Haha! Best laid plans….
When I started back on my running journey doing the C25K plan I had intentions of blogging about it every week.
Well here we are 4 weeks from my previous post!
Good news in a nutshell is I am still progressing and running….basically have finished the plan which the final week is 3 workouts each of 30 minutes of running. Woohoo 🥳
In the meantime I have done a PNOE test. You can read more on their website here. Where my PT is there is the PT side and the sports performance side. The sports side has started to offer this and I was all for it.
The PNOE test analyzes your metabolism, VO2 max, and biological age to prescribe nutrition and lifestyle personalized to your biology and a treatment plan based on that. The test has a resting and active component. You wear a mask that analyzes your breath. For the resting component you are laying down just breathing. The active component is on a bike or treadmill – I did mine on the peloton bike – and you start off very easy and build to your max and push it at the end. This lasted almost 20 minutes.
The report shows you things like biological age (I am 40 😉 and fyi my “real age” is 44, VO2 max (mine is 36 borderline good-excellent), metabolic rate, fat burn, lung fitness, heart fitness, and recovery capacity. For the most part I was pleased with my results especially knowing where my fitness is currently at. It will let you know any limitations and give recommendations based off those.
The report based off the resting test gives you your calories burned and macro % recommendations. The active report will give you a suggested training program – how much cardio, interval, and resistance training.
It was interesting that it suggested I eat just 22% protein and 40% carbs! That’s fairly different from how I’ve been eating where I’ve been pumping the protein hard and not doing lo-carb or keto but less carbs.
Same with the training program. Cardio was suggested to be 51% (3 base workouts 1-4h/week at zone 2), Interval training 33% (2 long interval workouts of 4-10′ intervals in zone 4) and resistance training 16% (just 1 workout/week). Interesting considering what is all pushed out there to be doing, especially a female over 40.
I asked Daniel, the sports performance guy doing this, and he said yes and the results are specific to me. He did say he’d like to see 2 strength training workouts/week and the cardio “is a lot.” However I said this is actually right up the direction I want to go pursuing longer trail running.
So it’s only been almost 2 weeks of following these recommendations. I like having more direction as well as goals. Daniel suggested shooting for a VO2 max in the 40s – 45, biological age in the 30s and heart rate max 180+. I said sounds good and doable to me!
He’s emailed me a plan – as well as discussed how to work with him which involves looking at my movement patterns – doing corrective movement, stability and then strength. I still have been dealing with plantar fasciitis on my left foot which sucks and he said they do gait analysis and can help with that too!
Yes, I’m liking what I’m hearing. Along with meeting to work on those things, PNOE suggests retesting the resting test every 3 months and the active test every 6 months which is included in their plan as well as body mapping.
I feel like I’m on the right path.
In addition to this I may have found the answer to my weight struggles. As many of you might have seen on my Facebook post, I have been working with a dietician and doing “all the things” without any progress.
I had a great conversation with my massage therapist around this and come to find out she’s dealt with something similar. She highly recommend a very nearby functional medicine office as she was listened to and got help and has great improvements in less than 6 months. This has given me so much hope!!!
Now I just have to be patient as I’m on the waiting list. Fingers crossed I will get a call to schedule soon! Stay tuned for more on that!