Live2Run

All serious runners strive for improvements in performance and search for ways of improving their times.  Most of you guys out there will have tried everything from running more miles per week to carbohydrate loading.  But I can guarantee, as runners, you will have all overlooked the obvious solution to your quest for more speed.  MORE STRENGTH!  Most runners believe strength training will “slow them down” or “bulk them up”.  These sentiments couldn’t be further from the truth.

 Let me use the current 10,000m world record holder Kenenisa Bekele as an example.  Bekele has an amazing burst of pace and his final lap times highlight this.  Bekele frequently runs laps under 60 sec, and in 2003 ran a 52.63 final lap!  Clocking a 24 sec 200m and an 11 sec 100m, at the end of the race!  By any ones standards that’s quick.  So how does this relate to strength?  Having more strength makes you faster in several ways (a) the ability to produce higher peak forces translates to faster longer strides, allowing more propulsion with each stride (b) preserves muscular endurance because if you have a high strength and power level, as Kenisa Bekele does (11 sec 100m would win many amateur sprint meets) meaning you can run at a lower level of your maximum for prolonged periods and not fatigue, yet still go fast (Saunders, No date).  It has also been shown to improve endurance performance of senior citizens who ONLY strength trained (Saunders, No date).  Still not convinced? University of New Hampshire female cross country runners were able to cut 60 seconds (on average) off their personal bests after performing heavy, in season strength work (Newton, 2002).  So no sky high reps or pink dumbbells for those ladies! 

          Strength isn’t the only parameter that will improve those 10k times.  Increasing your VO2max (maximum amount of oxygen that can be taken in and used during exhaustive exercise in 1 min, any amount above this then you are no longer working aerobically) will also help.  How do we do this I hear you cry, well its actually quite simple and will probably shock you in how easy and efficient it is.  The answer? HIGH INTENSITY INTERVAL TRAINING.  So less of those long, slow runs that bore you to tears, and more short intense sessions that really work.  So does science back this up?  You bet it does.  A study conducted by Helgerud et al (2007) used forty healthy, non-smoking, moderately trained male subjects and randomly assigned them to one of four groups:

• long slow distance (70% maximal heart rate)
• lactate threshold (85% maximal heart rate)
• 15/15 interval running (15 seconds of running at 90-95% maximal heart rate, followed by 15 seconds of active recovery at 70% maximal heart rate)
• 4 x 4 min of interval running (4 min of running at 90-95% maximal heart rate, followed by 3 min of active recovery at 70% maximal heart rate).

All four training protocols resulted in similar total oxygen consumption and were performed 3 days per week for 8 weeks.  The results showed that the high-intensity aerobic interval training groups significantly increased VO2max compared with long slow distance and lactate-threshold training intensities.  The 4 x 4 protocol produced slightly more improvement than the 15/15 group, but both were still significantly better than the other training modalities of steady running.  Numerous studies have replicated these results.  It would also appear that training bouts should be carried out at VO2max to produce the optimal results in VO2max improvement (Esfarjani and Laursen, 2007).  Above maximal intensity bouts still produce better improvements than steady training but little extra is gained above 130% VO2max (Esfarjani and Laursen, 2007). 

          To conclude it would appear a comprehensive programme that incorporates strength, power and speed work, along with the correct interval training (4 x 4 min at VO2max) will produce faster 10,000m times.  The next article will focus on putting the theory into practice.

Article by   Michael James Hill, BSc, CSCS 

REFERENCES

Esfarjani F, Laursen PB. (2007) Manipulating high-intensity interval training: effects on VO2max, the lactate threshold and 3000 m running performance in moderately trained males. J Sci Med Sport. 10:27-35

Helgerud J, Hoydal K, Wang E, Karlsen T, Berg P, Bjerkaas M, Simonsen T, Helgesen C, Hjorth N, Bach R, Hoff J. (2007) Aerobic high-intensity intervals improve VO2max more than moderate training. Med Sci Sports Exerc. 39(4):665-71

Newton H. (2002) Explosive Lifting for Sports. Human Kinetics, Champaign, Il, pp172.