I have been training with Coached for a number of years now. 

Currently, I am preparing for the Sydney Marathon in September and then the Chicago Marathon in October.

To gauge my fitness level and where it is currently at, I took a lactate test with Coached.

What is a lactate test 

The purpose of the lactate test is to measure the accumulation of blood lactate at varying intensities. 

The data is then used to determine your anaerobic threshold and use this to determine what specific heart rate and pace and power zones to use in order to help you improve your specific performance.  

The Coached lactate test is conducted by Jim Webster, coach and sports scientist with Coached.

How the testing is done 

This is how the test is conducted: You need to perform anywhere between four to seven stages, each stage is progressing in terms of difficulty. 

For those new to lactate testing and don’t know what paces to start at, the testing stages are generally based off your 10km personal best. 

My 10km personal best is 48 mins 20 sec but Coach Jim was saying that based on my previous lactate test, I wasn’t running hard enough. He said that I should be able to do 43 mins for 10km!  

My lactate test 

At the beginning, the test is easy and you are running quite comfortably. But by the end, it is quite painful as you are running quite hard and really giving it all you’ve got.

For my own test, I started with a speed of 10km/h and the test progressed to 14km/h at the highest speed. 

The first three stages felt pretty okay, but the last two felt more painful. 14km/h speed just about hit my lactate threshold. 

Jim actually said that based on my results, I could have run another stage at 15km/h to see my body’s reaction beyond lactate threshold, but I already felt as though I was dying. So we stopped at 14km/h.

Checking for lactate

To check for the lactate level, the index finger is pricked prior to the test. A drop of blood is drawn at the very beginning to get a baseline level and then again after every stage, in order to see the accumulation of the lactate after each stage. 

The lactate threshold reading is 4.0 or higher. At 14km/h, mine read 4.1.

My test results 

According to Jim, my lactate test results are similar to my previous test which was done just over one year ago. While it means that I have not lost any fitness, it also means that my fitness level has also not improved much since last year. 

Jim added that while my aerobic fitness is good, I would need to push myself harder when it comes to the anaerobic stuff if I want to see better results. I will need to do the hard sessions strictly by pace zones rather than body feel.

I also asked Jim about what I should be able to run for the marathon distance based on these results. This is because at Chicago, I am hoping to run a sub 3:35 marathon in order to qualify for Boston. 

Jim says that if I do my speed work running at the proper pace zones and also incorporate strength training into my routine, I should be capable of a 3:14 marathon. Gulp. That sounds crazy fast to me.

Conclusion

Based on the lactate test, Coach Jim provided me with my latest pace and power zones as per the test. Moving forward, I will need to use these as a reference for my future training sessions, and practice discipline in terms of running at these zones if I wish to improve myself further. Something that is much easier said than done. 

The Coached lactate test is $199 and you can find out more and to make an appointment yourself, go to https://www.coached.fitness 

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