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Jan
31
2008
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Physiological Testing for Athletes: Update |
DUBLIN, IRELAND (Team Geared Up) As I was saying earlier, this morning saw me head to Trinity College Dublin for my physiological tests. Like I said I wasn’t sure what to expect and it was kinda nerve wracking. Firstly there was a round of questions about age, health, how often and what type of exercise you do, family illness, allergies, you get the idea. There was also a lung test, blood pressure and a couple of other things that your doctor might do on a standard health check. There was also a blood test. After an initial 10 minutes of wram up on a treadmill and a little light stretching the real testing begun.
Basically you put on a heart monitor, you’re hooked up to a harnass (in case you fall off the treadmill!) and have a face mask very tightly fixed over your mouth. After recording you for 3 minutes in a stationery position you begin running slowly for 3 minutes. During that a small amount of blood is taken. Every 3 minutes the speed is increased and blood taken and stats recorded (heart rate, oxygen, I suppose). Eventually it all gets too much and you call a halt! It’s quite alien to be running with something over your mouth and it feels wrong to be running fast on a treadmill, you feel like something out of a cartoon that’s going to disappear flying off the back of it leaving an ‘Aisling-shaped’ imprint in the nearest wall.
I’m not an expert (!!) but the blood gives information relating to your diet and general health (mines good thankfully!). I don’t really know what the body fat and mass info tells you in relation to your performance or potential performance. Apparently my aerobic capacity is very good for my gender/ age/ level and my VO2 max was super! He also said I used body fat efficiently during exercise. He concluded that I was well suited to long distance/ endurance events and gave me a programme (heart rate controlled) to improve my performance. He also said to not lose weight (bring on the sticky buns) but to increase muscle strength with resistance training. I’m probably interpreting half of what he said all wrong as it’s a lot to take in all at once, especially with terminology you’re not familiar with and graphs and charts to take in too. (I’m only telling you the positive bits of mine of course!)
I’ll pass on the info. to Nige who kindly offered to take a look. Anyone else had this done? Let me know if you improved with the use of the Heart Rate monitor.
-Aisling-
Latest Comments (6):
What speed did they have you run on treadmill? (or was that not memorable when dealing with a facemask?!)
Is there breathing resistance or oxygen deprivation or anything going on?
Guessing something like this?
Yeah Robin it was a lot like that, but I had a top on! Actually I had a harnass on too and the breathing contraption didn’t look as crazy as that thing. What I had on was just over my mouth and nose with strapping and there’s no deprivation of oxygen, they’re just measuring.
I got up to 18k an hour on the test. He said before the test that people tested without the mask scored the same. It just gives a feeling of panic when you start to get uncomfortable. As soon as you stop you’re kicking yourself for not continuing!!
18k an hour! f*** me.
(4.28mins/km) 14km/hr on a treadmill is about my max I can comfortably sustain.
How long was the test??
I’d say the whole thing was about an hour but only 30 minutes of that was on the treadmill. When I started the 17k he said - ok this is the last one - so when the I got to the end of that I was expecting to stop. But anyway I gave him a thumbs up when he asked if I wanted to continue, I went on but felt uncomfortable. It’s well worth doing as an experiment for your own interests.
I’ve got my heart monitor on now and I’m going on a 16 mile run. I’m gonna keep Heart Rate low enough (about 150 ish) as instructed!!! Will let you know how it goes trying to keep within a zone.
Sounds fascinating getting the test.
I actually tried to get onto the tests with the Beacon when they were starting out a few years back, but I wasn’t running much at the time and didn’t know what to make of doing it on a climber :)
Always interesting to hear about running in the HR zone - it used to drive me mad when I tried it, unless it was at the speed I wanted to run at…..which potentially defeats the purpose.
Having said that, any time I’ve ever completely sold myself to following a proper training plan, it’s completely paid off in the long run. Currently putting my own one together today :)
Interested to see how you get on today.
Hi Aisling
Can you send me your email? Thanks, Avril avrilcopel@aol.com I tried to email you, but it got returned! the joys of technology.
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