The Very Good Question Section

I just took a new client who is training for a half marathon. My knowledge on aerobic training is limited. I don’t know if I know enough to design an effective program from scratch for a competitive runner. What are the key things to keep in mind when training a competitive aerobic athlete?


There are a few key things to keep in mind when designing aerobic endurance training programs. These guidelines will work for any endurance sport.

1. Never exceed a training volume beyond 5,000 to 6,000 calories (50 to 60 miles for runners, or 4,000 to 6,000 meters for swimmers) per week. Volumes in excess of this do not further improve aerobic capacity and greatly increase the possibility of injury.
   
   
2. Training intensity is very much dependent upon the level, or physical condition of the athlete. To improve VO2 (a measure of aerobic capacity), the athlete must exercise at an intensity level somewhere between 50 to 90% of their VO2 max. This range corresponds to a target heart rate between 66 to 95% of predicted maximum heart rate. Where in this range should your client be? It depends highly on their current aerobic condition. Ask them what their current training intensity has been. Either use that as the target intensity, or increase it slightly. The principle of overload states that the exercise demand must be greater than what the body is accustomed to for continued adaptation to occur. This means either the athlete's training volume or intensity must continue to increase for continued cardiovascular improvement.
   
   
3. Never forget training specificity. An aerobic athlete that engages in high volume, lower intensity events such as the marathon, triathlon, or decathlon should engage in lower intensity, higher volume training. A 5K runner competes at a higher intensity with much lower volume. A 5K runner should thus train at a higher intensity with less volume than a marathon, triathlon, or decathlon competitor. A half-marathon would be basically a training style in between the two.
   

This is my first year on a college cross-county team. Our coach is taking the team to the mountains this summer to train at altitude for next season, even though the scheduled events for the season are not at a high altitude. Why would our coach do this and how will it aid our performance at sea level?

The body responds in a number of ways to being exposed to higher altitudes where the oxygen is less condensed and under less pressure. The following are the two major physiological changes that take place after a period of exposure to high altitudes.

1. Due to the decreased availability of oxygen to the blood, more oxygen carrying red blood cells are produced which eventually raises total blood volume. More blood means more oxygen transporting capabilities in the body.
   
   
2. Following exposure to high altitudes, the muscles become more efficient at extracting oxygen from the blood. This means that for a given amount of oxygen delivered to the working muscles, more of it will be utilized for ATP production and less wasted.
   

Do these physiological changes translate into improved performance at sea level? Although no definitive conclusion can be drawn on the subject, there is strong reason to conclude that these physiological changes do NOT translate into improved sea level performance. Most studies done in this area have shown NO improvement at sea level due to altitude training. Athletes exposed to high altitudes are unable to train with the same volume and intensity as they were at sea level, due to reductions in aerobic capacity and cardiorespiratory function. This may negate the beneficial physiological changes mentioned above. In addition, the conditions at high altitude often cause the athlete to dehydrate and lose fat-free mass. In short, there is not near enough evidence to justify your vacation this summer over a good sea level training program.