Heart Zones e-Newsletter

Welcome to the August 2004 edition of The Heart Zones e-Newsletter copyright: Heart Zones, your source of heart rate training information
	Getting and Keeping Yourself Active Hitting the Slopes The Largest Triathlon in the World – And It is All Women Web Special of the Month – $10 off Sports Instruments Fit 2 Monitors! and... Heart Zones Cycling Certification: What is it all about? Heart Zones at the IDEA Conference The Power of LIFTS – The Five Major Training Variables Meet Bonnie Blair – 5 Time Olympic Gold Medalist
	1. Getting and Keeping Yourself Active Last month we posed the question “What do you do to get and keep yourself out there enjoying the gift of health and fitness?” We had some great comments: Some days, I just tell myself that all I have to do is put on my running shoes – literally, I take it one step at a time to get out the door! I remember that fitness really is a gift – and that I have a responsibility to use it! I think back about times when I wasn’t fit and how miserable I felt about life and myself and then I think about how just a little bit of effort a day keeps me from getting down on myself. I visualize myself as a child, playing, discovering, and wandering aimlessly in fun and frolic! Basically, I imagine that I don’t want to grow up and get stale with work and responsibilities. Every year that I get older I do something significant – for my 47th birthday, I did 47 miles of activity that included biking, hiking, jogging and kayaking all in a day! I train all year for my birthday celebration. Thanks for your comments and suggestions on keeping active!
	2. Hitting the Slopes Although summer isn’t over yet, ‘tis the time to begin to think about getting ready for winter sports! Skiing and snowboarding are two of the most challenging sports, requiring a combination of strength, endurance, flexibility and balance. Flexibility diminishes the risk of injury. A minimum of 10 minutes of flexibility training a day year-round will increase your range of motion and create more body awareness and the ability to recover quickly from potentially hazardous situations. Core and stability training is crucial for building strong stabilizer muscles and taking your body awareness to the next level of agility. Having the control and ability to fall without getting injured keeps you on the slopes and helps you avoid fatigue and minimize painful injuries. Cardiovascular conditioning takes a good ski conditioning program to the top slope. Training at moderate intensity (60 to 70% of maximum heart rate) and doing interval training with moderate intensity intervals as low as 65% and as high as 85% of maximum heart rate will give you the stamina to stay on the slopes all day long. Let’s focus a bit more on designing a base cardiovascular training program to start: First, assess your level of cardiovascular fitness through a series of sub-maximum tests. (Pre-designed sub maximum fitness tests are available for purchase from Heart Zones Activities – www.heartzones.com, this set of 10 full-color postcards is a great way to assess anaerobic threshold). Once you have determined your base line numbers for intervals and criss-crosses through zones 2 to 4, your training plan should repeat these tests once every 8 to 10 days. In other words, if you performed 4 criss-crosses from the floor of zone 2 (70% of maximum heart rate) to the mid point of zone 3 (85% of maximum heart rate), you should repeat this test every 8 to 10 days. Be sure to take note of an RPE (rating of perceived exertion) with the heart rate numbers you are seeing. Once you have improved in the number of times you are able to recover and attain heart rates, it is then time to build in workouts which get about, around and at your anaerobic threshold. A good guide line is to add 30 seconds of time about, around and at your anaerobic threshold for each number of times you have criss-crossed. Do your anaerobic workouts every 4 days. For a more complete guide on structuring your cardiovascular program, email Jessica@heartzones.com.
	3. The Largest Triathlon in the World – And It is All Women A record 5,000 women signed up (3,500 toed the starting line) for the Danskin Women's Triathlon Series race in Seattle, making it the largest women’s single-distance race in America! The race had been sold out for five months. The Seattle race is the seventh in the eight-race series for 2004. The series began in 1990, and 120,000 women have crossed the finish line in Danskin races since that time! The following story explains why this race series is transformational: Dear Sally (the Head Heart at Heart Zones): I met you during the Bellevue, Washington, Sports Authority training session in June of this year. I took your advice and signed up for my age bracket, and started training early. I knew the race would be about a 4 hour day, and I finished in just over 4 hours. I had an amazing experience. I started the Seattle Danskin at about 7:30 am and it took me 4 hours and 11 minutes to finish. I thought for sure I would see you as I doubled back to finish the walk, but women were still coming and you were not in sight. I may have finished 3360 out of 3426 but that wasn't the point. I figured that if women can come back from breast cancer and chemo, I could come back from loosing the veins in my leg. After 3 years of therapy and exercise and surgery, I did the Danskin. And I finished! My family, my friends, all the naysayers that said it couldn't be done, however I now know differently. The doctors said I was not going to be able to be active. I showed them wrong! My mother died of cancer. My aunt has cancer. My step sister is fighting breast cancer. My sister-in-law died of breast cancer. My father has skin cancer. The list goes on. I am glad that I was able to do a little bit for research. Your talk in June inspired me to not quit. Your advice to walk up hills to do strength training got me through it. I spent many miles chanting, "I am a great cyclist - God will get me through it," and "I am a great walker - God will get me through it." Thanks for your help, encouragement and inspiration. Although I am sure you meet thousands of women at each triathlon, if you remember me at all, I was the woman that came and said Thanks after you finished the Seattle Danskin and you were walking back to the transition area. I will see you next year - with my daughter - and with enough work – no cane next year! Nancy Gertlar If you want to plan for next season – register early at http://www.danskin.com – and, if you would like to take advantage of training opportunities for another sprint distance triathlon, check out email and phone coaching at www.heartzones.com!
	4. WEB SPECIAL OF THE MONTH: Have we got a deal for you! Buy a Sports Instruments FIT 2 heart monitor and SAVE $10. Regularly priced at $79.99, now you can buy it on our website for $69.95 – these monitors are left over stock from our triathlon training camps. This is a 15-function monitor that works perfectly with Heart Zones featuring time in zones and percent of maximum heart rate as an automatic setting. Contact Heart Zones Team Danskin head coach Annemieke Hiemstra and she’ll take great care of you : annemieke@earthlink.net.
	5. Heart Zones Cycling Certifications: What is it all about? Heart Zones Cycling has been certifying individuals and group exercise leaders for the past 3 years. Here are the basics. The Blue Jersey Cycling program is for individuals who currently teach or are seeking to teach indoor (studio) cycling. If you are looking to add some quality heart rate training information to your classes, or if you are new to studio cycling, this is the certification for you. A typical Blue Jersey Cycling Certification (we have 4 more levels of certification qualifications beyond the “Blue” Jersey) includes over three hours of Heart Zones Training Basic information. Participants learn about heart rate, heart rate monitors, implementing heart rate training in studio cycling, testing and taking measurements on the bike with a monitor. Our certification also covers the finer points of bike fit, technique, safety and more. The book The Heart Rate Monitor Book for Indoor and Outdoor Cyclists, by Sally Reed and Sally Edwards, has even more information about Heart Zones Cycling. This book is the cornerstone of the program, giving over 25 workouts with clear and concise information for instructors looking to lead a cycling class with heart monitors. Heart Zones will be offering this certification (as well as others) at our 3rd Annual International Heart Zones Conference in Naperville, Illinois in October. Check out the website for complete details. www.heartzones.com
	6. Heart Zones Master Trainers present at World Idea Fitness Conference Jersey Master trainers Jessica Menendez and Alinda Perrine presented at the IDEA conference in San Diego last month drawing over 175 participants to their three events: Testing and Measurements for Indoor Cycling Implementing Heart Rate Monitors into a Club Program workshop Overview of Software Applications and Web Based Solutions for Personal Trainers Many participants have requested Blue Jersey (and Blue Shirt for Personal or Advanced Trainers) training at their clubs for their fitness staff. If you are interested in learning more about these workshops or certifications offered by Heart Zones, email bobbie.heartzones@charter.net and look on our website for more info about our very own International Fitness Conference in Naperville, Illinois in October!
	7. The Power of LIFTS – The Five Major Training Variables. There are five major physical variables to the weekly training program: Load, Intensity, Frequency and Time and Sport. LIFTS are the key variables that must be accounted for in any serious training program. Breaking them into individual parts that can be measured and quantified: Load: the amount of exercise or the sum of both the internal and external factors Intensity: the speed of the workout or the cardiac cost in beats-per-minute of the workout. Frequency: the number of workouts per week Time: the elapsed time of the workout Sport: the type of sport activity such as skiing, skating, or running. Of these five variables, speed or intensity training is the most important. Speed or intensity training is the one that requires the deepest understanding and the most finesse. If you train too fast you risk the dangers of over-training, injury, and breakdown. If you train to slow you risk the opposite – under performance. (Note: Alinda Perrine, President Heart Zones Intellectual Property and Sally Edwards are putting the finishing touches on their soon to be released book about how to use a speed + distance monitor. This is an excerpt from their new book to be published by Timex.)
	8. Meet Bonnie Blair, 5-time Olympic Gold Medalist Bonnie Blair will lead a colloquium at the Heart Zones International Fitness Conference October 1-3rd on “How Olympic Athletes Really Train.” You don’t want to miss this two-hour presentation. Bonnie was named one of the century’s five best female athletes by Sport Magazine and 1994 Sportswoman of the Year by Sports Illustrated for her athletic performances and world records. Yet, it remains to be told how she accomplished the feat of winning more gold medals than any other winter Olympian in history. How did she raise her game, consistently getting faster, and smash her own world records for three straight Olympic Games? Blair answers these questions in her keynote presentation on Sunday, October 3rd as the finale speaker. For more information on Bonnie Blair’s presentation and the 3-day Heart Zones International Education and Fitness Training Conference on October 1-3, including details on curriculum, faculty, times, and fees, go to www.heartzones.com or contact Kathy Kent, President, Heart Zones Cycling. Printed Conference Programs are available by e-mail request to staff@heartzones.com
	Click here to send this newsletter to a friend or sign up to receive this free monthly e-newsletter or send an email to subscribe@heartzones.com To unsubscribe, send an email to unsubscribe@heartzones.com and make your subject line read: unsubscribe If you would like to contribute to the newsletter content, or have ideas, questions, or concerns for us to address, please contact the editor by email at: jessica.menendez@heartzones.com copyright: Heart Zones staff@heartzones.com http://www.heartzones.com Phone: (916) 481-7283 Fax: (916) 481-2213 Mailing address: Heart Zones 2636 Fulton Avenue Suite #100 Sacramento, CA 95821 The Heart Zones e-Newsletter is a Heart Zones publication Publisher: Sally Edwards Editor in Chief: Jessica Menendez PLEASE forward this e-mail to friends and colleagues who are also interested in fitness and sports training using the heart. THANK YOU!