Common MISCONCEPTIONS with Threshold Training

[@affinitystablepeanuts]

Nice QA sesh. Thank you!

[@SotaMaehara]

Thank you for watching!

[@4plum]

I just stumbled accross your channel and have just started going through your previous videos. Wow, you pack a ton of information in to such a short time, especially as you talk so quickly :-) (and I'm a native speaker too!). I definitely need to rewatch the threshold video again. Your use of graphs is invaluable to help explain the points you are making. I used to run by feel, but now go by a combo of feel, pace and heart rate. With just feel I would often go too quickly, especially at the beginning. As an older runner (>55) it takes my legs a few days to fully recover from threshold runs, so I only do them once a week. The rest is either slower zone 2 or runs which mix zone 2 and tempo pace. Thanks again for distilling your knowledge to the community.

[@pepessz32]

2:42 I got into cycling first before switching to running, and so far how the "Lactate Burns" affect your legs are different between cycling and running. In my hardest sesh, I've never had that burn after/during my intervals. Unlike cycling, oh boy it stings like hell.

[@threatened2024]

Just commenting for the algorithm, useful content!

[@SotaMaehara]

Haha, you're a legend 🤝

[@ea42195]

Hey Sota are you doing the Bondi To Manly Ultra this year? Hope to see you there!

[@SotaMaehara]

Unfortunately not :(

[@SHAHLIFE.64]

Great video! I wanna do self Lactate testing to determine LT1 n LT2 but in my online shopping apps, there is only Blood Glucose Meter, and Lactate Analyzer/Meter seems like no available. Question is, can i do the test using the Blood Glucose Meter? Hope u can reply this as i cannot find the answer elsewhere 🥲

[@buttsniffa7469]

A glucose meter only measures blood sugar. It is not relevent for measuring lactate

[@alessandrodanelon1195]

No you cant't , you need a lactate meter like Lactate Pro 2 , Lactate Plus , Lactate Scout. Blood Glucose meters are a completely different thing , they measure how much glucose ( a type of sugar) there is in your blood. You want to know the lactate instead

[@SHAHLIFE.64]

@@alessandrodanelon1195 i see. Thanks for the explaination!

[@jacobqin4348]

what's the heart rate zone for long run? zone 2 or zone 3?

[@bartoszlisowski9926]

Good question

[@SotaMaehara]

Depends how new or experienced you are at running, what type of long run you're running, what you're training for, whether you supplement with caffeine and probably a few more factors But as a runner myself that has run over 25,000km in my life, I've never looked at HR during a long run, and I've always just stuck to effort So because of this, I think I'm not the best person to ask about regarding heart rate (for now). I'm planning on getting a really experienced Sports Scientist on my podcast at some point to talk through all of this. His name is Nick Jankovskis on KZbin and Instagram, I highly recommend you check him out

[@brokenbutterfly321]

Do you have any advice for figuring out whether your lactate threshold or your vo2 max paces are the "bottleneck" for getting faster?

[@SotaMaehara]

Best indicator is when there's a significant discrepancy in terms of "equivalent" performances when you compare someones 5k time to their 10k to their half to their mara (more data the better but you can still get an idea comparing 5k vs 10k). If you excel in short, high-intensity races (5k or below) but struggle in longer events (10k, half marathon, marathon), it may indicate that your VO2 max is strong but your lactate threshold needs improvement. Already said the definition of VO2 max on the vid, but we know that that typically extrapolates to about the pace you can hold for 3-8 mins depending on your fitness level, so it makes sense that struggling and having a "worse" equivalent performance in a 10k would indicate that VO2 max is the limiting factor Of course, you have to take into account when those race PB's were, so you can base it off of recent 5k and 10k times, or even look at your training and see if you struggle in terms of feeling like moderate paces feel like "redlining" Overall, until we're the best in the world, there's still room for improvement in both though, but I guess depending on what races you have coming up it may be worth having a focus point

[@brokenbutterfly321]

@@SotaMaehara thanks for the advice Sota, that makes a lot of sense. I think I might have the opposite issue - significant improvements in marathon pace & threshold, but neglecting anaerobic capacity has made it hard to convert those gains down to 5k/10k, even though the raw speed seems to be there in interval sessions. Preferred distance is marathon & ultra so definitely want to only spend as much time working on 5k and 10k as I absolutely have to lol

[@sskrazzz]

how do you calculate threshold for workouts

[@SotaMaehara]

There’s no calculation that we can do unfortunately, but the theoretical calculation takes all factors into account My 25 minute video on threshold will outline all this

[@buttsniffa7469]

Google "v dot tables". Plug in your recent race times, and goal race times, and it will give you a range for your threshold paces

[@KP-ox5yo]

@@SotaMaeharahuh? There is LT Treshold test on like any Garmin

[@SotaMaehara]

@@KP-ox5yo I'm assuming @sskrazzz was talking about pace, and if you watch my Threshold Training guide video, I explain why you can't calculate threshold pace The unit of measurement for threshold is blood lactate levels in mmol/L, so you can calculate pace ranges via a proper test, or if not, there's no accurate way to determine threshold "pace" because it depends what the rep duration is, and several factors

[@LightspeedAstronaut]

If LT 2 feels .'comfortably hard' what should LT 1 feel like ?

[@SotaMaehara]

Basically hold a decent convo, you're not literally yapping 100% comfortably with no breaks, you might need a bit of a break every couple sentences, but you can defs still explain stuff articulately. Effort is easy, but you're running quicker than easy pace LT2 is when you can usually manage to say a few short phrases or words in between breaths, but full sentences are challenging, like you’d need to take a breath after a couple of words

[@blastedpotato]

A pace you could hold for a marathon race

[@CamRonUn]

First like 😁

[@SotaMaehara]

🤝