By Paul Kinney
USAT Level 1 & USAC Level 2 Certified Coach
I’ve seen this following scenario dozens of times over my 8+ years of coaching endurance athletes: individuals who haven’t done any formal exercise in many years decide they want to complete a triathlon (or insert any endurance event) and they begin a training program full of enthusiasm and vigor, going as hard as they can from day one. The problem is these athletes are not maximizing their available time in order to properly prepare for their chosen event. More importantly, they are potentially setting themselves up for injury. Why is this so common? Well, it’s because our brains are programmed to think that “I have a finite amount of time available to get ready for this event and I want to do really well, so I NEED to go as hard as I can to improve my fitness.” Perhaps it’s the thought process in our society that we want instant gratification for anything and everything. In this case it’s instant fitness that many seek. Well, I’m sorry to be the bearer of bad news, but there is no magic pill that will give you fitness overnight. You need to work at it, be consistent and persistent if you want to arrive at race day in the best possible shape that you can in the time available.
For athletes who have had little or no physical activity in recent years it is vital that they take the time to build an aerobic base of fitness prior to partaking in high heart rate intervals. This requires, for some, the brain to be “reprogrammed.” You should be convinced that going easy and allowing for proper recovery time between workouts are in your best interest. I realize that new or returning athletes are eager to gain fitness as quickly as possible, but doing too much volume and/or going hard too early in your training can actually be detrimental to your overall fitness gains and even risk injury.
First, let’s have a simplified, basic physiology lesson to show how the body works. Your body’s “engine” is your cardiopulmonary system. This includes your heart, lungs and the related systems that provide oxygen-rich blood to your working muscles. The lungs oxygenate the blood that the heart circulates to your muscles. The working muscles require a constant supply of oxygen-rich blood to allow for efficient metabolism of your body’s fuel sources. As exercise intensity increases, so too does the requirement for fueling your muscles to produce force. Your body responds by increasing cardiac output via increasing heart rate. With proper training at the appropriate intensities your body will respond by developing additional capillaries & mitochondria that allow more oxygen and nutrient-rich blood to the muscles, thereby making them more efficient. In addition, your heart, which is also a muscle, can develop an increase in stroke volume. This increase in stroke volume delivers more blood per beat, thereby making the entire blood delivery system more efficient. So you ask, “What’s the best way to increase my cardiovascular efficiency?” The answer is for a beginner athlete to perform a majority (80-100%) of workouts during the first 8-12 weeks at an easy, aerobic pace. When biking and running you can tell you are working at this easy pace if you can carry on a conversation at the same time. This aerobic pace is often referred to as your “conversational pace.” If you find that you can only speak in short, abbreviated sentences between breaths, you are most likely going too hard.
As previously mentioned, doing hard interval training too early for the beginner athlete can lead to an increase in the risk for injury. High heart rate, intense training places huge demands on the body, especially muscles and connective tissues. Muscle damage due to intense training tends to heal fairly quickly as there is extremely good blood supply to aid in the healing process. However, the body’s connective tissues, ligaments and tendons, do not receive nearly the blood supply that is provided to the muscles. As a result, these tissues heal much more slowly. The connective tissues in someone new to training on a regular basis need time to adapt and become strong enough to handle the workload imposed by high intensity training. Simply put, aerobic exercise is easier on the muscles, joints and connective tissues. In addition, it’s easier on the heart, which is especially important in an individual that has been diagnosed with high blood pressure or coronary heart disease.
If you plan to start a new training program, take the time to build a reasonable aerobic base fitness before adding any high intensity to your regiment. Not only will your muscles, tendons, ligaments, heart and lungs thank you, you’ll also improve your fitness at a greater rate because fewer recovery days will be needed between hard interval sessions. You are also far less likely to develop an injury that may force you to take several weeks off early in your training for that big event.
In my next installment we’ll look into the importance of recovery and how, if done properly, you can potentially increase your fitness with less training time.
Kinney Multisport