 All right, so VO2 Max, what is it and how does it relate to running economy and where is the lactate threshold come into all this? Because these three elements, running economy, VO2 Max and lactate threshold, they combine into a performance, okay? So essentially those three are the main elements of someone's ability to perform aerobically as a distance runner. So let's look at how they relate to each other and how to best understand these concepts. All right, so I'm not going to spend this video going in depth on each of the concepts, but I do want to give it a little bit of an overview and then we want to tie them together and take a look at how they relate to each other. Okay, so first of all, let's talk about the concept of VO2 Max. It stands for volume of oxygen, VO2 Max. So it essentially means the maximum amount of oxygen that your body can utilize, okay? When we're dealing with distance running, it's mostly aerobic, which means that we use oxygen inside the mitochondria to burn fuels and create energy for movement, okay? And the more oxygen you can utilize, the faster you're going to be able to run. It's typically measured in milliliters of oxygen per kilo body weight per minute, okay? So it's a minute volume and it's either an absolute amount in liters or a relative amount per kilo in milliliters. The VO2 Max can be looked at as your capacity, okay? It's your ceiling. You can run faster and faster and faster up to your VO2 Max ceiling and from that point onwards, you're not going to be able to utilize any more oxygen. Above your max, the energy is going to come from anaerobic metabolism, which is self-limiting in several ways. So we're just going to talk about aerobic running today. So up to that max, that is your capacity, okay? Over time, over training, you can of course increase that max, increase the ceiling, and run even faster, okay? That's your max, it's your ceiling. Now your running economy, on the other hand, is how much oxygen does it cost to run at a particular pace? Or how much oxygen do you spend running a kilometer, for example? So this is similar to how many miles on a gallon you'll get from a car, or how many kilometers on a liter of fuel. So some cars, they just use more fuel for doing the same work. Other cars are more economical and they save fuel, but they do the same, they can still drive at the same speed as a more costly car. Well, it's the same thing with us humans and animals. When we move, it costs oxygen. We use oxygen to create that movement, to burn the fuel. Now some runners, they are just more economical than others, and you can train, of course, you can improve your running economy. In fact, it's one of the most trainable aspects of your physiology, your running economy. It gets better and better the more you run, typically. And there are some other things we can do as well. I've talked about running economy in this video. Check it out. A simple way to look at it is, you know, if I was boxing while I was running, I would waste energy on that, right? And it would cost me more oxygen, even though I'm running at the same pace. If I stopped boxing, I could probably run a little faster at the same intensity level, at the same oxygen cost, because I'm now spending the oxygen I have available, right? Imagine that the ceiling, the VO2 max, that's the oxygen that I'm able to utilize. And I want to make the most of it. So I want to run as economical as possible with an efficient stride, and utilize the oxygen that I have available the best I can. So even if you have two runners with the same VO2 max, let's suppose they're both at 70 milliliters per kilo per minute, that's a pretty elite type VO2 max, both at 70, yet they're on the treadmill side by side. They're measuring, we're measuring their oxygen consumption with the lab equipment. They're both at 70 milliliters of oxygen, that's their VO2 max, yet one of them runs faster than the other. What's going on there? Well, they have the same ceiling, but one of the runners is able to make more energy, utilize that fuel more efficiently and run faster. So the interesting metric is not necessarily VO2 max, but velocity at VO2 max, which is the VO2 max. So your velocity at max, that's more interesting than your max per se. So some runners are really at the top elite level, but their VO2 max has been measured as low as 68. But they're actually at their very top of the world elite marathoning, but their max is just 68. Well, they make the most out of that 68. They have a really economical body, where someone else might be at the same level internationally, running the same pace, but actually using 80 milliliters of oxygen, and they're more wasteful therefore of their oxygen consumption. Of course, the dream athlete would be one with a really high VO2 max and a really good running economy. So they can really, really get the most out of both of those. Now, that's running economy and VO2 max. Then there's a third factor, which is lactate threshold. And lactate is a byproduct, we could say, of carbohydrate metabolism. And when you're running at fairly high intensities, like a marathon or half marathon, or especially 10K, 5K, 3K, and faster, there's a higher and higher percentage of your energy is going to come from carbohydrate metabolism. And that means more lactate. Well, the lactate is not really the problem. The problem is the hydrogen ions, the acid that's created in this process. So lactic acid goes into becoming lactate and hydrogen ions. And these hydrogen ions, they reduce the pH in your muscles and basically create an acid environment, which interferes with some of the enzymes that are necessary for aerobic metabolism and for creating movement. So that means you're going to be limited in your performance. And when you go past the lactate threshold, that's the point at which lactate in the blood, using that as an indicator only, the lactate itself in the blood is not really a problem. It's a fuel, actually. It can be converted back into energy. But we use that as a gauge. And as long as we're clearing lactate as fast as we're producing it, it stays the same in the blood. But at a certain point, it starts rising exponentially. And the only way to get it down again is to dramatically reduce the pace. And so at this point, we've reached our lactate threshold. So you can imagine if you have the ceiling being your Rio2Max and your running economy being how much oxygen you use at any given submaximal and maximal intensity, then your lactate threshold is going to be how close to your maximum, your Rio2Max, can you get before this lactate accumulation or before this acidity starts getting out of hand? So by moving your lactate threshold up towards the ceiling, by improving your lactate threshold, essentially your ability to clear lactate, the better you do that, the higher that lactate threshold climbs towards your maximum. And the more you can get out of that maximum again, because you're able now to sustain a higher pace for longer without being limited by the acidity, okay? So in a sense, we could say that if the ceiling is there, there's a net under the ceiling, which stops you from getting up to the actual ceiling. And that's your lactate threshold. And the higher up that net is, the higher percentage of your max you can sustain for longer. Of course, there are other factors as well that matter in a performance like nutrition, hydration, muscle fatigue, all kinds of stuff like that. It's going to be potential limiters to your performance. But given that these things are okay and that you're hydrating well and you've trained your muscles to endure the pounding of a marathon, for example, et cetera, your hard data, if you want to talk about it like that, like the raw physiological aspects that are going to affect your performance is always going to be that VO2 max, your running economy, and your lactate threshold. How high can you go? You can't really go beyond your max, can you? So that's how high can you go? That's your VO2 max. How much can you use off that VO2 max before you start accumulating too much acid? That's your lactate threshold. How far up can you get? You can never get all the way up, but you can get pretty close. Elite athletes are very close to their max in terms of their lactate threshold. And of course, at any point, how much oxygen, how are you using that oxygen that you have available? Are you wasting it with inefficient running strides? Are you wasting it with unnecessary movement and poor efficiency? Or are you making the most of what you have, the allowance that you have, and actually running very economical? So those are the three aspects, and they always combine into producing a performance. Okay, that's a very brief overview. I mean, we could go way more in depth, of course. If you're interested in coaching, I mean, we could talk about this in the coaching session if you're interested in learning more, or maybe how to apply training principles to improve your VO2 max or to improve your lactate threshold or your running economy. There are specific types of workouts we can do to target each of these aspects of your fitness, even though they're all going to improve with training always, at any level almost. Like any type of workout is going to improve all three factors usually, but there are specific workouts we could do to target each one particularly. And if you're interested in that, or maybe a custom training plan, I do over custom training plans on a subscription basis, as well as a standalone plan if you're interested in that without coaching. Please check out my website. There's a link in the description. I'll put a link here as well where you can read more about it and maybe contact me for some coaching if you're interested. In the meantime, stay healthy, focus on consistency in training. That's the number one factor in order to produce growth and improvements just staying consistent, staying injury free day after day after day, week after week, month after month, year after year. It takes time to build. Physiology is interesting, so if you have any questions, feel free to post them down below. I hope this overview made a little sense to you. If you have any questions to what I said, and also you can send me a message on Loan Endurance, the Facebook page, or on my website even. Thanks for watching. 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