RUST magazine: RUST #45

FITNESS
w
races but I do love improving every ride.
But with age I do now have a little more
headspace for sports analytics, nutrition
and training and how that influences
staying healthy and the enjoyment you
can get from riding fit, knowing how
to eat for energy and to keep hydrated.
And that is my advantage.
PROGRAMMES
So the goal for my fitness regime has
to be to get me to that point where
I can ride at my best, without a lack
physical condition holding me back.
I’ve spent years applying myself to
various programmes hoping to achieve
this. Rarely with success. But recently
with time to properly research then
apply myself, I think at last I have
found something that really works…
it would seem the key to effective
results has to do with cardiovascular
health. Obviously, the less strain on
the heart having to deliver oxygenated
blood around the body improves your
endurance capacity.
The biggest revelation for me and
the primary difference between how I
trained before and how I train now is
not simply elevating your heart rate but
how you elevate your heart rate.
Long distance running or sustained
periods of exercise at a steady heart
rate just never worked for me. I’d get
on the bike and the first time I needed
strength to lift the bike out of a muddy
bog, manhandle it up a steep ascent,
pull it out of deep sand, all while kitted
up carrying more than my joggers and
a vest, I was blowing out of my arse. Not
only did any 5-minute spell of this send
my heart rate through the roof it sapped
my energy stores so badly that it was
likely that I would be blowing hard for
the rest of the day.
So, I figured that the best way to fix
that was to simulate being out of breath
and then having to exert power and
strength for short intense periods. The
aim being to teach the body and mind
to become accustomed to this situation.
That meant that I would have to find
exercise routines that would enable
me to adopt my heart rate programme
method.
70
www.rustsports.com