No Hope for Athletic Supremacy.....

Data.....something all elite athletes use to assess their fitness and abilities. Today I found out that I will never be an elite endurance athlete. I am enrolled in a study to look at differences between persons who train regularly (e.g. cyclist) versus couch potatoes.

So I was all excited to be in this study, because I would get my VO2 Max, HR Max, and % body fat tested. Well, this is what I found out from my test on Wednesday:

Height = 5'11.5"
Weight = 165 lbs
VO2 Max = 53.4 ml/min/kg
HR Max = 210 bpm
Recovery HR = 184 bpm
% body fat = 13.4% (18% body fat in my head = my wife's nickname for me: "FAT HEAD")
Maximum power held for 2 min during VO2 max test = 360 watts (14 minutes into test)

What does all of this mean??? Good question, and I am not exactly sure. For one, I'll never win the Tour de France (Greg LeMond's VO2 Max was 92 at his peak). From what I gather it means that my lungs are not very efficient, and never will be, since it is likely that I could only increase my VO2 Max by 15-20% even with the most powerful training program. And it only gets worse with age. It appears that my heart is larger than most persons and is probably busy trying to make up for my sucky lungs. My Max HR was 110% above the expected. Although the DEXA typically overestimates body fat, it is obvious that I need to get rid of the love handles.

Haven't met with the study coordinator since my test, but with these numbers he may be putting me in the couch potato group!

Hut Trip Report

One word = COLD. And I don't mean just a little cold. I am talking top of Mt. Everest cold. It was -10 degrees when we left the truck and the wind was blowing 30-50 mph (making the wind chill about -50). To make matters worse it was also snowing. Things took a turn for the worst when we got to the top of ptarmigan hill (12,500 ft). It was white out conditions and our group of 4 got separated. Luckily we had radios so we were able to reconnect after dropping back down to treeline, but 3 of us were well off the trail and it took about 3 hours to navigate back to the correct path and to the hut from there. And it was dark when we arrived! Steve and his son Dan had to drop their packs and go back for them the next day.
Learned a lot from this trip. 1. Never head out in these type of conditions....too dangerous with little reward. Even though we made it to the hut we were so beat and frostbitten that we spent the next day recovering rather than skiing 2. Skiing, rather than snowshoeing, is the best way to go, but even though loosening the buckles on your boots makes it feel more comfortable, you will loose your toenails from jamming them into the end. 3. Pack as light as possible!

Dugan is still talking to me....but I think it will be a while before we hear from Steve! Will probably do another hut trip next year, but I'll never do it in those conditions again!