Stumptuous asks: Are triathletes healthy?
…endurance exercise. How much is too much? There is accumulating evidence that while some is good — say, a nice half-hour’s run outside on a sunny day — running marathons may not be the brightest idea for the average person.
The frequency of cardiac incidents (i.e. keeling over as the ticker goes on strike) decreases with some exercise, but increases with a lot of endurance exercise, as many unfortunate (and late) middle-aged marathoners who are myocardially infarcting all over the finish line can attest.
From my experience, a marathon is too much- for healthy reasons. Still, I’m glad I ran one. My comment at Stumptous:
I ran a marathon when I was 30. I trained well, didn’t overdo it, had a good run, was proud of my time. Afterwards, I became depressed for no discernible reason. I had heard people say that you can get depressed after a marathon because its a big let down after going for a goal- they say its psychological.
I didn’t think it was psychological.
I read a book called The Mood Cure, it recommends supplements including a lot of amino acids for depression. I followed the suggestions and felt better right away. SO, I really think that I became depressed because my body just broke down and used up too much of my own resources, so I didn’t have enough of the feel good chemicals that amino acids help create.
I really loved running as long as I did- especially when we ran 16 miles along the southern california coast during training. I felt strong, and good. But I do think, for me at least, marathon training was a luxury that cost my body rather than helping my body.
I could see myself doing a half marathon again, but a full marathon took too big a toll on my system.
On the other hand, my mom has run several ultra-marathons (50 miles) with seemingly no dire consequences except for black toe-nails.
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