The past 6 months of my training have led to this point!
Beginning in the summer I began building my Anaerobic Lactate training as part of my weekly template. Slowly, intelligently (or I thought so), the results came along. For me, it would take 2-3 weeks before I would truly adapt to each progression of the Lactate energy system (maybe due to under utilization of lactate recycling/exposure to liver/muscles, as time and exposures seems to be the most important thing). For example, from a previous post on "Periodization of Energy System Templates"I outlined how I progressed my training following the OPTathalon in October, 2011.
The simplest way to understand the progression of the Lactate system I choose was to move from:
1 - 20 seconds - 40 seconds of work @ 97% effort, to..
2 - 40 seconds - 60 seconds of work @ 95% effort, to..
3 - 60 seconds - 90 seconds of work @ 90-95% effort, to..
4 - 90 seconds - 120 seconds of work @ 90-95% effort, to..
5 - 120 seconds - 150 seconds of work @ 90% effort, to..
6 - 150 seconds - 180 seconds + of work @ 90% effort.
As the months moved along, the duration of effort moved along (in a linear fashion). I went about the progression like this for many reasons, but mainly because I wanted to truly adapt to the shorter duration/higher intensity lacate training, as my skill/preference is for longer duration/lower intensity training - read running/rowing/airdyne/double unders/and the like - and in order for me to truly improve my short duration power out put I had to go about it like this. My other clients are going about it in other ways, but some are going about it like this too.
Also, please take note of the % effort prescription as this is imperative to proper program design. Without providing the appropriate % of effort relative to the duration of effort, you have nothing. The % of effort needs to come from 2 places, 1) the athlete needs to truly understand the correct % in which to approach the efforts, and 2) the program designer (i.e. coach) needs to ensure that the athlete is getting the dose response from the effort (i.e. correct repetition, exercise, and loading parameters - this is the most difficult part for most coaches/designers that are new to deigning energy system training sessions...I know this as I teach a bunch of them how).
3-4 weeks ago when I began to train in the 150-180 sec + time frame, my session was...
Set # 1:
21,15,9
Thruster - 75lb
Chin-ups
2:50 @ 90% effort
+
25 min rest
+
Set # 2:
15,12,9
Power Clean - 115lb
Push-up Burpees
*Made it to round of 12, then I quite as I was full of lactate and had no ability to continue the power out required to train the energy system appropriately. Yada, yada, yada, I was cooked.
The following week...
For time:
Power Clean (115lb) - 15,12,9
Push-up Burpees - 15,15,15
3:28 @ 95% effort - pure death! I was laying down for over 15 minutes.
Last week...
For time:
20 Thrusters - 95lb
20 Chest to Bar Chin-ups
20 KBS - 32kg
20 Push-up Burpees
2:50ish...murdered! Felt better able to "handle" the intensity than previous weeks, but the energy system is still not quite where it needs to be for competition.
Then, this week...oh how nice it feels when training works. The point of the video is only to show the training works, not to pat myself on the back (i.e. I am sure others out there would have faster times, but for me working @ a high effort, not max, it was fantastic). The session was 2 different lactate endurance training efforts, separated by 20 minutes. In past weeks, I would have not felt recovered even after 20 minutes of rest, but this week, things felt different after the efforts. I literally felt good to go 3-5 minutes afterwards...also know as lactate endurance! The other portion of this "peaking" feeling, is that even during the efforts I know in my brain that I can speed up, and move faster even towards the end of the effort. For the first effort, it happened after the set of 12 burpees going back to the power cleans, I did the power cleans faster on the round of 9, not out of necessity, but out of ability. In the second effort, I began to speed up after the first 5-7 burpees, again as I knew I could lay it all out and I would be able to tolerate/recover from the effort. This "peaking" response is imperative to athletes wanting to perform at their best (I mean true best, not 95% of it) when it matters. For me, I will recycle this training template/strategy for when I am heading to Regionals 2012...hopefully things will go as planned!