Winter Arrives

The cold is here, the dark nights are here and the season seems a distant memory and distant future in equal measure.

We are discussing the difference in Critical Power and Functional Threshold Power in my lectures and practical lab sessions. One has a lot of Scientific review and study behind it and the other has been the focus on one or two studies in the past 20 years. Which is commonly used blindly; to very good effect.

What i am discovering is that the Sports Science academic world doesn't have enough time to investigate all we hold true or feel is fact. It isnt that long ago the Vo2 max was all we needed to know about endurance success, now we know it is more than that, with economy / efficiency and lactate threshold being the markers we are looking for and training to improve.

I did a CPD weekend with James Dunn ( www.kineticrevoulution.co.uk), with the main information i got from it was, core training and braking down the run cycle with gym and stretching sessions. Along with a more effcient foot land and cadence equals quicker runner. With this in my mind my training has begun with me increasing my running cadence to 180 and doing longer runs at 140bpm ( around my first threshold point, therefore improving my efficiency and economy).

Science says yes, lets see where this training takes my running.