Conditioning, anaerobic, interval, peak...how do I understand all this? Any pointer, please? MLHA (Make Leo Healty Again)

I remember the first time we met at the Creek lot, probably Octoberish as the DH season was coming to a close. Winter is around the block, your lurking stops and you ride OOS style, include some indoor work. It gets warmer, you ride a little more. Now it's April and finally able to wear shorts and ditch the winter coat for rides when your betterhalf said you were insane for getting out. Give it some time, you seem to eat well, don't drink and starting to exercise. @jklett had a similar story last year and he's looking like a different guy each time I see him. Keep what you're doing and measure your progress in years and not months.
 
jklett said:
BTW Leo, I just earned a free month trial to give away for trainerroad if you want to give it a try. PM me with your email and I'll send it to you.
Click to expand...

Jason, let me check it out, I don't want you to waste an account on me if I am not going to take advantage of it. I'll message you either way. Regardless, I really appreciate it! Thanks a bunch!
 
Patrick said:
perceived exertion. some people think about your A-B-C in terms of how hard they feel they are working. So the same effort can
feel easy one day, and difficult the next - mostly based on fatigue, but sleep, and food count too. Since you use a heart rate monitor,
there are well defined zones based on your age/max HR that trigger different things to happen. I don't know the physiology, i just know that running
slowly helped me run faster, and farther. I trained at 10+min/mile pace to run low 9s for a marathon. go figure.

what this perceived exertion really did was enable a group leader to tell everyone to "recover" or "hardest effort" and it would mean different HRs and Power numbers
for different people - but each person was to judge their effort.

--

so if i look at an endurance ride - the distribution looks like this chart (based on time in heart rate zone)
These are based on "my heart rate" - you could think of your A as Z2 and below, B as Z3, and C as Z4 - you can now match the
words about zones to your mental map.

View attachment 91963

Here is @terrabike01's race from the short track race (i forgot my HR strap) - he is your age (a few younger than I), but has a significantly different range
for each zone based on his max HR. In the race, he basically runs his heart rate in the upper end of the sustainable zone. Frank finished 3rd in fatbike
and had some podium finished in MTB last year - he is in very good shape to do this.

View attachment 91965

So as you've established on your trainer, you can "structure" or compose your work-outs, with your A - moderate/conditioning, B -tempo/interval training, C - threshold/Peak - above that is anaerobic - someone else can explain the biology here - i'll just botch what it means in a workout sense.

- so there you have it - some vocabulary - now what to do with it?
training plans will tell you to hit certains zones for a certain amount of time, on certain days....they expect you to follow the plan.
If you don't follow the plan, and fatigue yourself on a recovery day, then can't make the numbers (sustain your heart rate) the next day,
it is postulated that more damage than good was done. @Norm has discussed this in his blog.

As far as "base" - just getting your HR up 3x a week for an hour, then 4x, then add a bit. Nothing crazy. this gives you some "base fitness" to
build upon. Many people start a plan with zero fitness, and get frustrated. You are not at zero.

Since you are an analytical person, I think we just need to get the words into a working framework for you.
One thing about trail riding, it usually doesn't lend itself to long, low HR riding. It is max effort to get up a hill,
or through some rocks, followed by a recovery, either by stopping, or going very slowly. I found this very difficult
from a fitness standpoint. The roadbike was much better. I could choose a hill based on how i felt that day, and
ride "easy" whenever needed.

PS -

I wore lycra to a spin class full of women wearing yoga pants, and got some strange looks - and an odd comment from the owner.
I don't go anymore because of the smart trainer, but i did switch over to a pull up chamois and regular gym shorts.....
Click to expand...

Frank had no Z5? We need to chat. That's why he was 3rd ;)
 
stb222 said:
Velonews did an interesting articles about Lennard Zinn's heart condition a few years back...Touches on the toll on the heart of endurance athletes over time.

https://www.velonews.com/cycling-to-extremes-heart-health-and-endurance-sports
Click to expand...

nutty-professor-gif-8.gif
 
As a couple of wise(ass) people on here also pointed out, ya can't get better at mtb if you don't mtb.
the fitness and skill work off each other. this lets the good guys (non-gender specific use) beat the
roadies through the rocks! but that is a different subject..
 
Patrick said:
As a couple of wise(ass) people on here also pointed out, ya can't get better at mtb if you don't mtb.
the fitness and skill work off each other. this lets the good guys (non-gender specific use) beat the
roadies through the rocks! but that is a different subject..
Click to expand...
Then why do most cat 1 mtb'ers ride road 90% of the time?
 
Patrick said:
perceived exertion. some people think about your A-B-C in terms of how hard they feel they are working. So the same effort can
feel easy one day, and difficult the next - mostly based on fatigue, but sleep, and food count too. Since you use a heart rate monitor,
there are well defined zones based on your age/max HR that trigger different things to happen. I don't know the physiology, i just know that running
slowly helped me run faster, and farther. I trained at 10+min/mile pace to run low 9s for a marathon. go figure.

what this perceived exertion really did was enable a group leader to tell everyone to "recover" or "hardest effort" and it would mean different HRs and Power numbers
for different people - but each person was to judge their effort.

--

so if i look at an endurance ride - the distribution looks like this chart (based on time in heart rate zone)
These are based on "my heart rate" - you could think of your A as Z2 and below, B as Z3, and C as Z4 - you can now match the
words about zones to your mental map.

View attachment 91963

Here is @terrabike01's race from the short track race (i forgot my HR strap) - he is your age (a few younger than I), but has a significantly different range
for each zone based on his max HR. In the race, he basically runs his heart rate in the upper end of the sustainable zone. Frank finished 3rd in fatbike
and had some podium finishes in MTB last year - he is in very good shape to do this.

View attachment 91965

So as you've established on your trainer, you can "structure" or compose your work-outs, with your A - moderate/conditioning, B -tempo/interval training, C - threshold/Peak - above that is anaerobic - someone else can explain the biology here - i'll just botch what it means in a workout sense.

- so there you have it - some vocabulary - now what to do with it?
training plans will tell you to hit certains zones for a certain amount of time, on certain days....they expect you to follow the plan.
If you don't follow the plan, and fatigue yourself on a recovery day, then can't make the numbers (sustain your heart rate) the next day,
it is postulated that more damage than good was done. @Norm has discussed this in his blog.

As far as "base" - just getting your HR up 3x a week for an hour, then 4x, then add a bit. Nothing crazy. this gives you some "base fitness" to
build upon. Many people start a plan with zero fitness, and get frustrated. You are not at zero.

Since you are an analytical person, I think we just need to get the words into a working framework for you.
One thing about trail riding, it usually doesn't lend itself to long, low HR riding. It is max effort to get up a hill,
or through some rocks, followed by a recovery, either by stopping, or going very slowly. I found this very difficult
from a fitness standpoint. The roadbike was much better. I could choose a hill based on how i felt that day, and
ride "easy" whenever needed.

PS -

I wore lycra to a spin class full of women wearing yoga pants, and got some strange looks - and an odd comment from the owner.
I don't go anymore because of the smart trainer, but i did switch over to a pull up chamois and regular gym shorts.....
Click to expand...

Thanks, it makes sense. Sorry for the delay but I had a couple of super busy days, starting to work at 7:00 am at home, them going to the office until 7:30 p.m.

I think that I still need to find out where my anaerobic zone starts before starting play with any different plans from what I am doing now.

I also started reading the book that @jimvreeland recommended...I couldn't get through the 1st chapter about the mental part of training as I was tired after a 12 hours day sitting at a desk, I'll have to go back to that. It vaguely reminded me of when my basketball coach gave us a long, supposedly motivating speech before the game...which I proceeded to ridicule with a joke (he was really asking for it though, but my problem has always been my big mouth). Needless to say I never made the starting 5 after that, it was the beginning of the season and I had a 18 points avg score in the previous season. I guess I proved the point that the wrong attitude is detrimental to your performances...
 
serviceguy said:
.I couldn't get through the 1st chapter about the mental part of training
Click to expand...

this made me laugh at face value, but i understand putting in a day that long is not conducive to casual reading.

Anyway, find your max hr using the general formula, then adjust from there? take a look at the hill we climbed on the gravel ride,
you probably hit 95% or better? you were working hard, and it was an extended effort.

One of the other ways that can be used is if you can hold a conversation, it is zone 1/2, if you can listen and get a sentence out zone 3,
if you can respond with a word or two, zone 4....above that, yeah, nothing.

ride the trainer, ride outside, walk with the family. keep moving!
 
Patrick said:
take a look at the hill we climbed on the gravel ride,
you probably hit 95% or better? you were working hard, and it was an extended effort.
Click to expand...

What hill was that, the one where I died and Angels came down from Heaven to take me but left me behind shaking their heads or the one where I exploded and reincarnated in a groundhog? My memories of that day are pretty hazy, pretty much like the ones from any day after I turned 50...

But thanks, I am slowly getting the hang of this conditioning thing, I may be able to eventually understand something about it...nah.
 
serviceguy said:
What hill was that, the one where I died and Angels came down from Heaven to take me but left me behind shaking their heads or the one where I exploded and reincarnated in a groundhog? My memories of that day are pretty hazy, pretty much like the ones from any day after I turned 50...

But thanks, I am slowly getting the hag of this conditioning thing, I may be able to eventually understand something about it...nah.
Click to expand...

This climb up pottersville rd.

https://www.strava.com/activities/2170194296/segments/54737449665

https://www.strava.com/segments/1105617?filter=overall

filter on OOS - seems @Norm got a little inspired on that one back in 2012.
 
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