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Maximum increase of VO2max? (Read 673 times)

Wing


Joggaholic

    MTA:  +1 on DB's post.  Get to your ideal training weight, do a solid amount of high-end aerobic training (tempos and intervals with short recovery at 5K-10K pace).  Run enough volume and the stride will take care of itself. 

     

    Thank you DB and spaniel for the info!

    NHLA


      Look on Ferman university web site. Their marathon training program measures VO2 before and after.

        All those, and we do it too with Running Wizard, are nothing but just a guide.  It is all on the assumption that; higher VO2Max = faster your race time.  While it is true to a degree, it is not end all be all factor.  I'm sure some of you had been sick of hearing Prefontine's VO2Max being something like 84 while Frank Shorter's is 71.  Their 5k and 10k are almost identical.  I actually had a very interesting chat with Frank Shorter and Peter Snell--yes, in the same room--talking about VO2max.  Of course, according to Frank's calculated VO2Max based on his 10000m time, he should have run something like 3:49 mile while he never broke 4-minutes.  And with Peter's 3:54 mile, he should have run, he should have run a marathon in 2:08--he ran one in 2:41!!

         

        While it CAN be a good indication of your progress, it really won't mean that much--just like your resting heart rate.

         

        Some people at other message boards seem to get all bent out of shape in regards to Arthur Lydiard's comment that "Your VO2Max improvement is unlimited..."  So if you keep on training, you can get VO2Max of, say, 200?  Of course not.  And I think the OP's question is; so how much VO2Max improvement can one expect?  It really depends.  Take this as an example; I know many people just go all bent out of shape if there's no scientific "proof" is being done.  And Lydiard was all talking the fluff that's not been proved...  The truth is; he was speaking out of his experience--hard living evidence.  There's a new book just came out, written by his co-author to almost all his books in the past, Garth Gilmore "Running for Your Lives", a documentary book on the original joggers back in 1961.  He gathered 20 middle-aged obese people, between 50 and 74 years old, all of them had a history of heart attack...at least once!!  None of them could run a half a lap around a local high school track without stopping....8 months later, ALL of them were running 20-miles WITHOUT STOPPING (none of those run-walk deal).  Eight of them completed a full marathon.  I asked Garth what time they were running.  "Oh, around 4 hours..." he said.  By calculation, in order to run a 4-hour marathon, you'll need 40ml/kg/min. of VO2Max.  Peter, a renowned exercise physiologist, told me that the LOWEST VO2Max he himself had ever tested was 18 (by actually using Douglas Bag and all that).  By calculation, if you go on to a local track and run 4 laps around, approximately a mile, and if your one mile time (single mile, not per-mile pace) was 14 minutes; then your calculated VO2Max is 18.  There's a long way from 18 to 40.  It's more than double.  So it is safe to assume that, in theory, it is very much possible to double your VO2Max in 8 months.  If you're a high school kid with estimated VO2Max of 65, that's about 4:40 for a mile and you can find a bunch of kids who can do that.  Can they double their VO2Max in 8 months?  Doubt it.  Or it is most probably IMpossible to double his VO2Max anyways!

         

        Look on Ferman university web site. Their marathon training program measures VO2 before and after.


        Feeling the growl again

          Look on Ferman university web site. Their marathon training program measures estimates VO2 before and after.

           

          FIFY.  Smile

           

          To measure V-max requires equipment a very uncomfortable setup to measure oxygen consumption while you run.

          "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

           

          northernman


          Fight The Future

            What do you racers call "ideal weight"? Individual for each person? How do you find it, just keep losing until you start going slower? Or a certain percent of body fat?


            Feeling the growl again

              What do you racers call "ideal weight"? Individual for each person? How do you find it, just keep losing until you start going slower? Or a certain percent of body fat?

               

              Yes, it's individual.  But unless your BF is single digit you probably aren't there.

               

              Personally, I know from repetition that if I drop under 145lbs I am only a week or two from overtraining.  But I can maintain training at around 147 easily (getting there now that I am in my mid-30s is another issue!).  I ran my best times ever at exactly 145lbs.  But I have only raced one marathon below 148, just too hard to keep the weight off through a taper.

               

              I'd guesstimate my BF at 5-6% at 145lbs.

              "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

               

                 

                Correct you are ... if you have a bunch to lose.  Galen Rupp and Mo Farah don't so that advice doesn't apply to them.  It applies to most everyone else on this forum, though, if running fast is their #1 priority.  If being healthy, fit , having fun and not looking like an anorexic skeleton are among their top priorities then not so much.

                 

                I'd arguably give you the skeleton part, but to imply that being at a lean race weight someone makes someone less healthy/fit and less fun? You have to be pretty damn fit and healthy to handle 4:45 pace for 26.2 miles or train 120+ mpw with hard workouts.

                They say golf is like life, but don't believe them. Golf is more complicated than that. "If I am still standing at the end of the race, hit me with a Board and knock me down, because that means I didn't run hard enough" If a lot of people gripped a knife and fork the way they do a golf club, they'd starve to death. "Don't fear moving slowly forward...fear standing still."

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