Onset of blood lactate accumulation as a predictor of performance in top athletes

Abstract

The main purpose of this study was to investigate whether the onset of blood lactate accumulation velocity (VOBLA) is a good predictor of middle- and long-distance running performance in well-trained endurance runners. Twenty-two well-trained runners participated in this study. All participants completed a incremental test on a treadmill to determine maximal physiological variables the VOBLA (4 mmol·L-1 of lactate concentration). The relationships between VOBLA and the best 10-km (V10K) and 3-km (V3K) race pace were analyzed. The velocity for VOBLA was 17.7 ± 1.2 km·h-1 and the velocities for V10K and V3K were 21.1 ± 0.7 km·h-1 and 19.0 ± 0.8 km·h-1, respectively. A positive linear relationship was found between VOBLA and V10K (r = 0.761, P < 0.05) and between VOBLA and V3K (r = 0.561, P < 0.05). These results indicate that VOBLA is highly associated to running performance according to V10K and V3K in well-trained runners

Keywords

• Endurance
• OBLA
• correlation
• running