Upload a lab test and let your zones come from real lactate numbers

If you have ever paid for a lactate test and then watched the PDF sit in a downloads folder while your training app kept guessing your threshold from ride data, this is the feature for you. Upload the report to your Power Profile and Moveee reads the measured numbers out of it — LT1, LT2, VO₂max, FatMax, efficiency, the lab's own zone table and the raw lactate steps — and keeps them as a dated snapshot you can switch to at any time. What it will not do, and we want to be clear about this early, is silently overwrite the FTP your plan is built on. You stay in charge of that number, and the second half of this post explains why.

Why a lab number is worth having

Every threshold estimate from ride data — FTP from a 20-minute test, Critical Power from a curve fit, the estimated FTP on your Power Profile — is an inference. A lactate test measures the thing directly: blood lactate at a series of fixed power steps, from which the lab reads two turning points. Faude and colleagues' review is the clearest guide to the vocabulary: the first threshold (LT1) is where lactate first rises above baseline, and the second (LT2) is the highest intensity at which lactate production and clearance still balance. Heck's 1985 paper is the origin of the fixed 4 mmol/L convention that most European labs still print as LT2, and Poole's 2021 review is the honest account of how much argument still surrounds these definitions after fifty years.

Two practical points follow. First, LT2 and FTP are cousins, not twins: Valenzuela's group found FTP tracked the lactate threshold reasonably at group level but with individual differences large enough that you would not want to treat one as the other without checking. Second, Jamnick's review of intensity-prescription methods concluded that individually measured thresholds anchor zones better than percentages of FTP or maximum heart rate. That is the whole case for uploading the PDF: percentages are a model, and the lab measured you.

How the upload works

1. Open your Power Profile and use the actions menu (the three dots) to add a lab test. The file has to be a PDF under 20 MB.
2. Wait a moment. The read happens in the background; the Power Profile shows a "processing" card while it runs. Text is extracted from the PDF, and the numeric tables — zones and lactate steps — are read from the page images, so a report that mixes a table with a chart still comes through.
3. Review before anything is saved. You land on a review page showing the date, the lab's name and a preview that is exactly what the Power Profile will display. Correct the date or the lab name, then press "Save to my Power Profile". Nothing is live until you do; the raw extraction is kept alongside as an audit trail.
4. Switch to it whenever you like. The time filter on the Power Profile lists your lab tests next to the seasons and windows. Pick one and the page shows measured values instead of the ride-estimated curve, with a note reminding you which is which. Pick "Overall" to go back.

Reports in English and Slovenian are handled — the extractor knows "prvi laktatni prag" is LT1 and "kožna guba" is a skinfold — and it keeps the lab's own zone names and any split zones rather than forcing them into a five-zone template. Labs differ, and the readout should look like the paper you were handed.

What you get on the page

• Four headline tiles. VO₂max (relative and absolute), LT1 with power, W/kg and heart rate, LT2 the same way, and FatMax with the fat-oxidation rate in grams per minute and its percentage of VO₂max.
• The lactate curve, anchored to your turning points. LT1 and LT2 are marked at their measured watts, FatMax if the lab reported it, and if the raw step test was in the report the individual readings are plotted as dots. When a zone table exists the line is coloured by zone.
• A one-hour-at-FatMax calculator. How many grams of fat and how many total kilocalories a steady hour at your FatMax power would burn. The fat figure comes straight from the measured oxidation rate; total energy is your mechanical work divided by gross efficiency, and if the lab did not report efficiency the page says it has assumed a typical 23 per cent. The physiology behind the tile is the Achten and Jeukendrup review: fat oxidation peaks at a moderate intensity and falls away sharply above it, which is why "ride harder to burn more fat" is wrong even though "ride harder to burn more calories" is right.
• The lab's zone table. Power, heart rate and RPE per zone, in the lab's names, set from your measured LT1 and LT2.
• Body composition. Weight, height, BMI, efficiency and, if measured, the seven-site skinfold sum with each site shown on a diagram.

What it does not do, and what to do instead

This is the part most apps gloss over. Your training plan's intensities in Moveee are built from the FTP on your Rider tab, and the estimated FTP shown beside it comes from your ride history. Saving a lab test does not change either number. That is intentional: a threshold measured on a specific day in a specific protocol should not overwrite a working FTP without you looking at both, and labs disagree with each other about what "threshold" even means, as the Poole review documents at length.

So if you trust the lab's LT2 more than the ride-derived estimate — and after a well-run test, you probably should — type that power into the FTP field on your Rider tab yourself. From then on every planned session, and every planned-versus-actual verdict on the calendar, is scaled from the number the lab measured. Keep the lab snapshot for reference: the next time you test, you will have two dated readouts side by side and can see whether LT1 has moved, which for endurance riders is often the more interesting number. Seiler's work on intensity distribution rests on exactly that boundary — most training time below LT1, a smaller share above LT2, and not much in between.

When the read fails

The most common failure is a scanned report: a photograph of paper saved as a PDF, with no selectable text. The review page will tell you plainly that nothing readable came out and offer to delete the test so you can try again. Ask the testing centre for the original PDF export; almost every lab system can produce one. A second failure is a report that is mostly prose — some centres write a narrative rather than a table — in which case the scalar values usually come through but the zone table may not. You can still save what was read and refer to the paper for the rest.

Where this fits with the rest of your profile

The lab snapshot sits alongside the ride-derived picture rather than replacing it: the Critical-Power fit that produces your estimated FTP and W′, the VO₂max and FatMax estimates from power data, and the rider shape read off your power curve. If you want the background on how those estimates are made and why a measured threshold is a better anchor, read LT1 and LT2 explained, Critical Power versus FTP and how many training zones you need. And if a lab is out of reach, home lactate testing covers what a handheld meter can and cannot tell you.