The Test Drove Me Into the Ground

Second progressive test on the treadmill. Oxygen, lactate, heart rate, the ramp to failure.

It drove me into the ground.

I hit 195 and that was it. My legs got completely cut out from under me. Toward the top the technique fell apart, and at 18 km/h there was no hiding it. Both the friend filming me and the guy running the test pointed at the same thing: badly untechnical, no economy, power leaking everywhere.

The next day I had to sleep for an hour in the afternoon, which almost never happens to me. It took more out of me than I expected.

I am a little disappointed, because the heart rate climbed hard the whole way. That bothered me more than anything else during the test.

But there is the other side. At 18 km/h I held 45 seconds. Last time I did not get there. So on the top end, better.

Now I wait for the analysis. The oxygen, the zones, the lactate curve. The feeling is one thing. The numbers will say what actually happened.