VO2 Max Over 42!

I've been working on getting my VO2 max over 42 for over a year, and today I finally cracked it. I've actually been OK with anything over 40, but 42 was what I hit today, so... BONUS!

What is VO2 Max, you say?

Here's what Claude (AI) has to say about it:

VO2 max is the maximum rate at which your body can consume oxygen during intense exercise. It's essentially the gold standard measurement of cardiovascular fitness and aerobic endurance.

Here's how it works: as you exercise harder, your body demands more oxygen to fuel your muscles. At some point, you hit a ceiling where oxygen consumption plateaus even if you keep increasing effort. That ceiling is your VO2 max, typically expressed in milliliters of oxygen per kilogram of body weight per minute (mL/kg/min).

All of that is well and good, but how the heck do you measure it? Formally, it's something that you need to be hooked up to a mask and stuff while you run on a treadmill or ride a stationary bike, but Apple Health tracks it via my watch. I believe it's more an educated guess about what the number actually is, similar to calories.

Frankly, I don't care much about the actual number so much as I want to be able to track my progress and improvement. What I've really noticed is that my ability to sing and hold a long steady note is directly correlated to this number. The better my VO2 max, the better a potential singer I am, simply because I have my breath control, at least in theory.

Here's the doc from Apple on how they do "Cardio Fitness", their methodology for tracking VO2 max and why it's important: Using Apple Watch to Estimate Cardio Fitness with VO2 max

Here's to another milestone!

I'm interested if other folks out there are tracking metrics on their fitness journey?