A Little Watts/Kg Math

14 Days Ago | Posted to: Training Thoughts

Put together a little spreadsheet. Enter your body weight in lbs and it'll tell you how many watts you need to output to be a cat5, cat4, cat3, cat2, cat1, domestic pro or international pro. All Marc's fault... he sent the chart of watt/kg out and I just wanted to see what I'd have to output to be an international pro (answer, between 516 and 579 watts average for 5 min.) And sorry ladies, had to convert a graphic to cell formulas which was tedious and it's 1am. Click the hard-to-find File icon below to download the Excel spreadsheet.

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Ultrarunning to Improve Ironman Performance

27 Days Ago | Posted to: Training Thoughts

Paul's posting some thoughts on ultrarunning on his blog:

Boy, this one got me thinking a lot. Will ultra running really make me happy or just open up a can of worms and down a rabbit hole that will take me off my real path/goals/desires?

Ah, ultrarunning is a big question mark. You have to follow your heart. Spending a few months over the winter and spring doing some trail runs and maybe a few 50ks or 50 milers won't hurt and will probably help. It can recharge your batteries and maintain/enhance your run base.

I've always loved running and got into ultras one run at a time. I honestly can't remember a trail run I didn't enjoy (although maybe there were one or two that got epic and miserable... but who doesn't enjoy that?) But my goal with them was always to improve ironman performance. I did my ultras in 2007, culminating in a 100 miler a couple months before IM Fla. Rtarded.

The problem I had was that to train up for the ultra I jettisoned my bike and swim. They really suffered.

My aerobic base was huge. But my run speed was dismal. Plus, recovery after the race took a while. It would have been a week but i lost two toenails and had an allergic reaction to foot tape that blistered my feet for weeks.

After the season I concluded that the ultras didn't help my ironman performance. And directly speaking, they didn't.

But through 08 I felt comfortable doing 21+ milers every wednesday. And I was able to train through im louisville, running the day after and putting in a 20+ miler the week before and after.

I think that the ultras gave my legs some more durability. That durability is a huge limiter in ultras. Being able to run through muscular fatigue is a skill that serves you well on heavy training weeks. In the end I think that my ultrarunning in 07 helped me in 08 by allowing me to absorb more work.

And going much longer than ironman time can't hurt the endocrine system. Fat burning is key.

With a little tweak to the schedule ultras could have helped me inside of one season too. Don't put your first 100 miler a couple months before your A ironman race. Run long early and then add speed in the mid part of the season. Every season I find that I have to move my speed-building portions earlier and earlier because it takes a while to build deep, solid, repeatable speed.

And I could be completely wrong. These are my thoughts right now.

Would I do it again? Absolutely! Because I truly love running. It's my therapy. If I didn't love it I'd have a harder time justifying it. Like ultraswimming... not in my future... at least not any time soon.

At the very least I'd recommend to Paul that he sign up for one 50k race in Jan/Feb/Mar. It'll help him carry his run base through the winter and will get him exploring the ultrarunning world. Plus, we'll be able to get some good trail runs in together. And Carriere may join in too!

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Motivation Vacuum

1 Month Ago | Posted to: Training Thoughts

Interesting to see performance change in the vacuum of motivation. No events any time soon. Nothing to scare me. A lot less working out. Struggling to get just basic workouts done. Fitness evaporates and working out actually becomes somewhat demoralizing because the memory of fitness is so fresh. Slowly this will turn to a focus on improvement as fitness bottoms out and events appear in the reasonably near future. It's a cycle. Even though I'm experiencing this I'm not too bent out of shape about it. When it's time to push hard I'll be there only because I'm not pushing hard now.

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Thoughts on Workout Data

1 Month Ago | Posted to: Training Thoughts

Five years ago I was all about the data. Any device I could get I would wear. Sometimes I had a GPS on one wrist, a heart rate monitor on the other and a power meter on the bike. I loved the charts and graphs.

But fairly quickly, maybe in my second season, I found that I didn't like having access to data in races because it held me back. Then I transferred that thinking to training and for a couple years continued to collect data aggressively (data OCD) but I generally didn't use it during the workouts. Near the end of 06, beginning of 07 I started to skip data collection on workouts and not sweat it too much. Big portions of last year are a data vacuum.

I still track basics of time and distance on the blog. That gives me some understanding of what I'm doing. And I plan on continuing to do that for the foreseeable future. And I still use heart rate in iron-distance events... I've just got to have that rational limiter.

Paul posted about his data collection changing lately. Got me thinking a bit. I've been all across the spectrum. I found that the value I was getting out of the data wasn't worth the trouble it took to collect it. Working out is hectic enough without all of the straps, charging and downloading. With two to three workouts a day I often found myself spending 30 minutes just getting all of the gear into the minivan. These days anything I can do to simplify the workout routine is welcome.

I could have gotten a lot more out of my data. I just didn't. Every time I went in and did crazy complex analysis I found that there were too many uncontrollable variables at play. Sure, I could compare heart rate for three climbs up Hogpen. But the temp and wind was different. And what was my body weight? And did I have that 12x27 yet? I could draw conclusions but the numbers were often close and the unknowns took away most authority of the conclusion.

Part of this is just the natural progression too. I would absolutely recommend that new triathletes/runners/cyclists use heart rate/power/cadence, etc. Early on in your career you don't know what various heart rates feel like. You don't know what your limits feel like. The data is a great feedback mechanism. It's like a hint to point you to the answer. But you have to see it as such. Otherwise you get overly dependent on it. Over time you learn many of the lessons that data can offer. You either have to up your data analysis game (which I didn't) or go more by feel. I'm opting to go more by feel as I was past the point of diminishing returns.

One thing that would have helped was a single piece of software to bring it all together. One Ring to Rule Them. WKO+ was supposed to do that but it couldn't talk to some of my Polars... or Garmins. I could use my Polar/Garmin software to download the workout but then I had to manually put it into WKO+. They have mass import but it created dupes. Overall, pita.

Sometimes I miss the data. I look back at the holes and wish that my charts were complete. But that's just nostalgia/OCD.

I think I'll use the data devices more on the benchmarking front from here forward. Controlled treadmill and CompuTrainer workouts that I can do over and over again to compare fitness.

Like my 8mph for 1hr on the treadmill. Been doing that for years. Lots of data points. But there are even problems with that. Each treadmill is calibrated differently. And as I get closer and closer to my personal best capability the margins of performance are tighter and tighter. Which opens the door to a bunch of calibration challenges. Like bringing a foot pod and creating a five minute treadmill calibration routine.

All to serve the data. At the end of the day I'm going by feel much more. I find that the data is/was a crutch. It was supposed to give me comfort that I was progressing. Oddly however, I rarely looked at data and thought "awesome, I'm rocking!" Normally I found I was behind where I expected to be. Or wanted to be.

As the years go by fun is more and more important to me and my fitness. The basics of completing races are no longer motivating. The basics of setting prs aren't either. I mean, I certainly want to set prs. But the force is getting weaker in me. More than anything I just enjoy getting out there and having fun on my bike or in my run shoes. It's a real lifestyle and I enjoy it.

GPS data is nice to have because it does show pace throughout the workout. I like that. And I like the little maps. And I like being able to download a ride to the GPS in case I get dropped. Or race myself on the same route later. There are definitely benefits to some data and I've found that GPS data is lately my favotire. In the past I was all about heart rate. Then power on the bike before I realized the Polar Power Meter was crap.

Data collecting, archival and analysis gets tedious. It's a wonderful tool but I found that I was constantly paying for it and only rarely using it. Like leasing a $4,000 hammer that just sat in my toolbox.

So those are my thoughts on data. And yes, this is pretty much a guarantee that I'll be getting a power meter and a license for SPSS or Mathematica in the coming weeks.

I had no idea I had that many thoughts on workout data when I started this blog post.

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Lucho Drops By with Zero Expectations

3 Months Ago | Posted to: Training Thoughts

Tim Luchinske stopped by the site and left this comment for me:

Joe- The low expectations you place on your runs are a mental game that you play with yourself to counter your fear. By having low expectations there is less risk of failure, so there's nothing to be afraid of and your brain doesn't release stress hormones. When your expectations are high then there is more risk of failure (and success) and you get stressed which releases hormones. This is the "fear of success" theory in sports psychology. Going in to workouts with zero expectations counters both of these thought processes. Zero expectations allow you more readily to listen to your body and get the most out of the session. You should also consider how you define success and failure of a workout. If you plan to run at 8:00 pace and are too tired to achieve this- the workout may still be very successful in terms of moving towards your goal. Just because the number on the watch isn't up to your expectations, the effort may be. Your muscles don't care what the number on the watch is- they only care about how hard they work. Fatigue can make 8:30 pace just as effective in building fitness as 8:00 pace can when you're more rested. The same thing with HR. What happens with athletes is that they condition and teach themselves how to perceive their objective data (watts, HR, pace), the brains perception and preconditioned response to the number THEN determines how they feel. If you are intimidated by 7:30 pace, when you see it on your watch it will trigger fear, THEN you will feel tired, even if you felt great up to that point. Hormone release triggered by brain response to seeing a stimulus that you have taught yourself to fear... Ie: A small child doesn't fear a tiger until he learns to. When he first sees the tiger he is calm and laughing and wants to pet the tiger... once he learns what it actually is, seeing the tiger will trigger adrenaline, norepinephrine and cortisol release causing elevated HR and the fight or flight mechanism (fear). Bad analogy- but it gets the point across. When you look at your watch or power meter and your expectations are not met- the number may as well be a tiger.. Figure out how to shift this thinking away from expectation and more towards allowing your body to do what it can. Sorry to pop in and give unsolicited advice... this subject is currently the only thing that I myself am focused on. I see this response in nearly every athlete out there! The athletes that you don't see this response in are the ones who won Kona yesterday. They're the ones who break world records. The brain is 100% in control of how your body functions on race day... every small movement and decision starts in the brain. Your brain tells you how your legs feel, not the other way around.

It's awesome that Tim's checking out the blog. I found him through Jeff Keil's blog and enjoyed his perspective. Then I learned that Kindzia had worked with him in the past. Tim's working on a sub-2:30 marathon and is turning out 120+ mile weeks. He used to compete in triathlons and is now focusing on running.

Aside from the huge and fast running that he does, his mindset's very centered. In the last month... the month when I started reading him... he went through a big change in his mental approach to running. It's been amazing seeing that unfold each day.

So, of course, I'm more than glad to get any sort of feedback/guidance from him, solicited or not.

In a nutshell, Lucho recommends going into workouts with zero expectations. I had been describing my attempts at setting low expectations in the hopes of not being disappointed with my efforts. Zero expectations is a different mindset. It'll be hard to do that because there are always many sources of sensory input telling you things about your fitness status going into a workout. Soreness in the legs. Lung fatigue. Core/back tightness.

But I've had great workouts through each of those. So adopting a zero expectations mindset is rationally correct.

I can see the "fear of failure" angle too. So amazing that the mind can do so much to the body.

This all goes back to my meeting with the doctor who played chess. He said that in competitive chess at the world class level it's often the young guys who win because their *bodies* are in better shape to endure the long matches (i.e. body pain doesn't distract their mental activity.) In endurance sports you always hear that the difference between good and great is *mental* (i.e. the brain doesn't limit the body's activity.)

I always find this juxtaposition rather ironic. Chess is about physical conditioning and running is mental.

Having somebody like Lucho out there sharing his thoughts is very helpful to the entire community because he's many steps ahead (certainly of me.) We can watch him shape his own mental fortitude. While he does so many of the lessons make sense logically but don't hit home emotionally until we progress to through the lessons and feel them for ourselves.

I mean, sure, zero expectations. I'm on board. But I know that tonight on the treadmill I'll have expectations. Actually achieving zero expectations will take training, attention and effort. And in the process I'll learn about myself, morph the lesson to make it my own and share it here so that others can take it and run with it.

Thanks Lucho.

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Switched to 165mm Cranks

3 Months Ago | Posted to: Training Thoughts

Ah, the crank length debate. Long or short? What's best for you? Well, until a week or so ago I was generally neutral, finding enough pros and cons in each article I read to balance things out and keep me in my trusty 175mm's.

But then an article came out in Triathlete Magazine. In it they outlined how recent research showed that most people don't lose power when they reduce their crank size. In fact, most gained a little. The power itself wasn't all that compelling. But they then continued to say that using shorter cranks made it easier to get into an aerodynamic position.

Bingo. That's been my big struggle for years. I'm always messing with my seat and aerobars trying to get more aero. But because my legs are so long I always end up pinching my diaphragm and losing power. Suddenly the light bulb went off that with shorter cranks I wouldn't have such a large range of motion to handle which might allow me to crunch up more.

Stepping back a little. Aero is huge in long course triathlon. Especially on a flat windy course like Florida. What looks like a few seconds to a roadie's 40km time is minutes to an ironman competitor. With such a tall frame (big surface area) and low weight I was always struggling with aerodynamics.

On the crank side there's the argument that longer cranks give you more leverage. Which means you can deliver more power to the spindle. The tradeoff is that your feet need to move in a larger circle which takes energy. The Triathlete Magazine found that cadence isn't tied to heart rate... foot speed is. Their analysis is clearly geared to triathletes interested in constant power output over time. A roadie may be better suited with bigger cranks.

So I got a set of 165mm's on order. Not an easy task at all. Nobody in town has them.

Before I made the switch I benchmarked my current aero position with a set of photos.

The switch was easy. I took the chain rings off and will eBay them. Put my 54 tooth set on and was up and running in a matter of minutes. I've now officially taken apart every piece on my bike. When I painted the bike I didn't know how to get the cranks off so I took it to a shop. This time I did the whole thing myself. Easy. There's still some bearing packing I could learn but overall I've installed every part on the bike. Cool.

As I hopped onto the new cranks I could quickly tell the difference. It is a different stroke. I mean, it's still riding a bike. Just somewhat different.

With no changes to my aerobars I felt a lot more room in the bike. My knees weren't anywhere near crushing my diaphragm any more. I took off some spacers under my elbow pads. And then moved the stem down two spacers.

For only 10mm in crank size I was able to drop my front end by 44mm! That's a pretty good exchange. I didn't mess with my saddle height although the article says I should be able to lower it by a similar amount.

So I rode on the trainer pretty hard last night. I noticed some different muscles getting fatigued but they were supporting muscles. Afterwards I ran and felt great. Check one.

Then this morning I rode outside very hard for an hour. My legs screamed but I was able to output power and didn't feel too cramped in the cockpit. Check two.

The pedaling stroke is more compact. So you can get behind the power curve in any particular gear when the terrain changes. This is because you don't have the torque you're used to with the longer cranks. So you have to be more attentive or you risk a higher overall VI rating for your ride... which isn't good in an ironman. For me this translates to spinning more. If I don't pay attention I'll quickly find myself going much slower... well... or my gps unit's realtime display sucks... which may be the case.

In the article they said that you can turn a particular gear at a lower heart rate/rpe. It was impossible for me to verify this on the ride today. I'm at the end of six days of hard training. Discerning the crank change vs. the fatigue vs. increased motivation from new gear vs. etc was impossible. Just no way to tell.

But I did turn out an average pace of 20mph for one hour. Not even half ironman pace but for a workout it isn't bad.

I may have some more room to drop the front end a bit. I'll experiment with it.

How smart is it to change crank size so dramatically weeks before my A race? I don't know. Every year I mess with something and it doesn't seem to screw me up. And I can always back out of the change in a week if it's not working. I'm hoping the aero payoff is worth it. I'll put in a lot of riding between now and then and hope to strengthen the supporting muscles that are now being hit differently. Dave Scott says it takes between three and six weeks to adjust to a new crank size. I'm at three weeks right now.

Update: It's about a week or two later and I've done a number more rides on the shortys.

They definitely put me into a better aero position. My ride numbers lately seem good and I doubt that's a sudden bump in fitness. Aero is king in long distances and I seem to have inched forward a bit.

But the way these things feel is still different.

On downhill they're like butter. I think this is where the aero advantage kicks in most. Overall they just feel good.

But uphill is much more difficult. I don't have the leverage on the crank to turn over slower cadences. And if I try to spin it out I get frustrated by the sensation that I'm doing 120 rpm with no pressure on the cranks. I have a much more narrow band of cadence to work in and when I fall outside of it things feel bad.

Changes in terrain and pace are much trickier. Without the leverage I still find myself getting "behind the gear" a bit and having to exert more power to catch up... to get my stroke into the ideal zone.

I'm clearly hitting some new muscles which is scary this close to a race. My gleuts hurt near the beginning of rides but seem to loosen up after a while (or go numb.)

For the IMFla course I think I'll be ok. But for the Gaps I think I'll be very, very frustrated the first time I ride on the shorter cranks.

Given the numbers of whole rides I seem to have moved in the right direction and made a good decision. The aero advantage seems worth it. But whether or not there's a hidden muscular cost that affects the run I just don't know.

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Muscular Endurance Limiter

4 Months Ago | Posted to: Training Thoughts

Something new. Or old depending on how you look at it. Last year I peeked this a bit but didn't really grok it. This year... really tonight... I'm starting to get it.

Each of us has limiters. Things that prevent us from winning Kona. When we start out training we have no idea what our limiters are. In short order most of us realize that it's something with our heart rate. Essentially our aerobic capacity. We can't pedal for six hours at high output because our aerobic systems won't handle it.

Enter base training, stage left. Long and slow we go for many years. Performance increases. Then performance plateaus. I've had a biking plateau for a while.

As aerobic capacity increases it reaches a point where it's no longer the limiter. But it's not like it sends a memo. So we continue to train like we used to. (Black Swan discussion? Prolly but I need to read the book first.)

As far back as last year I was blogging that muscular endurance was a limiter. It was a theory. But I only felt that reality near the absolute end of the season when I was peaking and trying to get those final workouts in.

What does the muscular endurance limiter feel like for me? I ride at a 122 bpm heart rate for long periods of time and my legs hurt. It's not the lactic acid burn I get when I go up to 180 bpm. In some ways it's less painful. In some ways it's much more. It's accompanied by a sense of tightness... as if my muscles are very stiff and unwilling to turn over. It's deep in the muscle and doesn't go away when I stop pedaling. It seems to hurt more near my joints.

I think that my investment in long slow sessions for the last couple months put me into better aerobic shape earlier in the season this year. A good sign. And that gave me more time to experience this new limiter in training. Combined with some of Paul's comments, discussions with Marc and some reading... light bulb.

Not a logical light bulb (had that last year.) An integrated light bulb of my intuitive emotional sense of the limiter and my logical rational understanding of the limiter.

So, yay. Now what? Well, it's rather interesting to think that now I get to learn a whole new way of training... while retaining the old one?!? Or not?!?

Honestly, this is why I love this sport so much. The drive year over year is the same... get faster, dammmit. And while you'd think the challenge is the same, it's not. The human body morphs and changes in so many ways. Metabolic pathways change. Muscles optimize. Blood chemistry adjusts.

It's a constantly moving target, from within. You've got to listen so closely to discern the changes. I almost missed it. I mean, how easy is it to confuse overtraining with the muscular endurance limiter? Or with low blood sugar? Or with a new seat setup? Only observing many workouts over many days gets you the answer.

For me this is a progression. It's nice to see it. Logically I know what comes next. For years I've read the books that discuss the muscular endurance limiter. Boring. The fun comes in learning how all that theory can be applied to my very own leg sticks.

I won't structure workouts to work on the limiter. I'll kind of keep it in the back of my head and let it work its way to front and center of the training program. I like it that way.

One thing that'll be interesting to see is whether I can maintain a strong enough aerobic base to expose the muscular endurance limiter all season. Or do I slip back to not feeling the stiff leg pain and require eight months of base to get here again?

A contributor to this is certainly my new diet. I've put on ten pounds (almost 15 depending on water weight and what I ate the night before.) The mass appears to be going to my legs (although I still look like a stick figure.)

This season probably isn't the one where I'll make the best of this new progression. But maybe in 2009. Maybe not... after all, it did take me five years to figure out the aerobic endurance thing. 2013?

So that's my musing for tonight. A lot more verbose than I had planned when I stepped from the bathroom, saw the computer and thought "maybe I'll capture that thought." Thanks for listening.

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Returning to Structure: Blogger vs. Blogger @ Ironman Florida 2008

4 Months Ago | Posted to: Training Thoughts

Paul Kindzia's got a post up about our friendly Ironman Florida rivalry. It's definitely on.

If I plan on beating JOE REGER on November 1 it's going to happen by putting 20 minutes into him on the bike. Somehow that guy comes out of the water about 2 minutes ahead of me but I need at least a 20 minute lead coming out of T2.

I'm the tall goofy looking Peter Reid who can run. Paul's the solid Norman Stadler who can bike. He's gonna be ahead out of T2. I'm gonna try to run him down. It'll be fantastic!

We're both looking at the bike because that's where the majority of the race happens. It's possible (actually even easy?) to take 20 minutes off the bike in an Ironman. The problem is that you then pay the price for that 20 minutes on the run. When Paul says:

Ironman Florida is going to be a race between two guys that are going to push each other to the limits.

he's right. We're both going to eke out as much as we can from the bike without ruining our run legs. It's an interesting challenge because it's not necessarily physical. It's about that mental line in the sand.

Lil' Stew has offered to help me with a workout plan for the remaining weeks before Florida. This means I'll be adding structure to my routine. While Paul's leaving structure.

Which is why I literally laughed out loud when I saw the title of Paul's post today (thanks Nat for pointing me in that direction.)

On the surface you may think we're both idiots (ten years of joereger.com has proven I'm certainly one.) I mean, what if Peter Reid and Norman Stadler both announced 8 weeks before Hawaii that they were changing their training plans? Insanity.

But I think it works for both of us. Paul's been working with Matt Russ all year and has built up his fitness substrates well. He's got strength, muscular endurance, speed, etc. But he hasn't been doing as much of the fun-inspiring freestyle stuff. It'll cap his season off well and give him the "feel" he needs to race at his limits. And I've been doing pretty much damn near anything for months so to add some rigor around my fitness and gain some of the fitness substrates should be good for me.

Either way, I'm sure that both of us will remain fairly true to what we've learned in the past. It's not like either of us is completely changing. Paul's shifting in the less structure direction. I'm shifting towards some structure. In the end Paul will probably still be more structured than I am.

I've got a lot of work to do. My strategy is to maintain the run fitness I've got and then gain some muscular endurance on the bike. I'll need to keep Paul within 9-13 minutes on the bike. His running has progressed a lot since last year and his numbers look better than mine in workouts. I don't think I can run him down if he's got 20 minutes on me coming out of T2. He'll probably be south of 3:45 on the marathon this year and I hurt a lot last year going 3:31ish. The trouble is that I don't get splits on the bike so I'll have to guess what Paul's doing.

I've got to get my swim shored up. Not sure what happened in Louisville but it was ugly painful. I'll be happy to come out anywhere near Paul this year. He's actually, you know, been working out to a schedule and everything.

Paul's been sick since his Canada race. I'm starting to get some respiratory congestion today... Heather's as sick as a dog.

So it's on. And it'll be fun. I want both of us to hit PRs this year. Whatever happens it's a fun rivalry and makes both of us faster. While I'd be glad to see most any other competitor get a flat on race day, I certainly don't want Paul to get one (or any other Atlanta athletes.) It's kind of like that. Rivalry but friends.

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Post-Ironman Melancholy

4 Months Ago | Posted to: Training Thoughts

It's not depression. Although if these feelings continued for months they'd qualify as depression. After a race I always tend to feel a bit melancholy. My mood's somewhat somber. I'm more reflective. Less aggressive about life in general. I'm not necessarily negative, although that can happen too. Over the years I've realized that it's not a coincidence that it happens after Ironman races and ultramarathons.

mel·an·chol·y [mel-uhn-kol-ee]
1. a gloomy state of mind, esp. when habitual or prolonged; depression.
2. sober thoughtfulness; pensiveness.

I used to think it was just the post-race letdown. After working for a goal for so long there could easily be a sense of "what now" afterwords. But this year I have Florida in 9 weeks and I'm amped up for it, having already done a run, bike and swim. So it's not simply a case of being lost.

The day after the race, while driving back to Atlanta, I was definitely melancholy, reflective, moody, whatever. Note that there was no rolling webcam and very few blog updates. Yesterday while traveling to San Antonio I was distracted and didn't feel melancholy... but I wasn't upbeat. Today, three days after the race I'm feeling fine again. I'm still a sarcastic jackass, of course... but that's par for the course.

[Disclaimer: I'm not a doctor.] It all probably has to do with depletion. The training build-up and race itself drain you of many of the brain chemicals that create positive emotions. In the course of a few days before the race you draw on all of your resources. During the race you pull out whatever's left. After the race the body is damaged. Energy systems are totally out of whack. Digestion is messed up. Sleep is off. Muscles are sore. Lungs are strained. It shouldn't be much of a surprise that emotions also take a hit... being happy requires a certain chemical balance in the brain.

Advice on how to deal with it? Don't talk to me. Oh, you mean how do you deal with *your* melancholy? Don't talk to me.

Lol. I don't think there's much you can do if you do experience it. I try to drink lots of fluids, get a lot of rest, eat a lot of protein and take my vitamins. I usually tell Heather that I'm gonna be moody the day after so that she knows what to expect. She still mocks me, of course... and who can blame her. Just knowing that the feelings are temporary and that they have a definite physical cause prevents me from reading too much into them.

Not sure if anybody else has or does experience this... let me know.

Update: I found this post titled Post-Ironman Depression from 2004! Totally different view of the situation. Note that I am clearly confused and don't want to accept the physical or mental effects from the race. Also note how cool it is that my blogging system automatically pulled this up for me and taught me something about myself.

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Ironman Louisville 2008 Race Plan

5 Months Ago | Posted to: Training Thoughts

I've trained through this race, running a 23 miler four days ago and doing an 8 hour MegaDay seven days ago, so a PR isn't gonna happen. While my legs feel fine I know from experience that there's fatigue in them thar muscles. And my Ironman PR is on the easier Florida course during a cooler day while properly rested/tapered.

So my question isn't "how do I get the fastest time on race day?" It's more like "what's the best way to use the race day?" Because these freakin' races are 'spensive.

Main goal: cheer Keith, Danielle and the SuObs (Bob and Sue) in their first IronEffort and support everybody else from Atlanta! Those people from Des Moines, Iowa can eat it! Yeah, you heard me!

Option 1: Training Day: I just go out feeling mellow and work a nice aerobic zone all day while loudly but slowly chanting "Kind. Zeee. Uhhhhh. Kind. Zeee. Uhhhhh." I'm still in base mode so a long base day through the rolling Kentucky hills is perfect training.

Option 2: Test Day: The main thing I need to ask when trying to set PRs is "how hard can I hit it on the bike before I explode in spectacular fashion on the run?" So the Test Day plan is to hit it harder than normal on the bike and then see what the run feels like. The hope is that an elevation of 10bpm hurts but doesn't destroy me.

Honestly, I'm feeling Option 1: Training Day a lot more right now. I just don't want to feel pain tomorrow and consciously forging a plan to hurt myself (even for science) doesn't really appeal to me right now. Paul Carriere makes the excellent point that the misery of death march marathons is somehow forgotten after a certain period of time... my last one was in 05 so it's clear that Option 2: Test Day is a delusion coated in the frosting of forgetfulness.

That said, I may find myself on race day caught up in the pageantry, getting passed by a hot girlie in spandex and wanting to hit it (the bike, not the girl.)

So how would Option 2: Test Day play out? My normal target heart rate in an Ironman bike is 130bpm which translates to a working zone of 125-135bpm. When I did the 5:23 bike split I rode 140-150bpm with even higher spikes and then exploded on the run. But it's been 2.5 yrs since I've blown up on the run. Has fitness accumulated that might allow me to handle low 140bpms on the bike? Maybe a 135-145bpm heart rate zone? I'll never know until I try. Yes, this is grossly optimistic rationalization and has no basis in reality.

But Gordo said his coaches recommended something similar, essentially that he needed to shell his legs on the bike to figure out where his limits were. It's a painful way to learn.

Another big question has to do with run pacing for the first half of the marathon. The last two Ironman races where I didn't blow up saw me keeping it slow for the first half and then negative splitting the sucker. Part of me wants to hammer hard on the bike... I mean really hammer at the end up to 155-160bpm... and then see if I can "recover" on the first half of the marathon, bouncing back to negative split it. Traditionally when I've blown up I've followed a too-hard bike with a way-too-hard first few miles on the run. What happens when I go a harder on the bike and let myself ease into the run?

Second-hand wisdom from Amy Kloner, passed to me by Paul Kindzia, says that you have to learn to hit it hard on the bike to have your breakthrough performances.

Options, options. Paul Kindzia is certainly right when he counsels restraint on the bike because in the Louisville heat people will be dropping like flies on a Krispy Kreme sign... zap... zap. If I can have some energy at the end I'll be passing people like gas after Keith drinks a Choco-Frapp-U-Chino!

Data Option A: No Data. I've been talkin' smack about going by feel. Maybe I turn on my heart rate monitor on the bike but then hide the heart rate screen, essentially going by feel all day. I've never looked at heart rate on the run (well, never on a non-blowup run) so maybe doing the same on the bike would be a good thing. Rationally I think it's a horrible idea on a rolling hills course that'll be constantly tempting me to go too hard. But this isn't about logic.

Clothing Idea 1: Who Sucks, U Sucks! There's a big college football game in town during the race. University of Kentucky vs. University of Louisville. We run by the stadium four times before and during the matchup. People will be tailgating and will be properly "seasoned" (uh, drunk) by the time the colorful spandexed people start showing up. I think it'd generate much discussion to write "UK Sucks" on my chest and "UOLV Sucks" on my back. Everybody I've mentioned this to has said it's a horrible idea so I'm pretty sure it's a good one.

No idea what my splits will be. No idea how things will end up. With the heat, even if I take it super-easy on the bike (Option 1: Training Day) there's a good chance I'll be crying in Chinese halfway through the run anyway. The rest is mostly gradations of misery, learning and defeat.

I guess this is something of a non-plan.

Keith, Danielle, Bob and Sue are gonna rock. Hunter, Tat, Steven, StewBeef and Danielle's Mom are gonna SuperFan the heck out of it. Brandon Wren and his dad are flying into town to volunteer as bike catchers. It'll be the first time Brandon and I have ever met in person... we've followed each other online since the skydiving days and have both started families in the interim. All Ironman athletes appreciate Brandon's volunteering support!

You can follow my splits at IronmanLive.com's Athlete Tracker by typing "reger" into the search and clicking on my name.

Thanks for all the emails, phone messages and text messages!

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Training Going Into Ironman Louisville 2008

5 Months Ago | Posted to: Training Thoughts

This is what happens when you run 23 miles a few days before an Ironman race:

Nat: "i am so confused Joe. Aren't you racing this weekend? Is this what you do in the taper--a 23 mile run 5 days out? Is that what you do for an ironman? That is just cawazy!"

Danielle: "Are you trying out something and not telling us about it? A little non-taper IM??"

Kindzia: "OK, can't stand it any more. Did you really do a 23 miler 4 days before your Ironman???? Is this some new Brett Sutton torture test?"

All of which is awesome. I mean, I am the idiot who signed up for and then completely forgot about Ironman Lake Placid in 2006 (after I signed up for and skipped it in 2005 when Ava was born.) So to have friends looking out for me is great!

Valid question: why am I running long slow stuff right before the race?

When you train long slow stuff you're putting money in the bank (an analogy I got from Matt Wheeler.) Nickel here. Quarter there. Slowly, over the course of months with consistency and long, slow miles you accrue a balance of base fitness.

About five or six weeks ago I asked myself what my base account balance was. I felt that I had enough in the account to make a good run for IM Louisville, but not enough for two runs at it with IM Florida just eight weeks after Louisville.

A proper ironman build process (whatever that means) generally includes a couple strength building periods, some speedwork, a taper/peak, a race and a recovery. Each of these *takes money out* of your base balance. To build strength you have to back off of the intensity a bit or risk overtraining. To get speed you do hella hard workouts that leave you sore for a few days, again compromising your ability to do the long, slow stuff. Tapering is, well, not working out or working out at higher intensity so you're gonna lose base. Racing breaks the body down. Recovery takes time and you're not doing big workouts.

Luckily base fitness is lost fairly slowly. So you can do the proper IM build and not be completely unfit at the end of the process. Compare this to speedwork which evaporates quite quickly... in a matter of weeks. So it's very possible to have two good peaks in a season. But, at least for my physiology, there needs to be at least a small base period between.

When I looked at the eight weeks after Ironman Louisville leading into Ironman Florida I decided that I needed to have a build, rest week, build, speed, taper and race. That's very tight to fit into eight weeks and left no room for base re-building after Louisville. If I had a big enough base balance in the bank I would have gone for it. But this year I got a bit of a late start on good consistency with big workouts.

So I made the decision to train through Louisville. Which I've never really done. I've said I was training through races before but I always ended up backing off mileage and adding speed, almost subconsciously.

Luckily, I recently found myself with a good streak of Wednesday long runs and weekend long rides. I decided that they'd be the anchors of my "train through" plan. As long as I did those two workouts in the weeks leading up to the race I felt that I'd be maintaining my base for Florida and not letting Louisville take too much out of the bank.

My legs are somewhat hosed. My lungs are feeling that tired feel. I've been hitting core/abs somewhat hard (still, no six pack.) So the race this weekend is gonna be tough. In fact, this is something of a recipe for disaster. The heat seems to be picking up in the predictions. I'm not a big fan of rolling hills on the bike.

We'll see what happens. What I don't have yet is a raceday plan. But I'll try to blog out my two competing ideas before I hit the starting line. Either way, I'm guessing my batting average will move down from its current 50% to 40%.

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Mark Dooley Says Selle SMP Saddle

5 Months Ago | Posted to: Training Thoughts

Many thanks to Mark Dooley for the Selle SMP saddle recommendation. I bought my Ksyrium wheels from Mark a while back and he was kind enough to check in with me after he read about my arse issues. After years of ultra cycling he's getting into ultra running and has connected with GUTS. Rock on Mark! We're emailing back and forth right now, discussing the various models in the Selle SMP Strike product line. Saddles are a personal thing... every body is different. The Pauls like the ISM Adamo but it didn't work for me. This Selle Italia disaster was my own doing. It's always good to start with somebody else's recommendation because there are a lot of saddles out there. I'm hoping to get an order in tonight for a new one. Fingers crossed.

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Paleo Nutrition Rebuild in Progress

5 Months Ago | Posted to: Training Thoughts

For the last couple years I've held my body weight in the low 160's. In the last month I've come to believe that this wasn't optimal.

How'd I get to that weight? I naturally sit at 173-176lbs, eating whatever and whenever I want. A couple years ago I started major calorie counting and diet control in the name of performance. I trimmed calories and tuned my macronutrient balance (carbs, fat, protein.) Weight slowly came off and I found myself at a lean and muscular 160lbs.

Running speeds increased. Climbing on the bike felt like butter. Situps and core workouts were easier. Plyometrics was fun. I had a four pack... WoOT!

All good stuff. So I settled my diet into that low 160's zone. And things continued to be good for a while. I even set Ironman PRs.

But over the course of many months I started to feel underpowered. On the bike and run I frequently felt that I wasn't able to anti-up like I had in the past. But my times were still decent. No reason to suspect diet... it was probably just something in my training (non)protocol.

Fast forward many more months and the times started to decline. Something was up. But still, I blamed protocol.

Finally I looked at my diet. I haven't counted calories in years. I thought I was doing well because my body weight was in the target zone. But when I did an actual analysis of what I was eating I wasn't doing very well. Too many carbs. Junk food. Pasta morning and night. Not nearly enough protein.

This idea of a nutritional rebuild had been rumbling around in my head for a while when I saw that Joe Friel put out The Paleo Diet. The notion that we need to eat the fuels that our metabolic pathways evolved on immediately resonated with me. To summarize The Paleo Diet (poorly): eat natural stuff... not processed foods. Lots of bananas, apples, salads, chicken breasts. I ordered the book and started to eat better.

Doing the workouts I'm doing at this point in the season I should be getting 0.9 - 1.0 grams of protein per pound of body weight. That's about 160 grams. Over the last couple years I thought I was doing well because I had a scoop of whey before bed. That's 20 grams. During those two years I probably also ate an average of 20 other grams of protein... if I was lucky. Too many pasta meals. So, I was dramatically under-proteined.

Here's what I think happened: A couple years ago I was strong. I cut weight and got fast. Over time my diet slipped and my body composition changed... less muscle, more fat. Operating so close to the edge of the BMI (body mass index) range leaves little room for error. I was basically forcing my body to eat its own muscles. Not good when you have very little natural musculature.

I'm now eating 6-8 scoops of GNC's whey protein a day (120-140g.) I'm also putting a lot more quality foods on board. All the fiber results in triple and quad duke outs on long runs.

In the last two weeks I've gained about 12 pounds. Which is scary for an endurance athlete. I kind of wondered what I was doing the first week as the pounds added up. But the thing that made me really pay attention was my workout this past weekend. My legs on the bike felt like they were finally strong again. I felt like I could muscle through some stuff and not fall apart. Big change.

I can see that my leg muscles are bigger. My calves are now sticking out. In just two weeks. (To be sure I'm no Kindzia, but the difference is there.)

At this point I've added some weight back onto my frame. I'm thinking 165 lbs is a good target weight but am willing to go 170 if that's where my body feels right. I'll make sure that my body composition is lean and muscular, not light and fatty.

I'm not going to cut weight for Louisville. It's too close and I'm too fresh on this nutritional rebuild. I'll race it as-is and then slowly optimize the diet to get me to a muscular 165 lbs before Florida. The goal is to keep body weight as steady as you can. But what I learned is that this is only half of the story. You also have to keep your body composition improving.

Much of this is just basic nutrition. I slipped for a while. And it took a while for it to catch up with me. In fact, the low body weight made me fast for a while. But I'm glad to be back on the path.

Oddly, if I achieve my goal of a lean 165 lbs I'll look even skinnier than I do as a fatty 162 lbs.

One realization is this: I'm not willing to trade fast for healthy. I want to be healthy first and then find a way to be fast within the limits of health.

My big theme with diet is slow change over time. It's never about next week's weigh-in or next month's race. Eating is something you do many times every day and your life depends on it. It's no place for drastic changes. Just as my fall into nutritional woes took years, I expect eating properly to be a lifelong effort. As I've made the switch to Paleo-esque eating I've often let myself eat things that're off-plan. No point setting the bar so high that I never get there.

One caveat is the notion of calorie-restriction as it relates to longevity. Restricting caloric intake is the only proven way to extend lifespan. Of course, that strategy needs to rest atop one of healthy eating. So I'll start at square one and then move towards a 150th birthday later on.

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Acceptance of Self

8 Months Ago | Posted to: Training Thoughts

A concept that Paul C mentioned at lunch and Gordo blogged about has been rattling around in the (vacuous) cage upstairs. In Gordo's words:

When we find something emotionally difficult -- odds are -- the situation is bumping against personal fears and challenging our self-image. True confidence arises from acceptance of our own performance not the capacity to dominate the performances of others.

I generally agree. How I see my fitness has a dramatic effect on how I train, how much I enjoy it and how much I progress.

When I'm not very fit but I think I am I find nothing but frustration, session after session. When I'm not very fit and I know it I see small progress every day and feel like I'm slowly climbing a mountain.

When I'm super fit I rarely acknowledge it, instead concluding that I'm overtrained or that somebody spiked my coffee with EPO (thanks dudes, btw.) I never want to believe that I'm at near pinnacle of my personal fitness because of the fear that it's not the fitness of my dreams. This causes me to back off and not push to the next level which would be better yet (but of course not the fitness of my dreams.)

Clearly my own experiences validate Paul C and Gordo's thoughts... when I accept where I'm at I progress. When I don't, lines get crossed and things aren't fun.

I've also experienced the same thing in business. When I'm willing to admit that something isn't working I can change tactics and move forward. Lots of parallels here... I treat business like an athletic event.

Knowing all of this, how do I use it?

That's the tricky part, and most of what's been rattling around upstairs. Over the last few weeks I've been in a funk. So on runs I've said "you're not fit, you can slow down and build a base." And logically I've believed it.

But it didn't work... I was still miserable.

Enter, Deep Survival (because most of my life analysis stuff usually ends up there by default.) My logical self knows that I'm not fit. My numbers show it. My body feels it. I'm not fit right now.

But my emotional self is afraid that I wasted the early part of the season, that I won't have time to re-build for late season races and that with family and work I won't be able to carve out the time to train any more. I notice myself saying, just every now and then, "well, maybe I'm actually very, very, very fit and that's why my heart rate is so low today." Or, "I only missed my PR by 13 seconds just three weeks ago." Nevermind that all the numbers tell me this is not the case.

I tell myself that I suck (intellectual self) 5,000 times over the course of a run. I tell myself that maybe I'm super-fit (emotional self) once or twice.

And clearly emotional self wins. Which is exactly what Deep Survival says... emotional self is terribly powerful, can lift cars. But emotional self is rtarded and needs intellectual self to keep it in check.

My point is that simply knowing about the misalignment is just the first part of the equation. Knowing the remedy (accepting your self) is another part. And the most important part, actual acceptance, takes time. I don't really know how or why it happens but I do know that after the 100,000th time intellectual self screams "slow the F down!" emotional self will get it and my perception of self will be in alignment with my physical self.

And then my muscles will improve and I'll be out of alignment again.

Anything I can do to reduce the time it takes to get emotional self to accept reality will improve my performance, in all of my life. Gordo's strategy for this is called RASU, Relax and Soften Up. He's got some good posts up about what it means to be soft. I interpret much of this as his attempt to gain skill at accepting his own self (and help others do the same.)

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Further Reflections on the Gulf Coast Triathlon 2008

8 Months Ago | Posted to: Training Thoughts

Now, a little removed from the emotion of race day, I can look at the event from a more logical perspective. The race outcome wasn’t quite as bad as initially reported by our joereger.com correspondents.

1) My new training methods are working. I’m doing a lot less hours but my race time is constant. That’s more efficient training. Despite fears that I didn’t have the endurance to make it through the race, I did.

2) Even though I didn’t PR, my performance was the best yet at the half distance. Weather conditions on the swim, bike and run made this year a harder race than the last few. So coming within 13 seconds of my PR ain’t bad.

3) I didn’t blow up on the run when it got hot. The heat kicked in at the halfway point for me. It was really hot. I felt it. I felt many of the sensations that precede explosions. And while I did fade some, I was able to keep going strong to the end.

4) This is my third race that I felt I paced the run properly. IMFL06, IMFL07 and now this one. I go by feel, easier early on and then I bump it up slowly throughout. What’s interesting is that I never say “it’s time to go a little faster.” It’s more like my mental associations morph through the run from a general “keep it slow” to “time to go.” But the thoughts aren’t necessarily race or pace related. Often it’s more like “I’m being reserved” to “I’m being aggressive.” The key is that I flow into a mindset of going faster instead of trying to go faster. When I do workouts where I want to be at a pace and I say “I want to run 6:00/mi” I just get miserable because the motivation is logical but not emotional. When I do a workout listening to Metallica and just let ‘er rip I often find that I’m doing 6:00/mi with ease. So I guess I’m saying that in the Deep Survival sense I’m using my emotional side to pace my runs more than my logical side.

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Today's Plan: Half Iron

9 Months Ago | Posted to: Training Thoughts

I need to do a more complete blog post on how I lost my mojo in the lead-up to St. Anthony's but suffice it to say that it was a perfect storm of work, family, babies, stress, cold weather, bodily injuries and a surprisingly small set of bad training decisions. Once I opted out of St. A's I did nothing. I'm now looking at three to four weeks of non-badass workouts. Fitness has been lost.

Whenever I'm missing my mojo I ask myself "what would make me feel like I have my mojo?" Well, in the lead-up to a half ironman race the base mojo-builder would be completing a workout at race distance.

So that's my plan for today... I'm going to swim 84 laps (1.2 miles), bike 56 miles and run 13.1 miles. Slowly, of course.

When I started joereger.com many years ago I would post expectations and use the peer pressure to get myself to do the stuff I posted about. Lately I've fallen out of that pattern, preferring to keep my goal workouts secret and just post when I'm done. Today I decided to throw some peer pressure onto the day to see what happens.

Finally some nice weather. Wish me luck.

Another random note... I need to change my workout pattern. I need to be more like the Pauls who workout before work. Up at 4:30am today, got a few hours of work done, heading to the gym. I need to switch to this pattern.

So, there, two personal goals posted.

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Prolly Pulling out of St. Anthony's

9 Months Ago | Posted to: Training Thoughts

Things are just too tight and busy right now with the baby and the company. I don't feel comfortable taking the time out to race. It really sucks and I feel like I'm letting people down but I've got to focus the resources we have right now. No final decision but that's where we're leaning.

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Ibuprofen and Muscle Mass

9 Months Ago | Posted to: Training Thoughts

Some interesting new research says that:

Taking daily recommended dosages of ibuprofen and acetaminophen caused a substantially greater increase over placebo in the amount of quadriceps muscle mass and muscle strength gained during three months of regular weight lifting, in a study by physiologists at the Human Performance Laboratory, Ball State University.

They don't know why this happens but the author seems to indicate that it's some sort of metabolic process that allows for more muscle mass. Could be. But I'd argue that reducing inflammation and thus damage between workouts is a big factor too. For years I've avoided the temptation to take ibuprofen after hard workouts because I didn't want my body to be relieved of the stress. My thinking has been that the only reason for working out is to create stress on the body so that the body responds by rebuilding itself stronger. By taking something to reduce the stress, by my thinking, you're reducing the effective training load. Maybe I'm wrong. Maybe I'm not.

A few key points: 1) Don't mess around with ibuprofen. It's not worth the liver damage people. 2) Really don't mess around with acetaminophen... it's actually one of the riskier drugs in your bathroom because the threshold between safe and very not safe is narrow and positioned close to safe. 3) The studies weren't in any way focused on endurance athletics. They were done on people aged 60-78 who are already losing a lot of muscle. We've frequently seen things that help weight lifters but hurt endurance types.

So I certainly won't be changing my ibuprofen policy. But, since ibuprofen is one of the only things that helps get rid of my migraines when I get them, maybe I'll feel a little less bad about having to take it from time to time.

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2008 St. Anthony's 30-34AG Pre-Race Participant Analysis

9 Months Ago | Posted to: Training Thoughts

Race organizers posted the participant list for the 2008 St. Anthony's race. Last year I managed a 4th AG so I spent a little time digging in to the participant list to see what this year's race might look like. I mean, hey, if the three ahead of me aren't racing this year I win by default, right? (Not.) My main goals with the analysis:

• determine whether anybody moved down from the Elite Amateur division into 30-34AG (nobody did)


• determine whether anybody with a time faster than mine from last year moved from 25-29AG to 30-34AG (three did)


• determine whether anybody with a time faster than mine from last year in my AG is doing the race again this year (two are)

So, given last year's performances, there are five people faster than me in the age group. Josh Shields (who didn't race last year) is beating me in training on swim, bike and run numbers so it's a safe bet that he'll be ahead of me on race day. That leaves me with a non-prediction of 7th.

Of course, this non-prediction isn't very valid. There were people close behind me last year. And there were some just ahead of me. It's a tight race and a shoe drop or bad cornering can throw you down a spot here and there. Some people will have worse races. Some will have better.

I'm training differently this year. Lots more intensity and rest which should serve me well for a shorter race like this. But who knows. Maybe the aerobic base isn't there. My swim is for crap too.

This analysis only takes into account the people that raced last year. It doesn't take into account those surprises who I know nothing about... freakin' Guatemalans. If I really wanted to get crazy with the analysis I'd pull up every person's name in the 2008 race and check all past races for them... there are surely some people who raced 2006 but not 2007, for example. But the participant list is PDF and not easily manipulated.

Here's what I did: I basically threw last year's results from EliteAm, 25-29AG and 30-34AG into spreadsheet tabs. I removed those aging up to 35-39 and those too young to be in 30-34 this year. I then combined them into one list and sorted by overall time. From there I manually searched the 2008 participants list for each name to figure out where they're racing this year in the 30-34 AG. Some aren't racing and some are in EliteAm. That boiled it down to a fairly short list. I've attached the spreadsheet to this post. If you check it out, don't forget the tabs on the bottom of the spreadsheet to see all the data.

Another way I could get mega-crazy about prep is to get race numbers for the top ten known competitors and memorize them. Even more extreme, I could memorize the race numbers and their key strength. So, for example, I'd know that number 453 is a strong runner so I need to be ahead of or with him off the bike.

But that's all a bit extreme. I spent about 20 minutes to get a sense of what the field holds. It'll be more competitive this year. I think this is all the prep I need. And really, I have my best races by going into my personal space and causing myself a lot of pain. What 453's doing is likely just a distraction.

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Two GooseEggs

10 Months Ago | Posted to: Training Thoughts

My second GooseEgg of the week today. Self-imposed. My body is just a little over the edge right now and I'm slipping back into my old habit of overtraining. So, oddly, I have to break a new habit to prevent myself from falling back into an old habit. I really want to try this new investing in resting (tm) approach