Putting Ed to the Test

Ed's coach Eric, owner and mastermind of EK Endurance, has helped Ed become a force to be reckoned with in triathlon. Ed has known Eric from when they rowed together in Boston more years ago than either of them would probably care to calculate, and it's a stroke of luck that we happened to move into Eric's neck of the woods. (He coaches athletes remotely, too, and if you're interested in finding someone to help with any fitness goals I recommend him highly.) Now that Ed is working toward a full Ironman race in August, his nutrition needs will be more complicated than ever since he will be going through so many calories during the nine-ish hours that he'll be on the course. So to help Ed come up with a plan for this, Eric suggested that Ed go to the CU Athletic Center for VO2 max and lactate threshold* tests. Obviously, I tagged along.

*What the heck does that mean? Read on.

Nice, right? Well it was freezing and snowy the day we went. 

The enormous building sits next to the stadium and smells like footballs. We took an elevator to the second floor, a well-lit, immaculately clean space filled with two types of people: formidable-looking athletes and overweight men in mesh shorts. The center provides resources for student athletes, of course, but many people from the community also come in for physical therapy and tests, like Ed's.

Eventually we were led down the hallway by our tech, Kevin, to a large room that looked out over the stadium and the mountains beyond. Not bad. The room contained two stationary bikes and a treadmill hooked up to a complicated system of monitors. On the walls were framed, signed jerseys that said things like, "Thanks for finding me some extra power!" and oversized printouts of studies with titles such as Skeletal Muscle Glycogen Content in University Football Players Before and After a Game.

Kevin, a wiry man in his mid-40s, asked Ed a lot about his history, training, goals, and nutrition, then explained a bit about the test. Ed would run on a treadmill breathing into and out of a mask that would measure his oxygen intake. Every five minutes, Kevin would accelerate the treadmill belt. Two-and-a-half minutes after that, Kevin would stick Ed's finger with a small needle and test his blood to determine how many calories he was burning at that effort level and what he was using for fuel (lactate, fat, or carbohydrates). Ed would then indicate how difficult he found the current pace on a scale of 1-10 by pointing at a page with the numbers and descriptions listed. The whole time, Ed's heart rate would be monitored via a chest strap.

The first step was to strap on the mask.

Ed warmed up for a while, and after about ten minutes, he said he felt ready to go and the test began. Kevin said that the testing times vary and that fitter people tend to take longer. Ed's test lasted about 20 minutes, which is about as long as they ever last, according to Kevin. He was very busy the whole time, either making notes on a spiral-bound notepad, monitoring the screen in front of him, or attending to either Ed or the treadmill. He was also very encouraging and kept saying things like, "Very nice, man," and "Good numbers."

To calculate VO2 max, one has to run at a maximum effort (hence the "max"), and Ed didn't get that far. After 20 minutes and five jabs at Ed's finger, Kevin said he thought he had what he needed. I've spent a lot of time watching Ed running, and I was pretty sure he was nowhere near fatigue. Sure enough, on the final segment he indicated that he found the effort level to be a 6. He was panting and sweaty when he came off the treadmill and was grateful to drink some water (something he wasn't able to do while masked), but his heart rate had stayed pretty low the whole time, and he recovered quickly. Although Kevin had assured him before the test that the mask would not restrict his air intake, Ed said he was pretty sure it had. Other than that, the finger pricks apparently didn't hurt and the whole thing wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as he'd feared it would be.

After a few minutes, Kevin tucked a laptop under his arm and led us into a small room where we sat on a couch. A PowerPoint presentation appeared on a large screen on the wall, and he took us through key slides first, explaining some important terminology. Then he brought up Ed's results, arranged into tables and on a graph.

Kevin's work station in the testing room

In short, the news is good. As Kevin put it, Ed's "engine puts out a lot of power," and he's in excellent cardiovascular shape, as evidenced by his low heart rate, even while exerting himself. His VO2 is high, meaning his lungs are able to process a lot of oxygen for his size. This is very good news because VO2 is mostly genetic and couldn't really be improved if the numbers were low.

However, although he is a reasonably efficient runner, Ed still burns a tremendous number of calories when running (and, we assume, biking and swimming, though we can't say for sure because he wasn't tested for those two activities). This isn't great, because it means he has to be careful to consume enough during races. The good news, though, is that he tends to burn fat more readily than carbohydrates. Even though Ed's body fat percentage is low, he still stores plenty of fat--as do all people, no matter how fit or thin--to get through a physical ordeal like a long race, provided he has some nutritional supplements here and there. Our bodies are able to store much more fat than carbs, so his physiology helps him a lot: his tendency to use fat for fuel efficiently means he has a lot more available fuel than if he were reliant on carbs, which have to be replenished often. Apparently one's body can get better at burning fat as opposed to carbs with the right kind of training, but there's a lot of debate about what "the right kind of training" actually is.

The testing was quite interesting, and I think Ed is glad he went. All of the information will be helpful to him as he works with Eric to tailor his training and nutrition plans to make the most out of his physiology. My friend Mary Ann, formerly an elite marathoner, participated in an aging study run by CU last year and had the same test done. In the course of her marathon career, she was tested about 25 years ago and so was able to compare those results to her more recent ones. Now in her 60s, she said her VO2 results over the span of years were almost identical and that decline over time is typically pretty minimal for just about everyone. This means Ed's results, some of them anyway, will be a reliable guide for him for years to come, for more triathlon madness or whatever other athletic endeavors he pursues.