Quote:
That is really interesting to me, does this suggest that all the work folks do around FTP and sweetspot here on ST is potentially sub-optimal?I think Olbrecht would think they are potentially negative but then lots of people do it so that may not be the best description. I am sure lots of people will say how they improved using these types of workouts.
Why are they potentially negative? Because they are too stressful. Training is a process of breaking down and then building up, hopefully to a higher level than before. This process is called super compensation and we have a web page on this which describes the various types of super compensation.
http://www.lactate.com/supercompensation/
Workouts near the threshold are the most stressful of all because they can be maintained for long periods of time. So there is a real danger that the athlete will break down too much because of this and regeneration may not be to previous levels. This is more a problem for elite athletes but especially for endurance athletes since their threshold is much closer to VO2 max and places tremendous stress on the aerobic system. For athletes of less ability, the threshold will be at a much lower percentage of VO2 max and not put as much stress on the aerobic system. But they are still very stressful. Here is what Jan wrote on this in 1998. The human body hasn't changed since then.
http://www.lactate.com/.../trwhy.htm#threshold
Quote:
Remark with respect to the aerobic and anaerobic thresholds: We have spent very little on discussing the threshold testing of athletes. There are several reasons for this:
Firstly a lot of different definitions of thresholds, with respect to aerobic and anaerobic energy supply, exist, all with different physiological significance. The only metabolic threshold that can be considered as a reliable reference for the long term performance capacity of an athlete is the maximal lactate steady state (MaxLass) which is defined as the heaviest work load over a longer period (mostly >20min) where the athlete is able to stay at a constant lactate concentration. At this point lactate elimination equals its production. The speed that can be reached at MaxLass, determines the aerobic power of the athlete. A high lactate elimination capacity of the athlete may allow the anaerobic energy supply to contribute to a greater extent during a long term effort without an increase of the lactate level..
The experimental determination of MaxLass is very work and time intensive, time and efforts that can not be spent on training. For elite triathletes we can reliably calculate the MaxLass based on a simulation program that uses lactate test results from a multiple distance test. This is an alternative for elite athletes but is not necessary for the development of the recreational and serious athlete.
The different methodologies to determine metabolic thresholds based on multiple step tests are not only very time consuming but are subject to intensive discussions on their validity and reproducibility.
From the perspective of the physiology and the training science there also is very little scientific evidence about the significance of any metabolic threshold for training. Based on the science of training, it is even contradictory to believe that one training type, such as a training exercise at the anaerobic threshold, should be the determinant factor for success in training. Since a lot of different biological adaptations are needed for improvement in competitive performance, an athlete will have to combine different exercise types, each of them triggering one of the needed biological adaptations.
Finally all speculations as well as the lack of a clear statement regarding thresholds provoke with coaches and athletes more confusion than advantages.
As a consequence the cost in time from the methodology used to determine a reliable anaerobic threshold (MaxLass) is not offset enough by the usability of this information for training efficiency. There is neither scientific proof or an argument from a training science perspective that a training set at the aerobic or anaerobic threshold has any advantage over a good balanced program of different types of training. Therefore the determination of a aerobic or anaerobic threshold should be reserved for academic study approaches.
By the way Jan developed the validity of distance testing for evaluating athletes while a graduate student at the Sports School at the University of Cologne. He published a paper which examined the validity of what is called the T30 test for swimming. The T30 is usually a test of 30 minutes or 3000 meters.
Quote:
Relationship Between Swimming Velocity and Lactic Concentration During Continuous and Intermittent Training Exercises Int. J. Sports Med. 6 (1985) 74—77
He abandoned such testing for the training of athletes because it does not provide information on what causes the result. For the 1988 Olympics in Seoul, two Belgian runners had identical threshold results and received identical training programs. One thrived while the other deteriorated.
This led to his examination of the training effects of different types of workouts and how each affects both the aerobic and anaerobic systems. At that time in Europe whether from the influence of Scandinavian countries or from the Soviet block, low intensity workouts were highly utilized as the predominant method of training. Olbrecht then set out to try and find why this approach had been so successful.
For athletes who have less time to train than elite athletes especially in the triathlon with multiple disciplines the question is how to divvy up the training load for maybe only 6-8 hours a week. They must experiment but consider including polarized training too. As far as threshold workouts, they are useful every once in awhile especially a couple weeks before a race because they lower anaerobic capacity and will move the threshold to the right which allows greater utilization of the aerobic system during a race. But when used they should be surrounded with low intensity workouts to offset the stress of these workouts.
Take it for what it is worth but consider it.
-----------
Jerry Cosgrove
Sports Resource Group
http://www.lactate.com
https://twitter.com/@LactatedotCom