I’ve had some curves like yours a few years ago. Went from baselines in the 2 mMol +/- range, to the curve shown upthread (1.2 - 1.2 mMol) when I switched from SST/Threshold training to more LT1 stuff.
yeah, that’s why I’m doing all this really. I’m realizing that in my life not the bike I have never really trained properly and for sure have never given z1/z2 their due. Also realizing that literally every group ride is too fast…for everyone…all the time! Well at least long ones.
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it is wild to me though that you can be resting at .9-1.0 and even a small load like 120w-130w shoots you up to 2.5mmol!
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In the 2 hours preceding the test, did you eat foods or drinks rich in carbohydrates or sugars?
because this can greatly influence your baseline.
Up to +1.5mmol from what I like to observe personally.
Yeah. That could be at play. So you think that would have affected baseline lactate even though resting was 1mmol? Thanks for the input.
From what I’ve read on here and other places, quite possibly. If I’m wrong I’m sure I’ll be corrected but at rest if you’ve got excess glucose circulating in the blood from eating it will be used for immediate energy requirements (minimal at rest) or the liver willconverts it to fat. At this point any lactate produced from burning glucose might be cleared and not cause elevated BL levels. When you start to exercise more glucose will be used from the blood to preferentially fuel the exercise than if your glucose level was normal (fasted or 2/3 hours after eating). This may then show up as a higher than expected level of BL. I think! An extended low intensity warm up may get rid of it after 30 or 40 mins
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Just back after a lactate test. With very high baseline values? Above 3mmol? How is this possible? 3 years ago I started at 0.8mmol, 0.5, 0.5 and then 1mmol…
| Time | Watts | Lactate | HR |
|---|---|---|---|
| 0:00 | |||
| 5:00 | 100 | 3.4 | 107 |
| 10:00 | 140 | 3 | 122 |
| 15:00 | 180 | 3.2 | 134 |
| 20:00 | 220 | 3.6 | 147 |
| 25:00 | 260 | 6 | 161 |
| 30:00 | 300 | 10.5 | 177 |
| 31:00 | 340 | 14 | 181 |
Any insights why my baseline started so high???
AetT= 144bpm/210w
AnT = 164bpm/268w
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It’s not possible to answer definitively, but high lactate baselines like that are sometimes reported in fast twitch dominant athletes and athletes who do a lot of HIIT type work (bike, run, weights, CrossFit). There are also possible changes from when you had last meal or carb intake, what time of day you tested and any efforts before the test. There are medical reasons for high lactate measures in sick people and cancer patients, but we will ignore that for this thread and assume you are healthy! We will also assume the data are accurate and not something technically off with the meter.
My first ever lactate tests were also relatively high for baseline and also relatively high at MLSS. Over time, and with a concentration on building a better aerobic engine (base / z2) those levels all dropped significantly. My last good lactate test, the baselines were in the 1.0 mMol range (posted somewhere above in this thread).
The good news is your baseline, although high at 3- 3.5 mMol is nice and flat from 100 to 220 then pops up to 6 mMol at 260. Continuing to 14 mMol is also fairly high and some suggest that indicates a fast twitch type athlete.
Take home is I’d keep training, see if you have more of a HIIT type focus and if you want to drop the baseline lactate spend more type focused on the aerobic engine then retest in 6 months (under same conditions). Or, don’t worry about it. If you feel good and have a good training plan your data looks useable.
An aside, when doing any sort of testing like this, it’s important to try and duplicate the experimental conditions from test to test. If test #1 is fasted at 8am after a recovery week, do test #2 fasted at 8am after a recovery week. You want to control for as many variables as possible.
Sorry no absolutely clear answer for you but hope some of the text above is useful!
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Many thanks for this great response. I am certainly not a slow twitch kind of rider. More fast twitch (was a soccer player in the past with good sprint values and fast accelerations). But according to me, I pay attention to my base. I never do a HIIT training, maybe sometimes a zwift race but certainly not weekly and full gaz. More a tempo/SST kind of rider. I rested 2 days before the test but my sleep was not that good (only 5hours). Test was at 11am. Breakfast was ok, had some fueling 1h before but not that much? Maybe that could be the case? As you should, don’t worry to much…
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How do you guys take HR from the results? Are you using step peak HR or step avg?
Typically do longer times at each power level; 6-8 min per step. I let HR stabilize for each step and then average a few minutes. For example, if the step is 8 minutes at each power level will tale HR average for say minute 3 to 6. Not too picky about it because sub MLSS, my HR at each level tends to stabilize quickly and stay’s relatively constant. Maybe next test I’ll plot “average” the way I’ve been doing it and also Max HR for the interval.
Elevated resting lactates (over 2–2.5mMol/L) at rest indicate increased glycolytic metabolic activity. This could be caused by that candy bar the athlete ate on the way to meet you or could indicate very poor fat metabolism.
Source: uphill athlete blood lactate protocol.
How long was the Warm-up? At least 25 minutes is ideal.
no warm-up 
ah… you really want a long warm up at a low power to get everything settled down. I also do several low power steps (well below LT1) just to get into the rhythm of sampling and to establish the test.
My tests are not standard as I do long steps and self test. The longer steps are very helpful but when doing it in a lab they typically do shorter intervals (2-3 min per power level). Self testing means I need to set stuff up, hop on and off the bike, etc. I try to do it the same way every time. Typically get results like these (as shown up thread):
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Nice, I also tried this website. But so many points on the curve? which one to choose? 
what is lab protocol step size anyway? I used 5 min and 10w steps. but I think from what I have seen 3/20 seems to be more standard?
I do 8 min steps for a ramp type lactate test. I start much lower than expected LT1 and go maybe a step or two over expected or estimated MLSS.
8 min is at the high end, but in range of what ISM has talked about in various podcasts / interviews. “Standard” fee for service lactate tests seem to be 3 min. Which is too short according to ISM and in my experience. Since I have unlimited time, and the only cost to me is consumables (strips and lancets), the longer step time makes sense to me.
An aside, from my MLSS testing, I do not do any of the standard protocols. I do long times 45-60 min at one power per test per day. The ten minute step MLSS testing is a waste of time. In my opinion from own testing and doing for friends and following the literature.
Hope that is what you were asking?
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it is, but also the step sizes wrt power steps. Thanks. I’ll probably stick with 5 min and 10w steps. But I think I need a 30 min warmup from now on.
10w steps will make a long test if you include the 30min warmup. If you go to 340W like on your example from 100W that’s 2.5 hours and I would have thought fatigue will be affecting the results. I’d think about 20W to 30W steps initially
I’ve mostly settled on 15 watt steps. My MLSS is typically 225-235w and LT1 moves between 165w to 185-190w depending on how fit and what type of training I’m doing. My best fitness, will see a 2mMol point around 200-205w.
I’ve found most value in the LT1 and 2mMol information as it gives me confidence in the training program to see it improve. To be honest, at this point I can pretty much do all of this by feel and by power numbers on the road or trainer and skip the lactate part. But the lactate tests are a nice to have as quantitative data during serious training periods (as discussed above and in the long LT1 thread).
My Current Protocol:
Warm up 10-15 min at 135w prior to starting test protocol. I’ll calibrate the meter and take a pre-ride lactate point. Then another point after I finished the warm up. Then I will start the test protocol which is 8 min steps at: 135, 150, 165, 180, 195, 210, 225 (MLSS) and 240.
If I had a higher or lower LT1 and FTP/MLSS, would scale the starting and finishing wattages appropriately.
Note: I’m not that interested in data points for 4mMol or LT2. Have never been able to see clear inflection points in my (or other data). Since I have a good feel for FTP/MLSS at this point in my career have focused on the LT1 range for the ramp testing. Others will have different uses for the data and can adjust to their wants and needs as appropriate.
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