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

Progressing Workouts to Run Faster for Longer

With simple things, sometimes we overthink them, making them more complex than it needs to be.

This can happen to runners and their training.

The SAID principle (an acronym which stands for Specific Adaptation to Imposed Demand), is one of the most important basic concepts in sport science.

It means that the body will try to get better at exactly what you practice.

Want to get faster? Frequently practice running fast.

Want to run longer? Frequently practice running long.

Want to run faster for longer? Frequently practice running faster for longer.

There doesn’t seem to be much confusion about how to train to run faster or longer, but when it comes to running faster for longer there is a lot of misguided approaches out there.

How to train to run faster for longer is actually very simple.

Here’s how you do it:

First, decide how fast you want to run for a given distance, like 15:00 for 5,000m.

Then take an honest look at how far away your current condition is from that goal. Let’s say last week you ran a 5,000m in 16:00.

That’s about a 6% difference (if the difference is larger than 10% and the goal is most likely unrealistic).

Decide how long you have to work towards your goal fitness, perhaps 3 months.

Make sure your time horizons for your progression are realistic, this is where a qualified and experienced coach can help.

Next, do some simple math.

Running a 5K in 15:00 is about sustaining 4:48/mile pace or 72”/400m for 15 minutes.

Key training sessions should be focused on running 4:48/mile pace or 72”/400m for a total of 15 - 20 minutes.

However, in their current condition, our 16:00 5K runner cannot accomplish this ask without mini-breaks, or recovery intervals sprinkled throughout a training session.

How frequent and long the recovery intervals are in a workout depend on the runner and the length & number of runs at 4:48/mile pace in a session.

For example, if you performed 16 x 400m @ 72” you might only need 60” - 90” recovery after each 400m rep to complete sixteen 400s on pace. If you run 8 x 800m @ 2:24 you might need 3’ - 4’ after each rep to run every step on pace.

More volume isn’t necessarily productive (goal race pace workouts don’t need to be longer than 1/3 of the target race distance) nor is a faster pace than targeted.

What is most important is teaching your body to run goal pace — and doing it with high frequency.

The two best ways to progress goal pace training workouts is to either 1) extend the duration the runner runs at goal pace without interruption or 2) increase the density of goal pace running by shortening the recovery intervals.

A progressive extension of repetition length on a 15:00/5k goal pace workout could look like:

16 x 400m @ 72” on 3’ recovery → 8 x 800m @ 72'“/400m on 3’ recovery → 6 x 1,000m @ 72”/400m on 3’ recovery → 4 x 1 Mile @ 72'“/400m on 3’ recovery → 3 x 2,000m @ 72”/400m on 3’ recovery → 2 x 3000m @ 72”/400m on 3’ recovery, etc.

Progressing the workout density of goal pace running by shortening the recovery intervals could look like:

16 x 400m @ 72” on 90” recovery → 16 x 400m @ 72” on 75” recovery → 16 x 400m @ 72” on 60” recovery → 6 x 400m @ 72” on 45” recovery → 6 x 400m @ 72” on 30” recovery → 6 x 400m @ 72” on 15” recovery.

My suggestion is to aim for running 2 - 3 goal pace workouts per week (that would total about 30 - 60 minutes weekly of practice at goal pace) and progressing a workout on the 3rd or 4th running of it.

In about 12 weeks, provided a runner doesn’t have any interruption and workouts are able to progress either in extension and density — or both, a runner should be well prepared to run stronger and run close or faster than their target time.

Good luck! | jm

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.

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