Four Key Ingredients of Pure Speed
Even long-duration sports benefit from a "speed base." But like many training protocols, how to train pure speed is counter-intuitive.
More issues
The serious athlete is neglected.
A simple guide to "How to Run Your First 5K!" will always outsell an essential-but-dense tome like *The Lore of Running*. But training to survive short-term participation does little to maximize long-term performance.
Can a three-hour run reveal aerobic threshold?
"Is it crude to use the average heart rate from a 3-hour run to roughly guesstimate aerobic threshold (AeT)?"
What is your preferred method of testing anaerobic threshold?
"I have been getting frustrated using AeT and thought I was just doing something wrong/not reading the data correctly... If not aerobic threshold, what is your preferred method of testing anaerobic threshold?"
Detraining: How far can you fall?
Over three years of detraining, my anaerobic and aerobic threshold speeds have declined 23% and 26%, respectively. At a climb rate of 1,000 meters per hour, my heart rate has increased 37%. Detraining, age, altitude—and attitude—are all factors.
What can you learn from a post-race postmortem?
Should you warm up if you're "only in recreation mode"? Is it worth pushing to avoid bottlenecks? How do you eat when using poles?
When can you get away with not carrying extra food and water?
Nutrition confusion often comes from guides and plans being labeled "...for Event X." But duration and intensity are the key factors, not distance.
How long can aerobic capacity improve?
"I've read that aerobic capacity building can go on for 6, 8 or 10 years, even for full-time athletes. And I recently read how Nils van der Poel spent ~30 hours/week for 3 years in building his aerobic base."
How does cooling down improve aerobic capacity?
"What is the reason for cooling down after a workout? What are the consequences if we never cool down? Does the kind of workout matter? What does the ideal cool down look like?"
What metabolic information can we get from a flat half-marathon?
"I've read that a time trial for 10k or 45 min or 1 hr is a general test for one's anaerobic threshold, and a marathon is raced at one's aerobic threshold. Is that true?"