Lactate tolerance
This is the tough stuff, the piano-pushing, rigging, knee-grabbing, rubber-legged torture that most runners dread. It is an unavoidable aspect of training for any serious runner who wishes to be competitive. Unfortunately, Americans in general and high schoolers in particular place far too much emphasis on this hard anaerobic work, and they usually do it improperly, to boot. Many top Americans have remarked how "the training must be very hard" to reach the top. This is not entirely wrong; runners absolutely must "go to the well" in training from time to time in order to attain maximum performance capacity. However, lactate tolerance work has little to no effect on overall aerobic fitness, and it is aerobic endurance which is by far the most important component of running performance.
In essence, lactate tolerance training can only bring a runner from the bottom of a particular fitness level to the top of that same level in terms of race worthiness. It never allows anyone to change fitness levels! Anybody can run intervals very hard. Even football players can and do. But they are not fit enough to run faster than 70% of top 400 speed for even one mile. Increasing fitness to the point of running 80% of top 400 speed for 5,000 meters is only accomplished with months (and ultimately years) of progressively higher mileage with specific times spent at specific aerobic speeds.
The purpose of intense lactate tolerance work is to recruit FT muscle fibers for specific time lengths, to train ST and FT fibers to become glycolytic, to induce the heart and skeletal muscles to use lactate as fuel (reconverting it to pyruvate), and to fortify the bicarbonate buffer system. These ends are best achieved if sufficient speed maintenance has been used, and LT and VO2max workouts have been performed regularly and properly before introducing lactate tolerance to the training regimen. This is to say that a smooth transition must be made from slower forms of training to hard anaerobic work. The first lactate tolerance session of the season should never be excessive; that's like trying for an end-of-Summer tan on the first day at the beach! Speed maintenance and drills in the pre-season help make the transition smooth. In general, any repetition running which is fast enough to maintain speed during the off-season will produce enough lactate to be considered truly anaerobic if continued longer than 40 seconds per rep. So speed maintenance reps should be limited to no longer than 200 meters each.
The most effective implementation of lactate tolerance work involves running between 3,000 and 4,000 meters of total distance, with no more than 10 repetitions and no single rep shorter than 300 meters or longer than 1,000 meters. Thus, 8-10 x 400 would provide the optimum overall distance, as would 6 x 600 or 4 x 1,000 or some combination of distances of 300 to 1,000 meters (e.g., 2 x 800 + 2 x 500 + 4 x 300).
Rest periods should never exceed twice the length of time required for the rep just run, and the ideal ratio is a rest period of 1.4 to 1.6 times the previous run period. For example, if the workout involves 3 x 2 min. runs + 4 x 1 min. runs, the rests should remain around 3 min. (give or take about 15 secs.) after each 2 min. bout and about 1:30-ish after each 1 min. run.
The reason behind limiting the rest periods has to do primarily with venous "pooling", in which the blood collects in the legs and feet post-exercise due to gravity and the fact that the legs are the prime movers in the exercise. Pooling usually occurs when the heart rate falls below about 120 bpm., and it undermines the body's ability to re-use lactate as fuel. Other factors are involved, but the end result is that resting too long between anaerobic repetitions does not train the lactate buffer system to its fullest.
During hard anaerobic training, it can become extremely difficult to maintain speed for long, but the effort should still be made to run the final reps the fastest. This is why it is crucial to select the proper starting speed and to limit the total volume of the workout. Basing the speed on current 1,600/mile race pace is a good strategy. The Examples section provides suggested starting speeds and average speeds for lactate tolerance training.
On occasion, these efforts can be made exceptionally hard (even harder than races), but it is advisable to remember that it does little good to try harder while running slower! It's better, therefore, if 8 reps are scheduled, to stop at 6 if the 6th was all-out and a 7th or 8th rep would without doubt be slower. To salvage the effect of finishing the workout faster, a few 200s can be run in lieu of the final repetitions of longer distances.
A limited volume (2,500-3,200 meters) of lactate tolerance training can be used the week of an important competition. This type of workout achieves the best result (both for the race and for later weeks) if the distances are shortened and the speeds rotated as the workout progresses. A few 200s can be tacked on at the end to increase the speed even further and to add a little volume to the workout. An example of this "taper session" would be 2 x 800 @ 2:15 and 2:10, followed by 4 x 400 @ 66-64-62-60 (3,200 meters so far), followed by some "speed maintenance" 200s @ 33-31-29-27. This would be a good workout for a 14:00 5,000 runner 3-4 days before a big meet. Race pace is about 67 400 pace for this runner, so not all of the reps are hard, yet various muscle fibers are recruited, some lactate tolerance work is accomplished, and the runner should be sufficiently recovered to feel very sharp by race day.
High school runners tend to perform excessive amounts of anaerobic interval training, owing to the fact that it gives them a "quick fix". The fruits of proper progressive training with sufficient base mileage and periodization may not be realized for years, so today's high schoolers (and the adults who cater to their "win now" desires) go for the intensity while ignoring the more important volume. Such training very rarely pays off for more than a few years. Consider that the nervous system responds (via chemoreceptors) to high lactate levels and chronically low blood pH with excessive ventilation and improper selection of muscle fibers. This means that too much anaerobic work in adolescence invariably results in uncoordinated, inefficient, struggling movements. Acidity may also lower aerobic enzyme activity, so that "interval-trained" high school runners may be fast, but they have poor endurance.
Examples of Lactate Tolerance Workouts
8-10 x 300 averaging about 1 second per 300 slower than 800 race pace (start slightly slower than this, finish faster)/1:15 walk between reps.
This is good as the first lactate tolerance work of the season. Because the distances are short, it's difficult to get in horrible trouble on this, even if a fairly substantial pacing mistake is made early. Still, it's better to estimate the speed a little on the slow side. The speed can always be increased in the middle if the first reps really were too slow. This is also a workout which can be repeated every few weeks at ever faster speeds as anaerobic capacity improves.
Imagine Lisa is a world-class middle distance runner with bests of 1:58 for 800, 4:20 for 1,600 (4:21.7 mile), and 8:45 for 3,000. As an early season introductory lactate tolerance session, Lisa might try 10 x 300 starting at 47 secs. and working down to the 45 range (Lisa's 800 PR averages 44.25 per 300). This might be too fast for a first effort, but if Lisa has been doing sufficient amounts of speed maintenance and drills, she should be able to continue at least in the 46 range and will most likely hit 44-45 on some of the reps. The workout could always be shortened to only 8 reps or some 200s could be substituted for the last few 300s if Lisa was unable to manage the desired speeds on all the 300s.
8-10 x 400 averaging about 3 secs. per 400 faster than 1,600/mile race pace/1:30-2 min. walk between each.
These can probably be run faster than the indicated speed by mid-season, but this is a suggested speed for the first time this particular workout is attempted during the early season. As usual, it's best to start slower so as to establish where the tolerance level will be on the day.
For Lisa, who has a 1,600 time of 4:20 (65 secs. per 400), a session of 8 x 400 would ideally be done at something like 65-63-62-62-62-62-61-60, with about 1:30 or so rest between each. If Lisa has been performing enough anaerobic work to be accustomed to (and confident with) a very tough interval workout, she might run a full second faster on each rep. This is, after all, hard track work! These reps are short enough that this workout can be used fairly often during the competitive season and can usually be done up to 3 days prior to all but the most important competitions.
5-6 x 2 min. runs averaging about 1 second per 400 slower than 1,600/mile race pace/3 min. walk between each (about 1 min. of easy jogging can be done during the middle of each rest period).
Again, these runs can quite possibly be run even faster/harder than specified, but the durations are long enough that most runners cannot get away with "going to the well" on this within a few days of a major competition. If these are to be run as hard as possible, they should probably be reserved for a non-competition week, when a "make it or break it" approach can be taken to this workout.
Our world-class middle distance runner Lisa (1,600 PR of 4:20, a 65 400 pace) would aim to average 66 400 pace for 5-6 2 min. runs. This would put her at 1:55-1:56 at the 700 mark, which would be as good a place as any to stop. The rest periods could range from 3 min. to possibly 3:30, but longer than this would result in pooling due to the lowered heart rate).
Six reps of 2 min. each amounts to the limit of total distance for a lactate tolerance workout, and may exceed that limit (about 4,500 meters) for many runners. Unlike aerobic training, anaerobic training is meant to be as fast as possible. Five reps of 2 min. each may be more manageable, faster, and more effective for most runners than six reps.
4 x 1,000 averaging 3-4 secs. per 400 slower than 1,600/mile race pace (or 2-3 secs. per 400 faster than 3,200/2 mile race pace)/4 min. walk/jog between reps.
This workout, like the previous one, employs a total volume which is near the maximum limit of effectiveness for anaerobic work. Generally, the best results from lactate tolerance training come from workouts which total 3,000 to 4,000 meters in distance, with none of the individual reps longer than 1,000 meters. A 5th rep could be added to this session (people do that sometimes), but it's probably not a good idea. If any more distance is to be added, it's better to add one 400 or one 300 or 2 x 200. This really is the limit on this type of training. The purpose is in part to run as fast as possible on these reps. More than 4,000 meters of distance just isn't usually as productive toward this end.
4:20 1,600 runner Lisa would shoot for about a 68 400 pace on 4 x 1,000. This is 3 seconds per lap slower than her 1,600 pace and 2 seconds per lap faster than her 3,000 race pace (about 2.3 secs./lap faster than predicted 3,200 pace). The 1,000s could be run at 2:52-2:50-2:50-2:48, with roughly 4 min. of walking/easy jogging as rest periods.