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On a scale of one to ten where ten is Lance and two is a
couch potato, I scored 4.

So last week I had a fitness test with Cyclefit and the results were relatively encouraging, for a 39 yr old, 6' 1" male ...

Weight: 85.5kg, 21.4% body fat. Well actually this is from my dodgy tanita scales. 85.5kg is pretty reliable, the 21.4% seems a little flattering. I enjoy Marks and Spencers wine gums, Dunking biscuits and Crunchy Crisps Selection a little too much - they are gonna have to go.

Heart Rate Min: 47 Max: 181. I was most disappointed with the max heart rate, having taken all that time and effort during the test to get an accurate measurement (ie. terrible nausea with screaming lactate pain) it was most disappointing to find out my maximum is exactly 220-my age!!!!!

Maximum Power Output: 4w/kg. I also found my max power output is woefully low at 343 watts, my watts per kg is 4.0. I need to seriously work on this. We reckoned anything above 5 would be good. Fortunately, I can improve the number by losing the 5-6kg I am overweight, let alone going lower and improving my stamina.

V02max: 44.4 ml/kg/min. My V02max was also quite disappointing, but hardly surprising. For those that don't know V02 max gives you a great indication of how fit you are. It tells you how much oxygen you burn per kilogram of weight - the higher the number the fitter you are. It is expressed as litres per minute per kilogramme of weight. Again, to improve the number lose some weight. My rating came in at 3804 ml / min or roughly 44.4 ml / kg / min, to put this into perspective a couch potato would rank at about 20 and Lance Armstrong at about 100. National and semi-pro riders rate about 60 to 70. My target is to get to 50.

Fat Bump: 136bpm. Apparently my anearobic threshold is 145bpm, which is low. I burn 100% carbohydrate when my heart rate is at 143 or higher, if I want to lose weight then I need to exercise in my maximal fat burning target heart rate of 136bpm. How very dull. But at least I'll get thin and improve my vo2 and maxwatt per kg values.

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