Training for a pysical test

Hello everyone!

I'm applying to get into a kinesiology school and to get in, I need to pass a physical test which counts for 40% of your score. The test includes a 100 meter sprint, 2400 meter run, long jump, backwards crawl over obstacles, maximum number of pullups and a 100 meter swim. The test will be at the end of June.

You can see where I'm currently in my F+H training. I can do about 5 pullups, I have decent but not great run times, my long jump is around 260 cm and my swimming must be pretty terrible, since I'm still looking for a place to swim regularly(and I really hope it's not going to be the freezing cold local river). Backwards crawl won't be a problem.

I train Foundation Monday, Tuesday, Thursday, Friday and Handstand 1 on Wednesday and Saturday.

Can anyone give me recommedations for training specifically for this test? Should I drop F+H for the time being and do some other program? I have found the 12 Weeks to BUDS program and it seems to cover most of the bases, but the volume seems higher than I could complete.

Any recommedations much appreciated.

Hmm, whats your current run time on the 100m and 2400m? 

First of all, It is quite hard to increese your max speed in a 100m sprint by more then 1sec as long as you are allready in decent shape(Not overweight) and have standard coordination, so most of your time should me spent training for the 2.4km where it will be possible to make big increases in run time, Espesially as you don't normally have running as part of your workout. 

If you got time for the strength-training You should keep it on the table still, as slow pased strengthtraining don't really take much energy away from your cardio workout, would be beneficial for the 100. and long jump to add explosive squats, but main focus must be on running, as this is easily improoved and will effect both jump and sprint.

So, for the running 

You should have 3-5 cardio sessions a week. You need both easy, medium and hard training sessions to get good results, the hard sessions is the ones that give you the true increese of pase, but it is important to also add in easy and medium paced sessions for optimal results. The easy runs will just be a light jog 30 - 60 min, and will be a recovery session. the medium will be  45min - 1.5 hours and will help create a solid fondation to build your hard training sessions on. 

Start every medium and hard training session with 15 min tecnique/form work as warm-up. you will probably be able to find something easily on google, but it should at the very minimum include 3-5 sets, 60m of high knees, kick backs indian jumps, running on 1 leg only. 

This kind of training will give you better leg strength, increese the length you can go for each step. Teach you to run economical. Will also be very beneficial for the 100m and the Long Jump.

For the hard training we're going to do intervall training. fast paced bpm 88-94% of max HR

Take your current time in the 2.4km and devide it by 3(If you don't know go test yourself first training). This will be the length of your intervalls. So if you run 2.4km in 9 minutes you will run 3 minute intervals with 3/2 min rest in between.  

The workout will consist of 4 intervals of 3 min with 1.5 min rest between each intervall.

How efficient are you at swimming? if its only 100m it seems it is more to check, that you are able to swim at all. It could be a wise move to use one of the easy runs as an easy swim session as that will help protect you from overuse injury. Feel free to trow in some cycling too. In the first 4 weeks you should avoid more then 3 running sessions, as it is very easy to get inflamations along the shin. Also get good running shoes, and if you can do all your training on soft ground (in the park, woods etc.).

If you are interested in learning more about how you can inprove your training effect, you can check out this white paper: it is quite tecnical, but very informative.

http://www.firstbeat.com/userData/firstbeat/download/white_paper_training_effect.pdf

Openeye said:

Hmm, whats your current run time on the 100m and 2400m? 

 

First of all, It is quite hard to increese your max speed in a 100m sprint by more then 1sec as long as you are allready in decent shape(Not overweight) and have standard coordination, so most of your time should me spent training for the 2.4km where it will be possible to make big increases in run time, Espesially as you don't normally have running as part of your workout. 

 

 

If you got time for the strength-training You should keep it on the table still, as slow pased strengthtraining don't really take much energy away from your cardio workout, would be beneficial for the 100. and long jump to add explosive squats, but main focus must be on running, as this is easily improoved and will effect both jump and sprint.

 

So, for the running 

 

You should have 3-5 cardio sessions a week. You need both easy, medium and hard training sessions to get good results, the hard sessions is the ones that give you the true increese of pase, but it is important to also add in easy and medium paced sessions for optimal results. The easy runs will just be a light jog 30 - 60 min, and will be a recovery session. the medium will be  45min - 1.5 hours and will help create a solid fondation to build your hard training sessions on. 

 

Start every medium and hard training session with 15 min tecnique/form work as warm-up. you will probably be able to find something easily on google, but it should at the very minimum include 3-5 sets, 60m of high knees, kick backs indian jumps, running on 1 leg only. 

This kind of training will give you better leg strength, increese the length you can go for each step. Teach you to run economical. Will also be very beneficial for the 100m and the Long Jump.

 

For the hard training we're going to do intervall training. fast paced bpm 88-94% of max HR

Take your current time in the 2.4km and devide it by 3(If you don't know go test yourself first training). This will be the length of your intervalls. So if you run 2.4km in 9 minutes you will run 3 minute intervals with 3/2 min rest in between.  

The workout will consist of 4 intervals of 3 min with 1.5 min rest between each intervall.

 

 

How efficient are you at swimming? if its only 100m it seems it is more to check, that you are able to swim at all. It could be a wise move to use one of the easy runs as an easy swim session as that will help protect you from overuse injury. Feel free to trow in some cycling too. In the first 4 weeks you should avoid more then 3 running sessions, as it is very easy to get inflamations along the shin. Also get good running shoes, and if you can do all your training on soft ground (in the park, woods etc.).

 

If you are interested in learning more about how you can inprove your training effect, you can check out this white paper: it is quite tecnical, but very informative.

http://www.firstbeat.com/userData/firstbeat/download/white_paper_training_effect.pdf

Wow. Thank you for the detailed response.

I dont' know my current times, but a few months ago I had 14,9s 100 run and 13min 25s 2400 run. I didn't do any running during the winter. I'll try and time myself tommorow.

A couple of follow-up questions, if you have time:

If I start with 3 sessions per week, in what order should I do them(hard, medium, easy or reverse)? Considering that I could train anytime between 16:00 and 20:00, how should I place my running and my strength training? Or should I do strength and cardio on different days? And how often should I do strength training per week(I'm assuming I will probably need to take it down a notch, but are 2-3 sessions a week OK)?

And thanks again

Ok, good. If you stay persistant with your training i would say you could hope to increese your time by about 30 -60 seconds a month.

Your exercise week should start with the hard workout, then follow up with the easy recovery the day after (no matter how sore you are). add a restday(or two if you don't feel suficiently recovered) and do a medium intensity workout.

Example cycle:

Monday -hard

tuesday -easy

friday -medium

After a few weeks you should consider adding another hard workout day.

2-3 strength sessions should be fine, if you have time for it i would say having them on seperate days would be beneficial, but nothing major. Personally i do my strengthwork after cardio, but before might me a better option as cardio training have the tendency to leave me a bit taxed. I don't have the f1 program, so i don't really know about that before cardio but i can tell you that h1 will be no problem. You will have to test for yourself, and find out what works for you!

Try and get more information.  Does each test have equal importance?  How are they comparing people?  Sometimes a little time with the calculator and your current results will help you to map out what parts of your training should be a top priority.  For example it might be that some things are really hard to get better at, but don't have a high value.  For example (just an example!) it might be that  the 2.4km run is worth 10% of the total, and you get 7 out of 10 points if you can do it in any time from 13:30 to 12:00 while the pull-ups are worth 30%, and each pull-up is worth 0.5 out of a possible 10 points.  So if you increase your pull-ups by 5 reps you will increase your total score by 7.5% (2.5/10 x 30%) while you would have to reduce your running time by  1min 25s just to improve your score by 1%.(1/10 x 10%).  If things are on a bell-curve you need the last few year's data.

The same thing could be said for the testing conditions.  Make sure to familiarize yourself with the way they are going to test, are the pull-ups chest to bar? What is the obstacle course like?  Will there be any evaluation of your recovery HR after the run or the swim?  Are all the tests on the same day?  Will you be using a starting block?  Do you have to go in the morning or at night?  The more information you have the less likely it is that you will get an unpleasant surprise.

As far as swimming goes, 100m is not a short distance but your speed will be highly dependant on your technique.   If it seems like the swimming test  will be important a few private lessons with a good coach interspersed with individual or group practice could shave a lot of time off.  Usually competitive swimming clubs will be able to put you in contact with a coach who can tell you how things work in your area.  You might want to see if the web-page of your national federation http://www.plavalna-zveza.si/ has any contact information.

Well, I tested my 2400m today and got around 12:50. Probably a couple of seconds less because I used the timer on my phone and it was a bit non-responsive, but nontheless, I felt good. No fatigue, except in my calves. Must be another side benefit of Foundation training . I'll test my 100 on the weekend. 

I also contacted my local swimming club and sent a detailed questionare to the school that I'm applying to. Awaiting responses. I'm already excited for this !

Another question re: Openeye: Hard days I need to go pretty much all out and on easy days my pace should be light. So for medium days, do I have the same pace as light days and just run longer or should I up my pace too? Thanks.