4:18 Miler Scores 81 on VO2 Max Test????

luv2run wrote:

S. Canaday wrote:

This is interesting...and not surprising.

There are certain individuals who have better (Relative) Running Economy at different paces.

Whether that "most efficient/economical" pace is close to Vo2max or not of course depends on genetics and training.

So a really fast 800m/miler might have very good running economy at 110%-120% velocity at Vo2max (those are fast events!). But then their economy is crappy at 10km-half marathon and marathon paces.

Likewise you have a very fast marathoner whose economy is great at Lactate Threshold (maybe 92% of VO2max) and Marathon Race pace, but at the 5km and below they are less efficient.

I got tested by Shalaya Kipp earlier this year in the CU Boulder lab (Vo2max was 68) and the data that was most interesting to me was the Running Economy data at different paces. Running Economy doesn't necessarily deteriorate with a faster pace. So you could have the same value at 3:00-min/km as you do at 4:00-min/km. It is oxygen usage to cover 1km....a measure of efficiency that takes biomechanics (specific to running/racing paces) into play.

Now of course if one has a very high Vo2max they have the luxury of more "wiggle room" in terms of being less economical at different race....but in long distance racing (esp. over 5km and beyond) gains at the elite level are usually pretty marginal because people have "tradeoffs" in their talent (high Vo2max vs. great Running Economy). The good thing is Economy can be improved over longer periods of time with training (and at much older ages)....Vo2max is going to kind of peak with high intensity training in one's early 20s.... So you can get a higher velocity/running pace at Vo2max through improved Economy without an actual increase in Vo2max.

RE also seems to have a relationship to the paces you train at a lot. So a miler will have a better RE at a fast pace than a marathon will and vice versa.

For those who do not know, Running Economy is measured at a fixed pace. There is no single standard for what that pace is although for highly trained I see 16 kph used pretty consistently.

In the study done on Pre, Shorter, et al. Shorter's RE is very good (one of the best IIRC) and the test pace was one that he trained at a lot.