ABOUT THE ATHLETE’S HEALTH
Before starting training, a beginning ironman should find a sports doctor, consult with them and get at least a minimum medical check-up.
Before starting training, a beginning ironman should find a sports doctor, consult with them and get at least
a minimum medical check-up.
It's mandatory to take blood and urine tests. You need to find out what is missing in your body and prepare it for
severe physical exertion. In addition, it wouldn't hurt to check the heart, and necessarily under stress. A cardiac stress test means an examination either on a treadmill or on a stationary bike. The doctor analyzes the resulting cardiogram to determine the maximum and best heart rate under exertion.
For a start, it is extremely important to know your maximum heart rate, at least theoretically. You must not exceed this threshold. It is also useful to know the working range of your heart rate, at which you’d be able to withstand physical exertion for a long time.
Be sure to determine your heart rate, otherwise you will train blindly and stupidly.
The upper limit of the working range is exactly the boundary between your aerobic and anaerobic ranges.
Aerobic mode is the mode where your body has enough oxygen and you can talk comfortably enough. In this mode, your muscles work without overloading, and it is enough time for lactic acid to disperse.
Anaerobic mode is the mode where oxygen deprivation is created and lactic acid in your muscles does not have time to disperse. After some time in this mode, your muscles are likely to fail.
If you continue to exercise in aerobic mode, there will be a moment when you begin to lack breath, and it becomes strained and intermittent. That means you’ve hit the aerobic threshold.
The main task of an athlete is to shift the boundary between these modes and increase the aerobic range, and this is achieved by training. If you train, all your performance indicators will change for the better over time. This can be confirmed by a second visit to the sports doctor, who will record your success.
You will find a lot of information on how to deal with your heart rate and aerobic and anaerobic thresholds in specialized literature. The above is a very simplified method, but it is workable enough, especially if you are at the beginning of your sporting journey.
Be sure to determine your heart rate, otherwise you will train blindly and stupidly.
NECESSARY EQUIPMENT
In order to make your training effective and to succeed in competitions in the future, it is very important to choose the right equipment. Here is a list of necessary items and specific models formed on the basis of my experience:
1) sports watch;
2) velocity sensor;
3) heart rate sensor;
4) cadence sensor (cadence is the rate of the bike’s pedals turning).
SPORTS WATCH. Garmin 910 and later models are, in my opinion, the best in quality-price-capability, proven by time and practice of races. The following data fields on the screen of Garmin 910 are set up for the running stage (Fig. 1):
time (timer); pace; distance; heart rate.
For the cycling stage, the following fields are set up (Fig. 2):
a) on the first page: speed; cadence;
heart rate; slope.
b)
average speed; time (timer); distance.
Fig. 1. Setting up Garmin 910 data fields for the running stage
Fig. 2A, 2B. Setting up data fields on the first and second pages of the cycling stage
Fig. 3. Setting up data fields of Garmin 810 fields for the cycling