A.M. 8 miles with Jeff. Did 4x400 with 200 recovery in the middle. 74.4 - 73.4 - 74.9 - 72.2. Did not feel the power and had a hard time pushing myself into the zone where I have to breathe very hard. But it will come in a few weeks. I observed about a year and a half ago that "lactic intolerance" for me has a negative effect on the "threshold pace". I put those terms in quotes. After studying and pondering the issue, I realize now there is no such thing as "lactic intolerance" or "anaerobic threshold". Lactate is fuel, the more of it in and of itself will not slow you down. They say acidity of the muscle can slow you down, but there is some evidence that in and of itself it does not. I saw a study where they demonstrated a muscle immersed in acid could actually contract better when activated with an electric stimulus. Threshold pace defined as the pace when lactate levels stabilize does not exist - there is always a gradual drift. There was a study where a group of Kenyan runners pushed their lactate levels very high to where the conventional wisdom would indicate they should not have been able to continue to run like this for long, but they kept going and were comfortable. To say the runner slowed down because he had too much lactic acid is like to say he slowed down because he was breathing too hard, or because his VO2 went up too high, or because his RER stayed above 1 for too long, or, the plainest of all but equally meaningful explanation - because he was running too fast. All of the above happens when you start running really fast, but what really is the driving cause rather than an accompanying phenonemon? And is there really just one cause? I suspect it is not as simple as we would like it to be. Nevertheless, there exists a reality that when a trained runner starts pushing much harder than his half marathon race pace, he cannot sustain it for long, and the harder he pushes, the harder he begins to breathe, and the less he can sustain the pace for. When we say "too much lactic acid", even if we are wrong, it could still be useful for practical purposes. There is some inhibitor X, and regardless what substance we believe it to be, and even whether it is just one substance, or maybe just a certain perception of fatigue that results from a combination of substances, does not really matter. The purpose of training is to overcome the inhibitor X. So my theory goes like this. When you run at your half-marathon race pace, the inhibitor X levels constantly fluctuate. When they reach a critical level during that fluctuation you will slow down. The faster the pace, the higher the peak of inhibitor X. When you do fast quarters you have higher levels of inhibitor X. If you do them fairly regularly, you learn to fight inhibitor X for a minute or so. But that minute is critical when trying to sustain a slower pace if the inhibitor X peak at that pace spikes once in a while too high. Then using the ability to deal with the spike you developed during quarters you can go through it without slowing down and then it drops, and thus you maintain a faster pace. However, this is only applicable if you have a solid aerobic base. Otherwise, inhibitor X cannot go down if you keep running the same speed for too long. The peak will last longer than a minute and you will slow down with out of breath and "I want to puke" symptoms. T4 Racer - 697.27 miles P.M. Helped Jeff pace his wife Kimia through her first 5 K time trial in 55:47. She did it essentially untrained, off a sedentary life style, and with zero athletic background or mindset. So it was quite a challenge for her - mostly mental. Both Jeff and I agreed that if a trained runner's brain were driving her body, she would have run under 40:00. After some thought, now I believe as fast as 33:00. The problem was that she was afraid to throw up, while an experienced runner even completely out of shape will push to throw up so he can relieve himself and keep going feeling better. 0.34 with Joseph in 4:17. Jacob ran 200 in 2:25 - slower today because it was getting dark. 1 with Julia in 10:45. 2 with Benjamin in 17:16, Jenny ran the first 1.5 in 13:16.
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