Suggestion is that you go back to where they tested you and ask them for either testing again or for a refund...
at 150w at LT, there is no way in the world you would go 5h26' for IMC. My wife has her LT higher and went 6h at IMF....

However to answer your question

to improve strength:
climbing big gear: things like 3h ride with 4x5' big gear seated, rpm around 65, lower if no knee problem, and increase until you can do 4x12' or 4x15' recovery downhill
flat big gear: during long rides, include stretches on the flat, aero position, slow rpm, biggest gear you can. start with 2x10km, increase until 90km straight.
for these two, HR is irrelevant as the muscles move slowly. increase the distance very carefully. watch for knees.

to improve LT:
typically work around 95 and 105% of LT. (however in your case, I seriously doubt the results found are correct as far as watts are concerned)
set could be from 5x6' at LT+5% R:2-3' build up until you can do 1h straight close to 100% of LT (may take several seasons).

to improve Vo2max:
a little test would help: such as 4km flat out (pursuit type) or 3km (effort should be about 5-6') that will give you an estimate of power at Vo2 and the HR for the mid part of the test, an estimate of HR at Vo2max.
Vo2max session:
1. 1h30 to 2h including 2x(8 to 10x30'' at Vo2 R:30'') R:5' between the two sets. you can do the first 8 or 10 on the flat, the second uphill
2. 1km reps such as 6x1km R:1'30'' at Vo2 build up until 10x1km

or alternatively 1' to 1'30'' efforts uphill, recovery time about same as effort.

Power: similar to Vo2 with recovery twice as effort and you can push the effort up to 110% of Vo2max

hope this helps

Thanks Francois!

All those suggestions make a lot of sense. I'll definitely give those workouts a try. I've got one more question, if that's OK...do you have a book or anything that you'd recommend I read on this subject?

Francois is correct, there is no way you did 5:26 at IMC with an LT power of 150.

For reference, my LT power (average power in a 30' TT) is around 210-220. Extrapolating from my Lubbock 1/2 IM results I expect that I would get a 6 hr bike split at IM FL.

they are not so many good books for cycling (imho).
However, you can have a look at the cyclist and the triathlete training bible of J. Friel.

Burke has written books on cycling but I am not a big fan, except the aero part.

I have written a couple of training articles on cycling one for strength, one for Vo2max training, that you can find on www.competitionzone.com (I think)
they are not top written but describe the info of the previous post a bit more precisely.

Great question and Great response!!



Just confirming that this forum is one of the best sources for useful and pertinent information on the net!



CM

I agree with Francois that your LT seems to have been highly underestimated. My LT last year was 245 Watts (I'm 160 lb) and I went 5'26'' on the bike @IMC (9'53'' total). Your weight will influence things. It's often good to look at your power to weight ratio (ie if your 100 lb a 150 watt LT much better than if your 250 lbs).

My coach tests and prescribes bike workouts by wattage. His approach to increasing LT is to ride just above LT for 3-5', recover just below for 3-5' and repeat to failure. Failure should occur between 20 and 40'. Eg last year I'd do 5' at 250 Watts and then 5' at 230 Watts. These are very tough workouts (for me at least). They also require that you have a power measurement or control device (ie computrainer, SRM or power tap). You can subsitute HR for power as your intensity measure but it is a lot less reliable and it is only valid during the first 5-10' as your HR will drift upwards after that.

Good luck with your training.

Richard

A highly effective workout which I learned from some of the very smart people (exercise physiologists, etc.) that post on the Wattage list is 2 x 20 minutes (with about 5 minutes rest between) at 95-105% of your LT power, defined as the average power you can hold during a 40k time trial (approx. 60 minute). I do this session two times a week using my Computrainer in ergometer mode, increasing the wattage by 5 watts every 2 weeks.

I've seen substantial gains in LT power, as well as my steady state power output in the endurance and tempo zones, since implementing this regimen.

More info than you ever wanted to read about this kind of training can be found in the archives of the Wattage list on Topica.

Brent

LT: 5- to 10-mile time trials, hard as you can.



Power: short hills (two min or so) hard and fast, in a bigger gear than normal.

---

"My strategy is to start out slow and then peter-out altogether" Walt Stack

I have seen a study which indicated that 4 mmol/L may not be an appropriate definition of LT for all people. In the study subjects rode a 1hr time trial while there blood lactate was monitored. The result was that some of the subjects were able to tolerate a higher than the 4 mmol/L level.

How did your measured LT correspond with other variables such as ventilatory threshold, RPE, and HR during time trial efforts? It appears possible that 4 mmol/L is not physiologically correct for you.

Excellent point Richard.
I was kind of wondering about that myself.
I think my weakness is that although I have a high tolerance for lactic acid, I produce lactic acid at very low levels of exertion.

Here are my reasons for saying this:
1. In the performance test, my RPE and HR at LT felt very low. I hit 4 mmol around 145 bpm. and RPE about 13 or 14. That seems really easy to me- to put it in perspective- when I wore my HRM at Ironman last year, my average heart rate was 148 for the bike split.

2. Friel's book says avg. hr and watts on an 8-10 mile TT gives a pretty good approximation of LT hr and watts. I've tried this on my computrainer, and get an avg. hr of 157 and an avg. watts of 230. This is compared with a HR of 144 and watts of 150 when my lactate was measured directly.


3.Friel also says that on his ramp test (start at 100 watts and ramp up by 20 watts per minute), most people can 3-4 minutes past LT. When I do this test, I konk out at about 340 watts. This means I'm lasting at least 6-10 minutes past LT (depending on which definition of LT we're going with).

I've really appreciated everyone's comments here! I'm part of a cycling group in Toronto I'll try and put everyone's suggested workouts on our website (lanternerouge.ca)and post that info. here again when it's done.

keeping with this theme, the problem aloso may be that the tester was giving him a different value than what he was looking for. when people say LT, they often mean OBLA. LT, satrictly speaking in exercise physiology terms, occurs at blood lactate concentration of >= 1mM/L. OBLA (onset of blood lactate) occurs at 4mM/L. If he asked the tester for his LT, the tester may have given it to him ,not knowing what he really wanted to know was his OBLA. This is just a possibility, a misunderstanding.

tommy