52 of 55 people found the following review helpful:
5.0 out of 5 stars
Important Contribution, July 4, 2001
This review is from: Lactate Threshold Training (Paperback)
:
Peter wrote a classic, Training--Lactate--Pulse Rate almost 15 years ago. This new book reiterates the lactate threshold approach to training, expanding on the same themes. The concepts previously introduced-namely energy systems, heart rate, anaerobic threshold deflection point, and blood lactate levels-are fleshed out.
In addition, the author expands on his previous book by adding sections on overtraining, circulation, blood levels, and nutrition.
The book is replete with heart rate graphs and tables which explain training concepts and document training and testing.
Janssen's thesis is that training intensity can be prescribed based on measuring blood lactate levels. If the athlete does not have access to lactate measurement, training can be based on heart rates imputed to reflect lactate levels.
It's a great book for athletes, coaches, and sport scientists. It's targeted toward runners, cyclists, triatheltes, rowers, and cross-country skiers.
Athletes and coaches who read such books are interested in getting down to the nitty gritty: How do I apply this information? What should I do to follow the training concepts? Here, the book also helps. General and specific advice is given, with examples.
The book merits several readings. Scattered throughout the book are numerous pearls. Wisdom that many will miss on their first reading. For example, in small type below a table describing the percentage share in total energy supply for various sports, Janssen notes that although the share of anaerobic energy supply in cycling is only 5%, this is by no means indicates that this source of energy is unimportant-due to the decisive role of anaerobic fitness in breakaways.
Fundamental and more problematic is that the author's thesis about lactate threshold training is controversial. Many sport scientists and coaches are of the opinion that it's like the story of the man searching for his lost keys under a streetlight-not because that's where he dropped them, but because that's where the light is. The existence of blood lactate and our ability to measure it may or may not have much importance in "scientific" training. Lactate, perhaps a false marker in training programs, may serve to endow false science to coaching methods that, fundamentally, are truly based as much on experience and art.
There is another troubling, basic problem with Janssen's thesis; a problem that arises whenever lactate threshold training is discussed. Most authors, Janssen included, conceive of lactate threshold as corresponding to the race intensity of a one-hour event. The United States Cycling Federation determines threshold in a way that generally finds it to equate to a blood lactate of about 2.5 millimoles per liter. Janssen and European coaches often quote a figure of about 4 millimoles. Yet Janssen himself, as well as my own and other published research, shows that athletes complete in one-hour events at blood lactates between 6 and 10 millimoles per liter. Janssen tries to help here, by explaining that there are different types of thresholds. However his explanations are scattered and don't adequately address the contradictions he himself raises.
Yet another obstacle is Conconi's method of determining heat rate deflection point. Conconi's method was widely lauded when described almost two decades ago-it's now losing favor. Sport scientists and coaches have found difficulties with this method-problems that Janssen alludes to.
There are other problems with this book, sure. As a racer, sport scientist, coach, and author myself I sensitive to the following problems-which, though present, are less of an issue in this book than in most:
1. The reader is often given mixed messages or frankly contradictory ones. Sloppy inconsistencies detract from what otherwise is a more polished work.
For example, in describing the phosphate energy system, the author on page 2 states that the amount of stored ATP is sufficient for about 2 seconds of maximum effort. The value doubles on page 10 when he states that the store is exhausted after 4 seconds of effort.
Another example: On page 12 the author states that the muscle fiber ratio in any person is basically unchangeable. Later on the same page he states the training stimulus can rebuild white fibers into red fiber.
Yet another example: On page 18, in describing how to train the phosphate system, the author states that "sprint workouts are not really intervals because recovery is nearly complete." Later, on the same page, in describing how to train the lactate system, the author states: "Like the phosphate system, the lactate system can best be trained by interval workouts." The reader is left confused about intervals.
2. The author advances a number of teleological augments that I as a scientist reject. For example, he states that since carbohydrates are stored with water, this energy source is heavier than fats; and "that is the reason why birds of passage only store fats as fuel."
3. Language is sometimes careless:
For example: Carbohydrates-sugars, starches, and glucose-are stored..." As glucose is an example of a simple sugar, the sentence construction jars me.
Another: "when the carbohydrate store becomes exhausted, the burning of fats increases." The prevalent current thinking is that fat use is relatively constant at all levels of exertion, and that carbs supply the increased energy needed at higher levels. Better would have been to say: "the carbohydrate store becomes exhausted, the percentage contribution of fats burned increases."
4. The graphs and tables are plentiful, wonderful. Unfortunately, they are often not well-labeled or not labeled at all. It's therefore sometimes difficult to understand the point that the author is making.
5. The author makes questionable statements. For example: "whenever the cyclist must let the pack go, acidosis is the most likely cause." I feel that although it's possible that acidosis sometimes limits performance, aerobic capacity and glycogen depletion are two other as likely causes.
6. The author risks alienating many in his audience when, in discussing blood levels and the doping agent EPO (erythropoietin) he argues that "It is hard to understand why altitude training and hypoxic tents are permitted and EPO is not." He argues that athletes who use banned substances are "doping victims" who "should not be treated as criminals." Although I appreciate his point of view, I don't share it. Athletes who cheat are cheating more than just themselves; they defraud their opponents, sponsors, and spectators. In professional sport, cheaters take race earnings, salary, and fame away from clean athletes. By introducing such controversial opinions, Janssen casts doubt on his training reasoning in general.
As stated at the outset, despite the problems enumerated, this is a great book. A book for athletes, coaches, and sport scientists in many sports-running, cycling, triathlon, rowing, and cross-country skiing...
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29 of 34 people found the following review helpful:
2.0 out of 5 stars
Janssen Strikes Out, December 17, 2001
This review is from: Lactate Threshold Training (Paperback)
Lactate Threshold Training (LTT), by Dutch MD Peter Janssen is a disappointing and frustrating read. Since my frame of reference is Wilmore, Costill, Billat, Daniels and other great researchers, I expected the same level of scholarship from Janssen. Unfortunately, LTT is poorly researched, and, thanks to Janssen's choppy writing style, often difficult to follow.
The problems start in the first paragraph of the preface when Janssen references Conconi, then goes on to say: "Heart rate monitoring of workouts and races, with or without lactate determination, is now essential to athletes and coaches." Hence, in his opening remarks, Janssen admits that LTT isn't as much about lactate as it is about heart rate (HR). In fact, lactate and lactic acid don't appear in his glossary!
Replete with HR graphs and tables, LTT is an odd mixture of fact and fiction from beginning to end. Sadly, fiction plays more than a minor role Janssen's treatise. In a section titled The Lactate System (page 5) he claims that "Muscle soreness is a characteristic of increasing acidosis...." He states further that "The acidosis within the muscle causes miroruputures...." Janssen fails to report that intense workouts that create acidosis frequently do not produce muscle soreness. He also fails to mention that muscle soreness is most likely the result of eccentric muscle contractions. This is just the first of many questionable claims that fill the pages of LTT.
Janssen tells us that lactate threshold (LT) and anaerobic threshold (AC) are the same thing, and occur at 4 mmol/l (page 33, graph 21 on page 34). Since numerous researchers have found LT varies greatly from person to person, pegging LT at 4 mmol/l (L4) cannot possibly be right. Janssen, in numerous places, admits as much, but continues to use L4 as if the variations don't matter.
Janssen also makes dubious claims regarding the relationship between LT and HR. He describes a phenomenon called heart rate deflection (HRdefl). HR increases linearly with exercise intensity, but only to a certain point. Intensity eventually reaches a high enough level that HR starts to lag behind. In other words, the relationship between HR and intensity ceases to be linear and the HR line begins to curve to the right (graph 24, page 37). The beginning of the curve is HRdefl. This description of HRdefl is fine as far as it goes, but then comes the shaky relationship with LT: "If this speed should be increased beyond the HRdefl, lactate will begin to accumulate. " So, according to Janssen, HRdefl and LT conveniently coincide. There's a small problem, however. Janssen also claims that LT can be in the range of 40% to 65% of VO2max (page34). But VO2max values in that range aren't anywhere near HRdefl. In fact, running at 65% of VO2max is slower than marathon pace!
One could go on and on about the nonsense in LLT, but I'll conclude with what I consider the most troubling sentence in the entire book (page 189): "It is hard to understand why altitude training and hypoxic tents are permitted and EPO is not." Is Janssen advocating the use of performance enhancing drugs, or has his poor writing and sloppy style left him misunderstood? I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. But there's no doubt the difference between live-high/train-high and live-high/train-low has somehow eluded doctor Janssen.
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