How much weekly training Intensity? 20%

Posted on May 11, 2011 by Dad

Coach Gale Bernhardt and I have been in a detailed discussion recently about the right amount of training Intensity to include each week to steadily improve fitness and performance, without getting injured, over-trained or sick

High Intensity Training (HIT) means Zone 3 or above… ‘Moderately Hard’ in our summary chart from an earlier post. 

She wrote a very interesting summary of our discussions, in her blog post yesterday…worth reading in its entirety:

How much intensity should you include in your weekly training to improve?

and her followup today with more details: Part 2: It’s Complicated

…here are a few highlights and conclusions:

There is reasonable evidence that an ~80:20 ratio of low to high intensity training gives excellent long-term results among endurance athletes that train daily.

This means that about 20 percent of your training volume should be at high intensity.

After all that research, I came to the conclusion that my previous guidelines are still valid:

  • You should have 2 and no more than 4 key/breakthrough/stressful workouts each week. This includes big volume days, high intensity days or the combination of both.
  • The volume of weekly intensity should be about 20 percent of your total weekly training volume.

…so there it is…an nice hard number, which numbers guys like myself love.

Not all coaches are open-minded, nor willing to keep up to date with new ideas, or re-examine their own long-held beliefs…Coach Gale is like that though…a comment that I added to her blog post yesterday is worth repeating here:

Gale, I’ve certainly enjoyed working with you all these years, and through the intensity discussion and research this past few weeks

 …and thank you so much for your patience and detail in answering my persistent ‘why’ and ‘where did that come from’…and ‘who says’

 It’s terrific that you’ll always take the time to look at things from a new/fresh perspective, and keep an open mind to new ideas…it’s a great, and rare quality that I value a lot

…many sources and a lot of research that support the 80-20 view…it was nicely summarized in a paper that Coach Gale found…although a rather _detailed_ read:

Here’s the link: http://www.sportsci.org/2009/ss.htm

It’s almost too funny that this is in line with the Pareto Principle…widely known as the 80-20 rule which states that:

for many events, roughly 80% of the effects come from 20% of the causes

Part of this discussion came about because of my interest this season with the training approach promoted by the folks at Endurance Nation, that espouse a significantly higher percentage of Intensity each week…particularly on the bike…with a significant mix of even higher HIT Zone 4-5…so if you weight that into the ‘training stress’ equation…a LOT more Intensity.

So my next task (homework) is going to be to chart my training this season beginning on January 1st to see how much Intensity I actually was able to accomplish each week…and if I broke something or got sick, is the Intensity level a precursor to that…and also chart the volume of the different levels of Intensity…since there’s a lot more training ‘stress’ in time at Z4-5 than in Z3

…so stay tuned to see how that all shakes out…

…and having said all that, I’m reminded that we’re all just a science experiment of one…a snowflake…so what really matters is not what works on average…but what works for only us…and as we get older a moving target of capacity, so a lifetime project

…and big part of the fun of the sport of triathlon

BTW, I now have more ice packs…so ready to go again 🙂

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We’re gonna need more ice packs

Posted on May 10, 2011 by Dad

On my long run today (1:45:00, 11 miles), my left calf started feeling a bit stiff after some faster intervals…about an hour and a bit into the run…after I had stopped to top up my water bottles…so I kept the last 4 miles on the easy side, finishing without incident…although yes, my calf was a bit stiff after the run

…so as I was finishing my run I was thinking

‘We’re gonna need more ice packs’

since if my calf joins my right knee and left hamstring…my 2 freezer bags aren’t going to cut it anymore.

…and I’m _not_ going to do the ice bath thing…okay…at least not yet…

The title of this post is a parody on a great line from the 40 Year Old Virgin…

‘We’re gonna need more wax’

…that started to run through my head…runners high or something I guess

…here’s the clip…minor editing for our PG audience…and for the guys an ‘easy’ way to erase at least 5 seconds per 100 meters from your swim time 🙂

play-sharp-fill
(small rectangle in the bottom right corner for full screen)
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Happy Mother’s Day!

Posted on May 8, 2011 by Dad

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First open water swim of the year today

Posted on May 7, 2011 by Dad

The local YMCA has a supported open water swim from time to time, so I decided to do it this morning before my planned, high Intensity 3 hour bike ride….get warmed up and burn a few extra calories

With the amount of time that I’ve spent in the pool, working on drills and form, I’ve been getting some can-I-actually-still-swim-a-mile-in-traffic anxiety

…so found my wetsuit, hopped on the mountain bike over to the Y, and joined 60 other wild and crazy triathlete’s for a couple of laps in the lake

The best part was that they have different colors of swim caps…depending on your ‘experience’ and how closely they watch out for you…from red for first timers, up through to green for the most experienced

…so when the nice woman registering swimmers asked ‘have you swam in open water before’, I said ‘yes, 4 times Ironman’…’green cap’ she said and handed it to me…made me smile 🙂

2 laps of 750 meters each = 1500 meters in 40 minutes…took care of it…still slow…but so much better than following that black line on the bottom of the pool…although the fastest group finished 4 laps in the same time…sigh…

…for those of you not familiar with open water swim training for triathlon, here’s a short video…fun way to start your Saturday 🙂

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5K run test: new 39 vDOT

Posted on May 5, 2011 by Dad

I was reminded today of why most age group athlete’s don’t test their fitness level very often…if ever…it’s HARD…and SUFFERING

Here’s what pain looks like in a Heart Rate download chart…near the end you’ll notice the little notch above my previous highest Heart Rate 🙂

The very good news out of today is that my running test established a new 39 vDOT…okay…YEAH!

…vDOT I’ve covered in earlier posts so won’t repeat it here…so have added links into this post for those looking for the detail…but enough to say that it’s a testing protocol and associated training Intensity level developed by Coach Jack Daniels…specifically for running…and the basis of training pace as used by many coaches, including the folks at Endurance Nation…and myself

…my last formal running test was January 6, 2011, that established a 37 vDOT level.  My goal prior to Ironman Florida is to get it to a 41 vDOT…so in 4 months, 2 points higher…with 6 months to go, another 2 points to go, …not a slam dunk by any stretch…but we like a challenge right 🙂

…hate to think that I’d need cut back joyful eating and drinking to lose that last 10 pounds to get there…

So here was the test.

I gave up on the local high school track based on my last attempt to do a running test there, so decided on the local college track…although the inside 4 lanes are restricted, so I ran in Lane 7…my usual lane for intervals, because it’s roughly 1.1 miles for 4 laps…actually 1.094 miles…rather than 1 mile in lane 1 for 4 laps…and therefore relatively easy to calculate the pacing adjustments for the longer distance.

enough minutia…here’s the results summary (4/4/2/1 laps):

#1: 151HR avg, 157HR max (7:48/mile)
#2: 160HR avg, 161HR max (7:53/mile)
#3: 161HR avg, 162HR max (7:55/mile)
last 400 meters: 161HR avg, 162HR max (7:57/mile)

so with the lane distance/last lap pace extrapolated forward for the extra meters to 5K, using the exact Lane 7 distances

  • =24:32, 7:54/mile, 39 vDOT (comfortably between 24:08 (40 vDOT) and 24:39 (39 vDOT))
  • entire test HR is 156HR, max 162 HR

Numbers aside, here are the testing notes from today:

  • only 2 days since my maximum FTP test on the bike, where I set a new high 270 FTP
  • so I had some concerns going into a running test only 2 days later, particularly since I was a bit stiff from travel over the past 2 days as well
  • although the bike test ended up a bit sub-maximal with tired legs, so I was actually feeling pretty good today
  • and always conscious of my downstream workouts coming up…like the long bike ride on Saturday, so didn’t want to hurt that by a maximal run test on Friday, since my quads are normally stiff for at least a couple of days
  • so hit it, running my 2 mantra’s through my head
  • and set off on the test…although after 1 fast lap, realized that my lap timer had not set when I clicked it to start…so now I had a HARD 400M, but didn’t know how long it took, so slowed to re-group…so that’s the first big ‘bump’ that you see in Heart Rate chart
  • and decided when I had jogged around to the start again, to just hit it hard again, and let it all hang out which I did
  • a bit too fast as it turns out…with a Heart Rate that rolled up quickly to 160HR and ended up as a 162HR max…which since I had a maximum Heart Rate of 158HR in the first test, tells me that I did indeed get all of it today
  • although I was definitely ‘leaking oil’…Coach Gale :)…and suffering in the last half…pace coming down slightly as I was hanging in with lungs hanging out of the front of my body
  • …I stopped looking at my lap times with 4 laps to go…it didn’t really matter…I was just trying to hold form and press as hard as I could
  • but complete it I did
  • and left thinking that my left hamstring wasn’t an issue, so I’m going to put that to bed as a non-factor in my training…still run on the flat track when I’m running fast, but not going to baby it anymore…glad to get rid of that piece of brain doubt…and hope that it doesn’t happen again, but if it does I think safe to say that it would be a _new_ injury instead of the old

…and was reminded that ‘tests’ are valuable, not only in confirming my fitness level, and giving me confidence in my training pace levels, but an all-out 20 minute+ run, is thinly disguised as one heck of a Z5+ workout in its own right…and actually probably enough reason to ‘test’ all on its own

sooo what does this mean?…aside from probably being a bit nuts 🙂 …is that like my bike test 2 days ago, it means that my Intensity goes up in running workouts…in this case the ‘pace’ that I run at…since I’ve now confirmed that I have a higher level of fitness than my last test…although I’ve _leaned_ workouts up towards the 39 vDOT levels since a month ago I had estimated that I was in the 38’ish -39 range…always nice to confirm it though…and my 41 vDOT goal set on December 7, 2010 is now within striking range 🙂

…and so we train on…now just a notch higher…cool!

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Bike Functional Threshold Power (FTP) test result: 270 Watts

Posted on May 3, 2011 by Dad

Well, the steady improvement continues as my FTP test on the bike today indicates a new 270 Watt FTP Personal Record (PR)

…alright…YEAH!

…okay…enough of that…another move upward from the last 2:

Beyond the increase…cool!…today’s test on the bike was significant, and different in 3 ways, so not really an exact comparison, and not as precise…but to the good actually:

  1. I wasn’t as rested for this one as the last 2 with a BIG Training Day 3 days ago on Saturday
  2. My first test ‘outdoors’ on the hilly Shearer’s route that I use in training
  3. and today virtually all in the ‘aero’ position, only sitting up where I normally would for a position change on the steepest uphills when speed drops below about 13 MPH…the indoors tests were primarily sitting up which is/can-be a more powerful position

By the raw power numbers, it doesn’t get any better for a consistent test effort:

  • first half southbound: 270 Watts (146HR avg, 152HR max)
  • second half northbound: 271 Watts (149HR avg, 152HR max)

However there’s a few hidden things that tell me that my rested FTP, on the same outdoor course is probably closer to 275 Watts…although I’ll still call it 270W for training. (Endurance Nation Test protocol: 267 Watts normalized power for 42 minutes: 20 min on/2 min easy/20 min on)

I find that after a big workout, that on the 2nd day after the workout my muscles are the stiffest, and then improve from there…usually able to do a significant workout on the 3rd day, and fully recovered 4-5 days…of course, if I only trained fully recovered, I’d only train a couple of days a week and that wouldn’t do it…so it’s always some degree of residual tiredness

….and therefore if you think about it testing while a bit tired is more exact than rested, since you’re training tired…although races should be based on a more rested test, since you’ll be rested for the race…I inserted this at the end as I was wrapping up this post…more as a note to myself and perhaps to our other overly-deep-thinking-and/or-over-analysing readers 🙂

This week I have a couple of travel days out of the office tomorrow and Thursday, so the bike test didn’t fit there, so I decided to pull the trigger today…a day or 2 earlier than for a peak result…but since my last tests were indoors I was eager to set my ‘outdoor’ number since races are ‘outdoors’ and my race power goals need to be based on ‘outdoor’ results 🙂

During the warmup I could tell that I didn’t feel like I was on my ‘A’ game…not bad though…sort of ‘A-‘, so decided that I’d just flog it on the test…and thought of Yoda: Do or do not.  There is no try. and Bruce Lee If it kills you it kills you …and hit it as hard as I could on the day, determined to keep it at 270 Watts+…my FTP estimate based on my ride on the Big Training Day a few days ago.

In looking at the results, one thing that jumps out…and did during the test…is that my maximum Heart Rate (HR) never got past 152HR…no matter how hard I was hitting it…compare to 158HR on April 4, and 156HR on January 3…a lower than normal-for-the-effort-heart-rate has been a consistent indicator to me of tired body parts

…but push I did…by the end having to watch that I wasn’t veering out into traffic with the effort

…and that was the second part…I did only a fair job in power management today, between constantly shifting gears, up hill and down…and against and then with a wind at 15MPH gusting to 30MPH…and actually pretty amazed at how even the 2 splits ended up, since the power was _all_ over the place during the ride…but I wanted to establish my FTP outdoors, and Shearer’s road is the least hilly little stretch of road without getting in the car and driving for an hour…and I will get smoother as I get back into actually riding a bike again…and steering and shifting and stuff…rather than just running out smooth hours on the trainer.

So there it is…270 Watts FTP… maybe even a shade higher on a rested day and better power management…but I’ll take it…and use my new ‘number’ going forward.

sooo what does this mean…well, it means that my training workouts, that are laid out as a percentage of FTP, now move up another notch in Intensity…when I see a workout as 80-85% of FTP (270W), that now means that I’ll now ride at 216-230 Watts…last week at 263W FTP, that same workout would have been 210-224 Watts…in January with a 249W FTP, 199-212 Watts…that looks like a rather nice improvement when I see it that way 🙂

…there is of course an end to how much one can squeeze out of a Masters body

…nice to know that I’m not there…yet 🙂

…so disclaimers aside as noted in this post already, I charted my 3 test results and then ran a regression analysis (trendline) to see how it looked so far this year

…the good news is that it’s still a straight line…no curl off to the right, showing a slowdown of a ‘linear’ improvement…if anything a ‘little’ uptick over the last 4 weeks, but I’ll apply disclaimers and conservatively call it a straight line

alright…I’m a dreamer…so I ran the regression analysis (trendline) forward to Ironman Florida on November 3…IF and that’s a BIG IF…the trend remains the same, I’d be at a 300 FTP by Ironman Florida…inconceivable of course

…so that being said, not very likely…but mathematically ‘possible’…makes me smile thinking about it…and that’s a good thing…makes me feel that my 285W FTP goal to bike at 20 MPH that I set on December 6, 2010…’may’ just be doable

…for without a dream, what’s there to live for at all 🙂


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Great early season results!

Posted on May 1, 2011 by Dad

Congratulations to all our friends that were racing this weekend…some excellent results out there!

Iron Anne Boone was once again first and only in her Try Charleston Half Ironman 65-69 Age category, racing faster than her time goal, and almost 15 minutes faster than last year!

…and Iron Janet Carter in a smoking 05:24:49

…and Iron James Vavra in a 04:12:09…dang James…a 1:19:20 (6:03/mile) for the half marathon to finish…are you kidding me!

…and Iron Daughter Lisa showed excellent early season running form in her Vancouver Half Marathon (13.1 miles / 21.1 km), within 5 minutes of her time goal, and her highest, running, age group ranking (percentile) finish ever…still a few girls in front of her, but 200 behind her on the day 🙂   

…great trends, as everybody is getting faster…good job!

I also had excellent results in my Big Training Day …most notably the bike where in the two Half Ironman race effort sections (1 hour race pace, 10 minutes easy then another :45 race pace) on the hilly Shearer route for a total of 1:45:00…goal of 210-220 Watts…I averaged 217 and 221 Watts with a right-where-it-should-be 136 and 134 Heart Rate average for 19.6 and 19.7 MPH.

…that’s dangerously close to my 200-210 Watt and 20 MPH target for Ironman which on the flatter Ironman course, is probably there with that power range

…although I still need to get my FTP (Functional Threshold Power) higher to be able to hold that level for 112 miles…but looking good for the Half Ironman 10 weeks out…that level (210 Watts) is now 80% of my current 263 Watt FTP …which is perfect for the 56 mile Half Iron distance

…but the 112 mile Ironman needs to be run at less intensity, generally…in my speed range…at 70% of FTP, so 200 Watts racing would mean an FTP of 286 Watts…so I’m going to need to get to at least that level to hope to get be able to ride Ironman at 200Watts+…300 Watts FTP to run at (70%) 210 Watts+…286W feels like a stretch…300W inconceivable…but I’m happy with where I am now 6 months out

…push that percentage much higher than 70% in Ironman racing starts to really risk a negative impact on the run…like 26.2 miles of it after the warm-up bike ride…geez

…my fastest bike split was 3 years ago in the 2008 Ironman at 18.94 MPH, 5:54:53, so anything faster than that is the first target…second would be 19.5 MPH, or a 5:45:00 bike split…unbelieveable would be 20 MPH, or a 5:35:00 bike split

…well, at least that’s me dreaming 6 months out 🙂

Posted in Achieving Goals, Cycling, Dad's Blog Posts, Ironman, Ironman Florida, Planning, Racing, Testing | Tagged , , , | Leave a comment

Try Charleston Half Ironman Sat. April 30, 2011

Posted on April 29, 2011 by Dad

Well, Saturday is the first Half Ironman of the year for many of my Tri Buddies in Charleston…the Try Charleston Half Ironman…1.2 mile swim, 56 mile bike, and 13.1 mile run…half because of course, it’s half the distance of a full Ironman distance race.

…okay, before you say anything, I ‘know’ that ‘Ironman’ is a brand, and that technically it’s only a ‘Half’ ‘something’, since it’s not an Ironman brand race…so for our readers, some of who are just getting into the swing of this triathlon thing, we’re going to call it a Half Ironman because folks know what that is 🙂

Political correctness stuff out of the way…good luck and wings beneath your feet to my friends on the course tomorrow.

I ‘half’ considered coming down for the race as part of my training for the Vancouver Half that I’m competing in on July 3rd, but it’s hard to hold back to training pace in a race, and then there’s that recovery thing for a week, and coming back into training again so decided against it.

On my training schedule for the day, is a parallel universe Big Training Day that looks like this…I’ve included a short form of the coach description workout notes for space…more details in my training log:

Big Training Day: *Swim 1 hour * Bike 3 hours * Run 1 hour

Type: Swim     Planned duration: 1:00 
WU: 400 yds/m
MS1: Intervals at Threshold pace Set Total: 1600
MS2: 8 x 50 (20 ), as odds Fast, evens Easy Set Total: 400
CD: Make workout last 1 hour.
Total: 2700yds/m

Type: Bike     Planned duration: 2:30-3:00
MS (Main Set):
â– 30′ @ 65-70%/z1-2/Easy
■1 hour at goal Half Ironman race effort, approximately 80% / z3 / Upper-Steady
â– 10′ Easy
â– 45′ at goal Half Ironman race effort.

Type: Run     Planned duration: 1:00 
MS (Main Set):
â– 30′ @ LRP / z1 Very easy run to start.
â– 30′ at MP / z2 (or as close as you can) Working towards a negative split.

…so actually very close to a full Half Ironman in terms of time & distance…main differences are a little longer on the swim, and about half of the run, but still a substantial ‘race simulation’ training day…it should give me a good idea of where I’m at on the bike, so I’m looking forward to that.

I’ll be in the pool at 8:00am since that’s when it opens for lap swimming, and away we all go 🙂

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How much Intensity and Volume in a training program

Posted on April 27, 2011 by Dad

So how can we figure out how much Intensity and Volume are appropriate in our training programs?

…to a large degree, you have to try stuff out and see how your body responds…and if you’re not getting the results that you want, change something…it’s sort of like this…at least for me:

  • do a maximal test to see where you’re really at…yeah I know, testing can be a pain…literally…and with experience I’ve found that with detailed training log notes you start to get an idea of where you’re at without a test…but nothing like just hanging it out there, and doing a maximal test to _know_ where you’re at
  • download/buy/find-in-a-book/get-a-coach to setup a _specific_ training plan that looks like it’ll meet your performance goals
    • if you don’t have a training plan, and don’t know where to start, just start with one of Coach Gale Bernhardt’s plans…in her books, on the Internet …just can’t go wrong to get things going
  • make adjustments as necessary for Volume/Intensity based on your fitness level and training background…and which days of the week to do which workouts
  • follow the plan, and log detailed notes on how you did in hitting the workout criteria…every workout I download/review/make-notes-on the Heart Rate and/or Power file to my online training log at www.trainingpeaks.com
  • re-test to see what gains you made
  • adjust and repeat

I haven’t done a lot of Intensity training for many years…the closest was when we were in Florida in the winter of 2009 and there was a local killer group ride every Saturday…like ‘averaged’ 26-28 MPH…the first time out, I got dropped so fast (left behind as the group of 50+ cyclists tore off without me) I barely got past the warmup, even though my lungs were hanging out with the effort to keep up…nothing like trying to ‘hang’ onto that last wheel to push you into the red zone and beyond

…over a few months though, I not only completed the ride, but ended up with log commentary that it had become ‘easy’ 🙂

For the first 3 months of this year, I was primarily following a high-intensity training program put together by the folks at Endurance Nation…I pulled a hamstring, was sick for 2 weeks on separate occasions…and also had to work around a time-intensive convention and laid back vacation…so had some pretty ragged weeks in there, as I struggled to ‘get well’ and get and keep the training and other ‘stuff’ in balance

…although even without getting it all in, I still improved my bike FTP (Functional Threshold Power) from 249 Watts to 263 Watts…as high as it’s ever been…so on balance felt that the higher Intensity was a worthy addition to my training

As a young lad playing football, I always built muscle and strength rapidly…I also raced the 400 meters in track…wasn’t quite explosive/fast enough at 100 meters…much too slow at 800 meters plus…so my natural sweet spot appears to be fast intensity, long enough to be painful…but not ‘far’…so Ironman is clearly exceeding my core DNA.

…the long and the short of it is that I believe that my body likes and responds well to High Intensity Training (HIT)…how much, and what level, is what I’m still fine-tuning…a lifetime project of course.

I do know that the ‘stock’ Endurance Nation levels are too high for me…at least at this point…I need more recovery time after hard workouts, and less total HIT volume in a week…although I do appear to improve as a result of the hard HIT…I just can’t get in as much each week as those that are more genetically gifted…and younger 🙂

Next up the details of how much Intensity I ended up putting into my program and how I got there.

Posted in Achieving Goals, Dad's Blog Posts, Exercising when sick, Planning, Recovery, Testing, Training | Tagged , , , , | 1 Comment

How well do you know your own body?

Posted on April 24, 2011 by Dad

Our Easter/Passover/Good Luck sign is also a comment on how different we all really are. 

It reminded me of an interesting article in the New York Times a few months ago that caught my attention: The Workout Enigma

It began with this paragraph:

Recently, researchers in Finland made the discovery that some people’s bodies do not respond as expected to weight training, others don’t respond to endurance exercise and, in some lamentable cases, some don’t respond to either. In other words, there are those who just do not become fitter or stronger, no matter what exercise they undertake.

What!

…like we all ‘know’ that people respond differently, but not at all?

The point of the article is sort of obvious when you think about, and summarized in this paragraph:

Hidden away in the results of almost any study of exercise programs is the fact that some people do not respond at all, while others respond at an unusually high rate. Averaged, the results may suggest that a certain exercise program reliably will produce certain results — that jogging, say, three times a week for a month will improve VO2max (maximal oxygen capacity) or reduce blood pressure; and for almost any given group of exercisers, those results are likely to hold true. But for outliers, the impacts can be quite different. Their VO2max won’t budge, or it will fall, or it will soar.

The point is this…everyone talks about the ‘average’ results of a study…like ‘on average’ the 100 participants increased their ‘something’ by 20%…they use this example to highlight their point:

In the combined strength-and-endurance-exercise program, the volunteers’ physiological improvement ranged from a negative 8 percent (meaning they became 8 percent less fit) to a positive 42 percent. The results were similar in the groups that undertook only strength or only endurance training. Some improved their strength enormously, some not at all. Others became aerobically fitter but not stronger, while still others showed no improvements in either area. Only a fortunate few became both fitter and more buff.

Click here for the entire article

sooo, what does this mean for you and I?….it just highlights the importance of getting to know how your body responds to various types of training stress…or more to our recent topic…to Intensity…and do we get the most improvement from hitting it hard, like Zone 5+ in short bursts, or do better with more time at Zone 3…or even lower.

…wouldn’t you hate to find out that you’ve been spending a lot of training time on the wrong type of training?

…or more properly that you could have doing something else that would have given you a much bigger improvement for the time spent

…sort of what drives my interest in such things 🙂

More to come, on how to find out what works for you and what doesn’t…

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Happy Easter! Happy Passover!

Posted on April 24, 2011 by Dad

Cute sign 🙂

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How much Intensity in training?

Posted on April 23, 2011 by Dad

Well…it all depends 🙂

…ok…let’s get into it…how ‘ambitious’ you need to get with Intensity depends on two things:

  • your goals
  • who you ask

…alright I noticed the picture too…okay let’s pause for a moment and click on it for the larger version…alrighty then…that’s our ‘intensity example picture for today’ …looks to me like about a Friel 5c / Daniel ‘Repetition Pace’ Intensity level…nice form 🙂

…okay…regroup…carry on…

And your goals typically have 4 main elements:

  • a speed goal in a race
  • how much speed improvement you need in order to achieve your race goal
  • how far away the race is
  • the amount of time per week in training that you’re willing to invest to get to your goal

2007 First Ironman Finishsooo, if your goal is complete an Ironman in under the 17 hour cutoff 2 years from now…my original Ironman goal in 2005…you don’t have to push up the Intensity as much to get there…you may still want to be ‘faster’ than that…by race time I was thinking I could maybe end up under 14 hours (1st goal under 17 hours, ‘exceeds’ goal under 14 hours, you-da-man goal under 13 hours), and did end up at 13:31:30 official time in my first Ironman…totally glorious 🙂 …but there won’t be as much ‘need’ to cram a lot of Intensity into workouts if a ‘finish’ is fundamentally a ‘win’

…if you’re 56 years old, finished 4 Ironman, one in each of the last 4 years, and your fastest one was 12:57:44…and that was 3 years ago, and for some weird reason…like your daughter deciding to challenge your broken down senior body to another Ironman :)…you decide that you want a new PR (Personal Record) this year…closer to 12:00 hours…and willing to spend about 15 training hours a week to get there…then you just-may-need-to-pick-up-the-pace…like Iron Dad has this year

Intensity is ‘work’…and to get faster you need to train faster…so train with more Intensity…but it comes with a risk…overdo it, and you run a high risk of:

  • injury
  • getting into a over-trained state so that you can’t complete workouts properly
  • and/or get sick

…and the wheels come off

…and any of that costs you a _TON_ of lost fitness as you need to stand down, recover, and re-build to where you were…and trust me when I say it-ain’t-a-good-feeling…and then you wait as the body sorts itself out and you can go forward again…bad bad bad…avoid avoid avoid.

So a lot my recent discussions with Coach Gale Bernhardt were about how much training Intensity I/she/we thought that I could squeeze into each week without blowing up…oh…I do have this bum right knee, but we’re removing that from the decision process, since…so far…it’s a ‘factor’, but not in workouts…so far…so I’ve decided to follow my own…well Bruce Lee’s…advise when faced with such things: if-it-kills-you-it-kills-you

How-we-got-there is a great Post unto itself…coming up…so for today here’s what we ended up deciding for my 12 week Half Ironman training plan:

  • focus on speed improvements in the bike and run…they’re the biggest elements of the race
  • kill swimming intensity in the short-term, and focus on form, to put as much Intensity (speed) into the bike and run as possible each week…_maybe_ ‘squeak’ in some Intensity into 1 swim a week…but primarily put the onus on Coach Dinah Mistilis to get me faster by getting me to be as sleek as a seal in the water instead of a barge
  • therefore a total of 4 High Intensity Training (HIT) workouts per week:
    • 2 BIG Key Workouts: long run (Tuesday) with Intensity and long bike (Saturday) with Intensity…as far apart in the week as possible to give me recovery time
    • 2 shorter, Intensity Level Optional Bike (Wed.) and Run (Thurs.) if I’m holding up

next up, the total amount of Intensity in a week, and the look at the differences in Intensity opinion from ‘studies’ and the ‘experts’…wild stuff…the long and the short of it is this:

New study says 90% of studies are flawed 

… still too funny that a new study determines that 90% of studies are flawed 🙂

Posted in Achieving Goals, Dad's Blog Posts, Ironman, Planning, Racing, Recovery, Running, Training | Tagged , , , | 2 Comments

How I determine training intensity during a workout

Posted on April 22, 2011 by Dad

Ok…we talked about training zones and intensity…so the general idea is that the amount of effort gets a ‘label’…I’m including the chart again here so that you can click on it to get a bigger version…I’ve also included links throughout this post that refer back to further details in prior posts…if all you want is a laugh this morning just click here.

So, let’s look at the Moderately Hard Zone…going across the chart, you can see a number of ways that you can tell that you are training ‘moderately hard’…they are all the same thing…just different ways of determining how hard you’re ‘working’…the names are coaches that are widely published/quoted about the particular method…and approximated in the chart since they don’t really line up perfectly, but close enough for our purposes here:

  • Heart Rate: 80-85% (of your maximum ‘TESTED’…not a guess based on a formula…Heart Rate…in each sport)
  • RPE: Rate of Perceived Exertion: 13 on a Borg scale of 1-20)
  • Joe Friel: Zone 3…on a scale of 1-5abc…also used by Coach Gale Bernhardt and the scale used as the ‘label’ for a lot of other methods
  • Daniels: Tempo Pace: this is a precise running pace based on your vDOT, which is determined by testing
  • Lydiard: 1/2 Effort
  • Coggan: 76-90% of FTP (Functional Threshold Power)…Endurance Nation (EN) has their own slightly different ‘Zones’ that are quite a bit ‘narrower’ than the Coggan zones…like their Zone 3 on the bike would be 80-85% of FTP

sooo, what does that all mean…well here’s how I use it:

  • for running I primarily use Daniels pacing chart based on my current 39 vDOT
  • for biking I primarily use the Endurance Nation Zones as a percentage of my current 263 Watt FTP
  • for swimming, pace based on a Threshold test…when I’m not just focusing on form…but a whole other topic, so I’ll focus on run and bike for today

I like these methods for their relative precision…all methods have some looseness to them, but the vDOT and FTP methods have the advantage of being typically based on a test that you’ve done to establish your maximum limits…or can be estimated from a race that you’ve done, or from hard workouts…like all methods there are detractors, but I like vDOT and FTP…a lot.

So when I’m doing running workouts, I do the fast sections on a track, so I know precisely what pace I’m running…and when I’m racing, I plan to run at a precise pace based on the race distance, and my current running fitness level, or vDOT…so real world, if my run workout has a Main Set of 2 x 1 mile at Tempo Pace, I know from my current 39 vDOT level that I run those at a 8:22/mile pace…done.

And when I’m doing a bike workout, I do the fast sections at the workout specification power level, based on the PowerTap power meter on my bike…similarly on the bike, if the workout spec for a particular day has a Main Set of 2 x 15 minutes at FTP Z4/5, that’s 95% of my current 263 Watts FTP, so 250 Watts…done.

…ok, it’s not always that exacting, but generally pretty close, unless I specifically dump out of the Intensity because it’s just not there in a particular workout…or if I’m feeling particularly strong and I let the Intensity leak up a little

I use Heart Rate as a cross check to see if it’s in line with the harder numbers…this gives me somewhat of an indication of how tired I may be…if all is well, Heart Rate is in line with the Pace or Power zones…for me, if I’m worn out a bit, my Heart Rate is typically lower than it should be…or sometimes shoots up high…and this gives me an early indication in the workout that I may need to cut back the Intensity a bit…however Heart Rate, is an indirect indicator of ‘work’, and can be all over the place on any particular day on a bunch of other factors that have nothing to do with your training effort, so I’ve found it to only be a general, secondary indicator of ‘effort’ or ‘work’ that’s being done…my Heart Rate monitor also gives me distance, and pace while running, although the pace jumps around quite a bit, and more of a pain than just doing laps on the track.

And having said all that, RPE, or simply your Rate of Perceived Exertion has been shown in multiple tests to be eerily accurate…particularly in experienced atheletes…for me, since on any particular day, how stiff I feel, and even my mood or training motivation for the day, can impact my RPE…I only consider it as another level of cross check on how things are going…if the PowerTap says I’m pushing 250 Watts of power, I know that’s how much work I’m doing, irrespective of what I ‘think’ I’m doing, or what my Heart Rate is saying

…like if it’s very hot and humid out, and my Heart Rate is high Z4 and my RPE is a high 17, but I’m only at 200 Watts and struggling…my body didn’t get the benefit of a 250 Watt Z4/5 workout…I just didn’t do the ‘work’…Heart Rate and RPE were high in a losing battle to try to keep me cool, not support ‘work’ in the muscles…but another topic for another day 🙂



So how valid are vDOT and FTP for you?…well, for running, I can’t really think of a reason to not establish, and train at specific paces instead of by Heart Rate or RPE.  Other than not being in the mood to run an all-out 5K test (or longer…longer the better for Ironman), the only trick to it, is knowing how fast you’re really running in a workout.  Where I live it’s all hills, all the time, so pace is all over the place, and that’s why I run over to the local college track, do the Main Set interval work there, and then on the hills aside from the fast intervals on the track, often revert to checking Heart Rate to keep in the Zone that I want…typically a Zone 1 or 2…if it was a Zone 3 or higher, I’d regard that as Intensity, and do the distance on the track.

In terms of the bike, you need a Power Meter to tell you how much power you’re generating on an instant basis, and most aren’t cheap…but other than that, I can’t think of a reason to not train with power over the other methods…and hills don’t bother training with power…in fact it’s a huge advantage…training with power has nothing to do with speed, or headwinds…you just dial in your effort to the constantly updated little power number on the meter on your handbars…uphill or down…250 watts is still 250 watts…easy.

…and I could spend at least another couple of pages discussing the minutia of my summary here, and all the different methods, and their pro’s and con’s, but there are millions of pages on the Internet on the topic already, so I won’t add unnecessarily to that volume 🙂

…so when it comes to racing same thing…the ‘numbers’ tell me that my target potential on the bike in the Ironman is 70% (now 184 Watts) and Half Ironman at 80% (now 210 Watts) of my 263 Watt FTP… and running potential in Ironman at Daniels ‘Easy Pace’, which is now 10:23/mile, and my Half Ironman at Daniels ‘Marathon Pace’ 8:57/mile

…_lots_ of other factors in racing, but it’s nice to have a specific plan based on training experience, and what I _know_ that I can do, not on what I-think-that-maybe-I-can-do

At least that’s the plan 🙂

Posted in Achieving Goals, Cycling, Dad's Blog Posts, Ironman, Planning, Racing, Running, Testing, Training | Tagged , , , , , , , , , | 5 Comments

Training Zones and Intensity Chart

Posted on April 21, 2011 by Dad

Well, as a start to my discussion of how I’ve formulated my 12 week Half Ironman training program, there was a lot of discussion about training Intensity, and the total amount of Intensity in a week, and the amount of time at Intensity in a particular workout.

So how is training Intensity defined?…well, as you may have seen as a recurring theme…it all depends on who you ask…and let me tell you, that there are some _wide_ variations on the ‘training zones’ are, and how they are defined.

These Intensity Zones are also used as guidance on race day.  As an example I expect to race my Half Ironman at 80% Intensity (Ironman 70%)…if I want to race faster, I would train to increase my maximum capacity (speed/power) so that the 80% of maximum is a higher number…not just try to race at 90% and blow up.

Here’s a useful summary chart of some of the common medical definitions and coaches that are widely quoted and their definitions, so that I can refer to it:


http://alancouzens.blogspot.com

As a practical matter the ‘medical’ terms we may discuss at some future point, but more for reference so that it’s in one spot.

The long and the short of it is this:

if you want to get faster, you will need to train faster…that is to say, train in the higher, harder Zones…at least some of the time…and that amount of time largely depends on how much your body can ‘absorb’ and still be fresh enough for the next workout(s)…and not have a body part break, because it’s overstrained…or simply get sick, because your body has tried everything else to tell you that it’s-just-too-much

…so we’ll call this the ‘break’ line: the point that you cannot complete a workout(s) as planned 

…so the idea is this: get in as much hard work as you can, while staying under the ‘break’ line

…oh, and ‘volume’ of training also counts as ‘work’ so needs to be factored into training ‘load’

Soooo, do you need to know any of this stuff to train for Ironman…nope…lots of folks do without it…do you need to think about Intensity in workouts, and training ‘load’ and all of that…nope…some folks get out there and just do what feels good to them.

And definitely not important if your weekly ‘long’ bike ride is tooling around the neighbourhood with your kids while drinking a cup of coffee.

It’s only important if you want to optimize your race performance, be as efficient as possible for every hour that you train, and not break something in the attempt… 🙂

more to come…

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Iron Dad’s 12 week Half Ironman Training Plan: Fine tuning

Posted on April 20, 2011 by Dad

Alright…I’ve spent a lot of time with Coach Gale Bernhardt (pictured on the right) over this past week looking at the rest of my season, and specifically the 12 week ramp up to the Vancouver Half Ironman on July 3.

Coach Gale and I have worked together since 2005 when I first considered the possibility of doing an Ironman…and from zero to Ironman, 2 years later in 2007…and ever since…and it’s always been a delight.

…is that 6 years ago?…geez…and 4 Ironman later?…who would have thought

More details to follow over the next few days, as I distill my (and Coach Gale’s) notes, into coherent prose, and ‘how we got there’ in terms of the decision process for this season.

Here’s a few highlights of our final decisions:

  • I’m going to treat the Half Ironman, and the associated training program primarily as an experiment to fine-tune a training template for the Florida Ironman training to follow later in the year
  • a big part of this was a primary discussion on how much Intensity to put into each week…without breaking something or getting overtrained and not being able to get in quality workouts because of being too tired
  • although since I’m in the mood for performance improvement this year, I can’t be too wimpy or conservative, so the training plan needed to ‘push the envelope’ more than I’ve done in the past
  • which puts us into unknown territory in terms of how much volume and Intensity I can absorb each week/month/this year
  • which lead to a decision to keep it to a maximum of 4 workouts a week with Intensity
  • which ended up being 2 bike and 2 run, to focus on performance gains in these 2 sports
    • the long run on Tuesday and long bike on Saturday both with Intensity built-in are the KEY workouts…as far apart as possible on these BIG workouts to get in some recovery time between
    • plus Intensity bike on Wednesday and Intensity run on Thursday
  • which means that the swim gets bumped in terms of Intensity, and becomes more form-focused
    • although looking to still ‘squeeze’ some Intensity into at least 1 swim workout a week

The time that Coach Gale and I spent together gave me a renewed appreciation of just how much ‘art’ there is to setting up appropriate training programs, as opposed to ‘science’ which although providing some basic guidance, is contradictory at best.

So the ‘how we got there’ process was/is very interesting…and soooo glad to have Coach Gale in my corner…although I’m sure that she’s tired of me asking ‘why’ and ‘where did that come from’…and ‘who says’

Thanks Gale 🙂

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