What Does Anaerobic Mean And How Can I Tell If I Am Running Or Exercising Anaerobically?
Once the intensity of a run increases, running becomes far more diffcult and a cerrtain degree of concentration is needed to maitain the increased pace. Once this happens, you know you are running anaerobically.
Training in an anaerobic state, the ability to talk without regular breathes becomes very difficult. Acidity levels in your muscles to rise, causing your heart rate to increase to help clear the lactic acid. Training anaerobically is hard and uncomfortable to maintain for long periods of time.
Technically speaking, exercising within your anaerobic threshold is the highest intensity that you can maintain, without your lactic acid levels rising too high. If your pace or the intensity of your run or chosen exercise continues to rise, lactic acid levels become too overwhelming for your muscles and fatigue forces you to stop.
Highly trained runners are able to tolerate running within their anaerobic threshold for long periods of time but less fit runners may find that just five minutes is tough work.
With sufficient and specific training, it is possible to build up a tolerance to perform exercise at this intensity for longer, not only improving your anaerobic fitness, but also your aerobic fitness. This is one of the reasons why both intensities of exercise need to be undertaken for an endurance event.
It’s also worth mentioning that all forms of resistance (weight) training is anaerobic, which is why you can’t do it for very long – the lactic acid builds up quickly and the muscle burn caused by the increased acidity stops the muscles from contracting.
Anaerobic exercise relies on an adequate supply of carbohydrate in the body, as it is carbohydrate stores which are able to be broken down quickly to meet the energy requirements. If you are restricting your intake of carbohydrate, you will not only find any form of anaerobic exercise difficult but if you are running, there is a strong likelihood that you’ll feel faint and eventually pass out – as I have experienced firsthand. It’s not great for your street cred – so don’t go skimping on those carbs.