Photo by Chris Milliman. Courtesy of Craft Apparel.

Winter is fast approaching, racing seasons for many athletes are tapering down, and athletes and coaches are beginning their preparation for the vigorous months of training that lie ahead.  It’s time to start gearing up for the next racing season.  Maybe you didn’t perform as well as you would have hoped this time around.  You’re not alone, and many athletes are planning on increasing their training regimen over the winter months to ensure greater success next season.

Have you thought this through?  Are you certain that hard-core outdoor training in the winter is the most efficient way to prepare for your next marathon?  Is it the safest method of training?  Are you layering on the winter coat, hat, gloves and scarf?  Are you running in wind, snow and ice?  Is this outdoor training really what you need to be successful?

And safety aside, what about the technical side of your training?  Are you focusing on your VO2Max?  Do you even know what that is or how it relates to your athletic ability?

What about the psychological aspect of training?  What are you doing to keep yourself excited and motivated?  How do you keep from peaking early in the next season, only to become frustrated with your performances soon after?

Do you know what your “limiting factor” really is?

Janda Ricci-Munn, accomplished triathlete and coach discusses his unique approach to winter training: identifying and developing the limiting factor.

Realizing one’s athletic potential is the end product of a dedication to consistent, well-organized training
practices that aim to induce peak athletic performance during specific competitions or phases of the
annual training cycle.  When working with athletes, I strive to create the most individualized, efficient
training programs possible.  To do so requires me to understand the physiological attributes that a given athletic event or competition requires my athletes to possess.  Failure to identify these “key” fitness attributes can, and most likely will, contribute to inefficient training and sub-par performance when the athlete needs it most.  In this article, I will discuss one of the most important phases of an athlete’s annual training progression, and clearly detail why so many other coaches and athletes fail to maximize athletic performance as a result of overlooking its importance.
Streamlining the Training Process

As a native of New England, I’ve had the pleasure of battling snow, freezing temperatures and icy roads every winter for nearly 34 years now.  Long course triathletes and runners in particular are faced with the stress that poor weather conditions during the winter months impose upon their ability to
pump out what they perceive to be those all important “base” miles.  Many of these highly motivated athletes simply choose to bundle up and risk life and limb, believing that the winter is the time to run as much as possible.  Heads down, cursing the cold, they run along at low intensities for hours on end in hopes of establishing a fitness base from which the rest of their training will sprout come spring.  More often than not, these same individuals go on to attain early success and advanced levels of fitness come April, but find that their performance, and along with it, their motivation, begins to drop off dramatically by the beginning of the summer.  Mediocrity soon becomes the norm, frustration sets in, and before they know it, another season has passed.  Carrying this frustration into the off-season, they vow to train even harder over the course of the winter to ensure that next year will finally be the year that “it” all comes together.

Talk about a vicious cycle!

Contrary to popular belief, there are alternatives, dare I say much more effective alternatives, to the clichéd, worn-out annual training progression that, at least in this neck of the woods, has done a lot more harm than good to my fellow athletes.  I have been arguing for years that killing oneself with
excessive, low-intensity base mileage throughout the course of the winter is not only unnecessary, but detrimental!  My system calls for a more realistic, creative approach to off and pre-season training; one that leaves the athlete very fit come April, and more importantly, physically and psychologically
fresh and motivated to begin the specific forms of training that will induce peak athletic performance when it’s needed most.

Enter the Limiting Factor

The “limiting factor” is my term for the physiological attribute that must be identified and optimally developed in order for event specific forms of training  to be most effective.  For example, in marathon running, a competitive athlete will run just below “functional threshold” (FT) for anywhere between 2 hours 5 minutes and 3 hours even.  Improvement of the functional threshold, the ability to run for long periods of time at marathon race pace and pure endurance are the specialized forms of training that enable an athlete to hammer out the 26.2 mile distance without bonking, or fading badly in the final miles.  Serious marathon runners usually spend between 2 and 4 months developing this specific form of fitness.

Now, the “limiting factor” to the athlete’s potential in the marathon lies not in the strength of the FT or pure endurance (both of which will be developed during marathon specific training) but in the aerobic capacity or VO2max of the athlete.  Think of VO2max as being the maximum amount of oxygen that an athlete’s body can consume, process, and then utilize to produce energy aerobically.

Let’s look at these 2 athletes as examples:

• Athlete number 1 can run a 5k in 13:15 and has a VO2max of 78 ml/kg/min.  This means that this athlete can process 78 milliliters of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute: a staggering number!  Athlete 1 has never trained for the marathon; he has always focused on preparing for shorter events instead, but he decides to jump into a local marathon at the end of the season because the pace required to win seems very easy to him.

• Athlete number 2 can “only” run a 5k in 14:00, and possesses a VO2max of 73 ml/kg/min.  He is unable to produce energy aerobically at the same rate as athlete number 1 (hence his slower 5k time) but he has trained specifically for the marathon for nearly 4 months.

When race day rolls around, Athlete number 1 runs effortlessly through the first 18 miles of the course and leads by a large margin, but as he nears mile 20, begins to tire, and eventually slows to a jog over the course of the final 4 miles.

Athlete number 2 on the other hand is able to maintain a constant velocity over the course of the entire 26.2 miles and wins the race with time to spare.

Does this mean that Athlete number 2 has a stronger aerobic system than Athlete 1?  No!  We’ve already established the fact that Athlete number 1 has a superior VO2max.  Athlete 2 wins the race because his Marathon Specific Fitness was more developed than that of Athlete number 1’s.  Athlete 2 runs up to his absolute potential on race day, while Athlete 1 walks away feeling dejected and wonders why someone so much “slower” was able to beat him.

The truth of the matter is that with the correct training, Athlete 1 would easily beat Athlete 2 were they to race each other again in the future.  The reason for this fact is that Athlete 1 has a much higher VO2max and can produce energy aerobically at a faster rate than Athlete 2.  Simply put, he possesses
greater potential, but has yet to execute the specific forms of training that would allow him to maximize his ability as a marathon runner.

Another way of looking at VO2max and its relationship to performance in endurance athletics is to think of it in terms of a giant drinking glass; The higher the athlete’s VO2max, the bigger the glass.  A bigger glass can obviously hold more juice than a smaller one. “Juice,” in this case, represents the specific forms of fitness that will be attained during the specialized phase of training.  The athlete who possesses the biggest drinking glass has the potential to fill it with more juice than everyone else.

So, it becomes completely obvious as to how VO2max would be defined as the Limiting Factor in an endurance athlete’s physiology, and it becomes even more apparent as to the reasons why an athlete must focus upon its development BEFORE starting in with the specialized forms of training that
induce event specific fitness.

Redefining the Notion of Base Training

Let’s go back to our example here in New England.  The snow is piling up, the wind is howling, and our motivated runners and triathletes are wondering how in the world they’ll ever lay the fitness base necessary to compete to the best of their abilities this coming spring and summer.  While I fully recognize the fact that a moderate amount of low intensity aerobic training is a key ingredient to any pre-season training plan, I completely disagree with the theory that huge “Base” weeks are necessary in order for specialized forms of endurance training to be most effective come peak season.  Base Phase training in my book is nothing more than low-volume, low-intensity forms of aerobic and muscular fitness training, which will sustain the competitive athlete during the off-season.  This phase of training, which typically occurs between the months of October and December for Northern Hemisphere athletes, is nothing more than a means of maintaining the base line fitness necessary for the advanced forms of training that the athlete will undertake come the new year.  To put things in perspective, the training volume for many of my competitive endurance athletes will drop by up to 60% during the base phase.  This does not mean however that my athletes remain idle. Various forms of supplemental exercise such as Pilates, circuit training and cross training not only help to balance out muscle groups, but provide a psychological reprieve from the stress that hard core, sport specific training imposes upon the psyche and physiology of the athletes 8 – 10 months out of the year.

Pre Competitive Phase Training and Development of the Limiting Factor

When taking into account the fact that noticeable gains in VO2max require at least 6 – 8 weeks of structured, consistent training, it becomes clear that the winter months are the ideal time for the marathon runner and long course triathlete to begin focusing upon the development of this specific form of fitness. VO2max is the limiting factor in the endurance training equation; failing to develop this key physiological attribute before beginning specialized forms of event specific training is a surefire way to short change your performance potential.   Thanks to the invent of high quality treadmills like those offered by Landice, aerobic interval training can safely and effectively be executed in the comfort of your own home throughout the course of the winter and, when structured correctly, will provide a tremendous stimulus for VO2max development.

There is no need to suffer through another cold and stressful winter of endless base miles.  By combing VO2max interval training with the optimal amount of low intensity base mileage you will enter the late spring and early summer physically and psychologically fresher than ever, and be ready to attack the event specific forms of training that will induce peak athletic performance.

Want to learn more about VO2max training for the endurance athlete?  Stay tuned for additional articles, training tips and podcasts from Landice sponsored coach Janda Ricci-Munn.

Janda Ricci-Munn runs a multisport training service and specializes in the athletic preparation of endurance athletes.   Over the course of his 10+ year coaching career, Janda has helped hundreds of individuals from a wide variety of sports to attain personal, regional and even national/professional athletic success.  Janda possesses the unique combination of over 25 years of “in the trenches” athletic experience and an in-depth understanding of sports science.  His innovative use of scientific based testing and training techniques, coupled with his personalized approach to coaching has netted world-class results and notable headlines.

In addition to his work as a multisport coach, Janda competes as a professional long course triathlete.   He was the 2007 Ironman 70.3 overall amateur world champion and has racked up numerous podium finishes on the national circuit over the course of his athletic career.

Janda resides in his hometown of Gloucester, Massachusetts with his wife Michelle.

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One Response to “The Limiting Factor”

1. Landice Fitness » Pacing Your Race says:

   March 9, 2010 at 10:02 am

   [...] way Janda and I approach training early in the season (SEE “Limiting Factor”), it helps set you up for pacing your year. You will improve certain parts of your physiology [...]