Lactate Runs are Great Fun

Written 3rd February 2010

I have often wondered about this thing called ‘A Lactate Run’. Apparently it occurs when you push yourself so hard your body goes from an ‘aerobic’ state to ‘anaerobic’. My understanding is it’s when your body runs out of oxygen after extended hard exercise, and your muscles are forced to operate from energy stored within. This energy releases lactate acid into the blood and eventually forces you to slow down. The good news is aerobic endurance is increased by hitting the anaerobic level, and pushing the level of your ‘Lactate Threshold Heart Rate’ (LTHR) further up the scale. By training at Lactate level, overall fitness improves.

I’ve wondered about it but never experienced it. That changed today – yep! I hit the lactate level. And it felt great....

You see, I was scheduled to do a long bike ride but some unexpected commitments meant I didn’t have the time. Instead I went for an easy 60 minutes ride - or so I thought. After the first 10 minutes I realised I felt great today and I had a ‘lot in the tank’ so I started going harder. And harder. And longer. And longer. Harder and longer than I ever have. Boy, did it feel great. On several of the flat straights I was hitting high 30s and although my lungs were gasping for air and my quads were burning, I just kept going and going. Eventually I had to slow down. And each time I did, I felt sad and a bit disappointed - I wanted to do more. My eventual Average KPH was my only second best time ever but that didn’t matter too much. I am just really pleased I am now physically and mentally strong enough to get to this level, and I am really looking forward to doing it again. I’m also looking forward to not only getting there on the bike but also being able to do it on my runs (although I realise this will be a while off).

Afterwards I learnt some good things-
1. Lactate Runs are exhausting- I was desperately tired all day and into the night. I will need coping strategies if I am going to do a lactate run before work. I also will need to realise there is a limit to how many I can do each week – rest and recovery is important
2. Food becomes critical – I was ravenous all day and ended up eating crap to satisfy the hunger. I will need to rethink my food plan for Lactate ‘days’
3. Lactate Runs are physically and emotionally draining – I felt a bit sick all day and I was a bit out of sorts (hunger didn’t help). Again, I will need strategies to manage this.
4. Lactate takes a while to leave the body – I still felt off all night, more than 12 hours later.

Overall though, the main lesson was how much fun they are- I reckon they could become addictive!

More later. Journey on!

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