Rejuvenating A Run With Hills – Addressing VO2 Max
Nov 26th, 2008 by tmpadmin
After my last run I tried a “program” on the new treadmills at the gym. It was a “fitness test”. Just a five minute run with increasing incline. When complete the machine will take your Heart Rate. From that, your weight and age it calculate your VO2max. Mine was 35.3 (low). Slightly concerned yet not very surprised I spoke with a trainer. He suggested a few things.
1. Run longer. Thirty minutes is not enough to be optimal. He suggested I increase my workout to 40 -45 minutes or more.
2. Change the incline. I will run at a steady pace 10:00 – 12:00 minute miles with an incline at 1.0. He suggested a hill or random incline program.
These were the major point he hit so wanting to do the best I altered my run. Yesterday I set the time to 40 minutes (pushing it with my allotted time during my lunch break), intensity at 7 and speed at 5.5. I was guessing at the settings, there was no way to know if my level was 1, 5, or 10. So maybe I was a little too aggressive. at the 25 minute mark of running 10:55 pace and a variable incline of 0.9 through 5.7 (I almost fell off the treadmill!) I had to take a break. I briskly walked for five minutes and let the machine continue to alter the incline. At the 30 minute mark I was more than ready to finish off the final 10 minutes of my 40 minutes run at a 10:55 pace.
All this babble and mumbo jumbo to say I am very happy I made the switch. Running wasn’t getting stale it was just not as productive as it once was (so long ago – haha). Now I feel like I am again making progress and will have the added enjoyment of running up and down simulated hills.
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