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VO2 MAX malfunction?

Spectre
over 5 years ago

I purchased a va3 in January largely because of the VO2 Max feature.  I'm 64 years old, exercise 7 days per week for about 1 1/2 to 2 hours per day, have a standing heart rate of 56, and always score very high in fitness tests.

My first VO2 Max test scored me at a disappointing 35.  The unit would only perform the test for between 4 to 5 minutes, not the 15+ minutes that it's supposed to take.  I tried several tests, both walking and jogging, and always scored 35, and the watch only ran the test for 4 to 5 minutes each time.  I always make sure that I was above 70% of my max HR when I did the test.  The watch started recording walking trips at night while I slept, and the GPS had me roaming through my neighbour's property,  so Garmin replaced the unit, and I assumed that the VO2 Max issue would be resolved with a new watch.

Not so.  I got the same short tests on the replacement watch, and the same score of 35 on each test.  I did several tests.  So, I  thought that perhaps the wrist HR monitor wasn't recording my HR properly and bought a Garmin Dual chest strap monitor.  Same issue.   Short tests and always the same score using the chest strap.

Does anyone have similar issues and possibly a solution?

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    Please don't take this personally, but probably "lose weight" is the answer, as it seems to factor heavily (no pun intended) in the metric.  I AM NOT CALLING YOU FAT OR OVERWEIGHT! PLEASE DON'T THINK THAT! (Sorry for shouting, I just want to be clear)

    I trained for a Marathon last year and my VO2Max only seemed to go up as my weight went down.  It didn't seem to be related to anything else, because my pace didn't improve, all I did was run longer distances.  Now that I've put on all that weight again, my VO2Max is exactly where it was when I started my Marathon training.

    But I've been running the whole time and my fitness hasn't really gotten much worse.

    So yea, one of the main calculators appears to be your weight.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to muppetman

    Interesting.......well, I'm on the weight-loss path, but I'm really only planning to lose another 5 lbs.  Is the 4-5 minute measuring time typical, (when Garmin says 15-20 minutes is normal)?  Also, what is considered a decent VO2 Max reading?

    Thanks for your insights!

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Spectre

    I've just been doing some more reading, apparently pace is the other thing.  So if you keep running at the same weight and same speed, your VO2Max isn't going to change much as measured by Garmin (I'm sure heartrate comes into it too)

    So, if you aren't planning to losing much more weight, then get faster :-)

    Or just don't sweat it.  I'm 43, resting HR of ~45, 92kg and run ~5:50->6:00 per km.  My VO2Max is 39 and at my peak when I rang my Marathon (40 seconds under 5 hours, so not exactly fast!) it got up to 43, but never any higher.

    So don't sweat the small stuff.  Just enjoy that you're being healthier than a lot of people!

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to muppetman

    Good philosophy.....I'm doing a bunch of reading too, and have applied my numbers into 4 different calculators from different web sites - all of which looked legitimate, and 4 calculators have yielded 4 different numbers - 43, 46, 35 and 32........  all using the same stats as inputs into the variables.   So,  there's no definitive answer, (I'm kind of anal about definitive answers).  I've resolved to just ignore it as you suggest.

    Thanks again for your responses!

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Spectre

    Most welcome.

    The only way to get a real VO2Max is to do a running test in a lab.  Anything else is guesswork :)

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    Are you using the preset heart rate zones or did you add them yourself? Only reason I ask is that my other half moved from a 735xt to the Venu (basically a va4) and her vo2 max dropped right off. When we looked into it it seems the 735xt auto detects your zones whilst the Venu uses generic zones (possibly based on age and gender). We changed them to what the 735xt had detected and her vo2 max built up over the next few days back to its previous levels. 

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to Wilkiedan

    I use the preset zones and haven't looked into entering my own.  I'll check into how to do that and give it a try. Thanks!

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    I'm a 60 year-old Nordic ski racer. My VA3 V02Max was stuck at 44 for 3 months. I've been training and racing and would expect to see improvement. So I did a manual V02Max test the other day and walked super fast on flat ground. The test only took 4 minutes and 10 seconds, but my number did increase from 44 to 45. FWIW, my weight hasn't changed and I use the preset target zones. I think that my fast walking pace had something to do with the recorded improvement, but I guess it could be something else.

  • 0 over 5 years ago

    I'm a 60 year-old Nordic ski racer. My VA3 V02Max was stuck at 44 for 3 months. I've been training and racing and would expect to see improvement. So I did a manual V02Max test the other day and walked super fast on flat ground. The test only took 4 minutes and 10 seconds, but my number did increase from 44 to 45. FWIW, my weight hasn't changed and I use the preset target zones. I think that my fast walking pace had something to do with the recorded improvement, but I guess it could be something else.

  • 0 over 5 years ago in reply to muppetman

    No. I guess youre talking about lactate.

    Vo2Max is always calculated the same way. Pace, HFMax, HFavg in run, age, weight.