You and Your Spleen 02 – The Body Adapts

Now we've got the mitochondria talking (see You and Your Spleen 01) what happens next ? Well from here it’s down to stress. At least controlled stress – which is stress applied in a good way. When your body undertakes an activity this happens …

• Heart rate increases
• The volume of blood pumped by the heart increases
• You take more breaths, deeper and faster
• Blood pressure increases
• Your muscles complain and feel “fatigued”

If this is a “one off” activity then when it’s over – it’s over.  But if you repeat the “stress” on a regular enough basis then special stuff happens. Magic stuff – the kind of stuff that leads most of us to be able to run a 5k, 10k or a marathon. Consider a stress that you can handle today eg: run a lamppost, walk a lamppost and keep that pattern going for 20mins. Then repeat this workout 3 times a week and continue that weekly pattern for 4 weeks. And what happens ? Your brain adapts to strengthen your muscles, muscles adapt to produce more energy, you get better at processing the waste products from your active muscles and your heart actually gets physically stronger – meaning your resting heart rate gradually falls and you (amazing creature that you are) are fitter !

But you don’t want to stop there. That 50min 10k goal is at the back of your mind and while this lamppost stuff is a great start point we have a desire to progress. Well, you've already achieved a key part of that – you are clear on your goals. If 10k is your “thing” then you should be following a 10k plan that leads to the physical adaptions that enable you to run 10k. That will be different from pole-vaulting or marathon running or space-hopper racing. Your training will therefore need to be somewhat specific and focus on the bits of you that are needed to run 10k.

Pole Vaulting- No Hoppers in sight

You need leg muscles with the strength to be ready for that distance, the respiration system to cope with the stress of almost an hour’s run, energy systems to cope with keeping you going and the “waste processing” ability not to fatigue within the time. You also need to know yourself and cope with the mental challenge of your goal. 

Space Hoppers - Don't train with one of these if Pole Vaults is your thing

The good news is that “running one lamppost - walking one lamppost” is not your destiny. Your training plan will cunningly have you running two lampposts and walking one before you know it. And this is amazing. By week 4 of your plan you will probably have adapted your body to be no longer a person for whom a single lamppost run is “unusual” in fact you are by now a seasoned single lamppost runner. So able are you at this distance that it’s not much of a stress anymore and it almost feels “easy”. That’s the time to apply more stress. So the plan changes : now you run for 2 lampposts while the single lampost “recovery” walk stays as part of your plan. That 1st week of the new stress of double the running might be tough – but you’ve been here before. Remember back to the first the week you started this ? That very first time ? But you did it, you got to week 4 or week 5 and while this new stress seems tough right now you have the confidence of previous achievement. You know your body is different now than before and you know you want more of that adaptation. Actually you can be justifiably proud of the changes you’ve made. You are on your way to that 10k.

And this is the whole idea of training. Gradually accumulating (and banking) changes in the loading (or stress) you give your body. It’s so important to start with care and the web holds many resources eg. Runner World. Another really safe way to re-discover running is via an organization like JogScotland. When it becomes more advanced individual coaches can use their skill and experience to know when and how much of what type of stress is best for your own goals. But all the same it’s just adding extra "lampposts" – admittedly for some people they are very very far apart (and often uphill) !

So bottomline. The brain fixes up the physiology and bio-chemistry for you in response to what you want to do. You “run” the talk and the brain delivers. But be careful, your body can’t adapt overnight. You need this to be a controlled stress – especially if you’re new to training. So don’t risk over-training and if you feel your plan is pushing you too hard then listen to your body. Some sort of “rule of thumb” for moderate runners might be to look to increase training after 5 or 6 weeks. Many training plans are weekly in their cycle but they don’t need to be. Famous triathlon coach Brett Sutton is deeply sceptical when considering plans fixated on 7 days. Like the advice for hermaphrodites to “know thyself” adapt any plan to suit your own home and work circumstances. If you can stay healthy, uninjured, motivated and improving by adapting to a 10 day cycle then do it – this is your journey after all.

While this has been all “good news” so far there are some penalties to being human. You will have some genetic limiters that may mean that while you’re adapted to achieving Olympic standards for space-hopping you are only ever going to be “middle of the pack” in terms of a half-marathon race. Sadly your aspiration is all about those 13.1 miles. Also for a while at the beginning of your running career the more you train the more you improve in roughly equal measure.

Getting faster gets harder - and risks over-training 

 But the better you become the harder fought the improvement. Thus in our 50m 10k quest we might find that in 6 months we have gone from couch to a 1h 10m 10k time. It could take another 6 months to break the hour barrier and maybe another year to achieve the goal. Olympians dedicate their lives to the pursuit of mere seconds. However this is no discouragement – a hard won goal is all the sweeter – and the day of breaking that hour is a fantastic achievement in its own right.





So what are your next steps :

1. Define the goal that grabs your imagination.
2. Look into your motivation about why that goal is so important to you.
3. Consider if you need to break down that goals into sub-goals. It needs to be achievable from where you are now – but also you should be a little unsure if you can actually do it.
4. Research how you might go about this. If needs be consider discussing your goal with your GP. Talk to your family and get their support. Telling them will make it more likely you’ll stick with it and it can be inspiring for them too.
5. Once you’re sure and your mind’s made up then get a training plan or join a group.
6. Get a training log and write your goal down.
7. Enjoy the process. Experiment with the plan and know exactly why you’re doing each workout.
8. Adapt and grow.