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ironmanSurviving or Racing?
When I read that article I was quite fired up and wrote a rather lengthy 'comment' on his page... then remembered President Lincoln's advice and deleted it! I'm glad that I did because Joe's clarification was effective at spelling out his key point, which I'll come to. Wrapped around his key point were some truths about endurance training that likely made some of his readers a bit excited. I know that his comments gained traction on the net. Remember Obama's guns, religion and bitterness line? Speaking one's opinion plainly doesn't always advance your cause. Emotional responses happen when a respected figure points out truths that we'd rather not see. In fact, you could say that is the definition of a true friend -- an individual that's willing to share unpleasant truths about us. Benchmarks and Forecasting
I woke up this morning and looked out the window to find a good accumulation of snow on the ground. I was a little surprised. I didn’t remember my local Fox meteorologist, Crystal Egger (pictured) saying anything about an upcoming snow storm. Usually, she gets it pretty right. In fact, if I think back a couple of decades to my childhood, it sure seems that weather forecasting has improved a whole lot. It seems that back in the day, it was a running joke that the weather that we would wind up with was basically the opposite of what the meteorologist would predict. Of course, like most things, I am sure technology has played a part in the improved accuracy of weather forecasting. Scientists are now able to sample, minute by minute, a myriad of benchmark #’s, from barometric pressure to humidity to minor fluctuations in temperature and furthermore, they are able to summarize this data to create accurate computer models to predict future weather behavior. If you’re reading this blog, chances are that you’re seeing where I’m gonna go with this.. Upcoming WebinarsMarch 16th -- Noon Denver -- Long Course First Timers -- we'll chat about approaching your first long course event. Hopefully, I'll save you from some of the mistakes I've made over the years! Contact Me for a slot and/or send in your questions in advance. Free to all and available for download after the fact. Real World Marathoning - Part Two
This week I am going to use the answers to your marathon questions to help explain how the fat guy on the right of the photo became the blazing triathlete on the left. Not many people run 2:46 off the bike in an Ironman -- even fewer starting from a very comfortable 200+ lbs.
Marathon Training In The Real World
This is going to be a two-part series on marathon training. Part One will share some concepts which I believe impact all endurance sports, but especially, marathon training (stand alone and Ironman). Part Two will pick up the questions from last week, as well as, any from this week.
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It has been a hectic week for me in Europe and I am now in Asia for a few days before returning to the US. Sorry that I missed the Friday deadline but I was busy growing grey hairs! No announcements this week, we will roll straight into Part One.
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I had a look at average results for all marathons in the US in 2005 -- the results didn't surprise me, but they might surprise you. Average male finish time was about 4.5 hours, with the ladies just over 5.0 hours. That is for stand-alone marathons -- not running after 2.4 miles of swimming and 112 miles of running.
Old School Endurance
This week, I am going to have some fun and write about a topic dear to my heart -- Old School Endurance. Not quite "Old Time Hockey" but Paul Newman's passing has been on my mind. Watching Slapshot is a rite of passage for a lot of my Canadian pals.
Management and communication tips can wait for another week -- if you are like me then you could be a little burnt out on reading about the dire state of the global economy. There is going to be plenty of time for working through the aftermath.
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Two quick announcements before we get started:
I was looking for photos on the web this past weekend and discovered my interview on Endurance Planet -- scroll down the page, I am July 1st. 13 minutes long with some ideas about performance and coaching that might interest.
Bobby McGee, world-class running and triathlon coach, is featured on Endurance Corner Radio. Greg Bennett is coming in two weeks. Send questions to Justin Daerr.
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This past week, I was running (in the rain, wearing a cotton t-shirt... Chuckie you would have been proud). I was rolling along thinking about this article and Ironman Hawaii in particular.
The legend of Ironman is fairly well known... a few military guys sitting around trying to dream up the wildest event they can consider... Waikiki rough water swim, ride around Ohau, Honolulu marathon... something like that. For me, that's Old School Endurance.
Sit around with your pals, dream up something off-the-charts then figure out how to do it. Outside of Ultraman, there aren't a lot of triathlon events that fit that mould any more. You are most likely to discover old school endurance on events like the Triple Bypass, Leadville 100, Hard Rock 100 or by bumping into an ultra-amigo on the Continental Divide trail.
Ironman has gained a lot over the years, lives have been changed for the better, and many cottage industries have popped up -- pretty much as a direct result of that original dare.
As a private equity guy, I think the sale this year could mark the high water mark for Ironman, but not necessarily for the WTC, as a company. From the outside looking in, I can see clear opportunities for further profit enhancement:
Ramp things up and either fold into a larger entertainment group, or sell a piece of Ironman through the public markets. I keep coming back to Planet Hollywood in my mind, though -- not a great outcome for the IPO shareholders but a great franchise name. I'd be wary if they take m-dot public. Of course, history tells us that select buyers will pay a large premium to own world-class brands. My concern would be the risk of declining cash flow.
Why sell? Long term capital gains tax rates are likely heading up; and a vendor wants to leave enough in it for the next buyer to generate a fair return. The deal made sense to me from both sides.
How to maintain growth of an expensive and time consuming hobby in the face of a declining economic environment? The 70.3 series is a good strategic move. It will be interesting to see how Ironman handles a significant economic slowdown within its demographic -- the Ironman target market has had a sustained bull run -- we should get Dan Empfield to share his thoughts. Perhaps he'll write something about his -- SlowTwitch reflects the pulse of the sport and Dan has a historical perspective that few can match.
Back to Old School Endurance. Before I ever did a swim set or bike repeat, I was a weightlifter, hiker, and (very average) sport climber. Like many of us, I got a kick out of dreaming up new projects -- my progression to mountaineering was the ultimate in Old School. Find a volcano somewhere in Asia -- use a three-, or four-, day weekend to fly-in, summit and fly-out. I would sleep rough and listen to the jungle.
These days a ten-mile climb wears me out... still it is September. A guy's got to rest some time!
Some of you might recognize the guy in the photo below -- this summer during Epic Camp Italy, I used my easy day, to ride past the turn off for the Messner Museum in the Dolomites. Everest, solo, no oxygen, no one else on the mountain. Pretty Old School!
Endurance has a number of different qualities -- all of which are important to consider if you want to (ultimately) race well. Each of these attributes is linked with the others and a breakdown in one area ends our ability "to endure".
Mental Endurance -- the ability to keep moving forward until the objective is met. Chip away, bit by bit, day after day. The downside is that people that score high here are the sorts the die in the mountains, or spend years pounding away at an area where they have little potential. I score reasonably well here, so need to balance persistence (good thing) with consistency bias (risky thing).
Working on our physical endurance benefits our mental endurance in many ways.
Anger management -- I experience a lot of background anger in the world, specifically what drives a lot of ultraendurance athletes to get so far away from home, from the 'real' world, from everyone else.
To truly endure, we need to accept the way things are. Somehow, years of physical endurance training managed to work-out a lot of situations, histories, and people that used to upset me.
Humility -- This could be the ingredient that creates the later life peak for the ultra-endurance athlete. It takes most of us a many years to have enough setbacks to gain the humility required to stop repeating our mistakes. The only sure fire way to increase my humility is wait around until an unexpected setback reminds me that I don't have all the answers.
Fear -- for me, fear is what leads anger. I struggle to see the emotional roots of my fears... ...I only feel the anger. I spend a lot of time searching for the fear that lies beneath my emotions. My main fear has to do with disappointing people that I respect.
Physical Endurance -- just like VO2 max, many people appear to be gifted with bodies that are created to tolerate volume well. Expeditions are a great example of this trait. When I was in peak mountaineering shape, I could carry/haul 130 lbs of gear daily, at altitude, for a week -- good for me, "easy" for a sherpa! I could do a tremendous amount of low intensity work then handle hours of tempo on a final "summit day".
What I couldn't do was swim, bike or run quickly -- let alone put them all together. Endurance is an essential component of fitness but it is only a component. At my mountaineering peak, I was a mediocre athlete. But my solid endurance base, enabled surprisingly rapid progress when I started converting endurance to race fitness.
Most adult triathletes come to our sport with a focus on race fitness prior to the creation of an endurance (and strength) platform. This is the piece of the performance puzzle that is missed by intensity-driven programs -- most likely because they are created by life-long athletes that haven't experienced an absence of endurance.
Metabolic Endurance -- I don't read a lot about this in the literature but I see it with people that are able to survive when placed in extreme situations -- as well as athletes that are (ultimately) able to go 'fast' in an Ironman. Physical endurance is the ability to walk from Boulder to Vail. Metabolic endurance is the ability to do it on minimal food and water. Some coaches/athletes seek to train this through (effectively) starvation.
Perhaps a future article will talk about self-starvation, and self-denial, in an attempt to exert control within a mind that feels out of control. It's a complex psychological issue that is far easier to observe than treat. I have had my greatest success with simple acceptance and affection for (fellow) crazies.
Constitutional Endurance -- relates to how fast we recover, our immune systems and what we generally call our "constitution". We see this a lot at Epic Camp... there is normally one, or two, campers that manage to get stronger as the camp progresses. Some individuals can simply take more than others -- and keep bouncing back. In my mid-30s I could get away with extreme training -- at least I thought I was getting away with it!
Molina once managed the first week of an Epic Camp on nothing but liquid calories. He'd had the trots for a week leading into the camp! He didn't mention this to anyone lest we rip him to shreds -- Epic Campers can behave a bit like hyenas when they get fatigued...
Scott's not the only example of World Champions that score off-the-charts for Old School Endurance -- Tom Dolan is a guy that springs to mind. Talent, motivation, and the capacity to out-train any swimmer of his generation.
Now you might think that Ironman Hawaii is the ultimate test of endurance -- we could be fooling ourselves. The photo above is how Amundsen chose to spend his summer when he raced Scott to the South Pole. Great story. Guts will only get you so far without preparation.
The real test of Ironman is the months, and years, of daily training that are required to put together a fast race. That is the true test and probably why we see such an emotional release at the finish line -- so much went into that one day.
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Some suggested reading to get your Old School mojo working...
Endurance, Shackleton (pictured above, likely the greatest demonstration of human endurance, ever -- gotta love the frosty beard, Monica won't let me grow one...)
Many enjoy the romanticism of endurance-Samurai that go down in flames -- the problem with that approach is you can't write up your adventures if you are dead on the mountain.
Being a success oriented guy, I like the stories that centre around getting the team home in one piece.
Molina's 50 in 2010 -- it's going to take me a while to build back up but I'm looking forward to Going' Old School one more time with my good buddy. We'll need to come up with something special.
Good luck to everyone racing Kona -- when it gets tough remember that it's just one day!
Back next week,
gordo
Kona 2007
I will share my thoughts on his operation when I give my talk on coaching business models at the November Coaches Clinic. It was a fun weekend observing a successful businessman (and business) up close. It's impressive what the Vision Quest team have built. I've nicknamed the CEO... "Hurricane Robbie". Thanks to Jim Sauls, you will find more velodrome photos HERE. Once I get the data I'll pass it along to Planet-X for them to post up. You can read my 2008 plan over there now. ===== Kona 2007 The island is an extreme place and the thought of racing here again is frightening for me. The only other course that generates a similar level of anxiety is Lake Placid. What these courses share is the fact that any pacing errors will be punished. In Kona, you get punished both severely and publicly. Of course, learning to cope with that is a useful skill, even if you never really ‘overcome’ a situation. **** Non-technical readers may wish to skip ahead... 12/3s – typically, I do these as 15 minute continuous cycles of 12 min steady then 3 min mod-hard. Bob Korock was nice enough to share one that he uses that is done as 12 min mod-hard (Half IM avg watts) then 3 min easy. This is specific preparation workout, rather than general endurance. Most people would see the Tempo 12s as superior to the Steady 12s. That depends on your needs and the time of the season. Even in Kona, steady state stamina and a superior endurance physiology at the metabolic level are fundamental limiters that I see in the field. For a few years I’ve suspected that certain strong (and large) athletes have the aerobic capacity to perform at a work rate that exceeds their metabolic capacity. Put another way, the athlete’s fitness across an event duration exceeds their capacity for fueling. Post race analysis of power/pace data shows that the athlete “should have” been able to tolerate the efforts. Watching, and talking to, athletes in Kona – it appears that there is a risk that we spend too much time developing our threshold performance and neglect to maximize our metabolic efficiency both in terms of output and input. I have seen some speedy Ironman performances done off the back of throwing a ton of volume at an athlete. I wonder about the stickiness of training that maximizes the ability to process carbs and oxidize fat. I also expect that there are genetic, nutritional and training factors that influence these limiters to performance. The persistence of metabolic efficiency adaptations is an important consideration because it might explain why I’ve done some ripping IMs fatigued with sub-optimal threshold training/performance. Perhaps I maximized my real constraint which is metabolic in nature. We’ve got a lot to learn about what’s really happening in 8-17 hour events. Robbie talked about RAAM-pace // the speed that results from your maximal rate of glycogen synthesis. After two days all RAAM athletes are running on empty -- we have seen RAAM speed in athletes that tried to lose weight at Epic Camp. In ironman terms I call it POLAR (Pace Of LAst Resort). Anyhow, my second workout tip for you is one that Joe Friel shared with me. The mainset is a doozey… four hours at goal IM wattage within a race simulation workout that is done on a flat course. If you get more than a 5% heart rate deviation (at the end) from the steady-state heart rate achieve (in the middle) then you are either… (a) aiming too high in terms of wattage; or (b) lack the ‘depth’ of fitness required. Either way, you must lower your wattage target. I think that this is an excellent session because (if you use the data) you greatly increase your probability of running well. FYI, these sessions are late-season workouts. I won’t be trying them anytime soon. **** She’s teaching straight-arm recovery, too avoid crisscross and overshooting on entry she instructs outside edge of hand entry (I tend to go pinky). In starting the stroke, engage the outside edge of the hand and the base of the palm, rather than fingertips. This should engage the lat rather than firing just the deltoid. I’m a deltoid dominant swimmer and felt the difference immediately. **** In a few years, we will see guys like Ken Glah and Greg Fraine racing in the 50+ category. It will be fun to see what’s possible. As for me... I don't plan on denying you the chance to take me down in my 40s... ;-) I received a great quote from Jo Lawn right after the race… “to win here you can’t have a bad _minute_ let alone bad day. The girls are going for it the whole way”. Even if the fields are getting more competitive, there remains a lot of room for performance through superior pacing. Powermeters are going to become standard for most athletes -- as a coach, you need to be building your experience with power. There are a lot of smart people sharing tips on maximizing Ironman performance (2peak.com's ideas on power output bike vs. run). The sports scientists are catching up on what really drives IM performance. Less than 5% of the athletes I watched climbing Palani used their powermeters. That’s a lot of ammo to use in the first twenty miles of the bike. I'm speaking from recent personal experience here... you gotta trust me! I’ve been fortunate to work with Ron Ottaway (winner of the 70-74 agegroup) for the last six years. I will share my thoughts on The Aging Athlete in an up-coming letter. For what it’s worth, Ron was fast when he came to me (five times on stage in Kona). However, he did win his agegroup by over an hour so I feel qualified to comment on what works (at least for him). Ron was 20-minutes down at Hawi and started the run right beside 1st place (probably his best bike pacing, ever, in an Ironman). I’m looking forward to reviewing his power file. The challenges that face the ageing (speedy) athlete are unique as hanging onto developed fitness is a lot easier than building it up. The fastest elite times may be similar to what Mark and Dave put up but the depth of the field is greatly increasing. Track the Top 10/20/30 (M/F) overall times to prove it to yourself. Top Ten used to be a reasonable dream for me... now I'm not so sure! ==== Dr. J Most people that do run camps target an average pace/intensity FAR too high. This time of year I am running 8-9 min per mile with my heart rate <145 style="font-weight: bold; font-style: italic;"> gordo 
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Joe wrote 
