The Talk Test: Gauging Effort by How You Speak

How it works

Speak while you run, for example by reading a passage aloud, and rate your speaking comfort as comfortable, not sure, or not able to speak comfortably. A 2022 review concluded the talk test and the rating of perceived exertion both mark two breakpoints in rising effort: the stage where speech first becomes uncertain sits at the ventilatory threshold, the first breakpoint, and the stage where speech is no longer comfortable sits at the respiratory compensation threshold, the second. Perceived exertion marks the same two points, at 10 to 11 and at 13 to 15 on the 6 to 20 scale¹.

The test also describes training. In a 2015 study of 16 physically active volunteers who ran three 30-minute steady runs, each at a talk test stage, the runs at the last stage where they could speak comfortably were at an intensity compatible with recovery sessions or long sessions in athletes².

Which threshold the talk test tracks is not fully settled. In a 2011 study of 15 adults aged 18 to 35 the lactate threshold sat higher than the ventilatory threshold, and the comfortable and not-sure stages were similar to the lactate threshold. Comfortable speech corresponded on average to 82% of maximum heart rate, plus or minus 7 points, and the not-sure stage to 90%, plus or minus 6³.

Where it is weaker than it sounds

The test errs in one direction. In 2008 experiments in healthy young adults, errors leaned toward passing the test when they exercised above the ventilatory threshold, and it took on average more than 2 minutes at that intensity for the result to turn negative⁴. So give an effort a few minutes before you judge your speech by it. These studies were small and of healthy adults, so treat the test as a check on your effort and not a measurement.

How to use it

Runsense words each effort in your plan with a talk test cue:

• Easy: a conversational pace, where you can speak in full sentences the whole way. If you can't, slow down (see the guide on easy and recovery runs).
• Moderate: comfortably hard, a sentence or two at a time.
• Moderately hard: short phrases, breathing deeper but still in control.
• Hard: a word or two at a time, breathing heavy but not gasping.
• Maximum effort: no speaking.

Combine it with feel and heart rate

Read the talk test beside how the effort feels and, if you use one, your heart rate (see the guide on heart rate, pace and effort). When they disagree, ask why before obeying any one of them.