TNSTAAFL Citations

The original TNSTAAFL essay was written for the web and I used several quotes to support my position and cited the sources. I eliminated these from POISON but here they are. If you are curious about the authors and sources the internet is your friend. Some books may be out of print but www.abebooks.com is a wonderful clearing house to locate used copies of them, should you be so inclined. 

"In an endurance workout lactate content must not rise too high ... if it does then lactate tolerance is trained instead of endurance capacity ... Intensive workouts going together with high lactate values may be damaging to endurance capacity ... Endurance capacity may deteriorate by this kind of training."
Peter G.J.M. Janssen

"The acidosis, caused by high lactate values in the muscles, damages the aerobic enzymes system ... the acidosis is the cause of the deterioration of aerobic endurance capacity."
Peter G.J.M. Janssen

"Overloading this training intensity ... prevents the body from developing the aerobic base. Rowers can even fall so far behind that they have to start developing the aerobic base from the beginning. It can take weeks or even months to correct such overloading."
Wolfgang Fritsch

"In the end, excessive anaerobic training pulls down your VO2 max, and you can't even run the slow stuff very well."
Ron Daws

"Anaerobic training raises your respiratory quotient. This means your percentage of energy derived from sugar increases and fat burning decreases. In time, this may force more anaerobic metabolism and less aerobic function."
Philip Maffetone

"During short maximal exercise fat mobilization and utilization is inhibited by lactate production and acidity; even low lactate concentration (3-4 mmol/L) has diminished FFA concentration in the blood."
Heikki Rusko

"Because oxygen transport (at low intensity) is not a limiting factor, the muscles in question can be more easily overloaded by the duration of the training session to increase their oxidative capacity and fat utilization."
Heikki Rusko

"During the 1950s and 1960s, the top runners' training heavily emphasized intervals. But the interval-trained champions were soundly trounced when Arthur Lydiard's runners came on the scene. Peter Snell, Ron Clarke, and Murray Halberg did just 6-8 weeks of speedwork, after laying in a 12-week base of pure aerobic endurance running. Runners who've done tremendous volumes of speed work - like Emil Zatopek and Bill "Mad Dog" Scobey - couldn't match the times of the endurance-trained Lydiard athletes."
George Beinhorn

"Zatopek is a good example of the failure of sole reliance on repetition training. As a national coach, he can tap the whole potential of Czechoslovakia. But where were his men at the Rome Olympics? They didn't win a thing. Yet most coaches still will not believe my system is the right one. One result is that a good many fine prospects have been ruined by excessive speed work and by trying for quick results."
Arthur Lydiard

"Perhaps the most important part of your body, the one most responsive to training and most important for competition, is the nervous system ... One unique ability of the nervous system is its capacity to learn ... Each workout is a small part of a memory stored in the brain ... If we train indiscriminately, that is recorded. If we over train, that too is recorded. But if we train effectively, we maintain that memory too. The nervous system remembers everything it experiences, so be careful what you put into it. Sometimes a long process of "re-training" is necessary, especially in those who have abused their body through improper training."
Philip Maffetone

"Performance in team pursuit racing (a 4km, four minute-long event, ed.) is highly dependent on aerobic capacity, anaerobic skills, and aerodynamic factors. The training concept of the 2000 record-breaking team pursuit team was based on unspecific training of these qualities and periodical, short-term recall of previously acquired track specific skills. Aerobic performance was trained through high overall training mileage (29,000 –35,000 km per year) with workload peaks during road stage races. Before major track events, anaerobic performance, and track-specific technical and motor skills were improved through discipline-specific track training."
Yorck Olaf Schumacher and Peter Mueller

To understand how these concepts of training volume are applied by the top athletes in the world I cite some examples from Stephen Seiler's 2009 research review:

Runner: 550 hrs (female WR holder as example)
XC Ski: 700 hrs (same female as above)
XC Ski: 800 hrs (female, WC)
XC Ski: 850-875 (male, Petter Northug, 2009/10 and 2010/11 seasons)
Runner: 750 hrs (male marathoner average, elite)
Cyclist: 1000 hrs (Pro?)
Rowing: 1000-1100 (male WR holder 2004)
Swim: 1300 hrs (Phelps, estimated)
Stephen Seiler and Espen Tønnessen

Distribution of intensity is clearly important and Seiler concludes that, as a general rule top endurance athletes spend 80% of their volume at around 65% of VO2 Max while doing the remaining 20% of the work at approximately 90% of VO2 Max. A small percentage of higher intensity work may be done by some athletes with specific need. (ref. Inigo Mujika, "Endurance Training - Science And Practice", Inigo Mujika S.L.U., 2012)