Training for the marathon? Dartmouth Health doctors have some pointers on how to get your body ready for the big day.
Jason B. Smoak, MD and Scott E. Klass, MD, MS, along with Cardiologist Gregory A. Dadekian, MD, discuss training plans, strength building, downhill running, sweat, heart rates, and why training for a marathon, like the Boston Marathon, is very different from training for a sprint race.
1. Increase training gradually and allow your body time to recover.
Training takes 12 to 18 weeks of commitment and consistency, says Klass, who specializes in orthopaedics and sports medicine at New London Hospital and Dartmouth Health Medical Center (DHMC). Depending on your fitness level, increase your mileage by no more than ten percent each week. Allow for rest and active recovery days to help your body heal.
Stress and recovery need to be properly balanced, notes Smoak, an orthopaedic surgeon who practices out of Dartmouth Hitchcock Clinics Manchester and Dartmouth Hitchcock Clinics Nashua.
Strategic rest allows bones, joints and connective tissues to rebuild stronger than before.
2. Include strength training in your training plan.
Strength training one to two days a week will help keep your body running strong and more efficiently, delay fatigue, and lower your risk of injury, says Klass.
And don’t forget to include working your core, hips and glutes.
3. Warm up, cool down, and learn your sweat rate.
Warming up before a run opens your blood vessels to increase blood flow and lets your heart rate rise gradually, Klass says. Cooling down after a run gradually lowers heart rate and blood pressure, helping prevent dizziness.
You don’t want to lose more than two to three percent of your body weight during your run, he adds. Learning your sweat rate by weighing yourself before and after training runs will help you prepare and to inform your hydration plan for race day.
4. Support your heart.
Hitting the wall isn't just about your muscles giving up. It's also about your heart's ability to deliver oxygen and nutrients over hours of sustained effort, says Dadekian, who practices sports cardiology at DHMC.
Endurance training, which enables the body to sustain physical activity for extended periods, has an important cardiovascular component. With this type of training, your heart and vascular system learn to become more efficient at delivering the oxygen and nutrients that your muscles need during a marathon, and your heart develops the capacity to pump more blood with each beat, rather than simply beating faster when you work out. As a result of these increased efficiencies, some athletes have seen their cardiac output increase by up to five times. They can do more and go longer with fewer heartbeats.
But endurance training is very different from sprint training, notes Dadekian. Sprint training involves short, explosive, high-intensity bursts. Endurance training is more sustained to increase stamina and cardiovascular health. So, while sprinters may lead at the beginning of a race, it's very unlikely they can maintain that effort long enough to win a marathon. Working on improving your body's oxygen utilization through endurance training will help your body maintain a higher level of output and aerobic efficiency for a longer period of time.
5.Don’t underestimate the downhill.
Lastly, while you may be looking forward to the downhill on the big day, know that downhill running puts more pressure on the joints than uphill running, often up to three times body weight per step, says Smoak. So when you train, don't forget to prepare your joints to absorb force, not just to generate it. Consider integrating downhill repeats in your training, long runs on hilly terrain, and strengthening your quads and glutes before race day.
And remember: If you're running the Boston Marathon, the real risk to your hips and knees isn't Heartbreak Hill. It's the downhill before.