Thursday, August 30, 2012

Lactate Threshold Test Results

It's now been two days and one epic Mumford & Sons concert since my lactate threshold test.

Red Rocks is an amazing place to see a concert, even when you're in row 58.

And I love Mumford & Sons even when they interfere with my sleep. (Photo credits: heyreverb.com)
Darren sent my heart-rate ranges for training yesterday. Here they are:

My test indicated a maximum heart rate of 185. That's four beats faster than the "220 minus your age" formula would have assigned me. The training ranges therefore are:

Easy runs--145 or lower
Long runs--150 or lower
Tempo runs--164-168
Speed workouts--172-176 (the same as that blurry second mile of the LT test--woo hoo)

This may be hard to adjust to, especially on the slower runs. It's going to be hard not to let that heart rate creep over 150. I've historically been bad at holding a pace--I either go too fast or too slow, like a drunk person swerving over the center line of the road--so we'll see if that lack of ability extends to heart rates too. But I've heard good things about this type of training, and I'm excited to try something new. It seems lower pressure than trying to conform to a pace chart--after all, this is very specific to my own body--surely you can't be much more appropriate in training than that, right?

I'll let you know how my first two runs with this go tomorrow and Saturday.