I am starting an LT1 focused blocked and did my first ride this morning. Lactate before starting the session was 2.4 and at the end of the two hour LT1 block it was 3.3. Would you consider this a good number to base LT1 off? The effort for the session was comfortable the whole time and heart rate was in line with what Vt1 showed while the power was much higher than Vt1 from a TymeWear ramp test. Any insight would be greatly appreciated!
Trevor
Dear @TrevStar225 thank you for your insightful comment.
I will throw my 2 cents here after I had a look at the data.
As far as I can see, Athletica suggests VT1~270 W, which is in line with what you’re reporting. Lactate being 3.3 at the end is not crazy, but it might indicate a sliiiiight drift, but this is not confirmed by the heart rate. So it’s all good. Overall it sounds you were keeping the VT1 pace, which is end of Z1 for 3-zone model or upper Z2 in Athletica 7-zone model.
PS: I’m not familiar with the TymeWear ramp test. How fast was your ramp in terms of W/min of increased load?
PPS: looking at your Workout Reserve after the session, I noticed that this was likely one of your first sessions in the last 6 weeks at this power/duration combination. I am interested to see how WR will behave in the next LT1 sessions you will be doing.
Andrea,
Thank you so much for the insight! Workout reserve is one of my favorite features to look at after each ride and occasionally during rides. I didn’t even think to look to see if Athletica updated my Lt1 after this ride so that is great news. The TymeWear test was 3:00 steps with 30 watt jumps and I started at 150 watts. It is possible the data from this round of testing was inaccurate as I had an issue and had to sync the TymeWear breath data with the Zwift power/ heart rate data. As a side not even though I self coach the insights gained, the amount of free knowledge provided, and this amazing sense of community make Athletica worth every penny. I cannot recommend the product enough of over your competitors!
Thank you again for your help; it is truly appreciated.
Trevor
Thank you for your kind words @TrevStar225 .
I am quite interested in knowing the effects of the different test protocols on VT1 power estimation. As far as i understand the TymeWear ramp test is not a true ramp strictly speaking. Is more a step test, isn’t it? The power is not constantly adjusting linearly. OK, it’s not a long-graded test (4’ per step) but still quite long step protocol. It might be (might) that VT1 power is underestimated with a step protocol. This is usually more of an issue for VO2max power rather than VT1 by the way. During the test you have 4 steps in the test before getting to 270 W, and the steps themselves require fast adjustments to the load. Perhaps ventilation was already ramping because of the steps and hence Tymewear detected VT1 there. In absence of steps, but with the power increasing steadily you might get to higher workloads before seeing the ventilation kicking. (but I’m just speculating right now so I’ll stop here 
).
The speculation is definitely welcome as I try to understand it more. Another thing I thought was that potentially TymeWear detected me blowing my nose several times on the way up in steps as an increase in ventilation. Perhaps next time I will also use my lactate meter to see how the numbers compare. It is fun having access to all these different numbers but in the end it really comes down to RPE it seems. Thank you again for all the insight; I am always open to learn from those more knowledgable than me 
