Pace, Physiology and Practise the 3 P’s of a Marathon

2nd SCMM Runners Meet Benefit Participants

Procam International, promoters of the Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon and Asian Heart Institute, the Medical Partner for the event, came together to conduct the second session in a three part session of the Runners Meet on November 05, 2011. The first-of-its kind initiative is designed to offer the participants a perfect platform and opportunity to network, seek advice and draw up a training schedule to prepare for the full marathon and the half marathon.

The second session of the Runners Meet received a tremendous response from the confirmed participants, from which 200 requests each from the Full Marathon and Half Marathon were accepted on a first-come-first-served basis.

The elite panel of speakers who addressed the “Runners Meet” were Dr.Aashish Contractor, the Head of Dept of Preventive Cardiology and Rehabilitation at the Asian Heart Institute, Amit Sheth, a self-confessed couch potato turned Ultra-Marathoner, George Aikara, a representative from the charity partners United Way of India and the stunning actress and Marathon enthusiast Gul Panag.

Speaking on the occasion, Dr.Aashish Contractor focused on the physical commitments required for a marathon and highlighted various aspects pertaining to the physiology of running and methods of injury prevention that one might acquire during running.

Amit Sheth, whose passion for running has provided the much needed motivation to many a participant, gave some key tips on practising for the race day, various methods of time calculation and the apt use of pacers for the event.

The former Miss India Universe turned actress Gul Panag spoke of her own tryst with running which started at the tender age of 12 and attributed the same to her father, who encouraged her to run before she took it up herself as a passion a couple of years later.

Finally George spoke of how running alongside raising monies for charity could make a difference to a lot of lives.

The runners meet was attended by interesting mix of participants from different- age groups

Dr. Aashish Contractor : Head, preventive cardiology & rehabilitation at the Asian Heart Institute
Medical Director: Standard Chartered Mumbai Marathon

Outline and insights by Dr. Aashish Contractor

• Where you need to be today
• Training plan
• Common training mistakes and Precautions
• Heart rate guidelines
• Safety issues
• Q & A Session

Where you need to be today

An individual should be able to run 10 - 12 km at a stretch comfortably if we talk about Full Marathon and about 4 - 6 km at a stretch comfortably if we talk about Half Marathon.

Training plan

Now it is the time to follow a good custom made training schedule in order to be in a comfortable position on the main Race day.

There are some key training variables like,

Long Slow Distance (LSD)

• Low to moderate intensity [RPE: 11-13]
• Emphasis on time/distance, not speed
• Physiological benefits:
• Enhanced cardiovascular function
• Oxidative capacity of muscles

Pace / Tempo Runs

• Tempo runs are 20-30 minute runs done at a pace 10-20 seconds per k slower than your 10k pace.
• These sustained efforts are done after 1-2 km of easy jogging, and are usually followed by 1-2 km of cool-down.
• These runs help your body tolerate a relatively fast pace for a longer duration -- they are good endurance workouts, and are especially good for 15k and up training.

Interval Trainings

• Intervals are usually shorter distance fast repetitions, often done on a track.
• An example would be to run 6x800m with 3 minute recoveries.
• Standard interval distances are 200m, 400m, 800m, 1000m, and 1600m.
• These are the tune-up you do in the 8~12 weeks prior to a big race, not a year-round type workouts.
• Most interval workouts are done at 5k pace or faster.

Some key benefits of interval training

• Develops all three energy systems
• Aerobic
• Anaerobic
• Peak PC
• Increased cardio strength
• Increased metabolism

Fartlek

• Fartlek is Swedish for "speed play." These are random bursts of speed of random length/duration.
• It's a fun way of doing some fast running without structure.
• These runs help train your body to run fast, but without the pressure of running certain distances, number of reps, or times.

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Common training mistakes

• Over-training
• Under-training
• Performing non-specific exercises
• Failure to schedule a long-term training plan
• Failure to taper before a performance

Precautions

• Warm up for 5 minutes before beginning intense exercise. e.g. walk or jog at a slower pace
• If exercising outdoors, take appropriate precautions depending on weather- stay hydrated
• If you experience unusual symptoms, like light-headedness, or palpitations, slow down and stop
• Cool down at the end of the exercise session

Heart rate guidelines

There is a thing called intensity which refers to how hard the body is working during exercise.

Common ways for deciding the intensity would be by using

• Age predicted formula
• Predicted HRmax = 220 – Age
• Karvonen formula
• Karvonen method: Using Heart Rate Reserve (HRR) to calculate intensity
• HRR = MHR – RHR

Guidelines for choosing intensity

To experience benefits of cardiovascular exercise one must work at an intensity of

• 50 % - 85 % of VO2max (MET system)
• 50 % - 85 % of HRR method
• 60 % - 90 % of HRmax

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Safety Issues

Regular physical activity is fun and healthy, and increasingly more people are starting to become more active every day. Being more active is very safe for most people. However, some people should check with their doctor before they start becoming much more physically active.

You need to ask yourself some of the key questions which are mentioned below:

• Has your doctor ever said that you have a heart condition and that you should only do physical activity recommended by a doctor?
• Do you feel pain in your chest when you do physical activity?
• In the past month, have you had chest pain when you were not doing physical activity?
• Do you lose your balance because of dizziness or do you ever lose consciousness?
• Do you have a bone or joint problem (for example, back, knee or hip) that could be made worse by a change in your physical activity?
• Is your doctor currently prescribing drugs (for example, water pills) for your blood pressure or heart condition?
• Do you know of any other reason why you should not do physical activity?

Q & A Session

Question: Can I do three days of weight training and three days of running?

Answer: There is this entire thing about the cross over effect between resistance training and aerobics training. What research has shows is that distance training doesn’t harm endurance training if it’s not done excessively. While the other way round, if you want to become like a big body builder, then endurance training does harm it. So to answer your question directly if you are weight training 3 days a week and you found that comfortable there is no reason why you can’t continue doing that. If you are lifting something very heavy it's also going to affect your flexibility a little bit. But it is going to affect your running time make no doubt about that. If you are going to train three days a week weight training and 3 days a week running, if you instead did 4 days a week running and 2 days a week of weight training and reduced it your time would improve. But if you are not too concerned about shaving out time then I don't see a reason why you cannot continue weight training.

Question: Dr. you talked about tempo runs, so that tempo run has to be one round from 25 to 30 minutes or there can be a number of rounds also?

Answer: Frankly there is not defined time but normally a tempo run is between a 25, 30, 40 minute run. Tempo runs are usually not an hour or an hour and a half. So they are done typically midway to kind of also increase your anaerobic capacity. Tempo run is typically a 30 minute run, depending on your speed of course a 5-6 k run.

Question: Regarding eating, in between the race, dates or something. What frequency one should have it? And does the frequency change from half marathons to full marathons. Should we supplement the food with water at that time?

Answer: One is hydration and the other is nutrition. One way of getting both is by these energy drinks in terms of sugar and salts. In terms of hydration the earlier thinking was that in every 15 minutes you need to hydrate. In terms of eating normally they say that if you can have between 30 to 60 grams of sugar, which is basically carbohydrate during the hour of runny, that is useful. Like simple sources are some of these gels that you get in the market. You can get dates, you can have bananas, and these are all practical things.

Question: What precautions and care do I have to take if I have a smoking background?

Answer: In terms of smoking, you need to stop. Even one cigarette can be dangerous. Bottom line, why is smoking so bad, because it can lead to heart disease and strokes. What else it can lead to is; you are smoke, your cholesterol (your totally cholesterol should be less that 200), your blood pressure (should be ideally less that 120), your sugar (Indians have highest rate of diabetes all over the world), physically inactivity, overweight/obesity, stress. Please do not think that because you are runners, you have immunity against this. Certainly you are reducing your risk, but it’s not immunity.

Question: Is it because of loss of water and the salts that we get cramps or are there other reasons as well?

Answer: Well honestly speaking craps is a sort of a highly studied area and there are really several different reasons for cramps but loss of salt and water can certainly be one of the reasons. A lot of the cramps are what we call heat cramps. In the conditions we run in, in our city, both the temperature and humidity are both very high. I think a mistake a lot of the runners make is not hydrating enough. There is a concept of over hydration which we can talk about later. But definitely salt and water could be a very important reason for cramps. It may not be the only reason. Just not being ready enough for that particular distance could also be a reason.

Question: Each time I have been increasing my time limit, so this year also I intend to beat my timing. Do I have to add some kind of weights while I am running or practicing? Will it help me in increasing my time and strengthening me?

Answer: Carrying weights while running, I don’t recommend that.

Question: What is the care one has to take for their arthroscopy?

Answer: If you had the arthroscopy then obviously post the arthroscopy you need to do good physiotherapy and do it fairly seriously. Most people tend to neglect that.

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