January L4 B
Do you need to work on race pace fitness? Need practice dialing in the right race-pace? Incorporating L4 B intervals into your training is a way to refine your race-pace and fitness before the season.
When preparing for the winter race season it’s important to slowly increase the amount of L4 (or race-pace) intervals logged each week. This can be done by increasing your weekly interval days from 2 to 3 times per week and or it can also come from increasing your ‘on time’ during each interval session. One of the ways we can log more minutes during a single L4 interval session is by focusing on what we call L4 B.
The easiest way to describe the difference between L4 A and L4 B is this:
L4 B – 2-3 heart beats above lactate threshold (longer distance race pace) 6-8 mmol la
L4 – 80 to 90% of max heart rate (shorter distance race pace) 8 – 12 mmol la
I really like focusing on L4 B interval sessions during the early winter because it helps me get a better gauge of a realistic distance race pace. For most skiers a 4-5 minute L4 interval pace is unrealistic to maintain during anything over 10K. We need to distinguish between a maximal race-pace and a controlled race-pace and L4 B is the answer. Furthermore, working at a controlled (but still anaerobic) interval pace will allow us to log more on time during the interval session and positively impact our Vo2max.
Session:
4 x 7 min L4 B (controlled race-pace) Rollerskiing, bounding, or snow skiing
Terrain: Rolling but with plenty of climbing
Warm Up:
15 minutes easy
5 minutes L2
5 minutes easy with accelerations
5 minutes dynamic stretching
(can also use morning mechanics skate or classic as part of your warm-up routine)
Intervals:
3-4 x 7 min with 3-4 minutes rest between intervals
Having a good feeling of where your lactate threshold is will make finding your L4 B pace a bit easier. If you don’t have a heart rate monitor, no stress. I like to focus on easing into each interval so my heart rate elevates naturally to threshold during the first 2 minutes. Once at threshold I increase the pace just a touch to bump my heart rate up a few beats. It’s not an all out race-pace, but comfortable and fast. Easy enough to maintain for the next 5 minutes of each interval.
Goals:
Practice identifying a pace you can maintain for longer than 5 minutes. This will naturally be your L4 B pace and will likely be closer to your actual distance race-pace. Since our interval pace is a more controlled L4 pace we will be able to log closer to 30 minutes of on time which can help increase Vo2max. A great workout to practice leading up to the competition season.
Lactate goal: 6-8 mmol
