Confused by Your Own Lactate Threshold Heart Rate?
Why Should You Know Your Own Lactate Threshold Heart Rate
Many endurance athletes are confused by this term, the lactate threshold heart rate is a method of measuring the level of exercise intensity where the body can no longer remove any one of the by-products of exercise, and as a result there is a build-up of these by-products in the blood. The result is the burning feeling that is felt in the muscles during extreme stress such as weight lifting, endurance racing, and other similar intense exercise.
The reason that you need to determine your own specific lactate threshold heart rate is basically because in order to train your heart and lungs – which make up your aerobic system and to be an strong endurance athlete, you need to work on developing a strong aerobic base. By determining your lactate threshold heart rate, your aerobic base can be derived. The aerobic base is usually around 65%-75% of your lactate threshold heart rate.
A common way to calculate your aerobic base is, usually 220 minus their age and then multiply by 60% as well as 90%. As an example, a 30-year old would calculate his optimal heart rate zone using the formula: 220-30=190. 190x.60=114 and 190x.90=171. This individual would try to keep his heart rate between 114 (aerobic base) and 171 (lactate threshold) beats per minute. However this isn’t a very accurate calculation as it is simply far too vague and general for everyone to use. To accurately determine your own individual lactate threshold heart rate, you would need to schedule an endurance test with an exercise physiologist or doctor where blood tests would be administered while exercising. You can also use a heart rate monitor and do a self assessment while running or cycling and measure your heart rates in a 30 minute field test. Start the heart rate monitor to record from the beginning of the trial and push yourself to complete the interval, but not so hard that you must slow down to complete it. You should start the first ten minutes easily and work your way up to what feels like your max. pace. You can roughly determine your own lactate threshold heart rate by calculating your average heart rate over the 30 minute interval.
Obviously this won’t be 100% scientifically accurate, however it will be adequate to estimate your own rough lactate threshold heart rate and from there, be able to estimate your own aerobic base. For example, if your estimated lactate threshold heart rate is 120, then you want to be exercising at 65%-75% of that, or 78-90 beats, for as long as possible. As a multisports athlete or triathlete, training in your aerobic base strengthens your heart and lungs in the most efficient manner for endurance sports. Once you’ve built a strong aerobic base fitness level, then you can focus on other areas such as developing sports specific strength for the swim, cycling, or running by lifting weights, thus allowing for faster times in each part of your triathlon event and ultimately your overall time.
Lance Armstrong-Time Trial-2005