When it comes to training wisely, the combination of treadmill test and pulse monitor is hard to beat, says Catherine McKiernan
My running year has started off on a positive and enjoyable note.
Someone asked me lately, ‘How can you keep up the pace and manage to fit everything in with regard to family and work commitments?’ The answer to that is ‘running’. It sets me up for the day and gives me the confidence and feeling of wellbeing to overcome the challenges life brings.
At this stage I want to prolong my running capabilities and see what I can get out of myself. Out of curiosity I went to Trinity College a couple of weeks ago to check my level of fitness — or in more scientific terms, to find out my VO2 max. I also wanted to find out how ‘age’ has affected my running ability.
I was 18 when I first went to get the treadmill test, which tells you how efficiently the body uses oxygen. The greater the uptake of oxygen the greater the potential to run long distances.
When I was at the top of my game I worked closely with Mary Kelly, Prof. Moira O’Brien and Bernard Donne in the Physiology Department in Trinity. They were innovative in working out problems with my training and preparation.
Double Trouble
During my ten years going there, Bernard never called me by my name — he addressed me as ‘Trouble’. I was never quite sure why, but, lo and behold! I got the same greeting when I arrived recently in the new state-of-the- art Physiology Department.
The treadmill test is never easy and the longer it goes on the more difficult it gets. During my racing career the pulse monitor was my running companion.
Designed to be worn during exercise and to measure and record heartrate, giving feedback about cardiac workload, it helped me train in a scientific way, so that I got the most out of my training.
The VO2 max test tells you what zones to train at for easy and long runs, tempo or threshold runs and interval sessions.
A pulse monitor is the only effective tool to track your heartrate over an entire session, making it extremely useful for applying in training what the treadmill has told you.
During each run I would try to keep my pulse in the required zones. I found the monitor most beneficial on threshold runs; I felt a great sense of achievement when I could stay in the correct zones, because I knew I was doing the training specific to my needs.
Using a pulse monitor allows you get the most out of your training while minimising the risk of injury. And if you’re a runner who tends not to train hard enough, the monitor will bleep when you need to work harder.
Most runners run too fast on their easy runs and too easy on their fast runs. This takes from their recovery and they end up going into races with fatigue in their legs. The purpose of easy runs is to recover from hard training and racing, and if you do these runs too hard you will become overtrained, with staleness setting in. This is where the monitor helps.
Not all experienced or elite runners train with monitors. Many rely on ‘perceived exertion’, or how hard running feels.
Tempting offer
Just like old times, I pushed myself to near exhaustion on my recent visit to Trinity. I didn’t want to give Bernard the satisfaction of saying age had caught up with me. In fact, and to my surprise, he was very complimentary. We sat down afterwards and talked through the results and everything looked good, so much so that Bernard tried to persuade me to run one last marathon.
From my very first visit to Trinity, my results showed I was made for the ‘long haul’. I really enjoyed the transition from cross-country and middle distance to marathon training. With the heartrates at which I was training and racing I felt more comfortable than at the shorter races.
The only trouble, as we all know: marathons are a long way and take a lot out of the body. My father was never happy with me running the distance and I know if he were still alive he would certainly not be advising me to run another marathon.
I know too that one should never say never, but I like running too much and it’s very important to me at this point in my life that I don’t risk getting injured and not being able to run.
I have begun to use my monitor again on some runs and look forward to improving my fitness and challenging myself at 5k and 10k over these spring and summer months.
Happy running!
www.catherinamckiernan.com
