August is a great month for running and combining this with visiting new places, so in this newsletter we have put together an article on exploring new routes.  Our route of the month is a lovely run in Devon with spectacular views over Dartmoor, perfect for a holiday run.  August is also a time when calorie control can be quite difficult, with lots of temptations on holiday and at home!  But, have a look at our calorie burn article which looks at the way we burn calories and the advantages of running, a great way of having your cake and eating it! 

If you would like to write a race report for the next newsletter then please let me know.  Also, if you would like to help us check out some routes for the site then please send me an email.

Louise at GRG
www.GoodRunGuide.co.uk

Busy Burning Calories

Every activity we do during the day burns up Calories, even watching TV and sleeping, so we thought it would be interesting to compare how many Calories we burn by running with other popular sports and common everyday tasks. We’ve used an example of a 10 stone man for illustration purposes, but we’ve also provided formulae so that you can make your own personal calculations if you wish.

Busy Doing Nothing

Before we look at the Calories burned when we’re active, it’s worth considering the Calories burned when we’re inactive!
When we’re resting and doing nothing, our body is still busy burning a minimal amount of Calories, just to keep our vital organs functioning – a bit like the ‘standby’ button on the TV! Experts call this the Basal Metabolic Rate (BMR) and you can roughly estimate how many Calories you burn per minute through your BMR using the following formulae:

Male BMR per minute = weight in pounds x 11 / 1440

Female BMR per minute = weight in pounds x 10 / 1440

So, for example, a 10 stone man (140 pounds), would burn around 0.97 Calories each minute of the day even without undertaking any activity- this equates to around 1,400 Calories per day.

As our BMR is the absolute minimum Calorie burn needed to keep our body alive, we do burn slightly more by sleeping but the difference is very small so it’s best not to count sleeping as an activity! Next we’ll look at the discretionary elements of our daily Calorie burn.

Busy Doing Something

The amount of Calories we burn depends on the energy involved in the activity, which is usually affected by our body weight, as most activities involve moving our body! The heavier the body, the more energy used to move it and therefore the more Calories burned. The amount of Calories burned therefore differs depending on your weight. However, every activity also has a different energy cost per pound of weight.

In 1993, the University of South Carolina published a paper called “Compendium of Physical Activities: classification of energy costs of human physical activities”, later updated in 2000. This published the results of research into the relative amounts of energy burned by different sports and other everyday activities. The paper used the concept of a Metabolic Equivalent (MET) to rate activities by reference to the Calories burned by sitting still, which was given a MET value of 1. So, for example, mowing the lawn with a conventional petrol lawnmower has a MET of 5.5, so burns around five and half times as many Calories as sitting doing nothing!

You can estimate the Calories burned from the MET of any activity using the following formula:

Calories Burned per minute = weight in pounds / 132.3 x MET

The following table shows some examples of common daily activities and their MET values.

You can find out the MET values for many other activities in the Compendium of Physical Activities Tracking Guide.

Busy Doing Exercise

To burn off larger amounts of Calories you need to exercise and running is one of the best ways to burn Calories, as well as conditioning your body in other ways. The amount of Calories burned by running is mainly dependent on how far you run, it doesn’t matter how long you take, although if you slow down to a walk you will then burn less Calories, as you are no longer using energy to raise your body off the ground. 

Unlike running, the amount of Calories burned by cycling is dependent on speed as well as distance. This is because cycling is normally undertaken at much higher speeds where wind resistance also has an impact.

For swimming, the amount of Calories burned is primarily driven by the intensity of the swimming strokes and how long you are swimming for.

The following table shows some examples of common exercises and their MET values.

Summary

So, running is an excellent way to burn Calories and compares very well with other activities and sports. If you want to burn off some Calories and time is of the essence, there aren’t many better options than running! 

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Site News

Last month we introduced a new version of our Route Measurer, which delivered a big speed improvement for loading maps along with several other usability enhancements.

We also introduced a new Regular Events tab on our Race Diary, where we will feature the growing number of events that take place on a regular basis, usually at the same time each week or month.  If you know of any regular events that could be added, please contact Louise with the details.

We've also started work on designing an enhanced Training Friends section for the site.  We've got quite a few ideas of our own about enhancements we'd like to make but it's not too late to feed in any suggestions for changes you would like to see in this area. 

A number of people have contacted us about using the new Garmin Forerunner 110 with the site.  At the moment our Garmin Uploader doesn't support this device as it uses a different data format to all the other Forerunner models and indeed most of Garmin's other devices.  We're looking into options to provide support for it and will post something on the Member News when we have a solution available.

As always, if you have any feedback about changes to the site or have a suggestion you would like to put forward, please let us know.

Exploring New Routes

One of our main aims at Good Run Guide is to encourage runners to go out and explore new routes. It’s often very convenient to step outside the front door and simply run around your usual local route, but step a little further afield and you could discover some great new places to run with wonderful scenery to enjoy while still keeping to your training schedule.

It can sometimes be a little worrying running somewhere completely new, so we make it our business to do what we can to help you explore new routes with confidence. Here are some of the things we do to help.

Quality Vetting of Routes – When you go out and try a new route it’s good to know that it’s worth making the extra effort to get to it. So, every one of our recommended routes is run and inspected by us to ensure that it meets our quality standards and we also check through all Member suggestions before adding them to our database.

Large-Scale Custom Maps – You can print off an A4 custom map for all of our recommended routes, usually to a much larger scale than an Ordnance Survey map and with only the detail you need, making them easy to follow.

Clear Directions – All our routes include clear directions to accompany the map unless the route is so simple that you shouldn’t need them.

GPS Navigation Support – All our routes can be downloaded directly to Garmin GPS devices, so that you can make use of the navigation features on your GPS. You can also view the route map on your mobile phone with Good Run Guide Mobile and use your phone’s GPS with GRG Mobile's GPS Route Viewer to help keep you on track.

Route Buddy Scheme – This scheme puts you in touch with other Members who have kindly offered to act as guides to show people around routes they have suggested. This is available on selected routes.

We have hundreds of quality routes to choose from across the UK, so why not Search for a Route and explore somewhere new this summer.

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You can keep track of how many Calories you are burning with your Good Run Guide Log Book.  Each time you log a run or other activity you can use our Calorie Calculator to work out how many Calories you burned. The data can then be viewed in table or graph format with weekly, monthly or annual totals.

If you use the Good Run Guide Weight Tracker, you can also see a graph of your Calories burned alongside your weight chart, so that you can compare changes in your weight over time with the Calories burned by exercising.

Do you know of any races that are held on a regular basis, perhaps each week or month?  We have just set up a new Regular Events section on our Race Diary, so would like to build this up.  Please get in touch if you know of any and can provide us with some details - if you have the route mapped as well, that would also be a bonus.