Many runners use technology to coax a little more speed and stamina out of their bodies by training more efficiently. Emmet Malonereports
An MP3 player aside, my one attempt to introduce technology into my training got off to a rather inauspicious start the other week in the Phoenix Park. Two days before the Frank Duffy 10-mile race I'd bought a heart monitor to use, that day at least, as a stop watch, the idea being that I would have some idea of what pace I was running.
With one eye on doing more cycling when this whole marathon malarkey is safely out of the way, I'd bought a high enough spec affair (the most basic models start at under €40) but the 10,000 or so functions it seems to have became something of an issue a couple of miles in when somebody asked me for the actual time of day and, having told them, I struggled (and ultimately failed) to get the thing to show my race time again.
Since then I've been getting a little more used to the gizmo although I realise I'll have to either take a month off to wade through the manual or turn it over to my kids for a couple of hours if I really want to start getting value from it.
Already, though, I'm profiting in one way. Early indications suggest I've been doing just about all my training too quickly with my heart rate amounting to a prolonged, but previously unheard, appeal for me to cop on to myself. I took this on board at the weekend and while it was actually hard to slow things down, I felt considerably better during and after my weekly long run.
The results were the same when we sent Suzy Quirke, a Dublin-based reader training to run her first marathon, to have her VO2 Max assessed by Fitness Concepts (fitnessconcepts.ie), a company that, among other things, assesses the fitness of clients using fairly sophisticated methods and then advises them on, effectively, how to make the best of what they've got.
VO2 max is the maximum amount of oxygen in millilitres that one can use in one minute per kilogram of body weight. Those who are fit have higher VO2 max values.
The test, which involved pushing Quirke harder and harder on a treadmill while measuring her body's response to the strain, produces a range of useful information, most notably a person's ability to absorb oxygen and get it to the muscles, the maximum heart beat and the rate at which the body burns fat and carbohydrates while under exertion.
Widely used by elite athletes (apart from being available commercially, this sort of science is commonplace at the sports medicine departments of major universities) to tailor their training programmes, it is also starting to become popular with the more serious end of the recreational market.
At the top end of the sport this sort of information is an important aid to athletes of various disciplines who want to ensure that they are getting the most out of their bodies. Distance running is particularly closely associated with high VO2 ratings and, as Dr Timothy D Loakes points out in his rather impressive book on the sport, The Lore of Running, it is very rare for an elite runner with a relatively low VO2 to succeed in competition against those with a greater ability to take in and use oxygen.
Among more recreational runners these things are not nearly so important but, it is argued, the information yielded by the tests can still be put to very good use.
"You've got to bear in mind," says Emma Cutts, an exercise physiologist with Fitness Concepts at its Deansgrange base, "that a person's physiology is the same regardless of the competitive level at which they are running, so while the numbers thrown up might be different according to ability, the lessons learned about an individual's fitness are just as valid."
Cutts sees as particularly relevant to first- time marathon runners, the various pace at which they are either burning predominantly fat or carbohydrates while running and says that on the basis of the results produced it can be predicted what sort of time a client will be able to cover the distance without getting into difficulty.
"When people talk about hitting the wall," she says, "they are essentially talking about utilising their carbohydrate reserves to the extent that the body is telling them to stop pushing it so hard. It's the signal that they have been running at a pace above what's called their 'aerobic threshold'. What we help them to do is to train in such a way that they raise that threshold so they can sustain a faster pace.
"Generally the people who come to us don't have all the time in the world and want to use the time they do have for training more effectively. Other clients would include people who have been training maybe for two or three years, have plateaued and want to know why," she says.
After a preliminary discussion regarding her own results, Quirke, a chartered surveyor and experienced horse-rider, found the exercise useful. "I found it completely fascinating," she says. "Afterwards, I went away, bought one of the heart monitors and made a conscious effort to slow down."
Motivation proved to be a stumbling block, however, and Quirke's training came off the rails a little until a good run in the 10 miler got her back on track for her marathon debut in October. "I haven't had a proper chance to implement all of what was said to me but I definitely thought it was useful and I definitely think it will influence the way that I train."
For many, indeed, the heart monitor itself has become a key tool in their training and there is at least one online coach who relies almost entirely on heart rate feedback to tailor programmes.
The rest of us can apparently use them to good effect when trying to coax a little more speed and stamina out of our bodies by training more efficiently. And that, as they say, is where we shall take up the story next week.