VO2 max is the maximum delivery of oxygen to the muscles. It is the
power output of the whole system, a measure of your cardiovascular
fitness, a surrogate marker. This may be improved by hard and fast
interval training. This is well worth the effort.
Your cardiovascular fitness is a measure of how efficiently your heart and lung package can get oxygenated blood to your muscles. When you train this component: your heart grows in size, every beat becomes more efficient, your circulating blood volume goes up, you make more red blood cells and the size and number of blood vessels in your muscles also increases. These are all good things. The more intensively you train the better from this point of view, as it all improves.
The fastest and the biggest improvements occur when you train at a high intensity. Your genetics will determine your upper VO2 max and undoubtably some people have a natural genetic advantage. Most runners operate nowhere near what they can achieve. Most of us can haul ourselves up by about twenty with some well directed training. For example, the average couch potato could score 25, a jogger 40, a club runner 55 with the internationals at about 65 plus and the world class superstars at 75 to 80.
Improved cardiac output happens with training. The muscle changes which happen in the muscles of the body also happen in heart (cardiac) muscle. The fibres get bigger, they contract better and overall efficiency is increased. There is no change in fast or slow twitch fibres though, as the heart has none. This is because the heart is made from smooth muscle as opposed to the striated (stripy looking under a microscope) muscle of everywhere else and this smooth muscle (amazingly) never becomes tired.
The maximum speed and effort that you can run will be able to be maintained for only a few seconds. The more seconds you can spend at this level of effort, the quicker your body will change and adapt. This is what interval training is all about. Repeated sprints at maximal effort with short periods of recovery help increase your performance level. This increase in performance lasts for weeks and months even if you don't use it. These changes happen quickly and are noticed within a week or two.
There are two popular ways of doing sprint training. One is to sprint and then fully recover so you aren't short of breath. Then off you trot for another sprint after you've allowed yourself to rest. The second way is to sprint, then before you are fully recovered you try again, repeating these intervals without recovery. Probably the very best training will involve alternating these two as each will probably give you slightly different benefits.
One speed session a week is about right. Hill sessions can provide an alternative to sprint sessions if you want some variety in your training. This is because the leg power and increased cardiac output needed to power you up a hill is much the same as all out efforts on flatter surfaces. Be sure to give it all you've got on the way up and then jog back down for another go, using either of the above methods.
When you increase your VO2 max you become a more efficient runner. You go faster, you can go further, with less effort and burn less fuel along the way. It is, in short, some of the very best training you can do.
More another day...
Your cardiovascular fitness is a measure of how efficiently your heart and lung package can get oxygenated blood to your muscles. When you train this component: your heart grows in size, every beat becomes more efficient, your circulating blood volume goes up, you make more red blood cells and the size and number of blood vessels in your muscles also increases. These are all good things. The more intensively you train the better from this point of view, as it all improves.
The fastest and the biggest improvements occur when you train at a high intensity. Your genetics will determine your upper VO2 max and undoubtably some people have a natural genetic advantage. Most runners operate nowhere near what they can achieve. Most of us can haul ourselves up by about twenty with some well directed training. For example, the average couch potato could score 25, a jogger 40, a club runner 55 with the internationals at about 65 plus and the world class superstars at 75 to 80.
Improved cardiac output happens with training. The muscle changes which happen in the muscles of the body also happen in heart (cardiac) muscle. The fibres get bigger, they contract better and overall efficiency is increased. There is no change in fast or slow twitch fibres though, as the heart has none. This is because the heart is made from smooth muscle as opposed to the striated (stripy looking under a microscope) muscle of everywhere else and this smooth muscle (amazingly) never becomes tired.
The maximum speed and effort that you can run will be able to be maintained for only a few seconds. The more seconds you can spend at this level of effort, the quicker your body will change and adapt. This is what interval training is all about. Repeated sprints at maximal effort with short periods of recovery help increase your performance level. This increase in performance lasts for weeks and months even if you don't use it. These changes happen quickly and are noticed within a week or two.
There are two popular ways of doing sprint training. One is to sprint and then fully recover so you aren't short of breath. Then off you trot for another sprint after you've allowed yourself to rest. The second way is to sprint, then before you are fully recovered you try again, repeating these intervals without recovery. Probably the very best training will involve alternating these two as each will probably give you slightly different benefits.
One speed session a week is about right. Hill sessions can provide an alternative to sprint sessions if you want some variety in your training. This is because the leg power and increased cardiac output needed to power you up a hill is much the same as all out efforts on flatter surfaces. Be sure to give it all you've got on the way up and then jog back down for another go, using either of the above methods.
When you increase your VO2 max you become a more efficient runner. You go faster, you can go further, with less effort and burn less fuel along the way. It is, in short, some of the very best training you can do.
More another day...
