testing - 1,2,3, testing

this week was a rough week. wait, i meant to say it was a rest week! PT has been going well although seems like everything else is falling apart! my lower right back, or maybe its my hip apparently doesn't move. the joints are all squished or something. but all i can say is no more massage therapists, now i will always go to a PT. they do magic.
work is good. its always good. december was super crazy stressful and now january has been pretty mellow although today was stressful and busy. but i got through it.
today also i was doing a functional threshold test on my bike. i did a similar thing for running at the end of 2008 and it made me want to cry. so, as one might imagine, i was worried about this test. it was similar in that it was a pretty much all out effort for 30-ish minutes. the running one was 30 minutes no matter how you sliced it. the biking one was 10 miles, so the faster you are, the shorter the test.
since it wasn't until 6pm, i was worried all day about what i was eating and drinking and blah blah blah. i treated it like a race and had a pb&j 3hrs before, and thankfully right after the last stressful meeting of the day. then it was just a count down.
i got there early and hung out in the parking lot playing bejeweled blitz on my iphone then i decided it was time.
i got my bike set up on the computrainer and ben took all my info. since i hadn't done any rides there before he wasn't sure what to expect for my wattage but gave me a range that he thought i might wind up in.
there was one other person there to take the test, so that was good. taking the test by myself wouldn't have been nearly as much fun.
i normally don't like having fans on me while on the trainer, but they were all set up and i just went with it. i did notice that it was drying my mouth out quite a bit but whatever. next time i might ask for the fans to be diverted.
then it was 3 - 2 - 1 - BEEEEP!! and we were off. i think those first two miles went pretty well. i didn't feel like i was going too hard and i wasn't going too easy either. they did seem to take a long time. miles 3-4 flew by, mile 5 took a really long time. at some point in mile 6-7, i got dizzy and was pretty sure i was going to pass out. i was breathing well, but i was dizzy as hell. i figured i was too far in to quit, plus if i really did pass out, well, that would have been embarrassing but i kept going anyway. i started to feel better. with 2.5 miles to go i was feeling it but feeling pretty good, too. 2 miles to go, i took another gear and was really working. 1 mile to go i think i took another gear, i'm not sure, but it was almost done. and then it was done, for real.
around that 6-7 mile period i noticed that my average wattage dropped by 1. i totally panicked!! but then i managed to get the average up by 5 before the test was up. and i fell pretty much right in the middle of the range he predicted for me.
i also collected my average HR data which was interesting. when i did the similar test running it was 181, this time it was 177. does that mean i should have been working harder? could i have worked harder? i don't know. but in 6-8 weeks, he suggested i test again so i guess i might find out then. yikes!
now off to bed soon to get some good rest before 2:30 of biking tomorrow, and 1:15 of running and :30 of swimming on sunday.