[Anonymous]

Hi guys,
I did a metabolic test but the results are a bit awkwards, I mean, look at my training zones, especially Z2, it’s between %85 and %90 HRmax, that´s too high, it’s supposed to be around %70-80HRmax. At that intensity I cannot do long steady sessions, in my opinion that would be my Z3.
I did the test to know exactly where my LT1 was but right now, I’m more confunsed.
Do you think that maybe there is an error in the lactate measurement?
How would you define de lactate thresholds?
Thanks in advance.

Topic

[Reed]

Reed on January 8, 2021 at 11:46 am #49012

Assuming you had a lengthly, gentle warmup prior to this test (20-30 minutes), it looks like your blood lactate crossed 2mmol/L somewhere around 170bpm, just a bit faster than 10km/h. Seems like a decent approximation of your aerobic threshold / VT1. If you’re following the Uphill Athlete zone system, that’d be the top end of Zone 2.

Anaerobic threshold, where lactate hits 4mmol/L, looks like it’s somewhere around 185bpm. A field test (how fast can you sustain for 30-60 minutes?) would also be useful to perform. I’m confused by the length of time of those test stages – looks like they varied from ~5 minutes to 10+ minutes?

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on January 8, 2021 at 2:18 pm #49024

I did a 10 min warm-up, maybe it wasn’t enough?
Don’t you think that 170bpm are to high to be my LT1? That’s %87HRmax…I can’t sustain that intensity for long, steady sessions. I’ll give it a try.
As I don’t suffer from ADS I should do the majority of my training in Z1, and less near my LT1, do I?
You are right about the test stages, we were looking to stay 10 min between LT1 and LT2, in zone 3, to check how lactate concentrates at those intensities.
I’ll do a fast test to check if those numbers correlates with real life.
Thank you.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on January 18, 2021 at 7:00 am #49402

What Reed said.

In particular:

You definitely need a longer warm-up. Ten minutes is not enough; 15 is a minimum; I prefer 20’+.

…look at my training zones, especially Z2, it’s between %85 and %90 HRmax, that´s too high, it’s supposed to be around %70-80HRmax.

Why is it “supposed” to be between 70-80% HRmax?

At that intensity I cannot do long steady sessions…

This is much more relevant than assuming a generic percentage of HRmax.

How would you define de lactate thresholds?

Judging by the third sample, your AeT may be below ~2 mM. After the third sample, lactate starts to rise steadily. If you’re very slow-twitch, a sub-2mM AeT could be the case. Even so, your HR for that sample was in the high-160s. You could use 165 to be conservative.

As Reed said, these are long stages. I would use 3-minute stages. If you want to keep the speed constant across multiple samples, that will be more informative than one long interval without any samples during it.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on January 27, 2021 at 6:43 am #49816

Thnak you Scott.
I’m using 170bpm as my AeT, I did run 2 hours at that intensity and it was tough but I could handle it. I think I should do most of my base training at Zone 1, because at zone 2 it´s quite demanding.
For my next metabolic test I will ask for shorter stages.
Thanks again.

[Anonymous]

Anonymous on January 28, 2021 at 7:52 am #49954

…tough but I could handle it.

…is hard to interpret. If your thresholds are close, then it may be AeT. If not, then it’s probably Z3.

More relevant though is your test results. As stated above, I would use 165. Always round down with thresholds.