philph
Wed, September 7th, 2005, 09:48 AM
Here's a strange phenomenon that I observed yesterday.
As part of my experiments, I've very recently been trying things a bit differently. For example, the last few days have seen an increase in my intake of carbs and a decrease in protein, and I've experimented with longer periods of cardio.
Yesterday I had planned to do about 45 mins on the stationary bike, including a warm-up and cool-down. I varied the intensity a few times during the ride, and I'd guess my HR was very, very roughly in the 60%-70% of MHR for about the first half of the ride, and more often 70%-85% later in the ride.
When I reached about 40 minutes or so, I started to slow off, in order to cool down and finish. At first, it seemed as if I had judged it so that as I gradually lowered the effort, I would have about enough energy to slowly reduce the speed (i.e. the cool down would feel more or less "right" at that stage).
This proved to be correct for a few minutes, but then I found that my whole body relaxed quite noticeably, and in order to keep my legs comfortable my pedalling was now getting faster and faster. To compensate, I increased the effort level, and as my pedalling speed increased, I repeatedly increased the effort level over the course of the next few minutes. Eventually, I was back at level 7 and 105 RPM, which was the "average kind of effort" level that I thought I had just tired myself from.
After a while, I tried going into my cool down again, and started reducing the effort level and slowing down, but soon the same thing happened with my body feeling like it had become very relaxed and my legs speeding up and up, until I was increasing through the levels again to avoid pedalling at 110-120 RPM. In the end, this whole procedure was repeated several more times, and I finished at about 50 minutes only because I was worried that this would negatively affect the following day's leg routine at the gym.
Bear in mind that I'm still a relative newbie when it comes to exercise, and I don't have the experience to know what to expect. My questions, then, are: what causes this change in sensation? And is it a useful thing - or (knowing my luck!) a sign that the body has just discovered some tastey muscle and is saying "relax - we've got tons of fuel here!" LOL.
As part of my experiments, I've very recently been trying things a bit differently. For example, the last few days have seen an increase in my intake of carbs and a decrease in protein, and I've experimented with longer periods of cardio.
Yesterday I had planned to do about 45 mins on the stationary bike, including a warm-up and cool-down. I varied the intensity a few times during the ride, and I'd guess my HR was very, very roughly in the 60%-70% of MHR for about the first half of the ride, and more often 70%-85% later in the ride.
When I reached about 40 minutes or so, I started to slow off, in order to cool down and finish. At first, it seemed as if I had judged it so that as I gradually lowered the effort, I would have about enough energy to slowly reduce the speed (i.e. the cool down would feel more or less "right" at that stage).
This proved to be correct for a few minutes, but then I found that my whole body relaxed quite noticeably, and in order to keep my legs comfortable my pedalling was now getting faster and faster. To compensate, I increased the effort level, and as my pedalling speed increased, I repeatedly increased the effort level over the course of the next few minutes. Eventually, I was back at level 7 and 105 RPM, which was the "average kind of effort" level that I thought I had just tired myself from.
After a while, I tried going into my cool down again, and started reducing the effort level and slowing down, but soon the same thing happened with my body feeling like it had become very relaxed and my legs speeding up and up, until I was increasing through the levels again to avoid pedalling at 110-120 RPM. In the end, this whole procedure was repeated several more times, and I finished at about 50 minutes only because I was worried that this would negatively affect the following day's leg routine at the gym.
Bear in mind that I'm still a relative newbie when it comes to exercise, and I don't have the experience to know what to expect. My questions, then, are: what causes this change in sensation? And is it a useful thing - or (knowing my luck!) a sign that the body has just discovered some tastey muscle and is saying "relax - we've got tons of fuel here!" LOL.