The Perfect Fit — Part Two
Swim. Bike. Run. Repeat? The whys and cardiovascular exercise are self-evident. But the hows, says triathlon's original superstar, are another matter entirely.

By Paul Keegan

Dave Scott

Scott is indeed the perfect counselor, ranking as one of the world's top experts on human endurance, which is why he's cracking the whip this month in the cardiovascular chapter of our comprehensive fitness plan. (We started last month with resistance training.) You may recall that he cemented his place in athletic history by winning the Hawaii Ironman six times in the 80s. But just as important to schlubs like us is that he's truly a thinking man's jock: Underlying his credibility are both a degree in exercise physiology and a voracious appetite for understanding what goes on in the cells of the human body when it's exposed to the extraordinary stresses of training.

Handsome and trim at age 44, Scott now spends his days as a coach, running a multisport club and leading weeklong fitness camps during the summer. What he sees time and again are athletes — some of them Ironman competitors — who despite their well-intentioned sweat and energy and dedication don't have a clue about regulating all that exertion. "Most people just exercise for a certain length of time, same route, same pace, day after day," says Scott. "After a while they actually start to lose fitness."

Quite simply, typical athletes don't work out at effective levels of intensity — they go neither hard enough nor easy enough, so they don't force the body to adapt to new stresses. To help us avoid this misstep, Scott has devised a program that's more obsessed with hitting very specific levels of effort than merely racking up endless mileage. Like the resistance-training routine featured in last month's issue, this cardiovascular blueprint is "periodized," meaning it will continually shift workloads and intensity to move you through the physiological stages required to increase your endurance and speed, giving you robust overall cardiovascular fitness in the process. Steve Farrell, associate director of continuing education at the Cooper Institute for Aerobics Research in Dallas, hails this approach as spot-on. "There are two ways to target endurance: One is to train the heart to pump more blood, and the other is to improve the muscles' ability to extract oxygen from the blood," he says. "Periodization does both; the body meets the challenge you present so that you can meet the next challenge in your sport."

Here's the plan: You'll start with an aerobic-foundation-building base period lasting 10 weeks, which, counting the work you've done thus far, leaves six to go. Then it's a seamless transition into a six-week aerobic economy phase, in which you learn to work at your highest aerobic level. Finally, for the last four weeks, you'll add a layer of speed training that will have you itching to go by the end of winter, at which time Scott will unveil a program that's flexible enough for you to use the rest of your sporting days.

Gearing Up

First, there are a few things Scott would ask of you. His plan can seem complicated, so he suggests that you start keeping a log. Track how many hours you sleep, how you feel emotionally in the morning (graded on a scale of one to five, with one being dismal and five being perkier than Mary Hart), how much you weigh, and the details of each workout, such as how good your technique was and whether you experienced any pain. This will keep you following the program and allow you to make adjustments if, for example, you wake up too many mornings feeling exhausted rather than energized. The log will also provide a much-needed source of inspiration by documenting your progress.

But your most important chore before you start huffing and puffing is to determine your lactate-threshold heart rate using a heart-rate monitor (see "How Hard Is Hard?"). This practice is fast replacing the old standard based on pinpointing your anaerobic threshold, because lactate threshold is something that can be scientifically confirmed: Lactate (aka lactic acid) constantly being produced by muscles and dumped into the bloodstream. Too much of the stuff will prevent you from being able to breathe in a controlled way; your limbs will get heavy, and before long you'll just spaz out and be forced to stop. "It's like a car tachometer," Scott explains. "Right before the red line, the car is running smoothly, but over that line your respiration goes up, your heart is pounding through your chest, your arms and legs start tingling."

The genius of Scott's program is that it will enable you to actually push back that red line. "World-class athletes can hold their lactate-threshold heart rate for 90 minutes," says Scott. "People who are somewhat fit might do it for 25 minutes." As for your prospects, Scott says he'll eventually have you pegged at that point for 30 to 45 minutes, so you can rev your engine longer without experiencing that disconcerting tingling.

Base Period

By this point you're into the habit of weekly training and thus have begun establishing your cardiovascular base — that is, enhancing your aerobic plumbing, improving your technique, and developing neuromuscular conditioning (also called sport-specific strength). Now you'll be pushing yourself harder according to the Perceived Exertion Scale, working on athletic strength on Mondays, picking up the pace on Thursdays, and increasing your endurance on Saturdays. What's remarkable about this stage, he says, is that even without knocking yourself out, "Your most dramatic gains will be in the first eight to 12 weeks."

That's not to say Scott is willing to let you loaf. In this, week five, you'll start to increase your workload during Monday's session (see "November: Laying the Foundation,"). You're trying to recruit different muscle fibers to build strength. For example, if you've been spinning along on a stationary bike at a high rpm and low workload, you're recruiting mostly slow-twitch fibers. But the moment you begin adding resistance and start pedaling hard at a low rpm, you're recruiting both slow- and fast-twitch fibers. "And you're eliminating boredom," says Scott.

The crucial component of the base period is what Scott calls pickups, meaning you simply pick up the pace. You'll do these on Thursdays during your 20-minute cardio sessions, and eventually they'll morph into full-fledged intervals. The idea is to speed up gradually, taking care not to abandon proper technique. If you're running, think about driving your knees higher and moving your arms faster, but make sure not to sprint. If you're on a StairMaster, lighten the tension so that you're pumping faster. "At this point," says Scott, "you should always feel in control."

On Saturdays your goal is to improve your stamina by — you guessed it — going longer each week. After warming up at 8 on the Perceived Exertion Scale, bump your pace to just below "somewhat hard" (12) and finish at "hard" (15), while steadily increasing the time you spend working out. Even if you're champing at the bit, stick to the time indicated on the chart — after all, Scott devised this syllabus for your benefit, not his.

Aerobic Economy

After the base period you'll ratchet up the pace even more, spending time pushing your aerobic limits. "We want your body to become as economical as it can be at the top of the aerobic end, just below your lactate-threshold heart rate," says Scott.

On Mondays you'll start in on what he calls lactate threshold blocks, which means flirting with that point for five minutes at a stretch and increasing the total time there over the course of six weeks. "You won't have to go over the red line to get the benefit," Scott says. "You'll go right up to it, just shy of 17 on the Perceived Exertion Scale." Go too fast and you'll zoom out of the aerobic zone, thus defeating the purpose of the exercise.

In keeping with the periodization philosophy, you'll also begin increasing the difficulty level of your workouts on Thursdays. You may notice that you're suddenly running at 8.4 miles per hour, whereas just a few weeks earlier you were consistently at 8.2 miles per hour at the same heart rate. Conversely, if you hold the same pace you'll find that your heart rate has dropped. "That," says Scott, "is empirical evidence that your endurance is improving and you're ready to get faster."

Speed

Here, the lines between Scott's stages blur a bit: He'll actually have you starting speed work during the end of the aerobic economy stage. On Thursdays, your pickups will get much faster, until you'll feel like you want to collapse, clutch your quads, and scream for a stretcher. "Now's the time to go very, very hard," Scott says evenly. "It's going to get uncomfortable."

If you must know why it hurts, it's because your body is producing far more lactate than it's able to remove. But here's the good news: At this point in Scott's scheme your body has become more efficient at spiriting the lactate away from your muscles, which means you can go harder without feeling the burning sensation that would otherwise put the brakes on your effort.

By the end you'll see your running times drop, or notice that you're able to turn your bike's pedals in a higher gear for far longer. You've become more durable, stronger, faster. "Now you're ready to handle the physical and psychological stresses of your sport," says Scott. "You've accomplished the whole point of a periodized program — to reach a peak by the end of it."

Next month, in part three of our series, Paul Keegan will focus on nutrition and the mental aspects of training.

Photograph by Rob Howard