like I say, if you do feel that you've got maybe an onset of cramp towards the end of an event, apparently taking a salt tablet can alleviate the symptoms for up to 20, 30 minutes. Which, most of the time, will allow you just enough to get you over the finish line and finish the race. And then you can worry about cramp. So yeah, wee salt tablets are so important to take with you, especially on the longer distance stuff. Definitely, and I can vouch for that. Because I didn't actually have salt tablets, and I could really feel cramp. My cord was starting to twitch, and I was like, I'm going into cramp here. Jamie saved the day with a salt tablet. And I can actually say, honestly, I know some things are placebo and things, but having taken that salt tablet, quite instantly, within a minute or so, the feeling of cramp had subsided enough for me, as you said, to get over the line. So they've been added to my fueling repertoire, definitely, in terms of salt. You can get salt chews, salt sticks, you can get various things, but they're getting added. I did have, also, in my Addersoft flask, where instead of putting water in it, I had a Morton drink mix. So it's M-A-U-R-T-E-N, and it's basically just an electrolyte drink mix with sodium, things like that, in it. But I just don't think it wasn't as much sodium as a salt tablet. So it just clearly wasn't enough for me, because I was still getting the cramps, but having that salt tablet was enough. So you can, when you're running, especially if you're doing a marathon distance, even a half-marathon distance, you do need to be getting carbohydrates in every hour. So at the top, maybe somewhere between 60 and 80 grams of carbs per hour. So, for instance, if you're using those precision gels, which are 30 grams per gel, a couple of them, and you're getting towards that target. On the Morton drink mix, which I had, I think there was like 80 grams of carbs in that drink mix. So me having the gels and sipping that throughout was just getting the carbs topped up. So work it out if you want to just take more gels to get to the target, or you can mix it up with gels or Morton as a good drink mix. Some people have a look at it as well, just in the flasks, again, carbohydrates. So it's entirely up to you how you want to split it. You're just going to start with gels, aren't you? I start with gels, and also as well, there'll be people on the way round. There was so many people out with big buckets full of sweeties and stuff, where you could dip your hand in if you wanted a wee sweetie or a wee bit of chocolate or something. Yeah, there would be people on the way round who would have, as I say, just that kind of fast-acting sugars just to keep them going. So yeah, there's that as well. It's just another carb source. Yeah, you can. There's nothing to say. You can't go round the run with actual food, like bananas and dates and things like that, raisins, things that are, as you said, quite fast-acting, just purely carbs, basically. But again, for me, I think it's just a bit easier just to quickly swallow a gel or take a drink, rather than try to flap about and open a banana and stuff like that. As always, with day things, make sure you test them, because the last thing you want to do is eat a handful of dates. Yeah. You don't want to be in the woods for five minutes, you know what I mean? Yeah. So that's another thing to think about, for sure. So yeah, that's the gel summary. High five or precision is what we're using at the moment. And then, how did you carry your gels, Matt? So I used a thing called a Flip Belt. That's the brand name of it. So essentially, it's just like a wee elastic pouch that you wear around your waist. Once you've got it on, you don't even know that you're wearing it. Yeah. And that allowed me to carry my phone. Obviously, some people don't carry their phone on their watch. I don't want music or whatever. We don't listen to music. But I've got my phone with me and my gels and my salt tablets. And that wee Flip Belt, even though it looks like not much, you can carry so much in it. And as I say, once you've got it on, because it's so tight around your waist, you don't even know that you're wearing it. Yeah, no, that's it. We both wore a belt. I wore one. The brand was called Naked. And it's something very similar. It doesn't look much. It's just like a wee elastic strap. But make sure you get the right size for you if you are going to get that, just because it does need to be tight on you. If you don't want one that's kind of loose and it's slipping down you or whatever. Yeah, adjust it. And if you get it, make sure it's the right size, tight on you, and you don't even feel it's on. You can store quite a lot. Your gels, your phone, if you're going out running, stick your keys in it or whatever. You can fit a lot in it. And I think for me, yeah, the belt is a big, big difference to... I've never really worn a running vest. I think wearing a big sort of vest with more stuff in it, a big bladder at the back, that may be going towards maybe like ultra-marathon style races, I think. For half-marathon to marathon, you would get away with just like a belt. Because you're probably not going to need much more than maybe six gels or something like that. So six gels in there, your phone, if you want a soft bladder to fit in the back of it or whatever, then your belt will do you. Because you don't want to be having big unnecessary stuff on your back and all that. It can be the heavier you are, obviously, the tougher it's going to be. So I definitely recommend the running belts. Have you ever worn a vest, mate? No, never tried one. And what I would say on the gels is, before you sign up to your event, you can have a wee look at who's sponsored. The events as well. So High Five were sponsoring, I won't remember who they were sponsoring, Loch Ness? It was one of them. I think it was Loch Ness because I can remember I brought my gel thinking it was the end of the world and then realising it wasn't. So if you don't want to have to worry about carrying all your gels and stuff, you can look at the event, see who's sponsored, and then use them gels in your training, knowing that when you turn up to the event at each station, there's going to be the sponsored gels on the tables for you to pick up on the way. So if you don't want to carry things, have a wee look at the sponsor and then just practise with the gels that are sponsored on the event, and then you can actually pick them gels up on the way round as well. That's a really, really good tip to do that in advance. So for myself, I didn't use High Five, so when I was at the event, even though they were handing out High Five, I didn't want to take them because I hadn't been practising with them, so I wasn't just going to mid-race, start taking another High Five gel in the sense that it might mess up the stomach. So that's a good shout. If I'd known previously, or early enough, I would have probably just started using those, so then you know on the event that you're safe, because if you drop a gel, as Jamie says, or for whatever reason you're on the bus or whatever, then you know that you're going to get them at the aid stations. Some events, depending on the size of them, won't have gels at aid stations, but a lot of the big ones they do, so it would be worthwhile having them. They do tell you in advance if they do have gels anyway, gels in water stations, and they'll tell you where they are actually stationed around the event on a map that you get out as well as part of your pre-pack, so you can do that sort of research also. Definitely, definitely a good shout, mate. And then, just finally on other accessories, so I wore a chest strap heart monitor throughout my training, and for the events, Jamie, you didn't, you just kind of went with the heart rate from your watch, but you can pick one up for, I don't know how much mine was, maybe £30, and they are really, really accurate. So the watches, as I said, if you're using a brand like Polar or Garmin, the heart rate is a lot better than just, say, an Apple watch or something, but if you have a chest strap, which you can connect to your Garmin and stuff, so I connect my chest strap to the Garmin, it's like bang on accurate, like your heart rate is like spot on, and again, it's just round your chest, you don't really feel it's there once it's on, so again, if you want to take things a bit more seriously, you want to maybe train using heart rate zones, then I would definitely advise getting a heart rate monitor. If you're not going to train like that, and maybe it's not, as Jamie's shown, it's not essential, you're not going to just get a sub-3 marathon because you've got a heart rate monitor, definitely not, but it is an extra accessory there that can help with regards just to checking how hard you're pushing and just having a good, accurate heart rate there. Yep. Any other things that you've worn, or any accessories that you went to the church with? No, I think I was pretty basic in the kind of stuff that I used. I know yourself, you invested into an ice bath. Yes, I did, yeah. So yeah, that's another thing that you can add if you want to take recovery. You did take recovery on the marathon, just to clarify. Yeah, that wasn't, couldn't get that in my belt, but no, that did really help, so throughout Loch Ness I didn't have the ice bath, just normal stretching alone, but adding that into my recovery routine during Manchester, I think it benefited. I don't know whether or not I recovered quicker from Manchester, because my body was just adapting more to being able to run marathons, because I'd just done Loch Ness a few months before, or if the ice bath was having an impact, but I don't think it's a coincidence that I did seem to recover a lot better. So an ice bath in the garden, I think I picked mine up for about £70 or something, and yeah, that's definitely beneficial. I do actually need to start getting more into the routine of that again. During the marathon block I was quite sort of religious with it in terms of getting in, made sure I was trying to get in a good few times a week, especially after runs, but kind of slacked a wee bit on that recently, but that is another kind of option of something you can add in, definitely. Yeah, that's me, mate. I am looking through my list of stuff here, and I think I'm all ticked off, yeah. Brilliant, excellent. So we kind of ran through the shoes, watches, gels, belts, extra accessories, your heart rate monitors and things like that. So yeah, just be careful as well, because you don't want to be running around with heart rate monitors, with a vest on, with belts, and you still want to be able to run. As Jamie said, he kept it pretty basic, but I think I was maybe pushing towards getting a bit too much with the heart rate monitor on and the belt. Getting ready to go out for a run sometimes is like, yeah, a bit of a mission. But yeah, just try not to go too overboard again. If you're literally just getting into running, and maybe you're just starting to do 5Ks and things like that, there's going to be some things on there that you don't even need to worry about. If you want to take things up a level though, and you're maybe signing up for marathons, ultramarathons, whatever, then definitely I'd be looking into a lot of these things. But yeah, anybody, any questions, any recommendations on what gels you've had that we've not mentioned, shoes you've tried, give us a shout. But yeah, cheers for coming on, Jamie, and running through that, mate. No, not a problem at all. It was a pleasure, again. I really enjoyed it. Cheers, bud. Right, cheers.