Just a brief update: by now I hope you have all seen the first episode of the Unsinkable: The Race to Recovery web series. Lachy is doing a great job producing the episodes and I look forward to sharing with you what is and always has been an honest insight into my rehabilitation and how I have felt in the last five months. You can subscribe to the Facebook group 'Unsinkable: The Race To Recovery' and the YouTube channel of the same name to stay in the loop with updates. Episode two of the web series will be released on Friday 22nd November.
On Monday this week I completed a lab test at the Victorian Institute of Sport. I am not physically ready to complete this on a rowing ergometer, but as you know I have been challenging myself on the bike for some weeks now. For those of you who are not into power outputs and data, all you need to know is that I produced an all-time personal best. I have completed this lab test on the bike multiple times in 2009, 2010, 2012 and now 2013 and what I achieved on Monday significantly topped them all. **Disclaimer: the following paragraph is the protocol and data so skip this if it's not for you**
The lab test protocol consists of 5 minute workloads, the first 5 minutes is at 150 watts, each 5 minutes the wattage increases by 50 Watts and the test is continuous. The test is a maximal test so you push yourself until you think you are going to die, then you hang on for another few minutes until you actually do explode in a ball of lactate. In this particular test, I was able to complete the entire 5 minutes at 500 watts. The best I had ever done before this was 2 minutes at this workload before failure.
Vo2 max for the test was 6.3L with a max heart rate of 199.
The photo below shows me on the bike with VIS Sports Scientist Nick Owen monitoring my progress:
Four and a half months ago I couldn't stand up to walk to the bathroom let alone turn the pedals on a bike. To be able to produce this effort in a rather short period post operation does suggest that the blood flow in my legs is now more optimal than it has ever been. This is an exciting prospect for me!
Lastly, I completed my Bachelor of Exercise Science degree this week at the Australian Catholic University. Safe to say it has been a good week!!
Until next time..
Cheers, John
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