Only after a swim session. The only place where I have access to a sauna in combination with training. I always make sure to bring plenty of water to hydrate though.
Finnish person here and sauna is generally recommended even after exercise as long you are hydrated. It can prevent cramping and improve recovery, contrary to popular belief. They have sauna buses that travel to triathlon events here in Finland and are popular.
Following up on the rain question, it would be good to see a GTN video on the various clothing options to deal with a. Light rain in the cool of the morning, b. Heavy rain, and c. Absolutely chucking it down in somewhere like Norseman/Celtman. And how transition-friendly these options are.
What about sauna not directly after the workout (I tried it and felt quite bad actually), but maybe during your rest day? The recovery right after the workout is not heavily affected (unless the workout day before was extremely hard) and with cold bath combination it may be actually beneficial. Still, I'd take this as rest day only and do next workout only after fully hydrated again ideally with some easier exercise,
On a long run (marathon training), is it still ok if you take a break in the middle of the run, say 30km but you stop after 15km? If so, how long can that break be for it still to count? A brief 15 sec stop at the lights? A 2 min chat to a friend? A 30 min sit down?...
Of course it's okay, and often times beneficial, mentally and physically! Matt Dixon at Purple Patch has popularized the run/walk method. As far as duration, I would try to keep it to the minimum amount that still allows you to effectively complete your workout goals. You don't want to take so long that your heart rate and legs completely recover. Curious if the GTN crew has any quantification suggestions.
Great question on the Heart Rate and great answer, I fully agree. My HR is nowhere near 220 minus my age and I’m not bothered at all. I prefer to train with power on the bike, pace for running and CSS for swimming.
The protocol to measure your max heart rate looks similar to the FTP ramp test. For running you do a good warm up, then start at your 5k pace and increase your pace every two minutes until you die thousand deaths... ee... I mean until you completely exhaust yourself. As Mark said the better way to calculate your heart rate zones is using the lactate threshold test however accurate max heart rate may be valuable if you want your watch to calculate a more accurate Vo2max values.
I love how you athletes can't raise your heart rate, hell I had a 190 mostly rested heart rate at the doctor's office, they were not happy and now I'm on High blood pressure meds and yet I still have my resting heartrate 140 ish and if I get up walk to the bathroom go pee and then lay down and take my heart rate it is like 154 or more, so I have no issues getting a high heart rate just don't ever expect me to get my heart rate back down to 120, that will be a new record for me if I ever see 120 or less ever again. Now maybe that seems like I'm complaining but I'm not I do not even feel any different when my heart rate is 190 or 120 it all feels the same I feel nothing, well except my body did start to complain when I started getting to 190 but I did not feel in from moment to moment.
