Over 60's training

40 watchers

OO61 7 Sep 8:19am, 7 Sep 2024 258 posts	0 OO61 TS yes I'm doing gnr tomorrow along with 60000 others. Last year I was 1st V60 but on current form that's unlikely. Temps are cool but only light wind forecast but could be wet. Its a tough course so tell your pal not to aim too high. NZD, on previous watches my vo2 max went up and down like a yoyo. With the current one it's static around 50/51, such that I never bother looking at it. It's a garmin fenix 6. I understand age is not taken into account but it should fall with age. I think 50 is pretty good for a 61 year old. Good progress Alehouse, hope you are enjoying it.
solo 7 Sep 11:26am, 7 Sep 2024 1,117 posts	0 solo Hope you have a good run @OO61 ! I am glad all is proceeding as it should @Torque Steer Well done on the SB @NZD ! Everything is within touching distance so maybe next week you will tick a few more boxes 😁 Yes, it is quite a jump in Garmin VO2 this period but earlier in the year before life crashed it was 54 so maybe not so surprising. Anyway I thought I would give you some more data to play with 🙂 this is what Garmin said at the end of my short run today The average HR for my run was 114 and my max is around 168 as I have never been properly tested. Anyway make of that what you can! No sunshine this morning but the humidity is awful for running and I was soaked after my short easy run.
NZD 7 Sep 12:52pm, 7 Sep 2024 121 posts	0 NZD Thanks @OO61 and @Solo. That does give me some data that I have run through the Fetch VO2max calculator. Interestingly, using OO61's data (from Fetch records) l get a generally similar relationship between the Garmin 50-51 value and the Fetch estimates as I got for Suunto PL: ie. Fetch typically 1 to 5 higher, though were slightly lower for one run. I did have to guess your weight OO61, so took a guessed range (won't dare say what 😁)! Of course similar issue for you solo! Interestingly in your case, the Fetch Vo2max for a man was about 3 higher than your watch's value of 55, but for a woman it's about 4 lower than the watch value (the Fetch calculator provides separate values for men and women). Not certain what to make of that. Does reasonably back up the view that the Suunto PL value is broadly equivalent to Garmin Vo2max. Thanks to both of you. All the best for your race @OO61. This afternoon spent in the garden contending with the tree roots again (for the second camelia). This time right next to the main trunk, so dealing with much larger roots (up to about 7 inches diameter). A lot heavier going, and still far from finished. Unfortunately, in swinging a grubber in fading light, the end of the handle punched hard into my R quad muscle ☹️. Suspect I have a deep bruise - quite uncomfortable. Won't be doing my long run tomorrow. Just hope I haven't set back my training by too many weeks 🤞. Yes, I know. Gardening and running don't mix!
solo 7 Sep 1:13pm, 7 Sep 2024 1,118 posts	0 solo Oh no @NZD hope it is nothing serious but sounds as though it must have been quite painful. I have never looked at that calculator before but I think there are a lot of variables as I put some more data in from my parkrun last weekend. Very different values.
solo 7 Sep 1:15pm, 7 Sep 2024 1,119 posts	0 solo I meant to say for both runs my Garmin gave me 55.
NZD 7 Sep 1:39pm, 7 Sep 2024 122 posts	0 NZD Thanks, that is more consistent with OO61's data and my Suunto PL comparison. Many thanks for that 👍. I weren't too far out with my weight range (checked for 50, 55, and... um, 60 kg). Apologies about the latter! Yes, bit of nuisance about the leg. Have fingers crossed that it will ease off in a day or two 🤞.
Torque Steer 7 Sep 8:45pm, 7 Sep 2024 76 posts	0 Torque Steer @0061 good luck tomorrow . I know all about the GNR - I ran in the first one back in 1981 and in several since, even recording my fastest HM time on it, so the course's particulars have been passed on! @Solo that was big step up in VO2 max but even after a long lay off it comes back quite quickly. NZD it depends upon what you are measuring - VO2 max does not measure maximum performance efficiency - it is a sublimation of the body's muscle ability to use oxygen rather than the amount of oxygen the body can intake. No stitches to extract - they are all, hopefully, dissolvable. There are lots, 30+ but all very small and quite a few have already come away with the assorted clots etc Wordle in four today
Canute 7 Sep 8:59pm, 7 Sep 2024 2,964 posts	0 Canute @NZD I hope the bruise on your thigh does not disrupt your training too much. @Solo 56.2 ml/min/Kg is an impressive VO2max for an FV60. According to the Cooper Institute, anything above 32 is ‘superior’ for a 60 year-old woman from the general population. A trained female athlete would be expected to have higher values. I understand that Rosa Mota had a VO2max of 67 when she was running marathons in around 2 hrs 25 min when in her early 30’s. Greta Waitz had a VO2max of 73.5 which, as far as I can determine, was also when she was in her 30’s and was recording marathon times around 2 hrs 25 min. If the VO2max of these two superb female marathoners had deteriorated at a typical rate of 0.5 ml/min/Kg per year, one might expect they would have values in the range 52-58 ml/min/Kg at age 60. There are too may approximations in those estimations to justify taking those estimations very seriously. Nonetheless, 56.2 at age 60 is impressive. Estimates of VO2max based on HR and pace are at best approximations, but if calculated in consistent manner, are a useful guide to fitness. For many of us, the goal is to minimize the time it takes to run a race distance. The energy cost of running is proportional to body weight. Roughly speaking, the amount of energy required to run 1Km on a firm level surface is 1.05 calories per Kg body weight. If energy is derived from ‘steady state’ aerobic metabolism, running 1 Km requires 210 ml of oxygen per Kg body weight. The amount of oxygen consumed by muscles depends on the volume of blood delivered and the proportion of the oxygen in the blood extracted from each litre of blood as it passes through muscle. To improve pace we need to increase volume of blood delivered per minute. The volume of blood delivered is proportional to heart rate and cardiac stroke volume (i.e. the volume of blood ejected by the heart in each contraction). Therefore, HR provides an indirect measure of volume of blood delivered per minute, but the multiplying factor required to estimate of blood delivered per minute from HR depends on stroke volume. Because women usually have smaller stroke volume than men, women usually require a higher HR to deliver a specified volume of blood per minute. I saw my physio on Thursday. She was impressed with my progress but also agreed with my concern about the lingering swelling of the lower leg, indicating continuing active inflammation. She recommends continuing with my current sessions involving repetitions of 3 min jog, 1 min walk for the time being. Today, I felt vague discomfort below the knee on both right and left, but no pain in the troublesome right knee itself. Nonetheless, I only did 10 x (3 min jog, 1 min walk) as I think that my recent session of 15 repetitions was a producing bit too much overall stress on my legs at my current level of fitness
Canute 7 Sep 9:02pm, 7 Sep 2024 2,965 posts	0 Canute To be more precise, I should have said: To improve pace we need to increase volume of blood delivered per minute and/or increase the proportion of the oxygen in the blood extracted from each litre of blood as it passes through muscle.
OO61 7 Sep 9:59pm, 7 Sep 2024 262 posts	0 OO61 NZD that sounds like a nasty injury hope it eases soon. Good to be cautious. Canute good to hear the physio is happy, you're on the right track just need to judge to effort 👌 TS my 23rd GNR. The first was 1987 when I moved to the North East with work. I've taken a few gaps but having such a big race on the doorstep, feels necessary to enjoy it.