Forums >Running 101>So would anyone care to explain VO2...
Good Bad & The Monkey
Right, and I've had real VO2max tests done on several occasions, as a volunteer research subject for the local university.
I'm running somewhere tomorrow. It's going to be beautiful. I can't wait.
Poor baby
Right on Hereford...
By what method? Did it change? Was it true VO2max or did they just call it VO2max, which many people do incorrectly...
Proper testing involves a method in which you exert the most you can give your current level of fitness, say using a Bruce protocol. Your inspired oxygen and expired carbon dioxide gets measured and a rate of oxygen usage is measured.
Based on your VO2 for the exertion and changes to your HR during the effort, it is possible to extrapolate your potential VO2max based on methods that I don't have in my head right now.
By the way, the whole reason I'm bothering with this thread is because a) it's a myth that VO2max can't be changed, and b) that myth is harmful to runners' potential. It can be used as an excuse not to train harder, just like many overweight people like to tell themselves that being heavy is genetic.
Why focus on an arbitrary number that has been proven mostly meaningless with terms to potential performance, and VO2(now) can only be improved by 10-50% going from untrained to trained? Why not focus on endurance, which can be improved by 10,000%? Or other factors such as running economy, lactate tolerance, belly fat flubber, etc?
And anyway, it doesn't matter. VO2max varies greatly among elite athletes.
I am pretty sure my VO2max is higher now.
And I've still never seen a definition of VO2max like yours (the "potential" VO2max). All the VO2max definitions I've seen use real, measured values. And that particular VO2max (the real, measured one) can be improved--sometimes quite significantly--through training and weight loss.
Self anointed title
Just Be
That is a belief. You need to back it up with data. Do you think science works based on opinion? Nossir. We should operate on empiric evidence. Also, if you stopped before your oxygen usage reached steady state (i.e., you stopped due to fatigue rather than due to a measurement in your gaseous exchange), the test was a submax VO2 test. If you get retested and are in better shape, you may be able to last longer on the test and reach a higher submax VO2, or even get to your VO2max.
Dave
I ran a mile and I liked it, liked it, liked it. dgb2n@yahoo.com
The pain in my head... it hurts. Anyway. I haven't missed the point on the whole MAX thing, at least I don't think I have. All the same can anyone explain why there are, in some disciplines like kettlebell training for example, things called VO2max training protocols. I believe these are "pitched" as a way to increase VO2max. Do I understand then that the actual aim of these is to increase the work you can be accomplishing for a given VO2 or, put in other words, the decrease the VO2 you will have for a given workload (say x# of reps in y# minutes with z#weight). Or is the actual aim of these a whole lot of mythological bull puckey? That is a serious ? I just read it and realized it looked sarcastic.
Baby bean!
So do you think this thread has made V02 max easily understandable by the original poster? Or do you think she's now as confused as I am? (Insert easy joke here)
Goals:Finish C25K
I'm slower than a herd of turtles stampeding through peanut butter, but I run.
Question from the peanut gallery - why does anyone give a flying jump at a rolling donut about Vo2max, submax, midmax or anything else. If you are trying to gauge your potential, run, run more and then run again while making it fast, slow and in between. Run races and see the results - compare - do again.
It's basically at this point all for the love of science! Knowing the most accepted fact and attempting to get others to understand that fact can sometimes be a lengthy process and only becomes an act of futility when the student finally refuses to learn.
Prince of Fatness
I'm highly doubting the fact that anyone here learned anything from this thread.
Not at it at all.