Just a little something to whet your appetite: I have a workout tomorrow! Does that get you excited or what?
I have been training apart from the Queen's XC team for the past few weeks, mostly on my own or with Kev, sometimes with Dylan and occasionally part of a run with the Queen's boys. It is mainly a function of the fact that they are racing and doing workouts and I am just building miles so our training schedules have been different. However, Kev has decided that I should jump into one of their workouts tomorrow and see how it goes- should be fun!
In other news, I just got home from my workout at KBM. Did some balance and core work....I'm now fantastic on the Bosu Ball (half sphere of jello on a plate, remember?) until I am asked to lift one leg.
That's all for now folks.
Be Easy.
Monday, September 27, 2010
Thursday, September 23, 2010
The Daily Grind
So last week I went to the physio clinic, Kingston Body Management (KBM) for my baseline testing. I'm searching for the correct word to describe the tests and "kinematic" keeps coming to mind. So....they ran a series of kinematic tests, that is, they had me do different movements (bending, stretching, twisting, pushing and pulling against a force etc) and noted my range of motion, how key joints reacted....basically making sure that my body was working in sync. They also had me walk and run and looked to see how angles and the lines of my body worked and if, again, everything was working together properly. What they found was interesting: my upper body is slightly weak, my left shoulder pops up a little higher than the right, I have a slight scoliosis (curvature of the spine....my mum's going to have a field day with this one - she's always on about my bad posture!), my left heel and knee lifts a bit higher as I run, my left arm flicks across my body as it swings through, and my balance is off. It sounds like I'm not fit for much does it, nevermind launching an assault on Michael Phelps' individual medal record at the Olympics in 2 years time?!
Anyway, first off, this gives a testament to the ability of the body to perform at high intensities even when things are slightly off. Secondly, some of these things may be innate idiosyncrasies (always wanted to use that word...hopefully I used it proper!) that really cannot be flushed out, or to do so would hamper my running. Finally, those things that are out of whack can be easily corrected with a little work. This work includes proper stretching of muscles that I didn't believe could be stretched, medicine ball exercises (med balls are basketball sized but much heavier and used for core strength) and balance work on a Bosu ball, a fitness tool that looks like a bowl of jelly sat on a plate. Clearly, I was pretty stoked to have my flaws pointed out, but glad that they have some solutions too! I'm looking forward to becoming a flawless athlete in the near future! ;)
While this extra work is going on, running is carrying on full steam. Yesterday Kev had me throw in a few hill repetitions in the middle of my steady run. Short sprints up steep hills are great for building leg power and while the 10k XC races do not demand such power, as a miler it is important that I cultivate all aspects of my fitness throughout the year. It was a nice change from the daily grind.
However, one can't escape that grind for long, and today was back to more of the same. I ran out to a 2.5km grass loop around the Kingston psychiatric hospital and did 4 loops, each one slightly faster than the last. It was mostly on my own, although Kev did stick with as much as he could, which was most helpful. But the quads were fried and the grass was bumpy and slow beneath my feet. The world seemed to be turning away from me. The wind played its part in my agony too, despite the fact that I was running in a fairly circular loop; one would think it would act equally as friend as well as foe. However, I can only recall its negative effects. Metaphorical musing: Perhaps this just another example of the human condition: taking for granted the positives and accentuating the negatives. You never do appreciate what you have until it is gone.
On that note, its time for me to hit the books! Night all!
Be Easy.
Ps. Check out the moon tonight: it is what is known as the Harvest Moon. The Harvest Moon is the full moon that is closest to the Autumn Equinox and it is so named because farmers traditionally took advantage of the additional light to bring in their crops. Today also happens to be the date of the Autumn Equinox, and apparently it is rare for these events to fall on the same date. My math tells me the next time it will occur is in 2029. FYI: the Autumn Equinox is when the sun crosses the equator from North to South (as the nothern hemisphere tilts further away from the sun, resulting in winter) At noon on this date, the sun rises due east, sets due west and at noon is directly above the Equator. The axis of the Earth is perpendicular to the imaginary line connecting it to the sun. Wild.
Anyway, first off, this gives a testament to the ability of the body to perform at high intensities even when things are slightly off. Secondly, some of these things may be innate idiosyncrasies (always wanted to use that word...hopefully I used it proper!) that really cannot be flushed out, or to do so would hamper my running. Finally, those things that are out of whack can be easily corrected with a little work. This work includes proper stretching of muscles that I didn't believe could be stretched, medicine ball exercises (med balls are basketball sized but much heavier and used for core strength) and balance work on a Bosu ball, a fitness tool that looks like a bowl of jelly sat on a plate. Clearly, I was pretty stoked to have my flaws pointed out, but glad that they have some solutions too! I'm looking forward to becoming a flawless athlete in the near future! ;)
While this extra work is going on, running is carrying on full steam. Yesterday Kev had me throw in a few hill repetitions in the middle of my steady run. Short sprints up steep hills are great for building leg power and while the 10k XC races do not demand such power, as a miler it is important that I cultivate all aspects of my fitness throughout the year. It was a nice change from the daily grind.
However, one can't escape that grind for long, and today was back to more of the same. I ran out to a 2.5km grass loop around the Kingston psychiatric hospital and did 4 loops, each one slightly faster than the last. It was mostly on my own, although Kev did stick with as much as he could, which was most helpful. But the quads were fried and the grass was bumpy and slow beneath my feet. The world seemed to be turning away from me. The wind played its part in my agony too, despite the fact that I was running in a fairly circular loop; one would think it would act equally as friend as well as foe. However, I can only recall its negative effects. Metaphorical musing: Perhaps this just another example of the human condition: taking for granted the positives and accentuating the negatives. You never do appreciate what you have until it is gone.
On that note, its time for me to hit the books! Night all!
Be Easy.
Ps. Check out the moon tonight: it is what is known as the Harvest Moon. The Harvest Moon is the full moon that is closest to the Autumn Equinox and it is so named because farmers traditionally took advantage of the additional light to bring in their crops. Today also happens to be the date of the Autumn Equinox, and apparently it is rare for these events to fall on the same date. My math tells me the next time it will occur is in 2029. FYI: the Autumn Equinox is when the sun crosses the equator from North to South (as the nothern hemisphere tilts further away from the sun, resulting in winter) At noon on this date, the sun rises due east, sets due west and at noon is directly above the Equator. The axis of the Earth is perpendicular to the imaginary line connecting it to the sun. Wild.
Sunday, September 19, 2010
Big Miles! (for me anyway!)
Big week this week folks: hit 67 miles or about 108km, and those numbers are only going to get bigger in the weeks to come. I rounded the week off with a run with Dylan Wykes, one of Canada's up-and-coming marathoners and a Kingston native. He represented Canada in marathon at the 2009 World Championships in Berlin and placed 33rd. Plus, he's a chill guy with plently of wisdom to impart....so besides enjoying his company, I'm trying to absorb as much as I can about life as a truely elite athlete. Even though our race distances are different (I'm looking at 10k's while he is looking at 42k's) some of the training does match up, to a certain point. Today was a long day for both myself and him. We went out to Lemoine's Point (a conservation area in Kingston's west end) and did an hour steady (about 6min/mile) following which we upped the pace for a bit. This is where we began to differ: we started off at about 5:30/mile pace and dropped it down to about 5:20 and I hung in for about 15mins, somewhere just shy of 3 miles. 75mins is enough for me at this point but Dylan continued, to do a total of 6miles, bringing the pace down to about 5:05/mile and a time of about 32mins of up-pace work. He was getting after it to be sure.
As I look to next week: I am taking the day off from running tomorrow, having put in 15 days and 137 miles without a rest day. I am also going into Kingston Body Management, a physio and health clinic, to get some baseline testing done. KBM have offered to act as my one stop shop for all of my fitness, injury and recovery needs. They have trainers, kinesiologists, physio's, masseurs and more at this place and are willing to help me out. First they are going to do some general health and fitness testing to see if I have any weaknesses and imbalances that they can correct. However unlikely it may seem to you that those words, "weakness" and "imbalance" should apply to me, I am having continued hamstring and lower back issues, as well as some aches in my shins and neck...all of which are most likely linked to something I am doing wrong with my running. They will also look at my running biomechanics and see how things look there. Corrections will most likely focus on strengthening certain muscle groups, so there will be some exercises and weights involved. (Nothing of the bulk-building stuff; just low weight, high repetitions to improve muscular endurance) I'm looking forward to working with the guys and girls at KBM and hopefully good things will result! Interesting note: the main physio there, a fellow named Carson, has connections to Matt Tegenkamp, one of the top 5k guys in the USA. Pretty cool.
Anyway, thats all for now folks! Cheerio!
Be Easy.
As I look to next week: I am taking the day off from running tomorrow, having put in 15 days and 137 miles without a rest day. I am also going into Kingston Body Management, a physio and health clinic, to get some baseline testing done. KBM have offered to act as my one stop shop for all of my fitness, injury and recovery needs. They have trainers, kinesiologists, physio's, masseurs and more at this place and are willing to help me out. First they are going to do some general health and fitness testing to see if I have any weaknesses and imbalances that they can correct. However unlikely it may seem to you that those words, "weakness" and "imbalance" should apply to me, I am having continued hamstring and lower back issues, as well as some aches in my shins and neck...all of which are most likely linked to something I am doing wrong with my running. They will also look at my running biomechanics and see how things look there. Corrections will most likely focus on strengthening certain muscle groups, so there will be some exercises and weights involved. (Nothing of the bulk-building stuff; just low weight, high repetitions to improve muscular endurance) I'm looking forward to working with the guys and girls at KBM and hopefully good things will result! Interesting note: the main physio there, a fellow named Carson, has connections to Matt Tegenkamp, one of the top 5k guys in the USA. Pretty cool.
Anyway, thats all for now folks! Cheerio!
Be Easy.
Wednesday, September 15, 2010
Find your tennis ball!
If there is any single piece of advice that I can pass on to runners of all shapes, sizes and speeds is to run happy. A long slog on a cold rainy day is not exactly a self-portrait of fun, so whatever the environment, workout, or weather, try to find something in that run that makes you happy.
My run today started off inauspiciously enough: I had an Queen's athlete meeting and then headed off to the XC course at Fort Henry with the men's XC team. It was their off-day so it was a pretty easy pace for me but I stuck it out until we got there and did a lap of the course with them too. I then did 2 more laps on my own at a slightly faster pace. Nothing special about this right? Wait for it. On my way home I passed a tennis ball sitting along the roadside. It was a nice one: bright and fuzzy and I couldn't pass it up. I grabbed it and continued running, now bouncing the ball off the pavement and catching it mid-stride. For some reason, this gave me the most unexpected happiness and as I bounced along I found my pace picking up. I was absolutely flying and all the while bouncing this ball! I finished my run feeling like the proverbial fat kid with a smartie: happy but hungry for more!
Now, I'm not advocating bouncing a tennis ball everytime you go for a run. I most likely won't take one out with me the next time I go. But the way I see it is this: you can be stonefaced and get down to the business of training with intent and get results, in the short-term . But for long term success and enjoyment, look for opportunities during your training to make yourself happy. Seize those opportunities as they pop up or create them yourself. Or both! Smile and wave at the fans as they cheer you along, chat with your competitors at the start, finish and even in the pack, joke with your teammates. During the summer, Kev used to bring a football to practice for us to kick around. Many coaches would advise against it, but training on my own, Kev knew that I needed something to mix it up with.
Today running became fun again for me and I now have a little spark to keep my training going for a while. But I will also strive to keep refreshing my running with more fun stuff, whatever that turns out to be. It might be another tennis ball or it might be something else!
Find your own tennis ball in your own running or whatever it is that you do.
Stay fresh, stay fun and run happy!
Be easy.
My run today started off inauspiciously enough: I had an Queen's athlete meeting and then headed off to the XC course at Fort Henry with the men's XC team. It was their off-day so it was a pretty easy pace for me but I stuck it out until we got there and did a lap of the course with them too. I then did 2 more laps on my own at a slightly faster pace. Nothing special about this right? Wait for it. On my way home I passed a tennis ball sitting along the roadside. It was a nice one: bright and fuzzy and I couldn't pass it up. I grabbed it and continued running, now bouncing the ball off the pavement and catching it mid-stride. For some reason, this gave me the most unexpected happiness and as I bounced along I found my pace picking up. I was absolutely flying and all the while bouncing this ball! I finished my run feeling like the proverbial fat kid with a smartie: happy but hungry for more!
Now, I'm not advocating bouncing a tennis ball everytime you go for a run. I most likely won't take one out with me the next time I go. But the way I see it is this: you can be stonefaced and get down to the business of training with intent and get results, in the short-term . But for long term success and enjoyment, look for opportunities during your training to make yourself happy. Seize those opportunities as they pop up or create them yourself. Or both! Smile and wave at the fans as they cheer you along, chat with your competitors at the start, finish and even in the pack, joke with your teammates. During the summer, Kev used to bring a football to practice for us to kick around. Many coaches would advise against it, but training on my own, Kev knew that I needed something to mix it up with.
Today running became fun again for me and I now have a little spark to keep my training going for a while. But I will also strive to keep refreshing my running with more fun stuff, whatever that turns out to be. It might be another tennis ball or it might be something else!
Find your own tennis ball in your own running or whatever it is that you do.
Stay fresh, stay fun and run happy!
Be easy.
Sunday, September 12, 2010
So long fair summer!
As you may remember, I spoke of some hamstring trouble that I had in late July. Despite taking 2 weeks off, I am still feeling a little something in that area and really want to figure it out before I get too deep into the season and the stress of training and racing puts it over the edge again.
So, in order to remedy this, I have done two things. The first thing I did was to go for a massage. This was done over at Kingston Body Management (a health and physio clinic in town, more on them in later a blog) by a fellow named Todd who had worked with the Queen's XC team a few years back. He also did some work on my back and neck, both of which have been giving me some trouble and may indeed be contributing to my hamstring issue. These kinds of massages are not enjoyable experiences, in fact my hammy felt worse afterwards than it had done before. However, I was still able to get out for an hour run later than day and I think it will help my recovery in the long run. Better had do anyway!
The second thing I did was to email a doctoral student named Sivan in a Biomechanics lab here at Queen's. This is part of my intent to take a more scientific approach to my running. From a friend, I had heard about his study looking into the relationship between knee injuries and thigh muscle strength. The muscles in the thigh can be divided into several groups, although the two groups that this study focussed on were the quadriceps (front/ventral side of the leg which straighten the leg) and the hamstrings (the back/dorsal side of the leg which pull the foot towards one's bum). The hamstrings and quadriceps are antagonistic to each other (ie as one contracts, the other relaxes) and it is important that they correctly together. I hoped that the study would be able to determine if I had any inbalances between the muscle groups, both in the same leg and across different legs. Although my results wouldn't be useful to the study, the doctoral student was kind enough to accomodate my request and used me to teach some other students how to the machines and technology used in the study worked. The protocol of the study called for me to be strapped into a chair with one of my feet attached to a machine. Starting with my knee bent at 90 degrees I was to extend my leg to 180 degrees and then and contract it back to its original position, as fast as I could. I had to do this 40 times on each leg at maximal effort. The machine would measure the force output of both my quadriceps and my hamstring during their respective contractions. It was an exhausting protocol and after 40 repetitions my heart was hammering and my entire leg was dead. They allowed me some respite to let my heart settle before strapping in my opposite leg into the machine and performing another 40 reps.
The results are still being evaluated by Sivan, but from an inital glance at the results it seems that my left quad is significantly weaker than my right quad. My hamstrings (despite the injury to the left) are very comparable. This is interesting as I would have presumed that the left hamstring would have been the weak factor. It seems that the weakness in the left quad may be causing the hamstring to overcompensate resulting in injury. However, we shall evaluate the results when they are complete and I shall let you know what we think.
Big props to Sivan for putting in the time to help me out though!
Thats all for now. Hit just over 60miles this week and more to come next week. School starts tomorrow as well. Its been a long but pleasent summer, very enjoyable and fruitful, but the nerd inside of me is excited to get back to some more intellectual pursuits!
Be Easy.
So, in order to remedy this, I have done two things. The first thing I did was to go for a massage. This was done over at Kingston Body Management (a health and physio clinic in town, more on them in later a blog) by a fellow named Todd who had worked with the Queen's XC team a few years back. He also did some work on my back and neck, both of which have been giving me some trouble and may indeed be contributing to my hamstring issue. These kinds of massages are not enjoyable experiences, in fact my hammy felt worse afterwards than it had done before. However, I was still able to get out for an hour run later than day and I think it will help my recovery in the long run. Better had do anyway!
The second thing I did was to email a doctoral student named Sivan in a Biomechanics lab here at Queen's. This is part of my intent to take a more scientific approach to my running. From a friend, I had heard about his study looking into the relationship between knee injuries and thigh muscle strength. The muscles in the thigh can be divided into several groups, although the two groups that this study focussed on were the quadriceps (front/ventral side of the leg which straighten the leg) and the hamstrings (the back/dorsal side of the leg which pull the foot towards one's bum). The hamstrings and quadriceps are antagonistic to each other (ie as one contracts, the other relaxes) and it is important that they correctly together. I hoped that the study would be able to determine if I had any inbalances between the muscle groups, both in the same leg and across different legs. Although my results wouldn't be useful to the study, the doctoral student was kind enough to accomodate my request and used me to teach some other students how to the machines and technology used in the study worked. The protocol of the study called for me to be strapped into a chair with one of my feet attached to a machine. Starting with my knee bent at 90 degrees I was to extend my leg to 180 degrees and then and contract it back to its original position, as fast as I could. I had to do this 40 times on each leg at maximal effort. The machine would measure the force output of both my quadriceps and my hamstring during their respective contractions. It was an exhausting protocol and after 40 repetitions my heart was hammering and my entire leg was dead. They allowed me some respite to let my heart settle before strapping in my opposite leg into the machine and performing another 40 reps.
The results are still being evaluated by Sivan, but from an inital glance at the results it seems that my left quad is significantly weaker than my right quad. My hamstrings (despite the injury to the left) are very comparable. This is interesting as I would have presumed that the left hamstring would have been the weak factor. It seems that the weakness in the left quad may be causing the hamstring to overcompensate resulting in injury. However, we shall evaluate the results when they are complete and I shall let you know what we think.
Big props to Sivan for putting in the time to help me out though!
Thats all for now. Hit just over 60miles this week and more to come next week. School starts tomorrow as well. Its been a long but pleasent summer, very enjoyable and fruitful, but the nerd inside of me is excited to get back to some more intellectual pursuits!
Be Easy.
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Live Like a Clock
So we're back into the XC season and so far, not so good. I seem to have forgotten how the long miles sap the strength out of one's legs. I shouldn't really complain as a) it has only been just over a week b) i only put in 50 miles last week and c) complaining now will set the stage for a lousy season down the road! Be that as it may, today's run was capped at 6.5miles instead of 8 because I was just not ready for the hills and billowing wind on top of Fort Henry hill (the site of the Queen's XC course).
The plan for this season: become an aerobic monster and work my way up to become comfortable at 80miles per week. How shall we do that? Long steady miles. And in that short sentance lies the problem. Coming off the track season, I am very comfortable and happy with the idea of short, sharp, fast efforts. I am struggling to run slow enough at the start of a run to be able to hold on for 60-70mins. I settle into a comfortable, abet too fast a pace, and then find myself gasping at 50mins. I need to chill in the first 20-30mins and then gradually increase the pace until the end.
Another means of increasing my miles is through morning runs. I did 2 last week and did 1 today, aiming for 3 this week. These are just 20min efforts; approximately 3 miles at an easy pace. Its quite easy to go steady in the morning because I feel terrible anyway from just waking up and having no food in the belly. As those who know me may correctly surmise, I am not a happy runner in the mornings! I am also planning to add strides and plyometrics (jumping bounding) to my morning runs which are intended to help improve my form and add strength.
As advice to help me overcome these early season blues, Kev has told me to "live like a clock", a quote borrowed from Jumbo Elliot, the coach of the Irish mid-distance legend Eamonn Coghlan. I take this to mean that I am to shape my life in a way that I can develop consistency in my training. This is the only way that I will get the miles in that I need to and be able to fit a productive life around my training. As a side note, Bruce Denton said this same quote to Quenton Cassidy in the fictional yet authoritative running bible that is Once a Runner. Therefore, this must be a legitimate gem of wisdom.
Be Easy.
The plan for this season: become an aerobic monster and work my way up to become comfortable at 80miles per week. How shall we do that? Long steady miles. And in that short sentance lies the problem. Coming off the track season, I am very comfortable and happy with the idea of short, sharp, fast efforts. I am struggling to run slow enough at the start of a run to be able to hold on for 60-70mins. I settle into a comfortable, abet too fast a pace, and then find myself gasping at 50mins. I need to chill in the first 20-30mins and then gradually increase the pace until the end.
Another means of increasing my miles is through morning runs. I did 2 last week and did 1 today, aiming for 3 this week. These are just 20min efforts; approximately 3 miles at an easy pace. Its quite easy to go steady in the morning because I feel terrible anyway from just waking up and having no food in the belly. As those who know me may correctly surmise, I am not a happy runner in the mornings! I am also planning to add strides and plyometrics (jumping bounding) to my morning runs which are intended to help improve my form and add strength.
As advice to help me overcome these early season blues, Kev has told me to "live like a clock", a quote borrowed from Jumbo Elliot, the coach of the Irish mid-distance legend Eamonn Coghlan. I take this to mean that I am to shape my life in a way that I can develop consistency in my training. This is the only way that I will get the miles in that I need to and be able to fit a productive life around my training. As a side note, Bruce Denton said this same quote to Quenton Cassidy in the fictional yet authoritative running bible that is Once a Runner. Therefore, this must be a legitimate gem of wisdom.
Be Easy.
Tuesday, August 31, 2010
I'm back at it.....it's a long one this time!
Welcome back! I hope that in these last 2 weeks you have managed to find activities that have been able to fill the blank void created by my lack of blog entries. Thank you for returning to the site every so often to check if anything has been added – your perseverance has now been rewarded!
I jest, however, you may indeed be wondering what I have been upto for the past few weeks. Resting. With one exception, which I shall shortly address, I did not run a step since my cooldown following the 1500m at the provincial champs. The rest was good, and I enjoyed it, however, a funny thing happened to my body as the days passed. I became injured. It seemed that as the rest progressed old injuries that I had suffered in days gone by resurfaced. My hamstring began to ache as I sat at my desk, my shin got sore as I watched movies, my left hip feels locked, and my heel (site of an Achilles problem) became too sore to walk on. Absolutely incredible, and ridiculous at the same time. I began to itch to get back running before anything worse befell me. And, following my first run yesterday….I feel completely fine. Apparently my body was rebelling against the lack of exertion.
The one thing that I did do in the past 2 weeks, the exception that I alluded to above, was a VO2 Max test. This is a measurement of the maximum amount of oxygen that your body can extract from the air as you run at progressively increasing speeds and/or elevation on a treadmill. The result is given as either an absolute value measured in L of O2/minute or as a relative value measured in mL of O2/kg body mass/minute. The relative value means the amount of oxygen used by a kg of muscle per minute. The more O2 you can use the better you can break down glucose into a usable energy form that the body can use. Therefore, the higher your VO2, the better your aerobic fitness is. However, it is not the only indicator of fitness and cannot stand alone as a predictor of something as multifaceted as race performance. There are several factors that contribute one’s VO2 including strength and efficiency of the heart (to pump oxygenated blood around the body), the efficiency of the gas exchange in the lungs (swapping CO2 for O2), the gas exchange at the site of the muscle, the network of minute blood vessels that supply the muscles, and the amount of enzymes and cellular bodies inside the muscle cells themselves that help to process the oxygen. All of these things have a genetic component (ie some people have a naturally superior aerobic capacity), yet these can all be increased (up to a certain point by) endurance training. Due to such factors as increased muscle mass, bigger lungs, and bigger hearts, at comparable age and fitness levels, men will have a higher VO2 than women. The range can be from 20mL/kg/min in a sedentary person to 96ml/kg/min, which is the highest Vo2 ever, recorded in a male Swedish cross-country skier.
The testing process can be best explained as I describe my own test. I started running on the treadmill at 9miles/hr and 0% elevation for 3 minutes. At 3:00 the elevation increased to 5% and from then on increased by 2% every 2 minutes. Speed would remain constant until 15:00 when the elevation would hit 15% and the speed would be increased by 0.2mi/hr every minute. I am pretty sure that is what would happen, however, I only made it to 15:00 when I had to stop due to exhaustion. One’s VO2 increases as the test progresses and it is necessary to run to exhaustion in order to ensure one hits their max. My VO2 peaked at 5.2ml/min or 74.5ml/kg/min at 12:00. This is a very satisfactory number, however, there were other aspects of the test that I was more pleased with. For 4mins, between 9:30 and 13:30 I held an average VO2 of 71.3ml/kg/min. This is very close to my max, indicating that I was running close to my max aerobic capacity for 4 minutes – essentially the time within which I would run a mile. From 13:30 to the end of the test I had a lower VO2, but still managed to keep the pace for that remaining 1:30. With this decreased aerobic efficiency I was relying on anaerobic mechanisms of creating energy – the method used when sprinting. This may be a physiological indicator of why I am able to kick at the end of a 1500m to good effect.
However, this is as far I am willing to look into my results. I am happy with 74.5 but what does it mean? If that is my genetic max, then what more can I do? Besides more training the only way to increase my VO2 would be to lose weight (thereby decreasing my relative value, but not my absolute value) but I’m not willing to go that route. Racing and training are comprised of complex physiological and psychological components that go beyond the factors involved in the VO2 test. It’s interesting to know, but unless I can test myself every week and tailor my training to improving it, a costly and futile effort, then it really has no tangible value for me. That being said, I probably will get retested at the end of the XC season to see how it has changed!
Did that all make sense? Nod once if yes.
Anyway, I do have more to write I believe I have taken up enough of your time for this particular occasion. Plus, I am off shortly for my second run of the day. I put in an easy 3 miles this morning and will do another 8 or so with Kevin and another friend of mine, Clay. I am going to take this week and next running easy, gradually increasing my mileage. I might try to peak at 80miles/week this season but will probably average 60. However, that is some time away. One run at a time!
Be Easy.
I jest, however, you may indeed be wondering what I have been upto for the past few weeks. Resting. With one exception, which I shall shortly address, I did not run a step since my cooldown following the 1500m at the provincial champs. The rest was good, and I enjoyed it, however, a funny thing happened to my body as the days passed. I became injured. It seemed that as the rest progressed old injuries that I had suffered in days gone by resurfaced. My hamstring began to ache as I sat at my desk, my shin got sore as I watched movies, my left hip feels locked, and my heel (site of an Achilles problem) became too sore to walk on. Absolutely incredible, and ridiculous at the same time. I began to itch to get back running before anything worse befell me. And, following my first run yesterday….I feel completely fine. Apparently my body was rebelling against the lack of exertion.
The one thing that I did do in the past 2 weeks, the exception that I alluded to above, was a VO2 Max test. This is a measurement of the maximum amount of oxygen that your body can extract from the air as you run at progressively increasing speeds and/or elevation on a treadmill. The result is given as either an absolute value measured in L of O2/minute or as a relative value measured in mL of O2/kg body mass/minute. The relative value means the amount of oxygen used by a kg of muscle per minute. The more O2 you can use the better you can break down glucose into a usable energy form that the body can use. Therefore, the higher your VO2, the better your aerobic fitness is. However, it is not the only indicator of fitness and cannot stand alone as a predictor of something as multifaceted as race performance. There are several factors that contribute one’s VO2 including strength and efficiency of the heart (to pump oxygenated blood around the body), the efficiency of the gas exchange in the lungs (swapping CO2 for O2), the gas exchange at the site of the muscle, the network of minute blood vessels that supply the muscles, and the amount of enzymes and cellular bodies inside the muscle cells themselves that help to process the oxygen. All of these things have a genetic component (ie some people have a naturally superior aerobic capacity), yet these can all be increased (up to a certain point by) endurance training. Due to such factors as increased muscle mass, bigger lungs, and bigger hearts, at comparable age and fitness levels, men will have a higher VO2 than women. The range can be from 20mL/kg/min in a sedentary person to 96ml/kg/min, which is the highest Vo2 ever, recorded in a male Swedish cross-country skier.
The testing process can be best explained as I describe my own test. I started running on the treadmill at 9miles/hr and 0% elevation for 3 minutes. At 3:00 the elevation increased to 5% and from then on increased by 2% every 2 minutes. Speed would remain constant until 15:00 when the elevation would hit 15% and the speed would be increased by 0.2mi/hr every minute. I am pretty sure that is what would happen, however, I only made it to 15:00 when I had to stop due to exhaustion. One’s VO2 increases as the test progresses and it is necessary to run to exhaustion in order to ensure one hits their max. My VO2 peaked at 5.2ml/min or 74.5ml/kg/min at 12:00. This is a very satisfactory number, however, there were other aspects of the test that I was more pleased with. For 4mins, between 9:30 and 13:30 I held an average VO2 of 71.3ml/kg/min. This is very close to my max, indicating that I was running close to my max aerobic capacity for 4 minutes – essentially the time within which I would run a mile. From 13:30 to the end of the test I had a lower VO2, but still managed to keep the pace for that remaining 1:30. With this decreased aerobic efficiency I was relying on anaerobic mechanisms of creating energy – the method used when sprinting. This may be a physiological indicator of why I am able to kick at the end of a 1500m to good effect.
However, this is as far I am willing to look into my results. I am happy with 74.5 but what does it mean? If that is my genetic max, then what more can I do? Besides more training the only way to increase my VO2 would be to lose weight (thereby decreasing my relative value, but not my absolute value) but I’m not willing to go that route. Racing and training are comprised of complex physiological and psychological components that go beyond the factors involved in the VO2 test. It’s interesting to know, but unless I can test myself every week and tailor my training to improving it, a costly and futile effort, then it really has no tangible value for me. That being said, I probably will get retested at the end of the XC season to see how it has changed!
Did that all make sense? Nod once if yes.
Anyway, I do have more to write I believe I have taken up enough of your time for this particular occasion. Plus, I am off shortly for my second run of the day. I put in an easy 3 miles this morning and will do another 8 or so with Kevin and another friend of mine, Clay. I am going to take this week and next running easy, gradually increasing my mileage. I might try to peak at 80miles/week this season but will probably average 60. However, that is some time away. One run at a time!
Be Easy.
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