10-Mile Time Trial: Another Lactate Threshold Test

I have neglected to post about any of our rides so far this year. I think it is mostly because they've all been training rides around our house. Same ol' stuff. We're racking up the miles, already over 1,000 for the year. And every single ride has started from home. Including today. I had to write up today, though, because it isn't your ordinary every day ride like all the rest. Today we did a (self-timed) 10-mile time trial so that we could get an approximation of our current Lactate Threshold heart rate.

10-mile Time Trial	7/2009	8/2009	6/2010	5/2012	4/2013 (today)
Time	29m 21s	29m 18s	28m 40s	28m 20s	28m 10s
Average Moving Speed	20.44 mph	20.48 mph	20.93 mph	21.18 mph	21.30 mph
Average Heart Rate (entire 10 miles)	156 bpm	158 bpm	160.9 bpm	159.7 bpm	162.8 bpm
Est. Lactate Threshold (average heart rate last 20 minutes)	n/a	n/a	165.9 bpm	162.1 bpm	164.6 bpm

There is nothing quite like starting your day with an all out 10-mile suffer-fest. It really gets your blood pumping. And the legs... screaming. Had to use a Jens Voigt quote a few times: "Shut up, legs!"

This is the first time Amy joined me in one of these LT tests. After it was done she said she would much rather be climbing up a grade. Big surprise there. It was nice for me though because I had her start a little before me. The reason for this, I told her, was that if she got a flat I would be able to stop and help, rather than potentially be in front of her and not know about it at all. The real reason, I mean, er, uh, the side benefit of this method was that she was the rabbit, and all I had to do was chase her. Let me just tell you that it is very motivating to try to catch your wife in a race.

Not sure if an LT of 165 bpm at this stage of the year is progress or not. It is higher than last year's May number of 162 bpm, so maybe that means I'm in better shape than last year by May? Or maybe worse shape since it required more cardio work (higher by 3 bpm) in order to shave off only 10 seconds... Though it is hard to tell as minor wind differences can make a huge difference between days.

Who knows. It is pretty much where I expected it to be, though I think later in the season I can notch it up a few more beats, as the start of the last 20 minutes was low 160s and at the end I was consistently at 170 bpm or so. This tells me I could probably push it a little more at the beginning. Not sure I could have today though, as I was pretty much going as fast as my little legs could pedal. They just didn't have any more in them. It is relatively early in the season, afterall.

All in all I am quite satisfied with the result.