PART 2 - Before You Start Running – Fitness Testing
Part 1 of this series, "Before Lacing the Running Shoes" looked at reflective journaling as a method to put into context your recreational and fitness running activities.
Before heading out of the door to run, perform a series of simple tests to determine your running project's current state and future directions.
Do you know –
How many days a week you should run?
What is your best type of running – long runs, moderate runs interspersed with fast bursts, fartlek, or tempo runs?
Do I need to add strength training to my weekly training sessions?
If competition is one of the goals of your running project, can you outsprint fellow runners at the end of the race to achieve a better time or place?
Are there any restrictions or challenges with flexibility, mobility, or coordination within the joints, ligaments, tendons, and muscles of my hips, knees, and ankles?
Will these challenges negatively impact the quantity and quality of each running session?
Collecting data to answer these and other questions can positively or negatively impact your tunning project. Testing is a process that allows data conversion into useful information and enables a successful running project.
Testing is a systematic process to collect subjective and objective data on physical, well-being, and nutrition factors impacting training. Fitness runners should add testing to their training menu to increase the enjoyment and performance outcomes during training and any races. Testing applies to all levels of fitness and recreational runners, from novices to those who compete regularly in track and road racing events.
In competitive sports, the testing process allows the collection, transformation, and application of data points to create performance metrics for competitive athletes. Many coaches and athletes take this approach to access the following benefits for their training programs and, ultimately, competitive outcomes. Some of the benefits resulting from testing are:
It helps athletes and coaches to assess their current strengths and weaknesses and identify areas for improvement.
It helps to set realistic and specific goals and monitor progress and achievement over time.
It helps to evaluate the effectiveness of training programs, interventions, and strategies and make adjustments as needed.
It helps to compare and contrast performance with other athletes, teams, or standards and gain insights and feedback.
It helps to enhance motivation, confidence, and self-awareness among athletes and coaches.
Fitness and recreational runners who add systematic testing to complement their running programs can access similar benefits to highly competitive athletes. Peterson (2018) in an article presents an argument that fitness testing for the general public and novice exercisers is beneficial. In order of relevance to the recreational/fitness runner, Peterson (2018) says fitness testing assists with:
Identification of physiological strengths and weaknesses
Evaluation of the effectiveness of the running training program
Assignment of training parameters – e.g., recommended % of 5 repetition maximum for strength training exercises, running pace per mile for training runs, running pace for running intervals)
Track race performances
Predicting future performances in concert with benefits #2 - from above
Rank individuals for selection purposes of minor relevance for recreational runners.
A careful examination reveals that performance testing and fitness testing for recreational athletes share similar characteristics in outcomes. For testing to be meaningful, seamless, and non-disruptive to a running training program, the following basic tenets of testing applies –
Feasibility refers to the practicality of the test in terms of cost, time to administer, equipment needs, and space required to facilitate the test.
Relevant refers to the idea that the test effectively assesses the physiological requirements necessary and sufficient to perform the sport.
Reliable refers to the consistency of a measure. The test gives the runner the same or similar results on successive test applications.
Repeatable refers to a test's ability to exhibit stability and consistency in measuring with each successive test application over time by the same tester.
Valid refers to the accuracy of a measure; the test measures what it is supposed to measure. For example, a 40m sprint is a valid test to assess speed but is not valid to measure 5km running endurance.
Fitness Testing Items:
So, what are some tests that the recreational and fitness runner can efficiently perform to collect information to assist with designing meaningful training sessions and monitoring any racing events? The tests below are helpful for recreational and fitness runners.
1. Core
Running happens with the body in an upright posture while performing the dual tasks of resisting the forces of gravity and applying forces against the ground to overcome gravity. This duality of function assists the runner in taking successive running steps. The trunk/torso acts as a dynamic "foundation" through which the force-producing levers (lower limbs) and the force-balancing levers (the arms) facilitate efficient running. Assessing the core provides information on trunk/torso strength and stability. The isometric plank test is one useful option.
a. Plank test: Perform – reverse plank test: (supine/face up position) and side plank/bridge (lateral) position.
2. Multi-Joint Screen
Not only does running happen with an upright posture, but there is a coordination between the trunk and the upper and lower limbs. Most of this coordination centers around the trunk and the joints of the lower limbs during running. The following two tests assessing posture, multi-joint mobility, and flexibility give a good picture of the effectiveness of the coordination between the trunk and lower limbs.
a. Overhead Squat
3. Strength
The running speed is simply stride length * stride frequency at its most basic level. As a consequence of upright running within the gravitational field, the ability to produce an effective stride length and high stride frequencies depends on how much force the lower limbs can produce with each footfall. Therefore, assessing the lower extremities' general, maximal, or explosive strength provides information about the invaluable and adaptable training factor, strength.
Strength training is the singular modality that, done right, gives all runners
Impressive returns on the economy of running effort, i.e, increasing economy
An increase in running speed, i.e minutes per mile or metres per second
A reduction in injury and the likelihood of injury
Improved performances as reflected in race finish times.
Use the following two tests to monitor the effects of adding strength training to the running training program.
Back Squat – 3RM: refer to the video below and the given link.
https://www.topendsports.com/testing/tests/home-squat.htm#:~:text=Squat%20down%20and%20lightly%20touch%20the%20chair%20before,how%20much%20your%20lower%20body%20strength%20has%20improved.
2. Standing Long Jump/Standing Horizontal Jump
4. Aerobic Endurance
Fitness and recreational runners who run daily have a good idea and feel for their endurance level(s) as a byproduct of the quantity and quality of each running session. Aerobic endurance represents
The ability to run continuously with time without developing excessive general body and local leg muscle fatigue
Exercise halting breathlessness
A sense of overexertion of the heart and
Bodily overheating due to the physical exertion of running
Seasoned runners can use Cooper's 12-minute run test as a time trial to gauge their readiness for,
An upcoming competition or race
Progression or inclusion of a more intense aerobic endurance training modality (long run vs. fartlek training vs. interval training)
In beginners or novice recreational or fitness runners, Cooper's 12-minute run test allows the recording of baseline information:
On the current capacity of the body to sustain and perform a continuous running effort
On the body's current capacity to use oxygen, avoid overheating, and achieve a heart rate commensurate with effort via the distance covered within the 12-minute time limit.
That is useful for planning and designing daily, weekly, and monthly running sessions.
5. Anaerobic Endurance
Fitness testing for anaerobic endurance assesses
The ability of the body to resist fatigue
How well your body can handle repeated short bursts/injections or changes of increasing pace during an endurance run.
The ability of the body to use lactate as a fuel
The Running Anaerobic Sprint Test – R.A.S.T Test is one such test that is time efficient and easy to carry out.
6. Speed
A secondary metric in testing fitness and recreational runners is testing of absolute or maximum speed, which gives insight into your capacity to run fast. The ability to run fast is not directly related to the distance achieved during a run or the finish time in a race. However, inserting activities and drills that enhance speed adds a distinctive flavour to the running training regime. During a competitive race, increasing basic speed is essential to get away from a fellow runner near the end of the race or to create a gap between yourself and a fellow runner during a race.
Running speed has a strong relationship with the ability to apply force to the running surface with each step. Strength or resistance training using free weights, certain types of resistance machines, and plyometrics are great at increasing lower limb strength and increasing the ability of the legs to express maximum strength and power with each step at the footstrike.
Careful planning of exercises to enhance speed in combination with resistance training benefits the fitness and recreational runner with
Improved running economy
Improved running technique and skills
An additional tool to apply during racing events
Faster overall running times secondary to increasing strength and running skills
The 40m sprint helps monitor the effectiveness and progress of the synergistic training effect that combines resistance training and speed running exercises. Check out the given link for a detail explanation of the 40m test.
Fitness Testing as a Learning Tool for the Recreational Runner
1. Benchmarking and Goal Setting
Fitness testing collects baseline measurement benchmarks that are influential in the planning, designing, and implementing all future running training sessions. Using this baseline data, the runner sets specific, measurable goals for daily, weekly, and monthly training sessions. The iterative cycle of testing-training-retesting develops a habit of setting goals to achieve progress during running sessions and enhancing understanding of physical abilities and limitations.
2. Feedback for Learning
Feedback is a crucial learning component for the runner and coach. Fitness testing provides immediate, objective feedback on the runner's training sessions. This feedback assists with an understanding of whether running training activities and drills are achieving and meeting the set goals and objectives of the running project. Tapping into feedback helps the runner make better decisions about the approach to running training.
A fitness testing battery affords the testing runner access to extrinsic feedback. Whether it is the time on the stopwatch or the distance at the end of the measuring tape, the runner uses concrete and visual cue(s) to understand the current and potential future direction of their running project. The extrinsic feedback from externally-driven fitness testing affords the runner immediate feedback via knowledge of results (KR. Using knowledge of results, the runner is in a better position to correct-improve and accept-enhance future attempts of a particular or running-related activity.
3. Motivation and Engagement
Fitness tests and witnessing tangible improvements in testing scores can significantly boost the recreational runner’s motivation. Learning about their progress through testing can re-engage runners with their weekly training regimen, driving them to more consistency and stability towards achieving the goals and objectives of their runnng project. The testing, learning, and improvement cycle creates a positive feedback loop that fosters continuous engagement and motivation.
4. Personalization of Training
Fitness testing reveals unique insights into the runner's specific training needs. This unique insight is actionable using the concept of agile periodization to design and plan daily, weekly, and monthly run training cycles. The individualization of training assists the runner in learning their strengths and challenges (physical, nutrition, psychological) for improvement, guiding them toward more tailored and effective training strategies. This individual periodization program enhances learning and optimizes training and competitive outcomes.
References
1. Peterson, David D. EdD, CSCS*D. Periodic Fitness Testing: Not Just for Athletes Anymore. Strength and Conditioning Journal 40(5):p 60-76, October 2018. | DOI: 10.1519/SSC.0000000000000393
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