Quarq, a new age

I recently bought a Quarq power meter to replace one of my powertap hubs. I just couldn't help myself with the allure of no wires!!

I matched the Quarq to a Garmin 705 headunit, a fantastic feature stacked cyclo-computer / GPS.

Quite simply they both work. I judge my equipment based on how easy it is to install and how functional and stable they perform. The Quarq and 705 - so far - have performed as advertised. 

Now its just a matter of putting the miles into both of these units - but so far i'm very impressed!

VO2-Max Part 3

The final installment was performed yesterday. This time the supplement was not the sweet pineapple juice of last week but a disgusting brown murky concoction that smelt like vineger and tasted horrendous.

I didn't feel well from the start of the test, a very hard weekend of riding left quite a bit of fatigue in the legs.

Strangely this last test had me record a VO2Max of 56 (best yet) but I went for 2 minutes less than last week.. BUT my lactate readings were very very low on this test, something like 1.9m/mol @ 70% vo2max and a resting lactate of 0.8m/mol.

So there you have it, lower lactate, higher VO2 but I didn't last as long (? muscular fatigue as the overriding factor)

Below is a snap shot of my actual time @ 95% VO2:

Test 1 -> 6.11min (nil supplements) 55 Vo2

Test 2 -> 8.20min (pineapple juice tasting supplement) 55 Vo2

Test 3 -> 6.40min (ghastly concoction) 56 Vo2

Hopefully I will be receiving more detailed analysis early in the new year whilst will provide a better insight into the number and what they potentially mean....

VO2 Max - Part 3

Placebo or the real deal?

I'm not sure entirely - I did feel better, and by my calculations I lasted about a minute longer than last time (>20% improvement if true). My VO2 was hovering around 1-2 points higher on this test also...

One of the problems with a test like this is you stop when you are completely fatigued. The issue is that when you are almost at THAT point you can continue but your wattage slowly starts to drop... Then you get yelled at to keep going (MORE MORE MORE damn it!) and the wattage spikes up again before the inevitable drift downwards..... So when you've finished the test - you are hurting - but you also feel like you could have kept going.... just say pushing 30 watts less...

This kinda leaves you feeling like you have whimped out a bit and not really subjected yourself to max pain.... One more test next week then we get to find out all the results!! Some cool blood analysis will be given as feedback also which should make for some interesting geeky probing...

VO2 Max - Part 2

Part two of testing was a different protocol that used my final peak power from the first test (383W) as the basis for this test. The ramps were as follows:

4 min @ 50% Peak Power (197W)
8 min @ 70% Peak Power (256W)
95% Peak Power (356W) until fatigue.

Looking at WKO+ my previous best ever time for the sustained average of 356W was 3.56minutes. I wasn't allow to know the exact time I did today, but I'm quite sure it was closer to 5 minutes. Not bad considering it was 112% of my current FTP.

Interestingly my VO2 Max number didn't change from test 1. Which was a little disappointing. Next test is on tuesday and will involve taking a placebo or the supplement (double blind so no one knows what is what) and we'll repeat the test again... Shall be very interesting!!

VO2 Max

I've been signed up to be a guinea pig for some research that is being conducted at one of our major universities. The details are quite boring but they are testing some new supplementation and its effects on athletic performance.

One of the main reasons I have signed up is that part of the protocol is measuring your VO2 MAX. Or, the amount of oxygen your body can consume / kg / minute.

A sedentary person may have a VO2 max of around 20-30 ml/kg/min. Super star athletes like Lance Armstrong have a VO2 of between 83-85ml/kg/min - which is pure freak show stuff.

The testing protocol is on a cycling ergo fitted with SRM pro, gas analyser and heart rate monitoring.
The actual protocol is a 3min x 30watt step with a starting ramp of 2xweight(kg), or for me 166w.

Cruised through the first stages and things started to get interesting from around 350w. One of the problems with doing this test is that you can only breath through your mouth, which is plugged up onto a rubber bite shaped like a snorkel, the problem is that your throat gets very dry quickly and you also produce a lot of saliva that you would normally swallow - but in this case - it just dribbles down. Certainly not very attractive to watch.

I finally blew up in spectacular style after completing the 380w ramp. Peak HR 190bpm. VO2 MAX 55ml/kg/min.

55 isn't a terrible number but it isn't a brilliant one either. One thing I was told was this particular ramp test was not a very accurate way of calculating VO2 due to some factors with the testing procedure. The next test apparently is much more accurate apparently and they usually record an increase of around 5-6 ml/kg/min which would put me around 60ml/kg/min.

The next test is on Thursday and I look forward to a day recovering from the effort!!!!!!