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PACER · FitnessGram

PACER score calculator: laps to level, MAS and fitness zone

Updated

Short answer

Enter your PACER lap count on the 20 m course. The calculator finds the matching level and speed in the chart, derives the MAS of the last completed level, distance and time run, a VO₂max estimated with the Léger (1988) equation from the level reached and your age, and compares your score with the FitnessGram Healthy Fitness Zone minimum for your age and sex.

Your result

5Level reached
10.5km/hSpeed
10.5km/hMAS
820mCumulative distance
5 min 14 sRunning time
42.1ml/min/kgEstimated VO₂max (Léger 1988)
36HFZ minimum at this age
MetHealthy Fitness Zone

How the score is converted

The 20 m PACER uses the 8 km/h shuttle run chart: 7 laps at level 1, then 8, 8, 9, 9, 10… up to 16 laps at level 21, for 247 laps in total. A lap count therefore identifies a level and a speed without ambiguity. MAS is the speed of the last level run in full, as in every staged test. VO₂max starts instead from the level reached, the one your last lap falls in, which is the last level announced by the recording: it is the equation Léger and colleagues published for this test in 1988, 31.025 + 3.238 × S − 3.248 × age + 0.1536 × age × S, with S = 8 + 0.5 × level. Age is the one selected above; with no age, or with “17+”, the equation uses 18, as for an adult. At level 1 it counts 8.5 km/h while the chart starts at 8 km/h. It is an estimate, which tracks measured VO₂max with a correlation of 0.71 in children and 0.90 in adults; FitnessGram publishes its own estimate, which can give a different figure. The Healthy Fitness Zone is the FitnessGram standard from The Cooper Institute, in 20 m laps; on a 15 m course the lap count is not comparable.

Healthy Fitness Zone minimums (20 m PACER)

AgeGirl / womanBoy / man
101717
112020
122323
132529
142736
153042
163247
173550
17+3854

The 20 m PACER chart

Levels, speeds, laps per level and cumulative totals. The “Shuttles” column is the number of laps in the level.
LevelSpeedShuttless / shuttleLevel durationCumulative timeCumulative distance
18791 min 03 s1 min 03 s140
29881 min 04 s2 min 07 s300
39.587.581 min 01 s3 min 08 s460
41097.201 min 05 s4 min 12 s640
510.596.861 min 02 s5 min 14 s820
611106.551 min 06 s6 min 20 s1 020
711.5106.261 min 03 s7 min 22 s1 220
8121161 min 06 s8 min 28 s1 440
912.5115.761 min 03 s9 min 32 s1 660
1013115.541 min 01 s10 min 33 s1 880
1113.5125.331 min 04 s11 min 37 s2 120
1214125.141 min 02 s12 min 38 s2 360
1314.5134.971 min 05 s13 min 43 s2 620
1415134.801 min 02 s14 min 45 s2 880
1515.5134.651 min15 min 46 s3 140
1616144.501 min 03 s16 min 49 s3 420
1716.5144.361 min 01 s17 min 50 s3 700
1817154.241 min 04 s18 min 53 s4 000
1917.5154.111 min 02 s19 min 55 s4 300
20181641 min 04 s20 min 59 s4 620
2118.5163.891 min 02 s22 min 01 s4 940

All about the PACER test

Sources

  1. FitnessGram Healthy Fitness Zone standards, The Cooper Institute — checked 2026-09-25
  2. Léger L. A., Mercier D., Gadoury C., Lambert J., « The multistage 20 metre shuttle run test for aerobic fitness », Journal of Sports Sciences, 1988; 6(2): 93-101, résumé PubMed — VO₂max equation; checked 2026-10-11