Just
this past weekend a 41-year old man died running one of the Toronto
marathons. Last year, same thing. These are not the first, nor will
they be the last men to die running a marathon.

And for what?

To
run an irrelevant distance for no reason at all. I don't see any
logical reason for most people to run a marathon. Particularly when you
are a 40-year old father of a young family. You can be fit and healthy
with far less exercise time, as long as you train with far better
exercise choices.

Sure, you can say you are
pushing the boundaries of your human performance...but I doubt that is
any consolation for the family of thes two men.

No
matter how "type A" someone is, or how driven they are to perform in a
marathon, simply being able to run a marathon proves nothing. And it
can have disastrous consequences. Not too mention the many smaller
negative consequences of:

a) A waste of hours of your life spent away from your loved ones while you pound the pavement

b) Sore knees, chronic back pain, and blistered feet

c) Money and time wasted in the physiotherapist's office

d) An improperly trained body (i.e. weak back of the body, no upper body strength, overuse injuries)

e)
A level of fitness that has limited carryover to real world
needs (carrying groceries & other objects, outsprinting an
attacker, manual labor, etc.)

So please, if you insist on running marathons, do yourself and your family a favor and:

1)
Get a full physical from your doctor. This goes without saying for
anyone on an exercise program over the age of 30, but running marathons
is another reason not to neglect your physical exams.

2)
Pay close attention to your body during the race. Wear a heart rate
monitor, and exercise conservatively, drink the right amount of fluids
(but not too much as that can be the cause of death in long runs), and
just plain be careful. A marathon is hardly a reason to risk your life.

Now, here's more bad news.

Cardio has been killing fat loss programs for decades.

Why?

Because
almost all of the exercise science studies performed in the 70's
through the early 90's were done on distance running.

From there we got the messages that:

i)
To lose fat, you had to do long, slow endurance training. Clearly, we
know this is false. Nutrition is the most important aspect of fat loss.

ii)
That we should eat a high-carbohydrate diet. This message, while
generally true for endurance athletes, was broadly applied to fat loss.
So we were subjected to that hideous low-fat, high-carb phase in the
90's where we were urged to eat Snackwell low-fat cookies with no
regard to the sugar and calorie content.

iii)
Beginners should get out on high-volume, walk-run programs. Now while
it is important to get people out and exercising, high-volume
activities for underprepared beginner muscles are going to cause injury
fast. And that's what happened to most people that tried to take up
running.

iv) Too many cardio enthusiasts
had the wrong mentality of, "If I go for a 5 mile run, I can have some
juice and cookies as a reward". Needless to say, that didn't help
anyone lose fat.

The end result?

This
high-cardio, high-carb approach to fitness and fat loss left many men
and women with thunder thighs, saddle bags, and chronic running
injuries.

Fast-forward to this decade,
and the mainstream media is finally starting to see the benefits of
strength training and interval training for both fat loss and the
cardiovascular system.

Not too mention people are finally getting their nutrition right. And it's so simple:

- lots of fruits and vegetables (rarely does anyone get enough)
- lean protein
- healthy fats
- fiber-rich low-glycemic carbohydrates

Dr. Chris Mohr gives dozens of options for each in the TT Fat Loss Nutrition Guidelines.

So eat right, train right, and be safe.

Sincerely,

Craig Ballantyne, CSCS, MS
Author, Turbulence Training

P.S. Okay, so you don't want to give up running?

At least train your body correctly with Turbulence Training. It
trains the muscles that running neglects, and promises to put more
power into your hill running.