Ride Overview:
Five intervals today with five-minute recoveries in between each effort.
The first interval is a warm-up interval: This set is to feel out your legs. Start at 120% for the first minutes to 80% for the next 5 min then sprint for the last 30 secondes
Second Interval is a breakthrough effort. If you want to do a breakthrough interval, skip the first minute of acceleration. Then once we hit the “Five Minutes on Section,” hit your interval button and go! Bring the effort to your best ever five-minute power. If you are not wanting to do a breakthrough interval do the first minute at 100-120% next 5 min @ 85 percent then last 30 seconds all out...
The third effort is an expanding effort interval. Middle 5 min start at 80 percent raising to 95 percent by the end of the 5 min .. mimicking the last
The fourth Interval 1 min hard then the 5 min block starts at 105 and ends at 100 percent
Five-minute recoveries between each interval. 105% for 2 minutes. Then rest for 30 seconds: a nice downhill. Then for the last 1 minute 30 seconds, we bring it back up again with a sprint finish for the last interval segment.
The Aging Athlete-Robbie shares insights into our health and fitness through the aging process. Read below for highlights but keep your sound up for the entire talk.
Research shows that the aging athlete can handle 2 intensity workouts per week...possibly three. These workouts help maximize longevity. Aerobic work is needed to balance intensity work for aging athletes.
Three primary things that happen as we age are:
There is a decrease in VO2 max is 10% per decade after 40 years old. Cycling helps maintain aerobic fitness which naturally declines as we age. High-intensity exercise...Keeping your heart rate up regularly during exercise helps maintain our ability to keep the heart rate range from decreasing so rapidly. We fight it off through V02 workouts on Tuesday. This type of workout also requires the most recovery. So, as we age we can only do a few high-intensity workouts per week.
We sleep less than we need to and often go to bed later than is ideal. Whatever the reasons are, sleep as we age isn’t always as ideal as we hope. Whether it is getting up during the night to go to the bathroom, restlessness from hormones or stress, or staying up to oversee the teenagers, we are not always sleeping the way we should. In order to help maintain our VO2 max, we should try to get as much sleep as possible. Deep sleep is most important in this domain. Deep sleep most often occurs before midnight, so early to bed wins!
Body composition- We naturally lose muscle and gain fat as we age. There are few causes for this most significantly the drop in hormone levels. Hormones help us recover, build muscle, and maintain strong joints and connective tissue including ligaments and tendons. A high in veggies and fruit Diet, strength training and sleep all help to combat the natural decline in ideal body composition. Maybe something about being less active due to work and kids?