Testing to know your fitness and racing abilities.

One thing that I love to do within a training program is use a set of fitness tests that are done regularly. The value that fitness tests offer a runner or triathlete is an honest understanding of where they are are in comparison to where they need to be to meet their goals.

What is a fitness Test

There doesn't have to be anything extremely technical about the tests, but they need to be repeatable. A few posts ago, I talked about getting my VO2 Max and Lactate Threshold analyzed in the lab at the University of Cincinnati. Those test are informative for a geek like me, but they are often not practical for the average runner due to the complications of getting into the lab often enough (not to mention, the cost).

A few of the fitness tests that I use in my triathlon season are the following:

* --> 3 Mile Aerobic Run w/heart rate
* --> Thursday 6.3 mile group run w/heart rate
* --> 10 x 200 yard main set
* --> 4000 meter time
* --> North Middletown Bike Ride w/out and back, heart rate/time
* --> Valley View Ferry Climb time (2mile climb)

I have written about these test previously here. As you can see there is nothing extremely difficult in setting these tests up. Some of the tests are routes that I normally run and I just track specific data with each workout.

The one that I pay a lot of attention to early during a training program is the 3 mile aerobic run workout. Currently I run outdoors at a specific heart rate (+/- 3 bpm) and monitor the time it takes me to run the same route. What I'm looking for is a faster time while having a similar heart rate. You might say that I'm trying to get more "output" for the same "input". One thing to pay attention to is other variables that can impact heart rate that could skew results; things like weather and nutrition can influence heart rates too.

The North Middletown route that I ride is a similar situation, although it is a much longer duration. What I like to compare here is not only results and data from time to time, but the data from the first half of the ride to the second half of the ride. A fitness test ride like this would be incredibly valuable if you are a rider that trains with a power meter.

The one suggestion that I have is that you don't use the routes and tests as your everyday training protocol. I like to include them every other week or every third week. This time period keeps an athlete from being too encouraged or discouraged by a single workout and keeps the workouts available for monitoring periodic improvements.

How the fitness test may change as the season progresses?

The tests that are listed above are targeted at testing the development of swimming, cycling and running fitness. Knowing that your fitness is improving is important, but at some point during the training program an athlete that has performance goals needs to test their current performance ability.

In a half-marathon or marathon program, I normally insert shorter test races to measure performance. It is important that the athlete treats these races like they would their main race. That means they use a similar nutrition pattern and pre-race schedule.

In Louisville, Kentucky, they have a series of races called the Triple Crown of Running Series. It includes a 5k, 10k and 10 mile race. Those races build very naturally to the Derby Festival Half Marathon or Marathon. One thing that a runner can do is take their race times in a series of races and insert them into a VDot chart to estimate their predicted race times.

While the charts are not infallible, they do provide a good sense of what your expectations could be as you start to prepare your race strategy. A good sign that I like to see in the results of these races and the resulting "predicted time" is as the test race distance increases, the closer to your desired race goal time it is.

I have written about predicting race times before. You can see that post at - Predicting Running Performance.

In triathlon, it is just as important to have race simulation rides and brick workouts to base your race strategy on. This past summer, I shared a series of 3 simulation workouts that I completed in order to establish my Ironman Wisconsin strategy. Here are links to those workouts:

1. Race Simulation and Nutrition - 2007 #1

2. Race Simulation and Nutition - 2007 #2

Why it is important to have this knowledge before you start your race?

If you have read my "Einstein, Relativity and Triathlon" post then you know that I believe it is important to ground yourself in reality and not fantasy. It is also valuable during a race to know what you are able to do so that you don't get caught up in the excitement that surrounds a race and try something you are not prepared for.

Sometimes this can be a difficult thing for an athlete to do. All summer last year I worked hard to improve my fitness and skill on the bike. Using the fitness tests I mentioned above (North Middletown Ride and Valley View Ferry Climb) I saw improvements. So when it came time to insert my simulation rides and brick workouts, I was frustrated to discover that I wasn't going to be able to ride as fast as I was planning on.

Heading into the final phase of race preparation, I was hoping that I would be able to ride in the mid 5 hour range on the bike. During my test rides, I was consistently at a 6 hour to 6:20 ability, with any ability to run off the bike.

While this knowledge was disappointing, it was a key factor in setting up my race strategy. It also allowed me to remain sensible during the Ironman and left me with the ability to have a decent run.

Summary of the key points

1. Fitness tests are a great way to evaluate your training in order to make sure it is benefiting your development. Fitness Tests don't have to be elaborate.

2. Test races and simulations are valuable to creating a sensible race strategy and race expectations.

Hopefully some of these ideas will help you along your journey of endurance!

Balance and Athletic Success.

The picture above is from this past weekend. The weekend was a good reminder as to what balance can create for your health, sometimes fitness, but may not be a positive factor for performance. Read On.

This past weekend Nikki and I spent Saturday afternoon through Sunday afternoon at the Boone Creek Anglers Club. It was a short retreat with the other trainers and families from Fitness Plus (the studio we personal train at). It was a great way to spend some time socializing, relaxing, hiking and just being around nature. We often take little trips outdoors in order to get away. Thankfully, we live in Kentucky where there is a lot of natural beauty to be explored. (Even though people say that we should still be living out west if that is what we truly desired... take a look for yourself. Pictures here.)

The whole experience allowed me to solidify some thoughts that I have been having on what type of year I would like to have in triathlon, running and competing.

The process of an active lifestyle:

Last year around the New Year, I wrote a post discussing the benefits of setting up process goals. It sounds easy, but often we fall into the outcome based thinking. As I approached Ironman Wisconsin in September, I felt that pressure to become more and more outcome focused. Some of that pressure was from others always asking what my goals were, some of the pressure was within in my own mind deciding what would be and what would not be successful.

I feel like I succeeded in fighting off those pressures and just allowing my training plan take care of itself and allowing the race to happen. (You can read my race report if you want.) The interesting thing for me was what happened after the Ironman. I quickly became dissatisfied with my accomplishment and found myself looking for how I could "better" my efforts this year. And by better, I mean, how can I prove myself to others and myself again.

By November, I was making plans to do two and possibly three ironman distance races in 2008. And my training plan was beginning to be sketched out. But that is not what I want to be about. I can't force myself to be happy only by beating "x" or even out-doing myself. Triathlon, running and all the activities that I've competed in over the last 9 years has been about a lifestyle.

I find it interesting that on January 1st, 1999, I sat down and wrote down on a piece of paper

"complete a marathon"

And nine years later, I fully anticipated completing a couple marathons and iron-distance triathlons in the same year. There could be a lot said about the change in lifestyle that has occurred during that time!

This year I have decided to revive my commitment to the lifestyle, the daily process of being active. I'm not 100% sure what that means right at this moment, other than it means I will seek balance in my activities and I won't target an A race.

Why? Well my thinking is this; when I have an A race chosen each day is geared towards one single day of the year. This reality alone makes it difficult at time to chose activities that will increase my enjoyment, because the activity chosen is the one that will prepare me to do that race better.

I will still race, but hopefully no race will become more important than another. Nor will any race become more important than my Saturday rides. There might be a lot of peace available for myself if that is true.

The bottom line is that I'm taking the "Basic Week" idea to a lifestyle extreme of having a noncompetitive anticipation as my end. The reality is that is where it all began 9 years ago. As an 11 hour Ironman athlete, that is really where it is anyway!

Balance and Athletic Success:

My perspective of this as a coach is that this is not an optimal strategy that results in the best possible race. When it comes to health and fitness there is a level of balance that we all can achieve; when it comes to race performance, there is often little room for balance. The best athletes are those with a life that has little balance involved in it. If you have any questions about this, watch the documentary "What it takes".

I received the documentary (along with the trainer version and Showdown) for Christmas. It is a very inspiring and interesting video, but you don't see much balance available for those at the top end of the sport. They live swimming, biking and running.

Many of you are probably saying, "yeah but". Yeah but, I don't want to be the best. Yeah but, I'm an age-grouper not a professional. Yeah but, etc....

The truth is that at the long end of the tail, there is not much balance - even for the "everyman". I personally will not be a top professional in Hawaii, I know that. But even when I compete against myself, I realize that to become a much faster Ironman than 11 hours, I'm going to have to sacrifice a level of balance.

In 2008 I will likely not become a faster Ironman athlete, but I will be very active. That's the point.

Ironman Wisconsin - Historical Results and Weather.

After spending time watching Iroman Wisconsin last year and seeing so many people struggle with the cold temperatures, I thought that I'd take a little journey through the historical weather records on race day in Madison.

I also wanted to see how the race may have been impacted by the type of weather they had. The best place that I have found to review race results and the historical results is, www.triresults.com

The TriResults site actually just put up an Ironman Wisconsin Events page that has a great listing of the historical data, including: the results listing, divisional top ten by year and Hawaii qualifiers by year.

Weather Data: taken from wunderground.com

Sept 10, 2006: Mean - 56F, Max - 59F, Min - 53F
Sept 11, 2005: Mean - 80F, Max - 91F, Min - 69F
Sept 12, 2004: Mean - 71F, Max - 85F, Min - 57F
Sept 7, 2003: Mean - 74F, Max - 89F, Min - 59F
Sept 15, 2002: Mean - 59F, Max - 71F, Min - 48F

Results Analysis:

Taking some data from the TriResults site, I wanted to see how the times changed year to year. To make things easy, primarily because the data was already put together, I took the 10th place finishing time (male 25-29) and the last Hawaii Qualifying time for each year.

I realize that those times are not a good snapshot of the field of triathletes racing on those days, not even a good snapshot of the male 25-29 year old age group, because to finish that high you are definately on the long tail of things. But the data was accessible and there may be a day I'll have the desire to search through and find the median number in the age group so that we can see where the exact middle finisher would finish.... maybe later. Here's what I do have:

	2006	2005	2004	2003	2002
10th Place Finisher	10:25	10:50	10:37	10:32	10:21
Last Hawaii Qualifier	10:18	11:10	10:22	10:18	10:20
# of AG Participants	201	186	162	173	184

Final Thoughts:

So are there correlations that we can draw from this data? I think the one thing that becomes obvious is that the 2005 race was an outlier in terms of race performance (among the top 10 and Hawaii Qualifiers). When looking at the weather data, we also see that 2005 was the hottest year the race has been held. In 2005, the average temperature was 80F with a high of 91F. The high's in 2004 and 2003 were both in the 80's (2003 being 89F) but the averages were both down into the lower 70's.

The one fact that I find interesting was that in 2006 the times were not significantly different than the times in 2004, 2003 and 2002. I guess I expected them to be primarily because we saw so many people appearing to struggle with the cold. The best explanation that I have for this is that the results that we are looking at are people that are on the course for 10 to 10.5 hours. If we were able to look at the middle of the pack (mop) and back of the pack (bop) results, we might see something different. My hypothesis is that the weather becomes more of a factor the longer your day is, but it is just a hypothesis.

The last thought that I have is that the weather will impact the way I approach the event, especially if it is going to be a very hot day. But in the end, it is a variable that is out of my control and therefore something I should be prepared for, but should not be anxious about. It appears that most years athletes do a pretty good job of adapting to the conditions.

To view some Ironman Wisconsin 2006 Race Reports that I tagged on del.icio.us go here: Ironman Wisconsin Tags

VO2 Max - the good results!

I discussed the frustrating results from my recent trip to the lab, so I thought that I'd share some of the more exciting results.

The concept of VO2 Max is discussed among endurance athletes regularly. (Scott Dunlap at A Trail Runner's blog about his recent testing and Triathlon Network member Jodi's recent results.) The general thought that you hear talked about is that the higher your VO2 Max the faster you are and the better you will do in a race. It's not really that simple. In running there are factors to consider in addition to VO2 Max, like running economy for one.

So an athlete's VO2 Max isn't the only factor that allows them to do well in competition, but it is generally true that most elite runners have "elite" VO2 Max assessments. It's kind of like going to school at Princeton or Harvard - you may not be successful if you go to college there, but you can be pretty sure that in order to get there you were already in an "elite" group. (Don't bag me on the analogy! I didn't go to either.)

If you would like to learn a lot more about these concepts, I'd suggest that you pick up one of these two books: Daniels' Running Formula or Lore of Running.

Here's a quote from Lore of Running to highlight this idea:

"VO2 Max values may vary quite dramatically, even among elite athletes with similar performances. For example, consider the cases of Steve Prefontaine and Frank Shorter, two athletes whose VO2 Max values differed by 16%, yet whose best 1-mile times differed by less than 8 seconds (3.4%) and whose best 3-mile times differed by even less (0.2 seconds)."

So what was my VO2 Max? 64.6 ml/kg/min. I'm pretty happy with that result. It is actually consistent with results that I've had in the past AND it means that I'm still not getting everything out of my ability. My times just don't match what those results suggest I could accomplish. So there are things that I need to continue to work on, most likely running mechanics and running economy.

The other thing to consider is how the result is expressed. The result is expressed in a relative manner, meaning they show my oxygen consumption in relation to my body weight in kilograms. If you have read my last few posts, you'll know that I've been discussing how my weight is not at "optimal" weight. (They actually weighed me in at 143 pounds the day I did the max test.) The absoute oxygen consumption that I acheived was 4189 ml/min, therefore if I would get down to my optimal weight I would raise my relative results to around 67 ml/kg/min.

Here's some data from elite runners in the past taken from The Lore of Running to compare my results. Notice the "elite" club concept and how results are not always in direct relationship to VO2 Max.

Steve Prefontaine - 84.4 ml/kg/min - 1 mile, 3:54.6
Gary Tuttle - 82.7 ml/kg/min - marathon, 2:17:00
Jim Ryun - 81.0 ml/kg/min - 1 mile WR 1967
Sebastian Coe - 77.0 ml/kg/min - 1 mile WR 1981
Alberto Salazar - 76.0 ml/kg/min - marathon, 2:08:13
Frank Shorter - 71.3 ml/kg/min - marathon, 2:10:30
Derek Clayton - 69.7 ml/kg/min - marathon, 2:08:34

My PR's for comparison:

marathon - 3:04:xx
10k - 37:19

I'm excited to see myself acheive those #'s, but I know need to work on the things that will help me be able to use those abilities even better. There's lots of room to move up! Hope!