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VO2 Max reading wrong on hilly terrain

Former Member
Former Member
Whats the point of including a feature that does not take vertical meters into consideration when calculating the VO2 Max on the ForeRunner 620. The more I train in the mountains the less accurate becomes the reading. As soon as I head out on a flat track it shows complete different values. When is this thing going to be fixed? Strava shows even the corresponding pace on flat terrain (GAP reading) and as such a correction of the value should be possible...

Anybody else who has the same issue. Average distance 10km, Vertical Meters between 200-400m... VO2 Max keeps on dropping constantly even though I improve my race times.

Let me know what you think and when Garmin is finally going to find a workaround.

BR

Dominik
  • 0
    You can read the calculation and data gathering principles used to estimate the Vo2 Max here : http://www.firstbeat.com/userData/firstbeat/download/white_paper_VO2max_11-11-2014.pdf
    As far as I understand, steep downhill segments are excluded from the calculation, but there is no mention of uphill segments.

    I have noticed the same effect as you : perform hilly trainings, even hard ones, and the VO2 Max drops, perform training on a flat track, even moderate ones, and VO2 max increases.

    The elevation should be taken into account in the calculation, or at least the uphill segments (positive vertical gain, high HR, slow pace) should be excluded.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member
    Thanks for sharing the link to the Firstbeat calculation model. I am sure it is a very sophisticated model but unfortunately not the ideal one for trail runners. It would be really great to see an update from them soon. For now I will ignore the VO2 max indication and rather focus on more obvious parameters such as time, pace, distance, etc...
  • 0

    I've found that when trail running, the reading always comes out substantially lower than when I run on a smooth, flat course. I attribute this to the fact that I'm running slower with a noticeably higher heart rate because of the rough conditions. It's just not a very good measurement under those circumstances.

  • 0 in reply to drrickph

    Are you using the trail running app on your watch?