Hi guys! Welcome back! In this article, you will learn about the 3 most important components that all professional runners have which makes them crazy fast. You must have all 3 components and lacking in any one of these will limit your running potential. Stick till the end to find out the most important factor.
Just a quick disclaimer. I’m not an extremely fast runner, my 5k time is only 18:12mins. So this is the summary of everything I’ve learnt from watching hours of running coaches such as Sage Canaday and Jack Daniels. No, not the whiskey, the running coach.
So let’s get started.
VO2MAX
First off, elite runners would have a high VO2max. Many runners still don’t know exactly what VO2max actually is. If you do, great job! Your VO2max is the maximum volume of oxygen you can effectively use during exercise. And your VO2max pace is the pace at your VO2max. Any faster than that pace, you’re moving into an anaerobic energy system, but you’re still at maximum oxygen carrying capacity.
So why do we want to train at VO2max pace? And why not higher and definitely not lower? As Jack Daniels like to put it, the only way your body will get an adaptive response is by stressing that particular system. So if you keep training below your VO2max, you’ll simply not have an adaptive response.
But what happens if you go much faster than your VO2max? You won’t be able to complete the training set. For example, you feel very good on the first set and went way too fast. But the subsequent set maybe slower, and the next set even slower, until you’re not training at your VO2max anymore. You’re hurting and in pain, but you’re not gaining anything because you went out too fast. So instead of having 12mins of total VO2 work, you might only have 3mins.
Then the question becomes, how do I know my VO2max pace? Jack Daniels has a simple VDOT running calculator online. I will link it down below. So you just put your personal best time, I think 3k PB will be the most accurate, and the calculator will give you your training paces to run at.
Now how many times a week do I train at VO2max and what’s a typical set like? So ideally, you should be training your VO2max once a week, and the other intense session would be your lactate threshold set. Your sets are determined by whether you can complete the time spent at VO2max. For beginners, you might only be doing 3x800m, so that’s 2.4km worth of VO2max work. For more experienced runners, you may be doing 4×800, 5×800, 4x1k, 5x1k, so up to 5 or 6k worth of VO2max work. But again, most importantly, you gotta run at VO2max, theres no point going for a longer set but ZERO time at VO2max.
Alright, I think VO2max is taking too long, I’ll explain it in more detail in another post, especially what happens to your body when you train at VO2max and why VO2max is not the biggest determinant of running performance. But now let’s move on to a more important factor: Lactate Threshold.
Lactate Threshold
Lactate threshold will determine running performance better than your VO2max. VO2max is like your maximum potential and your lactate threshold determines what percentage of your VO2max you are most efficient at. So we definitely want to be training our LT once every week as well. Training your LT is exactly the same philosophy to train your VO2max, you gotta stress the right energy system, running at the correct pace.
Lactate Threshold is point where your body produces more lactic acid than it can clear. So running at any point faster than your LT pace will tell your body, hey now you’re producing more lactic acid than I can clear, so now I gotta evolve and clear lactic acid faster.
You can get your LT pace from the VDOT running calculator mentioned above. So in order to stress your LT, you gotta be running at least that pace for your LT runs.
If you don’t know your LT pace, it’s your 1hour all out pace, or in training, a pace that you can hold for 20-30mins. And around a 400m track, you LT should be 6 seconds a lap slower than your VO2max lap. So what are some LT sets?
Jack Daniels likes to prescribe a 20min run or a series of longer cruise intervals that make up 20 to 30mins. For example, 4x6mins and 1 minute of rest. A very short rest so that your body does not clear too much lactic acid before your next rep. So a typical set maybe 3/4/5×1.6km, even 4x2km, all at 1 min rest.
Remember, you’ll increase the length of the set only until you can do a shorter set. For example, you can do a 3×1.6k quite comfortably and maybe next week you can do a 4×1.6k. But all at the same LT pace. Only when you do a long 4x2k LT set quite comfortably, then it’s likely your LT has improved, then you can increase your training LT pace. And slowly getting faster and faster.
That’s all for Lactate Threshold for now, I’ll talk about the physical adaptations and I’ll explain the lactic acid graph in more detail in another post. But now let’s move on to improving your running economy.
Running Economy
Running economy isn’t just a fancy term. It’s measured in millilitres of oxygen per kilogram per minute. The lower the number means you use less oxygen to move the same distance, meaning the more efficient you become.
In fact, someone with a lower VO2max can run faster than someone with a higher VO2max because their running economy is better.
Here are the largest factors affecting your running economy.
Mileage
The more you run, your body simply becomes more used to running and you become more economical. I’ll talk more in detail about the exact physical adaptations in the muscle cells in another post. And also what zone you should be running at and how to increase your mileage. But for now, more mileage equals better economy.
However, there’s always a catch. Please don’t go out and run 200km a week like what Eluid Kipchoge does. That’s stupid. You’re more likely to risk injury. So what’s the best mileage a week but relatively safe and risk free?
Unfortunately, it’s different for everybody and talented athletes can put out impressive results with less mileage. But it’s always a curve of diminishing returns, means you’re gonna get less improvements for every additional unit of mileage.
But from Sage Canaday’s video, he says that when he increased from 20 or 30miles to 40/ 50miles a week is when he really gained the most performance. That kind of makes sense, since I see many elite triathletes doing 50ish miles a week on strava too.
So an example of a 40mile week may look like this. 11k with Vo2max efforts on Tuesday, 10k easy on Wednesday, 16k with LT efforts on Thursday, 6k easy on Saturday, and a 21k long run on Sunday.
A 50 mile week may have the same structure, just play around with the numbers by adding a little bit more to your warm up and cool down. Also, another rule of thumb is for your long run distance to be about 30% of your weekly mileage.
Running form
I do think running form is just like swimming technique. You’ll want to get the basics right and then you can develop your own unique style that you can excel at. So what are some running form basics? We hear it all the time – don’t heel strike, land on your mid to fore foot, don’t swing your arms across your body, run at 180 to 190 steps a minute. I will do a more detailed running form analysis in the future, but a good place to start is by watching elite runners run and you’ll learn a thing or two.
Strength training also helps with your form. Your core is essential to keep you from running like a noodle at the end of the race. I consider drills, strength training, plyometrics, mobility and strides as part to improve running form.
I’ve made a video about exactly what strength sets I do. Link will be below. And I do my strength set every Tuesday, as part of the warm up before my VO2 run. It includes stuff like squats, box jumps, step ups, dead bug and planks. I learnt that routine from a video on Eluid Kipchoge.
On Thursday, before my LT run workout, I’ll do some mobility activation stuff like high knees, butt kicks and skips and I’ll do a video on my pre run routine in the future. But drills are a super essential part of maintaining running form.
Lastly, strides will also help your running forms as well. You may do a few 100 or 200 metre sprints during your easy runs. You can have a long rest in between. These are just to practice leg turn over and a great way to engage your core, keeping your posture in check. I may do strides before every workout, if it’s a longer workout I’ll do less strides, but I try to make sure I do my strides at least once a week.
Weight
Weight is part of the Running Economy equation so removing weight from your clothing, shoes and your belly will improve your running economy.
I’ll have other videos on my channel talking about nutrition. But in summary, you’ll want to lose weight first by looking at where in your diet are the fats coming from. The top sources of saturated fat in our diet are cheese, pastries, dairy, chicken and then comes your processed meats and beef burgers.
I know cleaning up your diet maybe the hardest thing to accomplish in the world. I find it ironic that most of us want to live a long, healthy life but unwilling to reduce the foods that are doing our body harm. I don’t want to go too in depth about nutrition here but the point is that everyone can clean up their diet.
Ok, back to the subject on weight. We can always wear lighter shoes for our speed workouts and races. And for your long, easy runs, you can wear heavier, more cushioned shoes which is less likely to risk injury. Or, you can have a mid weight shoe that provides sufficient cushion and you can use it for all your runs. Works for me. That’s why I love my Saucony Kinvara.
Conclusion
Now that I’ve shared the secret, competition is gonna be a lot harder. Now it just depends on who trains and recovers most consistently and who also eats the healthiest.
A quick recap, you’ll want to improve your VO2max and Lactate threshold by working at your exact pace every week. You can find your paces using Jack Daniels VDOT running calculator online. Next, running economy trumps LT and VO2max. So to improve running economy, do your drills, strength training, strides, increase your mileage and remove excess weight from your clothes and eat a healthier diet.
Thanks so much for sticking until the end. If you got something from this and want to know more, do consider subscribing to my youtube channel. And I will see you again soon!
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