A couple hour bike ride at a moderate pace a couple times a week... good for you
An hour of hill repeats twice a week, interval training another day, and two days racing on the weekend... maybe not so much.
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Competition, when a healthy activity becomes less so
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A life long runner who just turned 50 was telling me about this article last night. Very interesting. Does make some sense. I have often wondered whether intense intervals will one day kill me. :)
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So there yoi have it - nearly conclussive proof that we should all be striving to finish mid-pack!
Seriously, worth more investigation but as I 'mature' aka aga, I find that I'm competing more for my own personal enjoyment, the commaradary, and the motivation and a lot less about the position at the finish. Now that's not to say I don't want to win a few events now and then but I'd rather be able to drink some wine with dinner, miss a weekend or two of training to travel, visit the kids, ride the tandemm (base miles!), etc.
As to intervals - I'll still keep a few sets in my training durring competitive season!
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Article reminds me of the concept that the Heart only has X number of beats available. Once you use them up - you're done!
If so, Training pace matters.
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I tortured my body for many years doing things that are now called X games. When I was ~25 a doc told me that I would be lucky to make it to 40 (he was wasn't smirking when he said it). I made it and then some so I guess its all bonus now!
PS: I stopped jumping over barns on my snowmobile so that probably gave me a few extra years.
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There was a line by some european trainer from the 70's I believe that went something like "competitive sport begins where healthy sport ends."
Look at the upper bodies of grand tour riders...you know damn well that ain't healthy.
It is his word versus ours. We like our word. We like where we stand and we like our credibility."--Lance Armstrong. -
You know what doctors say about exercise......20 minutes, four or five times a week is all you need to be healthy. Anything beyond that is just showing off and can possibly be harmful. I run a lot but refuse to run a marathon because I'm convinced that it's unhealthy for my body, even though I look lean, fit, and feel great.
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Interesting reaction and counterpoint at:
http://www.runnersworld.com/health/too-much-running-myth-rises-againWould be curious to know what Ed Whitlock's opinion would be:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ed_Whitlock -
"Look at the upper bodies of grand tour riders...you know damn well that ain't healthy. "
Thank gawd for the sun-tanned arms and the barbed wired tatoo, otherwise I thought I was looking at Casper The Friendly Bike Rider.
Life is too short to be small. - Disraeli
So, why not be petty? - The Short White Guy™ -
Dangit TSWG, you beat me to it! Chicken was the epitome of sexy time.
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Who wants to be mediocre for a long time? Who wants to be great if even for a short while?
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Just in time...Now I have an excuse to not do those hill intervals I was planning for tomorrow. Guess I'll join the social group for the pie ride.
I guess Arnold Schwarzenegger was onto something when he said a person can be in top competitive condition, or can be healthy, but not both.
"The stone age didn't end because the earth ran out of stones, and the oil age won't end because the earth runs out of oil" -- Amory Lovins, Rocky Mountain Institute, rmi.org -
"Article reminds me of the concept that the Heart only has X number of beats available. Once you use them up - you're done!
If so, Training pace matters. "
Yes, but in the opposite way that you allude to - training will lengthen your life if you have only finite beats available.
The reason is because while you have a much higher heart rate during training (a max of a few hours per day),you have many more hours during which your heart beats less per hour than the average person.
So, if you had an average person with 72 BpM for 24 hours that would be 103,680 beats/24 hours
If you train 3 hours at 150bpm, thats 27,000 Beats
Then if your HR is 45 for the next 21 hours, that is 56,700 beats.
Total for the day is 83,700 beats. 20,000 beats less than a non-exerciser.Which means you would live longer!
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I call BS - I see this story just hit yahoo news now too.
This is aligned with all the 'research' that is done showing that animal products are unhealthy for you
You can find 'research' that states that sitting on your fat pimply ass eating a SAD (standard american diet) & not exercising is a "healthy" way to live. You can also find "research" that the earth is 6000 years old and Noah's flood was real.
There is zero doubt that those that exercise regularly - as you get 'old' that is likely not 500 mile weeks riding & can be even walking regularly (as my 95 Y.O grandmother does a s#itpile of & still lives alone in a house) are waaay healthier than sedentary people.
jeebus....
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so bnaz are you saying that some hippy dude didn't put two of every animal on a big boat and sail around until his dove found foliage?
That pic of chikcen is...I can't even find the words...
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"There was a line by some european trainer from the 70's I believe that
went something like "competitive sport begins where healthy sport ends."KR, I think the quote is from Schwarzenegger back in his "Stay Hungry" days, "you can be healthy or you can be competitive".
Oops I didn't see C2K beat me to it...
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Another study to make the people who don't have the balls to push themselves feel good about it.
For all the good they've done me, I might as well have stuck them up my arse. - Mark Renton -
+1 bodynazi
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I'm taking bets on which body part wears out first.
The odds?
Knees 6:1 (do they need a 100k overhaul?)
ankles 30:1
hips 15:1
shoulder 9:1 (separated once)
heart 7:1 (stop reading articles)
lungs 10:1 (never smoked but breathe lots of exhaust)
liver 100:1 (not a drinker)
brain 150:1 (no senility in the family) -
The old guys in Spain would get a hoot reading this. They all ride like mad year round and they aren't dying off in any significant way beyond normal. One of the guys I rode with a lot who was my age, his father rode everyday and he was 98! He was a retired frame builder and never lost the passion for cycling. He died in the afternoon one day after doing a ride with a bunch of his mates. He lived a damn good life! Anecdotal I know.
"There is no better than adversity. Every defeat, every heartbreak, every loss, contains its own seed, its own lesson on how to improve your performance the next time."
Malcolm X -
For me, the minimum is 200 mi./month. When I have to ride 100 mi. in the final week, as I did for November, I feel a lot stronger. Not racing-strong because I don't race. Riding in traffic is dangerous enough. I've ridden for 40 years, and drivers aren't getting better, they're getting worse. It's because of cell phones.
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No real surprise. All you need to do is consider how our bodies have developed over hundreds of thousands of years of evolution and ask yourself "is this something my body expects?"
If the answer to that is "no" you are probably doing yourself more harm than good.
Clean water...good.
Vegetables...good.
Cigarettes...bad.
French fries...good, I mean, bad.
Running for miles everyday like a hyena is chasing you...bad."Two things are infinite: the universe and human stupidity; and I'm not sure about the the universe." - Albert Einstein -
A hyena chasing you...bad. Run faster...good. Should have had the fries!
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As some have pointed out there's a difference between being fit and being healthy. Hit the weights 2 or 3 times a week, take a couple yoga classes, couple cardio sessions, eat right. You're healthy.
Push your body and mind to and past limits running, cycling, strength training. You're fit for that activity, but not necessarily healthy - especially in the long run.
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Tilford weights in on the topic. It'll be interesting to follow what he finds.
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