Core continuing commitment to health and fitness

[ergophobe]

Nobody has posted here in a while. So here's one from the new feeds for you endurance athletes


Much Ado About Zone 2
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40560504/

TL;DR - the idea that Z2 is best for mitochondrial adaptations and fat oxidation is mostly based on observational studies of high-volume elite athletes. The rest of us can get a lot of benefit from higher intensities.

This is not very different from what appears in the "serious" fitness press - elite athletes do so much Z1 and Z2 because
1. They are doing huge volume and higher intensities would break them down
2. Their velocity at Z2 is still really high which means that esp. in a sport like running, they already get a lot of breakdown there.


Personally... good summer. Staying pretty active. Getting a few long days and some short ones. Some nice scrambles in the high mountains, some nice easy runs on the flats. Not as much "hard" climbing as I would like. The heat of midsummer always takes away my will to stay on the climbing train.

[Travoli]

I've been doing 3 hours of zone 2 per week for a year now. It's made a significant difference. It takes a lot more to max my heart rate playing sand volleyball. I'm outlasting some players ~20 years younger in the TX Summer heat.

[Adam C]

Much Ado About Zone 2
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/40560504/

TL;DR - the idea that Z2 is best for mitochondrial adaptations and fat oxidation is mostly based on observational studies of high-volume elite athletes. The rest of us can get a lot of benefit from higher intensities.

Interesting stuff.

I'd be curious to know how they are defining elite and the rest of us.  e.g. is there a training volume threshold identified where z2 and under becomes more beneficial.

I find myself as a cyclist believing I should be doing more zone 2 and lower training, but time crunched and impatient, squeezing in more zone 4-6 work in lunch hours or evenings twice a week in a good week.  I try most weeks to to get a weekend long ride (3-4 hours) around zone 2 but without a power meter and usually without HR monitor, meaning at best I feel my way towards z2 and try to resist going harder.

[ergophobe]

>> they are defining elite

In theory, of course, that's based on results. But in practice, the people getting elite level results tend to be somewhere in the region of 800-1200 hrs/yr for runners and quite a bit north of that for cyclists who don't have to deal with the same level of mechanical breakdown.

And I gather that is part of the point of the article. For those of us getting a few hundred hours per year in, we should not be at 95% easy volume.

After his Olympic Gold, they asked Frank Shorter to write a training book. Reportedly he said no because it would be the shortest book in history: "One long run, two workouts and as many easy miles as you can do in a week."

I think the point of the article was to bring us back to that. In other words, your non-negotiables for performance are the long session and the workout sessions (e.g. intervals) and then whatever you have time for. The elites have time for so much volume that after they've done their two workouts (or possibly four workouts if you're doing two days of doubles like Jacob Ingebritsen) those easy miles end up being a huge amount of time.

Also, as a general rule, as you get older, it's both more important and more dangerous to add in high intensity.

We lose power faster than almost anything else, so maintaining power is important for anyone over 40, which means doing things like sprints, Olympic style lifting, plyometrics. We just have to be careful not to wreck our joints or throw out our backs since power cleans might help maintain power, but catastrophic injury definitely does not.

[Rupert]

I think most of you have a routine going now, and this is something sue and I still struggle with.  At 61, we really know what we need to do, but motivation is constantly identified as the problem. 
To fix that we are reading The  DOSE Effect, by  T. J. Power, and it is helping, as we are more aware of what is making us feel good, and what gives us a rush and crash.

I recently got back from a Motorbike trip to Northern Pakistan and having lost weight (No I didn't get Cholera, just no beer, active riding every day, and no sugar,) we have both started goting to the Gym, to start getting some strength back.

It is something I have resisted, as I would rather by doing something, but we both need to up our strength to avoid injury. Sue has been plagued with them for the last 9 years or so.

Here goes!

Just spent an hour catching up on here. Good to see you all still busy, finally got all my spam filters sorted, and so get the Digest email again