Concept2 Forum

Hi,

Has anyone got any thoughts on which of the above is more
beneficial when training on the erg.

I can’t afford both (!) so wanted to choose the one that gives me the most bang for my buck.

Thanks ,
Paul

I'm not 100% sure, but you should go for lactate testing. That will inform your steady state, so the main bulk, of your training and that will subsequently help your faster sessions.

I'm never sure what benefit V02 max gives other than possible bragging rights? Even if you get told your max is 99 it means nothing if you don't do something with it. I'll be happy to be educated if I'm off the mark on this.

Lactate profile for sure, tells you so much more than vo2max.

Usually they do both at the same time. If you are doing it for rowing, make sure they test you whilst rowing.

Lucasd48 wrote: ↑

February 26th, 2025, 12:11 pm

Lactate testing or Vo2 max...

How were you planning to use the results of Lactate Testing or VO2 max?

As said above Lactate will give you a mapping to HR which will let you do zone training, especially pyramid and polarized. That's what I would choose.

Not sure what a single VO2 max data point tells you. Change in VO2max is interesting, not sure how to use the absolute value of VO2max. But if you do the VO2 max test please let us know how close it comes to the C2 2K time predicted VO2MAX. https://www.concept2.com/training/vo2ma ... 7kQAvD_BwE

Lucasd48 wrote: ↑

February 26th, 2025, 12:11 pm

Has anyone got any thoughts on which of the above is more beneficial when training on the erg.

Neither is beneficial when training on the erg. They only loosely correlate with performance, and change quicker than you might think during the training process and not necessarily in the direction you might expect. More than pretty much any other activity, the erg gives you instant and accurate feedback on the work you are performing. You can use that feedback to tailor your training better than vague and unstable proxies like lactate threshold or VO2 max and get better results.

I have never taken a lactate test but naively would assume that the result is heart rate bands for your workouts. The problem is: heart rate is not only influenced by exertion level. Nutritional status and temperature also play a role. That effects both ends: your condition at the test (where the bands are established) and your condition at subsequent workouts.

To get the most out of this you likely have to buy a lactate meter which runs about 500 EUR and test all the time during training.

It's likely no worth it. Naively I believe that the main application of this is to prevent overtraining and you can ask yourself: is this your problem?
I have found that the C2 training guide gives you very reasonable guidelines to choose the paces for the various workouts based on 2K performance.