Autor: Franziska Zehnder, Head of Performance Diagnostics Sports and Movement Scientist MAS Nutrition and Health at Medbase Zürich Löwenstrasse, Sports Medical Center
An injury during the preparation or competition phase can severely disrupt the course of the season and lead to a significant reduction in physical performance. The longer the rest phase lasts, the more time must be invested in reconstruction. However, once the physical and psychological setback has been overcome, many positive aspects of the development can be gained.
The 43rd edition of the Lucerne City Run should have taken place on Saturday in Lucerne. Corona thwarted the plan of a normal run with contact to the opponents, cheering from the edge of the course and the smell of bratwurst. Instead there was a virtual version with app, headphones and funny looks from the roadside.
Background of viRACE
viRACE is the app that made the virtual execution of the Lucerne City Run possible. The app served as a registration platform, timekeeper, speaker and results service for the race and was developed by running.COACH within a very short (but intense) time during the lockdown.
“For us as athletes and companies that are at home in the running industry, the daily reports of cancelled runs were a stab in the heart every time,” says Stefan Lombriser, Managing Director of running.COACH. “We then had the choice: wait or throw everything on the scales and press the accelerator. viRACE is now the result of the second option”.
In cooperation with Swiss Running, the app viRACE was then developed, to make it possible to hold the cancelled races, albeit in an unusual form.
Virtual Lucerne City Run
After many small and medium-sized test runs, last Saturday’s Lucerne city run was the first big stress test for the brand new app. A total of 904 registered participants successfully completed the run.
The top 3 of the four categories offered are as follows:
1.5 km Saturday 1. Cedric Meyer, 00:04:25 2. Martin Winiger, 00:04:40 3. Kylie Jenner, 00:04:49
3.8 km Saturday 1. Janis Gächter, 00:11:48 2. Raphi Kunz, 00:13:03 3. David von Arx, 00:13:21
7 km Saturday 1. Jorge Garcia, 00:24:02 2. Elias Raemy, 00:24:45 3. Flavio Rieder, 00:25:00
1.5 km Sunday 1. Paul Jacquot, 00:05:13 2. Philipp Joller, 00:05:28 3. Selina Sidler, 00:05:40
A great summary of the experience was published published in the local paper.
Did you like the run?
If you enjoyed participating in the virtual Lucerne City Run, we would be pleased if you would continue to take part in virtual competitions in the future. The app is constantly being developed and new functions are coming.
If you would like to support us in the further development of viRACE, you can Vote for us by following this Link until Tuesday evening. Thanks very much for your support.
Exercise and fitness are a major factor in good health. That’s why SWICA supports its customers who have COMPLETA PRAEVENTA or OPTIMA supplementary insurance by making contributions of up to 600 francs towards their silver or gold six- or twelve-month subscriptions to running.COACH.
running.COACH is a SWICA-recognised partner, offering runners a comprehensive training platform with interactive coaching and training plans. Whether you want to improve your running style or get fit for the next marathon, running.COACH can help you along the way.
What do you have to do to claim the SWICA contribution?
1. Check whether you have COMPLETA PRAEVENTA or OPTIMA supplementary insurance from SWICA.
COMPLETA PRAEVENTA: 50%, max. CHF 500 per calendar year (max. CHF 300 per preventive activity)
OPTIMA: 90% of the costs not covered by COMPLETA PRAEVENTA, up to a maximum of CHF 300 per calendar year; together up to a maximum of CHF 800 per calendar year
2. Log in to www.runningcoach.me or register; buy a silver or gold subscription or renew your existing subscription.
3. Send the subscription confirmation to SWICA
You will then be sent a confirmation email with a subscription confirmation attached. Send this to SWICA. You should receive your refund within a few days. If you have any questions, please send an email to: info@runningcoach.me.
Optimum performance can only be achieved when a runner recovers sufficiently after training. Carbohydrates, protein and fluid play an important role in this.
What the petrol tank is to the car, the carbohydrates are to the muscles, which are stored in the muscles and liver in the form of glycogen. Intensive and/or long training drains these energy reserves in the muscles and liver. Anyone who trains loosely for up to five hours a week therefore does not need to worry too much about nutrition after training, as long as they eat a balanced diet.
Carbohydrates are important for the immune system
The situation is different for runners who train more than five hours a week and some of which are high intensity. In order to regain performance, it is important to replenish the carbohydrate stores after training, preferably with starch supplements such as rice, pasta, potatoes or muesli. Exercise causes a slight stress and inflammatory reaction in the body. Carbohydrates counteract this. They are also important for the immune system.
Protein for the muscles
The first meal after training should contain not only carbohydrates but also protein. If the protein intake in the diet is insufficient, both the repair processes and the muscle building suffer. This can last up to 24 hours after training.
It is therefore not enough to supply the body with protein only immediately after training. Rather, it is important that each meal contains 20 to 25 grams of protein – whereby not all proteins are the same. This is because animal proteins (in fish, eggs, meat or dairy products) are generally more digestible by the body and therefore of higher quality than vegetable proteins.
Good vegetarian combinations
If you want to cover your protein requirements purely from plants, you must consume 30 to 40 grams of protein per meal to achieve the same value of 20 to 25 grams of animal protein. It is best to combine different vegetable foods with each other to increase their value, for example soy with rice and lentils or potatoes with beans and nuts. Such combinations offer a greater variety of “essential amino acids”, i.e. the protein building blocks that the body cannot produce itself, but which are essential for the muscle.
Triple good – the milk shake
If you don’t have a proper meal immediately after running, you can take protein and carbohydrates with a banana milkshake or chocolate milk, for example. Such drinks also help to compensate for the loss of fluid through sweating.
Fluid replacement is the third important point that runners should consider after training. An additional requirement of five to eight deciliter per hour of training is expected. Exactly how much fluid is needed varies greatly from individual to individual. The easiest thing to do is to pay attention to your urine: if the fluid intake is correct, it is about the color of white wine.
With sweat, the body loses not only fluid but also salt. A salty snack or a salty meal makes up for this.
Tips when overweight or underweight
Anyone who trains to lose weight must be careful not to treat himself to more than necessary after training as a reward. A simple rule of thumb is to fill 1/4 of your plate with carbohydrates, 1/4 with the protein component and the remaining half with vegetables and/or salad. In order not to consume additional calories, it makes sense to complete the workout shortly before the daily main meal and to avoid a regeneration snack.
Runners who tend to be underweight are best advised to increase the proportion of carbohydrates and reduce that of vegetables. Some olive or rapeseed oil and a few nuts can provide additional calories.
Tips
Snacks immediately after training: fruit smoothie with yoghurt/curd cheese, chocolate milk, muesli, sandwich with dried meat or cheese, cereal bar, bread with nutmeg.
Runners who follow a vegan diet should seek nutritional advice to prevent long-term deficiencies of certain food components.
Magnesium rarely helps against muscle cramps. It is more important to compensate for the loss of fluids and salt during training and not to overload the muscle too much.
Food supplements are usually unnecessary if the basic diet is correct. Pay attention to a balanced diet.
Sports drinks are not necessary for low training volumes and during weight reduction.
Alcohol can directly and indirectly reduce performance. It has a draining effect, influences the quality of sleep and thus hinders regeneration.
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No matter what level of sport and no matter how much time you have, a targeted
The impact of the coronavirus has extended far beyond those who have become infected and has changed how everyone lives their day to day life. In these unfamiliar times, amid a global pandemic, it is important to remember that we will get through this and amazing things can still be accomplished. running.COACH teamed up with orienteering world champion Matthias Kyburz setting out to prove this by breaking the 50 kilometer treadmill world on Thursday April 16th record while helping raise money to for the COVID-19 crisis.
viRACE is an app that enables runners to take part in a running competition in real time without having to be physically present. On this page, we would like to describe the advantages viRACE brings to organizers.
Everyday life is anything but ordinary now. The necessary official measures regarding social distancing force us to drop deeply ingrained routines and stay at home whenever possible. However, regular exercise and athletic activities are still recommended by experts. From experience we know how difficult it is to maintain a structured training without a competition goal. In cooperation with Swiss Running we have therefore developed ViRace. The app should enable the participation in cancelled competitions without having to be on site and with virtual instead of direct contact to the competitors.
Schools will remain closed for a few more weeks. However, lessons must continue. Physical education and sports are an important part of the curriculum and this must continue during the closure as well. As a teacher, it can be challenging to still achieve the learning goals. We would like to do our best to support teachers with this challenging time.
In this blog post we describe how you can use running.COACH for your lessons.
After your registration you will receive access to our coach backend and a voucher code for your students. All students must register themselves per 1). Browser https://runningcoach.me/ or 2.) via Mobile APP and can use the promo code.
The code can also be redeemed after you have already registered:
1) The voucher code can also be redeemed after registration at the subscription purchase page.
2.) The code can also be redeemed in the APP later under Settings/My subscription/Voucher.
As soon as the code is redeemed, the voucher will be assigned to you as an ‘athlete’ and you will have a coach-athlete connection.
Functions of running.COACH
At the beginning it is important to know what running.COACH can offer to every single runner and which settings are important. You can read more about this on this blog post.
Training together for a goal
A running.COACH training plan is very personal and individually tailored to each person. An advantage of this characteristic for whole class is that everyone is challenged according to his/her own possibilities. This means that everyone receives training guidelines which are optimal for his/her own performance level.
However, the teacher can and should set training goals and give tasks.
Possible tasks:
1.) We want to take part in a 5km run together on 1 May 2020. All of us are training for this. to set this up students will enter details as follows: -> my account -> Parameters -> 4). My goal Goal: “Participation in competitions” Competition in the database: 1.5.20 Virtual Race May 2020 – 5 km (highest priority) * In order to determine the current performance level, all of them will do their own test run over 3km until next Tuesday: Add a separate target competition “Test Run”. Distance 3km, altitude up 0m, altitude down 0m. Priority low (fun race)
Everyone completes three** training sessions per week
Try to spread the training days as well as possible over the week. -> For training settings point 7). Training days
*running.COACH running calendar: In the calendar you can find countless running competitions all over the world. At the moment many of them are cancelled. We have now added a virtual race on the first day for the next 4 months with 5 distances from 5km to marathon. So you can agree on a final race and train based on it.
** Note: Alternatively you can also do your training on a bike. Please note the duration for the alternative sports in the training description.
2.) Besides running training, do the exercises suggested in addition to running training. You will find them at the end of the training description.
E.g. strengthening exercises. You will surely find many exercises which you do not know yet. You can also find more exercises on the Youtube channel of running.COACH. E.g. this series of strengthening exercises by Paula Radcliffe, multi time world champion and former marathon world record holder. Every time you do exercises, you can also add them to the running.COACH plan as additional training.
On the Youtube Channel of running.COACH there are many interesting strengthening exercises for runners.
3.) Running is much more than just putting one step before the other. To run as energy efficient as possible, a good running technique is also important. An optimal running technique has to be learned. At running.COACH there are also exercise guidelines for certain training sessions. You can also find additional exercises on the Youtube Channel, presented by Judith Wyder, orienteering world champion and trail running star.
running technique exercises for an economical running style
Learning Goal Check
Students are now conducting the training according to plan. The easiest way to run is with the APP. For all who have a GPS sports watch, you can log your training with it. The Mobile APP is basically sufficient. But the web version offers more functions and an even better overview of the whole training.
You as a teacher can now also check if the training has been done at all by the students.
Theory running and endurance training
Here at running.COACH Blog we have hundreds of articles on all kinds of running topics and endurance sports in general. Why not pick out interesting articles and make them available for reading
More ideas
Maybe you have some additional ideas? You can also use the comment function here!
We are happy we can support you during this time! The running.COACH Team
The closure of schools and educational institutions sometimes make it difficult to organize physical education at a distance. The running.COACH team would like to make its contribution to bring movement into the corona time despite the absence of lessons. The app offers pupils and students the possibility to create an individually adapted training program and lets teachers view the completed activities afterwards.
Autor: Franziska Zehnder, Head of Performance Diagnostics Sports and Movement Scientist MAS Nutrition and Health at Medbase Zürich Löwenstrasse, Sports Medical Center
