When do lactate

How do athletes from distance runners to swimmers and cyclists achieve an increased lactate threshold? Athletes need to do a mix of speed work and slower endurance training to develop both the aerobic and anaerobic metabolic pathways. This holds for both beginners and elite athletes alike. Sports science has utilised the lactate threshold test to define specific training plansd for many sports.

At her peak, former marathon record holder Paula Radcliffe could run at Most training plans are designed to gradually increase distance and speed, without overstressing the body. For the recreational runner, this would typically mean 2 or 3 short runs during the week and a longer run at the weekend that, as the weeks progress, gets longer.

These runs should be at a pace that is easy to maintain and will build endurance, that is the ability to exercise at that pace for longer.

Training plans will also incorporate a speed element aimed at reducing the time required to cover a given distance. These speed elements should be a mix of interval sessions during your longer run e. These speed sessions should be at a moderate to moderately hard pace. How does this type of training relate to lactate threshold? The long runs at a pace that is sustainable will typically be at a lactate level that is normal.

The speed work pushes your body beyond the lactate threshold and trains your body to better clear lactate from the musculature. The most efficient way to improve your lactate threshold is with true lactate threshold training. True lactate threshold workouts are performed at a pace that is very close to your specific lactate threshold, typically this is a moderate to moderately hard pace.

For the vast majority of runners that intensity level is reached at or just slightly slower than their 10K race pace. So why not train at that pace all the time? Your lactate pace is a hard pace and it would be both very difficult and unwise to consistently train at a pace that hard.

These tests are typically called step tests and rely on stepping up the intensity of the exercise effort over 2, 3 or more steps. In order to track your lactate threshold, you will need a portable lactate meter , lactate sensors, lancets to take blood, a defined distance over which to run and a way of pacing yourself.

The pacing in the test is the important factor. The paces need to be incremental but sustainable for the duration of the test. A watch with a pacing function is useful for this type of test or you could run on a treadmill with speed control. Once you have your results you will need to analyse the data. Software supplied with the portable blood lactate meter will automatically pull data from your meter and plot the results.

In other words, the muscle is actively contracting, attempting to shorten its length, but it is failing. These eccentric contractions have been shown to result in more muscle cell damage than is seen with typical concentric contractions, in which a muscle successfully shortens during contraction against a load. Thus, exercises that involve many eccentric contractions, such as downhill running, will result in the most severe DOMS, even without any noticeable burning sensations in the muscles during the event.

Given that delayed-onset muscle soreness in response to extreme exercise is so common, exercise physiologists are actively researching the potential role for anti-inflammatory drugs and other supplements in the prevention and treatment of such muscle soreness, but no conclusive recommendations are currently available.

Although anti-inflammatory drugs do appear to reduce the muscle soreness—a good thing—they may slow the ability of the muscle to repair the damage, which may have negative consequences for muscle function in the weeks following the strenuous event. Already a subscriber? Sign in. Thanks for reading Scientific American. Create your free account or Sign in to continue. See Subscription Options. Discover World-Changing Science. Get smart. Sign up for our email newsletter.

OBLA is the point at which lactate begins to accumulate in the blood at an accelerated rate. To determine peak, tolerated or clearance lactate levels involves other maximal effort tests and will not be reviewed in this document.

Lactate values cannot be used in every-day training but follow-up lactate values can be used as a measure of progress. Other information such as lactate endurance levels lactate values at a given heart rate or power output can also be tested and compared to subsequent tests. One of the better ways to incorporate this information into training is to use the OBLA data to establish field time trail parameters. Once those are established the time trails can be re-assessed periodically to determine improvements in the field with lab reassessments used to establish new training parameters.

After training you can perform at a higher rate of work without raising your blood lactate levels above initially tested levels. In other words, blood lactate concentrations at various training intensities are lower and your speed or power at OBLA is faster or greater respectively. This is in part due to the fact that, training results in a decrease in lactate production and an increase of lactate re-uptake within the body.

There is limited research regarding health status and lactate.