How to work on your lactate threshold to improve endurance.

In our post on why to increase the lactate threshold we talked about the different energy pathways our body is capable of and how the lactate is produced. Lactate is a natural by-product of the way our body synthesizes energy to be stored into ATP molecules. But, our organism is also capable of removing the lactate produced. At rest or during low intensity exercising there is a balance between blood lactate production and blood lactate removal. The lactate threshold refers to the intensity of exercise at which this balance is broken and the blood concentration of lactate increases abruptly.

Four different mechanisms seem to be involved in balancing the level of lactate. These are:

Lactate removal

The heart, liver, kidneys, and some of our muscles can uptake lactate to fuel their activity or to produce glucose to be used during glucolysis.

Increased fast-twitch muscle fiber involvement

As the level of exercise intensity increases more fast-twitch muscles fibers are involved in the movements. These kind of muscle fibers are powered mainly by anaerobic metabolism, as opposed to the slow-twitch muscles which use more aerobic metabolism. The net result of using more fast-twitch fibers is an increased production of lactate.

Imbalance between Glycolysis and Mitochondrial Respiration

The final product of glycolysis is pyruvate. Once pyruvate is produced our body can use it in two different ways; to produce energy or to produce lactate. There are evidences that at high level of exercise intensity pyruvate cannot be converted into energy fast enough and thus it is converted into lactate which will be used by some organs and muscles.

Ischemia and Hypoxia

It was once believed that at high level of exercise intensity the blood flow into the muscles, or the blood oxygen content reaching the muscles, would be too low for aerobic metabolism to kick in, resulting in the production of lactate. Recent experiment have however, highlighted that the muscles are feed with enough oxygen at any level of exercise intensity.

Lactate Threshold Training Programs and Workouts

We now understand we can remove lactate. The question we want to answer now is whether we can improve the efficiency of lactate removal and whether we can train our body to produce less lactate. The net effect of these two physiological improvements would be the ability to endure longer at higher exercise intensity, which means you have increased your lactate threshold.

Following an endurance training we can improve aerobic respiration, more precisely mitochondrial respiration, with the result of lowering lactate production at a given workout intensity. Endurance training also increases the amount of lactate the muscles can utilize to get energy and the blood flow to the musles by improving the density of capillaries which reach the muscles. Both these effects improve the removal of lactate.

The optimal training plan for endurance has yet to be written, however after years of research and
collecting coaches and trainers experience few important factors can be identified.
These are:

High training volume

Gradually increasing the training volume per week, by adding more laps keeping the intensity of the workout low is the way to improve mithocondrial respiration resulting in lower lactate production at constant effort, which improves the lactate threshold.

Interval and Steady-State Training

Following the increase in training volume, interval and steady state training around the lactate threshold have been shown to improve athletes performances. It is important thought that the training intensity is around the LT, therefore some test should be run to identify the lactate threshold. Professional athletes have the possibility to identify their lactate threshold by testing their oxygen consumption with increasing effort intensity. The average swimming that does not have a laboratory at his disposal can perform an RPE test. A good estimate of the LT can be achieved if the intensity of the training is measured 13 or 15 on a RPE scale.

Steady-State Training involves working out at constant intensity as close as possible to the lactate threshold for a period of time. As the athlete proceeds into  the training plan the intensity and length of the workout need to be adjusted to take into account the improvement of the LT level. The intensity and the length of the steady state training depend of course by conditioning level of the athlete.

Interval training involves an high intensity effort above the lactate threshold and a following recovery time. A typical interval workout would include several sets of repetitions of high/low intensity effort cycles tailored to the training status of the athlete and to the activity and goal of the training.

To ensure optimal endurance training the key point of both steady state and interval training is the correct level of intensity they are performed on. For this a clear understanding of the athlete lactate threshold is vital.

The Bottom Line on the Lactate Thresholds and how we can improve it.

Hopefully, by now you should have a clear view of which are the key factors and energy mechanisms that determine the lactate threshold. Also you have got an idea of why the lactate threshold is such a crucial component of endurance based performances. Training to increase your lactate threshold boils down to develop your training volume and then workout in a steady state fashion just below you lactate threshold and/or in a interval training fashion with boosts of effort above lactate threshold followed by a resting period. Identifying the lactate threshold is key to the success of any endurance training. You can do that using the RPE method.

You want to know how to design your swimming training to improve endurance, to get the best out of your long distance swimming and open water swimming? Keep tuned, this will be the topic of out next post.

Until next time

Keep healthy keep swimming

Reference:
http://www.unm.edu/~lkravitz/Article%20folder/lactatethreshold.html

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Tags: endurance, long distance, open water