Prediction of Lactate Threshold and Fixed Blood Lactate Concentrations from 3200-m Time Trial Running Performance in Untrained Females*

The present study examined the effectiveness of a 3200-m time trial run for predicting VO2 and running velocity at lactate threshold (LT), and fixed blood lactate concentrations (FBLC) of 2.0, 2.5, and 4.0 mM and peak in untrained women. Thirty-nine female subjects completed a VO2peak/LT test a 3200-m time trial run. Twenty-eight subjects were randomly assigned to a validation sample and the remaining subjects were used for cross-validation purposes. In the validation sample, VO2 measurements at LT, FBLC of 2.0, 2.5, 4.0 mM, and peak were 22.5, 29.2, 31.2, 36.5, and 38.5 ml/kg.min-1, respectively. Velocities at LT, FBLC of 2.0, 2.5, 4.0 mM, and peak were 107.1, 129.7, 136.6, 155.1, and 163.2 m/min, respectively. Regression analysis in the validation group revealed that the 3200-m time trial was an accurate predictor of velocities at LT, FBLC of 2.0, 2.5, 4.0 mM, and peak with correlations of r = 0.70, r = 0.84, r = 0.85, r = 0.87, and r = 0.95, respectively, and standard errors of estimate ranging from +/- 9.5 m/min (for velocity peak) to +/- 13.7 m/min (velocity LT). Vor VO2 prediction, correlations ranged from r = 0.61 (3200-m time vs VO2 LT) to r = 0.77 (3200-m time vs VO2 peak) with the standard errors of estimate ranging from +/- 4.18 (VO2 2.0 mM) to +/- 4.87 ml/kg.min-1 (VO2 4.0 mM).(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)