First, sorry if this has been answered previously.
Currently following a plan for Race in April, which is going great and I love how everything works.
However just a generel question about the planned High Intensity sessions TR gives you, if you select “Masters Athlete”.
It seems, nomatter if it’s base og build phase, that 1 of the sessions is ALWAYS an OU threshold session. I’m sure they are great (although I really hate these workouts), but can someone explain to me why those are so important? In base phase the 2 intensity days would then be 1 SS workout and 1 OU workout. In Build it is 1 V02max workout.
When reading about it elsewhere I often stumble upon eg 2xSS workouts or 2xVo2Max workouts per week instead, each for a period of 3-4 weeks before moving on to the next “stimulus”? and rest Endurance sessions of course.
Non masters program have 2xSS or 2xVo2Max…
Whats your opinions about this and what do you do?
fwiw my masters plan build first block was VO2 Max and O/ U, but the second block is Anaerobic and Threshold (not o/u), as is the first block of speciality. So I think it could depend on what you have as the race type?
Mostly looking at Rolling Road race, generel FTP build and endurance build. But yes not all blocks contain Threshold. But I was just checking plans elsewhere. For example I have a plan from CTS. Here it’s like a block which each. so a block with 2xSS, a block with 2xThreshold, a block with 2xVo2Max etc etc. I’ll stick with the plan and I’m sure those dreadful over/unders are really beneficial, but was just wondering what the argument for prioritizing them so much was compared to the though that: is 1 Vo2Max session enough stimulus for 1 week to progress?
Are there ways other than over-unders to train lactate clearance? Yes, many, many other ways.
Do over-unders do a good job of training lactate clearance? Yes. It’s hard to argue that.
Building specificity into your training isn’t a bad thing, and if we all wanted to most simple, least specific workouts, our training would look pretty boring, and I’d argue that we’d be leaving gains on the table in some scenarios.
This study also reports that Polarized training is more effective, which is certainly not always the case.
Will a polarized training plan work well for some cyclists sometimes? Yes, absolutely, but what I’m getting from this study isn’t convincing me to follow a polarized plan 100% of the time and ditch over-unders.
To each, their own, though. Some people really hate over-unders.
I’ve mentioned this on the forum before…and, in fact, actually did the protocol…but if you want to know how to rapidly up regulate transport of lactate out of the sarcoplasm, please refer to Howie Green’s work. 24% up regulation over the course of several hours. Pretty simple.
I say that MCT up regulation is proportional to the gradient of transported molecules across the membrane. The more lactate is in the sarcoplasm vs outside the cell, the greater the up regulation stimulus. For sure, there is probably some adaptation from over/unders but not as much as other workouts that REALLY DO build up a lot of lactate.
BUT! There are many reasons to do over/unders. If you’re chasing improved lactate clearance, it’s probably not the best but I’m sure there are other purposes that fit over/unders just fine. Or, maybe you just like doing them rather than slogging along at a constant work rate. If you like doing them, keep doing them!
FUN! We need a team of interns to try every workout and identify the one that generates the most lactate. Maybe we can crowd fund their salary & somehow tie compensation to total lactate produced. Strictly in the name of science, you understand.
