Yes, it's sad, but...

  Perth, Australia
Monday, February 12, 2007

Ok, ok, I know it's sad, but I'm kinda impressed with myself...

Tonight was another Beep Test evening at Boot Camp, basically a fitness test that Marcus has once every 6 week session to let everyone see how they're getting on.

Simply put, it "involves continuous running between two lines 20m apart in time to recorded beeps. For this reason the test if also often called the 'beep' or 'bleep' test. The time between recorded beeps decrease each minute (level). There are several versions of the test, but one commonly used version has an initial running velocity of 8.5 km/hr, which increases by 0.5 km/hr each minute."

Last time (before Christmas) I managed to get a fairly impressive (if I do say so myself) score of 15.0 which is up there with professional rugby players (shame the rest of my body isn't in quite the same shape, eh? Heh, heh, heh...)

(http://www.topendsports.com/testing/beepcalc.htm)

(http://www.aerobictest.com/FitnessNorms.htm)

So, anyway, after a fairly lazy Christmas, not to mention a very heavy weekend just passed, I didn't have high hopes of beating that (or getting anywhere near it!)

Somehow (I blame sheer bloody mindedness!) I managed to push through to a 15.6!!!  This basically means that I have a VO2Max of 65.6 (not that interesting so far, but bear with me!)

Most professional rugby players score between 12 and 13, the fittest in the Western Eagles Aussie Rules team push beyond the 15.0 mark, although I've got a wee way to go to beat Graham Bachop the All Black scrum half who did a level 19 in the early 90's!  Might leave that one for a few years, mind you, he was only 25 at the time!!!

Here's the table of the averages...



...and the graph...



Kinda makes me feel pretty good that by the table I'm as fit as an 18 year old, and by the graph, better fitness that a teenager (some might say I have the same mental capacity too...  Now to save up for the surgery to have the body looking the same age!)

Anyway, feeling pretty good about my fitness and health, so the Aussie sun and life must be agreeing with me...  Now if I can only cut back on the beer and pizza, who knows what I could achieve...

Hmmm...