High Vo2max but slow 3000m time. Why?

Poor running economy.

Lots of athletes have high vo2 max numbers; cyclists, xc skiers, etc. but it doesn't mean that they can utilise that oxygen efficiently while running.

Lots of things can effect running economy: if specific muscle groups aren't trained; if you are heavy; if you have poor running mechanics, etc.

There's an upside though - having a high vo2 max should assist you in reaching your running potential sooner than someone with inferior numbers.

Because it's not only a question of high maxO2 to run fast at distance ....simple as that. What you need is to raise your lactate threshold ability and your aerob capacity at steady easy distance runs as well.🖐🧙‍♂️

How many miles/kms do you run per week?

You mention 600 hours of training last year, but I'm guessing that wasn't all running.

The first piece of advice I would give (in general) is to gradually increase your mileage.

I would then say focus on vo2 max intervals, once a week for a 3-4 month period.

Example workouts would be:

10 x 400m @ 3k pace, 200m jog recovery

8 x 600m @ 3-5k pace, 90 secs jog recovery

6 x 800m @ 5k pace, 90 secs jog recovery

5 x 1k @ 5k pace, 2' jog recovery

4 x 1200m @ 5k pace, 2'30 jog recovery

(I'm being conservative here with the volume, but I'm assuming you're running 40-60 miles/wk. If you are doing more, feel free to increase the volume of your workouts accordingly).

I'd suggest your other weekly workout should focus on lactate threshold; either a continuous tempo or intervals totalling 25-30 minutes in volume.

Jack Daniels was the first to introduce the concept of “velocity at VO2 max”.. i.e. how fast you’re running when you’re at VO2 max. He derived the curves for running economy based on that. He even used a story from his running career; he had a VO2 max of about 65 but could consistently beat one of the runners in his group even though that guy’s VO2 max was > 70.

You need to improve your running economy and lactate threshold, which will increase your vVO2 max and the time you can hold a faster pace.

How do You know, that Your vo2 max is high? Have You measured it at lab?

Most likely You are simply slow. Vo2 max won't help if You can't run decent 100m

No, that wasn't all running, correct. A large portion of this was endurance though, lots of xc-skiing in winter, while roller skiing, running/trail running and cycling in the summer, often a period somewhat specific to 3000m running, just to get another pr. So nothing too out of the ordinary. As for mileage per week, it can vary quite a bit though but hours per week training endurance should remain relatively stable.

Yes, measured in a lab, multiple times done that, my pr is when doing the vo2max test while running (have also done it on a wattbike and on a roller ski treadmill in the past)!

To be fair though, yes probably my running economy isn't good. If you know, how can one improve their running economy?

Also, based on some online calculators I should be able to run around 9 minutes with my vo2 max. That seems quite unreachable at the moment, 9 minutes.

Other than that I think I have a pretty okay lactate threshhold compared to my maximum. Last autumn's test my threshold ish~4mmol (187 hr) was around 93% of maximum heart rate (200), which seems pretty good though. At 182hr I was even running at 2.49mmol lactate... Very easy? Mmmh. I'm not going to share all the results of the test though as I don't want everyone to know what my vo2max is. I just wanna say, it was good👍

I am really good at long duration endurance, like trailrunning for 7 hours, 34km/21miles and lots of uneven terrain, mud and mountains for example, while still being able to run quite fast at the end (fast for me at least). The thing is that this feels almost easyer to run fast at the end of a long run than runing a 3k at that same finishing speed, when I should have fresher legs...

Why that is, I have absolutely no idea🤔

Actually he's doomed if he runs a decent 100m. That would be a highly trained anaerobic perform, i.e. a sprinter.

Contrary to what many believe, sprinters do have a decent aerobic capacity, but their anaerobic capacity is much, much greater than a distance runner.

This sport is an art not a science. Go run good volume, do two quality sessions a week and forget anything fancy.

Why You bring sprinters into this?

You can't run 3000 or any distance if You are weak, slow and with bad running form. You won't break 10min 3k if You run 18s 100m at max effort.

Then why You aren't mentioning how much it is? Maybe it isn't high at all.

Yes you can't run 3000 if I'm weak, I'm aware of that. Strength is definetly not what is holding me back, although saying that, my hipflexor is maybe the thing that is holding me back the most I think. It is weaker than it should be simply due to my anatomy.

I feel like if I lift my legs up a bit higher while I run makes me go faster allthough it is very tiring, this so I can't do this a whole 3k. In the past I had the tendency to run wit stiff legs when I got tired, allthough I have definetly improoved on that.

I don't know how I would further train that area?

Being 'very flexible' can actually be a bad thing when it comes to running economy.

What the study shows per GPT4:

This study aimed to see if there was a link between the flexibility of different parts of the body and how efficiently runners use energy. To do this, 19 trained male long-distance runners were assessed. First, they jogged for 10 minutes at a certain speed, then they had two rounds of flexibility tests on their lower body and trunk. Then, they were evaluated for their running efficiency on two separate days, after running at a certain speed on a treadmill for 30 minutes.
The study found that the results of the flexibility tests and the efficiency assessments were both very consistent when repeated. Most importantly, they found that runners who were less flexible in ankle bending (dorsiflexion) and hip rotation while standing were more energy-efficient in running. The researchers think this might be because less flexibility in certain parts of the body can improve running efficiency. This could be because it helps to store and return energy better and reduce the need for muscles to work to keep the body stable while running. But this is just a theory and needs more research to confirm.

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov

The association between flexibility and running economy in sub-elite male distance runners - PubMed

The purpose of this study was to examine the association between nine measures of limb and trunk flexibility and running economy. Within a week prior to running economy assessment, and after 10 min of jogging at 3.13 m.s-1, 1...

Open link

Are you male or female? I was an NCAA XC skiier, at a not so great school, and most of our men were running 9:20-9:50 for a 3k TT (aka slowly, but not terribly slowly). Did you run in HS? If you haven't done many running races, you might just be running very inefficiently like the commenters said. I'd recommend doing 200's - 400's at Daniels repetition paces.

How high are we talking ? 60 ? 70?

Running mechanics even before running economy. You could be a massive heel striker and landing way in front of your center of mass. If you aren’t then like someone said running economy , where someone looks good running from the outside but from the inside they’re using a lot more energy than they need to

That is indeed very interesting

I am a male athlete. I have run and done sports my whole life, so I guess that's good. I know most elite xc skiers run around 9minutes, the best in our amaeur group has a pr of 9:58... Most of them are kind of fast. I'm not, yet in xc ski races I am way faster!