I also have to do an annual fitness test, but to be fair the Royal Navy has set it very low compared to the British army or the Royal Marines. But nonetheless I always felt it was something I should train for, maybe not year round, but certainly on approaching the date due. In doing so I would end up dropping my body weight from 95 kg (209 lb) to 87.5 kg (192.5 lb) and lose a lot of progress I had made on strength over the previous year.
Well I had read somewhere recently that the average powelifter has a vo2max of 45-50 (whatever the units are). We get s choice of a mile and a half run or a multistage fitness test (bleep test). When I looked up the level I needed to get to it only equates to a vo2max of 45. So since I had been training like a power lifter (maybe? Texas method) over the last year I decided to put it to the test.
I did the test at 5 foot 11, 33 years old at 105 kg (231 lb) bidyweight with absolutely no cardio for a year. And sure enough I passed. I couldn't have done any more shuttles right enough, but scraped through the minimum standard for a male at my age anyway at the heaviest I've ever been.
It's definitely changed my opinion on conditioning.