Tag: Vo2 Max

I’m a big geek when it comes to sports performance. A vast majority of sports that I photograph rely on the human endurance capabilities, with trail running and the cycling grand tours really highlighting what professional athletes put their bodies through. Of course, any talk of cyclists and endurance often descends into the authenticity of certain performances (even more for me with a girlfriend who works in the anti doping industry), usually highlighted by dominant displays by riders such as Team Sky’s Chris Froome. Moving away from the “Armstrong Era” I like to believe that the these sports are coming to a period where the battles we see out on the course are down to physical shape with the strongest winning on the day.At the complete other end of the spectrum are the people like me. I also love to compete in endurance events, with trail runs over a variety of distances up to the 160km mark. Any question marks about my performances largely go unnoticed. A large part of that is down to the fact that i’m not very good. The dream is still there, of course, that come the last weekend in August i’ll be at the sharp end of the field competing with the best distance runners in the world as I descend into Chamonix with 168km of the UTMB course in my legs. I much prefer to shy away from the reality that is crawling over the line 20 hours since the winners, along with the 20,000 strong cheering spectators, have long since left.My VO2 Max was an eye opening experience. I’m not sure everyone would like it as a birthday present (geeks like me rejoice at this type of thing), but for performance analysis, along with training recommendations, I think it’s an incredible tool.Time to shift that 3.5kg of excess weight.Self portrait setup – Camera: Canon EOS 1D Mark IV – lens: Sigma 15mm Fisheye – Additional: Intervalometer to record image every 10 seconds, Manfrotto magic arm and clamp to hold camera in place