Some Thoughts for the Week

Here are some training-related thoughts and answers to some of your questions.

Yes, the run of the week this week is long. Also, using the heart rate for recovery is a new technique. I chose 100bpm as an arbitrary number. Some have commented that it took a long time to get under 100bpm. 110bpm may be a better number. FYI- the faster your heart rate drops, the better conditioned you are.

Be careful of overtraining. This means your body is not adapting to the stress of training. You feel weaker, more tired, sore, have difficulty sleeping, feel unmotivated, anxious, and your performance suffers. You need to back away. Take a day or two off. It will help you in the long run. Again, think long-term. Never train (all types of exercise, especially higher-intensity) more than five days per week. Trust me, it will catch up with you. Don't spend more than 75 minutes in the gym (unless you are preparing for something specific, which when it is over you will take time off, ie. a triathlon or half marathon). You should feel stronger and better with each session not worse.

We all will get sick some time and will need to stop exercising for a while. But, how long? You should not exercise if you have still have symptoms (fever, vomitting, aching, chills, etc.). When you get over the active symptoms your body may still feel run down. It needs the extra (sleep) energy to fight off the illness. You may want to hold off on exercise for a few days until you feel better. When you do feel somewhat better (maybe not 100%), you can start back at a lower intensity and duration. Let me know. I can easily scale back your training as you are recovering.

Any other questions just leave a comment.