As already mentioned I am taking my fitness test in July to give myself time to get my fitness up rather than putting myself under pressure to pass it in June.
Well for the last couple 10 days Ive been putting in the training and last night went down the track for a test run to see where I am at currently fitness wise.Â
Before I talk about last night though what have I been doing to get my fitness levels up.  Well a couple of weeks ago I was emailed the football league training plan that Matt Wesson has provided all the PGMO guys.  This is a 9 week plan and gets them ready for their fitness test which is although different to the one I have a great plan to follow.
Ive not followed it strictly but have taken guidance from it on sessions and the way it fits together. So last week using this plan as Guide i did the following
Monday - High Intensity - 4mins @ 86%-90% then 1 min @ 80%-85% repeat 5 times.  Wednesday - Ran “out” 14 minutes then turned and tried to get back in 11 minutes (I wasnt to far out but to be honest it wasnt the best route as it was up hill out and down hill in!) Thursday - Just a simple 30 minute road run Saturday - Same as Monday but carried on running at the end for another 15 minutes.The high intensity sessions are really good and worth doing they break up the boredom of running around the roads. Also they get your body used to high intensity’s effort which is what is needed for the test.
So to last night.  I got down the track and met another local refree who is doing his test in 2 weeks.  He had done a practice the week before and did the 2500 in 12 minutes. We agreed before hand that if one of us was feeling good then to go off and not hang back and wait for the other.
We went of for Lap 1 at 1:35 which was ideal as it wasn’t silly quick and gave 10 seconds in the bank. Lap 2 was comfortable going through at 1:46 giving seconds as a cushion. It then seemed to slow a bit and lap 4 was completed dead on 7 minutes.  This is the mark Ive always worked towards when looking for 2700 and I was happy at this point.
Then as is usual Lap 5 went a bit wrong and ended up as a 1:52 putting me 7 seconds over where I wanted to be. Lap 6 then brought me through on 10:44 which depending on how I looked at it, gave me 1:16 to do 100 metres or 300 metres depending on if I was going for 2500 or 2700.  I know which I wanted so put the effort in and went over 2700 with 2 seconds to spare.
I was really pleased with this despite it going a bit messy in the middle, I now have 2700 in 12 embedded in my mind. I know I can do this and have no doubts over it.  With another 6 weeks to go yet I’m chuffed with that. Â
I plan to carry on using the training plan as a guidline and use some of the sessions outlined on their in my training. Â
 Also If you are doing your fitness test in June - Don’t forget your blood pressure test! It amazes me every year people turn up having not done the test!
Must have been alot down hill! I did that run and was nowhere near back home!
Im not fully convinced with that run to be honest. I wonder if I wasnt as far as out i would expect to be. With keeping the heart rate in a range and having to go up hill I fealt like I wasnt really going anywhere. So to then turn around and put it in coming back probably wasnt that accurate. I need to find a flatter route from where I live I think.
Cheers for the encouragement on my blog. I am nowhere near where I need to be but I’m a damn sight closer than when I was invited to my fitness test in February and was given three weeks notice of the test! I’ll give it a go through next season and when I hit the 2400 mark (in 12 minutes) I’ll rely on adrenaline to carry me home!