On 10/24/2014 terrier3 said: He had me run one and a half miles yesterday and he took my pulse at every quarter and then afterward.
I was so proud of myself...I could even carry on a conversation and my heart rate recovered very quickly.
The bad news?
I could talk while I ran and I recovered quickly...I wasn't working hard enough and have to UP my cardio!!!!
He's right...but I'm bummed. I have to go back to gasping for air and intervals!!!!
Had type different Protocols of Pulmonary/Cardiac Stress Testing over the years. All but a couple measured Max Vo2 with full Pulmonary Cart along with all the other electronic hookups. One was done to for analysis of the primary type of muscle fibers in my legs. Another was a 2 hour workout where they measured the loss of electrolytes lost during this workout. Was study on electrolyte replacement/best type/best time lapse between max heart rate and a couple other studies I cannot remember right off hand.
The main goal of all of these Exercise Physiologist when it came to ones fitness level was to measure the Max Vo2 along with the seconds/minutes in took my heart rate to return to pretesting level. They measure total fitness by recovery time not how high at how long a person can run at any percentage of their max heart rate.
For me I was more concerned about my cardio an pulmonary system to be able to burn oxygen at max levels along with dispel the carbon dioxide fast enough to prevent or reduce the amount of lactic acid buildup in my body. Since hockey is mostly an "anaerobic sport" be it playing or on-ice officiating, how fast my body recovered to be able to repeat over and over the same anaerobic conditions for the full length of a hockey game.
My best 10k/5k and mile race times came after I was 50+ years old. Same with my speed skating in our State Winter Olympics competitions. They were rated by age brackets so my goals were to at least be in the top 3 in the over 50 age categories. I varied my training for running, but 95% of it was done on a treadmill, using exclusively interval training. That is how I decreased my times in the 10 and 5k races. And for the mile I cut back the distance of the intervals and did more of them with less rest time in between each rep.
On the treadmill it is easy to run exact speed(mph and mpm)along with running intervals at different levels of elevation. All done to increase leg speed turnover along with acclimating specific muscles to the stress of running uphill for endurance strengthening for the main running muscles(the thigh biceps)and the primary muscles used for ice skating(which are mainly the quad muscles involved in skating.
What I found out as I got older was "doing more" ended up with me "accomplishing less" of my stated goals. For running I decreased the number of miles I ran, and if running for "time only ", I also decreased the time spent running. That is when my times for road races started coming down and my time for the 100meter/200meter/400 meter times also came down in my Winter Olympic Speed Skating competitions.
Not so much the amount I did but more to do with the methods I chose doing them. Passed this on to so many of my running friends I lost count of how many tried this way of training beneficial in all different distances of their road races. Some ranging from the mile through every distance up to and including a Half Marathon.
When doing my fastest intervals I never worried about my gasping for air, my main focus was always on my heart rate and when it came down to a certain "bpm" I jumped back on the belt and did another interval. My breathing(gasping)was never an issue or way of measuring my speed/overall fitness level/or seconds-minutes taken to recover after each interval.
Maybe things have changed a bit since I did my competing in these events, but I do know that most runners I stay in contact with(those that run competitive road races)still primarily train with intervals be it running uphills/downhills or on flat ground. They have told me this not only has decreased their times for distances but has also helped them in reducing their injuries.
I also did the same amount of stretching as I did running or skating. If I ran for an hour I stretched those muscles along with all rear body muscles and connecting tissues. Three days a week I put aside time for resistance training, which to me is also mandatory for most to reach their full potential, whatever their goals might be in this regard.
For those looking for fat burning I found a combination of running or other heart rate increasing exercises for longer periods of time, along with doing fast/faster/and fastest intervals to be the key. A week never went by where I did not go outside and run for at least an hour, and more like an hour and a half. I did not care how fast I was running nor if I was using a 75-80-85% of my Aerobic Zone. I knew from all the Exercising Physiology Treadmill Testing exactly the "beats per minute" when my heart crossed the Anaerobic Threshold, and the outside running days were just to acclimate my joints to impacting with the ground, which is not the case when one does such a high percentage of their training on a treadmill.
Not only did I decrease my times/increase my leg turnover speed, I also was having Hydrostatic Underwater Body Composition Testing down each year. My body fat upon changing my methods of training went from 9% down to 6% over a period of about 2 years. That was the frosting on the cake for me. I was faster/stronger/recovered quicker and reduced my body fat percentage without reducing my weight. At my best I am 5'8" and the best weight for me was between 130-132lbs when it came to competitions.
hckynut(john)
Blogs & Forums
