Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Monday, Tuesday

So I've got the new website up and functioning. You can check it out here. Right now its basically a reorganization of this blog. But that will change as I start to shift my emphasis in what I write. But for now its just a matter of organizing things. I feel like I'm moving in to a new house. But the good thing is now that the site is up, I can get back to the matter at hand and that is simply training. I've gone back to doing my strength work. I'm pretty consistant about working out my lower body but I tend to stop working the upper body except for my core as racing season approaches. This is largely because I find I'm not as flexible which negatively impacts my swimming. But I'm not racing now so that excuse is baseless.

I like to do my upper body strength training on Monday because its the beginning of the week and I like to get it out of the way first thing. Probably because I don't like it. And because it hurts. And if there is anything I will find an excuse not to do it is this workout. The session isn't very complex, it just hurts is all. So here's what I did:

  1. 2 x 30 sec max rep push ups
  2. 2 x 30 sec max rep pull ups
  3. 2 x 30 sec max rep mil push ups
  4. 2 x 30 sec max rep rev grip chin ups
  5. 2 x 30 sec max rep decline push ups
  6. 2 x 30 sec max rep close grip pull ups
  7. 2 x 30 sec max rep diamond push ups
  8. 2 x 30 sec max rep towel pull ups
  9. 2 x max rep divebomber
  10. 2 x 30 sec max rep isometric chest press
Then I went to an hour and a half all levels yoga class. The class just so happened to be pretty core intensive and included a lot of standing poses which really emphasize leg strength and balance. Later that day did an indoor MAF ride for half an hour which included two sets of single leg drills.

Today, I ran for an hour with an average heart rate of 140. I've been training at completely MAF (maximum aerobic function) for the last couple of weeks. A lot of folks discount this type of training or don't stick with it for very long, but I've seen the results and am willing to do it. Then I came home and got on the trainer for 40 min also at MAF with an average heart rate of 127. That was today's work. Gonna swim and run tomorrow.

6 comments:

Mark said...

Nice Fred—working up the volume no doubt. That does look like a grueling workout, but you know what they say: No pain, Well Trained!

Keep on keeping on hombre!

-M

Fred (aka ace) said...

Thanks Mark, will do!

Lucho said...

Ace- Do you have any diagnostic tests for either the bike or the run? Blood draws? Even a good Vo2 test would work. I started with the MAF stuff back in 1996 and the urging of Mike Pigg. Since then I have seen many athletes (I've coached ~100 athletes)who don't fit the 180-age formula. A definitive lactate threshold or functional threshold can help to pin point the ideal HR range. I always use MAF as a starting point and most often it is close to ideal, but it's good too to have a backup verification. I've had athletes who at 38 have LT's of 178 (myself) and 165... HUGE difference in terms of relative intensity.

Fred (aka ace) said...

No actually I haven't. Not since around 2000. I should have had that tested when I decided to start racing again but didn't want to see how jacked up my system was. But I have that on my list of things to do this year so that I can have a better idea of training intensity.

The reason I dropped the old numbers and went with Maffetone's formula was because I knew in the past I'd erred on the side of the higher heart rate. I'm fairly confident my max is a great deal higher than 180 because I've seen it there. But knowing the AeT more specifically would be a huge plus.

Lucho said...

The Maffetone '180' is Vo2 max so if you've seen HR's ~ 5-10 beats over this at a near max effort then it's probably close. I have also found that a solid 10k can work as a field test. You can extrapolate your numbers from Jack Daniels VDOT chart. It's not perfect but it can be used effectively.

Fred (aka ace) said...

Thanks, I think that sort of what I was figuring. I can say in the past couple of years near all out on the bike was 185 to 188. On the run its a bit higher still, in the ~195ish range (from my log I was on the track doing 5 mi with a steady increase in effort every 200m to get that). I'm going to a workshop for a doctor who does "functional medicine" this week and he works with athletes and has the ability to test. If I like him I'll just have the testing done at his office. If not, a 10k it is then.