Mumbo jumbo yakety yak ...
Sports physiology talk; I'm following you, but I want it in a nutshell. Here's the nutshell, the latest way to train is called "Circa Threshold Efforts" (I just love when they come up with a new term for pain).
Basically Circa Threshold Efforts mean that I should try to go out for 3 days in a row from 20 minutes up to 2 hours, and ride just under my hour of power.
To be exact 88-92% under my hour of power. My hour of power is my Lactate Threshold (LT). Supposedly I can ride at LT for one hour only, then I won't. So don't be expecting me to go 1hr08mins because it ain't happening. (That is why I like to watch Crits that are longer than 1 hour, hehe). I have to admit, I wasn't crazy about the craze of VO2max training (cave of pain), or the above LT training, or the repeated 2", 8", or 20" efforts.
This I can do! I can ride day after day just under my hurt zone. Does this mean I don't have to listen to the people who tell me to "ride easy", in my book 92% of LT is not "easy", 40% of LT is easy. Looking at the flowers on the side of the road is easy, they call that OD (Over Distance). I call it my looking at the flowers on the side of the road pace.
Also now they claim that I don't have to worry about Lactic Acid building up, it is not a bad thing after all, it is an indicator of something else going on, but they don't yet know what that something else is, (oh the suspense of Sports Medicine). They also don't know what causes exhaustion, but they are encouraging me to go out and ride for 3 days in a row and see if I can figure it out.
If you would like to read the detailed article by Matt McNamara (with lots of terminology for pain) read it here: PezCycling NewsToolbox: Lactic Acid Explained, Part 2
My friend Christy Orris getting ready to have her LT and VO2max levels tested at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine in Boulder, CO in 2009.
