Hi,
I can’t decide whether or not I should be inserting threshold runs (like 2*15min) to prepare for IM (Kona). When preparing for a single marathon I do a lot of sessions like this. As I’m doing more bike volume and long runs I feel like I don’t have the energy for any threshold (except on the bike), but I could of course do less volume to increase freshness and speed while running. What do you recommend?
Cheers
Most people on this forum would probably consider threshold training to intense and the recovery time too long for IM-training. I think training *just below *your lactate threshold is one of the most effective training sessions you can do ,except for the long run. If you’re already at a high fitness level another hour run at 8.00 pace or so just won’t bring much improvement. You need to stress the body if you want to see progress. Training right below the lactate threshold stresses the aerobic system to a maximum without a large accumulation of lactate so the recovery time is fairly short. If you just got 4 running sessions / week I would recommend 2 threshold sessions, 1 medium long run (13-16 miles) at *aerobic *threshold and a long run (19 miles +) at IM-race pace. Beware, there is an individual tolerance to threshold training: Athletes with lots of slowtwitch muscle fibers, that are born long-distance athletes with good HIM and IM times but poorer shorter distance (oly or shorter) capacity, can do huge amounts of threshold training. I have seen athletes do 2 threshold sessions/week in each discipline! This is partly because these slowtwitch athletes have a lower lactate level at their threshold (maybe 2.8-3.6 mM) and can resynthesis glygocen quickly. For these athletes threshold training is the best bang for the buck! Shorter-distance athletes with good capacity at sprint and oly-distances but somewhat poorer HIM capacity and poor IM-capacity, with a larger percentage of fast-twitch fibers, should be more conservative with threshold training. These atheletes produce more lactate at their threshold (3.7-6.0 mM) and are wasting more glygocen at this intensity and do also resynthesize it more slowly. If shorter distance experts wish to move up in distance they should do it by performing large amounts of distance training slower than their aerobic threshold and supplement it with occasional training at VERY high intensity levels (around VO2max). Shorter distance athletes tend to respond better to this high intensity traning than other athletes.
If you feel out of energy when doing large volumes of work, I would recommend you to divided your traning more into blocks. Maybe 10-12 days with long rides and long runs plus maintainance sessions to keep the volume as high as possible, followed by a shorter period (5-8 days) with threshold sessions in all disciplines.
GOOD LUCK,
Smeagol
thanks-what a good summary! Makes perfect sense. being of the FT family i have had lots of trouble going long. I’ve dedicated the last 8 months to daily running, slower. I do try to fit in the VO workouts but since i’m older I fear injury. thanks again for the reinforcement.
Thanks smeagol, great answer! Dividing the training more into blocks could be the solution for me.