Widen Your Aerobic Window for Running Greatness

My opening statement is probably an article in itself but you could probably focus on 2 simple things in regards to energy systems work and that would be enough for pretty much any sport you can imagine.

Get as fast as you possibly can and then train your body to recover between these bouts of sprints as fast as it can.

That's it.

As far as the recovery side of this equation goes, you want a resting heart rate somewhere in the high 40's to low 50's. If it is any higher then you'll be working too hard for menial tasks let alone intensive one's.

Think of the a fitness fanatic versus a couch potato doing a single flight of stairs and notice the difference in their demeanor at after the top step. The same amount of work done has different affects on those with different fitness levels.

If your resting heart rate is lower then the high 40's then you can actually be too parasympathetic (rest) and you need a heavy dose of speed and power work.

The anaerobic threshold is the point at which you move from aerobic to anaerobic metabolism which is where you go from cruising to fatigued. The brain doesn't like this as it's shifting you from your homeostasis point (your body's baseline) and what is bloody interesting here is that in order for YOU to stop pushing further away from your baseline, your brain will 'tell you" that you're fatigued to force you to slow down and /or rest to get back to aerobic metabolism.

Anaerobic Threshold (beats per minute) - Resting Heart Rate (beats per minute) = Aerobic Window

So if you're anaerobic threshold is 170bpm and your resting heart rate is 52 then your aerobic window in 82.

The wider the better.

With a weak aerobic system your heart rate struggles to decrease between runs and then each sprint drives you further into anaerobic metabolism (fatigue) and you get stuck there.

I've been guilty of this in the past before I really nailed down how energy systems work. I'd start my pre-season running by going straight to anaerobic type work so I'd have 1 - 2 real good efforts in me and then I'd be done for a while as it took forever for my heart rate to get back down.

If you're heart rate is too high then this should be the very first port of call as far as your aerobic/endurance training is concerned. This will widen your aerobic window on it's own.

After that then you can look at increasing the time it takes to hot your anaerobic threshold.

To test your anaerobic threshold do a 6min cardio test taking your heart rate every 60secs during the test, add those 6 heart rates up and get an average and that's your anaerobic threshold, or close to.

In the Aussie Rules Untouchable Training Program, there is a huge focus on decreasing your resting heart rate in the Pre-Xmas Pre-Season Training Phase and then we look at increasing your anaerobic threshold in the Post-Xmas Pre-Season Training Phase (coming soon!).