November 2007: Supplemental Information

How They Train & How They Have Run

Olympic Trials Qualifiers: How They Train - From part timers to professionals, the olympic marathon trials bring all of our nation's top marathoners together in one grand showing of the best our country has to offer. Author Jason Karp takes an in depth look at the numbers behind what makes our best marathoners.

USATF Club Marathon Relay Championships:
Colfax Relay Results

The World Mountain Running Trophy, Ovronnaz, Switzerland:
The US Team earned an unprecedented 3 medals at this year's World Mountain Running Trophy. In this up-and-down year (as opposed to last year's up-only course), the senior women successfully defended their team title, winning gold for the second year in a row. The junior women's team finished a strong second place, a good sign that success on the senior level will continue. Laura Haefli led the senior women's team with her bronze medal performance over the 8.1k course.

See individual reports & thoughts at the team blog: http://usmrt.blogspot.com/

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Training Characteristics of U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials Qualifiers
Jason R. Karp, M.S.

One day back in 2003, I was at the track with one of my athletes who was training to qualify for the 2004 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials.  While she ran, I began to wonder how other runners who had already qualified train.  Was it similar to what my athlete was doing?  How many miles a week were they running?  How much of their mileage was run at specific intensities?  Did they strength train? 

Unfortunately, there is little research on the long-term training of distance runners, leaving much unknown about training for endurance performance.  So with the 2004 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials approaching, I decided to do some research of my own (working on a Ph.D. has its advantages).  

All 255 athletes (104 men, 151 women) who qualified for the 2004 U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials (men’s qualifying standard: 2:22:00; women’s qualifying standard: 2:48:00 within two years of the event) were given a questionnaire asking about their physical characteristics, training history, financial support, personal records for various distances, and training characteristics.  All questions pertained to the entire year preceding the Olympic Trials.  Ninety-three athletes (36.5 percent) responded to the questionnaire (37 men, 56 women) and were divided into two categories—elite (men: sub 2:15; women: sub 2:40) and national-class (men: 2:15 to 2:22; women: 2:40 to 2:48).

Physical Characteristics and Performance

If you’ve ever seen a 200-pound person run a marathon, you know that lighter is better.  A low body weight increases economy (the amount of oxygen used at a given speed) and body temperature regulation and decreases shock upon landing.  So it’s not surprising that the U.S. Olympic Marathon Trials qualifiers weigh less than the general population.  But don’t think that if you keep losing weight, you’ll get faster.  At the level of performance of these runners, there was no relationship between how fast they ran a marathon and their weight, height, and age, as elite runners had similar physical characteristics as national-class runners (see table in November 2007 Issue). 

As expected, the faster marathoners were also faster for 5K, 10K, and half-marathon.  Since races lasting longer than three minutes depend primarily on aerobic metabolism, whether you run a 5K or a marathon, aerobic fitness is what’s most important.  It’s no coincidence that all six athletes who made the 2004 Olympic marathon team were the best six runners in the U.S. at all distances.