The more explosive your event in the pool the greater the demand on your phosphate and anaerobic systems. This is particularly true if you race 100m - 400m. The highly anaerobic nature of these events would support the argument for more high-intensity and less high volume training.
It is surprising that these events are still misinterpreted with coaches and swimmers wrongly assuming that it is far better to spend their allotted training time swimming repeats that will reduce your +Hydrogen ion concentrations.
This philosophy is based on the idea that high levels of+Hydrogen ions in your system is bad and will have a negative impact on your ability and performance.
This leads to training programs that focus on 'lactate threshold' sets that try to improve the turnover of lactate and enhance the ability of the aerobic systems to produce more of the energy required for the event.
There are two problems with this model of training:
You need to be careful about assuming high levels of +Hydrogen ion within your system is a bad thing.
Remember that these Hydrogen ions are the by-product of anaerobic breakdown of glycogen.
Lactate splits into the H+ ion and the lactate ion. It is the acidic +H ion that interfers with force production in the muscles and reducing the rate of glycolysis, thus slowing the you down.
The lactate ion simply diffuses through the muscle and into your bloodstream, with no evidence to suggest it has any negative impact on your muscle function or energy production.
In fact, the lactate ion can be recycled in the energy production cycle and used positively to help produce energy. Therefore, a high level of lactate in your blood is not bad in itself: it is simply an indicator that a lot of anaerobic energy production is occurring.
The training adaptation you are seeking is not a reduction in lactate production, but rather an increase in your ability to buffer the increase of +Hydrogen ions.
Practice sessions at high intensity that generates high levels of Hydrogen ions helps your body get used to the increase in your muscles and improves your buffer; Anaerobic glycolysis involves the fast breakdown of glycogen into energy-giving phosphates, while aerobic glycolysis involves a much slower breakdown.
Without the anaerobic energy systems, maximal power and high speeds would be impossible, as the muscles would not get a fast enough supply of energy. If you want high power, you have to have high levels of anaerobic energy supply.
For fast swimming, anaerobic capacity is the good guy and it needs to be developed. If an event places great demands on the anaerobic system, the athlete needs to become more anaerobic!
This may seem odd to those of you with traditional beliefs about training, but it is true.
By focusing on high volume aerobic training to reduce lactate levels you are in fact compromising your anaerobic fitness, which is the most important attribute for competitive success in sprint swimming.
Lactate threshold training geared to keeping lactate levels low is, I would argue, irrelevant. For swim distances up to and including 400 metres, the accumulation of high levels of lactate does not matter: indeed, it is probably a good thing as it reflects a good anaerobic capacity.
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