running dangerously

This morning I came across something on the BBC website which I've copied below.  My thoughts are that after suffering with three potentially fatal illnesses I know that my lifestyle is a lot healthier than most other people's way of living.  My lifestyle was in no way the cause of any of those illnesses though but exercise has been my way of coping with what life has sometimes thrown my way.  I remember having chemotherapy and training at the same time ... very strange for all the staff at Bradford Royal Infirmary to watch this as I trundled up and down the corridor of Ward 15 pushing a drip stand.  One doctor told me that I was the only cancer patient to leave the ward with blisters on his hand.


And as for marathon running being extreme - well that's just wrong.  My take on that aspect is that many runners find themselves drawn towards the marathon in the belief that 26.2 miles is the ultimate endurance challenge.  Television and press coverage of races such as the London Marathon tend to perpetuate that but, strangely, I have never subscribed to that point of view and have always believed that most people can, with training, run 26 miles.  The problems arise when trying to run that distance as quickly as possible.


Instead I believe that every runner should try a 24 hour race at least once before hanging up their trainers.  The challenge is immense and these races are very different to races over a fixed, and much shorter, distance.  The personal and emotional rewards are far greater too and the sense of achievement second to none - even if the material rewards are almost non existent.


Read the article yourself below

Marathon training 'may pose

a heart risk'

MRI scans on 40 athletes training for challenging sporting events like triathlons or alpine cycle races showed most had stretched heart muscles.Doing extreme endurance exercise, like training for a marathon, can damage the heart, research reveals.

Although many went on to make a complete recovery after a week, five showed more permanent injuries.

The researchers told the European Heart Journal how these changes might cause heart problems like arrhythmia.

They stress that their findings should not be taken to mean that endurance exercise is unhealthy.

In most athletes, a combination of sensible training and adequate recovery should cause an improvement in heart muscle function, they say.

Continue reading the main story

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But they believe more investigations are now needed, since their small study in Australia did not look at any associated health risks.

Extreme training

The medical director of the London Marathon, Professor Sanjay Sharma, agreed that more research was needed and said the results provided "food for thought".

"My personal feeling is that extreme endurance exercise probably does cause damage to the heart in some athletes. I don't believe that the human body is designed to exercise for as long as 11 hours a day, so damage to the heart is not implausible."

But he said it was too early to say that taking part in endurance sports causes long-term damage.

And Doireann Maddock of the British Heart Foundation said the findings should not put people off doing exercise.

"It is important to remember that the health benefits of physical activity are well established. The highly trained athletes involved in this study were competing in long distance events and trained for more than 10 hours a week.

"Further long-term research will be necessary in order to determine if extreme endurance exercise can cause damage to the right ventricle of the heart in some athletes. Any endurance athletes who are concerned should discuss the matter with their GP.''

In the study, the scientists studied the athletes a fortnight before their races, immediately after their races and then about a week later.

Immediately after the race, the athletes' hearts had changed shape. The right ventricle - one of the four chambers in the heart involved in pumping blood around the body - appeared dilated and didn't work as well as it had been in the weeks leading up to the race.

Levels of a chemical called BNP, made by the heart in response to excessive stretching, increased.

A week later, most of the athletes' hearts had returned to the pre-race condition. But in five who had been training and competing for longer than the others, there were signs of scarring of the heart tissue and right ventricular function remained impaired compared with the pre-race readings.

a bit of medical stuff

Congratulations to William Sichel on his recent win in the 8 day race in Monaco.

My new exercise regime continues with much more cycling for the next few weeks.  I imagine that, on average, I'll soon be up to an hour cycling per day.  It's not all at a steady pace though, there are a few options:

- after a suitable warm up alternate 8 mins hard with 2 mins easy.  The hard work to feel like mile pace
- after a suitable warm up alternate 15 mins hard with 5 mins easy.  The hard work to feel like half marathon pace.
- once a week I'm cycling for at least 2 and a half hours.  The equivalent of a long run , I suppose.

At the moment I'm cycling every day when I should be running.  I'm also doing the normal weight training and stretching.

I don't expect to notice any improvement in achilles and heel pain (which is not severe at all, except when I run !!!) for a few weeks yet.  In the meantime though I feel that I'm doing all I can to maintain as much fitness as possible whilst treating the injury.

This morning I happened to catch a news item on BBC about cancer and how survival rates in the UK are much better than they were 10 or more years ago.  Reading around this story I also found out that that the important drug in my chemotherapy regime, cisplatin, has a number of side effects:

(1) kidney failure.  When in hospital the staff made me drink lots and lots of water, the theory being that if I urinated lots this could be collected and analysed for early signs of damage.  I remember one particular night when I passed 14 litres of urine between 11pm and 6am.  Without much sleep.

(2) hearing loss.  This explains quite a lot.  For a few years after cancer treatment I suffered with tinnitus but gradually that disappeared to be replaced with a different hearing disorder which has two symptoms:  (a) there is a narrow range of frequencies which I just cannot hear at all - car alarms, mobile phone ring tones, smoke alarms, etc; (b) I find it difficult when there is background noise to hear things which I would otherwise have no trouble with at all.  Having said that I can have a normal conversation over 90% of the time.

(3) electrolyte imbalance.  I already knew about the above side effects but this one is new to me.  It particularly effects magnesium, potassium and calcium levels apparently.  I wonder how long that lasts, is it short term during treatment or is it long term like the hearing loss ?  And does the severity vary from person to person ?  Could effect ultra distance running ...

Does anyone out there have any thoughts ?

Guinness World Records (TM)

Late last week I received an email from Guinness World Records (TM) about the Run To London which read:

"Thank you for sending us the details of your recent record attempt for 'run from Leeds to London'. We are afraid to say that we are unable to accept this as a Guinness World Record."

"We receive over 60,000 enquiries a year from which only a small proportion are approved by our experienced researchers to establish new categories. These are not 'made up' to suit an individual proposal, but rather 'evolve' as a result of international competition in a field, which naturally accommodates superlatives of the sort that we are interested in. We think you will appreciate that we are bound to favour those that reflect the greatest interest."

"Guinness World Records has absolute discretion as to which Guinness World Record applications are accepted and our decision is final. Guinness World Records may at its discretion and for whatever reason identify some records as either no longer monitored by Guinness World Records or no longer viable."

Of course I'm disappointed and I thank everyone who has offered words of congratulations even though the event will not be recognised officially as a record.

All this was brutally put into perspective though by the news I received yesterday afternoon.  As you will know if you were a regular reader of the Run To London blog, one of the helpers, Helen Barber (Sly), has a brother in law (Mick) who has penile cancer.  Well, his cancer has spread and it isn't deemed curable ...

I really don't know what to say at this point.  I've never met Mick but Helen and I have exchanged a couple of emails recently and obviously she's a bit numb with shock at the moment.  I know from experience that the shock will pass and then the job becomes one of living life to the full - as much as is possible in light of things such as pain, swelling, morphine, etc.

I believe Helen knows this and, although my cancer obviously wasn't terminal, it does seem strange offering support because one of the few ways I know how to do that is to relate some of the things I saw and did whilst I had cancer.  I also know that talking about one's own medical history can be incredibly boring and off putting to most people.

If ever Helen needs someone to talk to though, to 'get things off her chest' perhaps ... I am more than willing to be there for her.  Just to listen, read her emails, whatever she wants.

Ultra Squad Weekend

I was at the England Athletics Ultra Distance Squad Weekend in Gloucester on Saturday and Sunday.  I wasn't particularly looking forward to the five hour journey involving two buses and two trains. It could have been worse though.

Everything was fine until we reached Birmingham a bit late. The train was supposed to arrive at 1107 but arrived at 1128. My next train was supposed to leave Birmingham at 1130 so I was beginning to panic a bit until I found that it was due to leave from the same platform I had just arrived at ... but it was going to be 10 minutes late.  We all got on and a few minutes later heard the following message over the public address system:  "this train will now leave at 1200 because there's no driver available."

Arrived in Gloucester half an hour late and not too happy.

Got to the hotel at two o'clock, on the early side but it would give me time to meet everyone before proceedings began at three.  Never been invited to one of these before - never considered myself 'elite' before and that's still an unfamiliar tag.  Chris Finill, Vicky Skelton, Ramona Thevenet-Smith, Andy Smith, Jez Bragg, Dominic Croft, Matthew Lynas, Brian Cole and the other runners I spoke to were great at making me feel very welcome and I'm very grateful to them for that (particularly Chris and Ramona - you were both fantastic).

I always find these type of get togethers rather awkward, mainly because I'm a shy and introverted person by nature - mainly because of my medical history.  Apart from cancer as an adult I had recurring major throat problems as a child and I spent three or four weeks in hospital every 18 months or so having throat surgery and not being able to talk for a couple of months afterwards.

Had less than four hours sleep before going for a run on Sunday morning with Jez Bragg, Chris Finill, Matthew Lynas and Dominic Croft.  I found that quite a surreal experience ... running down the road with a group of international runners, chatting away and covering well over nine miles in 70 minutes or less before breakfast.

Then came a long relaxed breakfast before the rain started.  That wasn't good as I had to walk back into Gloucester to the train station [no buses there on a Sunday].  Journey home was uneventful except that we left Sheffield seven minutes late and arrived in Leeds two minutes early !!! The scheduled journey of 48 minutes actually took 37 minutes - very strange.

Overall a good weekend.  I picked up a few tips from Chris Finill, Andy Smith and Hilary Walker and learned about the forthcoming Commonwealth Championships. It still rankles a bit that I haven't been officially selected yet even though I exceeded the tough qualification criteria easily in my last 24 hr race ... all this waiting makes planning and training a bit difficult.

Oh yes, less than four hours sleep.  Well, the bloke I was sharing a room with snores, loudly.  Very loudly at times.  So loudly that, a couple of hours after getting into bed I decided to try using my MP3 earphones as makeshift earplugs.  Not much better but I eventually drifted off to sleep ... sort of.