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Just when I got done telling you that I can't find anything on running being bad for your joints, I did find this article on marathons being hard on the heart.  As the responsible writer that I am ... I wanted to make sure to keep you in the loop about these findings. 

As the title says, running is one thing, but marathons are a whole different animal.  I'm going to bring out the main point of this article, but I want you to go to the link and read the whole thing because there are some very interesting findings discussed in it.  After reading this article, the main point to share is that marathon running can cause a great amount of stress on the muscles and the heart.  This stress was determined by finding minor leakage in the heart of marathoners after finishing the race.  Of course, the major effects of marathons have been seen with the deaths of two well-known marathoners within the past year, as well as a number of "not-so-well-known" marathoners over the years. 

The good news is that even though effects on the heart have been found, these effects haven't been found to be long-term.  What that means is the risk for a heart attack is raised during a marathon and for a few weeks after, but after that, the risks seem to diminish and the positive, long-term health benefits associated with training for and running a marathon override the short-term risks.

Basically, if you decide to train for a marathon, realize what you're getting yourself into, and take it seriously.  I know people who have just gone out there and "winged it", and I can't help but grimace after reading about the effects of that.  How do you take training seriously?  Just as last week's article discussed, make sure you start your training early enough, pace your training schedule, run in the proper shoes, make sure you give your body a break with training, make sure you're getting enough miles in each week (this article says that at least 45/week significantly reduces risks compared to 35/week or less), etc.

Here are two wonderful resources to check out.  The first is the article that led to this post, and the second is Hal Higdon's site for marathon training programs.

Happy training!

Dan Falkenberg, BA, ACE-CPT, NASM-PES

Dan Falkenberg is the cofounder of Your Live Trainers.  He can be reached at DanFalkenberg.com.

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Tags: cardiovascular exercise, exercise safety