The measure of fitness I use for my own training, because measuring it is built into the exercise bike, is Functional Threshold Power, or FTP. It is defined as the maximum power output that you can sustain for 1 hour, measured in watts. The obvious way of measuring this is to get on the bike for an hour, but there are shorter ways of estimating it, e.g. do 20 minutes as hard as you can, and the bike will derate your average output by some fixed amount.
Any comments on the usefulness of this compared with VO2max? VO2max measures the very hardest effort you can reach, even momentarily, while FTP measures the hardest you can sustain indefinitely.
The measure of fitness I use for my own training, because measuring it is built into the exercise bike, is Functional Threshold Power, or FTP. It is defined as the maximum power output that you can sustain for 1 hour, measured in watts. The obvious way of measuring this is to get on the bike for an hour, but there are shorter ways of estimating it, e.g. do 20 minutes as hard as you can, and the bike will derate your average output by some fixed amount.
Any comments on the usefulness of this compared with VO2max? VO2max measures the very hardest effort you can reach, even momentarily, while FTP measures the hardest you can sustain indefinitely.