As you live in Texas you have the heat as an additional condition benefit. The heat taxes your body more then a air controlled fitness club and you body has to overcome the heat as well. trying doing your workout outside.
This has been studied and found not to be the case, in fact, if you are training for an activity top be performed in a cooler climate, it is a training distractor/impediment.
Also, VO2 Max is a very poor predictor of work capacity, unless you plan on running on a treadmill, which is typically how it is measured. There is somewhat of a correlation, but it is weak and hardly predictive
Heat training i would kindly disagree. Yes there has been numerous studies and the reports i have read support my assertion.
While hot, humid air holds less oxygen (similar to altitude training) the stimulus doesn't reach that same level of effect b/c you're not in the heat 24/7. Even though the heat leads to increases in the level of blood plasma,assuming you are working out at the same level poached from another board .
the study was about the two groups of cyclists in 2010 that conducted heat training.
http://shodless.com/running-in-the-heat/summer/VO2 capacity i am not quite following your statment you don't believe VO2 is a good indicator or you can't test for it... pulled off of wiki VO2 max (also maximal oxygen consumption, maximal oxygen uptake, peak oxygen uptake or maximal aerobic capacity) is the maximum capacity of an individual's body to transport and use oxygen during incremental exercise, which reflects the physical fitness of the individual.
i am always willing to learn could you direct me to your reference which state V02 is a weak predictor.
bottom line if you body is more efficent in training aerobic excerise and you use other tips and tricks to up your efficenices (heat training) it is free and available to the OPs)) you should be able to perform better in the cooler climes and manage the altitude.
All the best Trevor
