The coaching community often wax lyrical about how the process has to be individualised: that one size does not fit all. Sometimes the work that goes on behind the scenes to enable this tailor made approach is overlooked; the coach has to ensure they keep reading around the area, keeping updated on the latest training principles, performance analysis etc. There is also a lot of work one has to do when a particular athlete brings forward a unique circumstance, a unique challenge. My day to day coaching work brings me a lot of variety: yes it means a lot of time reading, researching, but coaching 25 athetes also enables me to learn so much - I feel very fortunate in that regard: it is never in danger of becoming like "Groundhog Day"!
This past week has made me reflect on this individuality a lot. And, with my riders' permission, I wanted to illustrate the nature of the work I have in the run up to the racing season. I have selected 4 'case studies' but these by no means are any more or less challenging / exciting than the other 21 athletes I coach.
"Breaking through the glass ceiling"; Juliette Clark
Since working with Juliette, we have had some head scratching moments together. She is fairly typical of the female endurance athlete: someone who can go for miles and miles without fatiguing. Supreme endurance capacity, what you would expect from a former marathon runner. In our work together, we have regularly measured her 'power-time' relationship: in otherwords, how much power she can hold across a range of times - very short bouts (in the order of 3 minutes) to longer bouts (12 to 15 minutes). We always record a relationship with a very shallow slope i.e. she can hold similar powers over the longer durations as she can reach in the shorter trials. Great for an athlete that specialises in 50 or 100 mile time trials, but a little frustrating when trying to up the power in shorter events like the 10 and 25 mile distances. Let me give you some numbers - she can hold 200W in an endurance ride of 3 hours, but in racing 10 mile TTs we see powers only ~30W higher. The narrow window is common in females and indeed athletes with a lot of slow twitch fibres.
Juliette does wish to focus on the longer events, but a conundrum is how to make her faster over these distances too: in her training do we 1) keep working on her endurance, pushing up her lactate threshold through quality endurance rides, OR 2) focus on raising her ceiling with 'top end' work, hoping this lifts the whole profile up. We've trialled some interesting experiments in the past, trying to lever up the top end of that power-time line: this time last year we experimented with the Burgomaster sessions - 30s all out sprints as her only training for a 2 week period. We made some progress, and it encouraged us to try more stuff like this for the coming season. Currently, we are 3 weeks into a 12 week plan - the first 3 weeks is about 15s sprints (to raise the upper ceiling); the second block is about switching through the aerobic / anaerobic transition (increasing the reps to 40 / 60s); the third block is aimed at making these sets more aerobic (i.e. one minute on, one minute off - equal work: rest ratio); and then finally, elongating the time spent at these 'new improved' powers (3 to 5 minute blocks). A logical gradual progression, aimed at levering up one end of the power-time slope. We hope by levering, that the whole line will also shift upward. Will it work? The research suggests it might, but in practice, we've no idea! All you can do is discuss the pros and cons, and get the athlete to buy in. I'm fortunate Juliette plays that game with me. Her nickname is Robot: all I have to do is programme her in, and away she goes! We'll be re-testing her power-time relationship in a couple of weeks...its a fascintaing process.
"Road to Leadville"; Craig Eadie
Having entered a lottery to get into the Leadville 100 (just Google it, and you will see what he is in for!), Craig told me about a month a go he actually got in - cue simulaneous 'gulp' from coach and athlete! I would call Craig someone who "loves riding his bike" - and having had some great rides last year completing some long distance sportives, you could think he has now bitten off more than he can chew....well, it is a HUGE challenge! He now gets to ride alongside his hero, Lance Armstrong. Its not the distance that is my major concern (Craig has cycled 100 miles before); nor is it the fact its off road (he did a lot of mountain biking in his youth); its the fact we must also factor in the race is all at severe altitude. The race starts at 9000 ft!
Since I still work at the University one day a week, I have been able to get a team of sport scientists to work around Craig. In fact, our first project meeting is in the diary. Alongside myself and Dan, we have a nutritionist, an environmental physiologist, and a dissertation student. Its been important to get buy in from Craig's family, and also to make contacts with sponsors: Science in Sport are helping with nutritional supplements, and the local bike shop, the TriStore are also backing Craig.
I am confident Craig can do this, but we both know its about setting up the plan, and living by it day by day. In the world of sports performance, "Consistency is king" - you have to be meticulous. In a recent interview with Marco Pinotti, a rider for the HTC-Columbia pro team, he considers this to be the number 1 aspect of life as a Pro - "Getting better at racing happens when you believe passionately that what you do on AND off the bike will improve your performance"...how true, and this is Craig's chance to do that.
"The physiological twins"; Nic Baldo and Richard Prebble
You might remember last autumn how I started working with two new athletes at the same time - Nic is a young French pro, riding with the Swiss based Atlas team; whilst Richard is an "old hand" on the UK domestic scene. Both had impressive physiology when I first tested them in November: almost like for like with their maximum minute powers and lactate threshold; but also quite distinct in how they reached those scores. Up until now, their training has been in parallel - my philosophy being to develop a sound endurance capacity as a foundation to fitness. However, since their goals differ in time and in type, their training is diverging....
One of the challenges of working with Pro athletes is that their own aspirations must be balanced with those of their employers, their team bosses. The team will have a race programme, often with 2 squads. The riders won't necessarily know what races they will be doing in the next month. And even if it is on the plan, it might change last minute as riders are drafted in / out due to form or injury. For Nic, he wishes to do well at the French National TT champs in late June. His team however need him to be at or close to, peak fitness as from now. In our discussions on his training (we speak via Skype every week, email each day) we are trying to find that balance of moving towards his own goal in June (working on the sustainable race power, zone 4) and the change in pace you need to follow the peloton (sprints, accelerations, short bursts of effort in zones 5 and 6). Its no mean feat. Couple that with the travelling and weekend race commitments, you end up only having 3 sessions per week to develop both these systems. He's doing a great job though, finishing his first two races as the first in his team.
I have to admit to being a little nervous when Richard approached me for training - his palmares inlcude many national championships, and a well established rider in the road cycling scene for the past 2 decades now. Wow, what an opportunity! How do you take an elite rider of his stature and make him even better? Add to the mix the fact that 2 years ago, Richard was diagnosed with type I diabetes.
Like with Nic, I have been working on raising Richard's endurance capacity, in the main focusing on the combo of zone 2 and zone 3 work to lift up his lactate threshold. Data over the winter shows we have done this very effectively. Therefore, it was frustrating for Richard when recently he hit a tricky patch in his training - his condition, drastically affecting his glucose metabolism makes it harder for him to bridge into the area of upper zone 3 and zone 4. Its at these intensities (above the LT) where he needs to sustain the power using more glycogen. We sense there is also an impact on his ability to recover in between these hard sessions - so, like with Juliette's physiology, its requiring very close monitoring and some trial and error.
I am also fortunate to have good contacts in sport science to help me address cases like Richard. This week I had the pleasure of speaking with Nigel Mitchell, the nutritionist at British Cycling and now working with Team Sky. Nigel has over 20 years of experience working with elite athletes, and he has helped diabetics achieve the very peaks of performance. Chatting through some of the challenges of Richard's situation with Nigel was highly appreciated - having a sounding board is critical to help me continue learning. Indeed, I thanked Richard too this past week - because if it were not for working with him, I would not have deepened my learning this week around fuelling - knowledge I can apply across all the athlete group I coach. I am hoping to meet up with Nigel this week when he visits Eastbourne to do a talk to our MSc students at the University. I am hoping to talk through some lab testing planned with Richard at the end of this month - where we are going to refine his pre-race fuelling strategy: ensuring we have enough carbs going in to fuel the race effort, but not playing havoc with the blood glucose / insulin response. I am sure I will detail that session in a future post.
All of these case studies are good examples of the day to day monitoring that is essential for the training athlete. Although a coach 'prescribes' a plan, this is all it is - a plan. Plans should be maliable, adaptable, flexible: not only to life around training, but also reactive to how an athlete is coping. I know myself as an athlete that my best performance year was when I gave up on the training plan being 'perfect' and the expectation was to hit every session and its targets. Instead, I learnt that training is just a stimulus for changing the body - for it to build and come back stronger. In otherwords, its not the powers / times / heart rates / distances in training that are important - its the degree of stress that is invoked by the session: whether that is attained in 4 or 8 reps of an interval doesn't matter a jot!
And finally, "Nut case".....Me!
I decided to ride the Puncheur sportif this weekend, 70 miles of 'rolling' Sussex countryside, culminating in the effort up the infamous Ditchling Beacon. The ride started in -3 temperatures, which I suffered at the hands of: not only cold extremeties throughout the 5 hours, but also coming a cropper on the ice one hour in - ouch. My bruised hip is a sight to behold! It was worth it though (I can say that 24 hours later), as I gained another long ride under my belt ready for L2P in June, and also because the food post ride was gorgeous (Juliette was my ride partner, and we discussed my foraging behaviour - I didn't think grabbing a mixture of 6 different energy bars at the interim feedstation was too much....I think it represented a fine feeding strategy!). A great morning, a great route, great organisation...and I might even do it again?
I'm reading Michael Phelps' book "No Limits" at the moment: a book structured in 8 chapters, each detailing an approach that took him to a Gold medal. I picked up on one in particular - "What's Important Now?" His coach, Bob Bowman would ask Phelps this at opportune times, times when in order to get a job done, the mind had to be refocused. Its very easy in times of stress to react in ways that are our defaults. For a human, our instinct is often one of survival - "fight or flight". Its arguable as athletes, we need to dig in and choose the "fight" response. By nature though, we might ordinarily default to the panic, the "flight" response.
Dan and I have been planning the next PBscience workshop to take place in mid March. When we sat down to detail the day that carries an overall theme of 'Countdown to race day' we noticed a common strand - how a lot of what we wanted to convey to the PBscience athletes was about avoiding 'self satotage'. I am often amazed how athletes, having chosen to dedicate a huge portion of their lives over to the attainment of excellence in their event can then effectively undo that preparation by poor race day planning. Therefore, what we intend to run through on the day is how planning allows you to fulfill your potential by removing pre-race stress: from tapering leading up to the event; to glycogen loading; to the event day, specifically when to eat, how to research the event (weather, course, environment), how to maximise the fitness you have (pacing, nutrition, warm-up); and lastly, how to focus mentally. We hope the day will be a valuable reminder of how to dot the i's and cross the t's. Having a workshop before the season gets fully under way will hopefully allow those athletes attending to hit the ground running rather than taking them a few events to remember what racing means!
I had one of my own "What's Important Now" moments this weekend - in my efforts to keep my Majorca fitness going in preparation for the London to Paris ride in June, I intended to ride to, and from my parents in Ash Vale. The ride there on Saturday started out with Juliette as an escort - making sure I actually left Sussex I imagine! It helped me get out of the door, especially with the weather forecast being mixed. But, the weather Gods were kind to me on Saturday - you might even say they were kind to me Sunday too when heavy rain and 40mph winds scuppered my plan to ride home again! For me now, the thought of a 4h 30 ride is quite monumental - but I know I have to knock out rides of this length, and also do so back to back. The ride gave me plenty of time to reflect - on my fitness now, on what it used to be, what I need for London to Paris, and how I might do that within the constraints of my busy working life. At times, all I wanted to do was to stop, phone my Dad (a taxi driver thankfully!) and await a lift. But, I had to keep my future goal in mind: "What's Important Now" I asked myself - and the answer kept coming back to me - "to keep going, and gain confidence that I can ride this distance still".
There used to be a time I would try and ride the distance within a certain range of time, to come close to my 'PB'; or to hold a power, a heart rate, a cadence. Yes, I still have the SRM mounted (I love having 8 years of power data to track my ups, and downs in fitness, my very own case study!). But now, I have a different goal: its all about completion. What IS important to me now is to be fit enough to complete 3 days of riding ~120 miles. Giving up on Saturday was therefore not an option - completion was the order of the day, not that my power was dropping through fatigue: I just had to make it. I left my attachment to those numerous rides and PB times for the route, and just rode. Of course, it took seveal attempts to let it go, but each time I did, I was aware of the enjoyment coming back, the pressure lifting. I did it: some 15 minutes slower than normal (with a tail wind too I sense!). And, I celebrated that evening by going to Paddy's wedding - it felt like a PBscience athlete gathering, so an ideal way to share my achievement :-)
Craig, my athlete who has just been accepted to ride the Leadville 100 in August is also having to consider "What's Important Now". In our meeting for his lab test last week, we discussed the project and how we are going to tackle it. His challenge makes my ride to Ash Vale, or even London to Paris seem quite pitiful! We've started to draw up a list of tools we need in our "Toolbox", the people we need on the team. We're hoping to get a few experts on the team: from mental, nutritional, physical, medical, mechanical...no stone unturned! I'm relishing the challenge, and also building that team. You can keep abreast of his progress by visiting his blog. I'm sure I will also be keeping you up to date here too!
In the main, the athletes I work with are in their 30s or 40s – people that are established in their careers, maybe had their families, and now want to get back in to sport. Like I used to view the ‘mature student’ cohort at the University, a group that seem to know a lot more about what they want. I do love working with this type of athlete – they give back what I put in: a real reciprocal relationship. People need very little chivvying to get their training done (although training diary updates seem to be more like school homework!)
Last week though, I had an opportunity to work with athletes at the beginning of their careers in cycling. I have made links with VC Jubilee, the youth sectionof the Brighton Excelsior club. Last week, Dan and I (accompanied by two University placement students Elliott and Becky) drove over to Hove in “Mobie” to put 5 riders through their paces. The project is one where Sally, the head coach, wants her riders to benefit from fitness monitoring, but also for her coaching team to have some sport science support. For PBscience there are also direct benefits – working with athlete populations out of your every day norm keeps you on your toes, and keeps you learning. In preparing the reports today, I have been reading up on research I wouldn’t ordinarily get the chance to look at. Also, on the day of testing itself different skillsets are needed: making sure you are putting the athletes at ease, the different communication needs, explaining what we are doing and why, dealing with reactions to test scores / comparisons with others – like I say, it keeps you on your toes!
The group really impressed me – I tested some cyclists on the ‘Talented Athlete Scheme’ a few years ago, and a few of those riders are now based in pro teams on the continent. Some of Sally’s group are putting scores out very close to what I have seen before. It is a real testament to Sally and her team – they spend hours of their lives devoted to the sport and to many aspiring young athletes. I left the session inspired, and very reflective of my own sporting career: thankful to the people who gave up their time for me. Sport is a wonderful opportunity to meet people.
Last week was also the first time I had been out on the road with Mobie for a while – thankfully, it was afternoon testing, so things had warmed up a little. Unlike my test yesterday morning! I’m involved in a project with the Fitness team at Cycling Weekly. Alongside the coach, Oli (who happens to be one of my athletes!) the project is taking someone at ‘zero’ and turning them into ‘hero’ in 8 weeks (not my article title idea I assure you!). As it is, we have a ‘heroine’ Susannah, and she did live up to that moniker by having to get to Eastbourne in the most horrendous weather: train delays, cancellations and then traffic holding up her taxi. Then to cap it all, the coldness got to her and I had to do my best to collect blood samples from freezing cold extremities. We got there though, and all 3 of us (including Mike the photographer) felt the testing went well. Like the VC Jubilee project, all these opportunities are adding to my experience database.
During my busy times I have to remind myself the worth of taking these things on, even if what I feel like doing is staying behind my PC to work on data analysis and programme writing. I spoke about my ‘hibernation’ tendency I have with my own life coach, Leanne, on Friday. I explained how since getting back from Majorca, all I wanted to do was wake up and have the whole day ahead of me working at my desk – almost reclusive desires! We spoke about how normal that is, I imagine especially having given a lot of energy over “24/7” on camp. It comes back to the Stephen Covey concept of ‘production capability”. Getting my "P/PC balance" right is critical to keeping ahead as a coach, and making my business something people want to be involved in. Yes, it is vital I get on with the day to day core work (production), but I also have to invest in my long term development (production capability).
As I write this, I feel like one of the luckiest people alive – I really love my job, the people I work with, and the opportunities I am given. I feel very fortunate to have arrived in this place
“The Majorca Challenge” – no, I am NOT referring to the annual 5 day event raced in early February on the ‘sunny’ island. It is more a description of running a training camp with a group of riders at varying fitness, varying needs and varying health!
Dan and I greeted the 13 riders on this year’s camp at Palma on Saturday in temperatures of 19 degrees, and with clear blue skies. We had already enjoyed two nice rides having arrived on the Thursday to prepare the way: one ride taking in my favourite climb of Soller with Nic, our French pro rider; and then a ‘dicey’ ride out to Cap Formentor on Saturday morning...possibly my LEAST favourite cycling ride (although this time around I did enjoy it, my fear coming from my first trip to Majorca in 2002!). By Saturday lunchtime, Dan and I were in fine spirits, excited by a week of more sunshine and miles....well, that is what we thought!
Day 1 was great, with most riders heading out to San Salvador, a 5h ride. The first evening the riders were therefore also in fine fettle; by Tuesday even more so as several riders were able to tick off two climbs in the mountains. Even Wednesday, a ride ending in the pouring rain didn’t dampen people’s enthusiasm too much, as it was a quality session with all the riders putting out some impressive powers in the blocks I had set them. The winter’s training had gone well, and we were on track, if not a little ahead. Coach happy, riders happy. However, one person was not so happy: Dan had gone down with a bug by Tuesday night. I have to confess, I thought little of it, just putting it down to Dan’s having ridden hard in the first few days, plus his involvement in helping me set up the camp and each evening’s presentations leaving him susceptible. However, the next morning, a few more riders were complaining of illness, and word spread that others in our hotel were also suffering. I too had gone down with it
By the end of the week, only two riders had escaped: Dani, and Richard (the latter was staying off site nearby). It unfortunately put a cloud over the week. People’s individual training had been impacted, and our ability to schedule rides with specific aims within hampered: planning the rides each day was difficult without knowing who was healthy and how much energy they had in them to ride. I rode with the group on Thursday, riding up the Lluc climb on what was going to be a ‘test’ climb to check in on how everyone’s form was coming along. But as people discovered, a day of not eating due to sickness coupled with some previous hard riding is NOT ideal for keeping muscle glycogen stores topped up. Everyone, including myself, noted how as soon as they went above their lactate threshold power (top end of zone 2), there was ‘nothing in the legs’ and they had to back off. Thankfully, the bug was fairly transient, getting through people’s systems in a day.
The plans we went to Majorca with also had to be adapted because of two more factors out of our direct control: the Tour of Majorca pro race I mentioned earlier, and the weather! After a winter of poor weather, Dan and I had deliberately planned a week with more volume in this week – a way of counteracting the predominance of turbo riding, and introducing some mental freshness to everyone. On the Friday evening of our first full day, we were just double checking route plans against the weather forecast – it was during that internet searching that we came across the final details of the Tour: every single day, their race route crossed our ride route...damn it, we would have to go back to the drawing board! As the week unfolded, it became clear that the best of the weather was to have been early in the week, so at least we got a few climbs in early on. Our ‘Mountain ride’ on the second Friday was scuppered though, riders having to turn back at the Orient due to icy roads. The whole of Europe has really suffered this year. The only way we could console ourselves was knowing it was some 10 degrees colder back home, and reports of 3 inches of snow in Eastbourne!
It is difficult not to look back on the week without a tinge of disappointment. When you run these camps, you want to give everyone a week to remember. It is an athlete’s one chance a year to live like a full time pro, and this time around, that was compromised – not entirely, but the edge was taken off. But, as Dan and I drove back to Palma airport, we knew all we could do was try to reflect and learn, and to adapt things for next year. We all have to prepared to adapt – we might go in with expectations of what is to come, but times like this deliver a lesson.
In so many ways the week WAS a success. On the final evening, our end of camp meal at Tollo’s, it was great to see a table full of smiling faces: a group of people sharing a common link of being a PBscience athlete. Many had not met before the camp, but in the 20 hours or so of riding had become friends. For me as coach, I was extremely pleased with the power data I was seeing across the board. Despite the poor winter, the riders have all laid some great foundational work – two or three riders are already putting out more power now than in the race season of last year...and that is VERY exciting for me. Furthermore, in each rider “1-2-1” chat I had, engaging with each of the riders was very fulfilling – feedback on how they felt their form coming on, and thoughts on work needed before the race season kicks off in earnest. I’ve returned home with a lot of ‘homework’ but I am excited to be putting the icing on the cake of each rider’s fitness now.
Dan and I will be de-briefing the camp in full this week. We already have some exciting ideas for 2011 Spring camp, and some we might even be able to introduce this year in the autumn camp. As they say ‘live and learn’....adapt and become better for it.
I have spoken a lot in the past about how much I prioritise communication. Since the New Year I have been encouraging my athletes to sign up for call time with me every week, and so far, I think both athlete and coach have found that a rewarding step: just 10 to 15 minutes each week in dialogue is so valuable to me because I can HEAR how an athlete is coping. And for the athlete, its a chance to feel supported and to discuss any issues cropping up. The more we speak, the more we are on top of the training plan....and the fewer surprises for both of us - I believe in "little and often".
Another way I communicate with my athletes is through their training diaries. The Training Peaks online diary system is fantastic for this: each time they log a workout, I get an email which not only includes their training data (and power output / heart rate file), but also their training diary comments. Across the athletes I coach, I get a variety of approaches – some give me a few words (“session was fine”); more verbose athletes give me a paragraph (or two). I always encourage people to do what feels best for them. Indeed, some days, there may not be any comments at all – normally because they haven’t had the time to write anything, or they may have felt the session was pretty eventless. On the whole though, I think those athletes that use more extensive journaling thoughts / feelings can access a lot more of my expertise and get more from me as their coach. If an athlete doesn’t say much in their diary (“session was fine”), I normally follow it up with an email asking “what does ‘fine’ mean?”...not to bring them to task, but more to understand how they felt – ‘fine’ can mean good to some, or just about satisfactory to others.
As a coach, its quite critical I know how the ride felt – of course, as a scientist I love seeing the stats on a ride: the average power, the heart rate, the way the two interact. And those stats tell me a lot of what I need to know about the progression of training. However, a rider returning 250W after a 2 hour ride can feel very different across two days – with no journal comments, I don’t know how it felt to hit 250W – easy, hard, too much? Context helps too – 250W rides are more stressful if I know of the insomnia the night before, the stomach bug, the cold. Diary comments also form the basis of my ‘tracking system’. I mentioned progression of training a moment ago – with no comments, its hard to look back over training history and note if / when the rate of training became sub-optimal, or in good old fashioned language “when did the wheels fall off”! Notes about not sleeping well, tiredness within rides, between rides, what else is going on in life, the first sensations of a ‘niggle’...when do these ‘tip’ into over-reaching, over-training, de-motivation, or injury? I would suggest that the information from our sub-conscious is often the info the coach needs to know more than data and stats! The information you don’t want to say out loud, or keep secret in fear of being stopped from training, targets being changed....THAT is what I need to know. Anything to help prevent those wheels falling off.
At the other end of the scale, training diary comments can also underline what was working well and when. Subjectivity adds to building the picture in scenarios like the taper, peaking, big volume training blocks. And although I love reading a break-down of the ride, a commentary of what went well – I think even if no-one else reads your training diary, journaling reinforces the training and adds to motivation.
So, while everyone is inspired to be an even better version of themselves (come on, its only just turned into February, it can’t have worn off yet surely?) how about actioning these points:
Write in your training diary every day, even when you are not training that day – how you feel on a rest day can often give clues about the balance of fitness / fatigue brought on by the training
Detail any extraordinary factors outside of the training session – a late night, poor sleep, exceptional nutrition, life stresses
How did you feel before, during and after the session? Did you prepare well, what would you have done better if you could run through that training day again?
Do you feel you met the session goal? If yes, was it too easy? If no, what contributed to it? How do you feel about meeting it / not meeting it?
How did the session compare to the last time you did something comparable (either recently or this time last year)? Benchmarking like this is a great way to underline the improvements being made.
Flag up any aspects of the session you want the coach to home in on – like a particular climb you did. When looking over a 4 hour ride, its easy to miss detail. Remember, YOU were on the training ride, so draw out key moments and ask for an opinion.
Something I have noticed is the differing habits across my athletes regarding when they write their training diary. Some athletes write their diaries immediately post session, some later in the day. At the weekend, I was having coffee with one of my athletes Juliette - she told me how different her comments would be under these two scenarios. Its a balance - you need to write the diary while you still remember the session (i.e. the same day) but maybe with enough distance from it to evaluate the session objectively. I have a few athletes who load their training files and write their comments for each session at the end of the week. I'd prefer not to work in this way - from my end, it means firstly I have to analyse 5 or 6 files per athlete in one sitting (imagine me at the desk, finger tapping for 6 days with no files; 1 day under a mountain of data!); but more importantly, if I get files every day, I can help the athlete by feeding back and then feeding forward into the next session. Furthermore, leaving diary writing to the end of the week (although arguably more convenient) relies on an athlete's memory. I've been focusing my weekly reading time of late on the modelling of training, and in some papers addressing more the recovery aspects of life as an athlete, its interesting to read how critical training diaries are in monitoring training load. A great statistic the papers quote is how bad athletes are at quantifying training load: 24% overestimate, 17% underestimate! These results deteriorate as the time between the session and the recording increases.
So remember, the training diary is a learning tool for you, as much as it is a communication tool between athlete and the coach. I'm relying on some good training diary upkeep in the next fortnight as I leave half of my athletes back in the UK: in two days, I will be in Majorca, awaiting the arrival of the athletes on Saturday. I've decided to go over early this week to check out the weather, finalise the arrangements at the hotel, and organise the logistics of the camp. We've a great programme of talks and rides lined up this year, so I am very excited. On checking just now, the forecast is for temperatures of 15 to 16 degrees and sunshine - hopefully warm enough to get in to the mountains and enjoy some longer rides. I really sense my riders need some enjoyable miles - this winter has been extremely tough mentally with all the hours of training completed inside on the turbo: a mental release is needed. How do I know this? I've read it in their diaries of course ;-)
Sunday was a chance to get out on a ride with some of the PBscience athletes. In all, 12 of us headed out on to the roads of Surrey to enjoy a rare break in this winter weather. I certainly felt the Gods were smiling on us – the only day of sunshine and good road conditions in what feels like weeks! From the training diary comments I received the next morning, I think all the athletes enjoyed a chance to escape the turbo dungeons and get out into the real world. As we cycled around the Surrey hills, it was amazing to see the numbers of cyclists out on the road. Chris joked it must be the Surrey Sportif that day – he was right, and we were sure that the recent weather had caused many cyclists to go stir crazy and seize the chance to get out in the sunshine.
Riding in a group on Sunday was an opportune reminder of some of the issues Dan and I face as we move towards the camp in Majorca in a fortnight. For one, the recent weather driving people indoors to train has meant a degree of ‘rustiness’ has settled on the riders – it sounds odd, but people have almost forgotten how to ride a bike outside! I think nearly every rider reported how challenging it was to get a good quality session completed out on the road this weekend. As I reported the other week, turbo training is very different to road riding. One of the positives it brings to the programme is the ability to hit a target intensity and just sit there. You find the appropriate resistance and gear, then all you have to do is hold a cadence and “volia”, job done, target power hit. It is very similar to the sensations you get riding on the track – maybe that is why I enjoyed both modes of cycling – the numbers always add up. Programme them in, outcome achieved.
Outside is another issue, you have varied terrain, varied speed – you have to control gear selection, cadence whilst aiming at a power or heart rate. Whilst a turbo ride will deliver 90 to 100% of time ‘in zone’, a good outdoors ride will return 55 to 70%. Why not turbo all the time then? Well, maybe if you are entering the Virtual Time Trial Champs, hooked up to PC and competing against others over the internet! No, we HAVE to gain a range of skills to be the complete biker. A mix of both sessions is the ideal.
Of course, group riding brings another set of challenges – to the rider AND the coach. Most of the riders I work with tend to train alone, or with one training partner. It means they are able to focus on their training goals in the most effective way – its easier to hit a target pace or zone when its only you to control. Ride in a group of 8 riders, and you suddenly have 8 people all looking at their power meters all trying to hit their zones! It leads to issues ? Maybe due to rustiness, maybe due to a lack of group riding in general, Dan and I could see a lot of room for improvement in the group we were riding in.
To be fair, its hard to keep a group together when their steady zone 2 intensities range by 60 to 80W. In theory, it should be possible. If the stronger riders sitting on the front acknowledge they are stronger and that the benefit of some social riding is one to gain from as a nice change. Rather than wanting to hit the very top of their zone (which they can do week in, week out) if they compromise just 10 to 15W, they can still get a good ‘in zone’ workout, but also enable to group to stay together. I also encourage people to spin with a higher cadence – it allows the rider to hit an appropriate level of training stress whilst lowering the power and therefore the speed. This is also a good tactic if you find yourself in the bunch and not getting enough work sat there. Drop a gear, increase the cadence, and watch your heart rate for a given power go up. Use these strategies, and riders with zone 2 powers in the range of 160 to 180W can ride with riders on the front hitting 60W more, such is the energy saving of drafting.
The next consideration is keeping the group together on hillier terrain. Drafting, and therefore keeping a mixed ability group together, is a whole lot easier on the flat. Introduce a hill, and its more complicated – the heavier riders have to work harder, and the less strong riders have to dip further into their top end fitness reserves. For example, someone with a ‘steady power’ of 200W and a maximum of 330W is challenged more going up a hill than someone with 240W and 400W at steady and maximum powers respectively. Even riding conservatively up at 240W has taken someone deep into ‘zone 4’ territory...and venturing there will burn someone’s glycogen stores and affect them well into the ride. So again, riders in the group need to respect the WHOLE group. Just taking 10W off can protect the weaker riders and keep them going for longer. The whole group benefits – as there is less need to freewheel to let others catch up.
Freewheeling is actually next on my list of ‘things to improve’. Having spent my formative years as a cyclist riding with my club on a Sunday, it used to drive me nuts: riding hard up a hill, and then coasting down it. Better for the physiology to maintain a ‘steady effort’ throughout – watch the power meter on the ups and the downs: try to match the figures and you will not only get more time in your zone, you will keep a group together, and there will be less accidents as half wheeling on fast descents is avoided. When I met Dan for our weekly meeting on Monday morning, I was complaining about my legs – my average power wasn’t any different to my normal pace (if anything, it was 20 to 30W lower) but because I had spent considerably more time in zone 4 up the hills (and riding to the front to give ‘tips’ to the riders on the front!) my legs were fatigued in a different way. Of course, this means a different level of adaptation is probably going on which is wise to listen too in a total plan, BUT certainly at this time of year, repeated steady level effort is probably a more effective way to challenge things like efficiency, fat utilisation etc. The cornerstones of endurance base work at this time of the year.
The variability in a ride is something I keep a close eye on each morning when I analyse all the riders files. The Training Peaks WKO+ software actually gives a useful index of this. It compares the average power of the ride with the ‘normalised’ power of the ride. The ‘NP’ is the power that would induce the same heart rate (and presumably other physiology) if ridden at consistently. For example, my average power for the ride was around 150W, and my heart rate was 144bpm. Because the ride was hilly, I didn’t ride AT 150W all the way around. The Variability Index shows me I was riding above and below this average to such an extent that it pushed my HR up – to get 144bpm from a constant ride (e.g. on the flat, or on the turbo) I would have to have ridden at 175W – which is interestingly, my normal zone 2 power.
I was asked after the ride (in Caffe Nero, where else?) how all the riders’ power profiles would have looked from the day. So, here’s a little insight. The 12 of us split into 2 groups:
• Group 1 was faster ride, averaging 18.8mph. The powers in that group ranged from an average of 200 through to 266W (reflecting different group position and body size). Normalised power ranged from 230 to 290W, the associated VI being ~1.1%
• Group 2 was a bigger group, averaging 16.6mph. Powers in this group ranged from 140 to 195W. NP ranged from 170 to 254W. Interestingly, ~170W was the NP seen in 4 out of the 5 riders who had power meters that day. Another interesting feature was how much higher the VI was in this group – 1.2 to 1.3.
I think the differences between the groups here helps to illustrate how key a strategy to group riding is. The riders in group 1 are more experienced, and their ability to hold a more consistent power up and down hills, across group position is shown in the lower VI. You could argue they are more similar in fitness, but looking at their range of powers, it was similar to group 2 (i.e. ~60W). Of course, in group 2 we had twice as many riders, and that makes it more of a challenge, but I think this blog post has revealed some interesting facets to group riding.
Going back to a point I made earlier, it was certainly useful for me and Dan as we approach a whole week of group riding at camp. Balancing rider needs is critical to making the camp work. Encouraging each rider to take responsibility is key too. I am sure we will update you in due course!
The current weather in the UK is proving to be VERY testing for all the PBscience athletes. Its not only the environmental challenge of keeping warm that puts people off going outside on their bikes: predominantly, its the safety of the road. Only today its been reported that top Ironman athlete Chrissie Wellington has come a cropper whilst training.
In the call time I have shared with my athletes this week so far, the conversation has been dominated by how hard it has been to train: everyone is being forced inside to use the turbo trainer: what some liken to being Chinese water torture! Some are more mentally geared for it than others - some just see it as a job that needs doing. They have goals they want to hit this year, and to achieve them, they need to get the hours in. If you can't go out, you just have to grind it out. I don't think there are athletes who actually LIKE turbo training, but there are those that just see it as necessary, don't question it, and just do it.
OK, maybe I did LIKE turbo training when I was competing. It never took much of a turn in the weather, and I was set up in the lounge in front of the TV (or now, its iPlayer, what an invention?!). For me, turbo training gave me ultimate control - I knew that once I had made a decision a session was going to be done on the turbo, it felt like the job was done - nothing could stop me from achieving the session goal. Going out on the road always came with an element of uncertainty that my mathematical brain couldn't (didn't) want to contend with. Also, I had a session aim (a power output, a heart rate, a time) and doing a session on the turbo would bring me back 'full marks'. Out on the road, there was always a chance things would not go to plan - and I think at times I couldn't deal with that stress alongside the training stress: what if I puncture, what if the weather gets worse, what road will I use to ensure a good training effort etc (an interesting aside here, but I remember arrving in Toulon for a warm weather winter training week and being SO stressed by the week ahead - because I didn't know the roads and I was just entering in my view, a critical training block).
Many athetes I coach have a structured plan to follow. And even the most committed are now finding it harder to look ahead at maybe 4 turbo sessions in a row - I have one athlete who has had to train exclusively inside on the turbo for the last 2 weeks. Whilst structured training plans are a functional tool of a training athlete, at times like this they can become a pressure. The thought of doing your prescribed training to the letter, and the hours required at this time of year to establish an endurance base can be overbearing. So, how can an athlete cope with the turbo experience? Here are some tips:
Acceptance - don't lose energy to thinking about it; it is a training session in your plan, and its there to be done. Don't put it off, don't get into a debate with yourself about how unfair it is, how hard it is. Instead, focus on getting the job done.
Realisation - that there are a lot of people in exactly the same position as you, but YOU have decided to make the most of it. Its a bit like Daley Thompson's theory on training on Christmas Day - he knew it was giving him an advantage over his competition.
Preparation - if you know there are a few days ahead where you are destined to be inside, find a place you can keep your bike set up. It adds to the impending doom if you have to go outside, get your bike, change the back wheel, set up the turbo, go get a fan etc etc.
Consistency - if you can, allocate the session to a known starting time. This makes it a contract with yourself. Even tell other people so they can help you get on the bike on time. It helps even more if, for example, at a weekend, the starting time can be the same day.
Reward - have something post session to keep your spirits high. Mark (the same athlete who last week was thankful the silly season was over and is now wishing this silly weather was over!) discussed with me that his treat will be coffee in Cafe Nero (my kind of reward system!).
Sharing - there will be a lot of people in your position, so why not cash in on that and organise a "turbo party"? It sounds ridiculous, but having a friend with you really breaks the monotony. Its something I did a fair bit during my competitive days: my then training partner Julia and I would spend 4h at a time in the basement of the TriStore doing base miles - we started at 6am, finished by 10am, in Costa Coffee for breakfast by 10:30am :-) My SIS team mates were also great training partners - one 'camp' in Guernsey with Annie was SO windy, we were inside for 3 days. Coffee was again our reward, but actually, the laughs we had during the session made it too. We also took it in turns to suggest the next 'drill'
Those are some tips to get your frame of mind right, and get you onto the turbo to start the session. You might also like to consider these points, as they will help fuel your motivation once you are going, and also help you get the most from the session:
Compromise - of course, you have a training session on your plan, but be prepared to adjust your expectations. Turbo training is very different to training on the road - there is no free wheeling, descents, junctions, drafting. Every pedal stroke is one of quality. I explain to my riders that you get about 10 to 15% more riding on the turbo rather than out on the road. So, if you have a 3h ride in the plan, know that 2.5h is enough time to equate to the road.
Gain - in fact, I would go as far as to say that you get MORE from turbo training - even with taking some time off to equate duration, training on a turbo is more stressful to the body than being on the road. Even the best turbo trainers in the world cannot give you a fly wheel big enough to mimic the 'roll' of the road. With each pedal stroke on the turbo, you have to accelerate against the resistance - this makes the dead spot bigger. Its very common for athletes to comment to me about power loss (against a given heart rate / effort) when training on the turbo. Know this, and don't get too fraught - you aren't less fit, its the mechanics of system - you ARE still putting out the same power, but you lose it being captured on your cycle computer power reading.
Repetition - with the repeated, similar pedalling action, it will be the same muscle fibres that get a hammering in turbo training: repeated contraction in the same position - its no wonder people often report getting off the bike and complaining of sore legs (more so than the equivalent session on the road). Get out of the saddle a little, change gear - just change things a little.
Variation - because of the repetitive nature, its your chance to be inventive! Rather than that 3h zone 2 ride being about hitting your target power for 180 minutes, why not add in some variation within the session?
Cadence blocks: perform 5 to 10 minute blocks at low (50rpm), medium (80rpm), high (>100rpm) cadences
Cadence pyramids: move from low to high cadence by changing a gear each minute and then return down the pyramid too
Power pyramids: work in 5 minute blocks starting at the lower end of your training zone, and moving up by 10W until the upper border of that zone
Deceptive - probably pretty obvious, but you do get hotter on the turbo: you are not travelling forward, so are not generating your own cooling wind. At this time of the year, heading out in to a garage in the morning can present you with sub zero temperatures (one of my duathletes, Stewart, documented it was -6 yesterday morning!), but you will get warm over the course of a 2h session. So dress in layers so that you can strip off during the session. Please don't assume you will be okay because you will soon warm up - its a fast track way to having problems. The body is very good at holding blood within the core of the body when it is cold - and this will impact not only on the quality of the session (muscles with no blood don't like producing power!) but also on your health (lacking blood at the extremities can lead to chilblains or worse). Richard, another experienced turbo user, was telling me this is the first time he has turbo trained wearing overshoes and gloves!
Hydration - People often use (and benefit from) using a fan to keep them cool. However, this can disguise how much they are sweating. When training outside in normal conditions, you could assume taking on board ~1 litre of fluid per hour is enough to maintain hydration. Under conditions of a 'thermal challenge', you will need at least 1.5 litres per hour, if not more for perfuse sweaters. I would suggest you have your 'normal' drinks bottles for the ride time (with your carbohydrate solution in) and extra bottles of water to top that quota up. Even better is to switch your normal carbohydrate solution to one based on electrolytes (like Science in Sport's 'Go'). Electrolytes help maintain hydration better than pure water.
Fuelling - alongside my point about turbo training being more stressful, we need to take this into consideration with fuelling too. We know that our body' carbohydrate store, the muscle glycogen' is bound with water. What will the body do when trying to liberate more water? That's right, release more of that stored carbohydrate and burn it as a fuel. Like for like, a turbo session will probably take more energy from carbohydrates than an equal time on the road - so up your CHO solution a little. Remember, its better to preserve the session quality than to worry about the extra calorie intake.
Recovery - again because of the stress, recovery is probably harder post turbo work: the dehydration, the changes in the body's core temperature, the extra stripping of the muscle glycogen stores - these will all leave you a little more vulnerable post session. Your immune system will have taken a hiding: so make sure you have a recovery drink already prepared, grab it on your way to the shower where your warm clothes are already waiting having prepared them BEFORE the session ;-) Give your body chance to return to normal before heading out for that post-ride reward, or meeting others.
So, there are some ideas - I have done a few turbo miles in my time. However, you might have some ideas too, so please feel free to add some comments below - after all, we're all in the same boat for the next 5 days or so according to the forecast....good luck!
In Roman mythology, Janus (represented with two faces looking in opposite directions) was the god of thresholds, presiding over beginnings and endings. Before writing this week’s blog, I took time to look back at the first post of 2009. Writing about ‘goals’ is always easy (and relevant) at this time of the year – even those of us who don’t make / believe in New Year’s resolutions can see the merits of how using the year turn to start afresh. Goals are ‘better’ than resolutions – whilst resolutions can feel restricting, goals can be exciting and even liberating.
On New Year’s Eve I sat down and reviewed by goals for 2009 – interestingly, whilst I have achieved and even surpassed many of my milestones (starting my own cycle coaching business for one!), some I have not been as successful at. It would be easy for me to now feel downbeat about that: and indeed, I have had conversations with athletes I coach who fear goal setting because they feel it sets them up for a fall – no goals, no chance to fail. However, as I went down my list, I simply reflected on the “why” of not achieving them – some I never got started on probably because they didn’t inspire me enough; and then others are more ongoing – attitudes I want to keep adopting, systems I want to keep improving. Goal setting doesn't work because of achieving the goals; it works because it stretches you outside your comfort zone, and onto better things: regardless of whether you "succeed" or "fail".
One of my “life wishes” (an exercise I was inspired to do this time last year when I read Gay Hendricks book, Five Wishes) is to be the best coach I can be to all the athletes in my charge. As you can imagine, it is quite a hard ‘goal’ – I think I have asked before what makes a great coach, and although I can come up with a list of good attributes, measuring if I am hitting my mark or improving is tricky. I know I want to be a visible coach, one with a very hands on style, accessible and very present – I love being at races, I love meeting with my athletes for rides, coffee etc. It is at the very core of my desire to be a cycling coach. Communication is a big thing for me, and although again its hard to measure, I have given a lot of thought about how I can spend more time speaking with, meeting up with all my athletes. I have recently updated the process by which I speak with my athletes, encouraging them all to now speak with me at least once a week; I’m also now using Skype, so people even get to see me if they so wish!
I’m speaking with most of my athletes next week, so I am excited to catch up on the past two weeks of their training. Although I have been keeping an eye on training diaries / data, over the Christmas period I have been working on tasks that normally fall lower on the list of priorities. For example, I have returned to search engine optimisation, and also learning about some new training analysis software. In between my own bike riding, I have been doing more than enough to keep me busy, but this week sees me returning to my normal working patterns. Like most of my athletes, although I have enjoyed Christmas, it is now time to end the ‘silly season’ (as one of my athletes Mark referred to it!) and get back to normal. I think most of them are also hoping that the New Year will bring a different weather system to the UK – I am impressed how many miles have been clocked up on the turbo these past 2 weeks; but also, how many of them have continued to get outside....a group of VERY inspired athletes in the PBscience camp!
A thought for Christmas – I have received many emails from PBscience athletes this week on the difficulties of being an athlete at this time of the year: the pressures of socialising, feeling the odd one out and isolated at Christmas functions, the temptations of rich food and drink, fitting in training around family / friends commitments. If I had a pound for each time I have read / heard “I wish Christmas was over so I could get back into the routine”, my Amazon shopping list would be very big (and its big already!).
Some of the more common pitfalls / challenges are:
it feels like every other day is a social engagement - late nights, a lack of sleep, mixing with people who are ill: an athlete's worst nightmare!
too much rich food on offer: often compounded by the popularity of buffet style food (portion control goes out of the window)
the weather - we have gone from wet / windy to ice cold
I came across this related story on "Discipline" from the Velonews website.
Even the most goal orientated, motivated athlete finds it hard at this time of year: so be gentle on yourself if you do get waylaid. Just remind yourself of the bigger picture, weighing up the short term pleasure vs long term gains. Beware those people that rise to the role of being your saboteur though - if you know who these people are, avoid them; or even better, laugh their attempts off and show them how much you enjoy being disciplined rather than moaning about having to restrict yourself.
It is tricky – our loved ones expect more time with us, yet we see the week off work as a way to clock up more training and benefit from the rest alongside it. I know when I was competing, Christmas was like a mini-training camp: morning rides followed by big lunches and a sleep, then an afternoon in front of the television. I was fortunate that my friends and family understood my ambitions. And, I think this is the key to survival – share with people what your real desires are. Of course, not everyone will understand your ‘madness’ in enjoying a 5 hour ride in the freezing cold! But, if you open up and explain why its important to you (note, "opening up" is NOT screaming at them in anger or resentment!), they may begin to cut you more slack. Frustration from others often comes from a lack of empathy or understanding: their frustration can be seen as difficult behaviour by you: so help them understand you, and try to understand them in return. Even better, discuss how you can achieve what everyone needs / wants at Christmas – maybe training earlier, or how about making ‘appointments’ in your diary – training time, family time. It sounds too easy, but amazingly, it works!
But, before you can communicate what you want, you need to KNOW what you want! Like any time of year, set some clear goals as to what you want out of the next 2 weeks:
By January 2nd, where do you want to be with your fitness?
What training do you need to be there?
What other strategies do you need to employ to ensure you attain that level?
What are the main obstacles to achieving those aims?
What solutions can you put in place i.e. the 'Plan B' or contingency?
You might find an even bigger buy in from your loved ones if you involve them in this goal setting process.
meeting is in the diary. Alongside myself and Dan, we have a nutritionist, an environmental physiologist, and a dissertation student. Its been important to get buy in from Craig's family, and also to make contacts with sponsors: Science in Sport are helping with nutritional supplements, and the local bike shop, the TriStore are also backing Craig.
Richard too this past week - because if it were not for working with him, I would not have deepened my learning this week around fuelling - knowledge I can apply across all the athlete group I coach. I am hoping to meet up with Nigel this week when he visits Eastbourne to do a talk to our MSc students at the University. I am hoping to talk through some lab testing planned with Richard at the end of this month - where we are going to refine his pre-race fuelling strategy: ensuring we have enough carbs going in to fuel the race effort, but not playing havoc with the blood glucose / insulin response. I am sure I will detail that session in a future post.
I decided to ride the Puncheur sportif this weekend, 70 miles of 'rolling' Sussex countryside, culminating in the effort up the infamous Ditchling Beacon. The ride started in -3 temperatures, which I suffered at the hands of: not only cold extremeties throughout the 5 hours, but also coming a cropper on the ice one hour in - ouch. My bruised hip is a sight to behold! It was worth it though (I can say that 24 hours later), as I gained another long ride under my belt ready for L2P in June, and also because the food post ride was gorgeous (Juliette was my ride partner, and we discussed my foraging behaviour - I didn't think grabbing a mixture of 6 different energy bars at the interim feedstation was too much....I think it represented a fine feeding strategy!). A great morning, a great route, great organisation...and I might even do it again?
