Weather - 42 degrees, clouds, rain, wind. Good run today, ran 4 miles to the Zendo, meditated for 2.5 hours, then ran 3.5 miles to Cardinal Fitness Center. 4 of the miles I ran at threshold pace, so it was a fairly hard run.
I read something yesterday in Joe Henderson's book, "Better Runs". Here is an excerpt :
"Tom Miller had run about 100 marathons when his son, with little running training, beat him in an uphill race, When Tom asked how this could have happened, the boy credited the mountain biking he did as off-season training for skiing. 'I started doing uphill repeats on a bike, standing up to get more power,' said Miller. 'My running times immediately improved. A few of the runners I worked with tried this too, and they also got faster.' Miller designed a research project to verify these informal results. He traded road and trail riding for stationary bicycling because the training loads were easier to control while standing still. This type of leg work also was more like the running motion than weight training could be, and it was safer than interval runs would be. Nineteen runners completed Miller's program, which opened and closed with 10K time trials. The subjects made no change in their routines besides joining Tom for six weekly sessions of standup intervals on the exercise bike. They sat and pedaled at low flywheel tension to warm up, recover between 'runs', and cool down. They cranked up the tension until the wheel would barely turn and then stood for the intervals. They 'ran' 30 seconds twice, then two times each for 45 seconds, 60, 45, and 30. 'All 19 of these runners ran faster in the second 10K than in the first', said Miller. 'The average improvement was 10 percent, or about 4 minutes at that distance. 14 of them set PR's, even though this was winter and most of them were not in top racing shape.' The professors who oversaw this project were impressed. They told Miller that the statistical validity of the results was above question and that they'd seen no other study which produced such dramatic improvements in just six weeks. Tom coaches a training group in Salt Lake City. Two follow-up tests with this group, using 5K times as a gauge, matched the earlier outcome. 'There were PR's all over the place', he said. One man improved from the 19's into the 17's in just six weeks.' Why do standing bike intervals work this well? Miller's theory : 'They simulate fast running but with higher resistance than most runners can tolerate on the track or road. This training works the muscles as well as uphill sprinting would, but it doesn't tear you apart'.
After reading the above I thought it would be helpful to give it a try, since I am now moving into the hill repeat phase of my training. Because I don't own a stationary bike I decided to join Cardinal Fitness, so today after my run I stopped in, saw they had a good quality stationary bike, payed my money, and did my first bike workout. I 'ran' for 27 minutes, the bike had a heart rate monitor, I was able to get up to 163. It is the first time I have checked heart rate in any type of exercise. According to the heart rate training zone calculator, 162-168 falls in the ATzone which is 85-90% max heart rate. The majority of my interval runs today fell at about 155, which is between easy and AT. As I get more practice with the biking, I should be able to put forth a greater effort, which will increase my heart rate into VO2 Max territory, which for me would be 168-180.
After the biking I did 4 sets of strength exercises, stretching, and 15 minute walk home.
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z.m. - #7
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