Coming off my fastest year ever, I didn't want to stop. It's been tremendously warm here and there still isn't any snow on the ground. It's been a runners paradise! Then, why oh why oh why have I been taking it easy? The concept is foreign to me.
Here is my motivation. A quote by Ryan Hall.
"I constantly remind myself that resting takes confidence. Anyone can train like
a mad man but to embrace rest and to allow all the hard training to come out
takes mental strength."
a mad man but to embrace rest and to allow all the hard training to come out
takes mental strength."
So, that is what I am doing. Taking a rest. A dog gone rest. A 12-week rest none-the-less. I teach classes at the YMCA. We have a new program that deals with heart rates. The skinny is that you wear a heart rate strap (mostly during the cycle classes that I teach) and your 'projected' heart rate is seen on the screen in front of you. Great. Good. But what is my, me, mine actual heart rate? And what are my actual heart rate zones?
So, I took a test. A metabolic test. Part one: I ran my butt off on the treadmill for 15 minutes under different speeds and inclines with a mask on my face. Part two: I sat in a chair. And did nothing with a mask on my face. What those two tests told me in a nutshell was this: You aren't eating enough, you are burning carbs throughout the day and your metabolic base is terrible. Really. Interesting. But I am faster than I have ever been!?!?
So, what I took away was this easy, little equation: Eat More+Train Less=Get Faster. Look below and see if you can figure it out.
Have you figured it out yet? If not, read this and it will explain more.
So, for the next 12 weeks, I am taking it easy. I am taking it easy in order to get faster. I want to get faster because this baby is officially on the bucket list:
Here's is what I will be doing until the first week of April:
Monday: cycle (75 minutes): zone 1/2
Tuesday: body pump (not sure how to classify this yet:weight training class)
Wednesday: cycle (60 minutes) and yoga (30 minutes): zone 1/2
Thursday: run (60-75 minutes):zone 3 and 4
Friday: cycle (60 minutes): zone 1/2
Saturday: either run or cycle (60-70 minutes): zone 3 and 4, maybe a little 5
So, I am building up my metabolic base by working the lower heart rate zones and giving my body the nutrients it really needs. Did you see that number people? 1828. That's how many calories I need to stay alive, laying on the couch doing nothing all day. Add my lifestyle+working out, and I should be eating NO LESS than 2600 a day. On long run days, that number increases significantly. Geesh. I don't eat that much. So, I'm spending a bit more time tracking my intake and my exercise outtake. While in zone 2, a relatively easy workout zone, I burn 11.5 calories a minute. So if I cycle around a heart rate of 145 for 60 minutes, I just burned 690 calories. And that's in my low workout zones.
So, again. The skinny. Or the lack there of. Ha! I am training my body to burn fat instead of carbs. Right now, I burn 74% of carbs and 26% of fat. That number needs to flip flop. I walk around during the day (In my 160-pound frame....We are all friends here, but I no longer weigh 180lbs. The last time I took this test I was 3-months post-JP and it only changed on one of the forms. Ha!) burning carbs when I want to be storing them for my workouts. Burning fat during the day would be much better. I know my body burns up carbs. And this is how I know. From the article above:
"In the beginning of the season just about everyone will have lost a lot of their aerobic base, especially if in the season before you did little aerobic and mostly anaerobic training. What this means in your workouts is that you have very little ability to burn fat as a source of fuel for exercise and your heart rate will jump up very high at a relatively slow pace in an attempt to kick your metabolism into carbohydrate burning. And to keep from going over your aerobic limit you will have to slow your pace down, often significantly. "
My heart rate would do that on every run this past season. Spike high in order to burn the only fuel source it knew how to utilize: Carbs. The last picture explains the stages of the training I will be taking part in. Shifting my metabolic, fat-burning base. Let's hope I see those results over the next 12-weeks. I want 2012 to be a super-speedy running season!
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