Taking the Test

What can wipe you out in just under 15 minutes? Your typical VO2 Max test! I went over to ULM (Monroe, Louisiana) today to take the torture test that Lisa was supervising. Filled out all the needed paperwork, then had to submit to having my body fat measured (yea, that was a joy), then I had to do several breathing exercises to get a base measurement for what I was breathing in and out as far as gases were concerned. A lot of it I don't understand but I'm sure there's a reason for most of it.

Then it was on my bike (attached to a stationary trainer) with sensors all over my chest and a mask over my lower face with a breathing tube on the front to catch all that needed to be measured. A simple warmup of 8-9 minutes at a 90 rpm candence, then I was off to the races! I started in a 53x21 gear at 90 rpm and had to shift down to a harder gear every 3 minutes while maintaining that 90-count beat. Of course, it got harder as I went along. Lisa, along with Bert who was hanging out to watch me suffer, kept encouraging me to keep at it, to maintain my cadence and push through. Finally, at 13 minutes, 9 seconds, I had to stop....couldn't push it at that rate anymore and I was sweating up a storm!

The numbers weren't bad at all. The average guy at my height, weight, and AGE would have a VO2 max (mL/kg/min) of 35.2 and my rate was 52.6. I bet I could have done better but I had never taken this test before and didn't know what to expect. My max heart rate was 181 with my AT rate at 161...that means when I go out to do a "fat burning" ride, I need to keep my heart rate below 161 for 2-3 hours and I should offset what I ate the day before! My heart rate stayed at steady rate throughout the test after I reached AT, hovering between 161 and 172 no matter how hard I worked. I hit 181 at the very end. I got copies of all the test papers but I can't read most of them...but I can roughly figure out what some of it means. I'm going to go again in a couple of weeks to get my VO2 max on the running treadmill. Should be fun.

On the way to Monroe, I stopped in Homer to take some pictures for my friend, Steve, a high school buddy. He wants new pics for his website of his office building now that it's finally done. The whole place, a 1920's-era building in downtown Homer, was redone from the outside walls inward and it looks great. The second floor is still gutted out with Steve's stationary bike and weights up there for when he works out during lunch. The bottom floor is all offices and stuff. What's really neat is the shower/bathroom in the back! Go work out, run, whatever, and you can get cleaned up before the next client shows up!