My Life Personal Training - The training's working

Last Friday (12 March), Mike and I spent some time hooked up to a gas mask while running for a mere 10 minutes on the running machine. All this to try to find out how our metabolism has changed from when we first did the test in July 2009. The treadmill starts as an easy walk, with the pace increasing each minute to a speed of 7 mph (roughly 8 minute miles) after 5 minutes. The incline is kicked in each minute after that.

This picture shows Mike a little worse for wear after last time's test.

The steady increase in effort means that your heart rate makes a steady but continual trend upwards until your body says it's had enough, at which point you fall off the back of the treadmill (or more accurately, spat out the back).

The comparison of our results makes interesting reading (for us at least). They demonstrate quite clearly that our winter training has had the desired effect. My VO2 Max has increased from 56 to 59, but more importantly, when exercising at marathon race pace, I have increased my fat burning from 50% to 100%. That should mean that I can run much longer at marathon pace.

Also my anaerobic threshold (where your body produces large amounts of lactic acid so that your muscles are unable to maintain the activity, and frankly give up the ghost) has increased from a heart rate of 138bpm to 167bpm.

This picture shows Mike with Dave from MyLife, who's just been showing us some core exercises. Dave definitely looks happier than Mike!

We are being helped through the interpretation of this data by the fantastic team at MyLife on Apsley Road, Clifton. Andy Wadsworth knows his stuff and is helping us both understand the data. He is also providing us with tailored training plans to help us through the build up to the TransAlp. The key area to work on in the coming weeks is core strength, always a critical but often neglected area for endurance runners. We tend to resent doing anything other than running as we feel that we have to get the miles in. The reality is different in that cross training and building core strength develops all round strength to assist running form, nit just the strong muscles to cope with the long distances. It also rests the brain from just churning through the miles.

And it's only two weeks from that treadmill session to the Jurassic starting on 26 March. Don't we just look like we're ready?