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On November 24th, 2024, I headed to Meredith College with my dad, where they had a lab to get my VO2 max and body fat percentage. It was an early morning out the door around 6:15 with the test starting at 7:40. It was about an hour and a half drive, and during the ride, I drank some water and ate some sourdough bread for quick carbs to settle my stomach. 

    Once we arrived and got checked, we started with the body fat percentage by using a BodPod. A bod pod can use your weight and value within a computer system to calculate your BF%. Based on my current physique and training habits, I knew from the previous test that I'd most likely land somewhere in the 6-10 range. I had been measured twice, once at 9.8% and once at 5.2%. After going through the test, it spit out my value at 7.3%, weighing 176 pounds. This was a substantial increase in muscle mass and total body weight for me, so I was happy I could stay lean but hold a healthy level of body fat at the same time. Overall, this metric was just out of curiosity, and I landed right where I thought I’d be.

    Next was the hard part. When doing a VO2 max test, you try to push yourself until you have reached the maximum effort within the test protocol. Having done this once before and nearly thrown up all over myself, I can say it is not the most pleasant experience. Previously, I had been tested at around 68 ml/kg/min. While this put me in the higher range, I did not have the time to back it up, and I had done a lot of training since then. I figured I would have some increase. As we started with the test, we began with increasing speed first and then increasing the difficulty. I tapped out after doing 9.5 mph at 6% incline. Through the test, I felt strong, completely winded towards the end. The professor doing the test then turned towards me with a bit of surprise. I asked him what I had got, he responded “88”. For those who know the VO2 max scale, I was shocked to have a value this high with a 3:08 marathon PR. I had been training with consistent mileage for about 7 months. I was proud to know my legs still had much catching up and was excited to keep working.

    My lesson from both tests is that data in a lab is precisely that—data in a lab. Too often, we try to use calculators to predict what we could or should run, but there is only one way to find out the truth: to go out and run it. I will revisit the lab every 6-9 months in the future out of curiosity, but I will certainly not rely on them to tell me if I am getting in better or worse shape. Just keep working every day to get a little bit better.