Husband Hardiman the Fiddler and I each have a year-round program that includes two seasons for each of us-- a main season and an offseason program. The variety is important, both for cross-training and for keeping it fresh enough to counter boredom and burnout. We chat often about our programs, which have certain features in comon although they are quite different programs.

Rest days also are vital in allowing for body recovery and muscle growth, as is deep sleep on a regular basis. No day "off" is a total rest-- but we both have learned the hard way why it's recommended to alternate types of movement on different days.

Hardi and I learn from each other. And we each log what we are doing.


Hardi's primary pursuit is road cycling, as soon as it's warm enough and as long as it is warm enough; roughly 20 miles per ride about 4x a week, with longer rides on vacation. His offseason exercise includes strength/resistance using a Bullworker and weights, indoor rollerblading, and cross-country skiing, at least an hour a day 5 days a week.


My primary season is aquatics, 7 months: May 1 - Nov. 1, peaking in October at 3 hours per day in 1-hour periods broken by mini-meal breaks. There are other aquatics thrown in there as needed as well, but the jogging gives me strength, aerobics, flexibility, and endurance. I use music routines on a waterproof MP3 player to pace routines, from a slow start of the season to the ramp-up to peak, going from about 90 beats per minute to 160+ BPM at peak (plus faster interval-training, well upwards of 200 BPM). Since mine is a rehab-followup progam, my offseason pursuit has varied from year to year as fitness has increased.

Last year's log is proving especially helpful as I enter the main season for this year; I will be spreading last year's intense 3-month program (it was health-crisis-driven) over 7 months. This year I can afford to be a little easier on my aging body, but I will keep or surpass the same high-end goals I achieved last year.

As intensity changes during the year, so does target heart rate; I use both the HR scale and the Perceived Exertion Scale to keep an eye on that. I can't find the link where I got this great version but it was from somewhere in About.com:

Perceived Exertion Scale
When exercising, you should monitor your intensity to make sure you're not working too hard. One way to do this is by using a Perceived Exertion Scale. For most workouts, you should stay somewhere between Level 5 and Level 6. For high intensity interval workouts, your recovery should be around Level 4 or 5, and your intense interval should not go above 9. For longer, slower workouts, keep your PE at Level 5 or lower.

Level 1: This is so easy I could do it all day.
Level 2: I'm working up a little sweat, but could still maintain this pace for a long time.
Level 3: My muscles are warming up and I'm sweating lightly (this is your warm up level)

Level 4: I'm sweating, but feel good and can carry on a conversation effortlessly.

Level 5: I'm sweating more now, am a little breathless, but could maintain this pace for a while
Level 6: I can still talk, but am breathing harder.

Level 7: I can still talk, but I don't really want to.
Level 8: I can grunt in response to your questions. I can only keep this pace for a short time period.

Level 9: I am probably going to die.

Level 10: I am dead.


After a long search, the model I have found most applicable to my "orphan sport" is the NHL Officials' regimen in terms of intensity and duration. I also have borrowed quite a lot from cycling theory and practice, as well as adding aquatic forms of Tai Chi. I do not use a canned program for aquatic aerobics, but adapt and improvise from the movements the Aquajogger people demonstrate in their videos; samples are HERE.

This year my offseason will be mostly treadmill, which I am adding now to work up to a level commensurate with the 2-3 hours of aquajogging that will again be the norm in the weeks preceding the changeover. There's some stair-climbing planned as well-- real stairs, not tame stairs.


I find that unless I put activity level first, all the nutritional changes in the world do not make an impact on a body recovering from a variety of medical mismanagement episodes. Putting activity first, the rest follows.

~Susan