Sore muscles are caused by lactic acid. Well sorry if your Mom told you this (or more likely your favorite fitness instructor) they are talking from outdated research. This one just hangs on as research in early 1980s showed that lactate is not a bad thing and has nothing to do with muscle soreness. So why do we talk about lactic acid build up?

In the early 1900‘s German physician and biochemist, Otto Meyerhof, cut a frog in half and put its legs in a jar. The frog's muscles had no circulation hence there was no source of oxygen or energy. Dr. Myerhoff gave the frog's leg electric shocks to make the muscles contract, but after a few twitches, the muscles stopped moving. Then, when Dr. Myerhoff examined the muscles, he discovered that they were bathed in lactic acid. A theory that would last a century was born. From there on out it was thought that a lack of oxygen to the muscles leads to lactic acid which in turn leads to fatigue.

George A. Brooks, a professor in the department of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley became interested in the 1960’s when he was running track at Queen’s College and his coach told him that is was lactate acid that caused his muscle soreness. He decided to study the lactic acid hypothesis for his doctoral dissertation. In his early research he found that in rats (and later humans) lactate was actually a source of energy. The tiny amount of acid that is actually created is flushed from the body quite quickly after exercise ends. Whereas the soreness can take days to set in.

There are some great descriptions of lactate versus lactic acid and what can actually builds up in the body on line. What you should know is that lactate is the principal fuel for the heart during vigorous exercise. The good news is that the liver can recycle it and it becomes a new source of energy. Did you know your body is constantly making lactate? It does build up as you increase the intensity of exercise. Our lactate threshold is simply the point where our bodies produce lactate faster than it can clear it. This makes our ability to clear lactate a critical part of sustaining high-end power.

Based on Brooks’s research one of the highest priorities of training should be to increase the body’s capacity to use lactate during high-intensity exercise so an athlete can race faster longer. We know that the lactate threshold is the fastest swimming, cycling, or running speed that can be sustained for one hour. This means most athletes should be able to train at this to get faster and stronger. The are other limiters to a lot of intensity training, but lactic acid is not one!

Running requires less gear and one would think less technical expertise than many other sports. It is probably why it is so popular as a form of exercise (well that and the fact that it burns more calories per minute than any other you can do for an hour). But as anyone who has gotten into the sport, even on a purely recreational level knows, there is a lot more to it. How fast should you run, how often, what to wear, what to eat/drink and then those pesky aches and pains. Don't be deterred - get educated. Join us for the Better YOUniversity free seminar: 2016 - YOUr Best Running Year.
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There are more and more classes out in the market focused on heart rate training. Do I wish more people would train with heart rate monitors? - absolutely. Do the majority of people using heart rate monitors really understand the data? No way. You know how I can tell? They are in the red zone for 25, 30, and even 40 minutes. People are super focused on getting the best workout they can every time. The most calories - who can top 1,000 in a spin class? Who is most sore after a workout? And then they wonder why they don't see progress. The scale never changes. They aren't getting stronger. The tools are out there and reasonably priced, but you need to understand how to use them. You need to understand what the numbers mean.

I train at Vent Fitness on IC7 bikes with power. I love it because I can watch my watts, cadence, heart rate and more. I can see when I am gaining fitness and when I feel like I am working, but my heart rate is lower or my power abysmal. I know this changes and that I need to look at my workouts with a macro view as well as a micro view. Wednesday I ran the Veterans Day Dash. Good strong effort. I did not wear my heart rate monitor, but I was high 160s I am sure. The race was at 10 am. At noon I went to Vent to teach my power class. I did wear my heart rate monitor and watched watts. I could not come near the punches I normally get and my heart rate stayed lower in class. I had nothing in the tank to give at my normal level. I was OK with that knowing I had already had a hard push for the day. If I had tried to push into the red zone and hold it there as long as possible I would end up injured. My goal is to train smart. That means I have easy days and I have hard days. After the hard days I have recovery. It is during recovery that we get stronger, but that will be another lengthy post!

So what do you need to know to at least get started? You need to get reasonably accurate zones.

Maffetone – The Formula:

1) Subtract your age from 180
2) Modify this number by choosing below:
a. If you have or are recovering from a major illness or if you are on medication, subtract an additional 10
b. If you have not exercised before or have been exercising but have been injured, sick, going “down hill” or have asthma or allergies, subtract an additional 5
c. If you have been exercising for more than two years and making progress without any problems, add 5
d. If you have been exercising for up to two years without any significant problems, then keep the result of 180 – your age Next – Put the number to work:
This is your Maximum Aerobic Heart Rate number or a close approximation. Most exercisers do not have a big aerobic base, so this will be close on. If you have exercised for years to develop an aerobic base then this number might be low for you. In my case it is, but again that is because I have had a focus on building a big aerobic base (means for most people working out and feeling like they are doing nothing just to keep their HR down. As the base builds the HR will stay even and the pace gets faster). Aerobic base is where you are utilizing oxygen to create energy. (blue-green zone). The red zone is anaerobic.

THINKING POINTS:

• Anaerobic endurance activity is very stressful to the body, if done too soon (without an aerobic base) or too often, your health will suffer.
• Anaerobic activity is performed whenever you are working above your maximum aerobic heart rate, most types of weight lifting (regardless of HR), and racing.
• Do not exceed 3 anaerobic workouts per week, never back-to-back, never more than 5 weeks in an “anaerobic block”, and never over 90% of your MAX HR (not aerobic max), other than during short (20 second) sprints.

So what is the red zone and MaxHR? If your heart muscle is pumping at 70-75% of its maximum and your legs are pumping at only 20-25% of the maximum speed you can run, do you think your aerobic conditioning needs some adjusting?  Aerobic conditioning is all about how much oxygen each one of your red blood cells can carry. The reason well conditioned runners and cyclists have such low resting heart rates is because their red blood cells are carrying a lot of oxygen.  Their oxygen capacity is much higher. A less conditioned person won't transport as much oxygen on their red blood cell, in turn their aerobic capacity is lower. To get the same amount of oxygen to their muscles their heart has to be faster. Some people look in the mirror or at the scale to determine their fitness. Yes strength is important but if you are running, cycling, swimming, skiing, etc. then your need a strong aerobic engine.
MaxHR:

• 1) Maximum Heart Rate - Your Maximum Heart Rate (MaxHR) is the fastest your heart can beat in a minute. You need to get your true Max HR tested in a lab, but there are on-line calculators or test that you can do to get an approximation. That said they can be off by as much as 10 - 15 bpm!
• 2) Target Heart Rate - Your Target Heart Rate is a percentage of your MaxHR. Think about the graphics in gyms that shoe 60%, 80% and so on. These are target HRs. Depending on the type of training you are doing you will be in a different zone.  Some people use perceived exertion or the Borg Scale to figure out how hard they are working.
• 3) Recovery Heart Rate - Recovery Heart Rate is the change in your heart rate after you stop working out. Many watches will allow you to set this lower limit so that you can pay attention to how quickly you recover after a workout. This is another indicator of fitness. Watch for 1 - 2 minutes. If you do not have much change in your heart rates, you are not very fit (your heart still has to beat rapidly, even though you have stopped working out. ) To calculate your Recovery HR, take your heart rate 2 minutes after completing a workout. When working out in an aerobic zone, a common recovery heart rate is 20-30 beats per minute drop. The more fit the athlete the greater the drop.

FIGURING THE ZONES:

So if you are going to take classes that want you in a certain zone then you need to know how to calculate. A method I like is the Karvonen. This calculation takes into account your resting HR (your HR when you wake up in the morning before getting out of bed). I like this version because it takes gender into account along with resting HR. 
Some athletes can get up to 80% max and still be aerobic (use the talk test). After that you are in what studios are now calling the orange 80-90% and red 90-100% zones. Red zone is VO2max - maximum effort. You can be in the orange zone for up to 10 minutes. You will increase your performance capacity here and it will be muscularly and aerobically taxing (hence anaerobic zone cause you can't get enough in!). The red zone is for loading and unloading - hee hee. The red zone is where fit athletes train for short bursts to increase max ability (lass than 5 minutes). Another way I know people are not exercising in the red zone for 45 minutes is because when in the red zone your body is using glucose as fuel. You have about 2,000 or so calories stored at any time. If you go into a class and have not topped off your stores you can be damn sure your brain (which needs glucose and will stop all other function to get it) will cut you off before you run out.

You want your zones to be calculated correctly otherwise if you think you have burned 1,000 calories you may have only burned 700 (a portion of which you would burn sitting on your butt at work). So take the time to do a test - at Vent you can do a FTW test to calculate your power threshold, this will help you get HR zones too. There are a number of different field tests you can do to get your HR zones down and then you can use all this great data to your advantage! Or hire a coach and have them do the calculations for you and you can focus on the workouts!

After looking at my Garmin data post ride at Vent today I wasn't kidding about my Facebook post "I kicked my own butt". Vent Fitness has the IC7 bikes which have power meters and you teach to color. It is awesome because I can get technical or I can just say go RED! Today's ride was working a combination of accelerations in the wind and working steep hills. We worked through it a couple of times and they really built into a strong finale.

When I take a spin class I have a tendency to not work all that hard. I zone out and my heart rate barely gets above 140. Often I really need to push it to get it above 145. I need strong, steady work to really tax my cardio system, so my poor peeps have to live in my world! It is super fun for me to be watching my own watts and then looking out to see how the class is doing (everyone has a computer on their bike and based on their FTW test they dial in their watts). Yellow is up to 105% of FTW - slightly different calculation from FTP. Red is 105% and above.

The gang was awesome today and I would have to think that most had a HR chart fairly similar to mine. Would be great to have the watts mapped on here as well 'cause we were pushing it. The last build was on a hill trying to chase the watts - to Adele's Skyfall. I spent more time over 200 watts today than probably - ever. Average HR was 139 and max was 167. I was still talking and teaching, so have some room there! We'll be doing this class again :-)

My cross country runner is in the family room on the roller when I hear "quick Dad get the pickle juice". His Dad delivers the pickle juice and 1 tablespoon later the hamstring cramp is gone and he is chatting away. We have regular proof in our house that pickle juice will indeed stop cramps in their steps.

Read here about my review of PickleAde and the research behind it.

I am lucky to have a great group of people to run with on a regular basis. The Friday run is a bunch of cul de sacs that end up offering some decent hill training. I headed out this morning figuring I would take it easy, but maybe work the hill on the return. As usual there were runners of varying speeds headed out. Joe quickly popped over next to me and started up a conversation as he bounced along with a nice quick cadence. I thought for a second that maybe I should drop back and take it easy, but decided to hang with Joe and drop back at the light if I needed. We were moving along at a good clip - not completely conversational for me, so I tried to keep Joe talking. As we went into the cul de sacs I was started to feel our pace, but I really wanted to try to maintain the cadence (Joe has been helping me get it up).

As we headed up one hill I decided to hang back and let Joe run the cul de sac so I could stretch my hammie and get some air! I was able to get my HR back down, so could take off with him again. We chatted and held a strong pace for another mile or so. I then started strategizing how I could make the rest of the run in my head. I figured I could ease up a bit before the last hill and then try to maintain a decent pace to hang onto the hill. Maybe I should walk. Maybe I should just say I can't keep up. Maybe I should just suck it up! Right then Joe says "OK let's hold this pace to the stop sign then we dial back and recover to the creek. At the creek we work the hill" Hallelujah - that I could do. We eased back a bit, maybe too much. As we headed up the hill my legs were toast, jello, nothing, nada left! I tried to push it, but really just lost that loving feeling. I hit the top behind Joe who quickly congratulated me! I knew he had had a plan for me and it was great to feel that success. He knows I have a kind of lofty goal and he is happy to help push me out of my comfort zone to get me there! It was a tough run, but what a sense of accomplishment afterwards.

I am looking forward to my next run with Joe - with a little trepidation and a lot of anticipation! Pick a  workout and push out of your comfort zone. As a coach I try to get my athletes to do that in a variety of workouts. It is fun for me to be on the other side of the fence! Thanks Joe.