Are you just clocking in?

If you’re like most endurance athletes, the majority of your workouts are measured by duration, rather than by miles, meters, laps, reps, etc.  When you have, say for example, a 2.5 hours ride to do on a gradually rolling but moderate terrain, you know that you typically have one or two specific goals for that workout.  One goal, aside from the duration, is measured by the effort level, or intensity.  (The combination of duration and intensity determines the training stress, or TSS: see http://gleasoncoaching.com/2013/04/07/why-i-dont-rely-on-tss/  for more on that topic)

However, I often find that athletes just “clock-in” for the duration and hide at the bottom of a specific zone, or level of perceived exertion (RPE). This strategy is often a training mistake.  That is because the effort level/intensity level of the workout is usually more important than the duration, with some exceptions for long course training (full IM) and some beginners. This is one of the upsides to using a power meter and tracking your TSS for any particular session.   Doing so will help prevent you from “hiding” at the bottom of, say Zone 2, and still technically doing your prescribed workout that day.  If your Zone 2 power ranges from 150 to 195 Watts, not all Zone 2 rides are the same in terms of their training stress.  Yes, they’re all basically endurance rides, but riding at 150 ave Watts for 2 hours is much different from a 2 hour, 190 (ave) Watt ride.

So, the point is to get the most out of your limited training time and all your workouts.  Don’t just clock-in and do your time – much better to pursue an excellent workout, and push yourself to the maximum benefit of your workout that day.

 

Happy Training.

Meta-Training (Off-Season, Part II)

Is something out of whack?

A nagging injury that won’t heal and is really too easily irritated?  You know, the ones that resurface at just the wrong time..

Low back, shoulder, or hip pain?

You know what I mean, it’s those issues that you manage all through a tough series of training blocks for perhaps most, if not all, of your season. They don’t sideline you (at first).  You manage to hold them at bay long enough to train and race, and you make it through some peak races, despite the latent (or even acute) pains.

Well, maybe you could eliminate most if not all of them with a little effort.  Now, the “Off-Season,” or into early Base training, is the optimal time to handle these particular problems.   The good news is that you may be able to do so with only a little re-training.  It’s what I like to refer to as “Meta-Training.”  I often describe Base training to my athletes as training to train, not training to race.  Meta-Training is really even a step before that.  Its training to train, to train, (which leads of course to training to race).

As a serious endurance athlete, you have fairly well ingrained movement patterns.  They are a direct result of several factors:

• Your postural and alignment status
• Physical injuries – or hopefully a lack thereof
• How you originally learned to swim, bike, run, & strength train
• Your body finding the fastest way to get from point A to point B, utilizing proper form, or not.
• How you handle, and train in, a very fatigued status (i.e. training with already compromised, damaged muscles, and pain)

Fortunately, these are all malleable patterns. You can relearn and therefore ingrain new and better fundamental movement patterns. This will primarily help you avoid potential injuries. However, it can also make you a more efficient swimmer, cyclist, & runner. In my next post, I will go over some of  the how to’s.  They are easy and quick!

Myth Busting Article on USAT

I normally don’t get very interested, excited, nor spend more than a few seconds looking at the vast majority of triathlon articles that come my way. That includes those arriving via most triathlon magazines, and most other “in-the-know” resources, newsletters, including race directors giving ” tips” in their emails. They are, nine times out of ten, just displaying their very firm grasp of the already well-known, (otherwise known as common knowledge), and/or the plain old obvious.

Nonetheless, every now and then I see one that is really good.  “Good,” in that the article makes a very important point about training, racing, nutrition, gear, or another area of interest to multi-sport athletes. These are the ones relevant, insightful, and worth considering for most of your training decisions.  Or, the article is “good’ in that it breaks new ground, while hopefully dispelling one or more of the many myths out there that pass for wisdom, or free “advice.”

This one is the former.  This is not new, but it needs to be emphasized.  I wrote a very similar article over 3 years ago (minus the statistical data. Mine was largely based on experience and opinion – but in my opinion correct ).

See it here:

http://www.usatriathlon.org/about-multisport/multisport-zone/multisport-lab/articles/bike-weight-102113.aspx

Is it the bike or the rider?

Anyway, I hope you enjoy it (and mine too).

http://gleasoncoaching.com/2010/04/23/return-on-investment-for-the-serious-triathlete/

Lance Armstrong was right about one thing at least: It really isn’t about the bike …or the shoes, or the wetsuit, the goggles, the wheels, the helmet, the ….). I won’t get into what he was wrong about.

Consistency and Interruptions

I say it all the time, like almost all good coaches, and endurance sports athletes who’ve been at their sport for more than a season or two.  That’s because its true:  staying consistent in training for endurance sports is your best ally.  The flip side to maintaining that valuable consistency is moderation in nearly every aspect of your training.

So what about when you’re forced to miss a chunk of training? First, don’t fret.  I’ve recently had athletes miss small to larger blocks of training for various reasons: injury, vacation, work & life obligations, equipment issues, etc. The reason really is not the most important thing.  Even if its injury, you can manage it.  You can fix gear, you can cross-train at other activities when you’re forced to stop one sport.  For example, if you can’t run or swim, you can do something entirely different.  If you can’t run, then you can walk, hike or even get on the elliptical (though I’m not a fan as a substitute for running).  If you can’t swim, then you can strength train, spin, or do yoga, or all of those. The point is to maintain some basic level of aerobic activity and strength as best you can at the time.

The most important thing to keep in mind through a down period is that you probably won’t lose as much fitness as you think you will, and that you will get back at it!  It’ll be there for you when you’re ready.

Why I don’t rely on “TSS”

OK, I know that this is written really more for the benefit of coaches than athletes. Still, I know that some of you coaches out there may be reading this, and many others are self-coached, so, well, here we go (this one is a bit lengthy):

First, what are we talking about? Before you go running around with your TSS status, thinking you’ve got the holy grail of training and performance in your pocket, read on.

What the heck is “TSS” – (Training Stress Score) is a numerical value assigned to any single workout or race. It’s intended to directly measure the “training stress” – or the physiological cost of that specific event.  It is based on an algorithm using your threshold levels, measured via a common metric such as power (Watts) or pace, the duration of the session, and a little math.  It accumulates from day-to-day,  week-to-week, even month-to-month, depending directly upon how often, how long and how hard (intensely) you work.  To measure it over time, we (i.e. a software program) run 7-day, and 42-(or more)-day moving averages. These are called “acute training load” (ATL), and “chronic training load” (CTL), respectively.  By tracking these together over time, a coach or athlete can theoretically measure fitness, fatigue and “form”  (race readiness).  You get a chart that looks like the one below, called a “Performance Management Chart” (PMC).  Pretty valuable right? Well, maybe .. (click on for larger image)

Performance Management Chart
Blue line = fitness (CTL), Pink line = fatigue (ATL), Yellow line = “Form” (race readiness)

• The primary reason I do not rely much on TSS is that it only attempts to measure “training stress.” It does not measure life stress. You know, the stuff going on in your life the other 20 or so hours a day when you’re NOT training.  What about that?  It’s up to you to measure.
• It is a loose approximation at best of actual physiological stress on the body.
• Everyone responds differently to different training stresses.  For example, an 11 mile, 90 min run for 2 different athletes with the same running profile (threshold pace) will produce similar TSS scores.  However, it takes no account of individual strengths and weaknesses.  If one runner is highly aerobically oriented and fit, durable, and experienced, while the other is anaerobically oriented, maybe better on hills, better at speedwork, (perhaps a sprinter by training), the effect on these 2 athletes is very different, even though their TSS scores will be very close. (Yes, these 2 runners can have the same Threshold Pace.)
• It ignores harder to measure factors, such as re: swimming; What about open water conditions? Swimming a mile in a pool vs. open water can be easy vs. brutal (at the exact same pace). It also relies too heavily on HR in the absence of a power data (bike), and pacing info for an entire run, or swim. (The “TRIMP score”).
• It assumes that your FTP, T-Pace (swimming), and Threshold running Pace are in fact accurate.  Yet, they are always moving targets, and vary up and down (rather quickly) according to how fit and fatigued an athlete is at any point in training.  So, a ride with a TSS of 150 on one day is very, very different in terms of physiological cost (what it purports to measure directly) compared to another day, or from one side of a whole training block to the other.  That is, TSS does not factor in an additional measure of  accumulated stress (ATL or CTL, the metrics tracked) for any individual workout.  In other words, a workout with a TSS of 150 is counted the same, whether or not you do it fresh and rested at the start of a training block, or pretty much fried at the end of the block.  (Why I argue that TSS moves much more on a daily basis than we account for.) This is the job of the athlete and the coach working together.
• Again (and so important); TSS totally ignores the rest of your life:  rest, sleep quantity and quality, nutrition (a HUGE FACTOR), hormonal (im)balance, relationship, family, and job issues, underlying health issues (not directly related to fitness).  It misses big, and critical – arguably the most critical – variables.
• It is backwards looking by design, and therefore, not necessarily a good predictor of how ready an athlete is to train hard, (or even what to do) on any given day.  That comes down to projection, a game which is, well, a guessing game (even for the best statistician).
• And one of my favorites; That which is measured is NOT necessarily improved.  Just because we can measure something, does not mean we can change it for the better, or at all.  I can measure how tall I am.  I can measure how many fingers and toes I have.  I can measure other more mutable characteristics like fasting blood sugar, LDL count,  HbA1C count, blood pressure, and body fat %, and my HR at my 10K race pace, but I may have no idea whether or not the numbers I get are good, bad, indifferent, or irrelevant to my goal.

I’ve had athletes perform exceptionally well when their PMC chart predicted they were fatigued and not ready for a good performance.   On the flip side, I’ve had athletes whose numbers were optimal on the chart have flat and mediocre days, only to excel at a different, less optimal point on the same chart.

What’s the take away?  Trust your own instincts working with your coach, and learn to intuitively feel your own fitness, fatigue and race readiness without the use of a rigid and narrowly focused PMC chart.

Don’t get me wrong, TSS is useful.  Just probably not as useful as it appears. I still use it to help guide my coaching, but just not in isolation.  When used in its proper context, it can be pretty useful.  However, that context is becoming smaller and smaller, the more I discover what it is that TSS actually does measure.

VO2 Myth

“VO2 max” is an often discussed topic, particularly in terms of training, and an athlete’s capacity for performance.  It is a very important attribute. However, it seems to me it’s widely misunderstood when comes to establishing training objectives.  You’ve probably heard an athlete somewhere say something like, “I’m going to do VO2 max intervals tomorrow.” Or even, “I want to improve my VO2 max…” There is even a “VO2 max Zone” in many coaches’ Zone Training protocol.  The typical misconception is that it is a highly trainable physiological trait.

In fact, it generally is not. It is the most immutable of the three physiological attributes endurance athletes are concerned about. Can it be improved, especially from an untrained, or de-trained starting point? Yes, of course, and certainly it should be.  However, there is a low ceiling on improving this particular trait, and that’s mostly set by your parents (Yes, genetics largely determines “VO2 max”.)  So, of course you should be really careful when deciding on parents.  Regardless, trying really hard to alter your largely genetically predetermined “VO2 max” is sort of like trying to get taller.

Attributes that are highly trainable, and should probably get the lion’s share of attention in training are (“lactate”) Threshold Levels (even though lactate – i.e. lactic acid – is only a very indirect measure of this phenomenon), and Economy (aka, efficiency or skills).  [Lactate, or “lactic acid,” is associated with acute muscle acidosis, which is believed to be accounted for by an accumulation of hydrogen ions, a by-product of metabolic activity, which increase very rapidly at increasingly higher workout intensities.]

Another misconception of VO2 max is that it’s all about your cardio-respiratory system.  It’s really more about muscles, i.e. capillary size and density in your muscles. (Capillaries are the site of O2/CO2 exchange in the working muscles.)  The more O2 your capillaries can delivery for use to working muscles, the more work (metabolic energy production) your muscles are able to perform.  Your lungs and heart are usually pretty good at delivering oxygenated blood there, and returning CO2 enriched blood (and hydrogen ions), to the heart and lungs to be re-oxygenated and/or breathed off.

“VO2 max,” in theory, measures the amount of oxygen that your body can utilize to perform physical work.  That’s it.  It has nothing directly to do with how fast you run, or how much weight you can lift, or how good are from the 3-point line.  It’s units are: Volume of O2 (liters) per Kg of body weigh per minute (L O2/Kg x Min).

So, what’s the take away?   Don’t spend a lot of time training for “VO2 max” effort, as a goal in itself. Rather, spend the time training for efficiencies at your specific level of intensity, needed for your next race.  That may include “VO2 max” efforts (e.g. 3 min run intervals at faster than 5K race pace effort), or it may not.  It may mean going for 5 hours on your bike at a moderate aerobic effort (IM athletes) which is nowhere near “VO2 max.”  If you train at high intensity and/or very high volume, your “VO2 max” will take care of itself.

Workouts With a Purpose

I grew up a basketball player and a runner. My favorite coach of all time was John Wooden, and I attended his Summer Basketball Camps four years in a row as a teenager. He is one of the greatest in college basketball history, winning ten NCAA Basketball Titles in the 60’s and 70’s at UCLA.  John Wooden was truly a great.  Along with a tremendous legacy as one of the greatest teachers and coaches in college athletics, he gave us many legendary quotes. Many of his ideas are captured in his Pyramid of Success.  One of my favorite quotes (found in the Pyramid) from Coach Wooden applies well to triathlon training (and coaching), and to many aspects of life as well:

“Never mistake activity for achievement” 

With his succinct approach and typical wisdom, that statement says so much.

Activity without a purpose is usually wasted time and energy.  This applies on the basketball court, and it applies to endurance training too.

What is the purpose of the workout you are about to do? If you cannot answer that question, reconsider why you are doing it.  The answer should not be hard to come by.  You are either working to advance a specific ability or skill, increasing a specific aspect of fitness, maintaining it, recovering (from something much harder), or racing.   If you are not doing one of these things, you may be better off saving your time and energy.

Happy (smart) training!

Running Better

Running is a highly individualized and fairly technical activity. What is good for one runner to focus on might be the wrong thing for another.  So, I just want to make a quick comment about the two aspects of running that matter most when it comes to pace (and that is really all that matters ultimately, right?)  I don’t mean to suggest that these are the only two aspects comprising running. Of course, that would be a vast over-simplification.  This is one (useful) way to analyze running.

The two components of pace are: cadence and stride length. There is plenty of advice about cadence, or leg “turn-over,” and it usually boils down to ‘increase it for better running..’  True, most runners probably would benefit from increasing their cadence, a little. But maybe not. What if its already at your optimal rate?  Once cadence is where it should be for you – probably in the 84-94 range – that’s all you can do with it.

Stride length is really where the big gains are to be made for most endurance athletes. This involves a lot of training, a large part of which is strength training. You MUST have a lot of running specific leg, hip, lower trunk (“core”), and even shoulder strength, to maintain a large stride over the course of your race, particularly if you’re coming off the bike.

Running fast is not supposed to be easy

Some exercises that you can fit into workouts to increase this specific strength are:

• Forward lunges (grip dumbbells in each hand and hang arms at your sides to add resistance to this exercise)
• Box-jumps
• One-leg hopping
• Skipping
• Very short (i.e. 20 second) hill sprints
• Stairs , as in the kind at a high school football stadium or track.
• Running in soft sand (be careful with this one, as it’s very hard on foot and ankle muscles)
• Adding or increasing hills (gradually) to your long run

After you become proficient at any one of these, try combining it carefully with another one for a complex workout.

Weight Train?

I received an email yesterday from a new triathlete asking whether or not the athlete should weight train, in addition to a fairly heavy swim/bike/run schedule. I think this is very common and useful Q. My response, which I believe applies broadly, was this:

This is an area of opinion more so than proven training principles regarding triathlon. (There are few proven training principles.) I don’t believe that anyone reading your email can confidently, and even ethically, give you advice about weight training for your triathlon plan. First, it is highly individualized. What is beneficial for one athlete is detrimental to another. Second, it depends on your specific racing goals, and the demands of your races. It also depends on your time available to train, the amount of time you have until your next big race, your athletic history and background, your strengths and limiters, and your relative experience in each sport. It even depends on your body composition and body type. Even knowing all these things, it is a matter of opinion. Training is a blend of art and science, and there is no one-size fits all approach to most training issues.
…
That said, core strength is a must. Any athlete that has a weak core should spend time strengthening it. If its strong, you’ll get little return for the time spent. Just maintain in that case.

Remember, you cannot consider weight training in isolation regarding your triathlon training. It has to fit into your overall training volume, and will almost never be the most important or beneficial part of your training. Nevertheless, it for sure can help in some cases. I have an athlete that I actually had STOP almost all weight training, and he got faster. I also have another athlete for whom weight training is critical, mostly on the bike. You’ll probably discover, when you ask Q’s about triathlon training, that the answer is often, “it depends.” If its not, be careful. Be very wary of anyone who acts like they are sure they know what you need to do. That just indicates they have no idea.

Sat Ride and Sun Long run?

Traditionally, most triathletes have used the weekend for their long workouts on the bike and run. Normally, it is a ride Sat then run Sun.  This sequence leaves you with fatigued legs on Sun from the Sat ride.  Well, really it is not a good idea to run on Sun on tired legs resulting from a long and/or intense ride on Sat.

Most triathletes do this. I used to. Why? Because the idea was to get used to running on “tired” legs to simulate the type of running a triathlete does in a triathlon. Actually, it doesn’t. It is a different type of fatigue. The difference is really that of acute fatigue created by one or more days of hard training – which is NOT what a triathlete will experience in a race, verses fresh legs, which is when a triathlete can make running gains by learning to run better and faster without the acute fatigue.

I read an article recently – maybe you saw it on posted on Active.com – by Rich Strauss of Endurance Nation. I don’t always agree with Endurance Nation’s training theories, but on this topic I completely agree.  I actually was persuaded on this approach to running several months ago by Joe Friel, author of The Triathlete’s Training Bible, and head coach at Training Bible Coaching where I am  also a coach.

I think triathletes practice this training method largely because other triathletes have “always done it that way.”  Here is another reason to question tradition, to doubt accepted “wisdom”, and not to accept a method of training merely because “it has always been that way, so it must be right.”  Rather, I urge triathletes to be willing to try new training methods and strategies, and strive for progress, not blind conformity.

I made this  switch for my athletes and myself at the end of last season.  I can say that the results for me so far  have been very good.  I’ll find out the results from my athletes and see what their onions are.