This morning we trooped over to the Lenroot Lodge to test our VO2 thresholds. Yuriy drove up from Madison with all his VO2max testing equipment and we set up a treadmill in our weight room. Gregg went first and I played cineamatographer and filmed him to get footage for a CXC promotional/informational video. I've decided that VO2max testing is only helpful if you do it regularly so that you can compare your graphs over time and relate them to your training.

Here's the procedure we followed:
Yuriy doesn't let us warmup, I think that's fine for scientific research but for informational athlete testing I think that a warmup would improve the usefulness of the test, since we never have all out efforts without a warmup. Then we stand on the treadmill and get hooked up. First we put on the heart rate monitor strap that records your heart rate into the machine. Then Fish takes our resting lactate to get a baseline. Then Yuriy attaches the awful mask to our faces and connects the hose from the mask to the machine. Actually, I thought the mask was less awful today than the first time I took the test. Once the machine starts picking up our breathing Yuriy starts the treadmill. Every two minutes Yuriy increases the speed (the incline remains constant at 10%) and we run until we can't or until we hit 15 minutes when the machine ends the test automatically. At the end, which is when I can't keep up with the treadmill anymore, we grab the handrail and step onto the side bars while the treadmill slows to a stop. The mask stay on to record our recovery and Fish takes two more lactate readings.

I was last and Yuriy had to dash off to Madison right away so I didn't really look at my results very closely. It was pretty cool to look at Gregg & Kuzzy's graphs compared to this summer's tests; they both had pretty significant fitness improvements. One myth I would like to dispell is that this is a VO2 MAX test, we're really looking to see where aerobic and anaerobic thresholds are and how they are changing as a result of our training. The VO2max is a measure of innate potential, doesn't change, and therefor isn't interesting unless you're a coach trying to decide which athletes you want to invest your time with. I'll try to get some photos from testing up, I was filming but I think some pics were taken on Fish's camera.