Human Subject

I signed up to be a human subject (with Ellen a friend I made last year in one of my classes). What this means is that I will participate in a 10 week study. I will run 5 days a week at 5:30am for 45-60 minutes with a heart monitor attached around my ribs. In addition, I will perform 20 jumps before and 20 jumps after each run. The purpose of the jumps is to bust the blood vessels in my feet (like an athlete jumping). Also included in this study is an internet cooking course on preparing beef. I get about 15 dollars each week to purchase beef and eat. Basically see how protein intake affects female athletes. I figured why not?!

The picture I attached is what I did today a VO2 Max test. Basically it a maximal oxygen uptake. The VO2 max refers to the maximum amount of oxygen that an individual can utilize during intense or maximal exercise. This measurement is generally considered the best indicator of an athlete's cardiovascular fitness and aerobic endurance. Theoretically, the more oxygen you can use during high level exercise, this is often the case of athletes. I scored well above the average so I was pretty please. But geez, it was horrible because your nose has a pin on it and your mouth has a tube shoved in it.. so you drool! This only lasted for 12 minutes with the time and incline steadily increasing. I made it all 12 minutes with a peak run at 8.0 and incluine of 6.0. I know some runners do WAY better, but I was pleased.

I had to do the bod pod test too. Not fun cuz it tells you how much fat you have on you.. let's just say I have to work a little on this :) But I am proud of myself for seeing what I need to work on. A year ago I would have had a break down. Improvements :)

If you would like to read more check it out at: http://sportsmedicine.about.com/od/anatomyandphysiology/a/VO2_max.htm