Endurance Nation | Online Triathlon Coaching & Community

Get Fit, Get Fast!

I recently did a presentation about Training and Racing Power at the TriFitLab run by TTBikeFit.com It was a good presentation (I’ve done better), but what always interests me is not what I do or whom I’m speaking with but the questions that come from the audience. Instead of leaving those answers information at the clinic with the 35 folks who attended, I want to post answers here in a space where everyone can learn from them.

1. What power training software do I recommend? The standard software that comes with each powermeter is pretty budget. I recommend that people use WKO Plus by TrainingPeaks.com. It’s simply the industry standard and a great place to start. If you are looking for a more predictive tool, you can refer to RaceDay software. Finally, if you want a robust free software package, you can consider using SportTracks.

Depending on the software you choose, it can cost money, but most are under $100. I view it simply as the cost of doing business and using your powermeter. A powermeter is nothing more than very expensive cadence sensor unless you actually take the data, analyze it and put it into practice. So, absolutely use that software, so important.

2. Does 30 minutes of hard riding equal 3 hours of easy riding? People really asked a lot of questions about my statement where I said that if I can earn the same training stress in an hour-long hard ride < ?> that I could learn in two hours in an easy ride…then why would I ever chose to ride those two hours. For busy athletes on a fixed schedule, intensity is the biggest tool in your arsenal. While there’s no one “best way” to build fitness, there are certain ways that are better for your life.

There was a specific question one gentleman had around adaptation, development of capillaries, the ability in the body to transport oxygen and so on, as all of those development happen at lower aerobic levels — and aren’t you essentially short-changing yourself by training at a higher intensity. At the end of the day, all of the work that we do below our functional threshold is really aerobic, and it’s just a function of how many of your slow-twitch and fast-twitch fibers you’re recruiting to get the work done.

The work that you do in zone three versus zone two or zone one, which are easier, simply recruits more muscles to get that work done. That doesn’t mean that there’s less capillaries developed and that there’s less oxygen being transported. The plumbing is the same. Doing more work you get those same aerobic benefits out of it. Of course, any good training program will have variety. Variety in training will induce adaptation. You also need to explore all of your options, but for the age group triathlete or age group cyclist a plan is only as good as your ability to implement it.

3. Will a powermeter help me on race day? Finally, people asked a lot of questions about using a powermeter as a race execution device, and whether or not triathletes could potentially use a device and use the information gathered to race.

The answer is yes, triathletes absolutely can race off the numbers you generate on a test. On race day, everything that you do is really a percentage of that functional threshold number. And having power in the race can help you eliminate so many of the external environmental things that can only distract you from executing the optimal steady race: competition, hills, etc. The best race is a steady one, and a powermeter can help you do that.

For the roadies, I think that a powermeter is very different on race day. While you should record and review your performance later, in the race itself I think you can use the numbers on the dial as a means to add more depth, more color, more dimensions to the race right now. Traditionally, when you’re in a group or a breakaway, you’ve got to make decisions based on how you feel, and based on the perceived fitness of those around you. That guy looks strong; this guy is not so strong, etc.

With a powermeter, you can see how much in work you’re doing right now, and you can begin to see what the power numbers look on each key section of the course, measuring that number against what you know you can sustain from your training. All of a sudden you can make informed decisions: Can I handle the effort I need to put out on this hill? How much harder do I need to work to separate myself from this group? What does the effort look like when guy number one gets the front versus guy number two? How much harder or how much less harder are we working? Am I getting more of a benefit here, siting second wheel, or do I have more of a benefit here sitting third or four wheel? All of that changes over time, and the power meter gives you the ability to really make quality decisions that can really effect the race and your placing.

Conclusion
While a powermeter is certainly not a cure-all for everything that you do as a triathlete or roadies, it certainly is very specific and detailed tool that can transform the way you approach your training, the way that you build your fitness; both within a given training cycle, but also across the year across multiple years, and ultimately, turn you into a phenomenal racer, helping you leapfrog way ahead on the learning curve, much further than you would have had you not had a powermeter.

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photo credit: nDevilTV
Using metrics to measure your fitness is a double-edged sword. No more is this true than in the OutSeason, when the fitness you have right now is competing with the fitness you had during the season. Don’t be depressed by the disparity; instead find a deeper meaning in what the numbers are telling you.

Using metrics to measure your fitness is a double-edged sword. No more is this true than in the OutSeason, when the fitness you have right now is competing with the fitness you had during the season. Don’t be depressed by the disparity; instead find a deeper meaning in what the numbers are telling you.

Let’s say I have a “friend” whose FTP was 325 last season. He’s a big doode, so it’s actually not that impressive. For 9 months he thought of himself as Mr 325; that’s what he tested, that’s what he rode…it was just a huge part of his being. Enter the OutSeason. After a few weeks off, my “friend” starts training again only now indoors. The first test is a debacle; so hard it’s a slap to the face…the net outcome is 305 watts. It’s humble pie, it’s a bit of a knock-down, some might even say a step back.

But my friend isn’t phased one bit.

After all, it’s the OutSeason and while he hoped for higher numbers, he didn’t expect to see them after not training for a solid month. Instead, he’s excited about his results!

• First off, he survived the test and has added another layer of toughness to his mental six-pack.
• He now has a new target for his immediate training, one that’s “just” challenging enough instead of making him over-reach.
• He has a “gap” goal, or a target to attain last season’s fitness — he can strive to be as fit as last year before this next season even starts!

Our mutual friends knows that taking a step back is an important part of being able to leap forward. It’s not easy eating some humble pie, but learning to do so, developing the ability to effectively self-assess, is a really important part of achieving your potential as an athlete. Learn more about the OutSeason and how you can improve in our FREE Virtual Seminar by clicking here.

Do yourself a favor and put last season away. Live in the now. Do the test. Get the numbers. Own them. Be them. Get fitter and beat them.

Next season won’t know what hit it when you emerge from the pain cave.

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From a post by Rich on Slowtwitch. The discussion included some questions about our bike training at Endurance Nation so Rich decided to provide a summary of how we do business on the bike:

Thanks for the mention. Patrick and I did a free webinar in the winter and turned it into a free ebook, which you can download here: https://www.box.net/shared/l57mxcp2pa. In it is a $20 discount code on our much more complete webinar product that you helped us with (thanks!) last year:

Since Endurance Nation was mentioned in the thread I want to clarify a few things:

• For the first 16wks of our season (our Out-Season, your Off-Season), we are 100% focused on lifting FTP. Interval sets, zero concerns for volume, about 4hrs total cycling volume per week. Average FTP gains last year, teamwide, were 15%. We are gathering the data from this year. Several members have posted 24%+ gains this week
• In General Prep (about 8wks for us), volume increases because it can (you’re outside) but we stick to about 2.5-3hrs max on the weekends. This is the volume that is repeatable week after week for our athletes given work, family, etc. Still focused on FTP but we add 80-85% time. Additional volume comes from a warmup but we still prescribe nothing below 80% (other than a warmup)
• Race Prep the volume increases but tops out at 4.5hrs for Saturday, about 3hrs on Sunday. 1 x interval session during the week with zero volume goals. Main Set only. On these long rides we do prescribe 70-75% riding, to build race-specific fitness. More specifically, they lock themselves in the aerobars and wrap their heads around nutrition, the art of riding steady, and the pacing discipline we expect of them on race day, etc. But, again, the FTP and 80-85% work continues.
• They perform 2 x race reahearsal rides before the race. These are the only sessions that they ride over 4.5hrs. These are by far their easiest rides with us.

In general, our focus throughout the season is:

• Lifting FTP. Best time for us to do this is on the Out-Season, when they don’t also have to go far, but we maintain this focus, in some measure, throughtout the season. That said, we believe the value of going far (for much of the year) is significantly over-rated. The last three years we have done a cycling camp for the Tour of California. About 350 miles last year, close to 400 this year. About 2/3 of our participants are east coasters, dropping into this camp after no more than 4hrs/wk of cycling. From 4hrs on a trainer, all FTP-focused, to 20-25hrs outside on challenging terrains…no problems: Tour of California Summary
• Optimizing (usually by maximizing) their TSS/hr of training time by having them do alot of 80-85%/sweetspot training. Low risk method to significantly boost the TSS of each session.
• We reserve the race specific intensity for much closer to the race and don’t have any “magical adaptations” thoughts about it. You’re strong, time to get comfortable at your race watts in your race position, learn what works for you nutritionally, and get your mind right about how we want you to pace the race.

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Endurance Nation is a virtual triathlon team for long course athletes. Experiencing  phenomenal growth in 2008, from 0 to 400 athletes, Endurance Nation has also become known as THE place for power-training and racing triathletes. About 70% of Endurance Nation athletes train and race with power.

The coaches and founders of Endurance Nation, Rich Strauss and Patrick McCrann, have been coaching, training, and racing with power since 2002. They present here a series on power training and racing, light on the geek-speak, to give you an introduction to this hot topic. They begin with:

What is Training with Power?

It’s Not About The Bike
Really, it isn’t. The concept of training with power is best explained by thinking outside of the bike for a minute. Most of us are familiar with weight training. You go to the gym for an hour, put weights on the bar, and lift them. Curls, bench, squats, X weight on the bar lifted Y reps in one hour. You keep a log of the exercises, reps, weight, and at the end of the session can say “at Gold’s Gym between 6 and 7pm I put a total weight of 10,000lbs on the bar and lifted it.” If we wanted to totally geek, we could track the vertical distance you made the weight travel, the speed of the lift, etc, and attach some more precise physics numbers to our session, but this is good for now.

Now To The Bike
Maintaining this same simplicity, we want you to imagine your bicycle is a lightweight, carbon, human-powered piece of gym equipment. When you pedal the bike, you push down on the pedals with X force and turn the cranks at Y rpms. If you press harder on the pedals (and shift up in the gears to maintain the same cadence) what happens? The bike goes faster and you cover more distance in your one hour ride. More importantly, you’ve moved the mass of you + your bike further down the road. For the purposes of our conversation here, I want you to consider that going faster/riding farther in the same amount of time is the same as lifting 10,000 total pounds vs 9,500 pounds in the gym.

So What’s A Powermeter?
A powermeter is a device you mount on your bike that gives you all of the information above, in real time. You are riding down the road, pedaling at 90rpm and pressing down on the pedals with force of x. Geek-speak aside, the product of this, RPM x Force = Power, is what you see on the display as watts. This is a real time measurement of the work you performing right now.

Going back to our weight room analogy, this is similar  to the 180lb on the benchpress. You ride, ride, ride and when you finish, you have some more numbers. You have average watts (the average weight you had on the bar across all of your exercises). And you have kilojoules, the total work performed across the entire ride (or the 10,000 pounds you lifted in the gym).

Now We Can Dig Deeper
“Training with Power” simply means that you are training with a device that gives you this numbers stuff above, in real time. Your powermeter simply distills all the factors that go into moving a bike down the road into very simple terms. You, the work you are doing, the terrain you am riding on, the conditions in which you are riding — all gets spit out as watts and other metrics based off of those watts. Once we have those numbers, we can do a LOT of cool stuff to improve your fitness, your pacing, and how you approach training…all  of which will be covered in next articles of this series.

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Endurance Nation, the leader in triathlon power training resources and strategy, is proud to present the Power Training Starter Kit. We have combined Powertap solutions by Wheelbuilder, the worlds largest builder of custom PowerTap solutions, with our own cutting-edge training and racing learning modules. Now triathletes anywhere can access everything they need to start training with power in one place for one great price. The result is an unparalleled combination of gear and expertise that will make you faster and smarter than the competition!

EN Power Training Starter Kit
The Powertap is a rear hub system, built into a training wheel. Wheelbuilder will build your PowerTap into a Velocity Deep V, 28 spoke wheel — their most bulletproof training wheel. What about racing? Snap on the custom cut Wheelbuilder wheelcover (included) and you’re all set! Read the rest of this entry »

Popularity: 28% [?]