After the events of the last few months, I thought I'd share one of the secrets behind my training.  Ten years ago I had my first performance tests in Colorado Springs at the Olympic Training Center.  Those tests taught me so much about my body and how it reacts to the demands of endurance athletics.  As a result, I brought all the equipment to Dallas to create the only Performance Testing Facility of its kind in Texas.

 

The Caloric Expenditure test. Man, I love that test!  The results from the test tell me exactly how many calories I am burning at different heart rates.  More importantly, it tells me how many of those calories are carbohydrates, and how many are fat.

I have used this test frequently as my fitness changes, but especially in the last 2 years when I wanted to drop my body fat percentage, get faster, and be more fat efficient to race even more effectively at Ironman events.  With the scientific data provided by this test, I have been able to bring my body fat down to 5%, and dramatically change the ratio of calories I burn.  Now I burn only 83 calories of carbohydrates/hr when training and 744 calories of fat.

It helped me turn my body into a fat burning machine!  This test is awesome and it simplifies training goals so it's easy for coaches to develop individualized plans and make it easier for athletes to stick to the plans, whether the goal is to lose weight, get fast, or finish a long distance race (or all of the above!).

Check out the Performance Testing link below to learn how you, too, can become a fat burning machine for your next big event!