Those of you that have been following my blog and recent column know I’ve been doing a “look back at training 20 years ago theme.”

Today’s post featuring “Hotshot Lance Armstrong, Age 16, Plano, Texas” has several  key features I’d like to point out:

1. Earlier this spring I read a column written about Lance Armstrong where the author claimed that Lance’s VO2max as a young person had never been documented or published. I don’t recall the author or column title now and it’s not really that important; but, the author claimed that Lance's high childhood VO2max was fabricated and later published to give cover to high VO2max numbers posted when Lance was well into his professional cycling career. I knew I had read about his high VO2max when he was a youngster, but I couldn’t find the information anywhere in my files. I finally found it in a 1988 Triathlete magazine column. At age 16, his VO2max was measured at 79.5 (world class) - documented below.
2. In the training column I wrote recently, I noted that in the late 1980s people were doing very high volume training schedules. At age 16, Lance was swimming 10,600 meters, cycling 320 miles and running 30 miles in the given sample week training schedule. Doing some rough estimates at 2700 m/hr swimming, 18 mph cycling, and 8 minutes per mile running (all average because not all workouts are done at race pace) I come up with a weekly training volume around 25 hours. This is a big load and is typical for many of today’s professional triathletes.
3. “Junior” loves his mom.
4. Prize winnings went into a trust account.
5. It’s a fun column to read.

(Click on the column to get a larger and more readable view.)

Have a great weekend.

If you find something or someone inspiring, let me know.  Drop a comment below.