Fitness test - and maybe I'm not that slow!

[WillowFae]

I did a short run this morning. I wanted to test my fitness levels and one of the PBs that Endomondo tracks is the Cooper Test. Developed by the US military it measures how far you can run in 12 mins. The table to work it out takes account of your age and gender.

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coope...

When I first started running last August my result out me in the 'very bad' category. Today I decided to just run for 13 minutes (giving myself a minute buffer) at a faster pace than I would if I was going for a 30 minute run.

My fitness level is now 'good' :). I'm above average when it comes to running -NEVER thought I'd be saying that?

So, and perhaps this will give some other people some comfort. I always beat myself up because I still can't do 5k in 30 mins. My PB is 39 mins. I know I see a lot of people on here who are concerned that they won't reach the magic 5k by the end of week 9.

I worked it out that if I kept up my pace today for 30 mins I would still take just over 30 min to do 5k. And I am apparently someone who has 'good' fitness levels (below that are 'average', 'bad', and 'very bad'. Okay, I'm only 5'1" with short legs, but overall does this mean that 5k in 30 mins after 9 weeks is unrealistic for someone who really does go from NO exercise whatsoever?

[greenlegs Graduate]

I'd say yes, pretty unrealistic! Unless they are young and/or male, when they may well have a decent chance of getting there. But older ladies like me - pretty unusual to manage it in 9 weeks. Or ever, maybe!

Just checked out my figures on that chart. Woop woop! I know I've managed to run a mile in just under 11 minutes, so that would be just over 1600m in 12 minutes - which is 'average' - which is amazing for me. I have NEVER been as good as average in sports! I'm delighted. Thank you - I think that's really very encouraging, and really shows me the progress I've made, as I certainly couldn't do that six months ago. Brilliant.

[Burstcouch Graduate]

I like this cooper test, going to give it a try on friday.

[christian1 Graduate]

Lol. I just snuck into Average and I expected to be Very Bad! I am very slow so I am surprised.

[christian1 Graduate in reply to christian1]

It is quite age specific till it gets to 50, then it just lumps everyone over 50 together. Maybe they don't think many folk over 50 will be running?