Plateau
by JS
I’ve been training seriously for awhile now, and have recently been stuck at something of a plateau. I don’t seem to be improving, though I tend to cross-train (mixing running, swimming, lifting, and biking) and don’t do regular baseline tests for fitness level, so who knows what’s happening. I really should keep better track of these things, but that’s a problem for later.
Inspired by a Metafilter post on exercise, I decided to try a Tabata style workout. I didn’t want to be the one guy on the cardio machines doing ellipticals like a madman, so I opted instead for interval training in the pool instead of my normal swim.
OMG!
It’s been a couple of days now, and I think I’ve recovered. I also realize what my current workout routines are missing. I try to spend a good deal of my free time focusing on fitness, but unlike when I actually was fit, I don’t spend a lot of time in the upper regions of my cardio capacity. I’m not exactly a slouch. I aim to get to about 80% for a sustained workout, but I don’t ususally get into the 80%+ range (really more like 95%+) that a high intensity short duration workout demands.
This is one area where playing an organized sport can really make a difference. The psychology of operating in those extreme limits of fitness change quite a bit when your objectives are concrete and competitive as opposed to long term and abstract. That said, I’m going to try to do my best to do more interval training as part of my normal routine.
Aside: When I was fit, I always thought of myself more as a sprinter, so interval training was sort of the “easy” part and the longer distances were the challenge. I think this is why I have a bit of a blind spot regarding this kind of training. When I think of getting fit I think about my historical weak spots, not the more obvious, plentiful, and present deficiencies in my fitness level. So I think about endurance instead of maximum output as a guiding principle for my workouts.
