What exactly does "relaxed" mean?

A few weeks ago I posted this question in a Facebook group devoted to triathlon coaching:

I was on my TT bike doing a turbo session and found myself studying what muscles I was using to hold aero position. Hold with the back? Hold with the chest? Relax as much as possible? Stay stiff like in plank position? Then I realized I have never seen any discussion about this, just get out and ride. That and get a bike fit. Is there a "Everything you wanted to know about riding aero but were afraid to ask?" I cannot say it comes naturally.

My post generated some interest, but little advice. Someone said to not use back muscles, rather use core. I find "core" to mean different things to different people. To many it means the abdominal muscles, i.e., the belly. 

The group was started by someone I think of as a good friend even though we have never met -- Suzanne Atkinson. She replied, "The posterior muscle group is just as important as the other muscle groups in all things tri including aero position. So the back is important, as is the core."

(Posterior means towards the back. In this case, the muscles on the backside of the body. In particular the calves, hamstrings, gluteus maximi, latissimus dorsi and the erector spinae.)

Having nothing better to do I happened to be looking back through Going Long, by Joe Friel and Gordon Byrn, and came across some relevant material in the chapter called Training for the Bike. The first passage is from the section on developing pedaling economy: 

There are two keys to improved economy. One is to refine the movements that take place at the top and bottom of the stroke, when the leg must shift from "up and back" to "forward and down," with the reverse situation at the bottom of the stroke. At the top of the stroke, the foot should feel as if it is pushing forward in the shoe. At the bottom, you should get the sense that mud is being scraped from the show.

The other key is to focus on the relaxation part of the pedal stroke. Tensing more muscles than are needed to apply force to the pedals is wasteful and uneconomical. Start with the muscles you have the most control over -- the face and fingers. Once you can relax them, try relaxing your calves and toes while spinning. The idea is to activate only the muscles needed when they're needed. No more, no less.

The next is from the section on developing cycling skills, specifically a fast cadence spin-up drill.

The key to this drill is relaxation. Relax your toes, your grip on the bars, and your face. Make it seem almost effortless.

These are just a few of the many times I have seen relaxation described as essential to success, nowhere more than swimming. I chose these passages because they relate specifically to my question about cycling.

Not long ago I purchased a book on triathlon (TT) bike fitting by a regular in another forum. In fact, I believe he created it. The Misfits Guide to Basement Bike Fitting, by David Luscan. A major theme of the book is that our body is capable of working efficiently all by itself. The key is to get our over-active mind out of the way. 

Here is something Dave wrote about posture, specifically when settling into the aero position:

[The rotation of our body] is centered around the hips, and the technical term is anterior pelvic rotation ... We don't slide to move forward, we roll. Then we relax. Like a drunk slumped over a bar, we want to forget everything we think we know about proper posture, and literally slouch down into the bars.

Colorful, and evocative. Later on in a section on the cockpit he writes:

This fundamental fit coordinate is the straight line distance from the tip of the saddle to the middle of the back of the elbow pads, and it is the primary driver of comfort on the bike. Too long or too short and we end up using too much muscle for support. Just right and we can execute postural directive #2 -- Relax.

I never did find any more postural directives from Dave, but that's OK. The key here is how these two passages connect through relaxation.

A yoga instructor once said that I could go further into a stretch only my muscles don't allow it. That if I were unconscious I could, for example, touch my toes. That image and the drunk slumped over the bar called up the movie Weekend at Bernie's. I am quite certain that if we put Bernie on a TT bike in aero position he would fall off. Even if we tied his wrists to the aero bars and his feet to the pedals.

Yesterday I rode the bike portion of an Ironman VR 70.3. By far the longest I have ridden this season, especially without a cafe stop along the way. I have made many improvements. I can see. A new and better saddle. Raised and shortened aero bar position. I would not go so far as to say I was comfy out there, but it was my best ride in a long time. 

As the hours ticked slowly by I found my thoughts returning to this question, again and again. Relax, but not so much I lose control of the bike. Where I ended up is best described by Friel, "The idea is to activate only the muscles needed when they're needed. No more, no less." He was writing about pedaling, but his words apply to, well, everything. 

That is what I call relaxed. Yes, we do use muscles to hold our position. A great many. But the key is to use the least amount possible, to feel as if you are not using any.

Virtual fun

Everyone is impacted one way or another by this pandemic. I am grateful for not having lost any close friends or family to it. And, I am grateful for a job that is considered essential and can be performed from home. I do have friends less fortunate it that respect. The changes in how we conduct our business demanded new application of IT capabilities, and that has had me running hard and fast to keep up and provide the best service possible. A year ago, who ever heard of Zoom? Microsoft Teams? Now, everyone I support has a headset and a webcam.

It is in my personal life that I feel the strongest negative impact from this pandemic. The loss of weekly gamelan practice and any hope of racing. I confess I have done absolutely nothing related to gamelan. I know I should. Review my notes. Browse YouTube. I have no desire to do that. Why, I cannot say. All I can think of is that my enjoyment came from doing. Not solo, either; in a group.

That I miss racing comes as a surprise. For a long time I felt like I did not belong. I had the audacity to show up Sunday morning and line up with people who have been doing this for years. People who can actually swim. Somewhere along the way I got over that without knowing it. I see myself as much a triathlete as I do a musician. It is not about being at the front, or being the best. It is what I do. That is all there is to it. It is what I do. Not who I am. What I do.

There is one thing that has filled some of the emptiness. Virtual racing. As we became acclimated to the restrictions imposed by this pandemic, more and more organizations turned to this format. It took me awhile to catch the bug, but once I got into it I must admit it adds a level of satisfaction that I missed.

This weekend I am taking on a real challenge, the Ironman VR 70.3. Because so many people lack access to pools, and a way to document results, the swim is replaced by a run. So it is a run - bike - run, all outdoors on the road. To simplify safety and support, participants are allowed to do the three events in any order, wherever they want and whenever they want over a bit more than a weekend. I plan to to the bike on Friday, which happens to be a holiday, the short run Saturday, and the long run on Sunday. I do miss the other athletes and the cheering onlookers, but not the sign the reads "Remember, you paid for this." Actually, the IM VR races are free. If you want some finisher's swag you can buy it. I already ordered my Olympic distance swag.

The training I have been following since last winter is my home brew Ironman plan, based on the concepts presented in Joe Friel's Fast After 50 and Going Long, co-written with Gordon Byrn. Not to mention Friel's Training Bible. The plan is designed as if I were racing Kona, so doing a half this weekend is about right as a practice race.

I was seriously (not) considering cobbling together some kind of event to take the place of the October race. I know some crazy people who have done that sort of thing. Chet the Jet for one. And there is Addy and Irene and their mega bike ride weekends. Then along comes the cancellation of the Honolulu Century ride, which I expected, and in its place the virtual Ride of the Century. Fool that I am I signed up to ride 100 miles and my intention is to do it on my TT bike, as though it were a race. Does that mean I should get up the next day and run a marathon?

The eyes have it

I was looking back over my posts and was surprised to see I have not updated my vision situation. The last time I wrote, back in February, I was trying a new set of contacts. A lot has happened since then.

For a week or so I was really excited. I loved the expansive field of vision. I was so pleased with the first rides and runs that I went right out and purchased new readers for working at the computer and plain, uncorrected swim goggles. Then on a longish ride the double vision returned, and as the days went by and my wear time increased, my vision got worse. I tried two different kinds of eye drops. No good. Finally I went back to my optometrist to get checked and he noticed that the lenses were not aligning correctly. No wonder my vision was so bad.

Fortunately some friends suggested I see an ophthalmologist. I got a referral from my GP and just got in for an exam before the COVID-19 lock-down went into effect. His diagnosis: double vision, probably correctable with prism lenses. Contacts were not an option. But he wanted me to see the expert over at Straub, and they were not taking new cases due to the lock-down. 

After what felt like an eternity I got in to see the guy at Straub, and he confirmed the prism thing. The really cool part was he has an optician downstairs who will add a stick-on prism to normal glasses. Look closely at the pic below and you can just make out a series of horizontal lines that cover the full lens.

After getting this stick-on I was amazed at how much better I could see on the bike. Not only was the old double vision daemon expunged, everything looked clearer. Simply amazing. Last Sunday Pattie and I rode Haleiwa and I never had to close one eye to see the road on the decent. I was flying down Pineapple Hill (Hwy 99) at 35 m.p.h. on the TT bike with total confidence.

The stick-on is only a temporary test. This week I went back to the optician to order real glasses. I decided to get what I have now and see how that works, because the real glasses use a different kind of prism. Apparently the correction will be optimal in the center of the lens and diminishing towards the edges. Since I look out through the top edge while in the aero position this may not work. If it does, the next step is to try the same thing with my Rudy Project glasses.

I cannot say enough how great it is to see two cars up ahead and know there really are two cars, and not have to choose which white line to follow.

Can you say Supraventricular Tachycardia?

In a previous post I shared my growing frustration with my heart. I am not referring to romance, nor am I dreaming up titles for a country western song. To recap, every once in a while my heart rate goes really high. I notice it most often while running, but sometimes it happens on the bike. Never during normal activity. Right after that last post I went to my GP. He insisted there is nothing wrong with me, but since, in his words, "This is the third time I have complained about it" he decided it was time to refer me to a cardiologist.

Talk about luck. I keep hearing stories about doctors who do not understand the active lifestyle, whose advice is often to slow down and just accept the fact you are getting old. This cardiologist was a serious runner and understood completely what I was describing because he had it himself.

Diagnosis is not a 100% sure thing. As is so often the case we treat what we think is most likely going on, and if things don't improve we move on down the list of possibilities. What makes supra whatchamacallit -- SVT -- hard to diagnose it it only happens on rare occasions. Naturally the good Doc ran an EKG during my examination, and it looked perfectly normal. 

This is when I got the first good news. A company named AliveCor makes a portable EKG device called Kardia that connects to your smartphone with Bluetooth. The Doc said to carry it with me on every run and bike, and when I have an episode, pull over and record. I then mail him the file and he can confirm the diagnosis. I paid a little extra for a nice carrying case. The whole thing weights about 50 cents.

 

Then I got the second piece of good news. I have high blood pressure. Nothing much but given my family history I need to take reasonable precautions. The cardiologist saw that I was taking a calcium channel blocker, and one treatment of SVT is a similar but different medication. So we switched. If it works, I will never have another episode of SVT. Which means I will never get to use my new toy. If it does not work, there is a simple surgical procedure.

Naturally the next day after I started the new meds I felt like superman. Amazing what a little confidence boost can do.

My body is speaking. Am I listening? (updated)

Updated, see end of entry.

It's Saturday morning. I should be just finishing my long run. Instead I am sitting at home, checking Facebook and, now, writing this. What happened?

Am I sick? No. No fever, no sore throat, no runny nose. But I know things are not right. 

Yesterday afternoon I did an easy bike ride, just to see how my new glasses work. Good news! No double vision. But within minutes of starting my HR went into zone 6, at what I would consider my absolute max HR. I was not working hard. I was not breathing hard. I was wearing a tri kit rather than the usual bike jersey, which features a snug fitting fabric with lots of Lycra. I recalled Garmin had an issue with "tech" fabrics a few years ago, but I thought they fixed that. Besides, I have used this top before, many times, without any problems. I pulled over and without taking the strap off used water from my bottle to wet the pads again. No change. I checked my FR935. Same reading. Then I realized it was taking the signal from the strap, not the built-in optical sensor. I decided to continue my ride and toss out the HR data on TrainingPeaks.

I did notice I felt unusually tired on uphill sections. I was only roaming around Kahala, not wanting to brave the highway until I knew my eyes were okay. I didn't give it a second thought, only that this my first time riding on the road on my tri bike since February, it was a rest day and I wanted to save my strength for Saturday's long run. No other worrisome signs. No dizziness, no out of breath feeling. I was fascinated at how well I could see.

This morning I woke up feeling fine. Every morning I do an HRV reading using my phone and the HRV4 Training app, followed by a weigh-in. This morning was a repeat of the previous two or three. The app did not like the data it was getting, and I could see long gaps between sections of normal looking pulse. I have seen that before, and my cardiologist pointed this out on my EKG. It didn't bother him, so why worry? My typical HRV baseline runs around 7. Due to the recent outlier readings my baseline is now at 7.7 and this morning I got 11. A huge outlier. No significant change in HR during these morning tests.

HRV

Heart Rate

I mentioned I try to step on the scale after taking my HRV reading. I use a Withings because it uploads automatically to TrainingPeaks. I don't always take the time, but when I did this week I got more weird results, a five pound spike yesterday morning. That has to be mostly water retention. I have seen on occasion a swing of two or three pounds, typically after a hard day, but never this much. I think this is noteworthy.

From the very start of this morning's run I was on the lookout for more strap issues, and sure enough. I was just starting when my HR red lined, right after my usual warm-up routine. I decided to go with the optical sensor in the watch. Back to the car, take off the strap, walk away and wait for the watch to let go of the link and start using the built-in. HR looked OK, so off I went (data chart below). 

I always do a ten minute brisk walk in power zone one before actually running. As soon as I started running my HR started to climb. I was looking at power, watching as my legs transitioned from stomping to something lighter and more graceful I struggle with this. Then I started to feel tired, as if I were running tempo. I switched to HR display and sure enough I was at tempo, and climbing. I decided to walk a bit until it settled down, thinking I had started too hard. As you can see from the top line on the graph, it did not go down.

At this point I had learned two things. My HRM strap was not at fault, and my high HR was not due to starting too hard. It had to be something else, but what? I decided I might as well abandon the workout so I turned around and walked back to the car. As I approached my starting point on the highway I decided to collect more data. I stood in the shade to see if my HR would come down. It did. Then I began walking again, so see what would happen. It shot right back up and in less than two minutes was right up there where it had been, way above my LTHR, way above my 5 min HR. Again, nothing else matched, respiration very comfortable. Back at the car I sat and waited for HR to come down, and it did, until the mid 80s, at which point it leveled off.

I always get a laugh when TrainingPeaks sees this kind of data. I got a new threshold HR, and set a bunch of year's best. Fortunately those honors are withdrawn when I delete the HR track, which I did. 170 bpm? Never in my entire life.

The usual application of HRV has it that the higher the number, the less fatigue, go out and kill it. When HRV trends low it is time to reduce training load. I think my poor quality readings and off the chart values are caused my an irregular heart beat, making this HRV data useless, if not counter productive.

As I was working on this it came to me to check my BP. I was doing this every morning a few weeks ago when I started having a little vertigo -- nothing new for me. I was averaging 128/74. Today, it was much lower, 118/67. Cause, or effect? Seems to me that if my heart is not getting a smooth, deep, full stroke it will be beating faster to keep the blood moving, and pressure will be lower. Maybe not so much faster as noisier, so my Garmin interprets the noise as a fast heart rate. But I am no cardiologist, and I take comfort in knowing that I passed a treadmill stress test a couple months ago with flying colors. No obstruction. Nothing to worry about.

I thought that maybe the spin class we did on Thursday was the culprit, but now I am not so sure. The TSS rating for that workout was well below average and it did not feel all that stressful. In looking over my week I do not see anything out of the ordinary. I did mess things up two weeks ago and did not run as much as I should have, but that does not explain this.

Sleep has been normal. Seven to eight hours a night. No travel, noting special other than the boredom of not going anywhere.

For now I am treating this as a response to excessive stress, and treating it with two or three days off. I would like to do the Sunday ride in Waikiki, when Kalakaua will be closed. That will be, literally, a ride in the park.

Update 6/15

The Sunday bike was absolutely normal. Of course I kept an eye on my head unit. Most of the ride was very easy, but then most of last Friday's ride was the same. There was one time when two of us got dropped due to traffic and we rode hard to catch on. No spike, hardly a bump. Min/Avg/Max for the ride was 72/89/108, and 108 is smack in the middle of my zone 2.

This morning added more data and confusion. HRV was normal. BP was a little high but normal for me. Over the weekend it was a great number but below average for me.

Sat 118/67

Sun 119/76

Mon 131/78

No swim this morning due to box jellyfish so I did my usual walk. I live on a hill so it is more than just a walk. I started up and in thirty seconds my HR was in the red at 150. I turned around and started back down, and noticed that unlike Saturday's run my HR was coming down. I walked down some more, then turned around to head back up and it was 120. I expected it to shoot up again when I started climbing, but no. It kept going down. Five minutes in it was 116, ten minutes in it was 112, and at the top of the climb at sixteen minutes in it was 108. That's right. The entire time I was walking hard uphill my HR was falling, and I felt fine.

This is starting to sound more and more like an adrenal response issue. I am going to keep an eye on this, but at the same time I don't want to worry too much about it. My heart and body are strong. I have no symptoms associated with heart failure such as chest pain or shortness of breath. I actually feel great. I am going to call my GP and describe what has been going on, and see what he has to say. I'm the athlete, and the coach, but he is the doctor. We each have our role to play.

One thing leads to another

All three of the activities that comprise triathlon involve balance. Transition too, if you count standing on one foot. What makes swimming different from the others is the lack of contact with the ground. Floating in water, your body can be going in any direction. The only thing that keeps you level is balance. 

Terry Laughlin identified three major components of swimming: Balance, Streamlining, and Propulsion. I put balance first, because without good balance the other two suffer.

Every sport requires practice, and none more so than swimming. To emphasize this point Laughlin borrowed a term from yoga, mindful practice. In Total Immersion swimming we do not just swim laps. We constantly scan our body to root out problems, then set focal points to address them and monitor the results. 

This process is on-going and without end. Laughlin borrowed another term to describe this habit of continuous improvement, the Japanese word kaizen (kai = change, zen = good). To me this does not mean change is good so much as that improvement requires change. Why does this require special terminology? Because to change what we are invested in is scary.

Currently I set aside my Monday swim as drill day. A time to reflect on what was not going well on the weekend long swim, and address it with short, focused lengths of twenty or thirty yards. Lately I have been focused on balance. Saturday’s swim exposed a flaw I have felt before, where my feet swing side to side in a “U” shape. I must have spent a good fifteen minutes this morning focused on my legs, my kick, my quads and abs engagement. I felt improvement, but it was fleeting.

For some reason my lack of progress triggered a memory. The great running coach Bobby McGee was talking about gait issues and pointed out that often the cause of a movement issue in the legs is caused by something not right in the upper body. I recall he used the phrase “look further up the kinetic chain.” I realized that just maybe my legs are swinging around in response to what is going on above my waist.

The first place I looked was my head position. Sure enough, I was lifting. Not a lot, but even a little will cause your legs to sink. Next my arms, and sure enough, my elbows were not bent enough during recovery and my right arm was entering the water too far from my center line. What about rotation? Yep, over rotating to the right, trying desperately to balance that arm flailing around.

As soon as I got my elbow at a right angle the entry point was easy to correct. I worked on rotation by breathing every four strokes. On the cycle when I did not breath I paid close attention to where my shoulder ended up, then made sure it went no further during the breath. Of course it did, just like a kid told not to eat any cookies. But I sensed improvement and a significant reduction in leg swing.

On my website I talk about getting started with Total Immersion swimming. Like anything worth doing there is a skill set involved, and with it a specialized vocabulary. Eventually you reach a point where you no longer need structured workouts. Learn to feel what your body is doing, pick a focal point that should address the issue, and practice.

I notice that swimmers at the beach like to go long. For triathlon training there should be one long swim per week. Biking and running demand their own time, so it is hard to fit in more than three swims a week. The issue is not just time, but fatigue, and the older you are, the greater the challenge. I have those other two swim workouts focused on a particular aspect of swimming, and break the session into multiple short segments. Swim a bit, notice what needs work. Stop. Think about it. Start again. Do not practice bad form. Find and fix what needs fixing, then repeat the improved form. When you lose it, stop, think about it, play with it, start again. Do this in waist deep water so you can stand and rest as you think about what just happened. Mindful practice.

One more favorite Terry Laughlin quote, “Do not practice struggle.”

My approach to swim training

I am beginning to flesh out the Winds of Hawi website and thought I would share some of that here. Specifically the stuff about swim training. I believe it was Joe Friel who said there is nothing really new about long course triathlon training. Seems to me like every couple of years we hear about some new, radical method that will revolutionize the sport. They come and they go. Athletes who chase after them are no better off, while their wallets get lighter. I make no claims for doing anything new. Maybe a little offbeat.

When I took up swimming for triathlon I was fortunate in that throughout my life I spent considerable time around water. I recall vaguely some group swimming lessons when I was maybe five or six. Some scattered memories:

• Diving for shiny pennies
• Holding onto the edge of the deck and flutter kicking
• Whipping my arms around like a windmill
• The water was cold, we shivered a lot
• The girls were annoying

So I never had real swim training. Never learned to do freestyle. I think it was my dad who  taught me side stroke, and I stuck with that. The good news is that my rudimentary exposure to swimming made it easier to learn late in life compared to someone who did not have those opportunities. I am grateful for that.

When I started to learn how to swim, everything was aimed at swimming in pools. I ran into a huge problem there. Public pools were not open before work, and after work they were reserved for youth teams. I could not get started until late afternoon, which had me coming home late for dinner. Then I found the Oahu Club, a nice, clean facility that opened at 6:00AM for us old folks.

It was there that I learned to swim the Total Immersion way. After a week-long swim camp in Kona I bought Fresh Freestyle (one of the authors, Celest StPierre, taught the Kona camp) and used that as the basis for my pool workouts.

If there is one thing learning to swim has taught me, it is patience. Progress comes very slowly. It is so tempting to give up in the face of what feels like not getting anywhere. Literally! The goal that kept me going was my desire to race at Honu. A good example of the value in having a clear, attainable goal.

For the last year I kept going to the pool, almost out of habit. Then along came COVID-19. Like a lot of things, the pool closed. After a few weeks off I began swimming again at Ala Moana. It was at this time that I decided there must be a way to practice TI style in open water. And it was that insight that lead me to decide I wanted to be a coach.

This is what I have been spending much of my time on. I feel like an explorer. Am I looking at lands never seen my human eyes? Probably not. More likely my role will be like that of a travel guide, working out how to make the most of your time when you visit a place. The TI technique is the same whether swimming in a pool or open water. The initial challenge is how to execute the drills without the pool. After that, how to create simple workouts that can be done without a page of notes in a plastic bag pinned on the deck under a water bottle. I think the biggest challenge will be how to measure progress.

Here are a few key points I am working on:

• My hunch is that many triathletes who practice in the ocean just put in time, without focus.
• There are sections of shoreline where water depth tapers gently enough to allow TI drill practice (superman glide, spearing, etc.).
• Workouts prescribed by short distance can be just as effective when prescribed by stroke count, e.g. 4 x 25, 2 x 50.
• Time in the water is better for managing training stress (TSS) than total distance.
• Just as with the bike and run, there should be one long swim per week, and this is more effective when done in open water.
• Landmarks spaced reasonably far apart can be used to create a course of arbitrary but consistent length for doing assessments. This week I am investigating the buoys at Ala Moana.

Much remains to be explored, built, and tested. Hopefully some of the patience I practiced learning to swim will transfer to my new endeavor, learning to teach.

Maybe there is something in your life that might benefit from the same type of scrutiny. It is so much easier to keep on doing what we do. Now that COVID-19 has turned our world upside down and shaken all the spare change out of our pockets, use the opportunity to stop, question, turn upside down, and find a new way. Maybe better. Maybe just different. Time will tell. Be patient.