Lactate Threshold Training: Running, Cycling, Multisport, Rowing, X-Country Skiing

by Peter Janssen

Whether you're a runner, skier, cyclist, triathlete, or rower, as an endurance athlete you need to race and train as fast as possible without hitting the wall from high levels of lactic acid in your... This description may be from another edition of this product.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0736037551
• ISBN13: 9780736037556
• Release Date: May 2001
• Publisher: Human Kinetics Publishers
• Length: 312 Pages
• Weight: 1.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.8" x 7.0" x 10.0"

Customer Reviews

Great Book To Improve Aerobic Conditioning

Next to the book, Rowing Faster, by Dr.Volker Nolte; Lactate Threshold Training,by Dr.Peter Janssen, is also a must have for any coach. Xeno Muller Olympic Medalist,men's single scull rowing

A good start when learning about how to use your HR monitor.

For someone how just wants to learn more about how the body works while working out, but doesn't want to get a degree in sports science, this is a book that can really help. I found this book to be an excellent reference for when I have questions about endurance training. I can say that I now run faster for longer because of the ideas I found in this book.

good stuff

As I was searching through my college coaches shelves I discovered this little thin book, opened it and discovered a science book rather than book on reading. However when one looks past the formulas and math, the text and information provided for you are amazing. Not only do I train myself using the methods and information, but I also train my team according to what I have discovered, learned and experienced through the use of the text. It is a very valuable tool for those who are not afraid of some math and some serious thinking. I will purchase the new edition and hopefully it will contain updates in science, nutrition, as well as other various fields that not only help strengthen my own being, but my teams as well.

Very useful

I didn't read this book for lofty prose. I read it to get a good description of the what the Lactate Threshold really is and how to train to improve it. On both counts is succeeds admirably.I breezed right through it. I enjoyed the real-world sample data (e.g. Gelindo Bordin and some world-class cyclists) and the examinations of marathons done at constant heart rate and at varying. I gained several valuable bits of information from it, particularly the Conconi test for runners in determining HRDefl. If that does truly coincide with LT, it's a hell of a lot simpler than taking blood samples.

Important Contribution

:Peter wrote a classic, Training--Lactate--Pulse Rate almost 15 years ago. This new book reiterates the lactate threshold approach to training, expanding on the same themes. The concepts previously introduced-namely energy systems, heart rate, anaerobic threshold deflection point, and blood lactate levels-are fleshed out. In addition, the author expands on his previous book by adding sections on overtraining, circulation, blood levels, and nutrition. The book is replete with heart rate graphs and tables which explain training concepts and document training and testing. Janssen's thesis is that training intensity can be prescribed based on measuring blood lactate levels. If the athlete does not have access to lactate measurement, training can be based on heart rates imputed to reflect lactate levels. It's a great book for athletes, coaches, and sport scientists. It's targeted toward runners, cyclists, triatheltes, rowers, and cross-country skiers. Athletes and coaches who read such books are interested in getting down to the nitty gritty: How do I apply this information? What should I do to follow the training concepts? Here, the book also helps. General and specific advice is given, with examples. The book merits several readings. Scattered throughout the book are numerous pearls. Wisdom that many will miss on their first reading. For example, in small type below a table describing the percentage share in total energy supply for various sports, Janssen notes that although the share of anaerobic energy supply in cycling is only 5%, this is by no means indicates that this source of energy is unimportant-due to the decisive role of anaerobic fitness in breakaways. Fundamental and more problematic is that the author's thesis about lactate threshold training is controversial. Many sport scientists and coaches are of the opinion that it's like the story of the man searching for his lost keys under a streetlight-not because that's where he dropped them, but because that's where the light is. The existence of blood lactate and our ability to measure it may or may not have much importance in "scientific" training. Lactate, perhaps a false marker in training programs, may serve to endow false science to coaching methods that, fundamentally, are truly based as much on experience and art. There is another troubling, basic problem with Janssen's thesis; a problem that arises whenever lactate threshold training is discussed. Most authors, Janssen included, conceive of lactate threshold as corresponding to the race intensity of a one-hour event. The United States Cycling Federation determines threshold in a way that generally finds it to equate to a blood lactate of about 2.5 millimoles per liter. Janssen and European coaches often quote a figure of about 4 millimoles. Yet Janssen himself, as well as my own and other published research, shows that athletes complete in one-hour events at blood lactates between 6 and 10 millimoles per liter. Janssen tries to help