From unhealthy to pretty good: VO2Max 23 -> 61
I (35M) have gone through a very stressful time in my career in 2023. One day I received a warning from my Apple watch that my cardio fitness was low. That was on the way to Oktoberfest, which surely did not help either 😅The week after, I started to look into my fitness more and started to go on walks whenever I could.
Found running and signed up for a half marathon with 9 months to prepare, and it became a nice journey of getting fitter. Started to eat healthier, look after myself, drink less and ran 3-4 times a week.
Before the half, my dad got very sick and sadly passed. That summer, while taking care of him, I started a more structured running routine. It helped me take my mind off for just a bit while running.
After the half I signed up for a full marathon in 2025 and have been running about 5 times a week ever since apart from vacations or down weeks!
Usually with a long run, 2x easy runs, an interval session and a tempo run.
Also have been looking out for my sleep like it’s my job. Sleeping / recovery is so important.
In the past i would count somewhere around 6h as enough, but nowadays i try to get at least 7h every day.
I’m quite sure one of the reasons my vo2max was quite low in the health app back in 2023 was that I had put down my medication (beta blockers). With the approval of my doc, I halved my dosage back in 2024 and have since taken it out of the app as it’s the lowest dosage one can take (1.25mg). That alone probably increased my score by 5+ points - so my actual baseline might have been a bit higher than 23.
Now training for a sub 1:39 half marathon in November and just saw this week that my score got over 60. The intervals on track have been paying off!
Truly, that score has been a great motivation to keep active and push myself!