Running Fast is a Motor Skill
The main goal of sports training is to improve an athlete’s performance in competition. Competition exercises in every sports discipline are complex actions having a highly defined motor structure, and the performance of which requires a motor skill. Therefore, the training process can be seen as a process of improving an athlete’s skilled motor function.
Higher levels of exertion result in high levels of improvement of motor function.
Here’s an adapted expert from Yuri Verkhoskansky’s book Special Strength Training Manual for Coaches detailing what improved motor function looks like in running:
Running is a cyclic exercise. In order to increase the working effect of the center of (body) mass displacement, the runner must increase the magnitude of the ground propulsion force-efforts during the foot strike phase of the running gait. Additionally, the depth and quickness of the muscles relaxation in the passive (flight) phase improves. Meaning, when the muscles used for running are turned on they’re more powerful, and when turned off are more relaxed.
Running ability increases as the potency and refinement of the motor skill increases. This is expressed as increased power of each foot-strike and decreased ground contact time (meaning the period of the active phases of muscle exertion decreases). As a result, the period of the flight (relaxation) phase increases because of the increased distance covered in each cycle of locomotion due to the higher forces employed with each foot strike during the active phase. As a result, the total number of ground contacts decreases, and the total time to run a given distance is less — ie the runner is running faster and with less overall effort to do so.
This is why sprinting, hill running, plyometrics, and strength training are very important ingredients in the training recipe for distance runners.
It’s easy to rely on energy system development as the sole rationale for programing training for runners. Always keep in mind the brain is the master organ. Improvements in motor function result in more power. For the runner, this is expressed by longer flight phases and more powerful but shorter ground contact times in the gait cycle. When this happens the runners run faster because more time is being spent in flight. Running economy also improves as oxygen demands lessen because of the shortened time in the stance (active) phase and longer periods of muscle relaxation during the flight (passive) phase.
Runners achieve significant motor function improvements with high speed and high exertion training. Running only lots of slow to moderate miles will realize little to modest motor function improvements. But higher volumes of running do upgrade important cardiovascular and endurance components. We can’t abandon miles nor rely on them for improvement. A balanced training program includes both a healthy volume of moderate running and frequent exposure to higher levels of force production. How we coaches blend these ingredients is important.
Slow to moderate paced running needs a high volume, but not necessarily high frequency, of work to be most effective. This is what Mark Wetmore means when he says he’d rather have an athlete run 14 miles at 6:15/pace than doing two 7 mile runs in a day at 6:00/pace. More endurance is gained with the 14 mile run. High speed (or force) running needs a high frequency, but not volume, of work to be effective. Meaning, it’s better to do 8 x 50m sprint sessions twice in a day, in the morning then later in the evening, than doing 8 x 100m sprints in only one session. Understanding this relationship should help runners and coaches to integrate these training elements more effectively into their training program.