Metabolic testing at Lifetime Fitness, Spring 2013 3/12/13

It is a ritual for me to go Metabolic testing at Lifetime during the spring break. This is usually the time to find out how my inside training with Coach Troy has been working out. Jeff from Plano gym, has taken care of me with the testing since last fall. The time he spent with me was just about an hour or so. He conducted the test properly and efficiently and during this short period of time, he gave me some directions for my 2013 training. (Here is last year’s blog.)

Since last October was the first time he took care of the testing and we hadn’t met since, I gave him an update of what I have been doing since then. Coach Troy is National Tri Coach for LTF, but it is hard to find somebody who actually knows his name. He is in metabolic section and I thought he is only loosely aware that Cycling Club is following Coach Troy’s LTF version of Spinervals program called Performance series. I started out I have been doing lots of inside training and have not ridden too often outside yet. I explained basic four phases of Super 6 and I am on the final phase with building power and speed. I pointed out what I may need is more interval training. My power range for aerobic and threshold seem too close, which is not bad in itself as I just finished with aero phase.

I also explained how my threshold power test happened last week and my thoughts from there. I seem to go with lower cadence these days and when I am not tired, I will make it OK. However when circumstances are not ideal, I fade second half of 20 minutes and heart rate drops and of course power. I told him next time, I should shoot for 95-100 cadence. I told him my FTP is 154 latest, 158 last. Jeff explained that they started to do the testing differently since last time. They actually run a shorter version of real test and cut it off like 8-minute, then re-start the real test. The actual testing was power driven. Starting from 40 watts, 2 minutes and bump it up for the next power level. He said we might go up to 200 watts. He gave me specific cadence and wattage I should stick with while giving me lots of feedback on how the testing is going.

In the first warm-up version, Jeff told me it was giving some false data, so he told me for the real time, not much talking. (haha) The test went well. He mentioned he liked the way heart rate was going up smoothly and sometimes settled down. AT, aerobic threshold has not changed very much: October last year 161, today 162, therefore the rest of zones have not changed much either. I asked him his professional evaluation about the results. I only got so much out of it in plain English and asked rather simple question of if aero phase has served the purposes. He showed the graph for the trend and said basically yes (pictured above). He pointed out my VO2 max of 36 is pretty good for women of my age group. He also pointed I am burning good calories at zone 2. Although I would like to report the miraculous improvement for the hard winter training you can tell I had better numbers in the past.

I took the real value from the test was what I learned from Jeff and his evaluation and advice for this year. With this testing, base is where zone 2 starts where fat and carbohydrate is burn 50/50. Anaerobic threshold is where fat is no longer burnt. From there, figuring out zones is percentile. He said for me to move up zone 4, interval training will be more important. That makes sense as Coach Troy’s sequence. I told Jeff that I have to extend the current training cycle for the crazy week after spring break and power and speed phase will end April 21, Sunday for me. That is just about the best time of the year to ride here in Texas. It is still dry and when it is not Texas signature spring stormy weather, it even reminds me of New Mexico. Up till about mid-June, riding is golden. I told Jeff just about that time, I repeated last year’s power and speed phrase twice during the summer while having breaks with travels and vacations. But the performance actually declined. He immediately pointed out overtraining and basically not doing aero phase again makes more sense. I was thinking about repeating Engage because it felt like hybrid aero and power building, but it didn’t have cross training. As counter-intuitive for a straight cycling gal, the real reason I like to stick with Coach Troy’s program is how he distributes cross training.

Since my run number is so old, I think I will do the run test once the semester is over so that I do cross training in proper zones. Then maybe I will ask Jeff to do another bike testing in June/July and one more before going into Troy season. Before I left, I made sure Jeff is not planning any career change anytime soon and he is available for the next run test.

My bike zones (based on LTF style; AT is between 3 and 4)
Zone 1: 126-135
Zone 2: 136-148
Zone 3: 149-161
Zone 4: 162-171
Zone 5: 172-182