This is my first real comeback. Ihave been active all my life so I have no idea what it is like to be like I am now. Real fat and real winded and real sexy.
So along with yoga, wieght training (this is not something I will drop. It will be part of the design.) how do I get ready for endurance whhile at zero?
Last week I road a total of 6 hours and ran for 90 minutes. I am toast. It is really emberasing.
I read Dan’s super good beginners design but I will not be swimming.
Should I just increase time as I feel ready or is a super detailed plan better?
My big goals are a century in August and a half marathon in November. How can I best translate bike milage into running?
You’ll probably get tons of advice, but here are the three most important things, based on what I’ve read and experienced, about doing this efficiently and without injury. (Note: my re-builds came after knee surgeries a year apart, the first of which eliminated 90% of the muscle I had in one leg.) I agree that it can be slow and frustrating, but remember that muscle building can lag exercise by about 8 weeks, so give yourself time. It’ll come. You’re in base mode. That means endurance efforts are WAY more important than speed / anaerobic workouts. To maximize the amount of distance you can add without injury, don’t do any anaerobic stuff, and try to stay zone 3 or below for your workouts if you use a heart rate monitor (roughly 15 beats or more below your anaerobic threshold). Wait at least 2 months, until your base is built, before adding speed work once a week. Build in 4 week cycles. The first three are “full” weeks, where you add up to 10% to the total distance you did in each event during the prior “full” week. On the 4th “recovery” week, really take it easy, and back off a good 50%. You’ll be amazed how much stronger you feel after the recovery week. Repeat. Lots of books can tell you how the individual weeks should look. My belief is that the best plan includes at least 3 workouts in each event you’re doing, and it’s much more important for one of those in each event to be long distance (e.g. 2-3x the others) than it is for all 3 to be the same distance. Start focusing on technique now, before the pressure of big distances or speed enters the equation. For running, Pose method is great. For cycling, use rollers or one-legged drills on a trainer if you have them; if not, mix some fast cadence spin work and slow cadence hill work into your outdoor rides.\
And in general, keep up the stretching and strength. Finally, it’s expensive, but I found that Endurox R4 makes my muscles feel like new even after the longest rides. If you don’t want to drop the $1 for each drink, at least make sure that you quickly refuel after each long workout with some high glycemic carbs (sugars, fruits likes bananas), some salts / electrolytes, and some protein. Your body will rebound for the next workout much faster that way.
I understand you feel you are starting from zero. However if you can ride and run that far that close together, then you need to pat yourself on the back. You are NOT starting from ZERO. GET OVER IT.
Consider going for SHORTER workouts that are more often. Make sure you are doing everything to recover well. That will do as much as the workout. You might be able to test if your muscles are ready for another workout by doing a very short self massage.