Rating: 
Summary: Janssen Strikes Out
Review: Lactate Threshold Training (LTT), by Dutch MD Peter Janssen is a disappointing and frustrating read. Since my frame of reference is Wilmore, Costill, Billat, Daniels and other great researchers, I expected the same level of scholarship from Janssen. Unfortunately, LTT is poorly researched, and, thanks to Janssen's choppy writing style, often difficult to follow. The problems start in the first paragraph of the preface when Janssen references Conconi, then goes on to say: "Heart rate monitoring of workouts and races, with or without lactate determination, is now essential to athletes and coaches." Hence, in his opening remarks, Janssen admits that LTT isn't as much about lactate as it is about heart rate (HR). In fact, lactate and lactic acid don't appear in his glossary! Replete with HR graphs and tables, LTT is an odd mixture of fact and fiction from beginning to end. Sadly, fiction plays more than a minor role Janssen's treatise. In a section titled The Lactate System (page 5) he claims that "Muscle soreness is a characteristic of increasing acidosis...." He states further that "The acidosis within the muscle causes miroruputures...." Janssen fails to report that intense workouts that create acidosis frequently do not produce muscle soreness. He also fails to mention that muscle soreness is most likely the result of eccentric muscle contractions. This is just the first of many questionable claims that fill the pages of LTT. Janssen tells us that lactate threshold (LT) and anaerobic threshold (AC) are the same thing, and occur at 4 mmol/l (page 33, graph 21 on page 34). Since numerous researchers have found LT varies greatly from person to person, pegging LT at 4 mmol/l (L4) cannot possibly be right. Janssen, in numerous places, admits as much, but continues to use L4 as if the variations don't matter. Janssen also makes dubious claims regarding the relationship between LT and HR. He describes a phenomenon called heart rate deflection (HRdefl). HR increases linearly with exercise intensity, but only to a certain point. Intensity eventually reaches a high enough level that HR starts to lag behind. In other words, the relationship between HR and intensity ceases to be linear and the HR line begins to curve to the right (graph 24, page 37). The beginning of the curve is HRdefl. This description of HRdefl is fine as far as it goes, but then comes the shaky relationship with LT: "If this speed should be increased beyond the HRdefl, lactate will begin to accumulate. " So, according to Janssen, HRdefl and LT conveniently coincide. There's a small problem, however. Janssen also claims that LT can be in the range of 40% to 65% of VO2max (page34). But VO2max values in that range aren't anywhere near HRdefl. In fact, running at 65% of VO2max is slower than marathon pace! One could go on and on about the nonsense in LLT, but I'll conclude with what I consider the most troubling sentence in the entire book (page 189): "It is hard to understand why altitude training and hypoxic tents are permitted and EPO is not." Is Janssen advocating the use of performance enhancing drugs, or has his poor writing and sloppy style left him misunderstood? I'll give him the benefit of the doubt. But there's no doubt the difference between live-high/train-high and live-high/train-low has somehow eluded doctor Janssen.
Rating: 
Summary: Great Book To Improve Aerobic Conditioning
Review: Next to the book, Rowing Faster, by Dr.Volker Nolte; Lactate Threshold Training,by Dr.Peter Janssen, is also a must have for any coach.
Xeno Muller
Olympic Medalist,men's single scull rowing
Rating: 
Summary: quite good
Review: simple language that reads quite fast (5 hours total). It shows the principle but does not detail how to set up a full and comprehensive training program over a few months of training. Although it could be argued that all the information is present to do so by yourself. The book contains a lot of information on nutrition which I feel is pertinent to understanding why and how this may affect lactate measurments. Interesting tidbits of info on the state of doping procedures in cycling (how pertinent is this???). Lastly, if this is one of the first books you buy on overal training and nutrition, then it is quite good. If you already have a good library and adequate coaching, this may not be for you if you expected the whole book's content on LTtraining. Strange to see graphs with missing titles and units.
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