Every training pace in Sequorr — your easy runs, your threshold sessions, your intervals — traces back to a single number: your Sequorr VOE. VOE, the Variable Operating Engine, is Sequorr’s fitness engine. It reads how you actually run, estimates your effective fitness, and surfaces it as your VO2Max. From there it drives your race predictions, your training paces, and the shape of your training plan. One number, calibrated to where your fitness actually is, wired into the whole app.
This article covers what Sequorr VOE is, the five training intensities it defines, and how your Running Fitness dashboard turns that one score into a VO2Max readout, race predictions, training paces, heart-rate zones, and a plan for every session.
What Sequorr VOE Actually Is
Sequorr VOE is not VO2max — though it’s related. VO2max is the maximum volume of oxygen your body can use during exercise, measured in a lab. VOE is a pseudo-VO2max that estimates your effective aerobic fitness from how you actually perform when you run. Two athletes with identical lab VO2max values can end up with different VOE scores, because Sequorr VOE captures the factors that lab tests miss: running economy, lactate clearance, pacing ability, and race-day execution.
VOE is more useful than VO2max for training purposes. It reflects what you can actually do on the road, not what your body can theoretically produce on a treadmill with a mask on your face. For most runners, VOE falls between 30 and 85. A recreational runner finishing a 5K in 30 minutes has a VOE around 30. A sub-3:00 marathoner is in the mid-50s. An elite 5K runner breaking 14 minutes is above 70.
Sequorr calculates your VOE from your strongest efforts — a recent race, or a hard, sustained training run. The engine reads those performances, works out the effective fitness they imply, and distills it into a single score. That score is what surfaces as your VO2Max, and it’s the source of every prediction and pace that follows. As your efforts get faster, your VOE rises, and everything built on top of it moves with it.
The Five Training Intensities
Once Sequorr has your VOE, it runs the engine in reverse. For each of five intensities, it finds the pace that produces the right physiological load, then expresses it as a pace per mile or kilometer. Each intensity targets a specific slice of your aerobic range and a specific adaptation — and together they’re the vocabulary Sequorr uses to prescribe your sessions.
Easy (E) — 59-74% VO2max
This is where most of your weekly mileage should happen. Easy pace builds aerobic base: capillary density, mitochondrial development, fat oxidation efficiency. It should feel genuinely easy — conversational, relaxed, sustainable for hours. If you’re breathing hard, you’re above Easy pace.
For a VOE of 45, Easy pace is roughly 9:50 to 10:30 per mile.
Marathon (M) — 75-84% VO2max
Marathon pace is what it sounds like — the pace you’d target for a marathon. It trains your body to burn fat efficiently at a sustained moderate intensity and builds confidence in race-specific effort. It’s harder than Easy but still controlled. You should be able to hold it for 2-3+ hours.
For a VOE of 45, Marathon pace is roughly 8:50 per mile.
Threshold (T) — 83-88% VO2max
Threshold pace sits right at your lactate threshold — the fastest pace you could sustain for approximately 60 minutes in a race. It trains your body’s ability to clear lactate. The classic threshold workout is a 20-minute tempo run or cruise intervals (3-4 repeats of 1 mile with 1 minute recovery). It should feel “comfortably hard” — not easy, not all-out.
For a VOE of 45, Threshold pace is roughly 8:10 per mile.
Interval (I) — 95-100% VO2max
Interval pace stresses your aerobic system at its maximum to drive VO2max higher. These are hard efforts — 3 to 5 minutes at near-maximum aerobic intensity with recovery jogs between reps. A typical session: 5 x 1000m at I-pace with 3 minutes of easy jogging between reps. You should be working hard but able to complete every rep at the same pace.
For a VOE of 45, Interval pace is roughly 7:30 per mile.
Repetition (R) — 105-120% VO2max
Repetition pace is faster than VO2max intensity — it’s anaerobic. These short, fast efforts (200m to 400m) improve running economy, neuromuscular coordination, and raw speed. Recovery between reps is full — you should feel ready to run the next one at the same quality. This isn’t about suffering through fatigue. It’s about moving fast with good mechanics.
For a VOE of 45, Repetition pace is roughly 7:00 per mile for 200-400m repeats.
Inside Your Running Fitness Dashboard
In the app, all of this lives in one place: your Running Fitness dashboard. Sequorr VOE powers the whole screen — the fitness figure shown as your VO2Max is your VOE, and that single score feeds everything below it.
VO2Max and race predictions
At its core, the dashboard tracks your VO2Max and its trend over time, so you can watch fitness moving in the right direction — or catch it stalling. From the same score, VOE predicts equivalent race performances. Run a 20:00 5K and the engine estimates your equivalent 10K, half marathon, and marathon, assuming equal fitness across distances. Sequorr surfaces predictions for 5K, 10K, half, and marathon, and if you’ve set a goal race, it highlights that distance with an on-track read so you know whether your current fitness is ahead of or behind your target.
Training paces and heart-rate zones
From your VOE, Sequorr derives the target pace for each of the five intensities — the numbers your sessions are prescribed at. Alongside them, the dashboard shows your lactate-threshold pace and threshold heart rate, plus five heart-rate zones running from Z1 (endurance) up to Z5 (sprint). One distinction worth knowing: your paces come from VOE, but your heart-rate zones are anchored to your threshold heart rate. Pace and heart rate are two different lenses on effort, and Sequorr gives you both.
Load and form
Finally, Running Fitness carries your training load and form — CTL, ATL, and TSB — so your VOE-calibrated paces sit right next to how much training stress you’re actually accumulating. A pace prescription only means something in the context of how fresh or fatigued you are. There’s a separate story on TSS, CTL, and ATL if you want the full breakdown.
From Paces to a Plan
Paces are only useful when they’re attached to sessions. That’s what Sequorr’s training plan does: it takes your VOE and builds a structured week, prescribing each day at the right intensity.
Set your VOE and Sequorr generates a balanced training week — easy days for aerobic base, a threshold session, intervals, a long run, and rest. Every session’s distance and pace are auto-derived from your VOE and the five intensities: an Easy day comes back at E-pace, your threshold day at T-pace, your intervals at I-pace, and so on.
It isn’t rigid. Adjust any day — swap the session type or change the distance — and the pace recalculates to match. And because every pace descends from the same VOE, the whole week re-calibrates the moment your fitness changes: run a faster race, your VOE rises, and every prescribed pace across the plan moves with it. There’s no persona to pick first, no fork in the road — one engine, the same for every athlete. You give it a performance; it gives you a plan.
And everything here is free. Your VOE, your paces, your predictions, your heart-rate zones, and your plan are core features for every user — no premium tier, no paywall between you and your training.
