Precise Monitoring of Athlete Training

I recently have begun training a cyclist who lives in Australia, and he just got a power meter. We spent the first few weeks with me prescribing some training, with no real idea how well the execution of the workouts was going. I had to just take his word for it.

Once we got the power meter, we did a field test to find an FTP of 280 watts, and then established his power zones. I prescribed some Zone 2 riding to help build his aerobic endurance, (goal was at least 50% of ride time in Z2 on a flat to rolling course, 151-212 watts), since he has a VERY long road race in a just a few weeks.

When I went to the review the file, it was clear the goal of the workout was not accomplished. You can see what I noticed here: (click on images to enlarge)

You can see how I was able to see what actual energy systems the athlete was training, and how the choice of course affected the stress. If all I had was him telling me how it went, or heart-rate data alone, I would not really have been able to see how effectively he was training according to the plan.

This post is not meant to throw the athlete, "under the bus", but help to show the power of data as a communication tool between athletes and coaches. This athlete is learning how to train, and power data is helping to facilitate the learning.

The data is helping me to assess his strengths and weaknesses, and make sure the training addresses those, allowing for precise monitoring and prescribing of training for the athlete.

If you're not using data, this is just some of what you're missing, and how you might not be training as precisely as you think.

Coach Vance

Underwater Swim Video Clinics and Downloads

If you missed my talk at B+L on The 3 Technical Aspects of Swimming, you missed a great event, with over 80 people in attendance! You can download the talk here, complete with the underwater videos we reviewed.

I'm doing 2 underwater swim video clinics in San Diego, the next 2 Sundays, which provide:

- Video of left and right sides, front angle as well.
- Videos belong to the athlete, will be emailed.
- Breakdown and review of the video with the coach.
- Pool time with Coach on deck after video session to practice and reinforce technical changes.

Here's the venue:

Sessions are Sunday, Feb 19th, 10 AM - 12 PM, and Sunday, Feb 26th, 12-2 PM, both at Cathedral Catholic High School. Both sessions are limited to 10 people only! (The 19th has only 3 spots remaining).

Cost of session: $110
If you'd like to schedule your own session with me: $125, or $200 for 2 people.

If you're looking for to make the next jump in your swim, this is the opportunity.

Email me to register at coachjimvance@gmail.com.

Swim Lecture with Video Analysis

As I mentioned in the previous post, I will be doing a public speaking event, helping to explain the technical aspects of swimming, keeping them simplified, filtering thru the depth of information to what is most important. Below is the info if you're interested, and if you can't attend you can click the link on the right to find my webinars with the topics, or look for the recording and presentation in my Coach Vance store...

If you're struggling with getting faster in the water, TrainingBible Elite Coach Jim Vance will explain and simplify what is most important to go faster in the water. He will also share some underwater video footage from swimmers to better understand the application of the technical discussion.

What: Learning and Understanding the 3 Technical Aspects of Swmming
Cost: FREE! Food and drinks will be served
When: Wednesday, Feb 15th, 2012
6:15-7:45 PM
Where: B+L South Store
3603 Camino Del Rio West
San Diego, CA 92110

You can RSVP for the event here:
https://www.facebook.com/events/228047363952281/

Hope you can make it...

Coach Vance

Coaching Endorsement

Saw this great interview with Gerry Rodrigues, one of the foremost authorities on the sport of swimming, especially within triathlon. He discusses many of the issues facing triathletes when trying to learn to swim faster. You can read this interview here, but I felt honored to be mentioned in this excerpt:

"The horizon: Fortunately, with triathlon becoming an Olympic sport in 2000, more substantive coaches are entering the space, raising the present mark of swim coaching and triathlon coaching in general. There are many good swim coaches for triathletes; unfortunately, many do not publish. Here are some examples worth following when they do publish: Swim Smooth (Paul Newsome); Jim Vance; Mike Collins; Joel Filliol; Brett Sutton; Matt Dixon. These coaches together, along with a few others, are the future for triathlon swimming."

That is a who's who of triathlon coaching, and I feel honored to be a part of it. I will be announcing a speaking event and some swim clinics in San Diego shortly. Stay tuned.

Coach Vance

A turning point for triathlon?

I saw this ad at the NCAA.org website, for a triathlon/cross-country coach, for a Division III school, Marymount University. (I've captured the screen shot for when the position is filled and the ad is pulled. Click on the image to enlarge.)

This could represent a big turning point for the sport, as this is the first time a school is designating triathlon as a sport they will support financially, via their athletic department. In every other university, (to my knowledge), the sport is strictly considered a student club, funded by the members of the club.

Why is this important? Well, with a paid position for the coach and funds to help provide the necessary support of facilities, travel costs, equipment costs, athletic trainers and other items, this will likely lead to more enhanced and better development of athletes.

This is a Division III school though, not a Big Ten or Pac-12 university, so the caliber of athletes in these programs will likely not resemble those at the highest level, as Division III institutions offer no athletic scholarships. However, with the support offered, and a cross country season likely tied to it, it does have the potential to provide athletes with an impressive amount of support while pursuing an education. Could this lead to more Division I universities taking part in a similar program? That seems a long way off yet, but the Division III institutions have a chance here to leverage this aspect of the sport, and bring some great notoriety and exposure to their schools, helping them to offer a sport a Division I schools can't offer. Though this may not sway the top athletes, there have been many cases of hidden gems of athletes coming thru a solid development program and blossoming late. And with a committed time thru school focused on the sport, developing their weaknesses, athletes could potentially leave these programs ready to or already performing at a high level, with their education completed.

There are some drawbacks to triathlon being an NCAA sport, which I outlined some of in the LAVA magazine article from August/September 2011. Two of the main concerns have been Title 9, (gender equity policies), and restrictions placed on coaches at the institutions. The main restriction being that a top level coach can only work with athletes on their team, not coach juniors, as that would be an NCAA recruiting violation. There also must be a decision made on the style of racing that collegiate triathletes will do, and whether they will focus on a draft-legal race model to help Olympic development, or stick with non-drafting, and miss out on the key skills and experience needed for ITU and Olympic athlete development.

So what are your thoughts? Is this good for the sport? Or will this cause more headaches than it is worth?

Coach Vance

Train hard now, and then what...?

One of the typical issues I face with my athletes this time of year, (off-season or pre-season), is a desire to do more, and train harder. Never mind that most of my athletes live in climates that make outdoor training rather cold and miserable, many still want to push hard, large volume, and be ready to race at their peak come the first race of the year.

I always ask in response, "If we train specifically and hard for your goal race right now, we'll see a plateau in about 12-16 weeks. Then what do we do?" Most don't know the answer to that question. They all know that plateaus can happen, but when you put it on the calendar and can pinpoint the time they will see it, it becomes clear that their plan likely won't work. They likely will reach a mental plateau as well, and by the end of the season when the most important races come, and everyone is looking to peak, those who trained at the highest level early in the year are hanging by a mental and physical string.

So instead, I push for the athletes to focus on their weaknesses during this time, with quality being high, and volume being low. This prepares athletes for the season, yet allows us to still have something to build on thru the year. We focus on individual metrics within each phase, trying to improve the skills and abilities that we can build in succession thru the season, to the key races.

So if you're training now like it's the middle of the season, what are you going to do when that plateaus?

Coach Vance

Training with Data on a Budget

One of the biggest roadblocks for most people to use data in their training, is the cost. But this becomes less and less of a real issue everyday. As new models of power meters and GPS come out, they simply add a bit more bells and whistles, and the products that still collect data and allow athletes to download and analyze it, become cheaper and cheaper. This is really all you need. Keep it simple, and you'd be amazed how cheap EFFECTIVE training can really be!

Let's say your budget is $1500. I have taken the liberty to show you how you can begin training using data for less than this budget.

Combination #1


Run data collection
Garmin is the major player, dominating the market, and even as they have introduced nicer models, they have also introduced cheaper models with effective features, such as downloadable data, ANT+,  and done it with much more aesthetically pleasing watches, unlike their original and bulky Forerunner 205/305/310XT models.

I recommend Garmin's Forerunner 210 model. It does it all, small on the wrist, acts like a normal watch too, at $299 on Amazon. There's a 110 model for cheaper, but the 210 gives you all the important data of pace, heart-rate and cadence on the run, (via foot-pod). The 110 is not as good, as the 210 comes with everything you need to download the data as well,  is the better investment.

Power data collection
I recommend splitting up the computer units you'll use for the bike and run. Come race-day, this is faster and  easier. Also, it helps to save battery life if one unit isn't doing all the work. When you have a dead battery, you have no data.

For the bike and power data, a single wireless unit with ANT+ capability, like the Garmin Edge 500 is a great unit, available at Amazon for $249. You can purchase this model without a HR monitor, because the one with the 210 is compatible with this one as well, so two for the price of one!

Power meter
The easiest power meter on the market is the Powertap, and it is priced extremely cheap at $660, with ANT+, on an excellent training wheel at Competitive Cyclist. You won't need the computer head, because you've got the Edge already.

Total cost for this combination: $1208, ($292 below budget!)

If you want a race wheel, you can use the savings from the budget to buy a nice front wheel, and then go to Wheelbuilder and get a disc cover, (Aerojacket), for your training wheel. It will make it suddenly a great racing wheel, and in some studies, even better!



Combination #2


Run data collection and Power data collection in one unit
Though I mentioned above that I'm not a fan of one unit for both, some people are. The best unit for this is either the 910XT, ($449 at Amazon), or the 310XT, ($349 at Amazon), both listed with the heart rate monitor.

Here's the 910XT and the 310XT...

You will want to buy the foot-pod, as cadence data can tell you a lot of information about how your running is. It is $88.94 at Amazon, and is compatible with both the 910XT and the 310XT.



Power meter
Again, the Powertap from Competitive Cyclist at $660, with no computer head, is still the best deal.



Total cost for this combination: 
$1197.94 for 910XT, with foot-pod and Powertap
$1097.94 for 310XT, with foot-pod and Powertap

This last single-unit combination is not much lower in cost than the 2 unit combination, so consider the advice of separating the two. Also, you can use the savings to get a disc cover mentioned in combination #1.



Analysis Software
And last but not least, is the software to analyze. This is the best part, TrainingPeaks is FREE! If you want some bells and whistles, you can pay for a premium account, but if you have a coach who uses it, you likely get the premium account included in their services.

You can truly see how a $1500 budget is more than enough, and as little as an $1100 budget will get you using data and taking your training and performances to new levels! No more excuses, time to do it right!

Coach Vance

Making sense of the data

As you probably know from reading this blog, I am big "data-guy" when it comes to coaching athletes. Yes, I believe in coaching technique and especially the mental side when athletes have high goals, but in the day-to-day training aspects, data tells us how the athlete is progressing.

Much of the posts I've shared here have been where the data is clearly showing improvement for an athlete, but it isn't always easy to see improvement, and sometimes different data collections may tell a different story. So, making sense of the data collected is the biggest challenge, especially when you can get conflicting stories.

Here's an example of a PMC chart for running files from an athlete: (click on images to enlarge)

You can see I've highlighted an area where it appears we have some plateauing, or even some possible regression. The dots with lines represent the 10 best performances in the time period, over certain time intervals, such as 30 seconds, 1 min, 6 min, etc. Ideally, we want to see these lines on an upward slope, representing faster speeds produced.

However, we still see some of the 10 best performances of the time period so far. Not only do we see these happening, the 60 min samples are the best so far, and the ATL, (pink line, Actue Training Load representing load or fatigue of the athlete), is far and away the largest the athlete has experienced so far. The athlete went on a holiday vacation and was able to run a lot more. The fact he was still able to show some of his best performances in such a fatigued state, is encouraging. But again, this is only one data collection, so let's look at some other data and try to see a more complete picture.

Here is a chart from the same athlete, which tracks their average run pace per week, for ALL runs. This shows his average pace is at its highest. This data could be skewed if a certain workout was designed to be faster, but that hasn't been the case. This athlete has focused on Zone 1 run economy, and one run per week with 15 second surges, so the training has been consistent and inferences of improvement can be drawn.

In fact, this athlete lives in a very flat place in the US, and for this vacation went to a very hilly part of the US. The fact these paces were achieved in a more challenging terrain, under higher fatigue levels is encouraging. But let's continue to look at the data in a different perspective...

These charts take the best 30 min sample in a single week of run paces on the left, watts on the right, and plots them on the graph. You can see the trends are continuing up. The outlier on the left chart is a test workout. When we look at this, considering the whole picture of the data, and then look at the summary chart of the training so far, we see improvement across the board. The only value not showing improvement so far is 20 minute pace, because of a test workout to determine run FTP.

So even though the run PMC chart at the top showed a plateau of performance, when we considered all the data points, and even the subjectivity of where the athlete was training over the holidays, we can be fairly certain and excited that the athlete is progressing quite well with the current training focus, and there is no need to change the current course, yet.

If you have data collected, and are interested in having me view it and share what I see, contact me at coachjimvance at g mail dot com.

Coach Vance

Over-reaching in training?

From twitter the other day:

@behrenst asks:
"Would still love to hear your thoughts on intentionally overreaching and where in a training plan it might offer the most benefit"

Thanks for the question. The whole of point of training in general is over-reaching, just how much we should over-reach is the art of training/coaching. This is incredibly individual, even in the timing, given career and family responsibilities, as well as climate and race schedule.

One athlete I coach is a school teacher who has his summer off. We use this period to focus on either Ironman Wisconsin, or Kona, as he alternates years usually with these events, qualifying for Kona one year, racing it the next. The fact he has so much free time, allows this to be an excellent time to over-reach more than we would during the school year. It also coincides with the 12-week lead-up into Ironman Wisconsin for him, so this becomes a perfect time-window for specific preparation for the race.

So to answer your question, the specific preparation period is most important, and if you can over-reach there, you'll see a better transfer of that effort into actual performance. But I also want to caution you to be careful in your over-reaching, as this 12 week period is CRITICAL, so a mistake in over-reaching can lead to injury, burnout, over-training, and missed training during this time.

If you've given yourself plenty of time to build slowly into this specific preparation period, you won't require over-reaching beyond a normal amount. Remember, the more time you have, the less risk you need to take in training. The less time you have, the more risk you must take to be prepared.

Consistency of training over the long haul will trump a few big weeks of training, always.

Coach Vance

How much running is enough?

I was asked a question the other day about how many runs in a week is enough for a triathlete, given the need to swim and bike, especially when preparing for a half or full Ironman. It's an interesting question, and one which is entirely dependent on the athlete's strengths, weaknesses and goals.

However, most athletes are time crunched, and looking for the minimum needed to get by and compete sufficiently, and I do believe that number is 3. Here are a few key points to this:

- For most time-crunched Ironman athletes, the easiest training session to get completed is the run. Pool sessions require going to a pool and then returning, and a minimum of time in the pool needed to do well is about 45-60 minutes, but most likely 60 minutes will do better than 45. Biking for 60 mins doesn't give you much, unless on a trainer. So adding a run should be the easiest part of training.
- 3 is a good number, but 4 is better. 5 is better than 4, but this is not universal. The key is consistency, as missing just one run means reducing the training load by about 33%, or more. The less runs you do, the more important each run is. You can't afford to miss them.
- 3 is a good number if one of the runs is a long run. How long is a long run? That depends again on the athlete, but a minimum of 90 mins, and as much as 2-3 hours, if the athlete can handle it.
- 3 is a good number if another one of the runs is a medium distance run, perhaps with some tempo effort in it. This means about 80% of the long run.
- 3 is a good number if the third run is high intensity intervals! As an athlete gets closer to race day, these intervals should get longer and longer, generally speaking.
- If you can get a 4th run in, what should it be? I think it should be a zone 1 economy building run, or something which addresses the key weaknesses of the athlete.

Coach Vance