The running foundations - five ways to improve

1. More efficient engine - VO2 - delivering oxygen to muscles, and increasing the rate at which your body can produce energy.

2. Build a bigger engine - build bigger muscles to do the job

3. Improve your economy - lightness, drag, resistance

4. Improve the gas tank - food and hydration

5. Create a better exhaust system - dealing with lactate

6. Increase the speed your body can produce and transfer energy
   

   1. VO2 - delivering oxygen to muscles

You improve this by keeping on challenging yourself. To begin with, any increase in time or distance will give you positive effects, and as the gains from this slow you can add in more intense training sessions to keep improving.

1. Build a bigger engine - build larger muscle fibres that can absorb more oxygen for energy, and so that the muscles tire slower as they can go further by sharing the load.
   

   1. Build larger muscle fibres with strength training (Heavier weights 8-15 rep range till the muscles burn and tire)

   2. Build more endurance in the muscles with lighter and higher rep ranges (15 - 20 rep range)

1. Improve your fuel economy - Run economy and drag
   

   1. How you run, looking at technique like the POSE method where you use gravity and unweighting for speed and forwards movement instead of muscle and effort.

   2. Quick feet to break the friction with the ground what slows you down

   3. Build power and speed with heavy weights (3-8 Rep range), jumping and exercises that get you quick and light on your feet.

1. Fuel for the run pre and post.
   

   1. This is best instructed by a nutritionist, but you use carbohydrates, protein and fats for fuel,

   2. Pre training or running you want to ensure you have a store of fuel from all 3 sources

   3. During running or exercising for longer periods you need to replenish fuel, with quick and easy to break down sugars for immediate energy and to use minimal energy in the process.

   4. Post run is it about refueling from all sources as well as repairing. Repairing is from protein.

   5. Hydration your body performs better with good hydration as the blood gets thick and sticky and transporting of the oxygen slows down when dehydrated, muscles move slower, and energy transports slower, so stay hydrated.

1. Creating a better exhaust system - dealing with lactate

Oxygen is required to metabolize lactate. But when your exercise reaches an intensity beyond what your aerobic system can handle, you move into the anaerobic energy system and lactate accumulates in your blood. This leads to the tightness and burning in your muscles Usually the calves in runners.

1. You can train to increase your lactate threshold so you can run faster but stay just below where the anaerobic and lactate threshold click in. These are your threshold and tempo runs

2. The Lactate can not be flushed out until it received the needed oxygen, walk and breath deeply to clear out the lactate build up. What area do you need to work on?