Train for six months. Take one final lab test in January 2027. Highest age- and sex-adjusted percentile takes the car.
Open to friends and people they vouch for. No professional athletes. Everyone confirms they are cleared for maximal exercise first — the one rule I won't bend.
Organized by Pablo Hansen.
This started as a group of my friends and that is still the core of it. V2 opens it up: friends, and anyone a friend vouches for. If you found this and we haven't met, get someone in the field to introduce you.
A car needs a real field behind it. If we finish short of 50 entrants, everyone is refunded in full and we run the V1 format instead — the bottom third buys the top two thirds a Michelin-star dinner. Nobody is stuck holding a challenge that didn't happen.
People are different from each other, which makes group competitions hard. Most fitness challenges have no single measure that everyone should want to improve.
I wanted one number anyone could train, that compares across age, sex and experience, and that you actually should want to raise. VO2 max fits: it is one of the numbers most strongly tied to how long you live (2018 JAMA cohort study), it responds well to training, and the test takes about ten minutes in a lab.
Because the number is so trainable, the competition gets real — and because it is the right number to chase, everyone is better off for playing.
The more people in, the better every prize gets. Recruiting is part of the game. Taxes covered on everything — winners walk away free and clear.
| Field | Pool | 1st — the car | 2nd — the watch | 3rd — wearable bundle |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| ~50 | $25,000 | Used Tesla · $16,250 budget | Entry mechanical · $2,500 | One premium wearable · $1,750 |
| ~100 | $50,000 | Newer Tesla · $32,500 budget | Tudor or Oris class · $5,000 | Wearable + a year of Whoop · $3,500 |
| ~200 | $100,000 | Higher-spec Tesla · $65,000 budget | Omega or used Rolex · $10,000 | Wearable + recovery package · $7,000 |
Entry is $500, and almost two thirds of it is the car. Nothing disappears into anyone's pocket, and any leftover overhead rolls back into the event.
The final lab test is not in here. You book it yourself and pay the lab directly — that keeps the buy-in going to prizes instead of subsidising a test you'd want anyway.
| Share | Goes to |
|---|---|
| 65% | 1st place — the Tesla |
| 12% | Community — swag, the party, the Slack |
| 10% | 2nd place — the watch pool |
| 7% | 3rd place — wearable and training |
| 5% | Organizing and running the event |
| 1% | The wooden spoon |
The most studied interval workout for raising VO2 max, and where most of the gains come from. About 35 minutes, on anything that gets you to high intensity.
Underneath it, Zone 2: 30 to 60 minutes at a pace where you can hold a conversation but would rather not. Two or three interval sessions a week, two or three easy ones, at least 48 hours between the hard ones.
The prize is what gets people to sign up. The group is what gets them to actually do the intervals in November. Twelve percent of every buy-in goes here, and it is the part I'd defend hardest.
Everyone who pays in gets the invite the same day. It runs from opening week to the final night.
Nobody sees the final board until the room does. We read the standings out from last to first, hand over the car keys, the watch and the wearable in front of everyone, and present the wooden spoon with full ceremony.
Whatever you place, you leave with a real lab-measured VO2 max, six months of training that worked, and the swag.
More than 40 people, lower stakes, more experimenting. We competed for Michelin-star dinners, including Birdsong, and the bottom third paid for the top two thirds.
Everyone ate the same tasting menu — the bottom third just paid for it, at $145 a head. That turned out to be plenty of motivation, and it showed the format works.
Open the V1 dossier →The most oxygen your body can use during hard exercise, in millilitres per kilogram per minute. One of the best single numbers for overall fitness, and one of the strongest predictors of how long you live.
Less than you'd think. Genetics set your range, but VO2 max responds well to training — most people move it 7 to 12 percent in a couple of months — and we adjust for age and sex, so the field stays close.
A real lab test: treadmill or bike with a mask measuring your breath, ramping up until you hit your max. About ten minutes of real effort, same protocol and machine for everyone, witnessed.
Friends, and people they vouch for. No professional athletes; entry remains at the organizer's discretion.
They can't. Professional athletes are outside the field, and entry remains at the organizer's discretion. Come along to the party, just not the podium.
Prizes are taxable income, but we cover the taxes so you receive the prize free and clear. Reporting is handled by the entity running the challenge, not by you.
No. It is a contest of skill — the prize is won by measured performance you control, not by chance. No raffles, no random draws.
Every six months. The prize scales with how many people join, so each run is the best thing the pool can buy.
Email me and I'll send the final-test details and the entrant Slack invite. Bring someone you'd like to beat.
pablo@proliferate.com