Expert: Ryan Hale - 4/16/2011

Question
Hello Ryan Hale,

I am currently doing an extensive research and journalism project on running addiction and eating disorders. I was wondering if I could answer a few questions I have for my article. If you don't mind, I'd love to hear details of your story as well as advice. I'd really appreciate your input! Here are my questions:

1. How'd you get involved in running?
2. What changed when things got unhealthy?
3. How was your eating habits?
4. How did you recover?
5. What do you consider a "running addiction"
6. How would you describe a "runner's high?"
7. What is your advice for runners who become addicted and over-run as well as under-eat?

Thank you so much!

Answer
I first began running to lose weight.  I ran at night so nobody would see me.  The result was a 40 lb weight loss and took me from 215 to 169 at my lowest.

I eventually got into cycling and struggled to keep my weight under 170 (by the way, I'm nearly 6ft 2in).  My body wanted to be around 175-180.  I realized that I was trying really hard to keep my weight for cycling, which meant having to miss out on having fun with friends and missing parties and things.  So, I just gave it up (the dieting that is, I still ride).

My diet was really pretty good, I watched portion sizes and counted fat grams.  I was just really, really, strict with it.

My recovery was just a shift in my thinking.  I remained active as part of my life style but stopped being so strict with my diet.  I never really had an eating disorder but it was pretty strict diet.

There are 2 factors to running addiction.  One is neurobiological, that is, one comes to like and need the endorphins and other changes in brain chemistry.  The other, and I believe larger factor, is psycho-social.  That is to say that a runner is rewarded for their behavior.  They receive compliments, there is a social network, your friends are all runners, you don't have to deal with other life stresses while running, you see results of your training and dieting which is all very reinforcing.  Soon all of the things that make a good athlete, like self discipline, putting up with discomfort, dedication, and never being satisfied, can make for a bad eating disorder.

The body has been created with a natural pharmacy inside.  We are designed to run and there are over 40 anatomical features that are specific to running.  That means that running has been an important part of the development of man over time.  We have brain chemistry and other chemicals in our body that helps us to do just that and they typically don't kick in until we've run really, really, hard or really, really far.
The high is a point when your body releases endorphins which act to numb pain and thus lessen our perception of the effort we are giving.  Other chemicals like adrenaline help us physiologically with our performance.  There are also psychological factors that work subconsciously which include our brain's perception of our effort, body temp, muscle feedback, blood sugar levels, and oxygen levels, as well as the knowledge of our past performance which gives us an idea of what our body is capable of.  All of these feed into the runner's high.

Also, it's no fun feeling your training leave your body after you've been at a peak (it's like coming off a drug high I imagine).  It's also no fun to have to get back into shape after de-training.  Who wouldn't want to feel on top of the world?  But it's not healthy or possible all the time.

I respect the fact that sometimes in an effort to make great achievements that our lives cannot be very well balanced.  So often we have to have one foot over the edge into doing things to the extreme.  That may be over running or under eating or both.  If someone is training for a specific event or part of their season then that's what it may take.  The problem I see runners and cyclists get into is when they want to be at peak condition going straight into the season, continue running hard during the season, be at peak condition for championships, and then try to maintain their fitness into the off-season.  I used to work with a national level female runner. By the end of the season when she was peaking for championships she was a pound or two under a safe weight.  We'd monitor it for the week or so that she was there, finish the championships and immediately recover.  She'd gain a few pounds, take a couple weeks off and then begin her off-season period of training which included a lot of activities other than running.  The running she would do would be slow, fun runs without a focus on time or distance.

Running addiction can also mean that the runner is bent on not gaining weight and instead of using methods common to bulimia, they run to work off calories consumed.  Often there are co-existing conditions such as anxiety or depression that accompany eating disorders, so the runner may be trying to self-medicate with exercise.  Research shows that moderate exercise is as effective in many cases of depression as ant-depressive medications, so running could make a depressed person feel much better.  Therefore, they don't want to stop and would like to keep the high going.

I think this is where good coaching comes into play.  People who coach themselves often don't do it right and the best coaches I know stress the importance of recovery and rest as much as they stress training.  In fact, the best coach I know places rest at the highest priority because he figures his athletes are already highly driven to train but not to rest.

Hope this helps.  Let me know if you have anything else.