The purpose of this study was to investigate the effect of physical conditioning on the rate of blood lactate disappearance during recovery from supramaximal exercise. The rate of blood lactate disappearance was determined in 11 female and 4 male subjects before and after a 6-week conditioning programme. Blood samples were taken during the 30 minutes following supramaximal exercise during both passive (resting) and active recoveries. Pre-test active recovery was performed at 25% VO2 max; post-test active recovery was performed at both the same absolute and relative intensities (% VO2 max) as during the pre-test. Eight of the subjects trained 4 days/week for 6 weeks with high-intensity interval bicycle ergometer exercise, and 7 subjects served as controls. The conditioning programme significantly (p less than .05) increased VO2 max by 6.7 ml/kg.min (15%) and work capacity on the cycle ergometer by 2.8 minutes (27%). Physical conditioning did not affect significantly (p less than .05) the rate of blood lactate disappearance measured during passive recovery or during active recovery at the same absolute intensity, but increased significantly (p less than .05) the rate of blood lactate disappearance during active recovery performed at the same relative exercise intensity. The increased disappearance rate following conditioning was attributed to the higher absolute intensity of recovery work performed.