Just came across this and think I may give it a try. What do you think?
http://www.myithlete.com/ithlete-prevent-overtraining
http://www.myithlete.com/ithlete-prevent-overtraining
Worth a look?
- Thread starter Guvnor
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Rob3rt
Man or Moose!
- Location
- Manchester
Looks like utter bollocks to me.
Check your HR, take notice of any pain's, aches, feelings of fatigue and how you feel and this will indicate to you better than anything if you are over traning. Its all free too, unless you wish to buy a HRM.
Many things can effect your HR and this thing will most likely give innacurate or false hits fairly often.
You will soon know if you are overtraining (aches, pains, feeling tired, restless, poor sleep, loss of motivation, if you dont heed warning you may start to find you are getting ill and injured a lot), its when you continue to train when you are overtrained (a lot of beginners do this, im certainly guilty of it, especially with running, since newbies commonly wish to perform at a high level asap and are so enthusiastic they continue regardless) that you will start to feel like its normal to feel like that and lose track.
Check your HR, take notice of any pain's, aches, feelings of fatigue and how you feel and this will indicate to you better than anything if you are over traning. Its all free too, unless you wish to buy a HRM.
Many things can effect your HR and this thing will most likely give innacurate or false hits fairly often.
You will soon know if you are overtraining (aches, pains, feeling tired, restless, poor sleep, loss of motivation, if you dont heed warning you may start to find you are getting ill and injured a lot), its when you continue to train when you are overtrained (a lot of beginners do this, im certainly guilty of it, especially with running, since newbies commonly wish to perform at a high level asap and are so enthusiastic they continue regardless) that you will start to feel like its normal to feel like that and lose track.
As a duathlete now concentrating on my better talent of running I am amazed by Rob3rt's comments. Currently ranked 3rd in my age group in the Uk over the marathon distance, you simply don't get there without pushing close to the edge. Resting heart rate isn't sensitive enough and aches and pains are part and parcel of the over-reach phase of training. By the time you get to loss of motivation or falling ill you haven't got near to the edge, you have fallen off. I admit I have been there too and that is why I am trying iTHLETE. I am not happy with 3rd and I know that if I do the same as last year then I will be 3rd again at best. I need to go to the next level in a controlled and beneficial way and that is where I believe iTHLETE could come in. There has been lots of good studies on heart rate variabilty but so far no easy way of measuring it. If you already have an iPOD or iPHONE the iTHLETE seems a very simple and cost effective way of using HRV. The whole elite world of performance is talking about training smarter. Time to get smart Rob3rt!
Bill Gates
Guest
- Location
- West Sussex
Overtraining produces all the symptoms that Rob mentions and results in poor performance. It's quite hard to get into this sitiuation and extremely unlikely to happen to most of us.
On the other hand overeaching is part and parcel of the training cycle in the preparation for events. E.G 4 week cycle where 3 weeks of training followed by one week of taper. So you need to overeach to improve, otherwise training would be a doddle
If this machine gives a reading that indicates you shouldn't train it and you take it's advice, then you could well be affecting your training programme by being overcautious. Good old fashioned how you feel coupled with RHR and how you are on the bike and with due regard to what you've done in the last few days is IMO preferable to any reading on variable HR.
On the other hand overeaching is part and parcel of the training cycle in the preparation for events. E.G 4 week cycle where 3 weeks of training followed by one week of taper. So you need to overeach to improve, otherwise training would be a doddle
If this machine gives a reading that indicates you shouldn't train it and you take it's advice, then you could well be affecting your training programme by being overcautious. Good old fashioned how you feel coupled with RHR and how you are on the bike and with due regard to what you've done in the last few days is IMO preferable to any reading on variable HR.
Hi Bill,
I believe you are right in respect of over-reaching compared to over-training. One is good and without it you will never achieve your best. The other is bad and when you get there it can take a whole season to recover properly. One aspect to consider though is that it is not just sheer volume of training it is quality as well. I am glad you suggest 3 heavy weeks followed by a week of tapering. That is exactly what I would advocate. I guess the edge that I am looking for is whether I have sufficiently recovered from my 2.5hr run to consider mile reps the next day or not. I had a good marathon this year because my quality remained high and I want to see how far I can take it. I am hoping that iTHLETE will allmost give me permission to rest instead of going training because your buddies' pear pressure makes you do it. Don't get me wrong with the rest side of things. I will still be training 6 days a week and possibly as much as 3 of those days will include multiple sessions. It's a case of whether I push the training or take it easy. I guess we won't know untill the autumn but it has been said that Cambridge won the boat race this year because they trained less than in previous years when they lost. As I said earlier if I train the way I did last year then I will run 2.41 again and that's not good enough for me any more. That's why I am trying a new concept that many of the elites are already using. regards Fastrack.
I believe you are right in respect of over-reaching compared to over-training. One is good and without it you will never achieve your best. The other is bad and when you get there it can take a whole season to recover properly. One aspect to consider though is that it is not just sheer volume of training it is quality as well. I am glad you suggest 3 heavy weeks followed by a week of tapering. That is exactly what I would advocate. I guess the edge that I am looking for is whether I have sufficiently recovered from my 2.5hr run to consider mile reps the next day or not. I had a good marathon this year because my quality remained high and I want to see how far I can take it. I am hoping that iTHLETE will allmost give me permission to rest instead of going training because your buddies' pear pressure makes you do it. Don't get me wrong with the rest side of things. I will still be training 6 days a week and possibly as much as 3 of those days will include multiple sessions. It's a case of whether I push the training or take it easy. I guess we won't know untill the autumn but it has been said that Cambridge won the boat race this year because they trained less than in previous years when they lost. As I said earlier if I train the way I did last year then I will run 2.41 again and that's not good enough for me any more. That's why I am trying a new concept that many of the elites are already using. regards Fastrack.
Rob3rt
Man or Moose!
- Location
- Manchester
Fastrack said:
Your achievements are great.
But I am fully aware some aches and pains are part of the parcel, but if you know your body (which should be your priority) then you should know which aches and pains are acceptable to train through and which are not.
This device is most likely, most useful when used in conjunction with knowing your own body and being able to interpret your own feelings, in the majority of cases, once you are at this point, a device like this is already redundant because you can already tell when you should hold back and when to push on. For most people it is more likely to be an interuption to training schedules by giving false, rest day hits.
Im not an expert, im quite the newby, so maybe im ignorant to some degree, but in my opinion, someone of my level (pretty low level), and quite far beyond my level would not benefit at all from this device, over standard HR and percieved level of exertion measures.
Maybe someone at your level can glean some teensy little bit of an advantage from it, which is what someone from your level will be looking to do. But then again, at your level maybe your experience already makes this thing almost if not completelly redundant.
I will admit, before making my initial post, I was ignorant to the OP's level, aims etc, so maybe it would benefit the OP. Im looking at this product more as the following: A lot of people seem to want all the technology to apparently train smart as you say, but actually they are so overwhelmed with data that they dont know how to interpret because they have little to no base understanding of their own body yet so they stuggle to relate the data to their intuition, so in effect they are pretty much just wasting their money (again a trap I have fallen into, luckily, I got some great advice from Bill Gates ^^ and a few other members here) In my views, training smart isnt all about having tonnes of data, its about getting the most out of the minimum, in order to acheive your goal.
Hello Guys,
If you haven't seen it, I thought you might like to know there was a 6 month review of the iTHLETE in cycling weekly 10th June. I have tried to attach a jpeg image. It scored 9/10 and was Cycling Weekly recommended.
One aspect we are forgetting (and I realise that you are worried about false negatives meaning you miss training) is that the iTHLETE also indicates when you aren't as tired as you think and you could train harder than you had planned. Just over a month ago I had probably the worst bout of flue that I have had in 10 or more years and it's only been last weekend that I have felt like training again. I have only just recently started using the iTHLETE so I am interested in how closely it matches my own feelings. Having a bit of spare time at the moment I have started training twice a day in an attempt to get back the fitness I have lost but also to test the theory to it's limits. I am using the iTHLETE for PERMISSION to train harder. So far it seems to be doing a pretty good job. Wednesday I ignored an amber warning (caution) and still trained twice. My second session was a road bike ride with friends and I kept getting dropped so the session was probably wasted. That night I had a row with the wife and the next day it was red. So at least it can be used as an early warning system for arguments with the wife!
I realise I am experimenting and there is much to be proved yet but what I will do is revisit this thread every now and then to let you know how it goes.
Regards
Henry
If you haven't seen it, I thought you might like to know there was a 6 month review of the iTHLETE in cycling weekly 10th June. I have tried to attach a jpeg image. It scored 9/10 and was Cycling Weekly recommended.
One aspect we are forgetting (and I realise that you are worried about false negatives meaning you miss training) is that the iTHLETE also indicates when you aren't as tired as you think and you could train harder than you had planned. Just over a month ago I had probably the worst bout of flue that I have had in 10 or more years and it's only been last weekend that I have felt like training again. I have only just recently started using the iTHLETE so I am interested in how closely it matches my own feelings. Having a bit of spare time at the moment I have started training twice a day in an attempt to get back the fitness I have lost but also to test the theory to it's limits. I am using the iTHLETE for PERMISSION to train harder. So far it seems to be doing a pretty good job. Wednesday I ignored an amber warning (caution) and still trained twice. My second session was a road bike ride with friends and I kept getting dropped so the session was probably wasted. That night I had a row with the wife and the next day it was red. So at least it can be used as an early warning system for arguments with the wife!
I realise I am experimenting and there is much to be proved yet but what I will do is revisit this thread every now and then to let you know how it goes.
Regards
Henry
Hi everybody. I promised to report back.
I have been using the ithlete now for about 3 months now. So far it has corresponded very well with how I have been feeling. One aspect that was forgotten about is that the moving average reading is an indicator of fitness level. I am pleased to say it has been showing a sustained improvement as my training has been progressing which is a positive psycological boost. The information is good but the question is how do I use it proactively?
This last week I had an unexplained drop in reading and then again the next day which was followed by a sore throat. A days rest brought the reading up a bit but then 2 days of solid training left me very tired which coincided with my worste ever reading. I had planned to do 1 time trial and a duathlon this week prior to a half marathon (which was to be used as a training run) on Sunday. I am being sensible and I am cutting the races and only doing light training prior to the half marathon.
So my conclusions so far are.
1. The readings seem to be reliable and they correspond well with feelings so I am happy to trust what I am looking at.
2. The measure of overall fitness can be good encouragement.
3. The warnings of illness came before the sore throat so in the future I will take more notice.
4. It's quite good at making you see sense and not be stupid. It's very easy to get dragged into races or hard training simply because your mates are doing it.
The measure of success will still be found with my target races this autumn. Having already set ambitious targets and hence training programs I have not been in a situation where I had planned to rest but the ithlete said "train on". I have often said "You don't know where the edge is untill you fall off". I guess if it shows me where the edge is it will save me a lot of wasted training time.
I will report again.
Fastrack.
I have been using the ithlete now for about 3 months now. So far it has corresponded very well with how I have been feeling. One aspect that was forgotten about is that the moving average reading is an indicator of fitness level. I am pleased to say it has been showing a sustained improvement as my training has been progressing which is a positive psycological boost. The information is good but the question is how do I use it proactively?
This last week I had an unexplained drop in reading and then again the next day which was followed by a sore throat. A days rest brought the reading up a bit but then 2 days of solid training left me very tired which coincided with my worste ever reading. I had planned to do 1 time trial and a duathlon this week prior to a half marathon (which was to be used as a training run) on Sunday. I am being sensible and I am cutting the races and only doing light training prior to the half marathon.
So my conclusions so far are.
1. The readings seem to be reliable and they correspond well with feelings so I am happy to trust what I am looking at.
2. The measure of overall fitness can be good encouragement.
3. The warnings of illness came before the sore throat so in the future I will take more notice.
4. It's quite good at making you see sense and not be stupid. It's very easy to get dragged into races or hard training simply because your mates are doing it.
The measure of success will still be found with my target races this autumn. Having already set ambitious targets and hence training programs I have not been in a situation where I had planned to rest but the ithlete said "train on". I have often said "You don't know where the edge is untill you fall off". I guess if it shows me where the edge is it will save me a lot of wasted training time.
I will report again.
Fastrack.
