to you PT ladies

[Eden]

RAAM? That's in a whole class of its own - the traditional riders barely even sleep, sometimes they start to hallucinate. It's definitely not what I would call physically good for you.... Really if you are just looking for health benefits being super fit may actually be less healthy.

[Wahine]

Hey Mimi,

What Eden said is true. Overtraining is very individual. Some people need more recovery time between hard workouts and some can just take a little more beating.

As for how much is too much, as a rule of thumb I recommend increasing training by 15 % per week and no more. If you do more than this in one week, you can probably get away with it. If you do it chronically things will start to breakdown. That 15 % refers to intensity as well as volume. So if I'm increasing my intensity by 15 % then I should keep my volume the same.

Being able to feel with your hands how a muscle is doing isn't that hard with practice. The way I describe it to people is that a muscle that is healthy and relaxed should feel like raw meat. As the muscle experiences more of the results from stress, it begins to feel more and more cooked. If it feels like an overdone porkchop, you're in trouble.

Here's a little cut and paste from:

http://jan.ucc.nau.edu/~pe/exs490web...scleRepair.htm

It explains a bit about what happens when a muscle is damaged. The part I copied is related specifically to exercise induced cellular damage. You shold note that some cellular damage is necessary during training to improve performance. If you aren't pushing beyond you current level, you will not improve. The key is to walk the line between not enough and too much.

Exercise-Induced Injury
• Exercise-induced injury comes from heavy forces, eccentric exercise, and unusual activity.
• Early studies showed elevated CK levels, indicating muscle damage
– But, plasma CK and degree of ex-induced muscle injury not well correlated
• Numerous studies to evaluate exercise-induced soreness, usually use eccentric activity
– Eccentric cycling
– Downhill walking or running
– “let-downs”
What Happens with E-I Injury?
• Actual damage to fibers – z-line streaming (see Fig. 6-19 in Lieber)
• Seen mostly in FG (Type II-x) fibers.
– Leads to supposition of fatigue properties of muscle
• Lower ability to generate ATP
• State of rigor develops (no ATP to dissociate cross bridges)
• Stiff fibers, more easily disrupted
• Inflammation process starts – leads to soreness

This might create more questions than answers. Let 'em fly. I'm on a rest week and have more time on my hands than usual.

[mimitabby]

wow cool! you were able to answer my questions!!



THANK YOU!

[Grog]

Being able to feel with your hands how a muscle is doing isn't that hard with practice. The way I describe it to people is that a muscle that is healthy and relaxed should feel like raw meat. As the muscle experiences more of the results from stress, it begins to feel more and more cooked. If it feels like an overdone porkchop, you're in trouble.

Actually, a muscle is raw meat.

I think today I wouldn't make a very good steak, I haven't been very good to myself!

[Wahine]

Actually, a muscle is raw meat.

The rawer the better.

[Eden]

Makes it sound like when someone says the are "cooked" they may be speaking more literally than they would like to know

[kelownagirl]

The ones on my neck and shoulders feel more like concrete...

Anyone have a hard time fitting boots that fit? I tried some knee high boots over the winter and I couldn't zip them up. I have NO fat on my calves, just muscle. I don't think they are particularly big (13"). They must make those boots for chicks with skinny, skinny leg...

[KnottedYet]

When I wear boots, I wear rubber wellies.

Big ol' calves on those puppies!

[Wahine]

Anyone have a hard time fitting boots that fit?

I usually don't have trouble fitting boots that fit. I do however, have trouble finding boots that fit my calves and I am not particularly muscular in this area compared to many cyclists.

Yup, fashion boots are definitely for the skinny mini spindly legged I-do-not-exercise-and-eat-nothing types.

I did find a pair of Roberto Viannis that have an elasticized insert on the inner calf area. These fit and they are super sexy.