One hour in the lab tells you exactly where your limits sit. Thirty years of coaching tells you what to do with them.
World-class coaching for endurance athletes of all abilities. Coach and sports scientist — the “Lactate Guru”.
ECLYPSE Fitness Lab, created by Coach Gareth. Know exactly how your body produces energy — measured, not estimated.
Most people arrive unsure which test they need — and the names don't help. So pick the outcome you're after and the right test is the one underneath it.
The most precise picture of how your body clears lactate — and the intensity you can actually hold.
The maximum amount of oxygen your body can use under load — the single best-studied marker of cardiovascular fitness.
What your body burns at rest, measured rather than estimated from a calculator that has never met you.
Most people want more than one number. These bundle the tests that actually go together for your sport, at less than booking them separately.
Every price includes the consultation and a full explanation of your results. Not sure? Call (858) 361-4733 and Gareth will tell you which one is worth your money.
So here it is, start to finish. It takes about an hour in total. You do not need to be fit to be tested, and you do not need to know anything about physiology before you arrive.
You test in your own discipline — treadmill for runners, ergometer for cyclists, pool for swimmers. The data is only useful if it comes from the movement you actually train.
The session steps up through 4–8 stages of increasing intensity. Each stage is held long enough for your body to settle at that effort before anything is recorded.
A small blood sample is taken at the end of each stage with a fresh single-use needle. It takes seconds and you keep moving between stages.
You do not get emailed a PDF and left to interpret it. Every test is read back to you in person, in plain language, with what to change on Monday morning.
A heart-rate zone calculated from your age is a guess about a stranger. These are measured, from your own blood, on the equipment you actually train on.
The ceiling on genuinely easy work. Most athletes train above this without knowing it, which is why easy days stop being easy.
The hardest intensity you can hold at a stable lactate. This is the number that sets realistic race pace.
The intensity at which you burn the most fat per minute. It drives fuelling strategy for long efforts.
The top of your aerobic range. It sets the upper bound on everything below it and is the marker most tied to long-term health.
Delivered as heart-rate and pace or power ranges you can load straight into your watch or head unit.
“Coach Gareth and I have been working together for more than 2 years. Thanks to his detailed analysis and personalised coaching plans, I was able to shave off over 40 minutes from my marathon time.”
“I had such a great experience during my lactate & VO2 assessments. Gareth is extremely knowledgeable and took the time to break everything down in a way that really helped me understand my current fitness level.”
“When I started working with Coach Gareth, I immediately knew his attention to detail and scientific approach was a winning choice.”
“Coach Gareth has been training me for many years. He develops plans using periodisation and lactate data to maximise performance.”
Gareth Thomas has spent more than 30 years coaching endurance athletes — from complete beginners to world and national champions, Kona qualifiers, Leadville finishers and sub-2:50 marathoners. He raced professionally as a triathlete and competed for Team Great Britain.
He spent six years as head coach of UCLA Triathlon, has written several books on endurance training, and is qualified through FFI, NCF, RAW and ITEC.
Every test at the lab is run by him and explained by him. That is the whole difference. Plenty of places in Los Angeles own the same equipment — the machine is not what you're paying for.
Coach and sports scientist — the “Lactate Guru”. A plan built around your race, your schedule and your own data, adjusted as you go and retested every 9 to 12 weeks.
Some people come for one test and take it from there. Others have been with Gareth for over a decade.
Still not sure? Call (858) 361-4733. There's no sales pitch — if a test isn't worth it for you, he'll say so.
A blood lactate test measures how your body produces and clears lactate as intensity rises, which gives you your aerobic and threshold training zones. A VO2 max test measures the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use during intense exercise, which gives you your aerobic ceiling and your Fat-Max fuelling intensity. Lactate testing is the better choice if you are training for a race; VO2 max is the better choice if you want a single objective marker of cardiovascular fitness.
A test session takes 30 to 40 minutes of actual testing, progressing through 4 to 8 stages. Allow around an hour in total, which includes the setup and the consultation where Gareth reads your results back to you.
It is a small sample taken from a fingertip or earlobe with a fresh single-use needle after each stage, and it takes a few seconds. Most people describe it as a brief pinprick. You stay on the treadmill or bike throughout.
No. Roughly half the people tested at the lab are not racing anything. RMR and VO2 max testing are used just as often for body composition, longevity and general health as they are for performance, and the protocol is scaled to whatever you can currently do.
Every 9 to 12 weeks. That is long enough for a training block to produce real physiological change and short enough that your zones do not drift out of date while you are still training to them.
You leave with your personal heart-rate training zones, your aerobic and steady-state thresholds, your Fat-Max intensity, custom workouts built from your own numbers, and a fuelling and hydration plan. Every test is explained in person rather than emailed over as a report.
A blood lactate test is $350, a VO2 max test is $275, and an RMR test is $175. A combined VO2 max and RMR test in one visit is $450. Every price includes the consultation and a full explanation of your results.
The lab is at 1736 Ashland Avenue, Santa Monica, CA 90405, and serves athletes across Los Angeles, the Westside, Venice, Culver City and the South Bay. Call (858) 361-4733 to book.
Every workout is uploaded to TrainingPeaks and can be pushed straight to your watch for in-workout guidance. Your data uploads back automatically after each session, along with sleep and health data from your wearable, and Gareth reviews it at the frequency your tier sets. You can leave notes on energy, stress or travel as you go. Contact happens by call, video, text and email, again depending on tier. Every athlete trains with a heart-rate monitor and keeps a daily training journal.
No. Gareth coaches athletes all over the world, many of whom travel constantly. Most come to the lab in Santa Monica for their initial testing, and where that is not possible he arranges testing with a provider local to you so the programme still starts from real data.
The essentials are the basic kit for your sport plus a heart-rate monitor with a chest strap. Ideally you would also have a sleep tracker such as an OURA ring or WHOOP, a power meter if you ride, an indoor trainer, and access to a gym, a track or treadmill, and regular massage or chiropractic care. A budget for fuel and supplements matters too.
Yes. Gareth works with driven people who want to reach their true potential, whatever level that starts from. Wanting to be excellent matters more than what you can currently do.
Yes. Training seriously without racing is a superb way to stay fit and in prime condition, and it is how Gareth lives himself. Plenty of the athletes he coaches never pin on a number.
Yes. You will struggle with the longest races on that budget, and Gareth will tell you so honestly. But an hour a day, programmed properly around your actual life, goes a very long way — and building the plan around the time you genuinely have is the whole point.
One hour in the lab in Santa Monica, and you'll know exactly how your body produces energy — and precisely how hard to go.
