Drills and Mobility Exercises: Kosmin Test

http://www.yourrunning.com/blog-spring_in_the_step

Drills -- a combination of neuromuscular activations and re-wirings plus very specific strengthening and mobility exercises -- are designed to help develop the co-ordination and strength necessary to run fast with ease. It's a once-a-week session that really helps my running, so I try never to miss it, even though it involves getting up in the middle of the night to be ready to be not just awake, but capable of independent movement, at 7.30am.

This week the Drills session precedes a couple of easy days before we hit the track again on Saturday for a Kosmin test. This was originally developed in Russia to predict 800 and 1500 metre times. We'll be using it to find out where we stand in terms of our sub-5 minute miling. Well, they will. I'll be using it to see just how much MORE work I have to do to be able to get anywhere near cracking 6 minutes, never mind five.

The basic plot is that you run flat out for 4 reps of one minute with descending rest periods. You drop a marker on the track at the end of each 60 seconds and start your next rep at that point. Test ends by totalling the number of metres you've covered and crunching that figure through an equation that spits out a time. From that time we (well, Bobby) can set appropriate speeds for the next month of training.