The 5 Physiological Functions Determining Successful Endurance Performance

According to Christope Hausswirth, Ph.D. and Yann Le Meur, Ph. D, successful endurance performance requires the simultaneous activation of 5 key physiological functions:

1. Neuromuscular function — involves the central nervous system and the skeletal muscles, linked by a system of nerves ensuring the passage of information between the two. Its role is to ensure that the skeletal muscles produce the strength necessary to induce movement and displacement based on the command from the brain.

2. Energetic function — during activities of prolonged duration, the neuromuscular system is linked to the body’s metabolic capacity to ensure energy resynthesis from its own endogenous stores of sugars, fats, and proteins.

3. Ventilatory function — the oxygen required to oxidize these energy substrates is drawn from the air and processed by the lungs.

4. Circulatory function — the oxygen is then transported to the active muscles by the cardiovascular system.

5. Thermogegularoty function — ensures that the core temperature is maintained within a temperature range which will conserve the vital functions during activity and plays a major role in high thermal stress conditions and very long prolonged exercise bouts.

This breakdown from Hausswirth and Le Meur is simple and clear. It reminds both coach and runner that the athlete is a complex system of systems with a lot of interdependencies at play.

The quick takeaway from this breakdown is optimal training incorporates appropriately challenging training activities to improve each of these systems both individually and collectively. Neglecting the development of any of these vital physiological systems in training will result in performance limitations.

Source: Chapter 1, Endurance Training Science and Practice, Inigo Mujika

Buy This Book: Tom Tellez’s The Science of Speed, The Art of the Sprint

I just finished reading Tom Tellez’s new book The Science of Speed, The Art of the Sprint.

It’s one of the better books on the biomechanics of running and spiriting published recently.

Distance runner coaches are wise to read this book and apply the lessons on biomechanics to their runners as improved mechanics will directly result in improved running economy and better performance.

What makes this book so valuable is everything Tellez offers is 100% correct, as he looks at running mechanics from a pure physics standpoint. He’s very specific and detailed. Other sources on proper running mechanics will cite cues like “good posture” or “run tall” without going into any detail about what the cues mean and how to objective coach them. Tellez’s book empowers the coach with specific language, drills, and positions to look for, record, measure, and coach.

Also, The Science of Speed, The Art of the Sprint is very easy to read, it is only 130 pages written in simple, direct language making is accessible to a very wide audience — you don’t need a PhD in physics to understand and apply the knowledge offered.

Finally, it is a book for coaches by a coach, meaning it is very practical. You can read it and immediately apply concepts or drills tomorrow in practice to help your athletes get better.

The Science of Speed, The Art of the Sprint

100% Recommended by Super Running Blog

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Impact of Increasing Mileage on Running Economy

The following in an expert from Owen Andreson’s fantastic book Running Science, pp.326-327 on the Impact of Increasing Mileage on Running Economy:

One of the most popular strategies for enhancing running economy is actually quite a weak stimulus for upgrading economy especially when economy is measured at competitive speeds. Many runners believe that the strategy of increasing the weekly distance run, or volume, is a powerful way to become more economical, but scientific research fails to support this contention.

In classic work conducted by Finnish exercise scientists in 1999, one group of runners increased weekly running volume from 45 to 70 miles (72-113 km) while a second group remained at 45 miles (72 km) per week and added explosive training to their program. The group that added volume failed to enhance economy at all, while the explosive group improved economy significantly by approximately 3 percent.

Download a pdf of the Study: Explosive-strength training improves 5-km running time by improving running economy and muscle power

This Finnish research is quite revealing, giving researchers and runners a clear picture of a key mechanism by which running economy can be improved. In the study, the runners who added explosive training shortened foot-strike time as a result of the high-speed training; the change in foot-strike time was tightly correlated with the gain in economy. In effect, after explosive training, the runners’ feet needed to be on the ground for less time per step to maintain a specific velocity.

This reduction in contact time apparently reduces the oxygen cost per step and thus enhances economy. It is difficult to see why increasing the overall distance run would produce a similar effect. When distance is increased significantly, a large portion of the additional volume is conducted at submaximal intensities, the kinds of speeds that do not require a shortening of foot-strike time. Thus, the nervous system does not learn to regulate a quicker foot-strike; on the contrary, a pattern of slower running and more lethargic reaction of the feet with the ground may be locked in to the neuromuscular system, hurting economy at competitive velocities.

Source: Running Science, Anderson, pp. 326-327

Why Running Economy Is Important to Running Success

Of all the key performance variables which influence running performance, perhaps running economy is the most important.

Running economy is the oxygen cost of running at a specific speed. Runners with good running economy use less oxygen to run at a specific velocity compared to runners with less optimal economy.

A runner with a greater economy will tend to work at a lower percentage of VO2 Max for various speeds than a runner who requires lots of oxygen and therefore has poor economy.

In a post on why 10 weeks of Lydiard’s 100 Mile weeks of Marathon Training makes a runner faster, I asserted the main benefit from this style of base training was that it substantially improved running economy.

But there are a handful of other types of training which have a significant influence on running economy as well.

These include:

• Tapering

• Hill Training

• Strength Training

• Explosive Training

• Pace Specific Training

• Improved Mechanics

Tapering improves running economy in the short term because reducing the quantity and quality of training reduces fatigue. This is why it is common practice to take a few light days of training before races in a season and 2 weeks of very light training before the target race of a season.

Hill Training can have a very strong effect on running economy. Regular hill training increases muscular strength, motor-unit activation, heart rate and oxygen consumption-rates due to the demanding nature of propelling one’s body mass up an incline.

Strength Training improves coordination while running, thus lowering the cost of movement because lower energy and oxygen expenditures are required to correct movements that are not optimal. Additionally, strength training improves force production when the feet interact with the ground.

Explosive Training, like plyometrics, converts runners’ legs into slight stiffer springs that provide more propulsive force with each step. By contrast, less-stiff springs tend to collapse too much during stance and lack adequate recoil power.

Pace Specific Training. Running economy is velocity specific. Runners who bias their training towards running long miles at moderate tempos tend to become economical at moderate speeds, while runners who train at very quick paces regularly tend to enhance their economy at faster speeds. Lydiard’s 100 mile weeks of Marathon Training as a base phase only proves advantageous if runners then progress to their training to heavily emphasize race pace specific training in the later stages of the training year.

Improved Mechanics reduce oxygen consumption costs at any running speed. A key characteristic of effective running mechanics is positioning the body’s torso, legs, and arms (posture) in such a way that increases the influence of the elastic (avascular) properties of the body to create and sustain locomotion. Since elastic reactions require no oxygen, increasing their influence through better posture creates a situation where the oxygen cost of sustain locomotion is instantly reduced thereby improving running economy.

Reference: Running Science, Anderson.

How 10 Weeks of Lydiard's 100 Mile Weeks Makes You Faster

In his original training book, Run to the Top, to start off a training year Lydiard advocates for an initial General, or Base, Conditioning phase of 10 weeks of 100 Mile/week of “Marathon Training” for all runners in event groups 800m and up.

I’ve often been critical of the far too common misinterpretation and incorrect application of Lydiard’s 100 mile/week Marathon Training base phase. Some have mistaken that critique as a criticism of Lydiard's approach to base conditioning — which is not the case.

Lydiard is a coaching genius because, either implicitly or explicitly, he understood and got correct the critical importance of developing a runner’s Running Economy as a key fundamental physiological variable that impacts distance running performance.

Where most go wrong applying Lydiard’s 100 mile/week Marathon Training is not the volume of running performed, but the paces run.

Few run these 100 miles fast enough.

Remember, Lydiard called these 100 mile weeks “Marathon Training.”

Why?

As well soon see, roughly 75-80 miles per week are run at Marathon Pace with the other 25-20 miles at half-marathon pace or faster.

In a Lydiard base phase, any running which happens at paces slower than a runner’s marathon pace does not count as training. It’s general exercise, not training — he’s very clear on that.

Here is Lydaird’s original daily training guide he offers for a fit, but fairly new competitive runner to total 100 Mile/week of Marathon Training in the base phase:

• Monday: 10 Miles @ 1/2 Effort — over hills

• Tuesday: 15 miles @ 1/4 Effort — on roads

• Wednesday: 12 miles fartlek

• Thursday: 18 miles @ 1/4 Effort

• Friday: 10 Miles @ 3/4 Effort — on flat roads

• Saturday: 20 - 30 Miles @ 1/4 Effort

• Sunday: 15 Miles @ 1/4 Effort

The key to understanding Lydiard’s base period of “Marathon Training” in understanding his effort prescriptions.

For the Marathon Training base period, all the efforts are based on the runner’s 10 Mile race pace — which is very close to 15K race pace, or most runner’s general Lactate Threshold.

Lydirard assumed that his example runner’s 10 Mile race pace was 6:00/mile. The corresponding paces and percentages of 10 mile race pace for the efforts would then be:

• 3/4 effort = 6:15/mile — 95% of 10 Mile Race Pace

• 1/2 effort = 6:30/mile — 90% of 10 Mile Race Pace (Half Maraton Pace)

• 1/4 effort = 7:00/mile — 85% of 10 Mile Race Pace (Marathon Pace)

In Run to the Top, Lydiard explicitly says his example runner’s marathon pace is 7:00/mile, which the reader can see is the pace for 1/4 Effort. We can also establish that 90% of 10 M.R.P. is Half-Marathon pace.

Now let’s reexamine Lydiard’s daily training guide of 100 Mile/week of Marathon Training as duration and race paces:

• Monday: 1 hr 6 mins @ Half Marathon Pace — over hills

• Tuesday: 1 hr 45 mins @ Marathon Pace — on roads

• Wednesday: ~1 hr 15 mins at varying paces

• Thursday: 2 hrs 6 mins @ Marathon Pace

• Friday: 1 hr 2.5 mins @ 95% of 10 Mile Pace — on flat roads

• Saturday: 2 hr 20 mins - 3 hr 30 mins @ Marathon Pace

• Sunday: 1 hr 45 mins @ Marathon Pace

Here’s a pie chart visually expressing the total time spent training at each pace each week:

And the breakdown of the Total Time and Percent of Total Time spent at each pace per week:

@ Marathon Pace (1/4 effort):

• 8 to 9 hours — 77%

@ Half Marathon Pace (1/2 effort):

• 1 hour — 10%

@ 95% of 10 Mile Race Pace or faster (3/4 effort & Fartlek):

• 1.5 hours — 13%

As you can see Lydiard was very specific about what pace mattered most in base training — Marathon Pace.

Marathon Pace running is a physiological sweet spot for runners which advances several key performance variables, but most significantly running economy.

And 75-80 miles per week of Marathon Pace running is a very strong stimulus. Over 10 weeks, 750-800 miles of Marathon Pace will result in significant structural and physiological changes that will catapult a runner’s economy to new levels.

And these types of gains are very stable.

Meaning, they will last for months provided there is a consistent, light training load applied regularly — like a 2 hour long run once per week.

By enhancing his runner’s economy in such a significant way, Lydiard’s runners could sustain and benefit from the subsequent periods of high-intensity training in the Hill and Sharpening Phases of Lydiard’s training year.

Enhanced running economy was the foundation of Lydiard’s training approach. Which 100% agrees with today’s science and understanding of how to best train runners to become faster.

But remember, running economy doesn’t improve by just running more miles, it improves by running more “quality” miles, which in Lydiard’s case meant Marathon Pace miles.

High-Intensity Training Improves in VO₂ Max More than High-Volume Training

The following in an expert from Owen Andreson’s fantastic book Running Science, pp.86-87, on Improving VO₂ Max:

Although VO₂ Max is a weak predictor of endurance performance unless runners of widely varying ability levels are compared, it is nonetheless true that individual endurance runners who increase their personal VO₂ Max will often improve their individual performances.

As a result, exercise scientists have attempted to identify training strategies that have the greatest possible positive impact on VO₂ Max.

Many runners believe that the best way to optimize VO₂ Max is to conduct high-mileage training. However, the scientific study that detected one of the largest improvements ever recorded in VO₂ Max in well-trained runners actually linked an upswing in intense training and a decrease in mileage with the big jump in VO₂ Max. (Study: Effects of 4-wk training using Vmax/Tmax on O2max and performance in athletes)

In this investigation, experienced runners were using a variety of different training techniques prior to the onset of the research, including long, slow distance work; speed sessions; tempo training; overspeed efforts; and weight training.

Over a 4-week period, the athletes conducted two high-intensity interval sessions per week. Each workout consisted of six intervals performed at the intense pace of vO2max, or the minimal running velocity that elicits VO₂ Max. These work intervals lasted from 3 to 4.5 minutes. The rest of the weekly training was composed of light recovery runs.

After just 4 weeks, the runners upgraded their 3K performance times by about 3 percent, and VO₂ Max jumped by 5 percent from 61 to 64 ml • kg-1 • min-1. This kind of aggressive increase in aerobic capacity is totally unexpected and almost unprecedented in highly trained distance runners, who often have a difficult time getting O2max to budge at all. As mentioned, this is one of the largest increases in aerobic capacity ever recorded in a published scientific study carried out with experienced runners.

Separate research also supports the idea that intense training has the strongest impact on VO₂ Max.

By definition, intense training means work carried out at a high percentage of VO₂ Max—that is, at high speed. It is far different from high-volume training, which means heavy mileage running carried out at moderate intensity.

In a study completed with relatively inexperienced athletes, 12 individuals exercised at an intensity of 100 percent of O2max over a 7-week period, while 12 other subjects worked at an intensity of 60 percent of O VO₂ Max. For a 20-minute 5K runner, 100 percent of VO₂ Max would be a pace of about 90 seconds per 400 meters (~6 minutes per mi), while 60 percent would correspond with 150 seconds per 400 meters (10 minutes per mi).

The latter group actually trained for longer periods of time so that the total amount of work per training session was equivalent between groups. After 7 weeks, the group working at 100 percent of VO₂ Max achieved a 38 percent greater increase in O2max compared with the lower-intensity, greater duration of training group, prompting the researchers to conclude that high-intensity exercise at around 100 percent of VO₂ Maxis the key factor for the promotion of optimal VO₂ Max improvements.

A follow-up review that looked at 78 published scientific studies exploring the relationship between intensity, training volume, workout duration, and VO₂ Max found that optimal gains in VO₂ Max could be achieved by training as often as possible at an intensity of 90 to 100 percent of VO₂ Max. Ninety percent of VO₂ Max roughly corresponds with 10K race speed, while 100 percent of VO₂ Max is often close to competitive speed for a mile.

Traditionally, high-volume training carried out at moderate intensities has been categorized as aerobic running, while low-volume training conducted at high intensities has been termed anaerobic running (and has been presumed to have a smaller impact on maximal aerobic capacity), but research indicates that these concepts are misleading.

In an inquiry carried out at the August Krogh Institute at the University of Copenhagen, one group of experienced endurance runners ran about 100 kilometers (62 mi) per week at an average intensity of 60 to 80 percent of VO₂ Max (so-called aerobic running), while a second group of experienced runners ran just 50 kilometers (31 mi) per week while emphasizing fast-paced interval sessions (so-called anaerobic running); work-interval length varied from 60 to 1,000 meters (.03-.6 mi). After 14 weeks, the lower-mileage, higher-intensity runners had improved the main marker of aerobic metabolism, VO₂ Max, by 7 percent, while the higher-mileage, lower-intensity runners had failed to upgrade VO₂ Max at all. The 1K performance times also improved for the lower-mileage, higher-intensity group (from 2:41 to 2:37) but failed to increase for the higher-mileage, lower-intensity runners.

VO₂ Max is a terrible predictor of performance among experienced runners with similar training backgrounds and has been linked with an inadequate theory of fatigue during running. However, individuals who improve their maximal aerobic capacities often enjoy significant gains in performance. A limitation on neural output seems to be the key factor which caps VO₂ Max. Overall, scientific research strongly supports the idea that high-intensity training, rather than high-volume work, produces the greatest improvement in VO₂ Max.

Source: Running Science, Anderson, pp. 86-87

The Biological Law of Training

The basic tenant of training is that in order to increase the size, strength or endurance of muscles — or the functional capacity of other physiological systems — they must be repeatedly stressed (in both intensity and duration) at levels greater than those normally encountered.

When training is developmental increases in volume and intensity are designed to induce large structural and functional changes in the system.

Reducing training loads maintains the functions developed.

Training stress is also called a stimulus, which is the workload imposed on the athlete. The cell, organ or system immediately goes into a state of fatigue when exposed to a workload. Adaption, or response, to the training tress happens during the periods of recovery following workloads.

Training stress reduces the functional ability of the athlete. The period of subsequent recovery initiates mechanisms that result in super-compensatory adaptions which eventually lead to improved performance. The application of training stress and recovery is considered a single process — as stimulus (stress) and response (recovery) are two inseparable processes.

Efficient physical conditioning is a consequence of balanced nutrition, consistent sleep patterns combined with an exercise schedule of appropriate intensity, duration and type, carefully planned over a prolonged period which includes suitable restoration phases to regenerate energy stores, repair cells and promote regular super-compensatory adaptions.

The Biological Law of Training

The structure and performance capability of an organic system is determined by its genetic constitution and the quality and quantity of stressful workloads, and depth of recovery/adaptation from workloads.

Sources:

• Road to the Top, Vigil, p.11;

• Supertraining, Verkhoshansky, p.82

Is the Nervous System what's limiting Aerobic Capacity in Runners?

This expert from the book Running Science explores the influence of the Nervous System on VO2 Max and Aerobic Capacity. In bold are my highlights.

it is possible that the cardiovascular system is not capping VO2max.

As T.D. Noakes and A. St. Clair Gibson have noted, overall muscular performance and thus the oxygen-consumption rate during running are determined by the nervous system’s recruitment of motor units (collections of muscle cells) inside the leg muscles.

If this seems confusing, remember that the muscles cannot act alone during running; they must wait for commands from the brain and spinal cord in order to engage themselves in the act of running. A sustained, high level of muscle engagement by the nervous system would inevitably lead to a high VO2max in an individual runner. In contrast, a more limited level of recruitment would produce a lower VO2max, even in a case in which a runner had ample reserves for oxygen shipment and use in the heart and leg muscles. As Noakes has observed, runners with higher values of VO2max appear to have nervous systems that not only recruit a greater number of muscle cells during intense running but also sustain this recruitment for greater than average time periods. This observation has important implications for training.

Basically, the research on neural output means that in order to maximize VO2max and performance, endurance runners must train their nervous systems in ways that optimize motor-unit recruitment. This can hardly be accomplished by high-volume, submaximal training, the traditional way to train for VO2max enhancement, since motor recruitment during such work is modest. Rather, it can only result from highly intense, Kenyan-style training that relentlessly provokes greater neural outputs and motor-unit activations. For an individual runner, the key to developing the highest-possible VO2max appears to involve optimizing motor-unit recruitment, with supporting roles played by expanded heart and leg

Source: Running Science, Anderson, p. 80

Top 5 Books on Arthur Lydiard’s Training Methods

I’ve read A LOT of books on famed New Zealand running coach Arthur Lydiard and his training methods.

Here are, in order, my pick for the top 5 books on Lydiard’s Training Methods.

1. Running Your Best: The Committed Runner's Guide to Training and Racing by Ron Daws

   If you only read one book ever on Lydiard’s Training Methods this it is.

   Ron Daws does an amazing job of explaining in clear detail and simple language Lydiard’s methods, its benefits and drawbacks, and how to successfully apply Lydiard’s training principles to a variety of training situations and runners. It was written in 1985, so it is light on scientific evidence, but overall the information given is sound even to this day.

2. The Self-Made Olympian by Ron Daws

   Ron Daws was an average college runner who became one of the top US marathoners in the late 1960s as well as an Olympian in 1968. This book is part autobiography, part training log, and part training guide. It’s short, 140 pages, but it’s an insightful read. Daws is the first athlete I know who was not directly coached by Lydiard but achieved high-level competitive success applying his training methods.

3. Run to the Top by Arthur Lydiard and Garth Gilmore

   Published in 1962, Lydiard’s first book offers a raw, in-depth insight into his famed training methods. It’s hard to find, but worth the hunt. Later books by Lydiard and Gilmore offer more adaptive, less rigorous training meant for a wider audience. This book details how he developed his Olympic Gold Medalists and World Record Holders from seemingly out of nowhere. It reads more like a biography than a training text. Think Once a Runner meets Daniels Runner Formula. It does offer training schedules, but they’re meant to be more illustrations than instructions.

4. Distance Running by Robert M. Lyden

   Published in 2000, Lyden’s book offers a modern perspective on why Lydiard’s training methods work. Lyden is a Lydiard purest. He retains Lydiard’s annual cycles of acquisition (Base Period, Hill Period, Sharpening Period, and Peak Period) while offering modern scientific evidence and understand as to why Lydiard’s training periods and sequence results in successful adaption to the distance runner. At almost 500 pages, this book is packed with useful knowledge. It includes training schedules aimed at high school runners for 800m, 1500m, 3000m and 5K XC as well as schedules for 10K and Marathoning.

5. Healthy Intelligent Training: The Proven Principles of Arthur Lydiard by Keith Livingstone

   Livingstone’s book on Lydiard’s methods is the most accessible to a wide audience on my list. It offers a basic and succinct understanding of Lydiard’s methods written in a fun, very easy to read tone. This book a quick, enjoyable read.

5 Key Physiological Attributes of Successful Marathoners

Running success is a combination of both generic and training factors.

Genetics determines the range within which a runner can improve.

Training determines where a runner’s current abilities fall within their own genetic range.

5 Key Physiological Attributes of Successful Marathoners are:

1. High Lactate Threshold

2. High Glycogen Storage and well-developed Fat Utilization Ability

3. Excellent Running Economy

4. High Maximal Oxygen Uptake Velocity

5. Rapid Recovery from training stimuli

No one physiological factor makes a successful marathoner. It is the combination of all of these, and other, physiological factors along with biomechanical variables and psychological strength that combined determine marathoning success.

Reference: Advanced Marathoning, Pfitzinger & Douglas, p. 4