POST WORKOUT HABITS: JACUZZI, ICE BATH, OR NEITHER?
Jarrett Pflieger
You just had your hardest training session of the week, your muscles are screaming, and you need relief now! Nothing looks more appealing than the hot steam rising up from a hot tub, urging you to come take a dip and ease your pain.
Although a nice warm bath or Jacuzzi feels great after a hard training session, it may not be the best thing for your muscles. In fact, it may even put a damper in your recovery. After a hard workout, you actually damage your joints and muscles. No, not serious damage like an injury, but micro-trauma that causes your muscles to become inflamed and swollen. Your body healing from this is what allows you to adapt and become stronger, faster, etc.
The faster you can reduce this inflammation and swelling, the sooner you will recover and be ready for your next workout. The best way to do this is with cold, not hot. A cold- water bath following exercise is believed to reduce swelling and breakdown of tissue, constrict blood vessels, and flush out waste products from your muscles like lactic acid. Scientific studies are mixed on the subject, but athletes that use cold-water baths swear by it. We say cold water, and not ice water, because the water does not actually have to be ice cold to get the benefits. “Ice” water can actually be less effective than just “cold” water that is around 50-60 degrees. Plus, it is much more tolerable.
The time you should spend in the water varies in opinion. The most common duration is immersion for 10-14 minutes, but like most things, it probably varies depending on the individual. Just experiment with cold-water immersion in the bathtub, pool, ocean, etc. See how your legs feel the next day compared to what you felt like without cold-water therapy.
Another practice is to alternate cold and hot water for several cycles. For instance, try alternating one-to-two minutes cold, two minutes hot for around three cycles. Only submerge your legs and lower torso when trying any of these methods. It can be dangerous for your whole body to experience temperature change this rapidly. You should never try any of these methods without thoroughly cooling down after a workout for around 10-15 minutes. It is like putting hot metal in cold water, it just doesn’t mix well.
Try to experiment with some different techniques and record your results so you can go back, review your notes, and see what worked the best. One thing is for sure, the worst thing to do after a workout is to not cool down and just plop on the couch. You will take much longer to recover and will miss out on vital performance gain opportunities.
RACE REPORT: CARLSBAD HALF MARATHON
Ron Saetermoe
We had a great ride Saturday, January 23rd. Two years ago Larry (Lar Dog), Kirk Matkin (Matkin Design) and I made the same ride. This year it was Larry, Daniel, Camille and I.
The idea was to ride down to Carlsbad to pick up our bibs for the half marathon the following day. Since it rained practically all week prior, our ride was in doubt, but the clouds broke and we went for it. I picked up a few more miles, and hills, just for fun. About 85 for me total.
I picked Lar Dog up at 6:00 a.m. Sunday for our 7:30 a.m. half-marathon start. The air was clear and crisp. I think it was high 40’s around start time and mid-50’s by the time we finished. Perfect!
Anyway, on the way down Larry and I were both complaining about how we felt after our spirited ride the day before. Neither one of us felt a PR coming on.
Larry was shooting for a 7:00 minute pace and I was shooting to finish – period!
We were seeded in the first wave (pretty cool idea, actually) and hit the first mile pretty hard. There was a large uphill climb over the I-5 so our first mile was 7:15. We were running along side a 1:35:00 pacer, which would be a great finishing time for me.
Mile two was quite a bit faster because we had to come down the same hill. Mile two: 6:30.
After that I simply waved goodbye to the Dog. Larry did a great job maintaining his 7:00 pace, but I fell back. My quads were toast from the day before. And while it hurt to run I knew that it would pay dividends later.
If you’ve never raced in Carlsbad you probably don’t know that the town really gets behind their sporting events (including the Carlsbad Triathlon). They literally close down the Pacific Coast Highway. The run along the ocean is great and inspiring.
Anyway, throughout the race I passed the 1:35:00 pacer guy, then he passed me, then I passed him. That’s pretty much how it went all morning. The crazy thing is that no one was running with him that I could see. I wouldn’t have run with him because he had no idea how to pace. One mile he’s running 8:00 pace and the next he’s at 6:30. What a goof!
The race seemed long and my pace slowed as the miles clicked by but I managed to finish in 1:37:51 (7:28 pace), which was good enough for 20th out of 225 finishers (9%).
I’ll take it!
BASE PERIOD
Ron Saetermoe
Two weeks ago I discussed the Adaptation Period of your training year. Most triathletes are probably still in this period now and looking forward to the Base Period.
The base period is when you’ll start building your “base” fitness, which will carry you through the rest of the year. At Triathica, all of our periods last nine weeks, but if you have time in your training schedule, it would do you good to add a couple weeks here in the Base Period.
By now your body should be quite adapted to a regular training regimen. You may still experience some muscle soreness, but it shouldn’t be as bad. Continue the hot/cold treatment to help relax the muscles and reduce the swelling.
One week from now I’ll be beginning my Base Phase of training. Keep in mind that no one trains exactly according to the ideal schedule. There are many factors that impact it. Family commitments, business travel, illness and other races. For this reason, you’ll need to back off on your training from time-to-time. When you do this, don’t try to make up for lost workouts. Depending on how many days you’ve missed you may have to ramp back up slowly.
I’ve been doing some half marathons so that obviously takes me out of my normal training routine. When it does, I gradually return to my training plan.
The key things about the adaptation period are:
– You attempt to stay on your training plan as much as possible
– You increase your training volume and intensity
– You regularly include resistance (strength) training
– You shouldn’t be as sore as you were in the Adaptation Period
– You include “brick” workouts every week (one to two)
Here’s what the ideal Triathica year looks like:
Again, we feel that three, three-week cycles within each period is optimal for building fitness and recovery. The time to build strength, speed and endurance is upon you. Make the best of it!
Cheers!
Ron
WHY TRAIN WITH A HEART RATE MONITOR?
Jarrett Pflieger
A heart rate monitor is a great tool that can make your training more efficient and increase performance, but many athletes out there haven’t taken the step to start using one. Heart rate monitors are easy to use, fairly inexpensive, and provide one of the largest bangs for your buck in terms of performance gains. Why so many continue to train without one is baffling, but hopefully this article will help some of you take that next step.
So why is a heart rate monitor so useful anyways? For one, it gives you a relatively accurate picture of what is going on in your body during training. You may think you are able to sustain a certain pace because you feel good, but a few minutes later you have to slow down or stop altogether. Heart rate monitors can prevent you from going out too hard and not finishing strong in training or races. On the other hand, they can also make sure you aren’t going too easy on yourself. Once you establish your personal heart rate training zones, you will know approximately what heart rate range you should try to sustain for different distances. Knowing your zones will help you pace yourself better, making your training more efficient and ensuring you give your all in races.
So how does one establish their heart rate zones? Well, each individual’s zones are different and vary from sport to sport (swim, bike, run, etc). That is why equations to determine your max heart rate like “220-age” are complete nonsense. There are some 50 year olds out there with higher heart rates than some 20 year olds. Max heart rate mostly depends on genetics. There are several methods to find your max heart rate in a sport.
Personally, I like to do a graded test where I start at a certain pace and keep increasing it every minute or so until I can’t go anymore. This gives a fairly accurate measure of your max heart rate, but it can also be very dangerous if you have any kind of health issues, some you may not even be aware of. The safest method would be to do the same test but stop short of maximum (8-9 out of 10 on the perceived exertion scale, 10 being absolute maximum). You can then estimate your max heart rate to be a few beats above that. Please consult a professional before performing a max heart rate test.
Once you know your max heart rate, you can then break it down into training zones. I like to use five zones, zone one being 50-60% of your max heart rate and zone five being 90-100% of your max heart rate. Then I experiment to see what my pace is at certain zones, and how long I can stay in the zones.
Another helpful number to know it your anaerobic threshold which is the point which your body produces more lactic acid than it can use, causing the burn in the muscles and eventual fatigue. This usually occurs around 65-95% max heart rate depending on the individual. The most successful athletes know what their AT is and can hold close to that pace throughout a race. Most of your training will be below this intensity, but it is still good to know. You can determine your AT by doing a 30-45 minute time trial since most athletes can sustain their AT for around that amount of time. Make sure the time trial is hard and you leave no juice in the tank. After the test, your average heart rate and average pace would be a good estimate of your AT.
Although you can’t really train to increase your max heart rate, you can train to increase your AT. When your AT increases, you are able to maintain a faster pace with less pain and fatigue. This, of course, translates into faster race times. Without a heart rate monitor, none of this type of training is available to you. It is best to not purely rely on the monitor, but also go from how your body is feeling. Once you can use the two in unison, you will be well on your way to setting new personal records.
TRIBUYS GOING OUT OF BUSINESS
Ron Saetermoe
I received a very sad email yesterday from Cameron and Jennifer of TriBuys – the wonderful store they started in 2007 is closing.
It’s a sign of the times unfortunately. Just within the last year we’ve seen four local institutions close: TriBuys, Fleet Feet, Ladera Cyclery and Ciell Cycling. It seems strange that the sport of triathlon is still growing but the businesses that support it are failing left and right.
Personally, I think a lot of triathletes can put off the purchase of a new bike, shoes or a wetsuit but they’ll continue to scrape together the money to race. I know I’m that way. Training and racing are in my blood. Sure, I’d love to get the new Zipp wheels but I’ll put the purchase off another season. I won’t, however, miss IM California 70.3 or IM Arizona!
We will miss all four of these businesses and I wish their owners the best.
Tribuys
11 A. Marconi (near Muirlands & Bake Parkway)
Irvine, CA 92618
949.837.8138
www.tribuys.com
