See how to use lactate testing, including the pros and cons, to control workout intensity and measure the progress of your endurance training.
This article to lactate testing is an excerpt from The Norwegian Method: The Culture, Science & Humans Behind the Groundbreaking Approach to Elite Endurance Performance by Brad Culp.
We’re all a bit trypanophobic. Some (like me) more so than others. No one likes to be pricked with needles, no matter how big or small, and getting comfortable with frequently jabbing yourself takes a small amount of courage and patience. It’s also the single biggest barrier to entry for going all-in on the Norwegian method. Without involving a little blood, you’re just doing a modified version of it. Which is fine, but probably not ideal from a strictly performance standpoint. For many of us, using a less invasive metric like heart rate or rate of perceived exertion (RPE) may be ideal from a joy standpoint. If pricking yourself a handful or a few dozen times a week makes you enjoy training less, it’s probably not going to help you in the long term. But if you can learn to embrace it—or perhaps even enjoy the training more with the added layer of data and precision—it can unlock new potential.
Like any part of training, pricking your finger or ear during a training session gets a lot easier with time. It probably will never get to the point that you don’t notice it at all, but it’ll certainly be one of the less painful parts of your hard sessions. If you’ve made the decision to go all-in, the first question you likely have is which lactate meter to purchase. There are a growing number of (somewhat) affordable options on the market, but the two most popular have been around since the inception of the Norwegian method. The Lactate Plus and Lactate Pro 2 have been the gold standard for most of this century, but new models like the Lactate Scout+ and EDGE Lactate Meter offer similar consistency and reliability. Like a power meter, the trick is to pick one and stick to it, especially when it comes to setting zones. The most affordable options are around $200, with the Lactate Pro 2 costing twice as much. All the most current models can offer a reading in under 15 seconds, which is key to preserving the integrity of an interval session.
The Role of Lactate Testing in Your Training Program
Marius Bakken’s model of the Norwegian method uses the lactate meter to guide and control each session, most importantly the threshold work. That can work extremely well for certain athletes, especially those doing the most volume and demanding the most precision. But it’s also quite intrusive. While Olav Bu’s approach still involves plenty of pricking, it uses lactate more to guide the coming weeks and months and ensure that there is positive progress taking place.
Lactate Testing In the Context of Training and Types of Workouts
Tracking that progress doesn’t have to be as complicated as plotting a lactate curve each week and seeing if it’s moving in the right direction. After a season or two of testing, most athletes can see in real time if things are going according to plan, and time is a very important element in lactate testing. Adding time to a lactate reading all of a sudden makes it a two-dimensional point that is actually telling real information. The lactate meter only knows that an athlete’s blood is currently reading 3.3 mmol/L. But if an athlete or coach knows that that number is coming on the fifth interval, whereas a month ago it was coming on the second, now they know something the meter doesn’t, and they know they’ve made meaningful progress.
Lactate Testing Can Identify Your Precise Training Zones
If you are interested in getting a lab lactate threshold test to determine your zones and thresholds, there’s good news and bad news. The bad is that there probably isn’t a sports science center close to you, and if there is, it’s likely very expensive for an ordinary person to use.
The good news is that many hospitals and cardiology centers can perform the test, and your doctor can write a prescription for one, which may be covered in part by insurance. If you can’t find a lab near you that’s available, you can do a do-it-yourself (DIY) threshold test with a portable lactate meter and a track, treadmill, or stationary bike.
A DIY Lactate Threshold Test
The testing protocol is very similar to a VO2max test, with the main differences being that the intervals for a lactate threshold test are slightly longer and you’re not going to the point of complete exhaustion like you would for a VO2max test.
Aside from a couple of pricks, lactate testing is a considerably less painful than a VO2max test and is repeatable with less cost—in terms of both money and recovery.
The idea is to get three to four minutes at a given intensity to let the lactate build and stabilize, then take a reading and run the same interval at a slightly higher intensity.
Here’s what this would look like for a runner doing 800s on the track or treadmill:
» Take baseline reading.
- Warm up with 1200 meters, very easy.
- Take a second baseline reading.
- Run 800 meters, easy.
- Take a third lactate test.
- Run 800 meters, moderate.
- Take a fourth lactate test.
- Run 800 meters, hard.
- Take a fifth lactate test.
- Run 1200 meters, very easy.
- Test a final time to see if you’ve returned to baseline.
Every lactate meter will come with software that will plot your results, where you’ll be able to see at what pace, power, and heart rate each rise in lactate occurs, similar to the previous graph. Whether you plan on making lactate testing a regular part of your training or not, establishing those two data points can provide the guardrails that are fundamental to the Norwegian method of training:
- Knowing Lactate Threshold 2 (LT2, aka anaerobic threshold) will ensure your threshold work doesn’t get too hard.
- Knowing Lactate Threshold 1 (LT1, aka aerobic threshold) will ensure your low-intensity work is easy enough to maximize the volume of low-intensity work and subsequent threshold days.
If you don’t plan on using a portable lactate meter to control threshold training sessions, heart rate is the next best bet for runners or power for cyclists, but know that whatever your metric, it will vary with factors like fatigue, heat, and altitude.
The Lactate Testing Learning Curve
The more often you test, the more you learn about how lactate varies throughout each workout, which is really telling you what energy systems are at play. When athletes are just starting out, especially if they haven’t warmed up, most of the energy comes from the glycolytic system, causing a slight increase in lactate values at the start of the workout. Don’t be surprised if the first reading you ever do on yourself is much higher than expected during an easy effort. It doesn’t mean you’re out of shape; it means you need to warm up so that your body can supply more energy through oxidative phosphorylation. Essentially, the effort becomes more aerobic and the values come down and stabilize until you do something to disrupt it.
Dehydration Affects Lactate Testing Results
As you test more often, you’ll also see that dehydration plays a huge role in lactate readings. After all, the meter is only able to measure the concentration of lactate in a fixed amount of blood. If your total blood volume is reduced via dehydration, your readings will go up, and it can be quite substantial. It doesn’t mean that you’re producing more lactate, just that there’s the same amount in a smaller container. Think of it like a cup that’s half honey and half water. Leave it out in the sun for a day, and a good bit of the water will evaporate, but the honey will remain the same. Now you have a significantly higher concentration of honey without producing more. This is what’s happening to your lactate readings at the end of very long sessions or races, so don’t be alarmed if they occasionally pop off the curve (especially for Ironman athletes in hot climates).
When to Do Lactate Testing During the Season
Even if you’re not testing regularly, or you’re not adhering to the Norwegian method in any of its manifestations, a regular lactate test a few times a year can be vital for you and your coach, and it’s not very disruptive to the overall plan. Typically one is done during the offseason and then after each big training block during the year. It’s one of the best tools that coaches have to test the results of a training or altitude camp without throwing an athlete right into a race. It’s not a test that an athlete should do completely fatigued, but it’s also not one that requires any special rest or recovery. Do not taper for a lactate test or even a VO2max test, which you should know is much more painful, even for trypanophobic athletes.
The Training Is Key, Lactate Is Just the Byproduct
While the Norwegian model is lactate centric, like any training model, it’s important not to get too caught up in lactate whether you’re trying to make your own training model more Norwegian or just more precise.
Olav is often quick to admit that lactate gets too much attention when it comes to his own model or the Norwegian method in general. He knows the history of the method, but he prefers to use lactate as a frequent guide to see where the program is going so he can make tiny changes along the way instead of big changes at turning points, and that’s how he believes most age-groupers can benefit from it as well—whether they choose to test a few times a year or every week. He stresses that lactate meters are powerful tools, but unless someone is starting this kind of training as young as the Norwegian champions he coaches, it’s best treated as a cherry on top and not the ice cream.
Explore The Norwegian Method
The Norwegian Method explores the coaches, athletes, and lactate threshold training methods used to win races and smash records.