Test Taking at UT

Last week I was invited to participate in an cardiovascular aging study at UT. The first open date that I could make was today. I tend to ignore the fact that I am now an older runner and was kind of surprised at the reaction I felt when I got to the door labeled "Cardiovascular Aging Research Laboratory - The University of Texas at Austin". I was mainly there to get a "free" VO2 Max test and other fitness level indicators for participating. Anyway, a young girl jumped up when I came in and introduced herself as Allison, as in Allison DeVan, PhD! She looked about as old as my 20 year old daughter to me. Anyway we went over the tests and risks (you can die from the stress of a VO2 Max test you know) and she assured me they had a working AED in the lab. Why is she telling ME this? Anyway, first up was height and weight measurements: 69.5 inches and 146.7 pounds. (The .7 is from my 3oz shoes) Then it was off for a full body scan. I now know for a fact that my percent body fat is lower than the general population. Actually, I am in the 5th percentile of 46 year olds at 14.9% body fat. Interesting side note is that of all the body regions, my legs of all things have the highest percentage of fat at 18%. I'd better up my mileage! This scan also reported bone density. That appeared pretty good as my bone density is 102% of the general YOUNG ADULT population and 105% of the age matched population. I'll have to look into this a bit more to understand what it is really telling me. Interesting factoid: The right side of my skeleton weighs 167 grams more than my left side! Next time I have to knock another runner aside at the finish, I'm leading with the right side! Then it was back to the quiet room for some weird blood pressure test. They placed cuffs on each arm and each leg. Vein imagers were placed on my carotid, radial and femoral arteries then all four cuffs were blown up and left inflated for 2 minutes. That was a bit uncomfortable but bearable. I don't have any printed results but Dr. DeVan assured me that I have flexible veins, good blood pressure and low heart rate. I may have dozed off for some of this portion cause I found sharpie marks on my neck after I got out of the shower later that I don't remember them making. Final test of the day was VO2 Max. GREAT! Only thing is, I had been told not to eat any breakfast or drink any coffee before coming in for the test. Now I need to attempt to beat the treadmill in a race to the death on an empty stomach. Oh well. They inquired about how fast I can run. I asked them how long they wanted the test to last. They said it would be over in less than 12 minutes because they would increase the inclination of the treadmill 2% every 2 minutes starting at 2% and no one made it to 12 minutes. (GOAL) We decided to set the treadmill at 7mph and see how that felt. They stuck a mouthpiece attached to tubes in my mouth, a pin on my nose and told me to just relax and run. RIGHT. I had to focus on not jumping out of my skin more than running during the first 4 minutes. They decided to increase the speed after seeing me run for 1 minute so at 2 minutes they increased the incline to 4% and increased the speed to 7.8mph. Ok, now it requires a bit of effort but no big deal. 4 minutes - 6% no big deal. 6 minutes - 8% feeling good but starting to sweat a bit. 8 minutes - 10% sweating pretty good now but still running relatively easy. 10 minutes - 12% grade NOW that is starting to burn. I could tell right then that it was going to be my legs that went first. I focused on the clock. 10:15, 10:30, 10:45 (they had told me that data points were every 15 seconds) 11 minutes! I felt my form begin to collapse and my legs were getting wonky. I tried to relax but couldn't recover the form. 11:15, 11:30, 11:45 she reaches for the inclination button and dials in 14%. 12 minutes. Legs were completely toasted but I kept pushing. 12:15, 12:30 SHIT. I think I made it to the 12:45 mark before jumping onto the side rails. The tube had to stay in place for another 45 seconds. DON'T PANIC! Finally, "you can take t..." I yanked the mouthpiece OUT, coughing, wheezing, gasping. Allison DeVan, PhD is pleased at the results but informs me that I did not max out my VO2. The preliminary result was 60.8 and she felt that I could have exceeded 62 for sure and maybe hit 64. If I ever do that again, I will set the speed faster so I max out from cardio rather than legs. Anyway, that puts me in the ranks of your average NCAA distance runner. An elite NCAA runner might have a significantly higher result but I'm happy placing alongside your typical 18-20 year old cross country athlete!!! After a couple of minutes I had recovered from the running but my throat was screaming. It is 12 hours later and I am still hoarse and my throat still hurts. I go back in 2 weeks for the second round of testing. I have a special diet for THREE DAYS prior to the test that specifies NO VEGETABLES! You have GOT TO BE KIDDING. Oh well, I'll do my best to survive on the approved meals like Broiled Steak with Steamed Rice or Lemon Pepper Steak on Boiled Linguine. :-) Oh yeah, the biggest no no is wine. No wine with dinner for 3 days! Does AA meet during the holidays?