Intermountain Sports Medicine: The Running Lab

As I indicated in a previous post – I am happy to be working with Intermountain Sports Medicine to help athletes get healthy and stay healthy.Recently I participated in the Running Lab they have to offer and I must say I really love the information provided and I felt like it can really benefit athletes.And as a coach I love to use the lactate numbers the testing provides to train my athletes.I highly recommend this analysis for any level of runner (beginner to advanced).Let me tell you a little about how it works and what you can expect.

Here’s a little bit about my experience.It was really quite the adventure with my first test schedule the morning after a big wind storm hit our town.Wow was it windy!The storm toppled trees and downed many power lines in the area and unfortunately the clinic was effected.As we started the test the power kept going out and after stopping and starting several times we determined it might be best to try it another time when the power was fully restored.

After arriving at the Bountiful Clinic for the second attempt, I first did a Functional Movement Screening by Dr. Dayton MSPT, the clinics physically therapist.The screening is a series of movements and muscular tests designed to assess core strength, balance and flexibility.After those tests were complete they moved me to another room where they had me run barefoot (well, with socks) on a treadmill while they recorded me from many angles.This was the Video Gait Analysis portion of the test where they are able to look at my running form in motion.At this point they are able to evaluate any biomechanical abnormalities or muscle imbalances while running.They also determine cadence, and evaluated my foot strike, etc. They can detect sources of chronic injuries or possibly provide areas of weakness to remedy in order to prevent injuries through this assessment.After this portion they had me put my shoes on and begin the Lactate Testing portion of the analysis.If you have never done this before it’s really not too bad.(I must say this test is much better than VO2max testing where you are hooked up and breathing through a tube).For this test they have me strap on a heart rate monitor and run on the treadmill while they prick my earlobe/finger to test the lactate levels in my blood at certain intervals.They also had me rate my perceived exertion on a scale of one to ten.Every few minutes they would take a quick blood sample and increase the pace/incline until finally it was too difficult to continue.Here I am smiling at the start of the test.

(yes, as you might has guessed by now, my four-year old daughter had the camera and took the pictures of the event.As you can see she got a great shot of her feet below.LOL)

Here are some other great shots she got.LOL

(Actually not too bad for a 4-year-old).

A few weeks later they gave me a call and I was able to pick up my results.I especially loved the lactate testing results that determine my various training zones based on my blood lactate accumulation at different speeds. As a coach this information is very valuable to set up an effective, individual customized training program for my athletes! Love it!

The results provided feedback on my foot strike, stride rate etc…and specific exercises to meet my needs.They also included some basic nutrition and hydration information and I can’t argue with the summary they provided:

“Overall Lora, you look great.The above findings are fairly subtle, but all in all much better than what we see in most runners.I don’t see any major reason to change anything.You’ve obviously been running competitively for several years, and have found your most economical form.I could not find any significant outward deviation of either foot.Congratulations on all the hard work you’ve put in up to this point.”

All the information they provided was great and again I would highly recommend it to any athlete any level (beginner to advanced).You can contact the Bountiful Clinic at 801-298-2495 They also have clinics in other locations such as Riverton, and Salt Lake (The Avenues).To learn more visit www.SportsMedGroup.org

They add some pretty educational posts on their Facebook page too.Check it out here:http://www.facebook.com/sportsmedgroup

Thank you Dr. Richards, Dr. Bell and Dr. Dayton for your support of Team Blonde Runner (TBR)!To learn more about Coach Lora’s coaching programs contact her directly at lora@blonderunner.com