Base Camp

 

My body has well and truly come down from the peaks of 2013, acclimatised to the lower altitudes of recovery and rest, refuelled on a diet of "whatever took my fancy" and is now ready to scale new heights in 2014.  I had forgotten that my fuel tanks are infinitely vast and can accommodate more that I can physically eat, so much so that I tipped the scales just shy of 86 kg at the weekend, close to 10kg more than when I was in the rarefied air last summer. By my estimation I could hibernate for 43 days on that additional fuel alone.......I wonder did hibernation form part of human evolution........we certainly have retained some of the traits in terms of lying around doing nothing for days on end.........although I doubt that our ancestors would have had one hand in a box of quality street and the other around a glass of wine. 

 

As with the start of any journey it's always good to know where your starting from so that you can assess your progress. With this in mind I headed to the track this evening to run a 5 mile evaluation at my new MAF Heart Rate of 137. The result was predictable enough when compared to previous years. For example on 10th January 2012 I covered the 5 miles in 37:17 but at a higher target HR of 140. It's the number of heartbeats per km that tells the real story - 642 this evening compared to 650 in 2012. My first MAF test last year was at the end of January and resulted in 621 Hb/km. Lets see how well I do in 3 to 4 weeks time. When in peak shape I would expect the figure to dip below 600 Hb/Km.

 

As my aerobic efficiency should improve with reducing weight I will also record my weight before each MAF test to see if there is a linear relationship between weight loss and aerobic efficiency - hence the new baseline figure of 7.52 Hb/Km/Kg body weight - very similar to the "power to weight ratio" used in cycling. Onwards and upwards!