Forums >General Running>VO2
Incremental gains in pace over the long term are due more to improvements in LT, which takes longer to fully develop (3-4 years) than does VO2max, and running economy, which can improve almost indefinitely. See http://home.hia.no/~stephens/timecors.htm for details. Incidentally, in the referenced link, Dr. Seiler actually says that a "previously untrained person" (beginning runner?) can actually plateau VO2max in as little as 3-4 months. Of course, consistent training, including interval training, is needed.
Plateau, sure. Not the same as reaching genetic limits. A further year of high milage followed by another period of interval training will, amazingly, reach a plateau again, and I'll lay money that it's higher than the first one.
I've got a fever...
OK, how much of that is gains in efficiency and increased turnover, and actually an increase in actual VO2Max? All that test is showing is your speed over a given distance. To accurately measure VO2Max, you have to do it in a lab.
vVO2max is simply the minimal running velocity which elicits VO2max, i. e., causes your muscular system to utilize oxygen at its highest-possible rate. Like RVLT, vVO2max is a very good performance predictor, much better than VO2max itself (VO2max, without the little v in front, is simply an athlete’s maximal rate of oxygen consumption; historically, it was viewed as an important marker of performance ability). A moment of reflection reveals why this is so (and why we should have known this long ago): A runner might have an extremely lofty VO2max but still perform rather poorly if rather mediocre running speeds caused him/her to utilize close to all of that considerable oxygen-processing capability. In other words, if the runner were uneconomical, i. e., had to use a lot of oxygen to maintain a mundane pace, the voluminous VO2max would be of little practical benefit during competition. In contrast, a runner with a very high vVO2max is almost always an outstanding performer. Such a runner can run very fast (after all, vVO2max does incorporate a “v”). Very importantly, such a runner can run very fast at his/her VO2max, which means that he/she is economical when it comes to using oxygen for running. Obviously, such a runner would also be able to run very quickly at fractions of VO2max intensity (say, at the usual 95 percent of VO2max for 5-K races and at the typical 90 percent of VO2max for 10-K competitions). Since vVO2max includes a speed factor, an oxygen-processing factor, and an economy factor, it is a good predictor of performance in events ranging in distance from 800 meters all the way up to 100K.
On your deathbed, you won't wish that you'd spent more time at the office. But you will wish that you'd spent more time running. Because if you had, you wouldn't be on your deathbed.
Your actual VO2Max still won't change. Your running performance will, but not your actual VO2Max. The changes in performance can be equated to increased ability to maintain speed, increased economy and efficiency, longer stride length, faster turnover.
Feeling the growl again
"If you want to be a bad a$s, then do what a bad a$s does. There's your pep talk for today. Go Run." -- Slo_Hand
I am spaniel - Crusher of Treadmills
Your actual VO2Max still won't change. Your running performance will, but not your actual VO2Max...
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San Francisco - 7/29/12
Warrior Dash Ohio II - 8/26/12
Chicago - 10/7/12
What I've not been able to interpolate yet (of course I'd need to actually spend time reading up on it) is the overall impact your lactate threshold has on VO2. If this impact is significant, aging could be beneficial as lactate threshold increases with age.
Scientific research strongly supports [the] notion that VO2max can be a rather stubborn, static variable – while RVLT is extremely dynamic. When scientists at Georgia State University and the Emory University School of Medicine followed nine elite distance runners over a two-and-one-half-year period during which the athletes prepared for the 1984 Summer Olympic Games in Los Angeles, they found that VO2max remained unchanged in these nine serious athletes over the entire 30-month period, while RVLT advanced by an average of 6 percent. The RVLT upswing corresponded with either improved PRs or higher competitive rankings for the runners involved in the study. Unfortunately, many endurance athletes do not realize how important RVLT training really is. As mentioned, another exciting aspect of RVLT improvement is that it seems to be much-less limited by the aging process, compared with upswings in VO2max and enhancements of economy . To put it another way, as you get older one of your best opportunities for improving performance is via RVLT upgrading. That should not be a big surprise. Remember that as you get older your maximal heart rate tends to decline by an average of one beat per year, and the strength and flexibility of the left ventricle, your heart’s primary pumping chamber, also tend to diminish. These factors downgrade maximal cardiac output, a key component of VO2max. Meanwhile, both those pesky little muscle mitochondria which play such a large role in aggrandizing RVLT (remember that they are the “stages” upon which pyruvate is broken down for energy via the Krebs cycle), and also the aerobic enzymes which give RVLT a kick-start, are not necessarily reduced by the aging process. In fact, they may increase almost as much in 60-year-old athletes as they would in competitors who are 30 years younger!