Do you use a heart rate monitor and the Garmin to measure the Vo2 max now? Curious to know how that estimate matches a real test.

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Nourish - Sports Nutrition Made Easy

I do use a Garmin, but haven't scheduled the physio lab V02 max test yet. Was given choice of run, bike, hike uphill, rollerski or rollerblade on wide treadmill. Wondering what people advise is better to do- run vs bike (equally good/poor at both :)).

Do neither, the results you get will not allow you to go faster, prescribe training or prevent injury.
What is it you hope to achieve by measuring something that has no correlation to the events you do?

For me running gave higher results, but both were quite close. Make sure you do a good 6w vo2 max block before you test, my 2nd result was around 7% higher.

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Terrible Tuesday’s Triathlon

Be aware of own VO2Max / PMA is very useful to calibrate training intensities (personally use ESIEE, 7 intensities), even if you do not work at PMA during an IM.

Knowing my VO2 and PMA, I was able to plan my pacing for my first half, with the help of Friel tables, very precisely and efficiently.
And to calibrate my training.

Do you need lab test ?
No and Yes

No : the evaluations given by my Garmin 935 for bike, using a power meter (I have results higher for bike than running, as much more background cycling) are very much in line with very professional measurements made twice at INSEP (french Institute of Sports and Performance) during a research program (impact of cryotherapie on HIIT adaptations), going twice through complete test process with VO2 / PMA / Cosmed gas analysis / lactate real time / blood analysis...

So, 935 good enough ? Well... maybe because my heart zone was well calibrated from my INSEP results ?

Also, tested with a Polar V800 on running, and results were reasonably similar with 935 running results (lower than bike :-(


Yes : if you have no clue of how to calibrate a 935, or Fenix, or Polar, or... on the heart zone side, and/or no power meter, then go for bike test. When losing consciousness, drowning in your sweat in your gaz mask, better be seated :-)

And ventilatory ( lactate treshold also interesting to get.

For me, bike result is approx 10% higher than running (935 measurement). Much more background biking. Started running recently.
I feel like Andrew Talansky, moving from cycling to tri, running capacity being below engine capacity... with a smaller engine. Muscles and tendon need some time to adapt.

In the study mentioned above, average PMA / VO2 gain after 4 weeks HIIT program (around 20 "athlete" cohort) was 5%.
Personally got around 5.5%.

 When losing consciousness, drowning in your sweat in your gaz mask, better be seated :-)

Hah! That may decide it for me!

Where are you thinking of doing the test? Just interested to know since you mention they will do rollerskiing.

https://www.cxcacademy.com/...ormance-testing.html

In an actual clinical exam that measures ventilatory gas concentrations, you can expect your bike to be 75 to 85% of your run. Reason being, the capacity of the heart to deliver oxygen outstrips your legs' ability to use it in pretty much everyone except extremely well-trained cyclists. And in that case, you would refer to that lower value as your "VO2 peak". You can search for graphs of this, but in order to obtain a true VO2 max value, oxygen uptake must plateau while work rate continues to increase.

You should do one. Go to your doctor and say you have chest pain upon exercise onset and that you want to have your heart examined.

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https://connect.garmin.com/modern/profile/domingjm

Thanks. CXC would explain it, as they do xc ski coaching.

Huh! My 920XT says that my predicted VO2max is essentially the same for run and bike. I'm a duathlete and train in both disciplines. They also move more-or-less in parallel (but not much). If I take a training break, they both decline a bit. Biggish training block? Both increase a bit. So if biking VO2max is generally 80% of running, either my bike is awesome or my run is crap. I know which version I'm going to claim...

I use the same watch and have also had both bike and run clinically measured. Garmin overestimates my bike fitness by about 4mL/kg. A good indication that yours is overstimated also would be if your maximal running heart rate is greater than your maximal cycling heart rate. Mine differs by about 12 beats.

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https://connect.garmin.com/modern/profile/domingjm

Care to explain? I'd like to now where I've been going wrong all these years.

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Trust me I’m a doctor!
Well, I have a PhD :-)

Running max HR is +9 compared to max cycling HR, similar to yours.

Yeah, so in humans (healthy humans that is), the limiting factor in achieving VO2 max is the heart's ability to deliver blood. If you were truly at VO2 max for cycling, you would expect no difference between your run and bike max HR.

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https://connect.garmin.com/modern/profile/domingjm

They're just saying that by knowing your VO2 max values, you're not gaining any training advantage because you don't use those for any practical training strategy. I take issue with the second part though. Even if you're only capable of operating at 70% max VO2 during your race, 70% of 5L is greater than 70% of 4L. That's going to translate to a big speed difference.

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https://connect.garmin.com/modern/profile/domingjm

When measuring VO2, they will also deliver Max Aerobic Power (PMA in french, don't know english version).

This is very helpful for practical training strategy (through power meter).

If you're equally fit in both running and cycling, then running will give you a higher reading. Running uses more muscles than cycling, and thus more oxygen utilization.

Why/what do you need your VO2max for? Wanna show off in front of the friends at the coffee stop? "I had my Vo2max done 2 weeks ago, it was awesome..." I still can't get it what is the benefit of doing vo2max once in a lifetime?

Vo2max measures how much oxygen you consume during given workout, it will be different for cycling and running, highly unlikely you will be equally efficient at both. If you are cyclist you want to do vo2max when cycling, should be pretty obvious... If you are runner, do it while running.

Being cyclist doing vo2max while running makes no sense..., but there is enough "magicians" to convince you otherwise.