Lactate Threshold Heart Rate Testing and Training

Now that we’re about to start base training it’s vitally important that we train with the right intensity to ensure that we get the best adaptation effect from our training and that we don’t train too hard or too easy. Most riders have heart monitors so here is a guide on how to work out your training zones for the winter and how we can use that data to improve our training.

The baseline for the calculations is your Lactate Threshold Heart Rate (LTHR). This equates to the maximum effort that you can put out for one hour. Once we know this figure we can calculate our zones for base training and intervals for time trialling as a percentage of this figure.

How to calculate your LTHR

Warning, this is not easy or pleasant! No matter how fit you are this will always be a maximal effort and will hurt. This exercise is best completed on an indoor bike or turbo trainer to minimise external effects / traffic and for safety reasons.

Make sure you’ve had a 24 hour rest period before the test. Ensure that you’ve been well hydrated during the day.

Ensure that you’re thoroughly warmed up. There is a good warm up routine on the British Cycling website that I’ve re-produced below:

Use a relatively high gear, but one that allows use of the same gear throughout.

Example: Large chainring, halfway up the rear cassette. (RPM) Instruction/Focus

dence (RPM) Instruction/Focus

Time	Cadence (RPM)	Instruction/Focus
5 minutes	90	Smooth pedalling
2 minutes	95	Smooth pedalling
2 minutes	100	Smooth pedalling
2 minutes	105	Smooth pedalling
1 minute	110	110 Smooth pedalling
30 seconds	120-130	Maintain form
2 minutes	90	Relax and recover
6 seconds	150+	Max rev out
1 minute	90	Smooth pedalling
6 seconds	150+	Max rev out
1 minute	90	Smooth pedalling
6 seconds	150+	Max rev out
2 minutes 42 seconds	90	Relax and recover

Once the warm up is completed you need to go straight into a 30 minute maximal effort. If you’ve got a programmable heart rate monitor set intervals for the first 10 minutes and the last 20 minutes. Our LTHR is the average heart rate for the last 20 minutes of the session. If you’ve not got a downloadable HRM use a friend to record your heart rate every minute during the last 20 minutes and work out the average manually. Don’t be tempted to look at the HRM yourself as this will encourage you to work to your pre-existing feelings of heart rate. All you must do is focus on producing that maximal effort for 30 minutes.

Don’t forget at least 10 minutes of cool down after this to normalise heart rate and breathing.

Training Zones

Now that we know our LTHR we can start to target our training appropriately.

Zone		Feeling	Heart Rate
1	Active Recovery	Very easy.	LTHR -40 or more
2	Base	Too easy for your fitness. But this is where we perform the volume of base training.	20-40 beats below LTHR
3	Tempo	Comfortably hard. This is an area where most people spend too much training and can have the least benefit.	10 to 20 beats below LTHR
4	Sub-threshold	Hard but sustainable for long intervals. Training here improves the body’s ability to use and clear lactate.	O – 10 beats below LTHR
5	Super-threshold	Hard. Only sustainable for short intervals. Build up of lactic acid.	0-10 beats above LTHR
6	VO2max	Extremely hard. Can only maintain for very short intervals.	10 beats or more above LTHR

The majority of our winter training should be in zone 2 to build up that aerobic base that we need for all disciplines. Efforts should mainly be in zone 4 to improve our efficiency to deal with lactate. Being more efficient here will train our body to be able to sustain higher pace and power.

I’ll cover this in more detail at the clubs base training evening in November. But in the meantime if you can spend some time and effort to calculate your LTHR that will be of benefit when we start base training.

Yours in training

Barry Wootten

References:

Joe Friel’s Training Blogs

British Cycling Training Guide