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Stay current and get the most from each workout with training tips from Athletes’ Performance, the coaches behind miCoach. Whether you are starting to exercise for the first time running your third marathon or working on a reguar gym practice, the advice you need is all here tips on proper stretching, motivation, and more.

18

Go the Distance by Training in the Blue Zone

Posted by CraigFriedman Nov 3, 2011

By Craig Friedman, Athletes' Performance

At times in your cardio plan, you’ll train in the Blue Zone for longer periods or entire workouts, also known as “steady-state training.” Your initial steady-state training in the Blue Zone will help you establish an aerobic base. This base is essential in helping you train harder and longer without burning out or suffering an injury.

Steady-state Blue Zone workouts are optimal for your body to make several key physiological changes that will help support harder and longer efforts. While these adaptations happen within all of the miCoach zones, the Blue Zone helps your body recover best with the least amount of work. Increased blood flow to your muscles removes waste (lactate) generated by a previous hard workout. You don’t generate as much new lactate in the Blue Zone compared with other zones, so your body uses these workouts to actively clear the buildup, which in turn helps reduce soreness. All told, this lessens the cumulative stress on your body and helps you feel fresh for your next workout. Your body benefits and heals from this break, as does your mind.

At first, training in the Blue Zone for an extended period of time might feel hard, depending on your fitness level. But as you begin training in the higher-effort zones, training in the Blue Zone will become easy.

For more advanced runners, the Blue Zone can seem tireless and slow. Don’t give in to the temptation to blow off the Blue Zone and run hard. Trust in the miCoach workouts and you’ll see big payoffs. Although it sounds counterintuitive, running slow will train your body to become faster over time

7926 Views 18 Comments Permalink Tags: injury, cardio, getting_started, micoach_zones, recovery
4

Make Your Intervals Count with the Blue Zone

Posted by CraigFriedman Oct 31, 2011

By Craig Friedman, Athletes' Performance

There’s a simple way to become better prepared for, and more resilient to, the stress of training at high intensities: maximize the easy work in your workouts.

In between your high effort intervals in a workout, you’ll train in the Blue Zone. For instance, you might train in the Red Zone for 30 seconds, then train in the Blue Zone for a minute, and continue alternating.

Here’s the key: It’s important to go slow enough so that your heart rate drops during the Blue Zone, also known as an “interval recovery.” This allows you to put forth a greater effort in the higher intensity zones than if you were to try to go hard all the time.

In addition to physical benefits, there’s also a psychological reward that results from using the Blue Zone as an interval recovery. As opposed to steady-state cardio where you run at the same speed all the time, doing intervals in which you return to the Blue Zone, reset to push yourself harder, and then continue this pattern breaks the monotony of traditional workouts. Use the small breaks to reset your mind, reflect on your goals, and then attack the next interval determined to put forth your best effort.

4401 Views 4 Comments Permalink Tags: injury, cardio, getting_started, mindset, micoach_zones, recovery
2

Cooling Down in the Blue Zone

Posted by CraigFriedman Oct 27, 2011

By Craig Friedman, Athletes' Performance

Preparation for your next workout begins with your previous workout. Finish each cardio session strong by completing a full recovery in the Blue Zone. You’ll typically spend about 5 minutes in the Blue Zone, during which your heart rate will slow and your body will clear waste products from your muscles to help you avoid soreness. During the cool-down, it’s okay to walk or slow down, but it’s important to keep moving. Don’t just stop. The result: You’ll feel reenergized and ready for another fun workout!

To learn more about the Blue Zone, read “The Benefit of Training in the Blue Zone.”

2689 Views 2 Comments Permalink Tags: injury, cardio, getting_started, micoach_zones, recovery
4

Warming Up in the Blue Zone

Posted by CraigFriedman Oct 24, 2011

By Craig Friedman, Athletes' Performance

You’ll typically spend about five minutes training in the Blue Zone to begin your miCoach cardio workouts. While it may be tempting to skip this warm-up, the first few minutes of your workouts are critical.

You’ll derive key benefits for injury prevention, such as stimulating blood flow, increasing your core temperature, and preparing your muscles for activity. Your warm-up in the Blue Zone is also the perfect time to work on your form. You’ll further reduce your risk for pain and conserve energy during your workouts by running with proper technique.

Use your warm-up as an opportunity to practice moving with intention—running tall, with your legs beneath your hips, your torso engaged, and your eyes fixed on the horizon. Your body and mind should be fresh at the start of your workout, so you can focus on proper mechanics that will carry through your run. For more technique tips, check out “7 Keys to Proper Running Mechanics.”

3232 Views 4 Comments Permalink Tags: injury, cardio, getting_started, micoach_zones, recovery
4

Why Heart Rate Training Works

Posted by CraigFriedman Oct 21, 2011

By Craig Friedman, Athletes' Performance

No matter your speed or fitness, miCoach uses a unique method of cardio training that’s valuable for you. You won’t compare yourself to others or follow a general workout designed for the masses. Instead, your training is designed specifically for you and dictated by your current cardiovascular fitness. How can it be so individualized? It’s a matter of physiology—yours.

The way your heart responds to exercise is based on your body’s unique makeup—your actual heart rate in beats per minute (BPM) is relevant only to you and your body. The harder you exercise, the faster your heart beats to supply your muscles with energy and oxygen. As you improve with training, your heart rate response decreases over time, meaning your muscles are better able to extract oxygen from the blood, and each pump of the heart delivers more blood to the muscles.

Since this response is different for everyone, miCoach measures heart rate and lets you know how hard you’re working. miCoach designs cardio workouts that utilize four personalized heart rate zones (Blue, Green, Yellow and Red) that vary in intensity and guide you toward your goals. Also, miCoach guides your efforts with real-time coaching, telling you what to do while you’re working out. If you’re going too fast, miCoach will tell you to slow down. If you’re too slow, you’ll be coached to speed up. This makes it easier to stay within the training zones that miCoach prescribes.

By using heart-rate based training, miCoach takes the guesswork out of working out. You’ll immediately see how your body responds to exercise, so regardless of your experience or fitness you’ll know if you’re training right to get the results you want. And since heart rate training helps you keep track of your improvement, you’ll continually make strides and avoid plateaus in your training, while reducing your risk for pain and injury. And it’s fun!

Here’s a closer look at the benefits of heart rate training.

Avoid overtraining

It’s counterproductive to push your body’s limits every time you train. Some workouts should feel easier, while others should challenge you in new ways.  Using your heart rate as a training guide provides the right mix of effort. For instance, on days when you may feel sick or tired, your heart rate may be higher than normal during exercise. You’ll need to reduce your overall effort to stay in the same zones, so your body will get the break it needs. And on days where you feel better than usual, you can really train hard while staying in your training zones. As a result, you’ll make gains, feel fresh, and avoid burning out mentally and physically.

Know your body better

Sleep, caffeine, and other factors can affect your heart rate, but if you’re training consistently you should begin to notice how your heart responds to exercise. If training becomes less of a challenge and you stay within all your zones easily, you’ll know you’ve improved and you may need to adjust your zones by taking a new Assessment Workout.

Track your progress

As your fitness improves, you’ll be able to stay within your training zones more easily. For instance, early on in your plan, it may be challenging to train in a higher effort zone for more than a few seconds, but as your plan progresses and your fitness improves, you’ll be able to handle harder workouts, spending more time training in the more intense Yellow and Red Zones. miCoach tracks your progress with a history of time spent training in each zone, as well as your percentage time spent in each zone. So you can view how hard you work in a particular workout, as well as how you progress through your miCoach plan.

Pick up the pace

A true measure of fitness is being able to do higher amounts of work (pace) at the same level of intensity (heart rate). miCoach shows you how to see this change by comparing your heart rate to your pace. For instance, when you begin a miCoach plan, a brisk walk may feel hard, and your heart rate will be elevated as a result. As you improve, you can see how your pace changes at various heart rates. In a matter of months, you may be able to jog or even run at the same heart rate at which you previously walked.

20662 Views 4 Comments Permalink Tags: heart_rate, cardio, getting_started, micoach_zones
31

Heart Rate Versus Pace: How to Choose

Posted by CraigFriedman Sep 28, 2011

By Athletes' Performance

The zones are the building blocks for all cardio workouts with miCoach. Each zone represents a level of effort: Blue is easy, Green is medium, Yellow is hard, Red is maximal. During workouts, simply follow the coaching, such as “Speed up to Green Zone.”

You know Green is medium effort, but how does miCoach know you’re exercising at your medium effort? In order to coach you, miCoach either measures how fast you’re going (pace) or how fast your heart is beating (heart rate). No matter which coaching method you choose (they’re both great options!), your experience with miCoach and your results should be the same.

So how do you choose? Here’s a simple comparison of the two coaching methods.

Heart Rate

If you choose Heart Rate coaching, your zones will be expressed in heart rate ranges that are right for your body. Since your heart rate reflects how hard you’re working, this is a personal way to measure fitness. It’s versatile, too. Use Heart Rate coaching while running, biking, skating, or on cardio machines, for example.

  • Compatibility: miCoach Pacer (with Heart Rate Monitor)
  • How it works: miCoach listens to your heart—reading your heart rate from the Heart Rate Monitor—and then tells you when to speed up or slow down to stay within the correct zone.
  • Example: Your Blue Zone could be 128-145 beats per minute (BPM). If miCoach observes your heart rate is beating faster than 145, it would tell you to slow down to keep you in the zone.
  • Getting started: miCoach will provide default heart rate zones, but it’s best to start with an Assessment Workout. The data shows how your heart responds to various levels of effort (everyone’s heart responds to exercise differently), and is used to personalize your zones.
  • Other benefits: Heart Rate coaching takes into account how you’re feeling each day. If you feel stressed or tired, your heart beats a little faster. As a result, you can run a little slower than usual while remaining in the zone. This helps prevent overtraining on days when you could use a break. Conversely, if you feel great, your heart rate will remain lower and you’ll be able to go faster while staying in the zone. Heart Rate also accounts for challenging terrain. If it’s hilly, for instance, you won’t need to run as fast to remain in the zone.
  • Seeing results: Check your charts to see how your average speed per zone increases as your fitness improves. For instance, you may simply walk to stay in the Blue Zone at first, but as your fitness improves you may find that you’re able to jog in the Blue Zone.

Pace 

If you choose to be coached by Pace, your zones will be expressed in pace ranges that reflect how fast you run. Pace coaching is a favorite among runners who like racing and keeping track of their times, since pace indicates how many minutes it takes to complete one mile (min/mi) or one kilometer (min/km). If you prefer to use speed as a unit, miCoach will show how far you go in one hour (miles per hour (mph) or kilometers per hour (km/h)). miCoach lets you pick your preferred unit in Settings. This has no impact on the coaching.

  • Compatibility: miCoach Pacer (with Stride Sensor), miCoach Mobile (with GPS)
  • How it works: miCoach collects your pace and tells you when to speed up or slow down. The coaching reacts to paces reported by your Stride Sensor (if you use miCoach Pacer) or GPS (if you use miCoach Mobile). Pace coaching requires that you run on a relatively flat surface—the pace zones have been designed with this in mind.
  • Example: Your Blue Zone could be 10:00-12:30 min/mi (or 6:13-7:46 min/km). If you prefer speed units, your Blue Zone could be 3.0-5.0 mph (or 4.8-8.1 km/h). If miCoach observes you’re running slower than 3.0 mph, it would tell you to speed up.
  • Getting started: miCoach will provide default pace zones, but it’s best to start with an Assessment Workout. The data shows how your pace changes at various levels of effort, which is used to personalize your zones.
  • Other benefits: By looking at your miCoach stats, you’ll soon learn what different paces feel like. If you like competing in races, having a sense of the numbers can help you gauge your race times. You’ll also learn how to stay within the zones while fine-tuning your speed depending on the terrain and how you feel that day.
  • See results: As you improve, you’ll be able to run at a faster pace with the same effort. Keep your pace zones up to date by retaking the Assessment Workout or adjusting your zones in Settings so that they’re personalized for your current fitness level. This will help you keep improving.

Can’t decide?

miCoach recommends starting with Heart Rate coaching if you use miCoach Pacer and Pace coaching if you use miCoach Mobile. Regardless of which method you choose, the training plans, workouts (including the Assessment Workout) and audible coaching remain the same. So you can’t go wrong. Try a method and see how it works for you. You can change coaching methods in Settings at any time—even in the middle of a plan—and you’ll stay on track to achieve your goals.

Still need help choosing? Visit the miCoach Forum to see which coaching method other community members prefer.

34186 Views 31 Comments Permalink Tags: pace, micoach_pacer, heart_rate, heart_rate_monitor, cardio, getting_started, micoach_mobile

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