Apparently, I'm A Pansy...

Last Wednesday I had the opportunity to get tested... as in VO2 Max tested. I met Steve over a year ago while he was managing the Eugene Running Company. At that time he was in the process of getting himself ready for a shot at the Olympic trials in the marathon... yeah... he's super slow. Anyway, since then he has entered his 2nd year of the PhD program in Exercise Physiology at the University of Oregon. He's a really great guy and offered to do my testing once he got his lab set up! Can you believe my luck?! SO... last Wednesday was the day.

I met Steve at the lab at about 8:30 am with tired legs from the previous day and started getting warmed up. I was surprisingly nervous about the whole testing thing. I'm usually afraid of the unknown. SO... my mind was struggling with the access to the knowledge I might gain during the testing. I was really afraid of finding out that I was a wuss. That's the bottom-line. I could go into all sorts of psycho-babble... but that is the nuts and bolts of it. What if I could only push 120 watts? You all know how the testing works so I won't go into detail and get right to the results.
VO2 Max: 52.4
Watts at VO2 Max: 360
Max HR: 181 bpm

VO2 at AT: 43.9
Watts at AT: 330
AT: 170 bpm

Seriously. That's all I got. It's funny... Steve gave me all sorts of hand-signals to let him know when I was done. I told him that he'd just have to turn the thing off b/c I wouldn't be giving any hand-signals. When he pulled the plug... I was spent. I hurt. I almost puked... and I only pushed 360 watts. In short... I was pissed. I'm not sure what I expected from myself... nor do I have anything to compare that wattage too... but I thought I should at least be pushing a higher number. Again... I have nothing to base that on... its just the way my mind works. I walked out totally dejected.

The GOOD NEWS??? Now I KNOW! YES! Like they used to say on Schoolhouse Rock, "As your body grows bigger, your mind grows stronger, its great to learn cuzz knowledge is power!" Uh, yeah. Seriously though. Now I know what my limitations are... and how to go about changing them. PLUS... I know exactly at what zone I should be training when! Good stuff.

SO, despite the huge shot to my fragile ego... I'm really really REALLY glad that I got the testing done. I'll be going back in a couple of weeks for Lactate Threshold and then have a couple of follow-ups before my "A" race in July.

Longish run today... in the rain! ZIPPY! Tomorrow? Long ride... hopefully outside if the rain lets up a bit and a swim!

Breathe...