Testing
What is VO2 max?
VO2 max is the maximum oxygen your body can use under load — the best-studied marker of cardiovascular fitness. How we measure it in Santa Monica.
The Lab
From the lab
VO2 max, Zone 2, lactate testing, heart-rate training, periodization and recovery — written from the Santa Monica lab.
Training
What is Zone 2 training?
Zone 2 is genuinely easy aerobic work, bounded by your aerobic threshold — not a formula from your age. How a lactate test sets it.
The Lab
What is lactate threshold testing?
A blood lactate test finds the intensities where your training zones actually begin and end. How the protocol works in Santa Monica.
Coaching
How to use a heart-rate monitor
A heart-rate monitor only works if the zones in it are yours. How we set those zones from a lactate test, not an age formula.
Testing
Is a VO2 max test worth it?
You do not need to know your VO2 max to improve it. Gareth uses the test for fuel mix — and only after lactate has set the zones.
Training
Periodization
Periodization is the science of putting the building blocks of training in the right order so each phase prepares you for the next.
Training
The need for speed
Once the aerobic base is in, speed work is threshold, VO2, then peak speed — and the recoveries have to be as precise as the reps.
Running
Are your carbon-plated running shoes hurting you?
Carbon-plated racers offer free speed. Used every day they can de-train your gait and load tendons, shins and bone.
Coaching
The pillars of success
Commit to being coached, use sports science, train the mind, and do a little and often — Gareth’s path to injury-free peak performance.
Coaching
Why you need a coach
A coach tells you like it is: train the limiters, stay in zone, and do the unglamorous daily work that makes the plan work.
Recovery
Don’t train when you are sick
If you are fighting a cold or flu, rest. Training while sick is inferior work your body cannot absorb, and it keeps you depleted so the bug hangs on.
Health
The do’s and don’ts of heart-rate training
A heart-rate monitor is a window onto the stress of the session. Most athletes either resist the strap or wear it without knowing how to use it.
Training
Know your zones
A heart-rate monitor, power or pace, and a sense of effort all matter — and RPE is the fallback when the strap fails.
Training
What is the difference between economy and efficiency?
Running economy is how much oxygen or energy you burn at a given pace. Gareth treats it as mechanical, movement-centred efficiency.
Nutrition
Are you fat adapted?
Some athletes sit under 2 mmol in Zone 2 and still burn almost no fat. Others oxidise 80%+ at the same effort. Low lactate is not fat adapted.
Nutrition
Maximizing body composition
For out-and-out endurance performance, lighter is faster most of the time. Elite marathoners, climbing cyclists and winning triathletes are lean and light.
Nutrition
Fuel with color
Even when you are eating like a monk to be race-lean, a splash of color makes meals exciting to look at and to taste — and turns food into fuel.
Nutrition
Gut health and the microbiome
Endurance athletes know to get enough food and fuel in. Fewer focus on quality, or on how well those foods are absorbed. Digestion starts with chewing.
Book a test
Stop guessing at your zones
One hour in the lab in Santa Monica, and you’ll know exactly how your body produces energy — and precisely how hard to go.