From: Laute Peter
Sent: Thursday, November 20, 2008
To: Gan HC; Ng HT
Subject: In Search of a 10k PR - Part II
In Search of a 10k PR - Part II
by Dr. Nicholas Romanov
Editor's Note:
Last issue, in Part One, we presented Dr. Romanov's theories on running, specifically the relationship between distance and speed and the overall scheme for 10K success. And, truth be told, that's all most think about when embarking on a campaign to lower their 10K PR ... which is why very few ever reach their goals.
In this second installment, Dr.Romanov rounds out the program, detailing your approach to strength development, running technique and psychological preparation. What you'll find is a very Zen approach to running, a mind/body relationship that entails minimizing energy expenditures to maximize performance.
We suggest you read this article several times if you're serious about improving your 10K. Dr.Romanov wrote the original text in Russian, which was then translated verbatim into English by his wife Svetlana. It was subsequently edited by the FS staff to make it flow more smoothly. However, we resisted the temptation to do a thorough re-write, preferring to leave intact as much of Dr.Romanov's phrasing as possible.
So, it may take a little effort to work your way through his concepts - but nothing comes without effort, particularly a 10K PR. If you have any questions about his program, please email them to us at: staff@floridasports.com and we'll forward them to Dr.Romanov for his reply, which we'll promptly post on our website at http://www.floridasports.com. Enjoy - and get out there and kick some butt!
Strength Training
Any human sports movement, including running, involves muscular effort. Mastering these movements involves both muscular strength development and muscular coordination. And it is common knowledge that strength development defects cause many injuries. The most vulnerable areas are the feet, knees, hips and lower back - all of which are critical to successful running.
It's a common running syndrome: the runner suffers an injury to one of these areas, continues running and ultimately suffers a related injury which sidelines him for months, if not forever.
I don't support the widely known aphorism: "No pain, no gain." Moreover, I believe it is far better to avoid injuries is serious strength preparation. While the space allotted doesn't permit me to go into detail, I will present a general scheme of strength training for running.
Strength conditioning should include work in the following four categories:
Beyond that comes strength developed specifically for running. The best training for this involves different kinds of jumping exercises, uphill running and sand running. You can jump in one place, forward, up stairs, up and down boxes, with weights, etc., for development of muscle elasticity and power.
Running on sand is necessary for developing of specific strength for development of muscle elasticity and power.
Running on sand in necessary for development of specific strength for running. In general, the primary objective for strength exercises should be to strengthen and elasticized the muscles around the joints, in order to protect them from injuries.
You should perform these exercises at least once a week, taking care to limit workload to a level that doesn't cause soreness, excessive muscle tension or fatigue. Additionally, strength exercises are a very good means of recovery after running a long distance if they are used immediately after finishing the run, both during training and competition.
In general, these should be weight exercises for muscles of the legs, hips, lower back and upper body that allow you to perform 15-20 reps without strenuous effort. My own experience of using this method of recovery with my students showed that it works perfectly on every level, from amateurs to professionals. You too can try it.
Technique training
Why is it so important to learn good running technique?
Because running, as any other movement, is an art that should be learned and perfected. And while strength, speed and endurance always have individual limits, the technique of movement can be perfected infinitely.
This latter fact will allow the runner to drastically increase endurance by lowering the body metabolism 30-50%, and oxygen consumption up to 20%. As a result, exercise heart rates will be lowered as well.
Most importantly, effective running technique lowers the possibility of injuries and increases running speed. Despite all this, most people think "I already know how to run," and never spend one second on technique during all the hours they spend running.
Think about it - lowered metabolism, oxygen consumption and hear rate, reduced injuries and faster times. If this doesn't convince you of the significance of technique, then I doubt I'll find anything else to attract your attention.
What exactly do we mean by running technique, and, particularly, its effectiveness? First of all, by running technique we refer to a specific system of body movements and its parts, aimed at a horizontal transfer - from point A to point B. And here we measure efficiency by one of the most important indices: energy expenditures.
That is, the lower the energy expenditures, with all other indices (speed or distance) being equal, the more effective our technique is.
Lowering Energy Expenses
How do you lower energy expenses in running? Biomechanically and physiologically, through the reduction of vertical movement of the body, landing the foot directly under the general center of mass, reducing the time spent on the support (your foot) and the number of muscles involved in the work. Sounds simple, but to understand how to do this correctly, we need to first take a look at common running perception.
Traditionally, running is perceived as the act of moving the body forward with your legs. Most people incorrectly straighten the legs in all joints (hip, knee, ankle), swing their airborne leg forward and up and land on their heels. Their arms are also working actively forward/backward. All of this is traditional running - and all of it is contradictory to efficiency.
Gravity as a Friend
My point of view considers running as a free-falling of the body, secured by alternating support from one leg to the other. The body falls due to gravitational forces and the quantity of movement (momentum = mv), which moves the body forward. The basic principle of this technique is "do nothing, don't interfere" - which reflects the minimization of energy expenses.
Of course, we can't avoid all energy expenditures, so we are talking about minimizing ATP energy expenses, which are used for active contraction of muscles. You should understand that any movement, including running, is performed on the bases of interaction of two groups of forces: 1) gratuitous (without using ATP) and 2) muscular contractions (using ATP breakdown as its energy source). The ratio between these two groups of forces is what defines the effectiveness of running technique.
Hypothetically speaking, we could call these forces external and internal, and could compare the external ones to the wind and internal to the actions of the sailor, who directs the sails to catch a near headwind to move his boat forward. In this case, the speed of movement is defines not so much by the strength of the athlete, but his ability to use the external forces for his own purposes.
We proceed here from the fact that movement and moving forces are all around and inside us, they only are frozen, deterred or stopped with the help of our muscles. And in order to cause movement, one must release the body from muscular tension for free-falling and then return the body to some height using muscular contraction. Simply stated, since your support alternates from one leg to another, the leg that's falling needs to be relaxed as gravity brings it down and the leg that's pushing off does so very quickly with just enough exertion to raise the leg to a height reflective of your current speed (pace).
In this sense, alternation of support from one leg to another is simply reproducing the cycle of your falling body, where speed depends on how quickly this cycle is reproduced.
Figuratively speaking, the legs are running under the body, preventing it from falling to the ground completely and lifting the body's center of mass a minimal height (3-4 cm with the best runners), which is enough even for the speediest sprint running, to say nothing of long distance running.
The POSE Method
Active muscular work with this running technique (which I call the POSE method) is performed only in one place on support (in the running pose), by the muscles of back surface of the thigh (the hamstring) (Fig.1), drawing the foot along the vertical line under the pelvis. And this movement per se, breaking contact with the ground, triggers the interaction of all external forces for the whole cycle of a running stride. The rest of the stride requires no active work!
Thus, the concrete elements of the running technique may be summed up simply. First of all, running is basically a change of support from one leg to another, which should be done with legs always bent at the knees. The feet should always be kept under the General Center of Mass (GCM) of the body. The legs should always land on the balls of the feet (mid-foot) and the heels should stay a centimeter or so above the ground.
Second, you should never straighten your legs and never move them forward.
Third, you should just try to pick up your ankles under the hips (hamstring work).
Fourth, don't be concerned about the stride length and range of motion - just maintain the frequency of strides.
Fifth, you should not use your legs to move your body forward. You have to allow your body to move forward by itself and not interfere with this movement. You can imagine your movement as an uninterrupted free-fall forward with the change of support (on your feet) serving to check this fall.
Psychological Training
Psychological training is a very complicated aspect of the complete process. I would like to mention the most important elements of psychological preparation that you can manage and perfect as a runner.
We'll call it "making a commitment," which includes not only the volume and intensity of the training load but also the fear of a rival, weather conditions or competition itself. Each one of these parameters establishes a certain relationship or obligation which can be set lower or higher corresponding to your athletic abilities.
That is, your psychological focus as an athlete on what you can and can't do or can and can't change is very important. Take, for instance, the fear of a rival. If you have such a problem, it's better to concentrate on yourself, limiting the outside influence and accepting the training and competition as the means of self-development and self-expression and not as something intended for the outside world.
During your race, you should run for your own sake, and win for yourself, not paying attention to whom you beat or who beats you. When your mind is free from outside influence, your muscles and functional systems work more efficiently and freely.
You should understand that doubts and fears of injuries and weather, as well as concerns about the volume and intensity of training, reflect to a great degree your unpreparedness as a runner - defects in your preparation or overly ambitious goals - which should be corrected.
Very often the need to do a speed workout causes more discomfort for you than a long distance run. This is because your level of preparedness for these shorter distances is much lower than it should be in accordance with your distance profile. Your desire to run short distances on the same level as long distances is in conflict with your real level of preparedness.
As a rule, efforts to solve this problem from the position of strength, is to train with high intensity, are unsuccessful. Additionally, this high intensity training leads only to injuries and over training. You should make a pause here and try to solve this problem separately - that is to do specific work to raise the results on these distances to the necessary level.
A key aspect of psychological preparation is concentration on understanding your body. Remember: only the perfect understanding of your body gives a perfect movement. You should see and hear you organism, your movements and change and prefect them in every training session.
All of us go through certain levels in perfecting our movements. There are four levels: mechanical, physiological, psychological, and spiritual. Without a doubt, they don't exist completely separately. If you, for example, ran your distance listening to music on headphones, you wont perfect your understanding of your organism and will be left only with fatigue after such training.
You'll get no nearer to what we call "the unity of body and mind" or "body and soul," as this is a continuous process and the result of all your purposeful work. The same is true about all aspects of training. You should make a commitment and keep this process going in order to know yourself better, which will undoubtedly help you make your results better.
by Dr. Nicholas Romanov
Editor's Note:
Last issue, in Part One, we presented Dr. Romanov's theories on running, specifically the relationship between distance and speed and the overall scheme for 10K success. And, truth be told, that's all most think about when embarking on a campaign to lower their 10K PR ... which is why very few ever reach their goals.
In this second installment, Dr.Romanov rounds out the program, detailing your approach to strength development, running technique and psychological preparation. What you'll find is a very Zen approach to running, a mind/body relationship that entails minimizing energy expenditures to maximize performance.
We suggest you read this article several times if you're serious about improving your 10K. Dr.Romanov wrote the original text in Russian, which was then translated verbatim into English by his wife Svetlana. It was subsequently edited by the FS staff to make it flow more smoothly. However, we resisted the temptation to do a thorough re-write, preferring to leave intact as much of Dr.Romanov's phrasing as possible.
So, it may take a little effort to work your way through his concepts - but nothing comes without effort, particularly a 10K PR. If you have any questions about his program, please email them to us at: staff@floridasports.com and we'll forward them to Dr.Romanov for his reply, which we'll promptly post on our website at http://www.floridasports.com. Enjoy - and get out there and kick some butt!
 |
| Table 1 Click on the table to see a bigger image |
Any human sports movement, including running, involves muscular effort. Mastering these movements involves both muscular strength development and muscular coordination. And it is common knowledge that strength development defects cause many injuries. The most vulnerable areas are the feet, knees, hips and lower back - all of which are critical to successful running.
It's a common running syndrome: the runner suffers an injury to one of these areas, continues running and ultimately suffers a related injury which sidelines him for months, if not forever.
I don't support the widely known aphorism: "No pain, no gain." Moreover, I believe it is far better to avoid injuries is serious strength preparation. While the space allotted doesn't permit me to go into detail, I will present a general scheme of strength training for running.
Strength conditioning should include work in the following four categories:
- Local exercises on muscle groups and work around joints at 360 degrees
- General Exercises
- Jumps with and without weights to develop elasticity
- Special strength exercises
Beyond that comes strength developed specifically for running. The best training for this involves different kinds of jumping exercises, uphill running and sand running. You can jump in one place, forward, up stairs, up and down boxes, with weights, etc., for development of muscle elasticity and power.
Running on sand is necessary for developing of specific strength for development of muscle elasticity and power.
Running on sand in necessary for development of specific strength for running. In general, the primary objective for strength exercises should be to strengthen and elasticized the muscles around the joints, in order to protect them from injuries.
You should perform these exercises at least once a week, taking care to limit workload to a level that doesn't cause soreness, excessive muscle tension or fatigue. Additionally, strength exercises are a very good means of recovery after running a long distance if they are used immediately after finishing the run, both during training and competition.
In general, these should be weight exercises for muscles of the legs, hips, lower back and upper body that allow you to perform 15-20 reps without strenuous effort. My own experience of using this method of recovery with my students showed that it works perfectly on every level, from amateurs to professionals. You too can try it.
 Dr.Romanov showing drills to Top Masters Runner Lynn McFadden, Australia's 2:11 marathoner Daniel Boltz and Britain's 31min 10K runner Jill Hunter |
| Learn to keep support to a minimum by performing jumping exercises in place. Imagine the ground as hot coals and get your supporting foot lifted as quickly as possible. |
Why is it so important to learn good running technique?
Because running, as any other movement, is an art that should be learned and perfected. And while strength, speed and endurance always have individual limits, the technique of movement can be perfected infinitely.
This latter fact will allow the runner to drastically increase endurance by lowering the body metabolism 30-50%, and oxygen consumption up to 20%. As a result, exercise heart rates will be lowered as well.
Most importantly, effective running technique lowers the possibility of injuries and increases running speed. Despite all this, most people think "I already know how to run," and never spend one second on technique during all the hours they spend running.
Think about it - lowered metabolism, oxygen consumption and hear rate, reduced injuries and faster times. If this doesn't convince you of the significance of technique, then I doubt I'll find anything else to attract your attention.
What exactly do we mean by running technique, and, particularly, its effectiveness? First of all, by running technique we refer to a specific system of body movements and its parts, aimed at a horizontal transfer - from point A to point B. And here we measure efficiency by one of the most important indices: energy expenditures.
That is, the lower the energy expenditures, with all other indices (speed or distance) being equal, the more effective our technique is.
Lowering Energy Expenses
How do you lower energy expenses in running? Biomechanically and physiologically, through the reduction of vertical movement of the body, landing the foot directly under the general center of mass, reducing the time spent on the support (your foot) and the number of muscles involved in the work. Sounds simple, but to understand how to do this correctly, we need to first take a look at common running perception.
Traditionally, running is perceived as the act of moving the body forward with your legs. Most people incorrectly straighten the legs in all joints (hip, knee, ankle), swing their airborne leg forward and up and land on their heels. Their arms are also working actively forward/backward. All of this is traditional running - and all of it is contradictory to efficiency.
Gravity as a Friend
My point of view considers running as a free-falling of the body, secured by alternating support from one leg to the other. The body falls due to gravitational forces and the quantity of movement (momentum = mv), which moves the body forward. The basic principle of this technique is "do nothing, don't interfere" - which reflects the minimization of energy expenses.
Of course, we can't avoid all energy expenditures, so we are talking about minimizing ATP energy expenses, which are used for active contraction of muscles. You should understand that any movement, including running, is performed on the bases of interaction of two groups of forces: 1) gratuitous (without using ATP) and 2) muscular contractions (using ATP breakdown as its energy source). The ratio between these two groups of forces is what defines the effectiveness of running technique.
Hypothetically speaking, we could call these forces external and internal, and could compare the external ones to the wind and internal to the actions of the sailor, who directs the sails to catch a near headwind to move his boat forward. In this case, the speed of movement is defines not so much by the strength of the athlete, but his ability to use the external forces for his own purposes.
We proceed here from the fact that movement and moving forces are all around and inside us, they only are frozen, deterred or stopped with the help of our muscles. And in order to cause movement, one must release the body from muscular tension for free-falling and then return the body to some height using muscular contraction. Simply stated, since your support alternates from one leg to another, the leg that's falling needs to be relaxed as gravity brings it down and the leg that's pushing off does so very quickly with just enough exertion to raise the leg to a height reflective of your current speed (pace).
In this sense, alternation of support from one leg to another is simply reproducing the cycle of your falling body, where speed depends on how quickly this cycle is reproduced.
Figuratively speaking, the legs are running under the body, preventing it from falling to the ground completely and lifting the body's center of mass a minimal height (3-4 cm with the best runners), which is enough even for the speediest sprint running, to say nothing of long distance running.
 |
| Fig.1 |
Active muscular work with this running technique (which I call the POSE method) is performed only in one place on support (in the running pose), by the muscles of back surface of the thigh (the hamstring) (Fig.1), drawing the foot along the vertical line under the pelvis. And this movement per se, breaking contact with the ground, triggers the interaction of all external forces for the whole cycle of a running stride. The rest of the stride requires no active work!
Thus, the concrete elements of the running technique may be summed up simply. First of all, running is basically a change of support from one leg to another, which should be done with legs always bent at the knees. The feet should always be kept under the General Center of Mass (GCM) of the body. The legs should always land on the balls of the feet (mid-foot) and the heels should stay a centimeter or so above the ground.
Second, you should never straighten your legs and never move them forward.
Third, you should just try to pick up your ankles under the hips (hamstring work).
Fourth, don't be concerned about the stride length and range of motion - just maintain the frequency of strides.
Fifth, you should not use your legs to move your body forward. You have to allow your body to move forward by itself and not interfere with this movement. You can imagine your movement as an uninterrupted free-fall forward with the change of support (on your feet) serving to check this fall.
Psychological Training
Psychological training is a very complicated aspect of the complete process. I would like to mention the most important elements of psychological preparation that you can manage and perfect as a runner.
We'll call it "making a commitment," which includes not only the volume and intensity of the training load but also the fear of a rival, weather conditions or competition itself. Each one of these parameters establishes a certain relationship or obligation which can be set lower or higher corresponding to your athletic abilities.
That is, your psychological focus as an athlete on what you can and can't do or can and can't change is very important. Take, for instance, the fear of a rival. If you have such a problem, it's better to concentrate on yourself, limiting the outside influence and accepting the training and competition as the means of self-development and self-expression and not as something intended for the outside world.
During your race, you should run for your own sake, and win for yourself, not paying attention to whom you beat or who beats you. When your mind is free from outside influence, your muscles and functional systems work more efficiently and freely.
 |
| Dr.Nicholas Romanov |
Very often the need to do a speed workout causes more discomfort for you than a long distance run. This is because your level of preparedness for these shorter distances is much lower than it should be in accordance with your distance profile. Your desire to run short distances on the same level as long distances is in conflict with your real level of preparedness.
As a rule, efforts to solve this problem from the position of strength, is to train with high intensity, are unsuccessful. Additionally, this high intensity training leads only to injuries and over training. You should make a pause here and try to solve this problem separately - that is to do specific work to raise the results on these distances to the necessary level.
A key aspect of psychological preparation is concentration on understanding your body. Remember: only the perfect understanding of your body gives a perfect movement. You should see and hear you organism, your movements and change and prefect them in every training session.
All of us go through certain levels in perfecting our movements. There are four levels: mechanical, physiological, psychological, and spiritual. Without a doubt, they don't exist completely separately. If you, for example, ran your distance listening to music on headphones, you wont perfect your understanding of your organism and will be left only with fatigue after such training.
You'll get no nearer to what we call "the unity of body and mind" or "body and soul," as this is a continuous process and the result of all your purposeful work. The same is true about all aspects of training. You should make a commitment and keep this process going in order to know yourself better, which will undoubtedly help you make your results better.
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