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Did you know it takes 12 weeks for your body to fully acclimate to a particular training base?  Another way of saying that is, you will never reach your peak performance until you’ve been at it for at least 12 weeks.

This is a key concept to understand when training for a particular sport season.  Pre-training is critical if you want to reach peak performance early in the season.  Cross-Country is typically where you see this error.  Since cross-country season begins right after school begins, training must begin early summer; not three weeks before the season.

With a little bit of  thinking ahead and discipline, you can reach your peak performance when it counts!

Q: How do I know how fast to train?

Q: What’s the difference between an aerobic and anaerobic workout?

Q: Which one is better?
To answer this, we need to understand how our bodies produce energy.   We have two primary energy systems and three basic ingredients that run these systems.  The three basic ingredients for producing energy are oxygen, fat and carbohydrates. The two basic energy systems are our slower Aerobic system and our faster Anaerobic system.  Aerobic means with oxygen and Anaerobic means without oxygen.   Our slower aerobic system is extremely efficient as long as this system has both oxygen and fat.   This system can be trained to last for an incredible length of time. (think, iron man and ultra races)   Now, if your looking for speed to PR in your next 5K your going to want to train your anaerobic system as well.     When you pick up the pace from your comfortable aerobic zone you enter our faster anaerobic zone.   In this zone you’ll start burning through a much higher percentage of Carbs and not much fat.  This faster zone is also going to create an oxygen debt and build up lactic acid in your muscles.  The results are a limited time of speed before we have to slow down.   The more we train in our anaerobic zone the more efficient our bodies become at speed.   The more we train in our aerobic zone the more our efficient our bodies become at endurance.

There are countless varieties of training runs we can perform to improve both our aerobic and anaerobic energy systems.  I’m going to break things down into three basic type of runs.   The long runs, tempo runs and speed work.    Each of these run has a very specific goal and trains a different energy system.

Long Run
During the long run we use our extremely efficient aerobic energy system.   Arobic means ‘with oxygen’.  These runs are run at a comfortable conversational pace.  If you are gasping for air you’ve left the aerobic zone.   Our goals in this run workout to train the body to burn fat as fuel, store more glycogen and increase mitochondria all of which are going to make as a more efficient runner.     When we run too fast during these runs we’ll change energy system and no longer be able to accomplish our goals for this type of run.

The aerobic training zone is the most effective means of aerobic development.    I know it can be frustrating to run this slow, but this is where you will build your aerobic endurance .  Once you enter the anaerobic zone, you are no longer building your aerobic system of energy.

Tempo Run
This run is faster than your long run pace but slower than speed work pace.     The tempo run balances right between the aerobic zone and the anaerobic zone.  This is called your Lactic threshold pace.   Once you cross over into the anaerobic zone your body quickly builds lactate acid in your muscles.   Your lactate threshold pace should feel like what some coaches call “comfortably hard”.   During a race you’d be able to maintain this pace for almost an hour.   Greg McMillian says your lactate threshold pace is the most important determinate of a runners performance.  We need to incorporate these types of workouts into our training plan in order to increase your lactate threshold point.

Speed Work 
Speed work is run in the anaerobic energy system. These workout are run at maximal oxygen combustion otherwise know as VO2Max. This is a less efficient yet very powerful system.  You’d only be able to maintain this speedy pace for around 10 minutes before the lactate acid builds up caused you to slow down. Training intervals at this pace helps our body get efficient at processing oxygen and lactate acid. To explain it another way, when you start increasing your pace you’ll change over from the aerobic system to the anaerobic system. At this point the aerobic system can’t keep up with the demand for energy and the anaerobic system kicks in. Basically it skips a couple steps to make quick energy. The effects are a lactic acid build up and oxygen debt. The benefit is that you can run faster, but only for a limited amount of time. Start your workout too fast at the front end and your going to fatigue and slow down on the back end.

The good news is you can train your body to increase its aerobic threshold, lactate threshold, and anaerobic threshold.

Aerobic Threshold is typically around 65% of VO2 max
Lactate Threshold is typically around 75%- 90% of VO2 max
Anaerobic Threshold is typically around 90-100% of VO2 max

Most people have one speed when the go out on a training run. They don’t run slow enough on long endurance days and don’t run near fast enough on the tempo or speed work days. The take away from this article is that you need train your body at different paces.  Each workout you perform should have a specific goal behind it. Your aerobic days should feel slow and easy improving your endurance. Save the hard work for your tempo runs and speed workout days which will be improving your anaerobic system. Training at different paces is a much more effective way of training. If you want to improve your speed and endurance lets train at the appropriate paces!

NASCAR drivers spend countless hours assuring that their engines are finely tuned and running at peak performance.   One critical way they do that is by making sure that their fuel is of highest quality.  They know that bad fuel means bad performance.  Why do we think that our bodies are any different?

Why do we think that we can perform our best with a steady diet of processed junk foods like chips, candy, sodas, and fast food?  In this Nutrition Corner you can expect to find more ways to get your high performance bodies running on nutritionally dense food.

Sugar Intake

Think about this:  Did you know that in a regular 12oz soda there are 39 grams of sugar?  That means you’re consuming  10 teaspoons of pure sugar.  Drinking just one can of Coke per day will add up to consuming 30 pounds of sugar per year!  Think of that sugar as dirty gas clogging up the fuel lines and decreasing performance.  Recent studies are linking high sugar intake to everything from cancer, high cholesterol, lower immune systems, and premature aging.  In order to perform  optimally we need to get that sugar out of our diets.

Recommended daily allowance of sugar is about 9 teaspoons, or, 36 grams per day.  That’s less than what you find in a 12-oz. regular soda, and includes the sugar already in your food.   You need to count all the sugar hiding in your food like cereal, crackers, bars, jelly, yogurt and drinks.  One can of soda, lemonade, or ice tea is going to start you out over your limit.   Train smart and get the sugar out of your diet.

Take it from a girl who spent 8 years running in the jungle.   Heat can really take it out of you.  As the summer days warm up you begin setting your alarm clock earlier and earlier to to beat the heat.  All too quickly you realize there’s just no beating it.   Come mid summer even the most disciplined runners, meeting up with their running buddies at 5:00 a.m., come back from their runs soaked in sweat.  Since there seems to be no way around running in the heat in the South we need to know how heat effects our runs and what to do about it.

No question about it, heat and humidity take it out of you.   This is why afternoon siestas are so popular in tropical countries.   Our bodies slow down in extreme heat.   The same is true with running.   Running Times magazine stated that  just 3% dehydration is equivalent to a 8% loss of speed.   That’s Huge!

Let’s look at the three main effects heat has on our running performance.

1. Dehydration and sodium loss
2. Increased Heart Rate
3. Body temperature increase

As we become dehydrated our blood becomes thicker and our blood volume drops.  This causes our heart to work harder and beat faster.   Also, blood that is normally channeled to the primary running muscles is now diverted to the skin to cool our body temperature.   Our heart works overtime and our running muscles are not getting the blood they need to work to their full potential.   The result?  Our performance plummets.

The good news is our bodies have the amazing ability to acclimate to the heat.  But you need to give your bodies the time they need to adjust.  Remember how the participants suffered in the  2012 Boston marathon?  The early spring freak heat wave caused the winning times to be close to 5 minutes off normal! The athletes weren’t acclimated to the heat that early in the season.  Given a little time not only do our bodies acclimate they also become stronger and more efficient at absorbing fluid, metabolizing, cooling the body, and flushing out lactate!

As well as drinking liquids before, during and after workouts we need to be drinking water all day.   A good rule of thumb for athletes is to drink 1/2 -1 oz of water per pound of body weight.   For example a 120 pound runner should aim to drink between 60-120 oz of water per day.   When the temperature and mileage is up you need to be drinking closer to high side of this recommendation.

Be careful out there hydrate.  Your performance depends on it.

A healthy diet including vitamins, minerals, and antioxidants is critical for optimal performance in all individuals.    Vitamin A helps your eye and fights infections, folic acid and vitamin D protects against cancer and heart disease, selenium boast the immune system and calcium builds and maintains strong bones.

So why not simply reach for one of those antioxidant formulas or meg-dose vitamins?  You simply can’t replace the real thing.    Without the powerful source of fruits, vegetables and whole foods we leave a huge gap in our diet.  Too often the quick and easy answer is, “Just take a few supplements as insurance to cover all your vitamin and mineral needs.”.   With a typical American fast pace lifestyle it’s all too easy to start relying on the convenient “health”  foods on the market like energy bars, cereal, and protein drinks that boast of their high levels of vitamins and minerals.

There are several reasons this is a dangerous  trap to fall into:

1. You can’t replace real food.  Consumer reports states, “The truth is no pill can replicate the benefits of produce.  Researchers don’t know exactly why but evidence shows that stripping nutrients from food reduces their effects.”.    You also miss out on the benefits of the enzymes and fiber that whole foods have to offer.   We need to focus on eating ‘real’ food.   These ‘real’ foods I’m talking about are fruits , vegetables, whole grains, nuts, legumes, and low fat dairy.
2. It’s a costly and unregulated market.  The Supplements business is a $30 billion a year business.  Consumer reports states that many of these pills are a waist of money and some are even harmful.  Don’t assume all supplements are safe.   Supplements do not have to clear the FDA (Food and Drug Administration) before being sold.  It is an unregulated industry so a healthy skepticism of the claims in dietary supplements adds is advised.

The U.S. Department of Agriculture recommend three to five servings of vegetables and two to four servings of fruit per day.   So the bottom line is, in order to get the full benefits vitamins and minerals have to offer we need to enjoy more fruits and vegetables!