Tracking Your Progress for Positive Fitness Gains

Tracking Your Progress for Positive Fitness Gains

Chris Eschbach, PhD, CSCS, HFS

 

We often think of trail running as a low-tech endeavor, but for competitive runners and those just looking to improve their performance on the trail, monitoring progress and training effectively is key. The varied terrain that one will encounter on the trails can be very beneficial to training but monitoring training zones during exercise and tracking progress will make it more effective. For anyone – trail runner, road cyclist, triathlete, or road runner – training is the key to improved performance and one of the best ways to gauge it is to monitor.

 

That training takes place in an effort to “break the body down” with the hope that the breakdown events (training) and the recovery events lead to a more efficient or trained metabolic system (physiological and nutritional), improved mechanics and better racing strategy (psychological). Relative to the metabolic system, at a basic level, the factors that determine performance are:

• Maximal oxygen consumption (VO_2max) – determined by the amount of blood your heart can pump and the amount of oxygen your tissue (muscle) can extract
• Carbohydrate stores in your liver and muscle – provide fuel for short- and long-duration exercise.
• Muscle fiber type distribution – the percentage of fast-twitch and slow-twitch muscle in your body
• Lactate threshold – used as a marker to determine what is occurring metabolically within the body relative to exercise intensity

These metabolic factors are multifaceted and trainable with higher intensity interval-type training demonstrating some of the best improvements. The more trained these factors are the better individual performance will be. This improved performance is a result of feedback to your nervous system in order to determine pacing during the performance.  

 

The varied terrain of trails (or rolling roads) provides a great source of higher intensity interval sessions, which appears to be the best type of training to make improvements to factors for performance. The workouts can take an infinite number of forms, but generally using intervals lasting between three and 20 minutes with the same duration or rest interval would elicit metabolic improvements. 

The intensity during intervals is recommended to be moderately high to very high (zone 4 and above, T2 and above, or above 80 percent of your maximum heart rate depending on the type of terminology being used). Caution should be taken when incorporating higher intensity training into a program. Make sure to have a cardiovascular foundation prior to starting the high intensity workouts.  As higher intensity training is incorporated it may be necessary to decrease the overall volume to ensure that overtraining does not occur. 

On training days that are not designated as quality intervals make sure to recover with easy training or a day off. Remember, training is a breakdown process and its combination with recovery is the key to improvement. 

 

Regardless of current fitness level, maximizing training to improve performance should be a high priority. If training is not maximized and performance plateaus or decreases, the program should be re-evaluated and modified to elicit positive changes. In order to monitor progress, it can be helpful to perform assessments that provide a benchmark. This can be done on your own or with the help of others:

• Field testing using performance, either in training or during a series of competitive events, is a great way to track progress, although changing courses and conditions can affect the reliability of the test. One familiar course (with a duration between 15 and 60 minutes) and a stopwatch are all that is needed; adding GPS and/or a power meter can add to the benchmark data.
• An alternative to field testing utilizes a piece of equipment that has the ability to change workload (such as a treadmill or stationary bike). Simply track heart rate at self-selected workloads with the goal of decreasing heart rate at those workloads over time.  
• Laboratory assessments provide a setting that allows for a controlled environment and professionals to analyze, track and present the data while tying metabolic factors (VO_2max, blood lactate, ventilation and energy expenditure) to performance. Additional benefits of laboratory assessment are the determination of training zones to use on a daily basis and analysis of metabolic factors to help focus training efforts.

 

Tracking fitness with benchmark assessment is beneficial for anyone with a goal of improving performance, even if that performance is further exercise. Post-assessment analysis and/or discussion of results with a fitness professional is helpful in making decisions about a training program.  

 

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Chris Eschbach, PhD, CSCS, HFS, is an exercise physiologist conducting metabolic assessments at The Athletic Performance Center in Raleigh and an associate professor at North Carolina Wesleyan College. For more information on the APC’s services, visit it online at http://www.apcraleigh.com.