Revisiting The 1.5 Mile Test

A couple of weeks ago, Soraiya asked me if I would help her out with a project for school, the dreaded 1.5-mile test.  Now I am a big fan of this test but just for my clients.  Wanting to show my support for our little girl and to kinda see where my fitness level is at this pivotal week in my life, I agreed.  Then I got full on head cold, I rolled my ankle…my life fell apart, very high drama.   But one thing that I have learned is that this body (my body) heals up quite nicely, call it denial maybe stupidity (on occasion) I call it strength baby, and I met Soraiya at the track this morning.

After filling out some forms and then signing my life away we started with a walk test, 4 laps of the track with a brisk walk.  Now be honest, am I the only person who is competitive against themselves, and of course, the clock on a walk test?  Lap 1 and 2 were the same, lap 3 was 2 seconds faster and the final lap was 1 second faster than the first.  I think that I may have a problem.

The walk test served nicely as my warm-up and we moved directly into the 1.5-mile test.  Having done this twice before, I had a couple of times to beat in my head already.  I am also quickly approaching an age category change and originally (when I was feeling poopy) I had asked Soraiya to use my new age category, but stepping onto the track today was a new woman I had a little somethin’-somethin’ to prove and told her to use my current age.

Off I went.  Soraiya had given me a heart rate monitor to wear before we started but the watch and the band were having some difficulty communicating, and not because I am heartless either (my Body Campers think that I am), I guess I didn’t put enough spit on it to start with (yes you do have to).  So instead I was going to use it as a lap timer; that was until I broke a sweat on lap 2 and it started to beep at me and now Soraiya had to call out my lap times.

Rounding the second to last corner of lap 2 I had to yell at a couple of grade 8’ers (one of their math text books was actually laying on the track) to get off the track.  What is it with people at the track?  You can see me coming, I am sweating and snorting, so why must you stand in the middle of lane 1 where nobody else is and have a conversation?  I guess I should be thankful that I didn’t have to run through the puffs of smoke as well, those teens moved to the outside lane.

Coming into the third lap I was starting both to fatigue and I was starting to feel my injured ankle, but I wasn’t giving up, I was half way!  Lap 4 is always a struggle and I was wishing that I had taken Soraiya up on her offer to use her ipod, but by the next lap I was in a zone that no amount of hamster music or Nickelback could have put me in.  Into the final lap and time to push it, feeling fierce and half my age this was by far my quickest lap.

As I crossed the finish line Soraiya called out my time and I was more than a little shocked.  After performing the calculations my time was 5.7% faster than that from a year and a half ago, can I get a “hell ya”?  Soraiya also calculated my V02 Max (V02 Max WTF? A factor that can determine an athlete’s capacity to perform sustained exercise and is linked to aerobic endurance. It is generally considered the best indicator of cardiorespiratory endurance and aerobic fitness) for both the walk and 1.5-mile test and gave me a superior classification! Now really, what else could a girl want for on a milestone birthday?