September 27, 2005
Bleep, bleep...level 12
On Tuesday's I'm supposed to be at uni until 18:00, but seeing as it was the fitness testing this afternoon, we got to leave early. The plan with the fitness test is to asses our level of fitness at the start of the semester and then complete the same tests again in 10 weeks time.
There were various tests to complete, including the bleep test (to answer Mart's question of what is the bleep test, go here and here), 20 metre sprint, sit ups, reach (flexibility test) and body fat calculation.
All 160ish of us were split into three groups, each going to a different test area, with my group started on the bleep test. I've seen this done on TV before, but never actually tried it myself so I wasn't quite sure what to expect, other than it tests your stamina and endurance, which is just about the only thing my body is designed for - no World Champion weight lifting for me. Half of the group first sat out and counted the level and laps for the others, which gave me the opportunity to see what was going to happen. People started dropping out around level 6 or 7, with a handful sticking it out until levels 10 and 11, then there was just one guy left and with everyone cheering him on he got to level 14. This was a bit of a benchmark as beforehand, one of the lecturers told us on a recent TV series, on of the UK's top athletes got to level 14.
So now it was the turn of my group to have a go. It's almost walking pace for the 1st level, but by level 4 my mouth was Sahara desert dry. I wasn't really paying much attention to everyone else in the line, but I could sense that people didn't seem to be dropping out. As the levels ticked by the pace was increased and come level 10 it was starting to hurt and there were only 3 or 4 of us left. I vaguely herd level 12 announced and there was me and another guy, who next time I looked was gone; just me left and everyone cheering me on. I managed level 12.6 before I was unable to keep up with the bleeps. I'm not sure how the others did in the remaining groups, but I'm still pretty pleased with that. It gives me something to work at though and 10 weeks down the line I'm going to nail that bleep test, I'm going to own it. Mind you, I'm not saying that I'll get anywhere near the Lance Armstrong or David Beckham level 23!
The other tests weren't too bad, but I'm not really a sprinter and I was about average on the sit ups. As for the reach test, let's just say I'm about as flexible as a steel girder and we'll leave it at that. I'll have to wait and see how my body fat results turn out, but I can't see them being too bad - I haven't exactly got a beer gut!
All in all, another great day at uni and I'm getting to know more people everyday. That's it until Friday afternoon now, which means it's back to earning those pennies Wednesday and Thursday.