bruised fingers...
Last night I was the lucky receipient of a blood lactate test. What is that you ask? Well........ It is a test that determines what level of exercise intensity (by HR) corresponds to your body's ability to get rid of lactic acid. Lactic acid is that substance that makes you 'feel the burn'. Your body always creates lactic acid, even at rest, but at lowe intensity activity it is produced and flushed from your body in lovely equilibrium. But as your intensity increases, and more LA is produced eventually your body can no longer flush it out at the same rate. If you keep pushing the intensity eventually fatigue will set in and you will no longer be able to continue.
So if you can determine where (intensity wise) in the point at which your body moves from coping to not coping you can peg the intensity at which you should persue aerobic exercise in order to reap the benefits of a strong cardio-vascular system. This is obviously the number one goal when training for an endurance event. In order to find this tipping point you have to examine the lactate in your blood at various levels of intensity.
The test has two parts
1) The ramp test. We set the wattage on the computrainer to 75 watts and started pedaling at 90 RPM. At set intervals the person running the test ups the watts by 5. You keep at this until you can no longer sustain the set RPM. Your heart rate is recorded at each interval. Basically what you are doing is gradually flooding the body with lactate. As soon as you hit your peak (the point at which you can continue), the watts are dropped way down and a blood sample is taken via a finger prick. Obviously at this point your lactate is high.
2) The steady HR portion. For the next part you ride based on Heart Rate. So if your peak HR was 180, you pedal easy until you drop 40 beats to 140. Three minutes pass while you enjoy the fact that things have gotten a lot easier. Then another blood sample is taken. You can compare this one to the first to see how much lactate your body has managed to flush now that the stress has been removed. For the next three minutes you ride at a heart rate of 145. Another sample is taken. Then you ride at 150 and another sample is taken. As your heart rate (intensity) increases, the lactate will begin to increase again.
If you charted the lactate amounts from both tests you would see a kind of U shape where the lactate was high, then drops and then goes back up again. When you plot the results you will be able to find the point (or heart rate) at which that lactate accumulation began. If you exercise below that point, lactate won't accumulate and cause fatigue. So if you are training for an endurance event and want to say, ride for 4+ hours, you can aim to maintain your HR below this point to fend off fatigue.
It really was all kind of fascinating. I am sure that I have made descriptive errors in the science, but that is the best way I can describe it. If you feel the need to get techno-geeky you can read all about the procedure here.
Knitting? What's that. Sadly my knitting has fallen to the wayside a bit, but I did manage one row on the sleeve this morning. Hoping for some more tonight, and DEFINITELY more this weekend. In fact, you heard it here first, but I am going to finish that sleeve this weekend if it kills me!
So if you can determine where (intensity wise) in the point at which your body moves from coping to not coping you can peg the intensity at which you should persue aerobic exercise in order to reap the benefits of a strong cardio-vascular system. This is obviously the number one goal when training for an endurance event. In order to find this tipping point you have to examine the lactate in your blood at various levels of intensity.
The test has two parts
1) The ramp test. We set the wattage on the computrainer to 75 watts and started pedaling at 90 RPM. At set intervals the person running the test ups the watts by 5. You keep at this until you can no longer sustain the set RPM. Your heart rate is recorded at each interval. Basically what you are doing is gradually flooding the body with lactate. As soon as you hit your peak (the point at which you can continue), the watts are dropped way down and a blood sample is taken via a finger prick. Obviously at this point your lactate is high.
2) The steady HR portion. For the next part you ride based on Heart Rate. So if your peak HR was 180, you pedal easy until you drop 40 beats to 140. Three minutes pass while you enjoy the fact that things have gotten a lot easier. Then another blood sample is taken. You can compare this one to the first to see how much lactate your body has managed to flush now that the stress has been removed. For the next three minutes you ride at a heart rate of 145. Another sample is taken. Then you ride at 150 and another sample is taken. As your heart rate (intensity) increases, the lactate will begin to increase again.
If you charted the lactate amounts from both tests you would see a kind of U shape where the lactate was high, then drops and then goes back up again. When you plot the results you will be able to find the point (or heart rate) at which that lactate accumulation began. If you exercise below that point, lactate won't accumulate and cause fatigue. So if you are training for an endurance event and want to say, ride for 4+ hours, you can aim to maintain your HR below this point to fend off fatigue.
It really was all kind of fascinating. I am sure that I have made descriptive errors in the science, but that is the best way I can describe it. If you feel the need to get techno-geeky you can read all about the procedure here.
Knitting? What's that. Sadly my knitting has fallen to the wayside a bit, but I did manage one row on the sleeve this morning. Hoping for some more tonight, and DEFINITELY more this weekend. In fact, you heard it here first, but I am going to finish that sleeve this weekend if it kills me!
posted by sweetpea at 1:47 PM
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