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Effects of Fatigue on Distance Runners

March 16, 2020 by Leave a Comment

This post provided by Complete Track and Field

By Scott Christensen

Coach Christensen’s teams have been ranked in the national top 10 eight times. He won the 1997 High School National Championship and his squads have captured multiple Minnesota State Championships. Scott has coached 13 Minnesota State Championship-winning teams and 27 individual Minnesota State Champions. He was the USTFCCCA Endurance Specialist School junior team leader for the World Cross Country Team in 2003 and the senior team leader in 2008. Scott is a 14-year USATF Level II endurance lead instructor.

The onset of fatigue in certain systems of the body is what causes running performance to deteriorate and degrade.  Too much fatigue and exhaustion occurs, with the inability to continue an activity.  Fatigue can be acute, as in a single race or training session, or chronic, as in inadequate day to day regeneration of the physiological systems due to training or other factors.

atp moleculeThere have been multiple controlled scientific studies done on fatigue in performance over the past 40 years.  The results of these studies have led scientists to broadly characterize fatigue into central and peripheral categories.  Central fatigue refers to poor motivation, altered central nervous system (CNS) transmission, or recruitment.  Peripheral fatigue involves impaired functional transmission, muscle electrical activity and activation, and the limitation of molecules used to re-synthesize adenosine triphosphate (ATP).  The latter being a muscle fuel issue.

Skeletal muscles are the organs that move the human skeleton through movement.  Movement is a repeated sequence of contractions followed by relaxation of the muscle filaments that make up the muscle itself.  Since the muscles are attached to the bones with tendons, as a muscle contracts along its length it eventually pulls on the bone itself.  The speed by which the muscle filaments contract ultimately characterizes the muscles as a slow twitch or a fast twitch category of muscle by physiologists.  The contraction speed or energetics of muscular contraction, like all bio-chemical reactions in the body, is controlled by the presence and abundance of various enzymes.

The presence of ATP is what separates living organisms from non-living objects.  It makes no difference if it is the simplest bacteria or the most complex animal; the molecule of life is ATP.  This is the molecule of usable energy and energy reserve for all organisms.  In humans, a problem exists when ATP usage is examined.  Humans can store only a small amount in their cells before it has to be re-synthesized.  Fortunately, humans have three mechanisms for re-synthesizing ATP and that is through the process known as respiration.  One of the respiration processes is known to be aerobic and thus requires oxygen to cycle, while the other two are known to be anaerobic so oxygen is not required.

Coaching Resource: The Training Model for High School Cross Country

The ATP molecule has a high energy chemical bond holding the third phosphate to the rest of the molecule.  When the third phosphate separates from the molecule, energy is released.  When the third phosphate attaches itself again, energy is used or what can also be thought of as being stored.

Skeletal muscles consist of long slender filaments that overlap and slide against one another during lengthening and shortening of the muscle fiber.  These protein filaments are of various types with myosin and actin being the predominate varieties.  Mysosin is a thicker strand, so think of a shape like a pencil.  Actin is thinner so think of a toothpick.

muscle contraction

Actin is very smooth on the surface, but myosin has little tennis racquet shaped stalks that protrude and have the ability to “grab” (actually turn slightly and hold) onto the actin filament as a muscle “contracts” following shortening. The slight turning action of the myosin stalk causes a cross-bridge attachment known as a muscle contraction because the shortened filaments are actually being held by the myosin heads.  The filaments do not release and return to a relaxed lengthened position until the action of an opposing muscle “pulls” the mysoin away from the actin.  The speed by which all of this occurs characterizes the muscle as a fast twitch (contractions), or a slow twitch muscle.

The molecule ATP becomes important because in order for the myosin head to turn slightly and grab, energy must be used.  The energy is ATP and there must be one molecule of ATP on each of the billions of myosin stalks present in skeletal muscle.  In order for rapid contractions to continue occurring, then ATP must be re-synthesized and reloaded onto the myosin stalk as quickly as possible.

In humans the energy source used to re-synthesize ATP molecules can be traced to the foods that are consumed.  Anything eaten that contains measurable calories is a potential energy source for ATP re-synthesis in respiration.  Some foods contain more energy than others.  Proteins and carbohydrates contain about 4 calories per gram, while fats and oils contain 9 calories per gram.  Some foods are more easily worked with by the systems of the body.  Carbohydrates are water soluble which makes them a preferred fuel because the human body is roughly 60% water anyway.  Fats and oils are not water soluble and go into storage unless the exercise demand (demand for ATP) is high.

Respiration is the process of reducing carbohydrates, fats, oils, and proteins to ATP molecules.  The most efficient respiration is aerobic.  One molecule of carbohydrate yields 36 ATP molecules that can then be placed on the myosin stalks.  Aerobic respiration occurs in the mitochondria of muscle cell (also called fibers) and requires the presence of oxygen and the necessary enzymes to make it all work.  Anaerobic respiration only yields 2 molecules of ATP per molecule of carbohydrate.  It does not occur in the mitochondria of the cell, but throughout the interior of the cell if the proper enzymes are present.  Aerobic respiration also produces carbon dioxide as a byproduct while anaerobic respiration produces lactic acid.

There is a third type of respiration in humans called alactic anaerobic respiration.  In this process ATP molecules are re-synthesized by breaking down creatine phosphate molecules and harvesting the energy.  Creatine phosphate is present in small quantities in the cells of animals.  ATP molecules from aerobic respiration are then used to re-synthesize the creatine phosphate molecules that are native to the cell during a time of less demand.   No lactic acid is produced in this process.

Time needed to yield re-synthesized ATP molecules is the reason humans have three forms of respiration.  The anaerobic alactic system is the immediate source of re-synthesis.  This system lasts up to 6-7 seconds before fatigue drains its capacity.  So the limitation is the amount of creatine phosphate native to a muscle fiber.  The anaerobic lactate respiration process will last from about 5 seconds to 90 seconds in most humans.  It is not that fatigue occurs due to carbohydrate limitations, but with lactic acid complications causing acidosis to the pH of the extra-cellular fluids.  The aerobic respiration process lasts from about one minute to hours or days depending on the demand.  Carbohydrate and fat storage depletion is the cause of fatigue in this system.

Coaching Resource: The Training Model for High School Middle Distance

Why three forms of respiration if the aerobic system appears to produce the highest yield of ATP molecules and is the most resistant to fatigue?  It is about force production and speed of the muscle contraction.  The higher the force demand, the greater the dependence on the anaerobic energy systems and the quicker fatigue sets in.


Filed Under: Cross Country, Distance

Strength Training for Cross Country Runners

February 16, 2020 by Leave a Comment

This post provided by Complete Track and Field

By Scott Christensen

Strength is categorized as a primary physical component of the human body. The other primary physical components are speed, coordination, flexibility, and endurance. The aim of physical training is to improve the fitness of these five components in a balanced program to meet the specific demands of the sport. The role of a coach is to design and implement a program balance that improves the fitness of the individual primary physical components to the degree that is necessary for athletic success.

Of the five primary physical components the one that is most stressed in cross country running is endurance. Make no mistake about it the cross country coach needs to spend the great majority of training time addressing endurance. Development of the other four components does not substitute for endurance development, but rather adds to a much smaller degree to the endurance runners overall fitness.

Figure 1 indicates the relative emphasis of the five primary physical components to each other in a cross country specific training plan. While endurance earns 10 out of 10 in emphases, strength is relegated to 4 out of 10 in training emphasis. Much of even this 4 is gained strictly through the act of running. Running alone is strength work. To push back off the Earth requires strength. To run faster requires a stronger toe-off and to run farther requires long bouts of uninterrupted toe-offs. This is strength work.

Related Coaching Resource: Scott Christensen’s Strength and Power for Distance

By far the two most important strength factors in cross country running are the toe-off moment in the running gait cycle and body core stability in maintaining proper posture as the runner fatigues during the race. Once the posture begins to change due to fatigue and weakening of the core muscles, the stride length and stride rate change enough that overall performance is impacted.

Core stability is related to dynamic balance, coordination, and balance among core muscle groups. By stabilizing the abdominal, back, and shoulder muscles, distance runners increase their training gains, improve performance, and reduce low back and other related injuries. Core exercises are generally done with a body-weight resistance that allows for 15-30 repetitions per exercise. Sets of core exercise must be done regularly in each microcycle with a minimum of every other day. An exercise called the Gambetta leg circuit helps develop strength for a stronger toe-off needed for faster sub-maximal running.

The routine consists of 20 body weight squats, rest 30 seconds, 20 split leg lunges (10 on each side), rest 30 seconds, and then 10 body weight squats ending each with a double leg jump. Rest 3 minutes and repeat. Do this at least every other day from the general preparation period through the pre-competition period.

Resistance work increases the size of muscle fibers and recruits additional fibers to help with the specific task at hand. Therefore, strength training for cross country runners has performance benefits.

By adding muscle mass to the body, additional oxygen is required to complete cellular respiration. Cross country running revolves around a race pace that is at VO2 max. By adding muscle mass it strangles a process that is already the bottle-neck of physiological activity and is the primary performance inhibitor.

Cross country running only involves moving the body at sub-maximal speeds. There is no object to toss, people to sweep aside, or something to stop. Strength training for cross country runners should reflect that specificity in sport profile. Body weight resistance is enough to develop the strength needed to successfully complete a cross country race. By adding artificial resistance, too much unnecessary muscle fiber enlargement and recruitment occurs at a very steep oxygen cost. The concept of efficient running economy outweighs these unnecessary muscle mass gains.

In the running motion, arms are strictly used to balance the torso. If the right-side of the torso twists or becomes unbalanced the left arm reacts to stabilize it, and so on. There is no strength component, only a balance component. Unnecessary arm muscle mass gains and fiber recruitment due to artificial resistance stimulus does not help the arms balance the torso “better”, and again occurs at a tremendous loss of running economy. Arms “learn” to balance the torso more effectively by doing miles and miles and miles of running, not by artificial strength training. Running economy improves by race specific and sub-maximal training.

Improvement of all five of the primary physical components adds up to greater athletic fitness. Cross country running is similar to few other physical activities. It is heavily skewed to development of the endurance component. There are obvious gains to be made in developing the other four components as well, but never, ever at the cost of oxygen consumption. Aerobic power and running economy are the deciding factors in cross country running performance and these two variables are best addressed by running and body core resistance activities.

Checkout Scott’s Strength and Power Program for Distance

 


Filed Under: Cross Country, Distance

How Middle Distance Coaches Coach Speed, Not Time

December 1, 2019 by 2 Comments

The athlete profile is a tool that knowledgeable coaches use to shape a macrocycle of training and physical development for a middle distance runner.  At its core, an athlete profile is usually a well-documented history of past workout and race performances that is then used to guide the direction of future training.  To that end, we will consider how middle distance coaches actually coach speed, not time.

Keeping an athlete profile should be more than maintaining an ongoing list of final and split time performances from races.  It should most resemble a grid that includes racing and workout data from anaerobic and aerobic training sessions, time trials data, and even projected performance data sets.  The profile should clearly point out runner strengths and weaknesses in a measurable way that makes sense to both coach and athlete.

For these reasons, the more advanced athlete profiles do not use just raw times to describe performances across race events and workouts.  A suggested, more valuable time unit to use in profile data is a standardized unit that shows the relationship of time to distance.

The unit used, meters per second (m/s) is a valuable data set to include in a middle distance runners athlete profile for various timed distances.  It is how scientists measure speed.  It is how middle distance coaches design workouts.  Middle distance coaches do not really coach time, they coach speed.

Speed is the distance traveled per unit of time.  It is how fast an object, or in this case a middle distance runner, is moving.  Speed is the scalar quantity that is the magnitude of the velocity vector.  It doesn’t have a direction.  Higher speed means a runner is moving faster. Lower speed means the runner is moving slower.  If a runner isn’t moving at all, there is zero speed.

The rate of movement in one direction by a runner is important in analyzing a timed performance.  A coach should mark all time-graded performances, from workouts to races, in meters/second when entering them in an athlete profile.  In that way, a true comparison of the rate of movement, from maximum speed–through glycolytic speed–through race distance speed–through aerobic speed can be made.  From this data, graphs can be plotted, trend lines drawn, and weaknesses and strengths of speed at various distances can be determined for the athlete.

 

* Coaching Resource: Training Model for Middle Distance

 

Let’s look at the prescribing pace for anaerobic work sessions.  A good determiner of workout pace in the anaerobic training domain is with derivatives of an athlete’s current 400-meter time, but a better determiner is with a fully automatic, electronically timed, 30-meter effort done on the fly (acceleration is prior to commencing the 30-meter distance).  Not every distance coach is equipped to get electronically timed 30-meter efforts in this way, thus most rely on exhaustive 400-meter times, which will be close enough in most cases.

Both of these tests will give a coach raw final time for the distance covered.  It is then simple mathematics to get meters per second to determine the actual speed at varying distances.

As an example, Jack ran 400 meters to exhaustion in 53.3 seconds yesterday, so his speed is 7.50 m/s for 400 meters (400/53.3).  On the other hand, Dylan ran a full-automatically timed 30 meters on the fly in 3.32 seconds, so his speed is 9.04 m/s for 30 meters (30/3.32).

If Dylan raced Jack in the 400 meters who would win?  Scientific studies have shown that a maximum effort run of 30 meters (on the fly) to be about 113-114% of an exhaustive 400-meter effort when comparing speed.  Let’s just assume Dylan to be on the low end of individual variation at 113%.  His 30 meter speed of 9.04 divided by 1.13 = 8.0 m/s 400 meter speed.  His 400-meter time at that speed should be 50.0 seconds when dividing 400 by 8.  Dylan would win the race based on his speed, but of course, there are other factors such as will and determination that must be factored in as well.

Exercise scientists have proposed percentages of 400-meter speed (i.e. anaerobic capacity) in meters per second, and percentages of 30-meter speed (i.e. maximum speed) in meters per second for prescribing training intensities for the full range of anaerobic work as shown in table 1.  The only variable a coach will need to know is the athlete’s 30-meter time or their 400-meter time, and those current marks should be in their individual athlete profile.

Referring back to Dylan, his 400 meter exhaustive speed is 8.0 m/s.  The Special Endurance 2 workout for him today is designed to be 4 x 300 meters.  His target speed is 104% of that (table1) or 7.69 m/s.  Divide 300 by 7.69 and his exhaustive 300 meter time would be 39.1 seconds.  But, today he is doing four 300 meter repeats, not one.  His coach decides on 43 seconds for each of the four repeat 300s as a workout for Dylan.  Now a determination needs to be made on the recovery interval Dylan will need to be able to complete four 300 meter repeats in 43 seconds successfully.  His coach decides it will take a five minute recovery interval.

A chart can be developed to determine aerobic speed as well, and that is shown in table 2.  The index marker for aerobic speed is not 30 meters or 400 meters as in anaerobic training but is 2 mile effort to exhaustion or vVO2 max m/s speed.


Referring back to Jack this time, he also ran a 10:30 for 2 miles yesterday besides his 400 split of 53.3 on the 1600 relay.  His vVO2 max speed is 5.07 m/s from that test (3200/630).
Tomorrow, he will hopefully do a tempo run of 7200 meters running 85% of that pace, or 4.30 m/s for a total projected time of 27:54, after doing the math.

Jack’s athlete profile has a table that looks like table 3 as part of it, so it is easy for him or his coach to try to line up current race or workout speed.  As any of Jack’s current raw times change during the season his chart will have to be updated.

However, with many athletes on a team, it is quite a hassle to update the table after every race.  A better plan is for Jack or his coach to update the profile about every three weeks after a number of races have been run.

 

* Additional Teaching Resource: Every 800m – 1600m Workout For The Entire High School Season

 

Another useful feature of table 2 is the set of goal columns on the far right side.  Early in the year, Jack and his coach determined reasonable goals for him in the 1600 and 3200 events.  These raw times were converted to speed values as visual evidence to show Jack the concept of speed and not just time, and what he needs to improve on during the season.


Jack someday wants to run 4:20 for 1600 meters in high school.  He needs to know that the speed for accomplishing that is 6.15 m/s.  Jack will have to work above and below his current speeds at various distances to develop faster 1600 meter speed.  He is only a sophomore, but according to table 3, he is now only capable of carrying 6.15 m/s speed for about 700 meters.

Hopefully, he will get there in the end, but at least he knows what he has to do because his coach coaches speed and not time.

 


Filed Under: Distance

September Training for Cross Country Athletes

September 8, 2019 by Leave a Comment

This article was provided by Complete Track and Field

There is no better time in the cross country season then September.  Fun invitational meets, hard-core training, an already well-formed team, pretty good weather, and still eager runners all make for a very enjoyable month.  For a cross country coach, September training is especially interesting because it is the month of training creativity.  Already past is most of the general conditioning work, and the team is far from any sort of tapering activities, so workouts can be put together that are taxing, creative and full of variety.

September begins with the last fragments of the general preparation period.  The focus there is still on building a strong mileage base, strength work in the form of hill repeats, vVO2 max work done in moderation, and an introduction to some lactate building activities.  If the runners have had a good summer of general prep work then it need only extend through the first week of September before transitioning to the specific preparation period.  As one moves to a different stage in the season, so do the activities, physiological stimuli, recovery periods, and training focus.  This is the idea behind periodization of training.

The specific preparation period covers most of September for serious runners.  If you are using nine-day training microcycles, then it is basically the last 25-27 days of the month or almost three full nine-day cycles.  For most programs there will be a race in each of these nine-day cycles, but many modern programs only race once every couple of weeks these days, so not every cycle may contain a competition.

There are still a few programs remaining that will have two races in each nine-day microcycle and the adjustments to training in these situations are unfortunately quite drastic.  Whatever the case, these are certainly not the most important races of the year so it is fine to temper it down the day before a competition, but do not set up much rest for any race in September unless it is an extraordinary situation.

* Training Resource: Speed Development for Distance Runners

What training changes occur in moving from the general preparation period to the specific preparation period?  The answer lies in the name itself.  Training activities are added that address the specific demands of the 5k race, replacing general activities like base mileage days that focus on building a generic distance runner.  For example, a previously done general six mile run is replaced by a four mile tempo run.  The former may have been done at 7:20/mile pace and the latter is done at 6:00/mile pace.  Hill runs previously done on a 45 second hill are now done on a 4:00 minute hill.  vVO2 max work previously done as 5 x 800 on a grass course with 4:00 minute recovery for everybody now become 4 x 1600 meters on a road/tar trail at individual 3200 meter date pace with recovery time equal in length to work time for each repeat.  The previously done ten mile long run done at continuous pace now has a series of pickups over the last three miles of the same ten mile run.

Other stimuli need to be introduced as well during the specific preparation period such as high blood-lactate training loads.  Working blood-lactate values that would be found more in a one mile race than a longer cross country race should be prescribed.  Workouts such as these are not stressed during specific preparation, only introduced once or twice.  They do not become stressed for a 5k runner until the following block of training time called the pre-competitive period which is most of October.  But, by introducing workouts with a higher lactate load in specific preparation they prepare the body for what is to come, plus they are great strength workouts because the work must be repeated as well as possible despite the dramatic increase in fatigue caused by the inability to buffer the lactate accumulating in the blood.

Start with Special Endurance 2 length workouts but shorten the recovery interval.  Shortening the recovery during specific prep workouts is not intuitive, but it keeps the intensity low despite the very high heart rates.  This will prevent the athlete from sustaining a muscular injury because it is a lower velocity then near-maximum effort.  If the recovery interval is increased rather than decreased (which may make more sense), then the athlete can run faster and this is when “speed causes injury”.  Do the workout on a safe, fast, surface and prescribe something like 6 x 400 meters with 2:30 recovery between repeats.

During the specific preparation period many different workouts are added, generally replacing longer and slower work.  One of the concerns in doing this is that training mileage may drop too much.  The key to the puzzle is to keep the mileage in the specific prep period within 90%, or better yet, equal to the mileage values found at the end of general prep.

When the runners do a four mile tempo run, or a set of 400’s, or any other work that does not keep them in the seven or eight mile per day range consistently they will need to tack on miles at the end of the workout.  That is fine!  Any work demand done at the end of a workout is considered endurance effort and is useful in building fitness in a 5k runner.

 

* Coaching Resource: Training Model for High School Cross Country

 

September is fun!  But, it is also a very hard-working month.  Stress the appropriate aerobic and longer anaerobic work and introduce the shorter anaerobic work that is yet to come, so that when they get to the competition period (tapering and peaking) those workouts are effective too.  If the training stimuli is not appropriately periodized throughout the season, then adaptation will not occur effectively, and no method of tapering is going to fix that situation.

 

Sample Nine-Day Training Cycle for Late September:

Monday:           vVO2 max day, 4 x 1600, @date pace 3200 meter pace/2, work time=rest time,
Tuesday:          10 mile long run,
Wednesday:     6 x 400, 2 min recovery, 2 mile warmup, 4 mile cool down,
Thursday:         4 mile tempo run, 2 mile warm up, 1 mile cool down,
Friday:              6-7 mile base run,
Saturday:          Race Day,
Sunday:            5 mile recovery run,
Monday:           4 x 4:00 hills, 2 miles warm up, 3 miles cool down,
Tuesday:          8 x 200 meters on grass, 2:30 recovery, 2 mi warm up, 4 mi cool down.

 


Filed Under: Cross Country, Distance

When to De-emphasize VO2 Max Training in Cross Country

September 8, 2019 by Leave a Comment

This article was provided by Complete Track and Field

Since the early days of exercise science testing and experimentation, it has been accepted that aerobic power development is one of four training domains used in preparing distance runners.  Consider the combined energy zone events of the 800 meters through the 10,000 meters; including both short and long cross country competitions.  Improvement in the anaerobic glycolytic domain in all of these races hinges on better management of hydrogen/lactate ion presence; while aerobically, the three domains are: improving running economy, shifting the lactate threshold, and boosting aerobic power.  These three aerobic domains have a sliding influence based on the distance of the race.  The shorter distance races lean more toward aerobic power, while the longer races lean more toward running economy.  Today we will consider how this relates to when to deemphasize VO2 max training.

For exercise scientists studying aerobic power, there is a maximum rate of oxygen consumption that can be measured during incremental exercise, or exercise of increasing intensity.  This maximum value is called VO2 max (V is volume, O2 is molecular oxygen, and max is maximum).

Maximal oxygen consumption reflects the cardiovascular and respiratory fitness of an individual.  For distance coaches, VO2 max is an important determinant of aerobic power during prolonged exercise and is a crucial variable in race performance.

 

* Training Resource: Speed Development for Distance Runners

 

In experienced runners, once the VO2 max system is nearly developed through a combination of athlete physical maturity, and plenty of prior vVO2 max work, a switch to the other two training domains of lactate threshold and running economy is necessary for continued success.  The training route most commonly taken is to implement a series of workouts that fractionalizes individual vVO2 max intensity into longer training runs.  These can be done as either continuous runs or inter-style workouts as shown in table 1.

Let’s look at a couple of case studies on how vVO2 max fractionization can be used in training to either add to or replace 100% vVO2 max work.

  1. Shannon is a junior and has been on both the high school varsity cross country and track teams for the past two years. She has run 5:05 for 1600 meters, 11:12 for 3200 meters, and 18:43 for 5000 meters in cross country.  Her tempo run pace always correlates to her 85% vVO2 max date pace and she seems to recover in 24 hours from the workout.  As expected, her improvement has slowed a bit as she has gotten older.  Let’s diagnose Shannon and look at specific training.  Shannon no doubt has a mature VO2 max system already in place, so despite continued workouts at vVO2 max pace, it is not going to improve much.  Her aerobic capacity work, mainly done as long runs, are her favorite thing to do because they come easily to her.  Typically, females are a couple of years ahead of males in VO2 max development, and some more than that.  If Shannon is to get faster at distance races, then her best route to success is to try to raise her LT pace from 85% vVO2 max to a value closer to 90% vVO2 max.  Her LT paced workouts need to evolve from continuous tempo runs to critical velocity (CV) runs done as intervals (table 1). To address this, Shannon should continue to do vVO2 max paced training sessions bi-weekly beginning half-way through the general preparation period, and concurrently do CV paced runs bi-weekly at the same time; doing both all the way to the championship meets in the competition period.  When Shannon begins the CV interval sessions she will first have to start with a 3200 meter test to determine her vVO2 max date pace and then do the mathematics to determine CV pace. Let’s say on August 10, Shannon runs 11:40 to exhaustion for a 3200 meter time trial, so her present-day vVO2 max pace is 5:50 per mile.  For the next fourteen weeks, Shannon should do seven spaced workouts at her date CV pace, in this case, 90% vVO2 max, to improve her LT.  The typical total volume for each of the seven sessions should be 4-5 miles done as intervals.  The date pace for Shannon is set at 350 seconds (5:50/mile) divided by .90 for a workout pace of 6:28 per mile, but she will not run a full mile at that pace, so one more mathematical division must be done. Shannon’s typical CV workout is 6 x 1000 meters with 90 seconds recovery between each repetition.  Her calculated date pace for today is 6:28/mile or 4:03/1000 meters.  As her 3200 improves throughout the year, the fractionally derived CV pace will too.
  1. Jack is a 21-year-old junior in a successful collegiate program. His athlete profile for 5000 meter personal bests notes 14:35 as a freshman and 14:21 as a sophomore. His desire is to compete in 10 kilometer championship track and cross country races over the remaining two years of school.  In high school, his best marks were 4:14 for the 1600 meters and 9:15 for the 3200 meters.  Jack’s improvement has slowed a bit as he has gotten older and the chances of running sub 14:00 in college have dimmed.  Let’s diagnose Jack and look at specific training.  Jack has spent his career stimulating adaptation to his VO2 max system and it has reached developmental maturity. So, despite continued workouts at vVO2 max pace, it is not going to improve much more.  In moving to frequent LT work sessions, Jack will not only shift to an aerobic capacity emphasis to perform well at 10k, but his 5k time may drop as well; probably lower than it ever would have with just continued vVO2 max paced work.  During each week of training, Jack should do a long run with frequent surges that accounts for 22% of his weekly volume, a tempo run of five miles at 85% of his vVO2 max, and a critical velocity (CV) pace workout.  The rest of the week is basically recovery runs at the aerobic threshold.  A typical CV work session for Jack would be 4 x 2000 meters at 90% of vVO2 max with two minutes of recovery between repeats.  Follow this unit with five minutes rest and then do 3 x 200 meters at 800 meter pace with 90 seconds recovery between repeats.

Aerobic power training exercises are not done in isolation from the other aerobic domains.  Work sessions directed toward VO2 max improvement also concurrently improve aerobic capacity and running economy.  Greater aerobic power can also help shift the lactate threshold to a higher pace.

 

* Coaching Resource: Training Model for High School Cross Country

 

Running economy, which is the efficiency a distance runner consumes food energy and oxygen molecules to facilitate movement, is dependent on aerobic power because the economy too is heavily dependent on greater blood flow to the muscles.  Running economy improves with VO2 max training, as does lactate threshold velocity.  However, there comes a time when VO2 max training needs to be deemphasized and economy and lactate threshold training emphasized with specifically targeted workouts if further development of the cross country runner is to occur.

 


Filed Under: Cross Country, Distance

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