How many here are sprinters and how many long distance swimmers?

Interesting topic ... takes me back to undergraduate physiology lessons. Just one comment. When lactate (in truth, I understand that it's a build up of hydrogen ions rather than true lactic acid, but heck, what's in a name?!) is produced by the body, you can chart the increasing levels in your peripheral blood over time. I note the last post mentioned having blood drawn after each swim ... crucially, I'd be interested to know how long after each swim had been completed that blood was taken. When I was doing testing in late 1980s, the consensus of opinion was that peak levels were seen in peripheral blood samples (e.g. finger or earlobe stick) around 7 minutes after the exercise had ceased. Alex If memory serves me well, I believe Maglischo's Swimming Faster contains a fair amount of info. about lactate testing.

Interesting topic ... takes me back to undergraduate physiology lessons. Just one comment. When lactate (in truth, I understand that it's a build up of hydrogen ions rather than true lactic acid, but heck, what's in a name?!) is produced by the body, you can chart the increasing levels in your peripheral blood over time. I note the last post mentioned having blood drawn after each swim ... crucially, I'd be interested to know how long after each swim had been completed that blood was taken. When I was doing testing in late 1980s, the consensus of opinion was that peak levels were seen in peripheral blood samples (e.g. finger or earlobe stick) around 7 minutes after the exercise had ceased. Alex If memory serves me well, I believe Maglischo's Swimming Faster contains a fair amount of info. about lactate testing.