A famous Australian doctor, Mr John Tickell, wrote that one of his main goals in life was to never run a marathon. I echo these sentiments. However I note that there is many people who do enjoy and actively pursue these activities.
Due to my passion and active study in the areas of physical training I am often asked questions on exercise and diet. Although I believe I know some elements I also believe in recognising weaknesses and gaps in my knowledge.
Recently a friend of mine asked me about marathon training and in particular half marathon training. This represents a major defecit in my knowledge and it appears to me that any distance over 5km training I know very little about.
I remember when I was first involving myself in this field how eye opening Zatsiorsky’s ‘Science and Practice of Strength Training’ was and was wondering if there were any such seminal texts in relation to long distance and cardiovascular training.
Thanks for your time, any reference materials will help.
You probably won’t get much information here, seeing as marathon running is not a popular subject with the Brethren. First, the negativities of high endurance training.
The most common unfavorable effect of high endurance training is bone loss. Some say that high impact aerobic exercise can help cause bone growth, but that growth is nothing compared to weight lifting.
Better yet, runners are at a risk for osteoporis and fractures if they do not do any strength training due to weakened bones. Another negative is that although you will burn calories during the aerobic exercise-aerobic exercise will not increase your resting metabolic rate.
The good things about high endurance training is an increase in your VO2 max, better overall cardiovascular health (which can bring you all kinds of benefits), and well, endurance. That is if endurance is your cup of tea, of course.