​Masters Athletes – Old Dogs, New Tricks.
 
Sometimes, relating personal experiences is the best way to convey a lesson.  Today’s post is one such time.
 
Last week, I hit a wall.  I was completed fragged.  Dragging ass.  And it got me thinking.
 
As endurance athletes, we’re used to operating in fatigued states.  Training long, hard hours is tough and we grow accustomed to carrying a bit of fatigue into our day-to-day routines.  In fact, we’ve come to accept that we’re going to be fatigued on a daily basis, yet we still find ways to execute pretty darn well in our training and even our races. 
 
For the past couple months, I deliberately cut back on my weekly volume and also inserted more complete days off into my routine.  Rather than always pressing workouts (even while keeping HR and power in the appropriate zones), my recovery has been both quicker and more complete after hard workouts.  Another benefit of the increased days off is increased sleep.  I get up at 0-dark-30 to work out, so sleeping in affords me an extra couple hours of rest those nights.  That’s huge.
 
In making these changes, I can now feel a clear distinction between being “tired” (lack of sleep) and being “fatigued” (result of hard work).  And, I have now re-realized what it feels like when these two sensations overlap.  Here’s what last week taught me. 
 
Wednesday, I had a call with a client in Poland at midnight (8am for them). It went until 1am, then I had to get up at 5:45 on Thursday to take my son to the airport for his flight to the Simplot Games (a US regional indoor track meet for high schoolers). Thursday, I felt better than expected despite getting very little sleep. It was a day off from training which, to a degree, counterbalanced the lack off sleep.  Friday was another story. I felt wiped out when the alarm went off. When I climbed on the bike, my legs felt good for the 50min L3 drone session, but watts were a little lower and HR was a little higher than normal. For the rest of the day, I feel like I had dug really deep like in an LT/VO2max workout.  I had cinder blocks for shoes.
 
That tiredness from the lack of sleep which I then carried into a moderately challenging workout created the deep fatigue I then felt – a combination of being tired and fatigued. Doing that long L3 session was ok but I probably should have pulled back to recovery level effort and saved it for another day. So next time I will, regardless of the planned workout. 
 
Carrying fatigue from one workout into the next workout is fine. Carrying tiredness from lack of sleep into a key workout should be avoided. Typically, output will be lower (measured in speed or watts) and HR will be higher at expected effort.  Given the changes to my training routine that I outlined above, I can clearly differentiate between being tired, being fatigued and being overly fatigued when the two sensations hit at the same time.
 
The goal will be to avoid the combo scenario as much as possible. 
 
In the past, I was admittedly weak on taking my rest days.  These past couple months, I’ve really come to appreciate more days completely off, and actually look forward to them more than I do my challenging workouts.  The benefits to my training have been marked, so I can’t wait to see what sort of impact it all has on my racing as well.
 
Happy Training,
Coach Nate 

Just like the shift to ever-lighter bikes, there’s a pervasive underlying current that in order to perform optimally, an athlete needs to also “cut weight”.  Masters athletes think even more keenly about this because as we get older and our bodies continue to change, it can be even more challenging to retain lean body mass while minimizing the accumulation of fatty tissue.  And, by continuing to "look young and feel young", we feel we can hold on to our youthful speed, power and endurance.
 
While most endurance athletes are conscious about their weight, triathletes and runners are particularly obsessed with their body and weight and, therefore, with nutrition in general. To such an extent that their focus on performance often becomes replaced with a focus on nutrition.  They start to equate the dropping of weight with a commensurate increase in performance.  When I talk to Masters athletes about training, racing and nutrition, I tend to get a lot of questions around nutrition most specifically.  Less about how to fuel during training and racing, and more around “cutting weight down/keeping the weight off.”
 
Many athletes come to triathlon because of weight issues in the first place. Eating disorders are not an uncommon problem even in the professional ranks and among top age groupers. Many athletes only train more to be able to eat more afterwards. They try to balance their binge eating with binge training.  One female athlete I knew “back in the day” strove for a zero fat diet.  It was quite ridiculous the measures to which she went to achieve this, and it showed.  Sure, she was lean, but her skin looked ragged and despite being muscular she appeared unhealthy.  And, she fell into a pattern of consistently being injured. 
 
To be clear, there is nothing adverse around eating and training in order to look good.  What is critical is to make sure that while you’re trying to look good, you also FEEL good!  Who really cares if you look like you’re chiseled out of marble if your energy is down the crapper and you’re walking around in a caloric-deficit haze every day?
 
Be honest and clear with yourself about what you want to achieve. Eating for appearance is an entirely different thing than eating for performance. If you have performance goals, don’t confuse performance with appearance. They are not the same and should not be confused one for the other.
 
The easiest way to determine whether or not you’re becoming too lean or too light is to track your power output on the bike at certain heart rates and do the same for running paces.  If your watts-per-kilo remain the same or go up, for example, then you’re experiencing a positive impact from the weight loss.  However, once your watts-per-kilo start to drop, then you’re starting to get weaker.  Not good.  Likewise with running.  If your heart rate is not shooting up in order to keep the same pace, you’re probably OK.  Swimming is a bit tougher since you cannot measure power and checking your HR can only be done between reps when you have enough time sitting at the wall.  But, with swimming it’s also easy to tell when you feel strong or weak.  If you’re feeling weak or fatigued in the water more often than usual, then you’re probably in a more catabolic than anabolic state and need to adjust your nutrition to get more fuel pumping through the body.  It’s really binary – is your current weight allowing you to train and race faster, or not?  Frankly, who cares how “good” you look if your performance is taking a nosedive.
 
By eating to try and look fast, many athletes forget to fuel properly to actually be fast. As a coach one of my main tasks is to readjust the athletes’ focus whenever they get carried away – in training or regarding nutrition.  The sports we pursue are not beauty contests.  The goal is to perform to the best of your abilities and strive to do your best.  If you’re instead focused on how you look, your performance will suffer.  And, in the end, you won’t be healthy. 
 
Keep your eye on performing well instead of on the mirror, and you will probably find you will both train and perform more consistently and at a higher level.
 
Happy Training,
Coach Nate

​Posing the question of one top athlete's genetic superiority over his or her competitors is a loaded proposition.  The use of PEDs is rampant in every sport, with studies showing that between one-third to one-half of all national- and world-class athletes are cheating.  Staggering!

​Lots going on in the world of sports and doping.  I'll be talking about 3 relevant and current topics which hit the wires in the past week that will hopefully provide some rational perspective for everyone.