Being as I spent most of November and December completely exhausted and/or sleeping, I was a little reticent to start the study, but I figured I would honor my commitment. I'm definitely glad I did.
So I started biking again semi-seriously in late December/early January. I've found that I've gotten my energy level back up to snuff. A couple of weeks ago, I went in for my first test.
I took my bike in; they measured all pertinent dimensions, and set up their $6000 power-measuring computer-controlled bike based on mine. While they were setting up the bike, they took 'some' blood samples. By 'some' I mean they pricked my fingers 572 times and drained approximately 5 liters of fluid. Fortunately this resulted in a rather severe weight loss, which made my numbers seem all that more impressive.
After the fluid drain, they put me on the bike for a quick warmup followed by a four-minute all-out effort. In order to determine what was going on inside my body, they strapped a mask to me to measure the volume and constituents of my breath, and continued to drain my blood to measure lactate levels. I had them take a picture of me, as it was an impressively odd looking setup.
If my eyes looked glazed over and my face looks flushed, it's because I'd had a gas mask strapped to my face starving me of Oxygen for the past 3.5 minutes. I strongly suspect that this 'study' is really just a front, trying to understand how much physiological torture one would willingly undergo with no particular goal in mind.
More on the results later.
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