Testing- What does it all mean?

I am not a big fan of numbers. I count miles and time. Not much more than that. Power? No way. Heart rate? Barely.

Last July I won the overall GC of the Marysville Stage race and with it came a complimentary LT/VO2 max testing package from Cadence. Sounded pretty cool. Until I found out blood samples were taken. To me, any amount of blood, no matter how small, is too much and I kept me from scheduling the test for almost a year. With Jen interning for the summer, she kept pressing for me to take it. So I set it up and took it yesterday.

Overall, it wasn't bad at all but I'm glad I waited until a time where I had some fitness for it. I thought the whole thing was interesting and made it apparent to me how much easier training with power seems to be. The first test was the LT. Starting out an awkwardly easy wattage, a lactate sample is taken then the resistance is bumped up 50 watts. Three minutes of spinning and another sample. Another 25 watts, three minutes, and a sample. Keep jumping up in 25 watt intervals until a lactate reading over 4.0 is reached and you have your LT HR and power output. Mine came out to be 310 watts/168bpm and a power/weight ratio of 4.55w/kg.

Second was VO2 max. After being fitted with a facemask and a short warmup, resistance is started just below LT. In my case 275, and is increased by 25 watts every 60 seconds until you can't take it anymore. Kinda like a short track. Only starring at a wall with a suction cup on your face. The final readout on the screen was 400 watts and 80.4. Not quite sure what all of that means, but I think I'll stick to counting hours for a while. Jenny looked very professonal in her white lab coat and conducted all of the stabbings for blood.

Ergon product made it yesterday. The new shape of the GX2 feels really good. Just like the GR2's but a lot smaller profile through and through. The bar end feels a little bit smaller which I really like and the wing isn't quite as bulky in the palm of the hand. Mmm.