Completing a marathon puts ordinary runners in the company of elite athletes—finishing a 26.2-mile run is an impressive accomplishment.
But you don’t have to be an elite athlete to join the ranks of marathoners around the world. With dedication and training, most runners can complete a marathon—and then have the satisfaction of being able to say, “A marathon” Yeah, I’ve done that.”
So don’t shy away from a marathon because it seems too hard, too long, too painful. With the right attitude and a good training regimen, it’s just 26.2 miles away.
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For many busy women, it can be a struggle just to fit in that recommended thirty-minute daily dose of physical activity. But for a growing number, an effort to get regular exercise has been replaced by an obsession with burning calories and fulfilling rigid workout quotas - to the point of skipped work, depression, and potentially fatal harms to physical health.
While a fit body needs activity, exercise bulimia – an obsessive illness with serious consequences for the body and the emotional psyche - is becoming increasingly common. Experts estimate that at least 4% of Americans struggle with excessive exercising, but the diagnosis of exercise bulimia is rare in a culture that celebrates trim physiques and a disciplined dedication to workouts. In fact, most sufferers from exercise bulimia aren’t diagnosed with any medical problem until symptoms of more common eating disorders, namely anorexia and bulimia, rear their heads. And unfortunately, they often do, as most of those who struggle with one of the three will battle the others at some point in their lives.
It can be easy for exercise bulimia to go on for years under the radar –
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“Once you’re beat mentally, you might as well not even go to the starting line.” -Todd WilliamsWhen I nervously pinned my bib number onto my new technical tee, slathered my body in Ben-Gay, and stretched my aching glutes and hamstrings, I knew that I was not sufficiently prepared for the 26.2-mile journey ahead of me.
I was too stubborn to admit defeat, but when mile 14 rolled by, I stopped. I frantically watched as the seconds ticked away and my goal time turned into a sad country song . . . the man of my dreams didn’t slip away, but the race of my dreams sure did.
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Will you recover faster from a long run by resting, or by exercising at a leisurely pace?
Most experienced athletes find that they recover faster by going easy the next day. On the day after you exercise vigorously, your muscles feel sore because they are damaged, and running fast with sore muscles injures them.
However, studies at the University of Massachusetts showed that athletes who exercise leisurely on the day after hard workouts are less likely to be injured than those who recover by taking the day off. Exercising during recovery causes muscles to grow more fibrous tissue that helps protect them from injury.
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Bone stress fractures are very common sports injuries. Any trauma to bones, such as repeated pounding when your heel strikes the ground during running, or landing on your feet after grabbing a basketball, can cause small cracks on the surface of bones called stress fractures. In healthy athletes, they can take from 3 to 12 weeks to heal, forcing an athlete to lose valuable training time.
A study from Tulane University shows that intravenous pamidronate can heal these fractures quickly and keep you playing (Clinical Journal of Sports Medicine, March 2005). Bones change constantly. Calcium is carried from bones by cells called osteoclasts and carried into bones by cells called osteoblasts. Bisphosphonates such as pamidronate prevent osteoclasts from carrying calcium from bones. The athletes received five weekly intravenous infusions of pamidronate and were able to continue training.
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Why nap? Because a nap can: increase alertness, boost creativity, reduce stress and improve perception, stamina, motor skills & accuracy.
It also enhances your sex life, helps you make better decisions, keeps you looking younger, aids in weight loss, reduces the risk of heart attack, elevates your mood, and strengthens memory. It is nontoxic, has no dangerous side effects and is absolutely free.
The right nap at the right time can give you all of this and more!
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Jim Fortner is a weekly, guest contributor to TFS. Make sure to also check out his own personal running and advice site: “Jim2’s Running Page”.
It’s perfectly natural for a runner to have a lot of uncertainty while training for his or her first marathon. There are so many things to question yourself about …
Am I running enough miles? Am I getting enough rest? Should my longest run be 18 or 28 miles….or somewhere in-between? How many 20 mile runs should I do? Should I structure walking breaks into my long runs? Should I do speedwork? If so, what kind and how much? Should I use sports gels and/or powerbars during my long runs? And on….and on!
Different marathon training plans or “experts” will give you conflicting answers. All are right and all are wrong for your specific needs!
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One of the most common nuisances for athletes, and especially runners, is having to deal with shin splints. Anyone who has experienced pain in the front part of their lower leg, possibly some swelling and/or other shin-area irritation has likely had the unfortunate (albeit very common) experience of shin splints. They can be incredibly irritating, painful and can even impede on your performance and/or training regimen.
The scientific term for shin splints is traction periostitis and they occur when the legs are subjected to constant pounding (often from running on hard surfaces such as asphalt or concrete sidewalks). Shin splints are even more common for new runners or runners who have recently increased their weekly mileage, running surface or training intensity because their legs are just not used to the stress. That’s why it’s important to remember to take such changes slowly. This will help to prevent shin splints and a myriad of other common running injuries. Read the rest of this entry »
Your muscles should feel sore on some days after you exercise.
If you go out and jog the same two miles at the same pace, day after day, you will never become faster, stronger or have greater endurance. If you stop lifting weights when your muscles start to burn, you won’t feel sore on the next day and you will not become stronger.
All improvement in any muscle function comes from stressing and recovering. On one day, you go out and exercise hard enough to make your muscles burn during exercise. The burning is a sign that you are damaging your muscles. On the next day, your muscles feel sore because they are damaged and need time to recover. Scientist call this DOMS, delayed onset muscle soreness.
It takes at least eight hours to feel this type of soreness. You finish a workout and feel great; then you get up the next morning and your exercised muscles feel sore. We used to think that next-day muscle soreness is caused by a buildup of lactic acid in muscles, but now we know that lactic acid has nothing to do it. Read the rest of this entry »
Jim Fortner is a weekly, guest contributor to TFS. Make sure to also check out his own personal running and advice site: “Jim2’s Running Page”.
A runner can improve for up to 10 years, regardless of the age at which s/he starts. This assumes that a runner trains consistently. If s/he is inconsistent (start/stop or with no plan) so s/he is always restarting, the total period of improvement might be extended, but the eventual level reached might be lower.
I think that progress is best achieved through a long term program that includes a balance of speedwork, endurance, strength, and rest…that is, long runs and high mileage with speed training, hill training, weight training and scheduled rest periods. And it should be based on a plan…and the longer term the plan, the better.
I think you should set out on a multi year plan. I suggest the type of plan I like to follow…alternate marathon and 10k seasons. I prefer spring 10k and fall marathon programs, but the reverse works just as well. You can even fit three programs into a year with shorter “racing” phases following the training cycles.
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