Two solutions to the biggest pacing mistake made by athletes

June 20, 2018

Transcribed from video:

– What’s the solution to that? Well there are two ways we can do it. We’ve already talked about the first one, when we talked about programming for work capacity. Cardiorespiratory endurance, energy system training. You basically undertake training to increase the threshold, push this higher, which allows an athlete to work at a higher maximum sustainable pace. Key term we talked about this yesterday, and I foreshadowed that we’d cover some of this today, maximum sustainable pace. Maximal, as high as possible. Sustainable that you can maintain. Pace speed. What is the fastest pace that you can hold onto and maintain for almost the entire event? I say almost and I qualify in a moment why it’s not the entire event. So if we can push our energy systems higher, push our thresholds higher, you can work at a higher pace before the acid rind falling into this tank. The harder genomes begin to overflow. If that tank is bigger, is higher, our threshold is higher, you can put more in before it starts to overflow, which is hitting the wall. So training, we’re not going to talk about that anymore ’cause that’s what we covered yesterday. We covered how to push those thresholds higher. We talked about the intensity, the type of intervals to do, how much work, how much rest, the type of volume, and the length of each interval. So you guys know how to do that. This is the key stuff for this final module of the weekend. The solution to this problem using an inappropriate energy system. The solution is to pace and strategize to stay below the threshold. As close to being below that threshold as you can. Right below it. And that way you can find your maximum sustainable intensity. The highest pace that you can work out, how close to the wall you can get without hitting the wall. How close you can get to filling up that tank with acid without overflowing that tank with acid. Exercise as close as possible to the threshold of the energy system that that workout is predominantly in. So we’ve got our energy systems here. If it’s a 400-meter run, you should be able to maintain your pace for 400 metres, and then maybe a sprint finish, which again we’ll talk about in a moment. But hold that pace. So, if we want to simplify these; how hard do you work? You could run faster for 20 seconds than you could for 30 seconds, correct? You can work for a higher pace and hold it. So if you want a quick and dirty easy way to know how hard you should be working, say to me how hard should I work for these? It’s 10 minutes. What is the absolute highest speed that you can maintain for 10 minutes? That’s the intensity you should be working at. For two minutes you can maintain a higher pace, a different threshold, therefore work at a higher intensity. Find the maximum sustainable pace for the time domain that you are predominantly working in.

Dan Williams

Dan Williams

Founder/Director

Dan Williams is the Director of Range of Motion and leads a team of Exercise Physiologists, Sports Scientists, Physiotherapists and Coaches. He has a Bachelor of Science (Exercise and Health Science) and a Postgraduate Bachelor of Exercise Rehabilitation Science from The University of Western Australia, with minors in Biomechanics and Sport Psychology.

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