September 18
Not too much happened this weekend. I spent some time working on catching up with school work, but otherwise just enjoyed my last few days off from classes. This morning it was finally the 6th week since I began taking the natural "Devil's Claw" supplement, so it was finally time for me to go into the Australian Institute for Sport (AIS) for my testing. I was ready to go at 7:45, when Kate picked me up from my dorm. At the AIS we did some preliminary testing, such as a vertical reach, vertical jump, squat jump, quad strength, "pain" tests, and a blood sample. After all this was done I did my downhill run, which consisted of running on a huge industrial-sized treadmill at a 10% downgrade for 5X 8 minutes at 80% of my maximum heart rate. In between my runs I got 2 minutes walking recovery on a level treadmill. I wore a heart rate monitor throughout the duration of the run and the speed of the treadmill was adjusted according to what my heartrate was, until it was approximately 80% of my maximum. I was surprised at how easy the run felt. It turns out I ran at 5:41 pace on the treadmill, but I was talking to Kate and her boyfriend Reese (he was also taking part in the study) the whole time I was running.
After I completed the run I was tested again for my performance (jumping, quad strentgh), pain, and a blood sample was taken. The study requires a 4-hour checkup, and then 24, 48, 72, and 96 hour checkups. I had about two hours after my post-run checkup before my four-hour checkup, so Kate got me into a tour (normally $10) of the AIS. The tour leaders were a gymnast that has won gold medals at the Australian Commonwealth games, and a rower. The AIS facilities are pretty amazing, with a lot of state-of-the-art training equipment and scientific analysis equipment. We got to see some young gymnasts (7-14 years old) in the one gym practicing. Apparently they are on scholarship at the AIS which means they get paid to train there, and they train about 6 hours per day as well as doing about two hours of school. Some of the stunts they did were pretty amazing, especially after you realized how small the kids were! We learned about all of the facilities on the tour, including those where a fair number of Australian olympians have trained. In one room called a "sportsplex" there were a lot of interactive sports simulators and games, and heaps of information about a lot of olympians. I mostly just looked around at the display cases with athletic gear, medals, and placques talking about various olympians. One placque that I found to be especially interesting was about Herb Elliot, "the greatest miler of all time". Apparently Herb managed to break the 4:00 mile shortly after beginning his running career (when he was 19 years old!), set the 1-mile world record when he was 20, and won the gold medal in the 1500 meters at the olympics in 1960, when he was just 22 years old. He won the olympics in a time of 3:35.6, which was a new world record, but more amazingly, he did it by finishing 20 meters ahead of second place. Apparently there has never been such a large gap between first and second in the 1500 meters since, and his time of 3:35.6 hasn't even bested consistently in all of the olympics finals since then. Herb Elliot retired when he was still just 22 years old, after a career of never being outrun in the 1500 meters or the mile for over 40 competitions in a row, and after breaking the 4:00 mile 17 times. I definitely have to agree that Herb Elliot was the best miler of all time.
After the tour of the AIS I was retested once again, then Kate took me home. I went to class this afternoon and did homework in the evening. Ah, back into the good ol' school routine.
After I completed the run I was tested again for my performance (jumping, quad strentgh), pain, and a blood sample was taken. The study requires a 4-hour checkup, and then 24, 48, 72, and 96 hour checkups. I had about two hours after my post-run checkup before my four-hour checkup, so Kate got me into a tour (normally $10) of the AIS. The tour leaders were a gymnast that has won gold medals at the Australian Commonwealth games, and a rower. The AIS facilities are pretty amazing, with a lot of state-of-the-art training equipment and scientific analysis equipment. We got to see some young gymnasts (7-14 years old) in the one gym practicing. Apparently they are on scholarship at the AIS which means they get paid to train there, and they train about 6 hours per day as well as doing about two hours of school. Some of the stunts they did were pretty amazing, especially after you realized how small the kids were! We learned about all of the facilities on the tour, including those where a fair number of Australian olympians have trained. In one room called a "sportsplex" there were a lot of interactive sports simulators and games, and heaps of information about a lot of olympians. I mostly just looked around at the display cases with athletic gear, medals, and placques talking about various olympians. One placque that I found to be especially interesting was about Herb Elliot, "the greatest miler of all time". Apparently Herb managed to break the 4:00 mile shortly after beginning his running career (when he was 19 years old!), set the 1-mile world record when he was 20, and won the gold medal in the 1500 meters at the olympics in 1960, when he was just 22 years old. He won the olympics in a time of 3:35.6, which was a new world record, but more amazingly, he did it by finishing 20 meters ahead of second place. Apparently there has never been such a large gap between first and second in the 1500 meters since, and his time of 3:35.6 hasn't even bested consistently in all of the olympics finals since then. Herb Elliot retired when he was still just 22 years old, after a career of never being outrun in the 1500 meters or the mile for over 40 competitions in a row, and after breaking the 4:00 mile 17 times. I definitely have to agree that Herb Elliot was the best miler of all time.
After the tour of the AIS I was retested once again, then Kate took me home. I went to class this afternoon and did homework in the evening. Ah, back into the good ol' school routine.
posted by itsbenrael at 6:48 PM
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