Lactic threshold Performance testing at PURE AUSTIN

Training with power is starting to become mainstream practice in cycling; although the bandwagon may be "trendy", it does have its uses and reasons.  Obviously, the first thing is to have a power meter, but what comes after you purchase one? How do you interpret and apply the data?

        For most people, they look at it like a cycling computer.  However, the data that is put out by the power meter tells you a significantly larger amount of data than just a cycling computer.   Wattage tells you what type of energy you are applying to forward motion on the bike, and tells you how your body is responding to it.  Speed and cadence are just numbers that describe the bike's current state, but it tells nothing about YOU.  You can be going downhill at 30 mph and not really making an effort, or you could be trucking in the flats on a time trial at 30 mph. This is where the power meter is different.  What measurable effort are you putting into the bike?  The power meter gives you a measurable quantity of work/energy into the bike by giving you numbers to correlate with your efforts.

But where the power meter shines is how to pace yourself for events and what or how to train.  If you know your limits, you can work around them to improve them.  However, what are your limits? How do you test for this?  There are many ways to find power thresholds on the road, but the lab provides more solid numbers - and this is exactly what I did.

I went to get lactic threshold tested with the FacT Canada protocol, which measures your threshold by looking for a lactic balance point as it clears instead of just looking for your max wattage's lactic readings.

-David Liu