I recently ran across a book entitled "Runner's World The Runner's Body: How the Latest Exercise Science Can Help You Run Stronger, Longer, and Faster." In the introduction of the book, the authors mention that the single most fundamental tenet of exercise physiology is the principle of stress and adaptation. According to the authors, there are three main phases in the stress and adaptation process: "an initial alarm stage, followed by a period of resistance or adaptation, when the organism gets stronger and performs better (which is, of course, where you want to be as a runner). This leads, if the stress is not removed, to exhaustion." Lactate Threshold training is all about riding the line between adaptation and exhaustion, with the purpose of pushing that line (or threshold) higher.
Last week, I talked a little about the difference between aerobic and anaerobic exercise and the metabolism of stored fuel into usable energy. One of the products of the metabolism process is lactic acid. As lactic acid is moved from muscle cells into the blood stream, it is converted into lactate. Lactate, in and of itself, is not a bad thing. In fact, blood lactate can actually be metabolized and used as an energy source. The body is always producing lactate. As it produces lactate, it also removes it from the blood stream and uses it. During exercise, the body produces more lactate, and also uses more lactate. Because of that, things stay pretty balanced... that is until you reach the lactate threshold. As exercise intensity increases, there comes a point at which lactate removal fails to keep up with the rate of lactate production. This point is referred to as the lactate threshold. Interestingly, for many runners, the lactate threshold occurs near the same effort level that marks the switch from aerobic exercise to anaerobic exercise. This is why many times the lactate threshold is also referred to as the aerobic threshold or the anaerobic threshold.
One of the changes that occurs as lactic acid is converted to lactate is the lactic acid's loss of hydrogen ions. If you remember from last week, during aerobic exercise, oxygen is present during the metabolic process. As a runner is exercising in their aerobic zone, those hydrogen ions are combined with oxygen to create water, canceling out any negative effects. Once a runner slips into the anaerobic zone, the muscles begin producing more lactic acid than the body can effectively remove, and hydrogen ion concentrations begin to rise because there is no oxygen present to "neutralize" it. As hydrogen ion concentration increases, the muscle cells become more and more acidic. This process is called acidocis. Currently, acidocis is thought to be a primary factor in muscular fatigue. It interferes with efficient and proper muscle contraction, and as a result, power output drops, suffering increases, and eventually, the runner is forced to slow down or stop.
God created the human body to be extremely adaptable. If you stress your current bodily state, after some time and consistency, your body will adapt to better handle the stress. That is what training is all about: stressing your body so that it adapts in a positive way, allowing you to perform better. If the stress of training is of optimal duration and intensity, your body begins adapting. If the training stress is too hard, you will break down, develop injuries, feel fatigued, and fail to recover from one day to the next. If the stress of training is too weak and does not test your bodily systems, your body will not see the need to make any adaptations. If there are no stresses placed on your body, then your body will adapt to that as well by becomming less and less fit. Lactate threshold training is all about hitting the optimal duration and intensity that causes your body to adapt by improving on lactate absorption, aerobic metabolism, and oxygen consumption, so that you the runner can run furter and faster without hitting that lactate threshold that eventually leads to fatigue, burn-out, and pain.
The theory behind lactate threshold training is that if you run for a somewhat extended period of time at your lactate threshold, then your body will make the proper adaptations and move that threshold point higher. Since threshold training is performed at the very top of the aerobic zone, it is not going to feel extremely comfortable. These are not easy and relaxed base training runs. I have heard threshold runs described as being "comfortably hard." When running in that zone, you aren't sucking wind like a hyperventilating asthmatic... but you aren't able to carry a conversation for very long either. If you use a heart rate monitor, typically lactate threshold training is performed around 80% - 85% of your maximum heart rate. If you have run a 10k race before (actually run it to your best ability, not jogged it) then threshold pace is about 10-15 seconds slower that your 10k pace. If you don't have a heart rate monitor and haven't run a 10k recently, then comfortably hard is probably the best descriptor of how you should feel: your breathing is no longer a relaxed "2 steps in, 2 steps out" rate, but has transitioned to more of a "2 steps in, 1 step out" rate. A popular Lactate Training workout is known as the "Tempo Run." It's not complicated, but it is challenging: first warm up, slow and easy, for about 10 minutes... then gradually speed up to a lactate threshold effort level/pace and stay there for about 20-30 minutes... then slow down and cool down at a slow and easy pace for about 10 minutes. That gives you a really good 40-50 minute workout. Once you have a good aerobic base established, if you add one tempo run to your weekly running plan, you will begin to see some definite improvement to your fitness and your performance... and with consistancy, will be able to go further and faster.
Just as our bodily systems need to be tested in order to see improvement, our spiritual walk needs to be tested in order to experience growth. That is why the Apostle James (the brother of Jesus) wrote this in His epistle:
"My brethren, count it all joy when you fall into various trials, knowing that the testing of your faith produces patience. But let patience have its perfect work, that you may be perfect (mature) and complete, lacking nothing." James 1:2-4And why the Apostle Paul wrote this:
"Therefore, having been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ, through whom also we have access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and rejoice in hope of the glory of God. And not only that, but we also glory in tribulations, knowing that tribulation produces perseverance; and perseverance, character; and character, hope. Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us." Romans 5:1-5This is an interesting commentary on human nature: if you have been following my blog for a while, you know that true followers of Jesus have been transformed... they have been reborn spiritually with a new nature... a nature that is free from sin. However, though we are reborn spiritually, we still live in the same bodies - the same flesh that we were born with. And though we are promised, as followers of Jesus, that God will give us the power, ability, and desire to do all that He asks of us - when the going begins to get tough - we go to the flesh. Instead of relying on what the Bible calls the all-sufficient grace of God that we receive through the Holy Spirit, we rely on our own abilities. It's almost like we don't trust God to actually help us, so we fall to our own resources. For me personally, this is a big challenge. I'm always trying to do the hard things in my own strength. Just as we found out last week that we can run with much more endurance when we run aerobically rather than anaerobically, we can also run through the tough stuff and come out winners when we run by the Spirit instead of running in the flesh. What we need is to see our Spiritual lactate thresholds raised... so that we learn to do much more, and more difficult things in the Spirit instead of falling back on our flesh. Wouldn't it be great to be able to face a difficult trial completely in the grace that God gives instead of sweating it out and burning ourselves out in our own stength and understanding? That's why James said to count trials as joy, and why Paul said to glory in tribulations. They knew that if we allowed trials and tribulations to have their proper place in our lives, we would be changed for the better. Adaptation is a natural process... and when we allow trials and tribulations to have their place, there are adaptations that occur in our lives - but here is the even better news: Not only can we count on adaptation - by the Holy Spirit, we can count on complete transformation as well. That's right! Where adaptation is temporary, transformation is complete. If we embrace trials and tribulations and challenges, if we lay aside personal preferences and pleasures and allow the Holy Spirit to work in us, we will be transformed... we will become mature and complete... we will have spiritual perseverance and impeccable character.
I've been planning on writing this post for several weeks, but the timing in which this post fell is pretty amazing. Just yesterday, the leaders in our church called us to a 52 day challenge: 52 days of focused intensity on the things that God has called us to do: as in not just talking about them, but actually doing them. I'm looking at these next 52 days as a Spiritual Tempo Run... where the pace picks up and it gets a little uncomfortable... and I'm also believeing that in the wake of this, there are going to be some serious spiritual atheletes, with an increased capacity to run the race, and run it well.
So... let's embrace the challenge... let's run the race... and look forward to the benefits.
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