Run Test

Today, I met Carlos and Sue at the Horizon High School track to conduct my run test. The concept is to run 10 minutes at about an 80% effort, recover for 5 minutes, and repeat 3 times. Before we got started, they showed me some new footwork drills that I need to incorporate into my routine. Various different hops, skips, high steps, and twists suddenly found their way into my training. After doing these together, Sue and I took off for about a 7 minute 9:30 pace warm-up. On the last two straight-aways, Sue wanted me to “build up my strides” to come to pretty much a full on sprint. Once the warm-up was over, Carlos indicated that my form actually looks real good, but that I needed to “loosen up” my upper body. I was too tight and stiff. Of all the things that thought he would say about my form, this wasn’t even on the radar. It actually felt pretty good to hear that. Anyway, after some more conversation about form and what this test was supposed to show them, I took off for my first 10 minutes. Every time I passed Carlos and Sue on the track, he would yell out the elapsed time. I was able to figure out that I was holding a pretty steady pace and wasn’t slowing down at all. I hit the 10 minute interval at the opposite side of the track, so Carlos had to whistle for me to stop. I hit the lap button on my Garmin and walked across the grassy area back to them. They didn’t say anything about what my pace was or how I was doing. They just told me to keep up the good work and talked a bit about my HR. I gave them the quick version of my seemingly elevated HR while running and then talked about my encounters with the cardiologists in 2010. After a 5 minute recovery, and an appropriate drop in HR, I was after the second 10. Again, Carlos was calling out my lap times and I was right on pace. I don’t remember if it was the first 10, or the second, but at some point, Sue started running with me and asking questions. What was my HR, what was my RPE (on a scale from 1-10), what was my pace, etc. I think she wanted me to see where I was in terms of fatigue. If I couldn’t answer any questions, or had difficulty, then I was going too hard. Easy answers with light breathing, and I was going too slow. Fortunately, my answers were quick responses between moderate breathing which correlated to about a 7 RPE. She peeled off and let me finish. Again, I was on the other side of the track when my 10 minutes were up. When I got back to Carlos and Sue, Carlos said that they were counting the strides for one foot for 15 seconds. I was coming in around 18 or 19, but they wanted me around 22. The optimal cadence for running is right around 180 total steps per minute. I was somewhere around 152. With that in mind, I set off for my last 10 minute interval and it went off without any problems. I tried to keep my cadence around 180, but not sure if I did. Every time I thought I was slowing down, I’d just pick it up. At this point, I really didn’t want to concentrate on counting footsteps while timing them, and then doing the math. I just wanted to be done. Once the test was over, Carlos reiterated that my form is actually pretty good. What I need to work on (surprise, surprise!) is my endurance. He said that he’s going to prescribe longer/slower runs that need to stay under a certain HR. If my HR goes above his prescription, I was to start walking until it came down. He asked if I was OK with that. Let me say that again, he said that I will be running SLOWER and should WALK. Um, YEAH, of course I’m OK with that! Before parting ways, he also indicated that I will be running 5 days a week pretty soon and will be transitioning into 6. Here we go!!!!!

Here are my 10 min interval results:

Interval #1 = 10:02 min / 1.41 miles / 7:07 pace
Interval #2 = 10:03 min / 1.34 miles / 7:30 pace
Interval #3 = 9:42 min / 1.26 miles / 7:42 pace