Wednesday, June 17, 2009

HIT Intervals - interesting observation

I did some HIT intervals this morning in class called "Over/Under Intervals", fashioned after a workout I got from a Trainright newsletter (Chris Carmichael's training company). They were definitely hard to very hard. And yes, I took myself to that intensity as well, because my students know and trust me, I know each of them very well, I had no new students, and I didn't need to be off the bike coaching (if any of the latter weren't the case I would recommend that the instructor not push him/herself as high in order to coach accordingly).

My interesting observation is that although I did work very hard to the point of breathlessness, I didn't sweat nearly as much as either of the two aerobic rides I did in yesterday's classes. I mopped my face a lot with a towel as usual (it's hot in there) but my litmus test is my jersey. After class I usually have to take my jersey off right away because it's so soaked (I HATE soaking wet fabric against my skin and I immediately get cold because of it) and replace it with my long-sleeved jersey. This morning, yeah it was wet, but not requiring immediate removal like both classes yesterday.

In yesterday's profile, I spent 5 minutes a few beats below LT, and the rest of the time in various increments lower than that. Today, I spent a total of 18 minutes a few beats below LT and 9 minutes 4-5 beats above it. That's up there...

I guess sweat isn't always an indication of intensity, and aerobic efforts can produce as much or more sweat than higher efforts.

Oh BTW, I'll be sharing this Over/Under interval profile and playlist with you in a week or two. But coming up shortly is a very interesting study I want to write about on using heart rate monitors. I'll be asking for your help in that study.

Also, even if you read yesterday's post on the HR Pyramid, go back and reread it because I edited it with additional comments after the second class I taught in the evening.

Thanks as usual for reading!

3 comments:

Lizzy said...

I also find that if I'm doing an endurance ride I sweat a whole heck of a lot more than a high intensity ride!

Melissa Marotta Houser said...

I think about this issue a lot, and I can't yet figure it out. The lower I keep my heart rate, the more I sweat; my riders give me the same feedback. I've been training at 60-65% MHR for most of the past week, and I have literally never been so drenched. There's something about the neural and endocrine aspects of the body's cooling mechanism that I don't 'get' yet. A related phenomenon is why conditioned athletes' sweat is less salty than less conditioned folks. In the fall when I train under really smart nephrologists (the kidney is the mastermind of everything relating to water/salt balance, even though we think the heart is the only important player during exercise - it's not; the kidney is AWESOME), I've already been plotting for MONTHS to take the opportunity to figure this very issue out for us. I think about it all the friggin time.

Jennifer Sage said...

I cannot wait to hear the results of your query with the kidney experts! Keep us posted.