Hi Everyone
I recently had a lactate threshold and vo2 max test done in a lab, its something I’ve been interested in doing for awhile to see what the results would be, as I’ve always been interested in human performance and how it works… after receiving the results I was a bit baffled with what the results were telling me and what the consultant had explained. Anyway after lots of reading and trying to understand everything… I think I am finally on the right track with training, I just wondered if some one could confirm this? My FTP before the test was 292w I’m 46 years old and 81 kg the results were as follows
LT1 Power 190w HR 134
LT2 Power 250w HR 154
Max power 375w HR 186 V02 52
Am I correct in thinking my fractional utilisation is at 66percent of my vo2 max and that more threshold/endurance work would benefit me the most ?
is my V02 Max at its limit for my age ?
Can max power be improved ? or is that the ceiling for this?
It would be much appreciated if someone as a bit more understanding of this and can explain further
Many thanks 
I believe you would need to know L/min oxygen consumption at VO2max and L/min oxygen consumption at FTP. Divide oxygen@FTP by oxygen@VO2max to get fractional utilization. Or if you have good meanmax power curve use % relative vo2max estimates from WKO5.
The difference between LT2 and FTP would require a longer conversation.
How did you determine the 292W FTP? Is this from intervals.icu auto-calc or a different sort of test?
Right, FTP and LT2 aren’t exactly the same thing, but this seems like a really big difference?
Thanks for the reply…the FTP test was done on Zwift indoor platform. The lactate test in a lab the lactate spikes to 4mmol/l at 250 watts on the trainer, I used to think that ftp and lactate threshold were the same, but the test proved not 250 watts would feel moderate to me…this is why I was puzzled at where fractional utilization sits and which would be the best way to go in regard to training ?
Lactate at 4mmol/l is not FTP.
FTP is a field test that corresponds to maximal lactate steady state.
Ok So the ftp test that was done before the lactate test is irrelevant. The graph shows that at 250watt blood lactate is at 4 and plotted as LT2.
Is the maximal lactate steady state a seperate test ? what would blood values be at ftp ? a lot higher ?
I used to be coached by FasCat, and in the old days they used to do MLSS testing. Here is some info on their website:
that is the FasCat viewpoint, based on their experiences.
Another one worth reviewing:
For more, you might try searching “maximal lactate steady state protocol” or “maximal lactate steady state testing” and/or add the word cycling to find other info.
Hope that helps.
The more I read and learn about lactate testing, the less it seems like it’s helpful - at least as a single measure. The whole “4mmol/l” thing is a generalization, and I wouldn’t go by the results of one test to set things. To use it effectively, you need to be doing a lot of good, consistent measuring.
I asked about the FTP to help understand the protocol. In my personal experience, these overestimate my FTP. But again, FTP as WW mentioned is a bit of a fuzzy number itself.
Here’s my completely unsolicited advice of what I’d do with the details you provided - I’d set my FTP somewhere in the middle of that at around 270 and do my training based on that, and then do the Zwift test again in 4-6 weeks.
Pay attention to your harder efforts and where they seem to fall in the respective ranges. If you find you can easily do them on the high side, that FTP test is probably a good way for you to measure, and now you have something you can use that you know is close. If you are only able to do them on the low side, the lactate testing number is a better reflection, at least at that point of time.
Any number you get from a single test, measurement, etc, is what you could do at that moment. No need to focus excessively on that number.