Goal 6 - Improve Your VO₂ Max and vVO₂ Max

If you aren’t familiar with these terms, they may look complex but they are really fairly simple. VO₂ max, which is pronounced just like it looks - vee oh two max - is a measure of the maximum amount of oxygen your body can process. It takes into account how much oxygen your lungs can deliver to your heart, how much blood your heart can pump to your working muscles and how much of that oxygen your muscle cells can extract and use to produce energy. VO₂ max is sometimes referred to as aerobic capacity.

Improving your VO₂ max is beneficial to you as a marathon runner because the increased amount of oxygen used by your muscle cells translates into greater energy production potential and the ability to run further and faster before you become fatigued. A higher VO₂ max means your heart is pumping more oxygen enriched blood to your muscles and those muscles are extracting and using more of that oxygen to produce energy. Since you are using more oxygen to produce energy you are able to run aerobically at a faster pace. Your marathon pace is about 90% aerobic so your marathon speed improves along with your VO₂ max.

Nearly all training paces and workouts play a role in improving your VO₂ max. Studies show that training volume plays a large role in improving your aerobic capacity, so those weekly long runs are great VO₂ max workouts.

While moderate paced long runs do a good job of improving aerobic capacity the most recent research proves that the most efficient way to improve VO₂ max is by doing high intensity repeats or interval training at 100% or more of your current VO₂ max pace. Most runners reach VO₂ max at somewhere around their 3K pace or about 15 to 20 seconds per mile faster than 5K pace. This brings us to the second term used here - vVO₂ max. This stands for your velocity at VO₂ max or simply your pace when you reach your maximal aerobic capacity.

At one time your VO₂ max was considered the best indicator of running potential. Is was thought that if two otherwise similar runners competed in a race, the one with the highest VO₂ max would win. Research has found that not to be the case. In examining the results of many races involving elite level runners with lab measured VO₂ max levels, the researchers found little correlation between VO₂ max and running performance. Instead they found that vVO₂ max is a much more reliable indicator of potential running performance. Why is that so? - Because vVO₂ max includes some factors that pure VO₂ max does not. VO₂ max is simply a measurement of how much oxygen you can process. It is a only a physiological indictor of running performance. vVO₂ max includes a number of other factors including running economy and mental toughness. When you think about it, that makes perfect sense. If you are able to run more efficiently you will run faster with less effort. If you have trained your brain to deal more effectively with the fatigue factor you will slow less in the later portions of the race.

There is no doubt that improving your vVO₂ max is best accomplished by a combination of high intensity interval training, hill running and strength training. Those types of workouts will improve your running strength, running economy and mental toughness.

Continue to Goal 7 - Improve Your Running Economy

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