VO2max analysis…my numbers
June 16th, 2008 at 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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