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Your answer lies in your own question:
I'm a bit of a couch potato with a sedentary job, who normally gets out of breath walking up a few flights of stairs.
Recently I saw an article on TV about an 82 year old guy who has been hill running for decades, and still goes out every day.
Stamina is something that can be trained like everything else. As @...
36
If you are really interested in the biology behind fitness then I'd suggest reading Dr. Jack Daniel's "Daniel's Running Formula". I'll paraphrase a few of the points you would read there.
The goal is to get oxygen from the air to the muscles that need it. There are several systems involved in this process.
Lung capacity
Quite simply, how much air can ...
16
Cardiovascular endurance and general conditioning.
Simply put, the body will adapt to whatever your regular activities are. The fuel that you provide your body with also plays a part, but your conditioning is what makes the biggest difference. Muscle size is largely irrelevant to something like walking, but it can help if you were trying to sprint faster. ...
12
This article has links to actual studies showing no significant benefit to doing cardio with hand or ankle weights:
...if you are walking at a 3.5 mph pace and burning 5 calories per minute--adding a hand or ankle weight may make it feel harder, but you aren't actually burning more calories. A 2002 study in the Journal of Sports Medicine and Physical ...
12
I run only as fast as I can breath through my nose. Our respiratory system is designed such that for any level of aerobic activity in which we regularly participate we can obtain sufficient oxygen by breathing through our nose. I don't know what kind of pace you want to run at, or how long you mean by long distance, so there's considerable room for ...
12
I'm curious to know what makes him (and the walkers I saw) "fit" - where does his stamina comes from? He was stick thin like me, so I guess muscles don't play a huge role in it. I can only assume it's down to heart and lung efficiency?
Well, a quick look at that man's body may not have given you an accurate enough picture of his body's composition. He ...
11
Yes, there are benefits to training in the heat, but there are also risks. As @Ivo pointed out, you are far more likely to overheat / heat stroke / dehydrate when exercising in hot weather. However, if you take the proper precautions, there are benefits to be gained from training in the heat. What's more, these benefits will directly impact your success in ...
11
I've used this illustration in a previous answer, and it really does a good job of demonstrating the idea:
The things we care about on the illustration (in relation to your question) are the sarcoplasm and the myofibril. The myofibril is the part of the muscle that actually does the contraction, where the sarcoplasm is the part of the muscle that stores ...
10
A marathon is altogether different league when compared to a 10 km run. There are many things to consider...
Hydration.
You should have a proper hydration plan in your long distance races. For 10 km races, you wouldn't probably have had hydration during the race course. In a marathon, I would advice you to start hydrating from the 5 km mark. From there ...
9
There are going to be a few different questions that will somewhat dictate the time needed to train.
How much have you run in the past? - If you haven't run much, then getting to the point where you can do 50 miles (roughly 80k) is going to take longer than someone that has a more extensive running background. You also need to progress slower, as your body ...
8
Mens muscles are stronger. That's the biggest factor. They have stronger muscles, denser bones, mostly related to the effects of testosterone. Women are slower than men by an average of around 10% across all distances.
You can see examples of this split, look at junior and young categories for many sports, and women are just as competitive as men (or boys/...
8
Good morning. I work as an athletic therapist for the US Army currently and was with the USMC for 4 years prior to that in the same capacity. Anterior tibialis pain/tightening is usually caused by tight calves. As your foot dorsiflexes the calf muscles have to allow that motion to occur. If your calf muscles are tight the anterior tibialis and other ...
8
So you went for a long run for your current training level and felt tired for a few days afterwards?
That would be expected and rather the point. You're trying to stress your body so that it will adapt to the stress and then some (supercompensation). This process means that you will be a bit tired.
I'll note that some of the commenters wanted to calculate ...
7
I actually run in vibrams, and when I first began my calves were extremely sore for the first week or two. I think this is due mostly to the fact barefoot running forces people to run as nature intended, on the ball of the foot, causing the calf to work harder in order to support the weight. This would also put more tension on the Achilles tendon since it ...
7
There is nothing wrong with running outside. Simply wear layers and take precautions when running where ice buildup is likely. I spent quite a few years running cross country at 8000' elevations for college, and outside for the vast majority of it. This included during rain, snowstorms, predawn in the dark, etc.
If you would rather run indoors, a treadmill ...
7
Any kind of training can produce increases in muscle mass. Aerobic training simply stops doing so very quickly, since it doesn't require much strength to perform. Aerobic training requires a small degree of strength repeated over a relatively long period of time. The body is more stressed by the requirements of repeating the exercise over a period of time ...
7
Interesting conversation and results.
I like to use what is known as the Yasso 800 method named after Bart Yasso.
Instead of using your half marathon time, base it off of repeated 800 meter efforts.
To test, run a series of 800 meter controlled efforts with ~400 meter jog in between. The average time in minutes and seconds of your 800s will be your ...
7
In both cases West-to-East and East-to-West jet lag does apply (not north and south / south and north). Basically your body and brain are completely out of sync due to the departure time and arrival time when travelling through different time zones.
I strongly suggest arriving a few days (atleast 3, some people prefer 1 week) earlier before your marathon. ...
7
Yeah you should rarely, if ever, plan on adding more than 10% in either distance or speed per week as a general rule.
More to the point of your question is whether you want to increase aerobic speed (how fast can you run 10k) or burst speed (how fast can you run < 1k).
If the latter, then yes, bodyweight exercises like squats, one-legged squats, box ...
7
What does it mean to bonk or hit the wall during a run or a bike ride?
In endurance sports such as cycling and running, "hitting the wall" or the "bonk" is a condition of sudden fatigue and loss of energy which is caused by the depletion of glycogen stores in the liver and muscles.
Can this can be a fairly serious thing, so what are the effects of this ...
7
After a successful 3 month training, what could it be that made my legs refuse to finish a marathon?
I think your question is extremely broad, but there are some commonalities to this situation that are applicable across a wide range of endurance events, so I will hit the high points of the things that beginning endurance athletes often don't think about or do wrong.
Climate: Many times people underestimate the effect that climate has on an endurance event....
6
The nature of tennis is 3-5 second bursts of speed with 3-5 seconds rest for around 30 seconds, followed by 30-60 seconds of rest. This suggests that the Phosphagen and Glycolitic pathways will be be called on the most. If you are able to play explosively for an hour or more before fatiguing, it is likely that the problem is not fitness, but nutrition. Your ...
6
Minimalist running shoes are shown to increase cadence and decrease stride length.
Decreased stride length - many heel strikers become forefoot strikers. This usually allows for more efficient pace because the leg lands under the body's center of gravity. It also means the big muscles are being used for propulsion and the small muscles aren't "braking" ...
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Absolutely do not heel strike. It's not necessary, and you won't want to do it anyway because it will be painful.
When you run on clean asphalt with proper form, it should be quite comfortable and you generally should not get blisters or excessive wear on your feet. If you start with half a mile to a mile max barefoot in the first week and gradually ...
6
Jim Wendler, a big strong weight lifter, says this:
I believe [high schoolers] should be at least to do the following before they even lift weights;
50 push-ups with proper form (no A-Frame or saggy ass)
10 strict pull-ups
100 sit-ups
25 parallel dips
Be able to hold various bridging positions for at least 30 seconds.
Have some kind of ...
6
For the most part, the science is still unclear on the long term effects of things like long distance running on the body. Some studies have suggested that it can be bad for knee cartilage (in beginners), but goes on to say that their findings were likely not clinically relevant due to experimental error (http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24045919).
Other ...
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With the exception of a track event, most everything else will have hills. I've heard hill repeats referred to as "speed work in disguise".
What they have in common is rather than the steady-state output you can build up on the flats, you need the ability to generate a lot more output, and then recover quickly back to your steady-state maintainable race ...
5
You should always breathe in through both your nose and mouth and out through your mouth. you cannot get enough of the needed oxygen only using your nose or mouth by itself.
You should allow air to enter through both your mouth and nose when
you're running. Your muscles need oxygen to keep moving and your nose
simply can't deliver enough. Make sure ...
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