Retraining again...

It's springtime again in Massachusetts and it's time to shake off the winter lethargy and get in some kind of shape again. Every year now for roughly the last 20 years, I somehow gradually let myself get out of shape in the winter, and gain 10 to 15 pounds... somehow.

Having the time restraints that children, family and work put on me really doesn't allow for a productive gym membership, so I've kept in aerobic shape mostly by running 4 to 5 miles, 3 times a week, 3 seasons out of the year. I also mountain bike quite a bit and enjoy that more than the running. We have a treadmill but "man" I hate the thing. No amount of music, TV or other distractions can keep me consistent on that contraption. I suspect there might be a certain amount of "seasonal affect" involved also; not enough to be completely mental, but enough to sort of sap my desire to keep in shape.

Here's the thing though. My yearly ebb and flow of exercise is getting a little harder to start, and yet my reasons for needing it are growing. Why, you ask? I hate to admit it but I'm finally starting to feel the effects of age a little bit I guess, having turned 41 at the end of last year.

For my birthday my kids picked out one of those heart rate monitoring type watches (are they trying to tell me something?) mentioned in VnutZ79's above piece. Since this is the beginning of my re-training season it will be interesting to see if, based on past experience, this method is beneficial as opposed to the "go until I'm tired, then go a little more, and then stop" method I've been using. I'm not looking for a lot more distance, because I want to save my knees and other joints as long as I can, but another mile added in roughly the same amount of time and getting up to speed in say 1 month instead of 2 would be all I could ask for.

According to this site ; 3-5 times a week for 20 to 60 minutes at 60-90% of age specific heart rate is optimum. Maximum heart rate is generally considered to be [220 – your age] making mine about 180 bpm. My low exercising heart rate would then be [180 X .60]= 108 bpm (walking?) and my high [180X.90]=162bpm. I'll be honest with you, when I first used the heart rate watch just to try it; I found I was past my supposed upper range in the 165 to 170 range sometimes, and for quite a while too. No wonder I felt tired. (I really wonder what it is after mountain biking up a long hill.) I'll try to follow up on this to let you know what happens as the "training season" wears on.

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