if you are planning to use it yourself for you, that's going to be tricky. sweat, chlorine from the pool can change the values significantly.
the differences reported in the paper do not seem much different than the difference reported when taking blood from the earlobe, finger etc...

I guess you can use it as a mean to track progress
and combined with other indicators to prescribe intensity.

it seems to work well for Luc Van Lierde (however, LVL's coach, Jan Olbrecht has "some degree" of relationship with accusport..)

It was the LVL discussions in this forum that kindled my interest in doing the testing myself. . .

The Australian article did say the Accusport was a valuable tool to use in the field, but that it needed to be combined with a lab test with professional equipment. For example, you would measure your LT and identify your training zones in the lab, then use the lab tests to calibrate your Accusport tests. Once you knew the margin of error in the Accurport unit, you could then use it away from the lab environment to measure day to day changes in your body.

The problem for me is that I have not found any labs to do this testing in the Ann Arbor, Michigan area so I would not have a good baseline.

Also, once I proved it out on myself I might want to use it on the team I coach, but most of them are college students and even if I could track down a lab my riders could not afford a lab test.

-MK

knowing that the AIS is (was?) sponsored by Lactate pro (and so are some canadian organizations), which is the only current concurrent of the accusport,
I don't think these studies are considered independent studies on the accuracy of the accusport.
the lactate pro is significantly more expensive too.

I am tested by my coach on a laboratory grade analyzer. His experience and opinion is that the portable analyzers are not accurate enough. He stated that the main problem is that the portable analyzers use whole blood samples, while the lab grade equipment lysis (breaks down) the cells within the blood prior to analysis.

I had him do a test where they sampled and analyzed concurrently with his machine and with a friends portable. It is not the best comparison, but it helped illustrate that there is definintely a measurement difference between the two.

I support the idea of lab testing. IMHO if your going to do science, do it right. However, I am still thinking of picking up an accusport for field tests to help guide my track and swim workouts. My coach likes me to do speed work on the treadmill, but I prefer the specificity of track or outdoor speed work and want to use the portable analyzer to help calibrate the speeds I need to use outdoors.

Although there were differences witht the portable lactate analyzer, it gave a fairly similar response curve (see Table)

Stage Power (Watts) Hear Rate (Bpm) Lactate (mM) Lactate Pro Lactate (mM) Lactate Diff (Pro - YSI) 1 160 126 1.22 1.00 -0.22 2 190 135 1.56 1.40 -0.16 3 220 146 2.44 2.30 -0.14 4 250 154 4.12 4.80 0.68 5 280 163 7.1 8.60 1.50 6 310 175 10.7 13.30 2.60

It is easier to see in graph form but I could not import a graph into this reply. You can, however, see that the Acusport should be useful in confirming that you are acheiving lactate threshold (or above) during speed workouts. The difference of 4.12 and 4.80 is pretty large, but I think for the purpose of supporting a lab test it is useful. It would be better than just going by feel and HR.

I would not want to be using an accusport to determine training zones and programs for higher end athletes. However, it is a cheap alternate to a lab test that does provide more information than a conconi.

My coach and his partner are both exercise physiologists and his lab can provide testing at a distance for the run and bike if you have access to a calibrated treadmill and computrainer, respectively. He has does this successfully with many athletes/coaches. Their info can be found at www.peakcentre.ca. You also may want to ask him about setting up a satelite testing facility. I don't know the costs, but it sounds like there is a need for such testing in your area.

Hope this helps. If you need more info feel free to email me directly.

Richard

You should contact some of the Exercise Physiology programs at university's in your area and any that you are willing to travel to. I used to be a research subject at the unversity where I lived and not only got several VO2max tests along w/ blood lactate tests but got paid to boot. They would even set up my zones/pace per mile etc for me back when I used a HRM. It was great, just try to avoid any study where you had to run downhill for 8 miles. I won $1500 racing and earned $2500 being a guinea pig my last year there. Lesson learned - research pays!

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
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