Is threshold power better than VO2max?

Is threshold power better than VO2max?

Threshold Power is different than VO2max.

VO2max is a measure of your body’s maximum aerobic capacity – the highest amount of oxygen your body can use during hard exercise.

Threshold power is the highest intensity (effort) you can maintain without rapidly fatiguing and needing to slow down or stop.

Think of VO2max as ‘the size of your engine’ and Threshold Power as ‘your highest cruising speed’.

A bigger VO2max means you could go further and faster, but it doesn’t mean you’ll use that capacity effectively; a higher cruising speed means you can run harder for a longer period of time.

Both are important, but of the two, threshold power responds more easily to training, and is a more direct and practical predictor of performance in endurance events from 5k up through the marathon.

Running threshold power vs. threshold power in other sports

Threshold Power is a sport-specific metric.

Your running threshold power is unrelated to your cycling or swimming (or rowing) threshold power, even if the numbers appear similar and even though they’re all based on your physiology.

This is because different sports use different muscles and limb movements, have different elastic energy contributions (from your tendons being tensioned and released) and use different power meters.

You should calculate and track threshold power separately for each sport – don’t mix and match.