I can see clearly now, my trip to the Human Performance Lab

Monday I was like a kid waiting to get out of school. I knew my trip to the Human Performance Lab was going to be very interesting, eye opening, and possibly fun. I ultimately learned I was less than half the man Lance Armstrong is with regard to VO2Max, and probably 4 times the man he is with regard to body fat, but we'll get to that in a bit.

I got to the lab 20 minutes early to be ready for the 5:30 appointment. The tests would conducted while I road my bike so I didn't have to learn anything about operating a test bike. I dropped my bike in the lab and got changed.

The tests started with measuring my height and weight. The height was the usual 5'9", but my weight, at 175 lbs, pissed me off because I'm 20 lbs heavier than I want to be. Next came the body fat composition measurements. I felt OK with all the pinch measurements - there were 8 I think, until they got to just right of my belly button. That's when I realized at least one area of my body that needed to be significantly smaller.

Chris Newport the lab coordinator hooked my bike up to a trainer and a cadence sensor. She hooked a heart rate monitor to me. I switched on my Garmin so I could have a frame of reference for what I was doing since I couldn't see their data. Riding a steady speed and candence was important. The trainer was set to hold me at a specific level of watts regardless of cadence or speed.

The trainer and I warmed up at 50 watts for a few minutes while Chris calibrated the monitors. I got a swallow or two of water and then they hooked me up to the breathing mask to measure my VO2Max. It was more comfortable than I thought it might be, but I felt a bit like Darth Vader and sounded like him too.

The test started at 100 watts and ramped 30 watts every 3 minutes until I blew up at 280 watts. The lactic acid measurements came from blood drops taken from my ear lobe. I forgot to ask why they were taking it from my ear lobe, but it didn't hurt and I barely noticed. The test felt like going up a gentle climb until getting to 190 watts. It felt very hard starting at 250. I hit my lactic threshold at 161 bpm heart rate and 215 watts according to the tests. I now know exactly what hitting my lactic threshold feels like for the first time.

After exploding at 280 watts, the mask came off, and Chris ramped the trainer down to 100 watts to let me spin down gracefully for about 5 minutes. WATER!!! I got some water, cooled down and then they pointed me to the showers. It took them about 15-20 minutes to crunch the numbers. The test from warm up to cool down took about 40 minutes.

I got showered, changed and headed back to the lab. Chris was still crunching the numbers, but she told me immediately I was "over reaching" in my training. My Saturday 73 mile ride was a bad idea in retrospect and forced them to adjust the numbers a bit, but the first conclusion was the same. I was training the wrong way. Riding full out most of the time was not helping and was actually hurting my immediate and long-term performance. Time for a change in approach.

Cycling has been my therapy for the last 3 years or so and I've tended to ride like a mad man every time I get into the saddle so I could come home a nicer more normal person. I don't have ride like that now to be sane, so I need to train more efficiently, with a goal for every ride and half the rides should be"recovery rides". Recovery rides, after a discussion with the lab team, mean staying in the base area without spikes into the T1 area, thus avoiding muscle breakdowns. This is so I'll be ready to break my muscles down the right way on T1-T2 rides.

There was some good news in the results. My VO2Max at 40.3 is in the "good" range for a 46 year old. My body fat, at 18.3%, was also actually in the "good" range. I felt fat, but I was in the good range? Really?! Chubby must be the new normal! My percent of VO2Max at my lactic threshold was 82.8 % and my watts/kg at my lactic threshold was 2.71.

With Chris' input, I established the following goals:

1. Push VO2Max to above 45 ml/kg/min which would put me in the "excellent range" for men my age.
   
2. Drop my weight to 155 lbs (70.3 kgs), or about 7.5% body fat. 10% would be 159 lbs (72.12 kgs), which is where I was last summer.
3. Push my % of VO2Max at lactic threshold to above 85%
4. Produce over 3.1 watts/kg power at my lactic threshold which would be 225 watts at 159 lbs, or dropping my weight to 70.3 kgs and producing the same 215 watts at my lactic threshold.
5. Max watts of over 4.25 watts/kg for a 3 minute time. I'm at 3.528 now. I can hit that with with weight loss down to 155 and 300 max watts or 306 at 159 lbs.
   
6. Moving my lactic threshold curve to the right which means to raise the level and delay hitting my lactic threshold. I should have talked to her more about what is reasonable, but spaced on it.

Next we talked about training and nutrition. She was very clear about allowing my body recover from hard rides and to do some easier rides to build my capillary system for more power and speed over time. Patience and sanity now means more speed and power in the future-got it. The tests set my exercise zones based on the HPL's system, which is Base, T1 (training1), T2, SS (super speed), which in turn are set by heart rate ranges and power output.

Nearly all of my training before these tests tended to be somewhere in the T2-SS zones. I tried to convince myself that riding at 135 bpm wasn't riding hard enough. I proved that theory wrong by riding the next day watching heart rate most of time and ignoring my speed. Ok it could be done, if I focused, which is the bane of my existence-focus! She said I would lose weight faster and get faster if I backed off half the time and quit killing it all the time, because at higher speeds your body stops buring fat and only burns carbs.

I have to admit, nutrition and fuel during rides have been a mysteries to me. Chris explained my kcal/min fuel consumption at specific heart rates. Matching the kcal/min to heart rate multiplied by length of ride and you have the calories needed to break even. Meaning, a recovery ride at 139 bpm average rate for 60 minutes means 570 calories at 9.5 kcal/min. WOW it all makes sense now.

Chris suggested finding a sports drink I liked cold and warm. We discussed several brands and the ones I've liked seemed to be the ones she recommended. We also discussed gels and food. Gels seem to be more sugar with some electrolytes. In her opinion, food or gels are for the times you want to put something in your stomach that might stay there awhile longer than a sports drink thus delaying hunger.

The trip to the HPL will no doubt have a direct impact on my fitness and race results. I now understand how to correctly train for long term perfomance improvement, which will also improve my overall health. I have clear numeric goals with an understanding of how to achieve them and how to measure progress. The world of nutrition for rides is now significantly more clear than it was before my visit. I know I could take multiple classes and read labels for days, but the critical points are now clear.

Now all I need to do is follow their instructions and apply what I've learned. How tough could that be? Well it won't be easy since I want to kill it every time I ride, however, I am comitted to making it happen.