The appliance of science
By David Owen
Published: October 21 2006 03:00 | Last updated: October 21 2006 03:00
Here I go again. Three years ago, I ran my first marathon, basically to see whether I could. After a bright start it was, as I wrote at the time, "unremittingly grim". I didn't expect to repeat the experience.
And yet. A combination of some unexpected time on my hands and a compellingly good cause have persuaded me once again to pack my bags for Athens. (Well, if you're going to do a marathon, it might as well be the original.) All being well, I shall be on the start-line with perhaps 3,000 others when this year's Classic Marathon gets under way on November 5.
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This time, though, I was determined to be better prepared. In 2003, all I had managed was to run the dog three times a week for three or four weeks instead of walking her. And, in the grinding ascent that makes up the middle part of the race, boy, did I pay for my casual approach.
Though three years more decrepit,I resolved to do things properly. So I pleaded for - and duly received - the help of a bona fide athletics coach of my acquaintance. An international-level coach no less, who holds age-group world records in ultra-long-distance events way beyond the paltry 26-miles-plus that I was attempting. A man, in short, who knows what he's talking about, even if he wishes to remain anonymous. Frankly, given the raw material he has to work with, who can blame him?
Over the past few weeks, our e-mail correspondence has sustained me as I have plodded around increasingly muddy lanes in an admittedly rather lovely part of the English countryside.
Coach's first point was that if I was going to run a marathon, even "about the toughest there is", I might as well enjoy it. Unfortunately, achieving this was going to involve the painful-sounding process of "training intensively enough to break the older, weaker muscle fibres" in my legs, "then not running for long enough, usually about 12 hours, for [my] growth hormone to mend the tears and, in so doing, to increase the muscle bulk".
To do this, I would need to start by identifying a circuit, between two and two-and-a-half miles long, of which the final half-mile at least should be uphill, and running as fast as I could around it on three alternate days. At that point, I was to take the best of those three times, add 4 per cent, double it and see how close I could get to the resultant time when running two circuits . . . You get the idea.
I plotted a route along farm tracks that boasted a) a deer enclosure; b) one of England's most outstanding country churches; and c) almost no traffic. I also unearthed a stopwatch beeping away in a neglected drawer. I even determined that there was no reason to exclude the dog. But how best to measure the distance? I ended up coaxing my aged Ford Fiesta around the ruts and potholes: approximately 2.1 miles.
Coach's next missive involved food. "It's amazing how quickly a young body will adapt itself to cope with the stresses that are put on it." OK, so I skimped a little on the personal data: I'm 46. "You have to help it on its way," the e-mail continued, "which in this case means increasing your consumption of protein to 1-1.5 grammes per day per kg of body weight - and eating it as soon as you can after running." I told him that I ate almost no meat. It was therefore helpful to know that "fish is typically about 20 per cent protein by weight of what is edible and cheddar 25 per cent". My training regime has since involved devouring large numbers of dinky wax-encased Godminster cheddars.
The questions kept coming: how much "to the nearest 5g" did my running shoes weigh? And how much did I weigh for that matter?
The answers triggered undoubtedly the rockiest moment in our incipient athlete/coach relationship. I confided that my shoes weighed a shocking 435g each. "It's no wonder your knees hurt, David, with your joints having to lift that much every step!" Coach thundered through the ether. "I suggest you get down to the nearest sports shop and buy some racing shoes which weigh around 250g each."
Meanwhile, my disclosure that I "probably weigh closer to 13st than I usually care to admit," prompted the suggestion that I "go easy on the quantities of things for the next six weeks. It would save you about 15 minutes if you could reduce by 7lb between now and the race," was the advice.
Six weeks and about 80 miles in, Coach's regime has improved my stamina to the point where, on a good day, I can sustain the 8-minutes-a-mile pace I used to manage over two miles for six miles. This is encouraging but still a mighty long way short of what is needed.
By the time you read this, I should have ticked off another box in Coach's plan to prevent me making a fool of myself in Athens, by running a 10-mile road race in Rugby, birthplace of a different sport. This should tell me whether respectability is a realistic aspiration on my jaunt to Attica. If not, well, there's always canicross.
马拉松得这么玩儿？
作者：英国《金融时报》戴维?欧文(David Owen)
2006年11月3日 星期五
我
的第二次马拉松
我又来了。三年前，我生平第一次跑马拉松，主要是想看看自己是否能做到。就像我当时所写的那样，除了一个光明的开头，那次马拉松可谓“严酷不断”。我没想过要再体验一次。
可是，手头意外地有了点时间，再加上一个令人信服的好理由，说服了我再次收拾行囊，奔赴雅典。（如果你打算跑马拉松，也许最好是原汁原味的。）如果一切顺利，我将在11月5号本年度雅典马拉松举行的时候，与大约3000人一起站在起跑线上。
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不过，这次我决心准备得更充分。2003年，我做的所有准备，不过是把走着溜狗改为跑着溜狗，一周三次、一共溜了三四周。在比赛中途折磨人的上坡路上，我为自己这种随意的训练方法付出了代价。
来自教练的建议
尽管又老了三岁，但我决心要按正确的方法行事。于是，我求助于自己认识的一位名副其实的运动教练――也适时得到了他的帮助。他绝对可以算得上是一位国际水平的教练，保持着超长距离比赛年龄组世界纪录，那种比赛与我要尝试的区区26英里多的赛程简直不能同日而语。一句话，他是一位专家，即使他不希望透露自己的名字。坦白地说，想一想他不得不跟我这块材料合作，谁还能埋怨他匿名呢？
过去几周，当我拖着沉重的步伐，在英国乡下某个地方（不可否认，这是个非常可爱的地方）日益泥泞的小路上锻炼时，我们的电邮往来一直支撑着我。
教练指出的第一点是，如果我想跑马拉松，即使是“最艰苦的部分”，我也可以乐在其中。不幸的是，要做到这点，就得经历一个听起来很痛苦的过程：“进行足够密集的训练，撕开”我腿上“较为衰老、虚弱的肌肉纤维”，“然后休息足够长的时间，通常约为12小时，让（我的）生长激素修补撕裂处，并以此增大肌肉块”。
要这样做，我需要先确定环行跑步路线，长度在两英里至两英里半之间，至少最后半英里应该是上坡，然后每隔一天就绕着这条路线尽可能地快跑，一共三天。我要最大限度地利用这三次机会，增加4%，增加一倍，看看在跑两圈的时候能多接近合成时间……你明白了吧。
我沿着农用道路规划了一条路线。据说，在这些道路之间有：1）一个鹿场；2）一个英国最出色的乡村教堂；3）几乎没有机动车。我还在一个久未开启的抽屉里翻出了一个秒表，径自在滴答走着。我甚至断定，没有理由不带上狗。但是，如何最好地测量距离呢？最后，我耐心地开着自己的老福特嘉年华(Ford Fiesta)绕过了许多车辙和坑洞：大约2.1英里。
教练的下一封邮件写了食物的问题。“年轻体魄对外来压力的适应速度非常惊人。”好吧，我的个人数据要差一些：我46岁。“你必须帮助它进行调整，”邮件继续写道。“在这种情况下，这意味着要把你的蛋白质摄入量提高到每千克体重每天1到1.5克――而且要在跑步后尽快吃。”我告诉他我几乎不吃肉。因此，得知“鱼的蛋白质含量一般约占可食用部分重量的20%，切达干酪(cheddar)占25%”，对我不乏帮助。从此，我的训练计划里还包括吞食大量精致的蜡包装Godminster切达干酪。
跑鞋和我的重量
问题不断出现：“按最接近5克的整数倍计算”，我的跑鞋有多重？照这样计算，我的体重又是多少？
这两个问题的答案无疑造成了我们刚刚建立的运动员-教练关系中最艰难的时刻。我吐露了自己的鞋每只重达令人震惊的435克。“难怪你的膝盖会疼，戴维，每走一步你的关节都得抬起那么重的份量！”教练通过网络这样咆哮道，“我建议你去最近的运动用品店，买几双每只重250克左右的跑鞋。”
与此同时，我发现我“可能比通常愿意承认的更接近13英石（译者注：1英石=14磅）”，为此，教练建议我“在接下来的6周减少饮食量。如果从现在到比赛前的这段时间，你能减去7.1磅，就能给你节省大约15分钟时间。”
花了6周时间，跑了大约80英里，教练的训练计划把我的耐力提高到了这样的水平：在天气好的情况下，我能将8分钟一英里的速度保持6英里，而原来只能保持两英里。这鼓舞人心，但距离要求还非常遥远。
等你读到这篇文章的时候，我应该已经完成了教练计划中的另一项（这是为了防止我在雅典出丑），即到拉格比(Rugby)参加10英里公路赛。拉格比是另一项运动的发源地（译者注：英式橄榄球起源于拉格比）。这次比赛应该能告诉我，在去希腊阿提卡(Attica)的征途上，受人尊敬是否是一个现实的渴望。如果不是，没关系，总还是会有带狗徒步走比赛(canicross)的。
