Hitting myself in the head with a hammer or Lactate Threshold, here I come

I have often alluded to the human body as an exotic sports car, say, a Lamborghini or a Maserati. The similarities are numerous. There is the complexity, sophistication, uniqueness, beauty, and, most of all, performance of both. I have the opinion that  we all “own” a supercar in the form of our bodies and it seems a shame that so many people never take theirs out “on the road”, open it up, and see what it can do. I can’t imagine that anyone could own a high powered sports car and never, even a little bit, want to take it out on the highway and just hit the gas to see what it feels like.

 

I drive a Mini Cooper S which is to a Maserati what a Piper Cub is to an F-16 Falcon fighter plane. Even so, one time, on a long open stretch of highway, I opened it up just a little to see how it felt to go FAST. It was exhilarating (I don’t recommend this as it is speeding, but I rationalized this brief "fracture" of the law by doing so out of traffic and accepting that I might get a ticket and would just have to suck it up and pay it) and just a little bit scary. 115 mph in what amounts to a glorified, street

 

legal go-kart, feels like a lot more.   A lot more.

One BIG difference between our body and a sports car is that when we stomp on the gas in a car, there is no pain or discomfort. When we do the same with our body, the opposite is true; it is painful. This week, I had to do a lactate threshold run to determine my heart rate zones for running. Lactate, or lactic acid, is a byproduct of muscle activity. As muscle activity becomes more intense, the levels in the blood rise. We can use some lactate for fuel but once its production exceeds our ability to use it, it accumulates in the blood. What we feel is extreme fatigue, inability to catch our breath, and muscle pain. This is why we can only go all out for very short periods.

Lactate threshold is that point where we cross the line from sustainable to unsustainable activity. If we stay below the threshold, we can go for long periods. Distance runners stay well below their lactate threshold and can go non-stop for hours at a time. Sprinters go well above and can only run for short distances.

To determine my lactate threshold, Karl asked me to run a 5K (3.1 miles) as fast as I could go. At this point in my life I am not interested in “racing” or competing against others. I’m just trying to stay reasonably fit and active and accomplish a few personal goals, one of which is this ironman. Racing is hard and it hurts to push so hard.

So, in an effort to appease my thirtysomething trainer, Wednesday morning found me heading out of the house at 6 AM, after obsessing about this run for the preceding several days. After a brief warm up, I “hit the gas”. My initial pace was too fast and, after a ½ mile or so, I settled into what I felt I could sustain for the distance. Even this had me whooping and gasping with every breath. I wondered if the few other runners/walkers I passed along the way thought I was about to have a heart attack. The effort was such that I could not have gone faster and still completed the distance. Several times, my mind said, “you have to stop”, “this is too painful”, or, the difficult to answer “why am I doing this?”. Some part of my mind, however, kept me going by responding, “It’s just a little longer”, “I can do this”, and “I need to make this count for a good lactate threshold.” I didn’t want to do this twice. It hurt, but as I walked back to the house, it felt pretty good too, like the proverbial hitting your head with a hammer; it feels so good when you stop.

No one who has not pushed him or herself to the point of pain can appreciate how good it feels afterwards. I wish I could say I would have done this anyway but, truthfully, I probably wouldn’t have without Karl pushing me.

Florida Ironman training log:

A good week with small but definite gains in flexibility and strength. I am seeing more muscle definition (so is my wife) and my weight has crept up a couple of pounds; I’d like to think that is muscle mass. A few aches and pains but nothing serious. Still struggling to establish a workable schedule that allows enough time for everything. It doesn’t help being on call every other day and every other weekend. One call can derail a day’s schedule, like the fellow whose head cushioned the blow of a large falling branch, which essentially scalped the left side of his head. That one cost me an evening massage and a session on the trainer with my bike. C’est la vie…………

Week’s summary:

Mon, 3/20- Swim, 2550 yards @ 2:35 min/100 yds, total time 1:06:01 hours

                   No trainer session due to emergency call to hospital
Tue, 3/21- No session, no time
Wed, 3/22- Run (lactate threshold), 3.41 mi @ 7:46 min/mi, total time 26:29 minutes
Thu, 3/23- Swim, 1750 yds, 2:37 min/100 yds, total time 1:03:44 hours
Fri, 3/24- Run, 5.36 miles @ 8:24 min/mi, total time 45:01 minutes*
Sat, 3/25- Run, 6.29 miles @ 8:54 min/mi, total time 56:03 minutes*
Sun, 3/26- Rest day in Virginia

*In Carrolton, VA