Testing, testing, 1, 2, 3.

Yesterday I got to spend the day at the Stanford Health & Human Performance Lab.

The day was full of poking, prodding, testing and finding ways to maximize my performance for the upcoming race season. I am really glad I went.

We started out with an iDXA scan to check out my body composition. It measures your bone, fat and lean tissue. This is a great scan to have done after only 2 weeks of training and coming away from the off-season. You gotta start somewhere, right?!?

Next up was a fuel utilization test. The test took place on my bike and worked its way up in level of difficulty every 5 minutes. Perhaps the hardest part of this test was the 12-hour fast that I had to put in beforehand. The purpose of this test was to measure my lactate response and measure my gas exchange to determine substrate (Carbs vs Fats) contribution. Turns out Ms. Linsey Corbin may be a bit too reliant on carbohydrates right now.

After that, I was able to check out the new recovery system that the lab is working with. They are utilizing a hand-cooling device (that is also being tested at University of Montana) that is being used to aid in recovery by lowering your core body temperature. You never know, I might have to throw a pair of these in my special needs bag for the Energy Lab in Kona.

Last up was the long-awaited VO2Max test. If you have never had one of these done, I would highly recommend it. All I can tell you is they hurt (the word Max is in there!) but they are a great predictor of where I am, and where I am headed.

A big thanks to Matt Dixon for arranging all of this and Phil Cutti for his great work.

I was also lucky enough to have my mom in tow. She is from Palo Alto, so we got to take a trip down memory lane. She showed me where she scooped ice-cream as a teen, took me by the house she grew up in, and even her elementary school. It was a really fun day!

Alright - time to go. I am here in San Francisco for the rest of the week with lots more fun planned!