#hiits

The year is 80% done. (80.5% actually). 

I am past last years October and well on the way to passing the 5 yr Average for Octobers.  Best of all I am comfortably on track to clear the shortfall accumulated from early in the year.  I had got way behind in January and June. So those numbers are good.

I felt weaker on the HIIT session.  Not quite as good as the last with the FFF at 4.77 (previous was 4.43)  I got a flu shot on Saturday and I think it is working.  The idea of inoculations is to give your body a weak infection so it is ready for the big one.  A weak infection is an infection still.  I do not feel 100%.  I usually do not get flu shots.  I have had almost every type of flu over the last 50ish years. (maybe more).  But I wanted to allay the fears of my grandchildren’s mom.

Last night I did the Kinetics “Rivet” session. It is my most common HIIT routine. I like that it is programmed and I don’t have to think.  Before I upgraded my Kinetics App I had another HIIT session programmed that I got from a combination of GCN videos and published studies.  That got destroyed with the newer App which also seems to prevent me from programming my own.  It was better.

There is a recent study which basically confirms other work saying that intervals at a modest percentage over your FTP with rest at a percentage under FTP are not as good as much harder efforts.  My old session was like that.

The idea is to push as hard as you can.  Not some number calculated from some place.  Pushing absolutely as hard as you can.  It is easier to do in a way as there is no arbitrary limit it is your body’s red line.  As the session goes on the pushes get weaker, but as hard as you can is as hard as you can.

So this new study used trained cyclists and they used one of two methods.  The first was really very similar to the Kinetics method.  The second was rapid short 30 second efforts AHAYCG with 15 second rests.  Repeat 4 times rest for a few minutes then repeat the intervals, rest, one more repeat, then cool down.

The rest can vary. In the study it was 15 seconds in my old routine it was 30 seconds.  GCN had a video with that Simon fellow that had varying rests that got shorter as the session went on.

They describe the benefit as your muscles dealing better with lactic acid and stuff like that.

Anyway apparently the all out method had a 5% improvement in speed and strength over the more conventional one.  In my old program I was hitting 700 to 800 Watts at peak.  Hey I was not holding that for 30 seconds that was a peak, but the average over the push was say 70% of that or 400ish.  I think it worked better. The “rivet” session is under 300 Watts max.

So the problem is building my own session into a routine that is easy to follow when I am cross eyed and almost falling over.  My old Kinetics app let me do that, but the new one wants me to pay a subscription.  Actually there are a few available, but they all want me to pay something.

I guess I will write something down and see if I can follow it and record the session with the Kinetics App. 

In the summer outside I do a few things on rides that would benefit from hard 30 second pushes.  I sprint over these small bridges and shorter hills.  There is a particular one where I stand up and sprint.  Last weekend I was out and I could not hold the effort to the top on that one.  I know I can do better than that because I have. I think I get that from my outside riding.  Lets see if my inside riding can help with that.

Day 820 Record Keeping Day 792 Fixed Meditation (31 min) Day 666 Writing (2 rounds intense, 30 min each) Day 206 Rowing (30 min, 5000 m) —– Eating Day 44 Pantry Check (73) Day 42 Recording — Great sleep, good wakeup. I’m trying to stretch out my writing/work. Normally I do whatever I need to do, but if it’s difficult my minimal is 30 minutes. If I’m working on my blog or doing work, it usually stretches out longer. But since I’m working on a difficult project that’s quite painful, and I want to complete it faster, I’m trying to stretch it out.

I’m pushing my rowing by introducing HIITS. Since I had holes in my schedule last week (only did one HIIT instead of two, cut a few things on Thursday, and completely skipped almost everything on Friday)  it clearly hasn’t stabilized.

My pantry check is almost buzzing along nicely, my food recording is a superhabit, so I’m hoping it won’t mess anything up to stretch out writing.

It seems so little, writing 30 minutes a day and stretching it out to an hour. Especially since I wrote so much in November for NaNoWriMo, and because I’ve written so much in the past. But I want to really zone in on my weaknesses, and I believe this is how you do it - otherwise it just collapses.

After a short break to focus on opening his Flex5 state of the art fitness and wellness studio Uptown Charlotte, Petro is bringing back his signature Say I Do Beach Body Boot Camp series for Season 5. Now leaner, (a tad) meaner and more fun than ever, this series is designed to challenge your mind, body and spirit and get you back in shape!

I decided to try to follow the you tube GCN HIIT video.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WRylMkvahjM

Last time I did 5 x 30 seconds and then saw the video on YT where they did 8.  Felt a bit crazy so why not try that tonight.

The basic thing is they did 8 by doing shorter and shorter rests between the intervals. The good thing about “As Hard As I Can Go” (AHAICG) is that it is self limiting.  If you are getting weaker or tired then naturally you do not go as hard.  My peak power  Tuesday was 598 Watts and last night 553 Watts.  Maybe I held back a bit, I do that.

It was hard, but that is the objective.  It is also busy which gives you little time to think, which is good.

I also found the Rah Rah of the leader far less annoying as the work distracted me.  I basically was only aware of the start alarms and timers.  Yah there was some skinny guy talking.

They reduced the rest periods between intervals down to 90 seconds at the last one I think.  The end had a 6 minute cool down pedal.  It was not that bad once it was over.  Just like banging your head against a wall it feels so good once its over.

My FFF was the same for a slightly harder session.  I burned about 320 Calories based on my average power.  The skinny guy said that HIITS raise your metabolism for about 24 hours after the session.

I overheated again as my fan is still stored away.  I drank a couple of glasses of water before and a full bidon on the bike.  This was an hour after dinner.  So after I had a cold shower to dump the heat I got on my scale.  I weigh myself most mornings naked.  So after my shower I was a full 9 lbs heavier than that morning.  Hmmm.  Same scale and gravity had not changed and I was naked.  Exercise swells your muscles with fluid, but I did not eat and drink that much over the day.  At least I thought not.  Next morning I was back to my usual recent weight.  Hmmmmm.

There is real University data on HIITs and usually it is good.  Studies are very specific and often the results only point a direction as opposed to detailed solutions to problems.  The best information I have is that it is a reasonable replacement for fitness “Base miles” that are long and tedious and time consuming. It also is good for strength.  A time saver in the fitness journey.