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Dr Juliet McGrattan - Run Well, Essential Health Questions & Answers For Runners.
58 Plays4 years ago
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Transcript
Introduction and Book Release
00:00:00
Speaker
Hello, welcome to this episode of the UK Support Chat podcast. I'm Joe Williams and today I am chatting with Dr. Juliette McGramm.
00:00:10
Speaker
Juliet is a former GP, expert in running and health, award-winning author, international speaker and master coach and founder at 261 Fearless Club, UK. Juliet's new book, Run Well, Essential Health Questions and Answers for Runners, is out now and available in all the usual bookstores and online. I hope you all have a great weekend and we will see you next week on the next episode of the podcast. Hi, Juliet. Hi, Joe. How are you?
00:00:40
Speaker
Yeah, I'm very good. Thank you. How are you? Yeah, yeah, super. Thank you for coming on again. I think it was... was it 12 months since we last spoke on the podcast? I'm not sure. It must be about a year, I think. Yeah, it was a good while ago. Yeah, I think it was last March. So, since... and you were just about to hand your manuscript in, I think, if I remember rightly, for Run Well. That would make sense, yes, because I handed it in in April. So, yeah, yeah. Wow, that's a year. That's been a strange year.
00:01:10
Speaker
Wasn't it? So Run Well, this is your second book.
Journey to Writing 'Run Well'
00:01:16
Speaker
After it wrote it, it was your first one, wasn't it? Was it always the plan to write more than one?
00:01:24
Speaker
I didn't have a plan to write to write a book at all actually and when I did the first one I it was a bit of a sort of a leap into the unknown and I can I do this I'm going to give it a go kind of attitude so I think at that point I wasn't really envisaging doing a second book and even when I finished the first book I was like I don't think I'll ever do that again
00:01:49
Speaker
because it was very time consuming. I had never done it before.
00:01:55
Speaker
It took, yeah, it really took over my life for a while. And I think I wasn't quite prepared to do that again so quickly. But I think what's really good is that I learned so much from doing that first one. The second time around, I was able to not make any of the same mistakes, keep things a lot more focused, and it became much more enjoyable and more doable. So maybe there might be a third, let's see.
00:02:21
Speaker
Yeah, so I'm just going to ask you that in a bit.
Purpose and Structure of 'Run Well'
00:02:26
Speaker
So, go on, start off, tell us about the new book. Tell us about Runwell.
00:02:32
Speaker
Yeah, so it's sort of some subtitle is essential health questions and answers for runners. And what I really wanted to do was just make something that was useful to runners. Assorted was for all exercises and purely for women. And I really wanted to create something just for the running community, really to sort of say thank you, because it's just been such an amazing place to be for the last.
00:02:56
Speaker
13 years and I've got so much from it and I just really wanted to share my knowledge and what I've learned in a kind of an easy to understand format. I'm fascinated by the human body and I love it but it does get very complicated and I know sometimes I read things and I realize that maybe I understand it because I've got a medical background and I think you kind of forget what you didn't know so I wanted to sort of try and
00:03:24
Speaker
demystify things, use some physiology and anatomy and try and put it into a way that was understandable and related specifically to running and then kind of try to answer all these questions that runners have because you know there are so many aren't there? You get them all the time on your UK run chat.
00:03:45
Speaker
Yeah, but funnily enough, we've had this podcast booked in now for a few weeks, haven't we? And last night on UK Run Chat Hour, there was a question, I'm just bringing it up in front of me, from Eve Batten, and it was, you can run chat. Two minutes into my run, I get a headache. Sometimes I can run through it, but sometimes I have to stop.
00:04:07
Speaker
Now, then I picked up your book again this morning to have another flick through. And the first question on the inside cover on the book is, um, why do I get a headache after I run? Couldn't have been, couldn't have been any better that question really, but it's, um, like you say, these health questions right there getting asked over and over, over and over again, aren't they? And, um, sometimes they are.
00:04:33
Speaker
over-medicalised and to have it in just an easy format that anyone can pick up and just read about and understand is great. Yeah, and I think part of the problem, what I discovered, because I mean, I'm not practising as a GP now, but I was a GP for like 13-odd years, I think, I've lost count now, but until you're a runner and until you come across these problems, you don't really know that they exist.
00:04:58
Speaker
and as in my own sort of personal running journey I would come up against things and think well I should know the answer because I'm a doctor but I don't and when it's very running related and running specific I think sometimes it is hard to get the the answers that you need but you sometimes don't even know what the questions are in the first place until you actually experience them so I think that's that's what I've tried to do really kind of gather all those questions many of these questions have been asked to me through UK run chat as well so it's yeah being
00:05:28
Speaker
Being part of the community is what enables me, I guess, to have some insight into what people need to know and what you forget that you didn't know when you started running as well. Yeah. So the structure of the book just for anyone who hasn't yet bought it or picked it up is you literally go through each system in the body, don't you?
00:05:52
Speaker
Yeah, so look, there's nine chapters and they're sort of focused on the different systems in the body. So working your way down where you've got the head, the cardiovascular system, the lungs, et cetera, through all the different systems. There's a little bit of introduction in each system about how it works, and as I said, some of the physiology, et cetera. And then the last chapter is sort of more generalized, it's self-care. So
00:06:16
Speaker
what can you do to look after yourself and the topics that didn't really fit into each system but are still important for runners like dealing with hot weather and cold weather, getting the balance right between running and life and all those kind of things. So yeah, I hope it answers most of the questions that people have got. Yeah, well there's loads in it. I tell you what I really like about it. I'm the kind of person, I pick a book up
00:06:45
Speaker
I've got loads of books I've only read half of, or I get three quarters of the way through and I see something else, I'm like a magpie, I'm like, oh, that's all shiny and new, I'll start that one. But with this, you don't actually have to read it from front to back, do you? You could literally pick it up and choose, well, I'm going to read about this section this time, or I've got a specific question that I want an answer to, and you can have a look in the index at the back and go straight to that question.
00:07:13
Speaker
That's another bonus for readers like me.
00:07:17
Speaker
Yeah and you're not alone in that and lots and lots of people have said to me, oh it's great because I can just dip into it, I can like a reference book almost, pick it up and then I've had people that said that they got it and they looked immediately at the two or three things that they knew they wanted to find out about and then they decided to just read it from the front and work the way through so I think you know with busy people, busy lives, many people don't enjoy sitting down and reading a book cover to cover so to try and make it useful, I did that intentionally really just to keep it
00:07:46
Speaker
keep it digestible and little snappy bits that you can just pick up and read for a couple of minutes. Yeah. And on top of that, I love the little did you know tips and the try this at home stuff. So you literally can just take snaps out of it at a time. It's really good.
Writing Process and Content Selection
00:08:05
Speaker
So when did you start writing it? How long did it take to write? Because I've had a look at the
00:08:15
Speaker
at the back of the book and there is a huge amount of research isn't there in this? Yeah, I mean I think with all of these things again with my medical background I'm just really keen to make what I say evidence-based so that there is some science behind it.
00:08:30
Speaker
so that I'm not just plucking things out of the air or coming up with my own sort of theories. And if I do have something that's just my own theory or just from a story, I'll sort of say it's anecdotal or it's not related to a study, I generally point it out. So this took me just over seven months to write, which was a lot quicker than the first book because I was much more sort of focused in what I was doing. So I started it in the summer
00:08:58
Speaker
and then I finished it and handed it in in the following April. So yeah actually it was end of summer early early autumn and handed it in the following April. So yeah seven months.
00:09:10
Speaker
Okay, what's your process for writing? Did you have a fixed time each day? Was your process something you learned from writing the first book? Do you have a place that you go to write? What does that look like when you're actually doing it? Yeah, good question.
00:09:29
Speaker
I didn't have a set time every day when I would write but I would try and do something every day so that every day even if it was just sending an email to somebody who was going to give me a contribution there was something I was making some kind of forward step every day because I think if I didn't do that then it kind of sort of stagnates but I had because it's split up into the different chapters and then each chapter has the the list of problems it was quite easy to break it down into small chunks for writing it in the same way that it's easy to
00:09:57
Speaker
read small parts of it. So because I have those sort of little easy to identify sections, I could write those and then have a break and then move on to the next one. So I've been doing quite a lot of reading about how to, what's the word,
00:10:15
Speaker
I guess work harder, work smarter not harder if you like, how to get the most out of the time you're working and not being distracted and having a little ritual that puts you in your writing frame of mind and not having any tabs open and just everything on do not disturb and that helped me so much. So when I was writing I was right in the zone you know a bit when you get that bit in running when you're just everything's good and you're just totally flying. So I tried to get into that and practice
00:10:42
Speaker
makes it a lot, a lot easier as well. And I didn't have, I had kind of two places that I wrote it. It's bizarre, but most of the book was written in my teenage son's bedroom. Sounds very strange. But he was at school, obviously, then anyway, because this was, I finished it just before the lockdown started.
00:10:59
Speaker
because he's got the best desk. It's very quiet. There's I don't want to look around because I just see all the mess. So I'm just literally focused on the computer and it's got a very comfortable chair, which sounds stupid. But I just found that when I went in there, it was like my writing cave. And the bulk of it was written in there a little bit at the kitchen table and a little bit another desk I've got in the corner of my bedroom. But almost Yeah, the process of going and sitting there was like, right, okay into writing mode now, which was very helpful.
00:11:29
Speaker
Yeah, and I think we're all guilty. I mean, if I go on my computer now, my browser, there's seven tabs open, which is ridiculous. How are you meant to focus? It's like my brain. My brain always has about 50 tabs open, but I've really been trying to be more present and just have one or two tabs open at a time. Yeah, definitely. Don't funny enough, I'm sat here now. You wrote in your teenager's bedroom,
00:11:59
Speaker
My bedroom office, the office, it was my son's, and it's still decorated in his graffiti style. And I've painted the one back wall white for the Zoom meetings, so they can't see graffiti wallpaper behind them. There we go, little secret. I think everybody's the same through this whole thing, aren't they? Nobody's showing quite exactly the reality.
00:12:26
Speaker
Funny. So how did you decide the content that you wanted in each section, the questions? Because there's so many you've answered in each one. Did you literally brainstorm loads of questions? Are they ones that you've already been asked over and over again?
00:12:44
Speaker
A mixture, really. Many of them are questions that have already been asked. Then I had a little notebook and I've been thinking about the book for quite a long time. So every time something kind of cropped up, I would just write it down in the little notebook so that when I actually came to writing that chapter,
00:13:00
Speaker
I flipped to that section of the notebook and I could see a list of things because I was worried that I was going to forget things because you know you have these ideas that come into your mind and then they just disappear, don't they? So I tried to, yeah, just think of that system and what you could possibly want to know about that system and what have I been asked before, what have I seen on forums that would be useful to people, asked friends as well, running friends, what questions they would have just to try to make it very practical.
00:13:31
Speaker
Yeah. Did you learn new information as you went through this writing it? Yeah, definitely. Definitely. I sound fascinated by the body. One of the things that was really nice was that it kind of regenerated or sparked that love of
00:13:47
Speaker
biology and the human body that got me into medicine in the first place, you know, I was I was going back to learn about the basics of the kidneys and and the nephrons and how the kidneys work and I kind of knew it but actually to go back and and read it and learn about it again and learn extra bits was it was really it was fun. I loved it. It was very enjoyable and it gave me a kind of a renewed enthusiasm for how incredible our bodies are especially when we ask them to run and what we demand of them. Yes, yeah, definitely. Is there anything
00:14:17
Speaker
that you've thought, oh, I've missed that one. I could have added that one.
00:14:21
Speaker
Just today, actually, my husband said, oh, my mate's bought your book, and he wanted to read about bunions and running, and bunions aren't in there. I'm like, oh, no, they're not, are they? I could have put them in. So, yeah, bunions. There was something else the other day, somebody asked me about, why do you suddenly feel so cold when you stop running? And that was something that I had intended to put in, but one of those ones that had vanished. So I think it can't have everything in it, you know, to be readable.
00:14:48
Speaker
you cannot put everything in so it's great that there are things that are still cropping up that aren't in there because there's other ways to answer them and more things I can write about and I think yeah I couldn't I would never claim that it was 100% complete but I think I've done a pretty pretty good job of getting as broader topics in as I can. Yeah definitely. Was there one question in there that you had to
00:15:12
Speaker
really focus on or you had to learn a lot about it. Yeah, I would say probably more the men's health stuff because I'm very, very used to writing about women's health and I was really keen that this had represented men as well. So I had to do a little bit more reading and work on that than I would have done, particularly in terms of things like the prostate and running as well. So yeah, that was something I had to research a bit more heavily.
00:15:40
Speaker
But that's fine, it's good. I'd like to learn. Yeah, I think I mentioned last time we spoke that
00:15:47
Speaker
Your three of your blogs, because you've written for us, haven't you, in the past, three of your blogs are our top performing blogs every single month. And they have been for like five years now. And one of those is, well, there's blood pressure for runners, giving blood and the for runners with balls. So those three, and they still are. They still are. Yeah, that's amazing, isn't it? And it just shows that, you know, even when you think
00:16:15
Speaker
people would have read it and seen it. There are still people that are looking for that information. And there's so many more people running now as well, which is wonderful. They still need those topics that you feel like you might have covered lots of times before. So it's great to keep them going. Yes. So yeah, your first book's audio on the shelf, Sorted. That was the active women's guide to health. Yes.
00:16:39
Speaker
Run well is your second.
Future Writing Plans
00:16:40
Speaker
You alluded to this at the start of the chat. Do you have plans and ideas for any more now? Well, I don't, not immediately, not immediately. I have a few ideas about things that I might like to write. But I think it's such an involved process that you've got to really be very, very clear about what you're writing and why you're writing it.
00:17:04
Speaker
to get to the end, to get the motivation to be up writing when everyone else is asleep and to keep going into fitting it in between your other jobs. You've got to be really focused and passionate about it. So it's a bit like marathons really. I wait until I see one that kind of calls out to me and says, you've got to run me because you've got to get through all that training and those long miles in the wind and the rain.
00:17:26
Speaker
So I've got a few ideas floating around and I'm just sort of living with them for a little while and we'll see. I've got a lot of other work projects as well that are all exciting and growing and so I'm not 100% sure, but I know at some point there will be one, but I'm not 100% sure what it will be yet. Okay, watch this please. Yes, please do.
Community Spirit and Virtual Events during Lockdown
00:17:47
Speaker
So what I'll see up to at the moment then, House 261,
00:17:52
Speaker
Yeah, This Is One Fearless has been great. It's been really amazing through lockdown because although our groups haven't been able to meet up around the world, the running clubs that we have, we've still been able to kind of create community feel and have some really good projects going on, which are all growing as well. And so we've learned, we've learned a lot from that as a team. And in the UK, clubs started back last week. So that was like, yay.
00:18:18
Speaker
Really exciting to have everybody back out there. And yeah, we've got all sorts of things going on. One thing that the listeners might be interested in is we've got a virtual run called Move the World all through the month of April.
00:18:35
Speaker
And 261 Fearless, if people don't know, is sort of a global women's running network, which uses running to empower women and unite them as well as sort of improve their health and well-being. And we use a lot of education as well. And
00:18:50
Speaker
The move the world is purely to raise money to help that networks grow particularly from this project will be helping a club 261 Israel to get up and running and they're they're looking at using their running club to bring Palestinian and Israeli women together so really again you know we know how powerful running can be to create communities and
00:19:14
Speaker
to do that in such a troubled relationship, it would be fantastic because we're all runners at the end of the day, aren't we? So if anybody wants to come and join us, if you go to 261fearless.org forward slash move the world, please come and sign up and join in. You can do your run anywhere, any distance. And there's some great, there's a great medal and a virtual goodie bag, which is pretty cool and includes actually a discount for my book. So there you go.
00:19:42
Speaker
Double reasons. Brilliant.
Where to Find 'Run Well' and Connect with Juliette
00:19:47
Speaker
Okay, so the book is out now. Run well. Essential health questions and answers for runners. Where? I'm assuming on Allgood. Everywhere, yes, online. Bloomsbury have published it. It's on their website as well as Amazon and bookshops. Now they're opening up. Anywhere you get your books from, I'm sure.
00:20:08
Speaker
Brilliant. And where can everyone connect with you again, please, Juliette? The best place is just to go to my blog, which is Dr Juliette McGrattan.com and all my social media handles and things are all on there. So it'd be really great to connect with more runners.
00:20:24
Speaker
Brilliant. Thank you very much, Juliet, for coming on. It's been lovely to chat again. Thanks, Jo. As always, I'm so appreciative to UK Run Chat for giving me help with my own running as well as having this wonderful community that we can all be inspired and motivated by. So thank you for creating it and keeping it going.