Fitness tests and thresholds
Every pace, power target, swim time, and lifting weight in a program is set from a handful of numbers on your profile. Open Profile, then Sport Fitness Profiles, to see and change them. This article covers what each number is, what VegaLoop assumes when you have not entered one, and how a fitness test replaces the assumption with a measurement. The profile page itself is covered in Set up your profile.
The numbers
Running, cycling, swimming, and strength each have a measured value. Hiking, walking, yoga, and stretching have a level only.
| Sport | Value | What it is | Range | Default by level (Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, Elite) |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Running | Effective VO2 | A single number for your running fitness, worked out from a race or time-trial result. Higher means faster at every training pace. | 15 to 85, in steps of 0.5 | 30, 40, 50, 60 |
| Cycling | FTP | Functional threshold power: the highest average power, in watts, you can hold for about an hour. | 50 to 500 W, in steps of 5 | 120, 200, 280, 350 W |
| Swimming | CSS | Critical swim speed: the fastest pace per 100 metres you can hold for roughly 1,500 metres, in seconds. A lower number is faster. | 50 to 300 seconds per 100 m | 150, 120, 100, 85 |
| Strength | Squat, Bench, Deadlift, and OHP one-rep maximums | The heaviest weight you could lift once with good form, for each of the four lifts. Shown in your unit system, stored in kilograms. | Squat 45 to 700 lb, bench 45 to 500 lb, deadlift 45 to 800 lb, overhead press 25 to 350 lb (or the equivalent in kg) | Squat 135, 225, 315, 405 lb; bench 95, 185, 275, 335 lb; deadlift 185, 315, 405, 500 lb; overhead press 65, 115, 155, 195 lb |
The info icon next to each sport opens About thresholds: the definition, Reference values by level, How to measure, and the Schedule a fitness test button described below.
Levels and Custom
Each sport has a level: Beginner, Intermediate, Advanced, or Elite. While a sport is on a level, VegaLoop uses that level’s default from the table above. Selecting Custom reveals the value fields, filled with the defaults for the level you were on, so you can replace them with your own. Entering any value puts the sport on Custom; choosing a level again clears the values and goes back to the defaults.
Select Save when you are done. The card confirms with Fitness profiles saved, or explains a refusal with Couldn’t save your fitness profile, followed by the reason.
Heart rate
Three heart rates sit above the sports: Max heart rate, Resting heart rate, and Threshold heart rate, each a whole number from 30 to 250 bpm, with resting lower than threshold and threshold lower than max. The card checks as you type: Enter a whole number from 30 to 250 bpm., Resting must be lower than threshold., Threshold must be lower than max.
Until you enter a max heart rate, VegaLoop estimates it from your age as 208 minus 0.7 times your age, which is why your date of birth matters. The Training Load page says which it is using:
| Label on the Training Load page | Meaning |
|---|---|
| your value | You entered it on the profile, or a fitness test measured it. |
| from your workouts | Estimated from the highest heart rate seen in your synced workouts. |
| estimated from your age | The age formula above. |
| default | Nothing else was known. |
The age formula can be 10 or more beats off for an individual. A measured peak from a hard race or test is better, and it changes every heart rate zone and every heart-rate-based load score.
Why they matter
| Value | Used for |
|---|---|
| Effective VO2 | Every running pace in a program, from easy runs to intervals. |
| FTP | Every cycling zone and power target, as a percentage of it. |
| CSS | Swim set paces and send-off times. |
| One-rep maximums | Each working weight in a strength program, as a percentage of your maximum. |
| Max and threshold heart rate | The five heart rate zones, heart-rate-based training load, and the heart rate targets in walking and hiking programs. |
A stale value makes a whole program too easy or too hard, because every session is scaled from it. See Training programs for how a program is personalised when you schedule it.
How to measure each value
The How to measure note under each sport gives the field method:
- Running: run a timed race at full effort and enter the distance and finish time.
- Cycling: a 20-minute all-out effort on a power meter; multiply the average power by 0.95.
- Swimming: a 400 m time trial, 5 minutes rest, then a 200 m time trial; CSS is the 400 m time minus the 200 m time, divided by 2.
- Strength: lift a weight for 3 to 10 reps to failure; the estimated one-rep maximum is the weight times (1 + reps divided by 30). Estimating from a hard set is safer than a true maximum attempt and accurate enough for programming.
You can do any of these on your own and enter the result under Custom, or schedule the test from the app as described below.
Schedule a fitness test
Open the sport’s info icon
Only running, cycling, swimming, and strength offer a test. Select Schedule a fitness test at the bottom of the About thresholds note.
Pick the test and a date
| Sport | Test workouts offered |
|---|---|
| Running | 5K Time Trial, 10K Time Trial |
| Cycling | 20-Minute FTP Test, Ramp Test |
| Swimming | CSS Test (400m + 200m) |
| Strength | 1RM Estimation Test |
The date defaults to today. Select Schedule.
Find it on the calendar
The card confirms Scheduled “5K Time Trial” for the date, and the session appears on the training calendar as a planned workout. If the test workout is not in your library, you are taken to the Workouts page instead and nothing is scheduled.
Do the test and log it with the numbers
Complete the session like any other: from a synced workout that matches it, or by opening it and choosing Log with Details (or Complete Workout) and entering the duration, distance, calories, average heart rate, perceived effort, and notes. A time trial needs its distance and time to update anything, and a lifting test needs the weight and reps.
Test workouts are marked as fitness tests in the library. A fitness test is never swapped or eased by a suggestion, and the Ramp Test and the time trials are built so the result stands on its own.
What happens after the test
When the test is completed with the metrics it needs, VegaLoop recomputes the value and tells you in a notice at the top of the page:
| Notice | Meaning |
|---|---|
| Run Fitness Score updated: 42 to 44.5 | The value was replaced by the measured one. The same wording applies to Cycling Threshold Power, Swim Threshold Pace, Estimated One-Rep Max, and Max Heart Rate. |
| Cycling Threshold Power established: 215W | There was no previous value; this is the first. |
| Fitness test logged, but it was missing the metrics needed to update your fitness estimate. | The session saved but had no usable result (no distance on a time trial, for example). Log it again with the numbers. |
| Fitness test logged. This activity type has no fitness estimate to update yet. | The session saved, but its activity type has no measured value. |
A measured value takes precedence over one entered by hand or estimated from your age or workouts, and the profile card shows it.
If a program is scheduled, the rest of it is re-personalised from the new value, and the calendar shows a panel: Your Run Fitness Score result updated 14 upcoming sessions, with up to five examples of what changed (the date, the variable, and the old and new values). Sessions you had edited by hand are left alone, and the panel says so: 3 sessions you edited by hand were left as they are. Dismiss the panel with its close button.
How often to retest
- After every race or time trial, enter the result; VegaLoop does this for you when the race is a scheduled test.
- Retest at the end of a training block, in the recovery week, rather than mid-block when you are tired.
- Retest sooner after a long break or an illness, since an old value will make the first week back too hard.
- Max heart rate rarely needs retesting; a measured peak from a hard race is enough for a long time.
See Training load and readiness for how heart rate and perceived effort turn into load, and Plan sessions that complete themselves for how a synced workout completes a scheduled test.