Originally Posted by radiofree

I'm sorry but that is complete bull****. You can throw around terms and statistics all you want but that makes no sense at all. I am an endurance athlete, a distance runner (if that doesn't qualify as an endurance sport I don't know what does). I have qualified and ran in the ohio state XC championships several times (the highest I ever placed was 14th, but out of 150 runners that pretty good), my team was coached by a former US Olympic runner. I know no endurance athletes, let me correct that; I know no successful endurance athletes that share your training philosophy. If you want to get good you push your self as hard as you can, no matter how much it hurts, which the required and necessary recovery periods of course. In training you try and produce as much lactic acid as you possibly can (pain). The more lactic acid that’s produced, the greater your body’s coping mechanisms become, and the more that you train to produce lactic acid and the stronger you are making the system that produces it. Lactic acid is a bi-product of the energy production process so if you can tolerate this type of training the whole energy system is forced to work more efficiently. Even though endurance athletes use mostly slow twitch fibers which can feed for a time on stored food energy, eventually they too will have to be fueled by lactic acid and those who can handle this shift are the ones who are in the best shape and win the race.

I don't mean to flame you, and I know running and cycling aren't one in the same but they are both endurance sports. Unfortunately for those with a low pain tolerance, the old adage "no pain no gain" is the reality is you want to excel.