THERE'S been a boom in endurance sports here recently, but most athletes - even the more serious ones - are going at it somewhat 'blindly'.
Blindly because the regular person who's not on the national team or Olympic squad doesn't have access to the kind of diagnostic testing that professional athletes get.
Theses are detailed and accurate tests that measure the percentage of fat burn during exercise and lactate threshold.
Now a range of physiological tests are available to the average person - from those who simply want to lose weight to those who want to achieve better personal records in their races like marathons and triathlons.
Racers' Toolbox was set up by three triathletes, and their tagline is that you can train like a professional athlete without having to be one.
'In Singapore, the only available place where you can get such tests is at the Singapore Sports Centre or Sports School. But we thought that such tools should be available for anyone,' says Ben Pulham, 27, a New Zealander who was a professional triathlete.
Racers' Toolbox is the first commercial sports science laboratory to offer such tests, which are commonly taken by professional athletes such as Lance Armstrong - whose photograph stretches across the wall of Racers' Toolbox's 'laboratory' space.
Tests which are available include lactate testing to determine personal lactate thresholds. 'This test indicates the anaerobic threshold, which is the point where your body is no longer able to clear the lactate acid from muscles. This is the point where your muscles are fatigued, which is your upper load,' says Jonathan Fong, the other co-founder. Mr Fong, who is trained in kinesiology and was the sports biomechanist at the Singapore Sports School, had got to know Mr Pulham at triathlon races.
Triathlete trio: (From left) Mr Larsen, Mr Pulham and Mr Fong set up Racers' Toolbox, a commercial sports science laboratory where the latest tests and training information can be made available to non-professional athletes.
The lactate test is a more accurate method of determining target heart rate (HR) zones in order to calculate individual training intensity zones.
'The generic method being preached to the masses - 220 minus age - to get maximum HR and calculating the percentage from there to get HR zones isn't entirely accurate. It does not take into account individual differences in heart size, for example,' explains Mr Fong.
People with larger hearts beat fewer times per minute and will find it harder to reach their target HRs, while people with smaller hearts using this formula may find their target HRs too easy to reach.
Another indicative test is the fuel efficiency test which measures one's ability to use fat as the main source of fuel - crucial for endurance athletes.
'For an endurance athlete, the fat to carbohydrate ratio, used as fuel, is very important. If you train too hard, then you end up burning only carbohydrates and it means you'll hit a wall too early. There is an optimal zone where you burn fat, and it could be at a pace that's not very intense,' says Mr Pulham, who incidentally had his professional athletic career prematurely stopped when he contracted dengue fever.
He and childhood friend Scott Larsen, the third partner, had been training together since they were in their teens. Mr Pulham ranked as high as 53rd in the world as a professional triathlete, having been a member of the New Zealand triathlon team. Mr Larsen was formerly the youth development manager at Triathlon New Zealand.
'Because all of us have been professional triathletes at some point in our careers, we had access to all the latest training information and tests which had greatly enhanced our performances. We want to make this accessible to Singaporeans - especially as we've seen a boom in endurance races and events here in the last five years,' says Mr Pulham.
At least 10 major endurance events are held annually in Singapore - marathons, biathlons, triathlons - where thousands participate.
'The mentality here is that if there's no pain, there's no gain. It's a very old school philosophy and there are much smarter ways to train and lose weight with a lower chance of injury and burn-out,' says Mr Fong.
Fat burn graph: The blue line shows carbohydrate used, and the red line shows fat used for fuel during exercise with a progressive increase in workload. This enables a sports scientist to identify the optimal fat burn zone that would allow an individual to burn the most fat during exercise.
Lactate graph: Shows the progressive accumulation of lactic acid build-up as the workload is increased; it enables a sports scientist to identify an individual's specific training zones.
Racers' Toolbox is located at Kembangan Plaza, #01-04, Tel: 6846-8461, www.racers-toolbox.com. Personalised training programmes start from $29 per week, while tests start from $100 and go up to $275 for lactate and fat burn tests. Package rates are available for multiple services.
This article was first published in The Business Times Weekend on August 16, 2008.
