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<\/p>\nTim here! If you\u2019ve been following this blog in the past, you\u2019ll know that my coach, Dan Plews (or \u2018The Plews\u2019 as I like to call him) is actually Dr Dan Plews, PhD. He\u2019s a Performance Physiologist and high-performance coach based in New Zealand. As I\u2019ve said before, The Plews is a numbers man and I\u2019m starting to recognise the value that careful monitoring and analysis of session data can have in helping to develop a training program which ultimately can maximise my performance. Unlike my mate Reedy (Tim Reed) who measures, evaluates and tweaks pretty much everything, I\u2019ve never paid too much attention to the stats\u2026 until now.<\/p>\n
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At the end of last year The Plews sent me into the Lab for some serious testing. I wouldn\u2019t call being hooked up to machines and breathing into a plastic tube \u2018fun\u2019, but establishing some kind of performance baseline under controlled conditions is crucially important – being a \u2018lab rat\u2019 is the price you pay for getting hard data. Obviously, there\u2019s some stuff that I can\u2019t tell you, but I thought you might be interested to know what the testing involved, so I\u2019ve asked Dr Dan to give you a rundown. If the nitty gritty of physiological testing isn\u2019t your thing, stop now and go for a run or a ride, but if you\u2019re interested in this stuff – read on!<\/p>\n
Take it away Dan\u2026<\/p>\n
With Tim\u2019s training we try to quantify what he does as objectively as possible. With Tim and I being apart a lot (I\u2019m in NZ and he\u2019s in Australia or Colorado or Asia or wherever) this is a very important aspect of what we do, as it\u2019s simply not possible to see each other every day.<\/p>\n
With the training that Tim does, we\u2019ve spent a lot of time trying to get accurate, objective targets around what he needs to achieve in terms of swim, bike and run to get on the podium in Kona. This means knowing speeds and powers for each of his disciplines and the required heart rate (HR) and intensity associated with each one. Knowing Tim\u2019s individual intensities and \u201cthresholds\u201d is really important to monitor his progress. For example, if Tim had a target of holding 220w for an IM, he could do that tomorrow. But the key is to get Tim to hold 220w at the correct intensity. So, establishing his individual training thresholds (the \u201caerobic\u201d and \u201canaerobic\u201d thresholds as they are commonly known) to monitor how hard he finds certain training sessions was the first aim of the testing.<\/p>\n
The second aim of the testing was to assess Tim\u2019s \u201csubstrate utilization\u201d. In other words, how does Tim use fuel in terms of fats and carbohydrates (CHO) when exercising at various intensities? When we\u2019re dealing with Ironman (an event that takes more than 8 hours), it\u2019s obvious that the triathlete\u2019s ability to burn fat at a high rate and spare CHO is very important. We call this being \u2018metabolically flexible\u2019 and in practical terms this means Tim\u2019s burning fat at the highest possible rate and only dipping into his carbohydrate reserves when he really needs to. So in an ideal world, first Tim can burn fat at a high rate, and second, at IM intensity we want as much of his energy production coming from fat as possible.<\/p>\n
Tim did two tests on two separate days for the bike and run in the exercise physiology lab. For the bike, Tim carried out what is known as a \u2018step test\u2019. Basically, this means starting off at a low intensity then increasing the power required every 5 minutes. Tim had to keep going until he could no longer turn the pedals at >80 rpm. The run was much the same, but carried out on the treadmill. Here the speed of the treadmill was increased every 5 minutes until Tim could no longer keep up with the speed of the belt. Both tests were maximal and according to Tim, \u201cIt tickled!\u201d<\/p>\n
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In order to assess aims 1 and 2, Tim was hooked up to a metabolic cart. This required Tim to have a snorkel-like device in his mouth and a clip over his nose in order to assess expired VO2 and VCO2. How we actually determine all of the above levels (i.e. thresholds, fat oxidation and carbohydrate oxidation) means getting into some in-depth physiology. But essentially we look at deflection points* as the intensity of exercise increases to establish Tim\u2019s aerobic and anaerobic thresholds and use calculations based on the ratio between VO2 and VCO2 to examine his substrate utilisation.<\/p>\n
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![\"image](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/image-2.png\")
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With the data gained from the testing we are now able to monitor Tim\u2019s training as accurately as possible. It also gives us insight into some of Tim\u2019s weaknesses and areas he needs to improve on in order to achieve his goals. Many of these interventions are already in place and they seem to be having a great effect. I can\u2019t tell you any more without giving too many of Tim\u2019s secrets away! These tests will become part of Tim\u2019s yearly routine. We aim to do two sets a year, with the next one taking place around May before Tim heads up north to compete in IM Cairns. Hopefully by that time we will have seen some great improvements and Tim will be on track in pursuit of his Kona goal.
\nCheers!
\nDan (The Plews)<\/p>\n
* A heart rate deflection point (HRDP) is defined as an upward or downward change from the generally linear heart rate to work relationship that occurs during incremental exercise testing. For example, an HRDP usually occurs around the anaerobic threshold.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":2146,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[305],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/timberkel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2137"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/timberkel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/timberkel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timberkel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timberkel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2137"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/timberkel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2137\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2149,"href":"https:\/\/timberkel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2137\/revisions\/2149"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timberkel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/2146"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/timberkel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2137"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timberkel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2137"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/timberkel.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2137"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}