Fitness researchers debunk the "Talk Test"

Agree with Ragu, I always thought the 'test' was a benchmark for the January One Brigade who comes charging out of the gate only to drop in a heap 20 minutes later.

But I still use the 'supercalifragilisticexpialidocious' test when I'm really feeling gassed.

 

The talk test still has its place on long slow distance -- because that often includes a social component. My running partner and I have been going once a week for eight years mostly because an hour on Tuesday nights is all the time two dads have to get out of the house. Either of us could run 30 seconds to a minute faster per mile, but those take-it-easy runs have their place too. Also the social outlet has gotten us out of the house on a lot of cold nights when we otherwise would have stayed inside, so it helps the discipline.

In fact he just had knee surgery, and I'll be damned if that hasn't cut my overall running down by 50 percent.

 

As someone who used to do cross country and long distances in track, I haven't really run much recently and it's because I don't have a running partner. For running long distances, doing it with other people and chatting some made it go by much quicker. Even if it was a hard workout where we didn't talk, having other people to run with is necessary for me.

 

For the record, I concur on the long distances. If you're doing a 15-20-mile marathon training run, just for an extreme example, you probably ought to be able to hold a conversation.