Blood Lactate Test - Physiological Assessment for Runners

Earlier this week Marcus and I traveled down to London to meet-up with Andy, one of the runners I’m helping prepare for London Marathon, to put him through some physiological testing, specifically a blood lactate test on the treadmill (also known as an OBLA test).

I wanted to introduce Andy to Phil McCoy, an exercise physiologist who works out of Pure Sports Medicine in The City, so he could be put through a physiological assessment to accurately determine his specific heart rate training zones, through blood lactate testing.

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I know lots of runners who either work to heart rate, or are keen to start doing-so in their training, but are only really guesstimating their training zones. This scientific approach will give any runner objective data from which individual specific heart rate zones can worked-out.

Phil put Andy through a blood lactate test, which is essentially a treadmill run which gets incrementally faster stage-by-stage while Andy had his heart rate, and perceived effort measured at the end of each stage, as well as having a blood sample taken.

Each blood sample is quickly tested for lactate concentration, and the value then recorded.

Simply put, analysing the heart rate data alongside speed on the treadmill, and lactate concentration, allows Phil to identify the threshold when Andy switches energy systems from aerobic to anaerobic respiration to continue running, and lactate begins to accumulate in his blood. Phil can use this data to accurately determine heart rate training zones for Andy to use in his coming training block.

This quick video gives you a little insight into this type of testing. It’s the sort of thing to so many of us runners would benefit from, not just the elites at the top end of performance.

Let me know in the comments below, if this is something you’ve had done yourself, and if so what your experience of the process was… or something you’d be interested in exploring further!

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ABOUT ME: I'm a runner, sports rehabilitation specialist and coach based in the UK (Norwich and London).

Since 2007 I've been working with athletes focusing specifically on helping distance runners and triathletes overcome injury and improve performance through developing their individual running technique.

Running biomechanics has become a geeky little passion of mine!

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