GRADES 8 - 12
TRAINING FOR THREE: TRIATHLON

YOUR MISSION: In this activity you will take your own pulse or use a heart rate monitor while you complete a cycle ergometer test. You will collect your personal data, make some calculations and plot your data. You will use this data and the data that you collected in the Monitoring Energy Expenditure to determine your potential in the different triathlon sports (swimming, cycling and running). (Are you better at one of these sports?) STEPS TO FOLLOW: Review the information in the background section. (The background information for this lesson is only available as a Microsoft PowerPoint presentation. You must use MS PowerPoint Version 2002. Early versions will not be able to display the presentation properly.) Print out a copy of the Cycle Assessment Form. Instructions For The Cycle Assessment: Using the heart rate monitor or alternately by taking your pulse, take your resting heart rate and record this on the assessment form. Four two minute stages are used for this test. A heart rate is taken each minute and recorded on the form Cycle Assessment Form. You begin stage ONE with a workload of 25 WATTS and stage lasts two minutes. The workload for stage TWO depends on the heart rate during the last minute of stage ONE. Follow the flowchart below to determine the workload in WATTS. Flowchart

MATERIALS: Cycle Assessment Form Paper Pencil Stationary Cycle Appropriate Cycling Clothes and Footwear Watch With Seconds Heart Rate Monitor (Optional) Calculate relative oxygen consumption (VO2 ml/kg/min) from the data using the following equation: VO2 (ml/kg/min) = [(10.8 x WATTS)/Body Weight (kg)] + 7 Plot the following graphs for the test Heart Rate versus VO2 (ml/kg/min) for each stage Heart Rate versus WATTS for each stage VO2 versus WATTS for each stage. Determine the Heart Rate breakpoint or Conconi's point for this test. Conversions to remember: 6 kg/m/min = 1 Watt 1 kg*m/min = 0.16345 Watts 1 Watt = 0.014335 kcals/min 1 kcal/min = 69.759 Watts 1 liter/min O2 = 5.0 kcals/min 1 mile per hour = 26.8 meters/min 1 pound = 0.4535 kilogram 1 mile = 1760 yards

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