vVO₂max: the speed that organises your whole training
What maximal aerobic speed is, how to measure it with a six-minute field test, how all your zones and target paces come out of it, and how often to measure it again.
A serious training plan does not say “run fast”. It says “5 × 3 min at 95–100%”. The question is: 95% of what? In distance running the answer is almost always vVO₂max: maximal aerobic speed, the lowest speed at which you reach the maximum amount of oxygen your body can use.
It is measured in km/h and it is a number, not a concept: 14.5 km/h, 16.8 km/h, 19 km/h. Once you have it, every intensity in the plan becomes a concrete pace. Without it, a plan written in percentages is literally unreadable.
vVO₂max, MAS, VAM: the same thing
You will find three names for this. vVO₂max (velocity at VO₂max) is the term in the English-language literature, MAS (Maximal Aerobic Speed) the Australian one, and VAM the French one. They refer to the same speed. This guide uses vVO₂max.
Why vVO₂max and not VO₂max
VO₂max is an oxygen flow rate: millilitres per kilo per minute. You cannot run a flow rate. vVO₂max is the same thing translated into something you can actually do: a speed. And because it folds in running economy — two runners with the same VO₂max but different efficiency have different vVO₂max — it is a better anchor for prescribing than VO₂max itself.
The speed associated with VO₂max is a better prescribing reference than VO₂max
The classic review by Billat and Koralsztein on velocity at VO₂max concludes that it integrates aerobic power and economy into a single variable and that, together with the time limit at that speed, it is what allows intervals to be designed on a physiological basis rather than by eye.
There is another, more practical reason: VO₂max needs a laboratory. vVO₂max is measured with a stopwatch and a track.
How to measure it: four field tests
They all start from the same idea: run flat out for a set time or until exhaustion, and take the average speed. What changes is how much the result is corrected, because no test is run exactly at vVO₂max.
- 1
6-minute test — the reference
Warm up 15–20 minutes. Run 6 minutes at the fastest speed you can hold, on the flat, at an even pace and alone. Note the metres. vVO₂max (km/h) = metres ÷ 100. Six minutes is roughly the average time limit at vVO₂max, so the average speed of the test is your vVO₂max, no correction needed. It is the best test to do on your own.
- 2
5-minute test — more manageable
Same thing, one minute less. Five minutes can be held slightly above vVO₂max, so it is corrected downwards: vVO₂max = metres × 0.012 × 0.98. A 2% discount.
- 3
20 m shuttle (beep test) — the team option
Back and forth between two cones 20 m apart following signals that speed up every minute, until you cannot make it. vVO₂max = 8.5 + (level − 1) × 0.5. The turns cost you: your vVO₂max on a track or road comes out slightly higher than the shuttle test gives.
- 4
Cooper (12 minutes) — the worst, but it works
Maximum distance in 12 minutes. Twelve minutes can no longer be held at vVO₂max: it is run at around 92% of it. vVO₂max = (metres ÷ 200) ÷ 0.92. Use it only if it is the only one you can do.
Incremental field tests estimate maximal oxygen uptake with acceptable error
Both the University of Montreal track test (Léger and Boucher) and the 20 m shuttle run (Léger et al.) were validated against direct laboratory measurement of VO₂max, with high correlations. They are the protocols from which practically every vVO₂max test in use today descends.
How to ruin a test
Starting too fast is the universal mistake: you lose 200 metres in the last two minutes and your vVO₂max comes out low. Start conservatively. And do not do it in wind, uphill, in strong heat or the day after a hard session: you would be measuring the day, not the engine.
If you do not want to test: derive it from a race
Each race distance is run at a fairly stable fraction of vVO₂max. Divide the average speed of your best recent result by the matching fraction and you have an estimate.
| Distance | Fraction of vVO₂max | Quality of the estimate |
|---|---|---|
| 1,500 m | ≈ 107% | Good |
| 3,000 m | ≈ 100% | The best: it is practically a vVO₂max test |
| 5K | ≈ 94% | Good |
| 10K | ≈ 89% | Acceptable |
| Half marathon | ≈ 84–85% | Mediocre |
| Marathon | ≈ 78–82% | Poor: too dependent on your specific endurance |
The further the race is from 3,000 m, the more the estimate leans on assumptions about your endurance and the worse it gets. A recent 3,000 m is worth almost as much as a test; a marathon is worth little.
Time limit: how long you last at vVO₂max
vVO₂max tells you at what speed you reach your maximum. The time limit (Tlim) tells you how long you hold it: between 4 and 8 minutes depending on the runner, averaging around 6. It is highly individual and cannot be derived from vVO₂max: two runners with the same vVO₂max can have very different time limits.
It matters because it decides how long each repetition of a VO₂max session can be. The practical rule: between half and three quarters of your Tlim. With a Tlim of 6 minutes, that means repetitions of 3 to 4.5 minutes. Programming 6 × 5 min at 100% with that Tlim is programming a DNF.
- How to measure it
- Run at your vVO₂max until you cannot
- If you do not measure it
- 6 minutes
- What it is for
- The length of VO₂max intervals
On a track, checking pace every 200 m. You do it once; it does not need repeating often.
The average in the literature. It is what the app assumes by default.
Between 50% and 75% of Tlim per repetition.
From vVO₂max to all your zones
One number gives you the whole plan. These are the six zones the app uses, and what each one means. To split up the week three are enough — easy, threshold, high; these six are for writing a session, where you need more resolution.
| Zone | % of vVO₂max | How it feels | What it is for |
|---|---|---|---|
| Z1 Recovery | 50–65% | You could sing | Moving blood without leaving fatigue |
| Z2 Easy | 65–75% | Long sentences | The aerobic base: 70–80% of the plan |
| Z3 Moderate | 75–84% | Short sentences, uncomfortable | Marathon pace, durability |
| Z4 Threshold | 84–92% | 3–4 words at a time | Raising your sustainable pace |
| Z5 VO₂max | 92–105% | One word | Maximal aerobic power |
| Z6 Speed | > 105% | None | Mechanics and lactate tolerance |
To go from percentage to pace: pace (s/km) = 3600 ÷ (vVO₂max × percentage). With a vVO₂max of 16 km/h, 90% is 14.4 km/h, so 3600 ÷ 14.4 = 250 s/km = 4:10/km.
Ranges, not exact values
Always prescribe a range (“4:05–4:15”), never a pinpoint pace. Nobody runs at exactly 4:12/km, and a plan that demands it gets broken on the first interval and stops being a reference.
How often to measure it again
vVO₂max moves. Over an eight-week training block it can rise half a km/h, and with half a km/h of difference every interval in the plan is now too slow: you are training below the stimulus you thought you were.
The rule
- Measure it at the start of a block and every 6–10 weeks.
- Measure again if the usual intervals have started to feel easy.
- Measure again after an injury or a long break — downwards.
- A vVO₂max older than two months no longer rules: it is a historical figure.
The limits of vVO₂max
vVO₂max organises intensity; it does not organise everything. Three honest caveats:
- On trails it is useless. Pace stops meaning anything with elevation and technical ground: there, effort, time and metres of climb rule (trail and mountain).
- For the marathon it falls short. From the half upwards, what decides is not the engine but how much it degrades over the kilometres. Durability and your stomach weigh more than a percentage.
- It does not replace how you feel. In heat, with accumulated fatigue or at altitude, the same pace is a bigger effort. If the day is not there, the day is not there: the percentage is not an order.
Takeaways
- vVO₂max is the lowest speed at which you reach maximal oxygen uptake, in km/h.
- 6-minute test: metres ÷ 100. The cleanest one to do alone.
- Every zone comes out of it: pace = 3600 ÷ (vVO₂max × %).
- Time limit (4–8 min, average 6) decides how long each VO₂max repetition lasts.
- Measure it again every 6–10 weeks: with an old figure the plan falls short.
- On trails and in the marathon it is a guide, not the main reference.
Sources for this chapter
- [1]Billat LV, Koralsztein JP (1996). Significance of the velocity at VO2max and time to exhaustion at this velocity. Sports Medicine. review
- [2]Léger L, Boucher R (1980). An indirect continuous running multistage field test: the Université de Montréal track test. Canadian Journal of Applied Sport Sciences. trial