For those who train with heart rate monitors often, you probably know all too well know the tell-tale sign that your little device is lying to you about your heart rate. It starts off fairly innocently with a gentle rise in heart rate (HR). But before you know it your HR is blistering through the 150’s, 160’s, and right on through the 200bpm glass ceiling. Sometimes you might even reach into the mid-200’s.
After you finish your activity and get back to your computer, you’ll probably see something like this – a major HR spike, followed by more normal HR activity:
Frustrated, you poke at your HR monitor some, perhaps browse the Internets a bit – but in general forget about it, until it happens again.
Well, let me help ya out and explain why and what it’s doing. And…I can probably even help ya fix it too!
Proper Wearing Methodology:
Let’s first start with how to put the strap on. As the most important thing to do is ensure you’re wearing it correctly. On the Garmin ANT+ straps, you’ll want to ensure the Garmin logo is right-side up, and the electrode side of the strap is against your bare skin. Which side is the electrode side? Well, the side with the little bands, not the shiny side. I’ve circled these in the pictures below:
Garmin Premium HR Strap (also called soft HR strap):
And for all you Polar folk, their coded HR strap:
(Minor side note, as you may know, none of the Garmin ANT+ HR straps will read HR underwater more than an inch or two away from the watch, as I showed in my 310XT review while underwater. However, the T31 coded straps from Polar will work underwater with their respective Polar units – just ensure it’s noted as T31 coded. Also note that you cannot mix Polar HR straps/units with Garmin HR straps/units.)
Now, one last important item to note is that it goes UNDER your shirt against your skin. It should not be worn over your clothing. Also, the ANT+ folks note that from a placement standpoint "the strap is worn on the ribcage, below the pectoral muscles or breasts".
All good and you’re still having issues? Onto the next section we go…
The root of all issues:
So assuming that you’ve got it all correctly ‘installed’, let’s look at what typically causes the spike in HR (if it’s over 200bpm, it’s likely not legit unless you’re a seven year old).1) No moisture, dry air: During the winter months the air is often fairly cold, and fairly dry. This means that you’re less likely to have moist skin (due to even just skin perspiration), and even less likely to be generating any sweat right from the start of the workout. This in turns lowers your conductivity ability from a readings perspective. Which, means you often get incorrect readings. Simply introducing any moisture at all will usually remedy the situation – at least until you begin sweating enough to let that do its job. We’ll talk about moisture additives in the next section.
2) Synthetic shirts (quick dry/tech shirts): While all of us love not being suffocated in cotton shirts, an unfortunate side effect is that those synthetic shirts (normally called quick dry or ‘tech’ shirts) produce additional static electricity buildup that messes with the readings. This is most common when your skin and air are both rather dry, and very little moisture is present. In almost all cases, simply applying moisture will immediately resolve this issue. You can try rubbing the strap or your shirt with an antistatic agent – the ANT+ folks recommend simply a bounce dryer sheet, as that can help in some cases. As a side note, some of the Polar straps actually have an antistatic component built into them that helps to alleviate this problem to some degree.
3) Wind on the bike: One fairly common issue especially in the spring/fall when you’re wearing simple bike jerseys but the wind and lukewarm air temperature keeps you relatively dry, is that when you go down hills fast, or simply the wind hits the right way, you’ll get incorrect readings. This is often caused when the wind funnels down the front of your bike jersey and either induces additional static buildup as noted before, or introduces false readings through vibrations. I can’t count the number of times where it seemed my HR was directly correlated to how fast I was descending – despite the fact that I was working less. In this case, your best bet is either getting more gel to increase conductivity, or simply twisting the HR strap around towards your side a bit – that usually resolves is for me. I don’t recommend trying to lick the strap while descending at 40MPH…many things can go wrong there resulting in you licking the pavement instead.
4) Electrical Interference (powerlines, train lines, etc…): This isn’t typically reported on the Garmin’s, but more the case on the Polar’s. The Polar’s use electromagnetic signals to send the data from the coded strap to the watch, which can be interfered with by high tension power lines. The Garmin’s on the other hand use the 2.4Ghz frequency and don’t have the power line issues typically.
The fixes:
The good news here is that there are a ton of easy fixes that you can quickly try out to1) Sweat: This first one is a bit obvious – but will explain why the problem often goes away after just a few minutes of activity. Once you start sweating it introduces moisture which in turn improves conductivity. This in turn makes the HR strap happy and you get better readings. So basically…work harder. :)
2) Licking it: This is the simplest option – and quite honestly what I do 99% of the time. I just give it a big lick. By ‘it’, I mean the two sensor pads on the back of the strap. This will usually ‘tide me over’ until I start sweating enough to keep everything all happy. And don’t worry folks – a HUGE LONG thread on BT the other day confirms that everyone else does it too. See, here’s my lick-job:
3) Heart Rate Gel: If you suck at licking, then you can instead use electrode gel to improve conductivity. This is what’s typically used in medical situations such as an EKG where you’re trying to get a better reading/conductivity. I actually use the gel mostly during the winter because I’ve found that many times on easy runs I’ll never actually produce a sweat due to the cold, and thus after a short bit of time my lick-job (as noted above), will actually vaporize. The HR gel is designed to last considerably longer on your skin/strap. This stuff is incredibly cheap, and the bottle will last you a long long time. Here’s my bottle I bought two winters ago:
You can pick it up usually as your local running store, or online for about $5-10. P.S., one little tip for those cold winter days (I know, it’s getting warmer now though), is to stick it in a sunny window sill, that will make it nice and warm when you put it against your skin:
4) Changing the strap position: Depending on what may be causing your exact situation, one option is to simply change the position. Try sliding the strap to the right, left, or up/down. Some folks even wear it on their back with great success. In fact, when I’m having a day with lots of issues descending on the bike and the HR being erratic – I’ll simply slide the strap around my side a bit, so the contact portions of the strap kinda straddle my chest and back. Works perfectly!
5) Replacing the batteries: Finally, last but not least – sometimes it’s just the batteries getting old. You can pickup the simple coin replacement battery at virtually any drugstore, and even most grocery stores these days. It only takes a few seconds to open up the back door of the strap and swap out the battery. I usually have at least one spare battery in my tri bag at all times, just in case.
Wrap Up
Hopefully this will help you get through those pesky heart rate reading errors and get on with your workout. If you have any related tips to fixing strange HR readings, feel free to leave them below in the comments!
Sunday, March 13, 2011
Troubleshooting your heart rate monitor
Monday, October 4, 2010
Kain Performance Wins Northern California Triathlon Club Championship
Here are a few highlights:
Tri Club Competition -
Division 2 -
1) Kain Performance - 70 points ($500 winner) 2nd place Team Overall
2) Team Sheeper - 64 points
3) Santa Cruz Tri Club - 47 points
***Top 15 in Age Group (AG)
Joanne Wicker - 1st place - (AG 55-59)
Dave Sinclair - 2nd place - (AG 60-64)
Kam Hlebovy - 2nd place - (AG 65-69)
Shari Kain - 3rd place - (AG 45-49)
Pete Kain - 3rd place - (AG 45-49)
Meredith Hawkins - 4th place (AG 50-54)
Fred Servais - 4th place (AG 40-44)
Russell Shaw - 5th place (AG 35-39)
Jana Crane - 5th place (AG 45-49)
Carol Fredrickson - 6th place (AG 50-54)
Patrick McDonald - 9th place (AG 50-54)
Amy Rubin - 9th place (AG 45-49)
Dina Glendening - 9th place (AG 40-44)
Ralph Fallant - 9th place (Clydes)
Kathy Hoyer - 10th place (AG 50-54)
Laura Coyne - 11th place (AG 45-49)
Tony Jager - 11th place (AG 45-49)
Ahmed Hassan - 11th place (AG 30-34)
Sarah Rule - 13th place (AG 30-34)
Bastian Bartels - 13th place (AG 25-29)
Andrea Hong - 14th place (AG 45-49)
***Also showing AWESOME FORM and completing the SC Tri with a smile!
Tami Dickins
Elizabeth Park
Della Flint
Danelle Moon
Christiana Riedl
Jody Sinclair
Tim Reynolds
Joel Seligstein
Jason Wolf
Mike Ferguson
Jim Ratcliff
Bill Wang
Rob Dinapoli
Jeff Chase
Steve Hawkins
***Also competing and having 3 flat tires was Jody! Way to hang tough Jody! She kept a smile on her face and cheered everyone in to the finish!!
***Full results are posted on the Santa Cruz Triathlon website.
***Congrats and Thanks to all!! Looking forward to our KP End Of The Year Party on Saturday, November 20th, 2010!!!
***Mark the calendar for the Santa Cruz Triathlon in 2011 - September 25th, 2011
Cheers,
Coach Kain
www.kainperformance.com
Monday, March 29, 2010
How Fast Should I be running at Track?
Track workout tends to be one of the least well attended team workouts that KAIN PERFORMANCE offers. I think there are two main reasons for this; One is that it can feel a little intimidating, athletes tend to think they are going to be pushed beyond their limits. The second is that people doing Ironman distance races think there is little to gain from “Speed-work”. I hope to address these two concerns in this article.
The first concern could be addressed if people understood that as coaches, we understand that it is detrimental to push athletes beyond their limits – that leads to injury, over-training and the breakdown of the athlete – that is never the goal of the track workout. However I think the vast majority of athletes do not have a sense of how fast they should be running during their efforts, because of this they tend to think that everything is going to be very anaerobic – and that is not the case.
As regards the second concern, it is well documented that doing a little speed-work on the track can have significant impact on the ability of all runners at all distances to improve their times. I won’t get into the details of how that happens (if you would like more info please contact one of the coaches). But understand that “Speed-work” looks very different for someone doing an Olympic distance race compared to some one going Iron distance - combine this with some personal knowledge of how fast you should be doing your runs then I think you would be better prepared to meet your stated competition goals.
So …. lets say I had a goal of running a 4 hour marathon in my ironman – obviously I know I have to build up my endurance so that I had the capability to run the actual distance – but HOW FAST should I do my training runs if that is my overall goal?
That’s where a running or pace calculator can be a useful tool. On the next page you can see what my predicted pace times would be for all distances up to the marathon. Some of them are just for fun - and they tend to be more inaccurate over the shorter distances – 400M and lower - the 100M sprint time for example has a lot more to do with someone’s genetic legacy of fast twitch muscle fibers than it does training for a 4 hour marathon. However this tool can be useful in a couple of areas:
a. If you know your last 10K time you can punch it in and it will predict what you should be capable of at a half Iron man or an ironman distance run – that helps you figure out if your race goals are realistic or not.
b. Secondly it allows you to predict your own track workout pace – (therefore less intimidating) as well as the pace you should be doing your long slow runs and your tempo runs. If the goal is to run a sub 40 minute 10K – then you know you need to be able to run in the area of a 5.33 mile and that your tempo runs should be at 6.31 – 6.48 per mile.
The link to the McMillan Running Calulator here.
I recommend you check out the site, play around with the calculator a little if you have never used one before, and then put in some of your documented race paces and see if those pace times seem familiar.
HOMEWORK. Put in your time goals for the run on your “A” race this year and printout the document. If you then bring that to track, when Pete gives you the workout for the night, you will have an idea of what pace you should be running ultimately in order to meet this goal.
Always remember that these numbers are estimates and that how you are feeling, your fatigue level, your place in the training cycle etc all has to be considered and used to modify these paces. Talk to the coaches so that the workout is individualized for you. But at least you will have a good starting point.
Finally another little tip I learned this week listening to another seminar from Bobby McGee was the “12 minute rule”. If you are not feeling good for your run workout, try to quantify it on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being “Dead” and 10 being “Very strong and fresh” – then go run for 12 minutes - just a steady warm up run – if at the end of that 12 minutes you would give yourself a higher score – then you are ready to workout – if the score is lower, then you might want to call it a night and get a little extra rest.
Hope you found this helpful – hope you do your “homework” and at least play around with the calendar and printout a pace schedule for yourself and hope to see you at track
Monday, October 19, 2009
The CORE Training Class you have all been waiting for is finally here!
The class will be held on Tues/Thurs evenings from 7:00-8:15pm at the
Fitness Clinic in Los Gatos. This class is a must for anyone looking to
get fit and fast for next years Triathlon season! It is a fun way to stay
fit through the winter and be ready to go come 2010! Core Training is a
must for all endurance athletes and will help make your season great in
2010!
***I will be doing an orientation class next Tuesday, 10/27 at 7:00pm.
This class is a freebie to come check out the gym and have a good walk
through on many of the exercises. You don't have to come to this, but it
will be open to all. You can pay to reserve your spot at this class. The
first "real" Core class will be on Thursday, Oct. 29th at 7:00pm.
Have you ever had back pain while riding a bike, or after a ride? Or
after a longer run? Have you seen your mid-section start to drift out as
you get a little older? Do you ever get shoulder pain while swimming?
These are just a few of the issues that a good Core Training class will
address. Everyone needs to work on Core strength, whether they are a World
Class athlete, or just a Weekend Warrior!
This class is designed with the endurance athlete in mind. You will do a
series of great exercises to strengthen your Core, but also your entire
body. Coach Kain will lead you through a "warm-up", then send you through
a "circuit" of exercises to get you strong from head to toe! You get a
little of everything at this class and will have a lot of fun as well.
Good tunes are a must, so feel free to bring an IPOD full of your favorite
training music and get ready to go!
Here are a few details to know:
***KP CORE Training - Designed by a triathlete, for triathletes!
Your Head Trainer - Pete Kain - ACSM Certified Health/Fitness Instructor,
as well as a 4-Time AG World Champion and 7-Time AG National Champion
Triathlete. Yes, Coach Kain can hop up on a Swiss Ball and play catch with
the med ball! (This will not be part of this class)
*When: First CORE class will be on Thursday, October 29th at 7:00pm. Class
will be every Tuesday and Thursday evening from 7:00-8:15pm for 6 weeks.
No class on Thursday, Nov. 26th, Thanksgiving Day. There will be 12
classes in the first session.
***Orientation class on Tuesday, Oct.27th at 7:00pm. You can ask questions
and go through a dry run of many of the exercises. No charge for the
orientation class. It's fun, come check it out!!
*Where: Fitness Clinic in Los Gatos. 15401 Los Gatos Blvd. Across the
street from Trader Joe's. Park in the back and come in the back door. You
can show up at 6:50pm to get in a warm up, before the "warm-up". Class
starts at 7:01 Sharp! So don't be late!
*Who: You! This class is open to the beginner, all the way up to the
seasoned Core Training veterans! It is a self paced class, so you only go
as hard as you want. You just follow the lead and focus on yourself. The
class will start out pretty light, then get progressively more difficult
as the weeks go on. Best results are had by those who come to every class.
You will be amazed at how you progress through the class.
*Why: To get stronger! Faster! Better! You are going to be laying the
foundation of the training to come in the following months. CORE Training
and Strength Training in general is a must for any Endurance Athlete. We
focus on muscle endurance, so you are doing more repetitions with less
weight. Beat the burn!
*Bring: Good energy! Be ready to workout, so wear shorts and a shirt you
can sweat in! Bring sweats for after class. All mats and balls, etc. are
provided. Showers and towels are available at no charge.
*Cost: 12 classes, or 6 weeks for $240 if paid in full at the first class.
This will reserve you a spot in this popular class. You will get one
make-up class if you miss a class and have paid in full. You can pay a $25
drop-in fee if room is available. Class is limited to 18 eager athletes
ready to get better, stronger and faster!!
***This class is on a first come, first served basis. If you really don't
want to miss out then RSVP to this email now! First 18 get spots reserved!
After that it is on a drop-in basis. KP Core Training Class is open to
Non-KP members as well, so bring a friend and have some fun! Let me know
if you intend to bring a friend.
See you next week!
Coach Pete
www.kainperformance.com
(408)781-0517
Tuesday, May 5, 2009
“How Fast Should I be running at Track?”
Track workout tends to be one of the least well attended team workouts that KAIN offers. I think there are two main reasons for this; One is that it can feel a little intimidating, athletes tend to think they are going to be pushed beyond their limits. The second is that people doing Ironman distance races think there is little to gain from “Speed-work”. I hope to address these two concerns in this article.
The first concern could be addressed if people understood that as coaches, we understand that it is detrimental to push athletes beyond their limits – that leads to injury, overtraining and the breakdown of the athlete – that is never the goal of the track workout. However I think the vast majority of athletes do not have a sense of how fast they should be running during their efforts, because of this they tend to think that everything is going to be very anaerobic – and that is not the case.
As regards the second concern, it is well documented that doing a little speed-work on the track can have significant impact on the ability of all runners at all distances to improve their times. I won’t get into the details of how that happens (if you would like more info please contact one of the coaches). But understand that “Speed-work” looks very different for someone doing an Olympic distance race compared to some one going Iron distance - combine this with some personal knowledge of how fast you should be doing your runs then I think you would be better prepared to meet your stated competition goals.
So …. lets say I had a goal of running a 4 hour marathon in my ironman – obviously I know I have to build up my endurance so that I had the capability to run the actual distance – but HOW FAST should I do my training runs if that is my overall goal?
That’s where a running or pace calculator can be a useful tool. On the next page you can see what my predicted pace times would be for all distances up to the marathon. Some of them are just for fun - and they tend to be more inaccurate over the shorter distances – 400M and lower - the 100M sprint time for example has a lot more to do with someone’s genetic legacy of fast twitch muscle fibers than it does training for a 4 hour marathon. However this tool can be useful in a couple of areas;
If you know your last 10K time you can punch it in and it will predict what you should be capable of at a half Iron man or an ironman distance run – that helps you figure out if your race goals are realistic or not.
Secondly it allows you to predict your own track workout pace – (therefore less intimidating) as well as the pace you should be doing your long slow runs and your tempo runs. If the goal is to run a sub 40 minute 10K – then you know you need to be able to run in the area of a 5.33 mile and that your tempo runs should be at 6.31 – 6.48 per mile.
The link to the calculator is http://www.mcmillanrunning.com/mcmillanrunningcalculator.htm
I recommend you check out the site, play around with the calculator a little if you have never used one before, and then put in some of your documented race paces and see if those pace times seem familiar.
HOMEWORK. Put in your time goals for the run on your “A” race this year and printout the document. If you then bring that to track, when Pete gives you the workout for the night, you will have an idea of what pace you should be running ultimately in order to meet this goal.
Always remember that these numbers are estimates and that how you are feeling, your fatigue level, your place in the training cycle etc all has to be considered and used to modify these paces. Talk to the coaches so that the workout is individualized for you. But at least you will have a good starting point.
Finally another little tip I learned this week listening to another seminar from Bobby McGee was the “12 minute rule”. If you are not feeling good for your run workout, try to quantify it on a scale of 1-10 with 1 being “Dead” and 10 being “Very strong and fresh” – then go run for 12 minutes - just a steady warm up run – if at the end of that 12 minutes you would give yourself a higher score – then you are ready to workout – if the score is lower, then you might want to call it a night and get a little extra rest.
Hope you found this helpful – hope you do your “homework” and at least play around with the calendar and printout a pace schedule for yourself and hope to see you at track
Coach John Magee
Lessons from Wild Flower Training Weekend
Based on some of the experiences of our athletes this weekend, it seems to me that there is a need for a little more information on which to fine tune the nutritional plan – especially in regard to our sodium intake.
The weekend was obviously a tough training weekend – especially for those who did two loops at wildflower but it was also the first time this year we have had to deal with heat and few of us, if any are particularly well heat acclimated yet. However while the current weather forecast for wild flower seems to indicate temperatures in the mid 70’s it is always a possibility that it is going to be hot again this year so those who are racing need to be prepared.
Without trying to scare you – or overwhelm you with numbers, the difference between “normal” blood concentrations of sodium and what might be considered an “emergency” situation of low sodium can be as little as 500 mg of sodium. So it definitely pays, from a medical perspective, to try and get this done right and obviously from a performance perspective you would not want your training to be compromised due to a nutritional breakdown.
Athletes who are acclimatized to heat typically have lower sweat sodium concentrations in warmer conditions. So if the race you are training for has a history of high temperatures (Wildflower and Auburn are two that spring to mind) then it is important to address the variable you can control – sodium intake – rather than the variable you cannot – the weather. Adult athletes can lose between 1.0-2.5 liters of sweat per hour. In severe heat conditions, this can increase to 3.5 liters per hour. Sweat is mostly water but contains many other compounds including sodium, chloride, potassium, calcium, and a host of other compounds. If you are very disciplined you could bring a scale with you to workouts and weigh yourself before and after, or pay for a sweat test to be done but since most of us are not going to do that, you will need to estimate where you might fit in that category and at least be aware of making sure you are at least replacing the minimum sodium losses.
Research has shown that sweat sodium concentrations can range from 115-2,300 milligrams of sodium lost per liter of sweat. However, the AVERAGE athlete usually falls within the 700mg to 1200mg per liter of sweat. Thus at the minimum sweat rate, the average athlete is losing 700mg per hour.
It might help to see an example;
“Scott knows that he loses about 1 liter of sweat per hour in conditions predicted for his upcoming Ironman. He also knows that his sweat is usually quite concentrated, leaving a lot of salt stains on his clothing. He guesses his sweat contains sodium at the higher end of the normal range, about 1200 mg/liter. So with a sweat rate of 1 liter per hour, under ideal conditions he should replace 1200 mg of sodium per hour. Scott's favorite sports drink contains only 300 mg of sodium per liter. Each gel he is consuming contains 50 mg of sodium, and each bar he consumes contains 100 mg of sodium. The following table summarizes Scott's water and sodium intake per hour:
| Per hour | Water (liters) | Sodium (mg) |
| Sports Drink | 1 | 300 |
| 3 Gels | Negligible | 50 x 3 = 150 |
| 1 Bar | None | 100 |
| Total | 1 liter | 550 |
| Deficit | 0 | 650 |
Based on this basic Ironman diet, Scott ingests enough water every hour, but his sodium intake is far below what he actually needs, about 650 mg per hour short, considering he needs 1200 mg/hour. Multiply this by 12 hours, and you have 7.8 grams of sodium, or 19.5 grams of salt (the human body contains around 40g of total sodium). Most likely, Scott is headed for severe hyponatremia.”
Also bear in mind that in athletes who have high sweat rates can lose sodium amounts approaching 5,000 milligrams per hour.
In addition to what may be lost during competition, a “clean” daily diet can also contribute to the problem. “Clean” eating is characterized by eating more whole foods such as fruits, vegetables, grains and protein and less processed and refined foods. This often leads to a lower overall daily salt intake and while beneficial from a health perspective, it can have a significant impact on sodium levels in the body before a race. Since this method of eating is gaining momentum, it is often recommended to implement a “sodium loading” regimen before a race and follow through with a higher sodium intake during a race. After competition, the athlete returns to the normal “clean” eating daily diet again.
Sodium Loading;
There has been research on sodium loading and the basic premise behind the mechanism is in the expansion of plasma volume, which is important to cardiovascular function and endurance exercise performance. Expanding plasma volume, termed hypervolemia, may reduce cardiovascular and heat strain seen with exercise, thus improving an athlete’s ability to perform. While there are a few ways to increase plasma volume, sodium loading is easy to implement and has shown good results, including in warmer conditions.
Also drinking fluids that provide a higher sodium concentration before exercise can improve exercise tolerance in warmer conditions.
For more details on how to go about Sodium Loading and to read the full text of this article, which I have significantly edited you can join the team first endurance network for free at http://team.firstendurance.com/
http://team.firstendurance.com/page/sodium-loading-2
Sodium Consumption During a Race
The American College of Sports Medicine recommends consuming 500-700 milligrams of sodium per liter of fluid per hour of exercise while other researchers have recommended a higher range of around 1700-2900 milligrams of sodium per liter of fluid per hour. Seebohar recommends a minimum of 800mg per hour. This is a large discrepancy, mostly due to the requirements of individual athletes and varying environmental conditions. However, the general observation has been that most athletes underconsume sodium during training or a race which typically has negative consequences. Sodium loading has been shown to work in a laboratory setting and has been yielding good results for athletes during actual competitions. It is recommended to try this approach during more intense training that mimics similar conditions of which your race will be.
Endurolytes or Salt Stick?
Endurolytes contain 40mg per capsule while salt stick capsules contain 215 mg of sodium. If we use the example of Bob from the previous page he has an hourly deficit of 650mg of salt – in this scenario he would need to take 15 endurolyte capsules an hour in addition to the electrolyte drink, 3 gels and a bar he is currently eating - that seems a lot to manage! Alternatively he could take 3 salt stick capsules an hour and meet his sodium needs.
*** Just as I was about to send this out – another article shows up on the USAT coaching website on this topic! Link below***
http://usatriathlon.org/content/index/6036
Cramping
Here are two links to articles about cramping for those who are prone to this. I was actually a little surprised to realize that electrolyte imbalance was not considered a major contributor to cramping - but rather they pointed to duration and intensity of exercise over which we do have some control. It serves as another reminder about the importance of building an appropriate endurance base and of making sure you don’t go to hard or to fast during your training as the ability to ride at a higher threshold for 80 miles does not automatically translate into the ability to ride at a lower threshold for 112.
http://www.scysa.net/filecabinet/muscle_cramps_info.pdf
http://ezinearticles.com/?Muscle-Cramps-in-Runners&id=1265152
Finally – here is a link to 10 common mistakes for Ironman – I know we have read them before but it does not hurt to do it again – especially with Wildflower having that festival feel, its easy to go “hang out” at the expo in the hot sun for hours at a time the day before your race. Relax, rest, hydrate, get your feet up and stay out of the sun.
http://searchwarp.com/swa58560.htm
Good Luck at Wildflower
Coach John Magee
METABOLIC EFFICIENCY
I have had a number of conversations with athletes over the last month or to regarding this concept of Metabolic Efficiency. I decided it was time to put out a piece on this idea. I used a couple of graphics from USAT coach Bob Seebohar’s presentation at Chula Vista and I included a couple of graphics from an article he wrote in Aug 2007 – I provided the link in this piece. For more information you can check out Bob’s website at http://www.fuel4mance.com/
John Magee
Assistant Coach, Kain Performance
____________________________________________________________________________
Essentially when you train at the intensities and with the volume dictated by the desire to compete in triathlon training then it puts many different stresses on the body, ranging from the muscular to the mental. One of those stresses is on your energy reserves. Making sure you have appropriate energy reserves to make it through the training or race so that you get a training benefit or you perform at the level for which you have trained is obviously very important.
There are three natural systems that provide fuel for your mitochondria;
Creatine Phosphate system – lets not bother about this one as its use is for intense anaerobic activity – like sprinting and can be depleted in less than a minute.
Glycogen supplies: So depending on the intensity of your workout or race you have about 3 hours of supply – considerably less as the intensity of the effort increases.
Fat – even for athletes with very low body fat percentages, hypothetically there is enough energy stored in the body to get you through any race, if you could access it and if your intensity were low enough.
However there is a 4th system – its called “What you eat before, during, and after a workout”. The fundamental purpose of eating during training and racing in the short term is to replenish the second system – the glycogen system. While its true to say that the body does not exclusively burn any one type of fuel at any one time, it does have a preference at different intensity levels. Sprinting flat out is going to preferentially burn creatine phosphate, aerobic exercise – Zone 3 & 4 type work is going to burn a combination of glycogen and fat with the emphasis on the glycogen. Around zone 1 & 2 the ration of fat being burned goes up and carbohydrates goes down. So – issue number one, on a training day that could last anything from 4-12 hours depending on the phase you are in, you are more and more likely as the hours increase to essentially “run out” of glycogen and experience the dreaded bonk. Again the same is true in a 70.3 or Ironman race. So what do we do? Well the typical response is to eat, naturally – and we practice eating - gels, bars, electrolyte drinks, PB& J sandwiches etc. We also practice race day nutrition – eating what we think we will eat during the race or what will be provided during the race and we come up with some nutritional “plan” which we try with varying success. Some make it through and it “works” in that they race OK based on their expectations. But I would argue that large group of athletes at some point during their training or in their race do not do OK and at some point their training or race performance is compromised by what we categorize as GI issues. There are also some hypothetical questions that could be raised such as “How well could I have performed if I was more metabolically efficient?”
Basically – as we often experience, the longer the training session or race, the harder it gets to keep putting food into our bodies for various reasons that we need not address here. But, the reason we are all eating is to try and replace glycogen that is being depleted as we train and race.
So is there a solution? Well, I would argue that we need to address the issues of nutrition with the same rigor that we address the core exercise disciplines of triathlon. If we just address nutrition the week before the race then we are doing ourselves a disservice. There are two major issues; the first is that all athletes should understand and practice nutritional periodization. For those wishing to know more about this issue I would recommend a book by Bob Seebohar “Nutrition periodization for endurance athletes”. The second issue is the concept of metabolic efficiency – training your body to utilize fat stores in preference to glycogen stores and thus delaying and reducing the need to ingest carbohydrates and therefore significantly reducing the risk of developing GI issues. Lets explain this concept a little more. Imagine for a moment that at any given exercise intensity level your body was burning a higher % of body fat and a lower % of glycogen. What would this mean? Well – essentially it would mean that you would not need to eat as much during the training session or the race as your body was using your glycogen reserves up at a lower rate. This concept is known as Metabolic Efficiency. Alternatively the phrase “Glycogen sparing” is also used to define the idea that because you are now more efficient at burning fats then your are “sparing” your glycogen stores and thus they do not deplete as quickly.
Take a look at the graphic below. The first graph shows the relative percentages of carbohydrate used as a fuel source compared to the relative percentages of fat used as a fuel source for a typical athlete as exercise intensity increases. At 9min mile pace the athlete is using 66% carbohydrates and 34% fats as a fuel source.
Now look at the second graph. It shows the same athlete 3 months later after proper nutrition training. At that same 9 min mile pace those numbers are now 58% and 42% and at lower intensities his efficiency is even higher, but more importantly, the athlete is now able to utilize fat supplies far more efficiently not just at this 9 min mile pace but at ALL exercise intensities. As a result the percentage of fuel he needs from glycogen is reduced at ALL intensities thus reducing the need to eat and reducing the potential of GI issues.
For more information check out this link – it was from this article that I took the two image below.
http://www.personaltrainertoday.com/articles/publish/article_712.htm
OK – so I think you would agree that this makes sense. So how do you become more metabolically efficient? Well – how do you get faster or stronger? You have to train! So in order for your body to become more metabolically efficient, you have to train it too.
This training needs to begin ideally during base training so that when you reach the build phase your body is more efficient and you can take advantage of this efficiency and reduce your need for gels, bars etc. Note that once you reach the build and race phases of the season you WILL need to eat but the amount you need should be considerably less as your body is more efficient at burning fat supplies and thus you are “sparing” your glycogen supplies.
What does this actually look like? Ideally you would start this process during a 6-12 week aerobic low intensity base phase when you are attempting at a cellular level to increase the size, number and density of the mitochondria in your muscle cells. It is during this type of training that you can start to allow your body to become more efficient by providing it with enough water and electrolyte replacement but denying it carbohydrate. This forces the body to burn its fat supplies more efficiently. In fact if you are engaged in these long, “slow” runs, rides and swims, and you mindlessly throw down a gu or a bar out of habit you are in effect short circuiting your bodies effort to become more efficient as it will immediately start to use the carbs you just consumed. Obviously you cannot start this process by going out for a 6 hour ride and eating nothing, but for any activity that is no more than 3 hours in duration, water and salt replacement would be the way to start. The two tables below summarize the overall nutrition plan for the Base and Build Phase. These two tables were taken from Bob Seebohars Nutritional Periodization presentation at USAT training and edited slightly by me
(Chart may not appear correctly. Sorry! Link to Word Doc for full report & charts)
BASE PHASE NUTRITION
Nutrient | Pre Workout | During Workout | Post workout |
Fluid | 0.07-0.10 ounces per pound of weight 4 hours or more before workout. 0.04-0.10 ounces per pound of weight 2 hours before workout | 3-8 ounces every 15 minutes – depending on sweat rate | 24 ounces for every pound of weight lost |
Carbohydrate | Meal or light snack depending on when training ends | Ideally none during BASE phase | Snack |
Protein | Meal or light snack depending on when training ends | None | Snack |
Fat | Meal or light snack depending on when training ends | None | Omega 3’s in snack |
Sodium | Naturally within the meal or Snack | Just enough to promote hydration | Minimum of 500mg for every pound of weight lost |
BUILD PHASE NUTRITION
Nutrient | Pre Workout | During Workout | Post workout |
Fluid | 0.07-0.10 ounces per pound of weight 4 hours or more before workout. 0.04-0.10 ounces per pound of weight 2 hours before workout | 3-8 ounces every 15 minutes – depending on sweat rate | 24 ounces for every pound of weight lost |
Carbohydrate | Meal or light snack depending on when training ends | Research says: 30-90g per hour. BUT Less is More to promote metabolic efficiency | 1.0-1.2 g/kg (usually about 50-100 grams or (200-400 calories) |
Protein | Meal or light snack depending on when training ends | Debatable. (Make sure BCAA’s and glutamine if taken) | 10-20 Grams (40-80 calories) |
Fat | Meal or light snack depending on when training ends | None | No |
Sodium | Naturally within the meal or Snack | Research says around 500-700 mg/Liter of fluid. Bob recommends a Min of 800mg/Hour | Minimum of 500mg for every pound of weight lost |
The last thing I want to mention is that this program assumes that you are practicing good nutrition generally. You cannot go into a training session and try and improve your metabolic efficiency if you are already depleted in terms of your glycogen supplies. Take a look at these two graphics – again courtesy of Bob Seebohar at http://www.fuel4mance.com. The first shows an athlete who is not practicing effective nutritional periodization and the second an athlete who is. Note how long it takes the first athlete to fully replenish his glycogen supplies compared to the second athlete. As athletes we essentially train 6/7 days a week and if we are fueling our bodies poorly then our energy supplies will not be replenished before the next workout is upon us thus leading to a wasted session. The second athlete is far more likely to go into his next workout and train poorly.
Please contact me or Pete if you have any questions regarding this material. Try and check out the links I provided to get Bob Seebohar’s take first hand. Bob is actually someone who we could hire to come and talk to the whole group should this topic generate enough interest. He also has a new book coming out this month that addresses this whole issue in much more detail than I have given.
John Magee – Assistant Coach – Kain Performance .