Alan Culpepper training in Boulder, Colo. Elite distance runners have
physiological traits that make them faster than the rest of us. For
instance, they aren't weighed down by reading the New York Times.
Posted on 08/11/2004 12:01:14 PM PDT by OESY
The marathon at the Olympics in Athens this month is fearsome, so grueling that even an elite athlete is liable to feel at least a moment of trepidation. The 26-mile, 385-yard course includes, among other body-bashing stretches, a 13-mile hill so steep it has been described as the equivalent of running up a five-story building every mile.
Your everyday, normal sort of runner, like me, will be breathless just watching. But many of the Olympic runners will make it look easy.
I can run up that mountain only in my dreams, no matter how hard I work. The difference between me and them is so great that I find myself consumed with curiosity over exactly how much of running fast and far is innate, and how much can be attributed to training, motivation and technique.
I wonder how those remarkable athletes got to be who they are. And I wonder what they know, and what, if anything, people like me can learn to be more accomplished.
I have learned a thing or two close to home. I watched as my son took off like a gazelle when he was in middle school, uncoached and untrained, and went on to be a high school track and cross country star, and then to run on the varsity teams at a Division I university. He gave me tips - relax your upper body, run on your mid-foot, raise your knees - and they helped. But I always knew that there was a fundamental difference between him and me when it came to running far and fast. We still run together, but all that means is that we start out at the same place and end up at the same place. In between, he loses me.
On the other hand, my son learned in college that there also was a noticeable difference between him and the runners who went on to become national champions. And it was not a matter of trying harder.
Researchers say elite distance runners share several inborn physiological traits, including large hearts, an efficient way of moving and an ability to keep running when they are exerting so much effort that they are panting for breath, that make them faster than most recreational runners.
They also naturally avoid the sort of errors in technique that Dr. Robert Fitts, an exercise physiologist and competitive runner at Marquette University, sees in recreational athletes who run in 5- and 10-kilometer road races.
For example, Dr. Fitts says, many recreational runners turn their feet out to the side rather than keeping them in a straight line. That wastes energy and slows runners down.
"Your feet should go out one in front of the other," Dr. Fitts explained. "It is not very difficult to learn. I used to run along the line that is painted on a track and I would concentrate on both feet hitting that line."
Stride length, Dr. Fitts said, is also important.
"If you have the proper stride length when you push off, then you get the proper extension and flexion," he said. "If you take too short of a stride, you look like a shuffler. If it is too long, you look like you are bouncing. A good runner should almost be able to run with an apple on their head."
Finally, Dr. Fitts advised, many people hold their arms too high, making their shoulder muscles work while they run. "It is better to hold your arms along your waist, with bent elbows," he said.
He added that these are all errors that can be corrected.
"Most people don't know these things just because they start to run," he said "Somebody has to tell you. But most people at these road races are very inefficient. They never were taught at all."
With elite runners, the question is not so much technique but rather the tiny physiological differences that make one smooth, relaxed, fast runner win every race while another, who looks equally good, falls behind.
Exercise physiologists say there are three components to great running: A high VO2 max, the volume of oxygen an athlete can consume at maximum exertion; great running efficiency, a measurement of the energy used to run at a particular pace; and an ability to keep going at a high level of exertion for a long time, expressed as the percentage of VO2 max that can be sustained during a run.
Athletes with a high VO2 max can pump large volumes of blood to their muscles, usually because they have large and powerful hearts, said Dr. Paul Ribisl, an exercise physiologist and a runner at Wake Forest University. The heart of an average adult pumps about 15 liters a minute. The heart of an elite distance runner typically pumps at least twice that amount.
VO2 max increases with training, as a person goes from physically unfit to physically fit. But, physiologists say, even when elite runners are out of training - when they have not run for months or longer - they have a VO2 max substantially higher than that of a recreational runner.
Competitive runners are also efficient, exerting themselves less than those with less talent.
Conventional wisdom says the energy required to run a mile is the same, no matter whether you are fast or slow. But it turns out that elite runners simply do not work as hard as the less able.
In a study of elite runners, good runners and untrained, but equally physically fit runners, Dr. Don Morgan, an exercise physiologist and recreational runner at Middle Tennessee State University, and his colleagues found that the better the runners were, the less effort they exerted running at a particular pace.
But within a group of equally good runners, there were profound differences in efficiency. In treadmill tests, Dr. Morgan found that one runner could end up burning 20 percent more calories than another running the same distance at the same speed.
The inefficient runners were not necessarily those who looked more awkward as they ran.
"Some runners in our lab don't look good when they run, but they are very economical," Dr. Morgan said. "Others are aesthetically beautiful but are not economical."
Exercise physiologists are focusing on ways to make runners more efficient. They speculate that a number of factors might determine efficiency, and that some, like the biochemistry of the runner's muscles or the structure of the runner's body, are simply innate. But one factor, stride length, might be amenable to change.
About 20 percent of the competitive runners that Dr. Morgan and his colleagues tested were overstriding, or taking steps too large for maximum efficiency. None were taking steps that were too small. The researchers set out to train the overstriders to take shorter steps.
For three weeks, five times a week, the athletes ran on treadmills at the physiology lab, their pace set by the beat of a metronome. That rhythm forced the runners to shorten their strides, and, as a consequence, they ran about 3 percent faster.
"For someone like me, it wouldn't make any difference," Dr. Morgan said. "But for an elite runner, that small percentage change could mean a big deal."
The third characteristic that elite runners have, but that can also improve with training, is an ability to continue running for long times at a high level of exertion, the so-called anerobic threshold. That pace, said Dr. David Martin, an exercise physiologist at Georgia State University, is "when the conversation stops and the work begins." If you can carry on a conversation while you are running, he said, you have not reached it.
For runners to increase the amount of time they can run at their anerobic threshold, they have to run at that level in training, exercise physiologists say.
"Good American runners do train at an anerobic threshold pace," Dr. Martin said. "But sometimes these runners, they're little studs. They get out there running, but, they say: 'This feels so easy. I know the coach said 10 miles at anerobic threshold, but I'll just pick up the pace.' Then they are overtraining."
The result, he said, is poor performance.
While a high VO2 max, great efficiency and an ability to run long distances at the anerobic threshold are common in elite distance runners, few excel at all three.
Dr. Morgan and Dr. Jack Daniels at the State University of New York at Cortland, for example, studied elite runners who were equally fast. Some would have a high VO2 max, but lower economy than their peers, or vice versa.
As for the rest of the population, improvement is possible, but no amount of training can turn a person who is not gifted into an elite athlete. This became clear to one researcher, Dr. Robert R. Wolfe, when, in graduate school, he began running with Brook Thomas, a friend who had come in fourth in the Olympic trials.
Dr. Wolfe, now the director of the metabolism branch at the University of Texas Medical Branch at Galveston, had run competitively in college. But running with his friend, he always lagged behind.
At one point, Mr. Thomas was injured, and he did not run for five months. When he was ready to return to running, he called Dr. Wolfe and suggested they run together.
They set off at a fast clip, with Mr. Thomas setting a five-and-a-half minute-per-mile pace.
"I was just dying, trying to keep up," Dr. Wolfe recalled.
He accosted Mr. Thomas. How could it be that after all those months away from running, he could cruise along at such a speed, with no apparent effort? Mr. Thomas replied that he had always been able to run at that pace.
"That was a watershed for me," Dr. Wolfe said. "That's when I realized that no matter how hard I train, I will never get to that level."
Alan Culpepper training in Boulder, Colo. Elite distance runners have
physiological traits that make them faster than the rest of us. For
instance, they aren't weighed down by reading the New York Times.
It's Bush's fault.
Sorry, had to say it.
I've experienced the exact same thing, albeit at a much slower than 5:30 per mile pace (more like 7:30). Once a particular pace has been "programmed" into your psyche, it seems that pace is almost available on demand regardless of any lack of previous training.
As for the rest, I'd say these guys are right on the button.
It is almost impossible for these people to overtrain. Hard work is 80% of the deal. The rest is God-given genetics. There's a line in Chariots of Fire - "We can't put in what God left out." This is true.
Watch the finals of the track 100 and 200 meters. These men are genetic supermen, made to do one thing - run incredibly fast for short periods. NFL wide receivers are fast, but if you compare times nothing beats an Olympic track star. They'll reach 28 miles per hour at top speed. This is not normal, and not achievable for 99.9999% of humans.
Hmmmm... I'm one of those recreational runners who logs about 3 to 4 miles every other day. I'm not concerned with efficiency because if it were easier, I would just be cheating myself. Besides, many distance runners are built like a praying mantis, and I don't want that. LOL!!!
running
Well, like my old high school cross country coach told us "You aren't a runner unless you can go sub 6" I used to run over a hundred miles a week in high school and early college, training has a lot to do with performance as well as things like hitting your pace every mile. And yes, mental toughness plays a major part as well.
If you really want to compete you have to be able to go sub 5 and sub 4:30. Marathon runners are a complete different breed than middle and short distance though. For instance, get some guy that runs the 100m and put him in the 800m and he wouldn't have a chance.
I wonder how Lance Armstrong would measure up as a marathoner? You know he has the heart and lungs for it and the endurance but what about the speed?
i agree with you, i trained with EOD every morning for 2 years, now i could run the same time on the same course everytime 3 years later, i have to mentally change what i am doing to alter my pace.
It took him that long to realize it?
I knew this about myself back in High School. My body works better than average, but is well below the mark of the elites. Same with body mass, I'll never be a body builder.
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