volume vs. intensity
Posted November 28th, 2007 by carothers
Right before Thanksgiving I had the opportunity to have my LT tested. There are two local Docs (one is an ex WebCor rider) that have formed a company in which you can have your LT, Vo2 Max, Body fat, etc. tested. I have never focused a huge amount of energy towards understanding why or how my body works, quite frankly I have mostly trained on feel and past results. But as the old story goes...my time spent training has gone from 20 - 25 hours a week to 8 - 12 hours a week. With this said I really felt like I needed to get an idea of how to gain the most of my time on the bike.
The test was actually fairly difficult (100w + 40w / 4 minutes). Basically they give you as much time as you need to warm-up, then the test begins. Starting at 100 watts you maintain an 85 or greater RPM for 4 minutes. During this 4 minute interval, they prick your ear lobe and draw blood to measure the amount on lactate, have you rate the amount of effort you think you are giving, and record your HR. Then they increase the wattage by 40. Take all the above mentioned tests again, and raise you again by 40. You continue to raise the wattage by 40 unitl you have complete failure or you can no longer maintain a RPM above 70. My test went as follows:
Male 175 lbs. age 38 height 71 Sport Cyclist
4 minutes @ 100w = felt easy / HR @ 116 / lactate = 1.2mMol
4 minutes @ 140w = felt easy / HR @ 128 / lactate = 1.2mMol
4 minutes @ 180w = felt good / HR @ 146 / lactate = 2.6mMol
4 minutes @ 220w = starting to give some effort / HR @ 153 / lactate = 2.4mMol
4 minutes @ 260w = feeling good / hr @ 159 / lactate = 3.9mMol
4 minutes @ 300w = WOW big jump in effort / HR @ 168 / lactate = 4.3mMol
4 minutes @ 340w = Not much left in the tank / HR @ 174 / lactate = 5.7mMol
- 2 minutes @ 380w = DONE! / HR @ 188 / lactate = 10 mMol
Test results: LT(e) = HR @ 178 / power at peak 330w /
So, I said to the Docs "How can this help me, how can I apply this test to my basic understanding of how my body works and make my training more efficient?". Basically this is what they said, I have a basic problem many, many master athletes have. That is.... we (master athletes) tend to think that lack of time should be "made up" by more intensity. While this formula might work in the short term, most master athletes will experience longer periods of being "flat" with this approach. So if I am spending the majority of my time training at / above or near "tempo" (for me this would be HR above 159) that I would "empty the fridge to fast" and never have time to replace "the groceries". They suggested that I needed to put effort / time into riding endurance (for me HR @ 130 to 148) in order to keep sufficient "stock in the fridge". While they said this may sound easy, it actually can be difficult because of the limited time I had and the nature of group rides / riding with the fellas around the area. I was thinking "cool they are telling me I should take it easier, I can sit in with the best of them", when they added you also need to increase your effort on interval days (for me 340w @ 170 +). OOOCH! The docs told me that most master athletes go too hard on their recovery easy days, and not hard enough on the interval / hard days. So basically they said you now have a really solid baseline (the LT test) in which you can measure your efforts while training, and oh yeah the best thing is that your LT is the most "plastic" measure you have. Meaning that we as master athletes can change our LT dramatically if we train with a level of intelligence and not just ego and muscle.
I have been training with the "test results" for two weeks now and have some races coming up, I will let you know how it's going.
Carothers
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Ted, Thanks for the
Ted,
Thanks for the info! I will let you know how it's going.
Carothers
LT
There are several different ways to interpret and then use the results of a lactate test in your training. But it is all based on when your body/muscle group starts to produce more lactic acid than you can process. Which tells us the exercise is anaerobic. When looking at your results and plotting them out, I would define the point where your system is significantly producing lactate sooner (In your example around a HR of 160-165) and base your training plan on that. I typically like to think of that point as your high aerobic threshhold. And this is the point that one should have a "tempo" workout at. Maybe dipping slightly into that Oxygen debt. Evidence has shown that with a good aerobic base, you can push up this aerobic threshold while including some training at it. These are the 30-60 minute efforts. The higher you can push up this effort based coorelation, the faster you will go or the more wattage you will attain at your given Aerobic ceiling. The risk of spending too much time sig. above this lactate flooded state is two fold. It can, early on in a phase, diminish your ability to devolop your aerobic engine to its greatest potential. If you are at a good base and looking to improve LT or your VO2Max and thus power based performance, you are risking injury. That is why I feel many workouts should be below this in a build phase. And the efforts sig. above this should be focused and limited. No more than two per week. I include these in the last 4-6 weeks prior to a focus event. And I like to call it lactate tolerance. Get your mucsles used to what they are going to see during race day! SO: First build your aerobic engine (HRs below 155 and long efforts). Second improve your VO2Max/LT (30-60 min efforts at HR of 160-165). Third develop lactate tolerance (1-10 minute efforts with rest/repeats at HRs above 170 to max).
Importantly after you have used this information and your workouts to improve your fitness, repeat the LT test and see if there has been a shift. The hope of course is you will see less lactate at a given HR/wattage and your new aerobic ceiling will give you new data to train off of.
Good Luck!
Train hard and train smart
Ted, Do you think it is
Ted,
Do you think it is better to use your LT based around 20 minute power or 60 minute power. For example if I take my LT HR 178 / 330 watts - 10% my 60 minute power should be around HR 170 - 171 and my wattage around 300. 20 minute power would be 175 HR / 317 watts roughly. I'm thinking that the 60 minute LT would be more practical, or I'm I looking at this the wrong way?
Carothers
That's an interesting
That's an interesting story! It will be interesting to know how the different approach to your training will help to make you a faster competitor.
I do have plenty of slow days, but I do find that I over train and also train too fast at times too. I think that we can all agree that it's hard to throw the ego away and focus on a specific goal.
Keep us posted on your results/improvements.
Great Info!
As a USAT Coach, avid athlete and physician, I think the lactate test is the best and most practical way to define your workout goals.
Train hard and train smart