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How VO2 Max is calculated?

marios_ch
over 6 years ago
Well does anyone knows how vo2 max is calculated in details?
For example on the last 3 days activities i am doing better results (pace, time etc) and vo2 max is dropping instead of rising.

Also it says that it counts 15min of the activity? Its an average of 15 minutes or the first 15 minutes?
because maybe i am doing better on the last 15min of one hour total acitvity.

any insight here will be helpfull.
  • 0 over 6 years ago
    Thanks Nick. I appreciate that and enjoy your posts as well.

    I like gadgets and data but it can be too easy to chase numbers with all of this techs tapped to our bodies. I try to do the training and let the numbers tell me how things are progressing.
  • 0 over 5 years ago
    I wouldn't trust the VO2max prediction too much or attach value to it. From Race results I know my VO2max should be around 65 (1500m in 4:15), Garmin/first beat actually never gives me this result. it is usually around 54-58, sometimes it peaks a bit over 60. Runalyze returns me a better prediction, but the run should be steady without pause. Bottomline, do not care about VO2max estimates, but look at other parameters that are more useful. (for example Heartbeat/km, segments run and compare heartbeats and make sure the segment is run in a more or less similar training, and so on)
  • 0 over 5 years ago
    hi
    I have read the firstbeat papers and the conversations here.
    Two issues with respect to VO2max calculations are hopefully better taken up in the calculations in the future:
    1) the effect of duration of training on pace and heartbeat. Heart beat eg. for a long run of 1.30 hours goes up when running at the same pace. How does Firstbeat considers this exactly?
    2) Ground surface is obviously impacting heavily on VO2max calculations based on speed/pace relationships. This is more difficult yo solve I think...unless GPS information on type of track/elevations is somehow included
  • 0 over 5 years ago
    I don't have an answer for your first point. Maybe Herman from FirstBeat can chime I on that.
    Regarding your second point, the difficulty of trying to determine Vo2Max with uneven terrain and or loose surfaces is why it isn't calculated for activities recorded with the trail run app.
  • Former Member
    0 Former Member over 5 years ago
    An old thread, but interesting.

    My activity is composed mainly from walking. In the last 7 months my VO2Max has fluctuated without any sense :D.

    If I do 50-150 minutes a day, it offers a lowish score of 35-37.

    If I do 20-30 minutes a day, I reach the heady heights of 41.

    And yet the logic suggests the more one does, the higher the score should be?

    Mod is set Zone 2, and Vigorous Zone 4 - though each damn update resets these I notice!!
  • 0 over 5 years ago
    Are your shorter walks faster with a higher HR than the longer walks? If so that would be because Vo2Max estimation, to a certain extent, favors intensity over distance or time.
  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to R_Tellis

    Old conversation, I know, but I’m still trying to get my head around VO2 max and the importance of inputting correct HR for yourself. I’m a 63yr old female and I’ve been running for less than a year. The automatic HR max for me using the formula is 157. This might be a silly question but does that imply that my heart rate should not go above 157bpm? That’s clearly not the case as I’m still here. According to the HR data, I’m doing most of my running in Zone 5 which is said to be ‘sprint pace that is difficult to sustain for long. Breathing is laboured ...’ Again, not the case. As a very crude way of making the zones as well as my VO2 max more accurate, could I do an average of my highest heart rates during runs? 

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to BeeCee
    BeeCee said:
    does that imply that my heart rate should not go above 157bpm?

    It implies that you should be incapable of going above 157 bpm.

    BeeCee said:
    That’s clearly not the case as I’m still here.

    That means that your max HR is not 157.

    BeeCee said:
    could I do an average of my highest heart rates during runs? 

    No, generally this should be the highest heart rate you ever achieved.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to tmk2

    The max HR is very easy to achieve... Just RUN as hell :) Take the highest HR as your maxHR in garmin.

  • 0 over 3 years ago in reply to bertschb

    I live in the mountains every walk is up steep slopes. If this isn't taken into account, then the estimate is worthless