Collegiate Corner: NoCo Endurance Center

Test Your Potential at the NoCo Endurance Center
Contributed by Mercedes DeCarli
The NoCo Endurance Center is helping athletes reach their full potential one fitness test at a time.
“The NoCo Endurance Center is a training facility dedicated to helping endurance athletes reach their full potential,” says Justin Freyermuth, owner of the NoCo Endurance Center.
Freyermuth is a USAT certified coach and has a bachelor’s degree in health and exercise science. He was a member of the Colorado State University triathlon club while attending CSU and had a top 10 finish at USAT collegiate nationals in 2013. His passion for racing and working with athletes led him to open this new facility.
Their mission, according to the website is, “to provide a world-class training facility for endurance athletes by offering a holistic approach to training and treating individuals utilizing state-of-the-art facilities and our knowledge of human performance.”
So where is the NoCo Endurance Center located? It is conveniently located in Fort Collins inside ProActive Physical Therapy at 2108 Midpoint Drive Unit 2.
“The owners of ProActive Physical Therapy, Andy Collingwood and Brian Benjamin, truly see the value in the services provided by the NoCo Endurance Center so it was a natural fit to move into their facility,” says Freyermuth.
Currently, the NoCo Endurance Center offers cycling classes, with both traditional trainers and Wahoo Kickrs, throughout the week. The classes are held on Mondays from 6-7 p.m., Wednesdays and Thursdays from 5:30-6:30 p.m., and on Saturdays at 9 a.m.. Saturday rides are outdoors unless the weather does not permit riding outside in the early morning. Check the NoCo Endurance Center Facebook page for updates on Saturday rides.
The center also offers Lactate Threshold and V02 Max testing by appointment, all of which are conducted indoors.
Why should you go to NoCo Endurance to have these tests done? These tests can provided valuable information to athletes that can help an athlete see their full potential in endurance racing and where they stand against other athletes in the same field.
“A VO2 max test measures the maximum amount of oxygen an athlete can utilize during exercise,” says Fryermuth. “The final results are stated in milliliters of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute (ml O2/kg/min). Because the results are stated in terms of body weight, the athlete is then able to compare their results to any other athlete.”
The information found in a VO2 max test can also be helpful to an athlete who uses a heart rate monitor to figure out how to stay in the right heart rate zone to maximize training and effort levels. This is especially important if an athlete is trying to stay in the aerobic zone for training to raise their aerobic capacity because once you get into the anaerobic zone it is hard to come back down.
A VO2 max test is conducted with the athlete wearing a breathing mask while running on a treadmill or cycling on a trainer. The intensity is increased each minute during the test and is over once the athlete is exhausted and cannot increase intensity any longer.
On-the-other-hand, a lactate threshold test, associated with lactic acid levels in the muscles, tests levels of lactate in the bloodstream throughout a workout of increasing intensities.
“As exercise intensity increases, the human body begins to rely less on fat and more on carbohydrate as the primary energy source,” says Freyermuth. “Unfortunately, byproducts of carbohydrate utilization include lactate and hydrogen ions, which lowers the pH of your blood, resulting in a burning sensation, also known as acidosis. The human body has the ability to clear lactate and buffer these hydrogen ions at low exercise intensity but as the intensity increases, there will eventually be a point where lactate begins to rapidly accumulate in the blood. The lactate threshold can be correlated to heart rate (for runners or cyclists who don’t use power meters) and watts (for cyclists who use a power meter). Based on the lactate threshold heart rate and/or power, proper training zones can be determined to ensure athletes are getting the most out of each workout.”
To test lactate threshold, lactate must move into the bloodstream. Because of that, the intensity is increased every four minutes with a small blood sample being taken after each one. Similar to the VO2 max, the intensity increases until the athlete can no longer up the intensity. The blood is then analyzed for the concentration of lactate to determine your threshold.
The NoCo Endurance Center also offers gait analysis to help make your running more efficient, and coaching services.
“I often have athlete’s tell me that they are intimidated by the tests or using a power trainer. My response to them is that this is a training facility and the goal is to make every athlete better, no matter what their current level of fitness. By taking a scientific approach to training, they are able to learn how their body responds to exercise, how to train smarter, and how to train safer.”
The NoCo Endurance Center is open Monday – Friday from 5 p.m. to 8 p.m. and Saturday – Sunday from 8 a.m. to 5 p.m.
If you would like to make an appointment, call 541-390-2811, or email Justin at jt@mpmultisport.com