Biking VO2Max Measured

I signed up for a healthy dose of pain today. The goal:
measure my
biking VO2Max.

"But Jackass, you just measured your VO2Max less
than a week ago," you exclaim.

True, but that was while
running on a
treadmill. This
is biking. Each sport puts specific loads, stresses and
requirements on
the body. It's important to understand how my body responds
to
each. As with the running VO2Max test my primary takeaway
from the session is a) that I'm a wuss and b) a set of
training heart rate zones.

So now I can pedal away knowing that I'm working in an
efficient zone.

Zone 1: 136-149 - Active recovery.

Zone 2: 149-166 - Aerobic endurance.

Zone 3: 166-169 - High intensity strength.

Zone 4: 169-180 - Interval speed work.

One immediate observation that avid joereger.com readers
(a.k.a. my Mother... Hi Mom!) will note when they recall the
pulse chart from this weekend's workout is that I'm not riding
in my Zone 2 or Zone 3 enough. I'm making it into Zone 2 but
not consistently enough.

Despite my best efforts today I couldn't break my 188 pulse
max from
running. I maxed at 180bpm.

This test hurt like a mofo. My legs were burning masses of
exposed nerves soaking in lactic acid.

Surprisingly, my anaerobic threshold (which you'll remember
from the running VO2Max web log entry is the point at which my
muscles start creating energy anaerobically) was lower than on
the run... only 70% of VO2Max. In my mind I pushed myself
further on this ride than I did on the run. Jackie explained
last time that I'm likely not as efficient at biking as I am
at running.

My measured biking VO2Max is 57.3 mL/kg/min. As Jackie
predicted it's lower than my running value of 60.3 mL/kg/min.

I was reading last night about Mark Allen. Mark Allen
dominated the sport of triathlon for over six years. He
described the thoughts of self-doubt that occur in his head.
Tim Noakes describes the scientific evidence that people begin
to experience thoughts of self-doubt about 75% into their
event. The explanation is generally that the central governor
(the brain) decides that we're going to hurt ourselves if we
continue.

This is the amazing part to me: the brain implants thoughts in
our
heads encouraging us to stop. It's not crazy pop-science...
it happens. Go ahead... try it.

Mark Allen described his
thoughts in his last Hawaii Ironman while about 4 min behind
the leader in the run segment: "I'm 37... I've won this thing
5 times... I can just quit now... everybody expects me to
quit." His mind wanted him to stop for safety reasons.

Today I wanted to test the theory. I wanted to see if I would
have discouraging thoughts. For the first few minutes of the
ride I mocked those
scholarly writers. They don't know me. I am going to ride
forever. I have no negative thoughts. I am immune.

Then, as they predicted, I started to say to myself "maybe I
biked too long this weekend... maybe I didn't eat enough for
lunch... I guess I'm not going to get optimal numbers so I
should just back off."

It happened so unexpectedly. It snuck up on me. I was
demoralized. I didn't know what hit me.

But I realized that I was in the last 25%. I smiled to
myself when I realized that I was. I smiled when I realized
that I was simply experiencing my brain's safety feature.
My brain wanted to stop but I wanted to continue. I had to
focus.

I focused on one point on my bike as I pedaled. I let tunnel
vision take over and I forced the negative thoughts out of my
head.

I know that this thinking allowed me to push myself further.
In the coming months, years and decades I'll continually
strive to enhance my ability to absorb pain and focus my mind
through it.

The test was again administered and subsequently analyzed by
Jackie Speranza. Thanks for the help Jackie!

I probably won't get tested again until the spring. That'll
give me some time to work in my target zones and (hopefully)
improve.