Precious Daylight

I was really looking forward to spring when I could ditch the trainer and ride outdoors. Here in sunny California weather is not usually an issue so what keeps me on the trainer is the amount of daylight. Due to my schedule I usually can only fit in a ride early in the morning, and I refuse to ride in the dark. I just don't think it is safe to share the road with groggy morning commuters in the dark.

So I was very excited to be out and about this Spring, but this year's earlier daylight savings time has put a serious kink into my plans. Looks like there's going to be another month of trainer rides at least.

This morning I did something a little different. I made my usual trip to the gym near my work, but took my bike. Instead of running, swimming, or using a spin bike at the gym I just got in a ride, and because I put my commute before my ride instead of after it I could ride just as the sun was coming up. It was alot of hassle getting all my bike gear packed up, and I always worry about someone breaking into my car and stealing my bike, so I don't know how often I will do this, but I really enjoyed it this morning.

Today I also decided to take the opportunity to do an outdoor Lactate Threshold test on the Ballona Creek bike path. It was the longest time I have ever spent in the drops. I think I may have spent perhaps a maximum if five minutes in the drops before, but this time I spent the entire 30 minutes of the test in the drops!

I never know how much credence to put into the results, but here they are. My new LT is 194 watts (a big jump up from 174). That actually seems about right to me just based on 30 min power historical bests I have recorded in the last few months, but the LT heart rate seems way too high at 164bpm. That is up from 146 and ten beats higher than my last running LT test. I'm skeptical of that number, but if it holds up that is an amazing increase.

Threshold Run Testing

So a couple of months ago, when I got this crazy bug to do a marathon, I decided to do a running lactate threshold test. Last year I did one in the lab for the bike. In the lab it is a simple measure of blood samples taken when producing a progressively harder and harder power load. What did I learn? Mostly that I have a little strength but I am incredibly slow because of a poor power to weight ratio, but then again I already knew that. I am reminded of just how weak and slow I am on my weekly ride up Mt. Wilson. So what is the point?

The point is to train with the proper intensity so that I can make the maximum possible gains. I don't just want to finish the LA Marathon - I want to do it faster than I ever thought possible. A four hour marathon is probably unreasonable, but maybe four and a half hours is doable with the right training. Slow for some people but incredibly fast for me.

The goal of threshold testing is to find that level of effort (which is sport specific) at which your body no longer can supply its energy needs from the burning of fuel with oxygen (i.e. aerobically). Once you go above this level, the body can still supply additional energy but it will be without the use of oxygen (anaerobically) and will result in the acidic waste product lactate which is associated with fatigue. So theoretically the threshold is the maximum level of intensity that can be sustained over an extended period of time because only a small amount of lactate is produced.

Once equipped with your threshold you can tailor your training regimen to maximise the returns. There are three basic intensities at which to train, each of which have their own benefit. Sub-threshold training is at an easy pace, well below the threshold. This intensity level develops basic endurance and stimulates increased vascularization (i.e. more blood vessels and capillaries). Because the point of these workouts is endurance they are usually the longest you will do and also sometimes called Base miles or LSD for long slow distance.

The second level is Threshold training in which you train at or slightly above your threshold. This training is aimed at raising your threshold level, thus increasing the work that your body can perform on a sustained basis. The body responds to these workouts with increased efficiency in oxygen uptake, usually through an increase in the number of cellular mitochondria, as well as developing an increased ability to utilize or buffer lactate. So even when lactate is being produced at a high level it is also quickly being removed, avoiding the buildup of lactate and its associated fatigue. Tempo runs are a classic threshold workout, but there are others such as tempo intervals, cruise intervals, etc.

The last level is Supra Threshold training, also known as speed work or interval training. This training involves relatively short and intense efforts that greatly exceed the threshold level. because they exceed the threshold level they become anaerobic, but they still have benefits for aerobic performance. First by running faster you can learn the proper form and develop the proper neurological firing of the muscles. What is really being developed is efficiency. As these skills improve they will also improve the efficiency of slower running.

So there you have it. The three basic training levels. Here is a great resource by Greg McMillan listing the major types of runs that you can do which fit into each intensity level.

So finding your threshold level is good, but I didn't want to pay $200 to have it determined in the lab. If you have that kind of money to spend on these tests that is all well and good, but I would rather save the money for a time trial bike, thank you very much, and in any case you probably want to test yourself every month or so to measure your progress and keep your training plan up to date. So I did the threshold test advocated by Mike Ricci of D3 Multisport. Joe Friel also has a similar test in his book, The Triathlete's Training Bible (2nd Edition).

To do the test you need a heart rate monitor (but absent a heart rate monitor I suppose you could also just use your your pace if you had an easy way to measure it such as on a track and on the bike you can certainly use a power meter). I preprogramed my HRM with the various stages of the test, but you don't need to do this as the test is very simple. I started with a 15 minute warm up. After the warm up you do a 30 minute time trial. The idea is to go as fast as you can for thirty minutes such that at the end you feel that you could not have gone any faster, but not so fast that you have to slow down during the time trial. The pacing is a little tricky for a novice and the first time I did the test I had to slow down quite a bit right around half way through the time trial, which probably screwed up the test. The second time I did it, I was ok. So there is a little learning curve, but it's not too bad. During the time trial you want to press the lap button after ten minutes and then again at the end of the thirty minutes. This way the heart rate monitor will give you the average heart rate for the last 20 minutes of the time trial. This average is your threshold, and is exercise specific. That is, you need to test running and cycling separately. I recommend a cool down after the time trial, but for the purposes of the test this is optional.

I did the test yesterday and got the average of 161 beats per minute at a 9:58 pace. It was slower than I had hoped, but man was it an improvement over my last test. It was a whole 4 beats per minute greater after only 8 weeks of training, and my pace was about 32 seconds per mile faster. I can definitely live with that.

LA Times Article on Blood Lactate Testing

This morning I was looking at the health section of the LA Times and came across this article on the blood lactate testing being done at a local gym. The gym is called Phase IV and is a place I know pretty well as I just had some lactate testing done there a few weeks back, along with a gait analysis. Jennifer Ischayek is the technitian who ran me through my paces with my bike on a trainer. She took blood samples and then used an andvanced looking device to analyze it all. You can see pictures of the what it all looks like in the LA Times article.

Bob Forster is the founder of Phase IV and is also a sponsor if my triathlon club. He is a great guy, and offers other great services for the endurance athlete such as strength trainig programs, stretching clinics, running gait analysis and much more. I'll post the results of my latate test in a few days, and when I get the video of my gait analysis I'll post that as well so you can see what it is all about.

As for actual training, I didn't get in my trail run this weekend because it was raining. Instead I did an hour and fifteen minutes of intervals on a treadmill. I ran between 4 and 6.3 miles per hour with inclines ranging between 0 and 6 percent. These new treadmills are pretty cool in that they automatically adjust to your heart rate to get you in the right spot. Not as fun as running in the hills, but still cool nonetheless.