| The tough Texan touring France |
Lance Armstrong is in hot pursuit of a record sixth straight win in cycling's most grueling race: the 3-week, 20-stage, 2,100-mile (3,400-kilometer) Tour de France. What makes Lance's feat the more amazing is that, in 1996, he was diagnosed with cancer. He lost a testicle, underwent brain surgery, and suffered through chemotherapy so intense it burned his skin from the inside out. Then he made one of the greatest comebacks in the history of sport.
How does he do it? For one thing, Lance Armstrong has the heart of a champion--and the lungs, too. Lance's heart is one-third larger than average, and his resting heart rate is 32 beats per minute, compared to an average of 70 for a healthy man. Just as important, the amount of oxygen his body can consume at maximum effort--what exercise physiologists call his "V02 max"--is more than twice that of the average healthy man his age.
VO2 max matters because your body's cells need oxygen to convert sugar into ATP (adenosine triphosphate), the molecule that fuels cellular work. The harder your cells work, the more oxygen they need. At your VO2 max, your body just can't deliver any more oxygen to those needy cells. Push yourself beyond this point, and you'll soon collapse. Meanwhile, Lance Armstrong will still be going strong.
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