How To Know If You're Successful As a Runner

Success as a runner – like runners – comes in a variety of shapes, sizes and speeds. 

Some measure success by:

• speed or pace - a faster 5km, a quicker mile, a PB (personal best)
• more distance - completing a longer race, maintaining a speed over more distance
• comparisons:
•  importantly, by comparing your own progress
• with gender and age-group
• with training partners, work-mates or family and friends
• with a race of the same distance, in the same conditions
• with the same race the week, more or year before
• numbers - statistics, data, charts, graphs and tables
•  gadgets

Some measure their success by feel, perception and sense; and, through and by common-sense.

Some measure success by finishing medals, places and results others by having the courage to begin.

Some perceive success as survival; others longevity, sustainability, or performance.

The runner young in years often sees success through comparison to others.  To those wiser it comes through self reflection and introspection. Numbers can lie. The mirror does not.

How YOU measure your success will depend upon:

• how long you've been running for: 
• newbies and novices it can be as simple as beginning to run, or running for 2-3 weeks, or running their first continuous 1km, mile or 5km (without stopping or walking)
• those running for 2-5 years it can be in distance, speed, course type, or accumulated sessions or days (ie. a streak), kms/miles 
• running beyond 5 years, and the rapid improvements have slowed, running success is now measured in maturity - how you think about what you do, what you do about it, how you seek advice, and further progress, and your approach to progress over time not all time
• what you think being a better runner is -your perceptions, beliefs and biasses
• how your experiences of, by and through running and the reasons why you continue (to run) change, morph, materialise, crystallise and help you self-actualise

To some the success appears to come by, through and running with others. 

Ultimately, your success as a runner comes from you - your expectations, your choices, beliefs and, most importantly, your actions. 

How much of that success you experience, and others see, is your ultimate running journey.

To me, you're successful as a runner if you're (still) on the runner's journey, and are learning more about yourself as a runner, as an athlete and as a person. 

And that each step, like the very first steps you took, gets you a step closer to your own "better place".

Physiological Capacity: Run Fitness - Part 2.

 In Part 1 we looked briefly at how your body's systems need to be able to work together to allow you to to get out to run, get to the start-line of a race and the, if it's your goal, to get to the finish-line as easily and fast as possible.

The Key…Optimal Fitness…

Optimal means ‘enough to get the job done’. No more, no less.

It doesn’t mean maximal, nor flat-out.

 

At rest, optimal means maintaining basal or minimal levels to survive.

During training, optimal relates to elevated or raised levels of performance to complete and achieve the goal(s) of the session, or a series of sessions (in a day, week, cycle, block and/or phase).  

In a race, optimal equates to maximal maintainable speed, and minimal managed fatigue.

Your fitness - bottom-line - is how well you are prepared to complete a given task.

Whether for podium, performance, participation, prestige or pride: completing your first 5 minute jog, a 5km Park Run, a cross-country or trail race, or marathon all require similar capacities, yet each requires different fine-tuning – that is, different (run-relative) fitness.

Being a “good” runner is relative. For example, breaking the 30, 25 & 20 minute barriers is “good” for many, and is a measure of progress for others. Running 5km in 15 minutes isn’t close to good at higher (age-dependent) levels, and won’t qualify you for state, national or international championships.

Of course, if your initial fitness is low (and you can’t run 5km to begin with), improving it will likely help you with the physical and mental capacity to attempt or complete longer (run) distances.

In this sense, optimal fitness is relative – to individuals, to event, and to age.

Your body lets you build fitness – or prepare you to complete (run) tasks - in two ways:

 

(1) responses: sudden, temporary changes in function caused by exercise. These functional changes diminish after exercise. Responses relate to acute, single bouts of exercise – a run, a training session, or a race

(2) adaptations: more-or-less permanent changes in structure and function following training – repeated or chronic bouts of exercise. They allow your body to respond more easily during and after future sessions. Adaptations bring about structural and functional changes that have effects at rest, and during sub-maximal and maximal efforts. Adaptations make your initial loads or sessions easier, and build your maximal aerobic power and capacity – or ability to go faster and/or longer.

Ultimately, to improve performance you need to challenge your mind, body and skills – challenge it’s plasticity, or ability to change or adapt.

You run. You run regularly. You train. Your body’s physiological systems will alter their function (respond) in anticipation of, during and after each session. Over time, through repeated sessions their structure alters (thanks to nifty mechanical, chemical and genetic signaling systems) and, unless loaded inappropriately, function improves. Stop training and, at different rates, the improvements return towards their initial levels – you detrain.

Regular running optimises your body’s function in relation to (future) running, and maybe a few other tasks. Specific training optimises it for specific events and performance levels.

Depending upon your starting point, time-frames and goals optimizing your running (and training) can be see as optimising your energy and work.

These are the focus of part 3.

Physiological Capacity and Run Fitness - part 1

Ever wondered what goes on when you run? When you race?

Or how your body responds (to each repetition, set or session) and adapts (to multiple sessions - called training) to get better?

This is the first of a multi-part series on general physiological aspects of endurance run performance.

The next series will investigate specific physiological aspects of endurance (run) performance and how to improve them.

Getting to a run-race start-line is one thing. Negotiating getting to the finish-line as fast or as easy as possible is another.

An official entry, effective training, sound health and the right gear will get you to the start-line. Getting to the finish-line tests your health, training, good fortune, drive and fortitude.

How fast you get there will test your physical (and mental) capacity, and fitness. So too the course demands (duration. hills, surface, turns) and environment (heat, humidity, wind, smog/pollution, sun), your experience, and smart choices about pacing and managing fatigue.     

Your racing capacity is ultimately determined by your endurance training background, racing history, and genetic make-up – your unique physiological, mechanical and mental passport. And, to the extent you’ve developed the supporting bodily systems.

All Systems Go…

To get you to the line, red-lining, over the line, and lining up again requires a large - chiefly under-appreciated - complex and coordinated effort by all your bodily systems ...

System*	Main players	Important tasks
respiratory	·      lungs & airways ·      breathing muscles o   diaphragm o   intercostals	·      moving air in and out of the body ·      exchanging gases (mainly oxygen, carbon-dioxide) and water vapor with environment ·      speech
circulatory (& lymphatic)	·      heart ·      blood vessels ·      blood – cells, plasma	·      transport of nutrients, gases, chemical messengers (hormones), waste products, and protective bodies around the body ·      body temperature management ·      maintaining acid-base balance
integumentary	·      skin ·      hair, nails ·      (sweat) glands ·      receptors	·      barrier to foreign substances ·      prevent loss of excessive fluid from cells ·      temperature regulation ·      sensory information – pressure, hot, cold, pain ·      communication – touch, emotion
nervous (and senses)	·      brain ·      nerves ·      specialised organs ·      chemical transmitters	·      relationship with outside environment ·      regulation of other systems ·      abstract thought, learning & memory, reason, emotion ·      integration – judgments made from lots of information ·      movement – with muscular
Endocrine (hormonal)	·      hormones ·      special glands such as: adrenal, reproductive, pancreas,	·      works very closely with other systems, particularly nervous, digestive, reproductive ·      transport of chemical messengers – hormones ·      regulate growth, nutrient use & storage, adjustment of water & electrolyte balance ·      metabolic rate
digestive (& urinary)	·      stomach ·      intestine(s) ·      liver ·      pancreas ·      kidneys ·      bladder	·      breakdown of large food particles ·      absorption of macro- and micro-nutrients ·      absorption of water ·      formation of blood proteins ·      storage site for vitamins & minerals ·      carbohydrate storage & metabolism ·      detoxification ·      maintain blood sugar levels ·      maintain normal composition of body fluids ·      removal of waste
skeletal	·      axial o   skull &vertebrae o   sternum & ribs ·      appendicular o   shoulder girdle & arms o   pelvic girdle & legs ·      joints	·      support: tissues, organs & muscle attachments ·      movement: joints, muscles ·      protection of vital organs ·      blood cell formation ·      storage of minerals
muscular	·      muscles ·      tendons ·      specialised receptors	·      posture, mobility and stability: static, dynamic ·      movement ·      heat regulation ·      assist blood flow
* the direct system(s) involved with reproduction, development, and genetic control & inheritance aren’t included

To run, function or perform at your best, you and all bodily systems must function optimally. 

The systems have different yet complex interactions within and amongst themselves:

(a) to keep you up and about – alive

(b) for growth & development, repair & recovery

(c) to cope successfully with the daily stress and stressors of your environment, lifestyle and training (d) to protect against invaders and failing systems, and

(e) pass on your genetic passport

Part 2 will explore Optimal Fitness for running.