Go ahead and put him through the paces.

Make him sprint forward, make him sprint backward and have him squat down and jump back up. He has no problem with someone timing his skating or measuring his heart rate.

Goaltenders will stand in the centre of the storm and take dozens of hard rubber pucks coming at their bodies every game. They'll face the pressure of a shootout if need be, try to turn away breakaway chances and penalty shots.

But start talking about needles and vials of blood, and it causes Ian Perrier to cringe.

It's not that the 2007 Canada Winter Games goalie for the Yukon is afraid of needles. He just doesn't like the idea of something piercing his skin, especially not more than once.

'I actually thought it was going to be a lot worse,' he smiled, following his run-ins with the pointy nuisances Sunday afternoon. 'I'm not a big fan of needles.

'The first one wasn't so bad, but then it got more painful when they did the next ones.'

Perrier was taking part in a special fitness routine known as lactate testing. Lactate testing has emerged as one of the most important measurable variables in defining, prescribing and tracking training intensities for elite athletes in many sports. The athletes' lactate acid is measured to determine components such as speed, drop-off and recovery rate.

Shelley Gellatly, an exercise physiologist and athletic therapist, currently works with Riverfront Physiotherapy, which moved into the Canada Games Centre earlier this month.

Gellatly arranged for exercise physiology staff from the PEAK Centre for Human Performance in Ottawa to visit the territory this past weekend, offering the testing for local athletes.

The PEAK Centre has conducted thousands of blood lactate tests for over 25 years, and has worked with professional sports teams such as the Ottawa Senators and Toronto Maple Leafs.

While in Whitehorse, co-owner and exercise physiologist for the centre, Kevin Wilson, worked with members of the Whitehorse Glacier Bears Swim Club, the Whitehorse Cross-Country Ski Club, several cyclists and runners, as well as members of the Canada Games hockey team. All of the testing was done in the field.

'The main thing is to make sure you measure what they do,' said Wilson. 'So with a skier, you test them out on the trail, with a swimmer you do it in the pool and with a hockey player, out on the ice.'

On Sunday afternoon, the hockey players as well as coach Joe Martin were put through a series of six sprints, in full gear, with a stick. Perrier went through a special workout designed for goalies. The most important thing, Wilson said, is that the athletes push hard and give it 100 per cent, especially the first time they complete the test.

'A lot of guys don't know what to expect. They're told from the beginning, they have to give 100 per cent. If they don't, we'll ask them to do more, because we're not getting valid data.'

The athletes' sprint times were measured, producing rankings based on speed. Then their heart rate was measured immediately following the sprints, and again a couple of minutes later, to determine their recovery rate. Finally, three small vials of blood were drawn in order to collect data on their lactic acid levels.

'I feel tired,' Martin laughed following his test session. 'I don't think I've ever felt like this. The testing is hard. It was worse than I thought it would be.

'It just shows you, if you don't test yourself once in a while, you might have a false sense that you're in shape. This kind of thing puts it all in perspective.'

Perrier admitted he hasn't been doing too much aerobic exercise since the season ended a few weeks ago, so the test 'was a lot harder than it should have been.'

What the local players went through is the same protocol done with professional teams, Wilson pointed out. Martin said it will be neat to find out how he compares with some of the pro athletes who use the testing system, such as Martin Havlat of the Senators.

'It will just show you where you're level is at compared to the top level,' he said. 'For myself, I'm trying to get back in shape for a few things this summer. This could show me whether or not my current training is really helping me.'

Wilson said its important for the young athletes to get the experience with lactate testing now, so they will be prepared if they play at a higher level in the future the same testing is also common in junior hockey.

'This is one aspect of the testing, on-ice in full gear,' he said. 'It's to gage how fast the kids can skate, how well they recover. For the second part, we do them on the bike. It gives us a different set of information.'

Wilson is booked to come back in August, when he hopes to have enough time to do both parts of the test, in all of the sports, so the teams and athletes will have both sets of data heading into the next season.

'Then we'll know for sure if the players have been training properly over the summer. And it lets the players and coaches know exactly where they need to be working on their conditioning throughout the season.

'We're hoping we'll have a different ranking in August, with faster times and better recovery rates.'

'It's good to have the test now and then again after the summer,' agreed Perrier. 'If you've just been watching TV, the coaches will be able to tell.'

Wilson said he was very impressed with the conditioning of all the elite athletes in Whitehorse. He was also pleased with the mix of people who came out for the testing, as some recreational athletes decided to give it a try as well.

The PEAK co-owner will now take the blood samples, as well as recorded time and heart rate data, back to his office in Ottawa for analyzing.

All of the completed results will be released to the coaches and athletes by conference call within the next couple of weeks, so sufficient training plans for the summer can be concocted.