Blood Lactate Accumulation During Exercise in Older Endurance Runners

Abstract

To delineate the possible age-related differences in blood lactate response during exercise and its relations to endurance performance, 34 male runners (aged 21 to 69 years) performed an incremental treadmill running test. There were no significant differences in training distance and relative body fat among younger runners (YR), middle-aged runners (MR), and older runners (OR). The 5-km run time slowed with age, but was ranked at relatively the same level in each age group. OR had a 23% (P less than 0.001) and 12% (P less than 0.01) lower maximal oxygen uptake (VO2max) and a 22% (P less than 0.001) and 11% (P less than 0.001) slower 5-km run time than YR and MR, respectively. However, mean VO2 corresponding to 4 mM of blood lactate (OBLA VO2) was the same among the groups when expressed as %VO2max (YR; 84.3%, MR; 85.9%, OR; 85.9%). Significant correlations were found between OBLA VO2 (ml.kg-1.min-1) and 5-km run time in each group (YR; r = -0.648, P less than 0.05; MR; r = -0.658, P less than 0.01; OR; r = -0.680, P less than 0.05). These results suggest that OR attain a given blood lactate level at almost similar %VO2max to YR and MR and that OBLA VO2 in OR is useful for evaluating an endurance performance as well as in YR and in MR.

Endurance performance in masters athletes

“…Research has consistently shown that both VO 2 at lactate threshold [31] and velocity at lactate threshold are better predictors of endurance running performance than VO 2max [6,68] in younger distance runners. In older runners, it appears that endurance running performance is correlated with both VO 2max and velocity at lactate threshold in male runners [50,96] and highly trained older female runners [28,108]. The latter study used stepwise regression analyses on subjects pooled from different age groups and determined that the majority (60%) of the variability in performance for runners aged 23-47 year was explained by the running velocity at which LT occurred, whereas VO 2max explained the majority (74%) of the variability for the runners aged 37-56 years.…”

Endurance exercise performance in Masters athletes: age‐associated changes and underlying physiological mechanisms

“…In young endurance‐trained adults, the lactate threshold predicts exercise performance in distance events ranging from 2 miles to the marathon (Hagberg & Coyle, 1983; Allen et al 1985; Joyner, 1993), whereas power output at the lactate threshold is the best laboratory predictor of time‐trial performance among competitive female Masters cyclists (Nichols et al 1997). Absolute work rate or running speed at lactate threshold declines with advancing age in endurance athletes (Iwaoka et al 1988; Maffulli et al 1994; Evans et al 1995; Wiswell et al 2000). However, lactate threshold does not appear to change with increasing age when expressed relative to the percentage of (Iwaoka et al 1988; Maffulli et al 1994; Evans et al 1995).…”

Factors influencing assessment of maximal heart rate

“…In most studies reporting HR,,,, the values given probably originate from common Vo2 , , , tests. A specific HR,,, procedure is seldom described (5,6,8,12,13). The standard criteria normally used to assure that Vo, is achieved are usually not adequate to assure that HR,,, is achieved.…”

“…Many studies reporting measurement of HR,,, do not describe a specific HR,,, test procedure (5-11). Often the given HR,,, values originate from registration obtained during maximal oxygen uptake tests (12,13).The, aim of this study was to investigate the influence of warm-up, time and number of runs, angle on the treadmill and importance of being rested to assess HR,,, during running. Furthermore, peak HR from field and laboratory testing have been compared.…”

“…Many studies reporting measurement of HR,,, do not describe a specific HR,,, test procedure (5-11). Often the given HR,,, values originate from registration obtained during maximal oxygen uptake tests (12,13).…”