Decades ago I was a skinny young triathlete. Things, um, changed. But I still like to be outdoors and exercise – hiking, backpacking, kayaking, etc.

The problem is that decades ago I broke my nose. Twice. Well, actually, other people did it for me (broom hockey, basketball), but those are other stories. The second time wasn’t bad, but the first time the doc said that my nose was “multiple fractures on one side, dust on the other.” So he rebuilt it from scratch. The bottom line is that I can’t breathe much through my left nostril.

So an AT test of any sort, whether treadmill, outdoors, or other, is likely to yield erroneous results since the requirement is to exercise with a closed mouth, breathing only through the nose.

How can I get a reasonably accurate number? I’m not trying to become the triathlete I was or the mountaineer I never will be, but even “back in the day”, AT and VO2max were recognized standards, and as Steve or someone has said, knowing numbers like those helps keep the easy days easy and the hard days hard.

Thanks.