52 Lives

Life number 3 (L3) has started in happy moods! I was excited to see my Cooper test result last Saturday, since it would tell how I’m making progress with my training plan. I made it my week’s goal to run the test no matter what, so of course some obstacles occurred

I went to the local track with my son by car. It had been raining in the morning and it seemed it’s going to rain more. Well, that wasn’t a disaster, I could run. The bigger challenge was my schedule. We had to go shopping in the morning, visit our friends in the afternoon and I was going to my friend’s party in the evening. So after the shopping when our younger son went for a nap, I took the older son with me to the track. There was 2 hours time to take the test, so I felt I had even more time than I needed.

Once we arrived to the track, I got surprised. There was a socccer game going on in the field. I started to have second thoughts about going there, running like an elephant in front of other people. In other words, I was scared to look ridiculous.

But then I thought that I had made a promise for myself. I would run the Cooper test. Here. Today.

I decided to go to the track. I decided not to care what other people would think of me, since it’s more important that I do what I think is best for me.

So I parked the car and went to the track with my son. The minute I laid my foot on the track, the referee blew the whistle. The game was over! The people were leaving! I was thankful that I didn’t just turn the car around and went back home. There was still audience, but not that much. I got a perfect lesson: stick with the plan!

After a good warm up I was ready to run. This time my goal was to run 2600 meters. I did my best and finished with a result of 2650 m! I was happy to achieve my goal but also to learn couple of things.

The lessons I learned in 12 minutes

• Warm up. During the normal training week I don’t warm up as much as I would like to. But when it’s time to run as fast as possible, a thorough warm up is essential! In the army we were laughing at this one guy who was making sprints before the Cooper test. That guy reached the 3000 meter limit in 9 minutes… We didn’t laugh at him anymore As Cooper test is about running fast, you should warm up your body by jogging, stretching a little and then doing 4-6 x 50 - 100 meter sprints.
• Get your mind together. Depending on the intensity level you’re going to run the test, take some time to concentrate to the challenge. I knew I had to push my limits, so before the run I tried to prepare mentally. Just by knowing that I was going to be exhausted I could prepare myself and think about how to cope with the situation. After 5 minutes of running I was already feeling that I had to work hard. I think that the mental preparation helped me and I could get the needed energy to finish the run.
• Tempo, tempo! I started the run with lap times of 1:28 and 1:30. Then I started to get tired and the lap times increased to 1:45 - 1:59. I made the same mistake that I do in ice hockey. I start too intense and get my muscles stuck. Then I have to slow down and take it easy for the rest of the session. So next time with the test I need to set my speed to the 2700 meter level, meaning that I use 1:46 per lap. That I way I won’t be too exhausted in the end.
• Time slows down when you’re exercising. When I watch television, half an hour goes by in a blink of an eye. When I write a post to my blog, one hour is never enough. But when I take the Cooper test and run as fast as I possible can, every second is a lifetime So if you feel your life is too hectic and there’s never enough time, try exercising!
• Extra weight means extra effort. I noticed in the previous test that my belly was giving me hard time It’s funny how I don’t usually notice this but when I need to run fast and long, this thing came quite clear to me. I really need to lose some weight before the next test, I bet I can get extra meters just by watching what I eat.
• Take it easy after the training. I was pretty exhausted and breathing heavily after the training. This is against all Ayurveda principles, but I did the opposite to reach my goal And since the milk was already spilled, I needed to cool down. I walked after the run and drank water. It’s important not to stop after a hard training, since the muscles will be sore without a cooling down session.

Looking forward

A word of wisdom from great runners. I read a book about the most famous runners in the world and there was this common thought that kept popping up. The runners were saying that they felt more confident before the competitions when they looked back their training books and saw that they had trained well. When you have trained properly you now that you are in better shape just by looking the stats. I browsed through my training sessions before the Cooper test and told to myself that “wow, these speed training exercises must have improved my speed. I’m going to break the 2600 meter limit”. This made me believe more in my chances and helped to get over the excitement before the run.

Although the 3000 meter goal is still 350 meters away, I trust my training plan and feel that by following the plan I will reach my goal. It’s just a matter of time. I’m an anxious guy when it comes to getting something, but now I just need to calm down and stick with the plan Someday the reward will come…

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