Was planning on a post a week, well till my Cardiologist appt in early July, but had some more thoughts after post #1 – thus why I call this Part 1B. I want to make sure people take the info I hope to provide and look at it in their context and then discern what steps to take or not take. I am not a doctor and don’t play one on TV but I do know how to read and think and that is key when dealing with one’s health. Far too often we put all the onus on the Dr. but they are not only often limited by their training but are very limited in knowing your physiology, knowing who you are. When you can take the information available and study it, digest it, ruminate on it then apply it to yourself you will be able to not only ask the best questions but make the best decisions.
One of the first things I want to bring up – related to one of the first thoughts I had when advised to read The Haywire Heart - is to recognize that how one trains can both positively and/or negatively affect one’s health. I say and/or as there is a place where one can do something with negative long-term results but short term seems just fine. So, when I first saw the book I immediately went on the defensive as did not want to admit that what some may see in me as grit and hard work was in fact stupidity – with a dash, well maybe more than a dash, of PRIDE. While we do live in a world where comfort is king and those people need to get out and move we also have a segment – often where I live – that looks at pushing through pain as some sort of badge of honor. One of the mainstays of David Goggins selling his books is his ability to push through discomfort – and injury. Hey, if we are honest the guy is as tough as they come but when you read his books, especially the first one, it’s hard to say that toughness led to good health, far from it.
While I have not completed he Haywire Heart yet I have listened to a podcast with a couple of the authors and the issue is more a combo of what one is doing – Endurance Activities – and how one trains for it – often too hard too often. Many will still want to deny that their health, and specifically heart, issues relate to how they have trained and deflect and place the blame on a host of reasons – heredity, physiology or some other co-factor. While it is true one can be predisposed to heart issue via ones DNA, seems to be true in my family, that does not negate the fact that how we use – or in too many cases abuse – our body simply compounds the issues. We need to step back and recognize the body we have been given and work with it and not attempt to ignore or pound our way through possible issues – rarely works.
What I want to make sure people understand is endurance activities care good for people but needs to be done in context of one’s own physiology and in an intelligent way. We need to realize boundaries and be wise when approaching them. Hey if you feel that success now with possible negative health issues later is worth it that is your choice but just own it. I also want people to know that this is not saying one should not - when appropriate – push through discomfort. The point being we need to make sure we understand reality and work with what we have. We need to learn when to back off and when to push through. We need to realize that while our bodies are a miraculous design they are not perfect and while we have built in healing mechanism, they can only do what they were designed to do.
Took me far too long to get this and may be paying he price now but will work to correct and move forward. I have shared about Polarized Training before and will again in future posts. The main idea is to make sure a majority of my training and activities are in Zone 2 in a 5 Zone model – when I talk of zones it will be in a 5 Zone model - and then have approximately 20% or so in Zone 4 and 5. What I think has led me to where I am – and I shared some of this in the first post – is that I spent a lot of time in high Zone 3 and that is often called the grey zone. I call it the danger zone as it is easy enough to allow myself to stay there too long but hard enough that it negates the rest/recovery we are to get in Zone 2 rides. Again, I will share more on this later but bottom line make sure you ride, run, row or whatever it is you do easy for a large portion of your training and then when you push it do so but make sure you get the rest needed.
One last note on training since my last post. I did a banded ride – a ride in Zwift where as long as you pedal you stay with the group – which is a good way to control my HR. The ride started out at about 125 then settled down to 90 or less, near the end it did go to 120 but then back down. However, the next day I just did what was to be an easy 30 minute ride and again started out at 126 but then back down to 100 or so and stayed there. At about 26 minutes in it went up to 137 with no increase in effort so called of the ride as did not settle down. In looking back I had a spike to 144 at 17 minutes but did not see it and if had would have stopped sooner. Will be good when I get my Frontier X Plus HRM as it does collect data to see not only the HR but other issues so will be able to see what is going on. Will just be the way things go till I see the Dr and then maybe after for a while. I will keep an eye on my HR as RPE (Rate of Percived Exersion) does not seem to work untill it is too late and will just have to stop when things get wonky.
More to come.
Here is Part 1
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