British Army Running Test challenge
First of all a very happy New Year from me and may I hope that all your dreams can come true.
Now we have that one out of the way we can come back to the subject of this blog.
Very recently I noticed a blog entry from TriSpace which challenged people to take on a test, which is been used by the British army in order to gauge your fitness level. Initially I was rather apprehensive as I automatically had categorized myself in the "poor" performer category. My wife encouraged me a bit and I could not find a better time then today, at the beginning of the year to benchmark my performance which could be my motivator for the rest of the weekend.
You are supposed to run first 1.5 mile (warm up?) within 14 minutes, and then this is followed by the real challenge, another 1.5 mile. The measured time puts you in a category. Taken from the TriSpace website this is the table.
I drove this morning, after a New Years party lasting till 3am to test myself on the running track, which is nicely flat. The temperature was 1 degree outside. I started on the running track with just one lap very slow run (not tracked on my Garmin) in order to explain my body what was to follow in the coming 30 minutes. One lap is 400 meter and as such I had to complete 6 laps for 2.4 K or 1.5 mile.
I completed the first 6 laps in 13:17 which is according to my Garmin 2.46K. I jogged around until my Garmin displayed 14:00, at this point I started the challenge. I started off fast and wanted to quit after 3 laps, my heartbeat was now going more than 165 and completed each lap below 2 minutes. The fourth and fifth lap I struggled and slowed down to complete these laps in 2:04 and 2:07. During lap 6 I gave everything and completed this one in 1:50.
My total time for all laps during the challenge is 11 minutes and 44 seconds for 1.5 mile or 2.4K which makes me an "Average" runner in the category males 35-39. 13 seconds faster would have made me a "Good" runner, which I'm not at this moment.
As you can see from the screenshot from my Garmin Forerunner 301 the laps measured a little bit more but I'm ignoring those distances as I know that the track is 400 meter long.
For a complete report, tracked by my Garmin, you can check out all details (including heartbeat, charts, maps, etc ...) on MotionBased.
I enjoyed reading this post. I also use a Garmin Forerunner 301. Do you also use this for swimming? I don't think they are waterproof? I have heard of people who put them in a plastic bag and put the bag under a swimming cap. Do you use the heart rate function? How have you set-up the data fields?
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I'm not using my Garmin 301 for swimming, as you said I don't think it can be used in the pool. Beside this I cannot see myself swimming with my heart rate monitor strap on my chest, I like to hide this away. I use the heart rate function a lot, especially during my long runs where I try to keep my heart rate below or within zone 3. I use it during my bike rides as wel. Great tool!
See also:
http://triathlontrainingblog.co.uk/2008/07/16/im-in-love-with-my-garmin-forerunner-301.aspx
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Thanks for the answer. Two questions:
1. Have you seen any improvement in your heart rate since you started training?
2. What triathlon blogs and websites do you visit regularly?
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1. This is a difficult question - This depends on so many factors and I don't have a good way of measuring the increase/decrease over time based upon certain runs. There is always an external factor that influences the recorded numbers. i.e. weather, time of the day, hills, distance, previous activity, ... however I do believe that my heartbeat in rest mode has been reduced substantially. I can control my heartbeat for short sudden activities better in comparison to the time I was smoking and was not doing any exercises.
2. I'm visiting a lot of blogs. See my blogroll on the left hand side for some samples, but I follow many more. Just to give you a few names: 3forfun, The Slowest Triathlete, Trispace, Chrissie Wellington's Blog, ... and I have subscribed myself to your blog as well.
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