Effect of Job Type on Running (Read 442 times)

Wow thats depressing...I didn't know 25 was the new old age. Most marathoners don't peak until their late twenties early thirties. Heck in ultras you don't peak until your mid-thirties. I would suggest looking at your diet as I'm sure you weren't focused on it while you were inactive. So a change in your diet may affect your overall lifestyle and physical health. Also think about your muscular systems. You seemed to be very strong and active, running and playing soccer, but after that period you probably lost that body composition. Look into developing a core routine and some weight lifting (squats, lunges, clean, presses) so you can build up your running muscles to run the pace you want all while developing greater endurance through repeated efforts

George Sheehan ran his marathon PR (I think 3:01) at age 61.

Matt Carpenter consistently won the Pikes Peak marathon into his mid-40's.

Contraversial or not, Dean Karnazes ran his 50 marathons in 50 days at the age of 44.  And won the Vermont 100 Mile race the same year.

I'm sure anyone here can come up with a dozen other similar examples completed by a dozen other athletes...

 

As someone who works on their feet everyday, anywhere from eight to sixteen hours without a break, I say you are out of your flipping mind. At the end of the day my legs are swollen and my feet feel like they have had a hammer taken to them.  If I don't run in the morning there is a very good chance that I won't be running in the evening.  It makes doubles impossible since I would never sit or recover between the two runs.  The only plus I can see from this is that as an ultra runner I am competing against people that sit on their asses all day and then go for long runs.  My body is used to being up and moving for long stretches.  I have to believe that helps.

I already know I'm out of my flipping mind, but thanks for the reminder and reinforcement.   Seems that your current work load still allows you to run ultras without falling to pieces, which is kind of amazing, and shows a great physical resiliency. If you threw abnormally high and chronic mental stress into the mix,  the kind that  requires that you muster up all your resources just so you don't lose it, you might find your body breaking down after awhile (and this could include heart and other parts of the body), and your running pace at the same HR begin to regress. I base this opinion on what I've seen happen to my own pace under heavy stress, and what I've read and seen about how a constant barrage of the hormones released under extreme stress start to cause health problems. We're built to be on our feet and moving, but not to be under chronic stress.

 I already know I'm out of my flipping mind, but thanks for the reminder and reinforcement.   Seems that your current work load still allows you to run ultras without falling to pieces, which is kind of amazing, and shows a great physical resiliency. If you threw abnormally high and chronic mental stress into the mix,  the kind that  requires that you muster up all your resources just so you don't lose it, you might find your body breaking down after awhile (and this could include heart and other parts of the body), and your running pace at the same HR begin to regress. I base this opinion on what I've seen happen to my own pace under heavy stress, and what I've read and seen about how a constant barrage of the hormones released under extreme stress start to cause health problems. We're built to be on our feet and moving, but not to be under chronic stress.

IDK, I'm guessing WG's job entails significant mental stress in addition to standing all day.  I think if I did that, I would have to cope by taking up a hobby like running ridiculous distances without getting anywhere.

 

IDK, I'm guessing WG's job entails significant mental stress in addition to standing all day.  I think if I did that, I would have to cope by taking up a hobby like...

...drinking.

You should be doing most of your runs at 6.5 mph pace, to build up your cardiovascular endurance.

I don't think that stress itself physically harms us

That's sort of like saying water itself doesn't physically harm us--tell that to a drowning man, or one whose house is destroyed by flood.

Stress, like water, is necessary to sustain life, but too much can kill you.

 

 

I don't think that stress itself physically harms us, but stress can lead to stuff like not getting enough sleep, not eating right, etc.  I think that running helps with those things.

 

From WebMD (I know, not technically peer-reviewed research):

"The human body is designed to experience stress and react to it. Stress can be positive, keeping us alert and ready to avoid danger. Stress becomes negative when a person faces continuous challenges without relief or relaxation between challenges. As a result, the person becomes overworked and stress-related tension builds.

Stress that continues without relief can lead to a condition called distress -- a negative stress reaction. Distress can lead to physical symptoms including headaches, upset stomach, elevated blood pressure, chest pain, and problems sleeping. Research suggests that stress also can bring on or worsen certain symptoms or diseases."

Most people can let go of stress and recover.  For many of us running is a great way to do that.  But for people who suffer from chronic stress they cannot escape, the physical damage of chronic stress is very real.  Sort of like how training is normally a positive thing, given recovery, but when you enter over-training every training stressor just breaks you down further.

As an anecdote, I had a friend and co-worker who, to leave out details, had a fairly stressful road in life to begin with.  He invested a lot of time in his career and took a very high-stress position thinking it would get him ahead in the end.  You could see how the stress broke him down over a couple years.  He got out of that position and into another, and last I had spoken to him he was beginning to recover and his health problems improve.

Then he received some bad news that "they" had basically decided he was not promotable and his career was effectively over.  A couple days later he was found dead in his house of a heart attack in his early 30s.  He had no known risk factors.  In his case, I really do believe that stress largely related to his job played a large role in his early death.

For me, if I am trying to train hard I can really tell the difference between when I am unstressed in other areas of my life and when I am not.

Not to mention signing up for races ...

What good would a stress-free life be? Eff that.