VO2max

The monthly newsletter of RunCoachJason.com

Jason Karp, professional coach, consultant, freelance writer

September, 2006

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In this issue:

Coach Jason to speak at IDEA Personal Trainer Convention

Customized Training Programs

Research on Olympic Trials Marathoners

VO2max of Middle- and Long-Distance Runners

Is There a Fat Burning Zone?

In Press

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Coach Jason to Speak at IDEA Personal Trainer Convention

For those of you in the New York area, I will be speaking at the IDEA National Personal Trainer Convention at the Hilton hotel on October 7, 2006 in New York City.  My two presentations—Lactate Threshold: Best O2 Bang for Your Buck and Planning Clients’ Training with Periodization—will be packed with the latest scientific information on training for results.  For more information and to download the event brochure and clinic schedule, go to: http://www.ideafit.com/ptrainer/index.asp.

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Customized Training Programs

Want to run faster for 5K, 10K, half-marathon, or marathon but can’t make a long-term commitment with a coach?  Remember, you can purchase my popular customized training programs for beginner, intermediate, and advanced levels.  Just e-mail jason@runcoachjason.com.

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Research on Olympic Trials Marathoners

As legendary coach Arthur Lydiard claimed, lots of aerobic running forms the basis of any distance runner’s training program.  Whether you’re training for the mile or the marathon, it all starts with mileage.  But how much aerobic work is enough?  That’s a difficult question.  It depends on a number of factors, including your genetically-determined propensity to continually adapt to high mileage and tempo runs, the amount of time you have to run, and the specific racing distance for which you are training.  Obviously, the longer the race, the more mileage you need to meet your potential.  My research on the training characteristics of the 2004 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials qualifiers revealed that, for the entire year preceding the Olympic Trials, the male marathoners averaged 90 miles per week with a peak mileage of 120, while the female marathoners averaged 72 miles per week with a peak mileage of 95.  The men also ran more times per week and did more long runs (20+ miles) than did women.

 

One of the criticisms of U.S. distance runners is that they don’t run enough or as much as their predecessors of the 1970s and ’80s.  While anecdotal accounts of training found in running books suggest that today’s American runners run considerably less mileage, those accounts likely represent embellishments of peak training and therefore must be taken with a grain of salt.  From the little scientific documentation available, it seems that the marathoners who qualified for the 2004 U.S. Olympic Trials run as much as their predecessors did, as one study published in Annals of the New York Academy of Sciences in 1977 found that elite male U.S. marathoners of the 1970s ran 100 miles per week, and another study published in International Journal of Sports Medicine in 1987 found that elite female U.S. long-distance runners of the 1980s ran 75 miles per week. 

 

Most runners believe that to get faster, they have to run more.  But what if you’re already a national-class marathoner (as I defined in my study as 2:15-2:22 for men and 2:40-2:48 for women)?  If you run more, will you become elite (under 2:15 for men and under 2:40 for women)?  It seems that the answer is yes, but only if you’re female.  My study revealed that elite women (but not elite men) trained for more years and ran more times and more miles per week compared to national-class runners.  Of all the training variables I examined, the number of weekly runs explained the greatest amount of difference (41 percent) in women’s marathon performance.  In other words, 41 percent of the difference in women’s performance was explained solely by how many times per week they ran.  The better female marathoners (but not the better male marathoners) simply run more.

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VO2max of Middle- and Long-Distance Runners

Often in this newsletter, I’ve addressed the importance of VO2max for running performance.  But how important is it for various racing distances?  A study published in Canadian Journal of Applied Sport Sciences found that the average VO2max of 32 elite long-distance runners (76.9 ml/kg/min) was significantly higher than that for 42 elite middle-distance runners (68.9 ml/kg/min).  The long-distance runners also had better economy, as the percent VO2max at each of four running speeds was lower for the long-distance runners, averaging 8 percent less for the four speeds combined.  Despite the higher VO2max and better economy of the long-distance runners, VO2max was more highly correlated with running performance for the middle-distance runners.  In other words, although the aerobic profile may look better in long-distance runners, a high VO2max is more important for middle-distance runners since it is more related to their performance. 

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Is There a Fat Burning Zone?

You can’t be a personal trainer or fitness professional without hearing about the “fat-burning zone.”  Even the general public, through “fitness experts” on television and in popular fitness magazines, is told about the fat-burning zone.  But does such a zone really exist?  Will you not burn fat and lose weight if you exercise outside of this “magical” zone?  People are being misled to believe that one must exercise in a narrow range of heart rates to burn fat and lose weight.

 

Exercise is mostly a carbohydrate activity.  While you use both fat and carbohydrates for energy during exercise, these two fuels provide that energy on a sliding scale—as you increase your intensity, the contribution from fat decreases while the contribution from carbohydrates increases.  Although the percentage of calories from fat is small when exercising at a high intensity, the total number of calories burned per minute is much higher than at a lower intensity.  Research has shown that exercising at or slightly below your lactate threshold (the maximal aerobically-sustainable intensity) elicits the highest rate of fat oxidation.  But even that doesn’t matter since it’s the total amount of calories burned (in comparison to that consumed), not whether the calories come from fat or carbohydrates, that determines weight loss.  That’s why interval training is so effective.  Just ask any sprinter who does little aerobic exercise, but who has a very low body fat percentage.   

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In Press...

The Limits of Running Performance, my article that takes an evolutionary look at what limits human athletic performance, appears in the September, 2006 issue of New Studies in Athletics, the technical publication of the International Association of Athletics Federations.

 

“I Can’t Catch My Breath”: Lungs and Running Performance, my article that defuses the myth that the lungs limit running ability, appears in the September, 2006 issue of Running Times.

 

My Fitness News contributions on exercise-induced asthma and vitamin C, number of sets to gain strength, fitness and immunity, and exercise for a better sex drive appear in the September, 2006 issue of Oxygen magazine.

 

If you missed my popular article—The Errors of Our Running Ways—in the July/August issue of Running Times, you can catch its reprint in the September, 2006 issues of Duke City Fit, Colorado Runner, and The Coach, the United Kingdom’s track and field coaching magazine.

 

Look at My Muscles, my article that defuses the myths of muscle tone and stretching, appears in the current issue of Inside Dirt, the online magazine of Trail Runner.

 

Put the Dumbbells Down: Why Distance Runners Don’t Need Strength Training, my point:counterpoint article on strength training and distance running, along with my response to Dr. Michael Yessis’ opposing viewpoint, appear in the October, 2006 issue of Running Times, on newsstands in September.

 

My Fitness News contributions on exercise and brain power, women and big muscles, protein for muscle growth, and stretching and injuries appear in the October, 2006 issue of Oxygen magazine, on newsstands in September.

 

Also look for my quotes and training advice in the September, 2006 issues of Men’s Health and Runner’s World magazines.

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

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©2006 Jason Karp.  All rights reserved.