Gary’s Fitness Blog

I have now watched the NOVA - Marathon Challenge program twice.  My personal opinion is that the documentary is way better than the Spirit of the Marathon Documentary that was done about the Chicago Marathon trainees.

That may be due to the face that I’m a little bit of a science freak when it comes to the training involved in  marathon training.  The NOVA special doesn’t go into a lot of detail, but they do address certain training issues:  injuries, VO2 Max, Body Composition and a little about nutrition during long runs.

Here are some key take home messages that I’d like to point out and my view:

1.  Long Runs

I’ve discussed this many times in the past.  I recently wrote an article that I called, “A look at the long run and marathon training.”  And my first podcast, “The long run in a marathon program.  The double long strategy,” addresses my thoughts on how to approach a long run.

One of the interesting discussions was when the exercise physiologist and nutritionist from Tufts said that by the time you get to the “long” runs you have already developed the physiological changes and the soft tissue changes, the long runs are primarily beneficial for the psychological outcomes.

That is a point that I like to make and my point-of-view is that the downside of injury (for most runners) is greater than the psychological uplift a person may generate.

Just a reminder that there is no magic to a 20 mile run.

2.  Weight Loss / Body Composition

They analyzed the body composition of the runners before and after their marathon training programs.  What they found was that only one of the runners changed their body weight or body composition during the program.

This is hard to believe for many people, especially when you consider the amount of exercise they added to their lifestyles.  The take home message (which they made) is that we often over-estimate the caloric expenditure of the activity we participate in.

Thus, if we want to get into a weight management situation or lose some weight, nutrition is a very important (if not the most important) variable in that program.  This can be hard for an exercise physiologist and personal trainer to admit because I want to believe that exercise is the most important key to any lifestyle… but there are limitations.

A better message is that there needs to be a combination of exercise and non-disordered-eating.  One thing that I see often (and see in myself), is a belief that with all the exercise that comes with running a marathon or training for an Ironman, a person can eat whatever they want.  That mentality leads to disordered eating.

Exercise Session –> Eat what mind wants –> Non-Optimal Food Choices

This is one thing that I am currently working on.  I know that when I’m in full capacity training I have little mental energy and strength to combat poor nutritional habits.  Last summer it got a little crazy as I trained for Ironman Wisconsin.  Now that I’m not in full capacity training, I see myself being able to change some of those habits.  Still more changes that need be made.

3.  The other side of body composition.
The other side to their body composition discovery was that the one person that did have changes also included a bootcamp training program in addition to their marathon program.

This is a good lesson because it helps us realize that even within an exercise program, there needs to be a balance between strength training, flexibility training, and cardiovascular training.  Many endurance athletes can become addicted to the “runner’s high” and neglect other aspects that would benefit their health (again, I am as guilty as anyone).

4.  The injury issues:

There seemed to be a lot of injury issues that the runners were dealing with.  One of the most important lessons that I’m continually learning is the value of specific strength training and flexibility training as a hedge against injury in a beginner / novice marathon program.

You can go back and read the posts I’ve had on strength training and patellofemoral pain.  Many lessons learned there.

Last night Nikki and I, along with Nikki’s running pals and several other Todd’s Road Stumblers went and saw “The Spirit of the Marathon.”

Here’s the trailer from youtube if you haven’t seen it yet.

There are some really good parts of the documentary, but there were also parts that I felt a little bored. I personally liked the triathlon documentary that I just got called, “What it Takes” better. The running documentary put out by the same group called “Showdown” is also more interesting. But there are some key differences that could influence someone’s enjoyment.

Here are some thoughts:

1. SofM doesn’t focus upon the professional or elite athlete, which is kind of nice. They include people like Deena Kastor (who is a top pro) to a grandfather that is running the marathon with his daughter, doing it for, as he says “for the t-shirt”.

2. They follow the runners for a long period before the actual marathon. I liked this part because you were able to follow their training. Although, it appears that all the age group runners were part of the same Chicago training group. It would have been nice to see different stategies.

For instance, you see the Hanson Project guys at the start of the marathon leading out the professionals. I was thinking that it would be nice to see one of the age group runners that train with them. Maybe I’m biased, but this movie reinforces the idea that someone training for a marathon needs to build up to a 20 mile run. And most people know how I feel about that! (Maybe that’s why I favorite the Hanson Project theories.)

3. I know I am jaded about some things in life, but the whole Boston Marathon thing just digs at my soul. The movie again has hints of, “to be a really good runner you have to qualify and run in Boston” attitude. I have to be a little subdued about my distaste for this right now because I believe Nikki would like to run in Boston. And I need to support her in that.

I wonder if Matt Carpenter or Scott Jurek have run Boston yet? Maybe they have.

4. I guess the biggest disappointment that I had with the movie was that I’ve heard the same stories a hundred times or more by now. The people in the movie appeared to be great people, they have very similar hobbies and interests that I do, but they are no different than the 25 people that I was with in Arizona to run the Rock N Roll Marathon.

In fact, there are a couple runners there that day that would have more interesting stories to tell. I’m positive about that.

My suggestion would be save the $10 (which is another thing, we had to pay a premium to see this movie) and rent it, maybe even buy it on dvd. If you head to the movies, go see Juno or No Country for Old Men. Two movies I’ve been wanting to see but will have wait now that I had my movie going experience this week.

The movie scores a 13 on the Borg Scale of Perceived Exertion.