Lab rat (chasing Lance Armstrong)

So my buddy, Jorge, who is getting his PhD in exercise physiology at UNL, asked me to do a max test on the bike today; he needs baseline readings for a study he is doing.  I told him that, other than doing exactly one hour on the trainer on Sunday,  I haven't been on a bike since early August, and that I have only been running for a week after being off for the entire month of November for tour.  "Perfect," he says, "I need readings for normal people."  Well, I was willing to help out and slightly interested to see what kind of fitness I have in the off season.  

So, I get to the lab, he puts all kinds of sensors on one of my legs, straps a heart rate monitor on me, shoves a big tube in my mouth, puts a clamp on my nose, and tells me to go (that's the shorthand version).  I was to pedal at 70 rpms, starting at 25 watts, and every 2 minutes the resistance would go up by 25 watts.

It was hard to keep the rpms down at first because it was so easy, but then it got better.  It was also hard to breathe with that tube in my mouth, but once I actually started to work I didn't even notice it.  The one thing  I did notice was that 70 rpms is hard to do for someone who is used to cycling because it was quite a bit slower than I wanted to pedal.  

I was really happy with the numbers, and Jorge said he was impressed.  I was pushing 275 watts when the test ended (I couldn't hold 70 rpms any longer); Jorge said  that was 50 watts higher than he thought I would do given my weight and current fitness.  My max heart rate was 190.  My VO2 max was 61.5.  They said that because of the difference between running and cycling it would  have been around 66 if I had done the treadmill test.  

Of course I had to find out how good that is, so I did a little research.  The average untrained male has a VO2 max of 45.  Apparently if it's over 60 you're considered an "athlete."  Lance Armstrong's is 85.  Not bad for being "out of shape," and considering I ran 5 miles yesterday and did a swim workout at 5Am this morning (which apparently is not allowed for an actual max test), however, I would like to have it done sometime when I'm in racing shape.  The only downside is that Jorge says I have a lot of potential and that now he knows how much harder he can push me when we're running together.

Guess I need to get to work if I'm ever going to be as fit as Lance!