Been a While

It has been a while since my last post, but I am still around.  I have had a rocky path in my training since I last posted.  I trained hard into the beginning of 2011, where I took some time off to dedicate towards my studies.  I then began training again, before having to take another break to study for the MCAT.   After taking that test I have finally been able to get back on the horse and train once again.

The bad news is that I am up 30 pounds, so it is taking some work to train healthily so that I don’t hurt myself while I get back into form.  The good news, is that the foundation I laid with my previous efforts has not completely disappeared, so I have noticed much quicker results than before.  A good example would be my running pace.  It took me close to three months, just to get down to 11 – 12 minute miles at heartrate.  I have been able to duplicate this feat in only three weeks.  That is a pretty encouraging sign.
Currently I am only training with no realizable goals in the near future, except for better overall health.  I believe I am going to start searching for some local 5k races so that I can have something to look forward to as well.  Stay tuned, I hope to have more for you soon.

One Month Update

A month has passed since I started my training so I thought I should commemorate it with an update.  Going from couch to a fairly aggressive training plan may not be the wisest choice for most people, but I still feel like I have eased into it rather than making my body pay a big price up front before it adjusts.  I suppose I should structure this is two parts.  The positives and the negatives of the last month.

Positives

1. More Energy – I have felt more energetic during the day since I have started.  Being lethargic caused me to feel lethargic.  When my wife suggested we go out, I just wanted to stay at home and watch a movie because I was “tired” from my “hard week at work”.
2. Less Girth – I have noticed my pants becoming looser and my wedding ring has also started to wiggle around on my finger.  My wife has also started making comments, so she notices a difference.  These are great signs that I am making progress.  I know some people like to track their progress with graphs and numbers, but I think that may be too much for me.
3. Fun – I have been greatly enjoying this process.  I really feel great after every day’s training session and I can’t wait to do it again the next day.
4. People – I am meeting other people with similar goals.  They motivate me, and I find great joy in motivating them.
5. Solitude – It is nice to be away from everything for a few hours every day to allow the mind to process the day and “idle”.  I actually don’t mind doing all my training alone, which is weird since many people would rather be in a group.

Negatives

1. Time – It is a serious time commitment, especially when you have to cook afterwards which leaves little time left for studying before getting some sleep.  Basically this means I need to learn to manage my time more efficiently.
2. Nutrition – I started all of this because I hate dieting and I am not very organized so I am not really positive I could stick to a “diet”.  I wanted to work hard so I keep eating normally, unfortunately over thanksgiving I had three days of no training and during that time I consumed a lot of sugary drinks, and restaurant food.  When I came back I was the same weight as on my first day of training.  I am sure that some of it is water weight, but it is a bit disheartening to see that in three days I went back up from 207 to 212lb.  I may have to take a second look at nutrition, although I really don’t want to >[
3. Aches – I am very cognizant of every little pain in my legs especially in the knee area.  I have been doing my best to avoid injury and allow my body to work at the pace it is ready for.  So far I have had no deep injury feeling pains, but I did have one day of “ache” in my left knee after a bike workout.  As a precaution I have started doing weight training (which I despise) to build muscle strength in my legs.
4. Solitude – Yes, this is also a negative.  My only regret is that my wife cannot join me in my training right now.  I am hoping that as soon as she finishes her studies she will be able to accompany me 🙂

After one month my run pace has dropped from 16 minute miles to 13 minute miles, on average.  I hope that by the end of another month it will drop even further into the 10 minute range.  My biking has gone from 19mph on average to about 21mph.  I am noticing on the bike that I have reached a crossroads of intensity vs. heartrate.  I think this is why my knee ached after one of my recent bike sessions, because I am pushing harder to maintain the same heart rate, but my leg muscles still need to be built up.

In swimming I have progressed greatly, but this week I took a step back because I realized that I need to swim with proper technique.  Even when I was putting up great times I had the bad habit of breathing every stroke.  I decided this was the week where I would break that and breathe every three strokes.  I am having to swim a little bit slower, but I think that in another few weeks it won’t be an issue anymore.

I am happy with my results, but I am not happy when I look in the mirror.  I am not happy that I haven’t reached my ultraman goal yet, so onward to more training.

Training Healthy Part 1

My main goal when I decided to start this training plan was to be more healthy.  I wanted to have more energy, lose weight, and feel better about how I was spending my time.  Because I didn’t want to get hurt I decided to do some research on why people get hurt so often when they are training amateur sports, and more specifically  endurance sports.  I came to two very interesting conclusions that I think every new  runner/triathlete should consider.  I would also recommend this strategy to the returning athlete that hasn’t trained in several years.

1. Use Heart Rate Training – This article will continue and examine HR training more closely.
2. Work on Running Technique – Part 2 will take a closer look at this.

Since both topics are fairly dense I have decided to break this discussion into two part.  For the remainder of this article I will only discuss using Heart Rate Training.

What is Heart Rate Training?

At it’s simplest Heart Rate Training is simply forcing yourself to exercise at a certain HR limit.  For a triathlete it is used to train endurance.  According to Dr. Phil Maffetone there are two different types of training, one being anaerobic and the other being aerobic.  Most people are familiar with anaerobic training where they do speed drills and intervals, etc.  Through his research Dr. Maffetone discovered that you can get greater speed gains if you build an aerobic base first, but usually that means you have to run, swim, or bike slower than you are used to.

There is a term he coined called the Max Aerobic Heart Rate where if you train in that range you will be building your aerobic base.  What was most astounding about his studies is his results on the aerobic system vs. workload.  He found that roughly 95 – 99% of the energy used in endurance sports comes from the aerobic system.  If that is true, then why do so many endurance athletes spend so much time working on “speed drills”?

How Do I Calculate My Max Aerobic Heart Rate?

There is a fairly simple formula to calculate this number if you aren’t able to do a treadmill test.  It is called the 180 formula, and once again it is provided by Dr. Maffetone.  The following is cited from his article Want Speed Slow Down.

The 180 Formula

To find the maximum aerobic heart rate:

1. Subtract your age from 180 (180 – age).
2. Modify this number by selecting a category below that best matches your health profile

• A.  If you have, or are recovering from, a major illness (heart disease, high blood pressure, any operation orhospital stay, etc.) or you are taking medication, subtract an additional 10.
• B.  If you have not exercised before or have been training inconsistently or injured, have not recentlyprogressed in training or competition, or if you get more than two colds or bouts of flu per year, or haveallergies, subtract an additional 5.
• C.  If you’ve been exercising regularly (at least four times weekly) for up to two years without any of theproblems listed in a or b, keep the number (180 – age) the same.
• D.  If you have been competing for more than two years duration without any of the problems listed above,and have improved in competition without injury, add 5.

So using Dr. Maffetone’s formula above I was able to calculate my own MAHR (Max Aerobic Heartrate).

1. 180 – 31 = 149 bpm
2. This is where you have to check your ego.  I originally wanted to say I fell into category C. but that was because I already thought 149bpm was kind of slow, but the truth is I fall into Category B.   So ego checked I subtract another 5.  149 – 5 => 144.

That is my MAHR, so if I want to get the best aerobic benefit I should keep my efforts in the range between 134 – 144 bpm.

Why Should You Use This?

I think that this training is vital for new athletes because it gives them a chance to know where their body is at.  For someone who has never trained an athletic discipline seriously they don’t know what they are capable of, but more importantly for them to start right in with speed work sounds like a disaster waiting to happen.  HR training forces someone to start much slower than they thought was necessary, but this is a perfect way for the body to adjust to the new exercise effort and more importantly for the new athlete to work on their technique!  Technique is vital for avoiding injury in all sports, including running, and HR training allows an athlete to go slow enough to focus on these things.

For a returning athlete I think this approach is even more important.  I remember all of the interval sets, and speed work I used to do in cross country and I am convinced that if I had tried to do those sort of workouts from the beginning, that I would be sitting here injured.  My body wasn’t ready for it and I also hadn’t run in over 10 years.  Sure my body remembers how to do it, but muscles certainly aren’t prepared which means that my joints would bear an unnecessary load and I would also deteriorate to sloppy form very quickly.

Did I mention that when you are in the aerobic range you burn fat instead of glucose?  That is correct!  For anyone whose main goal is to drop weight, then you should only do aerobic HR training since that is how you train your body to burn fat during exertion rather than a quick burn of glucose.

Conclusions

Remember that we are training to be healthy, not to be fast.  Speed will come with the correct type of training.  I am amazed that so many people are obsessed with speed and get hurt in the process of trying to obtain it.  Once they heal up from that injury they go back out, frustrated that they missed some days of training, and reinjure themselves.  Meanwhile, someone who has embraced the approach I am suggesting will be injured less, so they won’t have to go through that down time and rising frustration cycle.

There is also another effect that you will notice with HR training.  I have just completed my second week of training with roughly 70 miles per week, and 8.5 hours each week of swimming, biking and running.  I actually feel good and “fresh” after each of my workouts.   When I used to seriously train I would be exhausted after every workout, and I thought that this was how I could quantify that I had “trained hard”.

There are quantifiable results to this training.  Read about the MAF test that Dr. Maffetone describes in his above article.  I can also share my own short, but positive gains.  Before I adopted this strategy fully, I was using a different type of HR training on the bike.  That training asked me to do a 75% (156 bpm) effort for 1 hour and 20 minutes.   I ended up cycling a total of 25.75 miles.  This weekend I had the same workout planned, but I decided to use my MAHR as my target.  I ended up cycling 27.54 miles!  That means I went farther, and faster, with a lower HR.  What does that tell me?  My aerobic base has increased in these last two weeks!  I have quantifiable results, which means I know I am getting faster and yet I don’t feel like dying at the end of my training.

I consider HR training as a method where we listen to what our body says and respond accordingly.  Most triathletes and runners are doing distance workouts, so why should they try to sprint them every time?  Why should they try to risk injury and go faster than their body is ready for?  Have you been nagged by injuries, and a slave to your “pace” for all of these years?  Why not try something different and let your body tell you how to train!