The FAF AFAP Digest
Lactate Pain, Thursday, Feb. 25
by , February 25th, 2010 at 07:33 PM (6986 Views)
The FortressSwim/SCY @ OakMarr w/Speedo:
Warm up:
400 swim
200 kick
200 fly drills
10 x 25 shooters on back
Transition Set:
10 x 50 @ 1:00, mod pace
mixed up strokes
Lactate Set:
3 x (100 AFAP + 200 EZ) @ 9:00
Pete and I both approached this set with trepidation. He hadn't been feeling well; I'd been feeling tired. But we had at it, exceeding our expectations and improving since the last time we did this set on 10/1/09. Pete did free, and I did back with fins like last time. I felt like death on the first one; I was completely gassed and faded with typical wimpy sprinter elan on the last 25. Had to mentally regroup. I contemplated doing fewer SDKs on the first 25 to see if I had more left at the end. But the only way I can beat Speedo is to get an early lead via SDKs and try to hold it, so I persisted. He got me on the first two nevertheless with his new super duper flutter kick.The last 100 I concentrated on keeping my upper body as still as possible and staying under as long as I could. This yielded a better time. I was slightly nauseous after this set. Anyway, it went thusly:
1st 100:
last time: low 53
this time: low 54
2nd 100:
last time: mid 53
this time: mid 53
3rd 100:
last time: 54 low
this time: 52+
Total: 2450
I consider this an improvement on last time, mostly because I descended my times instead of ascending them. I was dead after this and had no desire to do any drills. Limped to the hot tub for a 10-15 minute soak.
P90X Stretch:
I never realized there was a P90X DVD devoted just to stretching. Found this out today from a P90X trainer on FB (it's disc 7). I didn't feel up to real yoga, but felt like I needed a stretch since I was sore and tired. So I plugged the DVD in, and did about 45-50 minutes of it. I fast forwarded through the tricep stretch part, which seemed to be the verboten USAS shoulder stretches. A few of the stretches were bikram yoga poses. This was just what I needed -- yoga light -- without the taxing standing and balancing postures.
Here's a list of the stretches: http://www.videofitness.com/reviews/horton-p90x-str.php. For those of you short on time, I recall Paul Clydesdale Smith saying that he aspired to always start his day with 10 sun salutations.
Here's an article on the health benefits of yoga, including that it may help prevent cancer: http://www.mdanderson.org/publicatio...abenefits.html
Here's a list of P90X recipes for breakfast:
http://www.beachbody.com/product/new...tter)#nl_offer
Here's a FB P90X article (on Tony Horton's page) that agrees with Michael Pollan's book below about fewer ingredients being better: http://www.facebook.com/note.php?note_id=320400757403.
Nutrition/Diet:
I've been reading Michael Pollan's short book, Food Rules. It's very short and zippy and and cleverly debunks the machinations of "The Nutritional Industrial Complex." The basic message is: (1) eat real food, not ersatz "edible foodlike substances" that are typically packaged; (2) eat mostly plants, and (3) don't eat too much.
He accurately calls nutrition an extremely young science. There are only several verifiable facts. The so-called "Western" diet (with processed foods, meats, fat, sugar, refined grains, little fruit & veg) causes disease (obesity, cancer, heart disease and diabetes). It's not known which of these dietary elements is the evil culprit. Too much focus is being placed on identifying the culprit, he opines, because food manufacturers can then tweak their products, process food more, and well, make more money.
He lists 64 rules and explains them. See, e.g., a couple reviews:
http://www.pbs.org/pov/blog/2010/01/...food_rules.php
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/02/02/health/02brod.htm (Jane Brody)
I chatted with Jazz briefly about the book last night. He likes Pollan's approach, but wonders if he discounts starch too much. See, e.g.,
http://www.news-medical.net/news/2007/09/10/29586.aspx
I was wondering about one of his comments -- that we have an "inborn preference for sweetness and fat and salt." What evolutionary process explains this? I guess it's the food processors manipulating us?
So far I'm having a banner day nutrition wise!
Mr. Fort's Studliness:
I am the worst athlete in our family apparently. Mr. Fort turned in some impressive results on his testing:
body fat = 7%
VO2 max = 61
lactate threshold = 91% of VO2 max
I don't know much about VO2 max except that is apparently somewhat innate and cannot be improved upon too much. It varies by age and gender. The average college male has a VO2Max of 44, I'm told. [ame]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/VO2_max[/ame].
Mr. Fort's lactate score is the most impressive. According to Joel Friel's Cyclist Bible, elite cyclists have a 80-90% range. And Mr. Fort is 50!
I have no desire to have these test done, though Mr. Fort did urge me too. There is another test for anaerobic power output that he didn't take.
Commentary:
That was a smackdown. I'm tired and sore. My shoulders are sore from the lifting earlier this week. My legs are sore from the AFAP SDK-ing. Tomorrow, will be another recovery type day with probably some bikram yoga.
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