Literature Update

A Landmark study just published by Jonathan Esteve-Lanao and Carl Foster ( past president of the ACSM ) is the first study to compare two training programs for competitive 5k and 10k runners.  In the introduction of the article the authors state " Although the underlying physiological adaptations associated with improved endurance performance with training are well established, debate abounds regarding how one should train to induce these adaptations and translate them to performance gains. A key issue of debate is the intensity of training and how the day-to-day training intensity should be distributed.  Training intensity is typically broken into more or less arbitrary intensity zones, often based on readily accessible intensity measures, such as heart rate ( HR ) ( i.e., 80-90% of maximal heart rate ( HRmax).  There is a clear practical need for dividing up the training intensity continuum into zones.  However, these zones should be anchored in identifiable physiological markers if they are to be meaningful in interpreting the impact of training organization. "

The authors used the same heart rate zones used by Advanced Fitness Performance.  They were able to show that a 5 month training program based on longer time spent training in zone 1 ( low zone ) led to performance improvement in the 10k.

This is only the first of what I am sure will be many articles using heart rate zones to define optimal training programs. Do you know your zones?
Esteve-Lanao j, Foster C, Seiler S, Lucia A
Impact of training intensity distribution on performance in endurance athletes.
J Strength Cond Res. 2007 Aug;21(3):943-9.
PMID: 17685689 [PubMed - in process]