Plans Change - Heart warm-ups

I did not get to the North Shore this weekend. I did not want to take that long drive or run alone, so I went to RTA instead. I did 5 loops plus three additional hills on the hill west of the parking lot. I was so slow, but it was hot. I was just over a 15 min mile for the run. I felt OK; my heart rate was down, and I did not feel fatigued but could not move any faster. The average heart rate was 133? Go figure.

Since I felt underachieved at RTA, at 2:00 PM, I went for a road bike ride. After 18.5 miles into the wind, I was dry (which is strange as it was hot out), and I felt strong. However, I feel like a bee bit me just above the inside back of the right knee. Well, it's not the knee, but just above it. It's very painful to the t, but doesn't it hurt to run or bike?

During the RTA run, I was listening to a health/exercise-related podcast. It was about properly warming up the heart to optimize race performance. It said most people know that you have to warm up skeletal muscles to help protect them from injury, but many do not know that warming up the heart muscle is just as important.

They emphasized that many heart-related issues are caused by improper warm-up. They say when it's heat cramps, it's too late! It makes sense that the demands of exercise, especially intense competition, require the body's muscles and joints to be warm and limber. Athletes have long used warm-ups to prepare their bodies for physical challenges.

Despite universal acceptance that warming up is good, there is little scientific proof that it improves performance or reduces injuries. This is because the need to warm up is ingrained in us, making it difficult for researchers to collect unbiased data. For example, try sprinting at full speed on a cool day without warming up, and your mind says to slow down.

They say a proper heart warm-up has been documented to enhance a race. Warming up can decrease stress on your heart. If you try a strenuous task like sprinting uphill without a warm-up, your heart muscle will probably need more blood flow and oxygen. Warming up will lower your blood pressure and increase blood flow to the heart. This could reduce the risk of a heart attack. The speaker said he tested this with a heart rate monitor at several marathons.

He said the result, keeping the heart rate at the 50-60 percent threshold for the first 20 minutes, resulted in his slowest-ever first few miles but resulted in a PR. He also said he felt better overall after the race.  He stated he tested this theory by starting a race at 80 percent for 20 minutes and backing down, and his heart never really recovered, and he had an unusually high heart rate for the remainder of the race. 

The theory is to ease the heart into it, and it works more efficiently in the long run. May experiment, but from personal experience, I agree with him. I was not in the same shape as last year, but I wondered how I did better at Afton. The previous year at Afton, I pushed the first 10 miles, crashed, and struggled. This year, I started with the intent of keeping my heart rate in the 120's. For 10 miles, I did, but it was slower than the previous year. Although, I was able to keep moving with less fatigue.  That is an interesting subject, but I swear by running with a heart rate monitor to tell me how the ticker is performing.

Friday will be an all-night run at Superior. This is needed, and I look forward to it. Hope all is well in your training world.

Carry on.