Training Plans

Blood lactate testing measured the lactate concentration in the bloodstream through sampling a small drop of blood taken from the fingertip or ear lobe. Because lactate production is the biproduct of anerobic metabolism, testing is the gold standard for determining an athlete’s aerobic and anerobic thresholds. It is also a valuable tool for ensuring training is conducted not just in the proper zones, but at very precise levels within a particular zone (e.g., 98% of Ae-T, or 98% of Zone 2 max). In short, blood lactate testing offers an objective and accurate measurement of an athlete’s aerobic and anaerobic capacities to maximize efficiency in training and pace on race day.

This is also why we offer significant discounts to our coaching clients on blood lactate testing—lactate testing provides an objective benchmark which enables us to do a better job of prescribing targeted training that is most likely to yield the greatest improvements in performance based on each athlete’s unique physiology.

For all our testing, we exclusively use the Nova Biomedical Lactate Plus 2.0 meter—the gold standard for accurate and reliable blood lactate assessments. A typical testing session takes about one to two hours (depending on the protocol) and athletes can expect around 5-10 samples to be taken throughout. Upon completion, athletes receive post-session analysis of their thresholds (e.g., LT-1/Ae-T and LT-2/An-T, lactate production levels, and corresponding paces) as well as an expert advice to make sense of the numbers and the practical training implications indicated by the data.