Metabolic Efficiency Test at Fraser Bicycle

Two weeks ago I had a metabolic efficiency test at Fraser Bicycle and Fitness in their Multisport Performance Lab. We did the test on Thursday morning. That morning, I woke up, gulped 2 cups of coffee and ate a huge bagel with cream cheese. I also had some animal crackers on the way to the test. (if you plan on scrolling through this post, I’ll just tell you now, eating that much was a bad idea).

The Test
I brought my tri bike and tested while riding in aero because I wanted the test to simulate race conditions as best as I could. We set up my bike on the Computrainer and I started warming up (after the pre-screening questionnaire). We used the Computrainer as an Ergometer. This means that the exercise physiologist picked what watts I’d be riding at. I warmed up for about 10 minutes then he put the oxygen mask on me. It was hooked up to a hose which lead to the machine that would be measuring my oxygen consumption and co2 output. As you’re spinning, each minute it gets a little harder. When you’re doing a metabolic efficiency test, you spend more time in your easier zones instead of the bigger jumps taking you to your absolute max with the V02 max test. When I was spinning, the exercise physiologist was watching my RER. What’s that? Well, this number tells him how efficient I am. A high RER means you’re burning primarily carbohydrates, and lower RER’s mean you’re burning more fat. The reason I had scheduled this test was so I could find out what heart rate and power output was most efficient based on my upcoming Ironman race.
Something went wrong. When he was reviewing the numbers, it showed that I was terribly inefficient. BULLSHIT! I was not accepting that. I had performed this test 6 months ago and I was much more effiecient then. Not to mention, I had JUST raced a 70.3 at a very solid pace and these numbers were telling me that there’s no way I could have done that. Well, I did. So the numbers are wrong! Yeah, I’ll admit it- I was pissed. Initially we wondered, “maybe it’s something in your diet”. Oh great, tell me my diet is wrong 3 weeks before my ironman. Great. I can’t turn that around 180 RIGHT before the race. Initially, I figured, it’s gotta be my breakfast, so I stuck with that theory. We scheduled another test for the next day to see what went wrong.

Second Try
The next morning, I showed up for my test and I wasn’t in the best mood. I had skipped breakfast. I never skip breakfast. This better be worth it damnit! So, this time I warmed up on the bike, strapped on the oxygen mask and began the process all over again.
If you’re wondering what the mask feels like, it’s pretty weird. At first, it simply sucks because he tried to talk to me and JUST like how dentists try to carry on a conversation with you while they have two hands in your mouth, I couldn’t talk with the oxygen mask on. It’s really not as scary as it looks though. The goal is to STAY calm. It’s just gathering data from what you’re breathing in and out, it’s not going to all of the sudden STOP letting you breath. No worries there. Also, you have to understand, one wrong move isn’t going to totally screw up your test. This is testing how efficient your body is. It’s not like if you have one bad thought you’re going to change how your body is using fat and glucose as fuel.
We completed the bike portion of the test and GOOD NEWS , the data was RIGHT this time. Here’s how we knew it was wrong before- there was no point where I was using a significant amount of fat. No matter how easy I went. Most people, no matter how hard they end up going in the end, DO have a point where they are efficient. Okay, so I was done with the bike and it was time to do the run. I hopped on the treadmill and warmed up. Then I started at an awkward pace of 4.5mph (the starting point is predetermined from your pre test questionnaire with the exercise physiologist based on past performances). Running at 4.5 is just strange. I power walked, then ran a little and really didn’t know what to do with myself until a few minutes in when I had reached the 5’s and 6’s. I was looking at my heart rate the entire time thinking, shit, the results are going to tell me I have to run REALLY FRICKIN SLOW in order to keep my heart rate down. We got to 6.7mph and I felt at peace (ever since my hip injury, I have been doing run/walks- walk for 1 minute, run 6.7mph or 9:00min/mile for the remainder of the mile). As we increased from my sweet spot, we got to the “okay, I’d like to stop now” point.

Interpreting the Data
Yes, Pamela, you CAN go 20, 21…maybe even 22mph on the bike for 112 miles, but there happens to be a marathon after that little bike ride. Ugh. Up until this point, I really didn’t care about the run. I knew it was going to be my strong point, and from what I hear, the ironman run SUCKS. I am the fast biker girl. That’s just WHAT I DO. So, I figured that my data would tell me to have a great bike ride and enjoy a 26 mile walk. WRONG. Here’s what I’ve determined from talking to people about Ironman. It’s a great experience. It really changes how you view life. You really figure out who you are at mile 20 of the run. Everybody is out there struggling. And- MANY people walk a great deal more than they wanted to on the run. What I want to know is WHY? You’ve been running all year long, you are a great runner, why aren’t you taking advantage of the skills you have? Well, from what I’ve determined, it looks like most people go too hard on the bike. “I screwed up my nutrition”. Maybe you didn’t eat enough, or maybe, you did, but your body can’t take in fuel at the rate that you’re burning it. Here’s the deal- you have your carb gas tank. This tank is the same size at the beginning of every race, no matter how long the race is, you start with the same gas tank filled to the top (if you’ve prepared correctly).
During every race, your goal is to cross the finish line on empty. Use it all up! So, for a sprint or Olympic, I can just burn through that gas without any worry of running out to early. If you’re doing a half, you can’t go the same pace as you would for a shorter distance because you need your tank to last longer. So, what do you do, you start using your other source. Maybe your car is a hybrid and you have unlimited electricity. So, you’re using as much electricity as you can along with your gas to make you go as fast as you can. The goal is still to empty the gas tank at the finish line. Not T2. You can’t use the electricity without gas helping ( I don’t think this is how hybrid cars actually work, but roll with, k?). Get it? When you’re outta gas, you can’t just “go slower”. You’re done. Everything from this point forward is a suffer fest! Your body is using protein, lactic acid, and fat instead. Yup, you’re moving, but not very fast, and it is NOT enjoyable.

My Plan
I will be swimming based on how fast I’ve been swimming for my half ironman swims. We calculated the energy I’m consuming based on my bike data. We had to acknowledge that I’ll be starting the bike without having had any nutrition on the swim. Transition will be a few minutes, I’ll have everything planned out ahead of time. I will be wearing bike shorts over my trisuit for the bike portion. I’ll jump on my bike and head out for my 112. I’ll be holding a pace of 19.4 mph/ 170 watts/ 159 bpm heart rate. I will need to consume 286 calories per hour. Ironman perform will be handed out on the course and it’s 175 calories per bottle, every 10 miles. I will drink about 1 bottle per 10 miles, assuming I spill a little each time I pour it into my Speedfil. I’m just drinking. Drinking a lot. This is because I sweat more than any other human being I’ve ever encountered. I need to drink. If I get sick of the ironman drink (like, puking sick), I’ll switch to water but will have to eat my emergency gels or Powerbar for calories AND must take electrolyte tablets because I will no longer be getting my electrolytes from the Ironman drink. When I finish my bike ride, I’ll be raring to go for the run.
According to the data, I will be biking at an extremely easy pace for myself and eating enough to keep my carb stores topped off. I will be starting the run with a full tank. We determined that I would need to eat 204 calories an hour on the run. Some people have a hard time taking in that many calories while running but we knew from past races that I like to EAT (well, “eat”, so to speak). I planned to be knocking out 6.7 miles per hour, so that meant that I needed to drink 3-4 ounces of Ironman perform per mile. Ironman perform is 175 calories per 20oz. 1 oz=8.75 calories. 1 dixie cup= approx 3 oz (26.25 calories per cup/per aid station) There was supposed to be an aid station at every mile so my plan was to drink every mile. The backup plan was to take a gel if I was getting sick of Ironman perform. The gel was approximately 100 calories and would replace about 4 cups of IM perform. This was IMPORTANT. If I took a gel, I didn’t need to be drinking the sports drink as much. It was just important that I didn’t OVER eat as it was to make sure I ate enough. I would take water along with the gel to make sure I continued hydrating myself. Plan A- drink JUST IM perform, Plan B- Gels, less perform, and water, Plan C- 1 power bar per hour, lots of water. I would only be taking what was offered on the course. Also, I had no intention of drinking coke or sipping on chicken broth because 1- I had never trained with it and 2-I had NO idea how my body would react.
My coach calculated ALL of the data and came up with the best case scenario for me. Swim 1:50 pace, Bike 19.4mph and Run 6.7mph with 1 minute walks at the beginning of each mile. His predicted finish time for me was 11:22. How did I feel about that? Well, a year ago I set a 10:30 goal based off of last year’s results. As the year progressed I changed my goal to “under 11”. I really didn’t have much to go off of when I was setting these goals, I just threw numbers out there. I wanted to have a spectacular bike split, a decent swim and really didn’t care what happened on the run. Whenever I calculated my projected finish time, I’d just say “I’ll bike faster to make up for my slow run”. Throughout the year, I watched teammates of mine race other Ironman races and started to realize that it’s not as easy as it looks. I saw that almost all of them started out fast on the bike, got a little slower, a little more slower, finished the bike, started fast on the run, got a little slower, and pretty much died for the last part of the run. I wasn’t sure what was happening out there at mile 20, but my nightmares lead me to believe that each athlete was struck by a lightning bolt, attacked by a bear, or thrown into quicksand before the last 10k of the race.
As I started to accept that I wasn’t going to finish under 11 hours, I realized that the people around me weren’t believing that I’d even finish under 12. “It’s more than just numbers”, “There’s no way to predict what is going to happen out there”. I started to feel like my age and inexperience was leading to a false sense of confidence. Oh shit, should I be nervous? Should I put knee pads in my run special needs bag for my crawl to the finish line? Of course I had my doubts about this data, but I figured that there was no way I’d EVER look back and say “I should have went harder on the bike”. I started sharing my game plan with other athletes and realized that while YES, people found it interesting, they thought that my naiveté about actually racing that long of a distance would come back to bite me in the end. I wasn’t asking to go faster than my body was capable of going, but I WAS asking to perform at my body’s highest potential so I wouldn’t look back and think “I screwed up”. I trained my A$$ off for this ONE moment, I wanted to see what I could do! I had used this game plan strategy for both my 70.3 and ended them feeling 100% confident that I gave it my all and raced a very smart race. I wanted to feel the same at Ironman.

Next update will be the race report. 140.6 miles of fun!