Terrible VO2Max, any suggestions?

[cbloom]

Hey JR, great stuff. That guy has a whole great page, I found this thing page that directly compares the effects of intervals vs. lactate training for aerobic capacity :

http://home.hia.no/~stephens/interval.htm

This jives with what I anecdotally knew of pro cycling training, which is basically that they try very hard to stay under lactate threshold, and will just do a little interval once in a while. In fact they think that training above lactate is harmful to endurance (I have yet to find the science behind why that might be true).

Basically, VO2Max adapts very quickly, and almost any kind of exercise can boost it (even weight lifting), and in fact intervals are great for it. If you're a fit person who just took a break for a while, VO2Max will come back up very quickly.

Lactate Threshold is much harder to change and takes years of steady state training, and is the limiting factor for endurance athletes. The way that pros train is mainly for LT, not VO2max.