Confused by Lactate Threshold test results

LT? · 2010-12-17T23:24:09-05:00

I'm helping coach a runner and recently had her get lactate threshold tested. The results were a little surprising considering she had run a 1:19 HM 8 weeks prior. "Your aerobic threshold occurred at 11.6 kph, at 154 beats/minute.Your Lactate Threshold occurred at 14.3 kph and at a heart rate of174 beats/min." 14.3 works out to be about 6:45 pace...or 45 seconds slower than her HM time....and isn't LT pace generally considered to be slightly faster than HM pace? In the weeks since the Hm she had 5 weeks of hard training with lots of 6:00 LT work..then a couple low mileage weeks and now is just getting back into doing base work and building mileage. Last WO of any kind was about 3 weeks ago. I can't imagine the LT could drop so dramatically in 3 weeks, so how accurate could this test have been? I mean wouldn't it be impossible for someone with a LT around 6:45 pace to run 6:00 miles for a HM? On the other hand, if the test results are accurate,what factors could contribute to the lower test results? Wondering of the %2 percent grade is part of the explanation....in my experience, %2 seems to be an overcompensation. Here's the test numbers: (%2 grade) KPh-Mmol-HR 9 1.63 128 10 1.65 139 11 1.77 147 12 2.12 159 13 2.66 166 14 3.57 172 15 5.14 179 16 7.28 181 (Actual HM pace) 17 9.96 184

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15 years ago 12/22/2010 9:48am EST

re: EZ10Miler

EZ10Miler wrote:
BINGO we have a winner!
Jeezus, don't over think this very simple sport.
the guy can run a 1:19 half, that tells you what all the other training paces can/should be within a few clicks.

It's a "her." You fail.

I tend to agree that heart rate was the only useful thing you got out of this. You'll probably want more data next time you have it done. But, the good news is that you can still check for improvement in the athlete by doing the some non-ideal test, because you'll at least have the old data to compare/contrast.

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Confused by Lactate Threshold test results

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