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dan300 dan300 is offline
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Default 29-07-2017, 08:53 PM

So the training paid off. Perhaps not as much as I thought it might have, but it still did.

I added 30 seconds to my previous best. So, I scored a time of 14:30.

I had planned, aimed, expected and hoped for 15:00, but before I started I already decided that if it was too tough then even beating my last score by 30 seconds would still be a success.

To my credit, each time I've attempted this awesome exercise I've always beat my last time by 30 seconds which is quite a considerable margin given how increasingly difficult it gets. It really pushes you to your absolute limits.

I'll provide the short explanation that's written on the table which is titled What it proves..

By gradually increasing the effort you have to make, this test reveals the maximum capacity your body has for processing oxygen and how good your aerobic fitness is. Once you start to use your muscles to power the effort and switch into your anaerobic system, it's only a matter of time before the lactic acid floods your muscles and you have to stop.


Now my personal take on the above based on experience...

Up to 10 minutes is relatively easy and passing 10 minutes is helpful psychologically. However, even though you know you're well over the halfway mark in terms of time, you know the worst is yet to come.

From this point on it's a matter of willing yourself to as far as you can. You can get between minutes 11 and 12 with a bit of a push, but not so much more than you would generally push yourself, then it becomes hellish.

By 12:30 you don't want any more, you are done and all you want to do is stop. You tell yourself to stop, you are fucked. But you push on.

The 13 minute mark is where you really start to let out out the groans. You have no choice. They are necessary, and also somewhat helpful in a comforting way. Anyone who's in the gym knows that this motherfucker on the treadmill is doing something extra.

Between 13:30 and 14:00 every single inch of your entire body is screaming out WE CAN'T FUCKING TAKE THIS SHIT ANYMORE MAN PLEASE HAVE MERCY ON US!

I tell them to shut up I need to break my record. Even though I'm about to explode or something.

When I got to 14:01 I was thinking "ok, you broke your record haha! quit!" but I just continued groaning and roaring loudly until I got to 14:30.

Surprisingly, or perhaps unsurprisingly , the final 20 seconds (after I increased it to the 2.0 incline at 14:10) were very easy. This was obviously because I knew the finish line was in sight.



For me, from 12:30 onward is where the real test begins, because that's where I'm really feeling the pinch. How I cope with it is by taking it in 30 second increments. Yes, on this attempt I have the goal of 15:00 with 14:30 being acceptable if 15 is unreachable at this time, but ahead of me all I see is the next 30 seconds, and every 30 seconds is a checkpoint.

What also helps is shouting motivational stuff in my head from epic motivational videos I often watch.

This is the most gruelling exercise test I've ever come across. It's painful but that's what makes it so awesome. The results tell me I'm above average fitness, and I vowed after my second go of it that I'll reach elite level if it kills me. Which, it probably actually would kill me literally.


You can't win if you don't play
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