firstly, a couple of things that have made me chuckle this week.
bike related humour, doesn't get better than this;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vn29DvMITu4
and then once you've dropped 5k on your bike, you might like to try this approach to keeping those thieves at bay;
and moving away from the chuckling, this is certainly one of the most inspiring stories i've heard on the circuit. a lot of people race for various personal reasons, this one takes the cake;
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=flRvsO8m_KI
ok so back to training, this week has been a little hectic, and sore. my mid week running track experience has once again established the current trend of almost consistent muscular pain. rest days have been more recovery, trying to walk again type affairs.
monday > 30 mins weights (swim routine), 30 min swim, 1 hour 45 min cycle
tuesday > rest
wednesday > 30 min sprint runs
thursday > rest
friday > 45 min cycle, 30 min swim drills, 45 min cycle
saturday > 1 hour 30 min cycle speed focus
sunday > rest
monday > 20 minute run, swim/bike weights, 30 minute swim drills
i've got a new approach to weight training too. rather than just lifting weights which are easily manageable, i'm lifting what's actually challenging, where my maximum rep is around 10.
i've never done this before, and realised my approach has always been a bit lazy, and generally ineffective. it's also been conditioned by things like pump class - where i'd always pick a lower, more manageable weight for fear of not being able to complete the set (and face the wrath of the teacher for too much weight).
but doing weights myself, i'm in control, and i know my limits. i look around the gym and see other ladies who look strong, lifting little weights and wonder if they've had the same approach as me... are they really getting the most out of their routine?
or rather, do i spend too much time thinking about these things?!
the good news for this week is; I'm off on holidays! miami, florida, sunshine! the bad news; i'll be suffering from bike separation (it hurts to even write). so training focus for the next ten days will be run run run (with a little ocean swimming)
next week, training report from the sunny state
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3 comments:
Hi,
if you to less repetitions with more weight, you increase your muscle cross-section, if you do more repetitions with less weight you improve toning. Unless you really want to build up muscle mass, as an endurance sportsperson you should focus on the low weights/many repetitions method. Muscle pump is in my experience quite good in that respect :-)
Cheers, Benjamin
By performing lower repetitions with more weight, you will improve the strength of the muscle, so that when you're working at your aerobic threshold ie. Race pace, you will be able to maintain a higher level. For example 60% of 100, is more than 60% of 80. Also you're working your faster twitch fibres, so that (example), if someone were to pass Al on the bike, she could tap her to those fibres to do a short sprint and then make an effort to pass back. And no-one stays at the same pace throughout a race, if you broke down the splits more, you'd see every 5km would be different, so it's training your muscles to work at different intensities.
So, to conclude my side of debate, if doing interval speed training at varying intensities increases the speed of your endurance running, doing anaerobic muscle training will improve the aerobic capabilities also.
We are also doing high repetition weights, just to be clear. This is just a phase of the weights programme.
Paul
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