Personally, I hadn't had any testing done in four years so I was interested to see what testing my fitness now would show. I am a lot older and a fair bit wiser as an athlete now, but in the wake of a baby 9 months ago I wondered just how I would fare.
There's a bit of a pictorial of lab shots below. Captain Glenn performed the testing, and while the others were being tested I pored over the two screens of data and ECG's. It is so much more amazing with a good understanding of exercise physiology and a solid backing of health science!
"Oooh, check out that CO2, it just dropped to 40...they're going to pop".
It's amazing how much you can tell from a computer—how much someone has left before implosion, you can visibly eyeball lactate threshold and ventilatory threshold can be seen by the breath-by-breath data appearing on the screen.
Doing the test is another matter. You're feeling good, cruising along and suddenly they're getting the gloves ready for you to implode! "Not yet" you think, "i've got ages!" and the wattage creeps up and up over the next 2 minutes or so, and you're hurting, and struggling and bike fucking until you can't turn the pedals over anymore. I managed to finish two really tough sets, and get 10secs through the last one before my legs stopped moving! (see video right. It ain't pretty but it's not a fucking glamour contest!).
In the end everyone did really well, not leaving anything there. I managed a significant wattage increase from four years ago, not unusual considering the 2.5-3kg weight difference. However the wattage increase far outweighed the difference in weight. I'm eager to get everyone's results.
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| Ready for the assault. |
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| Sweaty betty right near the 'pop'. |
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| The significant difference in position and style can be seen by contrasting Aido and Ben's shots. The outcome, however, was eerily similar! |
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| Noone would be able to say that Alex didn't leave it all in the lab. 10/10 for hurt face! |
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| Dotted up, ready to rumble. BTW are kids allowed in the lab? |
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| The beginning... |
...aaand the end...