What VO2Max does it take to qualify for Kona? Has there ever been a survey that addressed this question?
My buddies VO2 max is 82.4 (I think, it’s the UC Davis record) and he couldn’t qualify for Kona to save his life.
Just because one has a high VO2 max it doesn’t necessarily make them fast.
They have to have the technique, experience, skill, smarts to back it up.
Just because one has a high VO2 max it doesn’t necessarily make them fast.
They have to have the technique, experience, skill, smarts to back it up.
Understood but would you say that having a high VO2 max is a requirement? Also, what do you consider high?
Having a high VO2Max can be thought of a necessary but not sufficient. Performance will correlate with threshold power (however one chooses to define it) much better than VO2Max. Threshold power can be considered as the product of V02Max and some number less than 1 to represent the percent of V02Max that can be sustained for an extended period of time. In order to have high performance, both these terms must be large. If either one is large and the other small, the product (threshold power) will be compromised. For what it’s worth, it’s easier to raise the fractional term through training than VO2Max itself.
VO2 Max, whether high or low, by itself is not a predictor of performance. It is one piece of the puzzle to be analyzed with resting and activity induced heart rate, lactate threshold, cardiac otuput, chronological age, physiological age, experience, muscle fiber type, biomechanic efficiency, gross efficiency, and numerous other variables. I would imagine that if you tested the Hawaii qualifying athletes their average values would be relatively high (65 or better, especially amoung the professionals). The next thing to look at would be the relative percentage of their lactate threshold to VO2 Max.
According to the American College of Sports Medicine, a VO2 value of 52 puts you in the 90th percentile.
I had my VO2 max tested on a bike about 1984 when I thought I was in awesome shape. The testers said I had the highest number they had seen. I had no clue what that meant at the time, but I knew I was special. I then went out and did one of Fletcher Hank’s mini-iron distance races (2.4mile swim, 50 mile bike, 20 mile run) in just under 7 hours, which put me almost dead last in my age group. (That’s probably equivalent to about a 12-13 hour true IM.)
So, no, VO2 max can’t mean very much. Either you got “IT” or you don’t got “IT”. When I find out what “IT” is I’ll share the secret.
-Robert
Mine is really high but my vo2 at threashold sucks. I have been told many times that having a high vo2 meant nothing.
Back in my pre-triathlete days when I was a varsity cross-country/track runner in university I did a VO2 max test at the University of Waterloo and was measured at 79 so I scored pretty high. When I first started racing triathlons I couldn’t swim very well at all (crappy technique that is now somewhat better) and couldn’t sustain much power on the bike so I would have been a mega-vo2 guy with no chance of qualifying. After 16 seasons of triathlon I have worked the bike and swim significantly so that my upper body and legs are somewhat larger than in my running days so I would expect a VO2 test now to be significantly lower due to the extra pounds and different type of training but I can qualify for Kona pretty regularly if I could only afford to go more often 
VO2 Max, whether high or low, by itself is not a predictor of performance. It is one piece of the puzzle to be analyzed with resting and activity induced heart rate, lactate threshold, cardiac otuput, chronological age, physiological age, experience, muscle fiber type, biomechanic efficiency, gross efficiency, and numerous other variables. I would imagine that if you tested the Hawaii qualifying athletes their average values would be relatively high (65 or better, especially amoung the professionals). The next thing to look at would be the relative percentage of their lactate threshold to VO2 Max.
According to the American College of Sports Medicine, a VO2 value of 52 puts you in the 90th percentile.
90th percentile of what? 90th percentile of the general population? Oh, boy! 
Mine is really high but my vo2 at threashold sucks. I have been told many times that having a high vo2 meant nothing.
So someone with a VO2MAx of 50 and a really good work ethic should be able to qualify? I think it is fair to say that VO2Max alone means nothing, however, to say that VO2Max provides no indicator of potential, seems uninformed. Would you not agree?
So someone with a VO2MAx of 50 and a really good work ethic should be able to qualify? I think it is fair to say that VO2Max alone means nothing, however, to say that VO2Max provides no indicator of potential, seems uninformed. Would you not agree?
You have it about right. VO2max alone means diddly. The performance predictor that counts is power or pace at around the lactate threshold point. That point can be 50% of VO2max, or 80% of VO2max, and it depends almost entirely on training.
Until somebody reaches the pinnacle of fitness (which almost none of us are in any danger of doing), VO2max is not a limiter. Power or pace at a tough, steady-state effort is the performance limiter, and that power/pace can be increased via training even while VO2max stays at a near-fixed level.
Some studies have shown the potential to train Lactate Threshold up to approx. 92% of VO2 Max in elite athletes.
Another topic of interest should be gross efficiency - the internal cost of energy to produce work externally. This is determined by muscular and biochemical physiology, efficiency of fuel utilization, nueromuscular pathways, etc.
Generalizations made across populations (AG, Pro, M, F, etc) are hard because of the interplay of all the factors introduced. Let’s suffice it to say that those who qualify have individually found the necessary balane of all the factors involved to achieve the outcome desired.
My observation about pure athletic performance and Kona is that you don’t need to be particularly talented to get to the big island. There are plenty of athletically very average people doing the race.
Ironman in general is an event done by middle class white men that would not make much of an impact in any single sport competition. Nothing wrong with that but to think that Kona is a showpiece for athletic perfection is wrong. I would not place any emphasis on VO2 max as a measure for qualification.
There are plenty of athletically very average people doing the race. <<<<
I think that these people are ‘very’ talented. But, in a different way than the average person thinks of athletic talent. It takes one kind of an athlete to hit a fastball, one kind to sink a birdie, one kind to block a defensive tackle and one kind to swim/bike/run all day. Just my opinion.