From the “Holy Shit! I have to lose some weight” Dept.

Hi all,

Well last weekend I worked on the computer, did some house chores and the like. I wanted to go fishing, but alas, it was not to be. I suppose I will have to wait until bass season opens. 😀

This upcoming Saturday I will be going to watch the Bare Naked Ladies Live at the Molson Amphitheatre with Jen, Natasha, Sarah and her boyfriend.

Hopefully I’ll have time this weekend to see my chum Laura so I can wish her a happy birthday. She and I went to Europe together (with Cris and Jen).

Worked out today….that felt good. Went for a run with my brother…that felt, uh, well, it felt bad. My achilles tendon on each leg were acting up, and I felt crappy through most of the run.

My HR: 168 beats per minute ~85% maximum heart rate for a person my age. My time running: 16 minutes.

Eek. I know, horrible.

At least I’m brave enough to write it down.

I realise that respiration isn’t a limiting factor, but damn yo-I felt bad.

So what happened? It’s obvious that I had yet to reach steady-state.

Expanded explanation: When the body is forced to exercise, it overshoots the physical requirements needed to actually perform the work required. This overshoot (in respiration, heart rate, etc.) is really dramatic in people who have a low physical fitness (like me, I’ve been basically sedentary for the past 6 months). Thus, in the first five minutes, my respiration rate (the number of breaths I take each minute) and my heart rate jumped up to almost 80% max. This is why novice runners, or any low fitness person for that matter, can’t do a cardiovascular work out over long periods of time, because the ramp up is so suddent, it makes them feel like shit. Once they get past that “hump” or “wall” (at about the 12-15 minute mark), their body begins to ramp down; respiration decreases, heart rate drops—they reach “steady-state”. They get their “second wind” and can run longer.

Novice runners, who stick with it, and don’t give up will find that they’ll be running 45 minutes easily within a month. I trained for my first 10 km run in only 28 days back when I was 17.

Elite athletes’ bodies do much the same, but the hump is much less pronounced, and they reach steady-state much sooner.

So what does this mean for me? Having run at an intermediate distance throughout highschool and 1st year university, I know that it’s important to keep running and break that wall.

Besides, I have to get into shape for the “Albert Street Boys” Reunion.

There are of course strategies to cope with this, Interval training being one of them.

Tomorrow, I’ll talk about sweating. Does sweating more = good or bad?

Cheers,

Tai