Rock Your Body Chellenge: Increase Your Max Vo2,

First off, what is max Vo2?

Max Vo2 is the maximum amount of volume that your body can transport to your muscles. The higher your max, the more oxygen your muscles receive and the greater your endurance. (from Runner's World Complete Book of Running.)

This workout from my coach was the one I was most nervous about, but also one of my favorites. It challenges you to run fast for a long period of time (1 mile) several times in a row. This technique forces you to have a very high intensity workout, which is the kind of workout necessary to improve your Vo2 max.

Ultimately this workout will help improve your Max Vo2, endurance and speed. Giddy up!

Here is the workout description and some great tips from my coach. Who not only finished his 50 mile race, but came in 2nd overall! You can read more about him and get some great tips at Inside Nike Running!

Here's the treadmill version, be sure to read the methodology below.

Treadmill workout:

Simple:
Warm up 8-10 minutes

Do 3 x 1 mile @ 1 incline with 6 minutes recovery between.

Challenge yourself !!

You should see smoke coming out of the treadmill !

Goal and description of the workout :

Central Park, but easily transferable elsewhere:
You'll run from the start to the 1 Mile mark (around west 68th street-lampposts are marked with the streets) at a 'good speed' (we'll cover that ) and then recover really slow by running across 72 nd street and south to the Star (basically you'll run lower loop) .

You will do this 3 times. (that means you will run 3 x 1 mile fast , yahhoooooo !!)

How to run this Test?

This workout it's all about how fast you can run 1 Mile, simple as that !!

Of course, most of you never tried to run a fast mile, so You need to understand that when I say "1 mile as fast as you can", doesn't mean SPRINT for 1 mile, there's no way you can sprint for 1 mile.

You will need to figure out how far a mile is, and find out what's the effort you can maintain for that distance. And that brings us again to our 'breathing' use your breathing as your guide. You should not be able to talk.

You have 3 attempts to get a good mile. Use you first mile to figure out things a bit. If during the 1 st you died/slowed down/crawled , the second one a little slower, on the other hand, if you are not breathing heavy by the time you cross the finish, push harder on your next one.

Personal note, the last one should actually be your fastest! You know you are done afterwards, so go for it, take off like a jet engine and don't be afraid to get out of your comfort zone!