I decided to do the test on the bike, since that is really my main method of training, and since I have pretty bad knees that can make running painful. When I arrived, I sat on the bike for a bit to get it adjusted to where it was comfortable for me. When Mary, my test administrator arrived, she took some of my personal information and asked a few questions, then hooked me up to a mask and linked up to my heart rate monitor. Once the mask was in place and tight, she had me go through a warm-up session to get my heart rate going and to make sure the mask and heart rate monitor were working correctly.
With my warm-up complete, I was able to take a little break to drink some water, then it was time to begin the test. Basically, I pedaled at a constant cadence throughout the test, as she slowly increased the tension on the bike, causing me to work harder and harder. I think she increase the tension about every 2 minutes. This allowed me to slowly increase my heart rate through all my heart rate zones, which the heart rate monitor and the New Leaf contraption were measuring my breathing and heart rate. I'm not sure, but I believe by measuring my breathing, they are able to measure my oxygen use, determine how much fat vs carbs I am burning, and match that to my heart rate at any particular time. The test ended up taking about 40 minutes or so, I think. I didn't keep a good track of when I started. I worked at a cadence of about 80 RPMs, but I think if I would have used a higher cadence, I would have completed the test sooner and still gotten the same results. I'll have to ask about that when I do the test again.
At the completion of the test, I was thrilled to take off the mask and drink some water. As Mary was working on compiling and printing my results, I took a minute to wipe all my disgusting sweat off of their bike. I was then given my results, and login information for the New Leaf web site.
We sat down and talked about the results for a bit, which really surprised me. During my training, I had been making some assumptions of my heart rate zones, based on comfort level, and some rudimentary calculations. I was waaaay off. I have typically been doing my "aerobic" work at about 150-155 bpm, but looking at my test results, that's not even in Zone 1! My Zone 1 starts at 161 bpm. At 161-170 bpm, I would be in an "aerobic recovery" zone, and my true "aerobic endurance" zone would be Zone 2, 171-175 bpm. Based on past experience, 171-175 bpm for any length of time would be extremely difficult for me. I'm not sure how I'm supposed to be able to work that hard during one of my Spinervals aerobic workouts.
Here are a couple pages from my assessment. My testing administration showed me a couple other pages, but I'm not sure I have access to those online.
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| This image shows my heart rate zones, and a graphical representation of the amount of fat being burned in each zone. |
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| This image shows additional detail about what is going on in each of my heart rate zones. |
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| This image is really a representation of my entire workout. As you can see, as my heart rate increased, my fat-burning percentage decreased, until we get to 161 bpm, which is where my Zone 1 starts. This is really just a more detailed representation of the graphic in the first image above. Not sure what was going on with that little hiccup right at the beginning of Zone 4. |
The next steps in my training will involve using this information to train more efficiently to increase my endurance and anaerobic threshold. The main goal of endurance training is to teach the body to use fats more efficiently. Our bodies use both fats and carbohydrates for energy. However, we typically only have about 1,500-2,000 calories stored as carbohydrates (glycogen stores), but over 80,000 calories of fat. If you are in an endurance event, but burning too many carbohydrates, you will need to keep consuming carbohydrates to try to replenish those glycogen stores. However, if you can work out in a primarily fat-burning zone, you can compete for a longer period of time without forcing yourself to keep piling on the carbs. And if you can train properly, you can move your fat-burning "to the right" on these charts, meaning that you can train your body to work at higher intensities and keep burning fats for energy instead of carbohydrates. The method of teaching your body to use fat instead of carbs for energy, with a combination of diet and training, is called "Metabolic Efficiency Training". I'll talk about this in more detail in another post.
Overall, I was extremely excited about this assessment. Truthfully, I expected this assessment to just confirm what I already knew, but I was very surprised. My assumptions about my heart rate zones were completely wrong, and will require me to modify my workouts accordingly.
Food:
- Breakfast: Fruit / protein smoothie
- Lunch: Steak salad at Chipotle
- Dinner: Went to CB & Potts, had blackened salmon and grilled veggies. Skipped the rice that was on my plate.
Exercise:
- Technically, my assessment wasn't actually training, just a test. But it was about 40 minutes or so of a pretty killer workout, so I'll count it.
- Climbed a few routes at Lifetime after my test. The kids are doing great, and love our little climbing sessions every weekend.
- I finally rode outside! Didn't have much going on this afternoon, and the weather was beautiful, so I actually got in a 1-hour ride. I did my typical 20-mile lap that I like to do when I get a free hour. I also compared today's ride to the last two times I've done this ride, and I was happy to see that I was able to increase my speed over the same distance while decreasing my calories burned. So, I rode faster without working as hard. That's got to be a good sign, right? Strava report HERE. And here is the comparison of my last three attempts at this ride.
Today's weigh-in: 198.0
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