Posts Tagged ‘running’

Yippee I just did a 9 minute run with little difficulty after a 3 week layoff from running because of a hemorrhoid.

I think swimming with fins kept building my fitness and also my calf indurance. I will aim for 9 minutes on my next 3 tests then start aiming for 8:30. I will hit the wall somewhere after that.

I flunked the advanced math test for army systems engineer, so I changed my application to officer corp. Its good motivation.

My average time on the 1.5 mile run is now 9 minutes 30 seconds. That’s pretty darn good. No sign of the calf problems I was having either.

So how at 40 yrs and 100 kg did I take my time to 9.5 from 12.45 ? Well I recommend HIIT and hypoxic training. I like to do my HIIT on the rowing machine. 15 – 20 minutes max and use that as my pre-workout warmup. Basically the more you put into it the more you get out of it. I also do it instinctively or intuitively rather than timing everything exactly.

As for Hypoxic training it definitely is a very effective method for increasing VO2max and lung capacity but it has to be done in the correct way. For example research studies have shown high altitude training to be ineffective at improving sea level performance.

But I did not say I recommend “High Altitude” training.

What I recommend is short duration hypoxic training at low altitude. So the hypoxia only lasts 20-60 seconds. Its done in intervals and not even necessarily under exercise conditions. You can train your lungs and circulatory system in this way even by simply breathing into a plastic bag for short infrequent intervals. Just be careful not to overdo it and induce dizziness or faintness.

You want to stop just before it quite gets to that. This method is also known as carotid masking as it increases the diameter of the carotid artery to the brain.

This kind of training is familiar to free divers and such, you will find its good to relax your muscles while doing the carotid masking.

Hypoxic sprints can also be performed while swimming both surface and under water.

This brings me to my final recommendation which is the Navy Seals training program by stew smith – this is an incredibly tough training program. I will be following it for the next couple of months and have done it in the past too. After that I intent to try stew’s maximum fitness program which I have not done before – that’s a 52 week cross training program.

Heres’s the link to stew’s site: http://www.stewsmith.com/catalog.htm

If you are following my blog you will know I am training to re-enlist in the NZ Army at 40.
You will also know I just sprained my darn calf muscle while on the treadmill doing a crazy sprint.

Well I got to thinking what has changed about my training since I was in the infantry reserve ten years ago. In all respects I am a better athlete except at running. My flexibility is about the same, strength quite a bit better, muscle mass greater, cardio is fine on the rowing machine, crunches I can pump out by the hundred.

One thing is different – I used to skip. I also used to do chi kung and muay thai on my hand made punch bag but thats for another post.

Skipping is held to be three times as effective as jogging.

Heres a breakdown of calories burned with intense activities…

The thing with skipping is its a hell of a lot easier on the body that sprinting.

Your calves, tendons and ligaments are likely to be strengthened rather than injured like they could be running. Thats my only gripe with running being a big guy – I know I can blow a gasket.

I weigh 220-230 lbs so thats a lot of weight to be putting on my hips, knee’s and connective tissue.

I do rowing but it wont condition the lower body much even though its great for cardio. Skipping is the solution that can improve your running without risking lower body injury.

You know as an athlete two golden rules are “Don’t waste time” and “Don’t risk injury”.

Well I have nearly finished my electronics engineering degree all ready for a new career and now of course all the employment has dried up with the global economy.

I passed the army aptitude tests for signals systems engineer which is a damn good entry level job for an engineer but I will need to do 4 months basic training.

So that means running and lots of it for me.

My legs are so darn sore today I had to go soak in the sauna and spa for an hour.