I’ve been doing some reading on VO2 max and came across a discussion of the Cooper Fitness Test:
The Cooper test is a test of physical fitness. It was designed by Kenneth H. Cooper in 1968 for US military use. In the original form, the point of the test is to run as far as possible within 12 minutes.
There are rating brackets for how much distance you can cover in the allotted time. Basically if you can run more than 2300 meters (1.42 miles @ 8:24/mi) that is considered good. If you can hit 2700 meters (1.68 miles @ 7:09/mi) that is considered excellent. Ratings differ slightly depending on age and sex.
And supposedly there is a decent correlation between the Cooper Test results and VO2 max.
Makes me want to head over to the local track and try it.
That’s pretty interesting. I might actually try it. But I think I will use a rail trail and my garmin to calc the distance and time.
Yeah, I think the idea is just someplace flat and fast. So the rail trail would probably work just as well.