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VO2Max isn't increasing

Since I bought the 955, I've put a fair degree of effort in my runs, increasing my acute load by quite an amount by doing some zone 2 and speedwork.  Quite a number of my activities have been listed as VO2Max being the primary benefit.

I'd expect my VO2Max to increase as a consequence, but it's been flatlined since the end of June.

Am I doing something wrong, or is the watch/Garmin?  I know I shouldn't really be that bothered by the score as it's not all that reliable in comparison to lab testing, but I'd still like a bit of reward for my efforts...!

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  • I've noticed it too.

    With my last watch (FR745) vo2max was always jumping around. It might even increase or decrease 1 to 3 units based on one or two training runs. In the FR955 its way more stable, changing more like 0.01 to 0.03 units with one or two runs. This is probably more realistic too. It should be more like years of training to increase your vo2max not days or weeks. I have read that there is considerable number of people who isnt able to increase vo2max at all because of genetics.

  • Very interesting, thank you.  Seems a shame for the watch to be highlighting VO2Max as part of Training Status knowing it'll be largely static for months on end.  Might be kind of nice to see decimal points implemented so we can at least see a part of an ongoing trend.  The flat line is giving me no feedback, so I'm forced to ignore it and look at the acute load graph instead.

  • if you want to see two decimal place accuracy, the data is there in the FIT file and easily viewable on runanalyze.com if you display VO2Max (from file)

  • Yeah, I connected my Garmin app to runalyze some time ago.  I'm able to see detailed data, but the VO2Max appears to have completely different values to Garmin.  For Garmin, my value is 40, but Runalyze for my latest activity says 31.14.

    I've seen reference to "VO2Max from File", but can find no reference to this on the Runalyze web site anywhere.

  • if you click the gear icon at the top of the screen, you can select VO2max (by file) to be displayed. this is the VO2max stored in the FIT file.

  • Thanks.  Found it in Configuration - > Datasets.  I set the VO2Max to show from file and now see my score for each activity.  Currently at 39.65, I guess Garmin has rounded up.  Thanks again!

  • glad to you figured it out. i find it useful. i think the Garmin number is some sort of weighted, time average over the past X weeks so one run/activity doesn't completely flip the number up or down. i think it's much better than it was before...it makes sense for it to be relatively stable in time once the watch/Garmin has enough data (a few weeks) on you.

  • You are right Derek;  My VO2 used to be close to 60 on my Fenix 5X; after getting the 955 it went down over the next week to 52 and is been like this for the last 6 weeks. I believe this is the correct VO2 since the Race prediction is now very close to what I can run a 5K at 20:27 ; with the 5X is used to be at 17:00 and there no way I could do that, no matter how much training I will do Disappointed   

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