Hi everyone -
Question for the physiological heads on here.
I know that a solid amount of volume is necessary for improvement, but I'm wondering if anyone can elucidate if/how those slow "junk miles" affect things like lactate threshold or VO2max?
I.e. aerobic running improves capillaries (in number and function, I suppose) and perhaps increases your number of slow twitch muscle fibers... and does this somehow provide a basis for your lactate threshold?
Much appreciated in advance!
Google HADD Running Document and read that. It is a nice, lengthy explanation for why you might want to spend a lot of time building an aerobic base.
It is not the be all end all for base building. And some of the physiology concepts might have changed. But it is still an excellent read.
that doc is perfect for what i was trying to understand. thank you dude!
You're welcome! I've read that document so many times over the years. Great stuff in it.
If you want some more insight into that kind of training from a guy that Hadd trained, this forum thread is also good:
man with a pan wrote:
Hi everyone -
Question for the physiological heads on here.
I know that a solid amount of volume is necessary for improvement, but I'm wondering if anyone can elucidate if/how those slow "junk miles" affect things like lactate threshold or VO2max?
I.e. aerobic running improves capillaries (in number and function, I suppose) and perhaps increases your number of slow twitch muscle fibers... and does this somehow provide a basis for your lactate threshold?
Much appreciated in advance!
According to a swimming coach, Ernest Maglischo, paces from easy up to threshold mainly trains the slow twitch fibres very well and this developes them best. You need those when running faster to max out their contribution to the running of course, but also to use lactate produced by the faster muscle fibres and and help them work for longer.
Too little long slow work and too much faster than threshold work will not develop them and you will never reach the potential over longer distances
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