Fitness test at SIB Testlab

Now here is something that was really fun to try! I had my fitness level tested at a lab in August this year. For a few months I had been reading about running and paying attention to terms like VO2 max, heart rate zones, and lactate threshold. These are indicators of how good physical shape you are in, and I was curious to find out my values. There are plenty of online calculators for VO2 max and your “physiological age”, but somehow I could not trust these as the information they ask for seems too shallow. So one day, during a personal training session, I mentioned this to Ketil, and he immediately suggested SIB Testlab at Vektertorget in Bergen. He had himself been there and taken the test. (This guy is unbeilevable; he has so much knowledge and experience on so many things, in particular all the things that I am interested in and curious about. Whatever I want to try out, he has already done it and can give me tons of advice on the topic. More about personal trainers later.)

I made an appointment at SIB Testlab and showed up there not knowing exactly what would happen. I knew that I would be running and sweating, so I was in my indoor training outfit, but I had underestimated the whole procedure. It actually turned out to be a full workout! The day before, I had been doing some interval training so my legs were tired, and I had a sore throat, which made the test day not an optimal one. For the VO2 max test, one really needs to push it to the limits, so if you’re on a bad day, you might end up not being able to complete the test.

I was welcomed by Dag Hilland who conducted the test. He is a great motivator and I really enjoyed doing the test with him. First I was on a scale and my weight was registered. Then I went on the treadmill for the lactate threshold test. From my age, how many times I run every week, and what kind of performances I had on previous races, Dag calculated a starting speed of 8 km/h on the mill which was at a slight incline. I ran at this speed for 10 minutes. Towards the end of this round I had to breathe into a tube (like the one on the picture) for about half a minute, and at the end I got a short break, where Dag pierced my finger for a blood sample. Then this whole procedure was repeated with the speed increasing by 1 km/h every 5 minutes.  My test ended when I completed the round at which the speed was 12 km/h (and all fingers of one hand had been pierced). Although I was not at all exhausted, my lactate threshold was reached. Already at this point Dag could tell me that my threshold was probably around 11.4 km/h. After this came the VO2 test. During this test, I breathed into the tube the whole time (but no piercing of fingers). This time the mill started at a bit more incline and a speed of 10 km/h. After every minute, Dag would ask whether it was OK to increase the speed by 1 km/h, and I would indicate yes or no with my hand (as I was not able to speak due to the tube). We continued without a break until we reached 15 km/h. After 60 seconds there I had to say no to a further increase of the speed as I was barely managing. But my VO2 max was not reached yet so Dag asked if I could go on for another minute at the same speed. I indicated yes to that one. Fortunately by the end of that minute we reached the VO2 max (I was watching it on the screen, it has to increase until it starts decreasing, and that’s how you know that the max is reached). During this whole procedure Dag was incredibly helpful, shouting and cheering me on to continue as I was getting more and more exhausted. He was exclaiming enthusiastic comments about the values I reached, which was extremely motivating.

My VO2 max value ended up being 52.6, which is supposed to be pretty good even for younger females, so I was happy about that. I was a little worried about my threshold speed of 11.4 km/h, since my aim for Oslo would be to run with an average speed of 11.5 km/h (which would give exactly 1:50 as finish time). In the end my worries came true; I could keep 11.5 km/h only for 18 km, and got very much slower at the end. Wiser now, I think I should have planned an average speed below my threshold, like 11.3 km/h, which would perhaps be possible to keep for 21 km and would give 1:52, better than the 1:55 I ended up with. (If you've never competed, I know what you're thinking: "1:50, 1:52, 1:55... why on earth does it matter?". But once you start competing with yourself, believe me: every second counts!)

Later that week, I got a full analysis of the test by email from Dag, and I could find my heart rate zones for training. For example, my threshold of 11.4 km/h corresponds to heart rate 162. So I should be doing my hard and very hard training (like intervals) at and above this heart rate, whereas my zone 1 training (slow and recovery runs) should be at around heart rate 123.

I think this test will be a great way to compare where I am now and where I will be in a few months, when I am planning to take the test again. If you’d like to try this out I can really recommend SIB Testlab. I saw a newspaper article about this test recently; it turns out that major gyms offer this test, too. However, the SIB prices seem to be the most reasonable of them all, and I cannot imagine a more motivating test coach than Dag.

I’ll be back at SIB in April/May 2015!