Running velocity at maximum oxygen uptake and at maximum effort: important variables for female military pentathlon

Abstract Aim: to correlate cardiopulmonary capacity widely used variables with athletic performance in 4 km cross country race, in elite female military pentathlon athletes. Methods: Five military pentathlon athletes from Brazilian team with 27.5 [25.0; 29.3] years old underwent an incremental ramp treadmill test to determine VO2max, vVO2max (velocity of initial VO2 plateau), maximum velocity, and these same variables in anaerobic threshold. Furthermore, the performance obtained on the cross-country race of the last trial before the world military games was recorded. Spearman’s correlations were used to investigate the association between cardiopulmonary variables and athletic performance (p < 0.05). Results: The athletes exhibited a median total body weight of 64.3 [60.9; 66.6] kg and height of 1.75 [1.66; 1.76] cm. Race performance was positively correlated with vVO2max (r = 0.98, very strong correlation) and maximum velocity reached (r = 0.95, very strong correlation). The remaining cardiopulmonary variables did not show similar behavior, with r varying between -0.26 and 0.44. Conclusion: Maximum velocity and vVO2max indicators are directly related to athletic performance in the 4 km cross country race of elite female military pentathlon athletes. Thus, the technical team must pay particular attention to athletic performance in these cardiopulmonary variables in both the selection of new athletes and the identification of the effectiveness of applied training strategies.