Fatigue exposed

In my Honu race report I described how tired I felt on the bike. How, even after a reasonable warm up period, I was unable to produce the watts necessary to follow my plan. At first it just felt weird. Then I began to understand that my fatigue was very real and the result of an hour long high power swim. Had I not been so aggressive in the water my race would have ended on the beach.

In the days that followed I did what any athlete would do in a similar situation, I began to question my preparation. Had I prepared adequately? Was I right to expect that I could produce the necessary power? In short, what went wrong? Fortunately Training Peaks makes available a ton of data, and I decided to look there for answers. I found them, too.

First, a quick review of what the data means. These are my definitions.

FTP - Functional Threshold Power. The maximum sustained power a cyclist can produce for an extended period of time, typically one hour. Equivalent to the power generated at Lactate Threshold Heart Rate (LTHR).

NP - Normalized Power. An average power, expressed in watts, for a period of time, adjusted to express the impact on the body. A ride on rolling hills at an average power of 120 watts will feel harder, and require more energy from the rider, than riding a flat course for the same duration at an average of 120 watts. In that case the flat ride will have an NP of 120 watts while the NP for the rolling hills ride will be higher.

IF - Intensity Factor. The average percentage of FTP produced for a period of time. IF = 1.0 means the ride was done at an NP equal to FTP. If the goal is to ride at an average of 85% FTP, IF will be 0.85.

VI - Variability Index. I am still not completely clear about this one. VI expresses how much the power varied from an ideal. Typically a time trial is done at a smooth, continuous power level. On a flat course VI should be close to 1.0, with anything between 0.97 and 1.03 being excellent. I am not clear how hills affect this number. A good strategy is to work harder on climbs and recover while descending. Seems to me that this will increase VI, unless the software also takes into account elevation changes.

The remaining columns in my analysis should not require explaining.

What I did was go back and get the most recent useful ride data and compare them with my Honu ride. To a certain extent this comparing apples to oranges, because none of the rides have the same profile. By focusing on a twenty minute continuos climb I was able to find something significant.

On May 8th I did a workout on Pineapple Hill -- Hwy. 99 from Haleiwa going up towards Wahiawa, which consisted of three ascents of twenty minutes each. On May 15 I did the Honolulu Triathlon, which has no hills, but I did ride at my planned Honu intensity, the goal being to sustain 85% FTP as smoothly as possible. On May 22 I did Pineapple Hill again, but this time only one ascent followed by a long flat ride with some all-out intervals.

The results of these rides and my Honu ride are given in the table below. (Click to see a larger version.) There are two sets of columns. First, the data for the entire ride. Then, for all except the Honolulu Triathlon, data for a twenty minute continuous climb. Note that I include all three ascents from the 15th.

There is a lot to look at, but one comparison in particular stands out, Honu and the second ascent on the 15th. On Pineapple Hill I was able to generate 172 watts for twenty minutes at an average heart rate of 135 BPM, while on the climb to Hawi I was making 115 watts at a heart rate of 137. What these data do not reveal is that in both cases I am very close to LTHR. Any attempt to go faster was unsustainable. There is a huge difference between 172 watts and 115 watts, and I could feel it. Even on the second day at Pineapple Hill I did 147 watts. On the first day I was going all out, On the second day I was trying to hold back as if it were a race. (The goal is to be able to run a half marathon after the bike.) For Honu my overall IF goal was 0.85. I planned to do the climb to Hawi a little above that; here I did 0.89 and followed the climb with a hard set of intervals and could still run off the bike. One more number. On the twenty minute climbs on Pineapple Hill I gained over 500 feet. For the twenty minute Honu segment -- not the entire climb but most of it, I only gained about 300 feet.

These data show that in the weeks leading up to Honu I had the strength to do well. The one thing I did not take into account was the effect of the long, intense swim. I think this confirms the conclusion I arrived at in my race report, that to do any better ay Honu I need to improve my swim efficiency. Of course there is plenty of room for improvement in my bike and run performance.

Honu pau - Ironman 70.3 Hawaii race report

Sometimes winning does not happen at the finish line.

Much of what I wrote in my previous post has a direct bearing to this one. I am not going to repeat all that, so if you have not already read it I suggest that you do. What I will summarize here are the outcomes I predicted:

1. I would miss the swim cutoff time
2. I would make the swim, do fine on the bike, but miss the 2:00PM halfway run cutoff
3. I would finish

By my calculations, if I did finish I would just barely make the swim and run cutoff times, with a total time just under 8:30. The bike, specifically, was to come in just under four hours to have any chance of finishing the run in time.

My result was none of the above.

I did make the swim cutoff. It was close, as predicted. My recent best effort swim pace has been around 2:45/100 yds. I was hoping to stay below 3:00, and to have any chance of finishing the swim in time I need to get down to 2:40. I did 2:41. The cutoff was 1:10 after your wave start. I finished in 1:07:45.

Was I last out of the water? No. But I am confused by the results. There were eight people slower than me. Three made it under 1:10, and one of those finished. But there were two with swim times over 1:10 who got times for the bike and run, even though they got a DNF for the race. Hmm. They should have had their timing chip removed on the beach. Apparently they were allowed to continue. No big deal.

I was so surprised that I finished the swim in time that I hardly knew what to do. Of course I had planned everything, I just never thought I would get that far. All I really wanted to do was celebrate, but I had to hustle up the ramp to T1 and get going on the bike. I probably would have stopped at the water's edge had my sherpa team not been screaming at me to run through the arch.

Finding my bike in the corral was no problem, because it was one of a handful still there. No problems with transition, got going on the steep uphill start, executed my bike start plan perfectly. Go easy on the climb up to the Queen K and take advantage of the first long downhill to take on some water and solid food -- Scratch Labs chews.

Two things were radically different than my practice runs. My heart rate was through the roof, and I felt really tired. The degree of fatigue I felt was like nothing I had felt before at the end of a swim or the start of a ride. On my way to the turn-around my the Mauna Lani my goal was to get my heart rate down from zone 5 to below 4.5. It was not until Kawaihae that it settled down, but every hard effort would make it go up again. Basically my heart rate was one to two zones higher than what I consider normal for RPE, especially as measured by respiration.

The other thing I began to notice was that I was not hitting the power levels I had planned on. I was typically around ten watts below plan. If I tried to get back up to plan, my heart rate took off and I felt an intense wave of fatigue. But then, a bit of good news. I hit my way-point time at the junction of Highway 19 and 270 exactly as predicted, fifty minutes from the start of the bike. I thought perhaps my power levels were a little off, and that I should keep doing the best I could.

Unfortunately this would not hold. My next way-point was Lapakahi Park, which I was supposed to reach at 1:40 after start, but arrived at 1:45. Along the way my legs felt like cottage cheese. I was supposed to get to the Hawi turn-around at 2:15, I made it at 2:25. To be clear, these were maximum times to finish before the 5:30 bike cut-off. My goal was to beat them without burning all my energy. Instead I was falling behind while using every ounce of strength. This is not the way to ride the bike segment of a triathlon.

It was at that point that the words Guy Hagi said at the start really sunk home. Words I have heard countless times before, even from Terry Laughlin. "You cannot win a triathlon in the swim, but you sure can loose one." Now I knew what my problem was. Not a lack of fitness or training, some sudden, mysterious loss of leg strength. I had just had the swim of my life, a full hour going as hard as I could. No wonder I was so tired. No wonder my legs could not muster enough energy.

There was one more thing I realized just before arriving at Hawi. I had gotten behind on my nutrition, and very likely had not packed enough fuel. I had a four hour bottle of Hammer Perpetuem, the drink I have been using for over a year with excellent results. To supplement that I had one bag of Scratch Lab chews and one Bonk Breaker bar. The chews were to replenish after the swim/ The Bonk Breaker was to replenish after the climb to Hawi. The long downhill section would give my stomach a break and ensure easy digestion.

I felt better soon after eating the bar, and continued to push the Perpetuem. This was a 4X concentration, so every swig had to be accompanied by a good slug of water, which I did. By the time I got down to sea level at Kawaihae I was out of fuel. Not optimal, but at least I didn't barf. Next aid station was just past the 19-270 junction and I knew I could get a bottle a Gatorade there.

The climb from Kawaihae to the intersection was a death march. I could barely pedal. My handlebars were wobbling. Even so I passed someone. I could see vultures flying overhead.

I made the junction at 3:45 from start, ten minutes behind plan. I had not lost any more time, but I had not made any back, and I was cooked. It was there that I decided to throttle back a little so that I could at least make it into T2 without crashing. A few minutes later my feelings were underscored when I saw a truck go by with the bike belonging to the woman I had passed climbing up from Kawaihae. She was in the cab, condition unknown. I decided I was not going to abandon out here, not unless my feet fell off.

A little later an official van pulled along side to check on my condition and offer me a ride. I said I preferred to ride it in and they said that was fine as long as I was able to continue. I made it all the way to the Highway to Hell (Hoohana St.), about 100 yards from the dismount line, when the same van pulled me over. They were profusely apologetic as they explained that they had been ordered to stop and pick up all riders still on course because the course was closed. So I rode the last 100 yards in the van. Silly.

The interesting thing is that at no time did I feel bad about not finishing the bike. Well, I was annoyed that I was not allowed to ride all the way to the finish. What I mean is I did not mind missing the cutoff. Finishing the swim was a huge reward for me, and I could tell that I was doing pretty good on the bike. I had a good plan and I was prepared. I just had not grasped how much the swim would take out of me.

My supporters were more concerned about the swim than I was. They even made me my own race bling knowing that I was not likely to get a real one.

As I got off the bike both legs were flickering with the onset of cramping. Back at the condo I sat awhile in the jacuzzi, and again my legs were cramping when I tried to get out. I was really wrecked! A hard swim and a hard ride.

A number of people have asked me if I intend to do this race again next year. For now, my answer is that it depends on improving my swim. For a rough estimate I averaged the times in my age group, the idea being that if I could be a middle of the pack swimmer I should do okay. The average time in my AG was around forty-five minutes.  That is a lot of improvement to make in one year. My friend Steve Davidson did it in 54:40 and finished in 8:19:35 -- that's cutting it close! -- so perhaps that much improvement is not necessary. But there is another number and it is hard to measure. TSS is as close as we can get. I was swimming really hard. To have a good race I not only need to improve my swim time, I also need to improve my efficiency. I need to be more streamlined in the water.

It is too soon to say where exactly this is going. I will do the Tinman in a couple months. Let's see if I can shave a bit more off of my swim pace by then.

Last but not least, a big mahalo to all of my supporters, most of all Sonya Weiser Souza and my tireless sherpa and wife, Pattie.

Honu 2016 race plan

In less than a week I will do the race that inspired this blog. Ironman Hawaii 70.3, a.k.a Honu. Once it is over, whatever the outcome, the question will arise, at least in my mind, what to do with this blog. Right now I don't feel any desire to stop doing triathlon. A break would be nice. Doing Honu has been my goal for the last two years, and everything else has revolved around that goal. But the fact is my physical fitness is at an all-time high, and I am not struggling with injuries. I hate to throw all that away.

A lot depends on the outcome of this race. For example, one reasonable sounding outcome depends upon a decent result this weekend. In that case, find one or two more Half Ironman events to participate in, and if things continue to improve, go for the whole enchilada. A lot of my friends have done IM Cozumel, so that sounds like a good one to try. If this race does not go so well, I can see myself either trying again next year, or writing off the Ironman style races with their cut-off times and sticking with races that accommodate slower athletes. I am not getting any younger.

Which brings us to the main challenge this race presents to me. I know I have the strength, skills and endurance to go the distance. There is, however, a very real possibility that I will fail to make one of the cutoff times. I will be uncomfortably close to all of them.

For the swim, I should be able to average a little better than 3 min/100 yrs. I would say 2:40 tops. If we use 2,112 yds as the distance that works out to 63 minutes at 3:00, 55 minutes at 2:40. The swim cutoff time is 70 minutes. So, if all goes well and I manage to swim straight, I should make the swim cutoff, but just barely.

The bike is by far my strongest event, but Honu presents some very difficult challenges. Constant elevation changes, then a long, continuous climb to Hawi, all wrapped up in strong crosswinds. The trick to any triathlon bike event is to go fast without building so much fatigue in the legs that running is impossible. A lot of age groupers get this wrong and end up walking most of the run. I guess one strategy is to go all out on the bike and walk the run, by design. I have decided to go the other way, hold back enough on the bike to allow for a reasonable chance I can run the entire half marathon.

My bike plan begins with the decision to ride at an average of 85% FTP. This is a little low for HIM, but since this such a hilly course, and I am so old, I think it is a prudent choice. If the course were flat, like the Honolulu Triathlon, the rest would be easy. Just ride at 85% FTP. My Garmin Edge 800 can display that, no problem. But this is a hilly course, with significant wind, so a lot more needs to be taken into account. To help with that I use Best Bike Split.

After taking into account all the variables -- including elevation and wind angles of the course -- BBS estimates that at my 85% FTP average pace the ride will take 3:55 at an average speed of 14 m.p.h.

As I said, the challenge of this course is the constantly changing elevation, which leads to the question, how much power to hold at each point along the way. I have included the very nice speed and power chart that BBS produces. The blue line is altitude, the brown line is speed, and the shaded part is power. To me it is so convoluted as to be useless during the race. Unless I had a team manager riding in a car behind me calling out power targets. But I will be on my own.

The solution to this dilemma, if you can call it that, is a cheat sheet that shows power to hold for a list of conditions. Just print and stick somewhere where you can see it.

I suspect that much of my time will be alternating between 100 and 155 watts, with the long climb to Hawi at 163. To help with this I have my Edge 800 "race" page configured with grade, so I can do a better job matching my power to the BBS plan.

As a backup to this power plan I located some waypoints and found the times I should arrive. 

JCT. 19-270	0:50
Lapakahi Pk	1:40
Begin climb	1:45
Turn around	2:15
Lapakahi Pk	2:32
JCT.19-270	3:25
Finish 3:55	3:55

I should not overreact to being a little late to the first waypoint as this section includes the transition from the swim. The worst thing you can do here is go too fast. But after that I need to be pretty close. No sense arriving at T2 with great legs but past the cutoff time.

Let's sum up so far. 

With a good swim time and hitting my bike plan, and five minutes each in T1 and T2, I begin the run at 0:55 + 0:05 + 3:55 + 0:05 = 5:00. Cutoff time is 5:30 from start of swim, so if I have a perfect day I will make it this far.

The run is a real mystery. Much of it is on grass, which slows things down a bit. At my last half marathon I was averaging only around 15:30 min/mile but feeling pretty good until mile 8, when my right calf started cramping, forcing me to walk most of Diamond Head. I know I have gotten better, but just how much is hard to say. My plan is to take it easy after T2 to let my heart rate and respiration settle, then ease the pace up to high zone 3, what would be a 15:00 pace on a smooth, flat surface. If I can average that pace my run comes in at 3:17. Added to my "perfect" day so far that comes in at 8:17. The cutoff time is 8:30. Very, very close. If I can only manage 15:30 I get 3:23. Coming at it the other way, to cross the finish line right at the cutoff time, after my perfect swim and bike, I need to run at 16:00. I am sure I can do that.

Like I said. I have what I need to get this done, but it will be excruciatingly close the entire way. Talk about exciting!

At the risk of sounding corny, whether or not I make all of the cutoff times is not what this race is about. Three years ago Pattie challenged me to take up the sport of triathlon, seeing as how I was already a cyclist and running marathons. I took up the challenge without realizing how hard it is to swim well. In my first year I struggled through the sprint distance Honolulu Triathlon, then the Tinman, which has the same short swim but with Olympic distance bike and run. It was at that point we went to Honu just to watch and support our Try Fitness friends, especially Sonya Weiser Souza. At some point in the post-race haze the women insisted I should do this race, and for some insane reason -- assisted no doubt by an over consumption of beer -- I agreed, with the condition that I would need another year. Here we are, two years later, and I find myself heading to Kona. 

What really counts here is the journey. I have learned a lot. I have made a lot of friends. I swim much better than I could two years ago. That I am ready to start the race is all that really counts. However it turns out, I have already won.

Did I actually say I am considering doing a full Ironman? Let's take it one step at a time.

Understanding the power - heart rate gap

Today’s Tantalus ride was intended first and foremost to be a recovery ride, but my legs felt good so I decided to get more out of it by practicing my Honu climbing pace. This was especially challenging because I forgot my Edge 800 head unit, so I had to go mostly by feel. I wear my Fenix2 on my wrist and was able to glance occasionally at power zone and heart rate zone. At first I wondered why my heart rate was so low, until I remembered the the Fenix2 only supports one set of zones and I have them set up for running, whereas the Edge 800 is configured for cycling. My run LTHR is 154, whereas my cycling LTHR is 140 (this is normal). It works out that the zone displayed this morning on the Fenix2 was roughly one too low. The data as displayed on Training Peaks is correct.

After staring at the results on Training Peaks for a time I decided to compare today’s data with Sunday’s race data. Found something interesting, and not entirely surprising. To get a more meaningful comparison I only used the climbing portion from today and compared that to the entire bike leg of the race. Using the totals from today would include too much downhill. The climbing portion of the ride and the entire race leg represent continuous nearly constant effort.

 

Power
Avg	Max	Zone	%FTP	VI
154	362	4	94%	1.03
Heart Rate
Avg	Max	Zone	%LTHR
131	142	3 - 4*	93%
Cadence
Avg	Max
48	84
Speed
Avg	Max
5.35	9.82

Tantalus Tuesday, May 17, climb only (0:50)
* - HR zone 3 126 - 131, zone 4 132 - 149

Power
Avg	Max	Zone	%FTP	VI
115	266	2	70%	1.02
Heart Rate
Avg	Max	Zone	%LTHR
133	139	4	95%
Cadence
Avg	Max
81	106
Speed
Avg	Max
15.6	24.3

Honolulu Triathlon, May 15, entire bike leg (1:24)

The thing that jumps out at me is how similar the heart rate numbers are, yet the power output on Sunday was much lower than today’s ride. Sunday’s ride was flat, while today’s was a long, steep climb. This is reflected in the cadence numbers; Sunday’s average was 81, today’s was 48. On Sunday I was not monitoring heart rate at all, only power and cadence, but I could feel my legs getting the burn that signals getting close to the lactate threshold. Sure enough, I was at 95% LTHR. Really cannot do any better than that over an hour and thirty minute time trial. 
 

As good as that sounds, why was I only putting out 70% FTP on Sunday? Today my heart rate was 93% LTHR yet my average power was 94% FTP. I can think of four possible reasons. First, the excitement of the race. Call it nerves. Excitement will raise your heart rate. I was probably near LTHR just standing on the shore waiting to start! Second, cadence. I cannot spin up on the Tantalus climb. The long, slow pedal stroke is not quite the same as a fast spin, and since I do not get many opportunities to ride all out on flat roads my body is better adapted to climbing. (Hand me that polka dot jersey.) Third, fatigue. I did the bike leg on Sunday after a long, hard swim, and it lasted 50% longer than the Tantalus climb. But I did the first hour on Sunday at 72% FTP, and the Variability Index of 1.02 tells us I did not slow down at the end. Still, the swim could be the difference. Last but not least, speed. Like I already said, I rarely get to go all out for any length of time. Going twenty miles an hour down any highway on Oahu is to risk life and limb. Ford Island is good for this, but not the most convenient place to get to. My theory is that whenever I got up to 130 watts on Sunday my instincts told me to slow down.

I doubt that anyone could say for sure why the gap between power and heart rate was so much higher Sunday than today. One take away from all this is the need to monitor power and heart rate during the race. Forcing myself to hold a planned power could result in walking the run. As good a metric as power is, heart rate cannot be ignored.

Honolulu Triathlon race plan

Right off the bat I want to make one thing perfectly clear. This Sunday's Honolulu Triathlon is not my "A" race. It is a practice race on the build to Ironman 70.3 Hawaii, affectionately known as "Honu."

I say that as much for my sake as yours. When my mind gets to wandering I often end up thinking about pacing in terms of having my best race yet. (Insert needle scrape sound here.) It is only natural, especially when you consider how often we are bombarded by media headlines about winning your age group and setting a new PR. Sure I want to do well, but the definition of "well" in this case means having a swim without drama and bike and run segments done at Honu pace, along with a few more things I'll go into later.

One of the key points Joe Friel makes in his book, "Fast After 50," is that the older we get the smaller the margin of error. Going too easy in a workout will not produce the desired increase in fitness. Going too hard will demand an extended recovery time and significantly increase the risk of injury. For young athletes the gap between too little and too much is wide. The older we get, the narrower the gap. Fortunately this physical decline is offset by an increase in experience and good judgment. Us old guys know better than to go out and party before a race.

One more thing to remember about aging athletes. We need more recovery time. This is true at the micro and macro ends of the scale. Where a young athlete can do intervals like 3x5 min with one minute recoveries, us old guys need five minute recoveries. Moving toward the macro end, a whippersnapper can do three hard workouts a week, whereas us old folks can only manage one. This is a basic fact of aging, right in there with gray hair and wrinkled skin.

How does this affect my race plan? If I go all out this Sunday I will be forced to severely curtail my training over the following week, which comes at a critical time in the build to Honu. Additionally, an all out 10K run increases the risk of injury. A hamstring pull comes to mind, but I struggled with calf cramps at my last race, the Hapalua Half Marathon, where I tried to push myself hard. That sore right calf bothered me for several weeks. Arriving at the starting line at Honu in that condition is not on the path to success.

My biggest challenge will be the swim. I still tend to struggle in the first five minutes with breathing and finding my rhythm. On recent long swims with Pattie I have done very well by following her. She is very good at starting at a sane, manageable pace. I am pretty sure that going slow is much better than stopping to tread water. Somehow I will have to keep this feeling foremost in my mind when the horn goes off and my wave charges down to the water. If I do get hit with the panicky, "can't breath" feeling I will try my best to lengthen my stroke, remind myself that I really am not running out of air, and wait it out. The feeling passes, rather quickly.

Right up there with getting my breathing on track are the issues of swimming in a pack and getting around the buoy at the far end. I am not going to go wide to the outside like I did last year. I will be looking for someone to follow, but drafting is a skill I have yet to learn, and trying it in a race is not a good idea. I breath to my right, so going wide leaves me with nobody to follow. Hopefully there will be one or two folks as slow as me.

The bike is a no brainer. I am totally comfortable on my Cervelo P3.  The basic plan is simple. Hold 85% 80% FTP (130 watts) as much as possible, lower if my legs are not good. This course is pretty much flat, but where there is a need I will allow my power to go up to 103% FTP (170 watts) for a minute or two. On the return, ease up along the park, spin faster, stop pedaling and stand to stretch hamstrings, get legs ready for a balanced dismount and a quick transition into the run. DO NOT go hard all the way to the dismount line.  I do plan to go in and out of aero position, but that is really practice for Honu, where the longer ride will demand it. I will not blithely follow the riders ahead as we approach Lagoon Drive, as some might be doing the sprint and will be off to the left whereas the longer distance requires I be off to the right. Good thing I have been practicing my U-turns! I will carry one bottle Perpetuem on the down tube and two water, one on the aero bars and one behind the saddle. I plan to eat a Bonk Breaker as soon as I am out on Ala Moana and settled in. I could do the race without it, but at Honu getting in some solid food calories after the swim can be critical to a decent run. I need to see how my body reacts.

Which brings us to the run. I would like to do something better than a 15:00 pace. 14:00 would be really nice. But recall where this rant began. I will not go as fast as my feet will let me, even if they sprout wings. Save it for Honu. At the risk of aiming too low, my goal is to run the entire course and not feel any desire to stop at the finish. I will carry my Fuelbelt and partake of my favorite concentrated Perpetuem. Again, practice for Honu, where I will need the extra calories.

After hours of rigorous calculations I have come up with the following plan:

Swim - 0:35
T1 - 0:05
Bike - 1:30
T2 - 0:05
Run - 1:30

Overall - 3:45

Again, it doesn't matter. What does matter is that the race goes smoothly, without drama. No equipment failures, no wardrobe failures, no puking. That is all I really care about. No puking.

Planning my bike build to Honu

This week I went back to review my plans for the remaining bike workouts building to Ironman 70.3 Hawaii. As I began digging in I felt that old daemon, panic, a looming dark cloud of emotion, fear that I have not done enough and need to do a lot more. Only four weeks to go!

In the words of the late Erik Bauersfeld, "It's a trap!"

It started when I began to plan the details of this Sunday's long ride. My training plan calls out a basic ride/run brick, with a few Zone 3 intervals in the bike and most of the run in Zone 3 as well. I think I will get more out of a road trip back to Pineapple Hill. For those of you not familiar with Oahu roads, this is Highway 99 running from Haleiwa on the North Shore, inland and up a long, steady grade very much like the climb to Hawi.

The last time I was there was a few weeks ago, April 17th to be exact. My training plan for that day called for 1:30 bike followed by 0:30 run, with three 15 minute intervals in Zone 3. For that I substituted a ride designed to increase my FTP while simulating the long, relentlessly steady climb to Hawi. Warm up riding from Kaiaka Beach Park to the base of Hwy 99 just past the round-about, then two twenty minute intervals climbing at Zone 4.5 or better, just above FTP. Recover on the downhill. By the end of the second interval my legs were on fire. Back at the park I was too tired to run.

Here is the ride profile for that day, along with power data. You can see where I started to lose it at the end of the second ascent. The two gaps are where I stopped to take pictures.

Let's pause here and learn from this example. A cyclist riding a time trial knows that after crossing the finish line their day is done, but a triathlete still has a long run to do. In the case of Honu, a half marathon. In order to be able to run after the bike, the bike segment must be done at less than the absolute maximum. What is FTP? The maximum effort a cyclist can produce at a constant rate for one hour. If you expect to run after the bike you must ride at or below FTP. The only exception is a very fit athlete doing a sprint triathlon, in which case the bike can be a smidgen above FTP. For long course triathlon, somewhere between 65-85% FTP. How do we increase FTP? By riding long intervals at or above FTP. By definition you cannot ride above FTP for an hour. Twenty minute efforts with long recoveries are good. Can you see why I should not be surprised that I was too tired to run after my ride? Besides, it was raining and my bike was a filthy mess and I did not want to put it in the Outback without a good washing. So, no run that day.

The following Sunday was the Haleiwa Metric Century Ride. For that my plan was to ride a little below race pace, mid Zone 2, and run for at least thirty minutes after the bike. As fate would have it, I rode 56.5 miles, the same distance as the Honu bike segment. Minus the long climb to the turn-around. As I approached Haleiwa on the return I tested my legs and found that I had plenty of fuel in the tanks and could go a lot harder. Running was entirely possible. I only had to stop running because Pattie wanted to get to Haleiwa Joe's for lunch ASAP. Take that, Forrest Gump.

Until yesterday my plan for this Sunday was to do a longer version of my last Pineapple Hill ride. Three intervals instead of two. Then I got into pacing and planning my upcoming races, and that is when I got the bright idea that I really needed to do a bike ride that duplicates the full Honu course, at race pace, to see if I could. I brought up Google Maps and started to look for where I would need to start to make Pineapple Hill the midpoint. Somewhere around Kahuku it dawned on me that to ride that far that hard on Sunday would leave me wrecked for the rest of the week, and I have a race next Sunday. That is what races do, they leave you wrecked. You cannot afford to have workouts leave you wrecked. The rule of thumb is you either go long and slow, or short and fast.

As I thought about it I reminded myself I have already done a lot of long and slow. As recently as the metric century a couple weeks ago. This is not the time for long and slow.

How then do I combine the goal of running off the bike with the goal of improving my FTP? The best answer is to do these workouts on different days. But I do not have infinite days. Who does? My plan is a compromise that may or may not work. I like it because it simulates the Honu profile. I will do those three reps up the hill, but I will follow that with a ride at 75-85% FTP along the coast for at least thirty minutes. Last time it took less than ten minutes to get back to my car. I am hoping the longer ride will give my legs enough time to recover, while at the same time getting used to sustaining race pace -- that range is the upper half of Zone 3, which is right where I want to be during the race.

The following weekend is the Honolulu Triathlon. I plan to do it at my Honu race pace, with the caveat that if my legs are getting tired I will slow down on the run and walk if I have to. This is not the time to blow out a hamstring. After that there is only one more ride that really counts, on May 22nd. My training plan calls for about the same workout as this Sunday. I will wait and see how this Sunday goes, and what needs work after my next race, but I anticipate a return one last time to the hill.

Motivation and goal setting

My Hapalua Half Marathon started off well enough but did not end well. By the time I got to the hill at mile nine my right calf was cramping. I hoped that it would recover if I walked up the hill, but no such luck. The last four miles were mostly walking. I did run, as much as I could, but the most I could do was a hundred yards at a time.

The realization that I was not going to make my plan, much less set a new PR, was not much of a disappointment. Why? Because this was only a "B" race for me. My "A" race this spring is Honu, the Ironman Hawaii 70.3 triathlon in June.

To prepare for the Hapalua I blended a "stock" base plan with a half marathon run plan. By race day I knew I had done plenty of long run miles, but not enough at the pace I wanted to try. By mile two I knew I did not have the speed to set a PR, but I did not care. I was running well, just not fast. I felt rested and strong. Making my plan was a no-brainer. Until the wheels came off. When that happened I knew my fuel and hydration plan were fine -- I still felt reasonably good and wanted to run -- and that I had the core endurance, built up by all those long, slow runs. It was just too early in my half Ironman plan to be doing the kind of tempo runs necessary to run at a half marathon pace. My calf muscles lacked the endurance.

Just the other day I noticed myself using my goal of doing Honu for motivation. For everything from getting up in the morning to getting to swim practice, from riding up Tantalus to finishing a hard strength training set. "If you expect to finish Honu you have to get through this."

Having a really big goal race is definitely motivating, but thinking of it this way can transform it into a monster. You know what I am talking about. The closer the event comes the greater the cold, sweaty fear that grips your innards whenever you think about it. You ask yourself, "What was I thinking?" Triathlon magnifies the effect because we start with the swim. Few things are more likely to trigger a genuine sense of panic than to feel unprepared while waiting to swim in the open ocean.

My Hapalua did not create that kind of pressure because it really did not matter to me.  I know it did to plenty of other people. Those were the ones who dreaded walking to the start line, waiting for the gun to off, and worried sick that their wheels might fall off the way mine did.

A proven method to counter such performance anxiety is to stay focused on the present, on what is really happening right now and not what might happen next month, next week, or even a few minutes from now. "Be here now." I never read Ram Dass but I did pick up that phrase somewhere.

Another thought I find useful, which I learned from Coach Celeste St. Pierre, is "No time traveling." We all allow ourselves to drift into a fantasy land in which we imagine ourselves doing whatever it is we are interested in doing. This is fine if, say, you are hungry and imagine yourself eating a delicious meal. Not so great if you have invited friends over for dinner and keep imagining yourself burning dinner. The rule, seems to me, for most athletes is that we imagine a good outcome when the race is way off in the future, but the closer it gets, the more we imagine ourselves burning the pot roast.

It is here I have a quandary. Reminding myself that I am doing whatever unpleasant thing I happen to be suffering through because I am doing Honu seems like a wonderful motivator, yet to place so much importance on that one event is likely to produce a frightening monster.

Here is my proposed solution. In the spirit of staying in the present, how about setting smaller, short-range goals? Make each goal desirable, but not so significant that failure to achieve it will leave me feeling like a total failure. I already have goals for every workout, so how about goals for each week? Too frequent? Each month, then.

TrainingPeaks used to have this feature, but when they overhauled the user interface, weekly goals was one feature not carried over. The good news is that this feature is back, and even better than before. Any day can have goals attached to it, just like workouts, metrics, and events. The way I see it, each entry represents a deadline. If my goal is to increase my FTP, I create a goal for that on the day I want to achieve it by. Each goal has a checkbox you can check when you reach it. Too soon to say what happens to checked goals; perhaps they collect in a "completed goals" list somewhere.

I think decoupling goals from events is a good thing. Sure, I ought to have goals for a race. It is a normal part of any race plan. But leaning on the one "A" race every time I need a little motivation could backfire. Better to remind myself that the reason I am swimming in the rain is to achieve my goal of getting my pace down to 2:10/100 yards by May 15th.