Effort Test Results: Comparing Sports Clinic Data to My Apple Watch

Today, I did an effort test at a sports clinic to gather data for a personalized marathon training plan for next year. I was also curious to see how accurate my watch’s data is compared to professionally measured results. I thought I would share the results with you.

Some context about me: - Height: 183 cm (6’00”) - Weight: 88 kg (194lbs) - Running experience: 4 years (note that I haven’t done much interval training in the past few months).

Test Results comparison: - Cardio Fitness (Apple Watch): 44.5 - VO2Max (measured): 48 - Max heart rate (Apple Watch): 183 bpm - Max heart rate (measured): 191 bpm

My Apple Watch SE is quite off as you can see. I even started my watch during the test, and it showed a max heart rate of 183 bpm - clearly quite off from the actual measured 191 bpm.

Of course, I now also have other very useful data (such as lactate threshold, VMA, etc.) but these are not computed by the Apple Watch.

Overall, Im very happy to have done a real effort test, this will enhance my training a lot. I can only encourage you to get better data about yourself - but clearly it is not an imperative. ;-)