Charity Partner
Official Bike Retailer
Gears Multisport Wednesdays. Receive 10% off most items in our store when you shop on Wednesday. Download and print your discount card
Coaching
Running Races
Photographer
Creating an Aerobic Machine by Richard Pady
While the snow has decided to join us for the winter and for most of use our bikes are permanently fixed to our trainer, it is time to build our Aerobic Fitness.
What do I mean by Aerobic Fitness?
Aerobic fitness: increasing the amount of oxygen that is delivered to your muscles, which allows them to work longer. Any activity that raises your heart rate and keeps it up for an extended period of time will improve your aerobic fitness. The fact is whether you are training for a Give-It-A-Tri or an Ironman, as a triathlete your FIRST challenge will be building your Aerobic Fitness.
The most effective way to build your Aerobic Fitness is to train easy
Easy aerobic training stimulates circulation, which accelerates tissue-healing response. Intensity is enough to increase blood circulation and trigger a growth hormone response, but not intense enough to cause significant muscle damage. At this effort you are using slow-twitch muscle fibers. By training easy you are attempting to train your body to be more efficient at using oxygen to produce energy while conserving carbohydrate as a fuel, especially for individuals who compete in events lasting more than 2 hours. Your body does not learn this if you are training in what most of use call a tempo state or Zone 3. But be aware, at first you will find it difficult to keep your intensity low.
Testing Aerobic Fitness:
I use a simple but effective test to see how my Aerobic fitness is improving.
I like to use a 5km Treadmill or track run where I hold my effort below
a set heart rate that I know is in my low end of my aerobic zone. It is
not important that the number is at a specific percentage of your max heart
rate but that you use the same heart rate each time you test. A simple formula
is 180 - your age (plus 5 for experienced athletes). For me
that comes out to 153bpm. So I run as fast as I can until my HR hits 153
and then I back off. The goal is to see how fast you can run the 5kms without
going over the set HR. You must back off when your HR monitor beats letting
you know your HR is too high. I suggest testing at the end of each month
on your recovery weeks.
I've seen a full minute improvement over the last two months of my training. Give it a try and enjoy getting faster while training easier.
I hope these ideas help your off season training. If you have any questions regarding any of these drills or techniques please feel free to contact a coach at Team HR.by email at info@healthyresults.ca
