Running when yer blood has a high amount of lactate in it. It takes about 30-60 minutes for blood lactate levels to return to normal after a strenious excercise. If you do any fast paced work before your B.L. returns to normal, you’re doing Lactate Tolerance running. Training yer muscles to work when they have L.A. all wushin’ around them. Now you can do intervals 10x200 w/1-5 mins recove to work your Lactate Tolerance.
Now what just ran through my mind is what about hilly runs? I don’t mean hill repeats, I mean easy runs 6-7:00/mile pace, but up and down very hilly terrain. Wouldn’t that also be a Lactate Tolerance run?
Climb a steep hill-> B.L. goes up -> Go down hill (but B.L. still high) -> recover aerobically-> go up another hill-> B.L. goes up again.
Then again, hilly runs might be more of a lactate threshold workout, where thebody is able to dispose of the lactate as quick as it can be produced.
I wonder how fast you would have to run in order for a normal hilly run to cause a B.L. spike?
I think you’re lightly working aerobic capacity (VO2max) on the hilly run you describe. The blood lactate won’t go up extraordinarily high without a maximal effort, or at least improving the buffering of high lactate levels shouldn’t happen without producing high levels via faster running.
In response to your last question, I’d say middle distance pace or faster to get a lactate spike high enough to promote lactate tolerance. Otherwise you’re challenging the aerobic system (with an annoying buildup of lactate; or H+ ions). More specifically:
easy runs - lactate 1-3 mmol
threshold/tempo runs - 3-6 mmol
5k pace/VO2max runs - 4-8 mmol
middle distance pace - 5-15 mmol
>400m pace - 5-25 mmol
There’s a lot of interesting info on the web regarding measuring and training off lactate. One thing to note is that the levels different athletes are capable of vary greatly, and don’t necessarily correspond to ability. Some athletes can’t produce more than 5 or 6 mmol while others can record in the lower 20’s at the end of a 400m race.
Cool, thanks Joel. That’s what I hypothesized. Maybe if I sprinted up a hill? Dunno, I’m havin’ a lot of fun with these hilly runs. I can blitz around when everyone else is dying.