Are you too old to have good running economy?

The question of running “better” is an interesting question that I deal with regularly. I have found that when someone asks me to help them run “better” they don’t always mean the same thing that another runner might mean. For example, one individual I talked to recently simply wants someone to help her run consistently. She has tried to run some, but often falls off the wagon. Therefore running “better” simply means to be out there running.

But, another runner that came to me this summer wanted to run “better” also. For him, it meant he wanted to run a personal best in the marathon (and actually he was planning on personal bests at all distances). There is a link to his story – here. Faster race results are an easy way to objectively test if you are getting better.

Does having better run economy mean I’m running better?

What is “running economy” and how does it impact your running performance? If you read our book, Strength Training for Runners, you will know that one benefit we see from strength training is improved running economy.

The definition given for running economy in an article titled, Aging and Factors Related to Running Economy, within the November issue of The Journal of Strength and Conditioning Research is the following:

“The RE (running economy) is defined as the steady-state V02 for a given, submaximal running velocity”

To clarify, “V02″ is a term used to express volume of oxygen consumed, often expressed as ml/kg/min or the ml of oxygen consumed per kg of body weight per minute.

Therefore when looking at running economy we are looking for the physiological cost (V02) of running at a given submaximal speed. We can also conclude that if we improve our running economy, we will at least have the opportunity to run faster. In his book, Jack Daniel’s Formula, there is more discussion on this topic if you are interested.

What role does age play in running economy?

We often see decreases in different markers of physiology and performance with increasing age. Until today, I had yet seen research that looked at the question of age and the relationship to running economy. To spare you with all the details, let’s start with their purpose, discussion and conclusion:

Purposes: “were to investigate the relationship that age has on RE and identify factors that influence RE in competitive distance runners”

Discussion: “It was hypothesized that V02submax would be higher in older compared to in younger subjects (i.e. poorer RE). The result from this study do not support this hypothesis because V02submax and differences in RE slopes were not observed”

Conclusion: “It appears that competitive, older runners maintain their ability to run economically at submaximal velocities. Therefore, in an effort to prevent decrements in performance, these older runners and their coaches should focus some of their training regimen on factors that clearly decline with age”

Let’s talk this through just a little.

I don’t want to get into all the details of the study and get too caught up in the trenches, but let us at least start the discussion. I am sure that the first question that people will be thinking is, “Does this mean that the older runners were as fast as the younger runners?” The answer to that question is, no. Here were the mean times of the 5k personal best from the subjects:

male:
18-39 age – 16:53
40-59 age – 17:55
60-+ age – 20:26

female:
18-39 age – 18:32
40-59 age – 20:52
60-+ age – 26:48

What this study shows is that when you put the runners on a treadmill and run them at a similar speed, it will take them the same amount of oxygen consumption to get that result. Here’s an example from their data.

To run on a treadmill at 214 meters per min (7.98 mph), the oxygen uptake for each group was as follows:

young (18-39) – 38.8 ml/kg/min with SE of +/- 4.4
master (40-59) – 40.8 ml/kg/min with SE of 4.0
old (60+) – 38.7 ml/kg/min with SE of 10.8

The big difference as to the reason why the younger runners were running faster is due to the fact that those values represent a smaller percentage of the runner’s V02max. Here were the numbers for the percentage of V02max that were required to run at that speed:

young – 62.6%
master – 71.1%
old – 78.7%

In other words: when running at the same speed, the oxygen consumption was the same for all groups, but that required oxygen consumption represented a greater percentage of the “old” groups V02max than the “master” groups; and that oxygen consumption represented a greater percentage of the “master” groups VO2max than the “young” groups.

What is the take home message from this research?

One thing that I want to point out and make clear – This research is saying that a runner doesn’t have to lose running economy as they age. It is POSSIBLE to maintain running economy. That is very different than saying you will not lose running economy as you age.

Remember the purpose of this research was to look at the relationship between age and running economy, along with identifying factors that influence running economy.

You see it is when we start to look at those other factors that we see that these runners may be different based upon their age, but they are significantly similar in some other ways.

Therefore I walk away from this article with two main thoughts:

1. If we do some of the right things in our training and lifestyle, we can maintain good running economy as we age.

2. Performance is impacted by running economy, but the age related decreases in performance is likely to due to some of those other “factors”.

I will share some of those factors and discussion from this research article in my next blog. Now… no excuses, get out there and run.

Find the research’s abstract – here