Today’s workout was a race simulation brick:  6hr ride / 30min run.  To do this workout, I used a course that I have used the past couple years.  I posted a workout on motionbased last year from the course (2 loops of the course):

Motionbased chart of Race Simulation Loop

Just for a little more information about the loop, I did an analysis of this loop versus the loop at Ironman Wisconsin:

Ironman Wisconsin Route Elevation vs. Race Simulation Route Elevation

The key element regarding the loop that we use for race simulation is that the elevation gain for 1 loop is 2,926ft (36.2 miles).    Looking at motionbased entries for the Ironman Louisville course we get a few different numbers, but it appears that approx 8,000 to 8,500 ft of elevation gain is common for the full 112 miles.  That appears high compared to what I’ve been told, so I’ll have to dig a little more.

Ironman Louisville, Motionbased downloads

Now that we know what today’s course looks like and a glimpse at IMLou’s course, let’s look at my data from today:

Today’s Workout:

Distance    Time             AveHR     MaxHR      AveSpeed
36.17 mi       02:16:10       123              189                15.9 mph
36.22 mi       02:08:33       131              156                16.9 mph
36.15 mi       02:04:26       138              165                17.4 mph

The parameters that I put on these loops were as follows:

loop 1 – cap heart rate at 140bpm
loop 2 – cap heart rate at 145bpm
loop 3 – cap heart rate at 155bpm

If you look at the data then it appears that I failed this objective.  I don’t think that it was as bad as the data appears.  The first loop was really easy and I know the the 189bpm max is not accurate.  For one, I was never working even moderately hard.  And two, I’m not sure I’ve ever seen my heart rate at 189bpm on the bike (maybe in the lap 8 or 9 years ago?).

I personally believe that I did an excellent job maintaining those objectives for the 3 loops, but there is one climb during the loop that peaked my heart rate every time.  So those max heart rates were likely for 30secs to 2mins out of the 2 hours, as I tried to calm myself down each time I came to the hill.

An interesting comparison is to compare today’s workout with my Race Simulation #2 in 2007 as I got ready for IMMoo:  Race Sim and Nutrition 2007 #2 That workout was 6 weeks out from IMMoo.  Today’s workout looks very similar.

The one difference is that I appear to be running stronger right now!

Run Data:

1.00 mi      00:07:46     157     165       07:46/mi
1.00 mi     00:07:52      161      167      07:52/mi
1.00 mi     00:07:23      164      170      07:23/mi
0.12 mi     00:00:53      164      169      07:35/mi

Nutrition Review:

All I can say is that today was really poor!  I made a big mistake before I even started the workout:  I didn’t order my Infinit Nutrition refill soon enough.  So I was left using what we had at the house:  gatorade, gu’s, egel’s, luna moons, ale 8, salt tabs and water.

Needless to say, that was too much stuff to try and take in on a pretty hot (88F) day.  Especially when I’m not used to using any of those items right now.

What ended up happening was I was mixing things a little too much and ended up having some serious stomach cramps by the end of the second loop.  For the 3rd loop, I used water, 2 bottles of ale8 and salt tabs and things got back to normal.

My order of Infinit should be here Monday (those guys are fast!).  And I should have enough to get me through until the Ironman.

All in all, I was pretty happy with the workout.  I keep waiting for this sudden jump in cycling performance and it will come.  Patience is a key to success in ultra endurance events, but a highly uncommon trait to those that are attracted to this sport.  Master patience and humility and you’ll be above the normal curve come race day… that is what I continue to believe and coach.

img by : retrofuture, click image to see at flickr

Training Anxiety:

I’ve had a lot of anxious days with my training over the last few weeks. Most of the anxiety is not over what I’m doing or how my training is going but with my analysis of what I’m doing and what is “optimal”.

A few weeks ago I got really anxious about my personal workouts as I started thinking about the optimal way to train for an Ironman. Specifically, the most effective way to train for an Ironman to reach the goals I have set out to accomplish this year. The interesting thing for me as a coach is that many of the same anxieties that I have about my own training are shared by the triathletes that I’m coaching.

The truth of the matter is that my anxiety had less to do with my knowledge of how to train for Ironman, then it did with being 100% accountable for all of my personal workouts and training analysis. As I sat down to write this training phase for the Ironman Louisville group I followed the steps that I normally follow:

1. look over the annual training calendar and review what our training goals are for this phase
2. review the benchmarks or fitness tests that were most recently completed by the athletes and see where they are at and if they are ready to move on (I do this for swim, bike, run)
3. review conversations that I’ve had with the triathletes and see if I pick up on training issues that maybe going unnoticed: tired too often, consistently poor nutrition choices, stressed at home or work, etc
4. take the key workouts for the training phase and put them on the training calendar
5. complete the training schedule to fulfill both psychological training needs and to continue improving the triathlete’s fitness and physiological / metabolic profile to meet the Ironman’s requirements

What I found was that while I could sit back and answer these questions for my Ironman triathletes, I was having some difficulty answering them for myself?  It was difficult to be objective and honest.  It was impossible to be unbiased.  As I looked at the answers I was emailing and discussing with those triathletes that I coach, I realized it was sometimes the opposite advice I was incorporating into my own training.

Here are some of the inconsistencies I saw:

• I’d tell my athlete to “be patient” and trust in their developing fitness, but I’d tell myself “you need to start running faster on this run every week”
• I’d tell my athlete to “recover well and eat well” when they felt tired, but I’d tell myself that I “didn’t have time to rest up this week” (really bad the 2 weeks I had a cold)
• I’d tell my athletes to remember what our goal is this year – Ironman Louisville, it is 26 weeks away (at the time) and we have several months to continue to develop fitness before we get into specfic Ironman Louisville prep.  But I told myself, “You’re not in the best shape of your life right now, how are you going to be your best at Ironman Louisville”.

In the end analysis, I had convinced myself that somehow my training needs were different.  I was different.  When in reality what I needed was an objective voice, a voice of reason.  What I needed was the ability to step back and review my own benchmarks and training history and realize that I too needed:

• Pateince
• Humility
• Faith
• Rest, Nutritious Food and Stress Relief

In order to help me get this done, I hired a coach.  It has been a very positive step for my training and I believe that it will be a very positive step for the athletes I coach too.  I ended up using the EnduranceCorner coaching services, primarily because of the respect that I have for Gordo’s approach to the sport and lifestyle.  I used to learn a lot from his triathlon forum back when it was alive at gordoworld and I enjoyed learning from his clinic at the Olympic Training Center back in 2006.  He also has perpective that I would like to draw upon; he went from a working “Joe” doing triathlon to a professional triathlete.  While I have no dilusions of going pro, I think that this experience is worth drawing from.

Data Analysis and Training Anxiety:
Here’s a lesson that we all can learn from

If you are not doing the training, it doesn’t matter what the analysis of the training data says, you are not setting yourself up to succeed.

I have to admit that starting in January of 2008 I began falling for this data “entrapment”.  This began with the greatest gift I’ve received from an athlete I coached in a long time – my Garmin 305.  I love that thing.  But with the Garmin 305 came a new level of data responsibility.

Prior to the G305, I used a basic Polar Heart Rate Monitor that allowed me to get an average heart rate, max heart rate and time (not even laps).  After a workout I would enter that information into my training log (at workoutlog.com which I had used since 2003).  But after the G305 the process got more involved, I had to connect the watch up and download the data.  I started using the Garmin Training Center only for the data download and then would try to manually enter the info into workoutlog.  This became too much so I decided to just use the GTC, until one day in June when I went  to load my data and notice that all the data is gone?

Frustrated I search the data, thinking that my daily auto back up of my computer would have saved it.  It didn’t!  Ironically I felt like all the running and cycling that I had done for the year was erased.  Almost like somehow because I couldn’t produce some chart to post on my blog or share with other friends/athletes my body had lost all that exercise and training benefit.  It was really that ridiculous.

I moved onto using Motionbased and GTC, and then on to a new traininglog website that allowed me to also coach my athletes.  The new site became as much of a job trying to maintain and use as my job of coaching was, so I just recently moved some athletes back to workoutlog.

The anxiety about all of this came back into my own training program when Gordo asked me “what kind of weeks have you been putting in over the last 10 weeks or for all of 2008″?  OMG – Where’s my chart!  So I spent 4 hours Sunday trying to recreate a training log to share what I’ve been doing.

I’m not saying that having data isn’t important.  It is a very useful and important tool.  As a coach it is difficult, if not impossible to assist someone or help them without having the data.  But as a coach, If I had to choose between someone who completes their runs regularly and logged occasionally or ran occasionally and logged obsessively, I’ll choose the former.

That being said, to cut down on this anxiety and get the information I need, I’ve chosen to use the following procedure:

1.  upload my G305 data to workoutlog after each workout / swim times just manually enter (workoutlog now has a very clean user experience when the G305 has been downloaded)

2.  weekly upload my G305 data to my WKO+ software to get the deep down analysis it offers

Alan over at EnduranceCorner has had a couple good posts recently discussing some of these topics:

• Benchmarks and Forecasting
• WKO+ for Simpletons

The Positive Side of this data displacement and anxiety:

1.  I don’t have solid records of run/bike/swim from January to mid June 08, but I know this:  I set a personal best at the Iroman distance on Sept 6th (11:00), I then rode over 300 miles commuting from Illinois to Indiana and on Sept 13th ran a fairly decent 3:17 marathon.

2.  I set a personal best at the half marathon just 10 days ago, running 1:21:53.

Racing has a way of showing us “The Truth“…. training logs and charts often lie if we’re not careful or if we don’t have an objective eye to look them over also.  That is one of the best services I can provide as a coach.

Well it finally feels like we are starting to put winter behind us.  That’s motivation for me to get more serious about my training.  That and realizing that TTT is only about 14 weeks away.  January was a good month for cycling.  I logged over 28 hours on the bike, most of it on the trainer.  I decided to keep up my ride everyday challenge through February and I have over 15 hours logged for Feb as well.  I did get to go outside a few times this week which was nice, but I realized that trainer riding doesn’t totally relate to the roads.  My bike fitness is much better than it has ever been in the winter, and I am seeing mph numbers higher than I usually see (even for summer/fall) so I am really happy with that.  The things that get me outside are the wind and the hills that I just can’t simulate on the trainer.  My RPE and HR when I’m going into the wind and/or uphill are higher than I would like them to be, but I know that will come with more time spent outside.  The steady state baseline fitness is there, and I am glad to have that during these cold icy months.

Swimming is coming along.  I have started swimming twice a week which is a huge improvement on my zero times a week.  Swim fitness usually comes fast so I am not as worried about my times right now.  I’m just ready for summer so I can swim outside.

Running is coming along very very slowly.  I have maxed out at 3 miles and I am really trying to take care of my hips.  The right one actually feels really good and that is the one that blew up before during and after the Chicago marathon.  However, now when I hit 2-3 miles on a run I start to feel a bit of a sharp pain right on the greater trochanter of my left hip.  I usually stop and not try to run through it because I can’t afford (physically and financially) to go through what my right hip went through.  I think the pain might have come from the overcompensating for my right hip.  I’m being good and foam rolling and stretching like mad.  I’m sure it will be ok, but I just would like to be running as much as my IMLOU teammates right now!

Alright, off for a little jog with Gary and Kelty!

One week down.  I suppose right now it is over a week down.  I have completed 8 bike workouts since Jan. 1.  Unfortunately all of them have been on the trainer, but I haven’t missed a day.  The beginning of the week was the most challenging for my legs.  It took until about yesterday for the soreness and fatigue to leave.  I have also started yoga again consistently and that always leaves me very sore for a few days.  To be honest I don’t really mind the soreness since it means I have finally gotten my butt off the couch.

Another thing that comes along with my increased training volume is my increased food consumption.  Well duh, right?  I am burning more calories than before so I need to take more in.  Sometimes though, I feel like my appetite is much greater than that of my caloric needs when I am training.  When I am just training to maintain fitness, <5 hours a week, I hardly ever feel hungry and the numbers on the scale start to drop.  I won’t lie, I like to see that happen.  But as soon as the training started again I feel like I have been eating everything in sight (and not always making great choices) and I am up 1-2 pounds.  Muscle weighs more than fat?  Let’s hope that is the case here.  There is just something that I like about numbers around 120 instead of 125.  Truthfully, numbers on a scale shouldn’t matter as much as I let them.

Well Monday I decided it was about time for me to try a run.  I decided to run/walk every 5 minutes at an easy pace with the dog.  We started off walking and as I started running I thought I felt a bit stiff, but it might have been all in my head.  I actually felt so good that I ran for 18 minutes!  I was completely pain free, but decided to play it safe and head home.  It felt so good I wanted to jump up and down in the middle of the street and shout, “I’m running!”.  Instead I just whispered it over and over to Kelty.  I think she was pretty happy to have another running partner, too.  I think I will try again this weekend.

It’s fairly common in conversations about triathlon training today to discuss watts, normalized power, TSS, functional thresholds and intensity factors.  These terms are all the result of more cyclists using power meters to monitor training intensity and even race efforts.

I have been using WKO+ (formerly cycling peaks) for a little while now, primarily with my Garmin 305 (because I still haven’t justified the power meter expense) to monitor my run training.  The WKO+ software is really great and allows an athlete to get deeper into the training data more than any other training software and log program I’ve ever used.  Because I don’t have a power meter it does have limitations.

The biggest limitation for me is that because I don’t have a power meter, the software’s performance management analysis doesn’t give me an accurate picture for triathlon training.  Why?  Because I have no way of quantifying the work done (TSS, CTL and ATL) on the bike that allows the software to analyze the data.

As a triathlete we also have to consider swimming.  Can we monitor power in the water in a downloadable manner?  Not yet.

So as I look at the athlete’s that I’m trying to help prepare for the 2009 triathlon season (specifically, Ironman Louisville) I have several issues when trying to use a similar method for monitoring training stimulus over time:

1.  no one uses a power meter (and likely are not going to purchase one)
2.  few have a Garmin 305/405 to monitor their running workouts
3.  if they had all this equipment, it takes a lot of time to download and analyze, which they may or may not do.
4.  they have to use the power meter and/or Garmin device for EVERY workout, or they can just estimate the workouts and enter a best estimate TSS or rTSS for the individual workout (which gets us back to why use it anyway)

So, while I am very excited to see some of the data that comes from my Garmin (and yes, hopefully soon my power meter?) it is not a practical solution right now to help my athletes by using the WKO+ software and the Performance Management Charts.  (I have to say though, it is a lot of fun to spend time with the data I can get.  It’s amazing the kind of data we can get in the field better data than what we had in the exercise phys lab on the Monarch.)

How we are tracking long term / short term training stimulus:  (the post to my Ironman athletes)

In the past years I have used total hours of training as my main monitoring system. This was a good method because the majority of the exercise that I did was done at a very reasonable almost easy intensity.

For most of us, this is still going to be the biggest limiter (steady state ability and duration we can hold that intensity).

But with powermeters, heart rate monitors, gps’s, etc…. coaches and athletes are now getting pretty analytical in these monitoring methods. In my opinion, we are making a lot of things too difficult – especially for Ironman training when it matters more that we are consistent and gradually build duration. .. but ..

I realize that we all don’t have powermeters/gps’s so I’ve been thinking about how to add in an "Intensity Factor" to our monitoring.

Here is what I’ve decided to do:

A mixture of the Aerobic Points System (as seen on slowtwitch ) and Borg’s 10 Point RPE Scale (as discussed in the power training article by Dr. Coggan )

Here’s how the scoring it works:

10min swimming = 3 point
10min cycling = 1 point
10min running = 4 point

So as an example: 9.5 hours balanced week
1.5 hours (90 mins)of running: 36pts
6 hours (360 mins)of cycling: 36pts
2 hours (120 mins)of swimming: 36pts

That was just an example of how to add the total times, now to look at the RPE scale / intensity. We’ll be using the Borg 10 point scale , notice the Borg Scale is weighted so that the higher numbers are more spaced out. (Which is done for a number of physiological reasons that Dr. Coggan explains in the article also.)

Example of a workout calculation:

60 minute swim, effort at 3 RPE = 6*3 = 18pts * 0.3 = 5.4

45 minute run, effort at 2 RPE = 4.5*4 = 18pts * 0.2 = 3.6

60 minute cycle, effort at 5 RPE = 6*1 = 6pts * 0.5 = 3.0

Does this make sense? What I’d like you to do is calculate your total points at the end of each week, but you’ll need to write the "RPE" score in the comments as you log each workout.

The key to this system is that you are honest with your RPE scoring, otherwise we could just track hours. We will be tracking hours each week, etc… but I like how this system will account for the differences in intensity, plus we get to track it across all 3 sports, not just power on the bike or pace on the run.

One other data chart that we’ve been tracking:

I had an athlete that put together her own spreadsheet to track her RPE score, aerobic points and what we are calling intensity factor (which isn’t the same as IF for WKO+ which is NP/FTP).  One of the charts that she set up was to a plot of the intensity factor to workout duration.  By plotting that chart we can monitor the ratio on a week-to-week basis.

Feedback?

I would love to hear what others have to say about this concept.  We’ve just started using it several weeks ago, so until we get more data I’m not going to make any conclusions.  I am sure that those triathletes and/or runners that are used to monitoring their hard data from high tech devices with balk at the idea of using RPE.  But I’m not worried about that, I’ve come to peace with using a subjective data point like RPE.  In fact, I think that it can incorporate variables that impact training that a power meter can’t – such as psychological variables (fatigue) and health implications (early stages of sickness and stress).

As a personal trainer and coach I often hear “I wish I worked out more but I just don’t have the time”.  It is probably the number one excuse I hear from people about why they don’t exercise.  I am here to tell you that you do have the time.  You may need to make it, but you do have it.  I train a variety of people, some that are very flexible with time, and scheduling, and others who work 40+ hours a week, have families with small children, and even manage a full social calendar.  I have a few clients that simply amaze me, and I think, if they can make time for regular workouts then anyone can.  So, are you thinking about starting a workout program and are wondering how in the world you are going to fit it all in?  Or maybe you are looking to add a few extra workouts per week to improve your fitness even more.  Don’t be overwhelmed!  Here are a list helpful tricks to help squash those excuses that are already beginning to form in your head.

1. Make it your priority. There is nothing more important than your health.  Without our health all of the other parts of life are lost as well.  Along with a proper diet, exercise is crucial in improving and maintaining health.  The benefits are numerous and include, but are not limited to, reducing your risk of heart disease, cancer, osteoporosis, it reduces your risk of injury, and can even reduce stress, as Gary mentions in his article.  Can you believe it?  The thing that you are stressing over is the exact thing that can help you relieve it!  So, knowing all of this (which I’m sure you already do) how can you not make exercise a priority?  Write it in you calendar, set goals, let family members know how important this is for you, and get out there and sweat a little!

2.  Set aside the same time of day for each scheduled workout. Pick a time that works best for you and again, write it in your calendar.  You will be more likely to be consistent with your program if the time of day is the same for each workout.  This may be 5:30am or 10:00pm.  It helps knowing that on Mondays, Wednesdays, and Fridays you are going to walk 4 miles at 6:00am (or whatever activity and time you may choose).

3.  Choose an activity that you enjoy. Exercise is not always fun, but it does not have to be a chore.  If you absolutely hate running on a treadmill don’t do it.  Mix it up a bit.  Cardio can be mundane so split it up between different activities, or try circuit training.  Go for a bike ride with your kids, or a walk after dinner with your spouse or a friend.  Join a recreational sports league, or a fitness class at a local gym.  Trying a sport or activity that is new and or exciting can be extremely motivating.

4. Have someone hold you accountable. Who better to do this than a personal trainer?  He or she will schedule your appointments, write your workouts, and motivate you to work harder than you would on your own.  It can be expensive, but not when you think of the money spent as a health investment.  If a personal trainer is not an option try recruiting a workout buddy.  I almost never run, cycle, or swim by myself anymore, and there is good reason for that.  My training partners motivate me to be at a 5:30a workout, and they push me, encourage me, and distract me from the painful or boring parts of the training.  I credit a lot of my fitness to each of them.

5.  Try it for one week. Schedule in 3-4 workouts for one week.  Don’t skip one.  At the end of the week take inventory.  How do you feel?  Not so bad, right?  How hard was it?  Not so hard, right?  Next week will be easier.  The following week even easier.  Each week that goes by exercise will become more a part of a daily routine and you will find yourself more refreshed, energetic, sleeping better, less stressed, and you might even miss it when you can’t fit a workout in one time.  Just try it for one week.  You can do anything for a week, right?

6. Change your clothes. Believe it or not, just wearing the clothes (specifically shoes) that you would work out in can make you motivated to actually exercise.  So when you get home from work put on your sneakers as soon as you get in the door.  Or, sleep in a pair of running shorts.  I’ll admit, I’ve done that one before, and it works!

These are only a few suggestions on how to time manage and get motivated.  There are many more so pick ones that work best for you.  There is time in the day for everything, we just might need to change our priorities a bit.  Good luck!

So I feel pretty good about how I’m feeling on the run right now…. I want to run longer.  But I’m trying to follow my own advice and make sure I can run consistently, multiple weeks, without pain and then I’ll allow myself to go long.

A major problem is that next weekend is the Country Music and Derby Marathon.  I can’t do either now b/c of logistics (Nikki is going to Country Music to run the half).  But that makes me think more about going to do the Flying Pig the following week…. Please talk me out of this!

Need to swim… Need to swim… Need to swim…

And with gas at 3.45 today, need to commute, need to commute, need to commute!