After the bad back scare throughout this week, I finally ended up fit enough to undertake the Referees' Fitness Test at Robin Park Arena, Wigan (pictured above).
Having climbed out of bed at 6:15am on a Sunday, I showered to feel clean and fresh. I then had a light breakfast before heading off at 7:39am for my referees' fitness test.
I arrived at the Robin Park Arena, Wigan at 8:10am, a good 50 minutes beforehand and was the forth person to arrive apart from an event organiser. The Arena Doors opened at 8:30am.
So, after a 300 metre warm up the first twelve, including me lined up at the start line. I was runner number 11. At 8:54am we set off.
I led for the first 300 metres then dropped off my early fast pace to a more comfortable one where two others overtook me, one went quiet a distance ahead running at a good solid pace whilst the other led by just a few metres. I used this person as my pace man.
My first lap was 1:30 [1:22 last year], and after two laps my time was 3:01 [2:54 last year]. I then ran the mile in a time of 6:30 [6:16 last year].
My total recorded distance after the 12 minutes Cooper Test (albeit 11:55 - The Timer stopped the test 5 seconds too early!) was 2,890 metres [3,000 metres exactly last year].
Considering my back injury during the week, I felt that I had run within myself and was very comfortable all the way round. I chose not to run at my maximum pace today - just in case.
Once the Cooper Test was over, the Marker walked up to me, "What's your distance then?"
"Well, there's the 2,900 metre line", I replied, pointing at the line that was probably less than 10 metres ahead of me.
"Shall we call it 2,800 then?", he enquired.
"No, I've run 2,890 metres!", I said with some despair.
He wrote down "2890", confirmed my name and moved down to the next person beyond the 2,800 metre line.
After a short break, we then did the two 50 metre sprints within 7.5 seconds to complete the test. It was all over for the first 12 referees by 9:40am.
Start: 8:54am
Time: 12:00 Cooper Test Standard
Distance: 2,890 metres (1.80 miles)
Average speed: 14.45kmh (8.98mph)
Average pace: 4:09 per km (6:41 per mile)
Heart rate: HRavg 170, HRmax 179, and 170kcals
Last Years' Referees' Fitness Test
Ariel View of Robin Park Arena: http://maps.google.co.uk/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=robin+park,+wigan&sll=54.162434,-3.647461&sspn=11.876772,32.695313&ie=UTF8&ll=53.546874,-2.652211&spn=0.002939,0.007982&t=k&z=17&om=1
1 comment:
Well done Mike!!
Very good going considering the state of your back only days before. I would be extremely pleased with that result.
Nice one.
Post a Comment