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

The Simple Way to Successfully Progress Running Workouts, Part 1

This progression template is for race pace specific workouts primarily for 10,000m to 800m runners.

For 10 Mile to the Marathon the race pace specific workout progression is a little different, and I’ll cover it in a part 2 post.

The point of running workouts is to provide a strong stimulus to spur the adaption of the runner in the desired direction.

Recovery between workouts is where the adaption takes place.

1. Early race pace specific workouts will focus on speed and duration with long recovery intervals.

Example: For the 5K runner who wants to run 15:25 for 5K, an early workout would be 15 x 400m @ 74”. The recovery interval between 400s will be a long as needed so the runner can hit 74” on every rep. This session would afford the runner 18:30 of practice time at the desired goal pace which is 20% more time than will be spent running this pace on race day. In training, I’ve found the +20% time “rule” works well for developing a runner’s stamina at goal race pace.

2. As fitness advances, extend the rep distance without concern of the recovery interval duration. Do not change the duration of time spent at goal race pace within the workout.

Example: 6 x 1,000m @ 74/400m with recovery interval length as needed so the runner can run every step of the 1Ks at 15:25 pace.

3. Further advances in fitness will be expressed by a shortening of the recovery intervals without a slowing of the pace on the repetitions.

Example: 6 x 1,000m @ 74/400m with 60” recovery

4. Repeat steps 2 & 3 until the runner can perform 80-85% of the race volume at pace without interruption.

Example: 3 x 2,000m @ 74/400m with recovery interval length as needed to hit pace then advancing to 3 x 2,000m @ 74/400m with 60” recovery which eventually can advance to 1 x 4,000m @ 74/400m + 1 x 2,000m @ 74/400m.

25 Golden Rules of Long Distance Running

These rules come from this Runner’s World article. It’s clear the target audience is the total novice runner.

This list should be only 8-10 rules, as many of the “rules” are filler and common sense.

I highlighted in bold what I think are the useful “rules” on this list to keep in mind — all the rest are either half truths, silly, or common sense.

1. The most effective training mimics the event for which you’re training.

2. Increase weekly training mileage by no more than 10% per week.

3. Wait for about two hours after a meal before running.

4. Start every run with 10 minutes of walking and slow running, and do the same to cool down.

5. If something hurts for two straight days while running, take two (or more) days off.

6. Don’t eat or drink anything new before or during a race or hard workout.

7. For each mile that you race, allow one day of recovery before returning to hard training or racing.

8. A headwind always slows you down more than a tailwind speeds you up.

9. You should be able to talk in complete sentences while running.

10. Build up to and run at least one 20-miler before a marathon.

11. For a few days before a long race, emphasize carbohydrates in your diet.

12. Runners improve for about seven years.

13. To be safe, run facing traffic.

14. Running uphill slows you down more than running downhill speeds you up.

15. Sleep one extra minute per night for each mile per week that you train.

16. Consume a combination carbohydrate-protein food or beverage within 30 to 60 minutes after any race, speed workout, or long run.

17. Runners who only run are prone to injury.

18. The best way to race to a personal best is to maintain an even pace from start to finish.

19. Replace running shoes once they’ve covered 400 to 500 miles.

20. Take at least one easy day after every hard day of training.

21. Dress for runs as if it’s 10 degrees warmer than the thermometer actually reads.

22. The most effective pace for VO2 max interval training is about 20 seconds faster per mile than your 5K race pace.

23. Lactate-threshold or tempo-run pace is about the pace you can maintain when running all-out for one hour.

24. Do your longest training runs at least three minutes per mile slower than your 5K race pace.

25. The longer the race, the slower your pace.

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.

Highlights on Block Periodization

Experts from the New Horizons for the Methodology and Physiology of Training Periodization paper by Vladimir B. Issurin.

As one of the most practically oriented components of theory, training periodization is intended to offer coaches basic guidelines for structuring and planning training.

However, during recent decades contradictions between the traditional model of periodization and the demands of high-performance sport practice have inevitably developed.

The main limitations of traditional periodization stemmed from:

1. conflicting physiological responses produced by ‘mixed’ training directed at many athletic abilities

2. excessive fatigue elicited by prolonged periods of multi-targeted training

3. insufficient training stimulation induced by workloads of medium and low concentration typical of ‘mixed’ training

4. the inability to provide multi-peak performances over the season

Its general idea proposes the sequencing of specialized training cycles, i.e. blocks, which contain highly concentrated workloads directed to a minimal number of targeted abilities.

Unlike traditional periodization, in which the mixed training program is intended to develop many abilities, the consecutive development of targeted abilities typical of block periodization produces training stimuli for several functions, while the other abilities decrease.

In this view, the duration of residual training effects becomes of primary importance. The correct sequencing of the mesocycles within the training stage makes it possible to obtain ‘‘optimal superposition of residual training effects’’, so as to allow competitive performance at a high level for all motor and technical abilities.

This possibility arises because the training residuals of basic abilities last much longer than the residuals of more specific abilities, while the residuals of maximal speed and event-specific readiness are the shortest. Thus, the total length of a single training stage ranges from 5 to 10 weeks, depending on competition frequency and sport-specific factors.

The residual training effect concept is relatively new and is less known than other types of training outcomes. Long-lasting training is intended to develop many motor abilities, which remain at a heightened level for a given period after training cessation. This retention belongs to another special type of training effect called the ‘residual training effect’, which can be characterized as ‘‘the retention of changes induced by systematic workloads beyond a certain time period after the cessation of training.’’[37] The general approach to ‘training residuals’ induced by ‘residual effects of training’ was conceptualized initially by Brian and James Counsilman,[88] and focused mainly on the longterm aspects of biological adaptation

You can download a pdf of this paper for free here.

I highly recommend Issurin’s books Block Periodization: Breakthrough in Sports Training and Block Periodization 2: Fundamental Concepts and Training Design for anyone interested in learning more about Block Periodization.

When Should Runners Lift Weights?

In endurance sports, high energy demands are met by increased oxygen consumption as well as augmented anaerobic metabolism. The cardiovascular and respiratory systems become highly active. Athlete performance is limited by the central systems of circulation, respiration, and heat dissipation rather than peripheral muscle function alone.

When heavy strength training is combined with high-intensity endurance training, strength gains are diminished. Therefore, care must be taken when combining endurance training with strength training.

When strength training and endurance training are done concurrently it is difficult for an organism to adapt simultaneously to the conflicting demands.

A same-day running session followed by a strength training session impedes strength gains.

Similarly, a same-day strength training session followed by a running session impedes endurance adaptations.

Knowing this, when should runners lift weights?

Answer: As the first training session/activity on days designated as running recovery days.

Here’s why: The desired training effect of running recovery days is recuperation from prior running-focused training stressors (stimuli). Running performed on recovery days is purposely non-demanding and aimed to provide a restitution load, not a training load. Strength training stimulates different biological systems than running training and produces different enzyme signaling. The fatigue accumulated from strength training is mostly central (neurological) fatigue not peripheral (metabolic) fatigue. Recovery from central fatigue happens much more rapidly, sometimes overnight, than recovery from peripheral fatigue.

Therefore, on a running recovery day, a runner is in a metabolic pre-fatigue state. Strength training results in heavy neurological stress and little, if any, metabolic stress. Performing a recovery run immediately after a strength training session will force the runner to run at a more appropriate (slower) pace due to pre-existing metabolic fatigue and the newly introduced neurological fatigue. The effect of this cumulative fatigue will result in a slow running pace which is desirable on recovery runs, as a common mistake by most runners is making their easy runs too stressful by running them too fast.

Reference: Science and Practice of Strength Training, Zatsiorsky, Kraemer, Fry, Chp. 11

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

Jonathon Riley Training Week: December 20-26, 1999

Target Event(s): 5,000m

Best Marks at the time

• 1500m 3:40

• 3,000m 7:57

• 5,000m 13:36

Competitive Level / Affiliation at the time: NCAA Div. 1 / Stanford University

Coach at the time: Vin Lananna

Training Period: Winter Break

TRAINING WEEK

December 20-26, 1999

M 6-8 x 1,000m or (6-8 x 3:00) at 5K Date Pace with 3:00 rest

T Training Run + strides + Weights

W Training Run

Th AM — 25:00-35:00 tempo run at 10K Date Pace, PM — 8 x 300m @ 1500m Date Pace with 300m jog

F Training Run + strides

S Long Run (75’ - 90’)

Su Training Run or Rest

Training Notes:

• Training Runs = 7 - 9 miles

• 10K Date Pace = 4:52 - 5:00/mile

• 5K Date Pace = 4:32 - 4:40/mile

• Weekly Mileage = 70 miles

• Strides = 4 - 6 x Fast 150m

• 2-3x week add 30’-50’ AM Runs

• Long Runs to be “Good Quality”

View Jonathon Riley’s World Athletics profile here