Unlocking Performance with Lactate Efficiency Training

Lactate Efficiency sessions take the form of intervals or efforts of varying length with corresponding periods of easier effort in between. The aim of these sessions is to improve the body’s ability to both use and flush out lactate.

That last sentence may be confusing, especially to those of us who have been training and racing since the 80s and 90s. We were always told that lactate or lactic acid was bad and caused the burning sensation in our muscles, which resulted in the need to slow down. Turns out, lactate isn’t actually what’s burning up your legs, it’s the by-products (hydrogen ions) that result from lactate production. In reality, lactate is actually a fuel source which the body can process and use. As a result, these workouts can help our bodies to better use that free energy which otherwise goes to waste. Back in the day we used to call this sort of training, ‘lactate tolerance training’ because we thought that we needed to become better at handling the build up of lactate at high intensities. In actual fact, we were training correctly but for the wrong reasons. We were not becoming better at tolerating lactate but we were getting better at processing and utilising it.

Lactate efficiency training is any form of training where lactate production is increased by the intensity of exercise and then alternated with periods of less intense activity.  In this way, the muscle fibers are given the opportunity to learn how to both use and clear the produced lactate during the less intense recoveries and, over time, with improved efficiency, they will be able to do more of that at higher intensity levels.

The objective of lactate efficiency sessions  is to raise the floor and not the ceiling from a metabolic perspective. So, as we move through a block of training in this phase, it makes more sense to increase the speed of the recovery portion, rather than the harder intervals. This might sound counterintuitive given the natural urge to want to continuously get faster.

When planning these sessions we are not only considering the speed or effort of the intervals and recovery periods but the length of each as well. As we progress through a series of workouts on a week-to-week basis we will not only be looking to increase the effort in the recovery periods but also be altering the ratio of hard to easy as we adapt.

The harder effort during the intervals should not be so hard that the recoveries prove too short or need to become too easy. We are creating a scenario where we increase lactate production and accumulation in the muscles but in a gentle, more gradual way so that we can teach the body to process the lactate at an effort level that is not truly easy. This then translates well into racing. If we go too hard in the intervals, yes, we will produce a lot of lactate but the effort will be so hard that our recovery effort is considerably lowered out of necessity and the environment in which our bodies are processing and managing the lactate is not what we are looking for.

Lactate efficiency sessions can be worked in at all stages of a training plan, from the base phase to the taper phase, in a variety of settings: Track, treadmill or open road.

Examples of Lactate Efficiency Sessions:

• 1600m @ 10km race pace, 1600m @ 21.1km race pace, 1200m @ 10km race pace minus 5-10 seconds, 1600m @ 21.1km race pace, 800m @ 5km race pace, 1600m @ 21.1km pace, 400m @ 3km race pace. Recovery periods are 2-3-minute jogs between reps.
• 5km of 200m @ 10km race pace / 200m @ 5km race pace. As a constant tempo run.
• 8-10 x 1:00 @ 5km race pace / 1:00 easy. Progressing this session over a number of weeks by increasing the pace of the slower portion, increasing the length of the faster portion, Increasing the number of sets
• 4-6 x 800m @ 10km race pace / 800 @ :30 per kilometre slower. Done continuously and adding reps through a training progression.
•  5-7 x :30 @ 5km race pace / 2:30 @ 10km race pace. Progressing this session over a number of weeks by increasing the number of reps until we hit 10-12 and then increasing the length of the 5km race pace interval until it equals the 10km race pace ‘recovery’ period.
• 3 x (4 x 400m at 3km race pace / 45 to 60 seconds walking rest in between). Have 3:00 walking rest between sets. Here we’re slowly building up lactate and its byproducts from rep to rep with small windows to clear out some of the lactate while using some of that lactate in the consequent reps. Then, you have the longer rest periods between sets to help flush out more of the lactate before heading into the next set with some still in your system.
• 6 x 500m alternating :30 @ 10% faster than 5km race pace / :30 @ 10% slower than 5km race pace with 6:00 walking rest between sets. These are very short periods to enable accurate pacing so perceived effort would be out go to. The basic idea is to run nice and fast during the hard thirty seconds but only ease up slightly during the easy thirty seconds. The fast periods should be slightly faster than we would be able to hold through the entire 5km race and the easier periods would probably work out to be around 10km race pace.