It seems a little funny to be writing about aerobic training in the middle of January.  After all, if you haven't done enough or even any at all to this point of the season, it won't help you this year.  But by the time the next SKATERS EDGE is out, the new season will be just around the corner and early in any season is the best time for aerobic training.  The purpose of this article is to define this type of training, talk about how to measure and improve it and explain why it is so important for speed skaters, especially young speed skaters!

Aerobic training is usually compared to anaerobic training.  Aerobic simply means "with oxygen" and anaerobic means "without oxygen".  All types of training are basically designed to improve your capacity to do work or exercise.  To do work or exercise, you need energy.  Energy is produced by breaking down (metabolizing) the food we eat (but this article won't be about eating right, although after the holiday season, that wouldn't be such a bad idea!).  This process of breaking down can be done two ways, via aerobic metabolism (in the presence of oxygen) or via anaerobic metabolism (in the absence of oxygen).  Aerobic training then is concerned with increasing your ability to produce energy via aerobic metabolism.  The advantage of the aerobic type of energy production is that there is lots of oxygen around, and for a given amount of food, a lot more energy can be produced aerobically than anaerobically.  The aerobic system of energy production is much more efficient than the anaerobic system.

So if aerobic energy production is much more efficient, how do you train to maximize this system?  Well, if you need oxygen to produce energy via aerobic metabolism of food, you need to train the systems of the body that are responsible for delivering oxygen to the working muscles.  These systems are basically the heart, lungs and blood vessels, or lumped together, the cardiorespiratory system.  Oxygen must be brought into the lungs, transferred to the blood, and then pumped by the heart through all the miles and miles of blood vessels until it reaches the smallest ones, the tiny capillaries in the muscles.  There, oxygen is transferred from the blood to the muscle cells and used to produce energy so that the muscle can perform work.  A good cardiorespiratory system ensures a steady supply of oxygen (and, hence, energy): a weak one results in an oxygen lack or deficit.  If a working muscle does not receive enough oxygen, the amount of work it can do before disabling fatigue sets in is extremely limited.

So enough science already!  Let's get back to training.  How do we train the cardiorespiratory or aerobic system?  By doing lots and lots of low to moderate intensity exercise.  Big duration, big volume, not too much intensity.  The cardiorespiratory system is a plastic system in that it will adapt (within genetic limits) to stress.  If you do lots of long duration, low intensity type training, your cardiorespiratory system will become much better at bringing in oxygen and delivering it to the working muscles.  It will work faster and more efficiently.  Your muscles, in turn, will be able to do a lot more work before fatigue.

Aerobic training for speed skating can be done in many ways as long as the general principle of volume, rather than intensity, is followed.  Cycling, running, rollerblading; in fact, any activity that elevates the heart rate to at least 70% of your maximum heart rate (estimated as 220 minus your age in years) and keeps it there for a minimum of 15-20 minutes, 3-4 times per week.  Your coaches can help you with specific training program information.  Aerobic training is progressed by increasing frequency, duration and intensity and your specific rate of progress will depend on your initial fitness level.  Your coaches can help you progress your aerobic training so that you continue to improve your cardiorespiratory system.  You can measure improvement by monitoring your training and by doing occasional more formal tests.  Monitoring training is done by keeping track of times and distances and heart rates.  You know you have improved your aerobic fitness if you can run further in a given time, or take less time to cycle a given distance, or do a given amount of work at a lower heart rate.  Some specific tests you can do include the dreaded 12-minute run and the even more dreaded shuttle test.

OK, so that is a little about aerobic training and how to do it.  Now when should aerobic training be done, and why is it so important for speed skating?  Aerobic training is often referred to as "base" or "foundation" training.  In other words, it forms the bottom of your training pyramid.  Your other types of training, the higher intensity interval work, power training, anaerobic training and so on, are stacked on top of a foundation of aerobic training.  Without a good cardiorespiratory system, your other types of training will never be as effective, as they all depend on a good aerobic energy production system as a foundation.  Aerobic training provides you with the ability to do lots of work and to recover quickly after exercise.  If you can't recover quickly, you can't do as much training.  The more training you do, the more fit you get (provided you don't over train, but that is another article).

If aerobic training forms the base of the training pyramid, it makes sense that it be done first.  Now we are (finally) getting back to the theme of the first paragraph.  Aerobic training is the first type of training you do, at the start of your training career, and at the start of every season. You can't build a house and put a foundation in afterwards.  You have to start from the bottom up.  So if you get this newsletter in the spring, and you are thinking of training in the off season, you should lay down a good aerobic base in the first few months of training, to support all the heavier, more intense training that will follow as the season progresses into the competition phase.  Your coaches can help you design your program to ensure that you have a good aerobic base.  Remember, there are many factors which contribute to success in speed skating, but no skater has ever reached a worthwhile goal without paying attention to aerobic training.

Well, it is finally time for the tip of the training pyramid. Previous articles in Skaters Edge have discussed the methods and importance of training the aerobic energy  (March, 1994) and anaerobic lactic energy systems (June, 1994). It was emphasized that the first system to be trained is the aerobic system, the "foundation" of all subsequent training. The anaerobic lactic system was next, designed to supply the majority of energy required for intense exercise lasting from approximately 20 seconds to one minute. Well now we are up to the tip of the energy system pyramid, the anaerobic alactic system, and of course, this will require another definition.

If anaerobic lactic meant in the absence of oxygen (anaerobic), and with the production of lactate (lactic), well then anaerobic alactic must mean in the absence of oxygen and without the production of lactate (alactic). This is good news for us, because anaerobic lactic training hurts, and the pain is due to the effect that lactic acid has on your muscle contractile machinery. Take away the lactic acid and you will take away the pain. How do you take away the lactic acid? Well the answer is that we don't really take it away, we just don't produce enough of it to hurt us in anaerobic alactic training because we only stress the muscles for short periods of time. 

Recall that lactic acid was produced by the anaerobic breakdown of carbohydrates in the muscles. The muscles also have some stored high-energy compounds available that are used to initiate any muscular work, regardless of the intensity. There isn't much of this stored energy, compared to the amount of carbohydrates or especially compared to the amount of stored fats, but the nice thing about this energy supply is that it can be replenished quickly, and doesn't leave you feeling with that nauseous feeling. The total capacity of this stored energy is exhausted after 10-30 seconds of all-out work. After this, energy to sustain exercise is provided by the anaerobic lactic system, with its inevitable consequence of lactic acid production. If we can limit our exercise program to short periods of time, and allow enough time for replenishment of these high-energy stored compounds, we can perform many repeats of short high intensity work.

It takes about three minutes to fully replenish the depleted alactic system, and about 30 seconds to reach 50% replenishment. Thus training the anaerobic alactic system must be done via interval type training, and the length of the rest, and intensity of the actual interval will determine if we are training the peak power of the system, the maintenance of peak power, or the total capacity. For peak power, work intervals are from 1-5 seconds, at 100% effort, with rest periods from 5-10 seconds (work: rest ratio of 1:2). A maximum of 6-8 reps can be done in each set, with 5-10 minutes between sets. For maintenance of peak power, work intervals (at 95-100%) are from 5-15 seconds, with rest intervals from 25-90 seconds (work: rest ratio of 1:5 or 1:6). Five to 6 reps are done in each of about 5 sets, with 5-10 minutes between sets. Finally for training the capacity of the anaerobic alactic system, interval durations of 15-30 seconds are recommended (approx 90%), with rests of 90-180 seconds (work: rest ratios of 1:6). Three to 4 reps are done in each of 3-4 sets, with 10-15 minutes between sets. The program can be progressed by adding more sets, decreasing the pause between intervals, or increasing the exercise intensity. Modes of exercise can include running, skating, cycling, rollerblading, or imitations. The important thing is not the mode as much as the intensity.

Total workout times for training this energy system are not long, ranging from 25-45 minutes. Thus this sort of training can often be "piggybacked" onto other types of training, like technical training, or aerobic training. The key point here is that this training should be done first (after a good warm-up because of the high intensity required). The hard thing about this type of training is giving the proper mental effort. The intensities must be maximal or near maximal to achieve the desired training effect.  This requires a good focus on the training session, and on each individual interval.

How is this energy system important in speed skating? Well, only every time you do a start, for one. And for short track skating, putting in short sprints during longer races is a common tactic. A well-trained anaerobic alactic system will supply the energy for the sprint, and quickly resynthesize the high-energy compounds for the next one. If you don't have enough of the compounds available, or if it takes too long to resynthesize, you won't be able to do many sprints without calling on the anaerobic lactic system for energy supply.

When should this system be trained? As always, the foundation of the training pyramid comes first. There is no point in training the tip unless the foundation is there to support it. The nice thing about this type of training is that it doesn't take too long to develop. In a normal training season, 4-6 weeks of incorporating anaerobic alactic training into your overall program will result in noticeable gains. Gains in this system can be monitored using simple field tests, like 50 m sprints, or hill sprints. Maintenance can be achieved with about two sessions per week. Emphasis on this energy system depends also on your event. Sprinters and short track skaters make more use of this system, and thus need to pay more attention to maintenance throughout the season. Your coaches can help you to incorporate anaerobic alactic training into your overall program. It is probably the most fun of all types of training. It doesn't get boring like aerobic training, doesn't hurt as much as anaerobic lactic training, and you can make it into a bit of a fun competition within your training group. But remember that its importance to success in the overall speed skating program is reflected by its size in the training pyramid. Have a good training season!