How to Optimize Your Economy, Part 2

Once again I must apologize for the big gap between my posting of Part 1 and today’s Part 2. This is my busy time of year with lots of travel for clinics and camps so time is quite precious. It seems there is always more to do than there is time available to do it. I’m sure you understand.

In my previous post on this topic I mentioned that economy is critical to performance in very long events, such as an Ironman triathlon. I also explained that there are some things that affect economy over which you have little or no control. But there are also others over which you do have some control. In other words, you may be able to do certain things in your training to boost your economy. They will vary a bit by sport so I’m going to describe a few them using economy research done on runners.

Here are five training methods shown in some research to improve running economy along with one study that supported it. I should point out that for almost any topic below I can also find research showing that there is no benefit for a given method. So it often comes down to the preponderance of the studies indicating a trend—or even what seems reasonable to you (we’re then in the realm of “belief,” which is often necessary in the application of science to training). If you click on the research study listed for each method you can read more of the details from the abstract for yourself and even “chase” down the related research to see what others have found. This latter may be done by selecting other research in the “Related Citations” in the upper right corner of the PubMed page.

Intervals. Eight runners did one weekly session of 3-minute intervals at the velocity of their VO₂max (vVO₂max). vVO₂max is what I call peak pace for 6 minutes—“P6”. This is your fastest average pace for a 6-minute, all-out test run. Their economy improved by 6% on average while there was no significant change in VO₂max.

Billat VL, Flechet B, Petit B, Muriaux G, Koralsztein JP. 1999. Interval training at VO₂max: effects on aerobic performance and overtraining markers. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 31(1):156-63.

Heavy weight lifting. A group of triathletes improved their running economy by combining their normal endurance run training with heavy weight lifting twice a week for 14 weeks. (I should point out here that there is also a lot of research showing no benefit from heavy weight lifting, so we’re back to “belief.”)

Millet GP, Jaouen B, Borrani F, Candau R. 2002. Effects of concurrent endurance and strength training on running economy and .VO(2) kinetics. Med Sci Sports Exerc, Aug;34(8):1351-9.

Hills. For some reason there's not much available on this topic, but almost all runners agree on it's benefit. In this unpublished study, hill training twice per week for 12 weeks improved the running economy of 11 marathon runners by 3%. They ran up a 400-meter hill with exaggerated vertical oscillation—“bouncing.” This is closely related to plyometrics.

Sjodin B and Svedenhag J. 1992. “Endurance Conditioning,” in Endurance in Sport, RJ Shepherd and PO Astrand editors. Oxford: Blackwell Scientific Publications.

Plyometrics. Plyometrics for 9 weeks produced an 8% average gain in economy at 5k pace in 10 runners. There was no change in VO₂max.

Paavolainen L, Häkkinen K, Hämäläinen I, Nummela A, Rusko H. 1999. Explosive-strength training improves 5-km running time by improving running economy and muscle power. J Appl Physiol, 86(5):1527-33.

There’s a lot of research on plyometrics which seems quite beneficial for running. So here’s another study. Seventeen male runners improved their 3km times by 2.7% over 6 weeks by doing plyometric training which resulted in improved economy. There were no changes in VO₂max or lactate threshold.

Spurrs RW, Murphy AJ, Watsford ML. 2003. The effect of plyometric training on distance running performance. Eur J Appl Physiol, 89(1):1-7.

Tapering. A 7-day reduction in volume with high-intensity included improved economy by 6% and 5km times by 3% in 8 runners. This is yet another good reason to go through the taper and peak process before a race (as described in my Training Bible books).

Houmard JA, Scott BK, Justice CL, Chenier TC. 1994. The effects of taper on performance in distance runners. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 26(5):624-31.

Comments

[Douglas]

Interesting ways to improve economy here. I can attest that the VoMax workouts you mentioned in the first study do seem to help economy on the bike as well.

I just finished a short block of VoMax work (6 days total, consisting of 7 VoMax workouts spaced over 5 of those days) and can tell my efficiency has gone up. The training benefits of the workouts will only become realized as the recovery week I am in progresses, but I can already tell that my pedal stroke and cadence has improved, even though I was doing specific work on my pedal stroke before.

[Lucas]

It's interesting that in Part I and Part II you state that economy is not as critical at the shorter distances, but the research studies cited all use 5k or shorter distances and demonstrate significant differences in performance. As a grad student involved in studies of running economy at similar distances (sub 10k), the differences of running economy make a huge difference. Extrapolated over a longer distance, the time differences would be larger, but the percentage of difference made at shorter events are substantial.

Relatedly, running economy seems to stem from contributions of muscle fiber type and morphology (unchangable), but also neuromuscular coordination and biomechanics (gait characteristics; both somewhat trainable). The studies noted largely address the neuromuscular coordination. While running form may be beyond the scope of these articles, differences in gait can have significant impacts on running economy, too, including stride rate, foot contact/airborne time, and the braking/acceleration phases of a stride.

[Paul]

I am helping to coach a group of ladies, 20-40 yrs old. Many haven’t run since school, some primary school. There are plenty of calf shufflers! The increase in running activity has led to several with calf and Achilles soreness. Advice from an Olympic level 200/400m runner is ‘they need to re-learn how to sprint first, to get their upper leg muscles, the big muscles, working particularly Gluts, subsequently learning the efficiency and economical techniques described in your Bible’.
But calf shuffling actually looks economical, low height, close to CoG, but with huge emphasis on lower leg muscles, some with ball of foot, very few heel. All your running drills focus on lower leg. Are Gluts, Hamstrings and Quads dominant, even necessary, in endurance running?
What would you recommend for turning the novice of all novices into endurance runners?

[Joe Friel]

Paul--My answers to your 2 questions: 1. The primary mover in running is the calf muscle. The other muscles play a 'supportive' role. 2. The only thing that will turn novices with a given level of talent into advanced runners is time and training.

[Johan]

There will be an uprising in Europe if you don't give us "Part 3" pretty soon ;)

[Joe Friel]

Johan--Sorry, but there are only 2 parts. No revolutions, please. :)

[pulse oxmeters]

But there are also others over which you do have some control. In other words, you may be able to do certain things in your training to boost your economy.

[plumbing]

Have you ever tinkered with your aero position to try to get the most out of the aerodynamic advantages? This study researched the following ideas that you might be interested in: 1) constant tire pressure, a change in body position would alter measures of aerodynamic resistance but not rolling resistance and 2) in a single body position, changes in tire pressure would alter measures of rolling resistance but not aerodynamic resistance .

[Mike Bresnahan]

How does one measure cycling economy? Is it possible to measure it in the field?

[Joe Friel]

Mike B--In the lab it's usually done as the oxygen cost of producing a submax wattage. Hard, if not impossible, to measure with any decent degree of accuracy in the field.

[Dorian Wrigley]

Hi Joe, In a recent press conference with Robbie Mcewen he commented on Why Cavendish is the top sprinter in cycling today. He spoke about his body shape - short arms and legs which put him into the ideal aerodynamic position when in the drops "a time trial helmet shape on a bicycle".
He concluded that as a result he needs to put out fewer watts to maintain the same speed as his rivals thus giving him a significant edge in sprints.
Clearly these occur at neuromuscular levels and not between AT and VO2max but would this be another example of economy benefit?

[Joe Friel]

Dorian--Economy also includes aerodynamics. More specifically, low drag. That's what I believe he is referring to.