Hi-Tec Boot Camp at SSISA Day 1

Tuesday, 08 March 2011 10:13

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The right start to the day

by Ian Little

The beauty of a programme that runs from 6-7am three days a week is that you’ve finished your session before the rest of the world is properly awake. So it was this morning for the first session of the elite Hi-Tec Boot Camp at the Sports Science Institute of South Africa (SSISA). I think it’s fair to say we didn’t look much like the special forces in training, but where physiques and elite levels of fitness were lacking enthusiasm made up for it in spades.

Today was the intro session, at SSISA, kicking off with the Cooper test which was devised for the US army in 1968 to test levels of fitness and also give an approximation of VO₂ max. The test is simplicity itself. Find a flat route, in this case the indoor SSISA 140m round track and run as hard as you can for 12 minutes. Sounds easy, but boy does 12 minutes go so, so, so slowly when you are running flat out. Now being a runner, this was my turf, and it was nice to scoot around the track at what seemed like warp factor 12. Counting laps was by means of elastic bands which you switched from one wrist to the other, much harder when you are running! I’m not sure running around a tight track for very long is good for the biomechanics, but 12 minutes was doable and soon the elastic band count for the group was over 100! Rather than run in racing flats I thought I would test out the Hi-Tec Infinity trail shoes on the track and they did the job perfectly, with 3.36km in the 12 minutes.

After the burn of the track it was outside to test those core muscles and see if we could push up, pull down and sit up! This was much more challenging for muscles that normally just wobble around a bit when I’m running. I’ve always believed that a strong core is good for your running, but alas the nearest I get to the killer abs class at the gym is hiding on the gym bike when the instructors come around soliciting victims, sorry volunteers. So maybe this is the course that turns the zero pack into the six pack, let’s hope so!

Apparently tomorrow’s session, properly outside at Westerford School fields is where the work really starts and we are instructed to dig out the head torches and report for duty at 6am. At least at this Boot Camp you can have a cappuccino after the session.

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