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The Golden Rules are:
• Whenever in doubt about yourself, see your doctor.
• Be regular with your exercising as a little often is better than a lot occasionally.
• Jogging is an aerobic exercise, so it can be done at any time of the day or night,
but preferably not straight after meals.
• Try to give your digestive system two or three hours to digest food before you
exercise.
• Be careful of your running shoes and do not let them wear unevenly as this can
lead to leg injuries.
Running a Marathon
The point of marathon running is to develop fine general
cardiac efficiency, which basically means the improved intake, transportation, and
utilization of oxygen. with continued running, the intake and transportation improves
quickly, but the improvement in usage by the muscles takes longer. The necessary
development of muscular endurance can only be brought about with continuous exercise
of the muscle groups for long periods.
Muscle group exercise, particularly for periods of two hours or more, not only affects
underdeveloped capillary beds but also develops new beds. giving an important increase
in muscular endurance. So, to be successful in marathon racing or running, it is
essential to go for long runs often. The more the better.
The nucleus of the marathon training schedule is three long runs a week, interchanged
with other runs that, while they can be shorter, are usually over hilly terrain.
Because marathons are run most of the way at fast aerobic efforts, there is little
need to do a lot of anaerobic training; this means that to develop the anaerobic
capacity to race marathons, time trials over 5K to 10K are sufficient.
The use of fartlek or speed-play training is of value. Fartlek training is done by
mixing all sorts of running over golf course-type terrain. Set yourself a time to
train for and, once you are warmed up, stride out fast, sprint, sprint up hills,
stride down hills, jog and generally run according to how you are feeling.
When you begin marathon training, it is better to train on a time basis rather than
out to cover a given mileage. This allows you to feel your way and not bite off to
much at the beginning. Always run to your individual fitness level and not at someone
else's. That can involve you in anaerobic running. In conditioning training, you
can never run too slow to improve the oxygen uptake; but you can run too fast and
run yourself into trouble.
Getting used to running in the heat is important: if you are not prepared for it,
you can suffer ill effects. Hot weather training develops the skin arterioles which
allow more blood to be pumped to the skin surface for cooling. Sauna baths can help
in this development.
Train well within your capabilities. Start your races at a steady effort and don't
be trapped into going too fast at the beginning.
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