Larry what is your resting rate and what is your age? I guess maybe you are a runner? I use to love my 625x. I ran competitively for years (locally).I have trained many runners using Heart rate monitoring with tremendous results. I loved the 5ks, especially when I could run in the 17 min. range. Knee surgery finally ended a life time of my favorite sport. Ha! the memories! Good luck with your training.
(sorry to be off subject)
PS a low resting heart rate is super beneficial to good shooting!(as you already know).
i am sure my resting rate is not very good. i am 64 by the way. during my racing years (stopped racing at 46) my average resting rate was 44. i kept a log of my resting rate every tuesday morning for one year. during peak training periods it would get as low as 36.
no i am not a runner. not since i was in my 30s. in my early 20s i was training as a biathlete at the US Modern Winter Biathlon Training Center (no longer in operation) under the coaching of Olympian Sven Johanson at
ft richardson alaska.
in addition to my current activity i have competed in inline skate racing for distances from 500 meters to marathon. no longer do that. i also did some short track speed skating as cross training.
my last two years of racing i raced on the "V". went to the masters nationals twice and did the killer kilo.(hint)
now its just fitness. i have also bagged 65 named peaks including whitney.
long slow distance is the best aerobically and will increase cardiac efficiency more effectively than any thing else. if you want to lower your heart rate do lots of LSD (long slow distance) with heart rate in your aerobic zone. once you are fit you can throw in some surges to take your HR to near
anerobic level for short bursts. this will increase stroke volunm and further lower your heart rate. for most people it is not necessary.
sprinting is a level of output that does not use aerobic or anerobic sources. it does not add to aerobic fitness and will not lower your resting heart rate much if any.
Larry, is totally right. I have my runners train at a max of 65% to 70% of heart rate for 6 weeks. During this period they will build millions of new capillaries through this aerobic (oxygen) phase. When a runner starts out the first week, he will peak at 70% very quickly. Week six, he will feel a rush or great feeling, as the new capillaries have grown. During completion of this phase he will be able to run at a much greater speed, yet almost have difficulty trying to get his legs to move fast enough to even get to 70%.Running at this new level will be a piece of cake. The aerobic system will be far more advanced than the muscular system, and the next phase will be hill work to get the muscles ready for advanced speed work. If you like max heart rate, don't worry, you will get plenty of it as you advance up the Pyramid of training. Enjoy the slow "LSD", the hard stuff will kill you later when you start to hit peak training.
PS go to any gym or watch any novice start running, 99.9 percent will always start way too fast. I mean WAY too fast. The first 6 weeks of running for a novice will actually be mostly walking.Too go faster is just destroying the whole process and getting you nowhere!
Sprinting (as in what you really do at the end of a race or at a premium) is indeed anerobic and if you don't get there, you either aren't trying hard enough, or you're Lance!
Yes indeed, training (e.g. fartleks) approaches, but doesn't go anerobic, or you would be in trouble for the next one....
Granted LSD is the foundation training, but if you don't mix in speed, you won't have it. I learned that after a summer of riding to long club rides at a medium pace. I was in great shape, but when I tried to go on a faster ride, I was challenged in keeping up; even at a shorter distance. Besides, because I have high muscle mass for my balistic coefficient and only medium for my weight, I'm better off on the downhills, flats, and sprints than the big hills.
maximized you will inhibit the growth of your aerobic system. you may have some speed but it will be short speed. as a race winds up you will be maxed out aerobically and never have the oportunity to sprint because you will be
"off the back" having riden above your anerobic threaashold most of the race (or fast club ride). first hill and you are gone. you just thought you were in shape. the question is, in shape for what? if you take the example of a match sprinter who is a track racer he will be destroyed in a road race even though he could beat any of them in a sprint. he will never get the oportuinty to contest the sprint because he will be anerobic and fading long before a sprint is needed. you (jc) were unable to stay with the fast group because you were riding above your anerobic threshold, not because you could not sprint. now, if you had been doing some intervals you might have been able to hang in for a while but eventually the lactic acid would gradually build until you had used all of the glycogen in your muscle cells trying to manufacture oxigen.
there are basically three systems that an aerobic athlete trains in various mixes. the aerobic system, the lactic acid system and the alactic anerobic system (adenisene triphospate system.) sprinting only trains the alactic system and does nothing for the aerobic system or the lactic acid system. a road racer should emphasize training the aerobic system with some anerobic lactic acid system work (intervals of various lengths) and some sprints. the more you emphasize one end of the scale the less performance you will have at the other end of the scale.
JC, of course you need speed. You develop speed as you progress up through the Pyramid. There is nothing wrong with doing a series of short "Striders" or "Gliders" during your base.The base phase will teach your body to utilize "Glycogen" and use it sparingly. But you are kidding yourself if you think you can advance too rapidly.If you go above 82% of your heart max, without the proper foundation, you will build lactic acid in the muscles very rapidly and you are finished. If you train properly, you will be able to do the majority of your races at that level until you are near the end of the race when your body will go into oxygen debt.Like I said, develop a great aerobic base,the greater the results will be for the more advanced levels.The hill workouts after the aerobic base will develop strong muscles that will be used for push off, and to condition the legs for the speed work which will be the next phase. At that time Farklets etc will be introduced followed by "Repetitions" (distance and times according to the race you are gearing for). Sprints, are introduced at the top of the Pyramid. By this time you will have developed a great anaerobic capacity, and now you can fine tune the fast twitch muscle fibers for leg speed for the final fast work that may be required at the end of the race. I really suggest you invest in a heart rate monitor if you do not already have one. You will be amazed at the intensity levels and how they may differ than your perceived level. Take a hot day, it is not unusual to see your heart rate 20 beats higher at a much faster time. Dehydration,your current fitness etc are all major factors. I have see hundreds of runners start training at base and are actually running at 85%.Totally accomplishing NOTHING! By the way,this is seen by not just beginner runners, but by some of the best competitors as well, especially when the season is finished and they start rebuilding there base.My particular heart rate monitor can download workouts into the computer to actually monitor all workouts and analyze the conditioning periods or work load progress. You may want to seek out a coach. There are some software programs available that will help as a guide to training if you do not have access to a good coach.
IF YOU FOLLOW THE FOUNDATION BASE PERIOD FOR A MINIMUM OF SIX WEEKS, YOU WILL FEEL THE RESULTS RIGHT ABOUT THE END OF THAT TIME. ONLY IF YOU FOLLOW THE PROGRAM TO A TEE. STAY AT 65% TO 70% AND NEVER FASTER DURING THIS PHASE EVEN IF YOU MUST WALK OR RIDE AS SLOW AS A 90 YEAR OLD LADY! THE RESULTS YOU WILL FEEL AT THE END OF THIS TIME ARE ACTUALLY AMAZING!! Pick out a race in the future, either a 12 or sixteen week training period, log all workouts and work each phase according to plan. You can only advance slowly and according to your body's limits. At the end of the training program, you can start a new complete 12 week program at a higher intensity. Like one great coach said. Running fast is a slow train coming!
DAVE, you are so right. and i tend to ride too fast
March 17 2009, 5:41 AM
for the nearly three hour ride i did sunday i was at about 80% of my max HR for the enire time. way too fast. my max was at nearly 90%. not good base training. i was with a friend who is 10 years younger than me and it is hard to
ride slow enough for good base training. i have had to slow him down because he pushes way too hard. when i ride alone during the week i go at a slower pace.
years ago when i was racing on the track i used to ride with a very fast group of guys some of whom rode tandums. i rode my fixed gear track bike and just fought to stay on. those folks could COOK. those days are over for me and i have no desire to suffer like that. now its just fitness.
Larry, I can see your knowledge of training throughout the years. The base training is so crucial. The last guy I coached was in his early 30's a young navy man who could only manage a poor 29 minutes in the 5k. I was not taking on any more runners but he insisted. He was training with his buddies every day at the Navy base.I told him I would take him on only if he agreed to do every work as prescribed. The first step WAS NOT TO RUN ANYMORE WITH HIS BUDDIES! Just drop them. If he worked the program he could join them in three months. I had him do 6 weeks of base training. The followed through with the rest. At the end of 3 months he lowered his 5k time to 21 minutes. He later ran a 42 minute 10k. Our long term goal was to have him ultimately runnning about 35 minutes in the 10k. He was a good student and I have no doubts that we could have gotten him down to those times, however he had to ship out, and the rest is history. The moral of the story is, that he trained slow for 6 weeks. He hated and cursed each day. However at the end of this time, he felt the results and called me. He was so excited. He said that all of a sudden he felt a rush come over his body. He was running as fast as he could but yet his heart rate was only 70%. Bingo! The new capallaries that were growing and feeding oxygen into his heart and lungs, legs etc, had just finished growing and had just blossomed!
The next phase into the hill workouts were not so pleasant for this young lad. I picked out a hill about a half mile up and he said "That little hill"? I told me that little hill will seem like Mount Everest by the time you get through.
Any way, Larry, you know what you have to do. I can see you have been coached by the best!