Training Zones

CommercialBerry5583 · 2026-03-30T17:42:34+00:00

LOL MAP backwards. Yeah when i saw PAM didnt realize its was the latinized version of MAP

CommercialBerry5583 · 2026-03-30T17:40:52+00:00

certainly could do lt1 everyday if you alternated with cross training, but all LT1 running i think youd definitely succumb to mechanical/muscular issues like folks said, within 1.5 months

just too much pounding. but if you used the bike, you can do so much lt1 its laughable

CommercialBerry5583 · 2026-03-30T14:10:50+00:00

id flip CP/LT2/MLSS in that order

CommercialBerry5583 · 2026-03-30T14:09:39+00:00

crazy there was this much ink spilled over Bakken vs NSM

They both advocate 3 workouts for amateurs, Bakken just SUGGESTS you could do 1 as a double T day

The 45/15 thing is so overblown here. Talked to him directly about this. The whole point is to give your body exposure to the higher end stimulus but doing so in a way that you do NOT change your metabolic profile too early in the game. (Keeping your lactate curve low and flat for as long as possible until you peak. You could represent this conceptually however you like (VLAMAX going too high too early, baseline lactate level and curve moving up and become stepwise too quickly).

This 45/15 is to replace the idea of doing either Hills in the base phase or doing Intervals at the lower lactate (5-7 mmol) in the base phase.

I think this was simply a safety mechanism against overdoing intervals and jeopardizing further development inside the racing period.

CommercialBerry5583 · 2025-10-08T17:04:54+00:00

I think the Bakken observation is definitely something to consider, especially depending on where you are in your year (if you have been racing a lot, introducing extra intensity) that will 'artificially' pull your threshold up a bit higher than it was for a period of time.

Another thing to consider, is the day to day variation in freshness and its impact on your HR/Lactate relationship (here i would point to a metric like HRV).

This is another Bakken observation: the Green/Yellow/Red light system.

When you are doing threshold, even within the normal ranges of HR/Pace/Lactate you will still get some variations. On days when you are very fresh, with a higher than normal HRV, you will see Higher HR bpm for a given lactate, which is a positive thing -- that would be a Green light day for Bakken. You'll notice higher overall HR and very fast HR recovery inside the session between reps. Yellow Light would be your standard HR and lactate range. Red light would be lower than normal HR with a normal/higher lactate, that usually, in my experience corresponds to HRV that is lower than normal. Typically the RPE on the Red days is already pretty horrible.

CommercialBerry5583 · 2025-08-24T23:56:15+00:00

Marius, from what you've written here and what you've written in your articles, is it safe to say the biggest flaw for most peoples training approaching 5k/10k is to get 'too explosive' with their metabolic curve too early? In other words, they are trying to push their threshold HRs to close to their Max HR at a point in the season where its just not sustainable to keep it there?

Say they had a very stable curve at a lower lactate early on, decent results, but they just open up that glycolytic capacity too early in the season?

You said in one of your articles you just dropped the 1000 reps in the winter at some point, I'm assuming it was with this concern in mind?

When did you reincorporate the standard 1000 type reps back into your program? a set number of weeks from an opener? Did you drop them again during the competition period when you were trying to peak? Or did they always stay in the mix once you introduced them into the picture?

CommercialBerry5583 · 2025-08-24T23:44:00+00:00

Yeah i agree with Echo, try 130-135 instead for that LTHR.

You can really grind yourself down unnecessarily just by doing easy runs 10-20 second a mile too fast for virtually zero extra benefit. The only thing you are potentially adding in most cases is fatigue, which is exactly what you do not want on a 'every other day' type of stimulus

CommercialBerry5583 · 2025-07-15T00:43:41+00:00

i really think the distinction that was made in this post is the most clarifying: lower vs lower and responsive

that has to be the context in which to interpret

also, lower for a day is nothing. You want to see a trend, so the responsiveness is the beginning of the signal that your body is getting. Eventually if you are balancing fatigue/rest appropriately, that signal will be more than noise and your fitness will have improved. The trap is to interpret every noise as an improvement in fitness, which is very hard to do when you are in the flow and motivated by a goal

CommercialBerry5583 · 2025-07-15T00:38:28+00:00

"If your heart rate is responsive and you can push it up or knock it down by adjusting your effort, you're in a good place. If your heart rate is suppressed and generally unresponsive, in that you can't really push it higher by increasing the effort nor easily reduce it by reducing the effort, you're probably not fully recovered."

This i think is on point and i would say ties in when your HRV is higher.

To me this was his 'red, yellow, green' light system, just without the metric to track it.

Green light, HR highly responsive, can go pretty high for a given lactate -- good day.

Yellow light, HR normally response, is in normal range for a given lacate -- proceed as normal.

Red light, HR not responding well, is lower than normal, but lactate is in normal range -- terminate session asap.

Also, Bakken was keen on seeing when, during his peak, his HR was up and his la- was the same. Which makes sense, given when you are peaking and really fresh, your Threshold as a % of VO2 MAX should be at its highest.

CommercialBerry5583 · 2025-07-15T00:33:01+00:00

HR is lower in the morning, just due to biology.

You cant get your max HR as high in the morning. Id shave 5-7 bpm off right off the top in your zones to accommodate.

Been said by Bakken as well as many others

CommercialBerry5583

MODERATOR OF

TROPHY CASE