Posted: April 15, 2005

Multisport: Tax Time……..Fitness

Are you filing another extension of your New Year resolutions?

We are in April and for some of us it still seems to be January 1st, 2005 to start with the New Year's resolutions. We amuse ourselves with the thought of finishing races of all kind. Triathlons, Marathons, Running races, you name it. Time flies by and here we are! For some, it's still not warm enough, or the days continue to be too short. Believe me! We can start with a list of excuses that can go on and on.

The biggest drag is to know that you are almost in season and you are not fit, we wanted to do so much. That can really get you down. You feel mentally flat because for whatever reasons you don't feel like going for a run or a bike ride, and when you do you feel worse because you slacked all winter and the fitness level is so low that it does not become enjoyable any more.

Here are some tips that can do some damage control and also can help you psychologically get back on track to have a great season.

When starting, never pressure yourself thinking triathlon, running races, just think fitness level. Think FIT or what some experts break it down to. F.I.T

* Frequency: How often you do exercise of any kind. For beginners, consider starting with 2-3 sessions per week.

* Intensity: How hard you exercise. For example, the pace you walk or run, the amount of weight you lift, or your heart rate count.

* Time: How long you perform an activity. "Time" can also refer to the number of sets or repetitions you perform in weight training.

In this time of psychological uncertainty regarding exercising, if you stick strictly to one sport and conditions are not what you would like, most likely you'll bail. Be open to any type of exercise activity. I do not say this in a way that you have to settle for less. Think Base! To be more exact what we call in scientific periodization "Mesocycle 1" which is the time to play and try all those things that you wanted to do but you were so afraid to experiment with because of being already in race season, like new weight routines to work on weaknesses, changes in your swim, diet, bike positions etc.

From sport conditioning, yoga, spinning, to an invitation to a tennis or basketball game that will work on your stabilization muscles; be open to anything, even if all has to be indoor activity. You can still benefit huge. When saying achieving overall fitness does not mean being at Ironman training level. Ones I felt like having three heart attacks on the first min 15 min of basketball game though I was handling four to six hrs of training a day, including A/T (Anaerobic threshold) workouts.

Think F.I.T in your first two weeks to a month. Frequency-Intensity-Time on any exercise activity you can put your hands on that sounds fun to you. You will slowly transition to your sport of choice without disappointments because of psychological pressured of not being at where you should be. This approach will increase your total fitness level, working on the things that normally you will never spend the time on, thereafter increasing the results of your sport specific workouts, making you naturally look out the window, asking yourself for more.

By Fernando Reeve - WHP Associate Coach
ISSA Certified Personal Trainer, Account Executive-Online Training Dept.
fernando@weshobsonperformance.com

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