masterstrack.com

Sorry, I do not believe you. Please give us a published reference or I will assume you are just making up your "Research shows..." statement. If you try "Everyone knows..." I will take my assumption to be confirmed.

High-speed running performance is largely unaffected
by hypoxic reductions in aerobic power
PETER G. WEYAND, CHERIE S. LEE, RICARDO MARTINEZ-RUIZ,
MATTHEW W. BUNDLE, MATTHEW J. BELLIZZI, AND SETH WRIGHT
Museum of Comparative Zoology, Concord Field Station,
Harvard University, Bedford, Massachusetts 01730


"We tested the importance of aerobic metabolism to human running speed directly by altering inspired oxygen concentrations and comparing the maximal speeds attained at different rates of oxygen uptake.
Under both normoxic (20.93% O2) and hypoxic (13.00% O2)
conditions..."

You're right, I had it backwards, the hypoxic was 60% OF normoxic, or a 40% reduction and not a 60% reduction.

Shame on me. Thanks Jess for challenging me!

However, the point is still the same: "Sprinting Speed-
Speeds under hypoxic conditions equaled those under normoxic conditions for sprints from 15 to 60 s"

"We conclude that maximal metabolic power outputs
during sprinting are not limited by rates of anaerobic
metabolism, and that human running speed is largely
independent of aerobic power during all-out sprints
lasting ,1 min." (emphasis is mine)

"Our results also highlight a means by which animals
that do little or no sustained running can minimize
their energetic overhead. Relatively greater rates of
anaerobic metabolism during locomotion in animals
with low aerobic power would eliminate the energetic
expense of maintaining the additional respiratory and
cardiovascular structure necessary to provide the metabolic
energy to sprint aerobically. Although a greater
reliance on anaerobic metabolism can incur subsequent
energetic costs (8, 10), the transient costs resulting for
sprint specialists and relatively sedentary individuals
would likely be smaller than the constant energetic
requirement of maintaining the additional structure
necessary to provide the same energy aerobically. This
possibility is supported by available evidence, suggesting
that sprinters rely more heavily on anaerobic
metabolism during brief runs and also have a
greater ability to release compensatory anaerobic energy
when faced with reductions in aerobic power."

Quote
Research has shown that blocking 60% of oxygen intake has no effect at all for up to 60 seconds of running, and very little up to 120 seconds of running, so training aerobically not only makes no sense for that reason, it makes no sense as to fiber and motor unit recruitment either.

Barry, Am I missing something? I've understood that's true up to 60 seconds but how'd ya extrapolate up to two minutes from the research you just showed us?

Hi Larry,

I didn't need to extrapolate, the research was clear:

"Despite reducing the aerobic power of our athletic subjects to
the level of sedentary humans and markedly decreasing
their rates of oxygen uptake during sprinting, we
found they could run just as fast for sprints of up to 60 s
and nearly as fast for sprints of up to 120 s. Clearly,
maximal human running speeds for short- and intermediate-
length sprints are relatively unaffected by large
reductions in aerobic power."

Wow, that's amazing! I have to teach a course on Zoological Physics in January; this will be a topic. Maybe one of my students will take it up as a term project. Thanks, Barry!

You guys are still this on this topic? Go out, compete and have fun already!

I would but these guys keep throwing hard questions at me

I have been readling A LOT of different things on the internet lately. This week, I hand-timed trial runs of a fly-in 9.8 meter sprint at 1.01 seconds and 300 meters in 37.1 seconds and was curious if any of the more knowledgeable coaches or athletes out there had any suggestions for the workout times to hit, distances to run, rest, and total volume. I also have comfortabley benched 2 x 3 x 215 and dead lifted 2 x 3 x 285 this week. Any suggestions would be greatly appreciated. Is 51.40 / 22.60 / 11.20 auto-timed too ambitious?

I think if you can run 37.1 for a 300 M in practise than you should run 51 point easily in a race. Its very possible. Keep up the good work.

Hi bowleggedlouie,

Here's what you should be able to run (assuming the accuracy of your test runs):

100 11.85 +- 3%
200 24.20 +- 3%
400 53.60 +- 3%

Increasing strength will decrease decrement in speed caused by muscle fatigue at each distance
Running short, fast fly-in sprints ranging from 20-70 meters 3x per week at as close to a true 95 % of your max speed as possible will provide you with sufficient intermuscular adaptation to running and improved elastic recoil (from the plyometric work of running fast).
If you are fit, then it is not necessary to run repeats of more than the 70m max mentioned above for any workout. In other words run the short repeats and nothing else!
Use the same distance for all repeats in a workout session.
Rest 4 minutes between attempts.
If you are able to complete 10, then you are not running at 95%

What does this mean?

BARRY ROSS

In your last reply you said "if you are fit". That got me wondering, fit from what? You and Speedfactory seem to recommend the speed work without a lot of extra distance or traditional base work. Is this my imagination? I would much rather do a lot of short intense stuff, but will I get/stay fit from that? I have been doing all the usual, longer distances(200-500) for base and speed endurance building, but have been too sore in the ham and butt to do any really intense speed work. If I do take some time off to heal, would you say come back with the short sprints and the weights and forget the longer stuff? I plan on running the 60, 100 and 200 this year.

Thanks!

Do any of you guys actually run the 400. I do and I don't recognized any of you!

It means that you can run shorter repeat distances to improve the long...long being more then 500-600 meters (but not 800 and up)

Fit in the sense that you are at a good weight and that you have a decent baseline of aerobic capacity.
The baseline aerobic capacity can be achieved by walking as fast as possible (what my athletes do) for 15 minutes per day 3-5 days per week. This should be done 3-4 weeks prior to the start of the season.
I have them walk from their homes...7.5 minutes out and 7.5 minutes back, but they must increase the distance every time they walk without exceeding the time.
When you are at the point of walking so fast that you naturally want to start jogging, you will have reached the point of greatest metabolic inefficiency (why your body wants you to RUN!). That means that you will be burning a lot of calories but without pounding the pavement.

In an anaerobic event, speed endurance is NOT a product of increasing running distance or over overdistance training... it is a measure of your speed decrement (rate of drop in m/s) over time.
What creates the decrement for each runner is the rate of muscle fatigue not dwindling of fuel supply, such as ATP. That number can be quantified for an individual runner.
Reducing speed decrement, then, is dependent on strength training. Stronger muscles can work longer--- or fatigue at a lesser rate.
However, if strength training is done in a manner that increases mass more than minimally, much of the gains in strength will be used to support the added mass rather than reducing the rate of speed decrement.

If you were thinking about asking what will happen when you get whacked by that nasty lactic acid when you run the 400 if you don't do any long runs, you would be right on target
You're going to feel the effect of LA regardless. In fact, the worst part of it occurs AFTER you finish a 400 race.

Because of increase in strength, you should get further down the track before the onset of LA or you could spend a lot of time trying to deal with something that is not harmful (but uncomfortable) by getting tired all week long from lots of overdistance running, putting your body at risk more often than is necessary so that a small amount of the pain can be removed.

Get fit, get strong, run short bouts of high speed running...GET FAST!