VO2 MAX IMPROVEMENT AND THE SECOND SIN.

My thought was: if I give you something out of the ordinary that you want, I should give you something you should know.  This is something I learned with the great Thomas Szasz.  I translated the introduction of a translated book, “El Segundo Pecado.” The introduction was done by Fernando Savater, the Spaniard.  My translation was done for Tom Szasz.  He was my teacher. He did not have disciples but I owe him most of my way viewing life.  When I gave him the translation he just said: “What do you want as compensation; I pay what I owe.”  Wikipedia writes the following about Tom:

 Thomas Stephen Szasz ( /ˈsɑːs/ sahss; born April 15, 1920) is a psychiatrist and academic. Since 1990[1] he has been Professor Emeritus of Psychiatry at the State University of New York Health Science Center in Syracuse, New York. He is a well-known social critic of the moral and scientific foundations of psychiatry, and of the social control aims of medicine in modern society, as well as of scientism. His books The Myth of Mental Illness (1960) and The Manufacture of Madness: A Comparative Study of the Inquisition and the Mental Health Movement (1970) set out some of the arguments with which he is most associated.

In the same Wikipedia you can find the following, regarding the book, and written in the preface: “We all know the first and ‘original’ sin: ‘the knowledge of the good and evil.’ But we do not know, or tend to forget, what is the second sin: ´speaking clearly! ´” My last name is Hebrew and means “wise” in English: I was born in Mexico. I am a “coconut” for Americans and a crazy Jew for the Mexicans; but let´s continue with this heresy.  If you are so far in your reading, let’s begin.  You have paid all your dues.  The difference between I and my teacher is that I use knowledge in my life to improve my way of living according to the current movement.  I am a triathlete playing with Einstein; I LEARNED NOT TO LYE TO MYSELF FROM SZASZ.  It took me training in Psychiatry and many years after to get to this point.  This is the reason why I do not ask understanding from my athletes.

I will use Wikipedia to describe my wording.  What is VO2max?  VO2 max (also maximal oxygen consumption, maximal oxygen uptake, peak oxygen uptake or maximal aerobic capacity) is the maximum capacity of an individual's body to transport and use oxygen during incremental exercise, which reflects the physical fitness of the individual. The name is derived from V - volume, O2 - oxygen, max - maximum. Whoa!  I have read that the value of VO2max does no predict who is going to win.  Nothing new, www.pezcyclingnews.com has a good review regarding improving the tolerance to lactate as the main predictor to win in a competition as triathlon.

We had an athlete, who improved her VO2max from 60 to 67, but her technique deteriorated. As a consequence, her running time for 5k increased more than a minute.  Technique is the most important variable to improve the time running, biking or swimming, even when the VO2max improves.  It is very difficult to have more examples or a control and experimental groups for this purpose, but a single example is sufficient when the experimentation is done properly.  When we speak of having different VO2max for different sports or parts of triathlon is clearer.  Depending on the sport practicing and our specialty, the VO2max will be higher according to what we practice.  Life is very specific. That is why if we do not practice biking it is difficult to run. Lance Armstrong was second in Panama 70.3 this year (2012) for this same reason.  His VO2max is high (no more than many) and his tolerance to lactate (lactate threshold) is the highest, by far, comparing him to any ironman biking.  So, it is easy, if one improves technique and practices to improve the VO2MAX, the competition time decreases importantly.  NO SECRET.  I will speak about maximizing VO2max in triathlon next time.