Gazette reporter tries out Essex University's VO2 max session

The university’s Human Performance Unit (HPU) is full of people who can rattle off tables on respiratory exchange ratios, measure participants’ running economy, and delve into the minutiae of any athlete – be they elite or recreational – all in a day’s work.

And it’s the final part of that sentence which surprises me: The recreational? Are HPUs really for people like us? Those of us who can only loosely describe themselves as an athlete?

Well, apparently, they are.

Athletics is my sport of choice, and though I train hard to stay in competitive shape, you will not see me at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham this summer, nor the Paris Olympics in a few years’ time, I guarantee you that.

Without fitting the elite category, I enjoy athletics enough to gain a deeper insight into just what my body is capable of – and this is exactly something I had the chance to do courtesy of Essex University and their sports scientists.

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Warm-up – Kelly puts our Gazette journalist through his paces

Their School of Sport, Rehabilitation and Exercise Sciences is nothing if not well-equipped, and as I wander around their gleaming new weights room, I lose count of how many motion sensor cameras there are, amongst other hi-tech gadgets on show.

It’s almost as if it’s too advanced, too high brow for someone like me – but that’s where Kelly Murray, a postgraduate research student at the HPU steps in.

A former swimmer herself, Kelly says although professionals gain plenty of insight into their strengths and weaknesses through sports science, recreational athletes can glean plenty of facts about their abilities too.

The finding and applying of that new knowledge, she says, is something which can be used universally.

Ready – our Gazette journalist before he is fitted with the equipment

“The biggest selling point is knowing more about your physiology allows you to make the most of every training session that you do,” she said.

“Elite athletes, professional athletes, they have all the time in the world to train – every day people have other commitments.

“By doing these kinds of assessments, if you have less time to train, you can make the best of those training sessions by training in the right way and at the right intensity to achieve your goals.”

It is in an interesting concept, but getting a full insight into my own strengths and weaknesses requires effort from me as well – physical effort, that is.

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Finish line – Jenson, Daniel, Daniel, Kelly, and Richard after the test

The testing Kelly has in-store for me is in the form of what is known as a VO2 max session, which is used to measure aerobic capacity.

To be honest, I know little of what to expect from this – all I know of VO2 max sessions is they involve running on a treadmill whilst wearing a breathing mask, and I presume they’re pretty difficult too.

I soon realise it is far more advanced than that, although, thankfully, I only really have to do one thing: Run.

I let Kelly and three sports science students – Richard Penney, Jenson Taylor, and Daniel O’Connell – do all the complicated stuff with the graphs and the machines and the heart rate monitors.

Me? Well, I just stand there, getting a little nervous that I’m going to have something of a crowd as the VO2 max session pushes me to, well, the max.

With the breathing mask fitted to measure my respiratory performance, we are ready to go – the treadmill starts rolling and we are up and running.

The session is simple: A continuous cycle of three minutes running, 30 seconds rest, with the pace of the treadmill increased after each recovery – meaning each stage is faster than the last.

The first few stages were a doddle – the pace was gentle and the rest was more than sufficient.

But given the test is designed to run you to exhaustion – and that is the exact wording used in the report – I know this is not going to get any easier, and it certainly does not.

Preamble – Kelly explains how the test will work to our Gazette journalist

As I reach stages five and six, I start to think how I could possibly have put myself forward so enthusiastically – but I’ve got sports scientists, a photographer, and a fellow journalist alongside me, so I might as well give it my best shot.

When I step back onto the treadmill for stage seven, I really am starting to feel the heat.

I take a glance at the performance graph on the computer screen, and all I can see is a load of wavy lines – I’m too tired to guess what they mean, and I never really got my head around the parabola equation, so I leave all that to the sports scientists who must surely realise by now I am running out of steam.

Come the onset of stage eight, I truly am finished, and a stumble tells me I really have reached my max.

By the time I have caught my breath a good ten minutes later, I ask Kelly the highest level she has ever seen a participant reach.

When she tells me a Colchester United player once reached around level 20, my competitive streak kicks in and I tell myself I really should have pushed a bit harder.

When Kelly sends through my full report the following week, I get to see the culmination not only of my efforts, but also that of Kelly and her students.

My overall score of 55 for my relative peak oxygen uptake sees me straddle the high end of the recreational athlete and the low level of the trained athlete – not a bad result, I’m told, by any stretch. But as any sportsman will tell you – no matter how hard you try, you will always look back thinking you could have given that little bit more.