Friday, March 7, 2008

70.3

So just what exactly does 70.3 mean? Well if you don't know, I'll tell you. And to be honest, even after I do tell you, you probably won't care.

70.3 is how many ml of oxygen per kilogram of body weight my body can use in a minute. Commonly referred to as VO
2 Max. You may wonder why on earth this has any relevance to anything. To be honest, not a whole lot. To me, it means a few things:

1) I beat Dave. Dave and I are in the Exercise Physiology masters program at school. Dave is smart. We are really good friends, but we like to beat each other at things.
He beat me on the last anatomy test. By a lot. I beat him on a bike test. By a lot. You tell me what's more important in the real game of life....some lousy school test...or how fast you can pedal a stationary bike in a lab. Yeah, I know, I'm tough.

2) I'm 82% of the athlete Lance Armstrong is. My VO2 max came out at 70 ml/kg/min. His was recorded somewhere around 85 ml/kg/min. I figure that means I should be able to beat 82% of the guys he did..right?

Ok maybe not, but in case you were wondering, here are the numbers of some famous folks

Miguel Indurain: 78
(Spanish cyclist, 1st man to win 5 Tour de France titles in a row '91-'95)

Greg Lemond: 93
(First American cyclist to win the Tour in '86, got shot in a hunting accident and missed '87 & '88, only to come back and win in '89 and '90. Personally, I think he would have kicked Lance's ball up and down the French countryside)

Yo Yo Ma: 57
(Yeah, playing the cello like that takes mad metabolic skill)

Rosanne Bar: 3.6
(To be honest I think I may have exaggerated this number by 2 or 3)

Ok, so you get the idea. Anyway, that is all I have to say about that. I gotta get some good rest so I can win against all the guys on the club ride tomorrow.

5 comments:

Kylee said...

Dan- blogging could be your thing.. i was thoroughly entertained! I mean the topic of cycling has so many outlets for you to show your comedic abilities! Nicely done..

Kyle said...

70.3 is also the distance of a half-ironman triathlon. I thought this post was going to be full of triathlete bagging when I saw the title. I'm a bit disappointed. Not by your VO2. That's impressive. Way to go!

Iverson Girls said...

You're so vain, you probably think this blog is about you. You're so vain (soprano: you're so vain), you probably think this blog is about you, don't you, don't you! :)

kirsten and josh said...

dan- why you gotta be so cool and use all these numbers that i don't understand... i mean seriously... :D

Unknown said...

Dan, I check your blog everyday. I need to read some more Dan-"ness." Please!!!