Hey everyone and welcome back to the weekly newsletter.

In last week’s newsletter, I discussed the newest parameter of interest, VLaMax. I also recorded a solo podcast where I discuss it further. I’ll be posting that later this week.

In today’s newsletter, I’m going to discuss Cameron Myers’ training. Cam is a 20-year-old Australian that recently beat the world’s best in the mile with a time of 3:46. He beat a group including Yared Nuguse (3:43 mile PR) and Olympic Champion, Cole Hocker.

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As I discussed last week, Cam has a VO2max that’s measured well into the 70s, though they didn’t push him all the way to max, and a lactate threshold around 4:48/mile pace. His max heart is an astonishing 218 beats per minute. These parameters largely make sense for someone of his caliber. For context, Marco Langon, a 3:32 1500m runner and a 13:05 5k runner, keeps his easy threshold pace around 4:55/mile (lactate around 1.5 mmol). Yet, their training is quite different, which further illustrates that there’s more than one way to be successful.

So how does he train? Cam broke down a week of training for me as follows:

·      Monday: 20km easy in a double with 100-150m strides for speed development

·      Tuesday: Easy 8km in the morning followed by track workout of 4x400m, 4x300m and 4x200m all at mile pace

·      Wednesday: Easy

·      Thursday: Two separate threshold sessions but not measuring lactates. i.e., 3 x 10 minutes at 3:15/1k and then 10 x 600 a bit faster in the evening, pushing lactate closer to 4.0 mmol (2:55/1k).

·      Friday: Easy

·      Saturday: VO_2max session that can vary depending on the time of year, but probably 1ks at VO2 max pace with varying rest (2-3’).

·      Sunday: Cross training i.e., tennis

So first, the thing that surprised me most about this training is the number of quality days (3) in this week. This is probably more akin to US training in the early 2000s. Jack Daniels used a similar paradigm, but with the number of races that collegiate athletes have, combined with the onset of double threshold training, this is probably a bit less common in modern American distance running.

Nonetheless, this is still fine because muscle needs about 48 hours to recover between sessions [1]. This will be longer if you are older or have poor recovery habits like diet and sleep [2]. This also assumes the session is appropriate and not too intense or too much volume. Let’s break down each session.

Tuesday’s Session: Anaerobic

On Tuesday, Cam is targeting anaerobic capacity_, running economy, and maintaining VO2_max. We know this because he’s running between mile and 3k pace, which are intensities at or above one’s VO2_max. VO2_max can really only be maintained for about 6-7 minutes [3], which typically falls in the 2-3k range for an elite athlete. Because he is running at an intensity above his VO2_max, we know that he is deriving energy from anaerobic energy systems. In doing so, he accumulates lactate, hydrogen, and fatigue, and further pushes his body to adapt to this stimulus.

Moreover, he is running at mile pace. This is probably the most important part because running at pace builds running economy [4, 5]. Running economy is largely determined by the nervous system’s ability to coordinate the movement in such a way that oxygen cost is minimized. For example, if you co-contract the hamstring, quad, and calf muscle during the recovery phase, you’re being inefficient, and your brain and nervous system should correct the timing of these contraction patterns to reduce workload and oxygen consumption. How does your body learn to do this you ask? Through doing! Hence the importance of this session.

Moreover, these sessions aren’t too hard for him. How do I know? As a rule of thumb for middle distance to the 5k, coaches employ about double the volume of the race distance e.g., you do 3200m of mile work for a miler or about 8 x 400 at mile pace. He is only doing 3400 m between mile and 3k pace (he could work up to 6km total), so he’s well below that limit. If the whole session is at mile pace, and rest is short, this is intense, but from our conversation, (go listen to the podcast for the whole thing here) that’s not what they do.

Thursday’s Session: Lactate Threshold

Thursday is more of a maintenance day for Cam. In the earlier run, he does 1ks as slow as 3:15, which is very comfortable for him, probably closer to marathon pace (his lactates will be around 2 mmol, though he doesn’t measure these regularly). This intensity is just for maintenance. The later session, however, is a bit more intense, he will run 600m repeats as close to his threshold without going over it (4 mmol). He runs these realistically at his Onset of Blood Lactate Accumulation (OBLA). OBLA is notorious for being around the intensity and lactate when any further increases will result in exponential accumulation of lactate and rapid fatigue.

Of note, Cam started doing double threshold in 2024 because he was trying to threshold in one session, but he kept running too fast because he wasn’t tired enough. As a result, he would be too gassed for his Saturday session, which is realistically the most challenging of the week.

Saturday’s Session: VO2max

Now, what differentiates this session from Friday’s is the duration of each individual repetition. He is only running for about 30-60s on Tuesday whereas he is running between 2:30 and 3:00 at VO2max pace on Friday. It takes trained athletes 2 minutes or less to get to VO2_max and some can even level their oxygen levels in as fast as 90 seconds.

As such, Cam can hold his VO2_max for about 90s per rep. If he does 8-10 repetitions, he is getting about 15 minutes at VO2_max , which is plenty. He tops this off with some hill sprints, which have very high metabolic costs, higher than attainable with flat running, that substantially tax his anaerobic systems and lactate tolerance, but with lower mechanical strain than level running.

So, in summary, Cam hits all important determinants of performance in a single week. Monday, he sprints and hits ATP-PCR. Tuesday, he targets glycolysis and running economy and touches VO2max. Thursday targets lactate threshold, and Friday hits VO2_max and tops off his anaerobic power.

In my opinion, this is one of the most comprehensive weeks of training if you can sustain it. The real art though is how you tailor this throughout a season. For example, the winter needs to have more volume and a little less at mile pace, the spring needs high intensity and a lot of work at mile pace, and the summer should further sharpen mile pace while sustaining some volume while most quality comes from racing. In doing so, Cam is primed to progress through the season, perform at a high level, and gain experience racing, which I think is most overlooked.

References:

1.         Morán-Navarro, R., et al., Time course of recovery following resistance training leading or not to failure. Eur J Appl Physiol, 2017. 117(12): p. 2387-2399.

2.         Fernandes, J.F.T., et al., Aging and Recovery After Resistance-Exercise-Induced Muscle Damage: Current Evidence and Implications for Future Research. J Aging Phys Act, 2021. 29(3): p. 544-551.

3.         Caputo, F., M.T. Mello, and B.S. Denadai, Oxygen uptake kinetics and time to exhaustion in cycling and running: a comparison between trained and untrained subjects. Arch Physiol Biochem, 2003. 111(5): p. 461-6.

4.         Franch, J., et al., Improved running economy following intensified training correlates with reduced ventilatory demands. Med Sci Sports Exerc, 1998. 30(8): p. 1250-6.

5.         Jones, A.M. and H. Carter, The effect of endurance training on parameters of aerobic fitness. Sports Med, 2000. 29(6): p. 373-86.

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