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Picture this, you go out to run an interval workout and the pacing says, you should go out at your VO2max pace for 4 minutes, take a 2 minute rest and repeat that 5 times. Questions swirl around your head, like is it your goal 5k pace or your current 5k fitness? When was the last time you ran a 5k? This episode is a combo where I’ll show you how to use a really cool, simple, and free tool, and also explain VO2max with the help of pro run coach and sports scientist, Mike Trees, at the end of all this. Think of it as your VO2max ultimate toolkit of sorts. Stay on board as you’ll learn what the VDOT calculator is, why it’s important and how to use it. Example of how I would use it traps to avoid the difference between VO2 max workouts, VO2 max and VO2. They are different. What to do with all of this. Why the aerobic engine is so damn important. A great car analogy of aerobic versus anaerobic systems, energy systems, and so much more. But before we get into it, who am I and what do you get from all this? I am Darren, a sub three hour marathoner and 10 hour Ironman finisher. And this is the 1% Better Runner. Since 2012, I’ve been researching, experimenting and talking to experts on how to get 1% better in my training, racing and life to make it easier for you to learn from me and do all of this yourself and get all the gains. Let’s get into the episode. What is it? The VDOT calculator is an online tool that helps runners determine their ideal training paces. Inputting a recent race time provides precise paces for different workouts, and they’ll spit out your easy run pace, tempo runs, and interval paces.

Daniels, the founder of VDOT Vo2 Max Calculator/algorithm measurement for aerobic fitness, created this (the calculator) without any relation to whiskey. VO2 Max was created in 1923 by Archibald Vivian Hill and Hartley Lupton. Hill and Lupton presented their findings in a paper titled “Muscular Exercise, Lactic Acid, and the Supply and Utilization of Oxygen,“ where they introduced the concept of maximal oxygen uptake. Decades later, during the 1950s and 1960s, researchers such as Per-Olof Åstrand in Sweden and Bengt Saltin in Denmark revisited the idea, leading to the adoption of the term VO2max.

Why is it all important? When most people step into interval work, I think, and I know based on experience, they really go into a blind. They usually don’t test to determine their pace, heart rate, or if you have a power meter, power zones. This means that they can be even 10 to 20 seconds off their pacing per minute, per mile or minute per kilometer. And they may not get the full benefit from the workout, either running it too slow or running it too fast. I use this a lot to figure out a rough estimate of my own running fitness, or when I’m coaching someone, it helps understand where the interval paces should be, the race paces, et cetera. This means fewer tests early on, but dialing in a range of pacing for specific runs such as long runs, interval sessions, and easy runs. It also helps me develop a pretty accurate race day strategy based on several factors from putting it into this calculator. How to use it. It’s very straightforward, but I’ll do a quick walkthrough. You must have done a race or time trial over the last four to six weeks and plug that in, plug that into the calculator. Yes, you’ll need to suffer for at least three kilometers, two miles, but preferably five kilometers, 3.1 miles, which gives better data. If you’re doing longer distances like half marathons, marathons is what you’re trying to do. Ultimately, first that race or time trial participate in a race or perform a time trial to get a recent performance time. preferably in the last four to six weeks. Step two, input data into the race distance and time into the VDOT calculator. Step three, output data. It will give you three different data sets, race paces, training, and equivalent. Number four, data sets defined. Part A, race paces. They give you estimated times for different distances, depending on your current fitness. Use these predictions to set realistic goals for your next race. B, training paces. These tell you how fast to run for various workouts, such as easy runs, tempo runs, and intervals. As I said earlier, Stick to these paces to get the most out of your training. Please do not vary them. I promise they are usually very, very correct. I’ll talk to why they can be off and see. Equivalent shows how your performance at one distance compares to others. Use this to see how you likely perform in races you have yet to try. Number five, don’t be a noob. Most new people on this to the site look at race paces only. You are not a noob. I have given you this knowledge bomb, this whole thing, this episode, so that you can step your run game way up. 6. Review paces. Analyze the updated training paces provided by the calculator. Obviously. Review them. Get friendly with them. 7. Adjust training. Modify your training plan to incorporate the new paces, ensuring your workouts remain effective and appropriate for your current fitness level. traps to avoid. If you are unfit in estimating things, the numbers will probably be off. You need to do a test time trial or race at 85 to 90% effort and you will have to suffer. Ideally, you have had four to six weeks of base and then do the test. After not doing anything for five months, coming into this will give you wrong predictions. So don’t give it bad data. It will spit out bad data and predictions and insights. Mostly science and precision. Take this with a grain of salt as it’s mainly showing you your potential. You may be genetically predisposed to being more aerobically or anaerobically fit. I have more anaerobic fast switch fibers. So that means I do more of the speed stuff. And based on my one mile time trial that I gave it, which again, I said, it’s a bit too short, but I gave it to it, a four minutes, 54 seconds, I should run a two hour, 20 minute marathon. That is not happening unless I put in a few years of building up crazy amounts of

base and tempo runs. and just a lot, a lot of miles and volume and kilometers to get marathon ready. I would also need to slowly get my body ready for the load that it would take to run that fast for that long and build up my chassis, tendons, ligaments, connective tissue, all that stuff. It would just take time and a lot of effort. This algorithm is not taking that into account. Final thoughts, besides the above caveats, I found it a great resource to figure things out. It’s also nice to play. I wish and see what types of intervals you may need to run in training to get a specific race time. Also check out his book. Jack Daniel’s book on VO2max, which explains all this VO2max stuff very, very well, and a lot of science detail if you’re into that. The VDOT score is a score similar to your VO2max if you were lab tested. I had the lab test done a few years back in my mid-30s, and I don’t see a need to get it retested. because I just don’t need it. Most people don’t need to get lab tested as is calculated in many other algorithms from other fitness watches. Give you a range and go up and down, which is fine for amateur runners. Up next, Mike Therese and I will help define VO2 Max, how to improve it, and a few other tactics to help you run your best in races and training and all that stuff. This is a summary of the longer episode, so make sure to click below if you want to listen to the full episode or just let the video keep going and you’ll learn a whole bunch about VO2 Max. Thanks for watching. So VO2 max, which the two is a number, uh, maximum volume of oxygen. It’s basically from what I can understand, it’s your body using your aerobic engine, the oxygen to the point where it then tips over and is about to then start using glycogen for the majority of the energy, which is the anaerobic system. So, the thing that tripped me up early on and what confused me was like, but I’m running fast. I thought aerobic was running slow. But this is where VO2 max comes in and this is where the type of VO2 max workout you do, the how long you’re doing it and how fast you do it and also the rest comes into play. And that’s what makes it then a VO2 max workout. So, the mic is probably already, ah, you need to make this more simple, but let me finish, let me finish, let me finish. How I liken it, and here’s a good analogy, is think of lighting a string that has different colors. So you light the string and it burns, the string burns. And this is video, so it’s shh, and it’s got different colors. And your oxygen, let’s say your oxygen’s blue. So all your systems, if you were to have oxygen, the string would be 70% blue, and then it would be 20% or so, it would be yellow, and then it would be a little bit red. And those are your different energy systems. So VO2max, it’s actually burning the blue part, the oxygen part, right into the point where then it’s like, boom, and it then tips over. And again, you’re using your oxygen for energy, but as any endurance event you’re doing, it’s obviously a combination of carbohydrates, glycogen, and oxygen that you’re using at the same time, and the VO2 max system is this one part that you can work for a certain amount of time. And I’ll get into how long you can work it and all that later, but Mike, he’s… He has to. He’s like, this is a hot mess. OK, go.

08:46.104

Now, this is great. Now, what you’ve done quite nicely is basically said that you’ve shown what I would think most people out there is it’s a term that everyone uses and writes about, but nobody really knows what it is or how it affects them. And this is the whole point. We all think we know a little bit about it. I think the simple thing is to really get it back to basics.

VO2max is the maximum amount of oxygen that the body can deliver to the muscles. When we talk about it in science, we usually say it’s the maximum amount of oxygen the body can deliver to your muscles in a minute. And it’s usually expressed in liters. So it’s the maximum amount of oxygen in liters your body can get to the muscles in a minute. And then so we can compare it with other people, we tend to express it as a number in relation to our body weight. So when we see a number of and say, oh, your Garmin is a great example. And I’ll get onto that later. Garmin says your VO2 max is 50. What it means is that you have 50 liters of oxygen per kilogram of body weight delivered to your muscles every minute. That’s the maximum amount that you can create so that if you are lighter, you actually need less. less than higher. So what we have is large numbers, people, big athletes. Miguel Indrin was a cyclist in the 90s, a huge guy, and he had thousands and thousands of litres. His VO2 as a litre percentage was great. Also his VO2 max was great. Now you’ve got top cross-country skiers, for example, as a number, will be in the 90s. So when we’re talking about it, it’s the maximum amount, an average person’s around about 35. So a top cross-country skier, three times, they can get three times more oxygen to their muscles per minute than an average athlete. We’re not talking an average person, we’re talking an average athlete. So that’s all we’re talking. Let’s make it even simpler game. So we’ve said that it’s the maximum amount of oxygen that the body can deliver to the muscles per minute. Why is this important? It’s because the oxygen is used to burn the carbohydrates, the fuel. So we need the two together to get us the energy to get us down the road. So if we’re taking the analogy of a car engine, the car needs the fuel to power the wheels. So the fuel is the carbohydrates and the fats. In essence, if we’re running a marathon, and I know we discussed this and it’s a big contentious topic, it’s probably more carbohydrates than fats that we need. If it’s our body, it’s carbohydrates. If it’s the car, it’s petrol or gasoline, depending on where you come from, or diesel. needs to fuel, get the power to the wheels, OK? And so the bigger the engine, the more power it can get the wheels. So if our VO2 max is bigger, we’ve just basically taken the car engine from a 1.6 liter to a 3 liter engine. So that’s what we’re trying to do with the VO2. We’re trying to improve it so we can get more oxygen to the muscles, just like we’re building a bigger car with a bigger engine. The trouble is, the bigger the car, the bigger the engine, the heavier the car is. So, the heavier the car is, it takes more power to get that car to work. That’s why it’s always expressed as a percentage of body weight. Because if it’s not in relation to body weight, it’s meaningless. Because we’re running a marathon, we have to carry our bodies the whole way down. the route. So it’s always expressed as a percentage of body weight. So if we make the engine bigger, the VO2 max bigger, but we’re big and heavy, then it’s not going to be as good as being someone light. This is why we have this problem with runners always trying to be lighter because they’ve realized that their VO2 max will go up because it’s a percentage of body weight. So the lungs are still the same, the ability to get oxygen, the muscles are the same, but the lighter body allows them to go faster. And so that’s simply put. So the oxygen helps us burn the fuel. Then the blood delivers it to the muscles. The heart is the engine pumping the muscles, so the bigger and stronger the heart, the more oxygen and more carbohydrates we deliver to the muscles. That’s probably the simplest way of putting it. Aerobic exercise, this is the next step, aerobic exercise increases the size of the heart so

that it can supply more blood, more fuel and more oxygen to the muscles. And then it’s another technical term. This is called the stroke volume. So if we can supply more blood and more oxygen to the muscles with a lower, easier heart rate, we can go faster. As we keep building the heart rate up, we can go faster and faster. So already you can see I’m getting more and more complex, so I’m trying to keep it simple. So back to you to then ask some more questions to keep this going again before I delve in a bit deeper.

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Alright, no, no that you explained it way better than me and a whole lot of points that I did not bring up as usual So this is why we make a good team I would say so let me just jump right into an example of I guess you know what? I realized that this is actually about VO2 max workouts. And to do a VO2 max workout, you need to understand VO2 max, but I’m more interested in VO2 max workouts. So that’s why an increasing VO2 max, your VO2 max, which can be used in all forms of fitness. So you kind of breaking it down to the basics was necessary. Whereas I was getting ahead of myself, but I realized I got ahead of myself because I was talking about something that needed more of a base. I was talking about something that had like, uh, you know, you were seeing the outside of it, but you actually needed to get the structure. So an example of a VO2 max workout. There’s a lot of them that can increase or maintain or increase your VO2 max. For me is anywhere from three to five, five and a half minutes interval at your current 5k pace and or slightly faster. There’s been a lot of studies that I’ve read and I’ve actually done it myself where you can actually be on the lower end. So it’s a range and you can still get benefits, which is beautiful. Whereas a lot of people like, oh, if I go faster, this is something I know you love talking about. If I go faster, I will get more benefits. And with VO2 Max, it’s actually not necessary to go faster to still build up the VO2 Max system. Because it’s Z4, As far as heart rate goes, you do need to be, you need to get your heart rate up to this certain amount, and Z4 will be dependent for a lot of different people, for a certain amount of time. And again, for me, just a traditional VO2 max workout is interval 3 to 5, 5 and a half minutes. at around my 5k pace ish current if i know that one if i’ve done some time trials uh with a three minute rest and two and a half to three minute rest the reason being you want to get your heart rate lower so that you don’t build up lactate because this is not a tempo run this is not a lactate test or lactate type of run that you need to, you know, start, how do you put it? Being able to tolerate lactate. That’s what you say. You say, this isn’t that type of workout. It’s actually for me, I like to do it early in my training blocks to get ready for race specific work. It seems to work really well for me as a, I wouldn’t say a base. It’s like I do base and then I do VO2 max and then I’ll do race specific work. And I really like four to six weeks seems to be about the time when most studies have said that you don’t get any more benefits. You are, this is genetic. Your VO2 max is genetic. You can work on it, but you can’t increase it that much more. And there’s other ways of increasing other things like your lactate threshold and your running economy that actually give you bigger bangs for your buck. So again, the VO2 max workout, you can maintain it, sit for four to six weeks. Um, and I’ll let you go in. So what did you want to, I want to simplify that again. Right now is the part where I go, hey, if you’re feeling this, make sure you like, subscribe, rate this, share it out with your friends about how

amazing this is, right? All right, while you should go out and do that anyway, how about I actually give you something that will help you? Is the running, health, fitness, and endurance sport internet too much sometimes? Too much conflicting content on how to train right? Or you just don’t have the time to read and watch the latest trends on how to, I don’t know, carb cycle for your next marathon? Don’t worry, I’ll take care of all that for you by showing you how to train, race, and live 1% better consistently. To do this, just sign up for my free D-Lake Runs newsletter. I figure out this whole 1% better thing so you don’t have to by scouring the Endurance Sports Internet’s deepest and darkest corners. Go to dlakecreates.com forward slash news, spell the normal way N-E-W-S to be inspired and motivated on the regular. And back to the show.

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I want to simplify that again. So what you’ve done is you’ve talked about specific workouts with the VO2 Max. So let’s get back. When we do a VO2 max workout, what we’re saying is we’re trying to work at a pace which is carrying our maximum amount of oxygen to the muscles per minute that we can cope with. Beyond that, we can’t cope with it. So we have to then use the anaerobic system to add supplementary benefits. So we’re trying to run at our maximum aerobic pace. So that’s the idea of a VO2 Max workout.

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Sorry, keep that. That is different than a Mofflatone run though. Ah, yeah, no, that’s, yeah, now, now, hang on. And that’s a maximum aerobic, yeah. So this is where I got confused.

18:39.707

maximum fat burning aerobics. So what we’re doing with Moffatone, he’s trying to work at the maximum limit of his fat burning and develop his fat burning, which is at a slower pace. So that’s an aerobic zone. This is our maximum. We are adding in, and now this is quite complicated, our VO2 max pace, it’s the maximum amount of fuel and oxygen we can supply to the muscles. We are creating lactic acid, but we’re absorbing it at a pace as well. So we’re not going into any debt. With the Maffetone idea of maximum aerobic, he’s not, he’s trying to go to pace where we’re not even building up lactic. at all. So it’s a much slower pace. It’s just, he’s working at what we call the fat burning, carbohydrate, glycogen burning threshold. So we’re trying to burn as much fat for fuel as we can on mafatone threshold. With the VO2 max, it’s pure carbs we’re burning. There’s no fat burning here. I mean, we’re going so fast. The fat as a source of energy is minimal. I mean, it will be going on, but as a source contribution is minimal.

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But this is where it gets confusing. You just said we’re burning pure carbs. And this is where when I found about VO2 Max years ago, and you’re like, but we’re still using the oxygen. And I’m like, huh? So explain that.

20:04.908

Well, the oxygen is supplying the glycogen to the muscles. We want the muscles to use that with oxygen present. If oxygen is present, it’s an oxidative process and can go on for a long time, so long as there’s enough fuel. there. So, Maffetone is talking about fat, supplying fat to the muscles, which through a different process is oxidized and provides fuel, but we have to work at a much lower speed to use fat as a fuel. But we can go on a heck of a lot longer using fat for fuel than carbs. So, if we were to run out of fat, we all have, even though we think we have no fat in our bodies, we have big supplies and can go for many days. It’s just, it’s more painful and it’s a slower pace. So you’ve now complicated my attempt to make it simple. So we need to work at a pace where we’re at the maximum level of supplying oxygen to the muscles to power the system, which you correctly said is about our 5k pace. So I like to do the 5k parkrun once a week because it’s a classic VO2 max session. You can break that into all the other elements that you did of five minutes with a little rest, which are intervals, which I do as well. But a park run for me is just fun. I just turn up, warm up, chat to my mates, I run the 5k at the maximum pace I can, and I’ve got a great VO2 max session. Now, That’s one, but we’ve also found that you can develop your VO2 max through aerobic exercise by going longer and slower. So even though I’m running at what we call a MAF pace, the maximum aerobic capacity, IMAT or whatever you want to call it, we’re working at a slower pace, zone two people will call it, the top end of zone two, it’s an aerobic pace, that still develops either the mitochondria development and the capillary development, it still will increase the heart size, the stroke volume, the amount of blood we can get to the muscles. All this helps us get more blood, more oxygen, more fuel to the muscles quicker. So we can develop it through the high-end work and the low-end work. And I suggest that a combination of both is the best. What I think we need is both, because both have different places. But you don’t need to do that high-end work if you don’t want to. If you’re just after health benefits, the low-end will do. But to get the maximum racing potential, you need to do the high-end work, because you’ve got to get used to running at race pace. If you’re at a race at race pace, you can’t always just train at a long, slow pace and expect magically to run really fast on race day. So we need to do, as you said, both. uh thresholds and you coming from the sprinting background uh you you like you like the feeling of working hard and a lot of runners do and those v02 max sessions they’re rewarding you don’t enjoy doing them but you have the gratification of looking at the times you’ve achieved and the fatigue at the end and i find that for a certain kind of people like you and me, I find them more rewarding than just going for a two-hour easy run. Although these days I’m getting older, I am getting more into that. It’s nice just looking at the environment and enjoying the scenery as I’m running along.

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I love my Z1, Z2 runs. I’ve learned to love them too, but it’s just more I just sprinkle in these VO2 max workouts. And I also found out that 400s, 10x, 12x, 16x 400s, Usually for me, I’ll do 400s on what I do 80 seconds, 70, 80 seconds with about 40 seconds rest, 40, 40, 50 seconds rest, depending on whatever it is. That’s my favorite.

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Two minutes. Yeah. 80 seconds with 40 rest and just do the two minute circle. Keep going around. That’s a lovely session.

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I absolutely love that session. Fell in love with it. I was doing 400, 800s back in college university. And I realized I liked that workout. I like the rhythm of it and how you keep building. And in the middle, you just get into this great groove and this flow. I get into a flow state on that workout particularly. But I found out that that was a VO2 max workout too. And I was like, oh, I thought that was an interval workout. But if I was doing 65s.

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It’s an interval workout, but it’s developing a VO2 max. 24:29.347

Exactly. Whereas if I was just doing 40 second sprints all out and then having five minutes off, that’s probably not going to develop my VO2 max system as much as that 400s. And if I was doing 10 minutes, which would be more of a tempo run, if I was doing 10 minutes, you know, at my marathon, half marathon pacing, 10K pacing, that probably wouldn’t develop my VO2 max at as well as a VO2 max specific workout. So to do certain races, you need to do a little bit more of certain things at different times. I won’t kind of go into that because this will make the podcast last for two hours, and I know Mike probably wants to jump in. I guess, let me say one thing about how to do it wrong. So if you’re doing a VO, so specific to a VO2 max workout, if I am, let’s say I’m 10 weeks out from my main race, 12 weeks out from my main race, And I know that my 5k pace is 3, current 5k pace is 335. So my range is anywhere from 325 to 340, 345 minutes per kilometer. That is my VO2 max range. I do not want to go any faster or any slower than that range. Because then I’m not actually getting the most out of that workout for what I’ve prescribed, what my coach has prescribed, the training plan, etc. for that day. Will I get regularly just physically fit? Yes. But I personally don’t like having too much lactate in my system. I don’t do well with that. So going any faster actually would mess me up. And going any slower, I’m basically in the gray zone at that point, which we’ve done a really fun episode on. And if I’m not specific, my coach didn’t tell me to get in the gray zone, I should not be in the gray zone. So I have to pick it up to get a bit faster. And a lot of people I’ve seen them do longer. Another thing that they’ve done wrong is they do longer rest. And when I say wrong, it just depends. So I can actually do a VO2 max workout, five minute intervals and do one minute rest. But I’ll do that two, three weeks out from a race with one minute rest because I’m trying to hold lactate and tolerate more lactate in my system. Whereas 10 weeks out from the race, I’m trying to clear the lactate out that I’ve developed. And if I only have one minute, one and a half minute rest, I’m actually not going to get the benefits of that VO2 max workout. And I actually be working too hard. Maybe I will get the benefits from it, but I’ll probably prematurely be working too hard, too early. And I might burn myself out come four, six weeks when I really need to start cranking things up. So that’s another thing that, uh, you have to have the discipline to go, look, two and a half, three minutes rest. even though I feel fine in a minute

and a half. Okay, I want to go, I want to go, I want to go. It’s like, ah, this isn’t, you’re not supposed to do a nine out of 10 on this workout. I like to feel like a seven to an eight out of 10 on these workouts. And it’s one of those where you have to, You have to do it enough to understand what an 8 out of 10 feels like. Because an 8 out of 10 is like, I’m going hard enough, but you know what? I’m not going too hard. Great quote from Jakob Ingersoll. I can’t say the last name. He said he never, ever goes harder than 87% in any workouts. He saves it for racing. And I absolutely love that it’s 87%. It’s just a weird number. But even on his hard days, 87%. So discipline, discipline. And that’s what I love about VO2 Max. It’s discipline. So Mike, you go and tell me what I said wrong.

27:49.925

With the VO2 max that we’re talking about is when you’re doing these sessions, we’ll break them into things. A VO2 max session, in my way of interpretation, is a threshold session where you’re trying to stay using oxygen as the primary source of fuel. When you shorten the rest too much, you need to supplement that and the lactic system comes in and we build up the lactic acid. Now, What we’re trying to do with that session is that’s what I call a lactic tolerance session. So you’re trying to go further with large amounts of lactic in the system before breaking down. So that’s a different kind of thing. So what you’re doing, you want to make the engine bigger, which the VO2 is doing, but a lactic tolerance session is equally as valid because If I can actually use, keep running at a fast pace with a lot of lactate in the body and use the glycolic system as well as we discussed in the previous podcast, we can use this anaerobic system as well to add more fuel and can cope with large amounts of lactate in the body, then I can keep going faster longer. Whereas an aerobic threshold session, a VO2 max is actually trying to make the engine bigger. Going at that very high speed is trying to make you more efficient and cope with that large amount in the body. So when you change it near the race, that’s good because it’s super, it’s super quick to affect that over a short period of time. But the VO2 max, sessions, they take a long time. We’re talking about six months to really affect VO2max. It’s a long time to get much of a change in it. With VO2max, it’s talking about delivering, I’ll recap, oxygen to the muscles with each stroke. We want one pump at the heart to deliver as much oxygen to the muscles as possible and get as much fuel to the muscles as possible. And that’s called the stroke volume. So for people who don’t really understand, another way of measuring if your VO2 is going up or not is actually if for the same run your heart rate is coming down, that’s a measure of your increased fitness because it means that your stroke volume is going up, you’re pumping more blood with each pump of the heart, which means your VO2 must be going up as well. So that’s another thing just for people to simply take away from here and think, well, if I can keep doing a test run once a week and running around that, I’m doing it with a lower heart rate, I’m getting fitter. So that’s another. good, good thing to do. And the reason I say this is also your resting heart rate. If your resting heart rate gets lower, it means your stroke volume, your mitochondria have increased, probably your capillary development is good and you’re able to get more oxygen to the muscles with less pumping of the heart. So a lower of the resting heart rate is good and a lowering of the heart rate as you’re running is good. And the reason I say this is because most people, and I’ll let you jump in

on this, most people come to me and say, oh, my Garmin says my VO2 max is such and such. Well, I’m sorry, but in essence, I think that, I’m not using swear words here, but I think it’s bull. The Garmin estimation of VO2 max is a nice little figure to look at and chat with your friends over a coffee or a tea or a beer, whatever you want, and say, yeah. Currently, I’m doing lots of Ironman training, and I know my VO2 max, I know I’m getting fitter, but my Garmin, because I’m not doing intervals, and Garmin likes intervals as a test for your VO2, it’s shocking. It was, before I broke my leg, it said my VO2 max was 69, when I thought it was around about 60, and now it’s saying it’s 45, when I think it’s probably somewhere between 60 and 65. So Garmin, as a measure of VO2 max, is not very accurate. I think Feeling is much better and monitoring your resting heart rate and your heart rate at a set pace is a much better way of monitoring whether your VO2 max is improving or not.

31:50.159

And a point on that is the VDOT score, which is, and I didn’t talk about this, I’ll probably put it in the intro, which was developed by Jack Daniels in the 70s, and the VDOT score is based on a lot of different things, but it’s probably, it is, it is more accurate than the Garmin, because it’s based on actual, a race that you did, or a time trial that you did. And then it calculates certain things, and it basically gives you what your VDOT score is now, and it also tells you, it’s a race predictor in a way, whereas, Garmin does do it, but it still is, it’s getting better. It is getting better. Five years ago, the race predictor on Garmin wasn’t great. Um, and now it’s, it’s, it’s much more realistic to what you’re doing. Um, but it’s also a, once you get super fit, this is the potential that you can, you know, potentially the fastest you can run. And I’ve ran the VDOT calculator. I’ve done a proper VO2max test on a treadmill, as I’m sure you have. I’ve only done it once. Probably will never do it again because I’m getting older and I just realized, like, I don’t need to know it to train anymore. I think a lactate threshold test is actually more important. I’m actually going to do one of those. Especially when I start doing 10Ks and half marathons. Just seeing where my training can be more effective with that. But it’s interesting about the VDOT score because I started, like, you basically need to have a certain VDOT score to run a certain time. Like, if Garmin’s saying your VDOT score is 40 and you’re like, oh, I think I can run a 15 minute 5K, that’s literally, like, and sorry, if you run your times through the VDOT calculator and it’s saying 40, Most people, I’m sorry, most men, because women’s scores are lower, most men at a 40 VDOT score or VO2 max number cannot run a 15 minute 5K. You have to have quite a high VDOT, unless your economy, running economy is through the roof. Even then, so I like to, I think it’s really interesting that there’s a correlation between times and V, VO2 max numbers slash VDOT scores and that most people, the majority of people fall in that number. That is not Garmin. And I just really want to say like the whole Garmin thing, like I basically, it kept saying I should be running a 14 minute 5K and I just laughed at it. I was like, no, like that, like I am not anywhere close to running, you know, like 60 minutes, barely half as high 60 minutes. So Take VO2max scores on your Garmin or your Coros or whatever. Even Apple Watch, I just want to have an Apple Watch now. And it is way off because it’s not getting fed all the input data. So that’s all my take on VO2max. You want to finish it?

34:33.225

Yeah, one closing statement. I think that the takeaway is it’s great for sports scientists to study, to look at human specimens, what’s the biggest VO2 max ever recorded, what have sports people achieved, and to try and correlate that with performance. But again, there are so many other factors that if you’re given a low VO2 max, and genetics comes a big play into it, I remember when I was at university, I had a test of 70. I was told, you’re 20 years old, that’s as big as it’ll get. So you’re a good inter-college level runner. Years later in New Zealand, when I was a professional triathlete and well-trained, my VO2 max was recorded as 84, which they said was off the scale. And I think, well, how come it’s now 84 when I was told 70 was the max? And then you read about Derek Clayton, who was the first man to run a sub 210 marathon, Warriston world record holder. His VO2 max was 69, which was lower than my 70 and technically only good enough to be an intercollegiate runner. So it’s just one, he’s obviously a very efficient runner and use very little oxygen to run. And so you can work on the efficiency, not just, so to go quicker, to sum it up, It’s an interesting statistic and improving your VO2, improving your oxygen carrying capacity and your stroke volume is good for health and possibly for longevity. But there are other ways to go quicker, to become more efficient in the way you run. So it’s not the total predictor on everything. So it’s an interesting thing, but don’t get too hung up on it is my final take.

36:19.115

Let’s go! Welcome to the show, I’m your host Aaron So. A.K.A. D-Link. Tips and tactics, you could train like a pro. There’s cats to help you, and faster than you could go. All the PRs you could beat, of course, records that comes in your upcoming season. Right? Don’t you agree? Endurance sports, it’s a metaphor for life. It’s that metaphor, baby. Eat and clean, so you can rest and sleep all night. Don’t master a lot, don’t master a little, just stay in the middle. Don’t master all, don’t master none. Just be a master of some. This episode is brought to you by Energy Coaching, which is Mike Tree’s coaching service. Mike coaches beginners to pros in all levels in between. No one is too fast and no one is too slow. All the coaches have a desire to learn and improve with their athletes. Energy Coaching focuses on the 1500 meters to marathon running and triathlon training. Energy coaching is usually overbooked. So Instagram and this podcast venture Trees and D-Lake gives Mike and the rest of his energy coaching team a way to reach out to more people and help them. Contact Mike and his team at nrg-coaching.com for more info. That’s the letters nrg-coaching.com. No spaces for more information. And time, time is a resource that no one can make more of, not yet at least, so we appreciate you taking the time out of your day to listen, watch, and generally consume all of this stuff. Accessibility is pretty cool nowadays, so we have a transcript for all of the episodes. Make sure to go to the show notes section on this episode, on whatever podcast player you’re listening to, or you can go to the description of this video on YouTube, or just go to dlakecreates.com forward slash transcripts. All of this was produced in Sydney, Australia, so I acknowledge the Gadigal of the Eora Nation, who are the traditional custodians of the land. I pay my respects to the elders, past, present, and emerging. A lot of people ask how they could support us, and I think the easiest way is to

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