Are you planning to take your running to a new level? Will you be entering a marathon, perhaps? Here's some advice on how to avoid killing yourself.

The story is a legend, of course, but the world is full of modern-day Pheidippideses who exposed themselves without realizing it to the risks associated with running a marathon and suffered irreversible damage. Death is extreme, but unprepared marathoners risk chronic immune dysfunction, joint inflammation, fatigue, and the dreaded lack of sex drive. Under-recovery, a more accurate term than the ambiguous overtraining, causes most of the damage. This is where the marathoner gets into trouble. We can train as hard as we want as long as we can repair what we've broken down. The key to ensuring that we are not among the injured is to manage a couple of important physiological areas: mitochondrial damage and hormonal balance.
To understand mitochondrial damage, we need to look briefly at the complexity of each of our 100 trillion cells. Within each of these cells are forty-six molecules of DNA, 10,000 to 100,000 different RNA molecules and proteins, up to 100 million small molecules such as glucose, one trillion molecules of water, and about 2,500 mitochondria. Mitochondria are the tiny power plants that produce about ninety-five per cent of our body's energy. These little beauties are what we are actual training with the countless hours of preparation. The more of these we have and the more efficiently we can develop them, the better our chance of success. We can double the actual mitochondria and increase their output by 300 per cent with proper training. The catch is that, although we are producing more energy, we are also exposing each of our cells to a greater amount of oxidative damage in the form of free radicals.

For simplicity's sake, consider the production of free radicals as a part of an oxygen metabolism process called oxidation. Think of oxidation as a fire burning up tissues and energy in our body. Every twenty-four hours approximately one trillion molecules of oxygen pass through every cell in the human body during normal daily activities. This results in 100,000 free radical hits, or wounds, on the cellular DNA. When we increase the amount of oxygen exposed to each cell, we increase the amount of hits. Endurance exercise can increase oxygen use from ten to twenty times over the resting state. It's like pouring gasoline on the fire.

That's just the damage done to cellular DNA. Mitochondrial DNA is actually sixteen times more susceptible to damage than cellular DNA. Remember, it's these mitochondria that are responsible for providing ninety-five per cent of our body's energy-not only the energy to keep our legs moving in a race but also the energy needed for muscle recovery, detoxification, hormonal production, nutrient absorption, and other physiological processes required for necessary recovery. If we damage the mitochondria badly, the results are disastrous. Fortunately, it's relatively easy to prevent; take antioxidants in large amounts throughout the day, especially before and after you run.

Most people have heard about antioxidants, which are substances that can buffer the effects of free radicals. Some common examples are vitamin C, vitamin E, Coenzyme Q10, alpha-lipoic acid, etc. Fruits and vegetables are an excellent source of antioxidants, but diet alone will not provide endurance athletes with all they need to address oxidation. Even organic fruits and vegetables start losing their quantity of vitamins the minute they're cut from the vine. Supplementation is the only option. High-quality multivitamins and a separate supplement containing a large and varied amount of antioxidants should be taken in divided doses, as the oxidative process happens all day. Shot-gunning  supplements all at once is not nearly as effective. The Cadillac of supplementation for intense athletes is an intravenous vitamin drip done periodically and especially before the event.

The second area of hormonal imbalance is complex. Prolonged endurance exercise produces too much of the catabolic (breaking-down) hormones and not enough of the anabolic (building-up) hormones DHEA, growth hormone, and testosterone. Cortisol, your body's primary stress and survival hormone, is produced in the adrenal glands, which sit on top of the kidneys. Cortisol helps us to run away from a threat or a fight by breaking down existing tissue like muscle or skin for energy. Conversely, the anabolic hormones help the body repair what has been broken down. It is an intricate dance performed by our bodies every minute of every day. Exercise, being a stress, will always raise cortisol levels. Sleep and rest will always raise anabolic hormones. The objective is to offset the higher amounts of cortisol with the rejuvenating anabolic hormones. However, all hormones come from the same source, and the body will decide what is most important. Unfortunately, the body almost always favours producing survival hormones over metabolic and reproductive hormones.

I recommend training in the morning, as this is the time when cortisol is naturally high. Training in the evening is the worst time because we will artificially elevate cortisol and disrupt the production of the anabolic hormones that peak while we sleep. Continuous hormonal imbalance is an easy way to damage our joints and our reproductive and immune systems.

Several supplements assist our adrenal glands during training such as B vitamins, adrenal concentrate, and various herbs. Anyone who plans to get serious about marathon training should do a salivary hormone test before the start of each race season to measure cortisol levels and determine appropriate supplementation for optimal performance and recovery. It will help you gauge your ability to recover and give you best time to train for maximal effectiveness.

So there's the plan to keep you from becoming a modern-day Pheidippides, but don't forget the basics: a good clean diet, lots of water, proper training, and adequate rest.  Managing cells and hormones while training for a personal best will allow you to have a safe and productive marathon season.

About the Author

Dr. Jeoff Drobot is the founder and medical director of the Calgary Centre for Naturopathic Medicine.