As soon as I crossed the finish line, the only thing I wanted to do was lay on the ground. My lungs burned. It was impossible to escape the glare of the sun. But I had finished.<\/p>\n
Three weeks previously I received a text, out of the blue that read: \u201cI have an idea for you\u2026 would involve you doing some running.\u201d<\/p>\n
The idea was fairly simple; how would the average person, plucked from the street, fare doing a Red Roses fitness test?<\/p>\n
Honestly, at this moment in my life I am not the fittest I have ever been. It has been at least four years since I could have firmly put myself in that category. Even with that said, I do love a challenge.<\/p>\n
Regrettably, the answer was an almost immediate yes. All I had to do was find my trainers. In the end I never found them. Instead, I used the worn-out trainers I take the bins out in.<\/p>\n
The 1,200m test is used by the Red Roses\u2019 strength and conditioning team to assess players\u2019 aerobic capacity. In contrast to the hugely popular Bronco \u2013 five repetitions of 20m, 40m and 60m shuttles, with players returning to the start line after each distance \u2013 players run 12 x 100m at their highest possible intensity.<\/p>\n
The test was first introduced four years ago and is run three times a season \u2013 in preseason, at their January training camp and at the end of the season.<\/p>\n
It is a gruelling introduction to the season, but one that lays the foundations for World Rugby\u2019s top-ranked side.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe went down the route of using the 12 x 100m because it is less turns,\u201d Ethan Kinney, Red Roses athletic performance lead, told RugbyPass.<\/p>\n
\u201cWe\u2019re looking at it purely from a physiological assessment, as opposed to, \u2018this is a rugby test\u2019, which is where the Bronco came from. We\u2019ve always looked at it as a maximum aerobic test, so we wanted it as pure as we could to that.<\/p>\n
\u201cSo, how do you do that? Limit the noise with having the decelerate, re-accelerate over and over again. If you want to even more gold standard than that, we\u2019d put it on a running track and lap it. But we try to replicate it by putting it on grass and wearing boots.<\/p>\n
\u201cBecause it\u2019s a pure-form physiological test. That\u2019s your foundational test. That\u2019s your entry into rugby. Let\u2019s see how good you are aerobically and then you can layer on other assessments on top of it.\u201d<\/p>\n
Kinney believes buy-in from the players and wider coaching staff is a big reason the 1,200m has become such a staple of Red Roses life.<\/p>\n
Because, after what is a relatively short period of discomfort, a player\u2019s whole season can be mapped out.<\/p>\n
\u201cAs a simplistic data tool, it\u2019ll give you a lot,\u201d Kinney said. \u201cIt is a good simple tool to give you a lot of bang for your buck. That level of individualisation, especially at international, I think the players appreciate.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat\u2019s the same across the board; with the way we want to play \u2013 how can you maximise the positional demands for each group without generalising everybody?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe players see value in having an individualised programme. It\u2019d be really easy for me to go; you\u2019re all running the exact same. A loosehead prop is going to need a different kind of running programme compared to a full-back.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cTheir management off the back of it is probably really good,\u201d Kinney continued. \u201cWhen they see it as, this is something I\u2019m just going to work on as an athlete, they understand it.<\/p>\n
\u201cThat doesn\u2019t mean if you\u2019ve not performed for the maximum of your ability, it doesn\u2019t mean I\u2019m going to have you out at the end of every session running shuttles, they know that is one of their work-ons for the season. And that is going to be something we hold them accountable for.<\/p>\n
\u201cThey almost want those, what can I work on? Is this something I need to work on? How am I going to work on it?<\/p>\n
\u201cThe more you run it [the 1,200m], you might not get better at running the test over and over again, but the interventions that come with it don\u2019t have to be barbaric.\u201d<\/p>\n
I ran the test by myself at The Lensbury in Teddington, next to the same pitch that England<\/a> prepared on ahead of their WXV Global Series<\/a> opening win against the Wallaroos.<\/p>\n In contrast to the world champions, who had some of the best support staff in the world monitoring their progress, I had a gaggle of geese watching on.<\/p>\n Running 100 metres, 12 times in a row, is fairly unforgiving. Who knew? Doing it by yourself with only geese for company, as Kinney later described, is a \u201cpretty lonely place.\u201d<\/p>\n \u201cThese players get to do it in their positional groups as backs and forwards,\u201d he said. \u201cThey\u2019re running it with 20 other people. You\u2019re all trying to do the best as individuals, but you\u2019re also trying to put your best foot forward \u2013 which they\u2019ve all brought into as a squad.\u201d<\/p>\n The entire 12 lengths of a rugby pitch are physical and mental torment. Your body is in a battle with itself to keep one foot going in front of the other. Your mind flits from belief to doubt in less than a millisecond without warning.<\/p>\n My first leg was completed in 23 seconds. Which is, in all honesty, quite pleasing. Looking back, it may well have been part of my downfall in the 10th leg when I, somewhat impetuously, walked.<\/p>\n \u201cYou\u2019ll have some that, as soon as the whistle goes, it\u2019ll be handbrake off and they\u2019ll try to get through it as quick as they can,\u201d Kinney said. \u201cSometimes that works. Sometimes that might not work as well.\u201d<\/p>\n Going out so strong as an opening gambit gave my body absolutely no chance. Especially when the majority of my \u2018runs\u2019 in day-to-day life are done crossing the road.<\/p>\n For the first 10 lengths, my times got progressively longer \u2013 topped by that 70 second monstrosity. The final two legs, by contrast, totalled 70 seconds. 7:39.<\/p>\n Personally, it was quite a pleasing time. But it is sharply put into perspective when you hear the Red Roses\u2019 times. I was a whole three minutes slower \u00a0than the fastest England player. \u00a0About 90 seconds behind the 40th-place Red Rose that did the test at the start of August.<\/p>\n I will not make the squad of any rugby team particularly soon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"As soon as I crossed the finish line, the only thing I wanted to do was lay on…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":772562,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[35],"tags":[5903,101,56,54,55],"class_list":["post-772561","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-rugby","tag-rugby","tag-sports","tag-uk","tag-united-kingdom","tag-unitedkingdom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772561","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=772561"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/772561\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/772562"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=772561"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=772561"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=772561"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
The big question now is how I fared?<\/p>\n