Negative effect of long endurance races...
- Thread starter JMAC
- Start date
I have never heard of any long term negative effects of endurance riding or running. I ran the Naha Marathon here in Okinawa in December...and I can tell you that there are some definate negative short term side effects such as extreme muscle fatigue/stress/pain, upset stomach/inability to eat solid foods for a day or so, and it has taken me almost 3 full months to feel 100% again when I run. The only long term negative effects I can think of right now would be any serious injury that might occur during the ride/run that could last for years and hurt you later in life. But other than that (shortening of lifespan?), I don't think so.
Something about releasing free radicals while at the same time wearing down your immune system thereby exposing yourself to things like cancer etc. Basically you are stressing your body out big time...
I'd assume it's better than exercise for most people but if you had some sort of undiagnosed heart problem or something I suppose it could be worse in the sense that it could kill you.
I think exercise is like most things, it should be done in relative moderation. The key to effective training is not overtraining (or undertraining obviously) in other words striking a balance...
I think exercise is like most things, it should be done in relative moderation. The key to effective training is not overtraining (or undertraining obviously) in other words striking a balance...
Well no one in my familly has ever had any heart conditions so I should be ok....moderation is not my type of thing, I plan on doing a few half Ironmen this year along with a couple marathons. Those aren;t bad but I my goal is to do full ironman, and I;m pretty sure those aren;t great for you. Oh well *sigh*punkassean said:
How hard that is on your body depends on how high your base fitness level is. I'd imagine that a person who trains well (sounds like you do) can do a 1/2 ironman w/o seriously dipping into their reserves. Just be as prepared as possible and you'll be fine 
A full ironamn is another story though...
A full ironamn is another story though...
Any time you get out of your La-Z-Boy or stop eating potato chips and drinking beer takes five years off your life.
Ok so it's basically the stress, as long as you're used to training at those distances and are prepared. It shouldn;t have any neg effects in the long run? But still no matter how well trained you are, it';s still stress....right?punkassean said:How hard that is on your body depends on how high your base fitness level is. I'd imagine that a person who trains well (sounds like you do) can do a 1/2 ironman w/o seriously dipping into their reserves. Just be as prepared as possible and you'll be fine
Father Ignacy used to say that if you touched yourself improperly God would take 5 minutes off your life and make you wait in special line to get into heaven. Is that one of those rules?johnbryanpeters said:
You might see if you can find stuff on the guy who founded powerbar.
Well, I am going to post an article from yesterday's nytimes about a 73 year old marathoner who still does sub 3 hour runs.
I suppose with guys like Bill Fixx, who dropped dead from an undiagnosed heart problem during a run, you could be asking for problems. But I gotta believe exercise, particularly non impact like cycling, is good for you in your older age.
I suppose with guys like Bill Fixx, who dropped dead from an undiagnosed heart problem during a run, you could be asking for problems. But I gotta believe exercise, particularly non impact like cycling, is good for you in your older age.
At 73, Marathoner Runs as if He's Stopped the Clock
By MARC BLOOM
Ed Whitlock, a 73-year-old Canadian marathoner who may be the world's best athlete for his age, rotates his running shoes like the tires of a car. "I have 10 pairs that I alternate," he said. "That way they don't wear out."
Neither does Whitlock, who lives in Milton, Ontario, a Toronto suburb. He trains up to three hours a day, about 23 miles, close to the marathon distance of 26 miles 385 yards, and more than 100 miles a week.
Most Olympic marathoners do less. But Whitlock has been heralded like an Olympic champion since running the Toronto Waterfront Marathon last September in 2 hours 54 minutes 49 seconds.
He was 26th among 1,690 finishers and shattered his own world record for a runner 70 or older by more than four minutes. The previous year, in the same race, Whitlock ran 2:59:10, becoming the first person 70 or older to break three hours in a marathon.
"Ed is pushing the limits, like Roger Bannister breaking the four-minute mile," said Bill Rodgers, 57, who won the Boston and the New York City marathons four times each. "I think he should slow down and have some respect for us youngsters."
Although Whitlock shuns publicity, his renown has spread, and, for the first time, an effective match race between 70-plus runners is planned at a major marathon. On April 10 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Whitlock will race against Joop Ruter, a 71-year-old Dutchman who ran 3:02:49 last year at Rotterdam.
Their achievements come against a backdrop of growing sports participation among older people. Among the United States' 400,000 marathon finishers in 2003, about 500 were 70 or older, compared with about 100 a decade ago, said Ryan Lamppa of the Road Running Information Center in Santa Barbara, Calif.
For many of the active elderly, 70 may be the new 50. A recent study sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, the most comprehensive look at the healthy aging of the human heart, says that older people can achieve more health and fitness gains from exercise than previously thought.
The study also sheds light on Whitlock's ability to run a pace of 6:40 a mile for 26.2 miles at 73.
Dr. Benjamin D. Levine, a cardiologist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, found that a group of people with an average age of 70 who had started exercising in midlife - as Whitlock did at age 41 - and kept it up had "hearts indistinguishable from healthy 30-year-olds."
Instead of the heart shrinking and stiffening with age, as it does in sedentary people, and impairing performance, Levine said, those trained 70-year-olds had larger, more elastic heart muscles. The findings were reported in the journal Circulation last September.
Exercise, Levine said, would enable someone like Whitlock, who had trained for years, to pump more blood, to feed the working muscles with oxygen levels associated with younger athletes.
A colleague of Levine's at Southwestern, Peter Snell, an exercise physiologist, said Whitlock's marathon pace required a level of oxygen consumption that is "what you'd expect for someone around 40 who's a very good runner."
Whitlock does not consider himself unique, however.
"People underestimate what old people can accomplish," he said in a telephone interview. "Old people are the worst in that respect. They let themselves be inhibited by age."
Unlike most younger stars, Whitlock has no team, coach, training partners, massage therapist, nutritionist, sports psychologist, shoe contract or high-altitude training camp. He does no stretching exercises or weight training. He has no special diet.
Whitlock, who is 5 feet 7 and 112 pounds, does all of his training in a cemetery. He covers a third-of-a-mile loop on a paved path. He does not count laps, stopping when, for example, his watch indicates three hours. He said he would not run on roads because drivers aim at him.
Whitlock's 2:54:49 would have placed him 306th in the 2004 New York City Marathon, or among the top 1 percent of the 33,000 finishers. At New York, only 480 runners broke three hours, the gold standard of marathon excellence and a time few runners beyond middle age approach. Last year, the second-fastest 70-or-older marathoner in North America ran 3:24:28.
Yet Whitlock may run faster. The Toronto marathon race director, Alan Brookes, said Whitlock crossed the finish line in his 2:54 effort "looking fresh as a daisy."
A native of London, Whitlock was an excellent school and university runner but said he lacked coaching and motivation. He stopped running in 1952 when he moved to Canada to pursue an engineering career. While working all over Canada, and with a wife and two sons, he did not run for 20 years, resuming in 1972 after connecting with a running club.
The long break may account for his current success, say experts who have observed injuries that can stem from lifelong running intensity.
"The layoff probably saved Whitlock a lot of arthritic effects that impair performance," said David Costill of Ball State University, an exercise physiologist who has done an ongoing study that has tracked top runners for decades. "In the runners we've studied, some for 40 years, cardiac output and muscle mass decline. Those losses represent the aging process."
Costill's subjects are premier athletes like Ken Sparks, 60, who had trained intensely since college and once held masters records, running a 2:33 marathon at age 53. But he has not competed in seven years.
"I had surgery on both knees," said Sparks, an exercise physiologist at Cleveland State University. "The cartilage was worn out from constant running and had to be removed."
Whitlock attributes his success to good genes. He ran his first two marathons in the 1970's with his son, then a teenager, and recorded his best time, 2:31:23, in 1979, when he still considered the marathon "a dalliance." Whitlock focused on shorter distances, winning five world masters track titles at 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000 meters, from 1979 to 2001.
By doing middle distances, Whitlock has nurtured his speed, which complements his long training runs. Last year, he ran 15 races at 5, 10 and 15 kilometers in the six months leading up to Toronto.
This winter, using the same approach for Rotterdam, Whitlock has been doing indoor track races while logging more than 100 miles a week.
He faces a formidable challenge against Ruter, who took up running at 51 and has run 11 marathons.
"I've never run head to head against anyone in a marathon," said Whitlock, who has run about 30 of the events.
Rotterdam, known for its fast course, has produced a number of world records. Race organizers hope the excitement will spur Whitlock or Ruter to another record, and they are offering prize money in the 70-plus category.
Unlike Whitlock, Ruter has a team, runs on park trails and gets massages. In an e-mail interview through a translator, Ruter said that after his 3:02:49 last year, he celebrated by drinking and dancing at a pub.
"I will run against Whitlock as though I am a youngster," Ruter said. "I will give him the race of his life."
By MARC BLOOM
Ed Whitlock, a 73-year-old Canadian marathoner who may be the world's best athlete for his age, rotates his running shoes like the tires of a car. "I have 10 pairs that I alternate," he said. "That way they don't wear out."
Neither does Whitlock, who lives in Milton, Ontario, a Toronto suburb. He trains up to three hours a day, about 23 miles, close to the marathon distance of 26 miles 385 yards, and more than 100 miles a week.
Most Olympic marathoners do less. But Whitlock has been heralded like an Olympic champion since running the Toronto Waterfront Marathon last September in 2 hours 54 minutes 49 seconds.
He was 26th among 1,690 finishers and shattered his own world record for a runner 70 or older by more than four minutes. The previous year, in the same race, Whitlock ran 2:59:10, becoming the first person 70 or older to break three hours in a marathon.
"Ed is pushing the limits, like Roger Bannister breaking the four-minute mile," said Bill Rodgers, 57, who won the Boston and the New York City marathons four times each. "I think he should slow down and have some respect for us youngsters."
Although Whitlock shuns publicity, his renown has spread, and, for the first time, an effective match race between 70-plus runners is planned at a major marathon. On April 10 in Rotterdam, the Netherlands, Whitlock will race against Joop Ruter, a 71-year-old Dutchman who ran 3:02:49 last year at Rotterdam.
Their achievements come against a backdrop of growing sports participation among older people. Among the United States' 400,000 marathon finishers in 2003, about 500 were 70 or older, compared with about 100 a decade ago, said Ryan Lamppa of the Road Running Information Center in Santa Barbara, Calif.
For many of the active elderly, 70 may be the new 50. A recent study sponsored by the National Institutes of Health, the most comprehensive look at the healthy aging of the human heart, says that older people can achieve more health and fitness gains from exercise than previously thought.
The study also sheds light on Whitlock's ability to run a pace of 6:40 a mile for 26.2 miles at 73.
Dr. Benjamin D. Levine, a cardiologist at the University of Texas Southwestern Medical Center and Presbyterian Hospital in Dallas, found that a group of people with an average age of 70 who had started exercising in midlife - as Whitlock did at age 41 - and kept it up had "hearts indistinguishable from healthy 30-year-olds."
Instead of the heart shrinking and stiffening with age, as it does in sedentary people, and impairing performance, Levine said, those trained 70-year-olds had larger, more elastic heart muscles. The findings were reported in the journal Circulation last September.
Exercise, Levine said, would enable someone like Whitlock, who had trained for years, to pump more blood, to feed the working muscles with oxygen levels associated with younger athletes.
A colleague of Levine's at Southwestern, Peter Snell, an exercise physiologist, said Whitlock's marathon pace required a level of oxygen consumption that is "what you'd expect for someone around 40 who's a very good runner."
Whitlock does not consider himself unique, however.
"People underestimate what old people can accomplish," he said in a telephone interview. "Old people are the worst in that respect. They let themselves be inhibited by age."
Unlike most younger stars, Whitlock has no team, coach, training partners, massage therapist, nutritionist, sports psychologist, shoe contract or high-altitude training camp. He does no stretching exercises or weight training. He has no special diet.
Whitlock, who is 5 feet 7 and 112 pounds, does all of his training in a cemetery. He covers a third-of-a-mile loop on a paved path. He does not count laps, stopping when, for example, his watch indicates three hours. He said he would not run on roads because drivers aim at him.
Whitlock's 2:54:49 would have placed him 306th in the 2004 New York City Marathon, or among the top 1 percent of the 33,000 finishers. At New York, only 480 runners broke three hours, the gold standard of marathon excellence and a time few runners beyond middle age approach. Last year, the second-fastest 70-or-older marathoner in North America ran 3:24:28.
Yet Whitlock may run faster. The Toronto marathon race director, Alan Brookes, said Whitlock crossed the finish line in his 2:54 effort "looking fresh as a daisy."
A native of London, Whitlock was an excellent school and university runner but said he lacked coaching and motivation. He stopped running in 1952 when he moved to Canada to pursue an engineering career. While working all over Canada, and with a wife and two sons, he did not run for 20 years, resuming in 1972 after connecting with a running club.
The long break may account for his current success, say experts who have observed injuries that can stem from lifelong running intensity.
"The layoff probably saved Whitlock a lot of arthritic effects that impair performance," said David Costill of Ball State University, an exercise physiologist who has done an ongoing study that has tracked top runners for decades. "In the runners we've studied, some for 40 years, cardiac output and muscle mass decline. Those losses represent the aging process."
Costill's subjects are premier athletes like Ken Sparks, 60, who had trained intensely since college and once held masters records, running a 2:33 marathon at age 53. But he has not competed in seven years.
"I had surgery on both knees," said Sparks, an exercise physiologist at Cleveland State University. "The cartilage was worn out from constant running and had to be removed."
Whitlock attributes his success to good genes. He ran his first two marathons in the 1970's with his son, then a teenager, and recorded his best time, 2:31:23, in 1979, when he still considered the marathon "a dalliance." Whitlock focused on shorter distances, winning five world masters track titles at 1,500, 5,000 and 10,000 meters, from 1979 to 2001.
By doing middle distances, Whitlock has nurtured his speed, which complements his long training runs. Last year, he ran 15 races at 5, 10 and 15 kilometers in the six months leading up to Toronto.
This winter, using the same approach for Rotterdam, Whitlock has been doing indoor track races while logging more than 100 miles a week.
He faces a formidable challenge against Ruter, who took up running at 51 and has run 11 marathons.
"I've never run head to head against anyone in a marathon," said Whitlock, who has run about 30 of the events.
Rotterdam, known for its fast course, has produced a number of world records. Race organizers hope the excitement will spur Whitlock or Ruter to another record, and they are offering prize money in the 70-plus category.
Unlike Whitlock, Ruter has a team, runs on park trails and gets massages. In an e-mail interview through a translator, Ruter said that after his 3:02:49 last year, he celebrated by drinking and dancing at a pub.
"I will run against Whitlock as though I am a youngster," Ruter said. "I will give him the race of his life."
Thanks for that, thats crazy I want to be just like that guy. My grandfather, 85 still runs a bit. He was still skiing and all kinds of crazy stuff for an old guy till a couple years ago when he got some messed up problem in his ear which makes him dizzy. He's actaully had some problems cause his resting hr rate is still like 30bpm and thats part of his dizzy problems. 
Here's some stuff.
http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0679.htm (Cites good references.)
http://www.biblelife.org/exercise.htm (Highly questionable, but some of the links might be useful.)
http://www.pponline.co.uk/encyc/0679.htm (Cites good references.)
http://www.biblelife.org/exercise.htm (Highly questionable, but some of the links might be useful.)
jdcamb said:
I'm so screwed.I read that exercise strengthens the heart and helps prevent a runaway heart rate that can cause an attack.JMAC said:I'm just going to pertend he was hit by a car. I refuse to believe he was killed by a heart attack.....
The 70% fat thing is true. The catch is that fat must come from the brains of children and baby dolphins.JMAC said:
jdcamb said:
Time to call the funeral director. Oh well, I've had a good run.
here, this should help clarify things -- http://www.deathclock.com/
Wow, mine is Dec 13, 2019. DOB is Apr 10, 1970. DAMN! Dying young!LordOpie said:
Edit: the difference between pessimistic and normal is damn near 25 years, now it's Jan. 20, 2044! And optimistic bump'd it to Mar 2, 2056 w/ a BMI of <25 and non-smoking!
Here's what you should worry about if you plan on doing long races -- http://www.rice.edu/~jenky/sports/salt.html
I havent heard anything about the LTE's of endurance racing, and would be kind of suspect of anything published negative about it (in an extreme disease context.)
Common sense (or maybe not) tells us that we might have physical problems like joint pains and arthritis due to injurys but anything cancer related Id be skeptical.
I'd email Chris Etough or Tinker Jarez and ask their opinions. Or maybe somebody like Paula Newbie Frasier. They might have some insight.
Common sense (or maybe not) tells us that we might have physical problems like joint pains and arthritis due to injurys but anything cancer related Id be skeptical.
I'd email Chris Etough or Tinker Jarez and ask their opinions. Or maybe somebody like Paula Newbie Frasier. They might have some insight.
This guy does not seem too worried about it: http://www.trifuel.com/triathlon/interviews/an-interview-with-dean-karnazes-ultramarathon-man-000617.php & http://www.runnersworld.com/article/0,5033,s6-89-0-0-7362,00.html
Yeah there's an ironman guy named Chris Leigh(sp) I think. He's famous for colapsing just before the finish line in Hawaii. He had extreme case of that, he went into a coma and they found that half of his stomach was dead and they had to remove it. Crazy guy to have determination like that, it's painfull when your stomach stops working for lack of sodium but to push through it till it dies is just stupid.Wumpus said:
Lol thats a good idea and I might do it just for fun. However, I think they'de all have an extremly biased view on this. Of course they're going to say oh yeah 24 hour races are the best thing for your health ever, they wouldn;t say oh no I know I'm going to die very soon from a heart attack......but who knows.The Toninator said:
I've read that the average veteran of 10 or more Tours de France dies at an average age of 57. Anecdotal, but still- if you train 5 hours a day for 20 years your body WILL wear out. It's like a car engine, keep it redlined and you'll reduce the milage it will get. Not to say racing or riding is unhealthy, it's amazing and certainly better than the alternative. But there is some truth to people saying that a lifetime of racing at the pro level is extremely hard on the body and has some negative effects.
Yes.jdcamb said:
By the way, the special line is staffed by priests who have a deep affection for young fellows...