Raising the Roof

As I get deeper into my "comeback" I can't help but benchmark to prior levels of fitness and performance. As I've said repeatedly, I am painfully slow. But, it's only been a month and I haven't really had a chance to adapt to the main training load.

Nonetheless, a particular thing struck me the past two weeks as I added some harder segments within rides and runs. My heart rate just doesn't go very high.

In the past, my HR sat around 160-165 for an entire half IM. A 40k time trial I did in spring 2006 saw a sustained HR of around 170. I could easily hit 175-180 if doing intervals or charging up a hill to stay with a riding group. My all-day steady ride/run HR was 148-152. This is higher than the average person, but that's why there are bell curves.

This past Saturday, I pushed a 2:15 ride pretty hard...harder than I would ride a half IM. And my HR never got over 155. I had trouble keeping it at 150.

Doing some T pace mile repeats running, HR peaked out at 156. Those should have been above 165.

What this tells me is that I am sitting significantly below my VO2max potential. In long-course racing, there is little need for an AG athlete like me to attempt to fully maximize my genetic limit of VO2max. But...as Phil Skiba terms it..."raising the roof" a little can't hurt. I decided to do one VO2max working on the run this week; will do one on the bike next week. Then back to normal training for a month and re-evaluate.

My favorite running workout for lifting VO2max is a set of 30/30's. Warm up with easy running for 10-15 minutes, then run 30 seconds at about the pace you could hold for 3 laps (if you're slow) or 4 laps (if you're fast) of a track. Again...you're running just 30 seconds at a pace you could hold for 4-6 minutes. Take it easy...it's tempting to go too hard.

After 30 seconds of that, run at easy/jogging pace for 30 seconds, then go back to the fast pace for 30 seconds. Repeat. I did a set of 12 of these, with a brief walking break halfway through. Done once a month, you might do as many as 20. 12 was plenty for now.

The idea here is to get the metabolic stress (stimulus) of the fast effort, while minimizing the physical/mechanical stress of doing longer intervals.

Next week, I'll hit a local hill on the bike that takes about 3.5 minutes to climb at a hard effort. I'll do 4 repeats of that at VO2max effort.

In a week or two, I should see a modest improvement in my ability to get my HR higher on tempo efforts. Higher HR (all else equal) can mean more oxygen to the muscles, which is where the action takes place.