Iñigo San Millán training model

I doubt it. He’s changed jobs and now works in Spain for a Basque football team as well as for UAE

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I don’t think lactate is preferred but used up first in an effort to clear the body of a harmful intermediate (actually it’s H+ but by burning of lactate H+ also decreases)

(In the same way I don’t think glucose is preferred but rather used first because storage capacity is limited and unstored glucose is harmful)

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True of the heart as well…but, what’s your point??

ETA: As I pointed out before, studies using lactate tracers - IOW, much of Brooks’ work in this area - aren’t really trustworthy, at least in a quantitative sense. Kent Sahlin was the first to point this out, but Brooks never replied:

https://journals.physiology.org/doi/abs/10.1152/ajpendo.1987.252.3.E439

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not reading allat. TLDR?

Brooks, and by extension ISM, don’t know what they’re talking about

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Probably read more forum comments

Not reading all of that, tldr?

is this agreed upon?

You see anybody else using lactate tracers? No. And now you know why.

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The first video on Iñigo’s YT channel just came out(600 views, 1h old): Describing Training Zones

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I asked a chatbot about fatmax, it used a tool review site as proof of the efficacy of fatmax training. :joy:
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I’m not clear on why he would put up this video. He’s getting too much email? okay boomer. :wink: (I know, I know he’s Gen X)

Surely, SURELY he has enough money, and his esteem seems to be riding pretty high on what seems fairly flimsy information.

What’s that old saying… Even a fool is thought wise if he keeps silent, and discerning if he holds his tongue. Or maybe the inverse. This (and the_cog) genuinely lowered my opinion of him.

There isn’t anything that can’t be made to look cheap on youtube.
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That would be funny, if it weren’t so sad.

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I haven’t watched the video yet but being health and fitness influencer selling “zone 2” and supplements to people can be profitable.

I enjoyed this. Good to hear from the horses mouth.

I wonder if @The_Cog is capable of reviewing this framework for training zones without ad hominem attacks, bringing other info not mentioned in the video or nitpicking.

It would be very useful for the forum. Thx

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Good vid. Seems to me the main takeaway is that, despite the misperception, ISM does not advocate solely training Z2. As he noted, it’s important but so too are the higher intensity zones especially if you want to be competitive.

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I think it’s clear that he has advised non-athletes to do 3-4+ hours per week of “zone 2” for metabolic health. Personally, I have no problem with him giving this kind of prescription on something like the Peter Attia podcast. I know he is not talking to people on this forum that do structured training.

I gather that his biggest diversion from the norm is that he anchors his “zone 2” on fatmax (requires a metabolic cart for testing) and also vary athlete to athlete and diet to diet. Other systems use LT1 or VT1. His FTP/MLSS is the same as other zone systems.

Some might say that specifically testing for and training right at fatmax is BS that all sub-threshold endurance training trains aerobic endurance.

I don’t understand why ISM needs to be so cryptic by calling fatmax (tempo / sweet spot) his zone 2 when it’s been traditionally zone 3. It just makes it super confusing for the lay people who are trying to decipher his lingo. I’ve heard his “zone 2” described in three ways:

talk test
2 mmol of lactate
fatmax

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I don’t find it cryptic at all. In fact it’s very welcome that he proposes and objective way find out the training zone, instead of the BS that are % of FTP.

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Many would say that training right at fatmax is also BS and just as arbitrary.

I say it’s cryptic because rather than renaming traditional zones, he could have just said ‘do fatmax intervals’. He could have also said to use the talk test or ride at tempo (zone 3) based on the traditional zone chart. There was no need to rename zone 2 and confuse everybody.

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Maybe there’s something I’m missing. But Fatmax is an objective measure no?

I guess the main problem I have with it is summed up like this.

  1. He’s replaced vague statements with what amounts to a zone that is very difficult to figure out and highly variable among different people.
  2. He is adding in ‘you have to do vo2max work too!’ based on what is likely pushback, where before he said just do some hard efforts at the end of your ride.
  3. He is using authority as proof. Studies (which we don’t have, or he isn’t sharing), the top ten best athletes in the world, etc. Cancer patients… But none of this is scientific proof. Like…look I ‘believe’ him, he’s a cancer researcher, he has all these great athletes he’s “training”, he has written papers. But saying, believe me I’ve done these things, or I work with these people, is not science. It’s influence.

I’m also the poster boy of z2 workouts (for me I ride a lot at 70% of FTP). My personal experience is that volume at that intensity have real benefits. I can’t claim scientifically that the same tss at different intensities wouldn’t simply give me the same or better adaptation. It’s possible that bad hydration, bad nutrition and/or a bad attitude are the real reasons I haven’t had better luck at higher intensities. I can’t prove any of it, but then I’m not a doctor, of any variety. But I’m also very wary of letting my personal experience match up with what ‘feels’ like opinion pieces backed up by influence.

The reason I don’t think this video adds anything. In the context of him putting out a video, of his own, as a scientist. I expect some scientist :poop: . Some real sciency stuff. I can do bing ai search and throw up a chart of fatmax and blah blah. Why does fatmax matter? What proof does he have that fatmax training is effective? Other than he has 3 of the 10 best cyclists in the uci world tour. It “feels” to me like he has a lot of hyptheses and no actual data to back them up. As new things arise he adds these things to his ideas like a magpie adding pieces of string to its nest. This is all terribly subjective. Being a coach or a doctor doesn’t make you right. A broken clock is right twice a day (clocks used to have hands you know. :wink: Being a ‘coach’ for a team that has tons of money to hire arguably one of the most gifted cyclists of a generation doesn’t make you a good coach.

But I consider myself to be a student of youtube and the podcast formula. (no small wonder). Like…let’s be honest if Chad had put out that video it would have had (again my feelings) more impact. Because he wouldn’t be claiming to be a world leading authority. He could use the findings of others and apply those things to his own experience and to all of our fitness journeys. As a story it’s more compelling to hear it from Chad. As science. it’s just not compelling (to me). I didn’t need this video to believe him, and he could just as easily have had a quick interview with…whomever. Benji could’ve interviewed him and said, hey I’m on my own journey, how do I find my z2, and do I need to do vo2max. Then he could respond, correct whatever lack of info is out there and still remain the mysterious cancer researcher world tour fitness expert we all want to believe in. :smiley:

(It’s a wall of text, but I felt a little called out tbh). :joy:

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