VO2max

The monthly newsletter of RunCoachJason.com

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

Director & Coach, REVO₂LT Running Team™

February, 2010

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In this issue:  

Running Clinics & Workouts in the Park™

University of Southern California Graduate Student Panel

SCW Fitness MANIA

Workout Speeds

Illiotibial Band Friction Syndrome

In Press
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Running Clinics & Workouts in the Park™

Beginning February 1, RunCoachJason.com will host Running Clinics & Workouts in the Park™, a unique series of educational clinics and fun workouts in San Diego, California for runners of all abilities.  Learn how to train most effectively and then experience the workouts for yourself in a social, fun atmosphere!  Each week is a different clinic and a different workout.  For more information, go to http://www.runcoachjason.com/runningclinics.

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University of Southern California Graduate Student Panel

On February 3, I’ll be speaking at the University of Southern California in Los Angeles as part of the Graduate and Professional Student Senate panel discussion on “Writer’s Block and War Stories.”  The panel will be held in the Trojan Presentation Room in the Student Union Building from 12:30 to 1:30 pm.  Panelists will discuss ways to overcome writer’s block as well as share their stories on achieving their PhDs.  I will also be signing copies of my book, How to Survive Your PhD. To order your copy, go to http://www.runcoachjason.com/publications.  

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SCW Fitness MANIA 

I will be speaking at the SCW Fitness MANIA February 19-21 at the Sheraton Philadelphia City Center in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.  Be sure to check out any or all of my six presentations:

* Fitness Myths, Misconceptions, and Misinformation

* Lactate Threshold: Best O₂ Bang for Your Buck

* The Resting Metabolic Rate Debate

* Chasing Mercury, Battling Hercules: Getting Fitter & Stronger with Periodization Training

* Best Workouts for Runners

* Marathon Training 101: Chasing Pheidippides

SCW Fitness Education’s MANIA fitness conventions bring industry leaders to the backyards of fitness professionals throughout the country.  Each of the seven MANIA conventions held annually offers workshops on every fitness topic imaginable, ranging from personal training to Pilates, yoga to pregnancy, and aquatics to aging.  SCW is the largest producer of fitness education events in the United States.  For more information, go to http://scwfitness.com/index.php?story=1898&fmt=1.

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Workout Speeds

One of the biggest mistakes runners make is running workouts at speeds that are either too fast or too slow to obtain the desired result.  Problem is, they don’t know what the desired result is.  To determine the correct speed, you must know the purpose of each workout.  Is it to improve lactate threshold?  VO₂max?  Anaerobic capacity?  Muscle power?  Technique?  Each one of these variables requires a different speed that will optimize the workout.  

Each of the next few newsletters will focus on a specific type of workout and discuss the correct speed for that workout.  The last two newsletters discussed easy/long runs and lactate threshold (tempo) runs.  We continue this month with VO₂max intervals.

VO₂max is the maximum volume of oxygen that muscles consume per minute, and is regarded as the gold standard of aerobic  fitness.  It is dependent on your maximum stroke volume (the volume of blood pumped by the heart per beat), maximum cardiac output (the volume of blood pumped by the heart per minute) and the difference in oxygen content between your arterial blood and venous blood (which represents the amount of oxygen extracted by the muscles).  Having a high VO₂max is important as a runner, since it’s impossible to achieve a high level of performance without a high VO₂max.  Given its popularity among physiologists, VO₂max is the most often measured variable in exercise physiology. 

To train VO₂max, you want to reach VO₂max during the work periods of your intervals workouts.  To do that, you should come close to reaching your maximum heart rate by the end of each work period because VO₂max occurs when you’re running at your max heart rate.  VO₂max pace is very close to 2-mile race pace for highly trained runners and about 1- to 1½-mile race pace for recreational runners.  It’s about the pace you can sustain for 8 to 10 minutes.  Running your interval workouts much faster than VO₂max pace is not any better than running at VO₂max pace when the goal is to improve your VO₂max.  To make the workouts harder, either increase the length of each work period (e.g., increasing from 800 to 1,000 meters) or add more repetitions (e.g., increasing from 4 to 6 x 800 meters).  

Want to know more about how to do workouts correctly to see results?  Order one of my many DVDs, including lactate threshold, marathon training, and periodization for distance runners.  These DVDs are flying off the shelves, so order a discounted one today at http://www.runcoachjason.com/merchandise.
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Illiotibial Band Friction Syndrome

Many runners, especially those new to running, experience illiotibial band friction syndrome (ITBS), the most common cause of lateral knee pain among runners.  ITBS results from repetitive friction of the illiotibial band (a fibrous sheath that extends from your hip to just below your knee) against the outside of the knee.  Research has shown that ITBS can be caused by an abrupt increase in running mileage, running downhill, stiff shoes that limit pronation or high-arched feet that don’t adequately pronate (which transfers the shock of landing to other parts of the leg), and weakness or inhibition of the lateral gluteal muscles.  

Running mechanics, specifically changes in knee flexion at heel-strike and internal rotation of the leg, also appear to be related to ITBS.  Research has shown that runners who have ITBS have a greater knee flexion at heel-strike, a greater strain in the illiotibial band throughout the stance phase, and a greater internal knee rotation at the end of a long, exhausting run compared to runners who don’t have ITBS.  

So, how do you get rid of ITBS?  First, get soft cushioning shoes that promote pronation (if you don’t pronate adequately).  Second, do specific stretching exercises that isolate the illiotibial band.  Third, strengthen your gluteal muscles to enhance control of the leg during the eccentric support phase (when your leg first lands on the ground).  Lastly, don’t run downhill until the pain is gone.  Doing these things typically resolves the problem in most runners.

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In Press...
How to Survive Your PhD: The Insider’s Guide to Avoiding Mistakes, Choosing the Right Program, Working with Professors, and Just How a Person Actually Writes a 200-Page Paper, my self-help book for graduate students published by Sourcebooks, Inc., appears in bookstores nationwide.  Special autographed copies of the book can be ordered online at http://www.runcoachjason.com/publications.

Downhill Running, my article on everything you wanted to know about running downhill with tips on how to prepare for downhill races, appears in the February/March, 2010 issue of the United Kingdom’s Ultra-Fit magazine.

Running Errors and How to Correct Them, my article on the mistakes runners make with advice on how to run better, appears online at Personal Training on the Net, an online education resource for personal trainers and fitness professionals.

Should You Always Train to Failure?, my Chest Essentials piece on whether you need to train to muscular failure when lifting weights to see results, appears in the January/February, 2010 issue of Maximum Fitness. 

Bones, my article on everything you wanted to know about bones and exercise, appears in the Winter, 2010 issue of Duke City Fit, Albuquerque, New Mexico’s premier fitness magazine.

Also look for my quotes on how to most effectively warm up to run a 5K in the January/February, 2010 issue of SOBeFiT magazine and marathon training for beginners in the March, 2010 issue of Oxygen magazine, on newsstands in February.

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

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©2010 Dr. Jason Karp.