 All right guys, welcome to another video here at the Lone Trail. Today I am answering your running questions in a Q&A video. So last week I asked a bunch of you... I asked all of you guys to just post your questions regarding running in the comment section of my video and I got tons of great questions and I'm going to answer them today in this video. So stay tuned. All right, so I really love Q&A videos because they're just fun to make and they're fun to watch and it's just all fun. And if you if you like Q&A videos I just want to mention this before I answer the questions. I do actually make monthly Q&A videos over on my Patreon page. I'll put a link to it up there and you can go check it out. Patreon is basically a place where you pay like maybe five dollars a month or even three dollars a month and you get access to exclusive content on a regular basis. I post unedited video snippets where I share things about my training, just my training life, my running and I do monthly Q&A videos as well where I answer your questions. So if you're interested in that go check that out. Without further ado let's get to the questions. All right, first question is from Erik. Do you think it would be easier for you to store energy before a run if your diet contained more protein and fat, especially saturated fat? Well first of all my diet does contain a fair amount of protein. Actually I do probably eat about 120 grams of protein a day, something like that, from my whole foods from fruits, vegetables, but also from pea protein powder. So I wouldn't really increase that and also protein isn't really a main macronutrient that's used for energy. Fat, the thing with increasing fat is that you will also then decrease carbohydrate and carbohydrate is really important for endurance athletes. So and I do eat a fair amount of fat anyway. I probably do eat about 40 grams a day, which I think is more or less ideal I think. So that's one thing but the other thing is that in terms of storing energy before a run, even regardless of diet your energy when you're running actually comes mostly from your stores in your body and even a skinny person like me still has like between six and 10 kilos of fat on the body and that's thousands and thousands of calories that you can draw upon when you're running and it doesn't really matter if you eat fat or not. If you do eat a low carb diet, a high fat diet, then you do get better at burning fat. That's true but you also run at a slower pace and you're not able to really perform as well as when you're eating carbohydrates. So for performance it's not really ideal to do that on a regular basis anyway. And in terms of storing energy, in terms of carbohydrate, the more carbohydrate you eat the easier you'll store glycogen and glycogen is a key energy source when you're running to produce ATP which gets you to move. So no, I don't think so. I don't think more protein or more fat would make me store more energy. I'm storing plenty already. Saturative fat is something that I avoid for the most part. It's linked with various heart and cardiovascular diseases. It's not really optimal I think to eat a lot of saturated fat but there is a little bit of saturated fat in my diet and I think that's a good thing but not too much. Good question though. Next question is from Hi Mikkel. Not sure if you've touched on this topic but I have a horrible time sleeping especially when I'm consistently running. My adrenaline skyrockets afterwards. I'm wired entire night. Sleep schedule is starting to suffer. Any techniques to avoid over-taxant adrenals when you're running? What's the optimal hours of sleep? I don't use stimulants. Good question. Well first of all I want to do a little plug and tell you about my sleep ebook. I actually have a book about sleep. I sell it over on my Sweet Natural Living page. I'll put a link to it there. Oh I don't know if I can put a link to it actually because that's a different website. I'll put a link to it in the description and so check that out. That's about optimizing your sleep. Now in terms of how running affects your sleep. Yes your adrenaline will go up after you run but it typically goes down at least adrenaline goes down fairly quickly whereas nor adrenaline stays in the system for longer. I might have gotten those mixed up but at least one of them stays for longer and it can affect your sleep especially if you're running too late in the day. It's kind of like drinking coffee. I know you don't do stimulants which is a good idea but if you do drink coffee the typical recommendation is to avoid coffee you know after lunch or whatever because it might affect your sleep. Well it's the same kind of thing with training. I think it's better to run earlier in the day rather than later and so that might be the reason why you're struggling. Also if you're running too much for what you're able to tolerate at any given point of time in your training you know journey that might affect you like if you're essentially overreaching a little bit maybe training a little bit too hard too much or whatever for your current fitness that might tax you a bit too much and affect your sleep. Also I want to mention that you know most of your running should be easy so on hard workout days sure it might affect your sleep a little bit negatively does for me as well but on most days you should be running easy and that shouldn't really affect you too much. Also do a cool down if you've done a hard workout you should do a cool down it sort of flushes the system a little bit gets the adrenaline moving out etc so do a cool down after hard session that might help you. In terms of hours optimal mount I talk about this in my book sweet dreams but yeah I would say enough that's how much you need you need enough but typically for an athlete that's like nine to ten hours at least I would say even 11 hours for some high level athletes. All right good question. Bill Baggins. Hey I would like to know about stretching and weights do you incorporate much of that into your training for injury prevention and do you think Kipchoge will break two hours later this year. Yeah Kipchoge is trying to break two hours again in the INEOS 159 challenge and I think he's gonna do it I think he's gonna do it and it doesn't matter if it well it matters if he does it or not but I'm a fan regardless he's an epic athlete love Kipchoge so that's exciting. Stretching and weights yes I do stretching and weights I do foam rolling I do some stretching and but mostly stretching wise I'm actually working on my mobility because I don't have optimal range of motion and I think that's where stretching comes in if your range of motion isn't ideal that could affect your running performance and so I'm working on sort of getting to a point where I have optimal range of motion through stretching and when I'm at that point I'll just reduce my amount of stretching and sort of make it a maintenance routine rather than somewhere some something that I'm doing too often right because too much stretching can actually be bad for your running performance. In terms of weights I do lift weights once or twice a week I focus on the deadlift and the squat I think those are essential they are good for improving running economy stiffening your tendons and just strengthening your tendons and strengthening your muscles without putting on too much weight so I lift high weight low reps yeah next question mark Walsh is there such a thing as junk miles I've read about runs that are either easy or intervals but also they mention junk miles is this actually a training term or are all miles good miles or wasted or junk miles is irrelevant great question and it's not a it's not a an actual training term it's something that people throw around a lot the idea of junk miles and of course at a certain point it does make sense that you know if you're running all your miles really easy like super like suppose you walked all your miles that wouldn't be specific enough to your running but it depends the level you're at right so relative to your level like at a very high level I think junk miles might be a thing if we're talking really slow miles but if we're at a lower level I think junk miles are not as much of an issue because they are closer to our actual easy pace and and our even our race pace at that point that being said easy miles do build capillaries and they build as long as you're like around 60 perhaps of maximum heart rate you are building capillaries you are building mitochondria you are approving your heart sufficiency you are working all these things at a very low cost because it's easy right you recover easily from it so I think as a base you should do a lot of easy mileage not like absolutely ridiculously easy but comfortable easy and comfortable that's a good thing to aim for and those are certainly not junk miles and when you're running really slow like zone one you're really working on recovering from your last day and it's not so much about training so those are not junk miles either generally mileage is king and the more miles the better at a up to a point I think at least in the beginning and so I don't subscribe to the idea of junk miles and unless they're like ridiculously slow compared to your race pace Diana how should I train to get my feet higher of the ground on my runs so I don't fall I've experienced a couple of falls in the past two months the first result in a knee injury hip pain global running day I did win a race in my asia congratulations after struggling with injuries and training but I need to improve my performance lift my feet higher sounds simple but not for me all right that's an interesting question I haven't thought too much about you know the main thing with running form because that's really what you're asking about running form is repetition so the more repetitions you do of something the better you get at it typically it makes sense so I would just focus on running more mileage like running more often running for a little longer building up your total training volume and trusting the process because over time your body will naturally find the optimal stride that being said you know you don't want to lift your feet too high off the ground because that's the waste of energy if you're talking running as efficiently as possible we want to lift we want to move as little as possible up and as much as possible going forward so we don't want to really lift our feet too high we want to lift our feet as little as possible actually but of course if it's to the point where you're stumbling and falling that's a problem you could work on drills like you know running form drills high knees butt kicks and other things just to sort of improve your mirror muscular efficiency in the legs you could work on proprioception where you're working on balance one leg balance in the gym exercises like that you should also probably incorporate some strength training to really connect your brain and nervous system to the muscles in a more efficient way I think it's just a matter of doing the training doing the strength training working on the proprioception and running a lot the more you run the better and over time I think it will just get better alternatively you can contact me through our facebook page at the lone trail if you want some more advice next question stdr mgtow how old are you and if you and if you just got serials into running in your 20s is it still possible to catch up and peak in your early to mid 30s and have marathons marathons and trail runs good question I'm 33 and I got seriously into running in my 30s like I actually just been training consistently for two years so I'm pretty new at this I think it's possible for me to you know it does take a while like you know 10 years or something to really build a large aerobic base from where you can start training really really well and performing really well and by that time I'm in my 40s and that's a little bit old to to be at like peak elite level possibly but who knows what's possible I don't know I'm I like to dream big I have big dreams even though it's not crucial for me to reach my biggest goals for me to be happy but I do like to be ambitious so I would like to get up to a peak elite level by 40 and let's see what happens when I'm like 36 37 you know in a few years it'll be interesting to see and certainly the longer races like marathons and trail ultras etc those are probably more likely to be possible to win even in my 40s. Next question from Jan Folker Röervik. Love my ASICs running shoes but the inner sole started to stink which has was a new experience with shoes threw them out and bought gel inner soles terrible feeling definitely needed a more solid inner sole any recommendation yeah I haven't tried those gel inner soles but I agree that they I don't think it's a good idea wobbly and just yeah terrible feeling as you say I would rely on the normal sole that's in the shoe already and if it started to stink I would probably just you know buy I don't know buy buy some cheap maybe you can buy soles that are just basic flat as similar to the ones that are in there as from before or alternatively you could wash them you could always do that and get them distinct or perhaps they're getting old I don't know how all those shoes are if they're pretty old if like depending on how many kilometers you run in them perhaps you know once they get to about five six seven hundred kilometers certainly by a thousand kilometers it's a good idea to change the shoes and buy new ones just to avoid injuries so um yeah I would guess I would just recommend washing them getting a new sole that's similar to the old one as possible or buying new shoes xx you're unafraid to be afraid so before a long run if you hadn't had a had a bowel movement or if your stomach is off in a new way do you still go for the run to be perfectly honest my my stomach is never off I I just I never have a stomach problem anymore with my diet nowadays like there's just never a problem so I never I have never experienced that um it doesn't bother me too much if I didn't have a bowel movement in the morning I can still go for a run and have a bowel movement later no problem um if I had a problem would I still go for a run probably I would just probably bring toilet paper I do bring toilet paper actually it's just just to make sure in case you know in case there's an accident or not an accident but in case I have to take a shit on the long run yeah it's good to have a toilet paper with you next question from Daniel what do you think is the best time of day to do a long run is it better to wait until the later in the day or would you recommend doing it after your first meal in the morning I think this is really a matter of preference um generally though earlier is better than later when I say later I mean I wouldn't you know I wouldn't save it for the late afternoon certainly not but I like to do them around midday like 11 or 12 o'clock and you know for a couple of hours or whatever um could I go out early like you know before breakfast I probably wouldn't do it before breakfast unless you want to practice running without breakfast I think yeah probably have a breakfast a small one and then like an hour later head out or have a slightly larger breakfast and head out after a couple of hours that would be my ideal recommendation you have more energy earlier in the day so you don't want to waste your energy on just doing random things and then go for a long run later better to make a priority out of that run and go out fairly early but as I said I do like to have breakfast and not go out too early on my important workouts next question is from fax runner how do you balance training and social media stuff filming and taking pictures while training is stressful and can kind of ruin a good smooth flowing day on the trail how do you do it exactly I that's exactly my feeling as well I it is difficult it's difficult to balance those two things I sort of make I decide before I go for a run what type of run it is so most of my running is I'm focusing I'm focusing on my running I'm focusing on my own training certainly if I'm doing an important workout most of the time I will not film or take any pictures when I film or take pictures I decide beforehand that this run is I'm going to film I'm going to do some filming on this run or during this run I'll take some pictures or every now and then I might come across something that like I just have to take a picture of it and I'll do that and that's fine if I'm running easy or if I'm running on a long run or whatever if I'm in a workout though I'm focused and I definitely do not mess about with with photographing or taking video yeah it kind of does ruin the flow you know when you're picking out the camera all the time but it's just like a compromise that you have to do if you want to share your you know your training in your life and share what you're seeing on social media so I think it's there's a compromise there it's a sacrifice but I like it it's worth it for me on some runs during the week and when I do important runs I you know I make a point to just not pick out the camera at all regardless because I'm in the zone right so good question I think you probably have a YouTube yeah you have a YouTube channel as well I think I've seen a couple of your videos I'm checking it out now yeah cool so you know what I'm talking about all right next question Frank Bore Bores say you have nice hair how long not cut you never go to hair cutter or thank you for that I cut my hair about once every three months or so nowadays so yeah my mom does it no big deal I used to have long hair and not cut it I didn't cut my hair for 10 years at one point I had dreadlocks and yeah but now I cut it every three months next question Montalban Jr have you ever considered running sandals like Luna and if not why definitely have I for a while there I was really into them I really wanted a pair of Luna sandals because I have really wide feet and running a lot of running shoes they don't fit my feet so I was thinking yeah that would be cool but you know on the other hand in Norway it's cold and wet and muddy all the time I was sort of imagining that it would be problematic even though even though I can run with socks I know it's still I wasn't really that attracted to it in that sense but yeah I still would love to try Luna sandals for sure and yeah I'm gonna try them one day maybe you can let me know in the comments what you think are they are they worth it why do you like them if you like them that sort of thing so yeah but but in the grand scheme of things I think I still would prefer shoes just I just like the idea of having my feet I like the feeling of having my feet inside a shoe rather than exposed next question riz hello would be cool to see what you do for sun protection on daily runs couldn't find the right video you made before yeah I build up a tan that's some protection basically constantly monitoring my tan level and making sure I don't get burned you never want to get burned and as long as I have a tan that can handle it I'm cool depending on the day or how long I'm going to run for I might decide to you know wear clothing even if it's a little warm and I want to run with no shirt I might wear a t-shirt just because sun protection clothing is sun protection I wear a cap I might even consider wearing a long sleeve if it's really sunny or as I did last summer I experimented the fair bit with just sunscreen I would like to find a cleaner healthier sunscreen but it requires a lot of research and I have so last summer I just used the normal sunscreen basically I think using sunscreen is better than not using sunscreen and getting burned but avoiding getting burned without using sunscreen is better than using sunscreen so yeah but definitely don't get burned you never want to get burned another question from stdr and mctove hey long trail another one can you recommend a thera gun or another maybe cheaper muscle massage pistol they seem to good recovery tool and I think by buying one well I'm just going to keep it at one question for each person but I you know I can say that I don't know about that product I don't know anything about it so I wouldn't be able to answer your question anyway I think massage tools can be good but it probably depends on the product exact product another question from frank boros say as well it's hard to find a good shoe for running more bare but I'm not so into running shoes which are not high protecting I understand by the way I'm new in your channel and find that good work from you okay I think you're saying that you like my channel thank you for that and you you like shoes that are not protective I guess you can check out the luna sandals probably check out the luna sandals in that case Andreas Störgesson will you ever try the Nike vaporfly or the Nike zoom fly for races I definitely want to try the the vaporfly I mean it seems that it improves performance right and I'm interested in performance everyone's using it so no doubt I would love to do that however I've read about them and they are pretty narrow shoes and the thing is for me that even shoes that are wide are still too narrow for me okay when I buy hoca shoes I buy the wide model they have like a few of the models like Clifton Bondi and a couple of other ones that there exists a wide version and I buy that one and that's still a tad too narrow for me but it just works. Ultra shoes have a wide toe box but they're not always as wide as they should for me anyway around the mid-foot so even they are too narrow for me and it creates pain in my foot so I don't think I would be able to run with the vaporflies they would simply be too narrow and my feet would be outside of the sole and I would just be compressed and I don't know but that being said if I go to shop and I see them I'm gonna still ask to try them because I would love to try them maybe there's some of the other maybe you know are there any of the other Nike shoes that are similar to the vaporfly that are wider let me know two questions left well we'll we'll ask Riss has another question we'll do that quickly first hey bro do you ever listen to and I mean really listen to Bob Marley while you're running and realize life is just great oh yeah definitely well not actually I well I listen to Bob Marley and realize life is great a lot I love Bob Marley I'm a huge fan I listen to all of his music literally all of his music even the obscure stuff while smoking a lot of weed back in the day but that being said I don't actually like listening to music when I'm running I might listen to podcasts you know on 30% of my runs but I just don't like music when I'm running even Bob Marley I don't know I just don't like it but I'm sure it could be cool to try last question Jen loves this stuff asks Mikael I would love to know your thoughts on critical velocity training also what training watch do you use I use the Garmin 430 I made a review of it recently you can check that out somewhere on my channel in terms of critical velocity I have to be honest with you that that's something that I haven't spent a lot of time learning about however I am aware that it's you know it's essentially somewhere slightly harder than threshold lactate threshold yet not as hard as a VO2 max effort so putting it somewhere around maybe 90% of VO2 max you know 94% of max heart rate perhaps that would put it at like 10k pace type effort perhaps depends on the runner and how fast you are and I think there's definitely room for that mosquito yeah the mosquitoes they I hate them because they make me itch obviously but also they keep me awake at night so I just have to kill them sorry um yeah threshold is a really good intensity to stay at like when you're working at your lactate threshold that's a that's a very good way of improving a running performance the canyons etc they do a lot of training around this threshold type effort now in the other end of spectrum you have your VO2 max effort which is really an almost all out right like really hard effort that you could only sustain for 8 to 12 minutes in a race right that's really hard that's like 1k repeats in you know 800 meter repeats and that sort of thing right in the middle there you got somewhere like in the middle you have critical velocity which essentially then would mean that you're working with more lactate than would develop in a lactate threshold run because you're above the threshold right so lactate is accumulating throughout your session yet you're not working quite as hard developing quite as much lactic acid as you would if you ran VO2 max intervals so here's what I think alternating not only alternating within a training cycle right like doing a threshold session this week and next week you're doing a critical velocity session perhaps and then the week after you might do a VO2 max session or having periodization where you have like a block like a month of like focusing on VO2 max followed by a month of focusing on threshold or something like that but then even in a single session the idea of going above the threshold for one rep say you know five minutes above the threshold perhaps around critical velocity and then back down slightly under threshold for another five minutes and then back up again and alternating back and forth between above and below threshold that seems to be something that a lot of coaches talk about fitzlinger talks about this Renato Konova does a lot of this we're talking about essentially building up a fair amount of lactate and then by going above lactate threshold and then going below it slightly to allow your body now to start clearing it at a faster rate and so the idea is that if you have more lactate in the system and then you ease up an intensity a little bit you're now able to sort of improve your ability to clear and buffer lactate which is a really important thing so I guess that would be one way to use the critical velocity training but as I said I don't know that much about it I think in general it doesn't necessarily matter as much you could stay at threshold and you would still get a lot of the same benefits of critical velocity it's just a slightly harder sort of stimulus but then again you would have to then reduce the volume of that training session in order to accommodate that harder intensity and I think there's a time and a place for that other other times though it might be better to just focus on a solid tempo run around threshold pace and get some a little bit more volume of that quite high intensity and you'll still be you know using type 2 muscle fibers in all of these three intensities threshold critical velocity and v2 max to the degree of course that v2 max you would recruit more of the type 2b fibers and at threshold there's more of the type 2a fibers and critical velocity probably somewhere in between there so anyway that's a really good question if you have some thoughts about it Jen post them down below so I think that's all the questions for now yeah that's all the questions really great questions I appreciate them I appreciate your viewership your subscription and if you haven't subscribed of course of course please do subscribe I make videos about running as you obviously understand by now and remember if you're interested in monthly Q&A videos you you should check out my my Patreon again I'll put a link to there there's also links in the description where I post Q&A videos every month and also other exclusive content that you won't find anywhere else online all right that was a lot of questions and a lot of talking and a pretty long video but we got through it and I'm gonna head out now for an 18k medium long run and it's a beautiful day and I'm excited all right thanks for watching have an awesome day see you around