As it turns out, I am a sour guy
It's been almost a month since my the lab test on the 20th of August, that's how much time I needed to make peace with the results ☹️. Jokes aside, I wanted to write this earlier, but life was busy and time flies by quickly.
Nevertheless, I still owe you the results. Back then, I expected my LT1, which is the point where your lactate in your blood starts to rise for the first time (i.e. you're not solely relying on fat-oxidation any longer) to be around 230-240w. For my LT2, which is the point that lactate starts accumulating faster than your body can buffer it (i.e. an effort you can't hold longer than 45-60 min) to be around 300W.
Well, that turned out to be 'slightly different' (and not in right way): LT1 tested at 220W, which I am still happy with, since last year it was 190w. So proper progress! However, LT2 came back at 260W 👎. I really expected that to be much higher, since I tested an Functional Threshold Power (FTP) of 313W ( which is similar/close to LT2) in April, just after the Cape Epic.
Had I lost more that 50W in threshold power in only 4 months?? Yes, of course, I had done less training, but not nothing. Plus the week before I did 4x10 min tempo blocks at 280w, and my heart rate never went above 175bpm (after the 4th interval), which is roughly my threshold heart rate value. So therefore this result was quite 'disappointing' in that sense, but yeah, a lab test doesn't lie. Right?
That's not entirely the case I learnt, after doing some more research on these lab test. The scientific background is only a small sport-scientific study, where lactate levels for LT1 and LT2 have been defined on the sample group of that study. Those values are used for the mathematical model underpinning these lab tests. But, lactate levels have some of individuality. Some people have higher base values than others. Or in other words, some people are more 'acid', or sour than others. And I seem to be such a guy.
How do I know? First of all, the 4x10 min would have put my heart rate in the 180+ territory much sooner.
And secondly, Jeroen and I went on ride last week again, on the Heuvelrug trails 👿. Jeroen came to Amerongen to work with me on a project, but obviously that was also a cover-up to finally ride together again, since Cape Epic was the last time we did. And boy, did we have fun!!
We decided to ride (more race than ride) the Amerongen-Rhenen combined trails, which is about 40km together. We started of at a high pace and somehow, the throttle was never dialed back. Obviously, at some point we were also recognizing this ourselves, but men being men, we wouldn't back down of course 😀. Jeroen ended the ride at a normalized power or 275W, I did 267W. For 1h and 45 minutes. If my LT2 truly would be 260W, it would absolutely be impossible to output 267W for almost two hours.
But the best part of it was that it really brought back some of the Cape Epic vibes. At some point at the end of the Amerongen trail, I was doing a big pull with Jeroen right on my wheel, knowing that he could take over the last part up to the final Bergweg climb. He took over and I was back on Jeroen's wheel, blasting through the forest on the straights. It really made me think back of that golf course at the end of Stage 1 on the Cape Epic, when Jeroen miraculously found back his engine, and were flying through at 50 km/u. It was an awesome ride, and it really makes me looking forward to March next year again!
Until then, Keep Chasing!
