unCoachJasonTM
VO2max
The monthly newsletter of RunCoachJason.com
Dr. Jason Karp, running & fitness coach, consultant, freelance writer
August, 2007
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In
this issue:
RunCoachJason.com Launches REVO2LT Running Team™
Summer Mileage
Carbohydrates and the Menstrual Cycle
Altitude Training
Customized Training Programs
In
Press
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RunCoachJason.com
Launches REVO2LT Running Team™
Jason Karp, founder and director of RunCoachJason.com, recently launched REVO2LT
Running Team™
to provide science-based coaching for athletes of all levels and to create a
team atmosphere that fosters the pursuit of excellence. An acronym for
the three main physiological variables that determine distance running
performance—Running Economy, VO2max, and Lactate
Threshold—the team is open to runners of all levels, from
recreational runners to Olympians. While the team is currently
headquartered in Albuquerque, New Mexico, athletes can join regardless of
location.
All REVO2LT Running Team™ members will receive expert, scientific coaching and the support and encouragement associated with belonging to a team, as well as a racing uniform (singlet and shorts) and a dri-fit T-shirt. Members will have the opportunity to compete as a team at selected races throughout the country.
Anyone wishing to become a member of REVO2LT Running Team™ should send his or her running résumé, along with a list of goals, to Coach Jason Karp at jason@runcoachjason.com. For more information, go to http://www.runcoachjason.com/REVO2LTRunningTeam™. To order your own REVO2LT Running Team™ dri-fit T-shirt, go to http://www.runcoachjason.com/merchandise.
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Summer Mileage
Whether
you’re
preparing for a fall marathon or the high school or college cross country
season, you’re
likely running lots of miles in the summer to build an aerobic base.
Running lots of miles improves endurance by
increasing muscle capillary and mitochondrial densities, increasing red blood
cell and hemoglobin concentrations and total blood volume, increasing your
muscles’ ability to extract oxygen from the blood, and enhancing your
muscles’ ability to store carbohydrates.
Generally, the more miles you run, the better, but only up to a point. Doing too much training too early may have detrimental effects when it’s time to peak. A study published in Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research in 2000 found that the preseason training phase (May to August) of college cross country teams had the greatest impact on performance during the peaking phase (November). Teams that qualified for the national championships took more rest days during the preseason phase and actually ran shorter weekly long runs than teams that did not qualify (11.5 vs. 13.7 miles). During the competition phase (August to October), there was no statistical difference in weekly mileage between qualifying and non-qualifying teams (72 vs. 63 miles per week, respectively). Among the qualifiers, the teams that ran more miles (above 70 miles per week) and ran twice per day during the summer months actually ran slower at the national championships in November than teams that ran less. It’s possible that running too much in the summer makes you peak too early or makes you too fatigued to race at your peak in late fall. My suggestion is to run a solid but moderate amount of mileage in the summer, continue to increase your mileage through the fall until you hit your peak mileage, then back off when it’s time to taper.
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Carbohydrates
and the Menstrual Cycle
It
is well-known that endurance exercise performance is greatly influenced by the
amount of glycogen stored in skeletal muscles and that fatigue during
prolonged exercise coincides with glycogen depletion. So what does that
have to do with the menstrual cycle? Well, if
you’re a woman planning on running a marathon, you may want to plan it to
coincide with the luteal phase of your menstrual cycle.
A study published in International
Journal of Sport Nutrition and Exercise Metabolism
compared muscle glycogen content in women during different phases of the
menstrual cycle after eating either a high carbohydrate diet for three days
(8.4 grams of carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight per day) or a normal
diet for three days (5.2 grams of
carbohydrate per kilogram of body weight per day).
Women had the greatest muscle glycogen content during the mid-luteal
phase of the menstrual cycle after both the high carbohydrate and normal
diets. Muscle glycogen was lowest
during the mid-follicular phase, however the amount of muscle glycogen in this
phase was greater after the high carbohydrate diet.
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Living in Albuquerque, New Mexico, I’m reminded of altitude every time I go out my front door for a run. The heavy breathing, the slower interval and race times, the tired legs, all make for a humbling experience. Although many coaches and athletes attribute much of the success of the Kenyan and Ethiopian distance runners to their altitude training (I cringe every time I hear a T.V. commentator allude to such), and many elite runners come to Albuquerque to train for its altitude, there is little scientific or historical evidence that training at altitude is superior to training at sea-level for improvements in VO2max or sea-level performance. Historically, the best U.S. distance runners (with the exception of a few) have been born and lived and trained at sea-level. If altitude were the answer, there would be a disproportionate percentage of elite U.S. distance runners coming from altitude compared to the percentage of people in the U.S. who live there. In my study on the training characteristics of the 2004 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials qualifiers published in International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance, I found that altitude training was not a strategy used by the marathoners, as only 24% of men and 16% of women trained at altitude, and did so only because they resided there. Furthermore, there was no difference in marathon performance between athletes who trained at altitude and those who didn’t.
While
living at altitude stimulates the production of red blood cells
(erythropoiesis), giving you a greater
oxygen-carrying capability (which is a good thing), you can't run at the same
speeds for your workouts as you can at sea-level (which is a bad thing).
So, altitude training is a balancing act: making more red blood cells on one
hand versus training at slower speeds on the other hand. The trick is to
not let the latter outweigh the former.
The
slower speeds associated with altitude training has led to an interesting area
of research that has examined the physiological and performance effects of
living at altitude but training at sea-level (the “live high/train low”
training model) to acquire the benefit of both worlds. Some studies have
examined this issue by actually having athletes travel back and forth between
altitude and sea-level, while some studies have simulated altitude conditions
by having athletes at sea-level breathe different concentrations of oxygen for
varying amounts of time during the day. There is some evidence that this
live high, train low strategy may improve sea-level performance by inducing
the erythropoiesis associated with altitude exposure while maintaining
sea-level training intensities.
If
you live at altitude or plan to go there for vacation and you don’t want to
lose your sea-level fitness, try running what I call “Sea-Level
Speed” workouts in addition to your altitude workouts. Run at the
same pace as you would run at sea-level but cut the length of the interval so
you can run at your sea-level speed. For example, if you normally run
1,000-meter repeats at sea-level in 3:45 (6:00 pace), run 600-meter repeats at
altitude in 2:15 (6:00 pace). In next month’s
newsletter, I’ll describe how
to calculate your altitude training paces from your sea-level workouts to give
you physiologically-equivalent workouts at different altitudes.
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Customized Training Programs
Training
for a fall marathon or another big race? If you want a science-based program suited
to your needs and will help you run faster than you ever have before, try Coach Jason’s popular customized training programs
from 800 meters to the marathon for
beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels! Just
go to http://www.runcoachjason.com/merchandise
or e-mail jason@runcoachjason.com.
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In Press...
If
you’re a woman, when you were young, chances are some boy tried to show you
his biceps. Boys do silly things
to impress girls. As adults, men
still search for countless ways to make their biceps look appealing to
themselves and to the opposite sex. After
all, the biceps are the poster boy for strong, attractive muscles.
Most men wish they could have biceps like Popeye, worthy of attracting
Olive Oyl (and many other women), while most women wish they could have long,
sexy biceps that cause men to drop Olive Oyl in admiration.
Popeye Biceps, Part 6 of my
Better Body series that describes how to get the biceps you’ve always
dreamed of, along with a biceps training program, appears in the August, 2007
issue of Ultra-Fit magazine.
Top 3 Fat Fighting Workouts, my
article on the top 3 fitness-inducing, fat-burning cardio workouts, appears in
the August, 2007 issue of Ultra-Fit
magazine.
The
Three Players of Distance Running: An In-Depth Look at VO2max, Part 1 of
my series that explores the physiology of
distance running, appears in the Summer, 2007 issue of Track Coach, the
official technical publication of USA Track & Field.
Much has been written about strength training for the runner—everything from
lunges while holding dumbbells to calf raises on the edge of a stair to
endless repetitions of abdominal crunches while balancing on a big,
Have you ever walked through a gym and been intimidated by all the dumbbells,
barbells, and machines that put you in awkward positions that are best
reserved for the bedroom? You’re
not alone. Weight Training for Beginners, my article that
explains all the basics of weight training, including a sample program,
appears in the Summer, 2007 issue of Duke City Fit.
My
Fitness News contributions on burning
calories
during cardio, chocolate milk for recovery, weights for weight loss, exercise
and fatty livers, and ordering your exercises for optimal results appear in the
August, 2007 issue of Oxygen
magazine.
My
Fitness News contributions on the
best time
of day to exercise, stretching’s
effect on strength, how often you need to train, and interval training vs.
continuous exercise for burning fat
appear in the September, 2007 issue of Oxygen
magazine, on newsstands in August.
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To
view past newsletters, go to http://www.runcoachjason.com/newsletter.
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©2007
Jason Karp.
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