Originally Posted by HDTVKSS
did a 2 X 8 minute lactate threshold test last night, and got a result of 174 both times. last month i got a result of 172 both times. is that an improvement or has it gotten worse? or is the difference to little to care?
Hard to say HDT, without knowing exactly how you're doing them.
Lactate Threshold Revision:
Training results in a decrease in lactate production at any given exercise intensity. Untrained individuals usually reach the LT at about 60% of VO2 max. With training, LT can increase from 60% to above 70% or even higher. The lactate threshold is both responsive to training and influenced by genetics. Stolen from some website on the net somewhere
So you are trying to detect that decrease in lactate production. Not possible for a guy on a bike armed only with an HRM.
What you can measure are things like average speed (or distance covered). If you know your maxHR you can run the tests at a taxing HR (say 85% or 90%) and look for an improvement in average speed or distance covered, or if you have a set course distance look for an improvement in the time taken to complete the course.
Two things to remember tho. You have to get up to your target HR rapidly from rest, so a steepish 50-100m hill is a good place to start. And you have to stay within +/-5 bpm of your target HR, otherwise the results will be flawed. If you have an HRM with download function you can check out the pretty graphs to validate you runs.