- Ability - Shaq is a good basketball player, in part, because he's huge. Running factors (joint composition, aeorobic system) are more subtle.
- Motivation - Intrinisic motivation to be successful. A good why. Why do you want to be a runner? Only 15% have a good answer.
- Opportunity - Long distance running is not affected much by weather. Easier to run in colder climates than in hotter, humid conditions. Track distances is set by high school and universities.
- Direction - Coaching, a program, something that sets direction. Some direction is worse than none.
- Luck - Sometimes something happens in a race that gives a runner an opportunity.
- The job of a coach is make an environment where maximum potential can be reached.
- Run one lap at a time. If a lap is too long, try a step. Break it down into smaller segments.
- Shake it up. Sometimes running a faster lap will feel better than a slower one.
| Ability | Motivation | Outcome |
|---|---|---|
| ✔ | ✔ | Champions |
| ✔ | ✗ | Coach frustrators. They need to find the motivation themselves |
| ✗ | ✔ | Self frustrators. Prone to injury. |
| ✗ | ✗ | Not an issue because they don't show up |
- Stress & Adaptation - Doing the same work out week over week will improve your fitness to the level of that workout, halving each week until you hit a plateau. If you do work, then rest, then do work you can accomplish anything.
- Everyone has a limit - Often reach your limit periodically. Global (forever) or local (seasonal) limits.
- Benefits of stress, comes during rest. Least possible work for highest benefit.
- Specifity - Run a lot and in different ways (faster, longer, etc.) Doing cross training is all for being a better runner. Build resistance to injury.
- Law of diminishing returns - Harder you stress yourself, the sooner you'll reach your potential. The curve though is asymptotic. Most of the gain will come in the beginning of the effort. Risk of injury increase.
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Maintenance - It's a lot easier to maintain a certain level of fitness than to create it at first. Big part of that is mental: Knowing you did it before. When you do well, think to yourself wow I did great today, but when you don't, just say to yourself that you had a bad day and it'll be better later. If you have a lot of bad days, then something more serious is wrong.
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Hemoglobin - Need high Hgb levels. Above 14g/100. Comes from a good diet.
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VO2max can be improved and corresponds to your maximum speed that you can hold for 10-12 minutes. For 60 minutes, you need to only be at 80% of your VO2max. You can only run a certain distance for a certain intensity for a fixed amount of time.
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Lactate builds in the muscles. At some point in a long run, the rate of accumulation exceeds the rate of expelling to the liver.
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Time spent over intensity (base training) improves cellular performance because the cells realize they have to adapt.
| Type | Reason | Max HR % |
|---|---|---|
| Easy Running | Cellular adaptation | 30 - 150 minutes |
| Marathon Pace | Learn marathon pace | 86% HR |
| Threshold Running | Improve lactate threshold | 92% HR |
Interval Running  |
Improves VO2max | |
Repetition Running  |
Improves economy |