To a significant extent an athletes cardiovascular fitness
is a good indicator of their endurance capabilities. This measures the
speed at which a relatively light exercise is carried out and the athletes
heart rate is measured as they recover.
A good test for this is the Harvard Step Test
Find a step which is 45-50 cm high - could be a box / a high step / low wall or
chair.
Step up and down off it for 5 minutes - every two seconds - completing
150 steps in the durations.
Take the athletes pulse after 1 minute / 2 minutes and 3 minutes (for 30 seconds
each time)
The score achieve is calculated using the following formula
30000 / (sum of the 3 pulses x 2)
|
excellent
|
> 90
|
|
good
|
80 - 89
|
|
high average
|
65 - 79
|
|
low average
|
55 - 64
|
|
poor
|
< 55
|
Use this table to measure your cardivascular fitness - if it isn't all that
good, then some low level exercise for at least 30 mins, 3 times a week would
be a good idea (this is something often neglected by sprinters). We all need
to bit "fit to train" even if aerobic capacity isn't necessary for our individual events.