What’s it take to bike 20MPH for 112 miles

Posted on December 6, 2010 by Dad

Looking at my Nov. 27, 2010 Post, to get under 12 hours in an Ironman I will likely need to average at or close to 20MPH on the bike split…5:36:00…(19.5MPH = 5:44:36)…in ‘normal’ conditions…so what will that take I wondered…here’s what I found out.

Starting with my Dec. 4, 2010 post, I see that in a training ride on May 9, 2009, on a relatively flat out and back course…tri bike with ZIPP wheels:

total was 1:05:26 at 21.1MPH, 133HR avg, 213W avg for 22.9 miles

On a local out and back on Shearers road, which is very hilly, but not quite running out gears, on a August 14, 2010 ride, tri bike with ZIPP wheels:

shearer NS combined: 188W, 18.9MPH, 130HR avg, 15.387mi, 49:07

And on my road bike with non-aero wheels…the other 2 were on the tri bike…same Shearers road route on August 28, 2010:

211W both ways average…N with the wind, but mainly uphill: 18.3MPH, 133HR avg, S against the wind, mainly downhill, 21MPH, 135HR avg, so 19.7MH avg on 211W

This tells me that on the tri bike, with the ZIPP wheels, I’ll need 200-210 watts to give me the 20MPH…so let’s call it 200 watts for a round number.

So what does it take to be ‘capable’ of averaging 200 watts for 112 miles?…of course, no stopping included…when I say ‘capable’, ultimately, the balance between bike and run may determine a different final race goal.

Joe Friel in Training Long notes:

Power training zones are based on functional threshold power (FTP), which is the power you can maintain for an hour CP60

Joe also states that a 30 minute time trial by yourself, is roughly the same as a 60 minute time trial race, since you’ll push harder in a race…interesting…also noting that in a perfect world, a good rule of thumb is:

that average power decreases by 5% as duration doubles.  So an athlete with a CP30 of 200, would be expected to have a CP60 of 190 (95% of CP30)

So once we’ve established the FTP, what does that mean for our race power target?…Joe says that Ironman racing on the bike is done in Power Zone 2, which is 56-75% of FTP …Novice athletes at or below the bottom, highly trained elite athletes may be as high as 5% above.  So for my 200W race target, Joe would say my target FTP (or CP30) should be between @ 56%: 357W, and @ 75%: 267W…so if I got to a CP30 (FTP) of 300W, I could potentially race at 67% to meet my 200W goal to get to 20MPH.

Joe includes a table…he credits Copyright 2008 by Rick Ashburn…which suggests that for my 5:30-5:40 bike split goal, that with proper preparation I could ride at about 70% of Functional Threshold Power (FTP), so for my 200W goal, I would need a FTP of 286W.

The Endurance Nation (EN) folks have a slightly different take on things…I think that we’ve seen that before…although the race intensity table that they use is exactly the same as Joe Friel uses…nice to see the boys agree on something 🙂

It starts with establishing their baseline to establish the FTP level….they offer 4 methods…their baseline test is 42 minutes:

  • perform a FT Test (FTT)…which is 20 minutes build to all out…2 minutes easy spin…then 20 minutes build to all out again…and then take the ‘normalized’ power for the entire 42 minutes, including the 2 minutes easy

Other than a bit of a different idea on how to come up with the FTP number, they both agree on the race pace approach.

Final Thoughts

So it looks to me like I’ll need Functional Threshold Power (FTP) to be around  a minimum of 285 watts to be in a position to ride the Ironman 112 miles at 200W, or 20MPH…so in simple terms a CP30 of 285W, or the EN 42 minute test at a ‘normalized’ 285W.

Seems to me, therefore, that my early season training should focus on getting to that number…and then building off of that…will be _very_ interesting to see where I’m at at this point…probably will be very humbling.

I did very little high intensity work in 2010, so my recorded CP numbers for the lower time ranges, are very low.  On June 24, 2009, CP20 was 272W, so CP30 @5% less would be 258…my all time high recorded CP30 was 250W in 2006…so clearly I have my work cutout to get to 285W for CP30…like, since I’ve never in my life been there…or an equivalent CP20 of 300W…the local time trials that begin in April are 10 miles, so over 20 minutes, and may therefore be a good target benchmark to test the progress of that CP20 number.

No matter how you cut it, time to get the lead out of my butt, that’s for sure 🙂

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Swim goals updated: 1:30/100 yards…once

Posted on December 5, 2010 by Dad

In taking a closer look at my swimming goal of 1:15 for the 2.4 mile Ironman swim, I was looking for intermediate goals for shorter distances. 

The closest that I found to an equivalency chart was in the Endurance Nation stuff, where they note that their ‘unofficial’ observations for what constitutes ‘good swimming’ is 1:46/100 yards or 1:56/100 meters for 2.4 miles, with a shorter distance pace goal of 1:27/100 yards or 1:36/100 meters for 1500 meters…sounds pretty fast to me, since all out, right now, I can’t swim 100 yards ‘once’ in much under 2:00.

I’ve always liked the Total Immersion (TI)  philosophy of focusing on efficiency, and form.  There has always been ongoing controversy with the TI approach, and whether it produces ‘pretty’ swimmers rather than ‘fast’ swimmers’.

Since for 2.4 miles…current and open water path deviation aside…on a great day, I’m now probably around 1:30:00, or 2:07/100 yards, or 2:19/100 meters, I have plenty of room for improvement.

So I guess the first goal, is to be able to swim 100 yards…once…in 1:30.

No points for pretty in Ironman.

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Next Season planning continues

Posted on December 4, 2010 by Dad

The more I think about it, I do ‘feel the need…the need for speed’ :) 
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ZwNWviK5z0Q

My focus right now is getting the training plan setup for the beginning of January, to get a jump-start on the season goals…and part of that is finalizing the season goals.

I find myself intrigued by some of the Endurance Nation ideas.  I guess what I find interesting about it, is that I’ve read quite a bit over the past couple of years about ‘intensity’ producing equivalent endurance results to ‘volume’, but this is the first time that I’ve seen a long course training program specifically and solely based on it…along with the feedback from a couple of years from a few hundred long course athlete’s…most other ‘studies’ seem to be goofy short, or small, or if replicated produce conflicting results.

In looking at the Endurance Nation stuff for the first 3 weeks of their OutSeason, every workout has a core Z4/Hard element to it (only exception is short brick runs off the bike), but they keep the volume down to under 7 hours a week, so it’s really premised on go-very-hard, but short…for 20 weeks ideally…and then add in the ‘far’ closer in to the event.

…not sure what their adjustment is for adding in swimming for nuts like myself that feel the need…or just terribly slow…or for bum knees…or if you simply have more time, and willing to spend it on training…presumably if the pro’s workout for 20-35 hours a week, they’re doing something with the time that’s worthwhile…or maybe not…I’m going to research this further.

That bum knee is the wild card right now.  I ‘feel’ it on every run, but it doesn’t really ‘hurt’… swelling is the net effect…but not horrible…so presumably the torn meniscus irritating the joint.

I’ll be catching up with Coach Dinah for her input to the swimming thing this week…phone call on Monday, then an hour in the pool on Wednesday.  My thinking at this point would be a weekly, one ‘lesson’ or drill focused session, one drills/form-focused swimming by myself to practice, and one ‘fast’…see if I can finally solve swimming this year.

In terms of running, ‘if’ the knee would hold up, I’d probably like to try out a high intensity approach, even if it’s for a few weeks to see what happens…’lab rat test of one’…I ‘should’ be faster than I am in the run portion of races…and it seems that I never race up to my potential in the run…although part of that is probably developing crushing speed on the bike, and then have a smart race ride, and leave some legs for the run.

In terms of cycling, I’ll talk with a couple of the local shops about the group rides, to add some speed motivation…nothing like trying to stay on the last wheel of a 30MPH peloton of 50 cyclists to get the heart rate up…like I did in Palm Beach a couple of winters ago…took me 2 months before I could complete that ride without getting dropped, and another 2 months to finish with the lead group…here are my log notes from a 3 hour ride on May 9, 2009:

It’s not often that I _really_ acknowledge, even to myself that I had a great workout, or that my fitness is even improving…but even I have to say that today was a really great day on the bike…hot 76F (@ 7am) finishing at 87F, and humid 90% going out, 57% by the end, winds pretty light 5-10MPH from the SE

– warmup ride down to the start of the group ride, and caught up with them as planned at Lake Worth 34 minutes into my ride

– long and the short of it was that I actually completed the group ride today with the lead group for the first time…too cool…never dropped, never off the back, no tip-over’s…lungs hanging out a few times, but able to stay in there…32.8MPH max, 24.9MPH average (and this includes a bit of a stop and go section through town for a few red lights), 139HR avg, 156HR max, 215W (norm 258W) average for the 52min….CP 5min was 308W (322W norm)…that was the 152HR avg, 156HR max section…that was part of the CP 10min at 272W (300W norm), 146HR avg

 – and it actually gets better…I’ve never actually had…at least specifically recorded… a 1 hour out and back or circle route over 20MPH…even as a young lad…so something that I’ve had in the back of head for a while to do…I ‘knew’ I could do it now, just never had, and wanted to see if I could do it without killing myself, and feeling like it was a sustainable speed

…and since I was already warmed up from the group ride, I thought I’d give it a try to see what happens on legs where the edge has been taken off a little already …winds were 5-10MPH from the south, so headed south to start…felt if I could maintain close to 20MPH going against the wind, I could make it up coming back…was taking about 210-220W to keep it there…first leg was 36 minutes…went a little longer when it occurred to me that I could make it a 40K Time Trial…213W avg, 20.1MPH, 132HR avg, 137HR max, so a nice high Z2 low Z3 as we now have it…didn’t know it at the time, but I thought I was close to 20MPH…180 turn, now with a bit of wind at the back, ended up coming back in 28 minutes, 212W avg, 22.4MPH, 134HR avg, 139HR max, so still mid Z3…had to stop at a red light with cross traffic near the end, so didn’t get all the way back to the starting point…short about 1 mile…so average speed would only have been higher since I was still with the wind…total was 1:05:26 at 21.1MPH, 133HR avg, 213W avg for 22.9 miles…and still had lots of legs left

– not bad for an old guy I’m thinking

– also left thinking that the Cervelo P2C with the ZIPP’s is fast…nice power to speed ratio

From what I’ve been able to find, it looks like the group rides this time of year, where I live now now are ‘B’ speed…under 20MPH…the long-slow philosophy…the fast stuff is in spinning classes…one of the bike shops has a weekly ‘pain-fest’ for 90 minutes on Computrainers…but it’s a mid-week thing, so not sure that if I have a specific time slot for a swim lesson whether I want to add another specific mid-day time slot for this…I know that I don’t want the 5:30am slot.

I’m going to add in the various dates that I have into the calendar, convention, vacation, trips, events to start getting more specific…and then find some speed.

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May 7, 2011: Jetton Park Sprint Plus added

Posted on December 3, 2010 by Dad

I’ve added another event onto the calendar…the Jetton Park Triathlon an early season sprint plus…the plus part, since the swim is on the high-end of a normal sprint distance…others I’ve done often at 500M.  This is a local race, run by Setup Inc.

  • 750 meter Swim
  • 20K Bike
  • 5K Run

I was actually looking for an Olympic distance in May, and may still add one, as a speed tester before my Half Iron on July 3.  There’s always the White Lake Half Iron that I’ve done a couple of times…on May 7 and May 14 in 2011…so popular now that they run on 2 weekends…but I’d like to stay focused on ‘fast’ in the early season, so will probably focus on shorter, early.

There’s another sprint locally, but the swim is on a pool, and that’s not really lighting my fire.

One option is an Olympic distance on May 21, the Over The Mountain Triathlon. 

  • 1.5K Swim
  • 45K Bike
  • 10K Run

There’s also a bike Time Trial series that looks really interesting to me…short for a time trial…10 miles…so an all-out pain-fest, pushed to the max.  Looking at last year, and picking the last race of the year, to win my age category: 27.19MPH, 22:04.02 minutes…last place is 21MPH, 28 minutes…and that’s the Recreational category.  Racing category, Masters 55+ winner was slightly faster: 28.8MPH, 21:11.35.  The winner in the Men 70-74 category: 26.08MPH…geez.  At least by 80 years old they’re slowing down a bit: the winner averaged 20.29MPH.

  • April 20
  • May 11
  • June 8 (Kids Event)
  • July 23 (Kids Event)  *This is a Saturday Night!!!*
  • August 17 (Team Time Trial)
  • September 7 (Award Presentations)

Considering that I’ve only raced Ironman for the last 2 years…like 1 a year…it’ll be interesting to have a few more events on the calendar…I think that it will help establish some early goals to get the season on track.

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Swimming goal 1:15:00 for 2.4 mile swim

Posted on December 2, 2010 by Dad

In an earlier Post, I noted that the Endurance Nation speed ‘cutoff’ to not have to swim during the winter was a 1:15:00 Ironman swim…well, okay, it’s not really presented that way, but the way that I like to think about it 🙂

…more properly, if you’re this fast in the water, they say you should be investing your time on the bike and running (and SAU, spousal approval units), rather than swimming…a bigger return in terms of time improvement, for the time invested…if not, drill your brains out until you’re there.

So to see how valid a goal that was, I figured that I’d look it up, as it relates to Ironman Florida…I figured that it was pretty fast, and would represent the ‘really fast’ swimmers.  Here’s what I found:

There were 2399 swim finishers in Ironman Florida 2010.  A 1:15:00 was swim position 1112, so 54th percentile (1200 was 50th percentile, and 1:16:09)…so basically 100 swimmers a minute are finishing around this time-frame.  I was a bit surprised by that…I figured that a 1:15:00 swim time would be a higher ranking than that…_really_ highlights just how slow I am in the water.

The transition area would be absolutely packed compared to when I’ve been sauntering in…so much for the concierge service that I’ve been enjoying up to now.

In my age category, 1:15:02 was 29/84 in the swim, so 65th percentile.

So a 1:15:00 Ironman swim, looks to be a pretty modest goal.  The intriguing thing out of it, is that the Endurance Nation folks would therefore recommend that about half of Ironman Florida finishers in 2010, should do little to no swimming during the ‘Outseason’…very interesting.

Extending that thought a little, I can see a mathematical basis for the logic as it relates to my age category:

  • A 1:15:00 swim is 75 minutes…if that improved 10%, that would be 7.5 minutes faster, for a 1:07:30 (29/84 <65% > to 12/84 <86%>
  • A 6:00:00 bike is 360 minutes…if that improved 10%, that would be 36 minutes, for a 5:24:00 (29/84 <65%> to 10/84 <88%>…a 10 minute improvement is only a 2.7% improvement
  • A 5:00:00 run is 300 minutes…if that improved 10%, that would be 30 minutes, for a 4:30 (31/84 <63%> to 17/84 <80%>…a 10 minute improvement is only a 3.3% improvement.

Interesting to see how those numbers line up.  To me this means that to get to a 1:15 swim, pulls the swim in line with my bike and run…and from there, to move the swim to the 86th percentile, only saves me 7.5 minutes…whereas if I move my bike to the basically the same level, I save 36 minutes, and the run 30 minutes.

So with a 1:15 swim, 6 hour bike, and 5 hour run and 2×10 minute transitions, a 12:35 Ironman. 

With a 1:15 swim, 5:24 bike, and 4:30 run + 2×10 minute transitions, a 11:29 Ironman…geez, I could shower, change, make a 8:00pm dinner reservation, and still have time to come back and cheer on the midnight finishers…how cool would that be.

So if one accepts that the 1:15:00 swimmers would see very little or no decline in their performance by not swimming for 20 weeks +/-…and the Endurance Nation folks emphatically state that their experience clearly demonstrates that to be true…then I _need_ to get to 1:15:00 this year, which would allow even more focus on the bike and run next season, which should make me faster again.

Makes sense to me…well…off to the pool.

Posted in Dad's Blog Posts, Ironman, Ironman Florida, Racing, Swimming, Training | Tagged , , , , , | 2 Comments

Body fat percentage

Posted on December 1, 2010 by Dad

So what is my body fat percentage inquiring minds would like to know?…including myself…well sort of…the idea that the tests are all inaccurate…just to what degree…doesn’t really excite me very much, so I haven’t bothered.  I also have the opposite problem of a lot of people…I _think_ that I look good no matter what I _really_ look like 🙂

Here’s an interesting link that shows the progression in how a body looks as the body fat percentage comes down: http://www.exer-phys-club.com/bfguidearticle.html 

To me, 2 tests are as good as anything else out there:

  1. Mirror Test: jump up and down in front of the mirror and see how much jiggles…that’s the fat
  2. Speedo Test: how much do I need to suck in my gut in my Speedo on the pool deck to look passable

…and whatever you do _never_ stand next to David Quick in his Speedo…I only made that mistake once, and went on a diet for a month

Tons of stuff on the Internet about the different way to calculate your body fat percentage…as well as the weaknesses with each one.   One worthy of note is a newer test that may be worthwhile if you _really_ want to know:

DEXA (dual energy X-ray absorptiometry) (DXA)

This test is used to measure bone density, but it also measures body fat percentage as well as where most of your fat is (as if you didn’t know). The facts about DEXA:

  • DEXA uses a whole body scanner and two different low-dose x-rays to read bone mass and soft tissue mass.
  • It takes about 10-20 minutes to do a body scan
  • It provides a high degree of precision with a 2-3 % margin of error.
  • This is considered a gold standard for measuring body fat and bone density
  • It’s painless

So for purposes of this Post, I figured I’d go over to the local gym where I’m a member, and see if they could do a skin fold caliper test.

It’s a popular test, but even if the measurements are accurate, the skin fold caliper test has a wide range of inaccuracy…20% in an accurate test could really be anything from 16-24%…the value of the test is deemed to come from comparative results over time, using the same experienced technician, that at least tells you what the trend of measurements is.

They were very accommodating…after finding the calipers, and someone who had used them before, and then found the book that showed how and where to take the readings…true story…we proceeded with the 7 measurement test.  It had been a while since the technician had done a skin fold caliper test, acknowledged that the results therefore, may not be entirely accurate…had a challenge in getting the thigh measurement (a common difficulty)…and the manual calculations appeared to be very complex mathematical equations taken out to about 10 decimal points…but we did get a final number…27.8% body fat apparently.

When I got home I checked the math on the formula sheet, and there was a calculation error, so the measurements actually produced a 23.7% with the 7 measurements, or a 20.9%, if you used their 3 measurement formula, or a 20.1%, using an online YMCA calculator that uses a slightly different formula.
http://www.gain-weight-muscle-fast.com/body-fat-calculator.html
http://www.health-calc.com/body-composition/skinfold-ymca

I’ve also read that age adjustments in formulas…like the 3 that were used above…can also overstate the body fat in athletes:

Why do the equations include age? By including age the equations attempt to compensate for the fact that as your body ages it begins to lose lean muscle, retain intra-abdominal fat, and lose bone density. These things are not measurable with your body fat calipers. The age compensation included within the equations is based on normal people, not active trainers. Physical activity and especially strength training will negate the age part of the equation.So, if you are in superior shape you will likely get a more accurate body fat percentage by just claiming to be 20 (or 21 if you still want to buy alcohol) when you do your body fat calculations.

So plugging in 20 years old, instead of 56 into the formula, gives a 15.9% body fat.

So given the probable variance in the measurements to start with, and the variance in formulas, I still don’t really know what my body fat percentage is…about what I expected.  Male pro triathlete’s are 5-12%…I’ve seen those buff young guys, and I know that I’m nowhere near any of that.

I’m left thinking…

Matt Fitzgerald in Racing Weight, says that most endurance athlete’s are genetically capable of reaching at least the 80th percentile for their gender and age group as defined by data collected by Kip Russo, founder of Body Fat Test, Inc..  I’d be leaner than 8 out of 10 in the reference group, which was a group leaner than the general population to start with. 

For my age category…this would be 17.9%…sounds reasonable to me.  The next 2 levels are 85th percentile: 16.9%, and 90th percentile is 15.3%.

For Daughter: 80th percentile: 17.1%, 85th percentile: 16.0%, 90th percentile: 14.5%

Mirror Test, Speedo Test…and even with all the variables, the skin fold caliper test…there was stuff to ‘pinch’…all confirm about the same thing…I could probably lose 10 pounds anyway… and be better off for it.

…hopefully mostly fat…many authors like Ingrid Loos Miller in Weight Management for Triathlete’s say ‘losing some muscle is unavoidable during weight loss’…see our post on Losing fat not muscle.  At that point, I’ll probably do the DEXA test to see where I’m really at, and go from there.

…and even then, I still wouldn’t stand near David in his Speedo 🙂

Posted in Dad's Blog Posts, Exercise, Nutrition | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Running: Pace vs. Heart Rate

Posted on November 30, 2010 by Dad

I’ve had the question while running in Charleston in the heat of the summer…should I be running based on Heart Rate (HR) or Pace?

My Heart Rate is significantly higher on hot days, or more properly, for the same Heart Rate, I’m running at a slower Pace than on a cooler day…the question is:

If I run at 140HR, on a hot day at 10 minutes per mile, is that the same workout as a 140HR on a cooler day at 9 minutes per mile?

I’m reminded that the pacing approach was something promoted _many_ years ago by running coach Jack Daniels.  His book, Daniels’ Running Formula was another one that I wore out, as I was originally ramping up my marathon training over 10 years ago.  He used benchmark running tests at various distances to establish a fitness level called vDOT, and used this to predict performance at various other distances.  I used it as a method to try to figure out how fast I could run a marathon. 

His premise was that pacing for workouts should be based on a benchmark all-out, running test like a 5K race…actually a few of them…to establish your vDOT…calculated by entering the time and distance information in a calculator (like this one)…and that all workouts should then be based on that vDOT pace, and that you could predict race performance at other distances from that vDOT, as long as you trained appropriately for them.

His view is that Heart Rate would be variable depending on lots of different factors, and that Pace should be the constant.  He uses the example of altitude, saying that if you were training at sea level at a certain Pace, that delivered a certain HR, and then did the same workout at altitude, that if you kept the same HR, that your Pace would be lower, and you wouldn’t be getting the same workout…therefore keep your Pace the same, and accept the higher HR, to get the same workout.  His view is that the work that your muscles are doing, is what improves them, and that Heart Rate is a secondary indicator of the work.

In addressing Heart Rate, Daniels says:

Possibly the greatest use of HR monitoring is to help avoid overtraining.  When standard workouts under ideal conditions produce HR values that are higher than typical, it is usually an indication that something is wrong…

I pulled that old book off the shelf because I had marked my progress in it.   I see that my original vDOT based on a 1 mile run was 35, and improved to 42 over time.  Will be interesting to see what it is now.

The Endurance Nation folks also prefer Pace over Heart Rate…like throw-out-your-heart-rate-monitor ‘prefer’…noting that in a recovery week an athlete might be running 9:00/mile in Zone 2, and because they’re tired in a higher volume week, that same Zone 2, may only be 9:35/mile.  Their view is that running a mile in 8 minutes, always takes the same amount of ‘work’, regardless of Heart Rate, and other ‘external’ factors:

Heart rate and perceived exertion are now external factors we use to add more depth to our pace training. Regardless of how you feel, your body should be able to run at the pace based on the results of your most recent test. If you are unable to meet the pacing targets in a particular workout, then you truly are fatigued and should consider cutting the workout short. 

Should (you) just throw (your) old Heart Rate Monitor away?  No. If necessary, you might be able to sell it to fund your new Pace training approach.

Of course, there are challenges to being solely Pace focused…first of all, knowing what Pace you are travelling at without running on a track or treadmill all the time.  I use a Polar 625x with a foot pod, that tells me what my Pace is, although in practise I find that it jumps around a bit…but close enough to give me an idea of what I’m doing.  And then hills…and where I live now, it’s all hills, all the time…the Pace proponents acknowledge the challenge, suggesting that you slow down going up, and speed up going down, to come out to the target average Pace…of course, this is a best guess at the time, and you’ll really only know when you look at the results at the end of the workout.

Heart Rate, aside from the weakness of ‘variable on other factors than just workload’, is easy to monitor, although there is a lag between increased effort and the increase in Heart Rate, particularly on shorter intervals…on the bike, I’ll move up to the Power level that should give me a particular Zone and then wait for the Heart Rate to get there…and then adjust in subsequent intervals, based on how my body is responding.

My Summary

I think that both Heart Rate and Pace are helpful workout tools.

My training has largely been Heart Rate focused on the bike and on the run. I also use Power on the bike, depending on the workout.  I’m left thinking, that the Pace thing makes a good point.  If I want to run faster, I’ll need to run faster…makes sense.  There have been a few treadmill interval workouts, where I’ve had a target of Zone 3, and my ‘normal’ Zone 3 pace is putting me into Zone 4, so I’ve slowed down to stay in Zone 3…I’m thinking I should stay with the Zone 3 ‘Pace’, and accept the higher Heart Rate.

…and in the heat, either specifically workout only when it’s cool (_very_ early), or move it inside to keep up the Pace component, or accept the higher Heart Rate, and maintain the target ‘Pace’.

Of course, the first step to building in more Pace awareness, is to set the vDOT, so that I’m clearer what my Pace should be for different workout types…will look for a few 5K races over the next few months, or push a few 5K’s on the local track to establish a vDOT, and be more aware of my ‘Pace’ rather than just Heart Rate.

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Moving cycling indoors

Posted on November 29, 2010 by Dad

It’s getting a little chilly outside…not horrible, but with the high temperatures a lot of days only getting to 50-60F, the mornings are showing up around 30-35F…a little cool to comfortably get out the door…at least for me…okay okay, it’s not Calgary or Denver…but enough for me to wait for it to warm up, and therefore not getting out the door when I’m really ready to go.

So I’ve setup my trainers in the Man Cave over the weekend.  I have both, and very happy with both brands:

  • Static trainer: Kurt Kinetic
  • Rollers: Kreitler 2.25 Alloy drums

I also use a PowerTap power meter, and have one on my training wheels, and also on my Zipp 404 racing wheels.  I’ll leave my tri bike setup in the Static Trainer with the Zipp’s on for power, and use my road bike for the rollers with the training wheels.

So what’s the difference between the Static trainer and Rollers?

Lot’s of articles online about this, so I won’t repeat them here…for me the main things

Static:

  • easier…the tri bike is setup on it, it’s stable, and good for spinning off a few calories particularly during the off-season
  • easy to get on and off, if I’m squeezing a few exercise minutes between other stuff
  • helps me stay in ‘aero’ form during the off season
  • better for intervals: can really hammer on the power for big resistance without worrying about falling off the bike

Rollers:

  • more tender to ride, although this of course makes it much better to improve balance, and has a more realistic feel
  • improves pedal stroke to stay balanced

 Bottom Line:

Better for me than spending the extra time to get to the gym, or getting bundled up to roll out the door on cold days…I also use them as a warm-up if I’m waiting for the temperature to rise, so that I get started when I want to, rather than burning time waiting…and as the temperature gets to a rational point, can just roll out the door to complete the workout…or just finish up indoors, which often happens.

I do have the luxury of having them setup and ready to go, so really easy to just jump on and get started.  Since I ride my road bike a lot in the winter…particularly on group rides…I leave the tri bike in the static trainer, so that I get in the time in the aero position, that I otherwise wouldn’t do.

If I only had one, which one would I have?…I started with the rollers and added the static trainer later…if pressed, I’d probably say the static trainer, because it’s easier to use and more versatile…and therefore probably more likely to pull it out.  Luckily, I really don’t use them much, since I’ve been living in areas where you really can ride year-round…just fills in a few gaps nicely.

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Vancouver Half Iron July 3, 2011

Posted on November 28, 2010 by Dad

As we develop the season plans, Daughter and I have decided to do a little training race together on her home turf…the Subaru Vancouver Half Ironman on July 3, 2011: 
Swim 1.9KM, (2 laps), Bike 91KM, (4 laps), Run 20KM, (2 laps)

http://triseries.ca/vancouver/index.php

The Subaru Vancouver Triathlon will be staged in the magnificent setting of the Spanish Banks Beaches with stunning views of the downtown Vancouver skyline and the picturesque North Shore Mountains.  This event promises to be the most beautiful urban triathlon you will ever experience!

Payment has been received: Steve Kwiatkowski is Registered for Subaru Vancouver International Half Iron

Always too funny when I read about the ‘magnificent setting’ of a race.  I find that the half iron distance is a hard race…harder than Ironman since you can push it harder.  With my short neck, in the aero position on the bike, I’m only looking 15-20 yards ahead without straining, and through sweat-soaked glasses, I’m definitely not just looking at the scenery in a race.  Into the run, as the pain in the quads begins to grow, and with heaving breath, I’m more focused on preventing a full body cramp, than looking forward to the view at the next ‘overlook’.

I haven’t raced a half iron race since 2007…any race with Daughter…priceless…so I’m going to have to get the lead out of my butt to prepare for this shorter, faster, more intense distance.

I’ll be working on improving speed during the first part of the season, and will probably add another shorter, local race in May…exact dates to be announced, since the local race calendar for 2011 won’t be posted for another few days on December 1.

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How fast to go to Hawaii / Dad’s 12 Hour Goal

Posted on November 27, 2010 by Dad

So how fast do you need to be, to be one of the fastest Ironman triathlete’s in the world…that is to say, good enough to qualify for the World Championships in Hawaii?

Well, in my age category this year at Ironman Florida, and the next few oldest categories:

  • 09:35:08 Moats Kevin M55-59 1/84 
  • 10:26:28 Norris Randall M55-59 3/84 
  • 10:47:02 Saucier Marc M55-59 6/84 
           
  • 11:38:36 Park David M60-64 1/43 
  • 11:36:34 Weinbrandt Richard M65-69 1/16 
  • 13:38:44 Lettner Tommy M70-74 1/8

So 3 out of 4 of my faster Ironman finishes would qualify me for Hawaii…at the age of 70….geez.

Right now, it looks like a 10:30 gets me in the hunt in my 55-59 category, or in 2014, at age 60, a 11:30 to win the age category…today…as long as faster guys don’t come along and age up at the same time…I can see how on a really good day I could get to 12:30

In my end of season wrap-up with Coach Gale a few days ago, we were discussing the goals for the season ahead.  Her view was, without going into all the details of why, was that my current ‘top potential’ with lean body weight, my body holding up, training dialed right in, and a great race day, and great day at the race, was most likely an 11:45 Ironman…I was leaning more to the ‘under 12:30 range’, so think that I’m going to settle on a 12:00 ‘training goal’ for 2011…I could have said, 12:15, but 12:00 is a nice round number.  It feels _very_ ambitious to me, and therefore a good starting point….considering that my fastest Ironman to date was a  12:57 in 2008, a 13:22 in 2009, and 14:29 in 2010.

The race time goal a year out, to some degree, establishes initial training guidelines, and will probably be adjusted throughout the year, and by race day, depending on how training progresses.  If I said that my goal simply to finish under 15 hours, that training plan would look quite a bit different than one at 12:00.

We’re not anticipating that my total hours will go up dramatically…more back to the annual 500+ range that it’s been, than the 400 from last year…punch up the speed and intensity rather than hours, and stay healthy…time to get serious 🙂

Oh, I was asked the other day if I factor ‘getting older’ into the equation.  Nope…at least not yet…I still feel that my ability to improve my performance from my current level exceeds whatever decline in performance may be built in due to aging.

Many years ago, I wore out a book by Bob Glover and Shelly-lynn Florence Glover, called the Competitive Runners Handbook.  I loved a chart that they had that listed times for a marathon by age category, with the Percentile ranking, and what it meant…like 65%, ‘Advanced Competitor’…the highest ranking I achieved in the marathon.  I’ve extrapolated it to the Ironman Florida percentiles for my age category…not really totally scientific for a lot of different variable reasons, but enough for my purposes here.

…so what would it take for me to get to:

  • 11:32…this would be 11/84 in the 55-59 category…87% percentile: Semi-elite (85%)
  • 12:00… 21/84…75% percentile: Local champion (75%)
  • 12:30… 26/84…69% percentile: Advanced competitor (65%)
  • 13:00… 40/84…52% percentile, so a big group of guys in the 12:30-13:00 category: Basic competitor (50%)

soooo, Ironman Hawaii isn’t in the cards…yet…as it is, I’m definitely already exceeding my DNA…but ‘Advanced Competitor’ or even ‘Local Champion’ sounds pretty good to this short, stocky, balding 56 year old fullback 🙂

To predict your Ironman time from another triathlon distance (have also read to take your time for a half ironman, double it, and add 1 hour to get a ballpark number):
http://www.sportsdigest.co.za/tricalc.shtml

To play with the Ironman numbers yourself, and switch from Imperial to Metric at the top of the page at: http://www.bx3.com/phil/tri/tritime2.asp

11:40’ish

PaceTimeCumulative Time
Swim1:45/100 yards1:13:55
Transition 18:00
Bike20 MPH5:36:00
Transition 27:00
Run10:30 min/mile4:35:0611:40:01

12:00’ish

PaceTimeCumulative Time
Swim1:55/100 yards1:20:57
Transition 18:00
Bike19.5 MPH5:44:36
Transition 28:00
Run10:35 min/mile4:37:1711:58:50

12:30’ish

PaceTimeCumulative Time
Swim2:00/100 yards1:24:28
Transition 110:00
Bike19 MPH5:53:41
Transition 210:00
Run11:00 min/mile4:48:1212:26:21

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Endurance Nation says: OutSeason Key #3 Stop Swimming

Posted on November 26, 2010 by Dad

I was reading a series put out by Endurance Nation, called Rethinking the Off Season…they call it the OutSeason…click on the Free Resources link to sign up for the free seminar series…a worthy read

The first thing that caught my eye was ‘Key #3 Stop Swimming’…OMG, I _love_ these guys 🙂 …well, anyway here’s the fine print:

 If you are a “good swimmer” (100yds in 1:45 or faster):
* Stop swimming immediately. The amount of work you would need to do to get “better” is simply not worth investing now.
* Swim 1x every two weeks as recovery when you have the chance.

If you are a “good swimmer in training” (100yds in 1:50 or slower):
* Consider a block of 1:1 swim lessons

Since I’m a “good swimmer in training”, based on their recommendation, I should still be in the pool…oh well…there was that moment there…their further recommendation is that I drill my brains out for months…Coach Dinah is going to _love_ these guys as well…Coach Dinah _loves_ drills 

Here’s the expanded explanation of their idea:

If your Full/Half Ironman swim times are slower than about 1:15/:37, swimming faster for you is MUCH more about improving your technique than it is fitness. You are learning to play a piano. So not only is it a question of how much time should you invest in swimming but also what are you doing with your time?

If you are going to the pool and working to improve your swim fitness, you are wasting valuable time. If you are working on your technique, that’s great, but our athletes report that making this technique investment closer to the race yields nearly the same results on race day as working on technique much, much earlier in the year (in the OffSeason).
 

In other words if you must swim then you should do drills upon drills all winter long, making the most of that 80-120hr investment. The typical EN (Endurance Nation) athlete doesn’t swim (or swims very, very little) banking those hours as SAU’s ((spousal approval units). Instead s/he begins swimming much closer to their race. Our experience is that on race day you’ll both come out of the water next to, or very, very close to each other. 

…I guess the only good news is that they do have a tangible goal to be designated ‘good swimmer’…under a 1:45 for 100 yards, or more properly a 1:15 swim for the 2.4 miles in Ironman…I think that I’m going to dial that into the goals somewhere.

More to come on the Endurance Nation stuff in future Posts.

Posted in Achieving Goals, Dad's Blog Posts, Ironman, Swimming, Training | Tagged , , , , | 2 Comments

Thanksgiving Day…things for me to remember today

Posted on November 25, 2010 by Dad

Happy Thanksgiving!  I’m sure that Lib, Libby and the rest of the family are very happy to hear that I’m not going to bring my food scale to Thanksgiving Day dinner today, to weigh my food portions, and offer help to others 🙂

sooo, I’m going to take a day off from logging my Food Log

I’ve spent the last couple of weeks updating my focus on nutrition, and ‘rewiring’ my portion control thinking…good progress…so we’ll see how that tests out today…I’m going to go by our Emotional Eating scale, and see how it turns out at the end of the day.

A few things for me to remember today, faced with a banquet table of fun food choices.

First…one pound = 3,500 calories…so even if I _totally_ pigged out today, I’m not really going to actually gain any weight…I may feel lousy, and fat, and bloated at the end of the day, and tomorrow, but when it all shakes out, even an extra 1,000 calories on top of a ‘normal’ 1,000 calories for dinner is 1/3 of a pound, so not even noticeable on the scale…and a 2,000 calorie dinner, would definitely put me well past the ‘uncomfortably full’ point on our Emotional Eating Scale, so I should be getting body signals well before that.

However…I have been trying to behave, so:

  1. Exercise: I’ll get in about 1,000 calories of exercise burn to create a calorie cushion
  2. Portion control: a smaller ‘taste’ of servings rather than piling on
  3. Eat slower, and monitor how full I feel
  4. Thinking about leaving room for dessert, may help the portion control thing
  5. And when eating dessert, think about that portion control thing…like _really_ tiny portions of the _really_ fun stuff
  6. And keep the alcohol thing in check to leave some calorie room for the food thing and dessert thing

So here it is, for those that want to plan a bit…I have read that the average Thanksgiving dinner can be 3,000 calories, and another factor:

The average American will consume more than 4,500 calories and 229 grams of fat on Thanksgiving Day alone, according to the Caloric Control Council. Surprisingly, most of these calories come from the all-day snacking in front of the TV while watching parades and sporting events.

Here’s a video showing how to get to 2,000 calories before appetizers, dessert and drinks

ouch…maybe a bit of a plan ahead of time might help keep things in check just a bit:

…the Thanksgiving Calorie Calculator…includes how far to walk off the calories

…and just a calorie list of popular Thanksgiving foods

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What’s with gramma?

Posted on November 24, 2010 by Dad

Iron Buddy Anne Boone sends this along today. Anne races Ironman in the 60-64 age category 🙂


Funny cartoon, so I won’t spoil it by commenting on the dramatic rise in childhood obesity…dang…couldn’t help myself…okay, here it is…the CDC (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention) says:

According to the 2007-2008 NHANES (National Health and Nutrition Examination Survey), obesity now affects 17% of all children and adolescents in the United States – triple the rate from just one generation ago. America’s obese children are at an alarmingly heightened risk for elevated blood pressure, cholesterol, diabetes, and becoming obese adults. (Dad note: another 17% are deemed to be overweight…that’s fully 1 out of 3 kids either overweight or obese…ouch)

More about the “The Childhood Obesity Epidemic: Threats and Opportunities”

Michelle Obama is very focused on obesity and children: http://www.letsmove.gov/ … more yucky statistics:

…the average American child spends more than 7.5 hours a day watching TV and movies, using cell phones and computers for entertainment, and playing video games, and only a third of high school students get the recommended levels of physical activity.

In Charleston, one of my Yoga Buddies was ‘Louie’…he has an organization, Louie’s Kids, devoted to fighting childhood obesity ‘One Child at a Time’…for more info:
http://www.louieskids.org/

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Losing fat not muscle

Posted on November 24, 2010 by Dad

When restricting calories to lose a few pounds, much is made of losing ‘fat’ and not ‘muscle’.

Of course, the general idea is to lose excess fat that isn’t contributing anything to swimming, biking and runnning…and in fact gets in the way, since the extra weight makes you slower…particularly in running, and going uphill on the bike…and not sport specific muscle, which is contributing to the effort.

As a side note, many authors make the point that restricting calories too much can lead to your body adjusting by reducing your metabolism, which makes it even more difficult to lose weight…makes sense…don’t give it enough energy, and your body will slow down to a point to match the intake…many stories are cited where nutritionists ‘increase’ calories, to reduce weight…but we digress for this post…look for that discussion in a future Post.

So how about that fat loss vs. muscle loss…like most things nutrition related, the answers are often contradictory.

There are also some authors that point to the ‘type’ of workouts…some say slow and long burns fat…some say fast, intense…and some say that weight training is the way…sigh…_another_ topic for another day.

The one thread that seems to hold true in my reading, is that keeping your exercise volume up, and protein levels up, gives you the greatest chance of reducing unnecessary fat, instead of desirable muscle. 

Joe Friel, in an article in 2008, acknowledges that definitive studies on the topic for athlete’s are thin…and cites one in 1994 that leans towards maintaining protein as you reduce calories:

It appears that when calories are reduced to lose weight, which is more effective than increasing training workload, the protein content of the diet must be kept at near normal levels. This, of course, assumes that you’re eating adequate protein before starting the diet, which many athletes aren’t. If your protein intake is low, typically less than about 20 percent of total calories, then training quality will suffer and you are likely to lose muscle mass when eating less.

http://www.peaksware.com/articles/nutrition/weight-management.aspx

Monique Ryan, in Sports Nutrition for Endurance Athlete’s, also highlights the protein element, and notes that in her opinion, athlete’s that are restricting calories should be consuming .8 – .9 grams of protein per pound of body weight (so for me 160-180 grams)…the same as she recommends for athletes that have a ‘very heavy training’ schedule, and double her recommendation for those that are only training moderately (.45 or for me, 90 grams).

Matt Fitzgerald in Racing Weight, also likes protein…up to 30% in the off-season, largely for reducing appetite and other benefits, although he cites a study that says 12-15% of protein is fine even for strength athlete’s, and another study, (Rennie and Tipton 2000) that concluded that:

whole-body protein synthesis achieves its maximum rate at a protein intake level of 1.4 grams per kilogram of body weight (3.1 grams per pound…for me 62 grams) of protein. (Dad note: In other words, anything more than that isn’t needed)

Final Summary

So, if you want to lose some weight, and would prefer it to be fat instead of muscle, calorie reduction is at the core, and there appears to be a benefit to exercising and keeping up the protein.  It feels logical to me, that if your body adapts to how it’s being utilized, that continuing to swim, bike and run should tell it which muscles I’m using, and therefore to leave them alone…or more properly I’m betting that the body’s drive to repair them after exercise will equal or exceed the desire to cannibalize them to cover a calorie shortfall…let it look to excess fat stores that will happily give up their stored energy without other body systems fighting to keep them…and I keep the calorie shortfall small enough that my body shouldn’t be going into some panic mode to make adjustments…200-400 calories a day…barely noticable…go get it from the fat.

In terms of protein, how much?…for me, I keep it nudged up closer to 20%, than to 10-15%, and therefore added in a 2nd scoop of SP Complete (protein) in my morning smoothie to help get it in…also see our section in this blog on:
https://irondaughterirondad.com/nutrition/carbs-protein-fat/

Oh…and you’d need to be tracking it to know what your levels are in the first place 🙂

Last few days by way of example, my protein grams and percentage…differences in grams on a daily basis is based on differences in total calories for the day…I may still nudge that up a bit closer to 20%, although with exercise coming back on stream, the total grams will naturally come up as I eat more calories, even if I stay in the 15-20% range:
108.1g   18%
127.7g   17%
94.9g      17%
111.3g    19%
105.9g   20%

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Fat burning by ‘fasting’ during exercise

Posted on November 23, 2010 by Dad

Much has been made of importance of carbohydrates immediately before and during exercise, particularly when it goes over 1 hour in length.  Our page https://irondaughterirondad.com/nutrition/carbs-protein-fat/ summarizes a few of the expert opinions on this.

A ‘new study’ seems to contradict that…I noticed a ‘Racing Weight Newswire’ on www.racingweight.com that says:

Exercise Fasting Increases Muscular Fat-Burning Capacity

Exercise fasting–or working out without consuming carbohydrate before or during the training session–has lately become a hot research topic and a popular practice among cyclists and triathletes. The results of a new study published in the Journal of Applied Physiology promises to increase the popularity of workout fasting even more.

Twenty non-athletes participated in the study, which required them to train on bikes 60 to 90 minutes at a time, four times per week. Half of the subjects performed the workouts with ample carbohydrate intake before and during, while the other half performed workouts in a fasted state. The overall diets of both groups were identical. The researchers found that fasted exercise increased the exercise intensity associated with the maximal rate of fat burning significantly more than normal training did: 21 percent versus 6 percent. However, changes in VO2max and 60-minute time trial performance were equal in the two groups.

This suggests that up to at least 90 minutes, not taking in carbohydrates prior to and during exercise may even have a fat burning benefit, without a drop in performance…something interesting to consider, particularly when trying to reduce calories…which I’m doing now.

Of course, contradictory to a lot of other advice…so go figure.  The human body is still largely a mystery even to the experts…and there are so many variables, that it’s very difficult to draw meaningful conclusions in general, and next to impossible therefore to determine what’s best for you.  In this study of course, it was non-athletes, not endurance athletes…it didn’t really deal with the impact on recovery and the impact of the idea on athlete’s that workout every day, or twice a day. 

The only minor good news is that the only body that you need to figure out is yours.  Coming up in a Post soon, another interesting new study reported in the New York Times that demonstrates the massive difference in how bodies respond to exercise…and how some just don’t.

Like all new ideas, it’s worth doing some further reading…most studies I read about are very limited, in small groups for short periods of time, and many times when repeated by someone else, deliver different results.  If I think that a new idea makes sense, I don’t jump on the bandwagon and ditch the old…but I may ‘nudge’ what I’m doing in the direction of a new idea to see if it’s valid for me.

I generally don’t drink anything but water on exercise up to an hour right now, when it’s cooler out, and I’m not sweating a lot.  Hotter though, I do add in a carb drink with sodium since I’m a ‘champion sweater’.  I may play with that a bit when things warm up.  In the meantime, I may just ‘always’ instead of ‘generally’ stay on water for the first hour or so, to see how I do.

Sometimes when my schedule in the morning gets stretched out a bit, I find myself 2-3 hours after my breakfast, with a time slot for a workout, and sort of between whether I should eat something or not before the workout…I may just specifically skip it, and see what happens…I often do now.

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