Originally Posted by
MoAlpha
San Millán is a legit scientist and you can't argue with Pogacar's performance, but the claim that working out at LT1 selectively improves lactate and fat metabolism is not well supported and been challenged by authorities like Andrew Coggan. In fairness to San Millán, he couches the claim in properly tentative terms like the real scientist he is, but others not so much
So does LT1 training zone provide
selective improvements, or is it simply the zone that
maximizes those adaptations? Or neither?
I recently listened to San Milan's video interview with Dylan Johnson, and I took away a couple of points he made about sub-LT1 training:
- working just below LT1 maximizes the lipolytic system activity
- if you do a hard effort during a zone 2 ride, you body produces hormones that turn off lipolysis, reducing the training effect
- if you want to include a hard effort during zone 2 ride, save it until the end of the ride