I'm not arguing this...

[XCdude24]

But nobody has ever told me why we DON'T do anerobic activity every day other than why recovery is importnat. Anyways, just kinda wanted to know because i'm gonna convince my track coach that we shouldn't be doing track workouts every day this season.

EDIT: I know stuff about running, just not this.

[sjm1368]

simple answer.......u'd break down.

more detailed answer:
anaerobic work in excess can lower your lactate threshold and in extreme cases your aerobic capacity. You will be chronicaly fatigued if you do it over and over again, because it takes between 24-72 hours to recover from a tough anaerobic workout. By recover I mean, restore glycogen stores, repair muscle tissue damage, etc. So when you don't let this recovery happen, then your body doesn't adapt and your muscles don't benefit from the adaptation to the stress put on them.

even more complex reason for one of the dangers:

The Dangers of too much Anaerobic work
all right, so I've explained the benefits of anaerobic work and your thinking wow, this stuff is great, If I do it more often I'll get even better! Wrong! I'll repeat what I said before because it's so important and then add on additional reasons why too much of this is not good and what it does to your system. Basically when you do anaerobic work your cells become more acidic (also referred to as lowering it's PH). When this acidic environment is created it needs time and recovery to bring it back to normal levels so that the muscles can function properly again. If too much of this work is done then you can become chronically fatigued and damage muscle cells if done long enough. Now the new stuff. When your muscles use lactate as an energy source it needs a substance to convert it back to pyruvate acid. This substance is called Lactate dehydrogenase (LDH-M). When you do anaerobic work it has been shown that an increase in LDH-M occurs, while aerobic exercise decreases it. Now why is this a bad thing if it converts lactate back into pyruvate so that it can be used as a fuel source again aerobically? Because when too much LDH-M is present it promotes lactate formation EVEN if there is enough oxygen available to function completely aerobically. So you have to find the right balance of aerobic and anaerobic work so that you have the right levels of LDH-M. That is why it's important to balance the training and not drop the mileage too much during the competition period! Have you ever dropped the mileage a lot for several weeks expecting a huge peak because you feel fresh and springy only to bomb at the big race? This happens because of this very reason. You drop the aerobic work, do tons of anaerobic work so that your LDH-M levels rise a lot. Your anaerobic capacity is increasing, BUT your body produces lactate at slower speeds now because there is too much LDH-M present.

so to conclude, for the majority of runners doing anaerobic work too soon or too much isn't good.

[Peter-man]

But nobody has ever told me why we DON'T do anerobic activity every day other than why recovery is importnat. Anyways, just kinda wanted to know because i'm gonna convince my track coach that we shouldn't be doing track workouts every day this season.

EDIT: I know stuff about running, just not this.


It is important to balance between all your types of training. If you are not balanced in your anaerobic, aerobic, anaerobic capacity, and speed then you are not going to be successful. Also if you do anaerobic workouts everyday, you will develop a continual surplus of latic acid flotating around your legs, and they will feel tired, sluggish, and you will burn out mentally because your legs will always hurt... Just my two cents

[SLCAdventurerunner]

Unless you're a paavonian badass. Then you get to do ridiculous races three times a week!

We cough up our lactic acid and use it to butter our bread.

[s2h5k]

isnt nearly all lactic acid out of your legs within 30-45 minutes after an activity? ive never head about lactic acid continually sloshing around your legs. the average person always has 1 mmol of lactate in their blood at all times, but i think your lactic acid theory is just a myth.

[Renbircs]

Yes, it is a common misconception that lactic acid hangs around in your legs forever after hard efforts.

[sjm1368]

ya it's cleared within a short time. But that's not the point. In simple terms, if anaerobic work is done in excess, then your body starts producing and not clearing lactic acid at intensity levels when none should be present. In overly simplified terms, your body starts "preferring" anaerobic glycolysis(breakdown of glycogen for energy) to aerobic breakdown at medium intesnities.

So you might see lactic acid levels start at the same point 1mmol, but then at 5:45 pace it might elevate to 4mmol, when a month before before you started doing 2-3 anaerobic workouts a week your lactate level was only 2-2.5mmol at this level.

[The KO]

I was reading your website and under your analysis of arthur lydiard you said at that point you had not quite figured out what 1/4 effort, 1/2 effort, etc meant during the base period. Have you any better idea now? Thanks. And i like the website.

[lasseviren]

another reason is that when you run 1500m to exhaustion, basically racing it, it is pretty much 50% anaerobic, 50% aerobic. the 800 is something like 60/40. every other event is less anaerobic, more aerobic. you've got to develop an aerobic base to be able to use the anaerobic pathways later in the race. if your base is insufficient then you will call on the anaerobic pathways earlier than you want to and have nothing left for a kick at the end of the race.