Lactate threshold sounds like something that a nursing mother would be concerned about not a middle aged woman who is all to aware of her athletic shortcomings. Today I looked completely goofy (exactly like the picture on the left with a few more pounds and more sweaty) and scientifically gathered the information necessary to help me train to get myself to a better physical state. Things about this test that I found really interesting
1) I was nervous before the test that I would fail or do a bad job when really I am just testing the state of my body.
2) I had a thing that stopped me from breathing out my nose - I will never again under appreciate the joy and beauty of taking a breath through your nose while running.
3) I hate drool. I have a dog that drools and I do not like when he drools but I absolutely hate when I drool. Some how this contraction around my head and the mouth piece left me drooling and it was really gross.
So after the drooling, the pin prick blood taking, the claustrophobic special mask, the hard work of running harder than I normally run, what did I learn? Well I learned my VO2 levels are smack in the average level for a woman my age and my lactate threshold heart rate is....but I am still not sure what it means as for as training, but that is why I have a coach. I do think that I have gleaned from the information that I naturally work at or slightly below my threshold but to see some real improvement I am going to need Coach Jeff to guide me through work outs that push me. I think that if I stay on my plan and follow through with Jeff I would like to test again in October/November and see my improvement. It is kind of neat to have a baseline to build on and I am trying not to listen to the voices in my head telling me how much I suck.
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