Older&Wiser Group - FULL (Page 4)

I got an email from Malinda and she is ok.  She works for the US Army Corps of Engineers and has been deployed to the ice storm area, the one she wrote about in her logs.  She’s working 12 hour days, making real and meaningful contribution to peoples’ lives.  We’re so proud of her.  Let’s make sure we give her lots of support and encouragement when she gets back.

Lynne, thanks for your swolf drill.  I’ll try it Sat.  I think the #’s mean it’s worth taking 2 extra strokes (1 stroke cycle) if it makes you faster by 1 sec, a very reasonable tradeoff.  

Wolf, and Angelo and Rose and everybody that’s just starting out.  Set yourself up for success – Please Take It Slow and Easy.  When I first started, I made huge gains, started from walking / running around the block to 9 min/mi for my first 10K race.  Then I bought a HR monitor and it basically said I’d been exercising in the “junk miles zone” (145-155 at the time)!  Apparently, I was exercising too hard to build endurance, and too slow to build speed.   It wanted me to exercise at 135 and below, I ran 2 steps and the darn thing went above the zone, I had to WALK.  WHAT DO YOU MEAN ME WALK?  The whole point is to run faster!  I was already capable of 9min/mi for 10K.  But as the volume built, I found myself taking longer and longer to recover, my knees didn’t feel as strong.  Good thing I didn’t get to the point I was injured.  I finally resigned and learnt to run slow, reeeeally really slow, even with WALK breaks.  After a while, I could run 3+hours at 135, I felt strong, with no soreness nor fatigue the next day.  And of course, I could run that much faster at 155.

IF YOU WANT TO RUN LONGER AND FASTER WITH LOW RISK OF INJURY, YOU MUST TRAIN YOURSELF TO RUN SLOW, EVEN WALK.  Trust me, don’t make the same mistake I did.  HR training and testing protocols can be technical and I’m not qualified to speak to the issue, there are many good articles on BT and on the internet so feel free to explore.   For beginners, here’s one of the simplest and most conservative approach (Maffetone):
Maximum training HR = 180 – age.  eg if age 48, max training HR = 132
Minimum training HR = 180 – age -10.  eg if age, min = 122.
Subtract 5 from the max/min #’s if you’re starting out or recovering from injuries.
Add 5 if you’ve been exercising for 2 years w/o injury and have been making progress. 

For those that have raced, runner’s world has a training pace calculator here. Enter you race time and click on training paces.  80-90% of weekly running s/b at the easy pace.

The other thing I’d like to remind everybody is LISTEN TO YOUR BODY.  Pain is your body's way of telling you to stop, something is wrong, listen to it.  And HR training is just listening to what your heart rate is telling you. If you feel sore the next day, you’ve done too much.  Adjust the volume accordingly.  Make sure all long / hard workouts are preceded by a rest day and followed by a recovery day. 

Also, weight loss is twice as effective if you eat right and exercise.  Don’t forget the eating part of the equation.

Wolf – What happened to your toe!  Ice it to prevent swelling.  Make sure toe nails are cut, but not too short.  Is your shoes big enough?  I actually have running shoes of 2 different sizes, the smaller one for regular runs, the larger one for long runs because your feet do swell the longer your run.  Some people apply Vaseline to hot spots on their feet prior to their long run to prevent blisters.  Hope you feel better soon.

Good idea to know what your resting heart rate is (first thing in the morning, before you get out of bed).  Mine’s about 48, dropped 15 beats/min over the years.  What’s everybody’s?  I know I’m doing something right when I think of all the extra work my heart doesn’t have to do anymore, 15beats/min, 24/7/365 times #years I’ve to live. 

Wolf is in Negev Desert in Israel, Jeff, 7 hrs ahead of Eastern time zone, I believe.

Hi all,

Quite a week – a warm welcome to Angelo, our newest member; Wolf is having some fun playing with his new toy, the HR monitor. Great to know that Jeff and Malinda are still in one piece and are resuming training. Malinda, we’re so proud of all your efforts in helping people get their power back in the ice storm affected area. Meanwhile, Lynne, Jennifer and I are quietly building endurance and have all got in at least 4 workouts this week, for the second consecutive week.  Rose, who joined our group last week, wants to run a 5K eventually, and this week has already logged in 8K.  You'll be able to reach your goal in no time, Rose, good job!

I’d like to propose that every week or two, we discuss an important issue that’s relevant to our goals. If each person contributes 1-2 points, that’ll give us 8-16 salient points on each topic. I’ll combine all our wonderful ideas in one summary post (1st post on this page which I’ve reserved a spot), our "collective wisdom" so to speak. At the end, we’ll have a souvenir and something we can take away for future reference. This should help all of us as we’re not all at the same stage in our training. I think we want to focus on quality, not quantity. Obviously, we don’t want to spend too much time on this, as our #1 priority is working out.

Shall we give this a try and see where it goes? Let me start off with the issue of weight loss / maintenance. Here are the 2 things that work best for me, that if I do them, chances are weight loss / maintenance will follow:

Most effective weight loss / maintenance strategies:

1. Weigh myself regularly, say every week. No denial. Feels great when it goes down. When it creeps up, time to cut out the wine and cheese.
2. Do a race that’s the same every year. Racing keeps us training. The same race makes it easier to compare our fitness level year over year and with others in our age group. I’ve done a certain 5K race with my hubby in downtown Toronto every year for the past 7 years or so, and both of us have been able to maintain our weight during this time. My hubby is not a triathlete, but 5K is manageable even for him. After the race, we walk to our favourite breakfast hang out, where we watch the half-marathoners and marathoners do their thing. There’s a celebratory atmosphere in the entire downtown, really makes you feel alive.
3. … give it some thought and tell me what works best for you and I’ll combine and post at the beginning of page. Try to be specific, eg instead of "eat right", say "eat no more than xxx meals per day" …

Future topics – please suggest:

• Best ways to improve your swim
• Best ways to improve your bike
• Best ways to improve your run
• Best ways to avoid injuries

I'm going on a 1-wk ski trip to Aspen, CO tomorrow.  This will be my last post for the week, and may not get to post much next week.   I haven't received any suggestions or nominations for awards, so I'll make the executive decision.  This week's award is for the coolest idea - the winner is Lynne, for her "swolf" drill.  I've heard of it before, but never really understand what it does.  When I tried it today, I gained a totally new appreciation of the interaction between efficiency and speed - efficiency is a two edged sword, you really have to experiment.  Thanks Lynne for the idea.  Here's the award standing thus far:

Hi all,

Just checking in from Aspen.  Weather is mild (9F / -12C), sun is shining, highest vertical in US, easy access to 4 great mountains, no lift lines, great restaurants, very classy - no wonder Aspen is one of the top ski destinations in US!

Yes Wolf, skating at the Rideau, the world's largest naturally frozen ice rink, is one of those quintessential Canadian experience not to be missed.  It's apparently equivalent to the size of 90 Olympic sized rinks.  About this time every year, weather permitting, they hold a triathlon - 8k skate, 4.5k ski and 5k run.  Wouldn't mind doing that one of these days.

I'm no expert in HR training.  But in answer to Malinda's question, most research indicates that staying in the aerobic zone (125-140 according to your bike monitor), is most effective for cardiovascular training, the major benefit of exercise.  Even though it may burn less % of fat than HR<125 (so called fat burning zone), it burns more absolute fat and overall calories in a 30min workout and so is very effective for weight loss.  The Maffetone formula provided in my example gives an aerobic zone of 122-132, which, as you can see, is quite comparable.  Don't forget you can use the BT training log to calculate the heart rate zones.  Hope that helps.