In a world where fraudsters crow cynically about “Sprint Revolutions”, I don’t find a lot of people advocating training slow. Common sense doesn’t push your numbers on the internet. There is nothing even remotely sexy about slow, deliberate training. Just ask my wife.
Regardless, I’m going to spend the rest of this blog expounding upon the virtues of changing the temperature of your training. Instead of turning your grill to max heat and letting it reach a temperature comparable to an outer neighborhood of hell, let’s call this “slow cooker” training.
But first, let me back up my claims with some n:1 results. As some readers/listeners know, I am the proud owner of an Oura ring and officially part of the data obsessed crowd. You can blame Trever Gray for this influence. A year ago the Oura debuted a new feature intended to measure vo2max. What is vo2max? YOU DON’T KNOW?
V02max is the maximum rate of oxygen consumption you can achieve during physical exertion. I like to think about it like the volume of an engine in a car, an analogy that will probably be useless. A bigger engine means that you can bring more air through it, as the amount of combustible air is a rate limiter to how much the engine can put out.
Likewise, v02max more or less corresponds to the amount of energy that you can produce through the intake of oxygen. In endurance sports this is incredibly important, because once you reach the limit of energy that you can produce through oxygen your body turns to produce energy in a manner that creates an acidic byproduct. This byproduct eventually means that regardless of your skill level you will soon face diminishing returns in terms of performance.
A year ago my v02max was 47. That is a very respectable result for a then 40 year old. Because i still train for and compete in an endurance sport (swimming), and because vo2max can have a positive effect on your overall health well beyond sports, I wanted to improve that. My result this year was 54.
Patience is for Old people
I won’t bore you with how the Oura purports to produce this number. There are definitely more accurate ways to measure, perhaps the best putting on one of those scary oxygen masks and doing a scorching run on a treadmill. I did not want to pay $200 for that, drive up to Rutgers University or do it in the first place so I did a walking test.
Here’s what I do know: in six minutes I walked .6 miles. I was not out of breath.
So let me finally get to the “how”, for people who really don’t care about all this background and want to skip ahead and try to copy my results. I think you should copy the process I went through to evaluate the way to produce this rather than do it, so I’ll include that to.
Around the same time I did my first measure I began training with a local masters swim team. Mainly owing to family commitments, I joined a group that almost entirely consisted of women who train for open water swimming races. This is not the group you would join if you wanted to have a “Sprint Revolution”.
The first day I joined, a teammate saw me huffing and puffing on the wall and asked me “have you ever done competitive swimming before?”. That set the tone for the humbling experience I was about to embark on. On the one hand, I was “in shape”. Just one month later I would swim a 1:03 in my 100 breaststroke and finish top 10 in my age group at Masters Nationals.
On the other hand, I was wheezing through practices that were probably easier than what I had done as a 12 year old. But something wonderful happened- I went with the flow. I talked to my coach about finding zone 2, the magical low end aerobic pace that probably corresponds to white pace on the Jon Urbanchek color chart.
I almost entirely eschewed looking at the clock. When I looked at the clock I felt the emotional pull to “go faster” which often resulted in me spiking my heart rate and being unable to maintain my pace on short rest.
Beyond the pool, I started running again. Can I be honest with everyone? Are you sure? I do not like running right now. I have had moments in my life where I can say I genuinely enjoy running. The only factor I can say for sure was different in those days was perhaps my body weight. Years of consistent strength training have meant that I clock in at a robust 205-210 lbs at any given moment.
When I “enjoyed” running I was probably more like 175-180. Alas, I like being a thick boy. So I am keeping my weight. When running again I had to learn to run really slow. Like really, really slow. Perhaps even slower than I could speed walk, but running is still less annoying than speed walking.
So I’ve ended up doing a lot of low intensity running. I aim for three runs of 30 minutes, usually done in conjunction with a lift (before or after). Sometimes I go for 40 minutes, sometimes only 20. I run at a pace where I can call a friend and have a casual conversation.
And that’s about it. I guess the most important part of the process for me as a 41 year old aspiring meathead has been to put my ego aside and accept that training in a way that you would never post on instagram is the best way for me to achieve my goals.
ADdendum: Humility
If you’re reading this and want to try and improve your v02max, but are wondering what a good v02max is, then I present this chart.
I recommend looking at it if you want to be humbled. 54 does not make the list of greatest ever, but it’s pretty damn good for me. Also, for female readers, your v02max is going to be lower.
So there’s that.