OMG it's been a while

I've been busy with life, staying fit, racing. I tried something different this past winter and participated in my first road-specific bicycle racing. I won a Category 3 Criterium race and promptly decided that I prefer triathlons.

Ok, back to you. My last post regarding your path to fitness nirvana ended like this "Remember, an hour a day in Zone 2, timer starts once you're in the Zone." If you're still hammering away, good for you! The Zone 2 sessions should occur in one complete hour, as opposed to two half hour sessions.

It's purely individual when to move onto the next step. As you progress, "the next step" for you might be different than for somebody else. I'm going to try and move forward in such a way that it benefits you the most. Those who are on the margins, extreme OCD like me or those who are less motivated, will advance in different ways. I'm gonna guide you on the middle road.

Let's assume that you've been doing one session a day in Zone 2, seven days a week. And you've been doing this for several weeks or months. At this point you should be happy with what you see on the scale! If not, I can only imagine that you're not doing it EVERY DAY. So, you should be ready to move on. There are two ways I suggest to go. If you feel that you still have significant weight to lose, continue on to "Paragraph A" below. If you feel like you have some weight to lose but you'd also like to increase your the strength of your heart, lungs, and muscles, go straight to "Paragraph B" below.

Paragraph A

This will be easy: Simply do two Zone 2 sessions per day, every day. That means either back to back for two solid hours per day OR 2 separate sessions. Perhaps one in the morning and one in the afternoon, but two full sessions EVERY DAY, seven days a week. This is how to get results.

Paragraph B

This is a little more aggressive and should be followed only if you feel like you're fairly close to your weight goal, say within 20-25%. So if you wanted to lose 40 lbs initially, you should be within 8-10 lbs of that goal.

I still want you to be an hour in Zone 2 once a day, every day. But I also want you to go into Zone 3 for an hour once a day, every day. If you need a refresher on just what Zone 3 is, go back to an earlier post titled "More Baby Steps" which describes in detail exactly how to figure it out.

Zone 3 reached by running easily as an example -- you improve your functional capacity. The number and size of your blood vessels actually increase, you step up your lung capacity and respiratory rate, and your heart increases in size and strength so you can exercise longer before becoming fatigued. You're still metabolizing fats and carbohydrates at about a 50-50 rate which means both are burning at the same ratio.

Whether you are moving forward with Paragraph A or B, you should continue the regimen for several weeks (like 8-10 at least) or months. Remember, baby steps. Now go out there and have a fit day y'all!