Estimated VO2max last 12 months
Full Marathon Training Plan Level 1 is almost the end
I started this training plan in August after I recovered an injury in April. It is 16 week plan and it is in 14th week now. Since the current running device I am using for my regular running has a feature to estimate VO2max from the training data and I want to know the relationship between the training progress and VO2max number. The best number last 12 months was 43 [ml/kg/min] in April which is before the injury. Then I got injured in the end of April and I stopped training about 6 weeks after the injury. The number was dropped to 38 [ml/kg/min] when I resumed training in June.
Once resumed training the number was slightly getting better. It was 40 [ml/kg/min] in July.
The number was dropped to 38 [ml/kg/min] in August again. There are a couple possible reasons:
- I took a rest about 10 days due to traveling to Japan in the end of July.
- I started a training plan from Garmin, Full Marathon Level 1 and the initial menu was probably too easy.
I think I mentioned the reasons in my past posting. Now the training plan is in 14th week and the number is 41[ml/kg/min].
Previous history of the estimated VO2max
When I got Garmin fenix 3 HR was October last year. At that time, I was in a middle of the same training plan Full-Marathon Level 1 from Garmin and the number in October in 2016 was 39 [ml/kg/min]. The plan was completed in December and the number was 41[ml/kg/min]. So that the current number is the same as what I have right now. After that, I moved to Full-Marathon Level 2 which was January to April in 2017. Then, I got injured right before Level 2 plan was completed. The number right before the injury was 43 [ml/kg/min] as I mentioned earlier in this post.
Based on the history of the data, it seems that my VO2max number is improved by the training plan. Also, as I mentioned in some previous posts, the number is probably linked with the training.
Also, the pace (speed) for a similar running is improved as well, especially "Long Run" which is more than 90 minutes. In the level 1 menu, the long run is combination of walking and running. So the overall pace including walking is more than 8 minutes / km in the beginning. The last 2 long run which is more than 120 minutes were better which is around 7:30 ~ 7:40 / km.
The training plan I picked is heart rate based training and the strength is managed by heart rate zone. So the pace is not how fast I can run. It is based on a similar heart rate and how fast I could do. So 8:00 / km is very slow pace, but if I ran faster, then the heart rate is out of suggested range. So I have to slow down the pace. Even the training is after the injury, so far I did not see any injury after the recovery and I believe this is a good method for older people.
The data indicates, once people get injured and stop the workout, then the fitness level is getting lower and it is hard to recover the same as before the injury. The key for older people like me, it is how we can avoid injury due to over training. The big problem is even if I do over training in a short time, I may be able to do without serious injury. But it may be a cause of injury for long term. It is very different from serious athletes. I think serious athletes may need to do high intensity training to improve the performance, but for general people, it might not be very good idea especially older people like me which is over 50 years old.
Last time I switched to Full-Marathon level 2 after Level. However, I probably want to continue Level 1 menu after the current plan is end. Even if I take the same plan, it is based on heart rate to define the strength, therefore, if I follow the instruction, I may still be able to get a right level of training. Maybe in the beginning, it might be too easy again. But overall, it might be getting some improvement. Let's see how it goes. I will continue to report my data and own analysis.
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