unCoachJasonTM
VO2max
The monthly newsletter of RunCoachJason.com
Dr. Jason Karp, running & fitness coach, consultant, freelance writer
Director & Coach, REVO2LT Running Team™
December, 2008
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In
this issue:
REVO2LT Marathon Training™
VO2max Distance Running Clinic
Dr. Karp Signs Book Deal with Sourcebooks
Enzymes, Oxygen, and Metabolism
The Runner’s Heart
Holiday Gifts
In
Press
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REVO2LT Marathon Training™
From
January 3 to May 31, 2009, Dr. Jason Karp will coach REVO2LT
Marathon Training™, the official marathon training program of
RunCoachJason.com for experienced runners
who want to run the 2009 San Diego Rock 'n' Roll Marathon. An acronym for the
three main physiological factors of distance running performance—Running
Economy, VO2max, and Lactate Threshold—REVO2LT
Marathon Training™
is a unique,
science-based program that targets each of these factors so that
runners can run their best marathon.
Runners in the program will be coached through mid-week track workouts
and weekend long runs at
various locations around San Diego. Runners will also receive weekly
educational seminars, half-price admission to the third annual VO2max
Distance Running Clinic, a 10%
discount at Road
Runner Sports, free PowerBar
products, a pre-marathon pasta party, an official REVO2LT
Marathon Training™ dri-fit T-shirt, scenic group long runs with course
support
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VO2max Distance Running Clinic
Mark
your calendars! RunCoachJason.com’s
third semi-annual VO2max
Distance Running Clinic for runners, coaches, and fitness professionals
will be held on January 17, 2009 at the Marina Village Conference Center in
San Diego, California.
Named after the most popular physiological variable related to distance
running, the VO2max Distance Running Clinic will transform your
running.
Speakers include
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Dr. Karp Signs Book Deal with Sourcebooks
Dr.
Jason Karp of RunCoachJason.com and director and coach of REVO2LT
Running Team™ signed a deal in November with the publisher
Sourcebooks, Inc. for his book tentatively titled, Leaving with Your Ph.D.,
a book for graduate students that helps them navigate through the Ph.D.
process. The
book,
which covers such topics as choosing the right school, choosing
the right advisor and committee members, doing research, tricks of the trade,
thinking like a doctoral student, studying for qualifying exams, and writing
the dissertation, is currently scheduled for publication in Fall, 2009.
Sourcebooks,
Inc., is a non-fiction, commercial, and literary fiction publisher based in
Naperville, Illinois. Among its best sellers is the well-known Fiske
Guide to Colleges.
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Enzymes, Oxygen, and Metabolism
Enzymes
function as biological catalysts that speed up chemical reactions.
In the absence of enzymes, chemical reactions would not occur quickly
enough to generate the energy needed to run.
The amount of an enzyme also controls which metabolic pathway is used.
For example, having more aerobic enzymes will steer metabolism toward a
greater reliance on aerobic metabolism (Krebs cycle and electron transport
chain) at a given submaximum speed. Enzymes
are also activated or inhibited (i.e., their effectiveness in speeding up
chemical reactions can be either increased or decreased), determining which
metabolic pathways are functional during certain cellular conditions.
Thus, enzymes essentially control metabolism and therefore control the
running pace at which you fatigue.
A number
of studies have documented an increase in enzyme activity in response to
training. One of the first among
these was published in 1967 in Journal
of Biological Chemistry, in which aerobically trained rats increased
mitochondrial enzyme activity, increasing the mitochondria’s capacity to
consume oxygen. More recently, a
study published in Journal of Applied
Physiology in 2006 found that citrate synthase (a key enzyme in the Krebs
cycle) activity significantly increased by 37 percent in novice runners after
13 weeks of training during which weekly mileage increased from 15 to 36.
Similarly, sprint training induces changes in the anaerobic enzyme
profile of muscles and also increases aerobic enzyme activity, particularly
when long sprints or short recovery between short sprints are used (which
increases the aerobic contribution to the workout).
For example, a study published in Journal
of Applied Physiology in 1998 found that sprint
cycle training three times per week for seven weeks using 30-second
maximum-effort intervals significantly increased both anaerobic and aerobic
enzyme activity.
But
let’s
not forget oxygen, the patriarch of metabolism.
The availability of oxygen determines which metabolic pathway
predominates. For example, at the
end of the metabolic pathway that breaks down carbohydrates (glycolysis),
there is a fork in the road. When
there is adequate oxygen to meet the muscle’s needs, the final product of
glycolysis—pyruvate—is converted into an important metabolic intermediate
(Acetyl CoA) that enters the Krebs cycle for oxidation. This
irreversible conversion of pyruvate inside your muscles’ mitochondria is a
decisive reaction in metabolism since it commits the carbohydrates broken down
through glycolysis to be oxidized by the Krebs cycle.
However, when there is not adequate oxygen to meet the muscle’s needs, pyruvate
is converted into lactate. An associated consequence of this latter fate
is the accumulation of metabolites and the development of acidosis, causing
your muscles to fatigue and you to slow down.
The
more aerobically developed you are, by focusing on increasing your mileage and
running at your lactate threshold pace, the more you’ll steer pyruvate
toward the Krebs cycle and away from lactate production at a given pace.
That’s a good thing, because the amount of energy you get from
pyruvate entering the Krebs cycle is 19 times greater than what you get from
pyruvate being converted into lactate (38 vs. 2 ATP, respectively).
While pyruvate will always be converted into lactate given a fast
enough speed, the goal of training is to increase the speed at which that
occurs.
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The Runner’s Heart
Probably
the biggest difference between me and 2008 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials
champion Ryan Hall (besides my charming good looks) is the size of our hearts.
The amount of blood the heart pumps with each contraction of its left
ventricle (the heart’s largest chamber that is responsible for sending blood
to every part of your body except the lungs) is called the stroke volume.
Multiply the stroke volume by your heart rate, and you get the amount
of blood pumped by your heart each minute, called the cardiac output.
The larger your left ventricle, the more blood it can hold; the more
blood it can hold, the more blood it can pump.
So characteristic is a large heart of genetically gifted and highly
trained runners that it is considered a physiological condition by the
scientific and medical communities called Athlete’s Heart. While
you and I may never attain the heart size and associated cardiac output of
Ryan Hall, specific training can make your heart larger and increase your
maximum stroke volume and cardiac output.
Long intervals provide the heaviest load on the
cardiovascular system because of the repeated attainment of the heart’s
maximum stroke volume and cardiac output (and, by definition, your VO2max)
during the work periods.
Evolutionary biologists believe that the structure of an organism evolves to
cope with the stresses to which it is subjected, which has led to the
theory of symmorphosis—that an organism’s structural design is regulated
by its functional demand. As
preeminent anatomist Ewald Weibel
wrote,
“…the
quantity of structure incorporated into an animal’s functional system is
matched to what is needed: enough but not too much.”
Remarkably,
structural changes can also occur in the short term
in response to training: bones increase their density, muscle
fibers increase their metabolic machinery, and cardiac muscle grows
larger.
In response to the imposed threat of running
at your heart’s maximum ability to pump blood, your heart responds by
increasing its contractility (pumping strength) and by enlarging its most
important chamber so that more blood and oxygen can be sent to the working
skeletal muscles.
In lieu of a laboratory test to tell you the velocity
at which VO2max (vVO2max)
is achieved,
you can use current race performances or heart rate.
vVO2max is close to 1- to 1½-mile race pace for
recreational runners and close to 2-mile race pace (10 to 15 seconds per mile
faster than 5K race pace) for highly trained runners.
You should be within a few beats of your maximum heart rate by the end
of each interval. Examples of
workouts are: 3 x 1,200 meters (or 4-5 minutes) at vVO2max with 3
to 4 minutes recovery; 4 x 1,000 meters (or 3-4 minutes) at vVO2max
with 2½ to 3 minutes recovery; and 6 x 800 meters (or 3 minutes) at vVO2max
with 2½ to 3 minutes recovery.
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Holiday Gifts
Know
someone who wants to lose weight and get fit, is training
for a marathon, or wants to become
a better runner? A personal trainer or coach
is the perfect holiday gift because its effects last a long time.
Investing in your health and fitness is a smart financial decision. To purchase
coaching or personal training gift certificates or my popular customized training programs, e-mail
jason@runcoachjason.com or go to http://www.runcoachjason.com/merchandise.
Need a stocking stuffer for Christmas? My popular presentation from the 2008 American College of
Sports Medicine Health & Fitness Summit—Chasing
Mercury, Battling Hercules: Getting Fitter and Stronger with Periodization
Training—is
available on DVD. The DVD provides an overview of the theory of
periodized training, reviews research findings, discusses the use of training
cycles, and provides examples of how to properly periodize training
programs. To order a DVD, just go
to http://www.runcoachjason.com/merchandise.
My CD collection, The 3 Players
of Distance Running also makes a great stocking stuffer. You’ll
get all the info you could ever want on VO2max, running economy,
and lactate threshold, including specific workouts to help you reach your
running goals, all
presented in colorful slide presentations!
To order, just go to http://www.runcoachjason.com/merchandise
or e-mail jason@runcoachjason.com.
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In
Press...
If
you’re
flying on United Airlines this month, be sure to read the magazine in the seat
pocket in front of you. Airport
Exercises, my article that describes some great exercises you can do
in the airport while
waiting for your flight so that you never have to miss a workout when
traveling, appears in the December, 2008 issue of Hemispheres, the
in-flight magazine of United Airlines.
Marathon
des Sables,
my article on how to prepare for an ultra-marathon, with special consideration
given to the Marathon des Sables in Morocco, appears online
at Personal
Training on the Net, an online education resource for fitness
professionals.
Running Errors,
my article that examines
four common mistakes—going out too fast in a race, doing speed work without
first doing enough aerobic mileage, running workouts too fast or too slow, and
not eating after a workout—with advice on how to correct them, appears in the
November/December, 2008 issue of the United Kingdom’s
Ultra-Fit magazine.
Also check out my quotes on how genetics affect your running performance in
the January/February, 2009 issue of Runner’s
World, on newsstands in December.
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To
view past newsletters, go to http://www.runcoachjason.com/newsletter.
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unsubscribe from this newsletter, e-mail jason@runcoachjason.com
with the word “unsubscribe” on the subject line.
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©2008
Dr. Jason Karp.
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