Calculating a number for the intensity of a workout, how?
Former Member
I am writing my workouts in excel.
How do I calculate a number for the intensity of a swimming workout? Is there a standard way of doing it? I'm using zone 1 to 5, where 1 is recovery and 5 is racepace. Additionally I have three more zones that are lactate tolerance (zone 6), lactate production (zone 7) and power (zone 8). How do I calculate all theese zones and distance into one number, that gives an adequate impression on the intensity of the workout?
There is a much simpler way.
Think of your esophagus as a thermometer, and your lunch as the mercury.
The higher the mercury rises, the more intense your workout.
The esophageal sphincter represents the safe limits of intensity.
If the mercury manages to exceed this, you are trying too hard.
I am curious about your desire to quantify intensity with the detail of a physiologist studying laboratory rats subjected to various variable training parameters.
Are you, by any chance, of the triathletic persuasion? It does seem to me that that sport attracts a certain mentality wherein the unexamined life truly is worthless, hence the more heart rate monitors, lactate-measuring muscle biopsies, perhaps even digital rectal thermometers and other wearable probes the better.
I say try hard in practice, go beyond the comfort zone on regular intervals, ease off when your body tells you to ease off, and let the physiological stuff handle itself.
There is a much simpler way.
Think of your esophagus as a thermometer, and your lunch as the mercury.
The higher the mercury rises, the more intense your workout.
The esophageal sphincter represents the safe limits of intensity.
If the mercury manages to exceed this, you are trying too hard.
I am curious about your desire to quantify intensity with the detail of a physiologist studying laboratory rats subjected to various variable training parameters.
Are you, by any chance, of the triathletic persuasion? It does seem to me that that sport attracts a certain mentality wherein the unexamined life truly is worthless, hence the more heart rate monitors, lactate-measuring muscle biopsies, perhaps even digital rectal thermometers and other wearable probes the better.
I say try hard in practice, go beyond the comfort zone on regular intervals, ease off when your body tells you to ease off, and let the physiological stuff handle itself.
