Relationship of critical velocity to marathon running performance

The purpose of this investigation was to evaluate the critical velocity (CV) test for prediction of marathon running performance. Twelve subjects [mean age (SD) = 29 (4) years; mean body mass = 63 (13) kg] were tested for CV and completed the 1994 New York City Marathon. The CV (m · s⁻¹) was determined from times to exhaustion at four treadmill running velocities. In addition, peak oxygen consumption (\(\)O_2peak; ml · kg⁻¹ · min⁻¹) and ventilatory threshold (Th_vent) were determined from an incremental treadmill test. The Th_vent was calculated using bi-segmental linear regression and was expressed as the velocity (m · s⁻¹) at Th_vent. Separate simple linear regression analyses showed that marathon time [MT; mean (SD) = 231.9 (27.4) min] correlated more highly with CV [MT = 445.3 – 50.3 (CV); r² = 0.76, SEE = 14.1 min] than either \(\)O_2peak [MT = 390.7 – 2.7 (\(\)O_2peak); r² = 0.51, SEE = 20.1 min] or Th_vent [MT = 353.5 – 30.1 (Th_vent) r²= 0.28, SEE = 27.4 min]. A stepwise regression analysis resulted in CV (entered first) and Th_vent being included in the prediction equation [MT = 443.5 – 78.9 (CV) + 34.3 (Th_vent), R² = 0.88, SEE = 10.7 min], while \(\)O_2peak was not included. These preliminary data indicate that the CV test may be an attractive field test for assessing marathon performance capabilities.