Peak blood lactate after short periods of maximal treadmill running

Blood lactate was determined in 19 untrained subjects after maximal treadmill exercise lasting for about 1 min. It was found that blood lactate increases after exercise, reaching a maximum level 6-9 min after the cessation of exercise, and the average time for the appearance of the peak blood lactate concentration was 7.65 min. Peak blood lactate concentration at 7.65 min (CLA7.65), which was calculated by substituting t (7.65) into the equation for the lactate recovery curve for each subject, agreed well with the observed peak blood lactate concentration (r = 0.98, p less than 0.001). In addition, correlations of r = -0.65, r = -0.78, r = -0.79 were found between CLA7.65 and the running times of 100 m, 200 m, and 400 m sprints, respectively. These results suggest that CLA7.65 may be used as a valid indicator of anaerobic work capacity in man.