being sick, Track racing schedule, treadmill physiology testing
Well training was going real well until a day or two ago when I got sick. It’s not that bad but just leaves me feeling sluggish. So just easy mileage at recovery paces until I get over whatever it is. It’s tough to take down time when things have been going so well but it’s a lesson I’ve learned. After trying to run races and tough interval sessions with 102 degree fevers and other various sicknesses, I’ve learned my lesson. Better to wait and let the body recover than to further break it down.
On a happier note, Congrats goes out to Ben Kozy for winning the mile in his first indoor meet of the season.
I’m putting together a racing schedule now. I really don’t have any specifics yet and am trying to see what local races I can get into and then what meets will have good competition that I can travel to. The way I figure it is to use local meets as races to get me race sharp and have a little fun racing, then travel to a couple big meets to try and hit some good times.
Also, I decided that I will probably run a couple of indoor meets. I’m not going to gear the training for it, but just it as a stepping stone to outdoors and as a sort of check to see how the training is going. I debated doing this but the way training has been going recently (until sickness) convinced me that I can be in good enough shape off of the work I’m doing now to race. I reached the decision after a quick little test to see how racing speed felt. Nothing special, just running an 8 and a couple 4’s at slightly faster than pace (1:58, 56-57s) after a run to see how it felt. I felt surprisingly comfortable so why not race a bit.
Thought of the day: Treadmill running and testing
Most of the physiological tests that they do on runners come from treadmill running. I’ve always wondered if this makes a big difference in the results. My instinct is to say it definately does and probably more so than people think. It definately could be one thing that affects the wide variety of VO2max or LT measurements.
I’m sure that most of you have all heard someone complain about how it feels like he is sprinting when he is running 6 minute miles. There are obviously some differences in how a person runs on the flat ground and on a treadmill. Some people have strides that are more adept to running on the treadmill than others. So the question is, how much does this impact some of the scientific info that is used?
It could explain some of the variations in the testing results of elites.
The same can be said for using different protocals in VO2max testing. For instance a protocal that uses an increase in speed only would probably differ than one that uses a large increase in the incline of the treadmill. Both of these protocals are commonly used. Since we know that people can be more or less efficient at running up an incline, it would only make sence that this would affect the results of the test.
I’d like to see a comparison with several runners of their VO2max on the treadmill and then on the track. The same with LT. There’s obviously data out there for it. I wonder if it’s ever been compared.
Just something to think about.
