RunnerWithoutAnAerobicBase wrote:
I am starting to believe that acidosis does not decrease mitochondrial function (Matt Fitzgerald has a good article about this on Triathlete). Are there any other reasons (besides mental burnout) that one should follow a 80/5/15 model of training, where you go 100% effort for 15-20% of your training, and then take it easy for 80% of your training? I know that the Ingebrigtsens do not do this, but maybe, if anerobic training actually IMPROVES aerobic function, one would benefit from more all out training (mental and physical benefits).
Thoughts?
Also, should you periodize training, or can you improve multiple systems at the same time?
To run fast in long distance one want to maximize the aerobic capacity of as much of the muscle as possible, including the fast muscle fibres. To train the fast twitch to contribute one obviously need to train them and that at paces where the lactate is at higher levels and the acidity is also increasing. The question is how fast, for how long.
Tabata's research and a lot of research based on that indicate that short and intense is very efficient to develop an aerobic capability, but a retired swimming coach Ernest Maglischo who follows that line of thinking also states there is evidence that slow twitch muscle fibres are best trained at threshold and lower and even that just doing very high intensity is very inefficient in conditioning the slow twitch fibres aerobically.
On the other hand, long runs seem also to finally condition faster muscle fibres when the slow twitch get depleted and the faster ones needs to step in, but this might be a very inefficient way of targeting the fast ones.
The threshold philosophy does not just do thresholds. The ingebrigtsens are doing a fast (hill) workout every week of the base phase (and they also do shorter threshold work targeting more of the faster fibres as well even if not at high lactate levels). They also do fast work to peak for races of course,
Recently research was presented that too much intense interval actually lowers performance, but with needed recovery, the performance shortly after peaked. I think this falls well inline with experience that too much work over too long at VO2 max paces might burn you out if not getting proper recovery.
Then Canova and several prescribe using a ladder of paces both faster and slower than race pace. All abilities are needed, from pure mechanical efficiency and max lactic power down through lactic production, accumulation, and clearance. I think the load of the paces around accumulation can be tough since the lactate and paces are high and the rep lengths relatively long to actually accumulate. they have their mission for peaking though.
My point is that anaerobic work may target the aerobic development of just the fast twitch muscles and not the slow twitch which are the really important for any endurance effort. One also need the aerobic targeting training from say just faster than threshold and slower and the slower you go the more volume to condition the slow twitch.
There are no certain facts here so a hard question to answer.