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Very low vDOT (does it hold up)

vickaiservickaiser
in General Training Discussions

Do the paces hold up at vDOT's below 30.  I mean are the equations and the zones accurate or does the whole thing just fall apart for slowbies, newbies, recently former couch potatoes wanting to get back in the game, vDOT's in the 20's?

Comments

  • Joseph LombardiJoseph Lombardi

     Victor- the rumor, scuttlebutt, feeling is that the oppositie is true...that the vDot paces tend to fall out as your vdot gets higher and their is less difference between the pace ranges....i would think it is accurate for low vdots.  Is there anything in particular that causes you to question it?

  • Peter GreaggPeter Greagg
    My n=1 experience was that when I first started with the EN way 2 years ago, I had heaps of trouble hitting my MP and HMP (and EP for that matter) paces through my first EN HMP build. My first 5 km TT gave a Vdot of 33. The long runs and the Saturday MP/HMP were the sessions where I struggled.
    Last season I had a Vdot of 40 and was able to hit most of the workouts a the prescribed paces.
    My take is that I just wasn't used to the intensity of the EN approach — I am talking about physically as well as mentally image
  • Peter GreaggPeter Greagg
    Ooops, I meant "...my first EN HIM build.."
    Also, my background was that I started running in my 30s and did that for 5 years then coach potatoe for 15 more years and then started tris (short at first building up to my first HIM 5 years ago) — all tri training was Old School low intensity long distance stuff.
    BTW, (for me and many others) the EN approach has me at a Vdot best since the 1990s and I am still doing PRs at 60 years old.
    Sooooo, stick with the plan and keep asking questions.
  • cgres123cgres123
    FWIW, 26.2 or 13.1 miles is just that at a 5 min mile or 13 min mile the distance doesn't change but your fueling does.
  • vickaiservickaiser
    No, no particular reason. I'm basically starting from scratch after a good 8 months of inconsistency and weight gain. I want to set my training up right, get a good, realistic threshold pace and get some work done. With a little bit of a math background, I know how things tend to fall apart at the outer limits. I'm definitely outside the curve. Good to hear that it stays true at the lower limits.

    Another thing that made me think about it is a lot of vdot calculators won't calculate vdot once you get over a 30 or 35 minute 5K. And you can't get a vdot that low from Danels' talbes (at least the ones in the book). So, I was just wondering what the reason for that is.
  • Peter GreaggPeter Greagg
    a 5km time of 35 mins is a Vdot of 25.6 according to our EN Vdot calculator
  • vickaiservickaiser
    I was speaking in general about calculators across the board. Of course the EN calculator is good to go.
  • kimmydctkimmydct
    n=1 from a low v-dotter.... (I think I'm like 31-ish) I can only the hit the paces on the shorter intervals @ Z1. Z3 stuff is tough for me for longer runs. So just to illustrate, my HMP is 10:46 miles. When I actually did a 1/2 marathon, my pace was more like 12:00. There are some serious "speed gaps" for me.
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