The more you know, the less you are sure

"A man with a watch knows what time it is. A man with two watches is never sure." Segal's law.

Superficially this old saying would appear to be arguing in favor of the KISS principle -- Keep It Simple Stupid. But look a little deeper and you see a more subtle difference. The man with one watch only thinks he knows the time. Both men are equally ignorant of the correct time.

Confused? Well, I am. Not about watches. My confusion is about training. Planning, analyzing, and adjusting. Today's variety of training zone systems is confusing enough. Add to that the quirks of websites and monitoring devices and the situation seems hopeless.

Anyone who has been in this sport for a while has gone through multiple generations of ever improving monitoring devices. When I started tracking my activity I was only riding, mostly my daily commute from Kahala to Kalihi. (Even today people ask me if I still ride to work. I don't, because I took up running and triathlon.) I got started monitoring my effort with a heart rate monitor. No training involved, just curious. First a Polar that just displayed time and heart rate, and later a Timex that added the ability to record a ride and upload the data into a special app. No GPS data, just time and heart rate. The Timex (an "official" Ironman watch!) came with a little book that introduced me to heart rate zones. As I recall we did two simple tests, then used the heart rate at the end of each test to work out our threshold, then divide the range into five equal sized parts. Primitive, but a start.

My first smartphone was an HTC, because they supported a pro bike team. Better still, the team all carried the same phone so people could track their location and metrics on a website in real time. I was sorely disappointed to learn I could not track my heart rate on my phone, because they used specially modified phones with an ANT+ radio. So much for truth in advertising.

My snazzy new phone did have GPS. I would record my rides with a free logging app from Google and upload the file to MapMyRide. Nice, but all I ended up with was a bunch of maps.

In 2011, probably while watching the Tour de France, I heard about TrainingPeaks.  I got started with a free account. That was around the time I decided to run the Honolulu Marathon. I started out logging runs with my brand new Garmin FR610. Soon I was logging my commute rides recorded by an Edge 800. I specifically recall asking Pattie about that, could I spend that much? She insisted I get the 800 because it did mapping, and she was convinced I would get lost without it.

For 2012 I moved up to a TrainingPeaks "Pro" account, which meant I could plan my workouts instead of just logging as well as a bunch of other cool features, like Annual Training Plan (ATP). I did my fist ATP that year, still not sure what I was doing, relying entirely on a really cool feature they since discontinued, the Virtual Coach.

After I got into running my friends all pointed out that I might as well do triathlon. I figured, why not? All I needed to do was work on my swim. Ha!

Lucky for me I found Joe Friel's book, "The Triathlete's Training Bible." I didn't have a clue who he was. I just happened upon it at Barnes & Noble, and it was the only book they had on triathlon. He had a lot more to say about training zones. I got really good at doing lactate threshold tests and setting my zones, going as far as recreating Friel's formulas in a Google Docs spreadsheet.

Triathlon training got serious when I decided to take on Honu, the Ironman 70.3 Hawaii race. Garmin had finally brought out their Vector power meter and I plunked down the big pile of cold hard cash it took to buy a set back then. That got me to read Friel's "Power Meter Handbook." On the bike, at least, power replaced heart rate as the standard for managing my training. For Honu 2016 I bought a Friel power-based training plan and liked it enough to use it again in 2017.

Friel uses a relatively traditional zone system. The dividing lines between zones are slightly different for the run and bike. Here, for simplicity, I will only consider the bike. He puts functional threshold heart rate at the start of zone 5. He then divides zone 5 into three parts, 5a, 5b, and 5c.

1 up to 81% of bFTHR
2 81% - 89%
3 90% - 93%
4 94% - 99%
5a 100% - 102%
5b 103% - 106%
5c 106% and above

For power he uses six zones, without any subdivisions. They are designed so that, on average, the HR zone and Power zones match. Riding steadily at the middle of Power zone 2 should put HR in mid zone 2, more or less.

Back when I took up running I looked around for help. At first I followed Bobby McGee. Great stuff, but not as directly useful to me as a just getting started runner. I learned a lot from him, but lacked the experience to turn it into a training plan. I still go back and review his excellent lectures.

Then I stumbled upon Matt Fitzgerald. The first book of his I read was about nutrition, but it went far enough into training that I used his plans to train for the marathon. Then I found his book "80/20 Running." Last year I think it was he brought out "80/20 Triathlon." Being a fan I snapped it up, and was pleased to see he that he goes much deeper into training zones.

In Fall 2017 I was still not sure I would do Honu a third time. I had a terrific bike, a Cervelo P3 and Vector power meter. What else could I want? Well, by then Stryd had made a big push of its running power meter. Dr. Andrew Coggan himself pitched the new technology. Seemed like a no brainer, especially when you consider how much cheaper the Stryd was compared to my Vector pedals. I decided to give it a try.

Having used a Friel plan twice for Honu I decided to give Fitzgerald a try. I was not convinced until I downloaded a sample and saw how detailed he gets specifying power on the run and bike, and making good use of TrainingPeaks relatively new structured workouts. In spite of all sorts of life challenges I followed the plan and had my best race ever.

One thing that makes Fitzgerald's 80/20 system unique is his zone system. He makes the case that too many endurance athletes spend too much time in between the optimal high and low intensity levels. Much of his book is devoted to making this point. Athletes should spend 80% of their training at low, easy efforts, and 20% at medium to high efforts. This is based on the work of Dr. Stephen Seiler. To drive home his position he created two zones to be avoided called X and Y, located below and above the traditional zone 3.

While all this was going on I was using -- let's call it playing around with -- WKO4. Initially aimed primarily at cycling, as Stryd usage grew I began to see some run specific material on WKO4. I only just started using the new WKO5, now referred to simply as WKO, but I expect running and other aerobic sports to be better supported.

At the risk of oversimplification, WKO differs from older systems in that it offers the athlete specific training targets based on recent performance. Previously, the athlete would perform a threshold test, plug the result into a formula and get a set of training zones. The formula used was based on data samples from a large group of athletes. The results work reasonably well most of the time for most people, but there will always be outliers and variation. WKO overcomes these limitations by tracking performance at all levels of intensity, not just threshold, and adjusts training zones in a manner best described as dynamic.

One of the many interesting features provided by WKO is a unique zone system called iLevels, based on recent work by Dr. Andrew Coggan. As far as I know it only works with power, but that being the gold standard for serious cyclists and the only practical way to monitor intensity during high intensity intervals, that makes sense. Coggan feels it is important that effort be focused on specific targets. Not so much physical parts of the body as physiological systems. Training at specific intensities stresses those systems in a specific way. To do this WKO divides the range above functional threshold into five zones (where Friel has three) and adds one more just below threshold. Based on the athlete's data, the program calculates the raw ingredients to design a workout -- power range, duration of hard effort, duration of recovery, number of reps, etc. These specifications are dynamic and tailored to the individual athlete, thus the "i" in iLevels (apologies to Apple).

Below are the iLevel zones as I had them defined in TrainingPeaks.

1 Recovery
2 Endurance
3 Tempo
4a Sweetspot
4 FTP
5 FRC/FTP
6 FRC
7a Pmax/FRC
7 Pmax

I must have gotten the percentage range off of a WKO video. I don't have them just now, but we don't need them to make my point. First, WKO uses nine, count 'em, nine zones. Which means some if not all are narrower than Friel's. Then there is the numbering. Who puts "a" after a number and follows it with just the number? 4a Sweetspot is lower than 4 FTP. Hmm.

So let's summarize. Three training zone systems, similar but different. Different zone names, different dividing lines. If I want to follow a Friel training plan, or use one of his excellent books, I need to use his zones. Same goes for Fitzgerald. I don't have a training plan that uses iLevels, but I do enjoy tracking my progress in WKO and iLevels are the best match there.

Speaking of iLevels, there is a detail involving TrainingPeaks that is really too technical to go into much detail here. To put it simply, Friel and Fitzgerald zones work fine with TrainingPeaks. The website even supports those silly X and Y zones names. It can handle iLevel zone names, but I am not sure how well it works with the higher zones, because, as I understand, these are derived dynamically from the very complex mathematical model at the heart of WKO.

I use an Garmin Forerunner 935 multisport watch and, on the bike, an Edge 520. Each has its own unique way of entering training zones. In both cases there are no letters, and no subzones like 4a and 5b. For the Friel zone system this is not much of a problem. I make 5a, 5b, and 5c one big zone 5 and try to target low, middle, and high within that range. The Fitzgerald and WKO systems are a lot more trouble, because to get the numbers to make any sense I have to combine zones that were separated specifically to avoid training at the wrong intensity.

But wait. It gets better. TrainingPeaks has a really cool feature supported by Garmin called Structured Workouts. This allows you to design a workout based on pace, heart rate, or power. You do not specify an absolute value, rather a percentage of the appropriate threshold. You are supposed to track and update your thresholds as your training progresses. When the workout is downloaded to the Garmin the percentages are replaced by absolute values, based on your current threshold setting.

When the time comes to do the workout the Garmin will provide one or more extra screens to display information about the workout. The really cool feature is a scale, red - yellow - green - yellow - red, with a mark to show current value. If the current segment is supposed to be at 120 watts and you are producing 120 watts, the mark will be in the middle of the scale. At the top of this post is a photo of me running with my FR 935. Walking in zone 1, actually, but even so it came out blurry.

This seems like a terrific feature, but it has some serious limitations. On the bike (where I use the Edge 520 but it works the same on the FR 935) I use power, and this works great. I do not need to know what zone I am in during the workout. I just see the watt range I am supposed to be in, time remaining for that segment, and try to center the needle. Perfect.

For running things are far from perfect. I wrote about this in a previous blog. That was at the end of last tear and nothing has changed. Garmin uses a dedicated ANT+ channel for bike power, but not for run power. The only way to get run power into the watch is through a ConnectIQ app. Using the Stryd ConnectIQ app I can put a power value in watts on a standard screen, but not the structured workout screen. When a power-based workout is loaded, you can see the bike power icon but no value. I can scroll to the screen with the ConnectIQ field, but that only shows current power in watts. For bike power I have the option of displaying the current power zone, as long as it is just a number. There is no way to display power zone. Just watts. Am I supposed to be at 100 watts? 150? 200?

I could say that I want running with power to work like running by pace, which is what I was doing in the photo, except that has a huge flaw as well. That big number by the scale? That is not current pace. It is average pace for the segment. So on a three minute interval if I look down and see I am slow, I speed up and see no change. That screen is not configurable. Bike with power shows three second average, which is useful and pretty much follows the needle. Running with pace, the needle tracks current pace but the number does not.

So where does all this lead me? I need to find the path that works for me. My initial reaction is to create my own workouts that blend the best of the Friel and Fitzgerald systems, but somehow take into account the new developments on WKO. Then I stop and think about how much work that will be. More on this topic in future blogs.

Honu 2019 Race Report

That Ironman finisher's medal is still dangling just out of reach. The good news is, I got a lot closer this year and felt better than ever doing it. And I got a finisher's shirt, hat, and beer. Just no medal. This was the first time I got to start the run. I did not make the first loop cut-off time and had to stop there. The officials seemed worried, as if I would throw a fit or something. Actually, I was ecstatic at having done so well. Already at that point I knew I was going to do it again next year.

Cut-Off times

The Honu cut-off times have become quite complex. From the Athlete's Handbook:

INTERMEDIATE RUN CUT-OFF

Athletes who have not reached the halfway
point of the 13.1 mile run by 2:23 p.m. will not
be permitted to continue the race.

SECONDARY INTERMEDIATE RUN CUT-OFF

Athletes who have not reached the 10 mile 
mark by 3:13 p.m. will not be permitted to
continue the race.

Each athlete or relay team will have 8 hours
and 30 minutes to complete the entire course.

The run is a loopy two lap course, so the first cut-off is at the start of the second lap. That odd looking time of 2:23 p.m. is based on the last swim wave starting at 7:22; so seven hours after the last swimmer starts. Me being in the third wave, I got a little extra time. The point here is that the race director does not want runners spread all over the course who have no chance of making the only cut-off that really counts, 8:30 overall for the course. At the start of the second lap my overall time was 7:57 (Garmin) and that first lap took almost two hours. Since there was no way in the world I could have run the second lap in thirty minutes, my day was clearly over.

What improved

In comparing this year with 2016 and 2018 what stands out are

• Better bike gearing
• Better swim technique
• Better fuel and hydration plan
• Better strength training
• More specific training plan

My Cervelo P3 came with Mavic Cosmos wheels and a smallish large cog on the 11-speed cassette. I think it was a 11x25. Several years ago I bought a set of HED Ardennes wheels for my Merlin road bike. Only a 10-speed cassette, but the largest cog available with Dura-Ace, 12x28. For Honu last year I used those wheels. Lighter, a bit wider, and a slightly lower gearing, but with wider gaps between gears.

For this year I decided I had been spending too much time below 60 RPM while climbing. I needed a bigger cassette. Dura-Ace does not have one, but Ultegra does. The larger cog would require a long throw derailleur, so I installed an Ultegra RD-R8000 and a CS-HG800 11x34. This made a huge difference in climbing. My average cadence on the long, steady climb to Hawi this year was 72 RPM. Last year it was 62, and in 2016, 65. Beyond those numbers, it felt much easier.

In both of my previous attempts at Honu I felt totally exhausted after the swim. Standing by my bike in T1 putting on my shoes and helmet, all I wanted to do was sit down and take a long rest. Not this time. This year I actually swam about the same time (2016 = 1:07:45, 2018 = 1:06:32, 2019 = 1:08:29) but where in previous years my effort was full gas, this year I had much better feel of the water and could regulate my effort, so that I had plenty of energy after the swim. A huge improvement.

This year my fuel strategy was simple. Start the bike with normal dilution Infinit, one bottle in the XLAB Torpedo between the aerobars and one on the down tube. I decided I would not need a bottle in the behind-the-saddle XLAB mount, so I used a Shimano PRO storage bottle there with a second spare tube and CO2. When my Infinit ran out I would switch to the course drink, Gatorade Endurance. Very close formula to my Infinit. Both have ample salt, but I packed a few Hammer Endurolytes just to be sure. I also carried two Bonk Breaker bars, good old Peanut Butter and Jelly, and some Hammer gels for a little caffeine.

Previously I carried concentrated Hammer Perpetuem, which meant that aid station stops required stopping and fiddling with mixing. I stopped using Perpetuem because my stomach would eventually balk at having to break down the maltodextrin and protein. Another reason why my previous bike segments sucked; by Hawi I was not absorbing enough energy and my gut felt bloated. This year I actually did the bottle snatch without stopping and had no problems with fuel or hydration. I did discover that the aid stations are come often enough that I did not need the down tube bottle. I dragged a full bottle all the way up to Hawi. Oh well.

A consistent, well thought-out strength training plan really paid off. Dorian worked me hard all year and it shows. Not only am I buff and handsome, I have more energy. I can feel it out on the course, in all three disciplines. This was another huge improvement. And, let's not overlook the contribution of strength training to injury prevention. I never had any overuse injuries this season. My last physical setback was losing both big toenails after the marathon last December, probably due to a bad shoe fit. I have switched to Danny Abshire's new shoe and love them.

When I started doing triathlon I read Joe Friel's Triathlete's Training Bible cover to cover. When I decided to try for Honu I purchased his training plan, and used it again last year. This year I got hooked by Matt Fitzgerald and his 80/20 philosophy. At first for running, but then his triathlon book came out and that pushed me over the edge. I do find his training zones hard to get used to, but I am getting it, and everything else is superb. His Half Ironman plan comes with carefully constructed, detailed workouts that use the new TrainingPeaks structured workout feature. What a joy to use.

Every training plan will need a few nips and tucks. This one happened to fit my schedule with very little adjustment. The one big change I made was towards the end. The plan had a nice progression of long bike rides followed by short runs. I chose to do these on Pineapple Hill instead, to simulate the long, steady, hot and dry climb to Hawi. I did follow up with a run around Kaiaka Park.

My progress as charted on my TrainingPeaks Annual Training Plan. The solid blue curve is the planned fitness and the dark blue line is actual. I came in high after the marathon, then settled in nicely.

Race Day

My first surprise of the day was how close I cut my swim pace. My goal was to finish the swim without the overwhelming exhaustion I felt in previous races. Trying to make up time in the swim by “swimming harder” is a big mistake, as only a small increase in speed costs a fortune in energy. The cut-off time is 1:10. I hit the timing mat at 1:08. I really did not intend to make it that close, but I was pleased I did.

An important lesson I learned from Terry Laughlin is that the key to improving your swim time is to increase efficiency through better technique. In previous years I had to swim full gas to make the cut-off time. This year, with a lot of time in the water and careful monitoring of pace and RPE, I was able to swim easier and have more energy for the bike.

The greatest equipment improvement this years was the new cassette. I knew from my first trial ride up Pineapple Hill that the larger cogs would make a difference. Even at Hapuna Beach the ride from T1 up to the Queen K was noticeably easier. Previously I spent too much time grinding at 45 RPM. Now I rarely go below 60. That makes a huge difference in the leg muscle fatigue, even pulling the same watts.

To continue the saga, I felt good all the way to Hawi. I did have a little gut issue. It turned up by Kawaihae and at first I thought it was the waistband of my tri kit shorts. I did all my long training rides in normal bike kit, bib shorts and a jersey with plenty of packet space for food and stuff. I thought what I was feeling was the normal but unfamiliar pressure of the elastic waistband. The dull ache never got worse. If it affected me at all it was to spend a little more time up on the base bar, but that was it. By Hawi it was gone. Maybe I just got used to the shorts.

I will get into some details in a bit, but first I just want to give an overall description. Throughout my ride I was passed on climbs, and I passed others on the descents. For about a mile just after the 180 at Mauna Lani I was following a guy who would pull ahead on the climb, then I would catch his wheel on the descent. I did not want to pass him because I did not want to work that hard at that point, but I finally got tired of riding the brakes going downhill. On the long climb to Hawi I was passed by many riders, and on the way back I went flying past many of them. How is it they go downhill so slow? Maybe they need more practice off the turbo trainer.

I worked out my climbing pace on the Pineapple Hill outings. I had to stay between 110 – 135 watts. That does not mean a steady 133 is good. Try to stay closer to the middle, around 125. That should get me through the ride ready to run.

The times I ran off the bike, the Pineapple Hill outings and the Haleiwa Metric Century Ride, I found that my stats would all red line. Including pace! I would try my best to slow down but I could only run too hard and too fast. My solution was to begin walking then introduce a the run bit by bit, returning to a walk whenever things got too far into the red zone. After about fifteen minutes my run would show up.

First, try to understand that I was shocked I even got to start the run. That was one of the high points of the day. The picture of me on the run is right after I came out of T2; you can see how happy I was. It wasn’t long before I had to walk. I was expecting this, confident that after a few more walk breaks my run would show up.

My next big surprise; the run course is not flat. Not at all. Everyone I know who has done Honu talks about running on grass. How it lacks bounce. How you have to train running on grass. At Kaiaka Park I always spent time running on the grass. Oh, and they always mentioned Hell’s Kitchen, where the asphalt – straight and flat -- is so hot your shoes melt. Nobody ever mentioned that the run course is mostly cement golf cart trails that twist and turn and go up and down like an amusement park ride. I would call this course a runner’s worst nightmare.

This elevation map is from my Garmin 935. Yes, there is a bit of drift, so the end looks higher than the start. Just for fun I added in the temperature plot. The course really does go up and down that much.

My run never showed up. I was patient, I kept trying, but every time I tried to run the results were the same. Everything red lined. Here is a snippet from my run data that shows what happened, over and over. What you can’t see here is respiration. As soon as I started running it would climb up as if I was running a twenty minute lactate threshold test. I knew there was no way I could sustain that.

After the race I wrote to David Warden, who co-authored with Matt Fitzgerald the training plan I followed (shameless promotion here, and their website here). Mostly I wanted to thank him for getting me to the start line healthy and injury free, ready to have my best race ever. But, I also wanted to ask about running off the bike. His plan only had five bike/run bricks. One a bit early, then four at the end.

Dave was kind enough to answer at length. He said most people complain there are too many bricks. His reason for limiting the number is injury avoidance. Well, he has a point. Running after a long bike is risky.

Then he surprised me by asking for the key data, to see why I had so much trouble with the run. He asked for my bike LTHR, Average HR for the bike segment, and the bike peak 20 minute HR.

Bike LTHR: 144
Avg HR: 127
Peak 20 min HR: 136

His comment:

Gary, thank you. OK, average 127 on the bike was right on, that is upper Zone 2 for you, that would be ideal for strong run off the bike on a 70.3

It's the peak 20 that was the killer. 136 is one beat away from your Zone 3 (note these are 80/20 zones, Friel zones. --gd), you red-lined for too long to recover later on the bike or on the run. Well, that's a pretty broad statement, but I can say that 20 minutes in Zone 3 will ruin your run.

I propose adding more running off of the bike, why not? for 15 minutes once a week after a long bike ride. That little volume is not going to harm you. Plus, next race pace it that you never hit even Zone X on the bike (maybe Peak 5 min in low Zone X as a max for a goal), all upper Zone 2 for 95% of the ride. That will make the biggest difference.

This is incredibly nice of Dave, definitely above and beyond. Later I told him I wanted to go for it again next year. His reply, “I approve of this journey. Next year you'll go under 7 hours.”

So, yeah, I’m going for it!

Just a few more numbers. I was curious if my HR was as high on the Pineapple Hill workouts. To simplify I just looked at my longest day, two weeks before Honu, two laps in four hours. Here I also compare some power numbers. (Here is that workout. The plan is from the original training plan and has no relevance to what I did.)

	Pineapple Hill	Honu
20 min HR	127 (88% LTHR)	136 (94% LTHR)
20 min PWR	128	102
NP	107	108
IF	0.72	0.72

It seems to me that I executed Honu exactly as I planned based on the Pineapple Hill data, only my HR was a lot higher.  But I know that happens to me in races.

What needs improvement

Not very much time has passed so this list may be a bit premature, but here are some areas where I need to improve:

• FTP
• Weight
• Run
• New bike

This year I did my best ever at holding a good effort level on the bike. The problem is I am just too slow going uphill, even with the improved gearing. An increase in Functional Threshold, both for bike and run, will make a big difference in top speed. 

A really effective way to climb more efficiently is to drag less weight up the hill. The low hanging fruit as far as the bike is concerned is to not carry unnecessary fluids -- that extra bottle on the down tube. Lighter wheels will help, but cost increases exponentially. The most dramatic weight savings will come from me losing ten pounds. Last October I was up to 190. Just before Honu I was down to 184, and that is with a big increase in muscle mass. Just think how much better I could bike and run if I weighed 170? That is actually a healthy weight for me. Now is a good time to lose a few pounds.

I already mentioned getting agreement from my training plan's author to do more runs after bike workouts. I need to make this the norm.

Losing weight can be an impossible challenge without a reward. What better reward could there be than a new bike? Every triathlete's solution to whatever the problem is. My P3 is getting a bit long in the tooth. Its most notable shortcoming is its inability to accommodate wide tires. I could barely get the HED rims with 23mm tires to fit. When I upgraded to 25mm I could not get rid of wheel rub. The frame clearances are just too tight. As it turns out, Cervelo has brought out the new P3X, little brother to the P5X. It looks fast, has great built-in storage, and comes with disk brakes, which means no problem with wide tires. In even comes in colors that match my Bike Works kit.

You're almost there!

How many times have you been in a race and had a well-meaning spectator call out "You are almost there! Just a little further!" when in fact you still had a long way to go. This *always* happens to me in the Hapalua Half Marathon on Monsarrat. Sure, I am past mile nine and only a few more to go, but those last four are a roller-coaster ride around Diamond Head. I have to believe the people yelling encouragement have no idea what it feels like to attack those hills with legs already crying out to stop. If they knew they would be passing out shots of whiskey to stave off the pain.

A couple times this week I have found myself sinking into the same mindset with regards to Honu, the Ironman 70.3 Hawaii race, my "A" race of the season. By that I mean thinking I am almost there, so why work so hard? The truth is, this is the time for the really big efforts, no kidding around. This week, and especially this weekend, is the last of the big, race-like efforts.

This is what I found in my training plan bike workout for May 5th:

All the training you have completed in the past few has been to prepare you for the next 4 long bricks. Do everything you can to set these workouts up for success.

That day, the first of the four bricks, I rode multiple loops of Kalanianaole Hwy and ran  along Kahala Ave. The run was nice as I could switch back and forth between pavement and grass -- the Honu run "features" a lot of golf course grass. The bike was not so good, in that to hit my target intensity on the hard parts I had to ride so fast I felt unsafe. Part of the problem is my lousy eyesight, but even with 20/20 vision the lag from seeing a car pull out from a driveway and moving my hands from the aero bars to the base bar to apply the breaks is just too long.

The second brick day was fulfilled by the Honolulu Triathlon. Perfect. The bike is a closed course. The road conditions presented some challenges but at least I did not have to worry about cars. I used it to practice my pacing and fuel, and had a good outing. I treated this a a "B" race, so a little taper and I did race it, meaning I went deeper than a typical training day.

This Sunday is the third, and toughest. By that I mean as specified in my training plan. I am following a Matt Fitzgerald Half Ironman plan and love it. The first one called out a three hour bike consisting of 10 minutes easy warm-up, 4 x (30 minutes race pace/10 minutes easy) 10 minutes easy cool down. The second was to be the same bike with a slightly longer run. This week calls for a three and a half hour bike, same as before with a longer tail, and a fifty-five minute run.

Ah, but wait.The Honu bike course is not flat. Far from it. The profile looks like this:

One of the fundamental rules of training is to make workouts more and more like the upcoming race. Something coaches call specificity. So while it was perfect to practice for last week's race on a flat course, a better way to train for Honu is to hit the hills. On Oahu the best place to do that is Pineapple Hill, and that is where I'll be the next two Sundays.

For anyone interested in TSS, ATL, CTL and TSB, here is today's PMC chart:

If I stay on track I will end up perfectly positioned for the race on June 1st with form at +6. Which is -- Yikes! -- almost here.

Using slow peddling drill to improve clip-clop running

Everyone suffers from left-right imbalances. The condition is most noticeable in the arms and is the bane of all left handed pianists. Eyes suffer the same thing. As a photographer I prefer to focus with my left eye and struggled with my old 35mm rangefinder camera that was clearly designed for right eye use; my nose was always jammed against the back of the camera. 

My legs are clearly asymmetrical. Lefty is strong, loves to work hard, but clumsy. Righty has finesse but hates to work hard. On the bike this imbalance is easily masked, but while running it really stands out due to the difference in the sound of my footfall. Think sound effect for house walking -- clip clop clip clop.

Once I became aware of how differently my feet strike the ground I began to feel subtle differences in how my legs articulate. One big difference: my left knee wants to pop backward as the leg loads. My right foot prefers to land on the outside edge. The left leg always wants to turn out. There is also an upper body difference, my left arm swings more fore and aft while my right arm swings slightly more side to side, the hand moving at an angle so that when farthest forward it is closer to the center-line of my torso. Whether this is a cause or an effect remains to be seen.

Before I go any further I must point out that many expert running coaches caution against trying to change one's gait. They claim that picking out a group of world class runners with similar styles and making that a model of form perfection that all runners should aspire to is a mistake. It is important to take into account the many significant differences between bodies. What works for one person may very well not work for another. Torso to leg length ratio, hip angle, ankle dorsiflexion and supination -- there are hundreds of such data points that contribute to how a runner moves. It should not come as a surprise that how we run is as personal as how we look.

Associated with this view is the idea that the best way to discover ones ideal form is to get out there and run. The more we run, the more opportunities our muscles and nerves get to learn how to move efficiently. This may sound like good advice, but I disagree. Form -- how we run -- is a skill that can be learned and constantly improved. In other words, there is a happy middle ground between trying to run just like this or that elite, and just letting go and paying no attention to technique.

 A great method for exposing rough spots in bike pedaling technique is slow pedaling on the indoor trainer. I learned this from Dorian Cuccia. With minimal tension, try to pedal extremely slowly but without any skips or clunks. Deceptively difficult, but worthwhile.

I use a similar technique as a running drill. Actually it does not need to be a separate drill, it fits in great on any segment calling for zone 1. I find I am too stiff to do this at the start of a morning run, so I save it for the end. Say I am doing what Matt Fitzgerald calls an RF run, say RF6: 5 minutes in Z1, 35 minutes Z2, 5 minutes Z1. Pretty basic. I walk two-three minutes quick enough to be in Z1, then run as slow as I can until the five minutes are up; this usually drifts into low Z2. At the ending Z1 segment I practice my slow running. Still running, not walking, but as lightly as possible. Since I use a Stryde power meter I can monitor this effort as I go. This is a great technique builder to smooth out the foot strike, because a harsh, pounding foot strike will produce a ton of fatigue.

Not to confuse things, but the goal is not to tread lightly. The goal is a smooth yet strong push, without any crash. Enough push to load the muscle tendon "springs" that a split second later will release their energy as your body passes over. If treading lightly is the goal you end up only using muscle, pulling your body down the road with mostly your quads. A very inefficient way to run. You want to use the springs in your legs, but not crush them into pulverized bits of collagen.

Here is a great video by my favorite run coach Bobby McGee in which he talks about this spring action. 

New Shoes, Active88 from Danny Abshire

When I took up running my wife was already a runner, and since she recommended I start out with Saucony I did just that. I do not recall the model, only that they had thick, high, well cushioned heels that allowed me to run using my walking gait, complete with massive heel striking. Lucky for me my masseuse / trainer at that time, Sonya Weiser Souza, switched me to Newton shoes and taught me how to run without heel striking. The change took the better part of a year and resulted in my best race times ever.

When I got started with Newton Running Danny Abshire, one of the founders, was very active in the company and their on-line presence. They put out a bunch of videos that expanded on the ideas put forth in Danny's book, "Natural Running." Running Form Friday. I found the lessons extremely valuable, but I also recall feeling frustrated because each video only ran for a couple of minutes. I felt as though I was trying to satisfy a raging thirst by drinking one teaspoon at a time. 

Last year I discovered things had changed. Danny had not been active at Newton for quite some time, and the shoes were not as popular has they once were. My last pair of shoes did not fit as well as previous editions and made a mess of my toenails during the Honolulu Marathon.

Then came the good news. Danny had gone back into the shoe business, operating as a sideline to his long established orthotics business in Boulder. I wrote to ask about sizing and got a reply from the man himself. Let's see Nike do that! I knew I needed better shoes for Honu, and in a few weeks the Hapalua half marathon will be the perfect chance to try something new. So I got myself a pair. They are called Active88; not sure if that is a brand or a model. But it doesn't matter, because I love these shoes.

The very first impression they make is how light they are. Like, almost zero weight. Then there is the soft comfort, like a pair of well worn comfy slippers. There is a little stiffness under the heel and toes, but in between, the mid-foot, feels like air. Only there is support there. I did some short runs and some walking to let my feet get used to them. This morning I did my first real run in them and they were fine. No pains, no hot spots, no anything bad. Just really great shoes.

Highly recommended.I can't wait to see what Danny comes up with next.

Swim technique and mental toughness

In my previous post I said I was waiting for my next swim pace test before signing up for Honu. Well, I jumped the gun. My good friend Sandy French shared on Facebook that she had taken the plunge, and I was so inspired I cast my doubts to the wind and signed up too. May the wind be kind to all of us.

Shameless plug for housing

I was hoping Sandy could stay with Pattie and I but she has made other arrangements. So, if anyone wants to share a condo in the Fairways area please let me know. Our needs are simple, a bedroom to ourselves, more than one bathroom in the house, and reasonable peace and quiet. Sharing a rental car/van would be nice as long as we arrive and depart around the same time.

More on the swim

This morning I was going over the results of some recent swims and thought I would share some numbers. But, before getting deep into the data I want to go over some squishy, perceptual kind of stuff.

Last week Pattie and I were swimming at Ala Moana. At this point rather than swim together we split up so I can go longer. I noticed that my right arm kept doing this weird wave during recovery. As if my hand had picked up a bit of seaweed as it came out of the water and was trying to shake it off before dropping my hand back in. Only I was not doing the shaking. My arm was, all by itself. As I approached the finish Pattie was there waiting for me. First thing she said was, "Your arm is doing this weird wavy thing." Wow, that obvious. I decided to work on it at the pool.

During that open water swim I had been focusing on my two beat kick. At my Kona swim week back in 2017 coach Celeste St. Pierre taught a variant of the two beat kick that emphasizes keeping the legs apart at the end of each kick. For me, the challenges are 1) getting my clunky left leg to do anything useful and 2) getting either leg, especially my left leg, to lift to the surface while that hip is down, like cocking the hammer before firing a shot.

My thinking about my wayward arm during recovery was that it was triggered by instability in my lower half, introduced by me struggling to keep my legs straight, kick from the hips not the knees, and not thrash around like a stuffed animal in a puppy's mouth. Misbehaving left leg causing wayward right arm.

The following Tuesday I did most of Fresh Freestyle Practice 34, which focuses on balance and especially arm motion. To this I added an awareness of what my legs were doing, without trying to actually correct them. To heighten my awareness of my legs I did the first tune-up with stubby fins. Naturally it took the next couple of laps to get comfortable without them, but for the remainder of the workout I was able to focus on my arms and still notice my legs. And, yes, I got rid of most of the excess arm movement. Here is that swim, originally by Dinah Mistilis but in my abbreviated form -- the original in the book goes into a lot more detail.

TU #1 Balance
4 x 25 start each with superman glide
2 x 50 head neutral, relaxed
2 x 100 head
TU #2 Recovery shape, balance
2 x 50 soft shoulder
2 x 50 elbow swings wide, high, forward
2 x 50 relaxed forearm
2 x 50 smooth drop entry
MAIN FP/metrics, what improves SPL
count and record strokes
4 x 25 drop entry
4 x 25 head neutral
4 x 25 elbow wide, high, forward
4 x 25 smooth drop entry, reach for wall
METRICS Baseline assessment
5 x 100 moderate pace, count strokes
CC 200 review what worked well

Now back to that squishy stuff. During my last three swims -- Friday afternoon at Ala Moana, Sunday morning at Ala Moana, and this morning at the pool -- I felt I had much better control of my kick, and was much more balanced. As a result of that better balance my position in the water felt better. Hard to put numbers up to show it, but I felt it.

What I can show are some numbers from Sunday's open water swim and today's pool swim. To follow on what I have been saying, what stands out here is consistency. I could be wrong, but it seems to me that consistency speaks to smoothness, and that signifies better efficiency.

Sunday 3/17 Ocean
Plan		Actual
Yds	Pace	Yds	Pace	RPM
250	3:26 - 3:51	249	3:30	19
500	2:53 - 3:00	444	3:07	21
500	3:10 - 3:26	552	3:19	20
250	3:26 - 3:51	271	3:36	19

Monday 3/18 Pool
Plan		Actual
Yds	Pace	Pace	SC
6 x 200	2:53 - 3:00
1		2:45	105
2		2:52	112
3		2:53	112
4		2:53	114
5		2:56	114
6		2:51	116

For me, judging pace is still a mystery. But I am getting better at it. Sunday's data shows the proper progression even if the two 500 yard segments were a little off -- I count strokes because for me one stroke is pretty close to one yard, a typical 25 yards in the pool taking 21 strokes. It appears the stroke rate (RPM) followed the design, which was 1Z - 3Z - 2Z - 1Z. Just by feel. For today's swim I went a little harder. A little too hard on the first 200, then better. Felt good, in that "I can hardly catch my breath" kind of way. By the way, I am following a Matt Fitzgerald training plan, so 3Z is a bit faster than in the Joe Friel system. Notice that my stroke count for the first 200 is way better than the remaining segments, yet I was faster. I know I was working harder. Appears I was getting a nice firm pull, something I lost when I backed off. Hmm.

During the 6 x 200 I kept reminding myself that this is what Honu will feel like. Only without the fifteen second rests. I wish I could enjoy swimming so much that I love doing these laps the way I enjoyed playing drums in my rock band back in high school. Hating to have to stop when time is up. But no, my brain start whining like kids in the back seat, "How much longer is this going to take? Haven't we done enough? Who would know if we cut it short? Let's go eat breakfast. If you don't stop now you will die."

I have no idea where I find the fortitude to ignore these thoughts. Last Saturday I did give up, but only because my legs refused to put out the necessary power. Today it was shear determination. Lap, lap, lap. Check watch, only 125 yards until my next break. Yeah! Lap, lap, lap. But I did it, and that is what will get me to the finish line.

Reality check for race pace

Both times I attempted Ironman 70.3 Hawaii I made the swim cutoff and missed the bike cutoff. Cycling is my strongest event, so why DNF on the bike? Because the swim was too slow and inefficient. Before I make another attempt I want more assurance that I can finish. Of course, what happens on race day is unpredictable, but one thing is for sure, I will not suddenly sprout a dolphin tail and finish the swim in thirty minutes.

Before I go any further I must point out that efforts to improve bike pace have a far greater impact on finish time than a comparable increase in swim pace. This is because so much more of the overall race time is spent on the bike. I have been and will continue to work hard to improve my bike and run times. Today I am focused on my swim, because I just did a time trial and want to share the results.

Technically I am not a beginning swimmer. Can I say late onset senior? I started to learn to swim seriously in fall 2012, working my way through Terry Laughlin's self-teaching video and going to Kaimana on Sunday mornings with Pattie. In early 2013 I was getting out at lunchtime to swim once or twice a week at the Tripler pool. I recall it had a deep end and I would struggle to get across without drowning. That summer I took a class from Peter Hursty not knowing it was for people who already knew how to swim. That fall everything went on hold while I recovered from hernia surgery. In January of 2014 I started private lessons with Sonya. By then I was swimming but still not very far at a time; a hundred yards might just as well been ten thousand. In May 2014 I started a twelve week on-line Total Immersion class taught by Susan Atkinson. This is what really turned the corner for me, watching her weekly video and getting feedback from her via the web site, building on what I had learned from Terry and Sonya. I was trying to do the practices at the free Palolo pool but it was not open in the morning and was taken over by a swim club until just before closing. Tuesday June 17 was my last swim there. Two days later I started at the Oahu Club and have never regretted that decision.

My practice times and paces from that period are sketchy, but I do have reliable pace data for my first two races.

Honolulu Triathlon, May 18, 2014. 5:38 min/100 yds.
Tinman, July 27, 2014. 4:40 min/100 yds.

Well, I did improve! And I continued to improve. The next big breakthrough came while training for my first Honu, when I did the TI Kona Open Water swim camp. That laid the foundation I still refer back to today.

My two Honu race results show much improvement in two years. The 2018 time would have been better had I not needed to stop to message out a calf cramp.

Honu, June 4, 2016. 2:41 min/100 yds.
Honu, June 2, 2018. 2:48 min/100 yds.

Both of those Honu times were just barely enough to finish before the cutoff time, and both took so much effort that I had no energy on the bike. So, for this year I have two goals. Finish in less time (go faster) and use less energy (increase efficiency).

I spent last fall focused on running, and decided to carry that over into the new year until my Honu training plan started at the end of January. I needed a break after the marathon, and the marathon New Year's parties. Today was my first swim time trial, and I should not be disappointed given how little I have been swimming. The plan called for a fast 400 followed by a fast 200 with a two minute rest in-between. During the first segment my goggles fogged up to the point where I could not see the wall until just before I got there so I stopped at 200.

1st 200 avg  3:03 best 2:51
2nd 200 avg 2:59 best 2:42

Now to put those numbers in context, conditions were miserable and this was not supposed to be an all-out effort. Temperature on desk was 65F and it was pouring. (The pic above is not from this morning!) This was my first time doing this format. I couldn't see until I fixed my goggles during the two minute break.

I am still not very good at judging pace and effort while swimming. The extent of my "feel" for pace is that I am moving. Like a cheap battery powered toy, no speed control, just "on" and "off." But I am improving, and it felt to me like this was a pace I could sustain for an hour and not be dead at the end. Pretty sure that was the intent, and not as fast as you can go for 200 yards.

So, I am getting close to good enough to sign up for Honu. In fact, driving in from the club I was ready to sign up right then and there. Good thing there was too much traffic. Now that reason seasoned with caution has returned, and I have studied the data, I will wait for the results of my next test, which is in three weeks. But, getting closer, always improving!