Calculating power at VO2 max

teebone said:

I am sure this question has been asked and answered before, but here it goes anyway.

Is there any way to determine your VO2max and power at VO2max without actually getting a lab test? It seems that all good training plans begin with knowing your VO2max.

If you must get this tested in a lab can someone recommend a directory source to find a place that it can be done?

Thanks!

Perhaps the best estimate of power at VO2max might be obtained by performing a well-paced, all-out 4-5 min TT (e.g., a 3 or 4 km pursuit). Assuming that you don't go out too hard and totally die, the quasi-plateau in power that will occur beyond the first couple of minutes will be essentially equal to power at VO2max. The only way to get from that, though, to knowing your actual VO2max would be to ass u me some value for your cycling efficiency/economy.

I don't know of any centralized directory that would list all places offering VO2max testing as a service. Depending on where you are, though, I might (or might not) know of some universities or private business that do such tests.

Do a 15 minute test, find you're average power from that (assuming that the power doesn't vary much during the test) and multiply by 1.06/1.07. This power value has been shown to correlate very strongly with your PVo2 max.

pponline.co.uk0350.htmOpen ↗ (note this article is primarily about running, but as it states it also applies to cycling in much the same way as long as you do all the cycling workouts as a function of your PVo2 max to take account for the effect outside conditions have on cycling speed (unless your on a track) which don't really affect running speed to much (as a general rule running speed being proportional to power output)).

Thanks for the info!

I live in the Sacramento area of California. I know UC Davis does this testing, but plunking down $300 to get the test seems like a lot of money (of course it may be a screaming deal in comparison to other facilities tests).

PS: I have Friel's book, yours is next on the list. 🙂

teebone said:

It seems that all good training plans begin with knowing your VO2max.

I guess I would challenge this assumption. First, depending on your training, your VO2MAX is not going to be static so you would need to periodically test it (e.g., quarterly?). That raises the question, "Why do I need to know my VO2MAX?" If it is because you want to use a training schema that bases levels (or zones or ranges) on VO2MAX, consider using another schema (there are several that don't require knowing your VO2MAX).

For example, I don't know my VO2MAX and have never known my VO2MAX. I am interested in finding out some day, but only if I can find out easily and cheaply. Not knowing my VO2MAX has not prevented me from training all of my energy systems, from LT to NM. The most practical training schema is one that uses a performance test (or tests) that one can do regularly simply by riding a maximum effort (e.g., FTP or MAP). And, in the case of FTP, one can get an estimate in about 8 different ways that are sufficiently precise for targeting adaptations.

You could do this test, which we use http://www.cyclingnews.com/fitness/?id=powerstern

It's not ascertaining pVO2max, but paradoxically could be used to ascertain VO2max. Our test (without measuring expired respiratory gases) is used to calculate MAP (which ~10% higher than pVO2max)

Ric

Eldrack said:

Do a 15 minute test, find you're average power from that (assuming that the power doesn't vary much during the test) and multiply by 1.06/1.07. This power value has been shown to correlate very strongly with your PVo2 max.

The assumption here is that everyone can average 93-94% of their power at VO2max for 15 min, which seems too high to me. For example, my best 15 min power is only 86% of my power at VO2max, whereas my wife's best 15 min power is only 82% of her power at VO2max. (I use our data as examples here not only because I happen to know our powers at VO2max via direct measurement, we also tend to be opposites with respect to AWC and LT.)