The whole thing only took about 30 minutes. First, I sat down with the PT Sarah, she took my blood pressure, then she ran an ultra-sound body fat analyzer on me. After that, we discussed the speed that I would want to max out at. She said normally for athletes they choose 8.7 miles per hour but that is around a 6:50 mile pace and since I had just did around that pace for my half marathon she thought we should go to 10mph. It was all so exciting! She and I both agreed that my max heart rate is actually higher than the calculation of 220-age but that is what she would have to use as the basis for the test. So, the plan was, I'd start off walking on the treadmill and then she would increase the speed until I reached 10mph and then at that point she would start to increase the incline. She told me to look at the chart on the wall and to let her know once I reached "10 - Feeling Nauseous" After the plan was laid out, she fitted me with a heart-rate monitor and a mask. Then I got on the treadmill and the test began.
It only lasted about 10 mins. At first, I was at a walking pace, just to make sure the heart rate monitor was capturing the data. Then she moved the speed up to 6.7, then after a minute or two she moved it up again, and then after another minute she sped it up again and again until I reached 10mph. I ran at this pace for another minute or so then she increased the incline to 01, at this point she told me that I was around 91% of my max heart rate. Then she increased the incline to 02. Once max heart rate was reached, the test was over. I never felt nauseous or saw stars, which she had warned me might happen.
My VO2 Max results = 68.5%...not Kilian Jornet good but still good :) Check out this: http://www.topendsports.com/testing/records/vo2max.htm
