Running Science by Owen Anderson

Author:Owen Anderson [Owen Anderson]
Language: eng
Format: epub, pdf
ISBN: 9780736074186
Publisher: Human Kinetics
Published: 2013-04-10T04:00:00+00:00

Intense Training

Scientific research actually reveals that fairly intense training, not high-volume work at moderate intensities, is the best booster of running velocity at lactate threshold.10 In a study carried out at the University of North Carolina at Greensboro, runners who suddenly raised their average training intensity by completing two fartlek sessions and one interval workout per week boosted running velocity at lactate threshold significantly in just 8 weeks and as a result shaved more than a minute from their average 10K times. The fartlek work involved 2- to 5-minute bursts at 10K pace, which is about 2 to 3 percent faster than running velocity at lactate threshold; the intervals were completed at about 5K speed, which can be around 5 to 6 percent quicker than running velocity at lactate threshold.11

The idea that intense workouts are best for raising running velocity at lactate threshold was reinforced in research carried out at York University by Stephen Keith and Ira Jacobs.12 In the York investigations, one group of athletes trained exactly at lactate-threshold intensity for 30 minutes per workout. Training at lactate threshold (tempo training as noted earlier) is perhaps the most popular modality used by runners in their attempts to advance running velocity at lactate threshold. A second group of exercisers divided their 30-minute workouts into four intervals, each of which lasted for 7.5 minutes. Two of the intervals were completed at an intensity above lactate threshold, while the other two were carried out below threshold. Each group of athletes worked out four times per each of the 8 weeks of the study.

In the second group, the below-threshold exertions, which were used for two of the four 7.5-minute intervals per workout, corresponded with an intensity of about 60 to 73 percent of O2max. The above-threshold intensity, also employed for two 7.5-minute intervals per workout, was set at about 30 percent of the difference between lactate threshold and actual O2max. Thirty percent of the threshold-O2max difference would usually represent an intensity of up to 87 percent of O2max, or about 88 to 93 percent of maximal heart rate. In terms of actual running velocity, it would correspond with a running speed that is almost exactly the same as 10K pace.

After 8 weeks of training, the two sets of athletes had achieved similar increases in O2max and lactate threshold. The gains in threshold were impressive, averaging 14 percent in both groups. Advances in aerobic enzymes were also notable and nearly identical in the two groups of athletes. In an endurance test in which group members exercised for as long as possible at an intensity corresponding to their pretraining lactate threshold, the above-threshold athletes seemed to hold an edge, sustaining their exercise for a total of 71 minutes, while the at-threshold subjects lasted for 64 minutes.

At first glance, these results seem to suggest that there is not a huge advantage to be gained by surging through highly demanding workouts above lactate threshold. Note, however, that the above-threshold athletes really logged only 60 minutes of quality

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