Bit of a frustrating week. I decided to take the plunge and have a cortisone injection in my knee in a desperate bid to finally put an end to years of niggling ITB (Illotibial Band) issues - a long standing running injury dating back to the London Marathon many moons ago. So the doc prescribed 10 days of rest. To stop me climbing the walls, I decided to spend the week "Finking". Yep, that's right & there's no "th" in it!
Finking, is a pretty essential part of my grand plan, I quite enjoyed it and will probably do a bit more of it in the months to come!
In this house, it's what's become known as dipping into the holy book of Ironism, aptly titled, Be Iron Fit, written by training guru Don Fink. I poured over his training advice, scribbled notes, dog-eared pages and quoted snippets out loud to my hubby IronPhil. IronPhil, rolled his eyes on a few occasions and yawned quite a lot. You see, as his name suggests, he's been there, done that and got the tatoo. He worked his butt off to get it & finished with a cracking time, but he ploughed his own furrow, shunning gadgets like Garmins, bike computers and heart rate monitors. He also likes to cringe at some of Fink's inspirational quotes and advice and didn't embrace my frequent shared readings of Fink's path to the Iron dream.
So when I suggested that maybe I should buy a heart rate monitor to accompany my Garmin and bike computer, his eyes rolled again and his advice was to save the cash, spend it on wine and just listen to my body when I'm training!
The trouble is, the Fink-tank has a set of plans based on time spent training and all the sessions are geared around working in specific heart rate zones, I'm not sure if I want to be wired up and crunching numbers. Also, I'm a bit of a mileage junkie, I like to know how many miles I need to complete each day, I'm not sure if working in hours will suit me. In fact, I am the saddo who runs or cycles around the block a couple of times at the end of a session, just to see the Garmin clock the exact mileage.
Anyway, it's the end of my week of Finking, I still have the cardio cash, minus £5.99 on a bottle of Merlot, and the jury's still out. What do you think - heart rate monitor or not?
Love this idea! Training plans are only a mere guide to get you where you want to be!- never be a slave to the plan! Don fink training plans are tried and tested ,So much info & science and plenty of case studies to back it all up. I've used this plan and to be honest like IronPhil I've had to question a few of the sessions. Bike computers are key and vital not only to clock up your mileage! Its the visual aid that we all need to inform us when to eat & drink on the bike.To be fair Garmins that talk to the moon etc are all Gucci and great however a £30-£40 cat eye bike computer is all that anyone needs! Heart rate monitors are a must in the Base phase initially! you need to understand the zones and more important the "WHY" we train in the various zones- The heart rate going up 5 or 10 BPM in a session may undue what you were trying to achieve.The key to the run in the final stages is remind yourself of all your basic running techniques,good posture,fast turnover of legs,fast arms,relaxed shoulders etc For me heart rate monitors educate you about the various zones and so important when your doing your speed work/ intervals.
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