Evondo's group - CLOSED (Page 4)

westerem - 2009-04-15 12:13 PM

Any thoughts on this (see highlighted) - I pulled it off the internet

Last night, I watched, "The Human Timepiece," on the Science channel. It was a cool show that explored the internal time regulatory mechanisms of the human body and how the human body functions throughout the day. It stepped through the day in 2-3 hour increments talking about why we are tired or alert and how this directly affects both cognitive and physical performance. The internal body clock is a very powerful thing and they are, in fact, finding that it can be exploited to help fight diseases such as Cancer - like I said, very cool stuff.

One of the topics they discussed was physical fitness and specifically, what time of the day was most appropriate for working out. What they recommend is working out in the late afternoon / evening. Not only do they recommend this, they actual discourage the idea of working out in the morning. Apparently, in the morning there are several factors that put you at a greater risk for heart attack and stroke:

• In the morning, your blood pressure takes a significant jump and stays higher before decreasing towards mid day.
• In the morning, your blood has a higher "stickiness."
• In the morning, your blood vessels and arteries are less flexible.

These factors combine to raise the risk of heart attack and stroke. Statistically speaking, they said you are about 10 times more likely to have a heart attack before 12PM.

In contrast to the negative risk factors associated with morning workouts, working out in the afternoon / evening generally results in greater performance. In fact, when you look at Olympic events, most world records are beat in the evening.

Obviously, with busy lives, sometimes you just have to fit it in where you can; but, given the choice, all the scientific evidence seems to indicate that working out in the late afternoon / evening is the best choice both for your general health and your sport-specific performance.

evondo - 2009-02-17 4:12 PM

So I just got home from work and really don't feel like biking on the trainer (it's raining). Here's the conversation I just had with my gf online...

Off to the trainer I go...

stephcat - 2009-04-16 9:44 AM

I know I can come up w/ some sort of plan -- I have enough old plans, books (including the training bible) etc but it's the keeping to it.....I'm one of those that DOES benefit from having the accountability of a coach.  Which is pretty silly considering I fully recognize that, you'd think if I realize that then I should be able to just transfer that accountability to myself.....I'm hoping just being accountable to you guys will fill that role to some extent!

swise - 2009-04-16 8:21 PM Regarding the a.m. workouts -- It may be contrary to science but those workouts get me charged for the day.

Kate_r - 2009-04-17 2:21 AM Hey group, any ideas on what's the best course of action for me tomorrow? I am down to do a long run tomorrow as part of my 1/2 marathon training, there's also a spin class at the gym that I love. I'd like to do both but I doubt I'll have the energy/stamina to do them back to back. Should I get up early run, then spin or have a lie in spin then run in the evening? Any ideas?

evondo - 2009-04-17 8:54 AM

Happy Friday! What does everyone have planned for weekend workouts?

I've got my long run this evening, open water swim tomorrow AM and a bike ride on Sunday. I'm just hoping the weather holds out, supposed to be nasty here tomorrow.

evondo - 2009-04-17 8:54 AM Happy Friday! What does everyone have planned for weekend workouts?

I've got my long run this evening, open water swim tomorrow AM and a bike ride on Sunday. I'm just hoping the weather holds out, supposed to be nasty here tomorrow.

microspawn - 2009-04-17 4:48 PM I have been ill for the first time in years - sore throat and cold and stuff - taking it easy!

evondo - 2009-04-18 12:59 PM I know many of you are working on making a training plan for the first time or are trying to follow one for the first time.  Here are some guidelines that I'd recommend to get the most out of your training hours...

Drop the weight lifting, especially legs. Unless you are already comfortably doing 2x swim,2x bike, 2x run each week and have stopped seeing improvements by doing these workouts.  If you want to build upper body strength while training start the 100 pushup challenge. It'll be the best thing for your training time and it can be done anywhere at nearly anytime.  Lifting legs will NOT make you a faster biker/runner as much as biking/running FASTER and LONGER.  Now there is a place for lifting but only if its soreness does not cause you to miss workouts or perform below the level the swim/bike/run workouts require.  To give you an example, I didn't start lifting legs until 2 years into this sport, I did lift upper body but looking back I wish I spent my time doing core/pilates instead.

If you miss a workout, skip it and move on do not make it up or tack mileage onto another workout.  This causes added stress to your body that will not provide you with the fitness gains that are worth it.  There are times where you can shuffle workouts during the week but it really depends on the workout type and your schedule.  For instance you wouldn't want to put an interval run workout anywhere within 48hrs of a long run but you could put it a day before/after an easy run.

Speed work is for later in the game, you should rarely if ever be going into HR zone 4. Nearly all base building work is done in Z2-Z3 and I believe Jeff (from Gordo?) said the best phrase to summarize this "Fit first fast later". Spending most of your time in these HR zones will allow you to be consistent with your workouts day in and out because your body is able to recover from them. 

Lastly one of my favorite sayings... Training is all about stress and recovery, too much or too little of either will not yield peak performance.  You should have at least one recovery day in the week where you do not lift weights, do yoga, swim, bike or run. Sit on your butt and do as little as possible, at most go for a walk You should also have a recovery week which is normally every 3-4 weeks where you decrease your total mileage by 20-25%.  Having this recovery time will allow your body to rebuild and be ready for the next phase in training do not skip this!

Let me know what you guys think about these thoughts and if you agree/disagree with them.  I'm always interested in other opinions, these have worked for me and many others I've worked with in the past but there is no such thing as a univeral good approach...

junthank - 2009-04-18 3:28 PM

Eric,

Not that you needed to hear it from me but....  Great advice.

Leg Strength Work - The only thing that I incorporate into my training are calf raises (would that be considered strength work?).  Early in my training I was constantly having problems with my calves.  In particular, my calves would often cramp up while running.  I started doing calf raises and the problem disappeared in two weeks.  Now I'm pretty religous about finishing my workouts by doing calves raises.  Takes me less than 5 minutes - well worth the time invested.

Speed Work - I can't remember if I first got the quote from Gordo's mentoring group.  I do know that the quote is in his book "Going Long".  The actual quote is "Fast Follows Fit".  When I started 6 months ago I would often go anaerobic and end up hurting myself.  If your hurt there goes your training consistency.  Now, like you said,  I avoid Zone 4/5.  An interesting side note - I'm just starting to notice that my power/pace at a given HR is increasing.  So I'm only training in Zones 1/2/3 and I'm getting faster.  Faster for Free!!!  I'm nowhere near your "fast" but it's nice to see improvement.

Jeff

Kate_r - 2009-04-20 6:31 AM Hi Eric, I understand what you mean about the leg work but I think it depends on if you have any imbalances in the your legs or core to begin with. I believe the leg focussed weight work has helped me and has increased my speed. One thing about the HR though. I find it hard to run for any length of time without going into Z4 at the end. Any ideas of what to do - perhaps I should walk backwards ;o)