A few random ramblings…

I’ve heard people say that one of the most difficult things about training for a particular event is to hit your peak performance at just the right time.

I’m 5 days away from what may be, for me at least, a career deciding fitness test. Along with 39 of the country’s top Futsal referees, including our two current FIFA referees, I will hit the track at the Australian Institute of Sport in Canberra to take the FIFA level Futsal Referees Fitness Test.

That test starts with a 1km run, to be completed in under 4 minutes, and today I broke a personal record and came very close to hitting that mark.

4 minutes and 2 seconds. 1000 sweaty metres. No stopping, jogging, walking… accelerating all the way to finish the last 200 metres in a sprint.

But this, whilst an achievement, is merely the beginning… See, the 1km run is only the start of the fitness test, and whilst we’ll get a 15 minute recovery period after the run, there are a series of sprint and agility runs to follow.

And after we’re all physically drained… for some of us, to the point of collapse and nausea, if previous fitness tests are anything to go by… they send us inside for a seminar as part of the preparation for the tournament. If it was for your tests after nomination for a FIFA badge, you would instead be going in for a written exam… which has a pass mark of 100%. Very demanding, yes, especially so after being drained physically… but consider that the FIFA hierarchy want only the best. Even at the point of exhaustion, they want you able to correctly recall and apply the laws of the game.

It’s interesting, in many ways, looking back over this year as I’ve tried to improve my fitness. Starting late January 2007, I struggled to finish a kilometre in 7 minutes, walking the last several hundred metres. I weighed in at 98kgs with a body fat percentage of just over 36%. 11 months later, I’m cracking the scales at 103kgs, with a body fat percentage of 24.9% and pushing a 1km run without stopping or slowing down.

But the biggest story has been told in the photos I’ve seen from years ago… I had always thought I was doing ok in so far as body shape and self image was concerned.

I could not have been more wrong if I’d tried.

And in seeing the changes progress over the years between then and now, it was definitely a wake up call.

I may have come a long way, but I still have a long way to go.

But that’s cool… since irrespective of how things go with the test, I’ve decided on a new fitness goal for 2008. Whilst an 11% drop in my body fat is commendable, having the resulting percentage still in the mid 20’s is not.

So, come what may in Canberra, I already know that I’ve come out a winner.