Working on muscle fatigue

The Tinman Triathlon closed out the serious part of my race season for this year, leaving the Honolulu Century Ride and the Honolulu Marathon to close out the year. Prior to Honu I was undecided about doing the marathon. The thought of another long training sequence was not very appealing. I guess I got bored during the long taper to Tinman, made a week longer by tropical storm Darby, as that is when I decided to get serious about the marathon, joined Jason Fitzgerald's Strength Running group and began planing my fall workout schedule.

After Tinman I thought about what my challenges had been. What happened that failed to meet my expectations? What seemed to be keeping me from going faster? This is not a question without merit, in that I routinely finish near last place. If those other athletes are going so much faster, what do I need to do to be more like them?

For any athlete who asks that question -- are there any who don't? -- the first thing they will probably turn to is physique. The assumption that those other guys are faster because they are gifted. They have bigger lungs. Longer legs. Longer arms. Shorter legs. Smaller bodies. They are taller. Shorter. Thinner. Ripped.

It seems to me that there are certain physical features that contribute to success in certain events, but this only applies to a handful of people. Besides, there isn't much I can do about the length of my legs. What I can do, and work hard at, is to develop my form to the best of my ability, to learn how to arrange my body parts to make the most of what I have.

After we accept out body as perfectly suited to the task at hand we come to skill. Technique. I can't do anything about the length of my legs, but I can learn to move them in ways that allow me to perform better. Skill comes in two parts, knowledge and practice. I happen to love the knowledge part. I really enjoy studying technique, be it from books, videos, or conversations with experts. The practice part is not as much fun, but I am as consistent and conscientious as anyone. One thing is always true about technique: you can never stop working to improve. Especially swimming. The difference between a slow swimmer and a fast swimmer is for the most part a bunch of very small deviations from ideal form.

For endurance athletes -- for me at least -- the thing that comes right after skill is muscular endurance. However good our skill is, we need to repeat the muscle contractions that create that movement over and over again. What I notice is that towards the end of a long event my muscles start to complain a lot. I try to take inspiration from cyclist Jens Voigt's famous line, "Shut up, legs!" but that is never enough to keep me going. I first learned that "muscular endurance" was a thing because it is listed as a limiter on Training Peaks. Joe Friel goes into more detail in his books, such as "The Triathlete's Training Bible,"Chapter 6, "Training Advanced Abilities."

At last year's marathon I slowed considerably, walking a lot after mile 18. I was at my target pace until then, but missed my plan by a wide margin. At Honu I was exhausted after the swim and genuinely surprised how little power I could produce on the bike. At Tinman I had planned to run the entire 10K, in spite of the hills, but even before I got to Monsarrat I had to walk just to keep moving -- my legs felt like lead. I decided that I needed to focus on muscular endurance.

After deciding to look deeper into the subject of muscular endurance I found that, as so often is the case, there are multiple and sometimes conflicting views of what it is and how to improve. The "what it is" part can be divided into two camps. One, the older group, say it is physiological. Here is an example of one such description. I do enjoy the details.

How to Offset Muscle Fatigue.  Runner's World, October 8, 2009.
http://www.runnersworld.com/health/how-to-offset-muscle-fatigue

Joe Friel's discussion is similar, though less detailed. "A high level of muscular endurance results from adaptation of the mechanical properties of the muscles to resist fatigue, an elevated LT (lactate threshold -- gd) and tolerance of lactate that slowly accumulates at such intensities."

The other camp, of more recent vintage, claim that the physiological explanation is wrong, that the real limiter is the mind. Here are two articles that take this position:

Perception of effort, not muscle fatigue, limits endurance performance. Phys.org, March 19,2010.
http://phys.org/news/2010-03-perception-effort-muscle-fatigue-limits.html

Why Endurance Athletes Should Re-Think Fatigue. Bicycle Lab.
http://bicyclelab.com/why-endurance-athletes-should-re-think-fatigue/

 I have decided to blend these two points of view together. I think it is obvious that an increase in muscular endurance cannot be achieved without physical training, and even if the mind-over-matter theory sounds a bit far out, it cannot hurt to include it in one's mental fitness training.

This does not mean the matter is resolved. Not at all. The next question is, what to do during workouts to increase muscular endurance. And, once again, I find differing opinions from people I have the utmost respect for.

There is one thing everyone agrees on. A good way to improve muscular endurance is do long intervals at or just below LTHR, either running or on the bike. Runners are likely to call this a tempo run. There appears to be a lot of flexibility in how long to make the work interval, but one thing they all have in common is a relatively long work interval and a short recovery. Apparently doing this very much above your LTHR does not produce the desired response, as you are actually stressing your anaerobic system, with the likely outcome of an extended recovery period -- several days before another quality workout can be attempted.

I decided to get started with something simple, done on the bike until the century ride at the end of September, then switching over to the run until the marathon in December

Bike: 3 x 12 min at 90% FTP, 2:30 recovery

Run: 3 x 12 min at 95% LTHR, 2:30 recovery

I figured that if I made significant improvement I could increase the working duration, something like this:

2 x 20 min at 95% LTHR, 2:30 recovery

LTHR is right at the start of zone 5. A lot of sources describe doing tempo runs at HR zone 3. For me, 90% LTHR comes in at low zone 3, 95% at very top of zone 3. The bike version is based on using a power meter, just figure that heart rate at FTP is LTHR. Same physiologic condition expressed a different way.

Now that I know what to do, the next step is, when and how often. To answer the second question first, at my age I only have room for one long run per week and one quality run per week. All the more so because I am still training as a triathlete even though my next goal race is a marathon. I had considered adding these to my calendar, making for two quality runs per week. The only available slot was Friday morning, the day before my long run. Jason Fitzgerald recommended against this plan, and I agree. So my weekly run schedule goes something like this:

Mon. Base run, 3 mi.
Wed. Quality run
Sat. Long run, 12-18 miles

I think hill repeats are another excellent workout, too good to ignore, and I am fortunate to live near a perfect hill for run and bike intervals. I plan to alternate hill work with track work, hills more for power and the track more for muscular endurance.

One more thing. As marathon training proceeds, the long run should finish at race pace. In Build 1 the long run should be done entirely at no higher than mid zone 2, with considerable time at the start in zone 1. It is during Build 2, the last three to four weeks before peak that the long run pace should be pushed for the last couple miles, to get the body and mind conditioned to running at that pace even while fatigued. Based on the articles mentioned above, this is as much about the mind as it is the muscles.

Tinman race report

This year's Honolulu Tinman Triathlon was a great race for me. The swim was especially good. The bike was fine. I thought I fell apart on the run but somehow managed to come close to my estimate. Quite different from Honu, and last year's Honolulu Marathon. Plenty of take-aways, the biggest being how to deal with muscle fatigue.

As always I came up with my estimates by writing down a bunch of different times, putting them in a bag, giving it a good shake, then setting it aside and looking back over my recent Training Peaks data. Tinman is like the Honolulu Marathon (and Hapalua) in that there is no cutoff time as there is in Ironman events, so for this race I did not even care about time. I did try to peek at my swim time as I ran up the beach, but since I can't even walk and chew gum at the same time I decided not to risk it. Once I hit the swim exit timing mat and pressed "Lap" on my Fenix 2 my swim time was lost to me, and there is no official clock anywhere near there that I know of. Just as well. For the bike the only numbers I cared about were power and heart rate; knowing my time would not help. On the run I was looking primarily at pace, with heart rate and cadence there on the same screen. So, during the race I had no idea what my time was. That is why I am so surprised by how close my estimates were.

	Plan	Actual
Swim	0:23	0:25:44
T1	0:06	0:06:22
Bike	1:39	1:38:59
T2	0:03	0:03:43
Run	1:40	1:42:19
Total	3:51	3:57:08

The best thing about the swim was the complete absence of stress. I knew what to expect, I had my plan, and was ready to go. This time I did not hold back to let the others get out ahead, I took off as soon as I could and ignored the the thrashing going on all around me. Just as I figured it was not long until I was mostly alone. I did pass one struggling swimming who appeared to be doing a frog stroke; dog paddle arms and breast stroke kick. "Gee," I thought, "even I have better form than that." Maybe a frog is not the best label. They look funky but they can swim pretty fast. The wave behind mine began to catch me just as I got to the turn around, but only a few; no traffic jam at the turn. About twenty yards past the turn is when the pack got to me. Mostly I did not care, but there was one swimmer who insisted on getting just in front on to my left, swimming with considerable feet-down sag and constantly a threat of kicking me in the face. Finally I just pulled up, moved to the left, and got away from her. I felt as though had I held my spot I would have ended up over the reef along the shore, a place you really want to avoid.

I actually ran across the lawn to the bike coral. In the past I walked, the problem being vision. This time I just assumed the ground would still be there and hoped that the folks ahead had already found all of the ironwood seed cones. Who ordered the grass cut the day before the race? I spent an extra minute washing all the blades off before putting on my bike shoes. By the way, the Shimano TR9 shoes are incredibly comfortable and have held up well through lots of miles this season.

Speaking of apparel, I wore my IT&B kit and love it, same as for Honu. I have had problems with gloves. I have two pair of Giro Monaco gloves, one white, one black. Very comfortable. The white pair turned to stone after a run through the washing machine. I tried using hand moisturizer to soften them. Worked fine, but dissolved the tape holding on my tri bike's handlebar tape. The black pair remained soft but dyed my palms black. I know the rule about nothing new on race day, but even so I dropped by IT&B on Saturday and picked out a new pair of Pearl Izumi Elite gloves. Well, as I rode away from T1 I realized I had forgotten to put on gloves. The new gloves. No problem, rode fine without them. While packing up after the race I discovered I had not removed one of the tags, so I would have pulled a Minnie Pearl had I worn them. I did wear them Tuesday on the Tantalus Ride -- on my trusty Merlin road bike -- and the jury is still out. I like the synthetic textured fabric at the pads, but I don't like the way they feel on the drops. Could be that I have not ridden on the drops for many months.

Coming into T2 I felt ready to run. Complete opposite of Honu. I took off at a good pace, right where I wanted to be on the flat, around 14 min/mile. I had sworn an oath in blood to run the entire race, no walking, but by the time I turned right onto Paki I broke my vow and walked a bit. Going up Monsarrat was a walk/run. From 18th Ave on it was a mixed bag, but I did try to keep my walking pace as high as possible and I guess it paid off. When I did run I went faster than plan, and when I walked it was not as slow as in the past.

Even though I made my plan I feel the need to improve my ability to keep going hard for longer periods of time. We call these activities endurance sports, but the fact is, there are two distinct types of endurance. Aerobic endurance is about training the body to conserve glycogen and avoid running out of fuel. Muscular endurance is about training the body to endure repetitive muscle contractions, in particular getting rid of the byproducts of fuel burning that accumulate in muscle cells and inhibit performance. Aerobic endurance is improved with long workouts at low intensity. The kind of runs that we older athletes prefer to do. Muscular endurance is improved through Lactic Threshold workouts, usually long duration intervals at or near LTHR.

Going forward, my workout schedule is dominated by marathon training, with just enough swimming and cycling to keep me in the game. A typical week of runs looks like this:

Mon 3 mi base
Wed 4 mi, last mi @ tempo
Fri LT intervals, typ. 3 x 12 min at 95% LTHR, 2:30 recovery
Sat Long run
Sun Easy bike or run

My marathon prep long runs officially begin Aug 27, with a little sag for the Century Ride. My current long run mileage plan is 12, 12, bike test, 14, Century Ride, 12, 15, 15, 12, 16, 16, 14, 18, *, 13, race. 

Two weeks out , where I show an asterisk, I am trying something different. Thursday of that week is Thanksgiving. I plan to run 13 miles on Thursday and 13 miles on Saturday, a marathon split over two days. If nothing else that should burn off the turkey pounds.

I am going to be reading up on fatigue and sharing what I learn in future posts ... stay tuned.

A look back at power data

With the Tinman race being moved back a week to make room for Tropical Storm Darby I accepted an invitation from Ben Williams to check out his Computrainer set up at his new shop, Hawaii Triathlon Center. Very sweet, indeed. The task sort of simulated what we would have done for the race, only on a flat course and only thirty minutes. A thirty second time trial sounds deceptively easy. Without any let up by way of cornering or climbing or going downhill the legs just keep cranking out continuous power, something our bodies by nature dislike.

The first I saw reviewing my data was how my power level fell off. Actually it starts out a bit low, then shoots up, then falls. What happened there is that I began at an effort I planned to use cruising on the flat sections of the race course, then at Ben's urging changed to an all-out effort like that of a Lactate Threshold Heart Rate or CP30 test. After all, that is the definition of CP30, an all-out thirty minute time trial.

The second thing I noticed was how flat my heart rate was, once my power had settled down. Sure enough, I was grinding along at 140 BPM, exactly what my bike LTHR has been for at least a year. I was not paying attention to that number up on the display. I did notice I was hitting HR zone 5 on my Edge 800 head unit. My reaction to that was "Hey I am working pretty hard here." My attention was on the watts and cadence and trying to get both number higher. My legs refused to go faster for any length of time, and the HR line shows why. The body cannot sustain an effort above LTHR for very long. The more you do, the more it will cost a bit later.

Having gotten this far I decided to compare these numbers with some other recent data, with an eye on Honu. This turned up something quite revealing. My perceived effort at Honu was that I could not produce the power I needed. I felt like I was working really hard, but my speed and power numbers were well below plan. Take a look at this table and take note of the Honu numbers.

Date	Event	HR	PWR	% FTP	VI	CAD
7/23	Computrainer	140	134	81	1.01	74
7/19	Tantalus	135	139	84	1.04	44
6/4	Honu	137	96	58	1.19	68
5/15	Honolulu Tri	133	115	69	1.02	81
5/8	Ford Island TT	133	161	97	1.03	57

For each event I selected a section from the entire event.that represented a similar effort. For the Computrainer workout that was the middle, thirty minute time time minus the thirty minute warm up and cool down. For the Tantalus climb it begins just after the first turn and goes almost to the top, to where the pitch flattens out. For Honu it is from Kawaihae (sea level) to the top of the Hawi climb. This year's Honolulu Triathlon was flat and my goal was to ride it at 85% FTP, as practice for Honu. I missed that goal, probably because I never let my power go above 85 but it did drift below quite a bit. On Ford Island I had to stop in the middle for flag raising, so I used the second half.

Two things jump out at me. First, I could only average 96 watts on the Honu climb, and that was at a heart rate higher than plan. Yes, that is how I felt, unable to produce the power I knew I was capable of. Second, I do much better climbing at a low cadence than going fast on a flat road. On the Computrainer I should have been up at 166 watts, my FTP, since I was at my LTHR. Only hitting 134 tells me my legs need to be conditioned to produce power at high cadence.

Back in January I measured my FTP at 161. As you can see, the May test had it at 161, but right after that Training Peaks bumped it to 164, and two weeks ago it bumped me up again to 166. I suspect that those increases come mostly from the Tantalus rides.

One more thing. That column labeled "VI." That stands for variability index, a computed value that shows how much the entries in a data set vary. The set 140, 140, 139, 140 will have a VI near 1.0, while a set like 140, 135, 145, 140 will have a similar average but a higher VI. All of my VI numbers are good except for Honu. To me that suggests how much I was struggling trying to go faster.

I am curious to see my Tinman numbers.

Tinman race plan

https://bestbikesplit.com/public/42619

As anyone who has been following this blog knows, my big goal for 2016 was the Honu 70.3. Coming as it did in June that leaves about half a year with nothing to do. When Tinman sign-up opened I decided to put my conditioning to work one more time, but where Honu was serious stuff, Tinman is more about having a good time.

Based on my recent swim data I can expect a pace of 2:45/100yds. The course is 750 meters, about 820 yards, so that comes out to 22:30.

The bike is always a mystery because I never ride race distances at race pace. I used Best Bike Split to develop some models and came up with 1:39. Training Peaks just informed me my FTP has gone up again, this time only by two watts, but I am holding off changing my zones and stuff until after this race.

The run is as much of a mystery as the bike. Last Saturday I ran a 10K to get a better feel for the distance and sustained effort. Close to race effort but not nearly as hilly as the race course. Did it in 1:37. I was more interested in maintaining a high cadence than just going fast, will need to compromise a little there on Sunday. Let's just go with 1:40.

Here is how things stack up with my last two Tinman races:

	2014	2015	2016 est
Swim	0:35	0:29	0:23
T1	0:07	0:06	0:06
Bike	1:35	1:30	1:39
T2	0:03	0:03	0:03
Run	1:36	1:39	1:40

One thing we can see from this is how hard I have worked on my swim. For the bike and run I would like to improve, but it may just be that this is a fast as my body will go. Let's see what happens.

My fuel plan is pretty basic. The usual pre-race meal -- two pieces of toast with Nutella work well for me. On the bike I will carry a four scoop bottle of Perpetuem and two water bottles which I will swap at the turn around. I prefer to stop for that rather than risk a crash. I will get started on that coming out of T1 and as soon as I crest Diamond Head, to replace the calories I burned in the swim. At Honu I used Scratch Lab chews for this and they worked well, but for this distance an all liquid approach makes more sense. I will carry a Bonk Breaker, which I did use at Honu, but only as a backup plan in case I start to feel bonky, which did happen at Honu. I will take one Endurolytes tab every thirty minutes unless it is raining hard, which is a distinct possibility. For the run I will use my two bottle Fuelbelt, one two scoop bottle of Perpetuem and one water. I plan to have finished the Perpetuem as I climb Diamond Head on the return. I will also take Endurolytes as on the bike.

My goal for this race is to end my triathlon season with something fun. I am not going to worry much about pace and cadence and all that. Instead I want to perform well and be smiling at the finish line.

Improving my swim, part 2

In my previous post -- part one of what I plan on being a series -- I presented a video of me swimming with fins. The above water stuff was useless so I decided to do it again last Wednesday, and for this iteration I decided to see how much worse I was with bare feet. Much to my amazement I was not worse. If anything I was better! This is counter-intuitive, because the fins are supposed to help lift the feet, mimicking the bouncy of salt water. In any case I was surprised to see how high my hips are, most of the time.

This video consists of over fifteen short clips. (I rushed to get it done last night and got one out of order -- oh well.) I made notes on each clip, but to present them here would be really boring so I have boiled them down to a few comments.The overall sequence is

Underwater

1. Full length whole stroke
2. Half length freeze action drill with snorkel
3. Full length whole stroke with snorkel

Above Water

1. Full length whole stroke
2. Pool side - out of sequence
3. Same freeze motion drill seen from above
4. Pool side, not very useful
5. Dramatic finish

About the drill, this is based on something I learned last March in Kona from Celeste St. Clair, embellished by the "Hook, Line and Sinker" video by Suzanne Atkinson. (Please do not hold them accountable for what you see here. I take full responsibility!) My goal is hold a straight line from my spearing hand to my same side toes. This part of her video demonstrates the desired position, straight as an arrow where mine looks like a bent wire coat hangar. 

 Comments

• Overall my hips are closer to the surface than I thought. This is good.
• My knees want to be lower than my hips (thighs angle down). This is to some extent a flexibility issue. Even when I do a quad stretch I have a hard time getting my stretching side knee even with or behind my standing side knee. A result of years of cycling.
• In an attempt to raise my foot I bend my knee instead of lifting the whole leg. (This and the previous bullet are conjoined twins.)
• Underwater, swimming away, hips drop as left leg lifts in preparation for kick. Not so bad on right side. At the same time right foot should be low and steady, but mine flicks up and down as if reacting to left leg trying to lift and kick.
• As my hands enter they go too low.
• Neither arm is straight enough.
• Right arm too far in towards center, even crosses.
• During recovery, right upper arm goes vertical trying to make breathing easier. Arm should be at 45 degrees, rotate head enough to get air.
• Overall, I need to have a bit more quickness during the spear, get that lead hand forward, then hold the long, straight line longer to extend the glide. Being so crooked there isn't much glide to enjoy, leading to too much activity. The lack of smoothness snowballs.

For the next phase of swimming I am going to focus on arm position. I think correcting my legs will be easier when my arms are moving correctly.

Here is this week's video:

https://youtu.be/ieSeQRQnBvE

Improving my swim, part 1

The number one take-away from last Month's Half Ironman is that I need to improve my swim. Specifically, my efficiency. A seemingly more straightforward way to say it would be that I need to get faster. The trouble with putting it that way is that it invites a solution by way of increasing effort. No doubt a harder pull and a higher stroke rate will result in a faster swim, but at a terribly high energy cost. It was the near depletion of my energy that led to my downfall on the bike and put the run entirely out of reach. I cannot just hold back a bit, either, because with a swim time of 1:07:45 I am already too far back in the pack and precariously close to the cutoff time of 1:10:00. Nope, the only path to improvement is improved efficiency.

Back in March I finally learned how to do a proper two-beat kick, which is the preferred Total Immersion (TI) technique. When I start swimming for triathlon a couple years ago my friends all told me to forget about kicking and just let my legs drift along behind me, because if I did kick my stiff feet would just make me go backwards. I tried some kick board drills and what they said was true. I went nowhere, or backwards. Unless I wore fins.

When I worked through Terry Laughlin's Freestyle video it so happened that nothing was said about kicking until near the end, and even then there was no explanation of a two-beat kick, only instructions to use it. I guess experienced swimmers know what a two-beat kick is. I didn't.

At the TI Open Water swim camp in Kona last March Coach Celeste spent a lot of time on how to do a proper two beat kick. By the end of the week the personal direction from Celeste and Coach Bill was that I need to get my butt up to the surface and my feet as close to the surface as possible. I tend to go through the water like a rear-heavy power boat, which creates a ton of drag. I am certain that by getting my body level my efficiency will go way up.

I have included some links to some videos that set a good example. None are perfect, but each one offers something valuable.

First up, Shelley Taylor Smith and Mel Benson. I doubt these two women consider themselves TI swimmers. The kick looks exactly like what Coach Celeste taught us:

• Legs motionless between kicks
• Legs slightly apart
• High hip leg foot lower than the other (counterintuitive)
• Leg on low hip initiates body roll with downward kick, which lifts legs and hips

What is not TI about this clip is the arm motion. Both women thrust forward while still out of the water. The TI way is early entrance into the water, then reach forward and down. More on this a bit further down. This clip begins with Shelley Taylor Smith, Bel Benson enters at 2:30.

https://youtu.be/wt6_bqj_808

Here is a clip of Terry Laughlin himself. Notice how he brings his feat close together after the kick.

https://youtu.be/hC8ZZZhabp4

An oft quoted clip of good TI form is this one by Shinji Takeuchi. Notice how, like Terry, he returns his kicking foot to end up next to the high foot.

https://youtu.be/rJpFVvho0o4

Is this clip Coach Suzanne Atkinson is demonstrating a drill she calls Hook, Line and Sinker. It just so happens to show a key aspect of the TI two beat kick, how the high leg forms a straight line with the lead arm. The lick set happening in the background is not TI! The first shot of leg position comes about 4 minutes in, but the entire clip is worth watching.

https://youtu.be/P8s_B1sGTYY

At the TI camp Coach Celeste had us take a look at this clip of Sun Yang finishing a 1500M freestyle race. His stroke looks to me like TI perfection, at high speed. His legs are mostly a two beat kick with a little flick in the middle, up until he decides to turn up the heat. Pay close attention to the comments my the female commentator.

http://youtu.be/u6uqZd8Tn3Y

The other thing Coach Celeste helped me with was a low spearing hand position. Take a look at Suzanne's video and notice how her hand enters early but stays close to the surface until she is ready to set up her catch. Now listen to the master himself address a similar swim camp a few years ago, especially how he describes dropping the lead arm through the mail slot right on down to the catch position. It was this advice that got me to a low hand position. Most likely a misunderstanding, but TI technique has evolved.

https://youtu.be/pITBtglEUGk

Now brace yourself for how I swim now. Right off the bat let me point out that I am wearing stubby fins. I find they give me a better feel for the water in the pool. In the ocean I do not use them. I will shoot this again in a few weeks, without fins.

This video was shot July 1, 2016, at the Oahu Club 25 yard pool, where I swim Monday and Wednesday mornings. It begins with whole stroke warm-up, then a freeze action drill I use to work on balance and leg position. For this drill I use a snorkel. What I feel is that my right leg is good at getting into position. When it is the left leg's turn to form a straight line with my left arm it does not know what to do and flops around like a headless chicken. When I watch this the thing that jumps out at me, something I am not aware of in the water, is how much I bend my knees. That has to improve.

The last part is some above water stuff. I was too low to see any useful leg work, but it does show arm position during recovery. Sorry for the tilt.

https://youtu.be/L22m8Tj24vs

In the coming weeks I will continue to post videos of my progress. Let's see how much better I can do that 2:40/100 yards. My short term goal is straight legs!

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.