Lactate Testing and Finding LT by Matt Liebsch

Matt Liebsch is a member of the CXC Elite cross country ski team and a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a BS in Electrical Engineering. He is an Olympic hopeful and had a very successful 2009 season… 3^rd Place at US Nationals, Mora Vasaloppet winner and American Birkebeiner Champion. When Matt is not training and racing he is helping out at Gear West or spending time with his wife and one-year-old son.

The past Tuesday I meet up with my good friend and club coach, Piotr Bednarski, for some baseline lactate testing. I had already V02max tested with my program coach Bryan Fish, but I wanted to check some lactates to make sure everything matched up and get my training zones squared away.

The protocol we used involved skate skiing up the 3-5min hill along East River Road which goes underneath East Franklin Street. Every time I rollerskied up the hill I would try to bump up my heart rate into the next perceived training zone. Here are my results.

HR	Lactate	Time
129	1.0	4:28
149	2.1	4:06
163	3.9	3:38
168	5.1	3:01
172	7.8	2:43

After discussing the results with Piotr, we were able to nail down my current training zones. There are a lot of theories on defining training zones but the most important point to know is your lactate threshold (LT). LT is the pace at which accumulation of lactate acid matches the bodies ability to remove it from the body… this LT zone is usually the pace one could hold for about a 1hr all out effort. Lactate threshold is usually right around 4mM for most individuals but can vary in between 2.5mM and 6mM for some people. Based on this test data, my LT zone would be between 164-166 BPM (a little lower than normal but hey, its spring time and I have not be training a ton of intensity yet). It is important to remember that LT is different for each exercise so my LT could be higher or lower depending on whether I was double polling, running, biking, swimming or striding. Now that I know my LT zone I can training at my LT pace and make solid gains. I find that LT training gives me the most "bang-for-the-buck" with regards to fitness gains. A favorite workout of mine is 3by15min at LT; with proper warm-up and cool-down of course.

If you're interested in having a lactate profil done contact Piotr via http://gotraining.us/

Train hard, train smart

Matt

Gear West Duathlon Race Report by Matt Liebsch

Matt Liebsch is a member of the CXC Elite cross country ski team and a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a BS in Electrical Engineering.  He is an Olympic hopeful and had a very successful 2009 season… 3^rd Place at US Nationals, Mora Vasaloppet winner and American Birkebeiner Champion.  When Matt is not training and racing he is helping out at Gear West or spending time with his wife and one-year-old son.

Well, my legs never came back 100% from my overzealous week of training but the race went well regardless.  Race day started out a little hectic; I noticed on my way to the venue that my rear tire was flat.  Luckily, the Gear West mechanics were able to find a tiny tack in my tire and then replaced my tube in short order.  My next item of business was to choose the right clothing… it was a chilly morning and the day started around 32F.  I ended up racing in shorts and a thin long sleeve top and I'm glad because if I had gone in tights I would have died from overheating.

            The first 5k run was great and I came into the transition in 6^th place.  Once I got on the bike, I steadily lost time.  My legs were a little sore from the past week of hard intervals and my dad's old road bike was no match for the time trial rockets that came cruising by me.  Getting off the bike and transiting back to running sparked one of the weirdest feelings… it was as if I was trying to learn to run all over again.  My legs felt like jelly and my hamstrings felt like strings ready to snap.  I thought I was going to be walking it in, but after a mile my legs loosed up a bit and I finished strong in 10^th place.

            Post race has left me with some lingering soreness… having a little trouble walking down stairs.   I did a proper cool down and have been stretching and rolling the last two days but I don’t think I had enough time on the bike to condition the muscles for the abuse I put them through.

            The GW Dualthon was a fun event and I will definitely be back next year to improve my time and place… maybe I'll try to track down some aero bars next time around.

Train hard, train smart!!!

Matt

Overreached vs. Over-Trained by Matt Liebsch

Matt Liebsch is a member of the CXC Elite cross country ski team and a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a BS in Electrical Engineering. He is an Olympic hopeful and had a very successful 2009 season… 3^rd Place at US Nationals, Mora Vasaloppet winner and American Birkebeiner Champion. When Matt is not training and racing he is helping out at Gear West or spending time with his wife and one-year-old son.

I think I may be a little overreached at the moment, but that is OK. Overreached is a state of fatigue that our body can recover from and compensate as we get faster/ fitter. This week I got a little keyed up and did back-to-back-to-back intervals on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday. Plus, on Friday I went on nearly a 3.5 hr bike with Garrott Kuzzy. Needless to say, my legs are feeling a little coiled up at the moment. I am optimistic that by Sunday my legs will bounce back from an overreached state and I will be feeling 100% for the Gear West Duathlon. However, I am hoping to have a good result. It will require me to listen to my body and take the next few days easy.

Over-trained, on the other hand, is not a good place for an athlete to be. Over-training is a condition that comes about from continually overreaching again-and-again. I have been in this state before and it is not enjoyable. The signs of over-training are different for each athlete, but for me it includes loss of body mass, suppressed immune function, along with up and down results. Needless to say, I had a frustrating season when I was over-trained.

There are a few key things I believe can prevent over-training and they include listening to your body, good nutrition, supplementation, benchmark testing and good hygiene. I believe the most important of these is listening to your body. The year I over-trained, I got caught up in total training hours and I even managed to over-train while using resting HR to evaluate physical stress. I should have done a better job of listening to my body vs. what the numbers were telling me. By the time the numbers were showing that I was over-trained, I was already up to my eyeballs in fatigue.

Train hard, train smart!!!

Matt

Strength for the Nordic skier by Matt Liebsch

Matt Liebsch is a member of the CXC Elite cross country ski team and a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a BS in Electrical Engineering. He is an Olympic hopeful and had a very successful 2009 season… 3^rd Place at US Nationals, Mora Vasaloppet winner and American Birkebeiner Champion. When Matt is not training and racing he is helping out at Gear West or spending time with his wife and one-year-old son.

It's that time of year… everyone wants to get their beach muscles in shape. This is true for the causal individual and serious skiers alike. It is a great time of year to work on overall toning and conditioning. Skiers tend to get muscle imbalances from doing too much ski specific activity over the winter so working neglected muscle is essential.

Strength can be as simple as doing some pushups, sit-ups and crunches, or as complicated as Single-Leg Good Mornings and Romanian Dead-Lifts. It is important for skiers to remember that the goal in strength training is to get faster at ski racing. Putting on 10lbs of muscle will probably not help you ski faster but getting stronger without excessive weight gain will translate to skiing faster and a higher level of injury prevention. A common question I get is… "How strong is strong enough for skiing?" I had a very good ski coach once tell me "If you can do 10 pull-ups you are probably strong enough to ski." This is a bit overly simplistic but I think a very true statement.

If you have some questions about the kind of exercises to do for skiing I would recommend looking at www.cxcacademy.com on how to incorporate strength into a training plan for skiers.

Train hard, train smart

Matt

Hit the Ground Running by Matt Liebsch

Matt Liebsch is a member of the CXC Elite cross country ski team and a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a BS in Electrical Engineering. He is an Olympic hopeful and had a very successful 2009 season… 3^rd Place at US Nationals, Mora Vasaloppet winner and American Birkebeiner Champion. When Matt is not training and racing he is helping out at Gear West or spending time with his wife and one-year-old son.

The 2008-2009 training year ended this past Sunday and the 2009-2010 year started a day later on Monday the 27th of April. CXC has wasted no time at all and our first training camp started this week. We have been doing some baseline testing along with some light workouts and individual/team meetings.

For those that are interested our team’s results from our testing and a great write-up by Garrott Kuzzy can be found here…

http://www.cxcskiing.org/site_pages/news/newstring6.htm

As camp wraps up in the next few days I am energized to start the next year of training as our team prepares for the Olympics. We have been goal setting this camp and I believe it is an important step for every athlete, regardless of ability or age. Before you set out training for your next event or season, take some time to think critically about your goals and the steps necessary to make progress towards those goals.

Train hard, train smart

Matt

Rollerskiing by Matt Liebsch

Matt Liebsch is a member of the CXC Elite cross country ski team and a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a BS in Electrical Engineering. He is an Olympic hopeful and had a very successful 2009 season… 3^rd Place at US Nationals, Mora Vasaloppet winner and American Birkebeiner Champion. When Matt is not training and racing he is helping out at Gear West or spending time with his wife and one-year-old son.

For me, the rollerski season is about to begin. I know many skiers will wait a lot longer to get out on the rolling boards but I like to get going by May 1^st. A good idea before your first roll should include a look at your equipment. Are your wheels falling apart, how is the shaft structural stability, are your bindings working properly, do the wheels and bearing flow or is there grinding? Once you give all your gear a good look over make sure to replace anything that is worn or broken. Also, I highly recommend wearing a helmet in regards to safety equipment, and I will give you my rollerski story about what scared me into always wearing a helmet.

Last summer I was in Marquette, MI at the Olympic Education Center (OEC) for a training camp. For some reason Michigan Law requires rollerskiers to travel into on coming traffic; my guess is they classify roller skiers as pedestrian. Well that was fine because the shoulders were very large and I felt very comfortable.

So… I was in a 25+ mph tuck going downhill on highway near Marquette Mountain. While in my tuck I had a small flat rock kick up and jam in my front right wheel. As you imagine this caused my right ski to act as an anchor and towed me out into on coming traffic. I was starring down a logging truck coming uphill and managed to dive back into the shoulder before getting smashed. I was very happy to have my helmet on as I used it as a break pad.

Moral of the story… use a helmet while rollerskiing.

Best,

Matt

www.gearwest.com

www.cxcskiing.org

Lost in the Woods by Matt Liebsch

Matt Liebsch is a member of the CXC Elite cross country ski team and a graduate of the University of Minnesota with a BS in Electrical Engineering. He is an Olympic hopeful and had a very successful 2009 season… 3^rd Place at US Nationals, Mora Vasaloppet winner and American Birkebeiner Champion. When Matt is not training and racing he is helping out at Gear West or spending time with his wife and one-year-old son.

Hi All,

I am the newest addition to the staff at Gear West so feel free to drop me a line or let me know if you would like to see any writing on a specific subject. Contact me at Liebsch@gearwest.com.

This past weekend included my annual participation in the Trail Mix 50k Team relay. I have raced with my team, the Nordic Ninjas, for the past two years. Each year the Nordic Ninjas manage to win the overall team event. This happens for two reasons. One, we are all decent runners. Two and probably more important, all the really fast runners pair up with some less speedy folks or do the individual events.

This year I was a little more prepared than last year and had about 30 miles on my legs since the ski season ended. Last year I went out conservative and felt good for my 8 miles but this year my plan was to hang onto the lead for as along as possible. This leader was the speedy Gear West runner, Brooks Grossinger. By 2 miles into the race my eyes were already rolling into the back of my head… did I mention Brooks beat me by over 3 minutes last year! About the time I was ready to blow up Brooks slowed way down and stopped. We looked around and realized we had missed a turn. After standing around and trying to decide what next, a runner from behind passed by and yelled "didn’t you hear this is an orienteering race?" About 15-20 of us followed him as we bushwhacked through the woods and we eventually found our way back to the racecourse.

Once back on course the race finished well. Every year I forget how sore I can get after my first running race. Yesterday I couldn't move and today I skipped my normal bike ride into work. Maybe next year I'll learn and do a few running intervals before I jump into racing!

Best,

Matt