Friday, July 21, 2006
In Limbo
I dunno if there are many people are reading this blog of mine, but all the same, i'll share what i think, as i believe it, and leave it up to them to make sense of it.
The day of reckoning has come and gone. OK, it was more like the 20 mins of reckoning, of which i lasted about 19... before i took a lactate-filled trip down the proverbial brown drain.
But it was bloody revealing lah, this fitness test i took. My boss, Simon (i swear he is the spitting image of Juergen Klinsmann) organised the whole gig. I was the first guinea pig of the day on the stationary bike, and the preliminary results came back a minute after i took the respirator tube out of my pie-hole, mucus dripping, coughing and gasping for fresh air, legs tight with lactate.
65.5 was the VO2 Max score. What does that mean? I frankly think it don't mean squat, except perhaps that i'm young, and unconditioned, and a greenhorn to boot. There was this other testee, Paul, who is like the roadie group's climbing monster - he measured a 62, yet was able to push the wattage up to 450, to 21 minutes, far superior to my output. And Chris, the Ironman dude and sprinting nut who regularly does swim-gym sessions with me at Hawthorn, clocked a 55.6. Both these guys would cycle my chamois off, whether on a shortish hill, a big-ass sustained climb, or on a flat sprint. Oh, don't forget Alexandra, who measured 53 or so, but beat me by a lap on last year's 12 Hour MTB Enduro.
I think this engine needs work. So tomorrow, it will be another good day out to train hard and hopefully work up to the maximum potential the full results will ( i trust) suggest.
On the other end of things ( the aesthetic side of why i love to do what i do), i have gotten the reading bug just by reading "Into The Wild". I think i need to further devote my time in the latter half of 2007 to getting back to the roots of adventuring. There is something much, much purer than adventure racing, and to have the opportunity to touch that, even momentarily, will be a great thing.
Let's see. OSIM 2007 in Singapore could be the last hurrah in terms of high-intensity stuff for awhile. That requires really specific training to squeeze out a really age-grouper good timing. The adventure stuff (much more comfortable interms of intensity level) after Coast to Coast - such as the Great Ocean Road AR, - beckons, an international competition sure to tickle my fancy. As for the rest of time between then and July, who know? Geoquest? AROC 24-hour? Another crack at Red Yeti in Sydney?
The day of reckoning has come and gone. OK, it was more like the 20 mins of reckoning, of which i lasted about 19... before i took a lactate-filled trip down the proverbial brown drain.
But it was bloody revealing lah, this fitness test i took. My boss, Simon (i swear he is the spitting image of Juergen Klinsmann) organised the whole gig. I was the first guinea pig of the day on the stationary bike, and the preliminary results came back a minute after i took the respirator tube out of my pie-hole, mucus dripping, coughing and gasping for fresh air, legs tight with lactate.
65.5 was the VO2 Max score. What does that mean? I frankly think it don't mean squat, except perhaps that i'm young, and unconditioned, and a greenhorn to boot. There was this other testee, Paul, who is like the roadie group's climbing monster - he measured a 62, yet was able to push the wattage up to 450, to 21 minutes, far superior to my output. And Chris, the Ironman dude and sprinting nut who regularly does swim-gym sessions with me at Hawthorn, clocked a 55.6. Both these guys would cycle my chamois off, whether on a shortish hill, a big-ass sustained climb, or on a flat sprint. Oh, don't forget Alexandra, who measured 53 or so, but beat me by a lap on last year's 12 Hour MTB Enduro.
I think this engine needs work. So tomorrow, it will be another good day out to train hard and hopefully work up to the maximum potential the full results will ( i trust) suggest.
On the other end of things ( the aesthetic side of why i love to do what i do), i have gotten the reading bug just by reading "Into The Wild". I think i need to further devote my time in the latter half of 2007 to getting back to the roots of adventuring. There is something much, much purer than adventure racing, and to have the opportunity to touch that, even momentarily, will be a great thing.
Let's see. OSIM 2007 in Singapore could be the last hurrah in terms of high-intensity stuff for awhile. That requires really specific training to squeeze out a really age-grouper good timing. The adventure stuff (much more comfortable interms of intensity level) after Coast to Coast - such as the Great Ocean Road AR, - beckons, an international competition sure to tickle my fancy. As for the rest of time between then and July, who know? Geoquest? AROC 24-hour? Another crack at Red Yeti in Sydney?
