Thursday Night Session De-Brief

6 April 2017 - By Graham Eyre

Well done to everyone who turned up for tonights pyramid session. Great to see lots of different speed abilities taking advantage of the session. As one of the reasons for tonights session was to help with Vo2 max I have given a brief description below of what this is.

What is VO2 max?

It is the maximum volume of oxygen that your body is capable of consuming and converting to energy for your working muscles. Or to be a little bit more technical…VO2 max is a measure of the maximum volume of oxygen that an athlete can use. It is measured in millilitres per kilogramme of body weight per minute (ml/kg/min).

 

As you increase your effort when you exercise, the amount of oxygen you consume to produce energy (and hence the rate at which you exhale carbon dioxide) increases. However, there is a maximum level of oxygen consumption, beyond which increases in exercise intensity don’t lead to further increases in oxygen consumption. This level of oxygen consumption is called the VO2 max.

There are 2 trains of thought regarding Vo2 Max. One is that it is key to improving performance and therefore it is very important to improve it. However some scientists argue that the limits of running performance are determined by a range of factors including, adaption of muscles, running efficiency and metabolism. So Vo2 may not be the critical factor for maximum performance but a consequence of all previous mentioned factors. So while increasing your Vo2 max will definitely be of benefit there is a level of intensity at which the athletes consumption will reach a plateau and does not increase further. So remember your nutrition, your running efficiency (technique) your warm ups and your stretching are equally important and could be the difference that makes the difference.

 

Graham