In some types of training, total recovery and preferably supercompensation is a must and a trickle charge cannot be avoided. Sprinting is a classic example. A high level 100-meter specialist rests for 15 minutes or longer between 50-meter repeats. It is time inefficient— waiting for the last five percent of the CP to drip in takes forever—but such is the name of the game in which fractions of a second decide the difference between the winner and the also-ran.

In some types of training, including AXE, extreme recovery is not needed or even desirable. As long as you fulfill the requirements of the repeat method—no performance drop-off, no noticeable increase in effort or acidosis—you are good to go.

Unlike speed or neural strength training, AXE does not try to minimize the lactic acid concentration—only to moderate it. Blood flow in working limb muscles reaches its maximum at the lactic threshold and then drops. A little acid helps the AXE cause. It dilates blood vessels and increases the oxygen release to tissues by about 10%.

If you are using a talk test in your AXE training, before the next set you ought to be able to speak in short sentences—but not to recite the Gettysburg Address. If you have rested too long, you are still training your alactic system, but not the aerobic one.