VO2max

The monthly newsletter of RunCoachJason.com

Dr. Jason Karp, running & fitness coach, consultant, freelance writer

Director & Coach, REVO₂LT Running Team™

February, 2009

*******************************************************************

In this issue:  

Dr. Jason Karp to Speak at San Diego State University Writers’ Conference and 

    ECA World Fitness Convention

Coaching Consultations

Periodization

800-Meter and Mile Fatigue

In Press

*******************************************************************

Dr. Jason Karp to Speak at San Diego State University Writers’ Conference and ECA World Fitness Convention
This month, I will be speaking at the 25th Annual San Diego State University Writers’ Conference on February 6-8 and the ECA World Fitness Convention on February 26-March 1.  

The San Diego State University Writers’ Conference will be held at the Doubletree Hotel in San Diego’s Mission Valley.  My presentation, Writing and Publishing What You Know, will offer attendees an insider’s perspective on how they can use their education to write magazine articles in their fields and get editors to publish their work.  

The San Diego State University Writers’ Conference brings writers, editors, and agents from all genres together to help writers improve their writing skills, develop their marketing awareness, and introduce them to the writing professionals who can facilitate the next step in their publishing career.  For more information and to register for the conference, go to http://www.ces.sdsu.edu/writers. 

The ECA World Fitness Convention will be held at the Marriott Marquis Hotel in New York’s famous Times Square.  My two presentations—Chasing Pheidippides: Marathon Training 101 and Chasing Mercury, Battling Hercules: Getting Fitter and Stronger with Periodization Training—will be packed with the latest scientific information on training for results.  

ECA is an international association representing the wellness and fitness community.  For more information and to register for the convention, go to http://www.ecaworldfitness.com/con_ny09_1_info1.html. 

*******************************************************************

Coaching Consultations

Are you having trouble meeting your running and fitness goals?  RunCoachJason.com can help.  We offer the best consultations for runners, coaches, and personal trainers.  If you want to improve your running performance, or you want the opportunity to have your fitness and running questions answered immediately, you can talk to Coach Jason live.  For a list of consultation topics and to book a consultation with Coach Jason, go to http://www.runcoachjason.com/consulting. 

*******************************************************************

Periodization

There’s an old way to do almost everything.  For example, listening to cassette tapes on your Walkman, connecting to the Internet with a modem, and wearing leg warmers on the treadmill would all be considered by most as old ways of doing things.  There are also old ways to exercise, which may prevent you from seeing the results you want.  One of the things I notice is that people tend to do the same workouts day after day, week after week, month after month.  But the better, more elegant way to train is to undulate the stress.  Sometimes give more, sometimes give less.  Sometimes give more volume, sometimes give more intensity.  

For example, when you weight train, instead of doing the standard 3 sets of 8 to 12 reps day in and day out, change your training by varying the sets, reps, and weight.  Start with a moderate amount of weight with more sets and reps, and progress to a heavier weight with fewer sets and reps.  There’s a fancy term to describe this method of training—linear periodization.  A number of studies have shown that periodized exercise programs, in which the volume and intensity of workouts are varied, yield better results than non-periodized programs, especially over the long-term.  One of those studies, published in American Journal of Sports Medicine in 2000, found that female college tennis players who lifted weights 2 to 3 times per week for 9 months with a periodized program, during which the weekly resistance and sets varied, had greater increases in bench press, shoulder press, and leg press strength, tennis serve velocity, and lean body mass and had a greater reduction in body fat percentage compared to those who trained with a traditional program of 1 set of each exercise for 8 to 10 reps.  A study published in Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research in January, 2009 found that women who weight trained using a linear periodized program, progressing from higher volume/lower intensity to a lower volume/higher intensity (a 12-14 rep max to a 4-6 rep max) increased their muscle strength more than did women who used a reverse linear periodized program that was the opposite of the linear program.  The women using the linear periodization approach also increased their fat-free mass and decreased their fat mass, while the women using the reverse linear periodization did not.

*******************************************************************

800-Meter and Mile Fatigue

Fatigue is the inability to maintain or repeat a given level of muscle force production, resulting in an acute impairment of performance.  Fatigue is not something specific to slow or average runners.  Even world record holders fatigue; they just do it later in a run and at a much faster pace than the rest of us.  

There are many things that cause a decrease in muscle force production, and those things change as the duration and intensity of the activity changes.  The fatigue associated with the 800 meters is not like the fatigue associated with the marathon.  Over the next few newsletters, we’ll examine the causes of fatigue for different races and what you can do about them.

Fatigue in the middle distances (800 meters and mile) is primarily caused by a high rate of oxygen-independent (anaerobic) metabolism, which occurs when running faster than your heart can provide oxygen to your muscles.  When you exceed your aerobic metabolic capacity to resynthesize adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a number of problems begin to arise inside your muscles.  Your muscles lose their ability to contract effectively because of an increase in hydrogen ions, which causes the muscle pH to decrease, a condition called acidosis.  Acidosis has a number of nasty side effects: 1) it inhibits myosin ATPase, the enzyme that breaks down ATP inside muscles, which decreases muscle contractile force, 2) it inhibits the release of calcium (the trigger for muscle contraction) from the sarcoplasmic reticulum, the place where calcium is stored in muscles, and 3) it inhibits the production of ATP from the metabolic pathway glycolysis by inhibiting phosphofructokinase, the rate-limiting enzyme of glycolysis.  

In addition to hydrogen ion accumulation, other metabolites accumulate when running fast, including inorganic phosphate (P_i), adenosine diphosphate (ADP), and potassium, each of which causes a specific problem inside muscles, from inhibition of specific enzymes involved in muscle contraction to interference with muscles’ electrical charges, ultimately leading to a decrease in muscle force production and your running speed. 

While the effects of oxygen-independent metabolism cause that heavy, dead-legged feeling when racing the 800 meters or mile, limitations in aerobic metabolism also cause fatigue in the middle distances by limiting the pace that you can maintain aerobically.  Your legs feel like lead during these short races because you’re not getting enough oxygen to them.  That’s why it’s so important to run lots of miles even if you’re a middle-distance runner—you have to develop yourself aerobically to delay the acidosis and the accumulation of metabolites.  

To combat fatigue in the 800 meters and mile, you need to do both long and short intervals.  Long intervals (3 to 5 minutes) increase your heart’s stroke volume and cardiac output, sending more oxygen to your muscles and increasing your VO₂max.  You should come close to reaching your maximum heart rate by the end of each work period.  Try 4 x 1,000 meters or 6 x 800 meters at VO₂max speed (about 2-mile race pace for good runners) with equal (or slightly less than equal) time as recovery.  Short intervals (45 seconds to about 2 minutes) improve your ability to buffer acidosis and increase anaerobic capacity by increasing the number of enzymes involved in glycolysis.  Try 6 to 8 x 400 meters at mile race pace with equal time as recovery or 2 sets of 4 x 300 meters at 800-meter race pace with double the time as recovery and 5 minutes recovery between sets.

*******************************************************************

In Press...
Mile After Mile: How Much Mileage is Enough?, my article that explores the question of how much mileage is necessary to maximize VO₂max and other variables related to running performance, appears in the February, 2009 issue of Techniques for Track & Field and Cross Country, the official technical publication of U.S. Track & Field and Cross Country Coaches Association. 

Ultimate Training: Guide For 10K Through Ultramarathon, my article that discusses the multiple training components for long distance running events, including sample training programs for the 10K, marathon, and ultramarathon, appears in the 2009 Annual Race Issue of Trail Runner.

The 3 Metabolic Energy Systems, my article that explains how humans get the energy to exercise and how to train the systems to get more energy for muscle contraction, appears in the February, 2009 issue of IDEA Fitness Journal.

Measuring Fitness Levels, my article that describes a number of cardiovascular and muscular fitness tests with accompanying rankings, appears online at Personal Training on the Net, an online education resource for personal trainers and fitness professionals.

Drop Sets, my brief explanation of this unique method of developing muscle hypertrophy, appears online at Personal Training on the Net.

Do This, Not That, my article that describes new takes on old, traditional ways of exercising, appears in the February, 2009 issue of the United Kingdom’s Ultra-Fit magazine.

 

Which is the Best Type of Cardiovascular Equipment?, a podcast of my article that examines the research on the best cardio equipment for burning calories, can be heard live at http://www.itrainerlive.com.

Also check out my quotes on how aging affects running performance in the February, 2009 issue of Runner’s World.

Also check out my workouts to get you in shape for four winter sports—running, basketball, racquetball, and skiing—which appears in the March, 2009 issue of Men’s Health, on newsstands in February.
*******************************************************************

To view past newsletters, go to http://www.runcoachjason.com/newsletter.

*******************************************************************

To unsubscribe from this newsletter, e-mail jason@runcoachjason.com with the word “unsubscribe” on the subject line.

*******************************************************************

©2009 Dr. Jason Karp.