For a few years we would take a cruise in late Feb or early March and this allowed me to do two sessions a day quite easily (except for port days when it was one). Have no idea if it worked to improve my performance but it sure did stop me from gaining weight on a cruise. There's an opportunity for the cruise lines 🤣🤣
Ill leave it to pros and you guys :). But its very interesting to see how pro athletes train. Incredible persistance and dedication to go step further.
I do double runs sometimes, but that's one speed workout and one easy run usually. However, I am planning to try the double threshold day as well. The slight problem is that I don't have the device. I only have estimate from my watch, and I just did recently a test following Joe Friel's protocol.
These guys marveling at 63 sec 400s with low lactate levels. In 20-30 years, Mark will be marveling at the 82 sec 400s he was running during this video.
Great episode! My personal interest in this revolves around how the body processes lactate. Specifically, how the body removes lactate from the blood and metabolizes it. So knowing what my lactate is doing in real time would help me avoid cramps without all the guesswork.
We all need coach James with us to ... encourage us with all that optimism :) Especially if we can pay in gels Well done boys, this one was super interesting.
Great info. I noticed that Mark had a lot of vertical head movement when running on the treadmill (harder to see in the outdoor footage). Back in my track days (1/2 mile and mile) coaches always graded us on this vertical movement arguing that this was wasted energy. Is this really true?
Dont use the thumb and point fingers for lactate measurement. Plus always test on the side of the finger! "Testing on the side of your fingertip may be more comfortable than pricking the pad (center) of your finger. This can also help lower the risk of infection since the pads of your fingertips touch many surfaces while the sides do not."
I'd guess it depends what distance you're trying to do. For a shorter TT or crit race then definitely yes. Longer stuff might not matter as much but I'm not an expert 😂
Very interesting and as you said, don’t think I will do a lot of lactate testing in my training. But we can learn from this, that train in right zone and pace for the workout. That hard as possible is not always the best. Even it will feel like I’m cheating or are lazy, like I’m not doing my best. Marie-Louise
That's the strange thing about threshold training. The work is intense enough that you think it is going to hurt but because you don't generate much excess lactate you don't get the fatigue
I think 3 mmol blood lactate for an elite athlete is so much more taxing on the body than for a normal guy because the elite athlete produces way more lactate, but it stays in the muscle and gets used by the slow twitch muscle fibers. normal guys dont have these engines and the lactate goes directly in the blood stream.
3mmol/l is below threshold?? Thats like sayin, 175bpm is Marks Max HR😂😂😂 Laktatelevels and steadystates are as individual as your Max HR. Depending on your VLaMax / Muscle Fiber Profile etc., LT2‘s of 2,5 to 3.5mmol/l for Pro Endurance Athletes are more then usual. And this variation stays the same regardless of the 20 different ways to calculate or measure your lactate steady state proxy. It would be correct to say that they say 😊 to aim fore an intensity below LT2😉 Leave the values aside otherwise it generates confusion and leads to wrong training methods for/of amateurs
Exactly, most of the Norwegians test their lactate curve, and due to their style of training, have a lt2 value lower than the typical 4 mmol. Blu does his reps in mid 2's as his inflection was at 3 mmol.
Great video, really enjoyed it, BUT: 1. of crouse, Jkobs LT2 isnt at 63s/400m, its just the intensity that doesnt get him over 3 mmol over this short amont of time. So it is over threshold, but much more controlled tha in a typical VO2max set. At least, thats my understanding. 2. Please correct me if im wrong, i think one of the norwegian guys said sth in the sense of this: Lactate is mostly a energy availability indicator. So: When the body isnt fatigued, lactate tends to be higher, as there hasnt been a big energy expenditure yet ( as long as you stay und 4 mmol). In the later parts of the set, as Marc experienced it himself, the lactate went down again, as the body had less glycogen and thus needed to metabolize more lactate. A bit more context wouldve been nice, and im happy if anyone has something to add to this
Maybe you could have determined your threshold pace before doing the session for the video. Running two hard intervals and then two easier intervals might not be the same effort as four consistent threshold intervals
In my humble opinion that's one of the things amateurs should NOT take over from pros. Imho make hard days hard and easy days easy. We don't have the time, the volume and the natural speed of pros
Would you ever try a double threshold session? 👀
If James is volunteering to test my blood lactate, definitely
Would be interesting. I've always wanted to try 2 sessions per day but never have time for it with a fulltime job.
For a few years we would take a cruise in late Feb or early March and this allowed me to do two sessions a day quite easily (except for port days when it was one). Have no idea if it worked to improve my performance but it sure did stop me from gaining weight on a cruise. There's an opportunity for the cruise lines 🤣🤣
Ill leave it to pros and you guys :). But its very interesting to see how pro athletes train. Incredible persistance and dedication to go step further.
I do double runs sometimes, but that's one speed workout and one easy run usually.
However, I am planning to try the double threshold day as well. The slight problem is that I don't have the device. I only have estimate from my watch, and I just did recently a test following Joe Friel's protocol.
I like the Coach James dynamic
Would be very interesting to see how closely HR would match the lactate - ie see each reps lactate value and HR.
These guys marveling at 63 sec 400s with low lactate levels. In 20-30 years, Mark will be marveling at the 82 sec 400s he was running during this video.
Are you saying as we get older we won't be able to run as fast? 😮
Very good video!! Would like to see more of this IRL workout stuff
Love this, and what I’d REALLY love to see next is lactate testing on the bike, with a compare/contrast to running numbers.
Great idea, we'll see what we can do!
Great insightful video, Mark and James. Nice one, gents 👏
Glad you enjoyed it!
@gtn Certainly did enjoy the video guys!👏🫡
Would love to see a video talking about quality to price ratio for these lactate testers
It’s not that it’s easy, mark is just in amazing shape and is ready for it! So he makes it look easy
I think this might be Mark's favourite comment 🏃
Great episode! My personal interest in this revolves around how the body processes lactate. Specifically, how the body removes lactate from the blood and metabolizes it. So knowing what my lactate is doing in real time would help me avoid cramps without all the guesswork.
Love this sort of stuff!
We will try and do some more like it!
We all need coach James with us to ... encourage us with all that optimism :)
Especially if we can pay in gels
Well done boys, this one was super interesting.
thank you so much! Payment in gels 😂
Great info. I noticed that Mark had a lot of vertical head movement when running on the treadmill (harder to see in the outdoor footage). Back in my track days (1/2 mile and mile) coaches always graded us on this vertical movement arguing that this was wasted energy. Is this really true?
Dont use the thumb and point fingers for lactate measurement. Plus always test on the side of the finger!
"Testing on the side of your fingertip may be more comfortable than pricking the pad (center) of your finger. This can also help lower the risk of infection since the pads of your fingertips touch many surfaces while the sides do not."
I am curious to know if this also applies to cycling and if so, is there an equivalent workout?
I'd guess it depends what distance you're trying to do. For a shorter TT or crit race then definitely yes. Longer stuff might not matter as much but I'm not an expert 😂
Very interesting and as you said, don’t think I will do a lot of lactate testing in my training. But we can learn from this, that train in right zone and pace for the workout. That hard as possible is not always the best. Even it will feel like I’m cheating or are lazy, like I’m not doing my best.
Marie-Louise
It always goes to that saying - 'train smarter, not harder' 📈
That's the strange thing about threshold training. The work is intense enough that you think it is going to hurt but because you don't generate much excess lactate you don't get the fatigue
I think 3 mmol blood lactate for an elite athlete is so much more taxing on the body than for a normal guy because the elite athlete produces way more lactate, but it stays in the muscle and gets used by the slow twitch muscle fibers. normal guys dont have these engines and the lactate goes directly in the blood stream.
On a more serious note, how much lower % did you need to keep your heart rate to hit
Whats the brand/model of the lactate meter?
Arkray Lactate Pro 2.
@dmitryakopov5870 thanks mate!
The toilet roll makes it look super professional.
GTN does science 😂
You know us, we do our best!
Isn't his toughest day 20x200m hill sprints in the morning, followed by a threshold session in the afternoon?
3mmol/l is below threshold??
Thats like sayin, 175bpm is Marks Max HR😂😂😂
Laktatelevels and steadystates are as individual as your Max HR.
Depending on your VLaMax / Muscle Fiber Profile etc., LT2‘s of 2,5 to 3.5mmol/l for Pro Endurance Athletes are more then usual.
And this variation stays the same regardless of the 20 different ways to calculate or measure your lactate steady state proxy.
It would be correct to say that they say 😊 to aim fore an intensity below LT2😉
Leave the values aside otherwise it generates confusion and leads to wrong training methods for/of amateurs
Exactly, most of the Norwegians test their lactate curve, and due to their style of training, have a lt2 value lower than the typical 4 mmol. Blu does his reps in mid 2's as his inflection was at 3 mmol.
To answer the main question "Can I keep up?": No(r)way.
but they are middle dsitance runners not what most people are training for right?
Jakob is also an olympic gold medalist at 5000m
From guy who doesn't care about heart rate at all: the lactate thing is mental. I'd rather puke mid distance than do any of this 😅
haha, what an alternative!
Great video, really enjoyed it, BUT: 1. of crouse, Jkobs LT2 isnt at 63s/400m, its just the intensity that doesnt get him over 3 mmol over this short amont of time. So it is over threshold, but much more controlled tha in a typical VO2max set. At least, thats my understanding. 2. Please correct me if im wrong, i think one of the norwegian guys said sth in the sense of this: Lactate is mostly a energy availability indicator. So: When the body isnt fatigued, lactate tends to be higher, as there hasnt been a big energy expenditure yet ( as long as you stay und 4 mmol). In the later parts of the set, as Marc experienced it himself, the lactate went down again, as the body had less glycogen and thus needed to metabolize more lactate.
A bit more context wouldve been nice, and im happy if anyone has something to add to this
You did a double day now do the rest 160 km for the week 😂
You never know!
Mark did say that he was feeling alright after the two sessions 🤔
Maybe you could have determined your threshold pace before doing the session for the video. Running two hard intervals and then two easier intervals might not be the same effort as four consistent threshold intervals
It’s amazing the amount of people that think they’re experts in biochemistry, but really have no idea about glucose metabolism.
What's your point here
In my humble opinion that's one of the things amateurs should NOT take over from pros. Imho make hard days hard and easy days easy. We don't have the time, the volume and the natural speed of pros