Holy Heart Rate Homeboy!

Oh Heart Rate... you really rue the day.

My last four weeks of training have been great, and I contribute that to a number of factors:

1) I have an exceptional new coach who is accessible and makes my swim workouts tolerable. 

2) I have made the Trakkers Team and have a lot of great new teammates to bounce ideas off of.

3) I have a positive mental attitude. 

4) Am learning that proper hydration and a minimum of seven hours of sleep can go a long way.

Unfortunately, with only three seasons of triathlon under my belt, I am at that point of knowing just enough to be dangerous.

For instance, this season, I actually took the time to learn the difference between a tubular and a clincher tire. Sure, simple enough you say. I had always heard the terms, but thought they were associated with World Wrestling Federation moves performed by the likes of Superfly Jimmy Snuka:

"... He's got him in the dreaded tubular now... and it appears... yes.. my goodness... he went right into a full clincher."

You know.. in a lot of ways, professional wrestling is just like triathlon. You get to wear a lot of tight spandex without anyone looking at you funny. The competitors are spent, and soaked in sweat while hugging their teammates at the end of the competition, and both sports have athletes that enjoy throwing their arms in the air, and making the number one sign while shouting like an air raid siren for some odd reason.


Oh, for those of you who are unfamiliar with these therms, :

Tubular: A type of tire mainly used for racing. A tubular tire has no beads; instead, the two edges of the carcass are sewn together (hence the term "sew-up") with the inner tube inside. Tubulars fit only on special rims, where they are held on by cement. If you do not glue those puppies on correctly, they can come undone, you could crash, and most certainly die, or at the very least, be held up in a hospital bed for 6 to 8 months. 


Clincher: This is the normal type of tire—you know, with the rubber balloon inside of the tire, referred to as a tube. It fits inside the tire and is mounted to the rim. 


If you want to sound really smart talking to the bike shop mechanic next time you are there, check out Sheldon Brown's Bicycle Glossary. 

So, about this heart rate thing. Apparently Coach Mary thought I knew things like my lactate threshold, maximum heart rate, and who this Joel Friel guy is. Heck, I still do not understand the difference between a $150 and $500 dollar wetsuit, and I am totally convinced that Andy Potts could beat me wearing one of those suits from 20,000 Leagues under the sea, much in the same way Lance could smoke me in a time trial riding a 1970's Schwinn.

Coach Mary—the greatest, most patient coach on the planet—had me doing a lot of my early base stuff in zone 2. Unfortunately, for the first two weeks of training,  I really had no idea what my zone 2 was, nor was I overly concerned until I remembered the reason I decided to work with a coach was so that I would actually improve my results from last season. I think she probably thought, this guy has some experience. He understands zone 2. Negative Ghost Rider. So, I took a lactate threshold test with a nerdy science friend of mine, and learned that my HR zones were off. Way off. I had previously thought that the ceiling for my zone 2 was somewhere around 125-127. Turns out, my ceiling is closer to 165 in zone 2. How did I get 125ish? Well, if you plug your maximum HR into your fancy Garmin by doing the unofficial "poor-man's" method of figuring out your HR (i.e. 220 minus your age), Garmin will conveniently spit out some generic HR zones for that work equally well for me as they do for the guy who smokes two packs of Marlboro's a day. It only makes sense that I should have a higher maximum HR than cancer stick guy. Now that I understand the zones, it is still a challenge to be patient and remain within them. I find little things like ego and boredom start creeping in and I just want to run. However, I understand what the idea is: slowly and steadily build up your zone 2 to allow yourself to run faster in that HR zone. In other words, I want to go from running a 9:30 mile in zone two to running and 8:30. Duh! There is no getting away with anything. I wear my HR monitor (most days—and when I don't, there are severe consequences).

Twilight Update: As many of you are aware of, the wifey and I have watched the first three Twilight movies and I hate to admit it—but I was completely sucked, er... bitten.... I mean... we really liked this teenage campy movie. I am totally Team Alice for sure.

So the wifey and I were sitting around the other night having a serious conversation about this whole vampire/werewolf thing. Here are some questions we have about all of it:

1) So, if Edward and what's her face get together, are they unable to procreate because he is.... you know... dead?

2) Do vampires poop? I mean honestly, they don't eat.

3) Can Edward and Bella have children? AND, if so, isn't it going to be weird once their kids are finally older than their parents?



Okay... plane to Seattle is calling... gotta run. More soon. Happy Training!

I Drank What? Socrates, Nutrition, and Enurance

A family member who is hoping to take off a little weight recently asked me this question regarding nutrition: "Will I lose weight if I limit my daily caloric intake to just 1500 calories?" She continued "I have a coworker that said in order to lose weight, I should limit the number of calories I eat in a day to just 1500. That does not seem reasonable to me, I like to eat." First, I always have to preface these types of posts by submitting the disclaimer—I am not a nutritionist. As far as exercise and nutrition go, I am largely an autodidactic. I think someone once told me—or perhaps I am coining this myself—that the only real learning we do is what we figure out on our own. Like composing, I learned a lot about what works with my own musical rhetoric by trial and error. In the pool, I get several tips about my swimming technique (both encouraged and completely unsolicited.) I could have Michael Phelps coaching me, but unless I have that "aha!" moment myself moving across the pool, all that coaching will only encourage me to be more aware about said technique. Socrates was one wise dude when he said "I cannot teach anybody anything, I can only make them think, or who more famously said—according to actor Val Kilmer in his portrayal of Chris Knight in the greatest film ever made about lasers liquidating human
targets from outer space, Real Genius—"I drank what?"  But I digress.  I am, however, passionate about inspiring and motivating people to make healthier decisions about their nutrition, and encourage them to maintain an active lifestyle. Secondly, as someone who has been known to scarf down two pounds of cavatelli and broccoli for lunch,  I am not an authority on how to limit your daily caloric intake to a mere 1500 calories. My life revolves around my next meal. Terrible, right?  I love to eat. However, I have noticed a symbiotic relationship regarding the volume of training that I engage in and my appetite. Sure, initially I eat much more as the volume increases. I have to. Eventually, my intake regulates itself and I maintain a lower, leaner overall body weight. In other words, I eat a lot more initially, but then my body learns to regulate its appetite so I don't eat butter at four in the morning. 

You can and should eat more after hard workouts. There are days after a long bike, or hard swim that I spend the rest of the day grazing and drinking enough water to qualify as genus Camelus dromedarius (thanks Wikipedia!) As for my relative, she goes out for brisk half hour walks most days during her lunch break, and during the summer months—rides her bike and continues her walking. She is active, but her workout intensity is moderate at best. What that means is that she is not going to burn the same amount of calories during her workouts as someone who works out a a higher intensity.  Case in point: I met this guy at the gym in his mid 30's who said he had recently taken off more than one hundred pounds. I 
told him that was amazing and asked him how he did it. In a very matter-of-fact sort of way, he responded "Eat less, work out more," and then followed it up with a "duh!" I later discovered that not only did this guy work out, but he had become a hardcore cardio junkie, hitting the elliptical machine, treadmill, or stationary bike hard for a half hour to fourty-five minutes until he was red in the face and sweating from head to toe. 

When my cousin lived with us for the summer and took off 72 pounds, I had to totally revamp the way he thought about food and exercise. Exercise does not have to be this thing that we "do," but a way of life. More, when you exercise, and you are trying to lose weight or maintain some type of athletic performance, it is suppose to be tough, so that you can work out your heart and be more fit. You have to start somewhere, but at some point, I encourage people wanting to lose weight to ramp up the intensity of their exercise and stop ordering dessert. Calories are calories, but what types of foods you get them from and what types of nutrients they have are important as well. For instance, a half cup of broccoli has 12 calories and 0.2 grams of fat compared to one square of your average brownie that has 200 calories and 3 grams of fat. Have you ever eaten just one brownie? Puuuleeeasse!   

The body does burn a higher percentage of calories from fat in the 'fat burning zone' or at lower intensities.  But, at higher intensities, you burn a greater number of overall calories which is what you should be concerned about when trying to lose weight. The chart below details the fat calories expended by a 130-pound woman during cardio exercise:

The following table was taken from  The 24/5 Complete Personal Training Manual, 24 Hour Fitness, 2000:

	Low Intensity - 60-65% MHR	High Intensity - 80-85% MHR
Total Calories expended per min.	4.86	6.86
Fat Calories expended per min.	2.43	2.7
Total Calories expended in 30 min.	146	206
Total Fat calories expended in 30 min.	73	82
Percentage of fat calories burned	50%	39.85%

In the above table, the woman will not only burn more total calories, but more fat calories at a higher level of intensity. Should you only do high intensity workouts? NO Endurance workouts should be a staple of your fitness training, along with shorter, higher intensity workouts, or interval training—toggling back and forth between low intensity endurance and fast paced sprints—which are a great way to burn calories and build endurance.