Forum posts to 'Training tips'

Re: Sprinting and Weight Lifting?

moderator — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 18:27:27 +0100

Hi Matt

That sounds like a great performance, especially so soon after reconstructive surgery!

Thanks for the feedback about ithlete's usefulness in power sports, and I hope it continues to play a role in keeping you injury free. Let us know what goodies you would like to see!

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Re: Sprinting and Weight Lifting?

Matt — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 16:49:06 +0100

I just wanted to post a follow up on ithlete and weightlifting. This past weekend I competed in a powerlifting meet. This was my first meet since having an ACL reconstruction. I used ithlete and TRAC to help guide my training/overtraining for the majority of my prep. The result was I got a squat that was only 50lbs off my best, this was 8 months post knee surgery and also at a bodyweight 25lbs lighter. I hit a 29lb personal best in bench press, and a 77lb personal best in deadlift at 600lbs. I think the ithlete is a very valuable tool in figuring out when to deload or take a break altogether, from a powerlifting perspective.

Thanks for a great product. Looking forward to future releases with even more goodies in them. ;-)

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Re: Sprinting and Weight Lifting?

Matt — Sat, 10 Jul 2010 03:18:32 +0100

I use the ithlete in conjuction with the TRAC program from Mike Tuchscherer to help guide my training for powerlifting. I had been on the fence for a short while till I saw a post by Landon on EliteFTS praising the app. So far I really like it, I feel like it is helping me to keep myself in check and healthy while still getting stronger. I would be very interested to see the e book with Landon and that would be really awesome if you can get Lyle's input as well.

Thanks
Matt

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Re: Sprinting and Weight Lifting?

sashen — Sat, 03 Jul 2010 06:44:20 +0100

Thanks for the pointers. Looking forward to that ebook.

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Re: Sprinting and Weight Lifting?

moderator — Tue, 29 Jun 2010 11:23:32 +0100

Hi Sashen
I don't have direct experience with track athletics, but the overload principles are the same as with all forms of training.
When you train hard, you stress your body, breaking it down somewhat. This training stress is reflected via the autonomic nervous system as reduced HRV, and a lower ithlete daily HRV reading.
The harder, more intensely you workout, the bigger the dip in HRV. During recovery, your HRV increases again, and often supercompensation takes you past your starting point to a new higher level.

As said, I'm not an expert on sprint training, but found an interesting thread discussing HRV for strength & conditioning on www.8weeksout.com, in particular a quote from Lyle McDonald who has written extensively on overreaching & overtraining at www.bodyrecomposition.com :

"A friend of mine (Sprint Coach in Canadia) has used HRV to track some of his athletes. HE found that at the beginning of a 10 day taper, HRV was depressed. After the taper, HRV has returned to normal and his athletes ran PR's. So it's fairly sensitive. He's also seen HRV crater right before an athlete came down being sick."

Another coach familiar with HRV for strength & power is Landon Evans, who also contributed to the 8weeksout thread.

I'm in the late stages of preparing a downloadable free booklet on training with HRV that features an interview with Landon & other well respected coaches. I'll post a note when its ready, hopefully 2-3 wks.

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Sprinting and Weight Lifting?

sashen — Mon, 28 Jun 2010 07:04:22 +0100

Do you have any experience with the ithlete and sprinters and/or weight lifters? (and, as a sprinter, I do a lot of weight lifting.)

There are some lifters, notably Pete Sisco, who recommend very high intensity work (by doing, essentially, 5-10 second weighted isometric holds at the end of your range of motion for compound exercises) and then having long rest periods waiting for the body to supercompensate.

And as a Masters (48) sprinter, every speed workout is intense.

So, timing my lifting and running and recovery is a big deal.

Your thoughts/experience?

Thanks.

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ithlete and periodisation

moderator — Wed, 24 Feb 2010 11:00:47 +0000

We've all been told over the years that periodisation is an important part of training for endurance sports, and necessary to maximise your performance in the competitive season. The trouble is that it requires discipline, and sometimes just a blind belief that a particular training plan downloaded from the web, or given out by a coach will have the desired effect. In particular, we are supposed to do many weeks of aerobic base building at speeds far lower than those we hope to achieve during the summer events, before being allowed to ramp up the pace. During this phase there's not much feedback that the medicine is working, unless you do tests such as the MAF (Dr Phil Maffetone's site) test on a regular basis.
One of my aims when designing ithlete was to help users (including myself!) see whether training is having the desired effect, and it now looks like the evidence is coming together. At the beginning of this year, a paper was published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology that used the same standard HRV measure as ithlete to track the progress of runners preparing for 10K events. The runners worked to a training program tailored to their own heart rate zones, and in all the runners whose 10k times improved, resting HRV showed a progressively increasing trend during the 8wk training period. The conclusion from this is that if your HRV trend (the thick blue line on the chart) is steadily upwards, then the aerobic component of your fitness is most likely increasing!
How big a change can you expect? by way of example, I have been doing 70%+ of my training below my aerobic threshold for the past 3 mths, and I think the attached screenshot speaks for itself.
A gain of 5-6 units is quite noticeable, not only on the chart, but on my level of comfort when doing longer runs & rides. I can also train every day now without feeling fatigued, which I never could before. Of course there is still the need to increase intensity and do intervals, etc in order to condition the anaerobic component of fitness and be ready for competitive events, but I will not start that until the improvements in base aerobic fitness have stopped coming.

If anyone else who has been using ithlete for a while has had similar experiences, please share them!

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Re: oregon heart rate belt

moderator — Tue, 16 Feb 2010 14:36:31 +0000

Thanks Tom!

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oregon heart rate belt

anotherbadname — Thu, 11 Feb 2010 11:00:55 +0000

just an addition to the list. the Oregon scientific heart rate belt works just fine.

Tom.

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Re: Long distance running

moderator — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 14:56:55 +0000

Hi Cabbey. Great post & question!
If I understand Hadd's method correctly, he advocates high weekly mileages, of which the majority is at heart rate <80% HR max, just below first ventilatory threshold (similar to the MAF (Dr Phil Maffetone) 180 formula). If done strictly, these days should cause little cumulative fatigue, and very few Amber traffic lights from the ithlete morning test.
On race day morning, you will naturally feel a heightened sense of anticipation & excitement, causing your resting HR to raise with adrenalin. In my own experience this does not cause a lowering of HRV enough to get an amber from the ithlete test, but I would like to hear others experience following this thread.

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Re: Long distance running

Cabbey — Sat, 06 Feb 2010 09:17:16 +0000

I've just ordered this product, and looking forward to trying it out. I currently train by HR (Hadds method), so this app will really help. Your comments are very interesting, but can I ask how will the stress of an up and coming race affect the readings. I tend to not take a morning pulse reading on race days as it is always higher due to the anticipation. Thanks

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Re: Has ithlete Changed Your Training?

moderator — Thu, 04 Feb 2010 12:44:28 +0000

Hi Andy, All,

Whether or not you need to stand up for the morning measurement depends on your resting HR. If your resting HR is normally above 50 whilst lying down then its OK to do the measurement lying down. If it's low 50s or below, then I would really recommend at least sitting if not standing (heck, we're athletes after all!)

Reason for this is that HRV research studies have found that the amount of HRV saturates and distorts the measurement when lying down in people with very low resting HR (45 and under). Standing (or even sitting) will raise this by a few bpm because your heart has to work a little more to pump blood uphill.

Most important is that once you decide on a position that you find comfortable and relaxing, you do the measurement in the same position and pretty much the same time every day. That will maximise the sensitivity of ithlete to the changes caused by training, recovery, yes and late nights Mark!

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Re: Has ithlete Changed Your Training?

aibbott — Wed, 03 Feb 2010 11:35:45 +0000

Hi All,

I have been using mine now for 2 weeks and what a difference! The biggest issue I have had is changing my routine to match what my body says. In the past it has always been. Mon, Run, Tues Swim, Wed, Weights, Thursday Push ups etc, Friday Long run, Sat Cycle.

No More but I am finding the difference a little strange.

However, I can see that late nights are not so cool!

Finally, I have done all my measurements early morning whilst lying in bed. I see on another thread that I really should stand up. Would sitting up be ok?

Andy
P.S. Bloody excellent product and much easier to use than some of the VERY EXPENSIVE HRMs on the market that do the same job.

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Has ithlete Changed Your Training?

Roadie mark — Mon, 01 Feb 2010 22:22:26 +0000

This little app is good knowing how your training is effecting your body can help see if you are training to much or too little even the simple things little sleep have a big effect on your score, for this is the biggest shock that just two hours more sleep will change my score by over 10!!!!

Work Hard, Training hard, now must sleep hard

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Re: Long distance running

moderator — Mon, 18 Jan 2010 18:50:01 +0000

Yes, lots of training volume at or below lactate threshold (the point at which lactate levels in the blood rise above resting levels) builds aerobic capacity and your ability to utilise fat as a fuel. This latter is crucial to performance in any event over about 90 mins. I recently attended a Q&A session with Alberto Contador, where he was asked about his training volume prior to last year's win in the Tour de France - 1000km per week, ie about 35hr pw. The human body can only maintain anywhere near this kind of volume when the vast majority is aerobic (likely to be 80%+ of the total training time).
The result will be a high level of efficiency and speed whilst remaining entirely aerobic (not to mention the benefit that operating below lactate threshold does not actually hurt!). A very recent paper in the well respected European Journal of Applied Physiology has confirmed the suspected strong link between positive changes in HRV and aerobic performance during training, as assessed by maximum aerobic running speed and 10km race times.

Interval training works by providing significant stress to the body's normal state, causing stimulation of chemical / energy pathways and muscle strength development, and resulting in increases in maximum speed in your chosen sport. The timing of rest between intensive intervals is also very important, with a 1:1 ratio of work : rest being often recommended.

It is during recovery from these intense sessions that the speed improvement occurs, and here is where daily HRV monitoring also comes into play. Since HRV can monitor objectively the body's accumulated fatigue, you will see an initial dip, followed by a recovery in the daily measurement over a period of 2-3 days. It is not until recovery is complete that you will be ready for another intensive session. For many people, that will limit them to 2 interval sessions per week if done properly. The advantage of using HRV is that you can check that you as an individual are ready, rather than relying on very general recommendations that do not take your physiology and your other current life stresses into account!

More authoritative data on these subjects at http://www.sport-fitness-advisor.com/lactate-threshold.html

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Re: Long distance running

SophiaSunshine — Wed, 13 Jan 2010 14:04:51 +0000

Thanks again for the post - you really seem to know your stuff!

So if I summarise, Go slower and build up you speed by running at the same heart rate for longer distances. This then builds my aerobic capacity(?) and so allows me to run faster for longer? So I have a few more questions:

How does the the interval training work? This takes me from over this aerobic threshold - how does this work in complement to the above?

I have read about "Lactate threshold" - is this similar to aerobic or is it something else. How does this relate? I appreciate that its all very complicated but then how does HRV then become a single metric that measure improvement in these various factors?

thanks!

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Re: Long distance running

moderator — Thu, 10 Dec 2009 11:21:34 +0000

In order to achieve your personal potential, you have to train smart and you have to train a lot!

Starting with the second part - in order to train a lot (ie lots of miles / hours), you need to make sure that your body recovers between training sessions. If the training load per session is high, then it will take longer to recover (2-3 days). Physiologically, the human body was designed by evolution for gathering, ranging over 10miles per day, every day, and hunting, which involved intense, but short & infrequent bursts of activity. So we probably should not be too surprised that this turns out to be a good training strategy!

Below the lactate / ventilatory threshold, the body is operating 100% aerobically, uses fat efficiently as a fuel (up to half the total energy requirement) and generates very little cortisol (stress hormone) or damaging free radicals. As the workload increases, so does the production of these chemicals, and the body relies much more heavily on carbohydrate (glycogen) stores, which have to be replenished after training. The interesting thing about training just below your lactate threshold is that after a few weeks you become much more efficient - ie your speed or power becomes much higher at that heart rate. You can get close to knowing the HR for that threshold using the Maffetone formula of 180 - your age. Add 5 if you are already competition fit, subtract 5 if you are out of training. At first this feels too slow, but keep at it & you will see your speed increase quite soon. You will not feel tired after even quite long sessions at this rate, which means you can go again tomorrow!

For the first part - training smart includes intervals / fartlek / track sessions at all out pace, usually above anaerobic threshold, but only 1-2x pw in the 1-2 mths prior to competition. With a solid base, your top end can be added very quickly on top.

I would recommend Seiler's excellent article on Sportsci.org to review the evidence for this approach, even in recreational athletes.

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Re: Long distance running

SophiaSunshine — Tue, 08 Dec 2009 09:23:54 +0000

Very interesting post.

What is the underlying physiological basis for this 80:20 split?

And are you saying that doing this 80:20 will improve one's performance more than simply running 'flat out' after warm up every time you go running?

Is there anyway to upload some data to your site to see this from other people?

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Re: Long distance running

moderator — Fri, 13 Nov 2009 15:01:37 +0000

Training for long distance running (5k upwards) can be made up of high volumes of low intensity endurance work (or base building as it used to be called), plus judicious use of high intensity interval work. There is growing evidence that recreational and non-elite runners (ie most of us with a day job!) can benefit from adopting the same 80:20 ratio of times spent training in these two opposite zones that elite athletes do across multiple endurance sports.

This approach requires discipline, since the time spent in low intensity Zone 1 (where you can still hold a conversation) can feel 'guilt producingly easy', and the intervals at the high end of intensity (Zone 3) can feel very uncomfortable.

ithlete can help you get the most from this type of training, since the long steady runs in zone 1 should not produce dips big enough to turn amber on a daily basis, and overall, your trend line should be upwards if your training is mostly in zone 1 during the winter season.
Conversely, in the buildup to the competitive season (late winter - spring), your interval / high intensity sessions will often produce daily amber dips, but should not be so severe as to stay low for a second day and turn red. Of course you should wait until your daily value is back to normal before attempting the next high intensity session.

For more on what we can learn from successful elite athletes, I would recommend dipping into the excellent perspective article by renowned sports scientist Stephen Seiler that is linked on the Optimising my training faq http://www.myithlete.com/optimising-my-training/