Performance Evaluation at UCSF

The day before I turned 30 I went to the UCSF Human Performance Center to do a "Performance Evaluation," figuring it would be an interesting way to find out where I currently stand, athletically speaking. It felt symbolic, given my entering not only a new decade but also a new chapter of my life, where I am focusing on fitness both professionally and as a lifestyle.

The last time I was in really good shape--as far as true athleticism goes--was back in high school cross country. Let's just say that in the 10 years since then I haven't exactly maintained that level of fitness. As I slowly ease back into the world of real training, I am interested to see how my now 30-year old body reacts to the challenge.

The rest of this post gets a little nerdy. If you'd rather watch a super coordinated dude do crazy drills on a treadmill, click here.

Disclaimer: I only have a rudimentary understanding of all this stuff and am excited to be learning more about it, but am by no means an expert or anywhere near it.

Body Composition

The first segment of the performance evaluation tested my body composition. Based on a weight of 152 lbs. and height of 69.5 inches, my BMI was 22.2, which falls squarely into the middle of the "normal" category. Cool.

Next up is body fat percentage, which ended up at 18.8%. Specifically, that's 28.61 lbs of fat mass and 123.81 lbs. of fat free mass. That puts me into the category called "underfat," which is sort of a weird classification. I have decided to rename it "sporty spice." (The categories are obese, overfat, healthy, and underfat.)

Lactate Threshold

For this test, they had me run on a treadmill. Every 3 minutes they took some blood, requested my RPE (rate of perceived exertion), then increased the pace. During this test they are looking for your lactate threshold, which is the point at which lactic acid begins to accumulate. It is sometimes called the anaerobic threshold or onset of blood lactic acid (OBLA).

Mine was somewhere around a heart rate of 175, while doing an 8-minute mile pace with an RPE of 16-17. On the graph, it's the spot where there is the largest jump between dots, in between RPE 16-17 and HR 175.

And here we've got the jump happening as I dip under the 8-min mile point. It's interesting to see because my HR was increasing at a very even pace, as was my RPE and then the BL makes that obvious jump. Voila! Lactate threshold.

So what's the point? Well, the threshold is a function of both genetics and effective training, so it's a valuable tool to measure fitness, and especially distance running performance. Training at the threshold has been found to improve performance and the capacity of the aerobic system. It's where some of the magic happens.

VO2 Max

Next up, they measured my VO2 Max, or maximal oxygen uptake. They did this by keeping me at a steady pace (10-min mile), but increasing the elevation of the treadmill until I was a big blubbering panting mess. Oh, and did I mention I was wearing a sexy snorkeling-type mouthpiece attached to a tube that I had to breath through so they could collect the data? And that it makes you slobber uncontrollably? Ya. It was awesome.

VO2 max is particularly useful in predicting the potential of an athlete when it comes to endurance-oriented activities. My VO2 max was 50 ml/kg/min. That puts me in the "high" category on the VO2 norms chart. I'll need to step it up another few points to get into the "athletic" or "olympic" categories, apparently. My "VO2 at threshold" was 46.3, which just barely falls into the "athletic" group... So you're tellin' me there's a chance. Ya!
 

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Btw, have you ever tried running with your nose plugged? Not comfortable. Nor flattering.

By now, I'm sure some of you have decided you want to go subject yourselves to this kind of testing. I highly recommend it if you want to gain a better understanding of your body and its potential, and especially if your training could benefit from these kinds of tools. Contact my friend, Joe Smith, at the Performance Center. He'll take good care of you. Tell him I say hi. And that he better not tell anyone what songs I had on my motivational playlist during the test.