Hydrate, hydrate, hydrate

WATER MAKES up 60% of your body weight, which is why keeping an eye on your daily intake is vital.   But how much water should I drink per day and why is it so important?

Hydration is an essential part of looking after yourself and creating exercise times to help maintain a good mental health, especially as we work long hours and all kinds of shift patterns.   We also need to consider that we are now in Spring and heading a Summer which will raise the temperatures.

You've probably heard the suggestion that eight glasses of water per day will keep you well-hydrated.   While this is a good amount to aim for, your individual needs vary depending on how much exercise you do, where you live and your general health and wellbeing.

If you do a lot of exercise, you'll need to compensate the water you lose through sweating by drinking more. And if you're exercising intensively for more than an hour, it's a good idea to replace the minerals in your blood that you lose through sweating (electrolytes). The same goes for when you're holidaying - or living - in a hot and humid climate where you'll be sweating more than if you were somewhere cooler. If this is the case make sure to top up on fluids more frequently.

Certain illnesses will also affect your hydration. If diarrhoea or a sickness bug has left you feeling weak and feeble it's partly because your body is de-hydrated. Medical professionals often suggest an increased water intake for urinary tract infections and urinary tract stones.

In terms of how much water the average person in the UK should aim to consume per day, The National Academies of Sciences and Medicine suggest an adequate daily fluid intake is:

• About 3.7 litres (3700ml) per day for men
• About 2.7 litres (2700ml) per day for women

Benefits of water

If you think about it every human body is made up of 60% water… which means staying hydrated is crucial for your survival.   Your cells, your bodily tissue and your organs all rely on water to keep functioning normally and a lack of fluids can result in a lack of energy, so make sure to keep topping up throughout the day.

There are all sorts of benefits that come with drinking plenty of water including:

• Regulation of temperature
• Cushioning of your joints
• Keeps you urinating regularly which in turn gets rid of unwanted waste

It's not just water that keeps you hydrated

It's easy to think that staying hydrated revolves around your eight glasses of water per day when in fact a significant amount of it can be found in food.   About 20 percent of your daily fluid intake actually comes from foods like spinach or watermelon which are both almost 100 percent water by weight. It's also easy to forget things like tea, coffee and milk which also contribute to you daily water intake.   Staying hydrated means eating lots of fruit and vegetables every day too, an added bonus for your health and wellbeing!

We all come into work and it gets busy, before you know it six hours have passed and you have not had a drink yet!   When you start to hydrate properly you may find you need to urinate more!   Think of your body like a plant if you have not watered it sufficiently and suddenly start, the water pours through the soil.   Once it’s hydrated it holds the water better and stops leaking so much.   Your body is the same, give it time and your hydration will get to a level it should be at.

 

Leadership in Run Fitness

FOR THE last couple of years I have been a Mental Health Champion for Haywards Heath Harriers (HHH) and England Athletics (EA).   Having suffered from PTSD in 1969, at the age of seven, when I witnessed a child die in the most horrendous way.   In those days PTSD was not recogonised and there was no such thing as counselling, especially for a seven year old.

Later suffering from work relates stress I felt I had a reasonable understanding of mental health and how it can affect you and different positive ways of dealing with it.

A part of the role is organising runs under EA #runandtalk programme inconjunction with Mind the mental health charity.   Whenever I organise a run I have to get someone else involved as I do not carry the EA insurance.

Working in HHH I recognised an opportunity and spoke with one of the coaches.   The deal was that if they allowed me to qualify as a Leader in Run Fitness (LiRF) I would be able to arrange the runs without having to get someone else involved and I would help them with Group 5 as a leader.

Normally for the main part of the qualification you have to complete a one day course where you have assessments which qualify you.   Due to COVID EA had to move to online training so I was looking at completeing a more difficult process.

Stage one was in two parts.   The qualification allow you to coach adolesents so you need a DBS check and you also need to complete on online Safeguarding course.   Both reasonably staightforward and didn't take too long to get through.

Stage two is completing four online modules.   Each module has a test at the end of it to ensure that you have fully understood the information being given to you.   Warning it does carry a pass/fail grade.   All of the areas covered were aimed at running and safeguarding the people you are taking responsibility for.

1. RAMP module for warm ups and their importance
2. Accessing venues or routes for risks and adjustments
3. Running the training events
4. Cool downs and their importance
5. How training is different from adolescents to adults
6. The energy systems in your body and how they work
These are just some of the examples of the information given to you allowing you help others reach their potential.

Stage three is an online classroom to talk about all of the elements and discuss their practical applications.

Stage four (the final stage) is bringing everything together in two five minute video's.   You need to demonstrate taking a group of athletes through a warm up, demonstrating a practical application of the courses and running a training event.

For the video I needed two athletes, due to lockdown, an EA coach to oversee what I was doing and someone to video the events.   Luckily the EA coach also videoed the event so there was four of us in Victoria Park, Haywards Heath shooting the videos.

The good news is I qualified and during lockdown have been taking a group of athletes out for a runs when government guidance has allowed.   On occassions this as had to be on a one to one basis.

One of the five pillars of good mental health is giving something back.   With the support I have discovered from the running community this is my way of giving something back.   Supporting and helping to train new athletes who want to give running a go.

With lockdown restrictions being relaxed we will be seeing a return to training this week.   We will still need to limit the numbers, so run leaders will remain playing a vital role in the training.   I would recommend the course to anybody who is interest in run leadership either with an EA club or affiliated Run Together Group.

Positive results of running for wellbeing newsletter

 WHEN THE government put the country into lockdown life changed for all of us.   Old routines ceased and we had to start making new positive ones.   Not just in terms of how we are living temporarily but how we want life to be after the pandemic.

A positive outcome from COVID is an increase in the number of people who have started running.   People run for different reasons whether it’s to compete, improve their fitness or maintain good mental health.   Behind each person is a journey and a story of how running has had a positive impact on their lives.

It isn’t all about running.   It’s finding an exercise that you enjoy doing and will return to giving consistency.   Running isn’t for everybody but for those who enjoy it there are huge advantages to opening a doorway to fresh air, forgotten footpaths and the local Sussex countryside on your doorstep.

Four years ago, I suffered from work related stress and didn’t know how to deal with it.   I knew that exercise was good for stress so I joined the Dolphin Leisure Centre Gym.   This was my first steps towards fitness and good mental health.

Starting with running machines I moved to outdoor running by downloading the C25K app. (Couch to 5km).   There are many of these available, including an NHS one, which all have the same aim of getting you off the sofa and outside running in the fresh air.   The app. works in digestible chunks, slowly building up your endurance.

Later I discovered “Run Together” groups.   They are affiliated to England Athletics and train/coach/support runners to learn and develop to their own potential.   As a new runner you can take a beginners course to 5km or, if you are more experienced develop to your own potential.   They are held regularly and cost about £2 per run.   You can search online to find the nearest one to you and join in.

It was whilst doing this that I was introduced to Park Run.   A timed 5km event held at 09:00 every Saturday in parks all over Sussex.   Park Run isn’t a race, it’s about the community from the runners to the volunteers who marshal it.   You can walk, walk/run or run the distance, it doesn’t matter and there is no judgement attached to it.   Park run was founded by Paul Sinton-Hewitt on 2 October 2004 at Bushy Park in London, after he put out an advert asking people who were suffering with poor mental health to run with him.   It is now an international event recently adding new countries such as Northern Ireland and Japan.

Park Run is quick simple and easy to join.   Sign up online and print off your barcode, go to your nearest venue, listen to the new runners briefing and off you go.   At the end you get a token which is scanned with your barcode and you get a text or email with your time on it.

There were so many health benefits for me just running 5km.   It’s a wonderful workout, burning 700 calories an hour, I started to lose weight, lowered my resting heart rate and improved my aerobic capacity, lowered my blood pressure and relieved my feelings of stress and anxiety.

I started to look at local village days in my area and found they ran events from 5 miles to 10km.   The favourites for me were Lindfield and Ardingly, whose fully marshalled runs through the countryside are amazing.   Making a shift from 5km into 10km reinforced the benefits and started to impact other areas that are really important for my good mental health.   Particularly with my self-esteem, sleep, energy levels, resilience and it also has a positive impact on depression releasing feelgood hormones into your system such as Dopamine, Oxytocin, Serotonin and Endorphins (D.O.S.E).

I found the running community really supportive and finally went to Haywards Heath Harriers and after a trial period joined and registered as an athlete with England Athletics.   This opened up so many opportunities being able to run any event as a member and I discovered the West Sussex Fun Run League (it also covers East Sussex).   Eighteen running clubs hold and marshal one run per year, which are all very different ranging from cross country underneath the Sussex Downs to a 5-mile beach run at Littlehampton.   You can enter these as a non-affiliated runner anytime at a cost of £3.   Once you turn up it’s your run, do it your way and ensure it has the “fun” element.

If you want to find more in terms of support networks, motivation and information there is a Sussex and Surrey running community on Face Book called “Sussex Plodders” or if you are into Twitter there is also “Blue Light Runners” which is a national group.   Blue Light Runners did meet up at the Cardiff University Half Marathon.

I never started running to lose weight, but I have now lost 3 stone, my stress and anxiety is under control without the use of medication and I had covered the five pillars of good mental health.   I was exercising on a regular basis, I had looked at my diet and improved it, my sleep was much better, I had my self-esteem and was feeling much better and I was giving something back.   Being involved in the running community improved my support network which works in more than one direction.

Mindfulness has played an important part of my running journey.   Endurance running (anything over 2 miles) tends to focus your mind on the moment, looking at the here and now.   Whilst your mind is pre-occupied with the state your body is in it breaks the bigger problems down and allows to you work through them in a logical way, with all of the D.O.S.E chemicals being released into your body you can maintain the good mental health to come up with solutions.

Two years ago, I became a mental health champion for England Athletics.   As part of that I started to organise runs under their #runandtalk campaign with Mind the mental health charity encouraging people to run a short distance have a coffee and a chat about good mental health and running.

This year with lockdown I qualified with England Athletics as a Leader in Run Fitness which allows me to organise, risk assess and take groups out running with the ability to coach them to their own potential.

If you are interested in running then think about your own health and seek the advice of your GP first.   Start slowly and allow your body to build up your endurance in terms of getting your muscles working and increasing your aerobic capacity.   I hope I have given you some ideas on what is out there and you can check out the following links for more information.   If you want some advice then please let me know.

Please be aware that none of the groups are currently running at the moment but they will be back!   Check the websites for when they will all restart and good luck with your journey.

 

 

 

 

Contact list

www.parkrun.org.uk

www.runtogether.co.uk/

www.westsussexfunrunleague.org.uk/

www.englandathletics.org

https://twitter.com/runners_blue

 

Article is now being used in a school in Ireland and in Haywards Heath Harriers newsletter.