Friday, my teammate Sam and I headed down to Middletown, CT to Charles Coaching and Nutrition Services for a Lactate Threshold test, and to meet my coach, Aidan Charles. An LT test has you spin on your bike between 18 and 20 mph, while increasing the watts (power output required to pedal) by 40 every 3 minutes. While we did this, Aidan was taking blood samples from our earlobes (Sam likened this to van Gogh, but at least we kept our ears in the process!) to measure LT. The test started out easily enough, but by the time I was pushing 300 Watts and my HR was at 177, it wasn't quite as easy anymore...
Sam, before she was suffering ;-); Ow - that hurts! Aidan tests Sam
So, what did this tell me (or why in the heck did I pay someone for this)? I now know where my training HR zones are so that I can train more effectively and efficiently to meet my goals for this season. I also learned that my zones are higher than what I thought, which means my workouts will need to step up a notch!
Here are the results - I have a long way to go to be world class ;-). Better get going with that training.
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Photo by PK
However, Mike, PK and I headed home from Groton, losing PK along the way (he decided the quickest way home was the best way home). We ended the ride with about 4200 ft of climbing, and 66.5 miles of riding. This put me at my highest mileage week so far this season, with 177.1. No wonder I'm tired today!
2 comments:
Happy Easter! Doesn't look like you've got much snow there. You know how it is here in Ottawa. Really takes the joy out of getting up for work at 5 in the morning (especially considering what a Morning Person I've always been :).
That testing is really interesting, with some higher HR numbers. Better get moving!
;-)
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