Lactate Threshold Testing at AthletiCamps

Its been 8 or 9 months of fairly hard riding, with the Vuelta Puerto Rico, 3 Double Centuries, a handful of Centuries and some challenging rides with Cycle Folsom - and yet Lisa and I felt that we were not improving, not getting faster or stronger...So Lisa searched for a place to get some coaching and training advice and maybe take a step back and restart.

As a result of her search Lisa discovered that we in Sacramento are lucky to have AthletiCamps right in Folsom beside Folsom Bike
7610 Folsom-Auburn Rd. Ste. 130 Folsom, CA. 95630
Check them out at http://www.athleticamps.com/ AthleticCamps does Testing, Bike Fitting, Training Camps as well as is associated with Nutrition experts and more.

AthletiCamps has been around for 9 years but only opened the Folsom Office last Fall. Bruce Hendler - the owner and coach is a fountain of information and infectious enthusiasm and so far he has us pumped to work on this, lose some weight, lower our body fat % and hopefully see the results in stronger, faster performance and better recovery.

On Memorial Day Lisa went in for a Lactate Threshold Test and based on the results of the test Bruce designed a training regimen for her. After watching and listening to the analysis I decided to do get the package as well... which I did Sat June 5. The test is done on your own bike on a Computrainer and generally starts with a 20 min warm-up, followed but 3 min intervals of progressively higher power (resistance) at a maintained cadence of 95rpm, while Bruce samples a drop of blood from your earlobe to measure the Lactate (painless).
For me the tests were done at 100w, 130w, 160w, 190w, 210w, 240w, & 270w. Based on the heart rate measured and the lactate Bruce can determine your three training zones and your lactate threshold.

So the result is that we have found out that we have been training at too high a heart rate and that explains our lack of weight loss (since fat burns most effectively in the low and medium intensity zones) and also our training has not concentrated properly on base and endurance training (low intensity zone) and strength training using Slow Frequency Revolutions - basically hill climbing at about 45 revolutions while keeping the heart rate below 145 bpm.

Anyways... Tomorrow Lisa and I are off on a "rubber legs" ride - cycling in our lower zone at 95 rpm with no coasting and maintaining heart rate even on the down hills... should be an adventure
:)