Abstract
The purpose of this study was to test the hypothesis that athletes having a slower oxygen uptake (V̇O2) kinetics would benefit more, in terms of time spent near V̇O2max, from an increase in the intensity of an intermittent running training (IT). After determination of V̇O2max, vV̇O2max (i.e. the minimal velocity associated with V̇O2max in an incremental test) and the time to exhaustion sustained at vV̇O2max (T lim), seven well-trained triathletes performed in random order two IT sessions. The two IT comprised 30-s work intervals at either 100% (IT100%) or 105% (IT105%) of vV̇O2max with 30-s recovery intervals at 50% of vV̇O2max between each repeat. The parameters of the V̇O2 kinetics (td1, τ1, A1, td2, τ2, A2, i.e. time delay, time constant and amplitude of the primary phase and slow component, respectively) during the T lim test were modelled with two exponential functions. The highest V̇O2 reached was significantly lower (P<0.01) in IT100% run at 19.8 (0.9) km.h−1 [66.2 (4.6) ml.min−1.kg−1] than in IT105% run at 20.8 (1.0) km.h−1 [71.1 (4.9) ml.min−1.kg−1] or in the incremental test [71.2 (4.2) ml.min−1.kg−1]. The time sustained above 90% of V̇O2max in IT105% [338 (149) s] was significantly higher (P<0.05) than in IT100% [168 (131) s]. The average T lim was 244 (39) s, τ1 was 15.8 (5.9) s and td2 was 96 (13) s. τ1 was correlated with the difference in time spent above 90% of V̇O2max (r=0.91; P<0.01) between IT105% and IT100%. In conclusion, athletes with a slower V̇O2 kinetics in a vV̇O2max constant-velocity test benefited more from the 5% rise of IT work intensity, exercising for longer above 90% of V̇O2max when the IT intensity was increased from 100 to 105% of vV̇O2max.
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Acknowledgements
The authors gratefully acknowledge the athletes for their participation. We wish to thank V. Vleck, Staffordshire University, for reviewing the manuscript. The experiments comply with the current French laws.
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Millet, G.P., Libicz, S., Borrani, F. et al. Effects of increased intensity of intermittent training in runners with differing V̇O2 kinetics. Eur J Appl Physiol 90, 50–57 (2003). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-003-0844-0
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00421-003-0844-0