The running physiology test is a two-part test that helps us understand you as an athlete,
how you run, how you create the performances that you do.
So we measure your sub-maximal physiology,
so your lactate thresholds and your running economy, and we also measure your maximal
physiology, so your VO2 max or maximum amount of oxygen you're able to take in and use.
That can give us an overall picture to be able to develop and give you recommendations of how you
can progress your training and hopefully take you to the targets that you've shared with us.
The first part of the test is the sub-maximal test so after a warm-up you will start running at a
nice easy pace, there will be about six to ten stages and every four minutes the speed will increase.
The first variable we look at is your expired gases so you'll be wearing a face mask
while you're running so that will be measuring your inspired oxygen how much you're being able
to use and also your expired carbon dioxide, that also allows us to understand how you're using your
fuels during your exercise. You'll also be wearing a heart rate monitor so we can measure your heart
rate all the way through. At the end of each four minute stage we will be stopping the treadmill,
we'll ask you what your rate of perceived exertion is, which is a scale of 6 to 20,
to start understanding how subjectively hard you're finding that stage and we'll
also take a blood sample from your earlobe. That blood sample will be analysed and give
us your blood lactate concentration during that stage. Each stage is four minutes long and we
increase the pace between each stage by up to one kilometre an hour.
The sub max test will give you information about
your running economy, so how much oxygen you use at any given speed,
and also where your lactate thresholds lie. We can adapt this sub-maximal test protocol slightly so
that if you are training for an endurance event like iron man or ultra marathon it can give you
information about how much fat and carbohydrates you use. You have a limited supply of carbohydrate
in your body so you have to keep replenishing that as you use it in an endurance event so if you know
how much you use then you can make sure you don't run out of energy. Also optimising your ability
to use fats as a fuel will also help save those carbohydrate stores so understanding at what speed
you optimally use fats as a fuel will allow you to adapt your training appropriately to improve that.
When you finish the first part of the test you'll have about 10 minutes rest before the
second part of the test. The second part of the test is the VO2 max test so you'll be running
at a constant speed which will be two kilometres an hour slower than you finished the sub-maximal test.
From the comfortable pace that you'll be running at we will then increase the gradient
of the treadmill by one percent each minute, this will make it harder and harder for you to
keep with the pace and therefore push you towards reaching your max physiological capabilities.
So you'll be wearing the face mask again so we can see what your maximum oxygen uptake is like and
we'll also get a measure of your maximal heart rate.
After your visit we'll write up a full report
bespoke to you as the individual, we'll look to pull out your strengths and weaknesses
as well as provide you with all the data that we collected on your visit to the lab.
So the maximal test will tell us what your maximal capacity is, the sub-maximal test will
show us how much of that capacity you're able to comfortably sustain for any particular duration,
so we will be able to see whether you can achieve your particular time target with your
current physiology or whether you need to work on your maximal physiology to give you room to
shift your sub maximal physiology up so that you can achieve that particular time target.
In your report you will also get some advice on how to train so there will be a table of training zones
which will be based on your physiology data, they will be in kilometres an hour or minute
mile posts or minutes per kilometre, whatever you use in training, heart rate and also perception of
effort so if you've not got a heart rate monitor or a way of measuring your speed you can still
use the training Zone table to guide training intensity. In the report we will also give you
examples of the types of training sessions you can do to target any particular aspect of your
physiology and we can also give you advice on how to put together a training week.
This will hopefully allow you to really find that next level of performance that you are capable of but
haven't been able to access without the increased information we can provide during these tests.