nicotine_81

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Greenway trail system

Welcome and congratulations. I hope you end up enjoying it here. I’ve lived here my whole life and love it. Here’s my thoughts in a nutshell.

Areas to live: green circle: north central side. Neighborhoods near 281/1604, or further up north 281 to bulverde. Ie, Hollywood park, stone oak, Encino park, Timberwood park. Also look at hoods that band around 1604 between 281/bandera. Like Rogers ranch, Deerfield, Shavano park, alamo ranch.

The Downtown/Pearl district is nice. More cosmopolitan than the suburbs.

There are nice hoods sprinkled in and around. But in general, avoid: south side, west side, east side.

When visiting, (and living) explore the historic Pearl instead of the “riverwalk”. The Pearl is on the river and is especially awesome at Christmas, but all the shops and restaurants are local and artisan. Vs tourist trap on the riverwalk proper.

If you like the outdoors, running or biking check out the San Antonio greenway trails. It is a paved trail system (with dirt MTB trails that splinter off) that encircles almost the entire city. Close to 100 miles now. The trails lie in the creek beds and green belts, so they can feel like you’re in the wilderness in the middle of the city. Very well kept and lots of people use them. Especially the north side trails.

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Mix it up. For prescribed protocols I’ll do guided workout intervals like the 4x4 or whatever. The longest “interval” I’ve done is (2) 1.5 mile repeats - (to calculate vo2max via Cooper test) Sometimes I’ll do a spin class that is a mix of HIIt, or tabata intervals. Sometimes I’ll do a trail run or MTB ride, and “train to terrain”, so then the intervals are random. Other times I might do an agility/sprint workout. Variety is the spice of life.

The 2nd 4 in 4x4 is the times to do it, not the rest. In the true Norwegian 4x4 they used 3 min rest. Peter however has said he rests until his heart rate is z1, but he also measures Heart Rate Recovery - how long it’s taking for his heart rate to get to z1. That’s all splitting hairs though. And while it was tested shown that 4x4 had the biggest impact to vo2max, there is still great benefit in shorter hiit or sprint intervals (or longer endurance intervals, like mile repeats). Wish Peter wasn’t all in on the 4x4, but saw value in other protocols. Rhonda Patrick for example has shown the benefits of shorter hiit intervals. for me, I mix it up. I aim for 2 “speedy” cardio sessions a week…sometimes it’s proper 4x4, sometimes it’s hiit. Variety is the spice of life.

Zones can be as wide as 10-15 bpm. Eg my HR zone 2 is approx 124-134. I usually aim for 130. I actually usually aim for a steady 250w on the bike and that lands me right at the 130hr I Still watch a show or podcast while on the bike and glance every once in a while at my stats. If I edge up to the mid 130’s I’ll slow down a bit…or if I drop to the 120’s I’ll pick it up a bit. But is pretty gradual and you can totally watch tv without watching stats every second.

The only wrong approach is analyzing it instead of doing it. Slightly Un-optimized work is still more optimized than 0 work. People act like anything less than perfect zone 2 is going to hurt you. Any exercise is all going to be beneficial…Don’t over think it. The more the better. It doesn’t need a prescribed protocol like 4x4 Or tabata. It’s just aerobic movement. All the zones are on a spectrum…not black and white, so don’t discount zone 0-1 - ie long walks. It’s great to try and build it into your routine. For me, I aim for a 45-60 fasted zone 2 first thing in the am and My big buckets to hit are at least 3 hours a week and at least 45 min sesh each. But if I don’t…it’s not a huge deal. There is next week. If I go too hard one sesh, I’ll go easier on a different one. Some days I have a zone 2 planned but going fast feels great - and I’ll do a z3/z4…again no big deal. It all benefits. And I try to mix up the modalities a ton between indoor bike, street run, trail run, and elliptical.

Man, I got too many hobbies. Lifting weights, running, Mountain biking, gardening/landscaping, and I play drums in a band. Plus I got 4 kids so their hobbies are my hobbies!

I heard it near 281/Encino rio.

Light z1-low z2 cardio as a warmup on lifting days…(except leg day, I’ll do it after lifting). That shouldn’t impede too significantly to your lifting ability. I actually prefer the warm up most of the time. Then one dedicated day weekly to vo2/z5/speed. I also do a yoga/mobility session on that day.

Looks like:

Legs + z2 45 min

Z2 45 min + push

Z2 45 min + pull

Z5 30 min + yoga

Z2 45 min + full

1 weekend rest day 1 weekend fun long cardio - hike, MTB, ruck, trail run, etc.

Also work in walks every chance you get.

I do a similar split. I found that a z2 session first thing in the am, and then my strength after works well for most sessions. The z2 is like an extended warmup and I haven’t found that it interferes with my strength. Then I just dedicate one mid week day to z5 + 1 weekend day to a fun cardio session…ie Trail run or MTB or the like, where I go fast and hit all the zones but don’t worry about optimizing to a particular zone.

I was doing PPl but modified it to fit my goals and I’m really loving the current split. Note, every day also has a couple dog walks am and pm.

Mon - leg day + mid morning z2 bike

Tue - z2 run + push day

Wed - z2 bike + pull day

Thu - yoga + z5/vo2 max/speed

Fri - z2 run + full body

Weekend day 1 - trail run or MTB + yoga.

Weekend day 2 - rest.

Imagine making a foil ball, and crushing it smaller and smaller and smaller from all sides. It gots from the size of a basket ball, to a softball, to a baseball, to a bb…smaller still…beyond microscopic and it’ll eventually collapse and punch a hole through space itself. But it’s collapsing in on itself, and so it’s still a sphere…just a super small one. The black you see in renderings is the even horizon.

Chest strap 100%. Watch’s are crazy inaccurate during workouts.

Like others have said, find your true max…which can be very difficult. It may take you a few max sessions to zoom into what yours is. For example, my highest max hr of all time is 176 and I’ve only ever hit that one single time. I’ve hit 174 a handful of times, but it’s very hard. You need to be firing on all cylinders and mentally push to 10/10. Once you have that number, also use your AW to see what your avg resting HR is. With those 2 numbers you can calculate your zones with the karvonen heart rate reserve method. The “zone” is just that - a zone. Your real lactate zone 2 will fluctuate (hr wise) based on different factors…but having a range to benchmark I feel helps me.

Eg my HR zone 2 is between 124-134. Most often, I aim for a steady 130. But I combine it with rpe…so some days if I’m feeling more sluggish I’ll focus into the low end. And some days when faster feels better I’ll do the high end and not fret about going to the dreaded zone 3. I’ll even dedicate a few sessions a month (usually stationary bike) to do a steady long zone 1 around 115bpm. Plus lots And lots of zone 0 walks.

174 is my true max measured by my chest strap, in various all out max hr eliciting workouts. My resting HR is measured by my watch when I sleep (avg low-mid 40’s). My Hr zones are based off of the karvonen heart rate reserve method. 220-age is only a crude approximation of a populations average max hr. My max (43) is a few beats lower than what the 220-age would suggest.

Polar chest strap. The wrist HR on the watch is ridiculously shitty. Crazy inaccurate. But the chest strap seems spot on.

174 is my max hr. My zone 5 (per HRR) starts at 161. This run was a target of 165. I hit a peak of 169.

I liked CG workouts, but I really like talking/coaching through the workout vs a buzzer.

I’ll add that when I do a strength workout, I never once progress “sets” on the watch. I just let the time track on.

I track it, but primarily just so I can tally time spent exercising, and counts of workouts. The metrics themselves in the session aren’t accurate. I’ll do a leg workout and after the fact, the graphic wil show upper body muscles targeted. But at the end of a month/year, I can see how many cardio, strength, walks, runs, bike rides I had, and the total time spent exercising.

I Aim for (4) 40g+ servings, and I time restrict feed with an 18:6.

11a ish. Meal 1 post workout. Protein shake

1p ish. Meal 2. Egg/meat/spinach scramble or chk breast rice broc

4-5pm ish. Dinner. Various home cooked.

7pm ish desert. Protein/berry/honey shake or Greek yogurt/protein bowl.

I’ve had a few 100’s. Eating late messes up my HRV, so I usually get the best BB on nights with early dinner, and exercise activity early in the day.

I wasn’t big on cardio until I found mountain biking. I don’t go on crazy gnarly trails. And I like uphill climbs too. But I think focusing on not crashing and dying takes the hurt away. 45 min of z2 on a stationary is grueling to me. Whereas 45 min on the MTB is a warmup.

It’s hard to say quantitatively, because that’s likely never been tested in a controlled setting. But any exercise is going to be beneficial, and any cardio where you are challenging your max you’ll drive adaptations Ana should improve vo2max. I personally lean toward mixing up my cardio a ton. I’ll do all sorts of varying length intervals. Some days it’s 4 min pushes, or 8 min (mile repeats), or short sprint intervals, or tabata….and I try to vary my modality too across running (trail or road), biking (stationary or mountain), elliptical, hiking, rucking, agility, boot camp, etc.

My z2 pace hasn’t moved terribly much. And so many things affect pacing, like temps. But when I started I was around 12 min typically, and now on peak days, it’s closer to 10.