Mantra.  We’ve heard the word.  We’ve all heard of the mantra “Om”. Ommmmmmmm.  A spoken mantra, or a silent mantra, is frequently used as an aid to meditation, focusing your attention.

Mantras are also useful when you’re out on the road or up on one of the Keiser M3s.

One phrase I hear every now and then at Global Ride is “Always Finish Strong“.  Dig deep, and Finish Strong.  For whatever reason, that phrase resonates with me.

You’re in minute 18 of a 20 minute power threshold test.  Your heart rate is edging close to Zone 5.  Only 2 minutes left.  Dig deep, and Finish Strong.

You’re wrapping up an outdoor workshop.  You’re almost to the top of Edgecliff (what a name for a road.  what a hill!), with your chest about to explode, but Gino is riding next to you saying “There’s always a little left in the tank.  Finish Strong.”

You’re doing Yoga and Kelly decides we’re going to do a sequence of Sun Salutations.  The arms are screaming, but we’re almost done.  Finish Strong.

You’re at King’s, and there’s an Angry Mob dessert in front of you. Finish… er, you probably don’t want to finish that one.

I’ve talked about a lot of stuff that I’ve learned during my first five months at Global Ride:

* Show up, and then keep coming back
* Be in touch with your heart
* Pay attention to your power
* Combine the indoor and the outdoor.  Combine the heart and the watt.

But all that work and application of technology has to be for some reason.  It can’t exist in a vacuum, otherwise you get bored and move on to the next shiny thing.  These are tools that exist for a reason.  It’s like collecting hammers, but never nailing anything.

Having a goal, a goal that is out of your immediate reach, is a great motivator.  It gives a direction to your activity.  I want to ride a MS 150.  I want to lose 40 pounds.  I want to climb Edgecliff.  Using these tools will get you to the goal.  It won’t happen immediately, it’ll take work, but you will get there.  The last bit is always hard.  So you have to dig deep, and Finish Strong.

And then when you Finish, it’s time to smile and take pride in your work.  Then pick the next Goal.  We wouldn’t want life to get boring.

Last time I  mentioned losing about 12 pounds, increasing my fitness, and that I am actually becoming able to ride non-trivial distances on rail-trails.  So, how’d I do it?

Aside from just plain work, that is?  Tools.

When writing commercial software, there comes a time where you need to optimize your code.  You need to figure out why it’s slow.  Long experience has taught me you can never trust your gut instinct, since it will be wrong. You have to take measurements.  You use tools to isolate the problem (and it’s always a surprise).  Then you fix it, and then measure again.

Likewise, I knew that getting reconditioned would require some tools.

You may have seen the the Heart Zones Training logo in the Cycling Room.  I’d seen the wall charts filled with numbers, having no idea what any of it meant.  Then I saw the Sally Edwards “Heart Zones Training For Cyclists” book lying around the Smoothie Bar and flipped through it.  I saw something interesting on every page.  So I went to Borders up in The Mills and got a copy for myself. As anyone who knows me can tell you, I’m an information sponge. I love learning new stuff.  Especially if it’s nerdy.

Global Ride offers a “Threshold Heart Rate Testing” workshop.  It condenses the book and makes the Heart Zones concepts very approachable.  It’s nice being able to ask questions and get immediate answers.

It requires a heart rate monitor.  But I like electronic toys, so this was a good excuse to get a new one.  You can borrow a heart rate strap and see the display on the Keiser bike’s display.  I have a Garmin unit that talks to a wristwatch.  I put the watch on the handlebars so I can keep track of my heart rate.

So, having devoured that book I knew what to expect from the workshop. It takes about 2 hours. You start with a half hour going over the basics of Heart Zones training, then an on-bike “threshold test”, which involves a warmup, then reciting some text, increasing your heart rate, reciting the text again, until you can’t recite it any more because you’re breathing too hard.  Sounds weird, but it works.  Afterwards, you take the numbers from that test and figure out what your Heart Zones are.

OK, so what *is* this heart zone stuff?  It all about how your muscles are  fueled.

huh?

Your muscles basically run on sugar.  There is a finite amount of sugar that’s actually stored inside of your muscles, going by the scary name of “muscle glycogen”.  You burn this fuel when you turn the cranks of the bike.   As you exert yourself, body fat gets converted into glycogen and replenishes what you burn.  You can conceivably continue indefinitely,  converting fat to glycogen and burning that in your muscles.

As you work your muscles harder, though, there comes a tipping point where you’re burning the muscle glycogen faster than you can replace it.  Once you run out of that stuff, you “bonk”, and just can’t go forward.

Also, our bodies are not 100% efficient systems.  Biological processes generate waste products.  In this case, “lactic acid” (another scary name).  Your bloodstream carries away this waste.

Ok, enough with the anatomy 101.  What’s this heart zone stuff?  With the threshold test you took earlier, you can calculate a series of ranges of heart rate.  These ranges, also known as zones, are numbered, and have definite behavior:

Zone 1 is an easy, low-intensity zone, handy for warming up.  Working out in this zone helps reduce stress, improve your blood pressure, and gives your hair that healthy glow.  You’re burning your muscle glycogen, and it’s getting replaced by converting fat.

Zone 2 is more intense, but still fundamentally easy.  This is a good recovery zone if you hammered yourself recently.  Similarly, you’re burning your muscle glycogen and it’s getting replaced by converting fat.

Zone 3 is where you start getting aerobic improvement.  You’re still burning fat, but you’re training your body to burn more of it.  It also helps your circulatory system, causing it to grow more capillaries and improve the efficiency of what you have.  You could work out for months in just Zone 3 and see vast improvements in overall health.

Zone 4 is where it starts to get interesting. You’re working harder.  This is where you start to build cardiovascular strength.  You’re burning fat, but you’re also burning more muscle glycogen than you can replenish, but you can still sustain this Zone for an hour or two. You’re generating lactic acid, “feeling the burn”, but it gets cleaned out pretty efficiently.  You’re burning a lot of calories here.

Before we get to Zone 5,  let’s talk about waste a bit.  Those of you with kids at home (or live with a kid-at-heart) know that sometimes mess can be generated faster than you can clean it up.  Likewise, as you work your muscles harder, these biological waste products build up and can’t be cleared fast enough.

Zone 5 is on the other side of your “threshold”.  This threshold is the point where your circulation cannot clear out the metabolic slag from your muscles fast enough, so it builds up.  As the waste builds up, your heart beats faster to try to clear it out. You can’t sustain Zone 5.  Eventually you’ll either fill up with lactic acid, or your cardiovascular system will cry Uncle and force you to take some recovery time.  That said, time in Zone 5 can really improve your cardiovascular fitness.

If you’re really deconditioned, you’ll want to spend a lot of time in Zone 1 and Zone 2. Build up a good fitness base. As you get in better shape, you’ll want to spend more time in Zone 3 to improve your aerobic capacity and teach your body to burn fat faster.  Spend time in Zone 4 to get stronger, and teach your body to clear out the lactic acid more efficiently.  Spend time in Zone 5 for maximal strength, and to build endurance.  And, frankly, to teach your psyche to endure exertion.  I won’t mention the term “suffering” (oops, I said it) but you know what I mean.

This is how I use the heart zones.  If I’m in a recovery mode, I stay in Zone 2 or 3, even if everyone around me is working really really hard.  But I’m also working on my overall strength so I can climb hills, so I spend more time in Zone 4 and occasionally Zone 5 to improve both leg strength and cardio capacity.

In addition to using  zones to direct your training, you can also use these zones to make sure that you’re being honest during your workouts.  If Lorraine says during a class “you should be working pretty hard now”, and you’re in Zone 1, then you’re probably just slacking off.  You should push yourself to Zone 3 or 4, either by increasing your gear, or cadence, or both, or doing some standing.  Likewise, if she says “this is a recovery song”, and you’re still up in Zone 4, then you need to ease off on the gear or cadence until you get down to mid Zone 3 or high Zone 2.

You can also use the zones to judge your improvement over time.  You may be in Zone 4 while pushing Gear 10 at 90 rpm, and then the next month, you’re in Zone 3 pushing Gear 10 at 90 rpm.  Congratulations! You’re now fitter, and can generate power more efficiently.

Power?  Did I say Power?  Yes!  That’s what I’ll talk about next time.  Stay tuned.

Hi. Jeff here. Of course, I’m usually the one here – but I’m calling myself out for this post so you don’t get a false impression of someone else’s lifestyle. Anywho, this post is about a lot of things. It’s about the mission of Global Ride and our virtual spin DVDs. It’s about motivation and exercise. It’s about technology, the future, and how they relate to everyday sports and fitness. And finally, it is to bring that all together. At least I hope that’s what it’s all about when I’m done writing it.

If you’ve ever read this now rarely-updated blog, you know that I was a person that never exercised for any reason. In fact, I’m probably still that person, but because Gene and Lorraine are nice enough to let me Spin for free before my work day, I can’t pass up the offer. That and if I were to stop doing it, Gene would no doubt cast a stank eye in my direction for quite a while (and his stank eye is staaaaanky – it often comes out when he’s on hold with FedEx). But that’s not the point – the point is, I have always hated working out with the fire of a thousand suns. I’d rather be beaten in the eyebrows with bamboo reeds than lift weights. Running makes me wish for the cool hand of death to give me a firm high-five. And yoga? Well, I’m as flexible as the Statue of Liberty. But now, things have changed. Since becoming involved with Global Ride and our video projects, I’ve been given a means to tolerate exercise… and sometimes, dare I say with ample hesitation, even enjoy it.

I’m also a geeky computer person. Thick plastic glasses and all. But guess what! Sports are slowly but surely being tailored to me. Technology is getting involved. Sports and exercise are evolving. I’m not the only one put off by all forms of physical activity – that’s why we’re known as a country full of fat, out of shape people that are ironically obsessed with all things healthy. Nobody wants to do this crap. But the fancy high-paid geeky computer people in science labs are working to bring technology into fitness, making me happy and giving me a chance at exercise. It’ll make things more enjoyable, more interactive, and more, well, virtual – as if fitness is a game!

Don’t know what I’m talking about? Check out this website, which is full of articles about technolifying sports and exercise. I just coined that word, by the way. Don’t use it. If you do, royalties can be sent to my paypal account.

From virtual bikes to digital track and field, virtual soccer, Wii fitness and virtual handball, we’re all going to be buffer than Jean Claude Van Damme in a few years, and we’re going to have fun and score points getting that way. It’s all coming together. Excuses to not exercise are disappearing, so you might as well get on board – or get more clever with your reasons to keep slacking off. Lord knows I’ll try my best to come up with some.

So how’s this connect to Global Ride? Well, kiddo, while we might not be strapping a set of virtual reality goggles to your face and sending your conscious mind into a digitized land of athletic splendor, we’re taking technology and applying it to exercise in an accessible, realistic way for today’s average person. We can get you on a bike, burning hundreds of calories an hour, and make it seem less like work and more like fun because you aren’t staring at the wall, a sweaty butt, or a clock. You’re in Hawaii. You’re in Italy. You’re journeying through exotic locations that you’ve probably never been to in real life. Your mind is in a more comfortable place, distracted, but focused on the ride and the adventure. It’s entry-level virtual reality that anyone can understand, use, and benefit from. It’s one step towards the eventual full-blown fusion of sports and technology, and we’re happy to be on the cusp of that movement. We want to combine the indoor and outdoor worlds of cycling, convincing each group that the other has its benefits, and we want to do so by creating the best product in a blooming field.

It’s all doing its best to convince me. And trust me, the fact that it’s even remotely close means it’s worth trying.

Now all we need is you. I’ll end with a plug: Buy a DVD, punk.