Author: Modern Athlete

Oats date back over two thousand years, cultivated in regions all over the world. Before humans used it as part of a nutritious breakfast, oats were used for medicinal purposes, a use for which they are still honoured today. High in phosphorus, selenium and manganese, oats are also the go-to for soluble dietary fibre, iron, magnesium and vitamin B.

Oats gain part of their distinctive flavour from the roasting process after being harvested and cleaned. Although oats are then hulled, this process does not strip away their bran and their germ, allowing them to retain a concentrated source of their fibre and nutrients. Different processes are used to produce various forms of oat products, which are generally used to make breakfast cereals, baked goods, soups and stews:

?         Oat Groats: A groat is another name for a grain kernel. Oat groats are the result of simply harvesting oats, cleaning them, and removing their inedible hulls. They take the longest to cook.

?         Steel-cut oats: Featuring a dense and chewy texture, they are produced by running oat groats through steel blades that thinly slices them into smaller pieces.

?         Old-fashioned (rolled) oats: Have a flatter shape that is the result of their being steamed and then rolled into flakes.

?         Quick-cooking oats: Processed like old-fashioned oats, except they are cut finely before rolling.

?         Instant oatmeal: Produced by partially cooking the grains and then rolling them very thin to decrease the cooking time. They are lower in fibre than rolled oats. Oftentimes, sugar, salt and other ingredients are added to make the finished product. Try to avoid flavoured instant oatmeal!

?         Oat bran: The outer layer of the grain that resides under the hull. While oat bran is found in rolled oats and steel-cut oats, it may also be purchased as a separate product that can be added to recipes or cooked to make a hot cereal. This is your best option, as it is very high in fibre.

?         Oat flour: Finer than oatmeal, this is made by grinding and sieving oats. It can be used in baking, or for thickening soups and stews.

HEALTH BENEFITS

Here are three great reasons to add oats to your daily eating plan:

1. Improved lipid profile

Eating oatmeal can lower your cholesterol, especially your low-density lipoproteins (LDL) or ‘bad’ cholesterol. If you've been diagnosed with high cholesterol, consider adding oatmeal to your daily menu. Oatmeal is full of soluble fibre, which we know lowers LDL levels. When you digest fibre, it becomes goo-like. Researchers have determined that when it's in your intestines, it ‘sticks’ to cholesterol, stopping it from being absorbed. So instead of getting that cholesterol into your system – and your arteries – you simply get rid of it as waste.

2. Assists with weight-loss

Due to oatmeal being a wonderful source of fibre, it means that when you eat oats for breakfast, you're going to feel full for a long time. Breakfast foods high in sugar and fat can make you feel full for only a brief period. A bowl of steamy oats or a breakfast smoothie, consisting of blended oats, fresh fruit and ice, can satisfy your hunger for longer.

3. Controls blood sugar

Even though oats are a carbohydrate, they are considered a complex carbohydrate. In other words, oats digests very slowly and won't raise your blood sugar as much or as quickly as other commercial breakfast cereals or porridges. It is best to always opt for the non-flavoured versions to avoid any added sugar or flavourings, which may raise your blood sugar levels.

DIETICIAN’S TIPS

?         All adults should consume 25 to 35g of fibre a day. The average South African barely gets to 15g. One cup of cooked oats will supply you with approximately 4g of fibre.

?         Adding some fresh fruit with high fibre content (apple, pear, raspberries and blueberries) could increase the fibre count even more!

?         Combining ? a cup of fresh fruit or a small handful of nuts with your oats, while they're cooking adds more flavour and nutrients. Spices like cinnamon and nutmeg give great flavour to your oats. Limit any additional sugar and let the natural flavour of the fruits and spices take over.

Having seen three of his athletes win the Comrades Marathon, and a fourth that he took nearly all the way to the race also claim the title, John Hamlett is undoubtedly one of the most successful Comrades coaches of all time. – BY SEAN FALCONER

In 2001 Andrew Kelehe powered his way to the Comrades title in a time of 5:25:52, earning his fifth gold medal and beating the supposedly invincible Russians who had dominated the race for a number of years. Two years later it was Fusi Nhlapo who flew down Fields Hill, contrary to traditional wisdom warning about shattered quads and jelly legs, and held on to win in 5:28:52. Fast forward to 2015 and Gift Kelehe powered his way up to Pietermaritzburg to also claim the Comrades title, clocking 5:38:36 and making history as two siblings both became Comrades winners for the first time, and then David Gatebe blitzed the field in the 2016 Comrades to not only win the race, but shatter the Down record with his 5:18:19.

Besides winning the Comrades, the one thing that all these athletes had in common was their coach, John Hamlett. (OK, Fusi left John’s camp six weeks before his winning run, but he still benefited greatly from the foundation work John did with him ahead of that race.) And yet, despite his incredible record of coaching success, which includes his athletes, male and female, winning a basketful of gold medals at Comrades and Two Oceans, as well as an SA Marathon title, John prefers to stay in the shadows and let his athletes enjoy the fame and glory of their achievements.

Teenaged Marathoner
Born in Joburg but raised in Natal, John (56) went on to rise to the rank of Colonel while working for National Intelligence. After leaving the service he went into private industry, embracing his success as a coach and branching out into the field of sports nutrition. He was quite some runner himself, with a love for long distance running that began in his teens. “I did all kinds of sport and my dad bought me the soccer boots, tennis shoes and everything else, but then at 15 I told him I wanted to run a marathon, and he said he wasn’t going to let me, because he said I didn’t realise how far it was. I nagged him until he eventually said yes, but he got so much flak over that race, because people thought he was pushing me to run so far. I think I did a 3:03, and from there I realised I was hooked,” says John.

“Later that year, still aged 15, I actually ran the Comrades, along with a guy called Klaus Durr. I broke away from him at 60km, but when I reached the finish they wouldn’t let me into the stadium, because I wasn’t an official entrant. Naturally we weren’t allowed to enter at that age, but we had a way to get around that. If you carried a bucket, you looked like you were seconding an athlete, so we put a little sponge in a little bucket and off we went. If anybody ever stopped us, we just said we were trying to catch up to the athlete we were seconding. After that I did a few more with the bucket where I only ran about 50 to 60 kays, because I knew I wasn’t supposed to be running… but those were the days!”

John went on to run the Comrades officially eight times, including posting a 6:56:51 best when he was 22, and today he still runs three times a week, pointing out that he has been fortunate never to have had any serious injury problems other than small niggles now and again. “I can remember older people saying running long distances at such a young age will lead to me breaking my legs and picking up problems later in life, but it was rubbish, and I think I’m stronger now than I ever was.”

Coaching Priority
While he was still in the service, John began coaching other athletes in between his own running, and it was when he was posted to Mafikeng that he met Andrew, which was to lead to him giving up his own competitive running. “I had just run a 2:18 marathon when Andrew came to me and said I must either coach them or train with them, but I couldn’t do both. And he was right. The Kelehe brothers are very logical and straight-thinking, no nonsense. I also realised that I was actually a better coach than a runner myself, so I decided to focus on coaching, because Andrew had the real talent. It was a hard decision, but I’ve never regretted it.”

So what is John’s secret to Comrades success, and how has he managed to help four different athletes achieve Comrades glory? He says it is a combination of talent, dedication and fire in the belly. “I don’t have a box that I wind up and out jumps a champion. It’s not like that. In simplistic terms, I can’t put in what God has left out – I can only evolve what is there – and that’s why we worked out a progressive programme for each athlete, looked at their nutrition, strengths and weaknesses, training needs and more, and it was a long process with each of them.”

“Andrew took 10 years to win Comrades. We built him up progressively, he ran many Two Oceans and won gold medals there as well as in Comrades, and finally we got him to win Comrades. But people don’t see that long walk to get there, they think it is an instant thing. Gift’s win was eight years in the making. After his brother won Comrades, he said to me he also wants to win it, so I said let’s get you building up to it. And same thing with David. When I met him in 2005 he was a petrol pump attendant in Rustenburg. I got him to do a couple of races, built him up nicely, and when he won the Rustenburg Mountain Race I knew he had it in him. Then he won the SA Marathon title in 2008, but the trouble was we were dancing with the mines, trying to keep him in a job so he could pay his bills but still be able to train. I had to sit in the background and let some things go, but we got there in the end.”

Making a Difference
Naturally, John says it is a tremendous feeling to see one of his athletes come home first, or win gold medals, set PBs and get the fame and glory that their hard work deserves. “At the end of the day, I want to be able to look back on what I did and know that it counted, that it made a difference. You know when you did the right thing at the right time for good people, and it’s nice to see a good, honest, noble man get what he deserves. Like somebody who was living in a shack now having a nice home, or somebody that everybody wrote off suddenly gets what he wants after you’ve worked with him for 10 or 15 years. Then you get what you want, too. There’s a lovely moment when they cross the line and it’s like your brother or your son winning it. Getting the Comrades wins has been a lifelong goal for us all, and we worked up progressively to learn what worked and what didn’t, then evolved it into something that makes them champions. And we’ve gotten the results.”

From elites to weekend warriors, many athletes do not know the rules of athletics that cover all the running disciplines, and this sometimes leads to a clash with authority, or fellow runners, so take heed of the rules we’ll be passing on here each month. Let’s start with the highly contentious rule about listening to music during a race. – BY SEAN FALCONER

These days it is a common sight to see runners in road and trail races wearing earphones or earplugs and listening to music being played either on an MP3 player or cell phone. For many, it is about running to a beat that keeps them going, or listening to upbeat songs that motivate them. However, this is actually breaking an international rule of the sport, as listed under the General Competition section of the IAAF rule book.

IAAF RULE 144: Assistance to Athletes
144.2. Any athlete giving or receiving assistance from within the competition area during an event shall be warned by the Referee and advised that, if there is any repetition, he will be disqualified from that event.
144.3. For the purpose of this Rule, the following examples shall be considered assistance, and are therefore not allowed:
(b) Possession or use of video recorders, radios, CD, radio transmitters, mobile phone or similar devices in the competition area.
144.4. For the purpose of this Rule, the following shall not be considered assistance, and are therefore allowed:
(d) Heart rate or speed distance monitors or stride sensors or similar devices carried or worn personally by athletes during an event, provided that such device cannot be used to communicate with any other person.

The basis of this rule is that athletes may not be illegally coached during a competition, or be given information that will provide an unfair advantage over other athletes. Therefore, any kind of device that can transmit information, or be used for communication, is against the rules. That explains why cell phones are banned, but MP3 players are included to make sure nobody uses a modified player that can transmit messages, or a transmitter disguised as a player. Granted, this rule was originally written more for the track and field discipline of athletics, hence the words “in the competition area” are used, but the rule has been made even clearer in Athletics South Africa’s rules, to make it specifically applicable to long distance running:

ASA Rule 20.4 Safety
20.4.6. For the safety of the athletes and to ensure proper communication between officials and athletes, the use of video or cassette recorders, CD players, radio transmitters, I-pods, mobile phones or similar devices are not allowed during a road race.

Unsurprisingly, this rule has consistently met with an outcry from middle to back of pack runners with music, which has prompted some provincial athletic bodies to adapt the rule further. For example, here’s what Western Province Athletics says:

WPA Default Rules of Road Running
15. For safety reasons the use of personal music players with headphones is not allowed. Any person using such device in contravention of IAAF rule 144.3b or ASA 20.4.6 shall not be eligible for individual or team prizes and may be disqualified for a repeat offense after an official warning.

Similarly, the Comrades Marathon rules say the following:

Seconding / Physical Assistance
In compliance with IAAF Rule 144.2(b) athletes are not allowed to be in possession or use cassette recorders, radios, CD, radio transmitter, mobile phone or similar devices.

However, both WPA and the CMA have adopted a lenient stance of allowing non-competitive runners to use music players and cell phones, but at the same time they urge all runners to rather run without music, and if they insist on running with music, rather run with the volume turned down, or with just one earplug in place. Of course, very few runners with MP3 players actually heed that advice, and while this usually does not cause too many problems in road running – except for making some runners a bit anti-social – it is a growing problem in trail running. If the trail includes narrow single-track sections where overtaking is difficult, a slower runner listening to loud music is hard to pass, because a faster runner cannot catch their attention and has to tap the slower runner on the arm to ask to get past. The runner with music is then perceived as being selfish, and this can lead to frustration and unpleasant exchanges.

Bottom line: Running with music can be risky for your safety and can cause other runners frustration, but if done carefully and with consideration for others, you can still run with your favourite tunes. Just ensure the particular province or event allows it, and very important, make sure you do not start singing along to your favourite tunes. Especially if you don’t have a great singing voice!

It’s the latest craze to sweep South African running, offering a fun challenge coupled with safety for night running, all rolled into one, thanks to various golf course night runs popping up on the running calendar. – BY KIM STEPHENS & SEAN FALCONER

Golf is a sport played during the day. The player steps up to the tee, swings the club a few times to practice and then sends the ball whizzing down the fairway in the direction of the flag on the green. It’s a relatively simple concept, but there is one thing that can stop a round of golf: Sunset. Because golf cannot be played at night. Therefore, as the sun goes down, so the golfers on the course wrap up their rounds and head for the clubhouse and the traditional 19th hole for a drink or two, while the fairways and greens are left to the darkness, awaiting the next day’s players. Well, not anymore…

These days you can drive past your local golf course on a week night and chances are you will see headlamps. Lots and lots of headlamps! That’s because more and more golf courses are opening their doors to runners for night races as more organisers tap into this lucrative new market, and more runners give night trail running a try. Most of these events are smallish, no more than 300 runners at a time, but man oh man are they fun! And judging by the number of these events being added to the calendar each month, the demand is only going to keep growing!

RUNNING WITH THE WOLVES
One of the companies putting on these golf course runs is the Cape Town Running Company, with its monthly Petzl Wolfpack Night Trail events. These are the same guys behind the Ultra-Trail Cape Town 100km and Batrun events, and one of the directors, regular trail runner Stuart McConnachie, provides some insight into the decision to launch the golf course series. “Discussions with fellow Cape-based trail junkies resulted in the realisation that the trail calendar is packed with events of every kind, but there was not much happening that echoed the road running time trial concept. Plenty of runners want to test their speed off-road, and many were looking for safe ways to explore trail running on non-technical courses,” he says.

“Night running holds particular appeal, but it’s a pretty daunting idea for many. We’ve seen similar concepts in other areas of South Africa, and decided that there was more than enough interest here in the Cape, so we started chatting to golf clubs and plenty have expressed a need to use their grounds for alternative activities that won’t affect their primary purpose. So Petzl Wolfpack Trails was launched, and it has been a radical success story to date. Rondebosch Golf Club was first, but we’re now at Stellenbosch and Durbanville, with a very exciting Hermanus event in the pipeline. They’ve even allowed us to cut sections of brand new single track for some of the events!”

NUMBERS GROWING
Just as the Petzl Wolfpack runs are growing, so too are other golf course runs. Also active in the Cape is Lans Pepler of On-Site Events with his Run the Greens events, usually between 5km and 10km in length, at the Bellville and Parow golf courses. He started Run the Vines in 2015, offering regular runs on various wine farms in the greater Paarl area, and this year saw a natural extension into golf courses for night runs, bringing his unique humour and fun-loving approach to a new running market. This series particularly encourages the participation of children and walkers.

Meanwhile, up in Gauteng Kinetic Events has been in the game a little longer, with Gautengers enjoying 8km and 4km races presented by Energizer at venues like the Parkview Golf Club, Bryanston Country Club, Woodmead Country Club and Randpark Golf Club. The fitCal Frostbite Night Run series has also been on the calendar for a year or two now, at the Country Club Johannesburg in Woodmead, and then there is the proverbial new kid on the block, Shane Gouldie, the ex-cricketer who took up trail running to overcome long-term cricketing injuries and ended up starting the Trail Adventures company. He is now putting on up to three golf course events per week all over the Gauteng area, thanks to starting up satellite franchises, with plans for more to come, so there will likely be still more golf course runs on the calendar in the near future!

SOMETHING NEW
Night runs on golf courses are an interesting hybrid of trail running and cross-country, since much of the routes that zig-zag up and down the fairways are on grass, with sections here and there on gravel roads and a small portion on paved roads or pathways. The routes of these runs are quite something to look at on a map, taking in every corner of a course while making sure to skirt around the off-limits greens, and a route organiser can easily put together a 5km to 8km ‘loop’ on any given course.

Of course, a good headlamp is the one essential of these night runs, as runners need to see the ground up to a few metres ahead in order to run freely and confidently. Many a runner has realised after just a few metres of running that the little headlamp they got at Christmas is fine for reading or braaing when they go camping, but doesn’t quite light the way enough for a night run!

While some trail purists might turn up their noses at the idea of a run around a golf course, these event companies have definitely captured an enthusiastic audience, including a fair number of ‘roadies’ taking their first steps off-road, in a safe and fun environment that doesn’t require top-level technical trail running skills. As one female newbie to trail said after the first Petzl Wolfpack run, “For a moment I panicked, but I quickly realised I was safe, and that is exactly what I wanted from the evening, to run alone at night and not feel threatened.”

Even the pro’s are enjoying these runs, with some of SA’s elites a regular sight at the night runs, including Chantel Nienaber, who has represented SA at Trail World Champs: “There is something mystical about running at night. Your senses are magnified and you somehow seem to be more in touch with the earth as you move over the terrain. The atmosphere is always electrifying as the participants light their way with their headlamps, and people generally arrive at a night race with a sense of excitement and exhilaration. What’s not to love about it?”

SIGN UP FOR A GOLF COURSE RUN

If you’re keen to try out one of these golf course night runs, look for more info on the various series around the country by visiting these websites
• Petzl Wolfpack Trails (Cape) – www.capetownrunningco.com
• Run the Greens (Cape) – www.runthevines.co.za
• Energizer Trail Series (Gauteng) – www.kineticgear.co.za
• Trail Adventures (Gauteng) – www.trailadventure.co.za
• fitCal Frostbite Series (Gauteng) – www.fitcal.co.za/ccj