Optimal running performance
— Its not about “its genetic”.
— Its not about out-dated coaching methods based on “years of experience”.
— Its not about altitude, mileage, steroids, or red blood cells.
It is about optimizing human cellular function and applying knowledge to get that done. Its best to place oneself on the front-end of change rather than on the wrong side of history. Thus, access to information and the ability to apply it is the major mechanism of success in human performance in health and wellness, in medicine, in Track & Field distance running events.

Training Human Cells —–

Distance running mechanisms of performance…..need brain cells to be able to send signals down nerves to induce relatively high muscle force output and continue in that for a prolonged period of time. How many muscle fibers can you recruit, how quickly can you recruit them, how long can you maintain a high level of recruitment.

The major proteins that your training program needs to cause production of, to a very high level for high level performance…….

1 — Proteins involved in synaptogenesis [production of connections between brain cells to aide in synchronization of muscle fiber force output]

2 — sodium/potassium/chloride/calcium pumps and channels along brain cell, nerve fiber, and muscle fiber membranes.

3 — mitochondria in and around brain cells, nerve fibers, and muscle fibers to supply large amount of chemical energy [Adenosine tri-phosphate] for cell function.

4 — glucose transporters along brain, nerve, and muscle membranes to increase ability to store fuel

[glycogen]

after meals for cells to use during running for chemical energy [adenosine tri-phosphate] production.

Each of these proteins has a set of genes that serve as the blue prints to be used to build them. The purpose of a workout is to turn on a gene level process called gene transcription and translation. It causes copies of a gene to be produced, copies of the blue prints needed to build a protein. The copies of the gene, the blue prints for a protein go to a set of workers, ribosomes….that use the blue prints to build a protein.

Your training program needs to be designed in a manner that….

1 — causes the right proteins to be produced

2 — produces the right proteins to a very high level to result in high level fitness and subsequently high level performance

Most of these proteins have multiple iso-forms specific to a given velocity of function. Thus your training program needs to be designed in a manner that…..

1 — causes production of the right proteins, the ones specific to the velocity related to your goal performance level

2 — avoids inducing production of high levels of perhaps slower functioning proteins

This is what applied Sport Sciences looks like.

Sport Science is -not- in wearing a heart rate monitor, doing a bunch of “weekly mileage”, paying somebody to measure your VO2max, doing altitude training, or doing carbo loading.