Strength
My most glaring weakness
throughout my multi-sport years has been strength. How can that be? I'm pretty
good at going uphill hard for an hour. That, however, is more a function of my
strength to weight ratio (I'm a skinny dude) and cardiovascular fitness. I can
ride and run all day long if I have to, but that can be attributed to muscular
and aerobic endurance (and eating and drinking enough). It may look like I'm a
good time trialist on a flat 40k ride. Not. Cycling pro's beat me by many minutes.
I'm not strong enough to get the big gears moving. Finally, and likely the
most relevant to fellow multi-sporters, put me in an Ironman and I can finish
mid pack no problem but ride hard and I'll never finish the run.
What does that
have to do with strength? In my
Endurance Fundamentals
article I defined strength as muscles that can push, pull or lift considerable
resistance. The benefits of having strong muscles though goes beyond this
simple definition. Strength is the foundation of muscular endurance.
Simply put, the stronger we are the more glycogen we can store, the greater our
reserves and the longer we can go hard. Strong muscle fibers don't fatigue as
easily. Most triathletes
overemphasize long distance training and ignore strength.
Let me reiterate: In
preperation for an Ironman it's more constructive to alternate a climbing
session one weekend with a 5 hour ride the next than it is to do a 5 hour
ride every weekend. If you want to minimize the debilitating leg pounding
in an Ironman marathon it's best to have done weights over the winter than run
2-3 hours every weekend. Now there are those that are naturally very strong to
start with and need less emphasis on strength building and more on distance. The
leading cause of overtraining in triathletes, however, is too much
distance/volume.
Ideally we begin to build
strength in the fall and winter with weights (I hate them). Twice per week
gradually build leg strength with leg presses, squats, hamstring curls and leg
extensions and swim specific upper body weights like lat pulls.
Getting one's new found strength to translate into faster cycling, running and
swimming is another matter. First, one needs to back off on weightlifting to
once a week and reduce the weight lifted. I suggest doing this in early
Spring. In February I suggest every other week to ride up a
gradual hill in your biggest gear six times for 3 minutes. Your cadence is
extremely slow and maintaining good form is crucial to avoid knee injury. Next
is a regular dose of climbing. For flatlanders 3-4 minute strong intervals at
under 88 rpm is constructive. I make up for my natural lack of strength with a
ton of climbing. Climbing intervals in particular, both running and cycling, are
constructive in building strength and cardiovascular fitness. Next inline as a
strength builder I put mountainbiking.
Hopefully, I've impressed
upon you the importance of strength as a component of muscular endurance. But,
regardless of how many deep heavy squats we do it won't get us through an
Ironman. I'll discuss stamina, muscular efficiency and power next time.
Cardiovascular fitness
Last week I gave an
outline of the key components of muscular and cardiovascular endurance.
Let's take a closer look at cardiovascular fitness.
If we intend to finish a
triathlon at all, the first and most important training goal is to develop our
aerobic fitness. Aerobic means our muscles function by processing oxygen. A
triathlon, 10K, Ironman, Xterra are all 99% aerobic. There's also anaerobic
(without oxygen) muscle metabolism which I'll get to later. Aerobic fitness is
developed through easy conversational pace exercise. That's right, easy
exercise is the most efficient way to develop your aerobic system. So, when
you get passed on the bike path you can smugly say, "I'm working on my
aerobic base." It's called your aerobic base because all other
endurance components are built on it. Say we begin our race season in March or
April, I'll begin in November with regular easy aerobic exercise. Only by
the end of December and early January do I add other cardiovascular
efforts.
I call the next phase of
cardiovascular development "aerobic strength." Once or twice a week
I'll add workouts at a steady pace, efforts in the 145-160 heart rate range. For
example: running or riding 5x 4min (w/ 1minute easy recovery). Or, modest uphill
efforts of 2-3min (w/ 1minute recovery). Or, a steady 20 minutes. All with a
least 15 minutes of easy warm up and cool down. This period is a transitional
one, preparing both my muscles and my aerobic system for tougher efforts ahead.
For Ironman training I'd spend more time in this period as this is the effort
level in Ironman racing.
Ultimately, though, I'll
be racing near my Anaerobic Threshold (AT) for events in the 1- 5 hour range.
"Your what?" you ask. Your AT is simply the level of effort beyond
which you can't get enough oxygen to your muscles to sustain your effort for
more than a few minutes. It is the upper limit of your aerobic system. Your AT
can be raised with proper training. There are two ways to improve your Anaerobic
Threshold: First, through developing an efficient aerobic base, we've covered
that, and secondly, by training near your current AT. Where is your current AT?
If you've raced a 10K or a cycling TT recently you know exactly the effort. If
you wore a heart rate monitor during these races your heart rate was pretty much
pegged at your AT. But, it is the effort not the HR number I'd like you to tune
into.
Mini-lecture on Heart
Rate monitors: Heart Rate monitors fool
an athlete into thinking training is a science. There's a lot to learn from the
science of training, but ultimately a triathlete is alone with their effort,
alone on the Queen K, so to speak. I use a heart rate monitor to keep me going easy or as
feedback after a workout or race--not as a guide to my effort. After years of
experience I've found my heart rate varies considerably for reasons difficult to
track: sleep, stress, fatigue, diet, weather, nerves, and hormones, play into ones heart rate. I've tried to track all these things and only
got frustrated. One thing I can rely on, given practice, is self awareness. I
ask myself, "can I go harder and make it to the finish?." Boy, do I
learn a lot when I lie to myself and blow up or finish with a mediocre
effort.
A guide to gauging one's
effort: I practice asking myself, "how hard is my effort?" 100% I
define as 10K race or 40K cycling TT race effort. "Am I going 90% of that?
80%?" After practice, I can direct my effort at specific levels. The training
level most important in raising one's AT is 90-98% of race effort. The problem
is we can't go out and run for an hour at that pace. It's too hard, we'd either
not make it or we'd be so fatigued form trying we'd have to take the week off.
This is what I meant when in The Performance Curve chapter I referred to an
"appropriate" workout. No, we can only handle brief intervals at this
90-98% race effort. I'll start in January alternating hill efforts, again, like
2-3min (w/ 1minute recovery) and flat efforts like 4x 5min (1min) at 90-98%. I'll
give myself at least three days easy between these workouts to allow myself to
recover and "super compensate"/ get stronger.
There's another
equally crucial benefit to breaking our harder efforts into intervals: it
exercises the heart. Each time we ask the heart to send more blood and oxygen to
our muscles it first responds by increasing it's stroke volume (the amount of
blood the heart pumps per beat) and then by increasing it's contraction rate
(heart rate). It's this process that actually strengthens your heart and raises
your AT.
As an introduction to my
final level of cardiovascular fitness "AT/ Anaerobic" I must explain
and drive home the difference between aerobic and anaerobic effort. When I
first started running seriously I opened up Runner's World and saw a weeks worth
of Arturo Barrios' workouts. Piece of cake, I thought, I'll do these workouts
and I too will be running 27minute 10K's and setting world records. So, twice,
sometimes three times, per week, I went to the track and ran 200's, 400, 600's
and 800's at the times Arturo ran them (or as best I could). My 10K times did
not improve for almost two years! Why? I was training hard-- very hard! Often
between workouts I was so exhausted I was a zombie at work, I always wanted to
take naps, yet, I couldn't sleep at night. The answer is, I was running at a
pace that for Arturo was still aerobic but for me was completely anaerobic. No
matter how well we train our anaerobic system it will still only get us 3
minutes (at best) down the road. Without sufficient oxygen our muscles can't rid
lactic acid and soon our muscles stop working. I was so fatigued that the
training of my aerobic system suffered and therefore I raced slower. The lesson:
doing 400's all out on the track will help our 400 times but it will do nothing
for our 10K and triathlon fitness.
Instead of racing around
the track corner to the line, now I use my countdown timer on my watch and do
intervals on the open road (dirt roads are my favorite). I'm no longer precisely
aware of my pace. My only gauge is my effort. The
"AT/Anaerobic" zone is racing effort. During a race we often go a
little over our AT. But, before our muscles seize we can return to our
aerobic side and metabolize the lactic acid. This is an important training
exercise but one only necessary once a week per sport in the last 4-6 weeks of
training before race day. I've found a few smaller races prior to the big one
primes my engine, so to speak, and gives me that training effect. Other running
and cycling workouts in the "AT/Anaerobic" zone include: 12x 1:15 (w/ 45 second
recovery jog or spin) at 100-103% race effort (remember 100% is 10K run or 40K
cycling TT race effort) , 8x 3min(1min) at 101% race
effort, 10x 2min(1min) at 102%. Remember, 110% and above and you are getting no
benefit for your triathlon fitness. That's why I don't even include an
'Anaerobic' zone in my definition of endurance fundamentals. .
Next week I'll talk about
some real fun stuff: strength, stamina, efficiency, power and speed. Yeah, baby.
Endurance Fundamentals
What are the physical qualities
required by a Triathlete/Duathlete/Xterra-rat? We've read numerous articles on
becoming strong and powerful, developing stamina and speed. We've heard about
improving your Anaerobic Threshold, your lactate tolerance, your anaerobic
system and your aerobic base. My aim in this edition is to provide a simple
outline and definition of key athletic qualities and how one might develop
them. In the future I'll discuss these individual qualities in greater depth,
give workout specifics and suggest how to lay them out in a training plan.
If you've taken my prerequisite course
titled 'The Performance Curve' you're likely only reading this to see what
happened when Uncle Bob threw his cheap beer at Peter Reid. Either a.
Peter punches ol' Bob out, b. Peter internalizes the aggression and
projects it in October on the Ironman course or c. he laughs at the
familiarity of being soaked in energy drink. Knowing Peter, some, the
answer isn't a.. Besides, this would be an inappropriate workout for
Ironman training. I doubt Peter practices on a punching bag and therefore his
arms would be very sore after stuffing Bob further into his Lazy boy.
I'm procrastinating. So, here it is:
When I write athletes a training
schedule I aim to develop the athletes muscular and cardiovascular fitness required for endurance. I define endurance as going hard for an extended period
of time. Endurance is what our sport is all about, be it Olympic Distance or
Ironman.
Muscular and
Cardiovascular Endurance
I. Muscular qualities that
lead to muscular endurance
A. strength: muscles that can
lift, pull or push considerable resistance.
a.
weights
b.
hill work/ climbing
B. stamina: muscles that can
maintain function for a very long period of time.
a.
extended exercise time
b.
strength
C. efficiency: muscles trained
to perform a specific task repeatedly with little wasted energy.
a.
high cadence cycling
b.
single leg drills cycling
c.
extended exercise time
D. power: muscles that can
accelerate a given resistance.
a.
shorter hill efforts
b.
accelerations
E. speed: muscles that can
repeatedly fire
quickly.
a.
short
quick 80-100m or slight downhill efforts running
b. 25-50 yard sprints swimming
c. high cadence drills cycling
II. Cardiovascular endurance
fundamentals I define in four "zones(1)" and develop roughly in this
order:
A. aerobic base (Heart Rate
est.(2) 120-
145)
a.
easy exercise
b.
overdistance (long slow distance)
B. aerobic strength
(HR est. 145- 165) (75-85% of race 10K run or 40K ride TT effort).
a.
aerobic intervals: 1-8 minute efforts in prescribed intensity range (1-2min
recovery jogs)
b.
tempo efforts: 8-30min sustained effort
in prescribed intensity range
C. Anaerobic Threshold (AT(3))/
Sub-Max (HR
est. 165- 178) (90-98% 10K or 40K TT race effort)
a.
AT/aerobic intervals: 1-5 minute efforts (1-2min recovery jogs)
b.
training race
D. AT/Anaerobic (HR est. 178-
188) (95-105% 10K run or 40K TT race effort)
a.
intervals at and just above one's anaerobic threshold: 2-3min efforts (1-2min
recovery jogs)
b.
racing 15min- 1 hour
(1) Note my zones are
different from some other sources. This is my Web Page!
I have a wide range for zone 2/ aerobic strength and divide other's Anaerobic
Threshold zone into two. I also largely ignore the Anaerobic zone.
(2) Heart Rate ranges can
differ cycling, running , swimming and are age and fitness variable. The ranges
I provide are based on me after a good nights sleep or most athletes in their 30's.
(3)
'AT' Heart Rate can be pretty closely determined by recording ones heart rate during a 10K run, 40K cycling TT
or similar simulation.
It's significant to note what fitness components I've left out besides a
punching bag session. I'll discuss those and specifically the cardiovascular components
of endurance next week. The
point I'll bang you over the head with is the importance of understanding the
difference between aerobic and anaerobic effort.
I was a high school Nordic ski racer
when I first saw this graph. Nevertheless, it took me years of not heeding
it's simple lesson before I truly understood it's wisdom. Let's go over it.
The Performance Curve
The vertical axis
tracks ones ability to perform (performance level). The horizontal axis measures
time in days. At any given time, rested, let's put your ability to perform at A.
On this day you do an appropriate quality workout. Immediately after your
workout your ability to perform goes down- you're tired, you're fatigued. At B.
after a day or two's rest you've bottomed out and begin to recover. Soon you've
recovered to the ability you were originally: C. Given more rest, the magic of
the human body kicks in, and you actually get stronger. Your body's ability to
perform "super compensates" to peak at D. More rest and unfortunately
your fitness reverses until P. you've officially achieved coach potato
status.
Here's your assignment: Pull out some
scratch paper, draw this graph and extend it to draw the ideal training
progression. At which point A, B, C, D, F or P, does one do the next
quality workout? Next, draw the graph titled "overtraining fool," or,
"how to acquire Chronic Fatigue." Draw the graph that at A. applies
to a strenuous training day with Peter Reid. Draw one if you were to do a
workout with your beer guzzling Uncle Bob. For a tough one, draw the perfect
taper for the big race graph.
The single most important point of this
graph, given our sport's nature of over achievers, is the significance of REST.
We don't just need to recover from a workout, do another, recovery, do another,
etc.. Our performance would stay flat. We need to rest sufficiently to allow our
body to build itself stronger than before, before we do another quality
workout.
If it were only so easy. We've got
three sports to train for. I can't spend three days resting between each run,
ride or swim. I'd only get one of each workout in per week. Fortunately, with
some overlap, running, cycling and swimming stress different physical systems.
Also, an appropriate workout stresses only one or perhaps two of the fundamental
qualities required for each given sport, allowing other systems to recover. What
are these fundamentals qualities and systems? Tune in next week to see what
happens when Bob chucks his beer at Peter. And, I'll describe the muscular and
cardiovascular qualities that make up a triathete stud and studess.
Dealing with Downers
For the last four
years I’ve gotten to watch Ironman Hawaii from Alii Drive and the Queen K
highway. Hundreds of training hours, fatigue, sacrifice, suffering, qualifying
and dreams culminate in a single day. Everyone starts the race envisioning his
or her best day. Watching runners shuffle in and out of the marathons Energy Lab
turnaround I already witness athletes struggle with lowered expectations. I'd
say at least half finish disappointed. There's just so much that has to go right
for an athlete to have a great Ironman race. This applies to any Triathlon,
Duathlon and Xterra. Disappointment is a big part of our sport. It's why
we get nervous. We place expectations on ourselves and take the risk of failure.
All this gibberish
doesn't help me one iota after I've flatted or dehydrated or felt lousy. I want
to tear something apart, yell, cuss and sulk. Over the years I've had my share
of failed expectations. Some of you might
remember the years I was a "headliner/favorite" at duathlon’s biggest prize Powerman
Zofingen. After my first year finishing
a promising 7th, I DNF'd 5 times! (Or was it 6, I lost count). Last
weekends DNF at Wildflower gives me a chance to relive and share how I deal with
racing downers.
Instinctively, I'm the kind
of guy that would like to crawl in a hole or high tail it out of the race site
after a bad race. Often we have friends and family watching or racing so we
can't. I'm grateful for their presence. They, of course, want to know what
happened. My first goal is not to burden them with shoulda, coulda, woulda--fact
is, I didn't. My ego is my responsibility. I want them to enjoy their day so
they’ll come support me again and hopefully share a great race in the future. Nevertheless, in my head, I'll think about what could have
been. I try to redirect that energy into motivation, even if it’s forced.
There's always another race, I tell myself, another chance to do it right. I do
love the challenge of preparing for an event. Now, I get to do it again with
lessons learned and to be applied.
Post race I always find
others with bad days. I don't wish it on anyone but it is comforting that I'm
not alone. Shit happens. Worse shit happens. Look at Cameron Widoff. He was so
sick race morning he didn't even get to race. Peter Reid, with all eyes and
cameras on him, pulled out feeling sick. Yet, we all survive to race another
day.
Monday's are for sulking.
Failure doesn't dissipate in a post race party commiserating with fellow losers.
When I get home and take the number and scrub the Gu off my bike a low-pressure
front moves over me. Even after great races I sulk on Mondays. I can always find
something about the race I'm bummed about. I go over the failure ad nauseam
until I have a grasp of what happened. And, surprise, I'm almost always at least
partly culpable.
Rule number one for
sulking Mondays: don't make any decisions! We all know athletes that after a bad
race decide to never race again, think since they rode poorly they'll now only
do running races, change their race plans so they can train twice as much, sell
their bikes or vow never to eat another cookie (I can't imagine). After over ten
years in multi-sport and many more competing, I can see that I have at least two
disaster races a year. Count it as one and don't make the same mistakes again.
Other people’s
expectations are other people’s expectations. This simple fact makes me
examine why I compete and what I do or don't love about the sport. Some athletes
are driven to prove themselves to others. An athlete has proven oneself to me if
they are committed to improving, work hard and are respectful to others on and
off the racecourse. Being the best or better doesn't necessarily mean a whole
lot. Great performances are an inspiration, a beautiful thing to watch and
deservedly get a lot of attention. I know I want to prove myself to my peers, my
sponsors and myself. Recognition for a job well done is great but I can't depend
on it solely to keep me motivated. I can't articulate well why I compete; I know
reflecting on it enriches me, and, that I simply love the challenge. When I do
come up short in a race there's little I can do about it but learn and reapply
myself. If all my sponsors bail, well, that's part of the risk I take. I can
always clean windows. (Really, I'm not stressed).
Let your frustrations out: not on family, friends and secretaries, and
not in a self- destructive manner. When I’m angry I come home injured. Once I
was so upset I refused to turn around on a run-- foot injury. I’ve crashed
while pissed off on my mountain bike--mountains aren’t very sympathetic. Too
much beer: I wake up sick and even more down. My mother used to collect ashtrays
at restaurants and smash them against a wall behind the house. Something I do,
am not proud of and only recommend when wearing running shoes is to verbally
confront smokers and cyclists without helmets. These fools are so self-centered
they deserve the abuse. This includes the punks we call “pro” cyclists.
(There, I feel better).
The best advice I’ve ever gotten helps prevent disappointment. Always
do your best! Circumstances may vary: course, weather, fitness, mechanicals,
health, but we can always give 100% effort. By doing our best we minimize
self-judgment, self-abuse and regret.
Lastly, I try not to come
back too fast from bad races. I give myself a hard training break if only for
mental purposes. Disappointment by itself can take a lot out of me. Relax, I
tell myself, the fitness gained training for a big event carries through for
many months. I always raced great after bombing at Powerman Zofingen. Though,
I still keep my window cleaning bucket and squeegee in the basement.
See you at the next one.
