Men of Colonial Mountain Climbers--Conditioning

Guys, If you were at the first orientation meeting you heard about the need for conditioning. Most of you already know this and most of you are already doing some things to get ready for the climbs. After Pastor Paul mentioned his conditioning goal, I felt weak. And slow. And old. So I rechecked some correspondance and websites and found a fairly reliable VO2 test that anyone can use. It was developed by Dr Ken Cooper (the Aerobics guy from way back). You can find a link to it here. VO2 has something to do with measuring the volume of oxygen your lungs and body can handle. It is a pretty effective measure of cardio conditioning. If you reach a certain point, then it is likely that you'll do okay in the mountains, at altitude (apart from altitude sickness). The test is simple. Run as far as you can in 12 minutes. Measure it. Compare the charts. The link I gave is measured in meters so I had to convert mileage to meters. For old guys like me it is something like 1.25 miles in 12 minutes. I believe you younger men probably need to go farther! The other factor that you should train for is long walks or hikes. I think the trip up Umcompaghre is more than 12 minutes. grace