What is a good VO₂max for a runner?

There is no single good number — it depends on age and sex, and the range that supports enjoyable, successful marathon running is much wider than the elite figures suggest.

Published VO₂max norms tend to be quoted from elite cohorts, which makes them close to useless as a target for most runners. Peak values approach 85 mL/kg/min for men and 72 for women, but those are the extreme upper bound of human physiology at around age 25, not a benchmark. A recreational runner in the 40s can and does run marathons well.

A more useful frame: your VO₂max determines your aerobic ceiling, but your race times are set by how much of that ceiling you can sustain and how efficiently you convert oxygen into speed. Plenty of runners outperform others with higher VO₂max values because they hold a higher fraction of it and run more economically.

Age-adjust before you judge yourself. The decline is roughly 0.5–0.7% per year for active adults past their mid-thirties, so a 55-year-old and a 25-year-old with the same number are not equivalent athletes — the older one is considerably more remarkable. Age-grading a race result gives a fairer comparison than comparing raw physiology.

The practical takeaway is that VO₂max is a poor training target and a reasonable diagnostic. If it is low relative to your training history, aerobic volume is the lever. If it is high but your race times lag, look at threshold and economy instead.

Glossary: VO₂max