Scientific Training

Sunday we headed down to Bike Route in Gainesville to meet coach Drew for Lactate Threshold/VO2max testing. I was pretty anxious to see my true numbers considering the only thing I knew was my LT, and that was an estimate from average HR during races and TT's. For those of you who are not cyclists and have no idea what LT and VO2max are, I'll give a general explanation. Lactate threshold is a measurement of fitness and endurance performance. When you exercise, your muscles produce lactic acid. In order to keep exercising, you body must remove the lactic acid and if it cannot, you have to slow down to recover. The threshold is when your body cannot remove the lactic acid as fast as it produces it. The idea is to sustain this threshold during a race to ride as fast as possible for as long as possible. There a a few ways to measure LT, such as in the lab or out in the "field"- but the most important thing to know is that this value can be trained to go higher. VO2max is maximum amount of oxygen that your body can use for energy. It is also considered the engine that you were born with because it is mostly genetic. Anyhow, to summarize the testing- it went well for both of us and now we know where we are, where we need to get and Drew will no doubt figure out how to get us there.

Loaded up for the trip to Gainesville...

Testing in progress...



After the testing we headed to San Felasco to do some mountain biking for a few hours. I was eager to get on the MTB considering how much time I spend each week on the road bike. I was also eager to check out how my bike was going to ride after having the new drivetrain installed last week.


The smile went away when I had to spend a lot of time making bike adjustments that should have alreay been made...


Felasco is one of our favorite places to ride. Its less than 2 hours away and offers more trails and more challenging terrain than anything around here. There's always several deer sightings every ride...

Overall Sunday was a great day. The testing was exciting and it was cool hanging out with Drew and Martin at the shop. The ride at Felasco was also a good time and the excited puppy that greeted us at home and the excellent Moe's for dinner ended the weekend on a positive note.