It’s been around three weeks now since I started my usual training routine after my ankle injury, and I’m doing fine
The first week or so was kinda ‘tough’, I felt very spastic and at odds in my running motion
My right leg was trying to compensate for my injured left leg, in a way ‘protecting’ it I guess
But I got the hang of it. What came out of it however was my right leg having shin-splints
But that’s subsiding now
I’ve been running actively for the past five years now and I want to share some ‘tips of the trade’
Heart Rate Training
A lot of people missed out on this important information about training
Running is not about the mileage you run, although it’s important, it’s about training of the heart
With such training, you can be more specific in your training.
You won’t have to kill yourselves if you should do the extra mileage or go on a woeful diet
There’s still plenty of people who still exercise by the motto of “No Pain, No Gain”, I think that’s so outdated these days
Don’t kill yourselves eh … be smart in training I’d say
Why the heart rate training you might ask?
If you find yourselves, plagues by injuries and feel burnt out, well you need to change how you train
The thing about going all out for training all the time is that, your body heart rate will shot-up and will burn so much carbs fuel in your body. We don’t want that
With heart rate training, by monitoring your heart-rate, you’re ‘forcing’ your body to take in just enough oxygen to burn the necessary fat for the fuel to move the muscle
It will take time to get used to the slower training pace, but what I find is that I was able to hold a wanted pace much better over longer distance rather than redlining my effort at a maximum heart rate for the same effort previously
It’s pretty simple. You just need a watch and doing some calculation or a watch with ability to monitor heart-rate
- Take 180 and Subtract your age
- If you workout 1-2 times p/week subtract 5 beats
- If you workout 3-4 times p/week leave the number as it is.
- If you workout 5 or more times p/week add additional 5 beats to that number.
- If you are about 60 years old or older OR if you’re about 20 years old or younger, add an additional 5 beats
The above is your maximum aerobic heart rate.
This means this is the maximum heart rate that you can workout at and still burn mostly fat for fuel
Do your exercise routine at or below this heart rate and you would see improvement within few weeks
Try to train with someone
Having an erratic and busy schedule, I’m left to training alone these days.
Of course I would love to train with a group or someone, but time doesn’t permit
But my advise for you, try to pair up or join a training group
Firstly because it’s more fun and secondly safety
We all know, our Singapore is somewhat ‘safe’, but there’s still a lot of weirdos out there
The other day I was finishing my training routine at a neighbourhood exercise area, and this Indian dude on bicycle just stopped short in front of me and eye-balling me. He was holding a can; probably beer and was taunting me if I’ve problems with him. I’ve never seen him before of course. I’d always say ‘ignorance is bliss’ right. I just did about that, finished my routine, gave a wily smirk and left the area. Just walk away in these types of situation, you never know such person might conceal a weapon and don’t let your ego dictates your action
Another incident was when I was in the stadium toilet. This always keep happening to me in public toilets and it’s always these cheekopek (horny) old men would take a peek at my penis. Its very blatantly I might add. They chose a urinal next to mine when there’s other available. Then they’ll keep looking down at my wee-wee. Are these people deprived or something. I’ve gave up telling them off. Next time I’ll just pee on them, but then again that would probably turned them on even more?
Or how about a situation if someone was ‘stalking’ you. Well there was once I went to buy groceries at Fairprice after training. It was on my way home anyway. I was in my singlet, and shorts looking bacin (sloppy). I guess that was sexy enough for another cheekopek old uncle who saw me. He really eyeballed me from top to toe as if I’m a male whore on display. It’s so un-nerving if someone was looking at you like that, but that’s not all. He even tailed me around the area. Now that scary. I hurried my shopping details and left in a huff
Of course it’s not all bad. Sometimes people would approach me asking who and where I’m from and why am I training ‘crazily’. I try to be as obliging as I can. In fact the other day a small kid recognised me when I was in town. It seems he was the kid who trains at the stadium where I trained. His school at times came down in busloads for some athletics training. It’s nice to get a Hi and a smile
Recovery: Ice Bath
Ever since moving home, it was possible for me to have an ice bath recovery after every training
I just need a big pail enough to cover my whole body. I bought one at the night market for $16
Next you need to freeze at least three to four pots and pans of water
Why ice bath recovery?
Well obviously it is for speeding up recovery process, from your muscles, tendons, bones, nerves and all the different tissues
This is so you can have an optimize performance or be at your complete recovery for the next training
Basically the ice bath, help the blood vessels that bring oxygen to the tissues and remove the waste products of exercise, the most common being lactic acid
We don’t want lactic acid still residing in our body as it can cause the muscles to function poorly and over a long period of time feelings of fatigue, heavy legs and general tiredness can set in
I have to warn you, it’s torture initially trying this out
I would usually dip in for 3 sets of 10 minutes
The icy cold water causes your blood vessels to tighten and drains the blood out of your legs.
After 10 minutes your legs feel cold and numb.
After each set I would rinse my body with tap water and head back into the ice again
My body will fill up with ‘new’ blood each time I get out of the ice, invigorating my muscles with oxygen to help the cells function better.
At the same time, the more blood coming into my body will have to leave as well, draining away and at the same time taking with it the lactic acid that has built up
Plenty of world class athlete are doing it. It’s cheap and simple … so why not right
Do you want more tips?
So there you go …
I do hope these few tips of mine will be of help
I’ll shall stop at these and post more in the future
Train smart!
oh my GOD!!!
tats like so cool!!!..
i never tried dipping myself in cold ice before!!!
Its excruciating but after the torture, you might want more
Shiokkkkk
Hey, I’m a regular reader of your blog and it’s my first time commenting.
Hmm, I’m pretty sceptical about the calculations of max aerobic heart rate. I’m not sure if you can derive that from a series of simple calculations.
I’m a runner myself, not a serious one though, but my training has been erratic, thanks to work and other commitments, which means that sometimes I am too tired to even train.
I agree with the points bout training with a partner or a group due to safety and fun. I get bored training on my own all the time.
The ice bath is very interesting, something I’ve never heard of. Haha. I’m definitely gonna try that some time later.
Anyway, I see you do train a lot and take part in competitions. I’d very much like to hear from you bout training and all things related to running and fitness. I’m more of a long distance runner by the way.
Lastly, cheekopeks checking you out… you don’t feel like a whore uhh? Lol!
The calculations are general guideline used by many athletes. Safe to say, it’s safe
Yeah work can really ‘kacau’ your runs, but at the end of the day, all that matters is how you want to go about your health regime
As they say, money can’t buy happiness and health
I was a long-dist converted to sprinter, so we have something in common in long-dist
I was wondering, can I link you up?
Yeah sure, I’ve linked ya
Sha, why you take picture of girls’ armpits one. Turns you on eh?
No la, it was from royalty free photo database
I like the sky
SHA! hate ur stupid anti-spamming thing. I wrote a very very long comment, forgot to add up the numbers and lost it all!!!
anyway, shall try to recall what i said. but before that, was trying to find the answers online and came across the website where u got your info from. I was thinking to myself….the words look very very familiar. ok, was thinking physiologically, how does ice bath help recovery. i know it does, and have done it myself. just trying to rationalize how it does it. and i know it shld be u asking me this, not the other way round.
1. the cold constricts blood vessels, i assume its the veins, which would pump back the blood to the heart, which pumps it to the liver that converts lactic acid to glucose for use of energy.
2. getting rid of lactic acid is about increasing the blood circulation to the area, which i thought heat would do better than cold.
3. the cold helps with muscle tissue recovery as after a hard session, your muscle goes through alot of micro fiber tears. icing will reduce the body’s natural inflammatory process that counters that. u may ask why(i i did ask myself this before), if the body is doing its own counter-mechanism for something, why not just leave it? since its meant to be natural? well, inflammation can get out of hand. the body can overdo it, and there is assoc pain. so we want to prevent that.
ok, i think this may confuse u. hopefully, i will find in my tb somewhere the ans….
Well I was introduced to this ice recovery bath when training under Mr Melvin few years back
The first time I tried, fwahh so cold … but the after effects, well I felt great the next day or so
I can’t really answer your questions. I’ve not done clinical study on this, but it’s based on my experience using this recovery method, so I’m not the authoritative figure on the facts, thus the blog entry is pretty simple in explanation
Or ask Asmah, she got a Master degree on this right
Do observe the rugby players. They swear by this. After every training session, there will be ice-dips.
My friend also told me SSC has a specialised ice-bath area for their athletes. So it goes to show, if they’re doing it, what I’m doing has some basis to it
hey…just looked up my textbook and wanted to share this with u. source: Clinical sports medicine by brukner and Khan.
it says that there has been little clinical evidence of ice immersion in enhancing the recovery process.
anyway, how it is thought to work is….
1. the cold reduces the body’s response to tissue injury(which occurs after each hard run). the cold constricts blood vessels, reducing inflamamtion and the accumulation of fluid(oedema), which gives rise to swelling.
2. the cold also reduces the metabolism in injured tissues, lowering the oxygen needed in these tissues and controlling the inflammatory response
3. cold decreases muscle spasm and slows nerve conduction, thus reducing perceived pain
it is thought that the effect of cold immersion is a placebo(works not as a result from the scientific intention, but from people just THINKING it will work)
but i am sure there is some debate to this.
thanks! that was interesting and new to me too:)
and yes…i just bought a sports medicine textbook, just for interest…..
inflammation: body’s response to damaged tissues/cells by causing redness, heat, swelling, pain and loss of function in the affects area.
Wow you read, copy and wrote from your book to here. Thanks for sharing
I do hope it’s not a placebo as you mentioned
For me personally, I see a stark difference on days I never iced myself and days I did
Kinda sadist however, I look forward to every ice session
Have you done one?
yup, used to do them at home and at sports council when i was training. sports council’s one was the pro one, and i would try out the contrast baths….hot and cold. I really loved it cos i felt so relaxed in the tub. i also would go for regular massages as part of recovery. u go for massages?
Yeah Mel keep telling us to do hot/cold session too. Since I don’t have SSC budget, I improvised
I wish I could go to massages, as I’m not carded. So I improvised again, I massaged myself
that’s the thing about science. there are always debatable views. what may seem like the right thing one moment will be debated to not be of use another. ultimately, it’s what works for you. if this treatment works for you and you can feel the effect, then by all means do it.
regarding ur HR calculation, i also think it’s very funny. of all the methods i’ve tried using, never came across that one. heh.
and correction: running is not only about training your heart le. there are other things happening at muscle level too, which are usually the area of interest. heart rate have also been proven to not be the most effective tool for training.
aaah. another topic up for debate another day perhaps =)
Well ice bath is working for me, even if it’s said to be a placebo, boleh lah
My HR calculation is from a good reliable source. It works. You can try it for yourself
Well for the normal average runner, i think for now HR training is impt amongst the cardio activities. For hardcore runner like you, I think the avg runner won’t go into details like plyo, specific weights, overspeed, etc
You still working at SSP?
Hey Sha… I signed up with wehostyou.info . . . did you get the message in your company inbox…
anxious to hear from you
regards
Dakota
You got mail :)
10 mins is CRAZY!
its called the contrast bath at sports council. and i was forced to do it by my coach, okay. not voluntary. theres like 2 bath tubs one filled with ice water as low as 13 degrees celcius and another tub filled with warm water around 37 degrees celcius. so i was told to dip in the cold one for 3 mins then quickly dip in the warm tub for another 3 mins, and repeat this for 5 times.
the cold one was MAD, and hello, u do it for 10mins?
but the feeling after the whole process was like super SHIOK, definitely, like u said. :)
anyway i was wondering if ure interested in going for the sports conference at RP this weekend. i might be able to get it for free. check it out.
http://www.rp.sg/sporesportsconference/index.html
I think that’s the right term too. My coach calls it hot/cold session
Well my home improvised hot/cold session, I’m unsure of the temp, so to play ‘safe’ I dipped in 10mins. Anyway I’m used to the cold. Sadist but machoist, I look forward to the session of ‘pain’
I wish I could see the look on your face when you first dip into the cold. Mine ain’t pretty, haha!
Hey i got my own seminar too! Coolness. It’s by my club http://www.wings.org.sg/wac-seminar-2008.html