Materials:

• A quarter mile track (400 meters around) or an accurately measured 1.5 mile route to perform the test. Make sure you are aware of the exact distance of the track. While the most common track lap distance is 0.25 miles, some track distances do vary.

• A stopwatch

• A friend is optional but very supportive in pushing you and keeping you motivated. Friends also make good candidates for monitoring the stopwatch and counting your laps.

Goal of the test:

Run 1.5 miles (2.4km) in the shortest amount of time possible. This test asks you to give an all-out effort, to go as hard and as fast as you possibly can. In this test it is very important to really push yourself to your limit in order to obtain an accurate measurement of your Vo2max fitness level.

Quick Tip: Perform a practice run a couple of days before your actual test so that you can get an idea of how fast you can pace yourself, the logistics of the track, and an idea of how you will go about completing the test.

Procedure:

• Perform a 10 minute light warm up: Walking followed by light jogging makes an excellent warm up for this test.

• Once you are warmed up, start your watch and immediately start running.

• Remember that you are supposed to run the 1.5 miles as fast as possible. The best tactic for going about this is to pace yourself, in the beginning, at a hard but sustainable pace that you know you could keep up the duration of the 1.5 miles but no longer. Do NOT go all out at the start. Really push and dig deep at the end, the last 1-1 ½ laps, and go as fast as you possibly can. Lift your knees up high and sprint when you are in sight of the finishing mark.

• Stop the watch immediately upon completion and record your time to the nearest second. Bring your Workbook with you so that you can record your time on your Profile Sheet. (Remember your workbook also includes these instructions for easy reference but I've also included it as a separate pdf form below these instructions!)

• Perform a 10 minute cool down consisting of walking or slow jogging. Include some stretching as well. Don't just pass out on the ground. Bring your heart rate back down to normal.

• To really get an accurate Vo2max, perform the fitness test 3 times on separate days, then find your average time and plug that number into the calculator.

You can also find instructions for the 1.5 Mile Fitness Test inside your Personalized Pacing Toolkit Workbook Download.