Triathlon? Marathon anyone?

[BJJ PitBull]

Hey guys, Ive been toying around with the idea of maybe participating in a marathon, early next year and wanted to see if anyone around here has or dose compete in these things?

A friend threw out the idea of training for and eventually doing a triathlon in maybe a year, and I thought I would first train and participate in a half marathon (Feb 09) to see how my body holds up, then a marathon (Apr 09), and see if I want to keep going and do a tri.

You think from now till Feb (4 months) would be enough time to work from scratch and be able to run a half marathon? The longest Ive ever ran was 6 mile in boot camp 10 years ago. I was about 135lbs. Now Im about 175lbs maybe 11-12%bf.

I know this is a BB forum so not sure if I'll get any response.

[FitnessBrat]

SonofBone, where are you? :)

[gdbear65]

all I have to say is, the first guy to run a marathon died at the end of it. I think it's folly to put your body through such rigors - I wouldn't be surprised to find out that it shortens your life span, it is not a very healthy activity.

Dr Tom Crisp describes what happens to the average runner's body during a marathon - and why a few unlucky people never make it to the finish line

0-30 mins (3.25 miles) Body heat rises
Even before the race has started, a runner will have a raised heart rate due to adrenaline and the excitement. This is perfectly normal and helps to get the body prepared for the challenge.
An average male runner, aged about 40, should have a resting pulse rate of close to 80 beats per minute. Women tend to have slightly faster resting rates.
In the first half-hour of the race, the heart rate of both men and women should climb to about 140 beats per minute. A healthy person who has done plenty of training should find this no problem.
Body temperature, which starts at around 37C, will also climb to around 40C. The hotter the weather, the hotter the runner will be. The body increases the output of sweat to try to cool the body.
Temperatures in the North East last Sunday reached 68F (20C), four degrees higher than the average, which meant runners were at greater risk of over-heating.

30mins to 1 hr (6.5 miles) Mild dehydration
Now, the runner should be in his stride and the going should be relatively easy. The heart rate will be at a steady 140 beats per minute. The body will be relying on carbohydrate fuel, in the form of glycogen manufactured by the liver.
Mild dehydration could become a problem, particularly if someone has failed to drink plenty before a race. Drinking alcohol the night before, or even too much coffee on the morning of the race, can make dehydration more likely.
1 to 2 hrs (13 miles) Burning fat
The body now starts to burn fat to power the muscles. The efficiency of this depends on the fitness of the runner. Stores of glycogen are running low.
The heart rate may have crept up and the body temperature could be hovering at 41C, which is as high as you can safely go before the risk of heat stroke, which can be fatal.
A fit runner should only be running at around 70 per cent maximum effort and keeping some in reserve.
A runner must make sure he gets regular drinks to stop himself becoming dangerously dehydrated. In some cases, he may suffer stomach cramps due to the fact that oxygen-rich blood has been diverted away from the digestive system to the muscles.
Some runners also suffer from diarrhoea, caused by the interruption of the normal bowel motion.
The bladder should not need to be emptied because the kidneys slow down urine production during strenuous exercise due to the fact the blood is diverted away from the kidneys.
2 to 3 hrs (19.5 miles) Lactic acid build-up
This is the point when many runners realise they can go no further. The body's glycogen stores are now exhausted and the muscles must rely on the breakdown of fat.
People who have not trained properly can start to go into anaerobic respiration, when there is too little oxygen reaching the muscles.
If you are out of shape, your body is not very efficient at taking in oxygen, and you hit your anaerobic threshold while exercising at very low levels of intensity.
One of the by-products of anaerobic respiration is lactic acid, which causes pain and muscular cramps. Lactic acid also makes it more difficult for the body to break down fat, so a runner slows right down.
At the end of this period, many runners hit the so-called Wall.
This is a psychological and physiological barrier when you feel that you cannot go another step.
Glycogen levels have bottomed out so blood sugar levels are very low. Blood sugar is needed as fuel for the brain, so you can feel faint and woozy. Some competitors are mentally exhausted, or even just bored.
Lactic acid levels may be high and the levels of important salts in the body, known as electrolytes, which include sodium and potassium chloride, may be very low.
The joints, particularly the knee caps, will be sore because they are under an enormous amount of stress as the legs pound the hard road surface.
3 to 4 hrs (25 miles) Exhaustion point
The runner's body is now reaching exhaustion point and his pace has usually slowed right down.
This is the point where people at risk may suffer from heart attacks, because the heart is under maximum stress. For an unfit runner in a half-marathon such as the Great North Run, that point will come much earlier.
Dehydration is also more likely, which thickens the blood and slows down the circulatory system. This means that the heart is working even harder to push the sluggish blood around the body.
There are two possible types of heart attack victim. Younger runners may collapse for no apparent reason if they have an undiagnosed genetic condition called cardiomyopathy, when the heart muscle is abnormal.
Older runners, in their 40s and 50s, are more at risk of collapse due to pre-existing coronary heart disease, when arteries in the body become narrowed by fatty deposits made of cholesterol.
4+ hours (the last mile) Dangerous heart rate
Even exhausted runners will often push themselves to the limit at the last to try to make a target or beat the runner ahead.
The heart rate can soar to near the maximum of 180 beats a minute and the blood pressure goes through the roof. The core body temperature can go dangerously high. The heart can suddenly fail within sight of the finish line.
After the race is over. Beware hypothermia.
When a runner stops after completing a marathon, the blood pressure plummets and can even go too low. This can lead to fainting and giddiness. It is important to keep walking around so the blood pressure has a chance to go back to normal more slowly.
The heart rate should go back to normal fairly quickly, as will the body's core temperature.
In cold weather, a runner should make sure they quickly put on something warm, or they could suffer from hypothermia, when the body cools down too much.
A fit runner will have a normal resting heart rate just 10-16 minutes after the race is over. Muscles and joints will be very sore for several days

Cardiovascular Risks of Marathon Running: Is it Time to Reassess?
BELMONT--October 17, 2001, Harvard Medical School affiliate McLean Hospital-- Marathon running may trigger a cascade of potentially heart-damaging events, as reported by McLean Hospital researchers in back-to-back papers in the October 17 American Journal of Cardiology. Arthur Siegel, MD, director of Internal Medicine at McLean, and his collaborators analyzed the blood of marathoners less than 24 hours after finishing a race and found abnormally high levels of inflammatory and clotting factors of the kind that are known to set the stage for heart attack.

"My concern is for people who exercise thinking 'more is better,' and that marathon running will provide ultimate protection against heart disease," said Siegel. "In fact, it can set off a cascade of events that may transiently increase the risk for acute cardiac events."

Does that mean you should hang up your running shoes?

"No, not at all. But it does mean we need to understand more about marathon training and how the human body reacts to stress," said Charles Schulman, MD, president of the American Running Association. "I'm concerned that running a marathon has come to be viewed as a modern rite of passage. Dr. Siegel's research may lead us to conclude that running a marathon is not a panacea. In fact, coupled with poor or improper training, it could lead to consequences much more serious than just the usual running injury."

Few studies have defined the cardiovascular risks imposed by a 26-mile run on a person with a presumably healthy heart. However, it is known that there are diminishing returns from the benefits of exercise as intensity and duration are increased. What's more, other studies indicate that overtraining leads to decreases in immune function and increases your risk of disease.

Also troubling, Siegel and his colleagues found that early stage markers used to detect heart attack in the emergency room (creatine kinase-MB, considered the gold standard) produced positive results on the runners, none of whom displayed any cardiac symptoms, suggesting that the test is misleading for this group. Runners and their doctors need to be aware of this discrepancy.

"On the basis of early stage markers, runners can be overdiagnosed with heart attack," Siegel said. He believes the high levels of creatine kinase-MB-and hence the false-positive result-are released by injured skeletal muscle, rather than heart muscle in the runners. In contrast, cardiac troponins, as late-stage markers for heart attack, remained normal the day after the race.

To explore the cardiac risk of long-distance running, Siegel followed a group of 80 physicians who are members of the American Medical Athletic Association. The subjects, entrants in the 100th to 105th Boston Marathons, were on average 47 years old, had no reported history of smoking or coronary disease, and had run several prior marathons. At each of the five races, researchers drew blood three times-the day before the race, within a few hours of finishing and the morning after the marathon.

Normally, blood maintains a balance of blood thickening factors-inflammatory and clotting factors-and blood thinning, or fibrinolytic, activity. Exercise is known to raise the levels of both types of factors. Siegel found that while the balance between thinners and thickeners was maintained in the blood of the marathoners before and just after the race, it was disrupted the morning after: fibrinolytic activity returned to normal, but clotting and inflammatory factors were elevated.

Despite the high levels, none of the subjects in the study collapsed or experience an acute cardiac event during or after their races. Siegel believes that in addition to an increase in inflammatory and clotting factors, a second event-such as a disrupted atherosclerotic plaque or a cardiac arrhythmia-is needed to trigger a heart attack.

"The rise in inflammatory and clotting factors loads and cocks the gun, but another complication needs to occur to pull the trigger during a marathon," he said.

"Sudden death during strenuous exercise is uncommon," added Schulman. "Most of those who die during exercise had pre-existing conditions that were augmented by the strenuous exercise."

"The benefits of an active lifestyle are tremendous," said Susan Kalish, executive director of the American Medical Athletic Association. "But Dr. Siegel's work shows that marathoning may have its risks. If your goal is to improve your health, go for a run...but perhaps don't train for a marathon."

Investigators from the Massachusetts General Hospital (MGH) and Brigham and Women's Hospital in Boston collaborated on this research.

The American Medical Athletic Association is an association of running doctors and sports medicine professionals dedicated to promoting public health through physical fitness

[BJJ PitBull]

wow! very interesting read, thanks! Gonna start with a half marathon in a few months and then re-evaluate my goals etc. Maybe marathon, maybe go on to triathlon. Thanks for the info. Not planning on it being a new hobby, just trying to see if i have the mental discipline to complete.

[caged]

all I have to say is, the first guy to run a marathon died at the end of it.

so he ran a marathon by him self?:breakit:

[Bouncer]

Hey guys, Ive been toying around with the idea of maybe participating in a marathon, early next year and wanted to see if anyone around here has or dose compete in these things?

A friend threw out the idea of training for and eventually doing a triathlon in maybe a year, and I thought I would first train and participate in a half marathon (Feb 09) to see how my body holds up, then a marathon (Apr 09), and see if I want to keep going and do a tri.

You think from now till Feb (4 months) would be enough time to work from scratch and be able to run a half marathon? The longest Ive ever ran was 6 mile in boot camp 10 years ago. I was about 135lbs. Now Im about 175lbs maybe 11-12%bf.

I know this is a BB forum so not sure if I'll get any response.

i dont know much about them but definitely keep us updated if you decide to do it.

[Bouncer]

all I have to say is, the first guy to run a marathon died at the end of it. I think it's folly to put your body through such rigors - I wouldn't be surprised to find out that it shortens your life span, it is not a very healthy activity.

you and your studies. lol

[FitnessBrat]

you and your studies. lol

And one CAN read TOO much lol

[BJJ PitBull]

Both articles were informative however both studies were based on 40-50 year olds. The 1st article even throws in factors such as drinking alcohol the night before, caffeine the morning of, and all around not consuming enough water. Are there any studies done on males in their 20's who train properly and take necessary precautions on race day?

[FitnessBrat]

factors such as drinking alcohol the night before, caffeine the morning of, and all around not consuming enough water.

And all of those lead to dehydration, which is a MAJOR factor and can cause so many problems.

[wnabeabeast]

all I have to say is, the first guy to run a marathon died at the end of it.

Well sucks to be him.

Bro there are millions of people who run marathons every year and some run a few of them a year every year if that was the case there would be hundreds of thousands dieing every year during or after the marathon. what explains that?

[gdbear65]

yeah I know there are lots of people who have run marathons, I just think it's a pointless endeavor, but hey, if it makes you happy....

[BJJ PitBull]

And all of those lead to dehydration, which is a MAJOR factor and can cause so many problems.

yes, but who is really going to train for a marathon and then get drunk the night before, and then drink a few red bulls prior. Its not realistic to assume that people would dehydrate themselves with alcohol/caffeine the day before a race. Those factors were included in article number 1. Number 2 was a good read also however the study was done on men 47 years old average. , and im wondering if my 29 year old blood would yield different results.

[Shibby]

yeah I know there are lots of people who have run marathons, I just think it's a pointless endeavor, but hey, if it makes you happy....

As many would say about heavy lifting.

[gdbear65]

As many would say about heavy lifting.

I suppose but lifting actually improves your overall health and you see the results every time you look in the mirror, so it's great for all us narciscists :D