Fun, Fit and 60!

Training plan and recovery

I’m still developing my training plan as I go. I guess what I’m doing right now is a combination of Dr. Gabe Mirkin and the book Heart Zones Cycling: The Avid Cyclist’s Guide to Riding Faster and Farther by Sally Edwards and Sally Reed.

Dr. Mirkin advocates working out in sets until the muscles burn and keep repeating sets until you feel them stiffen. I’m not sure about the stiffen part but I am just doing 3 sets of each exercise. Within each set I am trying to beyond just starting to burn and go to as much discomfort as I am willing to take. I try to pace myself so I can do my entire circuit without becoming exhausted. What Dr. Mirkin says also confirmed what I said in a previous post about liking to feel sore and not taking ibuprofen for it. When I feel adequately sore, I know I have worked out hard enough the previous day. Also, he says you should not work those muscles again until the soreness goes away. So you don’t want to take a pain killer cause you won’t know when the muscles are fully recovered.

In a similar vein, as it relates to a hard cardio workout, Edwards and Reed advocate using resting heart rate as a guide to when your body is sufficiently recovered. I haven’t implemented this yet because it’s a little hassle for me to get my resting heart rate. The best way to do it is to measure it when you first wake up before you get out of bed. You can count your pulse but that’s out for me cause I can’t keep my eyes open for 10 seconds to look at a watch when I first get up. Especially since I had a stye that I believe left some scarring on my eyelid that makes it very hard to keep that eye open in the AM. The other method is to wear my HR monitor to bed and just check it when I wake up. I tried that once but I kept waking up all night to check it. It is kind of uncomfortable to sleep with although you probably can get used to it. I think I’ll keep trying the second method and see if I can get used to it.

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Pushing it - I violated my own rules

Today I violated my own stated principles. I was doing my upper body workout at the gym and pushing it even though I’ve been having some non-muscular pains in my right arm.

I mean I was trying to be very careful with form and so on but I was still getting some pain. Not a lot but enough. This pain is around my elbow and I suspect it comes from using the mouse at work. Mostly if I’m doing tasks that have a lot of repetitive mouse motions to them. I do have some arm and shoulder stretches that I do.

Also, I noticed that my recovery heart rate was a little high. In between sets it took awhile to get it to drop below 100bpm. The last time I worked out, my heart rate was dropping down into the high 70s between sets! Admittedly that is uncharacteristic but I hope it’s a trend. It would mean I’m getting fitter.

Another factor might be that I have been slightly sick over the last few days. A mildly sore throat and an unsettled stomach. I have taken it easy during that time but maybe I was a little too antsy to get back into it today now that I’m feeling better. That could account for the higher recovery HR.

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Idea for a recovery drink …

Here’s an idea I had for a recovery drink when there’s nothing else available:
a cup of sugary hot chocolate made with skim milk instead of water.

I make it full strength per the instructions on the can. It’s got the high GI carbs from the sugar and the protein from the skim milk minus the fat.

This has less carbs and protein than the home brew drink I described in a previous post but I don’t work out that hard yet anyhow so it’s probably fine for me.

Here’s how it breaks down:
38g carbs and 10g protein.

Joe Friel’s recovery drink recipe consists of 5 tblsp of sugar and 16oz of skim milk.

That translates to: 60g carb from the sugar and 22g of carbs and 16g of protein from the milk for a total of 82g carb and 16g protein!

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Ski Monday! - Plattekill Mountain … hidden gem of the Catskills

Monday is usually ski day for Mrs. MTBMan1 and me. And today was no exception.

Today we went to Plattekill Mountain in the town of Roxbury in the Catskills.

Mainly because this week lift tickets are only $10!

But we really had a great time.

This is a sweet little mountain. It’s not very big. Family owned.

Their snowmaking is not extensive so they really depend on natural snow so only 9 out of 35 trails were open today.

But we don’t care. We pretty much stick to one or 2 trails that we like best anyway.

Anyhow the trails that were open were in excellent condition. Well groomed granular. The thing about this mountain is that because so few people frequent it, the snow stays great all day. It seems like there were only 15 people on the mountain. In any event it is NOT crowded.

If you read the customer reviews the place really rocks when they get dumped on. Great powder that stays because it’s not over skied.

Some people complained about not having high speed lifts but I didn’t think it was too bad. I’ve seen worse.

It was a beautiful sunny day, about 30 degrees all day.

Here are some pics:

Lift at the top

Shot from the lodge

This is me at the top

Your’s truly

Another shot from the lodge

View of main mountain from “Powder Puff”

This felt cooler than it looks!

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I Love Being Sore!

I love being sore. I mean muscularly sore a day or 2 after a hard workout not sore joints and connective tissue from overuse or improper form.

Because that soreness means I accomplished something. I accomplished what I intended to do when I worked out the previous day.

And that is, I damaged some muscle fibers.

Sounds bad. And it is kind of gross to think about the tearing and bleeding of muscle tissue.

But if I allow for proper rest, recovery and nutrition, those damaged muscles will repair themselves and adapt to my regimen by making themselves just a little bit stronger.

And that’s my goal: to get just a little bit better each day. A little bit stronger.

So when I am offered pain relievers when I comment (not complain) about my soreness, I usually decline.

Because I like the soreness. It’s a continual reminder that I am accomplishing what I set out to accomplish.

You don’t often get feedback that quickly and continuously in life’s endeavors (at least not the positive feedback ;-)).

I think, perhaps also, that I get a feeling of aliveness, awareness of the muscles. An awakening if you will, of muscles I didn’t know I had.

Maybe I’m weird.

Some say that I am (those who know me - with affection - others - well……).

That’s OK.

I’ll take weird to mean unique.

And we all are, you know. I mean unique.

But that’s a subject for another post!

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Rest - it’s as important as exercise!

It was really a revelation to me that rest was an important component to fitness training.
I read in one mountain biking book that you should try to ride as much as possible; ride everywhere you go. Of course, that writer meant as far as being comfortable on the bike, riding skills and so on but I translated that into workout riding every day as long and hard as possible. After reading Joe Friel’s book Cycling Past 50 I learned about the necessity of rest and recovery after hard training. You need to rest the muscles stressed after a hard workout so that they can repair and rebuild themselves. That’s how they get stronger. I guess I knew this in relation to weight and strength training - you are not supposed to work the same sets of muscles 2 days in a row - but I didn’t translate this to riding the bike. Recently, I discovered an article by Dr. Mirkin that advises not working the same muscles until the soreness goes away! Makes sense. I guess that’s what your body is telling you by the soreness! This doesn’t mean you can’t train on consecutive days or even more than once a day. It’s just the intense workouts where you get sore that you’ve got to be careful about.

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Maximum Heart Rate - formulas useless!

I just read something which I think is astounding; that maximum heart rate is fixed for life and the commonly used formulas for calculating it are useless! This from the book Heart Zones Cycling by Sally Edwards & Sally Reed which I am currently reading.
I mean I know that a formula is only going to be an approximation and I’ve already proved the most common one wrong; the one that says your MHR = 220-your age. For me, at age 59, that is 161. I’ve already observed higher rates while cycling with my heart monitor. But the concept of the formulas is that your MHR declines with age or varies by age and weight. These authors claim that research shows that MHR is fixed and does not decline except in cases of chronic unfitness. The only way to determine MHR accurately is to test it. The authors use the Foster Talk Threshold Test where you find the point at which you are starting to have trouble reading a 30 second test and then you can calculate your MHR and Threshold Heart Rate.

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Training

I started a training program this week. I’ve wanted to do this for awhile and now seemed the right time.
I’m using the program suggested in my HRM manual and I’m starting at the beginner level with modifications.
I modified their training because it’s just too easy for me. I’ve been working at a harder level for months. It actually requires some discipline to hold yourself back. As I said in my previous post “Be Less Than You Can Be”, it’s important not to just work flat-out as hard as you can. It’s a common mistake that highly motivated exercisers and even athletes make. The body requires adequate rest and recovery between workouts otherwise there is a great risk of injury and burnout. Rest doesn’t have to be doing nothing. Easy exercise for fun is ok as long as you keep the intensity down. This can be harder than you think once your fitness level increases because you get a lot of your “fun” from the intensity. I guess I should differentiate between fun and the enjoyment and satisfaction you get from physical achievement.

Anyhow, the beginner’s training program consists of 3 days a week with 1 day (or more) of rest in between. The workout days are as follows:
1. 10-15 minutes warmup at or slightly above ambient heart rate (walking pace)
2. 20 minutes workout in the Health Zone (50-70%MHR)
3. 10-15 minutes cooldown at or slightly above ambient heart rate

Increase time in Health Zone by 5 minutes each week until you are doing 45 minutes in the zone.

What I have been doing in addition to this, is a morning upper or lower body strength training workout at the gym on workout days, plus an easy walk, cycle, xc ski or downhill ski on “rest” days.

My ambient heart rate is already in the Health Zone according to my monitor. The monitor says that 50% of my MHR is 88bpm and I’m usually over that once I get out of my chair! So really, I’m already doing 50 minutes in the zone but I’m only counting the 20 minutes. Not sure about that.

The final mod I’m making to the plan is that I will work out Sat and Sunday. An hour bike ride on Sat and 1-1/2 hours on Sunday.
This is kind of a compromise between the HRM manual beginner’s plan and a starter plan I got from a cycling book that I think is geared toward fitter, younger people. It suggested 70-75%MHR for 45min to 1 hr, 4 days a week plus a 1-1/2 hour ride on Sunday @70-80. So I’m kind of using their frequency with the lower heart zone of the beginner’s program. I do intend eventually to advance to the more aggressive plans and achieve as much as I can. I would like to be able to compete in a half-century by the end of summer.

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Be Less Than You Can Be

I think I referred to this in a previous post, but in my youth (and not so youth) I have tended to put pedal to the metal in anything I undertake. The result was that I could sustain this level for weeks, even months but eventually lose all interest in the activity (and sometimes alienate those around me).

In these latter years, applying this tendency to physical pursuits has also resulted in injuries; nothing that serious but enough force me to stop exercising in that particular mode.

I think (I hope) that I’m finally learning the lesson that consistency at a lower intensity is preferable to inconsistency and burnout at a high level. The goal is to change my lifestyle … permanently. Patience is the key. That’s why finding a fun activity is so essential. You have to be able to exercise because you enjoy it for itself, even if (and this is crucial) YOU DON’T SEE ANY RESULTS. Of course, I believe you will see results if you follow this path. I am starting to reap this benefit. First and foremost, I FEEL GREAT! This alone is enough to spur me on to exercise every day. I can feel the change in my body even if I am not losing weight as fast as I would like. And because I’m taking it easy, a lot of the aches and pains that have thwarted my efforts in the past have gone away.

So please don’t kill yourself! Seek out something fun that is also healthy. If you don’t find it, keep looking, keep trying. Enjoy life!

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Exercise before Dieting

I once read in an interview with Oprah Winfrey’s personal trainer, Bob Greene, that it is very important, before beginning a calorie reduction diet, to begin an exercise program. Most people commonly begin dieting without increasing their level of activity through exercise and are shocked and dismayed to find they don’t lose weight or even gain weight while eating less. Additionally, they may feel tired and lethargic. The primary reason for this is that if you begin by reducing your caloric intake, your body thinks “hard times are coming” and slows down your metabolism to conserve energy and body mass.

Conversely, if you begin exercising for several weeks before reducing food intake, your metabolic rate will increase and you will begin burning more of what you eat rather than storing it as fat.

An added benefit is that exercise is an appetite suppressant. What do I mean by that? Well, of course, you’re going to have a healthy appetite after exercising but I find that it becomes natural to stop when satiated. In other words, I am ravenously hungry after working out but find that I want to stop eating after a reasonable amount has been consumed. The reason this works is because eating and exercise both release endorphins, those substances that make us feel good. A lot of times we eat just to get that little kick from the endorphins. When we exercise we get the endorphin dose from the activity instead and don’t need the extra food to give it to us.

Another thing I have found is that I’ll just think twice before putting junk in my mouth or overeating because I have developed such a sense of well-being from the exercise that I don’t want to jeopardize it. Also, you are more aware of how what you eat affects the quality of your workouts.

So, the correct sequence is: begin an exercise program first and give it time to become a routine you look forward to, then start looking at your diet.

It worked for me!

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