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Science of Sport: The Advantages of Running Long

By Owen Anderson, Ph. D. (Copyright © 2004-2006)

Thorsten Veblen Might Struggle to Find Them

As a scientist, coach, and runner, one of my primary puzzlements has been why so many runners prefer high-mileage training over lower-volume, higher-quality work.

True, such a preference does reflect a Midwestern sensibility, with which I can certainly empathize, being a corn-fed lad from Iowa myself. We Midwesterners tend to believe that anything of value can only be earned as a result of good, hard work. In fact, we often think that valuable things can be acquired solely through lots and lots of demanding, repetitive travail. Carrying this view of the world into our running lives, we tend to pound the pavement as though we were carrying out hundreds of long-division problems in sixth-grade math class. Could we run a terrific 10K or masterful marathon without massacring our legs with tons of miles? Golly, no!

But what about you runners who live in the East, the South, and the West (and, heaven forbid, in Europe, Australia, Africa, Asia, or Zanzibar)? What is your excuse?

To provide an adequate rationale for you far-flung harriers, we must turn to a fellow with whom I share an alma mater. Like me, Thorsten Veblen struggled mightily at Carleton College, but – unlike me – he eventually became one of the greatest sociologists ever to trod on American soil.

Thorsten had the unique ability to ask penetrating (and often troubling) questions about things which most people took for granted, a capacity which eventually caused him to be thrown out of that fine institution on the banks of the Cannon River. His answers to the questions opened windows through which American society could be viewed and understood much more clearly.

For example, in his wonderful book, The Theory of the Leisure Class, Thorsten asked why people would be willing to pay hundreds (or thousands or millions) of dollars for “luxury” items which in reality had a much-smaller intrinsic value (1). As Thorsten queried, why would someone pay hundreds of dollars for a “designer” handbag which cost just a few dollars to make – and which worked no better than an inexpensive bag of basically similar design?

If Thorsten were still around today, he might ask, “Why do runners pay $150 for running shoes which cost just three or four dollars to manufacture?” Or, on a very practical level, he might implore, “Why do runners spend $150 for running shoes when they could buy equally functional models for just $30 to $40?”

Please, let’s not answer that the more-expensive shoes are better. As you are probably aware, a high-quality, carefully controlled Swiss study has shown that there is a direct relationship between running-shoe cost and the probability of running injury: The higher the cost, the greater the risk of malady and muscular mayhem. We buy high-price shoes for reasons other than function.

Thorsten’s wonderful, hard-to-refute theory about the purchase of luxury items was that such acquisitions were stupid and irrational when viewed on a purely economical level – but made sense when analyzed from a social standpoint. As Veblen pointed out, the acquirement of a designer bag (or some other luxury item) at an out-of-kilter monetary cost served an important social function for the acquiree, proving in effect that he/she was of higher social status than the poor paeans who purchased equally functional but lower-cost items. The Mercedes might not cover more trouble-free miles than the simple Toyota, but you are certainly a person of higher standing if you are at the helm of the Mercedes.

And so, runners who acquire high miles for their log books may be proving that they are not pretenders, that they are legitimate athletes, and that they are unmistakably separate from the humbuggers, masqueraders, and chiselers who fail to rack up 70- to 120-mile weeks. Running big mileage is like being a monk, taking vows, settling the debt which must be paid to prove oneself a worthy member of the running upper class.

Another force may be at work as well. Every sport requires and thus creates its own mythology, and the lionization of high-volume running parallels a key facet of Western culture - the myth of the self-made man. In the 19th century, the United States underwent vast social and commercial changes, and the country developed a mythology of a self-made man whose incredibly aggressive, selfish behavior gained moral approval, not to mention fame, fortune, and general admiration (2). The high-volume runner is one version of the self-made man. There is no fancy pants training for him, no subtle shades of effort - just a single-minded drive to acquire miles, whatever the corollary cost fo family, friends, and fitness.

As is the case with shoes (both running and designer), runners pick up the tab for high mileage for reasons other than function. In research completed at the State University of New York at Syracuse which was carried out over an eight-week period, just 10 minutes of daily training at 100 percent of VO2max roughly tripled cytochrome-c concentrations within muscle cells, while running 27 minutes per day at 85 percent of VO2max expanded cytochrome c by just 80 percent, and 90 daily minutes at 70 percent of VO2max burgeoned cytochrome c by just 74 percent (2). In other words, decreases in training intensity were linked with smaller aerobic-enzyme adaptations, even when the total volume of training was increased nine-fold (from 10 to 90 minutes per day)! Cytochrome c is a critically important enzyme found within mitochondria; augmentations of Cytochrome c should be associated with advances in VO2max and a lifting of running velocity at lactate threshold.

True, being a Mercedes runner is not without certain advantages. For example, when you become a high-mileage runner you are more likely to become acquainted with members of the sports-medicine community in your city or village, and they are usually not bad folks. In addition, your pant size is likely to remain stable, although the same could be said for high-quality runners. Your upper body will contain but a few strips of narrow sinew, and thus you will be unencumbered by excess weight during your runs. And, you will certainly feel the love from your local running-shoe merchant.

But, my basic question to you, my friends, is: Do you want to be a marabout of mileage, with all the social benefits such beadsmanship conveys, or would you rather be a truly faster runner? If the answer is the latter, it’s time to begin carrying out the high-quality running and strengthening training which will have you putting more force on the ground with each step – and applying that force more quickly. This kind of work doesn't care much about amassing miles at moderate intensities - it focuses on the maximization of key aerobic enzymes such as Cytochrome c and the optimization of neuromuscular power.

References

(1) Veblen, T. (1934). The Theory of the Leisure Class. New York: Random House

(2) Leslie, C. (1960). Now We Are Civilized. Detroit: Wayne State University Press

(3) “Influence of Exercise Intensity and Duration on Biochemical Adaptations in Skeletal Muscle,” Journal of Applied Physiology , Vol. 53 (4), pp. 844-850, 1982

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