Your
Lactate threshold (LT) can be referred to as an oxygen utilization issue
reflecting metabolic fitness.
This value represents how well you have trained your muscles to
do endurance type work. For
endurance athletes LT is a marker of your sustainable power output.
Most everyone, except the most highly trained athletes are
limited by metabolic fitness rather than cardiovascular
fitness.
Highly trained endurance athletes become “centrally
limited” meaning they can work at extreme heart rates w/out severe
muscle fatigue.
An untrained individual might reach LT at about 50-60% of
their Maximum Heart Rate, whereas a well-trained runner
or cyclist might not reach LT until about 80-95% of their MaxHR.
In the
Cardio-Metabolic Exercise
Profile we determine your metabolic fitness by determining the volume
of oxygen you consume at Lactate Threshold and then express this as
a percentage of VO2Max (e.g. Fractional Utilization). A
normal fit individual will reach LT at about 80% of their VO2Max.
Some elite endurance athletes will reach LT at over 90% of their VO2Max.
Metabolic
Fitness:
Where as VO2 Max is an oxygen delivery marker,
Lactate Threshold (LT) is an oxygen utilization issue, and while VO2 Max plateaus quite rapidly
lactate
threshold can take years before reaching an ultimate plateau.
Metabolic fitness takes longer and more precise
training to reach the ultimate potential of the individual.
This value represents how well you have trained your muscles
to do endurance type work.
Anyone who is looking to improve their fitness profile should work to
increase their metabolic fitness.
By increasing AT you are basically increasing the level of
work that you can sustain for long periods of time.
Those individuals who train to increase their work tolerance
are in essence increasing their ability to burn more calories at the
same relative effort in addition to increasing their sustainable
power and overall endurance.
Zone 4 (long interval or tempo type)
training, when done
systematically, will greatly impact your metabolic fitness.
See the zone training recommendations page by clicking here
(coming soon).
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Revised:
November 03, 2006
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