We got played for a fool last week when we lent a friend of ours 10 grand for plastic surgery; now we haven't got a clue what he looks like. All this could have been avoided if we'd have e-mailed three-times Olympic rowing coach Terry O'Neill at tels-tales@therowingcompany.com. Tel knows everything you see.Steve Spungen: Can I get an idea of my anaerobic threshold (AT) without sophisticated measurement instrumentation?Terry O'Neill: Accurately no, but you can get an approximation. If you follow the step test protocol in the training guide, starting off at a gentle pace, pay attention to your breathing pattern. As you increase the intensity you will experience an urge to gulp down more air and your breathing pattern will alter. Note your heart rate at this point and it will approximate to your AT.--------------------------------------------------Barry Cottrell: In your Newsletter you ask for suggestions. The question I often wonder about is how does one's physical size affect performance on the erg? A large person like Matthew Pinsent at around 6'6 is expected to be quicker than a relatively small person like me at 5'10. If we were relatively as fit and strong as each other for our size, what would our respective difference in 2,000 metre times be? Terry O'Neill: If you are looking at straight time difference over 2,000 metres then the difference would be around 20 seconds. However, the way to compare physical condition across people of different sizes is to compare oxygen uptake per kilogram of body weight. Matthew Pinsent would still come out pretty high as he has a VO2 of 8 litres and weighs (about) 100 kilograms, giving him a figure of 80ml/kg. Top lightweight rowers may have a VO2 of 6 litres and weigh 75 kilograms, which is 78ml/kg.Measuring in this way is a far more accurate indication of how efficient various athletes are and is carried out on all our international rowers.