Endurance testing · London
Endurance Performance Profiling in London
Set your training intensities from your own physiology and understand how your endurance performance changes as the effort gets harder.
Blood lactate is measured across progressively harder stages to identify how your body responds at different running speeds or cycling power outputs. This allows us to identify your lactate thresholds and establish individual pace, power and heart rate training zones.
- Price
- £300
- Duration
- About 90 minutes
- Locations
- Liverpool Street · Marylebone
VO₂ max, both threshold systems and your training intensities.
We then combine this with respiratory testing to measure VO₂ max and identify your ventilatory thresholds. Together, the results give you specific intensities for easy aerobic training, tempo and threshold work, while showing how much faster or harder you can work before your physiological response changes significantly. For endurance athletes, this gives you the pace, power or heart rate to target for different types of training, based on your measured response rather than generic percentages or watch-generated zones.
01VO₂ maxThe highest rate at which your body can take up and use oxygen.
How we measure it
You wear a mask connected to the CardioCoach MAX, which analyses expired gases throughout the maximal test to determine oxygen uptake and carbon dioxide output. Reported in ml/kg/min and L/min alongside the body mass used.
Why it matters
On its own it does not determine endurance performance: the threshold intensities govern the workloads you can hold. It is reported as VO₂ max where maximal effort was established across the whole physiological and performance response, and as VO₂ peak where it could not be. That is not decided by any single criterion.
02LT1, the first lactate thresholdThe first sustained rise in blood lactate above your lower-intensity baseline.
How we measure it
Blood lactate concentration is measured directly, from a fingertip sample at the end of every stage. LT1 is then identified from the shape of your individual curve as the first sustained rise above your lower-intensity baseline, which is an interpretation of those measurements rather than a second measurement. No fixed concentration is used.
Why it matters
In practical terms this marks the upper edge of intensity for long, low-stress work. If easy sessions regularly sit above this intensity, they may accumulate more physiological stress than intended.
03LT2, the second lactate thresholdEstimated from the shape of your individual lactate curve.
How we measure it
LT2 is estimated from the shape of the individual lactate curve using Modified Dmax and reviewed against the measured response. The speed and heart rate at that point are read from the test; where the estimate falls between two measured stages they are interpolated, and your report says so.
Why it matters
Tempo, threshold and interval work is set from it. This is an estimate from an incremental profile, not a maximal lactate steady state: establishing the highest constant workload at which lactate remains stable requires repeated constant-load trials on separate days, which this assessment does not include.
04VT1 and VT2, the ventilatory thresholdsDetected from the ventilatory response during the maximal test.
How we measure it
The analyser locates VT1 and VT2 from the ventilatory equivalents. These are detected landmarks from a different signal than the lactate thresholds, their positions depend on the detection method, and they are reported as ranges and separately from LT1 and LT2.
Why it matters
Two threshold systems, each collected under a protocol built for it. They often sit near one another. Where they separate, the report says so and the difference is interpreted against your event and training rather than averaged into one number.
05Measured maximum heart rateThe highest heart rate recorded during the maximal test.
How we measure it
Heart rate is recorded continuously from a chest strap, so the reported figure is the highest you reached in this protocol and this mode.
Why it matters
Age-based equations carry a population standard deviation of roughly ten to twelve beats, and individuals fall further out than that. Your zones are built on the figure recorded rather than on an estimate.
06Training zones in your own unitsDerived and reviewed, not measured.
How we measure it
The CardioCoach MAX generates an initial set of zones using its configured anaerobic-threshold model. DVOTION then reviews those against the threshold positions, the heart-rate response and the full test response, with the blood lactate profile providing additional information for that review.
Why it matters
Your report expresses intensity in the units you use in training: heart rate alongside running speed or cycling power. Each provides different information depending on the session, modality and conditions. Heart rate suits longer steady work but responds with a delay and shifts with heat, fatigue and hydration. Running speed is straightforward on consistent terrain. Cycling power responds immediately to a change in external workload.
07Your reportReviewed on screen the same day, written version by email.
How we measure it
Your lactate curve with LT1 and LT2 marked, the respiratory data alongside it, a zone table, and what the findings suggest for training.
Why it matters
Every result is derived from data collected during your assessment rather than from age-based predictions or race-time formulas. The report makes clear which values were measured directly and which were calculated, estimated or interpreted from those measurements. It is yours to keep and to pass to your own coach.
Every result is derived from data collected during your assessment rather than from age-based predictions or race-time formulas. The report makes clear which values were measured directly and which were calculated, estimated or interpreted from those measurements.
Measured with
- ARKRAY Lactate Pro 2 (LT-1730) — capillary sample analysed at the end of each stage
- KORR CardioCoach MAX for expired gas analysis during the maximal test
- Treadmill, at a 1% gradient unless there is a reason to use another
About 90 minutes from arrival to leaving, depending on how many stages your lactate profile runs to.
- 01IntakeYour event, training week and recent load. Your starting speed is set from this rather than from a default, and deliberately low enough to collect several stages before lactate begins to rise.
- 02Warm-upEasy treadmill running at a 1% gradient, then the heart-rate strap and sampling kit. No mask for the first test.
- 03Lactate profileSpeed rises by 1 km/h in three-minute stages at a 1% gradient. At the end of each you straddle the belt for about thirty seconds for a fingertip sample, then start the next. It continues until your second threshold has clearly been passed and there are enough stages above it to resolve the curve, rather than to exhaustion.
- 04RecoveryA deliberate recovery interval, long enough to clear the first test without letting you go cold before the second.
- 05Maximal testThe mask goes on. Your starting speed is selected from the lactate profile so the maximal phase is targeted to approximately 8 to 12 minutes. Speed then rises by 1 km/h every minute at a 1% gradient to volitional exhaustion, with no sampling interruptions. Afterwards we ask for your rating of effort and whether you felt you had meaningful capacity left.
- 06Review and reportYour lactate curve, both threshold systems and your aerobic capacity on screen before you leave. The written report follows.
Choosing
Compared with Complete Athlete Profiling.
- VO₂ Max Test £200
~60 minutes · Gas exchange only — VO₂ max, VT1, VT2, measured HRmax and training zones. No blood sample.
- Endurance Performance ProfilingThis one£300
90 minutes · A blood lactate profile with LT1 and LT2, then a separate maximal test for aerobic capacity and the ventilatory responses.
Two appointments · Resting metabolism, endurance physiology, movement and force production, and sweat and hydration — across two appointments, in one report.
Neither is a better assessment than the other. Complete Athlete Profiling covers more areas across two appointments; this one covers the endurance physiology in a single appointment at a lower price. If it is the blood lactate half you came for, that is what this assessment produces and there is no lactate-only appointment.
Training for a specific event?
The assessment is the same whatever you race. What changes is which numbers matter most and when it is worth testing.
Questions we get asked.
If your question is about pacing and training intensity, this one. VO₂ Max Testing at £200 gives the aerobic numbers and your zones without a blood sample. Booking this with the movement and force-plate assessments takes 15% off the total, and each is run on a day that suits its preparation. If you are unsure, send an enquiry rather than guessing.
Commonly 10 to 14 weeks out, which leaves time to train on the zones. Testing in the final fortnight still measures accurately but leaves little opportunity to act on it.
The one you train and compete in. Zones do not transfer cleanly between running and cycling, so triathletes wanting accurate zones for both usually test each separately, a week or more apart.
No. The protocol adapts to the intensity you can produce, and the zones are individual either way. The relevant question is whether you train to a structure the zones can inform.
Eat normally beforehand and finish your last meal approximately four hours before your assessment. Water is allowed. Avoid deliberately changing your usual carbohydrate intake before testing: pre-test nutritional state can alter the blood-lactate response at a given workload, so standardising it is what makes two assessments comparable. Arrive well hydrated and well rested, avoid intense training the day before, and bring the kit and shoes you train in. If you are retesting, replicate your previous pre-test meal and its timing as closely as practical.
No. Resting metabolic rate is measured as part of this appointment. The standalone assessment at £135 is for people who want the metabolic and nutrition side on its own, without the endurance test.
For many training blocks, around 12 to 16 weeks is a useful interval, but the right timing depends on what you are trying to change, the training phase you are in and whether the retest is likely to affect a decision. Retesting sooner than the adaptation you are looking for tends to report day-to-day variation rather than a change in your physiology.
No. Testing is a standalone service. You receive your zones, thresholds and report and are free to apply them yourself or pass them to your own coach.
At UNTIL Liverpool Street, 280 Bishops Square, London EC2M 4RB, or UNTIL Marylebone, 1 Orchard Street, London W1H 6HJ. Both operate by appointment.
Book an endurance assessment.
- Price
- £300
- Duration
- About 90 minutes
- Locations
- Liverpool Street · Marylebone
Where
- UNTIL Liverpool Street280 Bishops Square, London EC2M 4RB
- UNTIL Marylebone1 Orchard Street, London W1H 6HJ
Both sites operate by appointment. Your location is selected when you book.
Still deciding which one?
Tell us your event and what you want to understand, and we will reply with a recommendation.