What is the FaCT system?

[Robh]

Toks asked me in another post what is the FaCT system here's an explanation :-

What is the FaCT system...

FaCT stands for Feldmann and Chlebek Test
The FaCT System is an entirely new way to approach testing and training of endurance athletes. The system is based on sound physiologic principles and years of real-life experience with hundreds of athletes.
The foundation of the this system is the FaCT Lactate Balance Point Test. This test was developed by Juerg Feldmann, founder of FaCT-Canada. The test has been successfully performed on thousands of athletes, and used to guide the program of Canadian Olympians Geoff Kabush and Ryder Hesjedal. Age group athletes and recreational athletes have benefited from the information this test provides. We have successfully used this test on individuals involved in cycling, triathlon, rowing, cross-country skiing, paddling, running and swimming.
The principles of the FaCT system are focused on long term athletic development. They incorporate the understanding of the difference between STRUCTURAL and FUNCTIONAL adaptation to exercise. These principles also address current lactate theory which has destroyed the myth of the negative effects of lactate and the previous belief in the “lactate threshold” model of training.

The FaCT principles are currently expanding to incorporate the use of respiratory data and oxygen utilization. The addition of new equipment to the market, has allowed us to expand our recommendations to include advice on intermittent hypoxic training (IHT), respiratory endurance training, and nutritional optimization. We have developed a successful education process based on these basic concepts. Our courses and camps allow coaches and interested athletes to learn the FaCT principles in detail, and how they can be applied to virtually any endurance sport.
Our courses offer an explanation of how current understandings in exercise physiology can be applied to sport specific testing and training concepts. Taking the knowledge out of the classroom and putting into practice.

FaCT Lactate Protocol

There are two components of the FaCT test protocol:
A: The Performance Line (step test) is used to evaluate physiologic changes over time. Using the FaCT software, one can easily see how an athlete has improved, and how to adjust their training program to adapt to these changes. The performance line can also be used to determine whether a particular training program has been ineffective, and allow an athlete to make appropriate changes to address the problem.
B: The LBP (lactate balance point) is the determination of the body’s ability to balance the production of lactate in working muscles with the clearance by the body.

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What is Blood Lactate?
Lactate is a metabolic byproduct of your body’s energy production process. It is produced in the muscle during exercise and can be measured in the blood by taking a small sample from the finger tip. This is done in the same manner as diabetic patients when checking their blood sugar levels. The blood lactate level increases with exercise and shows clearly the transition from oxygen dependent glycolysis to oxygen independent energy production.

Why measure Blood Lactate?
Blood lactate can be used by sport scientists, coaches and athletes to accurately determine appropriate training intensities, recovery periods, and much more.
Blood lactate testing is far more precise than the outdated and inaccurate method of using percentage of maximum heart rate to set training zones. Because heart rate responses vary wildly between individuals, each training zone needs to be determined by physiologic variables, not by mathematical formulas. Furthermore, the relationship between exercise intensity and heart rate is different for different activities. Training recommendations for running will not be the same as heart rate recommendations for cycling.
We feel training programs should not be based on general heart rate guidelines. Rather, they should be based on individual responses to training and recovery. That is the basis of the FaCT training principles used in our coaching programs, and educational seminars. Appropriate training guidelines can be achieved more accurately through lactate testing.

How much guess work are you willing to involve in your training?
How much time do you have to waste?
Do you want to ensure that your training works optimally for you?
Do you want to make the most of the time you have available?
Take the guesswork out of your training, and get the FaCTs.

As quoted by our Level I certified centre in Grand Forks, BC
This test is not about how strong you are
This is not a pass or fail exam
This test will not make your training easier
By itself, this test will not make you stronger, lighter or faster
It won’t put money in the bank, or put your kids through college
The only thing this test will do for you is give you the knowledge to train smarter, race smarter, avoid over-training, and help guide you to build a faster stronger body.

[Robh]

We have , as you will see on the FaCT printouts different lines in different colours.
1. Performance lines.
In sport or test situation , where actual physical performance ( watt, time over distance ,km/h ,steps and more) can be meaured to compare in a later stage we use the performance linie as a start up to increase possible lactate accumulation in the system.
In sports , where it is difficult to repeat objectively the actual physical performance due to the nature of the sport. Testing cross country skiing on actual snow, running tests , when there is no treadmill or 400 m track available, testing a heart patient during his activity to cut his lawn with a push lawn mover, we will have no performance linie , but only a pre- test situation to increase possible lactate accumulation.
In the latter cases , we can not see an actuall objective improvement over time , but in this cases we use FaCT mainly to give some info on actual intensity zones at that moment of the training ( camp ) or track possible changes in metabolic , pulmonary or other areas . ( see later )

Performance line :
Will give us a lot of different infos.
a) actuall performance (physical) in comparison with some physiological reactions.
Wattage versus heart rate as one very common info.
Wattage versusu breathing frequency
Wattage versusu RPM or stride frequency
Wattage versus O2 Sat
Just to name a few.

Depending on the coaches info and education , they may prefere one or the other. Now if you repeat the test somewhat later you can overlap the 2 performance linie and see possible changes in the above info you gatered the first time. A very common way of checking possible training effects. In all this cases the protocol is up to the coaches.

If you do a step test with step length of 3 min you should repeat this the next time.
If you do step increase of 20 wattage you should stick to that. and so on.
Now here is where some of the discussion about a fixed protocol will already start.

Example.
You do a classical lactate test and you decide to increase the load every 3 min. now you will have a " lactate curve :
If you do the same test but you have 4 or 5 or other time intervalls in this test your lactate curve will look different in certain areas. Question : what is the right protocol , resp. the right length of the step time ?
Now you decide to increase by 20 wattage every 3 min. For different athlets this 20 wattage is different in % of the possibilities.
50 kg heavy athlet with a max output of 200 wattage , means 10 % increase of each step. ( 6 min faster in a 60 min TT)
100 kg athlete with 300 wattage max output ???? and so on
.
Even if yo take HR and different lenght of interval you have diffetrent perfromance lines. This means for FaCT. you decide the first time doing a test, depending onn the athlets personal reaction , on how long you like to do the intervals and how much you increase the load. After that you stick to this individual protocol.
True , how do you compare with other athlets. Well we use in cases , where we offer group rides ( training camps ) the wattage body weight ratio on the LBP or speed ( running ) ability on the LBP and so on. This in cases , where the group rides or runs may go anywhere between 45 min to 60 /75 min.
In cases where the group rides or runs go longer we add to the above info the so called reaction on the "recovery linie.
Depending on the time of recovery in the second part of the FaCT we can give some info on the longterm endurance ability.
(or perhapsd on the ability of the STF versus FTF fiber ratio or the FFA metabolic ability, or plain and simple, this is an athlete , who can go long for ever. ( 25 cents age runners, one speed , throw another 25 cents in and he keeps going , so like the duracell bunny. , versus a younger athlet , with the same speed for 60 min and after that a decline in performance due to the above possible diffferences.
So using the performance line over 10 years with the same athlets will give you some info on , how the performance the the physiological reactions by a certain intensities have changed or not.

Now in the next info we will go a step further and show you how the next step in FaCT can give you some hints andhelp in coaching yourself or other people.
Short addition.
Not like in Tegtburs and Braumanns protocol: we do not have a recovery period between the first part of the test and the actual FaCT idea part of the second test.
This recovery period in Tegtburs protocolls may throw the whole validation over board.
How long to recover
How hard to preload
How fast is lactate moving through the system.
How fast is lactate "recycled"
and more of this questions.
All open questions and possible sources of errors , we try to avoid with our idea of FaCT.
Think about and come back with questions to the first part of FaCT testing.

Juerg Feldmann