Christmas Episode with Tom Long from Up and Running Part 2

From trackpants to winjackets , gloves and premium running gear , we're diving deep into the elements that not only make you run comfy but keep you safe . And that's not all . In our special Christmas edition , we're unwrapping the gift of knowledge with discussions on the latest in running gear evolution , waterproof clothing , hydration vest , gps watches .

We're breaking down the benefits , affordability and why their game changes , especially for ultramarathons . Stuck on finding the perfect gift for the running in your life , we've got you covered for a massage tools and the evalusive perfect pair of running shoes . We're sharing unique ideas that will make your gift the one they all remember .

Speaking of shoes , we know it's a personal choice and we've got tips on how to get it just right . I really hope you enjoy this episode as much as I did . And what's I mean , let's say , for the leggings ? I mean , is there any advice on leggings not being too baggy , or do you want them kind of tight , or is it just very much up to the ?

You know feels like you kind of walk into public and it's like , oh yeah , am I going to get a restraining order or something , especially if people are used to wearing kind of tracksy bottoms . But it's fine , you won't , I haven't yet , so it's fine . But no , it's yeah , if it's , you know , you're less likely to get chafing and stuff .

If it is , you know , rare to be tight . Again , there's a , there are kind of in-betweens out there between , like your full-on tracky bottoms and your leggings . Puma , puma , do what's it like the favorite run pant , I think I believe it is . And then , ron , is it the one you stock here ? Yeah , so we do at the moment .

I don't currently have one to show you because it was sold out , okay , but that's good . The Ron Hill , I can't remember . I think they have a couple , but they do something .

That's again in between , like , this product does exist where it's a little bit more of a tracksy bottom , but it's more tapered , so it's lighter weight , it's more ventilated , it's tapered , so it's almost like a pair of leggings , but it'll have more pockets . You know , if you're going for a longer , slower run , you still want something . That'd be good .

Personal preference I would probably always choose something kind of you know , tighter , just one experience , I guess , less chafing and stuff like that .

So I , yeah , I would say , if you get out the door immediately you think it's cold , don't necessarily be scared , you'll heat up very , very quickly . You know , I mean , obviously , don't go out .

People do go out wearing shorts and a vest at the moment , but unless you've already done that before , I wouldn't necessarily jump in like that for me at this kind of temperature . I have leggings and stuff on the under layer and I have , like you know , maybe maybe like a long sleeve and a zip long Sleep or something as well .

So you see these kind of over jackets Ron Hill does a good one when it's not waterproof but it's kind of like a splash jacket or a wind jacket . That's good . I mean a lot of these . You can kind of unzip it and actually they have these buttons that kind of you know , Go up the zip .

So oh yeah , yeah , a little bit of extra layer , the long sleeve you can always roll up , so it's effectively a two layer like short sleeve at that point . But yeah , it's , and I this temperature , I'd always wear gloves , just because for me anyway , the wind chill when you're running it , you know it actually cools down your , your extremities quite quickly .

I'm like , for people get cold ears , hats as well . Hats are a good way of actually keeping heat quite a lot , I mean because you lose most of the heat out of your head . So , yeah , you can restrict that . You know a good hat will actually , you know , you mean that you can run in a little bit less .

It's clothing that the reflective points are on kind of points of movement right , so kind of on the arms or on kind of the waist that pivots , and you know , gloves are no exception . You'll be swinging your arms around a lot , your hands , and so you'll have these reflective points on the back .

We started the podcast . You did say that you are introducing a new brand of pictures .

Koros , I would say , as a brand , maybe focuses more on , I mean , it's brilliant for road , but it has some nice kind of trail specific features , not only have very long battery life , which is which is nice , so you know , used by people doing ultramarathons , but has these nice kind of bits of like software that you can plan routes on .

You can literally just plan a route on your phone or your computer and sync it directly to the watch and it can direct you . So it's got very good navigational features . Like I said , the battery life is actually phenomenal , like compared to like a similar one in the Garmin range . You're talking maybe , like I mean the Garmin no slouch .

I mean you're talking like a 265 round kind of , you know , like it's well , it's like 13 days or something like that , oh really , yeah , yeah , honestly , they've got a lot better with Garmin . They've only recently gone to like the AMOLED screens , the nicer screens . So up to that point they could kind of maintain the battery life , which is nice .

So they only just got confident with their battery enough that they've actually put the AMOLED screens in the new ones . So 965 , 265 , as a little you know tangent side note thing . But KOROS is for the same price range like roughly , roughly double that battery , which is awesome . Doesn't quite have the AMOLED display , but it has a nice kind of LCD , I believe .

But yeah , it's a nice brand that a lot of people haven't heard of . I believe we're getting them in at some point but it's definitely a cool one to add to kind of the normal kind of Garmin Polar thing . Personally I've had a Garmin for quite a while . They are for normal pieces of kit , the way I look at it .

You get a lot for that 180 quid . You get the ability to pair it to a heart rate strap . You have the heart rate on the back of the wrist . You have , you know , access to Garmin's GPS systems . You know you can obviously analyze your pace afterwards , you can . The Garmin app , like the partner app , is excellent .

So if you really wanted to get into the metrics of you know how you're actually pacing your runs , you have your splits . You have , you know , the map and oftentimes , yeah , on the Garmin app as standard , I believe , you get the heat map of kind of where you've slowed up at certain points . Yeah , it adds another .

Usually I mean grand scheme of things , if you really want to kind of get into running properly , it's very useful to have access to heart rates so you can kind of you know , just running your zones right . You want to be doing most of your running quite easy . I kind of mentioned the 80-20 rule . It is rough .

It varies depending on what sport you're training for . A good rule is 8% , easy .

But if you have heart rate you can kind of either , as you're running , look at it , be like , okay , I need to slow down , my heart rate's too high , or afterwards you can check , I mean , if that felt easy , or like , oh , I , you know , I hope that was easy effort because it felt easy . You look after it's great .

It was for me maybe like 135 beats per minute . That's on my easy range . I check Great , cool , it's good , or if it , you know , feels rough and you're running at the same split . Look , maybe your heart rate's higher than usual . You might be worn out from a session before you might be getting slightly ill . So it's good to keep tabs on these things .

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So initially You're thinking , wow , that's almost as much as a GPS watch . That's insane , tom . But yeah , they are for normal bits of kit . It manages to have an insane level of water transparency out an incredibly light package If you're ever doing Like Shell running .

So basically I think it means you can stack around like 10 litres of water on top of a centimetre square kind of bit of material and it won't start going through .

I mean I've had this discussion with customers as well . I mean , you know , if you have the luxury of the entire day to go running , you might look outside . It's a weekend , we are go running , but later it's . But if you have to get it done in the morning , you don't have a gym to go to , you just need to go get it done . It's great .

You whack it on makes the whole process slightly less miserable . Yes , which is always , you know , always a bonus . So that's good . Especially it's a nice kind of seasonal gift . We have Ron Hill and Prezio jackets . Ron Hill's a name . I've said a lot , but the range of clothing is great and also it's not massively expensive . It's quite affordable .

I have just said it does an 170-quad jacket . But again , that's kind of higher end . You know , like higher end material and stuff . Yeah , I've written here like garments and stuff . Yeah , 5'5 is good . Yeah , I mean beyond shoes . We can go to shoes in a second . It's an interesting topic for a gift . Hydration vests are interesting .

A lot of people , if they want to get into kind of longer runs , hydration vests can seem quite daunting . Oftentimes , depending on the brand . You know they're over 100 quid and you know you don't necessarily need it as an entry-level runner . People think , oh , maybe I need a hydration vest to run . So what's the benefits of the hydration ?

So , especially if you're running even in like a in a race situation , like people using for ultras , but even if you're running like a longer , longer training run again like it depends , like a lot of people in the groups I run with , they won't necessarily use it .

But you know , especially if the longer run is daunting to you , if you can stay hydrated throughout your longer run , it does mean your body works more efficiently . It means you know you can , you can sweat better and that means that more blood is diverted to the muscles .

So you know the less efficiently you sweat , the more your body needs to cool down through other means . So , like your blood , vessels dilate to try , and you know , cool the cool , the surf .

But one of the things that you see in all these kind of you know , hydration tablet companies are saying , you know , the better you can sweat , the more blood goes to the muscles and then therefore you can work better . Again , it's you know , there's other stuff like blood viscosity and stuff like that .

But it's , yeah , if you're going over you know , 15 , 20k , even if it's a training run , a lot of people use that as an opportunity to take gels or , you know , just try and stay hydrated . I wouldn't necessarily do like any work sessions with it on .

Usually , if you're sticking around the same area doing a work session , you can kind of leave a bottle somewhere , or if you're on the track , you can leave that there . But but it's , you know you also . Just , you know , if you're turning your run into a good day out or something , it's nice not to , you know , die of thirst halfway through .

You put snacks in there and stuff .

for that . Oh , pardon me , maya , I'm cracking up , I'm emotional . The thought of such a , such a vest .

You know again , they're not training for ultra is necessarily , but they like going for long runs around Box Hill , you know , means pockets , fee keys and stuff again .

You know it's just a method of stimulating blood flow to kind of deepen muscle tissue and then that that kind of you know flushes out any toxins that might be left . You know increase of blood flow to the area so you can repair the muscle . And you know kind of , uh , you know , get nutrients the muscle a little bit more efficiently .

But that company , I mean it does , does a range . You know the kind of the , the , the guns themselves range from kind of 150 to 250 quid , at least the ones we have .

So right , okay , okay , that's kind of the expensive , yeah , and of the yeah , but again , like , compared to a company like ferro gun , where it's routinely at around 400 quid it's , it's very nice , very affordable . They have other things , like they have foam rollers that that vibrate , which Initially sound like quite a kinky prospect .

You know it's uh , it does help . I mean it's , you know it helps stimulate if you just want to .

But yeah , it's , it's a , you know , all of those bits are a good , good bit of care . I would say , yeah , like the the , the roller itself is around 80 quid , so it's just a kind of you know , souped up foam roller . Effectively , it does have a vibrate function .

Again , if you're used to using a foam roller , you just do exactly the same thing , just using the different settings .

There's a controller if you want to , like , you know , you know , because they have different settings in terms of how the frequency of you know , how much they're vibrating , just so you can kind of warm up the muscle , go to the more kind of you know severe , you know Oscillations kind of , later on .

But yeah , but yeah , and I mean in terms of shoes themselves , they are A difficult gift , I would say . I mean they're not . Yeah , a lot of us , a lot of our customers even , and actually a lot of us , you know , in general .

You know Either we would try on the shoe if it was a gift for me and I would pass it on , or you know a lot of our customers , they , they come in , they try the shoe .

At this point I might even have mentioned before , I think at this point of the year you know , early December or late November , just just transition day yeah , the people come in , they try on the shoes . They say , ah , you know my mom , my partner or whatever coming in in a week To buy it for me again .

It's still , you know it's , it's still still a gift . It's just , you know you're not going to be disappointed on Christmas Day . You know how to send it back , basically .

So , with the vouchers , if you Accumulatively get a hundred quids worth of vouchers , so it could be 250s , could be 520s , could be 100 , whatever it is , the person buying the voucher actually gets a 10 pound off kind of token for themselves . So they can use that whenever they spend over 50 quids , I think install or online .

But , um , yeah , it's a little bonus for the person buying it basically . So , yeah , it's again that's a bonus . But , like you said , yeah , I mean gifts over 65 quid . You don't necessarily want to get wrong . So if there is any vouchers , definitely worth it . But yeah , I mean people work around it different ways .

Like if they do definitely want the shoes on Christmas Day you know you've got a got a park run to go to on Christmas Day you want to try out your new shiny shoes , I'd suggest going to the shop , give it a bit go , like you know . I mean it's always best to try these things on in person .

It doesn't have the support with yours , you know , especially , you know someone's kind of getting going running and they do need the support that would be a bit more crucial at that stage because they like , as I kind of mentioned earlier , you , you don't want someone trying to try to get into the sport of running and Instantly get injured and fall out with it

before they even really tried it , just because they have the wrong shoes . So , yeah , any , anything we can do that helps , always nice . But yeah , it's , the process of getting shoes it's , it's an art and a science definitely helps if someone can try the one in person , right ?

So I've , you know , had conversations with him , which is , I mean , at the end of the day it's not all that special , but anyway it's . He seems like a great guy and yeah , like he's . He's come into the shop . We've done talks with him and stuff . So that itself is nice .

I mean annoyingly the because the promotional material at the front of the new balance has well , we used to have a picture of him signed and stuff . At the moment we've just cycled it off for another one . But yeah , it's nice , him kind of , you know , daining us with his presence and you know , you know , I mean obviously he was injured .

But you know , working around it that's always difficult but it's , I don't know , with him it's it's nice kind of coming in and you know , like I said , he's done like a Q and A and stuff alongside some other athletes in here and it's it's not only it's , you know , nice just seeing someone like that in in a store like this , you know , with the people from

the public coming up asking questions , that kind of thing .

So not not necessarily kind of , I mean he's , he's an absolute like unit of an athlete , don't get me wrong , but it's not , you know , be all , end all , but it's , you know , nice to kind of see that in person and , you know , make it a lot more relatable , especially when he'll just talk to any any old people and you know he's , he's quite a forthcoming

guy , like it's . You know he kind of came over to me oh yeah , don't you work up and running that kind of thing in the gym , and so you know I I respect that from people . I mean , you know , unfortunately I haven't talked to all the other athletes in the world , so I can't vouch for them .

But you know it's , it's nice seeing you know , especially when you get to that level , it's like you know the person underneath is still humble and nice and I imagine a lot of them are out there . But it's , yeah , it's , it's very well Farah . He used to yeah , another legend .

He's an incredible , incredible racer and you know , now he's I mean now he's finally retired , you know , I hope he can look back on his whole career , you know with with a lot of pride . I mean , definitely should not that he'd be listening to someone like me tell him you know you should feel really proud of yourself .