NOVA MARATHON CHALLENGE VIDEO ON-LINE NOW >>>>>>>>>>

You have got to be kidding me. 40 weeks of training, backed by doctors, experts, etc. and that is what you get? I found absolutely nothing remarkable in the fact that those 12 people finished Boston. You could find stories just as inspiring through a random sampling of marathon finishers. I hope NOVA and Tufts got the publicity that they sought.

crASS u r "call me crass"

I watched it and enjoyed it.

It would have been better production if it was on something like Discovery Channel. I really like how they do their Everest show. Maybe have it a three week program instead of one hour so we would get to know the people more and feel more their emotions while they went through their journey.

They could have improved the program by having a fewer than 12 people. We barely got to know any of them because the time was spread so thin. They could have shown how nervous of the runners were before Boston when the weather predictions were awful.

They barely showed their training regime. Two of the women had impact injuries. Maybe they didn't show it but it seems to me that they should have done a lot more low impact aerobic cross training during their training. Also they should have run on softer surfaces than a sidewalk. Maybe they did those things and didn't show us.

Uta was a great cheerleader.

Those people should be doing activities other than running. I bet none of them will be running five years from now. Those that continue have a very high probability of getting injured over and over. At some point they will just give it up. I've seen this play out many times over the last 25 years. Not trying to be elitist at all, just don't think running is the holy grail to fitness that some hold it out to be. In fact, I'm borderline myself at this point. Just been doing it for so long, it's come to seem a normal part of life, injuries and all.

Now I found something very very interesting. One girl had to drop out because she kept getting stress fractures...basically, they explained it that Runners, in particular, because of the impact nature of the sport, are prone to getting stress fractures on every run. The girl who had Type 1 diabetes stress fractures wouldn't heal.

Now...I saw a show a couple of weeks ago on the Discovery channel, and it was about super human feats of strength. They kind of had the same analogy as to why these guys can break piles of stacked bricks with thier forearms, hands and heads....Basically, everytinme they hit a concrete block, they are causing sress fratures inside the bone....over time and repeated brea/heal cycles, the bone actually hadrdens in density by all of these stress fractures healing. think of it as adding little welds of bone to all the little stress fractures. Eventually, they become incredibly strong and wont break when amazing forces (i.e. break stacked bricks) are applied to them.

Now, think about marathon training and running...we are constantly getting stress fractures to our legs...they constantly are healing....our leg bones more then likely are denser making you less prone to shin splints over time...assuming your body recovers properly, and you don't have an outside problem, like the girl with diabetes, from healing those mior breaks before they can turn into something like a full on fracture.....

I wish they would have given the Vo2 max totals. They did comment that they were surprised how low they were.

5 and 6 hours after training in an organized group is hardly impressive. (Well, I mean generally speaking, of course to people here it is disgraceful).

My sister has very little talent and didn't run until she was 36 years old and at age 39 after being in a training group for 4 months she ran 4:21. She is average sized, about 5-5 and 135.

My high school coach ran 3:36 weighing 220 pounds at age 43 only running 3 miles a day and a long run on Sundays.

These people had to have had serious cardiovascular handicaps. I know the one smoked and the red-haired girl had health problems.

I bet they all could have gone faster but being on a tv program and being scrutinized scared them to go real easy so they wouldn't embarrass themselves if they had to drop out.

The show did discuss this briefly. They said that you don't have to do a marathon to be healthy. The marathon was to have a goal to keep training.

They also pointed out how much running isn't a holy grail when they pointed out that a couple of the women didn't lose much if any weight.

They may never do another marathon. But they wanted to go on an adventure and run a marathon. They accomplished their goal.

crASS u r wrote:

crASS u r "call me crass"

Yes, yes I am. But at least I'm honest, realistic and not carried away by the sappy stuff that they showed. NOVA has sunk to the depths of MTV Made.

I bet they all could have gone faster

Maybe so. One lady went into a nice sprint at the end. She obviously had a lot left at the end.

The show did discuss this briefly. They said that you don't have to do a marathon to be healthy. The marathon was to have a goal to keep training.

They also pointed out how much running isn't a holy grail when they pointed out that a couple of the women didn't lose much if any weight.

They may never do another marathon. But they wanted to go on an adventure and run a marathon. They accomplished their goal.

The show did discuss this briefly. They said that you don't have to do a marathon to be healthy. The marathon was to have a goal to keep training.

They also pointed out how much running isn't a holy grail when they pointed out that a couple of the women didn't lose much if any weight.

They may never do another marathon. But they wanted to go on an adventure and run a marathon. They accomplished their goal.

Yep. that's about how my sister and her husband looked at their first and only marathon.

Now I think their next goal is to hike the Appalachian Trail.

VO2max values are provided at the link.

I enjoyed their interpretation of those VO2Max charts.

For most females over 41% to them is considered superior.

From Dr. Daniels charts if you can run 19:59 for 5km that is 50%, would that be considered super-duper superior?

They had Uta to cheerlead them and maybe give them some basics, but they really could have used a real running coach.

http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/nova/marathon/team-don.html

Seeing them running on concrete sidewalksor wearing black in the road with their backs to traffic, wearing earpods and then to hear the woman that smoked, her mother had been killed by a driver.

What is a 6 hour marathon? Something like 13:43 per mile?

You do realize that Vo2max's aren't written as percentages correct? You also realize that the quickest way to raise Vo2max is to cut off an arm or two?

Vo2max is normally written relative to body weight. Reduce body weight, increase relative Vo2. Vo2 can also be written as an absolute value and this is a better way to measure improvement.

If you take unfit people and make them exercise they will lose weight, which will raise Vo2max. The act of the endurance running itself will raise Vo2max through metabolic pathways in the muscle (capillaries, mitochondria, etc). So, of course an unfit person will have a huge improvement in Vo2max after a year because of major weight loss.

Alan

CMC ... sounds to me you have never been loved ... pity. your anger radiates in volumes or maybe it is your ego ... whatever ... pity. NOVA rocks!

Here is a NOVA progam for you Call me Crass >

NOVA scienceNOW: Mirror Neurons > A recently discovered system in the brain may help explain why we humans can get so worked up watching other people.

Maybe I'm out of touch with modern culture, but WTF is MTV Made? And how pathetic is your life, sitting around watching the MTV video spew so often that you can reference their programs off the top of what remains of your head? You really should be embarassed to even bring that up.

Call me crass wrote:

crASS u r wrote:

crASS u r "call me crass"

Yes, yes I am. But at least I'm honest, realistic and not carried away by the sappy stuff that they showed. NOVA has sunk to the depths of MTV Made.