LA seen motorpacing in Austin

"Shayne Wissler" wrote in message
news:HA18b.420434$uu5.75447@sccrnsc04...

"Andy Coggan" wrote in message
nk.net...

Yes, we should never take the word of a very successful expert in
the
field of training cyclists at the highest level.

Just because somebody good at the art of coaching doesn't
necessarily
mean
that they know doodly-squat about the science of exercise.

At the level of a coach/doctor for the best team in the world???

Doesn't matter. Success at the art of coaching - no matter what the
level -
is not proof that somebody understands the science of exercise.

If the best coach in the world can be the best without understanding the
science of exercise, then I have to wonder about the value/correctness of
the science. It's kind of like saying that someone can be the best
aeronautical engineer without understanding the science of mathematics and
physics.

It is the value that you should wonder about, not the correctness. As Kurgan
pointed out, the skill set required to be a good coach (not trainer) is
quite large, such that you can be quite successful even if you are weak in
one particular if you are excellent in others. Thus, being good at the art
of coaching does not prove that you know much if anything about the science
of exercise - just like knowing a lot about the science of exercise doesn't
necessarily mean that you'll be any good at the art of coaching. (I once sat
in a meeting with Steve Johnson - who has a Ph.D. in exercise physiology,
BTW - in which described someone else as "oh great - another exercise
physiologist who thinks he knows how to coach.")

Regarding LT, isn't there an actual threshold defined by the
sustainability
of the activity? There is a threshold, above which the athlete must slow
down after some time due to the lactic acid buildup. Obviously one cannot

pursue a "purely aerobic" activity indefinitely due to various factors
(e.g., you need sleep, muscles break down in other ways), but leaving
aside
those factors, there's a threshold below which the athlete can continue
indefinitely, and above which the athlete must slow down due to the
aerobic/anaerobic issue.

The relationship between exercise intensity and duration is continuously
curvilinear, so identifying any specific intensity as a "threshold" of one
sort or another requires taking at least a minor liberty. Nonetheless, you
can describe exercise performance quite well based on a quite simple model
of some critical power plus an anaerobic work capacity. Moreover, critical
power determined on the basis of such functional testing correlates quite
highly with more invasive/"scientific" measurements of threshold, e.g.,
based on blood lactate measurements. (This is why I've advocated functional
field testing over lab testing for individuals who own powermeters - see the
chapter I wrote for USAC.) So I would agree with everything you've written
above, except for one very important aspect: fatigue during exercise is
multifactorial, i.e., cannot be blamed on lactate accumulation alone (if at
all). Furthermore, lactate production is a sign of anaerobiosis - in fact,
the only time muscle is really anaerobic (i.e., metabolism is limited by -
vs. regulated by - the availability of O2) is at or above 100% of VO2max.

Andy Coggan