Yesterday morning I woke up after a good nights sleep (feeling well rested) and headed out for a paddle, as you may recall from yesterday’s post.
I’ve got my eye on a local adventure race in March 2019 with a flat water kayak paddle, trail run & cross country mountain bike ride, so my focus will be on these.
My last two months of training has been focused on building my aerobic fitness for paddling, running and riding.
This means strictly keeping my heart rate at or below my maximum aerobic rate (180 – my age ie. 180 – 46 = 134 beats per minute)…which feels ridiculously easy and is quite hard to do after years of most of my training just slogging it out again and again.
The reasons for this are –
Improves our body’s preference to burn fat over glucose (carbohydrates),
Improves delivery of oxygen by our lungs,
Strengthens bones joints and connective tissue and
Finish a workout not feeling fatigued and rung out but refreshed and energized.
We can only benefit from high intensity training after we have a strong aerobic base.
The “base first, then intensity” concept has been tested and proven by professional endurance athletes and age group athletes (like me) over last 50 years.
For a maximum competitive effort of a few minutes or even an all day event most energy comes from low level aerobic base, with some experts believing a competitive effort of up to 2 hours could be up to 99% aerobic.
From here I’ll continue to work on my aerobic base with most workouts, but will now add an occasional sprint session – once a week and only if I’m well rested.
So my paddle included…. 10 minute warmup – keeping my heart rate in aerobic range then
6 x sets of –
Very short 60 second all out/nothing left in the tank paddle sprint, followed by
30 second recovery after each sprint. (Screenshot from my heart rate monitor)
Easy aerobic warm down to finish up.
Cool swim.
Coffee stop on the way home…awesome!
I am Rod Bucton. This is Sports Adventure
I help busy over 40 year old fathers get fit, lean, strong and get out and play.
To apply for a free coaching call visit www.sportsadventure.com.au