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Many people do not get in shape because they train too hard.

This may sound a bizarre statement to make but it is true. Your over-enthusiasm to get in shape may be what is holding you back and stopping you being as fit as you’d want. You train harder than desirable meaning you are able to do less exercise and are more likely to get ill or injured.

A common mistake is to go out and try to run each run you do as fast as possible – or faster than you have done it before. This is not the way to improve. More than half of your runs should be done at easy or steady pace. By easy we mean a pace at which you can hold a breathless conversation. By steady we mean able to speak a sentence or two at a time. Harder runs (this includes the interval/multi pace workouts such as those you can set on a treadmill) should be done a maximum of every other run but normally no more than one in three. Many top runners will do a month of steady and easy running before introducing their harder sessions. Even then they will only do two or maybe three harder sessions a week. Go out and keep things under control. As you get fitter your runs will be faster for any given level of effort. You won’t have to force yourself to go faster. You will also be able to run further at a given pace.

Don’t try to build distance and speed at the same time. Gradually progress things to make sure any changes are sustainable and can be built upon. This is how your body improves – by being given a chance to adapt to the strains placed on it, rather than being battered and unable to cope with the load placed on it.

You may be asking, ‘Whatever happened to no pain, no gain?’ The truth is that there is always a trade-off between quality and quantity. Plus your body is not able to work at high intensity all the time. Many coaches in many sports will talk of building a base of fitness, or achieving good ‘conditioning’. Steady and easy runs are what do this work. Off these you will then be able to start adding one or two harder runs or sessions each week.

Have a look at our bespoke training programme, accessible from our Home page. You can download a training guide that will be bespoke to you, whatever your level of ability and fitness. It’ll have a mix of slow, stady and harder running sessions in the programme so don’t chance it, check it out.

You may be thinking that you want to shift a few pounds to tone up and feel this means you need to go out hard. Again this is untrue. You do burn slightly more calories if you run any given mile faster. But by going faster you reduce the total distance you can cover. So two miles of easy running will burn more calories than a mile of hard running. (Don’t confuse this with burning more calories by going slower. The advantage comes from being able to keep going further and cover more distance). Make sure you combine the exercise with a decent diet and lay off the junk food. Sounds painful? Well, the funny thing about working out is that it often makes to want to do the other things right.

People can be reluctant to ease back or take a break when they are tired. Never be afraid to back off to recover if you feel run down. If you are ill or injured don’t train until you feel right again – you just run yourself down.

People getting into running often try to do too much too soon.

For example many people head out and go as far as they can on their first few runs and end up with a problem such as sore shins. The reason for this is that they have put more of a demand on their body than it is up to taking. By building up gradually your body strengthens at a rate that allows you to cope with increased amounts of training. Throw in a few gentle exercises on top for a more rounded exercise program and it wont be long before you look and feel completely different.

The key is to have a varied training programme that has a balanced approach to building fitness and to stay motivated!

Not in the mood?

Use music to boost your motivation to exercise

Some days we just do not feel like exercising.

If this is because of illness or injury then rest and recuperation is the only sensible option. But often a bad day at work, stress at home or too many distractions put us off the idea of heading out for a run or going to the gym.

What can you do? One way of altering how you feel is to use music. It can put you back on track and enable you to exercise at the correct level.

There are strong links between exercise and music. It’s been proven that music can alter your mood so if you are feeling a bit weary, lethargic or de-motivated listening to some lively music can help get you pumped up and in the mood for exercising. It can get your heart rate up, take your mind off the other factors playing on your mind and get your ‘up’ in the mood for some training. Choose something with an upbeat tempo and some lyrics that encourage a positive feeling. A funeral march is not what you need! Also, don’t get downhearted by thinking you need to go long to get benefit. Check out our short and sharp sessions to get a great workout fast!

On the other hand it is not always the case that you need stimulating. Sometimes after a stressful day you might be pent up or stressed out and actually in need of relaxing before you feel like doing your run, walk or gym session. You might be too charged up to feel like training. It is also a danger that charging into a session while pumped up on adrenaline could lead to you over doing it. Put some relaxing music on, take a few deep breathes and calm yourself.

A good selection of music in the car for when you are driving to the gym, or heading home from work can make the difference between a session being missed, over exertion or you heading out to exercise in the right frame of mind. Of course in themselves exercise and running can be great ways of switching off, relaxing, and getting yourself in a better frame of mind. So a bit of music followed by a suitable session can be just the thing you need to help you relax and unwind.

The bi-product of listening to music is also it’s affect of exercise and losing weight! Check out our article here.

Checkout the numerous playlists available online, they’ll calm you down or rev you up if you need it(!), or check this out, it’s a link to a site that allows you to download your own music based on what you want and time on your feet – awesome!

4 simple post run steps to make you a pro

How’s your training going?

Running a fair few miles? Doing some good long runs? Chipping in with some speedier work? All-in-all you may be turning into a bit of a Paula Radcliffe without the head wobble.

But are you missing out on something that Paula does? Some things we can all very easily do to make our training easier and more effective, as well as making life in between sessions more comfortable.

What you do in the moments after finishing training will affect how tired or sore your muscles feel, how much energy you have for the next session, how your body shape and muscle definition improves and even how well you’ll be able to concentrate tomorrow.

Follow these easy steps to get more from your training

Warm down

The first thing you need to do is cool down. A few minutes of light jogging or walking will bring your heart rate down gradually and sustain for a short while at a level that allows the waste products from training to be flushed out by the oxygen rich blood. The harder you have trained the longer you should warm down for.

Stretch

Post exercise stretching relaxes your muscles, improves mobility far more than stretching before training, and helps circulation and that process of getting rid of the waste products. 

All this reduces muscle soreness and stiffness leaving you more ready for the next session. 

Drink

Once you have trained it is easy to forget the need for hydration. Keep drinking a little and often to re-hydrate and to keep yourself hydrated. Dehydration will add to tiredness, muscle soreness, make it harder to digest food and even reduce your ability to concentrate. So fill up your water bottle and keep sipping away for the next two hours.

Eat

From 30min to 2hr after exercise you body is far better able to absorb the nutrients from food. Ideally you should eat around 50g of carbohydrate within 30min of exercising and 200g within 2hrs. Protein will help your muscles rebuild and also with the absorption of carbohydrate. A sandwich, banana or Jelly Babies will do a good job but there are post exercise drinks and foods which are designed to give you just what you need.

Myth Buster!

The locker room is a great place. It’s where you can chat with your training partners, share a joke or two and spin the odd yarn but not all of those yarns are true!

Lies! Lies! Lies!

We asked the guys at Shoeguide to bust some of the training and fitness myths that could lead you from the straight and narrow.

MYTH If two people are running at the same pace the person with the lower heart rate is fitter.

Heart rate is incredibly personal. What is TRUE is that your heart rate goes up as you work harder. It is also TRUE that as you get fitter your heart rate will get lower for any given pace of running etc. But people’s heart rates vary due to a variety of factors so it is pointless to compare your heart rate with someone else’s. More on heart rate here.

MYTH You can do exercises to shift fat from specific body parts

This is false as when your body burns fat it comes from fat stores your bodies prioritises to get rid of first – not the area you are exercising. So doing sit-ups will not take the fat off of your stomach before anywhere else. Running won’t just burn fat from your legs.

You can use this to your advantage as any exercise will burn fat in general. Working on specific areas of your body will improve the strength and muscles in those areas so this will help gives you the curves and flatter bits in appropriate places.

MYTH Women who lift weights will bulk up

Women’s levels of the ‘male’ hormone testosterone are far lower than men’s. So it is very rare for women to be capable of building large muscles. Muscle takes up less room than fat which means women lose inches when they weight train. Muscle burns calories even when you’re resting (fat does not) so muscle raises your metabolism. Strength training also reduces the risk of osteoporosis. Check out our Strength training for Women article.

MYTH Less than 45min is a waste of time

This is not true. A half hour run is well worth it. Even a 20-30min walk will help you to burn calories, raise your metabolism and help keep you in shape. Every little bit adds up. If fairly fit but just pushed for time, check out these swift sessions.

MYTH – You will lose more weight if you exercise longer at a lower intensity as you burn more fat.

If only we had a penny for every time we heard this ‘fat burning zone’ myth! What counts in weight management is total calories burned. The faster you run, swim or bike, or the more intensely you work the more calories you use per minute. That said, when you run, the biggest determining factor of how many calories you burn is distance travelled. So what can be true is that you are better to moderate your effort and go further than to go blazing around a shorter run (but calories burned does increase with speed). Get your diet right. You can try using the calorie counter in our nutrition section for more guidance.

MYTH – No pain, no gain!

Just another big myth. You should enjoy your training. But also most of your running and exercise should be done at a steady effort. You should be able to speak in a sentence or two at a time. It is also important to not tolerate pain due to an injury when exercising. If you suspect you have an injury you should stop and seek professional help and guidance. This will get you back on track more quickly and easily than trying to battle through it. 

Get the basics right – do a warm-up, do some light stretching, enjoy your run and do a warm-down. A little extra effort will keep you in good shape.

So there you have it – don’t believe the training myths!

Recover!

Many would have run a spring marathon recently and there will be a lot of very sore legs out there. If you are planning one, you might want to think about your post-race recovery now.

One thing is for sure, you will be very sore in the 3 or 4 days post-race. Don’t worry but it is a given! You will gradually lose the soreness but getting back to running needs some planning. Here are our top tips for post-marathon recovery.

1. Expect your quadriceps and calf muscles to be very sore and stiff in particular. You may well not be able to walk downstairs normally and will need to go downstairs backwards – I’m serious!
2. Book in a massage. Tell them to go easy though as you will be very sore. They just need to help ease out the stiffness and free up the muscles.
3. If you’re a member of a gym that has a spa, go and sit in the jacuzzi for a little while; anything to help ease out those legs.
4. Get enough sleep, your body repairs itself when sleeping.
5. Eat very well. Your body needs good food give it the best chance of recovering quickly so give it some wholesome fuel. It might be worth taking a good multivitamin for a couple of weeks to ensure you’ve got everything you need.
6. Try and keep moving. Keep the muscles moving by going out for walks if you can or maybe a very easy swim. ‘Active rest’ now will help the muscles ease out and they should recover quicker than being idle.
7. Forget running! Take at least a week off and ideally two. Let everything re-charge and recover.
8. It’s also good to get a mental break, de-stress. You’ve trained for a long and arduous time. Go for a long walk somewhere scenic and relax.

After two weeks you may be getting the itch to run again. That’s fine but remember, you’ve now got to build back up to what was pre-marathon ‘normal’. 

• Don’t let your mind get carried away. Ease back in to your running. A super-easy 20 mins first time back is fine.
• Mix running with stretching to ensure you can build up without stiffness.
• Take at least two weeks to build back up to a 60min jog. What’s the hurry? 
• Plan for the next race!

We hope the marathon races go great for you but remember the post-race plan!

Go quicker!

If you’re new to running or a seasoned pro, you might well have your sights set on running a 10k. The 10k is a popular distance – far enough to see it as a challenge, not too far to warrent a year’s worth of training. If new to running you might have just completed a Parkrun or two and have eyed up a local 10k. If you’ve been around a while you have probably run a few and have a PR. Either way a 10k is a great test of endurance.

But, you may be thinking – “how am I going to run a faster 10k?”

We’ve set out these simple principals which will take some effort on your part, but will certainly improve your fitness and improve your PR.

The other great thing about attaining this level of running ability is that it’ll enable you to run faster for longer which will undoubtedly help over other distances.

Running a faster 10k will take both physical and mental effort. The 10k distance is long enough to demand a high level of concentration and discomfort (it’s not pain, it’s discomfort – right?!) and the training will be challenging over a number of weeks.

The Training

First things first, you’re probably going to need to be running 4 times a week (or more), to bring your time down significantly, and we’d always suggest making one of the runs a long conditioning run. Check out our training tab and get your own bespoke training guide.

Long Run

The long runs are great. They give time to explore somewhere different or areas you don’t get to on your regular short runs. They give you time just to run slowly, to think and unwind. Just make sure you’re prepared for them (Have you eaten? Are you hydrated etc.) and build up to a decent distance. For a 10k, you need to be building up to 10mile and if you’ve been runing for a while, run a 12 miler. That said, you need to build up to it the distance, so if you can run for say, 40 mins right now, simply add 5 minutes on and run for 45 mins for two weeks. Then add another 5 on for a fortnight and so on. Before long, you would have built up the distance and the increase in effort should have been fairly painless, sorry, discomfortless!

Tempo and fartlek running

These will build strength and endurance at speed and are the first of the sessions to crank up the discomfort!

Let’s start with fartlek. I think this was my favourite winter session. It wasn’t too soul destroying and it was extremely sociable as you can run it in a group of mixed ability. Fartlek involves running over a certain distance, maybe 12k for example, but with the inclusion of a set of ‘strides’; pace increases over varying distances. You could jog to warm-up for a km then pick the pace up for a couple of minutes so that you are striding out, back off and return to a jog – circle around until everyone has caught up hence being good for a group – then after a minute or so, start your next effort. This could be a longer one or a shorter one. Aim for maybe 6 efforts if new to sessions and build up to maybe 12. Make the efforts anything from a minute to 5 minutes. Before you know it, you’re stronger at pace and the average pace of your ‘easy’ running gets faster. This is a great session for those returning to fitness because it is as hard as you make it and it is also a great session for losing a few lbs. You can always increase the distance on this session but around 8m of fartlek always seemed right to me and our training squad (*see comment at bottom of article).

Tempo running is different. It involves you running at pace for a set distance. The pace to run at should be your ‘threashold’; a point at which any faster, and you’ll start getting in to serious discomfort and lactic acid will start to build up in your legs! Threashold is approximately 80-85% of your maximum heart rate and this will be at the top end of your aerobic zone. More on heart rate in this article on using your heart rate. Also check out our techy VO2 max article. 

Find a route where you don’t need to cross roads ideally or have anything slow you up or get in your way. Try something like 2x 10 minutes or 4x 5 minutes with a slow 2 min jog recovery as a starter, but you’ll need to build this up to maybe 4x 10mins or 8x 5mins over a few weeks. You can also try 1 block of time like a 20min tempo run (a great session for those also short of time) and build this up to maybe 30mins.

After a warm-up, pick the pace up and get in your grove, stay relaxed but remember, this isn’t meant to be easy.

In a race, you’ll find that you’ll be able to maintain your speed (the effort and discomfort) for longer.

Interval Training

Oh the joy – this is where the discomfort really starts – time to leave the heart rate monitor at home.

Sitting on the right pace and holding on basically the premise of anyone wanting to run a PR. Sure, you can run negative splits (a faster second half than the fast) but very few of us have the ability to do that. We are all about staying mentally strong and counting down the k’s!

In order to do that though, you need to practice running at pace. Build up to something like 8x 1k or 10x 800’s. I would be tempted to start at maybe 4 of these and build up with a 3min recovery slow jog. Once settled, I would reduce the recovery to 2 minutes. I also enjoyed running 6×1200’s which we did on a road circuit which was enjoyable. These do not need to be done in a track; a nice stretch of quiet road or grass is great.

You are basically building up to cover the distance at race pace or maybe even quicker in these sessions. Bring the recovery’s down to a couple of minutes and you’ll find that you’ll be able to manage ¾ of your race without really having to dig too deep.

Power Up

Leg power is a good thing to have. It simply helps your speed and comes in very handily when you come to ‘out-kick’ your local rival!

Another great session for a group, find a hill with a decent gradient but not something crazy steep – you do need to be able to run up it. Aim for maybe 5 reps of 40-50 seconds in the beginning, that sort of distance is fine. Turn around at that point and jog down. You can gather up the slower runners as you jog slowly down to the bottom keeping the group together. If you felt OK, then you can increase the reps and pace. Work up to 12 reps.

If you are a regular gym goer, try doing controlled squats with weights (3/4 squats not full) as you’ll build thigh power that way and you could maybe concentrate on one of the other sessions such as…

Mental Cheats

The mental side of running is also important. I would try not to think about what was in front of me on a big session but after a while, I would start to count down saying to myself that “I have done ¼ of them, I’m almost halfway, two-thirds down now…” All the time being positive and congratulating myself. “Keep going, you’re doing great”, that sort of thing. You need help and so you might as well be your own best friend! Try your own ways for getting through the sessions, they come in handy on race day!

Race Day

Be excited, not nervous! You’ve done the work, not it’s time to get your reward. Get the basics done – eat properly, make sure you’re hydrated and have done a little warm-up and stretch out.

Don’t got off too fast. Most people are full of adrenaline and go too fast too soon. Get in to your groove (it’s the only one that matters) and stay relaxed. Have an idea of what pace you need to run at. If you have a GPS watch you can work out if you’re up or down on pace. Don’t panic either way, it can be rectified. You’ll be fine to halfway but when the discomfort kicks in, try to stay on the pace – all your sessions will enable you to do this.

When the going gets tough play your mind games! Can you focus on the shirt in front? Revert to the ‘countdown’ method – “halfway there, now 3k down just 2k to go, only a km left you got this, 500m to go so stay fast and relaxed…” Try anything to stay on the pace, it’ll be over soon enough!

Hopefully, you’ll be able to congratulate yourself. Jog easily to flush out your legs so that you’ll recover more quickly and get some liquid in to you. Maybe some carbs within 30 mins, it’ll help your muscles replenish quicker and you’ll get back to your normal self sooner.

Have a day off, be smug and plan your next move…

The Training Mix

You cannot do everything, every week. All of these ideas will make you stronger, fitter and faster. They are all largely aimed at improving speed endurance so have a plan. You might want to do some fartlek run and some interval training one week, some hills and a tempo run on another. Try returning to the first week on week 3 and adding another rep on for example. Over time (not long), you’ll notice that you’ll be able to handle the work and will start to enjoy pushing yourself.

Just make sure you congratulate yourself when you break that PR!

* After years of running and hundreds if not thousands of training sessions, fartlek was always my favourite session. We had a very good squad but it is a session I have also done on my own up to 10mile. As an ex pro runner, I could run this distance with a lot of efforts within it, but if I was to give you advice, I think I would leave it at 8mile max. It will be long enough to get the strides in and the group enjoyed the distance. It was long enough for people to come back totally knackered so I would leave it at 8mile.

Follow our simple steps to beginning racing

A race can be a daunting place to be.

By definition there are going to be a lot of competitive people around! But the good news, however, is that there are likely to be people in the same situation as you and who are willing to help you. If you are a beginner, just run to the best of your abilities and enjoy the day. If you follow these steps they will help you have a positive experience:

1. Choose your race wisely. Find an event that is over a distance you can comfortably manage, somewhere you can get to easily, that is on a date when you won’t have had a hectic week and where there are going to be runners of your ability. Charity events often have a higher than normal number of beginners. Call or email the organiser to check it fits the bill for you. 
2. Train for the race. It sounds obvious but you need to go out and do some running. Gym classes may help your fitness but running is the key way to get better at running. The longer the distance of the race the more distance you need to cover each week in training. Check out our how to run a faster 5k and 10k guides or register for our bespoke coach training from the home page.
3. Consider the distance. You should have covered race distance in runs in training before trying a race of up to 10m. For a half marathon you should have got up to 10m in your longest run of the week. Before a marathon this longest run of the week should have got up to two hours.
4. ‘Ease down’ before the race. In the week before the event cut the distances you usually run in half and save your energy for race day.
5. Arrive in good time. It is better to be able to sit and relax at the venue than to be sat in traffic panicking.
6. Stay hydrated. Drink a little and often before you race – don’t get bloated but feel hydrated. (Another reason you won’t want to be stuck in a car just before you run!)
7. Don’t be intimidated. There will be a lot of people who look very professional and are doing long complicated warm-ups. Ignore them.
8. Warm up (for distances below half marathon). Don’t do too much. A short easy jog and some stretching is fine. A few short bursts of 50m or so of smooth, faster running may help you too but don’t worry about these.
9. Start steady. It is very easy to get drawn into going off too fast but start sensibly. Most people (including experienced runners) go off too fast and slow later. It leads to slower times that hurt more! It is better to start slow and pick up if you are able. Adrenaline may well mean what feels ‘slow’ is actually plenty fast enough.
10. Be prepared to work. At some point it will probably get hard. At some point someone will probably breeze past looking effortless. At some point you will probably have doubts and wonder why you’re there. These are all disconcerting but perfectly normal experiences. Don’t let them panic you. Stick to the task – the satisfaction at the end is fantastic.

Sportswear essentials

When you pack your kitbag there are some things that should be on your checklist. Don’t leave home without them!

• Good training shoes. Your feet can be hitting the ground with a force of two or three times your body weight. There are also twisting and turning forces involved even in running in a straight line. Make sure your shoes are up to the job. Check out the best of 2020 so far. We have a comprehensive guide on what you should be looking for when choosing your shoes, here.
• A good sports bra. Okay, so some of the blokes can do without – you can skip on to the next point. Go on, go… Thank you. A sports bra needs to fit well so it controls movement but doesn’t feel restrictive. It may be an encapsulation bra – moulded cups for firm support, or a compression type – that flattens the breasts against the body. Encapsulation is often better for larger breasts. The fabric should be breathable and watch for any slipping or seams that could cause rubbing. (Do you get the feeling the blokes have read all this too?)
• Water bottle. Hydration is vital to effective exercise. Be sure you are hydrated to start with (you should have pale, clear urine) and stay hydrated. Drink a little and often.
• Clean kit. No-one would admit to wearing the smelly stuff (‘After all you are just going to sweat in it again,’ they may think) but sweaty kit can build up bacteria leading to not only nasty niffs but also skin irritation. Any slight dampness (urgggghhhh) also raises the likelihood of chaffing. So don’t be a skunk with red-raw skin – keep your kit clean
• Two towels. One to wipe sweat off yourself and any equipment before and after use. The other as you don’t want to shower with a sweaty towel. Check out our article on running in hot weather.
• An after training snack. Straight after training your body is most receptive to absorbing energy from carbohydrates. So whether it is an energy bar, banana, sandwich or energy drink look to take on board a snack as soon as the session is over. If you can get 50 grams of carbohydrate plus some protein within an hour of training it makes your recovery far more effective. This article has info on how much you could / should be eating.
• Training diary. Log what you have done as soon as you have done it (it may be possible to log it as you go along). This gives you something to look back on to see how you have progressed and what it is best to do next. If you leave it you may forget details.
• Contact lenses. Like a sports bra you only need them if you need them! But glasses can be uncomfortable. Poor vision can cause a trip or not spotting any other kind of hazard. Squinting also introduces tension into your face, then neck, then shoulders, then whole body – the last thing you want when exercising.

Fit exercise into a busy life

People who do shorter training sessions are more likely to keep it up than those doing longer sessions. So if you only have 20min, go for a short jog! Something is better than nothing.

Encourage a friend to join you when you exercise. This means that instead of having to make time to catch up with them AND exercise you can do the two at the same time. If there’s a group of you all the better.

Having a partner to train with makes it easier to commit. To be able to tell someone who wants more of your time that you have to head off as you are meeting someone makes them more likely to accept it. It makes you more willing to put your foot down and keep discipline with yourself too. Too often it is exercise that suffers when the schedule gets tight even when this is not what you’d want.

Even if you are not meeting someone having a person to share your training experiences with helps you to stay motivated and disciplined. Their encouragement and support can also help you to take a stand against those making excessive demands on your time.

We have all been there. A vague but sincere agreement to meet a friend for coffee as soon as possible never happens. Write it in for 1pm on Wednesday and it happens – even if it is rescheduled.

Be the same with your exercise. You are going to the gym at 6pm on Wednesday and for a 25min run at 8am on Saturday. Write it in the diary. Be specific about what you are going to do too. An idea you should do ‘something’ today is likely to be missed. Knowing what you have to do will give more focus. Train SMART!

If running regularly, check out our sessions for those hard-pushed for time. They won’t just maintain, but they’ll improve your fitness!

A training schedule will give you focus. It is also another way of making you more confident when telling other people your commitments. Which is bolder? ‘I wanted to do some exercise today’ or ‘My schedule says I have a 30min easy run to do today’?

Check out our training guides for 5k and 10k or sign up to our coaching programme for a your bespoke programme.

Obstacle Course Racing World Championships team up with grip-masters inov-8

The Obstacle Course Racing World Championships has announced that award-winning footwear company inov-8 is to become its Official Footwear Brand of the 2018 championships. 

Founded in 2003, inov-8 is internationally renowned for designing footwear with the best grip for off-road running and CrossFit. The brand has been synonymous with the sport of obstacle course racing (OCR) for the past decade, with their shoes worn by many of the elite.

This year – for the first time in the event’s history – the OCR World Championships (OCRWC) will be staged in the UK, the homeland of inov-8.

Sandra Sawyer, OCRWC Sponsorship Director, said: “The athletes who tackle our rigorous and unpredictable course at the 2018 Obstacle Course Racing World Championships in London this October must be fast, agile and adaptable. Having the right footwear is going to be critical. 

“inov-8’s lightweight, flexible running shoes with revolutionary grip will give athletes the ultimate advantage on all surfaces and in all racing conditions. Our wet, slippery, muddy terrain may have finally met its match!”

Among the many OCR-specific awards inov-8 has won are the prizes for Best Obstacle Course Racing Footwear, handed out by US-based Mud Run Guide in 2014, 2015, 2016 and 2017 and UK-based Mudstacle in 2014 and 2015.

Michael Price, inov-8 Product and Marketing Director, said: “We are proud to be the official footwear brand of the 2018 OCR World Championships here on home soil in the UK.

“Elite obstacle racers have been wearing our shoes for the past decade, trusting in the grip to lead them to success. Our X-TALON shoes have been first across the finish line at previous OCR World Championships.

“Forged in the fells of the English Lake District, we know all about muddy UK conditions and how important footwear grip is when moving fast over obstacles. In 2018, we’re taking grip to a new level by launching G-SERIES, the world’s first-ever running and fitness shoes with graphene-enhanced rubber. These will give racers the world’s toughest grip. 

“I can’t think of a better way to celebrate the launch than being centrally involved in one of the world’s toughest and biggest obstacle course racing events. Bring it on!”