The week (so far) in review...

It's been a good and tiring week. I've been up around 6:00 each morning for a morning workout, then an afternoon workout. I know this is unremarkable to most people who get up and brave a commute every morning, but I am not a morning person, so it takes some adjusting. Swimming in the AM on Monday and Wedesdays (although yesterday, because of work, I actually ran during my lunch hour and then swam in the afternoon) and Fridays, then weights Tuesday and Thursday mornings. Monday and Wednesday and Friday afternoons are running, and Tuesdays and Thursdays are on the bike. Saturday is my long bike, followed by a short but meaningful run. The volume will quickly increase on the bike - 2 weekends from this I'm already up to a 3 hour ride.

A few interesting bits:

Closed Circuit to elderly ladies at the pool: I get it, that you think trouncing around in a weird little hopping walk down the lanes is useful for you. I get that you get together and talk for an hour while you sort of meander around "water walking". Good for you, good luck with that. If you see me swimming in a lane, though, then that means you can't walk in that lane. You'll have to wait like the rest of us when the lanes are full. Because even though you try and hide against the wall when I swim by, see, the lanes aren't wide enough for both of us. And since I've been here for 15 minutes, you'll have to wait your turn. But if, I don't know, you have some schedule to keep that will only allow you this precise window in the time space continuom to do your water hopping, and by order of the prime minister you must do it in my lane, then I'm going to have to INSIST that you take a shower like the rest of us before you get in the water. Because if I can taste your Avon perfume when you glide by, then you're wearing too much. And I don't really want to swim through the chemical spill trailing behind you if that's okay. Eats through my goggles. So if you could look into that, that would be super.

I had my Anaerobic Threshold tested again yesterday, and what's most interesting is this surprising and not entirely encouraging bit: I am burning zero fat calories as I approach my AT heartrate of 164. Zero. Let's recap: Your body has two sources of fuel - fat and sugar (glucose). There is an almost unlimited supply of fat in even the leanest of bodies, but only about 2000 calories or so of glucose. Fat is a really slow burning fuel, and glucose is a really fast burning fuel. Each of us burns fat with different efficiency, and your Anaerobic Theshold is that place where you stop burning fat, and start burning sugar. So for me, around 164. I tend to spend most of my training runs between 155 and 170 or so. Because of that I've conditioned my body to burn sugar a bit more slowly, but I'm still burning sugar. I burn fat really efficiently in my lower zones - say, 125 bpm or lower, but I hardly ever spend time that low when I'm working out (it feels...counter productive. It's so slow!). I'm incredibly inefficient burning fat at my upper heart rates zones, where I like to train. If I were just doing Olympic triathlons, or even were just a marathon runner, this wouldn't be a huge deal. But I'm not - I need to burn 15 hours of fuel, not 2 hours. It is imperative that I train my body to burn fat at higher heart rates. Ideally, you want to be highly efficient at burning fat as close as possible to your AT, so that when in those higher heart rates that I like to be in, you're slowly burning from your unlimited supply, rather than quickly burning through your glucose supply. So, I have work to do. Luckily it's pretty (physically) easy work - I need to spend a lot more time in my low heart rate zones, burning more fat. The more time I spend there, the more efficient I'll become, and then those zones will start to climb and I'll get more efficient in higher zones. So yesterday I spent 45 minutes "running" 3 miles. It takes a different sort of discipline to go that slow, but it's critical. So probably twice a week I'll crawl along like that, for the next several weeks or so. And once or twice a week I'll run normally. Same with the bike - I need to be disciplined right now to spend time in lower heart rate zones, and not so concerned with speed or even efficiency.

Anyway, that's the update for now. Soon time to head out on the bike before coming back to work tonight.