Mixing in other activities

Hi - I just signed up for the premium plan and created a Coach Jack Fitness riding plan. I also do rowing and treadmill running, which I’d like to mix into my overall plan in some way. Are there any suggestions or guidance on the best ways to add other activities in this context, if the primary goal is fitness?

Answering this question requires a lot of understanding about you and your goals. A the highest level of strategy would be a health first approach to fitness. This would include a balance of strength training and endurance training. The #1 requirement to top fitness is consistency over the long term,. Staying healthy helps you stay consistent.

Some combinations
2-days a week of strength and 3-4 days a week of aerobic/endurance training (cycling or other) is usually about right for maximum fitness but it depends on your health, age and ability to recover. Walking can also be a great idea in addition to this. Or 2 days and 2 days can also be effective or 1 day strength and 3-4 of endurance.

It also depends on what you like to do. Do what ever is the most fun with out being to excessive. Frequently when it starts to get super fun is when people injure themselves so if you know you might be doing too much try to control yourself. :slight_smile:

Not sure that helped much. I can’t give you a perfect answer but if you provide a lot more information I or someone else here can help point you in the right direction.

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Alex - thank you so much for the quick response!

More info: I’m 63 and have been very active for most of my adult life (up until about 3 years ago). Most of that time, my primary activities were martial arts (both kung fu - fast - aerobic and anerobic- and tai chi (slow, zone 1&2), as well as biking. Biking has been recreational weekend rides and some commuting. Running has always been strictly for a quick intense workout - not particularly fun for me. And rowing is recent, but trying to incorporate more of it.
For a variety of reasons, I had a 3 year period of very little exercise, but about 2 months ago, I got back on the wagon, and have been doing a lot of biking and rowing (indoor - I live in Boston).
I don’t compete in anything currently- my goals are general fitness and getting back my skills in martial arts. I’ve competed in martial arts in the past - perhaps I will again - but it’s a very low priority.
So I’d like to create a training plan that helps me take a balanced approach without getting too rigid.
I don’t think I need a periodized approach since I’m looking for a continuous, long-term approach. On the other hand, I’d like to get back to longer recreational bike rides when the weather is warmer, which I haven’t done in a long time. Longest recent indoor rides have been about 15 miles at about 13mph average. I might like to get a bit faster so I can keep up with friends - but again, racing of any kind is not of interest.
I was hoping for some suggestions on how to balance types of workouts (endurance, tempo, threshold, etc) with particular activities. For instance, would a particular type of workout be better suited to a particular activity type or vice versa. Since I know running will get my heart rate up fast, that might be good for VO2 max training in particular. There are lots of training plans out there, but almost all of them are focused on competing in a particular event type. I’m not sure that there really are particular best practices for my goals - but I’m open to opinions.

Thanks for any input.

Michael

Sorry this dropped lower on the list. So starting again 2-months ago means you are probably starting to feel very good. This time when you start feeling good, there is a sense of invincibility. This is the most dangerous time in training :slight_smile: This is when we start doing more, wear ourselves down and opening ourself up to injury and sickness. I would keep biking as recreational and try to keep the pushing yourself (anerboic) for shorter durations on the bike and your Kungfu. So if you are also doing indoor cycling I would do Z1/Z2 for these periods.

Using something like a Whoop strap to monitor your recovery might be a good idea but it seems it would be difficult to create a great training plan. I would love to sell you on a CJ plan but I would only do base in CJ at least until you get to the 6-month or possibly 1-year mark. Then your body will have stablized to your “new” life and if you want to get more serious about performance cycling that would be the time.

Regaring periodization, I would just do everything you can to take a rest week every 3 or 4 weeks, and cut your hours in 1/2 for that week and try to reduce intensity a bit. Multisport atheltes are complicated. You can also use something like TrainingPeaks or IntervalsICU to monitor your TSB (training stress balance). Multi-sport atheltes are more complicated but really a whoop is likely the easist solution + some rest. Also if you maintain consistency for longer periods of time of 6+ hours a week I you might need a seasonal recovery or cross training period.

If you want cheaper options that a whoop, you could track your sleep and your HRV. Pay very close attention to how you feel but feeling amazing is slighly misleading.

I hope that helps.

I’ve been reading Joe Friel’s Fast After 50 and he does recommend adding some intensity interval work including aerobic capacity (Vo2max) and lactate threshold to the usual aerobic threshold (long, slow distance) work. It would seem that at least some intensity work is required to maintain fitness as we get older.

Of course, whether it’s appropriate and fun for you is a different question. Personally, I use a Coach Jack plan and it allows me to customize the days, amount of time, and intensity.

Yes, I agree with what Joe says, it’s just when you are just starting out and already doing some anerobic work then you have to be careful. If you are doing one day of kung fu and 1 day of our HIIT intevals for example Base++ I think it is, then that should be a reasonable amount of anerobic. It also dependson how much sleep you get and recovery in general. The more stress in your life the more you need to becareful of training stress. If you notice yourself waking up in the night unable to sleep then it’s likely too much total stress (training + diet + sleep stress + life stress)