VO2 max

David and Kristy Harris, from FitnessWave Tennessee, were in Birmingham again this past weekend for the Y-tri triathlon. Since I’ve been training consistently for over 5 months, and I’m only a few weeks away from my first Xterra race for the season, I figured this is a great time to test my ability. I completed a VO2 max test to get some insight into my current fitness level. VO2 is basically a measure of the volume of oxygen consumed per kg of body weight. It is used to measure cardiovascular fitness. To set up for this test, my road bike was mounted on a stationary trainer in the 34 x 17 gear combo. After filling out my vitals (age, sex, height, weight, and resting hr) I slipped on a nose and mouth encompassing mask attached to an oxygen measuring machine via a corrugated plastic tube. I warmed up for about 10 minutes before beginning the test. Starting at 100 watts of resistance, I started pedaling. An additional 25 watts was added every minute, and I used hand signals to rank my perceived effort on a scale from 1 to 10. After the longest 14 minute effort I can think of, my body gave in to 425 watts of resistance. The result was a 70 VO2 max. As I expected, this was far above the typical male of my age. However, I was even more enthusiastic to find out that it is towards the low end of the range for an elite level cyclist/triathlete. Considering I don’t have the luxury of a full time training schedule or coaching, the result is very motivating , both in terms of being a great baseline number and showing room for improvement. Along with VO2 max, the test also gave my max hr (187), aerobic/anaerobic thresholds, target hr zones, and caloric burn rate for each zone. Until recently, I always used the formulas that take vital statistics in order to calculate these things. However, it’s great to have individualized test results to get the most out of training (my previous max hr calculation was about 8 bpm high). One thing that is notable about this test is that the VO2 max number will differ depending on the activity being tested. Overall, this was a very informative test that I look forward to completing again as continue to make athletic gains. Although testing can be schedule throughout the year, Fitness Wave will be back in town, with all of their test equipment , for the Buster Britton Triathlon next month.