Lactate Testing

Lactate Testing

Reporting in with results from my lactate testing this past Tuesday.  Happy to report HUGE improvements in my aerobic capacity from my last test 3 months ago -- giant strides and a big confidence boost in my training program and I stare down at the last 3 months left before Ultraman.

What is lactate testing?  Its basically a structured experiment whereby my aerobic capacity (or VO2 max) is established by monitoring my blood and heart rate levels across increasingly difficult resistance.  In essence, my bike is hooked up to a stationary trainer that measures my power output in watts.  Every 4 minutes a blood and heart rate sample is taken and the wattage is increased.  I repeat 4 minute intervals, each at 30 additional watts above the previous interval until failure.  My blood is tested for accumulated lactic acid, a measure of anaerobic fatigue.  The resuls help establish my "Training Zones".

I begin with a warmup, then 100 watts.  Increasing by 30 watts every 4 minutes until failure.

I May, I began accumulating lactate in the second stage at 130 watts, where my heart rate was at 120 bpm.  Now, I am totally stable at 160 watts with a heart rate of only 115 at that level, which is a huge leap.  I don't begin to accumulate lactate until I am riding at 190 watts at a heart rate of 131.  

What does this mean?  It means that before I could only put out 120 watts and remain in my "Zone 2" aerobic zone (lactate levels below 3mmo/L), which is the zone I will be in for most of Ultraman.  Now, I can easily ride at about 175 watts in the same zone at a lactate level around only 2.5 mmo/L) -- outputting significantly more power (and thus forward motion) at the same level of exertion.

Before, I maxed out at 220 watts with a lactate level of 16.2 mmo/L.  This time, I went up to 250 watts at only 8.25 mmo/L and failed only when I got up to 280 watts.

A long way of saying that what was hard before is now easy.  I'm faster with less energy.  I can ride at 220 watts at a heart rate of only 148, whereas before my heart rate would have been 160 at that wattage.  I'm absorbing the training quite well.

This gives me renewed optimism in my plan -- can't wait to get tested again in 3 months to see more improvement.