Tag Cooper tests for VO2

Cooper test

Cooper test

A Cooper test is a benchmark run that you can use to estimate your VO2 max. It’s pretty simple. You go to a track. Then, well, you just start running like a crazy person until the 12 minutes are up. That’s pretty much it.

The problem is that unless you’re a professional athlete running 12 minutes at maximal effort will pretty much grind you to dust. Don’t even consider doing it if you have the slightest worry about your heart, or if you still have weight to cut, or if you’ve recently recovered from an injury. But if you’re feeling pretty good about you’re training a Cooper test will set an important benchmark, when you look back for years to come you’ll know the answer to what you were really capable of.

If you’re a Smashrun pro user you can tag your run as a Cooper Test and you’ll get a special view of your run on the by run page. You’ll see an estimate of your VO2Max, and a rating of your VO2 Max based on your age/gender. You’ll also be able to compare this Cooper test to other ones you’ve run in the past.

This week we also added a new setting on the profile page to make all of the labels brighter on the report pages. When you set it, the pages might be a little less clean looking but they’ll definitely be easier to read.

High contrast labels

2 Comments

MattK

The VO2 Max is a great feature. Alternatively, couldn’t you calculate that on any run that’s at least 12 minutes in duration? Kind of like at one point the site was able to figure out the fastest mile in any run (maybe that feature still exists, but I can’t find it right now…or maybe it never did). Maybe have the VO2 Max as a toggle along with Average Heart Rate.

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