Think of your body as a car – it has the best wheels and the slickest suspension, but it will be useless if the motor doesn't run properly.
As a runner, a big, strong, efficiently working heart will be vital to achieving the maximum potential.
The heart of everything
The heart is responsible for taking oxygen from the lungs and delivery it to the muscles via the blood passing through our body's arterial/capillary network. It delivers oxygen to every cell in the body, but it's the working muscles that make the highest demands, and the harder they are expected to perform, the more oxygen they need to receive. Also, your muscle to body mass ratio will increase as your running progresses and this will further add to the amount of oxygen needed. For this reason, all athletes need a heart large enough to pump sufficient blood around the body without the pressure dropping or the heart having to beat at a dangerously high rate per minute.
A distance runner needs this oxygenated blood to be delivered at a constant pace over an extended period of time, without any undue strain. The efficiency with which your heart can do this is known as cardiovascular fitness. Endurance training develops your heart in much the same way as your legs: the increase in the amount of work it is expected to do make it grows bigger.
Your muscles' main source of fuel is glycogen or fat. In order for muscles to consume this fuel, oxygen has to be present to break it down and convert it into adenosine triphosphate (ATP), a chemical compound which is the form of energy that muscle cells need in order to work.
The production of ATP leaves by products in the form of carbon dioxide (CO2) and lactate. The carbon dioxide laden blood is pumped back to the lungs, where the CO2 is extracted and exhaled into the atmosphere. The lactate is also removed from the muscles by the venous blood flow and delivered to the liver where it is converted into glucose.
As the intensity of your running increases your muscles will be working harder and will need to metabolize glycogen or fat at a proportionally faster rate. Your system will have to increase the input of oxygen to achieve this, hence, the heavy breathing or gasping for air during and after hard workouts.
Running faster and further is all about training the relevant muscles to improve their function, and that improvement is largely due to increasing cardiovascular efficiency. Running up a 20 storey flat will frequently result in that burning pain in the thighs that fatigues the muscles to a point of forced stop. This is the failure of the venous drainage system (the veins that flow away from the muscles) to clear the waste product of lactic acid from the stressed muscles fibred. Improvement in performance will arrive when the blood supply pump, the heart, can deliver more blood and the local blood vessels can more efficiently cope with clearing the lactic acid.
When you are running, your heart should be beating at 60% to 80% of its maximal rate, fluctuating according to the intensity of your running. If you keep it beating at this level, you'll be pushing your heart hard enough to reap all the benefits of having a good workout but not so hard that you'll be putting it under stress.
Your heart rate is not necessarily related to what speed you are running at because your heart will be registering all sorts of extraneous factors such as how stressful a day your have had, what the temperature is, how much coffee you have put away etc.
Summery of a runner's cardiovascular cycle:
(1) Oxygen is inhaled from the air
(2) The lungs transfer oxygen to the blood
(3) The heart pumps the oxygenated blood to the muscles and other organs
(4) Working muscles use oxygen to burnt glycogen, creating ATP to fuel movement
(5) Carbon dioxide is discharged into the bloodstream
(6) Carbon dioxide is delivered to the lungs
(7) Carbon dioxide is exhaled into the atmosphere.
Find your maximum heart rate
Your maximum heart rate (HR max) is the highest number of times your heart will beat per minute before it plateaus. Ideally, you should be running at 60% to 80% of it, therefore you will need to know how to work out what it is. Either use a heart rate monitor or manually take your pulse at your wrist.
To find your maximal heart rate, simply run faster then check your beats per minute. Do it several times, like this:
- warm up thoroughly,
- run easily for 10 minutes then
- perform your 20 second sprints
- with 30 second's recovery running in between.
- Run easy for 30 seconds then run at your top sustainable speed for 2 minutes.
Take your pulse. Run easy for at least 10 minutes then repeat the exercise twice, taking your pulse at the end of each session. The 3 figures should be within a couple of beats per minute of each other, and you can assume their average to be your maximal heart rate.
VO2 to the max
The amount of oxygen you can consume while working out intensely is known as your aerobic capacity or VO2 max. This is a measurement of the maximum number of milliliters of oxygen, per kilogram of body weight that you can use up in a minute, the higher the better. This is another indicator how fit you are, and just like your HR max, you can work to improve it. VO2 max tends to peak for weekly mileage of 80-100km.
Once you reach the age of 40, both your VO2 max and your maximal heart rate will decline at about 1% per year.
Running economically
Your running economy is also another important figure to understand. It is the % of your VO2 max that you are using to achieve a particular speed, the smaller the figure, the lower your oxygen use and the greater your running economy. Good economy means you can then step up the pace or distance and still remain within your capabilities.
Your running economy will get better naturally as you train regularly and build up your strength. It can be worked on by improving your technique so as not to waste any energy in your stride, and by building up your strength, many distance runners do strength training simply to maintain a good level of running economy.
Carbohydrate
Once you start running, all that carbohydrate you have been eating is broken down in your digestive system to extract glucose and glycogen. Glucose will supply immediate energy needs and will combine with oxygen to be burnt pretty much as soon as it arrives in your system. Glycogen, however, is stored in the muscles and in the liver to be converted into glucose and the ATP as required in the future. Around 2/3 of the body's glycogen reserves will be stored in the muscles and 1/3 in the liver.
Because glucose is vital for producing ATP, distance runners need to store as much glycogen as possible. Increasing your training runs will naturally increase your capacity, but 2000 kcal will be about the most you can store, no matter how fit you are. The reason so many marathoners hit the wall at 30-35km mark is because energy consumption on a distance run will be around 60+ kcal per km.
Crossing the lactate threshold
Excess lactate sloshing about in your muscles during intense exercise causes a burning sensation within them and as it cuts down on the amount of oxygen your blood can transport, brings on premature fatigue. This build up of excess lactate occurs because when so much energy is used in a relatively short space of time more lactate will be produced than can be pumped away. At this point you have crossed the lactate threshold (LT) and as it will be detrimental to your performance you need to make sure your threshold is as high as possible.
Raising your LT will allow you to run faster for longer, and is vital if you are going to race at distance about 15km. It's not too difficult either. The idea is to run lengthy intervals. Your LT pace will be just below your race pace, so to top it you'll need to move it as fast a pace as you can sustain over the distance. It's important not to start off too fast and then slow down after a few km. After you have run an LT interval, you should feel like you haven't got a lot of running left in you for that day.
Importantly, always listen to your body!
Putting in the miles:
Once you have decided to formalize your running, in as much as you want to achieve certain levels of ability or fitness or weight loss, the most immediately useful step you can take is to divide your runs into "long" and "short".
Long runs increase your aerobic abilities, and thus your VO2 max, as any regular extended workout will multiply the number of oxygen bearing capillaries in the muscles concerned.
Speed drills should be undertaken by runners at a reasonable level of fitness, not complete beginners, as they can put intense strain on an out of condition body. For this reason, warming up is absolutely vital.
Increase your speed on the short runs, but stay at your usual pace on the long runs, concentrating on maintaining that speed for the entire extended distance just like what was done in the FatBird pacer training run.
An ideal long and short scenario is to do 2 short runs during the week days, either in the evening or early morning, and one long run at the weekend. The schedule is up to the individual.
Speed training:
Most distance runners focus on the strength and endurance as being the keys to improvement, but this will often be at the expense of speed work. Running fast is not only for sprinters, and the improvements it can bring to your performance will be absolutely vital if you are preparing for a race and have high ambitions than merely finishing the course.
Speed work is running at a pace of more or less twice your usual speed for a set or distance, and it will prepare you for the higher levels you may need to raise to in competition, in a way that is far more effective than regular pace running.
As your speed work take effect, not only will your regular pace increase, but it will seem like a gentle jog in comparison with the sprints. While this does not wonders from your starting line confidence, it also leaves you secure in the knowledge that you have speed in reserve as your secret weapon.
However, you should not speed train all year round as it will have a detrimental effect on your endurance and, as regards you getting faster, it will be subject to a law of diminishing returns. A distance runner should do no more than 1 speed session a week, rising that to 2 in the build up to an event, and even then the fast bits should make up no more than 5% of your total mileage.
Interval training:
Interval training involves structured speed sessions and has been the basis of athletic and sports for ages, with the same principles being applied to cycling, swimming, and rowing and so on.
Interval training is also acknowledged as a much better way to lose weight than slower, longer distances, as the intense running burns fat far more effectively.
It's best to do your interval sessions on a track where you can accurately judge the distances you are covering, and so time yourself more precisely. A heart rate monitor is particularly useful for interval training to monitor recovery periods and assess the varying aerobic effect your training session is having on you.
On strict interval sessions, recovery stretches between sprints should be kept to a minimum, as letting your heartbeat fall too far back towards normal will bring down average levels of oxygen consumption and lactate production, which will reduce your VO2 max and lactate threshold.
Speedy technique:
The best way to run faster is to practice running quickly than you will need to. It's why sprinters practice explosive 20 or 30m dashes and marathon runners will train at 5km speed, but each will make sure they have perfect technique.
When training at a higher speed it is crucial that you rigidly adhere to your regular style and only run as fast as you can like that. Altering your action to try to gain a bit of extra pace could be disastrous.
Fartlek:
Invented in Sweden, this is an unstructured version if interval training – the name translates as "speed play" – and it can be great fun when out running by yourself. The concept is to alternate stretches of intense running with recovery stretches, but it is done on an ad hoc basis: sprint to that bench, then jog up the rest of the hill; sprint from one corner to the next, jog a block then sprint the next, try to get to the end of the road before that bus does etc….
Strength training:
Many distance runners are frightened of strength training because they don't want to be saddles with carrying the extra weight that added muscle brings – muscle weighs more than fat. However, there's a huge difference turning yourself into the Incredible Hulk and putting on the few kg of lean muscle which will definitely help you as a runner.
The key to efficient strength training is increasing core strength through developing the abdominal muscles and concentrating on the deep abs. Strength training will also improve your running efficiency by working shoulders, upper arms and chest, which are muscles that can help your technique if they are strong enough. It can also provide the muscle balance needed to counteract the developing of such running muscles as the hamstrings or the claves, by strengthening the muscles they work against in your running stride.
Cross training:
Cross training is very important. Too often runners don't want to do anything that isn't actually running, but covering long distances each week can be very stressful, so to reduce the risk of injury you need to look for something that will maintain your fitness levels but will take you away from those stresses. Having another form of exercise will stop you going crazy too, especially when you are recovering from injury and cannot run.
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