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!