Run-Down Forums

[Anselm Murphy]

Im English so i dont know if they have the bleep test in america.
For those who dont know, its a fitness test where you have to run between two markers 20m apart, before a tape that is playing beeps. You have about 10secs to get to each marker, but once you done it a few times, it goes up a level and the bleeps get closer together. When you cant keep up any more u r out, and the level and bleep you go out at is your score.

I have about 5 weeks to train for this.
I think my old injury is ok, and I've been running again for several months, doing 3.5 miles a day. I have got pretty good at this distance, but I don't seem to be any better at doing things where I get tired quicker, like the bleep test.
What would be a good way to train for this?
I can't use a track though(not one near enough) and all my training is done in the street, on a circuit that is roughly 560m long ( 10 of these makes up my 3.5mile run)
I was thinking of instead of just doing 10 laps of this distance, i could start slow and gradually decrease the time I have to do the lap in, untill i can barely make it in time and am very tired, to kind of simulate the bleep test.
What u think Dan?
Cheers! (sorry about the long post!)

[Conway]

Correct me if i am wrong Dan, but I just happened to see this post ... Would seem to me that the test you are training for is one of speed endurance .. Not distance endurance .. Additional distance running it seems to me would not prepare you for this any more than it would prepeare you to run 200 meters .. why ont get ready for this test by practicing it !!! Maybe place the markers 25 meters apart instead of 20 to make yourself work harder .. By doing this you should get better at it .. Of course if I am off base Dan will let us know ...

[Dan]

Yeah, I agree with Conway. The distance endurance you are building with your current training will have very little effect on what you are preparing for. Another thing that would be good for you is short, fast, steep hill repeats, probably about 50m long. That will get you in oxygen debt quicker and get you used to powering through fatigue.

Dan

[mario]

While I was in Highschool (about 20 years ago), the commun test for aerobic fitness was the Cooper test (how long could you run within 12 minutes).

I have been surprised when my stepson told me a couple years ago that there were using that "bleep test". If I am right, the laps time to run between the markers are getting shorter and shorter,until you fail? So you are going to go faster and faster until you reach an anaerobic threshold. You could drop with 3 minutes or 20 minutes later

In my understanding, highschool started to use them because it became too much liability to use the Cooper test anymore, some teenager not able to do more than walking (no X generation anymore, it is the XXL generation coming).

No point to discuss if that test is superior to Cooper test, a 5K race or the 3 step stairway method, to measure aerobic fitness.
It have the merit to be doable indoor, no need to check your pulse before and aftermath, making possible to measure fitness of a lot of peoples and very unfit subjects are likely to drop-out early.

If you want to "perform" at that test, off course good VO2Max will help you out. But it is not measured very well, because they are looking for your aneorobic threshold. (I trust more good old Cooper or a 5K race). Said otherway, they are measuring your fatest sustainable speed for a few minutes. Appropriate repeats session will help you out. What you need to know it is the laps of time before shortening the time between the beep, not the time between two beeps. The time between two beeps is checking that your are able to sustain that speed for 2, 3 or 5 minutes, dependably of how long before shortening the laps of time between the beeps.

Lets say that the required time is 3 minutes. I would try to inster 6 X 3min or 7 X 3 min repeats once/week in my training session, as speedwork. Rest about the same time your run hard, running slowly or walking. The idea is to run hard for about 20 minutes. Overall running volume during the week should be large enough to make that speed session 10% or less of your training, remaining of the training beeing much more slow.

If you are not running enough for that, start first increasing your running volume 10% week before starting repeats work-out.

It is a bit short for such a vast topic, but hopefully it gives you an idea

[Dan]

[mario]

If that beep test is as I understood it, It would be like running no stop or almost no stop, but rather to run around a track you are inside, going back and forth on a 20 m distance without stopping. In a way, it would be more like someone running during a basketball game, but the match would never stop more than 1 or 3 seconds. As soon as you can't keep going reaching the post before the beep, the test is finished for you. As the test progess, the beeps get closer, until the last student can't keep going.

I will look in my junk tonight. The test is known under the name of the Sport science doctor that tought about it. As I already said, I would be more believing in the value of the good old Cooper Test.

[mario]

O.K. , I found out. The bleep, beep or bip-bip test true name is "Test de course progressive Léger-Boucher" or "Leger-Boucher progessive running test" . Orginally it was designed to be run on an interior track of 200m, with marks on the track at each 50 meters. Each 2 minutes the speed is increased per 1 km/h, the first step being 9 (km/h) If someone can't follow between two steps, he got a proportional step dependably how far he go (ex.: 9.3). The steps are used to estimate the VO2 Max. Right or wrong, a lot of peoples have modified the test so people run back and forward between posts. (I didn't even knew that people where orignally using an interior track). I don't know any anglo web site, It could be fun if you found one. Here the best one I found about the Léger-Boucher test,including VO2 max table, in French:

http://home.nordnet.fr/~ydesprez/legerBoucher.htm

_________________
M'as tu vu courir, m'as tu vu courir dans ta rue?-Robert Charlebois

[Dan]

Hmm, we have two very different pictures being painted here, or at least two very different interpretations of the same picture (all of which may be in my head)... Anselm, care to expand on what exactly we are talking about?

Dan

[mario]

Meantime, I found two English web pages about running beep test:

http://www.brucebrownlee.com/coaching/fitness/beeptest.htm
http://www.topendsports.com/testing/beepcalc.htm

It appears that Leger Boucher test is only one of some existing beep test. The scientific papers backing the web pages are going back to the 80'S. Those sites are specifically refering to running back and forth inside to complete the test. But they are clearly designed to measure VO2Max.



_________________
"M'as tu vu courir, m'as tu vu courir dans ta rue?"-Robert Charlebois

[ This Message was edited by: mario on 2001-10-30 15:54 ]

[Anselm Murphy]

Sorry I've taken so long to reply, havent been on the net for a while.
Thanks for those links Mario.

The bleep test is where you run to a marker 20m away, turn around and run back. You have to get to the marker before the tape playing "bleeps", otherwise you're out. Each level takes about one minute, and every time the level increases, the time you have to reach the marker decreases slightly, so you have to go quicker, and later levels have more "bleeps" in them. When you cant get to the marker before the bleep you are out, and when you go out you're score is the level you went out at, and the number of bleeps, eg level 10 bleep 4 would be 10 D.

What I've been doing for training in the meanwhile is running on my circuit of roughly 560m, first at a pace of 2:30 per lap, then 2:20, 2:10, 2:00, 1:50 then 1:40 so that it starts of easy and gradually increases until its very hard to keep to the set pace, which i thought would be a decent way of simulating the bleep test.

Thanks for all your help guys.

[Dan]

What I'm still not quite clear on is what happens between the timed "bleeps"? I assume you still need to make it back in a certain amount of time to start the next one, but how much rest is involved? Enough for an easy jog, or do you need to maintain bleep pace? That would be the determining factor if it is a speed endurance or endurance test.

Dan

[Anselm Murphy]

The point is that it starts off with a long gap between bleeps, and you are meant to go slowly, so that you get to the marker just before the bleep. You immediately turn around and go back to the first marker before it bleeps again. If you get to the marker before the bleep, you are going to fast and should slow down because you are wasting energy. It starts off very slowly, but after a while you have to be quick to get there before the bleep.
You dont have any rest periods - once it has bleeped you turn around and go back to the first marker, and have to get there before it bleeps.
Hope this clears it up

[mario]

Dan,

think of the test as it was orignally designed, not to go back and forth on a 20 m line but on an 200 m indoor track with mark on the track every 20 m. If you go faster, you could slow down, keep the pace or stop. What is matter is to pass the next 20 line before the next bleep. It is optimal to go just fast enough to pass the line on time. Too fast you are wasting your energy, too slow you are out. Now rather to turn on the track, you go back and forth every 20 m on a straight line. On paper it is the same race, although my ankles might not agree.

Now I think about it, could be an interesting brand new T&F event. Rather to be the first, the winner would be the surviver of the bleep test. Before to start, no-one is sure how long the race will be. They would only Know that if they ran for let say 10 minutes and survived (not been eliminated) , they ran 19 kmph. Sounds like a TV show.

[Dan]

I still don't see that it makes any difference if you're going back and forth, around a track, in a circle, or up and down stairs... What seems to be significant is how much time you have between the bleep periods, for lack of a better term, and whether that is long enough relative to the hard portions to be considered a recovery.

Dan

[mario]

Dan, if you past the line before the beep, you don't stop running. As the test progress, It is getting tougher and tougher to pass the line on time, until you fail and you will, the tempo is going to increase until you do (except if your VO2max esceed 89).

Who would take the chance to stop or to slow down, knowing that you must be on time for the next bleep? That what I trying to explain you with the indoor track example. Could you imagine a VO2 test where everyone would be stopping every 20 seconds around a track? Think of it as a Cooper test, but you are not free to choose your tempo, you must go faster and faster until you are eliminated. Your rating is not calculated how long you go for a fix time, not the amount of time to cruise along a distance but of your max aerobic speed, after running gradually faster (+1 kmph every 2 minutes)