I had a discussion with another coach today, and wonder if anyone can shed some more light on this/hopefully physiologically tell me what's going on.
Because my high school runners did not run over the winter I am trying to shoehorn in a base period for them, which will include some "marathon pace/upper aerobic and anaerobic threshold work. After that, I will begin incorporating VO2 max work, which for the most part consists of them racing the 3200 in the first three meets. I do not want them to begin faster stuff until this is accomplished.
So here is my question. In answer tot he other coach's question as to why I didn't want them to do fast stuff earlier (e.g. race on shorter relays for example) I stated that the glycolytic work (800s, 1600s, etc., anything faster than 3k pace max.) causes the blood to go acidic and the body needs time to recover. He asked how much time and I stated about 48 hours. He was incredulous, and is sure (and possibly right) that the body buffers acidic blood much more quickly. So why exactly would the faster stuff counteract aerobic training? I think I know why, but do not want to lead anyone in answering. It is my understanding that Arthur Lydiard, for one, was against doing any glycolytic work (besides short alactic stuff) during the base phase.