I am reading way ahead and not posting my reflections fast enough. A few days ago I posted my learning from the introduction. This post will cover chapter 1.
To start with I was reminded that form and function are closely related. For example, body weight, lean muscle mass, body fat %, body mass distribution, and body fat distribution all affect performance. There is more to performance than just cutting weight. There are many factors and changes that need to occur correctly for it to be successful.
This chapter also discusses the different body types of endurance athletes. It was very obvious that my genes are not designed to be an endurance athlete except maybe being a rower which I have never done in my life. The last time I checked I am not 5’7” weighing in at 130 lbs to be cyclist. I just have to laugh at this because that was my size in like 5th grade.
Another important fact that I took away was that a body weight increase of 5% reduces performance 5% in a 12 minute test run. I know there is truth to that when I ran 3 miles yesterday. My heart rate was pushing 180+ for about half the run and I was not moving that fast. With the help of some great people on Twitter I know that my target heart rate zone for a good workout is 85% of my maximum heart rate. I had to do so more math(this book has me crunching all types of numbers)
Thanks to Courtney0037 on Twitter I know that to calculate my max hr I need to take 220 and subtract my age (30) which gives me the number 190….I know I am so good at math. Do I get a sticker?
85% of 190 is 161.5. I was really pushing things yesterday. I state all this because I have gained quite a bit of weight since my final race in October. I gained more than 5% and I am feeling the effects big time(plus I am way out of shape)
Another positive to shedding fat is that athletes can go faster with overheating. Hence the reason those little people who weigh around 100 lbs with no fat whatsoever can just run and run and run and run and run……
I am loving all this learning. It is helping to really understand what I am doing in my training and nutrition. I am becoming aware of things that I never even considered.
Until the next chapter reflection what are you doing to help yourself learn more about obtaining your goals that you have set for yourself?
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