power at lactate threshold

I have been told that my power at lactate threshold needs to be improved.How does improve this.I can ride flat road races and have been told that i have climbers build 160lbw at 6ft,but when when on the climbs i get peel off to the back.Any help here.....thanks

One thing you can do is to raise your lactate threshold. Various training plans to do that (mostly involving intervals of some form or another), but the basic idea is to exceed your current lactate threshold and force your body to adapt (by raising it).

Stephen

intervals at your 1 hour TT pace, such as 2x20minutes are popular.

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The first thing you need to do after you have etablished a solid aerobic/endurance base is to determine your lactate threshold (LT). Assuming you do not have access to a performance lab or coach and/or are not prepared to invest in lactate testing equipment...I would suggest performing a Conconi test. Although this test is not necessarily the most accurate it is a simple test to perform.

All you need is access to a heart rate monitor and an ergo such as a tacx basic. After a 10-15 min warm up @150 watts raise the resistance or poweroutput on the ergo in 20 watt increments every 3mins & record your heart rate at the end of each 3 mins. Continue this protocol until you can no longer maintain a reasonable cadence and/or finish the 3 mins at the current power output. When you are done plot out your HR vs. power output on some graph paper and then try drawing a straight line through your data points starting at the 150 watt point. Hopefully, you will notice a point in your results where the line nolonger fits...This is your LT. And, additionally, the last power output you were able to maintain for three minutes is your critical poweroutput (CP).

By training at your LT or above it you will be able to stress your metabolism to clear and utilize lactate more efficently. Also, by determining your CP you will have an indication of the power output that exceeds your maximum one-hour continuous power output. So, by using your CP you can do some high intensity intervals: For instance, 6-8x 10min intervals @ CP with active recovery tht allows your HR to drop to a low level approx. 65% your max HR.

I am sure some people will disagree with what I have said here, but it is just a potential starting point to add some structure to your intervals. With this approach the atleast you will have estbalished some bench marks to judge your progress at a later date.

Good luck

You're right, somebody here is going to disagree with you! :-)

1) The Conconi test can't be used to determine "threshold", since A) not everybody demonstrates a breakpoint in HR (as you allude to), and B) even when such a breakpoint in HR exists, it doesn't coincide/correlate with threshold as determined using other methods (e.g., blood lactate measurements).

2) No one - not even Joe Friel <g> - calls the power you can maintain over the last 3 min of an incremental exercise test "critical power".

First of all, as I predicted.....Somebody would disagree with me. My recomendation was purely meant to give a reasonable protocol that would provide some benchmark information and structure to legs gone training.

As far as Conconi goes:

This method is highly controversial, but is still an appealling noninvasive test, which only take 20-30 minutes to conduct(which allows it to be incorporated within or as part of a training session), and it has been widely used European pros and their coaches to assess training programmes and evaluate endurance capacity (Bodner & Rhodes, 2000). And, most important of all, this is a test most people can try out for themselves with little or no help from others.

And, as far a critical power goes:

My aplogies in the wrong choice of terminology...A simple mistake. what I meant was that the final power output during the test (peak power output (Wpeak or PPO)) defined as the highest workload sustained for 2 to 3 minutes during a progressive or graded exercise test to exhaustion. This values has been shown to be highly related to time trial performances ranging from 21 to 40km (Balmer et. al, 2000; Hawley and the man himself Timothy Noakes, 1992; Weston et al., 1997).

Actually in this last study Weston and collegues (Including once agian Noakes) investigated skeletal muscle buffering capacity and endurance performance after high-intensity interval training by well-trained cyclist...And they found Wpeak or what I mistakenly called critical power to be a effective measure of training adaptations.

And, finally....If you can suggest something more productive than what I have....i am sure legs gone would appreciate it.

Take care,

Scott