Well, I've now done 18 straight, making it through one third of a year. Pretty cool, but at the same time, pretty darn tired. It's not hard to bang out 14+ miles and 5,000+ feet on a regular basis, but there does seem to be some cumulative wear when doing it every week (on top of regular training/running). In fact, perhaps science agrees (see article below). Still, another day, another lap. Great day up on the mountain, with only "minor" wind. The snow is what is killing me - all of the extra work involved really tires me out, although I seem to be averaging only 1 hour longer then I was in summer (my average right now is 4:15 for the round trip, while in summer it was 3:15).
Looking west from the top - Keystone visible on the far right with Breck straight ahead...
My tracks on the way back down...
An interesting article just came out. Published in the Journal of Applied Physiology, the authors looked at recovery time from endurance exercise via transcriptional changes in the muscles. Based on this study, it takes a full 96 hours for muscle recovery to near completion, at least from a transcriptional perspective, which is basically meaning it takes 96 hours for your muscles to recover and for your DNA to begin to replicate. That is, after 4 days your muscles are just starting to rebuild, and more importantly, to incorporate any adaptations on a genetic level one may have gained from their training. Now, this doesn't mean that you don't recover in some ways faster, and incorporate adaptations faster, but for your body to begin to do this on a DNA level, it apparently takes longer then just one or two days. I know some runners follow a hard day with two mellow days instead of the hard/mellow pattern. Makes sense, and perhaps that is why there are many 10-14 day training programs instead of just a 7 day program. Perhaps I should have chosen to do G&T every two weeks, not every week? Too late now, but it does provide some insight into why one must ramp up their training slowly.
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