How much running is too much?

In My Humble Opinion
1

Background: male, 35 years old, healthy BP and cholesterol levels, non-smoker, pescetarian. Recently passed two cardio appointments, an echo and a cardiac stress test; did fine on both, nothing was found on the first and, on the second, peaked with HR 170 BPM on the max-resistance stage.

Amateur runner. With an emphasis on amateur. My weekly running routine amounts to 22 miles a week, but in a rather unbalanced way. I run 1.6 mile each Monday to Friday evening, but that’s just after work to catch a specific train, kind of meaningless.

The rest, a little more than a half-marathon, I run it in a single shot on Saturday mornings. So that’s about 50 halfies a year, for about now 2 years, I guess. Never did any competition, as I much prefer to be on my own.

I got recently worried about the issue of free radicals, not the political activists, but the kind of chemicals that get released by the body when it’s pushed to exercise for more than one hour. Nasty things like arterial plaque can result from that, it seems.

So, am I running too much? Or more exactly, doing too much running in a too narrow timeframe. Because on runners’ fora (which I never read anyway), they seem to think that more than 1 half-marathon a month is pushing it. For the record, I’m not pushing it; I don’t feel particularly exhausted when coming home (my legs are sore, that’s all), and I don’t even feel thirsty or hungry.

I just don’t want to die unexpectedly because a huge gunk of plaque has piled up in my heart :-\

2

Racing more than one half a month is pushing it.

Read the entire article, there’s a lot of unanswered question that can affect the actual outcome.

3

Racing meaning giving everything to be the best during a competition? I don’t do that. I always run (or rather jog, or whatever) at a tranquil, steady 7 MPH pace.

Yeah, I know that many variables are at play there, I just want to know if that 2-hour effort every week is bad for my health in the long term.

4

I can’t speak for the concerns that the article raises though if it were a factor, I would think runners would be keeling over at the same rate as everyone else.

I wouldn’t worry about it. Many runners do more miles than you are with no ill effects.
Keep it up.

5

This is too much: Marathon Maniacs…

From that page:

6

I’ve got plenty of friends who are Marathon Maniacs and have met all of those criteria - some who’ve run 100’s of marathons and ultras. They seem to be getting along just fine.

7

That sounds odd. I ran my first marathon at 35 and averaged 50 miles/week the rest of the time. Now in my 50s I run about twenty since I weight train as well, but I’ve got friends my age that run a marathon race every month and one is close to completing his goal of running a marathon in each of the 50 states. If you’re already in good health, I don’t see a problem.

8

It all depends on how hard the marathon is run. If he’s just finishing and not running near all-out, it’s nothing more than a training run.

9

Exercise produces free radicals, but your body produces antioxidants in response to that. I used to take a gram of vitamin C a day because of all the running I was doing, until I discovered that the body produces its own antioxidants.

I did, at one time. race a 10K every week, did half-marathons, marathons, a 50-miler, biathlons, and triathlons. In one year (1981) I ran 3 marathons and the 50-miler in one month. I am 77 now and do not do that much running and do not swim. I raced every race and qualified for Boston twice, which I also raced.

However, I did read some time ago that excessive exercise is not good for the heart. The cardiac muscle is similar to a skeletal muscle. Although it constantly beats, the muscle itself needs some rest to recover and get stronger.

10

Not quite the answer to the precise question asked but we did recently go over the conflicting data on if and if so where the dose response curve for running gets to a point that more is less beneficial than more.

Your question though has more to do with it being concentrated as a single bout per week, yes? And it seems that being a “week-end warrior” is fine, especially if you are at low risk (see figure 1 in particular).

11

I met Constantina Ditta, the women’s marathon gold medalist at the Beijing Olympics. I asked her how many miles a week she ran- 140.

I’ve seen this number for other elite marathoners. Let’s take that as the human limit.

You’re running a half marathon, once a week? This is well below human capacity and shouldn’t be a problem. I used to run a 20k and several 15k routes a week, until I started to feel like it was hurting, and I backed off. After a while, I guess it was too much.

I can’t speak to the blood plaque issue, but a lot of runners seem to turn into fit old people. I have a number of elderly runners in my neighborhood- longevity seems possible with running.

So, is it too much? Well, do you hurt? Feel bad?

12

When it becomes a psychological addiction and it ruins your life.

13

When you poop your shorts rather than stopping and taking a dump? That’s too much running.

14

Dave Bedford and Gerry Lindgren both claimed regular +200 mile weeks (among others of that era, 60s-70s) most of it at a hard pace. Which explains their frequent injuries.

Around the turn of the 20th century, 6 day races were popular with the top athletes covering 500-600 miles in that time in a go-as-you-please manner (walk-run-sleep as needed).

One athlete even completed a 6 day, rested Sunday and started another on Monday.

15

Wow. I think it is fair to say that 200 or 500 miles in a week is going to be ‘too much’ for any ordinary person.

People who have the talent and push toward the limit of human potential find out that humans have a lot of potential when it comes to running. In fact, I believe the capacity for long-distance running is one of humans’ evolutionary advantages and the explanation for some of the ways our bodies are set up. I think we are literally built for it.

I run into a world-champ ultra runner from time to time. He never seems to be limping or depressed or anything like that, quite the contrary actually. But you have to work up to 24 hr or 100 mile races, you can’t just jump into that.

16

Thanks for all the replies.

Maybe I’ve overexaggerated the risk. After all, some people are indeed much crazier and seem to do well. And I don’t think my GP would accept to write a prescription for a coronary scanner anyway; as I’ve gathered online, that procedure is for people over 50 and at risk (high BP and cholesterol).

I wonder in what measure diet can protect against that oxidative stress. My diet is rich in various vegetables, fruits, nuts and oily fish; barbitu8 mentioned Vitamin C. Blueberries seem great, too (maybe not the fake ones in the Betty Crocker muffins :D).

Still, it’s scary to think that your body might be producing such long-term poisonous stuff during effort. But at least reasonable long-distance running does not yield muscular destruction like some other activities (cough Crossfit cough) do.

17

Doctor Kenneth Cooper, the ‘Father of Aerobics’ once wrote that if you are running more than 15 miles a week, it isn’t for fitness anymore unless you need to lose weight. His studies showed that running related injuries started to increase after 15 miles a week and health benefits, such as better cholesterol, began to plateau around then. If you are running more than 15 miles a week, it’s because you enjoy it.

Of course he said this a long time ago and things like better shoes have gone a long ways to reduce injuries.

I had knee surgery at 35 YO due to running and had to cut back and start cycling again. At 60 YO now, I did a half marathon yesterday and also 2 weeks ago. However I’m more of a slow jogger than a runner.

18

Dr. Cooper did say that you need only 15 miles a week to be fit. But Dr. Sheehan (who died from prostate cancer) riposted, “Fit for what?” Certainly not fit enough to race any distance over 10K. The rule of thumb is that you need to average 1/3 of your racing distance daily, but that will not give you optimal results.
Zercon:

Your body produces free radicals when exercising, but as I said it also produces antioxidants to mop them up.

19

So do we re-open a discussion about what fitness is?

I think most here are not so concerned about being fit for a particular race or competition for its own sake. Maybe fitness is enough if it seems to maximize life expectancy and more importantly, the period of functional and enjoyable disability free life? Factoring in being fit enough to be able to function as you as an individual fully desire to in the here and now, which for many includes the ability move furniture, toss a child or grandchild in the air and catch him or her, and a variety of other physical activities.

20

I make it simple, and set as a bare minimum an ability to complete the Army Personal Fitness Test for someone ten years younger. More than that is gravy.