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You're Warming Up Too Much

3/25/2017

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Sometimes, athletes’ inability to perform well on race day has less to do with the training they’ve done prior to the event and more to do with improper warming up. We hear athletes say things like, “I didn’t warm up enough” as a means to explain away a poor performance. But, just how does the athlete define “enough”? Instead, wouldn’t it be better to look at warming up not from the angle of duration but rather from what is accomplished during that warm-up period? 

Take a look around the athlete prep area before your next race. You will see athletes laser-focused while they work themselves into a lather, preparing for the intensity of the race to come. The logic is that if you open up your body during warm-up, then your body will respond well to the rigors of the race rather than lock-up. The problem is that too much of a good warm-up turns it into a bad warm-up. The length and intensity of a traditional warm-up has long thought to give athletes an edge by eliciting a response called post-activation potentiation (PAP). An athlete triggers PAP when he adds interval work to the warm-up. What is less well-known is that (1) the benefits of PAP last for only 5-10min once the warm-up is concluded; and (2) fatigue from warming up too extensively negates the positive impact PAP plays. 

In research presented in the "Journal of Applied Physiology", scientists compared a traditional 50- minute warm-up with high-intensity intervals to a 15-minute warm-up with moderate-intensity intervals in 10 highly-trained track cyclists. The researchers found that the shorter warm-up group experienced less muscle fatigue and produced higher peak power outputs in an ensuing stress test. In other words, the cyclists that warmed up for just 15-minutes had fresher legs than those that used a traditional, 50-minute warm-up – and they performed better. 

Additionally, in a recent study in the "International Journal of Sports Physiology and Performance", researchers warned that, “Warm-up exercise including race-pace and sprint intervals combined with short recovery can reduce subsequent performance in a four-minute maximal test in highly trained cyclists.” The cyclists in the study group that included high intensity warm-up intervals exhibited less peak power in a subsequent maximal exercise test. The study’s authors recommended that an ideal warm-up should be shortened or performed at reduced intensity. The effects of heightened fatigue from too long a warm-up last more than 30 minutes. In other words, well into the early stages of the race. 

With this in mind, it would behoove athletes to shorten their warm-ups to a maximum of 15-20 minutes and include some short sub-threshold intervals with adequate recovery between rather than performing those intervals at a higher intensity and producing unnecessary (and counterproductive) fatigue. Give the shorter warm-up idea a shot at your early-season races, and even during your upcoming interval sessions. You may find that spending less time warming up is actually the key to better performances. 

Happy Training,
Coach Nate
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The Evolution of PEDs and TUE Abuse

3/21/2017

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​There is no "winning clean" in endurance sports, pro or amateur ranks. It's not so much doping sophistication that is allowing athletes to continue getting away with cheating, as much as it is driving a semi-truck through the loophole of the system -- TUEs.  The number of TUEs has skyrocketed as of late, to the point that athletes on their death beds are winning events at the pinnacle of their sports.  Ridiculous.
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Demystifying Heart Rate

3/17/2017

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Whether you train with power on the bike (and now while running), HR (heart rate) is the most widely used metric for tracking intensity.  It is the governor for just how hard you can go and for how long.  Because once you tip past your LTHR (lactate threshold HR), there is a finite amount of time you can continue to bludgeon yourself – regardless of where your power or pace is in your sport of choice.  Endurance athletes tend to know the basics, yet HR remains the most commonly misunderstood aspect of training and racing.  How fresh or fatigued we are impacts HR values at perceived effort, for example.  I also get questions from athletes on a fairly regular basis wanting to understand how their HR Range – the number of beats between your Resting HR and Maximum HR and, thus, the range in which you can perform any workload – impacts their ability to perform.   

For example, does a high Max HR mean that an athlete can push harder for longer than a similarly-trained athlete with a lower Max HR? Having a high or low LTHR does not directly relate to athletic performance; instead, HR values tend to relate to your previous athletic experience and your individual physiology. LTHR is also less age-specific than people think and are quite individually determined as well. 

What Is LTHR? 
In simplest terms, LTHR is the maximum HR you can sustain over a longer period of time – typically measured as a 1,500m swim, or 40k TT on the bike, or a 10k run.  The fitter and the more experienced an athlete is, the longer he or she can sustain effort at LTHR.  

Efforts above threshold are extremely intense and, thus, cannot be sustained for nearly as long. Glycogen (blood sugar) gets depleted at a much faster rate above LTHR, for example, while completing VO2max effort intervals.  I refer to completing efforts above LTHR as “lighting the fuse”, because once you light the fuse, it burns and you only have a limited amount of time before the fuse burns out and you explode.  Thus, these more intense efforts can only last a few minutes at the most before recovery is needed. On the flip side, efforts below and up to your threshold can be sustained for a much longer duration.  

High or Low LTHR 
HR values are very individual. Some athletes have a higher LTHR, while others have a lower threshold. These numbers can vary at any age. For example, a Masters athlete can have a LTHR in the 180’s while an athlete half his age can have the same. It is typical for younger athletes to have higher LTHR values, such as in the 180’s and higher. It is also common to see athletes in their 30s and 40s test out at lower LTHR values. Again, this is just the trend; it is possible that a higher or lower LTHR can exist at any age. 

Multiple factor such as cardiac output, pulmonary function, strength, VO2max and the overall size of your body all factor into how fast your heart needs to beat to deliver oxygen to the working muscles.  Remember, O2-rich blood is the fuel of the working muscles so the harder you work, the more O2 your muscles need to function properly. While there are many factors that go into determining LTHR, one of the main factors may be the heart itself, specifically the left ventricle. 

During diastole (the relax stage), the left ventricle fills with oxygenated blood, and then, during systole, it contracts and pumps the oxygenated blood through the aorta and into the body. The size and strength of the left ventricle will determine how much volume of blood can be delivered with each beat.  Life long athletes tend to have higher Max HR and LTHR values.  This is because the heart is more adaptable to change at a younger age.  As we age, the heart becomes less adaptable and more “fixed.”  While not definitive, it is reasonable to say that Masters athletes with higher HR values probably established those values at much younger ages and then carried them forward through their lives as they continued to compete while growing up. 

LTHR Variables 
Those who are new to endurance training, at any age, may experience a change at LTHR after initial tests. This is common to see after initial gains in strength or cardiovascular fitness. Another reason for this is simply learning how to test as newer athletes learn the correlation between RPE (rate of perceived effort), HR and duration of effort. It is important for all newcomers to an endurance sport, as well as experienced athletes coming off an extended break, to test fairly often to confirm (or reestablish) threshold ranges.   

Other variables which impact LTHR include medications you might be on as well as fatigue brought about by training as well as emotional and mental stressors. HR can also be suppressed due to muscle/overall fatigue. Carrying too much fatigue into a threshold test will result in less than stellar results and not provide you with an accurate representation of your fitness.  Hence, tests are typically conducted at the end of recovery weeks. 

Lastly, whether indoors or outdoors, pick a consistent venue for your tests, preferably a long uninterrupted hill for the bike and a running track for the run.  For the swim, you will simply want to make sure you pick a day to test when you know the swim lanes will not be overrun with kids or water aerobic classes. Indoors, a stationary bike trainer or treadmill is convenient but just make sure you “stay in touch” with these training tools as the weather warms up, otherwise your results could get skewed a little bit from the lack of familiarity if you haven’t trained inside for a couple months. 

HR values are different from one person to the next.  The bigger your HR Range, one would think that would allow an athlete to push harder for longer.  Does a HR of 155, for example, feel more comfortable to an athlete with a Max HR of 200 than it does to one with a Max HR of 185?  It is not a simple math equation to answer this, as hopefully you’ve learned from this article.  The better trained you are to handle efforts at or around your LTHR, the longer you will be able to hold a faster effort.  And, the faster you will be able to race. 
​

Happy Training, 
​Coach Nate   
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Ironman Training Common Mistakes

3/11/2017

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Given you can race a 70.3 or 140.6 year round, this article is timely regardless of the time of year.  In some respects, successfully completing a long-distance triathlon is simply an equation of “putting in the time” so that you can ensure, barring an unfortunate situation, you will be able to cross the finish line.  But, in my 25 years of coaching endurance athletes of all walks of life, I’ve seen plenty of athletes – those whom I coach as well as many whom I do not – torpedo a goal due to what boils down to a very small number of errors.  And, these mistakes are all ones that could otherwise be avoided.   
 
So, here is that short list of avoidable mistakes.  If you find yourself making any of these, hopefully you can stop yourself in your tracks and get yourself back on track toward meeting or exceeding your race day goals. 
 
Too Much Training 
If some a moderate amount of volume and long workouts are good, then more of either or both should be even better, right?  Right!  Wrong.   
 
Regardless of my explicit instructions to my athletes, a small percentage of them seem to always think that “more is better” and do extra credit – adding more workouts to the weekly schedule or extending multiple workouts because they feel they need to or because they’re “feeling good”.  Not only is this added work unnecessary, it also goes against the well-laid out plan and also negatively impacts recovery.  While simple in premise it is also the most commonly forgotten fact – improvement occurs during periods of recovery and not during periods of hard work.  Yet, how many endurance athletes completely ignore this?  
 
Do this once or twice, OK (I guess).  Do it often, and the result is that you will arrive at your goal race overly fatigued and, thus, not able to bring to bear all of the fitness you spent so many months building.  Stresses from training are cumulative and add up over time, so deliberate recovery days and days off are so critical to balancing all that hard work out.  Without proper – and enough – rest and recovery, you are doing yourself a disservice.   
 
Planning a Nutrition/Hydration Strategy That Works 
Long course athletes need to replenish the calories they burn and the fluids they lose during a race, and at a rate they can absorb. Learning what works and how much of it is required takes a lot of practice over many weeks.  It is deliberate work.  You would be surprised how many athletes fail to properly prepare in this area as they do in their training.  Or, how many use race day to do things completely at odds with what they practiced in training.  Failing to dial in your nutrition and hydration strategies can lead to utter disaster on race day. 

Depending on how well- trained you are and how hard you are exercising, the body has approximately 60 to 180 minutes of stored muscle glycogen to access as fuel during exercise. So, while you may need very little supplemental nutrition during a Sprint or Olympic Distance triathlon (or any athletic event lasting less than a couple hours), supplemental nutrition and hydration are both mandatory for longer training sessions and races. Very straightforward and simple guidelines are as follows:  250-350 calories and 16-24 ounces per hour.  Calories can be solids or be carbo drinks so that you’re able to take care of nutrition and hydration at the same time. 
 
Notice the above ranges.  They are ranges because every athlete is different and your own requirements can also change one long training weekend to the next.  Try different approaches and fuel sources to see what your body likes best, especially in conditions similar to those in which you will be racing.  The less you leave race day to chance, the better. 

Race-Specific Training 
There’s a saying, which I’m sure you’ve heard:  “If you don’t do it in practice, you’ll never do it in competition.”  Exactly.  Putting in enough volume is important, yes.  But, if you train slowly and then expect to race quickly, it will never happen.  And you will end up disappointed come race day.  The whole point of training is to practice what needs to happen on race day so that it actually does happen in the race.  Crazy concept, I know.  In training, come to understand the correlation between RPE (rate of perceived effort), HR (heart rate) and power (on the bike and, now, even the run) so that you know precisely what your realistic ranges are for each leg come race day.  If you train at 15mph on the bike but expect to hold 18mph come race day, that’s just not a realistic “mind over matter” expectation to set.  Testing every 4-8 weeks depending on time of year is important to track progress and also reset training zones so that you are training as realistically as you can to achieve positive race day results.   

Race Day Hype is a Killer 
So, you’ve prepared the best you can and have avoided the first 3 mistakes listed.  You’re all set to light the race on fire, right?  Not yet.  Properly preparing for race day is one thing.  Even if your lead-up to your key 70.3 or 140.6 race is spot on and you are a well-oiled (and rested) machine, there is one more, even more nefarious, obstacle standing between you and crossing the finish line in a state of euphoria rather than dejection.   

Pre-race hype is arguably the biggest black hole of energy suck on the planet.  I’m always amazed at how many athletes walk endless miles through the athlete village or race expo every day to buy more gadgets or the most recent and scientific doo-dad that will ensure a world record performance.  It is one thing to casually walk through an expo to burn a small amount of time and take your mind off the upcoming race; it’s completely another to get sucked into the buzz and allow it to leach your focus and energy, which will only serve to de-focus you from the task at hand. 

Athletes get so excited about the expo environment and being surrounded by all the other like-minded athletes, that they risk ignoring their race day plans altogether.  Sure, go to the expo.  But, make one round, buy whatever it is you want and then go ahead and use them in training – after your race is over. 

These mistakes may seem obvious and easily avoidable.  However, they are not.  Even the best athletes in the world have made these or other similar mistakes at some point.  We’re human, not infallible.  That said, being cognizant that these traps exist and can be relatively easy to fall into, allows us to better identify when we are starting to fall so we can better catch our balance and avoid the spikes at the bottom. 
 
 
In closing, remain confident in your preparation and stick to the plan you and your coach have put together for race day! 
​

Happy Training, 
Coach Nate 
 
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