L6 Ramblings
Here are some L6 ramblings. This is gleaned from various message board postings and whatnot. YMMV.
L6 as it pertains to L5....L5 is still mostly aerobic. Even though you can't maintain L5 very long (what, 3-8 minutes?) it's still something in the realm of 90% aerobic. Yeah, it feels worse but it's not. Having said that, it's still a very high stress level. It is, or probably should be, part of your plan over the course of the year, or years, or lifetime, etc etc. Many people think that mixing in L5 year round makes sense, and I agree with that, to a point. If you're just starting out there's probably not much of a need to bother with L5 just yet. Other people take off L5 in the offseason, or build season. That's your call. Point being, as it pertains to L6 which I realize I have not mentioned yet, is that it's part of your standard workout menu.
Ok, as for L6. You suck at it, I suck at it, most of us suck at it. The adage goes that sprinters are born, not made. And L6, being in that 30 sec to 3 min range is a sprint. This comes from Coggan, who also says that 6 weeks of focused L6 work (aka AWC or Anaerobic Work Capacity) is about all you need to (mostly) reach your genetic potential. That's good and bad. Good because you don't need to hammer at it for long. Bad because you really aren't going to raise it much since it's hard to train. You're not going to see big gains in the area year after year because it's less trainable than the energy systems up through L5.
Moving beyond that, if you do insist on more L6 work you're doing so at the risk of compromising aerobic endurance. The reality is that the L6 ceiling isn't as limited as it's made out to be. But in order for you to raise it, you need to dedicate plenty of time on it which necessitates losing time elsewhere. I'm basically suggesting you shouldn't bother with L6 when it isn't needed. It racks up loads of fatigue, isn't terribly trainable, is hard to maintain, and cuts into all your other training time.
There's more. It's not just a matter of L6 taking time away from more endurance-oriented training, either. Some of the adaptations your muscles make to L6 training are directly opposed to endurance ability! So, L6 is a powerful, but dangerous medicine for a primarily endurance-oriented athlete. There's little reason to work on it unless you've already put together as much endurance fitness as you can for your goal event, and are planning on spending it relatively soon. This is the classic periodization model where you build your base, up the intensity a little, then hammer out some intensity as you roll into your event.
The problem with that approach is the psychological difficulty of suddenly shifting into AWC-training mode 6 weeks out from your goal. Some people feel uncomfortable with new workout schemes until they've gotten the hang of them. You can "train to train" with L6 by introducing the L6 workouts before the 6 week boundary. Or you can, every once in a while, blow out a 1-minute or 2-minute maximal test just to keep it "in there" so to speak.
So I guess at the end of the day, don't sweat the L6 stuff too much unless that's what your target event is all about.
L6 as it pertains to L5....L5 is still mostly aerobic. Even though you can't maintain L5 very long (what, 3-8 minutes?) it's still something in the realm of 90% aerobic. Yeah, it feels worse but it's not. Having said that, it's still a very high stress level. It is, or probably should be, part of your plan over the course of the year, or years, or lifetime, etc etc. Many people think that mixing in L5 year round makes sense, and I agree with that, to a point. If you're just starting out there's probably not much of a need to bother with L5 just yet. Other people take off L5 in the offseason, or build season. That's your call. Point being, as it pertains to L6 which I realize I have not mentioned yet, is that it's part of your standard workout menu.
Ok, as for L6. You suck at it, I suck at it, most of us suck at it. The adage goes that sprinters are born, not made. And L6, being in that 30 sec to 3 min range is a sprint. This comes from Coggan, who also says that 6 weeks of focused L6 work (aka AWC or Anaerobic Work Capacity) is about all you need to (mostly) reach your genetic potential. That's good and bad. Good because you don't need to hammer at it for long. Bad because you really aren't going to raise it much since it's hard to train. You're not going to see big gains in the area year after year because it's less trainable than the energy systems up through L5.
Moving beyond that, if you do insist on more L6 work you're doing so at the risk of compromising aerobic endurance. The reality is that the L6 ceiling isn't as limited as it's made out to be. But in order for you to raise it, you need to dedicate plenty of time on it which necessitates losing time elsewhere. I'm basically suggesting you shouldn't bother with L6 when it isn't needed. It racks up loads of fatigue, isn't terribly trainable, is hard to maintain, and cuts into all your other training time.
There's more. It's not just a matter of L6 taking time away from more endurance-oriented training, either. Some of the adaptations your muscles make to L6 training are directly opposed to endurance ability! So, L6 is a powerful, but dangerous medicine for a primarily endurance-oriented athlete. There's little reason to work on it unless you've already put together as much endurance fitness as you can for your goal event, and are planning on spending it relatively soon. This is the classic periodization model where you build your base, up the intensity a little, then hammer out some intensity as you roll into your event.
The problem with that approach is the psychological difficulty of suddenly shifting into AWC-training mode 6 weeks out from your goal. Some people feel uncomfortable with new workout schemes until they've gotten the hang of them. You can "train to train" with L6 by introducing the L6 workouts before the 6 week boundary. Or you can, every once in a while, blow out a 1-minute or 2-minute maximal test just to keep it "in there" so to speak.
So I guess at the end of the day, don't sweat the L6 stuff too much unless that's what your target event is all about.
posted by Norm at 6:38 AM
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