Increased Blood Lactate Level Deteriorates Running Economy in World Class Endurance Athletes. Issue 5 (May 2016)

• Record Type: Journal Article
• Authors: Hoff, Jan; Støren, Øyvind; Finstad, Arnstein; Wang, Eivind; Helgerud, Jan
• Is Part Of: Journal of strength and conditioning research. Volume 30:Issue 5(2016)
• Publication Date: 2016-05
• Subjects: oxygen cost of running -- lactate threshold -- lactic acid -- V[Combining Dot Above]O2max -- V[Combining Dot Above]O2 slow component; Physical education and training -- Periodicals; Weight training -- Physiological aspects -- Periodicals; Physical fitness -- Periodicals; 613.7
• DOI: 10.1519/JSC.0000000000001349
• Languages: English
• ISSNs: 1064-8011

Abstract

Abstract : Abstract: Hoff, J, Støren, Ø, Finstad, A, Wang, E, and Helgerud, J. Increased blood lactate level deteriorates running economy in world class endurance athletes. J Strength Cond Res 30(5): 1373–1378, 2016—Blood lactate accumulation is associated with development of muscle fatigue and negatively correlated to endurance performance. No research has quantified the effects of lactate presence at moderate levels of lactate accumulation. The purpose of this study was to test whether 2 moderate blood lactate concentration levels affect running economy (RE) when running at the individual lactate threshold (LT). Seven male world class endurance athletes with an average V[Combining Dot Above]O2 max of 80.7 ± 2.7 ml·kg −1 ·min −1 or 5.8 ± 0.5 L·min −1 participated in this study. After the V[Combining Dot Above]O2 max test, the subjects were resting or walking and in a random order tested for RE at their LT velocity when the blood lactate level reached either 3 mmol·L −1 or 5 mmol·L −1 . After a new 5-minute exercising period at maximal aerobic velocity, the crossover lactate value RE testing was performed. Running economy was significantly ( p ⩽ 0.05) deteriorated from 0.668 ± 0.044 to 0.705 ± 0.056 ml·kg −0.75 ·m −1 or 5.5% ( p ⩽ 0.05) for blood lactate level of 3 mmol·L −1 compared with 5 mmol·L −1, respectively. Increased lactate level from 3 to 5 mmol·L −1 is thus accompanied by deteriorated RE at LT running velocity. The deteriorated RE at moderate levels of lactate concentration emphasizes the importance of avoiding intensities above LT in the early parts of a dominantly aerobic endurance competition. It also emphasizes the importance of a high V[Combining Dot Above]O2 max for aerobic endurance athletes and may partly explain the V[Combining Dot Above]O2 slow component as impaired RE.