LTHR test - HR unrealistic

pru77 2 months ago

I did my running lactate threshold test 3wks ago - the HR zones were way too high (my max HR is 164 and it was set as 182) so I maxed out and still didn't find a lactate threshold. So I repeated it the other day, resetting max HR to 164 and after 10min warm-up, 4mins at zone 120-135bpm, 4 at 112-120bpm then another 4 at 120-135bpm, my HR reached a max of 144 and my watch stopped the test to say my threshold had registered at 152bpm. I wasn't running particularly hard...is this how it's meant to work? I thought you had to max out......also it says my Zone 5 is 131% of LTHR!???, which is 199bpm! I've never even been close to that at full sprint!

0 Etupes25 2 months ago

pru77 said:
is this how it's meant to work?

Yes. You don't need to "max out" your HR. The algorithm is looking for certain HR and HRV dynamics around about 90% of Max HR.

In your case you end up at 152/164 which is 92.6%. It is common to see percentages higher than 90% for well trained athletes.

Utlimately, you need to feel confident you could run close to 1h at the threshold pace. Of course if you do this, your HR will drift seriously into Zone 5. Your LT pace should be slightly under your best 10k pace (around 5 sec per mile maybe)

pru77 said:
also it says my Zone 5 is 131% of LTHR!???

After you have done a LTHR test, received a new LTHR auto-detection or a new Max HR auto-detection, remember to reset your HR zones. There is a bug where the zone % are messed up after some of the events happen.