Randy Whorton, with the Wild Trails organization, runs at Stringers Ridge early Monday afternoon.
Randy Whorton, with the Wild Trails organization, runs at Stringers Ridge early Monday afternoon.HEALTHY RUNNING TOP 5According to RunnersWorld.com, following these five tips to healthy running can keep you on the road instead of off your feet:• Avoid the terrible too’s: Give your body time to adapt to increases in speed or distance and allow your muscles and joins a chance to recover to the new demands. Add no more than 10 percent to your mileage every week.• Listen to your body: Pay attention to warning signs from your body such as aches, soreness or persistent pain that could indicate a more serious injury is imminent.• Get good shoes: Find a shoe that supports your foot properly and that suits your running stride. Visit a specialty running store to have your gait analyzed and then make sure you replace your pair every 300 to 500 miles.• Take good notes: Keep a log of your miles, run duration and how you felt afterward to help motivate yourself and to help detect when a problem may be brewing. This will help refine your schedule to allow for enough downtime between runs and make the daunting days seem less insurmountable.• Cross train: Don’t just run. Change up your exercise regimen to improve your balance and overall strength and to shore up your aerobic fitness, all of which will make you a better, healthier runner. Certain activities, such as elliptical training, stationary bike or rowing machine are also safe ways to remain physically active if you do injure yourself while running.
Decades worth of research into the physiological benefits of running say it’s a boon to cardiovascular health. And the prevailing opinion all along has been that the more miles logged, the healthier the runner.
The conclusion of a recent study, however, flies in the face of that theory by demonstrating a link between regular participation in extreme distance running — which includes events of marathon length (26.2 miles) or longer — and the buildup of coronary artery plaque, a leading cause of heart disease.
“As with any potent drug, establishing the safe and effective dose range is critically important. … An inadequately low dose may not confer full benefits, whereas an excessive dose may produce adverse effects that outweigh its benefits,” reads the introduction to the study, which was published in the March/April issue of Missouri Medicine, the journal of the Missouri State Medical Association.
The study by researchers at the Minneapolis Heart Institute Foundation compared 50 male participants of 25 consecutive marathons and 23 self-reported “sedentary” men with similar coronary disease risk factors, such as age, resting blood pressure, smoking history and total cholesterol. The marathon runners consistently had lower resting heart rates, weight and body mass indexes compared to the sedentary control group but also were found to have about 60 percent more total plaque in their arteries, according to the article.