This week I finally did something I’ve been postponing for year or two – direct maximal oxygen uptake and lactate threshold tests. I had taken a lactate threshold test once before but that was already 7 years ago so those figures were most likely not accurate anymore. For this reason I’ve been training recently more by feeling than HR based. I’m pretty confident that I didn’t do it completely wrong even when training by feeling but to get more out of training I wanted to get some actual numbers. Keeping my easy runs easy and hard runs hard is just easier this way.

The test was conducted by R5 Athletics and Health and I ran on a treadmill. Jonas from R5 was super friendly and did great job, much appreciated! After InBody test revealed I would benefit from turning fat into muscle (shocker) I got on a treadmill. Three minutes at a given pace, lactate test, increase the speed by 1 km/h and and repeat until too tired to continue. It was nice and easy until it wasn’t. After a few rounds I felt I couldn’t hold the pace on the next one long enough to get enough data so I stopped there. No dramatic falling or hanging by the harness. On my previous test I didn’t have the breath mask nor the harness so those were new to me. Luckily I got used to both quickly and didn’t find either that bothersome. The whole thing, including InBody test and feedback, took about 90 minutes. The time felt shorter than that.

The last minutes of the test

As for the results, my max HR had dropped about 14bpm since last test (as expected due ageing). That aligned pretty well with my own feel and experiences. Aerobic and anaerobic thresholds shifted by a couple bpm but no major changes there, not sure how much these can change though. Pace on each training zone got slightly better. VO2 Max was never measured before but to my surprise Garmin’s estimate was pretty spot on. Next test a bit sooner than in seven years I hope :)

It’s about a month now until my next race, Trans Gran Canaria 128km but more about that on the next post!

Ps. as a member of Vegaanijuoksijat Ry you’ll get a discount on the test at R5!