How performance testing data will improve your 2024 training
Are you an amateur athlete looking to complete a longer-distance endurance event in 2024? Are you looking to get faster at a distance you have raced previously? Are you looking to increase your training consistency or avoid injury? Then you need to consider performance testing. Here at Playtri, we have over 20 years of experiencing coaching and administering performance testing to help athletes improve their training and reach their goals.
Before we address how performance testing will improve your training in 2024, it is important to answer the question: what is performance testing? Performance testing is a way to measure your body’s ability to perform exercise at different intensity levels.
At Playtri we offer the following performance tests and they can be schedule here:
Blood Lactate Testing for Bike and Run; which determines your individual heart rate zones for bike and run.
Vo2 Calorie Expenditure Testing, which uses indirect calorimetry to determine fat and carbohydrate burn based on athlete heart rate.
Advanced Sweat Testing, which determines the sodium-to-water ratio of a person’s sweat.
Resting Metabolic Rate Testing, which provides a baseline caloric intake for daily nutrition.
Vo2 Max Test, which provides a number that reflects a person’s current ability to perform sustained exercise.
As amateur athletes who have jobs, families, friends, hobbies, and other commitments, our training time is limited, so it is essential that we are as consistent as possible. As a coach who has worked with first-time endurance athletes to World Championship qualifiers and as a competitive age group triathlete for nearly 20 years, I have learned that oftentimes amateur athletes can be injured because of their desire to get faster with the limited time they have. We know the goal is to be faster, so we swim harder, bike harder, run harder, and lift heavier than we should. Using this approach may give you some short-term gains, but it also exposes you to an increased risk of illness, injury, burnout, or overtraining.
This is where performance testing is incredibly beneficial for the amateur athlete. Performance testing gives you and your coach the information you need to maximize your limited training time while avoiding sports-related injuries and other setbacks. Ideally, an amateur athlete would do blood lactate testing, Vo2 Calorie expenditure testing, advanced sweat testing, and resting metabolic rate testing so that they and their coach have all the information they need to maximize training and reach their performance goals. With this amount of information, the coach and athlete can develop a training and racing plan that includes pacing goals as well as nutrition & hydration goals. But at the very least, blood lactate testing is the place to start. Why? Because this is the best way to determine heart rate training zones.
As I stated above, we amateur athletes tend to increase the intensity of our limited training to produce increased performance which can lead to injury, illness, burnout, or overtraining. However, having a blood lactate test determined heart rate zones can help you monitor your intensity during your training. Going too hard will lead to the issues mentioned above and going too easy will lead to not having enough training stimuli to reach your goals.
So how will performance testing data improve your 2024 training? Simply stated, it will give you the information you and your coach need to be able to maximize and focus your limited training time. If you want to get better, train. If you want to get better a bit faster, use heart rate zones determined by blood lactate testing. And if you want to get better even faster and sustainably, use all the performance testing available to you and work with a coach who knows how to use that data.
If you have any questions about anything in this article or would like to know more about our different coaching options, please contact me at jim.rowe@playtri.com. Happy training and racing!
Jim Rowe is a Playtri Level 4 Coach and Coach Education Lead, a USAT LI Certified Coach, an NASM Certified Personal Trainer, and an Ironman and 70.3 World Championship Qualifier who works with adult athletes of all abilities from beginners to IRONMAN World Championship qualifiers. Learn more about Jim at www.playtri.com/jim-rowe