Tuesday Training

Hi

Pleased with how tonight's L2 session went. target was to ride at an average HR of 150BPM which I managed. The good thing about tonight's session was that I felt that at the end of it I was really quite comfortable, not finding it easy but comfortable, I could definitely have continued for quite a while longer if I'd needed to.

Started with a HR in the mid 140s and allowed it to drift up through the range ending about in the mid 150s, may average power output for the hour (including starting from a standing start) was 239W and my average HR 149, average cadence was 90RPM. Output no better, which is fine, but it *felt* better.

I'm continuing to collect blood lactate data to establish some sort of comparison data as time goes on and to validate the testing procedure. I took a single blood sample tonight at the 35 minute period which is loads of time for things to stabilise. The sample was taken at 35 minutes, the power at that time was 240W and my HR 151. The measured blood lactate level was 1.6mmol/l which correlates very well with the previous measurements taken at this workload and HR, very encouraging. This figure, and the time it was taken into the exercise, suggests that at this intensity I am successfully buffering the lactic acid produced and clearing the lactate adequately to prevent a slow circulation build up, this makes this level of riding sustainable. That's what I think anyway!

Clearly at the present time this level of workload, which is now sustainable for an hour, is below my lactate threshold though the full test is to come. I think this is very useful data and the thing to do is probably to increase the average HR for these L2 sessions by about 2-5BPM and take further steady state readings to see at what level true lactate threshold training is taking place. I think this may be what I need to do to optimise my training, probably after a few more successful L2 rides at this intensity collecting further date to ensure that the readings I am getting are truly consistent

We shall see, but I'm encouraged.