Why I’m not running the Marathon
The big day is here. The Mumbai marathon is tomorrow. And as always, I’m not running.
Normally, that should not even be a statement worth writing (or reading). But somewhere along the way the idea has been formed, that anyone who is a ‘fitness buff’ or a ‘health fanatic’ or simply is in good shape, should be running the marathon.
Various fitness groups that I’m part of consist of a lot of people who run the marathon. And I get asked time and time again, why I’m not running. The thing is, I have become a decent sprinter off late – I have increased speed (as I’ve gained strength), and have also upped my stamina.
So I’m fit, I’m into fitness, I am a decent runner, I enjoy getting up early and exercising (twice a week at least) and I clearly love relay races …
So, why am I not running the marathon?
Because I don’t believe we as humans were born to run. We were born to walk yes, to sprint once in a while yes, to play yes, and to lift heavy things yes. But running at >75% of max heart rate for a prolonged period of time? It’s not evolutionary, nor is it natural or healthy or even really sensible.
I remember when I first read ‘The Two Towers’ – the second book of the ‘Lord of the Rings’ series. I wasn’t even primal then but I remember very distinctly a few things that struck me odd. In the first part of the book, the story focuses on Legolas, Gimli and Aragorn, going in search of the two hobbits – Merry and Pippin who were carried off by Orcs.
In most of the first half of the book, the former three characters were running.
Get this … they ran for days and days and days in pursue of the captors. I remember finding this odd. I thought to myself: but that’s impossible, how can they run so much? I did not find the concept of elves, dwarfs, men that lived for 300 years, hobbits, orcs, or even Gollum odd. That fit very well in my head that craves for fantasy fiction. The running however refused to sit well.
In most of the first half of the book, the former three characters were running.
Get this … they ran for days and days and days in pursue of the captors. I remember finding this odd. I thought to myself: but that’s impossible, how can they run so much? I did not find the concept of elves, dwarfs, men that lived for 300 years, hobbits, orcs, or even Gollum odd. That fit very well in my head that craves for fantasy fiction. The running however refused to sit well.
So I guess I always thought about running in some way unnatural, so when I got into primal living, cutting out of cardio from my life was the easiest transition of them all.
I think a lot of us look at fitness, weight loss, and good health in isolation, thinking this diet will help me lose weight, and that exercise made her lose weight so I should try it. But if you look at it from an evolutionary point of view, the current levels of cardio for fitness are extremely irrational. In the past 40 years of so, running or doing cardio at these levels has led to a generations of extremely un fit over weight, cellulite induced, skinny fat people with heart disease and poor immunity.
Think back of the millions of years where humans walked and walked while foraging for food, ran at max speed and climbed a tree when escaping a predator, or chased an animal for dinner, played or slept in their free time and lifted heavy things as physical work. Sustained level of cardio for prolonged periods of time didn’t exist till very recently.
Think back of the millions of years where humans walked and walked while foraging for food, ran at max speed and climbed a tree when escaping a predator, or chased an animal for dinner, played or slept in their free time and lifted heavy things as physical work. Sustained level of cardio for prolonged periods of time didn’t exist till very recently.
Most people today look at those who run 21 kms as the epitome of fitness, a rather incredible but useless skill to possess I’d say. (Sorry if I’m upsetting a few of you) For what good is it for survival? What good is it in daily life? Survival requires being able to sprint at maximum speed for short burst to be able to escape from whatever situation you’ve got into. Daily life requires energy, strength to heave and shift and lift sometimes, vitality, freedom from aches and pains, good immunity, and exuberance, all of it that sustained cardio actually negates.
The point is it’s good to know that competitive sports are not necessarily good for you. The reason why people play them is because they’re fun. Similarly, if you enjoy running and competing in a marathon, who am I to tell you to stop? If you enjoy it, if you enjoy the thrill of crossing that finish line, if the end is worth the means, then go for it. Just don’t think it’s good for you, or that you’re fit. In most probability you’re not really as fit as you think you are. (I might start moderating comments on this blog after this post).
To run a marathon, you fuel your system with nutritionally bereft carbs (pasta anyone?) and sugar, and burn it off by running, and repeat this senseless life sapping cycle again. No thank you, I am not doing that to my body.
I’m not getting into the science because I can’t do better than these folks in the links below. These posts below have the science, the research, and basic explanations.
Here goes:
A case against chronic cardio
Chronic cardio
some good research links
Cardio and heart disease
Still not born to run
Did humans evolve to be long distance runners?
A case against chronic cardio
Chronic cardio
some good research links
Cardio and heart disease
Still not born to run
Did humans evolve to be long distance runners?
I also want to clarify that this post is not intended to crush anyone’s competitive ambitions. If you are a serious competitor I can totally understand the need to run. If however you are (like most) running the marathon because you think its healthy and want to be lean and fit, if you want to live a long, robust, active, and happy life there are far more effective and balanced ways out there. Walk a lot, sprint once a week, do short intense sessions of heavy lifting twice a week, play with the kids and the dogs, get out in the sun and sleep a ton.
Lead a well-balanced life and don’t waste your time and good health on cardio.
Thanks for reading. Please let me know if you have another point of view.
Follow
Unfortunately I lost all my comments when I migrated this blog. this post and some others had awesome healthy discussions going.
Here are some of my replies
There are couple of things I agree with. There are a few endurance athletes out there who do it right. Who run correctly, those who’ve trained their bodies to burn fat for energy instead of depending on burning glycogen and getting into a heavy carb in and out cycle. And like you said, most people do it wrong. I’m not even getting into how they run, but the whole concept of training – running at the same pace for over an hour every day, eating an un healthy amount of carbs thinking it’s necessary, and what about inflammation that eating that high amount of carbs cause? And what about illness and low immunity? There’s tons of research out there that points this fact out too. Here’s one – http://www.sciencedaily.com/re…
With regards to Persistence hunting though, I beg to differ. In training for a marathon, the stress an average person puts on themselves right from waking up early to run, running almost everyday, trying to beat a particular timing or benchmark, and running at the same pace day in an day out for over an hour is very different from what a persistence hunter probably did. No one cared at what speed they were moving as long as they were moving. I’m sure the highly evolved human brain and a superior tracking ability that probably had more of a role to play and this skill as well as a bit of walking, some jogging, some sprinting, some resting all came into play here. They probably didn’t ramp up their heart rate for over an hour everyday as so many of us did now. The stress of catching their prey was probably not the kind of chronic stress marathoners feel today either. And he probably didn’t do it everyday or even every other day.
I’d like to cite this article – http://www.marksdailyapple.com… – as an interesting counterpoint to the whole persistence hunting throry. Let me know what you think.
While I’m not saying people should not run a marathon or should not train or anything like that, I’m just trying to say that most people may be damaging their bodies much more than actually doing it good. I for one will not run a marathon because I choose health and longetivity and higher immunity, but you may be an endurance athlete and still be all of these things because you’re taking extra care to do it correctly. IT makes me mad, when before the day of the marathon, burrp.com on twitter gives tips like eat lots of pasta on the day before, and that kind of crap. People believe this stuff and that’s where marathon training goes wrong.
Come on, do you really think the ‘persistence hunter’ ate pasta?
So my point here was to say that this is not the way to be lean and fit and healthy, there are far easier, better and happier ways to be holistically healthy thats all.
Thanks for getting in touch, let me know what you think.
Hey. being veg is tougher I think. But there are ways. lots of nuts, eggs, and some forms of dairy will have to be added to your diet. Being veg and primal is not nearly as fun, but it’s doable, I know a couple of people who are doing it and I plan to share their pictures and recipes on this blog. (there are ways to substitute your favourite ingredients with others and make interesting veggie dishes) In fact with Indian food, it’s not that hard, so stay tuned. I plan to share some veggie Indian food recipes.
How long ago are you talking about ancient Indians? The main premise of the primal blueprint is that agriculture came into being 10000 years ago and homo sapiens have been around for 200000 years or so. So before agriculture everyone was eating animals, plants, seeds, nuts, fruits, and other wholesome real foods. There was none of the newer beliefs in place then. Again, don’t forget that even ancient Indians probably ate far cleaner, less processed foods than we do with lots more activity. So if you’re asking whether a vegetarian today can get by eating clean, my answer would be : it’s slightly harder because of slightly less wholesome food, but it’s possible.
Sisson was a tri-athlete but has since come a long way. he mentions time and time again on his blog how he felt through his years of being an endurance athletes, his injuries, his down time, and how turnaround that has made him what he is today. Here is one such write up (read till the end) http://www.marksdailyapple.com…
Thanks for writing, stay tuned for more on being veggie and primal.
Hi, yes I know the Tarahumara’s are the darling of the Endurance athlete brigade. But consider the fact that they conditioned themselves through training and diet just like marathoners are doing today. Their diet was 80% complex carbs aka grains and beans which were not around until 10000 years. which goes back to my point of it being a cultivated form of hunting and yes anyone can do it, but the average girl or guy trying to get fit should not have to deal with dipping into glycogen reserves and replenishing it again and going out and repeating the same thing tomorrow and day after.
The Tarahumara’s probably ran with joy, without the trauma of completing a race or having to clock an hour on the treadmill.
Hi Aloka,
I came across your blog via a link from Blogwati. A lot of information on Paleo is very specific to the US and European lifestyle, so its great to see this wealth of information about Paleo for Indians, on your blog.
This post struck a chord for me, since I am a runner. I train for and run half-marathons. I think you make a lot of good points. But for a lot of folks including me, distance running is as much for the mind as it is for the body. I don’t run to loose weight. I run because it gives me sense of freedom that like nothing else in the world does. Running, especially distance running, is about exercising your mind and silencing that voice in your head that says you can’t run anymore. The high after running 13 miles and conquering your own mind is a great mental workout 🙂
Keep up the good writing!
-Laxmi
Hi laxmi. So good to see you here and glad to see your comment.
The reasons you are running are clearly the right reasons. I find though that a lot of people have the wrong reasons. They find waking up and training for the marathon stressful, yet they push. They believe they are being healthy by waking up and running for hours; they don’t realise there are far more effective and easier ways to be healthy or lose weight.
Running marathons is inflammatory in the sense that it adds to chronic stress to the body. I don’t believe it’s the healthiest thing to do.
However for anyone who genuinely enjoys running for fun I feel they should go for it. Alas I am not one of those people. I love sprinting but long distance makes me bored 🙂 thanks for stopping by.