A week late or a week early?

Two week ago I had my first on snow training camp in Norway. But next week I have my second (hence the post title). Seeing as the second training week has yet to occur I will focus on what did happen. There was no snow at, the rumored to be much superior, Liatoppen so we went to Geilo. I was very interested to see what differences there existed in the training camps here in Norway and the ones I have partaken in with SMS. There were a lot (though mostly superficial).

- Single sex housing (do they trust us more, or less?)
Seems like a pretty simple we happen to do it this way and you do it that way. My personal theory is that Sverre uses the girls to make sure all hell does not break lose and or an edible meal is served at least every other day.

- Meals cooked for you
The meals were very good and not having to clean up was awesome but being able to go into the grocery store and buy and then make whatever you want is pretty awesome. Though, that is what I get to do every single day (tonight: bacon, eggs and salad. Tomorrow: who knows)

- Two workouts everyday+ night skiing
This was definitely new having two workouts everyday and also having the ability to really separate them because of the trails being lit. Every day started with a 9 am ski and then we had a 4:30 ski later on allowing for good chillaxing time.

- 5 days long
Definitely prefer the 2 week long training camp as you can get that much more settled in. 5 days felt pretty short.

- Clear favoritism of biathletes
Everyday they got to go to the trails in the bus while we nordic skiers had to walk about 10-15 minutes there. Not that bad until it was as cold as -20C later in the week. When it is that cold it doesn't matter if you brought your puffy, extra gloves and a banana the way back is going to be very cold.

- Use of wood stoves
I guess you could say our house went a little overboard and then found out that there was a hole in the first bit of chimney (the bit that was still within the large brick enclosure. We actually were able to get the frame of the brick enclosure burning (2x4's not bricks) and the stove itself glowing red (neither were intentional). After a night on other houses couches and a good scrubbing we were able to eliminate the smoke smell and all that was left was good stories.

- Less instruction/drills
The camp was very much a go out on your own and train sort of camp. The coaches were around giving pointers but there were no group drills like I am accustomed to.

- Less social gaming
A key part of any training camp is gaming and having those who don't game (the girls) snobbishly accuse you of being antisocial. These claims ring more true in Norway. At SMS we played games that involved killing each other (Halo, Call Of Duty) and generally being very social through trash talking and claiming everyone else is cheating (my poor gaming skills have always required a healthy dose of innovation on my part to stay competitive). In Norway the games (GTA San Andreas and Football Manager 2011) were very much single player games in which your ability to kill your friend is very much lacking.

Here is what you really came for...

VO2 Max

Last blog post when I said that I had already written the VO2 max post what I actually meant was, I had written about 3 sentences and then realized that no sane person would read the haircut update and the VO2 max update so I stopped writing the VO2 max update and hoped that the shame of lying to my followers would cause me to actually write it soon. Instead it seems I am ready for a position of great political power as lying to my followers gave me little pause.
Now on to the actual post which I feel I must preface with an acknowledgment of sorts. My knowledge of VO2 max has come entirely from one test, conversations with other outdoor enthusiasts (read: people with interest in VO2 max not mastery of its ins and outs), and about 15 minutes of searching on google. In other words, I am an expert on all things pertaining to VO2 max. I would even go as far as to say that I am to VO2 max what Dr. James Andrews is to tommy john surgery. However my expertise relies mainly on truthiness.
On to the test. On a Friday about a month ago the nordic team made a trip down to, one of the high schools in, Bergen in our euro sprinter van (like an american sprinter van but cleaner and with half the leg room), the trip took about 1:30 and required us to arrive at school at 7:30 (the time I can usually be found turning off my alarm and beginning my 15-30 minute beauty sleep). Early wake up aside I arrived in Bergen in good spirits excited to take my test, at 11:45. I wasn't sure exactly what to expect so I warmed up like I was going to be racing a shorter distance race, beginning 45 minutes before my start, ending with 5-10 left and having a good amount of intensity in the middle. I was feeling pretty tired and I was having trouble getting my heart rate up but I was not that worried due to my total lack of VO2 max knowhow. I merely assumed (maybe even correctly) that being tired wouldn't really affect the results that much as VO2 max is about lung capacity not going the fastest.
The test was conducted on a treadmill with the option of going at 5.2% or 10.5% grade (I went with 5.2%) with the speed beginning at 10kmh an hour and going up by 1kmh a minute if you gave the thumbs up. I was first measured for height and weight and then I got a nose clip put on me. The machine to measure oxygen intake fit in my mouth like a massive snorkel that would only look natural on Barry Bonds' head, breathing was rather unnatural, without use of my nose, but not a game changer. I was told to run and every minute give a thumbs up if I wanted to go faster or a neutral thumb if I wanted to stay at the same pace. New reading came out every 30 seconds and we were told to be sure we felt we could maintain 1 minute at the next pace (someone should really look into revising this sentence for clarity). It is a go to complete exhaustion test and I was done after 2 minute at 15kmh.
In the end the machine read, 65 as my VO2 max, and very surprisingly the only change I could readily detect was a sense of general exhaustion (as to any rumors you may have heard of gaining superpowers upon learning ones VO2 max I can tell you I have recently reached level 24 on the aptly named "The Worlds Hardest Game"). We will also be testing in the spring and then fall and spring next year so it will be interesting to see if any patterns emerge as taking only 1 test does not provide that much information. Now for a number of VO2 max facts that I have gathered so that you can be generally excepted as the VO2 max expert of your community.
- VO2 max can be written as oxygen uptake per minute (l/min) or as milliliters of oxygen per kilogram per minute (ml/kg/min) which is the more generally used number (thats where my 65 comes from)
- Men generally have a higher VO2 max when adjusted for weight but things generally even out when adjusted for surface area (don't ask me how one figures out surface area)
- The average untrained male will be at about 45 and female at about 38
- The highest VO2 max recorded is 96 by Bjørn Daehlie and another norwegian skier whose name I cannot remember but whose technique is not held in very high regard
- VO2 max peaks around ones college years and then begins to decline (at least for the general population)
- Rowers generally have the highest pure liter values but no one can contend with nordic skiers when it is adjusted for weight (bikers come closest)
- VO2 max is not a be all end all as factors like % of VO2 at which ones lactate threshold is and efficiency also play large roles in performance

If you are reading this on Saturday morning or later then you are also looking at pictures of my new ski suit and remarking to yourself how it is annoying that Swix makes the same design for everyone so that no matter what color your suit is it looks like your trying to copy the Norwegian National Team (I'd say they deserve caps).

Overcoming Fears and Finally Writing the VO2 Max Post

To this day I have spent over 2 1/2 months in Norway, and at least 1 1/2 of those months have involved daily self acknowledgements that I need a hair cut. However, anyone who has ever seen a Norwegian teenager can understand my reluctance to allow my hair to be mutilated by Norwegian scissors. It turned out many of my fears were, individually, well grounded, but in the end I have obtained essentially the same haircut I would have gotten at Ted's in Manchester for only about 4 times the price. As my first "gourmet" haircut I feel obliged to recount the tale.
It started on Thursday when I asked around about where to get a haircut and got only one concrete recommendation called Capilli (I saw the rest coming after hearing that name once). I went in on Friday to get a reservation and got the earliest I could on Saturday (9 a.m. but it's Norway opening earlier than that is actually against the law, or at least frowned upon). The salon (I feel bad just writing that word in reference to somewhere I have visited) was painted all white and the walls were stocked with tons of token hair products, just because they can. Once the doors were opened I was led to the back where my hair was wetted, shampooed, and finally conditioned. After giving the hair stylist (definitely not a barber) my basic parameters (just cut my damn hair) she set to work. After taking off some serious amounts with regular cutting technique (scissors and fingers holding the hair parallel) she switched to a much more radical cutting technique. By aiming the scissors at an 80 degree angle towards her hand in order to cut individual hairs at an angle (that is my best guess). In addition to being a clear safety risk for the cutter this technique adds no clear advantage to the quality of the haircut (so win, win I guess). When the stylist was done cutting I barely had time to look myself over in the mirror before she came back with yellow goop on her hands to be transfered to my hair. I didn't say no, because what the hell I'm in Norway, and got a two product gel. Luckily I had a workout soon and a good excuse to shower everything out. Now I'm feeling much better due to finally cutting my hair but no better than I could have had I gone to Ted's.
Now onto the VO2 max test. After saying twice that I would write it followed by multiple weeks of not writing about it. However I have finally written the post but have decided to delay posting it for a day because it would make for one massive post that would just not get read.