The Influence of Endurance Training on the Relationship Between Running Power and Oxygen Consumption

This study investigated the relationship between running power and VO2 across several submaximal incremental running speeds. Furthermore, it also determined whether the relationship between running power and VO2 changes after an endurance training period of 20 weeks, and, finally, the intrasubject differences of the relationship between VO2 and running power after the endurance training period.

Experiment I comprised 81 graded exercise tests from nationally trained runners (30 females and 51 males; 26.6 [7.0] y), and 18 (5 females and 13 males; 25.6 [5.2] y) were evaluated pretraining and posttraining (experiment II). Linear and multiple regression analyses were used to model the relationship between VO2 and running power.

In experiment I, a strong correlation was observed between running power and VO2 (R2 = .88, P < .001). However, a multiple regression including heart rate, performance level, and sex revealed similar VO2 estimation (R2 = .89, P < .001). After 20 weeks of endurance training (experiment II), VO2 increased significantly (P < .001), while running power remained unchanged (P = .332). Additionally, individual regression analyses revealed significant changes in the slope and the intercept of the VO2-running power relationship.

Running power strongly correlates with VO2 but lacks sensitivity to detect metabolic adaptations after an endurance training period, as the metabolic demand changes for a given running power. These findings highlight the need for individualized and constant adaptation of the relationship between running power and VO2. Therefore, coaches should use running power as a complementary metric and periodically recalibrate individual power-VO2 relationships rather than relying on a fixed predictive equation for longitudinal monitoring.