It's tough you know. I want to take weekend trips, I want to visit my family. I want to go escape to flagstaff up north and go hiking. But all that means not being able to do my long training rides and runs on the weekends. The long runs are only about 1.5 to 2 hours, so they can be accommodated during the week. But the long ride/run bricks....where am I gonna find 3+ hours to fit that in in the middle of the week? Such are the dillemmas of a wannabe triathlete.
By the way, just thought I'd mention this: The temperatures are now climbing up into the 100s and that REALLY has not been a motivating factor in me wanting to get outside and do the damn triathlon thang.
Any hoo. Without further delays, here are my plans for next week:
Today: Short little swim 1200-1500m Then a 3-4 mi hello legs remember running? run
Monday: Easy short ride 14-17 miles (z2) Yoga
Tuesday: Short Swim 12-1500m then 4-5mi Speed Play run ( alternate fast running(z4-5)and easy running (z2) based on duration of songs in ipod)
Wed: Brick ride: Ride 10-14mi, run 15-20min (ride last 4-5 miles hard, run first 10 min hard, z3-z4)
Thursday: optional swim 1200-1500m then Long run 7-8mi super easy (z2)
Friday: swim 1800m then light strength training.
Saturday: Long ride (40-45mi) z2 then run (20-25min) z2.
Alright. So you might have noticed a bunch of z2's and some z4' with a z3 and a z5 sprinkled throughout my workout schedule. There's a definite reason behind their existence. You see, I started training with a Heart Rate Monitor a couple of months ago and the z2-z5 are the various Heart Rate training zones that I base my workouts on.
Now what is it that I mean by training zones? Well Your heart rate fluctuates depending on the amount and the intensity of physical activity that you do. For example, your heart rate may be 60 beats per minute (bpm) when you first wake up (that's your resting heart rate). It may be 100 beats per minute when you're walking and it may climb to 190 beats per minute when you're running really really hard (depending on who you are)
The heart rate zones help you determine the intensity level of your workouts based on your heart rate. The range over which your heart rate fluctuates as you're exercising can be subdivded into intervals or zones; Zone 1 is the easiest level of intensity (think walking) and z5 is the hardest level of intensity of your workouts (think sprinting). Thus the zones signify the level of intensities that I've designated for each work out.
Each person has their own set of heart rate zones since each person has a different resting heart rate and a different maximum heart rate.
To learn more about Heart rate training and how to determine your own training zones, see the following articles:
Article from www.beginnertriathlete.com
Article from www.performancetrainingsystems.com
The reason why I(and other triathletes) train with heart rate monitors is so that we don't get speed happy over exert ourselves as we're trying to increase the mileage and and duration of our workouts. Your body can only handle so much stress before it cracks! So the heart rate is a solid number that keeps me in check during my workouts. If I've planned a long, slow workout in zone 2, then I'd better stick to that intensity level and my Heart rate monitor helps me do exactly that :)
Azra
