Luke Humphrey Running

In the first part of this series, we really discussed more subjective parameters. How you feel you train and

One of the more common questions that I receive revolves around the recovery, and why we prescribe “so much” time off. We even get a number of emails asking how we can tailor the program to fit multiple marathons in over the span of a month, or two. There’s a number of reasons why we don’t really devise plans to fit the later request and the reasoning is mainly because of the first issue- the need for recovery. What I’d like to do is go over some of the basics of what actually happens to us during the marathon and why we really do need to put a focus on that recovery process.

First of all, let’s get right to the biggest misconception out there: lactic acid. The pain or discomfort that you are feeling is not lactic acid overflowing your bloodstream. You weren’t running hard enough to produce massive amounts of lactic acid and what you were producing was recycled in the liver during the run back into glucose. So, anything that was in your bloodstream was gone within several minutes of finishing. By the time you race over 35 km (18.8 miles) you’re intensity isn’t high enough to produce large amounts of lactic acid.

So, instead of lactic acid, I want us to think about what our main culprits for marathon fatigue will be. We know that a few things happen from a metabolic and physiological standpoint. We know that we become dehydrated, glycogen depleted, and that there is actual damage done to our muscle fibers. Dehydration and glycogen depletion has been covered extensively here and elsewhere, so I’d like to shift our focus to muscle fiber damage.

In 1985, Warhol et al. looked at skeletal muscle injury and subsequent repair in 40 amateur runners upon completion of a marathon. Of these 40 runners, the majority trained at an average of 36-70 km per week of training, which is equivalent to about 40 miles per week. Unfortunately, it was not stated how long these athletes trained for this race. What was found was that those who slowed down more than 15% from their first 5k of the race to the last 5k of the race, showed significantly more muscle damage than those who maintained their speed. This is probably not anything revolutionary to most people. I think we all expect that there be muscle damage immediately following a 26 mile run. However, this study then looked at muscle damage over the next several weeks to guage how well the muscles responded. Another study by Coso and colleagues looked at blood markers in 40 marathon finishers immediately following competition an again over a period of several weeks. Here’s a quick look at the results:

* Immediately after race: extreme cases showed 25% of fibers were significantly, while some showed only very light damage.

* 1 week after race: beginning to heal from acute injury. Most glycogen had been replaced. Many “empty” cells were found meaning they were basically dead cells.

* 1 month after race: most damage was resolved and glycogen was abundant in fibers.

* 8-10 weeks post-race: Still signs of some damage in some subjects.

What can we take away from this? One, that recovery is highly individual. While we didn’t know the experience level of these athletes, I would bet that there is a high correlation between training level and subsequent muscle damage. Regardless, most runners will still need to allow for muscle glycogen replenishment for several days to a week and will have at least light damage on a cellular level.

With that said, my guidelines for returning to running would be as follows:

* If you just completed your first marathon, followed a beginner or low mileage program, or faded severely in your marathon attempt, then I would take a minimum of two weeks off running.

* If you used a low mileage advanced program (

* If you finished relatively even throughout the race AND are a higher mileage runner, then I would still advise 7-10 days of no running.

One of the more common questions that I receive revolves around the recovery, and why we prescribe “so much” time off.

Self Assessment for max performance.

A lot of things in running, much like life, are seemingly learned by trial and error. Those experiences mold our beliefs about what we are able to accomplish. For running, those experiences certainly are part of the process, but they take a lot of time and they mean going through bad races and injury just to learn more about ourselves. That got me to thinking, how do we take those experiences but couple it with some sort of self assessment to drastically shorten that learning curve? Where would we start? What would we look at? Lastly, how would we use it? These are all questions I personally would want answered for my athletes and the basis of the following self assessments that I would perform as a runner.

For New Runners:

If you are a new runner, you may be in a tough spot. Much of what you are learning right now is through trial and error and we simply don’t have a lot of data to pull anything of significance from. Really what we are doing here is twofold. One, to get an idea of what kind of potential you may have, or where your strengths/weaknesses might be. Second, lay the foundation of good training principles so that regardless of path you take, you have a good idea of what to expect.

Understanding your body type

* Ectomorph

* Narrow hips and shoulders

* Thin build

* Long limbs

* Mesomorph

* Wide shoulders

* Narrow waist

* Muscular build

* Endomorph

* Wide shoulders/waist

* Thick rib cage

* Shorter limbs

What does this mean? The reality is that for beginning runners, this may really only be assessing our starting point. A little of it might be stating the obvious, like it may simply point out that we are tall and skinny, or that we need to lose a little weight. However, if we get into it a little bit, then we can maybe start to sort out some things about ourselves that will indicate where our strengths and weaknesses my lie.

Basically, most of us are middle of the road when it comes to training and performance.

Most of us, roughly 70%, are well, average. We are probably a blend of two body types and with that we can expect a few things. For you, training should be balanced, because you will respond to everything. You can expect your race results to pretty much fall in line as the distance increases, as long as you trained appropriately for each event. You’ll respond at the textbook rate of 4-6 weeks at a training level. Basically, most of us are middle of the road when it comes to training and performance.

From a physiological standpoint, you are probably a pretty even blend of muscle fibers. Most people tend to have a 50/50 blend of fast twitch to slow twitch muscle fibers. This means that you’ll have a pretty average VO2max to start with too. So, nothing crazy here and the majority of people fall into this category.

Then you have your mesomorphic athletes that are strong, powerful, but on a light frame. You can think of your typical sprinter in this case. They will have a lot of fast twitch muscle fibers, but also a high starting VO2max. Sprint or short fast duration is going to be there favorite and obviously, their best training. Can this person run a marathon? Absolutely, as long as they modify their approach and realize that their expected performance will probably be slower than what a shorter performance might rather indicate. This population is small, about 15%.

The last thing a new runner needs is unrealistic expectations that allow frustration to creep in. This just leads to a general non enjoyment of the sport and most will ultimately leave the sport because of it.

Lastly, you have the true marathon body type. The skinny, long limbed, light framed ectomorph. They will really be the opposite of the mesomorph.

A lot of things in running, much like life, are seemingly learned by trial and error.

A few weeks ago we spent a lengthy amount of time in Part I of our discussion on metabolic efficiency. I finally got to part 2 and want to discuss some of the dietary considerations.

Here is the PDF file if you want to follow along: Metabolic Efficiency part 2

A few weeks ago we spent a lengthy amount of time in Part I of our discussion on metabolic efficiency. I finally got to part 2 and want to discuss some of the dietary considerations. Here is the PDF file if you want to follow along: Metabolic Efficiency part 2

I’ve been doing metabolic testing and VO2max testing for a fair amount of time now, but mostly with predictable results. Not until recently, have we been testing for than one type of runner, and boy have results not been quite so “textbook.” These results have led me to explore more into the topic of metabolic efficiency.

This led to some personal revelations as to why certain runners struggle so much with not only training, but losing weight, and being able to progress from a health standpoint. I hope you find this info interesting and can put some of this towards your own training or coaching!

I’ve been doing metabolic testing and VO2max testing for a fair amount of time now, but mostly with predictable results. Not until recently, have we been testing for than one type of runner, and boy have results not been quite so “textbook.” These results have led me to explore more into the topic of metabolic […]

Becoming injured or getting sick can sometimes be a death sentence. At the very least, a major setback! We know that the majority of runners become injured over the course of their training. How we deal with these setbacks can make or break our overall training. Not to mention, drain our spirits.

In this episode we talk about knowing when it’s ok to run and when you need to back it off. We also show you a quick and dirty guide on how to approach your day when you are injured and need to scale back. Follow along with the PDF: Injury

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