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Tymewear - the next step in wearables? With founder Arnar Larusson

1:22:57 recording · AUTO · 3 speakers

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Brief overview

Timeware's breathing sensor measures ventilatory thresholds in the field, giving athletes a stable intensity signal heart rate cannot.

  1. Ventilation is the ground truth heart rate cannot giveHeart rate drifts with heat, fuelling and fatigue, while minute ventilation at the thresholds stays stable across a long session.
  2. Muscles drive breathing, not the other way roundOxygen intake is rarely limiting; the respiratory system is underpowered at evacuating the CO2 that carbohydrate use produces.
  3. Validated close to the mask, then proven at the TourWithin one breath per minute and 97% correlation on ventilation, with Team Visma using it to stop riders overcooking endurance rides.
Executive Summary AI
  • The hosts introduce Arna Lawson, CEO and co-founder of Timeware, whose chest strap adds a strain gauge to a heart rate monitor to read rib cage movement and estimate minute ventilation, respiratory frequency and tidal volume outside a lab.0:34
  • Arna explains that carbohydrate use raises CO2 production, and the two turn points where breathing changes are the first and second ventilatory thresholds, corollary to lactate thresholds LT1 and LT2.16:39
  • He cites durability studies where, over a two-hour ride at about 90% of VT1, power at the first threshold fell around 10 watts on average and up to 40 watts in some people while heart rate climbed 12 to 15 beats, leaving ventilation as the stable ground truth.24:40
  • On validation, Timeware sits within one breath per minute of a metabolic cart mask, with minute ventilation correlating about 97% and tidal volume 87 to 90%, checked against a Cosmed K5 in their own Boston lab and with research partners including Steven Seiler's group in Norway.56:18
  • Asked whether this replaces lab testing, Arna argues it grows the pie: very few athletes ever reach a lab or a coach, and accessible VT1/VT2 measurement should push people toward both rather than away.1:11:57
Key Quote
“So we're actually systematically underpowered in our ability to evacuate CO2 as it's being produced.”
— Arna Lawson19:08
Key Quote
“we are within one breath per minute different from the mask device.”
— Arna Lawson56:18
Key Quote
“like these guys are just lactate-consuming machines.”
— Arna Lawson1:04:37