VO2Max isn't increasing

My vo2max is 54, but my half marathon estimate is 1:39. My stryd has me at 1:30 which is accurate. The problem with garmin's estimate is that either the vo2max or the hm est is off. In my case, the hm estimate is too slow. If it thinks 1:39 is a correct prediction, then the vo2max of 54 is wildly inaccurate and vice versa.

well, not sure this is helpful, but i finally saw Garmin report a change in my VO2max after 3+ months. i knew it was slowly evolving via Runalyze. but what is curious is that even though i'm at "Maintaining" (Been so for several weeks) and it shows a flat trend, my "new VO2max" of 55 reports as 54.45 on Runalyze. i find it a little odd that it rounds up from that (as opposed to >54.50), especially with only a slow trend upward.

anyway, my experience is consistent with the new algorithm causing very slow changes in VO2max. IMHO, i think this is more reasonable than what i previously experienced with my other Garmin watches (945LTE, 935) which jumped around way too frequently. my fitness is roughly steady for this past summer and i think the VO2max has climbed in the past month (as reported by Runalyze) due to the cooler weather.

If you look at it in the training status glance, you can see the fractional values of your VO2Max in the history graph, not just the rounded number. And indeed you can see a continuous but very slow evolution.

But it's not available in the other glance that shows VO2Max for reasons only Garmin knows.

never noticed this before. thanks for the tip!

Interesting that the Garmin and Runalyze are so close in your case , mine are quite different at 62 (Garmin) and 53,62 (Runalyze - The table named Calculations at the Right?). My runs per Runalyze vary , today was 59.30 , Tuesday 54.52 as examples.

You mean by the slope of the graph?

i probably wasn't clear enough. Runalyze allows one to display the VO2Max stored in the FIT file. that's the number i've seen as very slowly increasing in time and the discrepancy i noted was it showing 54.45, but Garmin rounding it up to 55 on GC. however, the effective VO2max for me does bounce all over the place depending on the run (today's was for example 47.2, it was 47.9 on Monday. my current effective (some sort of running/filtered average, i assume) is 45.8

i think the Runalyze value doesn't account for distance at all. it is based purely on HR and pace. the Garmin one seems to account for distance, HR, and pace (and maybe terrain too?)

Thanks Derek , I see where you mean.

I've also noticed that odd rounding of VO₂Max when I decode FIT files with FitParser.jar.