Originally Posted by
rubiksoval
Highly trainable but genetically limited, right? Meaning that it may not take much to go from a sedentary 40 to a well-trained 55, but no amount of training beyond that will boost vo2 max if that's your ceiling. I mean, with three years of very specific vo2 max training I haven't been able to lift my 5 minute power a single watt. And that's after a decade of very structured training as a base. There's just nothing more there.
This is true, but it's true for almost every physiological metric. What's more complex is that your metrics are going to be both driven and limited by your genetics when it comes to your baseline, your epigenetics when it comes to your environment/history, and then also your genetics AGAIN when it comes to how well you respond to different modalities of training. Perhaps you just do not respond well to the VO2max training you've been doing.
Originally Posted by
rubiksoval
I don't doubt there's any number of crazy numbers at most any level. But I'm very incredulous of the idea that there are a significant number of cat 3s (and by extension, 2s and 1s with even higher vo2 maxes) in that upper echelon of vo2 max.
I think the problem is that you're comparing the rate of naturally occuring mid-to-upper-60s VO2maxes in the general population and extrapolating that to the rate that they'd occur in well trained populations.
Originally Posted by
rubiksoval
The couple of people I've known who have had upper 70s low 80s vo2 max could jump off the couch and produce the power that it takes me months of very, very hard training to accomplish. And they can do those efforts over and over and over again. It was brazenly obvious there was something unique about their abilities. They just rode off the front of races all the way up to the 1/2 level.
I don't see any cat 3s that can do anything remotely like that. And it's the rare cat 1 I see that can do stuff like that.
Upper 70s and low 80s is far and away ahead of "mid to upper 60s".