Rebuilding my base fitness or programming the Garmin forerunner 305 heart rate limits

In my opinion the most frustrating part of training for endurance sports is having to rebuild my base. An athlete needs to rebuild their base after they finish a workout routine that is based on periodization, or after taking some time off from training.

Since I took off nearly 4 months from training my base fitness is horrible. When I jog my heart rate shoots up into zone 3 very quickly. Then I have to stop and walk to get my heart rate back into the base building zone, or zone 2. Running slowly, even jogging with frequent bouts of walking is a frustrating but is a necessary aspect of becoming a fast runner.

One of the things that has helped me to run in the proper heart rate to build fitness is programing my Garmin Forerunner 305 to beep anytime my heart rate rises above zone 2. Here's how:
Go to the main menu, highlight training, push enter (bottom right button)
Highlight training options, press enter.
Highlight alerts, press enter.
highlight HR alerts, press enter.
Highlight Max HR Alert, press enter.
Highlight which zone you want to avoid exceeding, press enter.

Now you can run knowing your training in the proper zone without having to look at your heart rate monitor every few seconds.

The 33rd Santa Fe run around 2011 10k race report

I competed in the 2011 33rd Santa Fe run around 10k this morning. It was a very well organized event & a very pretty course. It had free coffee, donuts (which I had none of!), race T-shirts, & a big digital timer at the finish line with lots of great people there to cheer the athletes on. The results were posted on line within a couple hours of my finish!Great race!

Today my Ironman schedule had me do a 1 hour run at zone 2. I didn't feel like running the same old course near my house today so I registered for this race to add some change onto my routine. Now that I'm within 5 months of IMAZ I'm taking my training seriously, so I was determined not to allow my heart rate past high zone 2. I'm usually a very competitive person so running in a race heart rate controlled was difficult for me, but I succeeded. I ran the 6.27 miles in 58 minutes 43 seconds. Considering the entire run was zone 2 I was very happy with my time. Zone 2 is the pace I'll be attempting to maintain the first 20 miles of Ironman Arizona. If I could keep a sub 10 minute mile pace for the the 1st 20 miles, then run hard the last 6.2 I should PR both my Ironman time & also my marathon time at IMAZ.

I'm a little embarrassed to admit that today's 10K run time was a PR for me. I'd only ran in 1 other 10k, it was the Tammy Redman 10K on new years 2007. I was still weighing around 240 back then & there was 18 inches of fresh snow from a snow storm that had hit the night before. It was 18 degrees that day. Today the weather was perfect & it would of been a great course to push myself, but I didn't. I ran todays run it nice & easy, and now my 10k PR is really slow 58 minutes 43 seconds. I finished in 7th place out of 8 in my AG, & 36th out of 64 overall.

My next even is the Storrie Lake Olympic distance triathlon on Fathers day.

calorie adjutment & no HR monitors!

Anyone who has ever read my blog knows I struggle with my weight. Weight is extremely important to endurance athletes. As Lance Armstrong says, "Skinny isn't a body type, it a tactical necessity."

I've always competed in triathlons at a much heavier weight than most triathletes. My race weight from late 2003 to early 2007 was 227 pounds. The last year my weight has been a yo-yo of up & downs, peaks & valleys. From as high as 256 in Nov 2007 to 188 pounds in May 2008. I've been wondering why the vast fluctuation when I'd been at such a consistent weight for about 4 years? My workouts have been better than ever, so what gives?

While reading my favorite blog Couch-Potato-to-Ironman I believe I found the answer. Couch Potato said he went to a nutritionist specializing in triathlon. She told him he was causing himself problems because he was trying to live off 2100 calories a day. She made him increase that to 2800 because he works out so much & so hard. 2100 calories is exactly how many I'd been trying to sustain myself on for the last year of struggle & yo-yo dieting.

Because my calories were too low for my activity level I'd be on my diet for 1-5 days & then have such horrible cravings I couldn't control my eating. I'd binge, get back on track, then fall off the wagon again, then repeat over & over again. Of course with me there is an emotional aspect to my eating. But to be honest, 3/4's of the time my overeating was from physical cravings, not emotional. Now that I see the error of my ways it makes perfect sense. Even to the point that I am questioning myself with, "How did I not see that before now?" But hey, better late than never. I'd rather learn a hard lesson than not learn at all.

On Sunday I raised my daily calories from 2100 a day to 2500. Plus I eat 50 calories for every 100 I burn from exercise. I'm five days into my new daily calorie experiment & I'm doing great! I'm a little hungry, but it's at a tolerable level. I don't have that feeling of being horribly ravenous like before. I think I'm on to something here & I'm REALLY EXCITED. There is no doubt in my mind why I came across this knowledge 2 weeks after I started to pray for God to help me with my weight. He answers prayers to those who trust in Him. I give ALL glory to God! Through him anything is possible!

Both my Garmin 305 GPS heart rate monitor & my Polar F-6 heart rate monitor stopped working. How ironic both would be not working the same week. There 's a$99 flat rate plus shipping & handling to fix any & all problems with the Garmin. $18-$79 to fix the Polar. Hope they send them back quick. I feel blind training without them!

All things considered It's been a great week & I'm more pumped up about multi-sport than I have been in a long while. I believe with my new found diet knowledge I'll be down to a fast & furious racing weight with less of the pain & agony from in no time!!!

Thanks for tuning in!