FIT test 8/29

results from the fitness test

Procedure
Here's how it works.
You go to the UT stadium 8th Floor and go into this little room with a treadmill etc.
Someone weighs you, measures body fat composition with a weird little caliper thing, and then sets you up on the treadmill with a HR monitor on. You warm up for 5 or so minutes at a comfortable pace. Then they stop the treadmill and you bite down on a snorkle mouthpiece that is connected to some hoses that lead into a computer. You have to run breathing only through your mouth. They also put a nose clip on so you are forced to breathe through the mouth. this feels claustrophobic at first but soon you get used to it. Then the fun begins. You run in 4 minute segments to begin, starting at a comfortable pace. Every 4 minutes, you get off the treadmill, they stick you with a lancet (only had to do this once and then just squeezed the b'jesus out of my earlobe to get more blood) and draw a drop of blood from your ear. (you get to take off the snorkle and drink some water). Then they up the speed incrementally until you have reached some threshold (Don't know how they decide this. I think it's a combo of lactate threshold data and heart rate data). For me, they started the 4 minute intervals at a 6:50 pace, and I did the final one at a 6.00 pace. Then they make you keep the snorkel in, and they increase the speed by about 10 sec/mile every minute until you cry uncle. For me, they started at 5:50, went to 5:35, 5.25, 5.15, 5.00 and then 1 minute at 5.00 with a 1% incline because the machine didn't go any faster. I was toast at the end of this and called it a day. I ran about 5 miles total with about 35 minutes "under load"
Heres the data compared to last year at this time:

Data 08/2006 09/2005

Fat 6.5% 6.5%
VO2max 64 60.3
Max Speed 12.3 11.4
Max HR 191 187
LT (%VO2max) 82.8% 82.8%

Performance predictors show about a +6% difference in projected performance over the last year. The numbers vary so widely between predictors that i am not posting them.
All of this is a bit confusing to me. I am happy that I am in better shape, but don't want to be limited by a number or test.
The key will be to see how to use this info in the training. Especially with some of the HR ranges they suggested.