So hoping this post may be useful to some people, but wanting to give some info on…*drum roll please*…..

Periods and running (woo…)

First things first it is good for you to run whilst on your period as it helps to ease cramps, release endorphins and helps you feel like more of a bad ass awesome runner!

But I understand that people have problems when it comes to running whilst on, or around mother nature time.

So here are the top tips that I can find for to help you through all the aches, pains and troubles:

• Stay hydrated

Your body is losing extra fluids during the days of your period so it is important to try and drink a bit more water than you normally would and maybe keep some water on you. This can also help stop the feelings of sluggishness.

• Stretch before hand

I know we should do this anyway, but it can really help to ease cramp pains. Stretching helps to warm up the body and stretch out muscles, all things that helps cramps to go away. I personally find a few abdominal stretches (belly stretches) or a few stomach exercises, such as sit ups, helps massively at times.

Can’t manage a warm up stretch or exercise beforehand? That’s fine, even just walking for a while as a warm up can help, and if the pain is real bad try using a heat pad or hot water bottle to warm it up for you. Just try to get out and run as it will generally help to make you feel better.

• Eat well

Lots of fruit and veg is recommended, this also helps to keep you hydrated. Iron rich foods can be good for you (let’s remember that you are losing blood) and can help to stop female runners from getting temporary anaemia.

Also for bloating apparently reducing salt intake can reduce bloating.

However, do be careful with this as salt is still needed for running, especially around the summer when it is hot and you are sweating a lot out as you need to keep your body topped up with electrolytes, especially if drinking more. You could always try getting your salt/ electrolyte top up through salt tablets rather than salty sodium rich foods, salt tablets are good for having all the range of salts (Sodium, Potassium, Calcium, Magnesium) so not just Sodium.

I think an important thing for avoiding bloating is to avoid eating junk foods, which is tough. I find avoiding greasy foods helps me personally, and for chocolate cravings I try to reach for 60% dark chocolate which has Magnesium, as I can’t quite do super dark chocolate yet.

• Don’t be afraid to reassess things
  

Sometimes you will just need to accept that you may need to change your running or race plans today, which sucks I know. This may just be cutting down on miles, effort levels (maybe a gentle run instead of a hard one), doing few reps on a training session. Just be flexible with your training and for races it’s okay if today that target is not going to happen, it happens, life happens, and that’s perfectly okay.

• Dress appropriately

Dark bottoms is normally recommended in case of leakage.

More supportive bras for when breasts are feeling at their most tender.

Tummy hugging bottoms (ones with high waistbands) for helping with cramps.

Non tummy hugging bottoms (Waistband sits under the stomach, or is not too tight a fit) for when having tummy toilet needing troubles.

• Keep track through apps

There are many apps that can help you to keep track of your period and help you to track the symptoms, tell you what is best for you to eat and do when. These apps are great and a good way to predict when you are due and at what stage of menstruation you are/ will be at.

Please note that this is a thing that will take time to work at its most effective for you as the apps will need to learn your data over a couple of months.

Also if you are a Garmin user I believe Garmin has a new feature that can help women to track their periods and to suggest to them whenever they should eat less salt etc.

You can find a link to a list of period tracker apps in the links section.

• Sanitary stuff

Before running:

Always change to a new fresh sanitary towel, tampon, or maybe a pair of period pants. And cup users always empty that cup beforehand.

Be prepared:

Always keep some form of emergency sanitary product on you if you can, especially for races, just have it permanently in a race bag. Running can sometimes encourage mother nature to hit a bit earlier, or to find something more to empty out after you think you are finished. Tampons are easy to hide, as are panty liners and can hide in running belts/ pockets, though I recommend you put them in a little zip lock bag still to keep the a bit safer from damage and sweat and is also good for putting bloody sanitary into if had to do an emergency change in a hedge. For cup users you can get collapsible cups, and with period pants they just look like pants.

After running:

Always try and change to a fresh towel/ tampon and change those sweaty pants if you can. This will help to keep your vagina’s pH level stable and stop the risks of discomfort, odour and thrush. Also maybe have a wipe with a baby wipe or specialist vaginal wipe.

Find what suits you for running:

There are many sanitary options out there and it can take some experimentation but here is some info that may help if you are having problems.

If you suffer from thrush or irritation when using a tampon or towel for running then maybe try using:

Reusable cotton sanitary towels which are less likely to cause irritability when sweating.

A menstrual cup which inserts like a tampon, and is made of silicone so has no fibre to get sweaty and cause irritability.

Period pants can be less irritable for some people than the meshy fibres of tampons and towels, and you can get active wear versions that are even better at wicking away sweat than other versions.

If you have a weak bladder or have had children:

Sanitary towels are essentially made of the same stuff as nappies so don’t be afraid of leaking into them a little, just make sure that you can change it at the end.

Period pants are super absorbent and can be a great safe bet, some are even designed with post pregnancy in mind, and you can normally get active wear versions for extra sweat wicking.

 If you are a heavy bleeder:

Then I recommend doubling up on products being used for example, a tampon and a towel, a cup and a towel, a cup and period pants, a tampon and period pants.

Summary

Well done for making it this far!

I hope that someone maybe finds this useful, I will try to update it if there is any new info or tips that comes my way (feel free to suggest and share tips).

Below is a list of links and products that may be useful for the things I have discussed above, as well as a quick bit of info onto how and why you can be affected whilst running on your period.

Thanks very much for reading and have a nice day

Maybe useful products, apps and links:

Salt tablets:

Saltstick caps- I have personally used before and find great

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Saltstick-Electrolytes-CAPS01-0030-Caps-100-Capsules/dp/B002IY96B0/ref=sr_1_7?keywords=salt+tablets&qid=1560410659&s=gateway&sr=8-7

GoNutrion five essentials- I have never used before but are more afforddable

https://www.amazon.co.uk/GoNutrition-Five-Essential-Electrolyte-Tablets/dp/B01GPSO7CW/ref=sr_1_12?keywords=salt+tablets&qid=1560410659&s=gateway&sr=8-12

Period pants:

Some info and brands, I know a few people who use Modibodi

https://www.womenshealthmag.com/health/g26411652/period-panties/?slide=7

Period apps:

A list of period tracker apps

https://www.medicalnewstoday.com/articles/320758.php

Garmin menstrual tracking – info and how to

https://www.garmin.com/en-US/blog/fitness/menstrual-cycle-tracking-in-garmin-connect/

Menstrual cups:

Some info and brands – I personally use these and find them great for stopping irritability, but did take a bit of learning how to use.

https://www.womenshealthmag.com/health/a22064115/best-menstrual-cups/

For a collapsible cup there is the lily cup one by Intimina

https://www.intimina.com/lily-cup-one

More info:

How is my body affected?!

Your body is affected because your iron levels will have dropped in your body affecting your haemoglobin cells (blood cells that carry oxygen), this in turn makes it harder for your cells to carry oxygen around the body.

This means it can be harder to regulate breathing when running since it is harder to breathe and for oxygen to get around. Also since oxygen can’t get about so easily you can find it harder to move.

You may also experience a raise in body temperature as your brain and body gets it’s signals crossed and mess up what temperature you should be at. So be aware that it may be extra hard to run when it is hot, and depending what bit of your menstrual cycle you are on you may also sweat more or less than normal.

Your body will also go through stages where it has less glycogen, so less energy, which is great when you are going to run.

During something called the follicular phase (between 7-22 days into your cycle, occurs from the time you stop bleeding to ovulation) oestrogen levels rise causing your metabolism to use fat rather carbs to burn for energy. This may make sprinting harder but can mean running longer distances is easier. You may have seen that when it comes to insanely long distance ultra races women winning is not unknown. Women are generally better than men at metabolising fat which is why we can see women win when it comes to ultra running. So that’s pretty cool!

If you’ve signed up for one of the races already you hopefully have received an email from us this evening.

Unfortunately, and with much deliberation, we’ve had to take the decision to postpone this event. What at one point seemed a great date for a race is now seeming a lot less appealing. Since the Champions League Final became an all British affair, we’ve had a massive drop in daily entries and on some days, entries have been matched by deferral requests.
Furthermore, we’ve already been struggling since Run Fest Run have started offering free places for EA members, so what was a quite costly running/ music festival experience at £140 time is now free to English Athletics clubs who want to enter teams in a team race. We know lots of people are now going as it’s only in Wiltshire and as well as the races and music festival events there’s a chance to hear talks by running heroes like Steve Cram and Paula Radcliffe. We’ve already had apologies from some of our regular marshals who were down to help but are now off to Run Fest Run.

The decision to postpone is mainly on safety and compliance grounds, as to crew this race in the manner we want needs about 30 people per race (we do pair up marshals most of the time as we don’t think it’s fair to send people out solo especially on a longer race like the half marathon). We must marshal any entrance to a field with livestock in marshalled as a condition of using Ham Hill. Plus, any other dangerous or complicate areas of the course. We also would not be able to deliver the experience we strive for at all our events.

Fortunately, we’ve managed to quickly find a new date of the 20th July, which has been kindly agreed by the Rangers at Ham Hill. So can offer numerous choices to those who have already signed up.
The choices are:

1. Moved to the new date [20th July] – this will happen automatically but please let us know if this is acceptable. We will contact everyone already entered to ensure aware and happy with the outcome.
2. Full refund with our apologies. We really regret having to do this and mess people about!
3. Guided run on the actual race course with medal and partial refund, on the original date (1st June). We can’t put on the race, but we can still run the course and we will have the medals. We will provide our usual aid station. The cost will be £9 so anything above this will be refunded. Actual start times to be confirmed. For everyone taking part we will still make it a great running experience, that is social and fun like all our recce runs.
4. Virtual option, also £9 with the remainder refunded. If you want to run Ham Hill in your own time we can post you the medal once you’ve completed the distance around Ham Hill (don’t worry about following the course if you don’t want to).

We hope these our options offer something which appeals to everyone. Feel free to contact us as we’re trying hard not to let anyone down. Our recce runs are good fun and an enjoyable and social.

We hope you’ll join us at the new date, or another option appeals to you, and apologise for the inconvenience caused by the alterations.
If you contact us please be patient as we could have a lot of correspondence in the next few days. Also I’ll be updating all the websites, listings, etc as soon as I can!

Thank you,

Nathan

So a little guide to the hill training we do!  (you may have seen a similar facebook post – there’s a few extra bits but essentially it’s the same).

Firstly what ever your ability don’t be scared. If you can run 5 miles and don’t mind the odd bit of sprinting in your running then what ever speed that’s at is good enough. It really is a mixed ability type of a session and that’s how we like it. Some of my friends of speedy, some aren’t and I like to run with them all. It’s not just for serious runners (whatever they are) just for people who want to improve or who like a bit of social run.  There really is plenty of time to chat on these days.

The aims are to help with both your flat running speed and going up hills and also having a fun and social session. In my club weekly calendar we have Tuesday and Friday night speed sessions (Friday’s at the local track, only £1 for non members, really recommend it but I’m not in charge of this session).  They’re of varying types.  Tuesdays maybe a bit more of a speed endurance session and Friday may more concentrate on improving your top speed.  So we do a hill session that won’t hurt anyone doing one or both the others. Although 3 hard sessions a week is possibly a bit much. I tend to do all three but maybe not 100% on all of them.

A typical hill session would be a pyramid. After a warm up we’d start with 3 15 second efforts. Then 3 30 second efforts followed by 3 60 second efforts. There’s walking recovery inbetween so for every second run you probably get 4 to recover. We’d normally do a short little jog to clear the legs before repeating the 30 and 15 second intervals. We aim for people to feel relatively fresh so they can try hard on each interval, it’s not meant to be a session to grind you down. This session is 7min 30 of effort running, so not too scary for anyone! And even if you struggle to keep running for 60s up a hill, try and keep walking. The ideas to try. Everything’s at your own pace, you just do what you can for the time of that interval.

We vary the hills as different gradients work your legs slightly differently and you don’t want to get locked into one gradient.  It’s also good to mix trail with tarmac as off road running can be great for stability and ankle strength.  I also try and vary the session so it’s not always exactly the same.  Sometimes steeper hills.  Sometimes flatter.  We do a session on a really evil hill that goes 3 * 15s, 60s, 90s, 60s, 3 * 10s, (recovery jog) 60s, 90s, 60s, 3 * 15s.  If you’re by yourself putting 6 – 30 second hill efforts into a moderate paced run can work wonders if you do regularly (once a week).    Steps can be great for the shorter intervals.

The science bit (this is probably why I get called a dork at times). The shorter very sprinty stuff is effectively a strength workout for runners. If you’ve ever used a leg press in the gym you can imagine picking your legs up to get up a steep hill as being a similar action with your body as the weight. This can strengthen muscles which may barely get used on the flat but can definitely Sprinting also helps your running efficiency – it’s much harder to have bad form when running quickly. It’s great for VO2 max to on the longer intervals, when you’re breathing deeply thats great for lung capacity and your bodies ability to get oxygen around the body and then process it in your legs.

I hope that explains a bit about some of the sessions people are welcome to join us on and if you’re nowhere near Yeovil on Weds or Thurs something to consider trying yourself especially with friends.  Please feel free to ask any questions, I’ll do my best to help!

Sometimes it’s good to end in a pub.

General Advice

Brightness

The first and most obvious thing is brightness.  This is normally measured in lumens.  I won’t attempt to explain lumens, Wikipedia can probably do that although I did find a page with pictures here for a more friendly and practical explanation.  But suffice to say I’d really recommend trying to get over 100 lumens minimum.  This can be harder said than done!  As some well-known brands can have some not cheap lights that aren’t that bright (sounds like pretzel – that said I’ve heard some of their expensive lights are really good).     I’d recommend going for at least 150 lumens.  If you see one saying 1000’s of lumens probably best not believe, some of the cheap Chinese head torches have insanely optimistic specs even if they do turn out to be very bright, I’d recommend only buying one of these if you know someone else has it and it works well. Obviously, if you get a duff one it may be hard to return.  My own head torch is over 300 and not sure I’ve seen one obviously brighter.

Power Source

Power source, here you have two main choices.  Either a head torch that takes batteries or one which is rechargeable.  For my part I like one’s with batteries.  Simply this is because I can have multiple batteries so normally have a charged one to put in even if I’ve forgotten to charge the battery I’ve been using.  For very long races this can also be very valuable!  If however, you’re pretty organised and good at charging things a USB head torch could be the way to go.  I’ve even seen some torches that are the best of both – can be recharged insitu but the battery can be easily swapped.  Many battery head torches are powered by 3 AAA batteries.  On this front I’d recommend getting some rechargeable batteries and getting a charger.  This is so you use your head torch whenever you want, not just special occasions.  For rechargeable batteries you need to look at the mAh (milli amp hour).  This basically lets you know how much energy they store.  I’d try and find one’s at least over 1100mAh though my own are 1300 mAh.  Seriously bright head torches tend to use special high capacity batteries like the 18650 which also need specialist chargers (finding a head torch where you can charge in situ is really valuable).   I know less about these batteries but it seems like the quality and capacity can be quite variable so I’ll just say these are the type I ended up ordering after lots of reading and they haven’t given me a reason to regret it.  Charger wise I bought a nitecore intelligence i2 – it seems to do a better job of charging other more standard rechargeable batteries to.

Light distribution

Light distribution – many torches will let you change the focus of your light.  This is good as you’ve got to do two things with a head torch.  See obstacles near your feet so you can run and see far enough ahead you can work out where you’re going.   If you’re going for a fixed light I’d make sure it has a pretty wide beam.  It also helps if you can tilt the angle of your head torch to account for your own posture.

Settings

Settings, basically it’s always good to have multiple brightness settings, especially on more powerful head torches as you won’t always need all that power.  I tend to put my own head torch onto a lower setting when in lit areas on night runs as a way of being seen beyond high viz and reflective elements on clothes.  One tends to get lost in some street lights and reflective stuff only works if car lights are directly on you.  Also I have a mid-power setting which would let me light last for about 9 hours but is still really good to see with.  Finally, it’s good to be able to dim things when you’re stopped and chatting.  These lights can be seriously bright and really dazzling.

Other things

Other things to consider – there is a good argument for chest lights.  I’ve not used one and can’t comment on using it but the water vapour from your breath obscuring your vision when your head torch illuminates it is a problem I occasionally have.  There is an argument for using hand torches, some people really like them, from research on carrying water bottles this would slow you down but if you have an awesome bike light and don’t mind carrying it or something similar why not as long as the Race Director is happy.  Flying Fox is, we checked with ARC and explained about alternatives and now can specify headlights or suitable alternatives.  Weight distribution, I have two lights which take the big 18650 batteries.  One is in a separate bit at the back the other with the light at the front. With this the front light is quite bulky to and with the battery there I find it a tad front heavy.  I’ve seen some similar where the light is smaller and these maybe be ok but my go to head light has the battery at the back.  You need adjustable straps for the head torch and one’s that have a middle strap may do odd things to your hair if that’s a consideration.  Some have little red lights on the back for cars behind.  Not essential but useful I guess!

Recommendations

Reasonable Cost yet a Quality Product

I think for a branded quality torch without spending too much money the LED Lenser SE05 I highly recommend.  I don’t own one but recommended it to 4 friends and all seem very happy with it.  I’ve seen them for about £35 on amazon (can’t remember if this was an offer and obviously imported things seem to be getting ever pricier at the moment.  It’s 180 lumens, should last 25 hours and the light should go up to 120 metres.  LED Lenser have a good reputation so doubt you could go wrong with any of the better torches in their range.   https://www.ledlenser.com/uk/products/head-torches/seo-series/seo5/ – though don’t buy direct I expect you can get it much cheaper elsewhere.

One of the colour pathways does have a few more bad reviews than I’ve previously noticed.  Reading them I can’t tell if they’re reasonable criticism, a defective unit or unjustified.  The take home message is to probably buy from somewhere that has good customer service (as with everything really).  One of the critisims was that with daily use it wore out and broke.  It’s probably not going to last years in such circumstances and you’d probably need to look for a more sturdy and durable light.  You can get one’s with aluminium cases.

My favourite

My pride and joy is the Fenix HP 12.  Ignore what the website says about 900 lumens as that’s on a burst mode which lasts about 20 seconds so from a running point of view is not so useful.  However, it’s brightest continuous mode is 400 lumens (ooh brighter than I thought) and its second mode 150 (slightly dimmer, win some lose some I guess).  The middle strap is removable and you can change the angle of the light easily.  It takes the 18650 batteries and is easy to swap as long as you put the nobbly end bit in the right way.  It needs the charger and buying a battery separately but I found Fenix at least when I bought it they seemed quite undervalued yet very sturdy brand as don’t think they are seen predominately as leisure torches.  I have to say for my Dad who doesn’t run we bought the HP25, it came with a battery and allows charging in situ yet you can swap batteries easily.  It’s slightly brighter and has a light for a wide spread and a different one for a more focused further reaching beam.  I just haven’t run with it so can’t really comment on how good it is.

Bit of a bargain for a very bright one

A mini bargain very bright light is the ThruNight TH10.  It’s very similar to my Fenix but at least £20 cheaper and I have seen them on lightning deals on amazon.  The downside is I just find it a little front heavy.  But it’s a very good back up.

A real bargain

The ultra bargain, I do own is a Head Torch Lamp, Meyoung LED Headlamp Spotlight 4 Modes Waterproof Headlight which I got for £5 on a lightning deal.  Now they say it’s 150 lumen which seems about right.  It’s summer at the moment and so not completed a run with it but it seems legit.  There is a bit on the product description that says * IPX5 Waterproofing Grade Headlamp * Very suiteable for outdoor sports and activities, even the swith and battery pack also with waterproof rubber circle, don’t worry the batteries will be damaged on rainy days any more.  – Now I’ve not worn it running.  Except around the house at night after it came in the post…. and it was dry so is it trust worthy?  I assume those are just typos since it is a Chinese product and it has good reviews which to me at least seem legit.  You can see it here.

Wild Card

This brand seemed good enough when I was researching and this a seriously bright head torch that uses 4 AAA so doesn’t have the hassle of the bright torches.  Only downside is battery time is 2/3 of the Fenix one’s mentioned previously.  At the time of writing it comes bundled with a quality hand torch on this site https://www.torchdirect.co.uk/coast-professional-led-torches/coast-hp7-plus-led-torch.html.

Others

Others of note – Alpkit have a reputation for very affordable yet quality torches.  You need to order from them directly I believe as think that’s one of the ways they keep the retail cost down.

Silva I think was another old school big beast of the running head torch world.  I’ve seem some of their products on sale which sounded great but don’t have any experience direct or indirect of them.

As well as sites already linked to these specialist shops can be good places to look.  I can’t remember which one I bought my fenix from though!  They seem to of had an update!

http://www.headtorches365.co.uk

http://www.fenixtorch.co.uk/