My VO2 Max test

Don't know what the figures mean, yet -

Last night I finally fulfilled an ambition that's eluded me for years. I stepped up to the plate and did a VO2 Max test under the excellent supervision of Dr Richard MacKenzie at Westminster University, 115 New Cavendish Street, London.
I was nervous for one central reason, that if the numbers didn't come out very well I'd be crushed.
This is because the VO2 test is the gold standard for telling you if you're any good.
I don't have the full results yet but went in knowing two things. One: that I'd been judged 'fair' on a previous, non-scientific ramp test carried out at a gym on a tread mill. Which I'd ignored of course. But it kinda sucked. Second, that as Cycling Weekly put it a few months ago, the numbers stack up as follows: 1.5-2 watts per kg of (body) mass= recreational cyclist; 2-4 watts/kg = sportive rider; 4-6 = club athlete; 7.5 = Alberto Contador at full chat, with (as we are now told) clenbuterol for some extra lick. So I went into the test with the idea that anything around 3 would be a disaster for my Club Rider aspirations. 4 would be OK. Anything above 4 would be jam. I am conservative about these things.
The actual test is very easy until the point when it's absolutely awful. I brought my own pedals and shoes and normal kit. You want to be as comfortable as possible, as 'normal' as possible. I was weighed (=69kgs/152lbs). Some warming up at a high cadence, lots and lots of minute adjustments to the fit; a bit of stretching. HRM fitted (my Polar wasn't reading well, owing to all the other electronic kit in the vicinity, so we switched it off and used theirs); big, sealed face mask fitted over face. This measures how much oxygen you're getting in. Then easy peasy, you roll away at 100 watts and settle into a normal cadence, for me 90. Instead of abrupt up-steps in resistance, the ramp was very steady, rising 6 watts every 12 seconds. I could see it stretching across a huge screen to my right: the Alpine Col that ascendeth forever. I'd been told that it'd all be over in about 8 minutes, and it was. Once you get to 300 watts you know you're working. After that it ramps and ramps and Dr MacKenzie is shouting encouragement, "Give me one more minute, dig in Richard." At 340 watts I went down onto the drops and put my head down for the endgame. Less than a minute later, my data had all plateaued and my pulse was flicking 196, and we called it a day.
I will receive a full test data report next week, but we know that the watts per kg measure is above 5.
Do I recommend this test? It costs £130, which is alot. That's a wheelset for training purposes. But of all the tests to perform, surely this is the one that counts, and you might only do it once. Training can then improve VO2 Max by a factor of +10%, I am told. There's another test, a threshold test, where they take pinprick blood samples and measure lactic acid. I might look into that but don't have the money for now. I should add: Dr MacKenzie is a fantastic guy and this is a first rate facility, all new feeling and immaculate. Finally - he's inside a real university, which puts the whole enterprise on a higher plane than your local gym. So yes: I recommend it unreservedly.

http://2009.westminster.ac.uk/schools/science/consultancy/fitness/vo2-max-test

View from the cockpit