(digital electronic whizzing)
- Welcome to "Triathlon Training Explained",
we've gone into the how to find your VO2 max
in a recent video,
so now you know how to get your numbers,
how do you go about improving them?
- Yeah, now part of having a high VO2 max
comes down to genetics, but you'll be pleased to hear
that there are way in which we can still increase
that magic number.
- Well, I hope you are ready for some hard work.
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- Now don't be put off by these letters and numbers,
VO2 max, it can all sound rather complicated,
but essentially we're just looking to get you fitter.
But before we crack on with that,
let's just quickly explain exactly what your VO2 max is.
- Yeah, it's basically shorthand
for the maximum rate of oxygen consumption,
V being the volume, O2 being the oxygen.
And to calculate it you actually also include
your body weight, so it give you an equation of,
millimeters of oxygen, per kilo of body weight, per minute.
And you can test this in a physiology lab
to get a very accurate result,
but there are several other methods too
of which actually Mark and Fraser went into detail
in the recent video of what is VO2 max,
so check that one out and whilst you're there,
why not give us a like a follow.
- Yeah, and your VO2 is essentially your engine
and how efficient you are at utilizing the oxygen available.
Now this isn't the only component
to being able to run fast, but it's certainly
a very clear measurement of your fitness,
and therefore can be improved with training,
and it's actually very important for us as distance runners.
- Now for the important part.
You know how to work out your VO2,
so it's time to look at improving it
and the rates of improvement are going to vary,
so if you're someone who's not been running for months
and you're getting up off the sofa
for the first time in a while, then you're going to see
quite impressive improvements really quickly.
If however you're the other end of the spectrum
and you're already running regularly
and you've been doing this consistently,
then you'll still going to see improvements,
they're just going to be less obvious.
- Yeah, we're not going to lie to you here
or beat around the bush, VO2 max sessions hurt,
but that being said,
you get a pretty good return for your investment
as for the amount of time spent in the hurt locker,
you get a good pretty return in fitness.
Basically what we're trying to say is,
they're well worth it.
- There are various styles of sessions
which you can adopt to improve your VO2,
all of which are going to have you working at, or very close,
to that intensity.
When it comes to the longer reps,
then you're going to be working slightly under
that VO2 max intensity.
The shorter reps on the other hand,
you're going to be working at, and sometimes even above,
that intensity.
But the one thing they all have in common
is they're going to be broken into intervals
where you've got periods of working really hard
for a short period of time,
followed by an active recovery.
- Yeah, so we've actually helped you out today,
we've picked out three of our favorite sessions,
(woman laughs)
I use that term, favorite, rather loosely,
because well, you'll see.
Before we do crack on with those sessions,
do make sure that you are well warmed up beforehand
so that you're ready to run at VO2 max pace.
- Yeah, and we're going to be talking about
your VO2 max pace quite a bit throughout this video,
and if you've done a physiology lab test
and you can get your pace from that, if you haven't,
then you can actually go and do a six minute all out effort,
just make sure you've done a thorough warmup first,
then take your average pace from that.
(upbeat music)
It's time to take a look at the sessions then,
and the first one is know 30/30s
and it was my coach's favorite, so it's fair to say
that I have well and truly tried and tested this.
It was actually devised by French exercise physiologist,
Veronique Billat, when he discovered that working
at your VO2 max pace for 30 seconds,
followed by 30 seconds jog recovery,
repeatedly, until failure,
was a great way to improve your overall fitness.
So for this one, you just want a nice thorough warmup,
and then it's straight into the main set.
I actually measure out the section that I need to run hard
and then I use my turnaround point midway
through the recovery section.
And it's quite a mind game this session,
as you're always trying to just push one more rep out
before you don't make that 30 seconds beep,
and it's a good marker of where you're at with your fitness.
So ideally, if you can manage to get
this session in once a week consistently
and you can increase the amount of reps you're doing
every couple of weeks, say by two,
and then once you get to eight weeks
is ready to take the next step up
and actually increase it to 60 seconds on, 60 seconds off.
So say you've reached 24 30/30s,
then realistically you want to still,
be obviously hitting the same pace,
but try to do 12 lots of 60 on, 60 off.
If that's a bit much for the first week,
then drop it down to 10 and you can start to increase again.
And personally, I must admit I did dread this session,
but that was mainly 'cause our coach
would change the goalpost,
but if you're consistent with your improvement,
you'll definitely see yourself getting much stronger.
(gentle music)
- All right, this session needs little introduction really,
hills are great for making you work hard,
without really having to worry about your pace.
Now due to gravity,
we naturally will just go a little bit slower up hills
than we would on the flat
for the same given intensity or effort.
Now for this session I'm going to suggest you do your warmup
on the flat or an undulating terrain
and plan to finish at the bottom of your chosen hill.
Now that chosen hill needs to be steep enough
that you're going to end up working hard on it,
but not so steep that you can't find a rhythm.
It also needs to be a long enough
that you can get in a good two to three minute rep on there,
so you can really target that VO2 max development.
Now a good example session to start out with
is four to five lots of two minutes going hard uphill,
and then recovering on the downhill.
Now I'd advise trying to make a mental note
of where you get to after each of those two minute efforts,
and trying to get to that same point, or further,
on each of the subsequent reps.
Now the idea of this whole session
is that you will feel absolute toast at the end of it,
if you don't, then just add on an extra rep,
and as the weeks go by, do the same,
keep adding on extra reps until you're at a point
that you feel like you can start doing three minute reps
rather than two minute reps.
Now I absolutely love this session because of
the simplicity of it,
all you need is a timer, a good hill, a good gradient,
and it's hard not to work.
(upbeat music)
- There's no need to make things complicated here,
just hard.
Yes you're going to need a really thorough warmup
as you've got to be ready to run at pace,
we are actually upping the intensity a little bit further,
you're going to be touching on close to lactate threshold
and maybe a little bit above your VO2 max pace.
- Yeah, we've picked out a pretty meaty one here,
we've got five lots of 1K
with 400 meters jog recovery between.
Now those kilometer reps should be at a pace
that you can just about maintain them for those five reps.
Yeah, we said this was going to be (woman laughs) pretty hard.
- But you can mix it around a little bit,
that's the kind of basis session so you can change
the distance that you're doing per rep,
or the number of reps.
So say, you might want to do 800s instead of Ks,
and then you could aim for six or seven for example.
- Yeah, well that should be enough
for you guys to go away with and play with.
Just pick one of those sessions per week,
and trust me, they are physically and mentally demanding,
but really pay off in the long run.
- Yeah, well hopefully you've enjoyed it
and hopefully you like the sessions,
give us a like and a follow at GTN.