Testing times: Matt discovers the joys of VO2maxing out
I’m way behind with race reports, but I’ll endeavour to catch up soon.
Meanwhile, I took up an invitation advertised on londoncyclesport.com to take part in a research project run by the University of Kent into the effect of training on performance in endurance athletes - in this case, cyclocross racers. So I turned up at 8.30am at the campus near Chatham docks to do a ramp test.
Ever done one of these? It’s also known as a ‘test to exhaustion’. For a reason. Basically, it’s like cycling up a very long hill that gets gradually steeper and steeper, so that you are working harder and harder until eventually you go over the red line and completely blow up. It requires a ‘maximal’ effort (they’re not kidding), so one of the more disconcerting aspects of the prodecure is that you have to sign a disclaimer should you drop dead on the spot.
So the deal is that you ride an exercise bike while wearing a mask so that the scientists can measure your exhaled gases (to see how much oxygen you’re using), with the resistance goes up every few minutes. You have to stick to your natural cadence, which isn’t hard until the watts start going up. I’ve never used an SRM power crank or anything like that, so I’m not familiar with what my watts are - although this is, of course, the gold standard for serious cyclists. Heart rate is too variable and unreliable as a measure of how you’re going; the watts don’t lie.
Still, I was watching the heart rate monitor, since that tells me roughly where I am. My own intervals on a turbo-trainer will be in the 90-95% of MHR range, so I’m fairly comfortable (relatively speaking!) there. Under 300W, it all felt fine - like I could ride all day there, except that I couldn’t get out of the saddle without breaking my cadence, so I was getting a bit numb ‘down there’.
Every four minutes, the researcher, James, would squeeze a drop of blood out of my thumb to test my blood lactate. The protocol he was using meant that once I’d gone over my anaerobic threshold (when the lactate curve starts to go north fast), the watts would jump 30W every minute, instead of every eight minutes. So the end, brutal as it is, at least comes fast. At 330W, my breathing was getting laboured, and my HR was hitting 160+.
So now I was into the endgame: 360W, 390W, 420W… a minute at a time. I got to 450W and it was all I could do to finish the minute. Everything starts to go a bit hazy then. Last time I looked, my HR was 179 (I actually recorded 180, a new max, since I’d been reckoning on about 178 - which happens to be exactly 220 minus age for me). God, it feels good to stop, but that last bit is actually mercifully brief and you’re so focused on keeping going as long as you can that you sort of don’t notice how much it’s hurting.
I came out with a VO2max - the greatest quantity of oxygen your body can use at peak output, which is standard measure of performance potential for endurance athletes - of 69ml/kg/min. By way of comparison, pro cyclists would normally record numbers in the high 70s; world-beaters would be in the 80s. At his peak, Greg LeMond was clocked at 92.5. The highest human figures ever recorded are attributed to Nordic skiers, into the mid-90s.
As far as watts go, a top pro would be able to average over 400W for an hour or more on an Alpine climb. To break the world hour record on the track, you’d need to be getting near 450W - the power I managed for the last minute of my test - for the entire duration. Unimaginable.
I asked James who else he’d got taking part in the research programme. The other cross riders he mentioned were Darren Barclay, Al Tullet, Ben Lockwood… this was hilarious: we all race together in the London league and we all finish within about a minute of each other. The physiological differences must be tiny - though Darren is clearly the strongest. But I’d bet we must all have virtually identical VO2max figures.
Then again, maybe not: it is just one measure of athletic performance, and many other qualities go into making a decent cross rider. Being able to ride for an hour at or over your anaerobic threshold is probably more important. And that’s before you even begin to factor in non-physiological features like handling skills, psychology, tactical sense etc. No doubt, we’ll compare VO2maxes at the next race, shake our heads and agree that they don’t mean much in isolation, then get on our bikes and kill ourselves for an hour and see who comes out ahead (behind Darren, that is).
But we will all be wearing Polar HRMs so that James can download our data. I have to admit I am curious. Will report more when I know more…
Ciao for now.