VO2max analysis…my numbers
June 16th, 2008 , 6:24 pm by Michelle Halsne
On June 2nd I had the most awesome opportunity to get my VO2max and Lactate threshold measured. I went to Seattle Performance and met with Dr. Cooper and staff. As an endurance runner I have always been extremely curious about my VO2max.
This number indicates ones ability to convert oxygen to deliverable fuel to the muscles. A person’s VO2max is a combination of age, genetics and fitness. I know I have decent genetics and I don’t think it hurts that I was born and raised in Colorado at 7000 ft.
The tests were performed on a treadmill. I started with a warm up and then the treadmill incline was increased ever 2 minutes until I was almost to exhaustion. This took just over 14 minutes at 6.2 on the treadmill maxing out at an incline of 7.5. It was relatively easy for the first 11-12 minutes, but when I fatigued I was done very quickly. My max heart rate was 180 and after a 2 minute recovery I was down to 130. This is a quick recovery!
My VO2Max is 46ml/kg/min. The oxygen uptake average for woman in my age group is 31-33, the excellent category for VO2max tops out at on most charts at 45ml/kg/min for woman. Seattle Performance works with endurance athletes and they came up with a revised chart reflecting this population. On this revised athletic chart I am still in the excellent range but fell short of the “Competitive Endurance” rating of 50kg/ml/min. This is the story of my journey….. I have labeled myself as “first housewife off the bench”, just shy of the real deal but having enough talent and desire to not settling for jogger status.
Now that I know my VO number I have a new goal (post 100 miler) to improve my VO to the coveted 50kg/ml/min. This can be done by building base miles over a 8 – 10 week period. These miles must be done below lactate threshold so as to teach the muscles to uptake oxygen and utilize it more efficiently. I will focus for the first time in my running life on using heart rate for training purposes. I have always trained hard and rested too much in between. Having this new information will help adjust after the race should I have some post race depression. It may also require an invetment in the new Garmin 405 
The training that I will do to improve my endurance and aerobic power will be done with my heart rate at, near or below 155 beats/min. My lactate threshold is at 174 beats/minute. This is very close to my max of 180, the goal will be to build my body’s ability to have a bigger buffer between lactate threshold and max effort. In other words give myself another gear.
Another part of the testing was a calorimetry resting test. This measures the amount of calories burned in a non workout day. I burn approximately 1600 calories a day just to exist and not workout. This is good to know also as I have not been able to maintain my weight during this preparation for the Western States 100, I have since started counting calories to put some weight on for the race! Can I say almonds are awesome for this purpose….so are breve lattes.
Filed under Blogroll, General Cardio, Run, Training tips, VoMax, WS 100
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June 16th, 2008 , 7:28 pm
Sweet!
I guess that explains why you were a National Champion level track star “back in the day”!
I guess that also explains why I was able to hang with you… since I tested at about the same level in my VO2 Max test.
June 16th, 2008 , 9:01 pm
thanks for posting this elaboration.
is the 155bpm number at about your 75% zone? I bet you’ll find your actual max hr is higher than what was measured during the test.
12 days left - taper well.
June 17th, 2008 , 8:25 am
couple of comments…
remember because economy is one of the more important factors in fitness someone with a 46 vo2 max can perform better than someone with a 50+. your l.t. is awesome your max is probably higher than 180. but it explains why you’re so good at what you do - run challenging paces for a long time!
thanks for sharing the info!
June 17th, 2008 , 11:07 am
economy is about efficiency of movement & not wasting calories with unnecessary movements…
http://www.chatnrun.nl/calculator/faq/tp.php
June 17th, 2008 , 2:21 pm
i wasn’t suggesting you not work on your vo2 max, just saying your running economy might be good and that you could equal or ourperform someone with a higher vo2 max. increasing your vO2 automatically improves economy since you have more oxygen to utilize but you could improve your economy without increasing vo2 max and acheive the same result. thinking about this has made me think of a good present for you. o.k. i need to go get it…
June 22nd, 2008 , 5:20 pm
Great post. I did not see it until yesterday and I just re-read it. This experience seems very interesting and exciting. But I must say I still am a bit confused about using this information to imporve my marathon training. I am running a full marathon this fall for the 1st time and plan on getting tested shortly. What kind of training will you do to increase these levels and make you a better endurance runner?