Lactate tolerance

When I talk Lactate tolerence I look here first. It may not be current but I trust the info here. www.brianmac.co.uk/lactic.htm I have referred this site for a few years. Nice site, I'm no expert but I didn't see anything that looked to me to be out of date. There is always a lot of talk in cycling about raising the lactate threshold (LT) -- actually, usually they discuss it in terms of "power produced at LT". That is clearly important in endurance races. Most pool races are done well above LT, so two questions occur to me: -- Is raising your LT beneficial to swimmers who raise well above it? I would guess "yes" but it is only a guess. Doing so might mean that less lactic acid is produced at a given speed (even well above LT), meaning there is less acid to buffer and less pain in a race. -- If it is beneficial, can it be done in cross-training or is it more muscle- or sport-specific? In other words, does running or cycling (or rowing or whatever) -- in addition to any other benefits it might provide in general conditioning or strength-building -- help raise LT in a way that improves swimming performance? Keep in mind that LT is often measured against heart rate...but heart rate is muscle specific (eg, using many large muscles will demand more oxygen and increase your HR faster). The important parameter is really "speed/power at the LT" -- in other words, what swimming pace you can hold right at your LT. I am not at all sure that raising my "power at LT" on the bike will have much affect on my "swim pace" LT. I think exercise physiology is a cool subject, I just wish I knew more about it and could take an educated stab at answering these questions. Anyone here have any knowledge about this?

Anyway, I'm finally getting to my point here. The standard way to do this is using fixed sets like this, but has anyone tried something like swimming absolutely all-out until you hit that lactate "jello" feel where you feel yourself slowing down? At that point maybe do some very slow "active rest" swimming then repeat, etc. The goal being to build up the time/distance you can keep up that all-out speed. It seems like actually confronting that lactate wall like this would be a great way to help with lactate tolerance in races. Kirk, I typically do two different sets of lactate sets. One is pretty much what you describe: all out 100s with lots of active recovery in between. I usually do these breaststroke and, at 9000 feet training altitude, my best times are about 1:25. The last 25 requires great concentration just to finish and to keep the stroke mechanics as good as possible. My active recovery takes place after that, with the total interval being about 10 minutes. So, that's about a 6:1 rest:work ratio. When I'm training for nationals, I'll go through 4 cycles of this during the last few weeks of hard training before taper. In the active recovery part, I'll swim freestyle at a 2 min/100 pace. In other words, barely above pool current pace but always concentrating on GOOD freestyle technique. During that 40 minute period I'll get in about 2000 yards of total swimming. Typically, my second and third swims will be the fastest with numbers 1 and 4 the slowest. I feel that this trains me for the last part of a shorter distance race. The other kind of set is to allow the lactic acid to accumulate by doing, say, a set of 50s as fast as you can with short rest. One example for me might be 6 X 50 breaststroke on 90 sec followed by some short recovery, usually a 100 EZ. This is typically a 1:1 work:rest ratio for me. By the end of the hard swim cycle the arms and legs are so heavy that I can't easily move them and each swim requires great concentration. This mimics, to me, the feeling I get in the last few hundred of the mile. If I lived at sea level, I'd shorten the rest period for each one because the lactic acid can be cleared out easier.

When I talk Lactate tolerence I look here first. It may not be current but I trust the info here. www.brianmac.co.uk/lactic.htm I have referred this site for a few years.

Right Ande Milk is bad and Margaritas are good.

That's precisely why training for lactate tolerance is so crucial for performance. Or, finding a way to help your body make better use of the oxygen/ATP, "naturally". Anaerobic Metabolism (Anaerobic-Glycolitic) is the non-oxidative process of recycling of ATP from glycogen. Glycogen is stored in the muscle cells. Glycogen fairly rapidly recycles ATP, but it is slower than from CP. Anaerobic metabolism produces lactate. It is the main energy system for exercise bouts of 30 sec until 3 min. When distances are longer, aerobic metabolism predominates. Anaerobic metabolism has high power, middle capacity, and low efficiency. Examples of swimming sets and distances that develop anaerobic metabolism: distances of 50 to 300 M/Y, high intensity swimming sets with a short rest interval (i.e., 6-16 x 25 M/Y, 4-8 x 50 M/Y, 2-4 x 100 M/Y, 2 x 200 M/Y with rest interval 20-30 sec etc.). It seems like actually confronting that lactate wall like this would be a great way to help with lactate tolerance in races.

And this is the reason why I don't think that kind of set may be ideal for lactate tolerance. I'm sure you are building up some lactate, but not enough for the jello feel. Mentally you know you've got a lot more set to go, so you don't put it on the line like you would in a one-off swim. Maybe. It is very hard to work these sets as hard as you should. That's where the encouragement of a coach or teammates can really help. (I am a real wuss when I work out by myself.) Perhaps doing "near all out" swims as repeats also tests/hones the ability to recover from hard swims, something that is important in any meet that is multiple days and multiple events per day.

Yes, indeed it does. This is one of my favorite sets when I want to do something with speed. I generally do this on about 2:00 but by #5 I am falling apart on the back halves. I'll give the 3:00 a shot. I just did this set (on 3:00) yesterday after some hypoxic work. lol I was gassed later on ...

I agree, this is probably not a great lactate tolerance set -- There is too much "recovery time" that allows for the body to remove/clear lactate. The most common lactate tolerance sets are meant to be closer to race-pace speed and for you to produce AND and TOLERATE the acidosis. This is usually accomplished through short sprints at near race pace with short rest (e.g. broken 200s, 10x50 on 40, etc.) or medium sprints on medium rest (e.g., 6x100 on 1:10.) The set mentioned here is more of a lactate production set, and there is a difference. Here the body produces lactate to get used to it and is then allowed to remove it. These types of sets are typically short or long sprints at near race pace with LONG rest (e.g., 8x50 on 2:00, 4x100 on 4:00, etc. And this is the reason why I don't think that kind of set may be ideal for lactate tolerance. I'm sure you are building up some lactate, but not enough for the jello feel. Mentally you know you've got a lot more set to go, so you don't put it on the line like you would in a one-off swim.

6x50 ALL OUT on 3:00 produces lot's of lactate... and you can hold race pace technique, without your stroke falling apart. Training a "broken" stroke will only produce limited results, no matter how much lactate you processed. Your muscles aren't responding in an optimal fashion, so you're preparing for a similar result. In University we did a test, they actually checked our lactate levels and found out that it took at least 5x200 really easy to flush the lactate completely. So, it stands to reason that max effort sets on longer rest is better for the 100-200 distances. Yes, that's the idea. Although we do not typically allow time for COMPLETE recovery...by the end of the set you're hurting pretty bad. The idea is to go each repeat (50s, 100s, 200s) all out or close to it, recover and repeat. Doing 50s, 100s and 200s with long rest are subtly different, I've found. For 50s, there is no reason to hold back on each one. It is good physiological training, but I find there is equal value on the "technique" aspect: working on form while at high speed, starts, turns, breakouts. Jonathan, I have the same opinion of broken sets. We do them all the time. I like them for establishing the feel for race pace, but they do not simulate (for me) the burn in the second half of a true race. In broken 200s, for example, I have little problem holding race pace with 10 seconds rest per 50 -- even that little rest is enough to reduce lactate to below-race levels. Sometimes we do decreasing rest, like 10/7/4 seconds between the 50s while trying to hold the same (race) pace. That better simulates, for me, the feel of an actual 200 race. Jazz is right, too: anything that burns/hurts a lot is a good lactate set. Whatever gets you out of your comfort zone is good, and there are a lot of ways to do it. And it doesn't have to be just in the pool...doing anything to failure will work.

It's super easy to tell when you are working on lactate tolerance: it burns. You don't have to do this in the pool, either. High-rep lifting is a lot less stressful and should have the same effect, although it won't give you the race-simulation practice.