 |
Preparing to Race New Zealand
Training to race a country is a lot different than training to get through a one-day event! Let me talk you through it. Starting on January 3rd, I will be playing a fifteen day "game" where we swim, bike and run the length of New Zealand. The game has a BIG bonus for swimming 29,000 meters; cycling 2,400 km; and running 105 km. We also have various events scattered across the camp - TTs, aquathons, races and other things we dream up along the way! I have been swapping emails with Scott Molina about the nature of the game and he sums it up well by saying that it should be really, really difficult to win the game. In fact, all of the past winners of the game -- for the last five years at least -- have seen a major set-back in their triathlon racing within a year of winning the game. The agegroupers that have won the competition have (not yet) been able to put together single-day races that match their training performances at our camp. We change the rules a little each time we do it but the basic premise is that you get a small bonus for swim/bike/run each day and a big bonus to hit the Camp Completion targets. Volume is rewarded more than speed -- so a decent athlete that is willing to ruin their health can place well. That bothers me but a lot of athletic performance is understanding that our limits are further than we think AS WELL AS learning self-control in extreme and group situations. Most everyone gets the first part of that statement (going beyond limits) but only a limited few get the next step about self-control. That doesn't really surprise me. I'm going to update this blog across the camp as often as internet connectivity enables me. I'm starting a list of topics that I've wanted to talk about openly for a while. By waiting until I am tired, I think the dialogue should be entertaining, especially if you are dealing with a winter ice storm while the campers are pounding another seven-hour-day into any hope you have of beating them in 2010! By talking to you, generally, I'll be able to say things that I might avoid, specifically. You will be able to follow me via my twitter page http://twitter.com/EnduranceCorner/ The other athletes will update on the epiccamp.com site and, when I have the direct URL, I'll let you know the link. So what are the requirements of 15 days of "Stage Training"? Nutrition / Fueling A 'sugar burner' as we call them, particularly a large man with poor fat burning, will be able to hurt you in early days of a camp. However, if you are patient and keep the average effort up then he will wear himself out simply due to the inability to reload his fuel stores. Aside from Chris "Big Sexy" McDonald, we've never had a big guy win the camp. Too much mass to move! Robbie Ventura calls this RAAM-speed // after a few days of Race Across America... everyone is working on a similar fuel supply. It's whatever you can produce on the fly. By the way, "Large", in an endurance athlete sense, appears to be anyone over 70 KGs / 155 lbs. Female and male athletes under this line - particularly those that know how to draft - have smaller energy requirements. So fitness and capacity to tolerate power/pace spikes tends to come into play a lot more. To tire those athletes out, you need to isolate them in flat terrain (increase output) or get them to run lots (muscular damage) or get them to do a lot of a sport at which they are inefficient (swim/run). While it might be tempting to cut weight for a camp, I have played the game best at a normal training weight, a BMI of 22 and 9% under my Stillman Weight. I suspect that recovery, endurance, stamina and metabolic efficiency are impacted by body fat percentages. While I would run great at 5lbs under those targets; I might be limiting my stamina-reserves or screwing up my fat burning. I'm not really sure because we've never done physiological testing across an entire camp. We have done various explosive tests (which I struggle with) so there's also an advantage to having a ton of slowtwitch muscle fibers. I also think that the "flat camps" like New Zealand are better for the larger athletes because of the opportunity for group riding/energy saving. The "climbing camps" like Colorado this coming August... they don't leave much room to hide! Training metabolically is simple:
I am quite efficient, so I can insert a fair amount of moderate aerobic work when fueling as above. The inefficient athlete (commonly the athlete that thinks they can handle an intensity-based protocol) will find that they get sugar-cravings when they shift to eating the way that I outline. I also get sugar cravings, when using intensity levels that are above my personal metabolic tolerance. That is a key marker that you should learn. What is your personal metabolic tolerance for intensity? Most recreational athletes are caught in a nutrition-trap of sugar/starch treats that follow "hard training". You will NEVER reach your potential if you fall into the sugar-treat-trap. Why? Because you'll struggle to get lean enough to run well. If you plan on doing multi-day events (elite endurance TRAINING is a multi-year event) then an element of metabolic efficiency will come in handy. For races like Ironman, Ultraman and Epic Camp -- it's essential. Specific Stamina More than being well-trained, in general, we need to be well trained for the specific demands of our event. This is completely lost in many programs. Athletes/Coaches that struggle to translate their training (potential) to race day (reality) may have been preparing their bodies for the incorrect event. As well, when we are doing non-specific physical training, we are laying down mental mapping that's inappropriate to the challenges that we will face on race day. A great example here would be athletes that do a lot of group riding with athletes that are stronger than them. If you do that then you become very good at one skill -- covering a wheel -- now that's a useful skill for group riding (and Epic Camp) but it won't do anything for your TTing. In fact, your pace perception will get so skewed that you'll struggle to understand why you keep blowing yourself up in triathlons. Note: if you aren't running your IM marathon TWO HOURS quicker than your bike split - the above likely applies to you - I bet you do quite a bit of group riding with strong folks. Look around our sport and you'll see that many of the best male elites train with athletes that are weaker than them. Perhaps that enables them to kill their training partners, rather than themselves. To build the specific stamina required for my trip across NZ, it would have been optimal to train 2,000 hours over the last two years. However, that wasn't possible with everything else that was going on in my life. I've known that this camp was coming for over a year and here's what I did:
Self-Awareness The Group Rides showed that I have two big limiters. They aren't unique! Temperament - I am fond of the illusion of control and think that the entire world should live/work/train just-like-me! One of the 'problems' of training with amateurs is that they train like amateurs. I'm glad that I saw myself in a training situation before being in a race situation. When we get rattled, we make mistakes. The above applies to all aspects of my life. As a husband/father, I am a way better partner when I am not rattled. The other limiter that I have is top end anaerobic endurance. Keep making me spike my power to 400w and I'll get pretty tired. Of course... you will too! How do you address this point? My previous strategy has been a willingness to do more work than anyone in the group. The price for this work is not spiking-the-crap out of me at every roller. Another way to handle is self-talk to rely on my stamina. All my group ride tactics should be stamina-based, not power-based. AC gave me that tip when I was trying to figure out how to survive the Tuesday ride in Noosa! The final way is to change the rules! ha ha ha I expect to do a lot of solo riding in the early days! I think it was four years ago when I was the first person out the back of the group in New Zealand - I imposed a strict HR cap on myself for the first week. Man-o-man the second week was fun! Given that I am nursing a cold right now -- I will need to test my capacity for moderation at my final big weekend, which starts tomorrow. X-Factors In addition to the above, there are a lot of X-Factors that will impact my performance in New Zealand. Here's a few: Immune function - I will be surprised if the entire camp doesn't get sick. I'll be amazed if half the camp doesn't get sick. Bonking - I was a bit concerned about this but I did this ride on very limited calories and spontaneously cramping for the final five hours. If I can handle that then I should be OK. More than bonking the real risk lies in how all the sugar impacts me. Sleep - at the Coyote Camp, last weekend, we started the rides early enough to get a nap each day. That's HUGE when training big. Because we are moving location every day in NZ, naps are unlikely. So I will need to figure out a sleep routine. Blogging might impair my sleeping but you are worth it! Crashing - we've never had a big stack-up at Epic Camp but this camp has the potential for it. However, we've been smart and there are no sprint bonuses! Staying at the front of the bunch reduces my chance for a crash but there is an energy cost to that. Mental Breakdown - when your mood changes, eat. I remind myself of that during the day but, at night, you can start asking yourself "why". Similar to my knowledge of Elite Ironman... knowing what it takes to play the game can make it tougher, not easier. Do I really want to go there again? With Ironman, I've made the decision that the training required to be fast doesn't fit my life any more. However, that didn't stop me from just-one-more-try from 2006-2008! Cheaters - folks that bend the rules are an issue in all areas of our lives. We've had cheaters at our camps - that's demotivating. I suppose there are different ways to compete: play a different game; play my game to inflict maximum pain on the cheaters (not too zen, that); ignore the cheaters; play my game relative to myself... been working through my strategy. The best tip that I've had for overall strategy was to think back to my trip across the USA, and figure out how to have played that game "better". I suppose my strategy will become obvious to myself, and others, as the camp progresses! I had people ask me about my 24 hours of training in 72 hours last weekend. I had a training-to-sleep ratio greater than 1 so that's a pretty demanding few days! Friday - 5K masters swim in the AM; Run 14K PM; Swim 3K PM include 2K TT (draft legal, six in a lane) 27:20 (scm). Friday brought me to 100,000 meters in 20 swims/19 days. Saturday - ~215KMs of riding (bike computer missed some), 5600 kj, TSS=575, season high CP values for all durations over 5 minutes (tough ride); run an hour PM ending with 5K threshold Sunday - ~196KMs of riding, 4,500kj, TSS=415; run an hour PM including 7K mod-hard Monday - start at first light to avoid UV! ~210KM of riding (including getting lost in a forest), lots of hills, 5,000kj, TSS=400. At the end of Monday's ride, I became scared and wonder if I am too fit, too early. I sent an email to AC and he calmed me down with a game plan for the rest of my NZ Preps! No Easy Way,
|
|
|
|
|
It's Thursday morning in Oz and I am managing a light cold. This coming weekend will show that I played my training cards perfectly, or blew it.