Purpose: Performance assessment and analysis of aerobic endurance athlete usually requires the use of expansive measurement equipment in a laboratory setting. The main motivation for the paper was the fulfilment of a goal of obtaining a reliable, objective and easily measurable endurance athlete`s performance parameter, which would serve coaches and athletes to track their progress, as well as a benchmark for comparison amongst the athletes competing in the same discipline. Methods: The main idea of the paper originates from the fact that each individual endurance workout causes a physiological response in a human body. Therefore, the newly developed athlete`s performance parameter - velocity quotient (VQ) considers both the athlete`s actual performance (velocity) and his/her response (heart rate) to it. The VQ parameter`s behavior was theoretically investigated in case of running. The reliability of the VQ parameter was also experimentally validated with dataset obtained during multiple running exercises of a single recreational level athlete. Results: The velocity quotient showed potential for being a reliable predictor of endurance runners` performance on a theoretical base which was supported by the preliminary experimental validation study, which produced the value of Pearson's correlation coefficient between the velocity quotient and the sports watch estimated VO2max of 0.7942. Conclusion: The behavior of the velocity quotient was predicted at various exercise intensities (average heart rates) and fitness levels. Fairly good correlation between the velocity quotient and the sports watch estimated VO2max was found while more daily variations of VQ than for VO2max were observed.
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