
Tuesday's testing involved the double pole machine which Scott built last summer and which has been an invaluable training tool for us, accurately mimicking the compression and full extension needed for a successful double pole. The morning's test involved a standard lactate steady state protocol: 3 min at each heart rate in 10-beat increments until we reached a pretty high output, at which point we took a lactate reading. The goal was not to push to our limit, rather to produce a high enough lactate level, somewhere around 8mmol. Then we started again in 2 min stages at a low intensity, taking lactate readings every stage until we saw a nadir in the curve. Here's an example of the readings we saw:
188bpm: 8.4mmol
2min
145bpm: 7.9mmol
2min
155bpm: 6.6mmol
2min
165bpm: 5.3mmol
2min
170bpm: 4.6mmol
2min
175bpm: 3.4mmol
2min
180bpm: 4.4mmol
As you can see, the numbers slowly dropped as our bodies metabolized the lactate we had produced in the initial ramping up. It metabolized to a low point which we determined as our "steady state", an ideal low intensity training zone.
Stay tuned for more testing updates!