With five and a half months of training behind, it's time to report some results.
First measure. The Polar Ownindex fitness test. My first test result, from the 12th of April, gave me a 41. Thats a low at the "avarege"-rating of my age group. Actually it's the lowest possible average, 40 being the top number for "fair" aerobic fitness.
The most recent test done on the 9th of August gave me a 55. That's towards the top end of "very good" for my age group. I got my highest score so far on the 1st of August when the test scored me a 56. Above 56 is considered "excellent". I read somewhere that Nordic skier and Olympic gold medalist Mika Myllylä scored 95 in his prime. Of course that might be artificially high as he was busted for blood doping. I don't know if he was cheating already during the time of that test. With no further ambitions than my own enjoyment and health I consider my trend pretty satisfactory:
41 - 12.4.2011
45 - 27.4.2011
52 - 11.5.2011
52 - 16.5.2011
51 - 21.5.2011
53 - 9.6.2011
49 - 11.6.2011
53 - 24.6.2011
53 - 13.7.2011
51 - 16.7.2011
54 - 21.7.2011
56 - 1.8.2011
55 - 9.8.2011
Second measure. The MAF-test. I've only done two so far, but it looks promising. First mile done at MAF heart rate has decreased from 12:56 to 11:35. Here are the results from the two test:
8.7.2011 30.7.2011
Mile 1 12:56 11:35
Mile 2 13:08 11:53
Mile 3 12:55 11:59
Mile 4 13:04 12:13
Mile 5 13:10 12:05
Temperature for the first test was 27 degrees Celcius and for the second test it was 20 degrees Celcius, this makes the improvement smaller than at first glance - but a noteworthy imrpovement none the less.
Third measure. Imroved running speed. Of course this would be best assessed by racing the same course with some time in between. Essentially it's pretty much the same as the MAF-test. I'll compare two runs done on the course I call Golf Course 5k.
Runs 5.5.2011 vs. 29.7.2011.
Time 43:00 37:00
Pace 8:36 7:24
Avg hr 142 144
Temp C 17 23
That's some nice improvement. One minute per kilometer faster in a bit less than three months.
Fourth measure. Weight. Initial weight 87 kg, weight today 82 kg. My Polar hrm shows a total of 73.000 calories burned since 12th of April. The real number is larger, as I haven't worn the hrm for every run. I guess that kind of calorie burning should make me a bit leaner, and it has by 5 kg.
Nice improvements all in all. I'm sneaking in a trail marathon in my schedule for this fall. I did my first 30 km training run yesterday. I think to take on the marathon so soon will be a real challenge. There will be some pretty technical trails and a lot of up- and downhill slopes. This race will hopefully provide some real insight to what needs to be done for further development during fall and winter.
