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Prepping For Your Distance Run – Sun Protection and More

Preparing for a distance run like a marathon means that you’ll need to take some specific actions in several different areas of your life like diet, training, and using proper sun protection. You might want to run a marathon to test your personal limits, or to prove you can do it. Maybe you just want to celebrate your recent weight loss with a marathon. No matter what the reason, a marathon is an excellent way to continue on a quest for weight loss, better health, and improved well being. Use the following tips to effectively prepare for your next distance run!

Sun Protection During Training: UV Protective Headwear

Distance Running Sun ProtectionProtecting the skin during training is extremely important, and that goes beyond just slathering some sunscreen on. For people who are bald or starting to lose their hair, it is especially important to protect the delicate skin of the scalp with the proper uv protective headwear. A Chrome Dome Cap can be used for both training sessions and long runs and has the following features.

• Crafted from a compression fabric that customizes a perfect snug fit
• Protects not just the head but also the ears and neck
• Certified with a Sun Protection Factor of 50 plus
• Known-harmful chemical free
• Crafted from +65% recycled materials
• Wicks sweat off your skin as you run
• Can be used in both hot and cold weather
• Easy to clean

Training for Success

When preparing for a long distance run, it is important to create a training schedule and build up to your ultimate distance goal. Most training plans begin 16 weeks before the event and, depending on your level of experience, have you running between 12-60 miles per week. Runner’s World has a great resource to select the training plan that is best for your level.

Diet Plan: Optimum Marathon Nutrition

As a runner, keeping total body fat lower rather than higher is always the goal. After all, fat is simply dead weight that will slow you down as you run. Runners need to be particularly aware of their glycogen levels. Glycogen, which is derived from carbohydrates, is housed in fairly small quantities inside the liver and muscles. It is then slowly sent out via the bloodstream as glucose. Generally, runners store enough glycogen to run a half marathon (13.1 miles) without total depletion. However, this requires perfect pacing that doesn’t overtax the body. For full marathons, glycogen is even more of a concern. Ultimately, this means that runners need to eat exactly the right foods to add plenty of glycogen to their body in preparation. Foods like veggies, fruits, seeds, nuts, lean meat, fish, and dairy are all great choices. Fried foods, refined foods, and sweets are poor choices for a runner.

Now that you have a little more information about how to prepare, get out there and start training!