May the Better VO2 Max Win

A sibling rivalry. A pair of headstrong trainers. A race with a mountain in the middle. On the fields of fitness, Tom and Todd Balf are out to settle an age-old score. And they've got 12 weeks to get ready...

Over the years, we've learned that every sound approach to fitness has two requirements: motivation and a plan. So we drafted Tom and Todd Balf to prove the point, because they've been going at each other since big brother Tom roundhoused little Todd into an emergency root canal at the age of seven. So much for motivation. As for the second requirement, Todd, 32, recruited the services of Goody Petronelli, the Brockton, Massachusetts, boxing coach who molded middleweight legend Marvelous Marvin Hagler into a piece of granite. Halfway across the country, in St. Paul, Minnesota, Tom, 36, chose the more modern route: physiologist and former U.S. National Biathlon Team medical director Rob Sleamaker, who armed him with a computerized schedule, a heart-rate monitor, and a precision plan that even accounts for time to pin on a race bib. The brothers' proving ground? They'd face off in the nasty, hilly Killington Mountain Bike Biathlon.

What follows isn't just about the Balfs' three-month journey into the world of serious fitness--it's about new versus old, good versus Goody. We say bring on the fight.

Copyright 1995, Outside magazine