“Success is Dependent on Effort.” - Sophocles

A simple and easy to understand axiom, to be sure. But when it comes to running, or exercise in general, the question gets far more complex. What effort(s) will ensure success? This is the great mystery that athletes, coaches, and scientists would all like the answer to! At least an answer a little more tangible than what is currently the best answer available: “It Depends…”

What kind of race are you running? What is your definition of “success”? Winning, Placing, or Finishing? Are you competing for money, medals, or personal wellbeing? Against whom are you competing? Others professionals, others in your age group, or against yourself?

In the past few decades, scientists have broken through many of Mother Nature’s tightly held secrets, and have offered a path forward on how we can measure various parameters of performance in real time (i.e., modern heart rate monitors, power meters, etc.) as a way to better gauge effort during exercise. Advances in understanding of biological systems and their insanely complex interactions have led to breakthrough performances of record shattering times and/or scores for the world’s best athletes. Unfortunately, currently there has also been a commensurate increase in misunderstanding and misinformation about the various nuances of, well, everything. We at Breath Runner have been trying to do our level best to make some of the basic tenets of exercise science understandable and actionable for anybody interested in running, novice and experienced alike. So let’s dive in!

• What is effort as it relates to running? For the purposes of simplicity, Breath Runner uses five “zones” of effort: Easy (Zone 1, or Z1 for short), Medium (Z2), Hard (Z3), Very Hard (Z4), and Maximal (Max)(Z5).

• Why is it important to understand this? Because we create and use energy in different ways dependent on the effort level. There are three major ways our bodies create the energy used in exercise:

  • Phosphagen system (ATP-PC system)

  • Glycolytic system (anaerobic glycolysis)

  • Oxidative system (aerobic glycolysis)

• Why should I care about this? Because: Time. Each energy system has an associated time frame.

  • Phosphagen system: seconds

  • Glycolytic system: minutes

  • Oxidative system: hours

• No matter what, you will use all three. Depending on the length and difficulty of your goal race, the proportional allotment of each of these will vary.

• What is my run/exercise experience level? At first this may seem like a strange question, but it goes to the heart of understanding the importance of knowing what an appropriate effort level is for a given effort, how efforts should be divided up across different phases of training, and most importantly, how you yourself know what is and what is not an appropriate and sustainable effort level for a successful outcome (however you may define that).

Whether you’re a “newbie” to running, hoping to just make it around the block without stopping, or a world class athlete looking to bring home Olympic/Paralympic Gold, there is a time and a place to go “above and beyond” with effort, but the vast amount of training time should be in a relatively light to moderate effort. It’s the How & Why of that ratio that is the key to personal success.

A foundational concept of Breath Runner’s training program is that while all the electronic “toys” we use are great for data collection and analysis, we can only know what our bodies are telling us in the moment when running. Our personal sense of effort ultimately drives our abilities, and if we spend too much time at or over the proverbial Red Line, we risk injury and/or illness. Pretty much every exercise scientist and world class coach agree on one point: Consistency throughout the training cycle is the most important factor in Race Day success.

Follow along as we attempt to de-mystify the science and explain the logic behind the training! As we like to say, Harmony Through Balance.