He said "sufficiently high." Clayton had a VO2 max of 69, definitely sufficiently high. Shorter was around 70. 69-70 is still far above normal. You aren't going to find any elite distance runners with VO2's of 50.
He said "sufficiently high." Clayton had a VO2 max of 69, definitely sufficiently high. Shorter was around 70. 69-70 is still far above normal. You aren't going to find any elite distance runners with VO2's of 50.
genius wrote:
No one does not NEED to have a "sufficiently high" VO2max. Derek Clayton set a world record without one. Frank Shorter won Olympic gold without one
Argue all you want. You would be wrong.
No, I think you are just disagreeing about what is sufficiently high.
I bet if I cut off my arms (thus dropping my wt) my Vo2 would easily be over 90. I bet if I then activated every single muscle fiber in my body my Vo2 would be 200 or so. Before everyone goes gonzo over Vo2 please read the science behind it.
Skiers are animals!
1337hax0r wrote:
No, I think you are just disagreeing about what is sufficiently high.
So a guy with a VO2Max almost 30% lower than Mr 96 sets a world record, another wins Olympic Gold and this is supposed to be an indicator of ANYTHING?
VO2Max is a completely useless, meaningless stat. It is as useful an indicator of running potential as is resting heart rate or body fat.
do my untrained eye it sounds like "genius" has a low VO2max
This result is pretty amazing if it really is true.. !! I remember reading somewhere that a normal VO2max-value for dogs was about 104 (don't remember what sort of dog..). No matter what you say about VO2 meaning nothing, the fact of the matter is this guy is very special and must have some pretty decent genes. BTW, his name is Espen Harald Bjerke.
I agree with the poster saying it is idiotic comparing runners and cross country skiers. For one thing the skiers in general outweigh runners by a huge margin, something that affects these values. So in fact this makes runners' values even less impressive. But the leg-specific values will naturally be higher for a runner.
The skiers develop this amazing endurance from huge amounts of slow, steady-state base training. 700-900 hours per year consisting of skiing, roller-skiing, running, bicycling, swimming, running with ski-poles, cayacking, strength exercise ++ Traditionally the top skiers were timber cutters by profession, working full days in the woods before training, this way effectively producing the capillary system.
On a side note, here in Norway a few weeks ago a former top division football-player (soccer) turned cyclist (this year) turned in a test result of 7.27 liter. Weighing in at 81kgs, according to the article below, it equates to a vo2max of 90. (the article is in norwegian..)
genius wrote:
So a guy with a VO2Max almost 30% lower than Mr 96 sets a world record, another wins Olympic Gold and this is supposed to be an indicator of ANYTHING?
VO2Max is a completely useless, meaningless stat. It is as useful an indicator of running potential as is resting heart rate or body fat.
Yes...and 30% lower happens to be sufficiently high.
Correct me if I am wrong, but wasn't Daehlie test and the rest of these insane Norwegian results done RUNNING on a treadmill? I know I have heard of many Norwegian skiers unable to reach as high figures rollerskiing on a treadmill as running on a treadmill, and might I add, at a slower pace than world class runners. So, in essence, this proves that Vo2max is not a reliable predictor for success, and their are many other factors such as economy that have at least just as much influence.
By the way, Espen Harald Bjerke is far from the best in the world. Good, yes, but struggling to make their national team. He's being beaten regularly by guys with much lower Vo2max's.
Lastly, sled dogs can have Vo2's up to 300 - but that's due mostly to their small weight.
gh wrote:
The cultural bias against druggies is so strong in Norway, the famous elites wouldn't risk doping. It would ruin them, finacially and otherwise. Even altitude chambers/beds are illegal in Norway. Some folks even want restrictions on travel to places to train at high altitude as it offers advantages over other athletes. They are purists. The idea that Daehlie was a druggie is really absurd.
Is it that absurd? I've heard from several knoweledgable and objective sources that after claiming the bronze in the '94 Olympic 50k, his hematocrit was tested to be in the neighborhood of 70 along with Smirnov (Gold) and Myllalaye - sorry for misspelling (silver). But they couldn't do anything because they had not set limits yet.
Also, during the 90's they did live in altitude houses. It is only in the last several years that many world cup skiers have made an effort to eliminate altitude houses. It was reasoned that it was unfair to skiers in poorer countries who couldn't afford the 'luxury'.