My sister has become quite an upcoming athletic superstar. She turns to me for advice quite often lately (poor girl). But anyway she enjoys running. I don’t mean a couple miles but MARATHONS! She asked her doctor if it would be okay if she did 2 next year. He said no. Now, I know this is probably an OB/GYN that spent about 2 weeks on this subject in med school so I want to verify this with you all. Can she train this hard year round? Should she up her carb intake? I know the answere is probably yes to the later, but she is also interested in cutting up some more. I lack suffient knowledge in this arena (marathon training) and I want to give her good advice. Thanks.
If she’s good with her nutrition and recovery, I don’t see a problem. i treat pretty healthy triathletes that do 2-3 full length ironman races a year. If she has her ducks in a row(good training, recovery, nutrition; she’ll be fine. Remember an ironman race is a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike, followed by a marathon. Not my bag, but a few thousand people a year do it. Sounds like the doc is typical; well intentioned but misinformed.
Marathon training can play havoc with a woman’s menstrual cycle. If she is trying to get pregant, marathon training is not the exercise regime to be on. I have also heard that long term marathon training may lead to infertility in later years even when the training is stopped. That said, unless your sister wants to have children in the near term, I don’t think 2 marathons a year would hurt that much but that is a question for a doctor.
You didnt say how old your sister is but just a word of caution. Many young women who do excessive endurance exercise with reduced calorie diets are at risk for a condition known as the female athletic triad. It basically amounts to a permanent and premature osteoporosis along with irregular menstrual cycle and has cut a lot of athletic careers short. If your sister does decide to pursue this make sure she pays special attention to her nutrition and recovery. Running a marathon in itself is very catabolic and unhealthy. If she’s in it for health reasons she could probably find lesser goals might suit her needs better. If she’s in it for competition then we all know competitive sports aren’t always healthy.
Big D, you might wanna check out Optimum sports nutrition by Dr Michael Colgan, i know it’s getting a bit old now but it is still a very useful reference tool.
i’m currently doing research for my PhD and have come across the problem again and again that endurance athletes don’t have optimum nutritional intake which leads to later problems, it amazed me how many carbs are needed/recommended. Sports Supplements by J.Stout and J.Antonio is also worth a read.again not a hard and fast source of info but when correlated with newer info i think you’ll get a better picture from which to give advice. hope that helps.
Thanks for the help! By the way, she is 29 and did one Marathon last year. She enjoyed the conditioning comadare among the group training together. She wants to do two next year. I will send the post’s so far to her. If anyone else has further knowledge, please share, I will send it to her. Who know’s maybe she will want to join the post!
with proper diet and rest she can do a FEW marathons a year. there are recreational runners who do 4 or 5 a year, not to mention the nuts who do one a month for ‘fun’. marathons don’t do ANYTHING to a woman’s menstral cycle. what does screw it up is very low bodyfat, and that can have very bad long term effects. most elite female athletes don’t menstrate for years, and they do not always return to ‘normal’ after the end of their athletic careers. the condition kelly is talking about is caused by bad diet, not athletics. as for her doctor, she needs to go to an athlete to get advice as an athlete. my OB/GYN told me that if i was having trouble losing weight i should join weight watchers and high proetin diets will destroy my body and the best thing i could do for my body was an hour of cardio twice a week, and for god’s sake why do i lift weights they’re dangerous. this from a woman who has probably never seen a dumb bell, let alone lifted one. non-athletic docs are not qualified to give athletic advice. no question about it. especially to women.
The more important question to ask, and not of us, is WHY the doctor said “no” to running two marathons in a year. Is there some underlying condition that the doctor is referring to? Amenorhea is a real and serious condition, plays hell with hormone levels, and can have long lasting effects on bone density. How close together are these marathons? There is a fairly long recovery that is needed after the race, usual recommendations are in the neighborhood of 1 day for every mile raced (reduced activity). Then the buildup to the next race takes place. Yes, there are those who can do more, race more often, and do well, but they are not the norm and shouldn’t be used an an example to follow. The question of “can she train this hard year round” can only be answered by her, with a history to lean on. I did, but that was years ago, and I was mixing activities (triathlon training). I couldn’t handle that much running on a consistent basis. Some one training at this level shouldn’t even be thinking of cutting, or calorie resricting, just eating clean. The activity itself will do the rest. And yes, she will need to up the carb intake.
I would have to refer you to runnersworld.com they have much better and more extensive running information for all types of people. I get my running programs from them as they have a better base for such things.
I agree with the irondoc and Kelly. MAKE SURE SHE RECOVERS PROPERALLY AND HER NUTRITION IS UP TO PAR. No reduced calorie diets here. She might get away with it for awhile, but I wouldn’t recommend this every year. Yes some of the triathletes do more than one race per year but like Kelly said competion and health can be two totally different animals.
there is a large # of research studies and reviews on the female triads and their causes (hypoth). body fat isnt one of them, theminimun bodyfat theory was shown wrong years ago. Just for quick example take Elzi Volk of MFW fame, she was down top 6% BF with normal cycles. Usually the problems arise from inadequate nutrition and far too extreme training, leading to changes in hormonal profile, oligomenohhrea and lack of estrogen leading to increased breakdown of bone tissue, and therefore premature osteoporosis.
Therefore a carefull maintenance of energy intake, maximal calcium intake and training volume is needed. Some women see the loss of menstration as an idicator of correct volume of training, and that it is not.
She should use a periodization approach on her training. Read any books by Tudor O. Bompa.