The Norwegian Olympic Committee's Top Performance Group put out a book
about endurance training several years ago. I have a couple of PDFs
that Torbjorn Karlsen circulated summarizing it, one of which has a
table showing workout levels 1-8 (yes 8, 6-8 being purely anaerobic
and of short total duration, and primarily used in other sports).
Here's a sample - and remember these are for elite or developing elite
younger athletes in athletic training schools (and individuals will
vary a bit):

Level % of VO2max % of max HR Lactate (mmol/l) Total Duration
5 94-100 92-97 6.0-10.0 15-30 min
4 85-94 87-92 4.0-6.0 30-50 min
3 80-87 82-97 2.5-4.0 50-90 min
2 65-80 72-82 1.5-2.5 1-3 hrs
1 45-65 55-72 0.8-1.5 1-6 hrs

Note that about 4.0 mmol/l is usually used as the lactate (or
approx. anaerobic) threshhold.

Gene


On Thu, 22 Apr 2010 23:07:57 -0700 (PDT)
Anders wrote:

On Apr 22, 6:10*pm, wrote:

I agree with MT Nordic and have some questions, if you don't mind:
what are your goals in doing level 94-96% of max intervals in
general and at this time of the year? How old are you? *What is
your lactate or anaerobic threshold?

Me three.

IMHO those who "must" do max intervals also "need" a coach. For
everyone else, it is probably better to stick to a suitably adjusted
dose of the Norwegian medicine, i.e. those 4 x 4 min (3 min active
recovery) where HR *at the end of the first rep and towards the end of
the next reps* is somewhere between 90% and 95% HRmax and where the
general idea is to do the last meters of the last rep as fast as the
first one.

I believe there is some value in "going for the max" occasionally, but
for most folks that would be maybe once a month in for instance in a
single uphill rep that is just long enough to reach the max - or in a
sprint against your favourite "enemy" in a local AG race:-)


Anders