Maximizing Your Endurance: How to Train at Your Threshold

Understanding Threshold Training

You may have heart the terms “Lactate Threshold” or “Threshold Pace” or “T-Pace” or “Functional Threshold Power (FTP)” but what does it mean? How can you use it in your training to get faster?

In this article I will go through these terms and what it means to you in real terms and your training sessions and how you can use them to improve your endurance speed.

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Lactate and Threshold

Firstly, let’s understand what lactate and lactic acid is and it’s not as evil as you may think!

Lactate is a molecule produced by the body during exercise when there is not enough oxygen available to the muscles. Lactic acid is the acidic form of lactate, meaning that it has an extra hydrogen ion attached to it. The terms "lactic acid" and "lactate" are often used interchangeably, but it's important for athletes to understand the difference.

During exercise, muscles produce lactate as a by-product of anaerobic metabolism. As the concentration of lactate increases, the pH of the muscle cells decreases, making the muscle more acidic. This can lead to muscle fatigue and decreased performance.

However, lactate is not entirely bad for athletes. It can be used as a fuel source by other muscles and organs in the body, and it has been shown to improve endurance performance in some athletes.

Overall, it's important for you to understand the role of lactate and lactic acid in you body and how to manage your production during exercise to optimize performance.

So, lactate is the by-product of burning fuel (glucose) in the muscles, the harder you work the higher the lactate production and the higher your heart rate.

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?How Lactate Production related to Aerobic and Anaerobic Threshold

Aerobic and anaerobic thresholds are closely related to lactate production in the body during exercise.

The aerobic threshold, also known as the lactate threshold, is the point during exercise where lactate production begins to increase significantly. This is when your body starts to switch from primarily aerobic (with oxygen) to anaerobic (without oxygen) metabolism. At this point, lactate starts to accumulate in your muscles and blood, which can lead to muscle fatigue and decreased performance.

The anaerobic threshold is the point during exercise where lactate production exceeds the body's ability to clear it away. This is when the concentration of lactate in the blood starts to increase rapidly, leading to a build-up of lactic acid in the muscles and blood. This can cause a burning sensation in your muscles and may cause you to slow down.

Understanding your aerobic and anaerobic thresholds is important because it can help you train more effectively. By training at or near your lactate threshold, you can improve your ability to tolerate and clear lactate from your muscles and blood, leading to better performance during high-intensity exercise.

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Tempo or Threshold Training and VO2 Max

Have you ever heard coaches mention tempo or threshold training, but were unsure of what they meant?

To understand these concepts, it's essential to examine how lactate levels change during various exercise intensities. Lactate levels are typically measured in millimoles per litre of blood (mmol/L). At this moment in time as you sit here reading this article if I tested your blood lactate it would probably be sitting around 1 mmol/L. This would be your baseline measurement.

You may have had our blood lactate tested at some point in a lab to determine your training zones scientifically but if you have not here’s the process.

You may have had our blood lactate tested at some point in a lab to determine your training zones scientifically but if you have not here’s the process.

You would start the test by running on a treadmill or cycling on a stationary bike at a slow pace. Then every 4 minutes (average amount of time for your heart rate needs to reach steady state) the pace would increase by say 1km/h.

Your lactate is tested by taking a small sample of blood after every 4-minute stage, usually by pricking your finger or ear lobe. Your blood lactate would remain very similar until you reach a point where it increases significantly, we call this the 1st?threshold or LT1 (see figure 1).

Your LT1 is usually around 2 mmol/L but this does vary. The test would then continue to a point where there is another significant increase in your blood lactate, we call this then 2nd?threshold or LT2 (figure 1). Your LT2 is usually around 4 mmol/L but again this also varies.?After this point your lactate will increase exponentially until you can’t run anymore, and you reach your VO2 max.

VO2 max, also known as maximal oxygen uptake, is the maximum amount of oxygen that you can utilize during intense exercise. It is the gold standard measure of an individual's cardiorespiratory fitness and endurance capacity. VO2 max is typically measured in millilitres of oxygen per minute per kilogram of body weight (ml/min/kg). The higher your VO2 max, the more efficient your body is at delivering oxygen to your muscles during exercise, which can lead to improved performance and endurance. Your VO2 max can be improved through regular cardiovascular exercise and training at or near your aerobic threshold.

The figure below shows a typical LT1, LT2 and VO2 Max test graph.

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To read more about LT1 and LT2 and how to train effectively using these two lactate thresholds read on in my blog here.

Karen Parnell?is a Level 3 British Triathlon Coach, 8020 Endurance and IRONMAN Certified Coach, WOWSA Level 3 open water swimming coach and NASM Personal Trainer and Sports Technology Writer.?

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