To say that Lance Armstrong is an incredible athlete is a massive understatement. He is one of the most well-conditioned athletes to have ever lived. Watching him power up the Alpe d’Huez is one of the greatest sporting moments in history. Armstrong feigned fatigue at the beginning of the race, and was near the back of the race. But when the foot of the mountain appeared, Lance vaulted into the lead. He looked into leader Jan Ullrich’s eyes and said “Come with me if you can.” Lance scorched up the mountain two minutes faster than Ullrich, in only 38 minutes. So, why did the man who has won the Tour de France 7 times say that running a marathon was the “hardest physical thing I’ve ever done?”

VO2 Max and You

What is VO2 Max? By definition, it is the maximum volume of oxygen that a person can utilize during one minute of exhaustive exercise. Of course, its implications reach far beyond one minute. VO2 Max is widely regarded as the greatest determinant of aerobic fitness and cardio endurance. Lance Armstrong’s VO2 Max is off-the-charts high. Most elite athletes have a VO2 Max somewhere around 60 ml/kg/min. Lance’s was reportedly somewhere north of 85 ml/kg/min.

Lance is a little more buff than people give him credit for

Theoretically, he should have smashed the marathon world record. His numbers indicated that he could run about a 2:01:00 race. The world record is 2:03:59. Lance’s actual time was 2:59:36. How could this be?

Work It

The problem for Lance is that his body was used to cycling. We know that the more the body does something, the more efficient at it we become. This is why you might find that you burn less calories the 100th time you run a 5k compared to the 1st time you ran it. It’s why you must constantly challenge yourself when resistance training if you want to make progress. Lifting the same weight all the time will only cause your body to become more efficient at lifting that amount of weight. It adapts and becomes as efficient as possible at it.

What does this mean for you? Well, it means that if you want to get better at running, cycling a lot isn’t going to cut it. If you want to get better at swimming, lifting weights isn’t going to get you there.

Sure, there will be some carryover. After all, Lance’s marathon time was QUITE good. This is due to his cardio conditioning. So, yes, having good overall fitness will definitely help, but the correlation isn’t 1:1.

I’ve found this to be true myself. While I have great cardio conditioning from spin classes during the winter, I find that my actual sprinting and running speed on the soccer field is much slower in the spring than it was the previous fall. This is because my body’s biomechanics have adapted to cycling and not to sprinting, running, and changing direction.

Make It

In my previous post about barefoot running, I mentioned how it made my calves sore. Despite normal running being okay, my body wasn’t used to the change in footstrike pattern that barefoot/minimalist running gives. Most runners strike heel-first. Yet, when you look at elite runners, especially Olympic runners, they utilize a mid-foot strike almost exclusively. Mid-foot strikes are associated with more efficient running, due to less ground contact time, less time muscles are activated and other biomechanical adaptations. But you cannot just up and change the way you run and expect it to give you an immediate benefit overnight.

Muscles don’t respond because you are good at cardio. It’s the other way around. Your cardio improves as a result of muscle activation. There’s simply no other way to improve cardio conditioning. You have to do something using your muscles. This makes sense, because it’s your muscles that are using the oxygen and energy, and not just your “cardiovascular system.” So, it doesn’t matter how good your cardio is if the underlying muscles that are going to be used aren’t trained. It simply won’t transfer.

Faster, Stronger

The most effective solutions are usually the simplest. If you want to get better at something, do it. If you want to sprint faster, don’t take up swimming. If you want to run farther, cycling 200 miles per week won’t cut it. If you want to get stronger, don’t lift light weights a bunch of times. This is specificity of training. By training for the activity you want to get better at, you will activate all the muscles that will be used. This, in turn, will increase the cardio response needed to perform at your most efficient, highest level.

How cool would it be to just decide that your running partner will be Lance?

The bottom line is this: If you’re training for a specific goal, don’t compromise your results by not spending enough time training for it. That doesn’t mean you can’t also do other things. You just can’t rely on those other things for the majority of your training, and then go out and expect to dominate at something else. Practice, practice, practice!

-Drew

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