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Does terrain affect your VO2 Max estimate on your watch?

Simple really, does the terrain you’re running over affect the result? I tend to do runs that involve a lot of hills (given where I live).

I’ve recently started doing to more downhill runs too, and I’ve noticed my VO2 Max increase from 51 to 53.

I’ve done well over a hundred runs with the watch since I bought it, so it can’t be still learning about me like it does when you first start using it.

I do the occasional run with my daughter in a buggy too, and I have previously noticed that this tends to decrease my VO2 Max. I guess this is because I’m working harder than I should be for the speed I’m going (obviously I don’t expect the watch to take a buggy into consideration, but hills are another matter).

Anyone know for sure?

0 timgrose over 7 years ago

Simple answer is yes - as you seemed to have discovered.

Of course the VO2 Max readings here are best interpreted as more of a general trend over weeks and months than day to day changes.

0 boddijc over 7 years ago

My VO2 Max readings would suggest that the answer is no, it doesn’t take the terrain into account (it assumes you’re running on the flat).

If I’m running from A to B on the flat with a HR reading of 170 (for example), my VO2 Max reading is 51 (for example). If I run from A to B on a decent with the same HR, my VO2 Max comes out at 53, whereas if I do A to B with the same HR on an incline (or pushing a buggy) it comes out at 49. I’d be working just as hard with my HR the same, but my speed would be different depending on the decent (faster), flat (normal) or incline (slower).

This would tend to suggest that on a decent it is calculating that I am fitter than I am and then when on an incline or pushing I am less fit than I actually am, would it not?

0 timgrose over 7 years ago

Yes but generally it would be unusual to do a whole run that is either significantly downhill or uphill. As such I generally find things even out over time. Ultimately of course the best way of knowing how fit you are is to race.

0 8598964 over 3 years ago

I moved from the city to the Foothills of Denver and my VO2 max immediately fell precipitously as my runs went from mostly flat city streets to up and down steep trails, gaining a thousand feet of altitude over the course of a three mile loop. So I think you're theory is correct: they are not correcting for incline / decline when they measure VO2. Which they really should know.

0 3479087 over 2 years ago in reply to 8598964

Same experience. I moved to a neighborhood with lots of hills and my VO2 max fell 1-2 points. I have noticed that my VO2 estimates are lower in cold temperatures, as well (but that might be correct).

0 9340839 over 2 years ago in reply to 3479087

Oh, is that why my VO2 max fell by a LOT (went from 36 at the end of fall - I'd fought so hard to get it to 37 during the summer, too! - to now 32-33 depending on the day). Obviously, walking uphill in a huge jacket with heavyish boots when it's -15 outside while slipping on the snow will slow a person down. I don't know when or why my app started measuring that when I'm just walking, tbh, but it's making me feel like this most recent wave of gym closures have really pulled my conditionning down (which it has, but maybe not THAT much).