Ed McNeely – Peak Centre for Human Performance

VO₂ max is one of the most commonly measured physiological variables. Endurance athletes spend countless hours discussing, comparing and worrying about their VO₂ max scores. Runners are always quoting VO2 max scores for one top athlete or another. Is all the attention that this physiological variable gets really worth all the effort?

VO₂ max is the maximum amount of oxygen that your body can take in and use. It is a function of both the body’s ability to deliver oxygen via the heart, lung and blood and the body’s ability to use oxygen in the working muscles and other tissues.  While there are some exceptions, Elite runners typically have VO2 max scores in the 70-75 ml/kg/min range, similar to that seen in well trained amateur runners and some very fit age group runners. Your ability to have a high VO2 max is very dependent on your genetics. While other training variables like strength can improve by 100% or more VO2 max changes are limited to about 20% once you reach full physical maturity.

In aerobic sports oxygen consumption is tightly tied to energy expenditure and generally producing more energy means more power and work. The relationship between power and oxygen consumption is not perfect; efficiency or economy play an important role in determining how strong the relationship is in each person.

Running Economy, the ratio of power output to power input, is a key determinant of running performance.  A higher efficiency allows a runner to work at lower percentages of the VO₂ max to accomplish the same or more work as a less efficient runner. In fact, a high economy rating can make up for lower VO₂ max scores. Some measures of East African runners have found world class running performances, running 1500m in 3:35 or better, despite VO2 max values of only 63 ml/kg/min. This is roughly the same VO2 max score as a good age group runner and about 20% lower than would be expected for a runner with this type of performance.

Improving economy can have a significant impact on your running performance. There are several ways to improve running economy:

1. Focus on technique – running stride and technique are key to running economy. Get a coach who will work on improving your running mechanics and who can do a proper gait analysis.
2. Strength training – strength and power training have been shown to increase running economy by as much as 7%
3. Altitude training – altitude training or intermittent hypoxic training, as outlined in a previous post, improves oxygen use in the body allowing more energy to be produced by the aerobic energy systems, which are more efficient.

Running economy is an area where many recreationally competitive runners can make a lot of progress when they think they have plateaued. Get your economy assessed and find out if it is limiting your performance and build a plan that will help make you the most efficient runner possible.

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PEAK Centre staff have the highest certifications available in Canada for Sport Science. With their combined experience and education, PEAK Centre is at the forefront of practical Sport Science application.

By Ed McNeely – Peak Centre for Human Performance

Training without monitoring your progress is like driving with your eyes closed, you will get somewhere but you can’t be sure where or what shape you’ll be in when you arrive. Through daily monitoring you will be able to make the fine adjustments to your program that allow you to continue to progress and recover at the fastest rate possible.

Although many people dislike math or the thought of math, numbers are your friends when it comes to developing rowing fitness. Recording time, rate, speed, bodyweight, and heart rate provides a basis for measuring and monitoring training sessions and the program as a whole. The numbers are not the whole story, they will tell you what is happening in a training session but don’t help explain why, you need to combine training data with recovery data that measures sleep, soreness and other physiological parameters that will show whether you are heading towards an overtraining state or not.

Over the years many physiological tests have been developed to try and measure recovery and guide training programs. Blood urea, creatine kinase, hormone levels and ratios, and blood amino acid profiles are just some of the tests that have been used. If you are an elite professional making millions of dollars per year and have access to top medical and physiology labs and consultants these tests are probably worth using. For everyone else there is a much simpler way that has been shown to be as effective as all the expensive blood work; the recovery questionnaire.

The Recovery Questionnaire

The recovery questionnaire is filled out every day of the week whether there is a workout scheduled or not, you want to be able to measure the effect of a day off as well as a training day. A 2-3 week baseline should be established in the off-season when you are doing little or no training. The baseline is used to measure how far from a fully recovered state you are moving as a result of training and will be referred back to every week so keep the baseline numbers handy.

Each of the items in table 1 are rated on a scale of 1-10, using half points as well as whole numbers. Low numbers are better ratings for example a rating of 1 on quality of sleep means you had a great nights sleep, a 10 might mean you were up most of the night. The ratings are based on how you fell when you first wake up and get out of bed in the morning. Be honest with yourself, as you will use this information to adjust your program. Body weight should be measured after voiding and before breakfast so that conditions for the weigh in are standardized. Morning heart rate is measured as soon as you wake up. Keep a watch by your bedside and take a 30 second heart rate count and multiply it by two to get the number of beats per minute.

Table 1. Recovery Questionnaire

Using the Data to Adjust The Program

All data is compared back to the baseline established in the off-season. No single variable can assess recovery; the power of the questionnaire comes from the use of multiple variables simultaneously. If you see an increase of two points on the unshaded variables, compared to the baseline, on three or more variables two days in a row you need to take a day off or cut both the volume and intensity of the day’s training in half. If the week average of three of the unshaded items increases by three or more points you need to schedule a recovery week, even if one is not planned in the program.

Morning heart rate and body weight are not included in the daily and weekly analysis because changes in these items are much more gradual than the other factors that are being monitored. Increases in morning heart rate of more than 10 beats per minute for a week or more should be looked at closely, if it is occurring without changes in any of the other variables it may signal a loss of aerobic fitness which may or may not affect your performance depending on the endurance demands of your sport. If the weekly average is increasing and morning heart rate is high you need to consider planning a recovery week.

Unintentional decreases in bodyweight are one of the early signs of overtraining. Body weight can fluctuate daily because of hydration levels and what you ate and drank the previous day. Very large athletes can see their weight change by several pounds from day to day; because of this it is better to use weekly percent changes in body weight to assess your long-term weight profile. If you see a weekly-unintended weight loss of more than two percent something needs to be adjusted in training or diet. First increase fluid intake to see if you are dehydrated because of the week’s training schedule and insufficient fluid intake. If the weekly average of other variables is increasing and bodyweight is decreasing there is a good chance that you are beginning to overtrain and need to schedule a recovery week.

Regular monitoring of recovery will help you adjust your training program and give you an idea of the effect that various workouts have on your body. Combining recovery measures with the information on boat speed, perceived intensity of a workout and work time will allow you to dial in your training program and ensure the fastest rate of progress.

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PEAK Centre staff have the highest certifications available in Canada for Sport Science. With their combined experience and education, PEAK Centre is at the forefront of practical Sport Science application.