2007 Training Summary

207 Hours in 2007

Last Febuary, needing a new heart rate monitor, I invested in a Garmin Forerunner 305. It’s an oversized watch unit with a built in GPS unit, wireless heart rate monitor and, with a bicycle accessory, cadence sensor. I chose it because it was flexible for running or cycling and, most importantly, because I would finally be able to track workouts on the computer.

While Garmin had finally started supporting the Mac with it’s software, I ended up using Ascent from Montebello Software. Based on appearances, I presume that Ascent is a Cocoa based program that integrates with Microsoft TerraServer and Virtual Earth for mapping. While the maps and the workout data displays are nice, what I find most useful is the journal function

Since Feburary, I know I’ve lost a few hours of recording because a dead battery in the Garmin. And when I do my 15-20 minute Pilates stretch and core strength routine, I can’t wear the monitor. Weight training and any swimming haven’t gotten recorded either. So I’m tracking running and cycling for the most part.

Since the Journal tracks by day, week, month and year, today I finish the first calendar year with the system. Since I didn’t have the unit during January, I’ll need to extrapolate the missing data.

During 2007 I totaled 207 hours of activity. That’s about 19 hours a month or a bit less than 5 hours a week. Of course there was a good bit of variability with months ranging from 22 hours in April to a low of 14 hours in August. During the year I realized that time was a constraint- family, vacations and business travel making many days unavailable for exercise. One of my adaptations was to use those weeks as rest weeks and pile up extra activity in the week before if possible.

It’s clear that I could do better simply by being more consistant on easy days. I can also be a bit smarter about matching time to intensity. For example, when I have a couple of weeks during the summer with limited travel, I can use the flexibility of my schedule to move to lower intensity, longer duration workouts. During the tough travel times, I can do consistent days that are shorter, but higher intensity. Overall, though it’s unlikely that I’ll be able to push total training time above 250 hours.

Am I more Fit This Year Than Last?

When I set up this new weblog, I made my categories into goals. My fitness goal was simply to be more fit this year than last. I didn’t set objective criteria at the time, but there are a few that emerged. Of course, there’s weight. Today I was at 156.5 pounds. Last year, I was at 160.5, so there’s an objective improvement. As well, I’ve taken about an inch and a half off my waistline, so my fat loss may have been more that the 4 pounds of total weight. Psychologically, my stress level is low and I’ve had fewer colds and viruses this year than in years past.

I’ve tracked fitness somewhat using field testing as suggested by Chris Carmichael. My 12 minute Cooper Fitness Test, my running test has improved from 1.125 miles last August to 1.38 miles last month. Based on the standard calculations, that means that my VO2 Max has improved from 29 to 34, a 17% improvement. I haven’t had a long enough interval to judge my progress on the Carmichael 3 mile maximal effort cycling test, but based on my riding speeds, I expect that I’m faster there. I’m doing base miles at speeds of 13 to 14 mph this year rather than 11 to 12 that I was doing early last year.

Sadly, I’ve just managed to get myself into the average category for age. I’m not a naturally gifted endurance athelete and for years my exercise was always just recreational- hiking or long cycling. I have no trouble training to go long, I just can’t go fast. So while I’m clearly responding to training stimuli, I likely lack the genetic capability to ride or run really fast because of my limitations in oxygen use efficiency.

But knowing that my clear limiter is VO2Max and not strength or endurance gives me a focus for training this year. I’d like to see to what extent I can use last year as a platform to get another 10 to 20% gain by this time next year. If I take off another 6 pounds and put on some more lean weight, my strength to weight ratio should be better and performance should improve.

In the end, I’m deeply grateful to be able to be working on my athleticism as I enter my 50’s rather than dealing with the onset of chronic illness of aging.