Book Review: Training and Racing with a Power Meter by Hunter Allen and Andrew Coggan, PhD

I just received my (autographed!) copy yesterday, and have already read the first few chapters, and scanned the rest of the book. Pretty good! While you can, if you are diligent, get a lot of this information by cruising various forums, the book gets all the basics together so that you can make effective use of the tool.

Lots of power files were submitted for use as examples and of course, the research, that went into this book. It's not all geared to pure cyclists, either. There's a decent section on triathlon racing.

If you're thinking of getting one of these, it's $20 well spent before you drop $1500+ on the PM. That being said, you still will want a copy of Cycling Peaks Software (about $70) to supplement what comes with the device that you choose.

As you get familiar with using the tool, there are nuances that you will observe about the hardware and your results, and this is where the online forums really shine (especially, for example, as individuals submit their power data from actual racing situations!).

I've had my PM for 2 years now, and I am just now getting geeked-out with it in an effort to achieve a much higher level of cyling fitness than I ever dreamed possible. A quote from the book that really struck home for me is this:

"Combining both [coaching and power] made my training super focused and my racing the perfect test to see if what we were training created results. Several times during my pre-season training, I would see my workouts on my email and think, 'I can't finish that. I would start the workout saying to myself, 'When I blow up, I'll just email my coach the power file and let him know I tried but just couldn't pull it off.' However, most of the time the opposite would happen."

Yep. A PM and its output files make me 100% accountable for the work level I achieve on the bike. I can't lie about what I did when my coach sees the results. And then he can use that information to target my workouts.

Redemption!

Last week, 3 weeks post-Goofy, I was back up to "normal" training volume, and for the most part, intensity. Except for one thing. I hadn't done an FT watts test. Trying to do that last week would have been a joke, since I needed to settle back in with some amount of FT time on Tuesday, Thursday, and newly added, my Saturday long ride.

Two days ago was supposed to be the test day--the usual 2x20' @FT watts with 2' rest in between, trap normalized watts for the entire 42'. My SRM's Powercontrol was acting squirrely, but I got it going on Tuesday, and began my ride. Well, after my warmup and some time in HR zone 3, I hit it. I could tell I just didn't have anything in my legs. They weren't sore, they didn't feel tired, I just couldn't push any watts. Other than my swimming sucking due to low volume (fixed that!), I really haven't had any "bad" workouts in a long, long time. So I just accepted what was on Tuesday, did the best I could, and figured I could try again today.

This morning the Powercontrol was still acting weird, but I finally found the place in the manual that told me that what it was doing was configurable--so I guess somewhere along the way some setting got messed up. My experience is that the thing can be a little touchy, and actually I thought I might have received erroneous readings on Tuesday...isn't it funny how a little gadget can affect your mood? I don't have a problem stepping on a scale, although I suppose if I was up 5 lbs. it would cause alarms to go off. But I was really worried about what the silly Powercontrol told me!

Anyway, I fixed the darn thing and charged it up and got on the bike a few hours ago. I don't really notice what my watts are while I'm doing my warmup, but for some reason I didn't think they were very good today. Oh well, if this was just an "off" week for me, so what. I told myself that I would hit it for 5', see what watts I was holding, and if they were in the right range, I would keep going and go for the 2x20' interval; otherwise, I would slack and just do 3x10'.

At 5' things looked just fine. I'm not saying holding the watts didn't suck, but for the first interval things looked great--up 3 watts from my previous FT measured 6 weeks ago, or 3 weeks pre-Goofy, which was about when I started tapering my bike and swim. The question was, could I hold the watts for my second interval? I didn't feel bad (OK, but I didn't feel "good" either), and for a split second I was going to give myself a 3' rest instead of just 2'. But then I thought, NO, that will just prolong the agony. So with a 2' easy effort, I was off again.

The 2nd interval didn't feel that bad, not any worse than the first one. Right away, though, I told myself that if my legs bailed on me that I could just shorten it to 15', and that would still give me a good workout. So I just focused on one minute at a time (that's how it goes for me during these efforts on the trainer). 5', good, I'm holding 162 watts, but would like more. 10', good, I'm holding 163 watts, can I pick up 2 more during the last 10'?

YES!!! I almost hate to say it, but man, I'm a VERY happy camper right about now. I hit 165 (and normalized watts for the 42' are 165) watts, after about a 6-week layoff, a big training week last week (more intensity than ever so far), a killer week this week, and the watts are even UP! WOOHOO!!!

I had some good dry heaves after I cooled down, some Endurox R4, and actually I feel great. I know it's partly psychological, but after Tuesday's travesty and feeling like crap yesterday, I am back with a vengeance. I may yet see those 170 watts this spring!

Oh yeah, and I'm running faster since Goofy, too!!!

The Collective continues to improve!!!

January, 2006 Training Totals

Swim: 34,300 yards in 12.2 hours
Bike: 13.32 hours
Run: 17.36 hours
Strength: 7.77 hours
Total: 50.65 hours
Also, stretching 7.2 hours for the month

Swimming and biking got derailed by Goofy recovery, but I'm back up to 10,000+ yards/week. I feel like that Nike commercial (which I LOVE): http://www.nike.com/nikeair/us/ keep clicking on the shoe until you see the icon for "watch commercial."

Horribly Hilly Hundreds (6/17/2006) Ride Registration is Now Open!

Go here or here. If you're thinking about doing the ride, register NOW, because there's a limit of 1,000 riders, and they WILL shut down registration. It's a very well-run ride, and it's very difficult!

If you're training for Ironman Wisconsin, this is a must-do event if you can possibly make it. Why? Because completing this will make the Ironman course feel like a piece of cake! Well, not quite, but the HHH 200K has over 10,000 feet of climbing; whereas the Ironman Wisconsin course is more like 4,000 feet.

If you're training for another Ironman after CDA, this is a great endurance ride. Part of my philosophy of Ironman training is to do really hard shit so that the race itself isn't that much of a stretch.

If you don't have too many years of cycling under your belt, you might be better off doing only the 100K, which while technically not that many miles, is harder than most full 100-mile century rides you would ever do (it takes many people 5+ hours just to cover the 100K). If you think you're really tough, and are willing to cry, scream and suffer, go for the 200K, and I would advise that you ride at least 200 miles the week before.

I'm registered for my third execution of the 200K route, which falls 3 weeks after Ironman Brazil, so that should make it even more interesting for me.

I'm Not Average

Below is a table I lifted from Wilmore & Costill, "Physiology of Exercise and Sport." So you can see that I currently fall into the "Elite Triathletes" category. I considered myself "fat" at 23%. Is that really fat? Depends on your perspective. It's considered "average" for American females. What the table doesn't show is what's considered "healthy." I got my personal notion of healthy from the book "Fit or Fat" by Covert Bailey. He said for a woman that 18-22% is healthy. You can believe that or not. But most women will look pretty good, with curves and all, in that range. But for me, I didn't like that extra layer of flab on my thighs, midsection or arms, and as I get older, it becomes even more difficult to keep it off. If you are a person interested in seeing your abs, you need to be at the bottom of the "healthy" range for bodyfat. For women, you might see them at 18% bodyfat; you might not. For men, it's more around 12%. But this will vary with genetics and where your body likes to store fat. It is true, though, that if you can see that six-pack, you are pretty darn lean.

Is 11-12% (my current bodyfat) "unhealthy?" I don't think so. Apparently, I have all my "essential fat." All 43,000 kcal of it! I can go a loooooong way on that many calories!

Let's do some math. When I weighed 128 at 23% bodyfat, I had 98.6 lbs. of lean mass. Now I weigh 112 at 11% bodyfat and I have 99.7 lbs. of lean mass. I doubt my bones or bodily organs gained much weight there, so guess what? I'm more muscular and yet leaner. I like it this way better.

What bodyfat is right for YOU? That's for you to decide, based on your health and performance goals. I've been called skinny to my face so many times, it's become a big joke to me. But do I turn around and call others fat to their faces? No. Not cool. But the other day, the first comment I received from another woman was, "You lift weights, don't you? You're so muscular." He he. I like that, too.

I'm fit AND healthy. By choice.
_______________________________
Bodyfat Percentage Ranges
___________________________________
Men Women
Essential fat 3-5 11-13
Elite distance runners 5-8 13-17
Elite triathletes 5-12 8-15
Average American 15-20 23-26
Overweight 20-25 26-35
Overfat (obese) Over 25 Over 35

The Other Part of the Metamorphosis Story, or My Health

Lest anyone think that the only reasons I have sought to reduce my weight and body fat were vanity and to move towards a possible goal of a Kona slot, let me give the rest of the story.

I should have included in my Metamorphosis post that in 2003, while I was doing GFT, I ran across Bill Taylor, Cathy Taylor's husband. I had met Bill in 2001 at Ironman USA, as well as Shelley, about whom I remember thinking "Man she's in much better shape than I am!" So I run into Bill during the marathon at GFT, and we ran together for a bit, and he remarked at how great I looked and said, "Not that you looked bad before--you were just a bit chubby." For a split second, I thought that was a mean thing to say, but then I snapped out of it and realized that I was so glad he was so honest. After all, it was my self-assessment that had spurred me to make changes.

I realize that my athletic and body composition objectives may be more aggressive than most, but I look at it this way: All this hauling around my sorry ass is hard enough on my body without making it even harder by eating poorly or weighing a lot. I want to be able to run well into my 70's and 80's! I want to be one of those old ladies that people talk about like, "Can you believe she is still doing THAT?" I guess to a certain extent, I AM that lady already. I certainly don't feel 49 years old (I'll be 50 at Ironman Florida!). And I am pretty sure that my next profession, or "hobby," will be to become a personal trainer and coach. And I definitely think it's important to look the part, and "walk the walk and talk the talk."

I have a number of things working against me being that old lady who's still running when she's 70. I have no ACL in my left knee, and part of my left medial meniscus is gone. I knew this before I even began running in 1998. I have a herniated disk that was confirmed in April, 2005, that may be all gone, but insurance won't pay for a "let's see" MRI. I'm perimenopausal and need to maintain my bone density and minimize the intensity of hot flashes, night sweats, and all those other interesting things that happen to women my age. Obesity, heart disease, diabetes, stroke and joint degeneration all run in my family. I have watched too many of my aunts and uncles die after horrible, degenerative changes to their bodies that might have been prevented by lifestyle changes. I have 2 brothers and 2 sisters and they are all fat to obese, every one of them has "back problems," is tired, inflexible and suffers many more common colds in a year than I ever do. I can't control my genetics, but I can control how I live my life.

In early 2004, I asked my GP to run a full blood panel on me. She asked me why. I told her because I wanted to be sure my health was good, considering all the extra stress I place on my body, and secretly I wanted to see the impact of the changes I had been making to my diet. She thought it was a good idea, especially since she knows my family's history. I had had a full panel run in 1997 (this was before I took up endurance exercise, but I was in decent shape from years of bodybuilding) to compare the results to. The 1997 results showed me to be in fine health, at least from the perspective of all the measurements taken from my blood. Everything came back fine (actually pointing to outstanding health) from the 2004 workup except for my cholesterol. I was told it was "borderline high." WHAT???? How could that be, when I've done everything possible to eat right? I called the nurse and insisted that I needed to be retested, after reading up on testing protocol, and thinking we hadn't done everything right. Due to insurance restrictions, they didn't want to retest me for 3 months. So I waited and worried, but I went back gladly, and guess what? Everything was in line. Crisis averted!

Last fall, I had an "incident" at a pool that pointed out to me that something was not right. My blood pressure skyrocketed to 196/100 right afterwards, and stayed there for hours even once I had calmed down. Over the next few weeks, it came down some, but not to my usual borderline low reading of 110/70. So I knew that something else in my life needed to change. While we can't fully control our blood pressure, and it does tend to go up as we age, we can do our best to minimize lifestyle impact to it. It was around that time that I had a serious talk with myself about how I was leading my life, how did the triathlon training fit in and what is my purpose in life? Not to mention I needed to get that BP down! So again, I was presented with an opportunity to make some life changes, and I did, and the net net is that here I am writing all this crap for everyone to see. Why? So you understand that for me, this is all as much about my pure health (physical and mental) as it is about triathlon. The amount of exercise I do is excessive for general health. So it's doubly important to me that I do my very best to maintain superior health, given that I enjoy what I'm doing, plan to keep it up for awhile, and have so many things working against me.

My GP, who is overweight herself, comments every time I see her on what great condition I'm in and how pleased she is that I am doing everything possible to stay healthy, despite my penchant for extreme amounts of exercise! My orthopaedic guy commented to me that while all this running may not be so good for my knees, that it's way better than the alternative--being a couch potato--and that at least I have the good sense to minimize the amount of force being put on my joints by maintaining a low, but healthy, weight.

I want to live VIGOROUSLY. So it's important to me, not just for my triathlon performance, but for my LIFE performance, to take the best care of myself that I can. If in the process I can set a good example to others, and let's face it, look damn good doing it, then, well I guess that's part of the reason that I'm here in the first place.

Metamorphosis

The first picture is me in 2001 at my first Ironman race. I was 128 lbs., 22-23% body fat. FAT!!! I actually gained weight while training for my first Ironman! Why? Because I figured I could eat "as much as I want." Stupid me. I had been smaller and leaner about 5 years before that when I was watching what I ate and knew how many calories I was taking in.

When I saw that picture of myself, I was disgusted. How did I go from 118 lbs., 18% body fat to THAT?? I ate mindlessly, that's how. The next spring I began keeping track of how many calories I was burning and how much I needed to eat and began making changes to my diet. I lost maybe 5 lbs. over 8 months of time, and it was probably mostly fat, because it was quite noticeable, and I did it slowly. At least I was getting my problem under control.

The next spring (2003), I was training for the 1/2 Ironman in Kona when I became injured--bilateral bursitis of the ischial tuberosities. In layman's terms, my ass hurt like hell when I ran. The pain was right at the top of the femur where the hamstrings originate. I knew I would need to stop running completely for a few weeks. I also was advised to stop biking for awhile too, to let the bursae calm down.

I was devastated. I wanted so badly to go to Kona in the springtime (it would have been my 3rd time in that race) and race and have fun, but the race was not to be. I stopped running and biking. I let myself cry uncontrollably for a few days. Then it hit me. Here is an opportunity to focus on nothing except swimming and eating right. So I swam. A LOT (about 25-30,000 yards per week). And I watched what I ate like a hawk. After 2 weeks, I began getting on my MTB, since its cushy saddle didn't seem to aggravate my butt. I stretched. I walked. I did as much as I could to retain my aerobic fitness without running. And in the process, I established some really good eating habits. I returned to running very slowly and conservatively, and 3 months after my injury, I did a 1/2 Ironman and PR'ed. I knew a big part of it was that I was lighter (by about 5 more lbs.) and healthier from my nutrition focus. I felt great! I ended up DNF'ing at Ironman Wisconsin that fall (I, and 2 other nurses, stupidly misdiagnosed hyponatremia as dehydration), but turned around and finished Great Floridian 8 weeks later.

I remember weighing in at Great Floridian at 116 lbs. I was feeling pretty good. As it turned out, I didn't have that great of a race there because the camber of the road around the lake did a number on my hips and left ankle. But I still finished.

My weight was down, but I still felt like I could do better on my body fat percentage. Fat is dead weight to a triathlete. Might as well carry around a few sacks of rocks and go for a run. I figured I was around 18% again, but I wanted to get to 15%--it was just a "thing" of mine. So I looked for places where I could cut a few calories here and there out of my diet. I switched from eating a 350 calorie MetRx bar in the morning to a different bar with about 250 calories. I switched from Healthy Choice meals at lunchtime to Lean Cuisine. I think those 2 changes saved me 250-300 calories per day, a reasonable reduction. I was on my way.

In March, 2004, I decided I wanted to see how I was doing, so I had my body fat measured. 13%. THIRTEEN PERCENT???? I figured I might be near 15 but certainly not lower. Wow. I guess I had done well. And the second photo is of me in Kona in October, 2004, and that's pretty much how I look today, but my legs are a little leaner and I'm a little more cut.

And guess what else happened between 2001 and 2004? Mysteriously, I got faster. Running became easier. I could ride hills faster than all my friends. All along I knew that I was trying to figure out if I had the "goods" to someday qualify for Hawaii, and I knew that an element of that is training, and another element is to be able to train to my potential which is most certainly affected by my weight and body fat percentage.

Being able to finish 2 Ironman races in 2004 7 weeks apart (and they were my 2 fastest Ironman races) I think is a testament to what REALLY being in shape means. No WAY I could have done that if I was still a 128-lb. fatty.

And now I'm at the point where I have to try and make sure I'm eating enough! It's a nice problem to have! But really, I DO watch what I eat, and I DO notice how great I feel being small. I was at one time a skinny 107 lbs. (post-divorce, the EASIEST diet you can go on!), but I had little muscle. Now at 112 lbs. I have more muscle and less fat than I did then, and I feel 100 times better.

Sure getting from A to B has been work--HARD work. But it has ABSOLUTELY been worth it for the feeling of being able to train somewhere close to my potential, given that I still have a full-time job. This is why when people act all amazed at the amount of training that I do, my response is usually, "The workouts are the EASY part. It's all the other stuff--nutrition, rest, stretching, massage, mindfulness--that is hard to master and find time for. But it's well worth it!"

My message to anyone who is training semi-seriously is to think like an Olympian--you don't see fat Olympians, do you? Well maybe some powerlifters and wrestlers, but the rest of them are all lean, mean machines. Most of us will never be Olympians, but that shouldn't stop us from doing whatever we can to achieve our potential in sport.

Weekly Training Report: 1/23/2006-1/29/2006

It was a great week! It's the end of 3 weeks post-Goofy Challenge, and everything is working as it should. I am fairly tired today after a fairly hard long run and short swim, but nothing that a good night's sleep can't fix, since I need to hit it early tomorrow morning. Here are the details:

Swim: 10,100 yards in 3.58 hours; 25% of weekly workout time
Bike: 4.53 hours; approx. 79 miles; 32% of weekly workout time
Run: 4.56 hours; approx. 29 miles; 32% of weekly workout time
Strength: 1.68 hours; 12% of weekly workout time
Total Hours: 14.34
Approx. Calories Burned by Exercise: 6,562
Average Sleep: 8.54 hours/night
Stretching: 2.63 hours (a new high)

Accomplishments:

Swim:
Regained some of my speed in the water. Could be due to the decreased strength work time, or it could just be that I decided I’d had enough and was ready to work harder.
Completed over 10,000 yards swimming. I hope to stay over 10,000 yards except during an actual “rest week.”

Bike:
Regained my bike FT watts, although the real test comes on Tuesday, when I do a 2x20’ interval ride.
Nailed 3 bike workouts that included FT intervals!

Run:
Returned to my “normal” run volume (about 30 miles per week), pain-free.
Completed 2 runs including tempo intervals, felt great doing it, and BONUS, I’m running faster!

Other:
Kept up my stretching commitment. My massage therapist concurred that I am more flexible than ever, and my muscles feel really great.
Began regular visualization of positive, successful race outcomes for Ralphs and Ironman Brazil.

Goals for Next Week:
Meet or beat my previous high FT watts (162) on my Tuesday test.
Meet or beat the speeds I hit this week on my Monday and Wednesday swims for 100’s and 200’s.
Average at least 8 hours of sleep per night.
Stretch at least 15’ per day.

Workouts Completed this Week
Monday: Swim 3,000 yards in 1:05; Strength :59; Run :50 including strides.
Tuesday: Strength :12; Bike 1:10 including 4x8’ (2’) FT, watts=161, 163, 162, 166.
Wednesday: Swim 3,300 yards in 1:11; Run 1:05 including :24 tempo
Thursday: Strength :30; Bike 1:05 including 2x15’ (2’) FT, watts=164, 164
Friday: Swim 2,600 yards in :54; Run 1:00 Upper-Steady
Saturday: Bike 2:15 including 20’ FT at watts=165
Sunday: Run 1:40, including 20’ Upper-Steady and 10’ Tempo; Swim 1,200 yards in :24