TESTING

Testing is of little value unless the results can be analysed and where necessary, acted upon

BODY MASS INDEX (BMI) applicable to all disciplines

The ratio of body mass to height = weight in kg

(Height in metres)²

For men this should be around 21 and for women, between 22 and 23.4, although there have been exceptions amongst winning athletes who are exceptionally short or tall. If an athlete does not fall into these parameters and is not performing as well as anticipated, then they should consider growing, shrinking or changing their weight, of which the latter is the easiest to adjust.

A low BMI indicates a weight gain could be beneficial as the body is probably carrying insufficient fat or liquid to meet the energy demands of the athlete. Unfortunately there is a slight increase in BMI in older athletes

VO2max, or, the maximum oxygen consumption that the body can reach and maintained for a short period of time, after which performance drops off quite noticeably. More useful to middle and long distance runners VO2max can be found accurately using treadmill apparatus, or more readily, but without figures, in a controlled run.

• Run steady for 8 minutes, then increase speed every minute up towards 15 minutes, measuring split times as they go until it is no longer possible to sustain an accelerated pace. This is your VO2max, therefore the pace should be noted and speed increases judges to fit into the time frame.
• Alternatively, exercise hard for 5-8 minutes until exhaustion stops you. ie. VO2max

This could be a running exercise, but equally can be done in a hard circuit workout that still leaves more exercises left undone. (I used this method successfully in December 2005)

There is a strong belief that increasing your resistance to fatigue will increase VO2max and therefore performance, especially in the longer distances, so now that you have a limit you can adjust your training to increase that limit. Race speeds can also be determined, according to Davies-Thompson, 5km races can be run at 89-100% (average 94%).of the speed at which VO2max was reached.

42km races can be run between 53 and 76% (average 67%, and other distances scaled in between.

If you have a VO2 max reading then running speed (km/hr)=Vo2max +7.736

3.966

LACTATE LEVELS

Lactate is that anti-energy substance that creeps slowly into the blood stream when the demand for carbohydrate exceeds the supply, so it is a creeping situation that increases in parallel to the rise towards VO2max, up to a lactate level in distance runners, after which it levels out. However, in the 400m for example, the rise in lactate exceeds the production of glycogen from carbohydrate, and the athlete slows down dramatically.