About 5-6 years ago my youngest daughter told me about the Cooper Test, how far can you run in 12 minutes, at the time I was doing mainly HIIT type training on the treadmill (I'd looked at C25K and didn't think it was for me), I was doing 1 minute sprint and 1 minute walk, repeated for usually 20-30 minutes.
I did complete a Cooper Test, I was in Glasgow for work and I jumped on the treadmill in the hotel gym and did a mile in 12 minutes (I was probably 41 and around 20 stone then). I'd been doing the HIIT style training for at least 6 months by then.
This morning (given I'd changed my running around) was speed day and I thought I'd give a Cooper Test a try, I walked for 5 minutes to warm up, reset the treadmill and set off. I didn't go flat out, I went at a pace I knew I could hold for at least 5 minutes before starting the slow reduction in speed, I even slowed to my target 5k pace for 2 minutes while my heartrate settled a little.
Up went the speed again and soon enough the 12 minute mark came up, I made a note of the distance and dropped the speed to just below the target 5k pace and carried on, I didn't like the feeling of only running for 12 minutes so I did 20 instead.
Over the 12 minutes I covered 1.06 miles, slightly more than my only other attempt but I'm now 47 and between 21 and 22 stone (was 21 13 when I got back from Egypt 2 weeks ago, weigh day is Saturday) so I'm more than happy with the results for now, especially since I really didn't push myself to the limit. I seem to remember that I was sweating for most of the morning when I did the first one, that definitely isn't the case this time.
So Friday/Saturday is now my long run day, really looking forward to it, I love running but if I had to pick a run type it would be the long slow ones.
Happy running everyone.
Accelerated re-run of C25K after coming gingerly off IC
Speed Podcast Review
Didn't know I could run so fast :)
