Fun & Fitness over 50

I'm still developing my training plan as I go. I guess what I'm doing right now is a combination of Dr. Gabe Mirkin and the book Heart Zones Cycling: The Avid Cyclist's Guide to Riding Faster and Farther by Sally Edwards and Sally Reed.

Dr. Mirkin advocates working out in sets until the muscles burn and keep repeating sets until you feel them stiffen. I'm not sure about the stiffen part but I am just doing 3 sets of each exercise. Within each set I am trying to beyond just starting to burn and go to as much discomfort as I am willing to take. I try to pace myself so I can do my entire circuit without becoming exhausted. What Dr. Mirkin says also confirmed what I said in a previous post about liking to feel sore and not taking ibuprofen for it. When I feel adequately sore, I know I have worked out hard enough the previous day. Also, he says you should not work those muscles again until the soreness goes away. So you don't want to take a pain killer cause you won't know when the muscles are fully recovered.

In a similar vein, as it relates to a hard cardio workout, Edwards and Reed advocate using resting heart rate as a guide to when your body is sufficiently recovered. I haven't implemented this yet because it's a little hassle for me to get my resting heart rate. The best way to do it is to measure it when you first wake up before you get out of bed. You can count your pulse but that's out for me cause I can't keep my eyes open for 10 seconds to look at a watch when I first get up. Especially since I had a stye that I believe left some scarring on my eyelid that makes it very hard to keep that eye open in the AM. The other method is to wear my HR monitor to bed and just check it when I wake up. I tried that once but I kept waking up all night to check it. It is kind of uncomfortable to sleep with although you probably can get used to it. I think I'll keep trying the second method and see if I can get used to it.