RUN

Repeated sprints with short recovery forges lactate tolerance in those crucial final race kilometres

You’ve ticked off endurance runs, done tempo and race-pace work, performed drills, run up hills and lifted weights, and you’ve completed sprint intervals for higher speed. But you’ve yet to train the ability to really ramp it up in the final few hundred meters when fatigue is at its max and the lactate is really flooding in.

Sure, the ability to up your pace has a lot to do with pacing and staying relaxed but, assuming you’ve got that right, from a physiological point of view your ability to simply handle lactate in the muscle can’t be overstated. The main part of this session is short but it’s aimed at enhancing your ability in this area of fitness by utilising what is sometimes known as a ‘pull from the top’ approach to lactate tolerance – i.e. run fast, flood the system and let it learn to cope. It’s hard but the pain dissipates somewhat when completing the challenge with others… at a socially acceptable distance, of course! (Our photos were taken before lockdown).