Philly Weekend Part 2 - TR***

If you enjoyed Part 1 of this report be warned Part 2 is not going to be anywhere near as interesting. You will see that this has a 3 star Trigeek rating (click here for the rating scale) as it is predominantly focused on Sundays Blood Lactate Testing.

Sunday was at last a little bit of a lie-in. Ben slept relatively well and we were not planning to be at Cadence until 1200. Due to the Manayunk Arts Festival we left a little bit early to allow for parking and the walk into town. When we got to Cadence we met up with Todd Parker who was going to do the testing and we also got to meet Lisa Spohn another coach who helped out with the tests who is herself a 5 Ironman veteran.

The testing was done in Cadence’s test lab. Instead of using my bike on a computrainer this time we used the static bike in the lab which was fitted with my pedals and adjusted to mirror the dimensions of my own bike. I had had a tough week and the day before I had worked hard during the time trial and group ride and there was a good chance that these results may be affected by the week’s efforts. Todd explained how it is not unusual for spikes and troughs in the results if you have been working hard before the test and the body has not properly recovered.


None the less I had tried to take it easy after the day before and although my legs were a bit tired we would see how I got on. After warming up for a few minutes we began the test. The bike was wired to the computer and every 3 minutes the computer would up the wattage by 25 watts and it was up to me to maintain 90 rpm. At the same time Todd would prick my finger and take a sample of blood which was then analysed for its lactic acid content. When that content is above 4 you have deemed to have passed your threshold and the test is over. Comparing the blood lactate level, wattage and HR they can then work out exactly where your threshold lies and what the associated Heart Rate and wattage are for that limit. For more information and to see my last set of results please click here.

It soon become apparent that despite yesterday’s riding my body was still efficiently dealing with the lactic acid in my system. I warmed up at 120 watts and my blood lactate was down at 1.3 compared to 1.8 at the same wattage 3 months ago. We started the test at 125 and my blood lactate went to 1.8 but my body then managed to actually process some of this acid and the figure dropped to 1.6 at 175 watts which looked promising. At 225 watts we were still down at 2.1 and at 250 we were 2.8 still well below threshold and clearly already above my old Lactate Threshold wattage of 240 watts. The bike actually got up to 325 watts before the test ended and by then my legs were really starting to protest but in March I was done at 250 watts.


Todd ran the results for me and it was very reassuring to see that unlike the last tests there had been a significant improvement since the selection weekend in Oct 07 and from my last set of tests in March 08. The first thing that stands out is the actual Lactate Threshold which has gone from 240 watts in March to 277 watts this weekend. This is a significant gain in 3 months but the way my Columbia and Philly bike splits went I am not that surprised. It is clearly a reflection of the interval work I have done recently and I am sure that the biggest improvements came from joining group rides around DC. The Tuesday night Wakefield ride and doing the Hains Point Group ride on a Thursday when combined with long rides at the weekend has paid dividends.

The other thing that leaps out at me is how low the heart rates are throughout the results table. This is a bit of a surprise and based on my lactate threshold interval training out on the road I do not believe that these heart rates are accurate. I normally do my LT intervals at around the high 160s, low 170s according to Sunday’s tests I would be 132 to 138. 132 to 138 is normally what I would see during a pretty gentle endurance ride not an LT interval. I was super relaxed on Sunday and perhaps the low heart rates are a reflection of the tiring week I had had. It is sometimes difficult to get your heart rate up when you are tired.



Before I could do the run testing I had to wait an hour for my body to flush out the acid that had been generated during the ride. This was an ideal opportunity for Wendy to leave me with Ben while she had a look around the shops and I sat quietly feeding him while watching Colin doing another of his very thorough bike fitting. It was actually very relaxing and a good way to unwind. Colin came over and we caught up and then Wendy came back very suspiciously the exact second I had finished changing a particularly smelly nappy/diaper.

The run test is very similar to the bike but this time the treadmill is set at a 1 degree gradient and the speed is increased by 0.3 mph every 3 minutes. During the warm up blood lactate was back down to 1.1 which is nice and then Todd set the treadmill to 8mph and we were off. The run is not as much fun as the bike and you ideally want to start closer to your lactate threshold so that you are not left sprinting away for a long time. I settled into a comfortable but fast pace and started whiling down the minutes. When you have a sample taken you have to straddle the treadmill this gives you a brief respite and looking at the graph it is very comforting to see that my heart rate actually fell significantly at 8.6 and 8.9 mph which was presumably when I was having blood taken. A quick recovery is a good sign of overall fitness.

By 9.2 mph I was beginning to suffer and I was willing the little blue blood lactate reader to tell everyone that I was done and it was time to slow the treadmill down. Luckily my prayers were answered and it came in at 4.1 and I breathed a sigh of relief as Todd turned the speed down. After Todd processed the results it was nice to see a steady improvement in my run results as well. The zones have changed a little and the heart rate figures are all up a little bit. My endurance zone is now a whopping 129-172 bpm and my Sub-Lt zone is a tiny 174-173. I am not sure that this means a great deal but what is significant is the pace I can maintain in these new zones. According to the latest testing in my Sub-Lt zone I can maintain a 6:54 to 7:49 min/mile pace. In theory, if your nutrition is right, you should be able to go indefinitely in this zone and should certainly be able to finish a marathon.



So what does this mean for Ironman. As far as I can tell on paper I am capable of achieving a good result at Ironman. My swim is OK and I have plenty of swim endurance so should be able to finish the swim in a reasonable time. According to my bike results I should be able to put down anywhere from 233 to 277 watts in my Sub –Lt zone and my body seems to be recovering very quickly from LT efforts. Additionally it is not just a case of my LT power going up I have also lost nearly 10 pounds so my power to weight ratio has also improved significantly.

Lake Placid has some hills but my power to weight ratio is not going to play that significant a role as this is not a mountain stage in the Giro D’Italia. However in theory I have enough power in my endurance and sub-lt zone to be able to put in a good bike split without writing myself off for the run. With all the road riding and hill work I should also be able to recover pretty quickly from any climbs and therefore not have to take them overly slowly.

On the run if my nutrition is good, and I am feeling OK coming off the bike, I have the ability (again on paper) to run a 3:20 marathon at 7:38 min/mile pace while staying in my Sub-Lt zone and could just about run a 3:30 marathon while staying in my endurance zone.

BUT (and as you can see this is a “big but”) this is all on paper and is at this stage is pure theory. The three disciplines have been examined here individually and not together as a whole but it does show that there is a chance, if everything goes like clockwork and I have a fantastic day, that I may just surprise myself. It helps give me confidence that there is not one discipline which is going to single handedly scupper my dreams of a slot at Kona and in the words of Sir Mix-a-lot “I like big but[t]s”.

A big thanks to the mechanics at Cadence who gave my bike a much needed full race tune. Sorry to have missed two of Cadence's senior management, Matt Heitmann who normally posts the fastest time at the West River TT and Olympic cyclist Brian Walton, who normally leads out the Cadence group ride, both probably saw my bike split at the Philly Tri and both happen to be missing the same weekend I do the rides - you do the maths :-).