Finish Line 70.3

Finish Line 70.3
Finish Line 70.3

70.3 Finisher!

70.3 Finisher!
70.3 Finisher

Friday, June 11, 2010

The magic number six

People think of triathlon as a three-discipline sport: you gotta swim, you gotta bike and you gotta run (throwing up is not a discipline, no matter what you might think).

The fourth discipline in a triathlon is transitions--where you entertain onlookers by squiriming out of the rubber-band wetsuit and buckling on your bike helmet backwards, or putting on your running shoes and forgetting to take OFF said helmet when starting on the run.

Of course, we all know there are two more disciplines to doing a tri, or really, doing any kind of exercise or athletic activity: nutrition and REST.

Hard exercise breaks down your system and creates little tears in the muscles, which must heal to become stronger and faster. The only way healing occurs is during rest.

Once we get bitten by the tri bug, or any other kind of athletic bug with a goal, sometimes we get TOO eager to rush into training and forget that rest and recovery are a critical part of getting into condition.

The general rule is one day off a week, and every four weeks a reduction in training volume, but that rule is just a general one. If you have a monster workout one day, you don't want to follow it with a monster workout the next day. You go on a easy run, or easy bike, or even take an extra day off (maybe do some yoga or go for an easy walk). If you are overtired, or your heart rate is high for no reason, you should take a day off and recover. Give your body a chance to recoup all the good things you are doing to it with exercise and conditioning.

Triathletes generally do not repeat workout types two days in a row, with some exceptions--i.e. if you swim one day you will bike the next, etc. This gives your system a chance to work and stress different muscles. However, you still need that recovery day.

I took yesterday off. Off days are like mini vacations, although I cram them with errands, laundry, dog grooming, and everything else I don't have time for on other days. I try to eat sensibily on off days and really tank up on the water intake and veggie/fruit thing.

This morning I had a very easy bike ride--50 minutes for 11.5 miles at around 13.8 average pace--from 6:45 to 7:45 in order to warm up my legs for the Collin Classic tomorrow (I'm doing the 39 mile ride). No hills, no intervals, just steady even pace around the 'hood and a local lake park enjoying the sunrise and reminding my legs they will have to work hard tomorrow. I had a half bagel with 2 teaspoons of crunchy peanut butter before the ride, and a banana post ride. Tonight I will be cleaning bikes and loading the car for a 7 a.m. out the door time.

Assuming I have a house when I get home tonight, that is. We have a wonderful lady who cleans our house every other week, and whose command of English is better by far than my command of Spanish (despite four years of it in college). We had just refinished our brick floors this past week and they needed to not have soap used on them. So I left her a note in my most excellent Spanish that either told her to clean the brick floors with water only and to use soap and water on the kitchen floors, or else I told her to break all the windows in the house with a hammer and then go to the casino.

Happy resting!

1 comment:

  1. enjoying your blog. Very encouraging for me - an OLDER athlete hopeful. Your writing is witty and amusing. Keep it up and good luck tomorrow. We'll see you tomorrow evening.

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