An amazing weekend of road racing!!

This weekend the City of Devon was again host of a fantastic bicycle spectacle, the Devon Grand Prix of Cycling 2012 (link downloads a pdf file). I participated on Saturday in the United Cycle Downtown Criterium Provincials and on Sunday the Juventus Genessee Hills Road Race. It was my first Criterium in Category 2 and I was pretty nervous since these crits are a sink or swim. You've got to be 100% committed if you want to finish with the main pack and you have to stay always alert as crashes happen often due to the speed and the exhaustion of the riders. In our category we had to cover 40 laps of approximately 900 metres. And man, this race was fast! We averaged 45 km/h and I had an average heart rate of 163 and a maximum heart rate of 185! I cannot remember when I had 185 bpm on a bike! It was crazy! Also from a power perspective this race was quite interesting. I spent 48 % in "active recovery" (24:06 min), i.e. from 0-195 watts due to coasting, and 23 % in the neuromascular zone (11:15 min), i.e. from 534-MAX. The remaining 29 % were evenly distributed over the remaining zones in between these two extremes. Here is a nice visualization of the work done:

The winner of the race Dan Wood (ERTC), actually crashed and had some intense road rash on his right thigh and shoulder. After he crashed (~6 laps to go), he managed to get back and win the race! This was pretty impressive!

The next morning at 9 am we started for our 127 km ride and the weather was quite windy but beautiful. At about 10 km into the race there was an attack, initiated by Josh I believe, and a few other riders and me followed. This was when I felt that my legs were still torched up from the crit the night before. We eventually got caught and I was afraid I won't play a big role today since my legs felt pretty empty. After about 10 more kilometres, Josh launched another attack while we were having cross-winds. The attack was perfectly set and again, a few other riders and me were back in the break. We really were working very hard together for the first kilometres and then managed to find a rhythm that worked for everyone in the break. It was great riding with these guys and we were increasing our lead. At some point we also collected a Velocity guy, who took off sometime after our first attack and stayed away till then. He managed to hang on when we were passing him and also started working with us. At the turnaround we could see our gap and it was quite impressive! Our group got motivated right away and sped up again. With about 30 km to go, quite a few hard attacks were launched just for 100 metres or so to shake off people. And guess what, Dan Wood, the guy who left quite some skin on Athabasca Ave in Devon was attacking and eventually made it first into the finish! What a performance! When he was off the front, more short attacks were launched and we kept on losing people until it was only Josh, me and Brian from Velocity. At that point my tank was pretty empty and I switched into damage control mode. During the last 2 km we were going quite slow since no one wanted to start sprinting too early. I took a look behind me and could see the pack was getting closer. This time though, they wouldn't get us. In the end Brian had the best legs of the three of us, and Josh and I tied for 3rd place (on the results), although he actually won (see picture below).

In case you are interested here is another picture below of how different a criterium looks like when compared to a road race:

In conclusion an amazing weekend of road racing!!

Cheers,
Stefan

P.S. Thanks to Sanja for feeding me, and to Corey from ERTC for giving Sanja a ride to the feed zones and back since the feed zone were 35 km away from the start!

Chinook Half 2012 - Race Report

This past weekend (June-16) I participated in the Chinook Half Triathlon in Calgary. This is the second time that I did this race (see here for Race Report 2010) and it's really fun and well organized. The highlight for me was definitely the beautiful run through the Fish Creek Provincial Park one of the largest urban parks in North America. On top of all that my parents were also here for the first time since I am in Canada and we had a wonderful time.

Race morning:

We woke up at about 4:45am with a lot of time to slowly get up, have a breakfast and drive to the race venue. The race started at 8am, transition opened at 7am and we were at the parking lot at about 6:40am. Everything went smoothly.

Swim:

The swim was a 2 by 1km loop in Lake Midnapore with a quick run around a buoy on the beach. The water wasn't as cold as two years ago but still only 16 °C. I was really looking forward to the swim since I spent so much time in the pool during the last 2 years. At the end though my time this year was not faster than it was 2 years ago (32:56 vs. 32:36), although I felt better. I was hoping to be a bit faster of course, but that's what it was. The only thing that was bugging me was that I forgot how constricting it is to swim in a wetsuit, or rather in my wetsuit (Entry level Nineteen - Pipeline). My arm recovery felt way more difficult than without. It was also the first time since almost 2 years that I swam in a wetsuit. Maybe that was the problem... Since I am usually training without a wetsuit, I might not have trained as much those muscles required to swim well in a wetsuit. Swimming in a wetsuit looks quite different then swimming without one. But since my big race is a warm pacific ocean swim, I am not really concerned with this issue.

Bike:

The bike course is a 96 km quite scenic out and back heading straight into the Rocky Mountains, but for my taste the road is too busy to give it 5 stars. The turn around was close by the town Bragg Creek. As I am now in the lucky situation to ride with a power meter (see my previous post), I was not looking once at the speed I was going. In fact, my selected Garmin window didn't show speed at all. I was only concerned with my watts and cadence. My goal was to just collect some power data to better adjust my training zones for the upcoming 14-week IM Hawaii preparation. Based on my recent 5 min and 30 min all-out efforts, I was guessing to average around 300 watts. That would be racing at 85 % of my functional threshold power (FTP, 354 watts). According to "Training and Racing with a Power meter" by Allen & Coggan 2010, it is suggested to race the Half Ironman distance at about 80-85 % of FTP.  On my way out I averaged 297 watts (normalized: 306; heart rate 142 bpm) and back 278 watts (normalized: 281; hear rate 134 bpm). The lower averages on the way back are mostly due to long descent back into Calgary (see figure below). Given that I was racing correctly at just below 85 % of my current FTP, I was right on with my effort. Compared with the 2010 results, I was about 3 min faster (2:28:49 vs 2:31:17).

Run:

As I already mentioned above the run was really beautiful (2 laps through the Fish Creek Provincial Park). It had some up- and downhills and was not boring at all. For the first 2-3 km I had some issues with my quads (nothing unusual for me). But this time they were cramping quite badly and I was considering stopping for a few seconds to stretch them. Luckily though, as fast as they came they also disappeared. I know I am prone to cramping during the first kilometres into the run, but I forgot that they usually disappear as well. So it was good to get reminded of that for the upcoming races and not become totally devastated as soon as I feel them coming. Anyway, at that point in the race I was running in second place with quite a gap to third place. So, I didn't really had a reason to push it any harder so early in the season. I paced both my laps evenly within seconds and had an average heart rate of 146 during both laps. Compared with the 2010 results it almost exactly the same time (1:30:17 vs. 1:30:22; but my average heart rate was 153 bpm back then). But I do have to say that I felt my muscles were getting tired. I guess due to the fact that I am doing so many hard interval workouts my cardiovascular system is superb but my muscles need more distance now. And this is what comes in my next training block starting in 2 weeks.

Transitions:

My transitions were rather slow. I took quite some time to get everything right and to not forget things. This is something that needs improvement for sure. But with two more Half Irons coming up there is also time to practice again under race conditions.

Thanks to Sanja and my parents, as well as Pat (raced the Olympic distance) and Becky, and Ben and Lindsay (raced the Aquabike) for cheering and having a good time.

Next Stop: The Great White North Triathlon next Sunday on July-1.

Cheers,

Stefan

Power, power, power!!

I am finally a proud owner of a Power Tap SL+. This was certainly the missing piece for my goal to finish Top 5 (M30-34) at the Ironman World Championships this year in Hawaii. Luckily, I was able to get it for a sweet deal! Thanks to Travis!

I was playing around with it these days and also bought the book "Training and Racing with a Power Meter" by Allen and Coggan. For me as a scientist this is the most amazing thing to collect data on myself, evaluate it and try to find ways to improve these numbers. Now I am truly my own experiment!

Ten days ago I did my first power workout ever and my first VO2max, i.e. all out for 5 min and I averaged 422 watts by 79.5 kg (5.31 watts/kg). Looking in the book I mentioned above, there is a Power Profile Chart (downloads as an excel file), which puts me right in the middle of Category 2 riders. I was very happy with this first result.

Last week I started the VO2max booster program by Jesper Bondo Medhus. Since I really like his time efficient and interval based training approach, I contacted him to ask whether he would be able to plan my last 14-weeks for the big day in Hawaii. He agreed since he finds my goal quite interesting. I can't wait to see how my bike performance will change. I never worked with a power meter before and I never really did real interval workouts on the bike. But this is exactly what I will do now and this will be the recipe for a fast bike in Kona.

When Jesper agreed to write me a 14-week training program he also wanted me to do again a 5 min and now also a 30 min all-out ride. I did these rides today and yesterday (see below) and averaged 438 watts by 79.5 kg (5.51 watts/kg) as well as 368 watts (4.63 watts/kg) for 5 min and 30 min, respectively. My average heart rates were 168 and 160 bpm with an average cadence of 94 and 91 rpm. Using these test results, I calculated my Functional Threshold Power (FTP) of 354 (4.45 watts/kg), which again puts me in Category 2. FTP was calculated using Cycling Power Model and Golden Cheetah and both programs gave me the same FTP. The later is the program that I am using to manage my own power data.

5 min all-out

30 min all-out

This weekend I will also do the Chinook Half in Calgary and I can't wait to see how my power values compare to cycling on the road (I did all my testing on my stationary trainer).

Happy Training!

Stefan

First results of my Speed and Interval Training Block

This Sunday, I will already have finished the first 8-weeks of my 13-week Speed and Interval Training Block  – and the results are unbelievable!! Last Sunday I did a brick run on my 10 km loop through the river valley of Edmonton. This loop is everything but flat and also includes two set of stairs: One going down and one going up for about 30 sec each. Last year my personal best was a pace of 4:16 min/km (stand alone run) now it is a 4:06 min/km (off the bike). What was really amazing is that it felt way better than last year and I could have gone farther, although my average heat rate was 7 bpm higher (161 vs. 154 last year). To me this is clearly a sign that my body becomes used to faster running due to the 400 and 800 m track intervals that I am doing and gets more comfortable at higher heart rates.

As for cycling, my first race in Category 1/2 at the Pigeon Lake Road Race yesterday (137km) also turned out to be very successful. My goal was to keep my effort controlled, stay passive and just observe how people in the highest category in Alberta are racing – but for some reason I always find myself in breakaways. I just cannot resist the temptation to follow if someone is going for an attack :) 

In short: After a few attacks, I finally managed to be in a breakaway for 90 km with 3 other riders. We got caught with approximately 12 km to go. A series of attacks followed and for some reason I managed again to be in the breakaway. This time with two riders (one of them was in the first break as well) but I was pretty beaten-up at that point and I was suffering A LOT. About 600 m before the finish line the two started their sprint games and I just tried to rescue myself into the finish somehow and remain in third place, but as so often before it didn’t work out and I eventually finished 6th. Nonetheless, I was extremely happy and it showed that my Speed and Interval Training Block already pays off.

Now, I can’t wait to see how that translates into triathlon! In three weeks (June-16), I will have my first half Ironman distance race in Calgary and I can’t wait to see the results.

Until then train safe and check back in three weeks!

Cheers,
Stefan

What is performance and how to increase it?

The other day I spent quite some time thinking about what are the ingredients of high performance and how to manipulate them to become a faster athlete.
I identified six components (see below) which I think contribute most to performance and which can be easily altered just by my own will, determination and organization, e.g. they are for free and only require me to:

1. Actively dissect my past training
2. Make appropriate changes to increase performance
3. Test them and re-evaluate their effects
4. Repeat the procedure

The following list shows these six components:

1. Speed
2. Skill (Technique)
3. Strength
4. Stamina
5. Endurance
6. Recovery time

This list is ordered in my own personal way and reflects my focus. Things at the top need improvement, things at the bottom are pretty much under control and only need to be maintained.

The big question is however, how do I know what needs to be changed in my training regime, so that it would result in increased performance?

Well, here we are: The million-dollar question :)

I think there is no single answer. The answer depends on the character of the person who is devoting his or her time to it. If someone likes and needs detail and sophisticated methods, simple and uniform interval workouts probably won’t convince that person to devote their time and effort to it. For that person, in order to get a similar physiological response, this training session would need adjustments to meet his or her own needs. Ultimately, we have to believe in what we are doing since the muscles don’t really mind whether workouts are simple or sophisticated; I rather think we must sell the whole training package to ourselves and discuss with our inner voice whether to accept or reject it – whether we want to devote our time and effort to it or not. In other words, some training plans work better with some people and not as good with others. It’s like finding the perfect pair of running shoes. You have to try and experiment!

Coming back to the question above: In order to figure out what I needed to change, I decided to do all the things I usually neglected or didn’t like to do (see list above). That included speed and skill/technique for the most part. I would have always preferred a longer endurance session to an eyeball-popping interval session, and this year I will opt for the intervals (trying to keep my eyeballs in though!). The main idea is to first increase my general speed and economy on short intervals (1-1:30 min), in which I hope to increase my base speed, and then transfer this new level of speed into distance. I think that at my current training level just trying to run faster over long endurance intervals won’t make me significantly faster.

Please comment and let me know what you think and how you would try to improve your performance!

Thanks for reading!
Stefan

28 weeks of dedication

Tomorrow I will start my 28 week journey to to be in the shape of my life for the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii. I feel very good and I am extremely motivated. My training schedule is broken into two chunks: The first chunk is a 13-week training block ending with The Great White North Triathlon (GWN) on July 1st. Two weeks earlier I will also race the Chinook Half. This will be my first triathlon of the year and I already cannot wait to be at the start line. Within in these first 13 weeks there will also be a few cycling road races, and finally, I will do the Frank McNamara Cross Country Running Series this spring for the first time since I am in Edmonton. I am pretty excited about that! These first 13-weeks are mainly characterised by speed and fast interval workouts. That means I will not spending so much time doing long distance stuff during this period but rather push myself out of the comfort zone!
After GWN I am going to have a week off and will then start the second chunk of 14-weeks Ironman specific training. The goal of this training block is to carry over the speed I have hopefully gained into more distance. That means I will decrease the intensity somewhat, increase distance and spend most of the time at goal race pace in each sport - not more or less. So, what's goal race pace? Well, this will be something that keeps my on track for a 9 to 9:10 hour finishing time. Pretty stiff goal but as my supervisor likes to say "Go big, or go home". It will be extremely tough, there is no doubt, but I feel I can do it and I will funnel all the energy I have into that one goal of being Top 5 in the age group M30-34 at the Ironman World Championship in Kona, Hawaii 2012.

Finally, I would also like to thank Jack Cook for putting me on the Fast Trax 2012 Run Team and I am very grateful for his support. Thanks Jack!!

UPDATE (13 April 2012): I will also do the Sylvan Lake Half this year on July 22, that is 3 weeks after the Great White North Triathlon.

Bike fitting

A few days ago I went to Calgary to get a bike fit at the Speed Matrix. Adam Redmond, the owner, is fitting bikes to his clients using the Retül Fit Technology. I met Adam in October 2010 in Kona. Actually, we shared the same room in a hostel and it was pretty funny when we found out that he is from Calgary. Anyway, after a first examination of my body (femur length, flexibility, etc.). I eventually got hooked up with sensors on my joints (wrist, elbow, shoulder, hip, knee, ankle and foot) and started cycling. Any possible angle was measured and his first comment was "We'll get you faster!" It turned out that my fit was not optimal to allow for a consistent long-term power output. In other words my seat was too high and my aerobars were to low. This was not surprising to me as I did this adjustment myself. I wanted to have a very aerodynamic fit and thought I can deal with the discomfort. After Adam did a few changes, I was still super aerodynamic and now it also feels really good being in aero position. I was really happy about this first result.
Then, he also found that my vertical leg movement was a bit off (looking almost like a "V" from behind and not straight like an "H"). He inserted a super thin plastic wedge between cleat and shoe that helped to transform the "V" shape into a more optimal "H" shape (note: these terms are entirely made up by myself and are merely used to better describe what happened during the fit). This was the second adjustment he made and I can't wait to start racing now with the new bike fit.

My conclusion:
In general, all adjustments were very minimal and carefully made. Tiny adjustments may have an enormous effect when one sums up the pedal strokes made in a 5 hours bike ride (~ 90 rpm * 300 min = 27,000 pedal strokes on each side!). Being able to detect differences of a degree is a really powerful way of probing out the optimal cycling position given body type and race distance.
After this session with Adam, I am sure that I got quite a bit closer of reaching my cycling goal time of 4:45-4:50 hours in Kona this year.

Pareto Principle

My training philosophy was always to train as less as possible to gain maximum fitness in order to reach my desired goal. I am very fond of this minimalistic approach. When I was training for Ironman Canada 2010, I logged less than 10 hours per week over the course of 20 weeks, however, neglecting swimming quite a bit. The core of my training plan was a Minimalist Marathon Training Program. This program consists of three key workouts per week, leaving the other days for recovery or cross training. My focus in 2010 was clearly to become a better (triathlon) runner and 90 % of my workouts were brick workouts of 1 - 1.5 hours hard cycling on my trainer followed by running a few fast mile repeats and then settling down into a longer goal pace run (everything on the track). Eventually, I ran up to 38 km on the track. Now, you probably think this guy is crazy, but I can tell you once you get used to it, you'll love track workouts. The benefit is that you can train without interruption and record progress very well due the to homogeneous conditions, which also keeps you motivated! Training on the track also allows you to bring as much fluids you need for the workout and you can nicely practice your race day nutrition.

So, coming back to the minimalist approach. The other day, I bought a training program from training4cyclists. It's called Time Effective Cycling Training and is written by Jesper Bondo Medhus. His ebook introduced me to the Pareto Principle (or the 80-20 rule), named after the Italian economist Vilfredo Pareto and states that 80 % of the effects come from 20 % of the causes. So, since I am in the unlucky situation of not getting paid for swimming, biking and running, this principle is key for me to reach my goal of placing Top 5 in the age category M30-34 in Kona this year, and still be able to finish my PhD this summer and start a new job. For me this means I should avoid unnecessary time swimming, biking and running and focus on the 20 % (approximately) in each sport that actually make me faster, i.e. goal pace training, interval workouts, track running and indoor cycling. Although I intuitively applied this principle already before I actually heard about it, it's good to see it written out. On a final note however, I also have to say that every now and then training without any pace prescription turned out to be very beneficial for my overall performance, recovery and well-being.

Happy Training!

Stefan

Sweet Spots

Today I did the Swim Smooth ramp test to discover my optimal stroke rates. It turned out that I have two sweet spots, i.e. two stroke rates at which I have the highest efficiency given pace and perceived effort. The first one lies at 61 strokes per minute and second one at 76 strokes per minute. What does that mean? At 61 strokes per minutes my pace clearly dropped by 3 seconds per 50 metres, compared to 58 strokes per minute, while maintaining approximately the same rate of perceived effort. This can be considered my long and steady pace stroke rate, which clearly supports what I have been doing during training. At a stroke rate of 76, I dropped 2 seconds per 50 metres compared to the preceding stroke rate of 73, an outcome which was absolutely new to me! However, swimming at this stroke rate is hard work. This stroke rate can be considered my CSS stroke rate. CSS stands for Critical Swim Speed and is an approximation of the lactate threshold speed. CSS can be calculated by doing a 400 and 200 metres time trail (see CSS link above). Over the last 6 months my CSS decreased from 1:32 to 1:28 and now to 1:25 minutes per 100 metres (as of last week). Looks like I am on the right track!

Stroke rate	Strokes/50m	Time/50m	RPE	Comments
46	34	49.3	1	very slow
49	37	46.8	2	feels smoother but still slow
52	36	44.2	2.5	feels nice and easy
55	39	44.1	3	feels good
58	39	43.6	3.5	feels good
61	40	40.5	4	feels fast and easy to breath bilaterally
64	42	40.7	5	starting to work
67	42	39.7	6	working now
70	43	38.6	7	working but stroke feels good
73	45	38.5	8	stroke degrading; fighting the water
76	45	36.7	8	feels smoother again for some reason
79	45	35.5	9	sprint
82	46	35.1	10	sprint plus fighting the water

Speeding things up!

After having my swim stroke analysed by Paul Newsome, the first thing I did was working consciously to avoid the 'arm press down' when breathing, as well as not crossing the mid-line with my left arm. Besides these flaws in my stroke, his analysis also showed a stroke rate of approximately 54 strokes per minute and I could clearly see that I had a little bit of a glide, i.e. a dead spot at the end of my stroke, which forced me to rush through the catch phase -- the phase which is most important for propulsion. Dead spots, or gliding, is something one should avoid since the only thing it's doing in that moment is slowing us down and as a result one has to accelerate again. Gliding and accelerating feels (and is) very inefficient. In a 60 min swim, with a stroke rate of 54 strokes/min, this would mean 3240 times gliding and accelerating!! Accelerating may also put more stress on the shoulder joints and tendons due to the sudden and quick force generated by the muscles. After having done this simple calculation, I was absolutely convinced and ready to get rid off this glide in my stroke. So, I took my Wetronome, switched it into stroke rate mode, bumped it up to 60 bpm and started swimming. During the first few workouts I felt terrible and rushed as if I was fighting the water and not working with it. And if this is not enough, I still had this little bit of a glide at the end of my stroke. I started doubting the whole stroke rate thing until I realised something interesting. It's not just about increasing the stroke rate but also to shorten your stroke a tiny bit and not reaching out so far. It's almost the same when transition from fast walking with a long stride into jogging (or running) with a much shorter stride but faster leg turnover resulting in more speed. Now, I can also do 65 strokes per minute (for longer intervals) without fighting the water. My goal is to keep my stroke rate up between 60-65, and once I am totally comfortable with it, I will go back and lengthen the stroke again while keeping it quick.
When cycling I also try to have a smooth and quick pedal stroke and not pounding the pedals down (The Art of Spinning). If you have ever biked on rollers, or a trainer, you know this uneven buzzing noise when you start pounding on the pedals. In order to achieve a smooth pedal stroke, I ride rollers, listen to the buzzing noise and make it sound as evenly as possible. As for swimming, I got myself a Wetronome and listened to the beep. As for running I do a lot of track workouts in which I aim for a high leg turnover. I recently found Good Form Running, a video which is linked on Jack Cook's Fast Trax Run and Ski Shop website. It summarises all you need to develop a quick and efficient running style.
I am confident that if I maintain a high stroke rate/ cadence/ leg turnover for miles and miles, my body will eventually adapt to it and I become much more efficient and faster by decreasing the risk of injury. Isn't that all we want? Absolutely yes! But unfortunately, there is always a catch: Changing a motor pattern that developed over many years of training requires a fair amount of time and dedication, but once it's done I am sure it will pay off!

Bring it on!

Stefan