what counts as training?

Bit of an average week in the office this past week. Probably the memorable moment of the week was while out running and realizing that I was enjoying my running at the moment. It has probably turned the corner from being a struggle each time I go out the door, to being a good activity to clear my mind and just enjoy being out. I try to incorporate tracks, trails, parks and any other off-the-beaten track areas while out running, and that can be a little more relaxing too. No really good solid longer runs this week - quite a few shorter runs with a couple of days having two short runs in the same day. Not perfect, but actually enjoying being out there more than normal is a huge plus. 
Now I must organize some new shoes this coming week. I have two pairs that I alternate, and can feel they are starting to get a little worn. Still OK, but have probably only got a couple of weeks left in them before they will become a bit of an injury risk. I find it good to make the first few runs in new shoes pretty easy, just incase there are any issues - not many things worse than finding out your new shoes cause you bad blisters when you have 10km to run to get home! So I will need a few weeks so gently get the new shoes into full commission as well. 
The local pool has now closed - which is going to be a pain in the butt for swimming in the next few weeks. Have not quite figured out the best course of action for that yet - guess I will have to try something tomorrow though! Or it might just be a very big run week!!! I do like my routines, and do get good results from my training when I have a routine sorted that I can just get on and do it. So no pool will be disrupting! 
Three swims for the week, ideally there would have been a 4th - but went for the short run option there instead. A couple of positives - Mondays session was 20x200 - which was always going to be solid, no matter how you do it. Unfortunately Andy (our lane leader), put his paddles on at the start, and I really did not feel like starting out with the pull kit. So thought I would gut out the first 5-6 as swim only and then go for the paddles, but he then said (in a quiet gruff voice - not a good sign) - "were going on 2:45". Now that is a little too solid a send off time for first thing on a Monday morning for me, so paddles it was. At least the first ten went by pretty fast! He got what ever he need to out of his system, and the rest were far more civilized. But good to make those - swiming is going OK. The other positive, the 1500 (again pull...) in around 19:15, or a smidge under, and only go lapped once this week! 
Five runs this week -although may have to count the 15min run at Saturday training to meet the months goals - so it may turn to 6 runs! Unfortunately, most were in the 35-45min bracket - so not a big mileage week. I did get just over an hour and a half on Saturday afternoon - and if I count the 15minutes in the morning, that makes almost an hour 50 minutes, which is almost good! The problem with the 15minute run is that I am not sure I want to count the under 20 minutes runs, unless they are in combination with another session. The reason being they are probably not that effective for me, and if I start adding in a 10minute run here, and 8 minutes there, I may skew the "effective" training data. While I have not formalized what counts as training and what does not, perhaps in the back of my mind, the minimums that count (and this is just for me!) are 800m swimming, 30minutes cycling and 20minutes running - there I have done it - formalized! I think for where I am at, if I include less, then I am not including what is effective training for me at the moment. 
This is slightly different than when I first "retired" from training (and racing). After my first stint of cold turkey (ie NO training), I could not stand it, and had to do something. So I did a few swims and started mountain biking to and from school (I was back at Uni at the time). The swims were about 2km each, and just joined in with a casual group that took over a lane at the local pool a couple of mornings a week (which was great). I then got asked to be a training hack, so I was doing one 5 hour ride per week (quite hard), which took me a week to recover from! The issue I had mentally was that I could not see the point in doing a 1 hour easy ride (or similar) - I had gone from pro-Ironman training to nothing, and a 1 hour ride was a waste of time. I could still hammer for 5 hours (even though it would kill me) - but had not got my mind around the fact my fitness was in decline and a 1 hour easy cruise would in fact be very good for me! Probably the second best thing I could do at that time (the swimming was the best - in hind sight!)! After a few months I realized that 30 minute runs and 1hour easy rides were in fact good things to do now! That was where I was at. Life was different and not every training session needed to have purpose or be epic - I was retired! 
So now things have changed again - at least a little...

steady as she goes, and the old times...

I think my training is at a steady "sustainable" level now, and if all goes to plan, it will remain reasonably stable and only vary a little for the next 4-6 weeks (maybe an easier week in there somewhere). Well that is the plan anyway. This week has not been that exciting on the training front. Missed one optional swim - but the work "to do" list is on its second page, and I really need to tick some things off! So that is a bit more of a priority. I had some serious DOMS (delayed onset of muscle soreness) on Tuesday and Wednesday from weights on Monday morning - except it was not really that delayed (I could feel it about an hour after weights)!

So for this week been - 3 swims, two reasonably steady at 4km and one slow/easy/ struggle of 3km. Two bike classes and school TTT training, with a long ride on the trainer ( weather permitting rule resulted in a trainer ride). The power on the harder ride was a bit higher than usual, which I will take as a good thing, and the easy rides felt easy too. A couple of easy runs and a long-ish (1hr30min) run, which was better than last week. With a couple of weights sessions in there too. On Sunday for my long ride I did the "birthday special" ride (bit over 5 weeks ago, that was after a run and swim). The power output of the steadier simulated climbs (up alp d'Heuz) were about 10% higher - which is also good, but probably not that comparable. As on the birthday special I was tired, and a little "toasty" (ie mildly over-trained!), as well as having swum and run before hand...

Off on a bit of a tangent (low excitement week) - here are a few memories I have training for my first ironman in 1989:

Back in 1989 Triathlon was a pretty new sport, and Ironman was a pretty new sporting event. The first "official short distance world championships" were in 1989! There was not much information on training, or coaching to be had, and it was pretty much just get out there and do it. In some respects it was good, as you were not intimidated by anything as you did not know what you were in for. In other ways it was bad - as you did not know what you were in for!!

I did not really have a burning desire to do Ironman, as I really enjoyed the shorter distance races at that time, and it was really just a great adventure. I think in the 1988 season in did something like 16 races over the summer - mostly sprint and standard (now Olympic) distance events. But the people I hung around with were inspired by the event, and it was just assumed you would do it. So I pretty much did it to get the T-shirt and say "yeah I have done that". I did not have any intention at that time to do a heap of Ironman events - just get it out of the way so I could do the other races!

I joined up to a masters/triathlon swim squad - and for the first of many times had a swim coach scratching his head when looking at me swimming. Now I pretty much taught myself to swim when I decided to do a triathlon - and I was 21 at this stage. Anyway, we were doing some 25m sprints, alternating kick and swim. As it turns out, I am not like many triathletes, as my 25m kick only was faster than my 25m freestyle sprint swim! I guess there was plenty of room for improvement from that point on...

The first time I really "bonked" or "hit the wall" in training was when I was out on a long bike ride. It was a 136km loop, with a few solid climbs in it, it had been going very well, it was a nice day (sun shining and all), and I had 20km to go. I started to feel a bit light headed, so stopped and got some food - more because I was hungry than because of any nutritional knowledge I had. Was not really sure what was going on. Sort of felt a bit better after a moro bar and an ice cream. Got another 7km down the road, and same thing again - so into a dairy, bit more sugar and a coke, a few deep breaths and off again. Got another 4-5km down the road, and made it to the city limits, and was not feeling that great again. Grandma's place was just up the road - I will call in to see her! Clean out her biscuit tins (nice ginger crunch) - and off for home - just make the 3km to home and crawled in the front door, found a corner, went in to the fetal position with a low quiet groan...

The long run was a bit of a mystery for me. I got up to 2 hours sort of OK in training, but man, did I get sore legs. I convinced myself it was probably over 25km, maybe close to 30km, I was getting through in my 2 hours. In reality is was probably 19-20km! I thought that I should just make sure I can run close to the distance for IM, so I had this loop that I rode, that was around 36km. Convinced my sister it was a great idea to ride next to me carrying food and water for a "few hours". The first 20km were OK, and felt pretty good. Legs got a bit rubbery at about 30km, and had to do a bit of a run/walk, and then progressed to a walk for the last couple of km's. Thanked my sister for her company, found a quiet corner, crawled in to the fetal position with a low quiet groan...

Gotta love Ironman...

June looking ahead, and committed...

I have had a bit of a think about the June goals and targets. The long run was my main sticking point. I sort of came to the conclusion that I just needed to HTFU (harden the f### up). Get my A into G, and do my long run on Thursday. So with that in mind I headed out on Thursday for the long run (post taking school cycling earlier in the morning, and after 3 reasonably steady days training). After an hour the calf starting giving a few twinges, then the hami started to tighten up quite a bit, and thought I better start making a B-line for home while I still could! Ended up a little under an hour and a half, when I was gunning for 1:40 (and then it was probably a 1:20 run that took closer to 1:30!). So back to the drawing board a bit on that part of the plan. Obviously not quite where I was hoping to be - yet anyway... Maybe I will do a long run Saturday every second week, and a shorter one on Thursday alternate weeks. It may end up that things get better as training progresses anyway. So the goals for this month are:

• Swimming: I was going to gun for 55km for the month, just steady maintenance, but I think I will cut that back to 50km, which will in effect be a little more, as the pool is closed for the last week of the month and this week is a bit of a hiccup with a public holiday on Monday. Keeping a steady volume is the main focus...
• Cycling: This month will be a kick in the pants on the cycling as were the last couple of weeks. Long rides are sort of under way - weather permitting, a couple of spin classes, and taking the school cycling for one morning. So that will be a couple of easier rides (long one especially), one hard ride (Tuesday spin class), and the school cycling will involve some efforts no doubt!
• Running: Minimum of 4 runs per week, I need at least one run over 1hr 50min, and would like two in this month. I think as an overall goal I will aim for 20 hours running in the month - that gives me 4 weeks and 2 days, and I will try for something like two 4-4.5 hour weeks and two 5.5 hours running/week (longer long runs those weeks). I might try to get a cross country in too - but no promises there! Hopefully that works for getting the running ticking along.
• Gym/stretching etc: I am reasonably happy where I have got to with the gym, as far as getting up to speed (or strength), now I just want to maintain, add a bit of variety and keep the progress a little more gradual. I think 3 weeks of twice/week, and one week with once will be fine. I had been catching up on a bit of reading, and came across a review of stretching research - and it had a list of studies supporting and refuting the effectiveness of stretching. So with that in the back on my mind I cut back on the relatively small amount I was doing to see what would happen. Don't think things got worse, but I don't think think it is the way to continue either. I am pretty sure I hear a ticking in the background, probably an explosive device in my calf... The thing to take out of reading research papers is that reading can be bad for you, and you can probably prove anything you want if you put your mind to it! I will stretch more, otherwise I know it will bite me!

One other thing that has been a little bit of an issue is dehydration! Generally not that much of an issue in winter - but I have really gone off drinking - water in particular. Get through to later in the day, and realize that I have been doing a camel impersonation. Normally I am quite good at getting through a good amount of water through the day, but I am not that much of a fan of cold water, and have really just gone off it in general! So I do have to be a little more diligent with the water and fluid intake in general life - not so much in training.

One other big thing this week - I actually entered Ironman!!! I think it maybe the second time I have entered before January (usually leaving it as late as possible) - and the other time was probably the 20th December! Back in the early days when I was asked early in the season (November/December) if I was doing Ironman, I would usually say - "I don't know yet". And it was true. I would generally do my "base" training over winter, or later on, an overseas season, then prepare for the Tauranga half Ironman or shorter distance national series races, then decide on Ironman, and do a preparation for that. Even if I had decided on doing Ironman earlier, I don't think I would have changed my training at all (with what I knew then - hindsight is a wonderful thing though!).

So I am now semi-committed!

May gone already??

Time is marching on already!! I was hoping to get away with only getting sick twice through winter, but as of the end of May, I had my second bug. So lost most of this week to a solid head cold. It was not too bad really, and spent two days in bed, and hopefully I am back in action tomorrow for a fresh start to next week.

The Month that was May has now come and gone, I think I may have blinked and missed it! So training wise - what happened? Well here is the brief summary:

• Swimming - steady as she goes. Maintained where I had got to really. 54700m swimming for the month. Slightly above target. Managed one of two planned non-squad swims in the month. Wednesday's standard 1500m pull swim has been between 20 minutes and 19:20, and I managed a set of 30x100 on 1:30 so it is going OK performance wise.
• Cycling - Set my baseline time trial (just under 30:30 for 25km on the cateye), started taking the school cycling, and Sunday long-ish rides were started again (mostly). So the cycling volume has pretty much doubled, and there has not been a great drop off in performance as I had expected after summer cycling either. However a peak cycling mileage of 238km in one week is not exactly something to brag about - for me anyway (I have done that in one ride!). The structure is not quite ideal, but the main thing for me to improve from my current level is mainly to ride my bike - with not too much harder stuff. It would actually be easy to switch the focus a bit more to cycling - but the running is in far more need!
• Running - This is not going to plan!! The increased cycling has tightened the schedule up a little, and fitting the long run in is a bit of a struggle (to say the least). Everything else is sort of OK. The overall volume is perhaps a little lower than I had (perhaps optimistically) hoped to achieve. The baseline TT (22:30 for just under 6km) is a reasonable drop off from where I have been - but that is where I am at! I perhaps need to readjust the plan to get more bang out of my running. I will contemplate that over the next few days. Perhaps two long-ish runs per week rather than one proper long run... Or alternate.. hmmm...
• Weights etc - I have missed two weights sessions this month, and being sick definitely knocked the strength gains back a bit. I have started introducing a few other exercises to the basic core ones I do. So sort of happy with where this is. The basic strength has improved and now will start a little more variation and change the muscle group focus a little (probably even some upper body stuff!).

Being a little more diligent with the easy sessions is paying off and I am definitely feeling more able to do the training now. I just need to fit it all in! The other thing with the easy sessions, is that I am actually recovering during these sessions - the HR is dropping at the same effort/pace, or the pace is improving at the same effort.

Probably the other big thing I need to adjust is the sleep patterns. Most mornings have an early start (5:09 is standard alarm time), and with bike classes 3 nights a week, (9pm home time) can make for a long day. I try to get in a short nana nap most days, but have got a little out of synch and the Nana naps are a bit long and affecting the night sleeps. So will have to set an alarm for those to get back into routine... Probably need to get to bed a bit earlier... So the plan for June (already??!!) will have to wait until tomorrow...

time trials and a bit more cycling...

There have been a few little changes in the training over the last few weeks. Taking the school cycling team out on a Thursday morning has added in a cycle, but meant dropping a squad swim session. The long rides have got underway again, after the post Ironman break for most, and Mr weather not really helping the motivation to get out at all. So the cycling mileage has pretty much doubled in the last 2 weeks (from 100 km per week to 200), swimming has dropped back a bit, and running has been there, but not quite where it should be - yet.

I have managed to knock off a couple of other things that have been waiting in the wings. The run time trial was done last week, and the bike TT this week, also managed to get a fat test done. Last week I had to choose between a long run and doing the run TT - so sort of did a long warm-up, the TT, and a reasonable warm-down, so got in a 1hr20min run in there too. The time trial itself was not that flash, mid 22minutes for 6km, but OK. Little under 3 minutes slower than the best I have done over the same course. Probably a fair indication of where I am at unfortunately. The bike TT was after doing a hill run in the morning, and two punctures before actually getting started - get to the bike and the tire is flat, fix it, and perhaps got a little enthusiastic on the inflation (hate it when that happens...), and a little more tire changing practice. Normally that would end the session, but stayed calm and got on with it, rather than following the call of the couch. Did not feel great in the warm-up, and purposely started out a little slower. Did manage to build through it (finished a little faster than I started). Bit over 30 minutes for the 25km on the trainer. Just under a minute off the fastest, but the average power was actually higher than the fastest time (still a little off my best 30min power output though). Might have under-done the tire pressure after the punctures, and perhaps the cooler temperature hindered performance a little too. Got the skin folds measured and fat estimated. Came out at just under 12% (39mm for 4 skinfolds) - not great, but about what I expected I guess. If this can come down to 9% or so by the end of the year, all will be good!

There is usually some compromise in the scheduling when training for Triathlon, just too many key sessions to space out with recovery days into a 7 day cycle. My current dilemma is the long run. At the moment I can fit the long run in on either Thursday afternoon or Saturday afternoon. The problem with Thursday is school cycling in the morning, which maybe a little harder than easy(!!), and then there are run intervals Friday morning - which will not be flash if I run long Thursday evening. Saturday is sort of OK, unless there are social events or any club type events that I may need to attend. If I contemplate doing cross country then this would take Saturday out. If I had no "real life" I would schedule the long run in for Wednesday. But I have bike class to do then!

The last two weeks I have been much more diligent on the easy sessions. The bodies response to these sessions has changed, and I can actually see recovery during the sessions. For a couple of the sessions, I have kept the effort the same (nice and easy) and the speed has increase (swimming), and in the other the HR dropped (holding the same speed/power). I have definitely felt better after these sessions than before as well. I felt I could have gone harder if I wanted to - but knew there were bigger fish to fry later in the week (harder sessions), and I was able to perform in these sessions. So while not perfect, good progress and a few things sorted, in the training in the last two weeks. With the baselines performances measured - it is onward and upward! Hopefully...

Windtunnel time...

The opportunity presented itself to do a little "wind-tunnel time" this week. I have never done that before, so was quite interested in having a go! I did not know we actually had one, and as it turned out it was a bit on the basic side! That does not mean it is necessarily any less accurate, but I did adjust my expectations somewhat. I am a bit of a science-y sort of guy, and have spent a fair proportion of my life in university (not that I have actually put that to much use). I have also been involved in research - both sides (the "researcher" and the "guinea pig"). So I like to think I have a fair understanding of what goes on and what can actually be taken out of the lab in practical terms. From what I have seen and read, science is not nearly as exact as they would have you believe, and there is usually some blaringly impracticality in the study that makes the results a lot less useful than you would like. Sports science has to be one of the worst! So much individual variation, and what athlete of reasonable ability wants to do exactly what the sports scientist wants them to! Even though I like testing and experimenting, I am a little dubious, or shall I say cautious on results...

I have experimented with position and aerodynamics a fair amount over the years. My feeling was that if you can go faster in a more aero position with less effort, why not do that! My standard test was while doing hill reps, and on the descent (preferably a down hill you don't need to brake on), start at the same speed each time and then try to get the best maximum speed with different body positions. The highest speed (all other things being pretty much equal) should in my theory be from the more aerodynamic position. I knew that for me being low was best. Getting low on the drops was better than the standard position on the aerobars (but not quite so comfortable for a longer period). I also felt I could make myself a little more aero, by sort of dropping the shoulders a bit and "feeling" more aero - without spending a page explaining that...

Back the the wind tunnel - basically a couple of very large fans blowing at you and your bike, that is attached via the back wheel to some measuring stuff. The measuring stuff is suppose to give a drag number - which is basically your resistance to wind. While riding your bikes, anything over 30kph, most of your effort on the flat is overcoming wind resistance. So if you can lower your wind resistance, you can either co faster with the same effort, or go the same speed with less effort. So to cut a long story a bit shorter, trying different positions and equipment in the wind tunnel to find optimal positions and equipment to minimise your wind resistance should make you faster! I have spent a good amount of time investigating these aspects already, along with bike fit, so it is certainly not a new area for me.

I was hoping to test wheels and a whole heap of different set-up options, but after seeing the rig, decided that was not actually going to give much useful data - the main reason being that the front wheel was stationary. I started with what I thought was a pretty good position, and set this as my baseline. The brief summary is that pretty much everything I tried was slower! While there was no ground break revolutionary new-fangled position that emerged, it was good to know that what I thought was right, was shown up in the data. Watching others being tested was also interesting, not only in what they tested, but how things changed while they were tested. Some were trying to put in solid efforts while being tested and the variation in readings within each test run (due to quite large body movements etc) was far greater than between different positions and equipment. Items that are more aerodynamic on their own were not necessarily better in the complete cyclist-bike system. One person was more aero in a standard helmet, than with an aero helmet on. Another used the same helmet in two runs, one with a visor on (which should be more aero) and one without. However the trial on the helmet without the visor gave a better drag figure. I think this is where you need to be a little careful, as it is easy to say "well the test show a visor is less aero - so we won't use one". If you actually investigate a little further you can explain the difference - and in this case the helmet straps were set up differently, and the helmet sat differently on the head. So in fact the test probably showed that you need to wear the gear better rather than get better gear!

What did my trials show? Having just got the actual data - the aero helmets were faster (significantly) for me - I tried two. There was a small difference between the two, but not enough for me to say they are different. Drink bottles behind the seat increased drag - but not very much, less than I would have thought. Putting my head down with the aero helmet on (so the tail was sticking up) increased drag significantly. Raising the stem up was less aero, as was making the elbow pads wider - going higher was worse than going wider. I tried the aerobars pointing up higher (old school rather than Landis extreme) - and that was not as aero - which was probably a little surprising, as I thought that would be quite a good position, but I don't find it that comfortable at the moment. The last run I did was in my standard baseline position, but trying to make myself more aerodynamic - rather than in a standard relaxed position. This did improve my drag figure - quite a bit! My drag was almost 10% less, which is a huge savings! I would probably have to test the power output difference to see if that was worthwhile though, as I am not sure I could pedal hard in that position for a long time. So all up it was an interesting process, mostly as I expected, but a few little bits of information that were not quite as expected. Perhaps a bit more study on the photo's will also be useful...

Birthday special and a hit out...

I thought I would push the intensity up a little this week - at least for a few sessions. Not quite by design, but a couple of other sessions ended up steady instead of easy. There were a couple of things I wanted to check out - both equipment/data wise, and how the training was going. The annual opportunity for a "birthday special" also presented itself this week. There are a few challenges floating around for what you can do for your annual birthday challenge, and I decided I would do something this year. I was not too hung up on the "year" factor coming into the formulae, just a solid hit-out for the day. But to include the year factor, I thought at least 42min of running and 4.2km of swimming (guess the year??). On the cycle, I was tossing up between a time trial (as it was due), or a longer steady ride. The steady ride prevailed, mainly due to the fact I wanted around 4 hours training with a good portion of it at a solid steady effort.

So this is how the birthday special rolled out -

• Friday morning run intervals, which was just a hill run, which did not start off very well, as I went fairly hypoglycemic after 15min, and just wanted to go straight back to the car and head for home. Got myself over that and rolled through the run, taking it reasonably easy for a 45minute run. Finished felling OK, but not quite the start I was after.
• Breakfast and a short nana-nap (love that), and then down to the pool. Aim was a solid main set of 30x100 on the best send-off I could comfortably maintain. I thought 10 on 1:35, 10 pull on 1:30 and then 10 freestyle on 1:30 to finish with would be good. Felt OK after a 400m warm-up, and it usually takes 2-3 reps to get into a good rhythm and get my pacing sorted, with the first few a little slow being the usual start. Did the first one in 1:20 and it felt OK, so decided 1:30 was going to be the initial send-off. All went well, and kept going through to 15, most in 1:20, a couple at 1:22. A quick change to paddles and pull buoy, and continued on. The next 5 were in 1:15, still leaving every 1:30. That was a bit more rest than planned, so thought I would try 5 on 1:25, which went OK, so pushed on and did the last 10 on 1:20 mostly 1:18's a couple of 1:20's in there as well. Finished off with a kick set (8x50m on 1min) and an easy warm-down (8x50 fs on :50). All in all better than expected, although the lower legs gave a few cramp twinges pushing off the wall, which I figured was from the run a couple of hours before. I did feel a bit stuffed after, and could feel the HR was still quite high an hour or so later, so it was probably a little harder effort than it actually felt in the pool.
• Being wet, the ride was going to be indoors! The cramp in the swim put me completely off the time trial option, so decided on the virtual reality trainer, and to do a couple of climbs up alp d'huez, after a lap around the verona world champs circuit! The virtual reality trainer does make a nice change to just sitting on the trainer and pedaling, and the load does vary quite a bit, as on the road, so it is sometimes not so easy to get into a good rhythm. The HR was quite high in the warm-up, so figured I was going to have to take it a little easier. The aim was to try and ride the climbs around 150HR perhaps slightly under, but not over 155. The first time up the climb (13.6km at around 8% average) the HR was sitting just below the 155 threshold I wanted to keep below most of the time. The power was down a bit as well, both good indications I was tired! Each "climb" took just over 40 minutes, the first 269 watts and 153 HR average, the second 261 watts and 152 HR. I would expect that if I did the same session fresh I would average around 290watts at a similar HR. That data is from the powermeter, the trainer gave over 400 watt average (I wish!!) and the second as faster - shame it is not as accurate as it is entertaining...

I as pretty stuffed after, with a few cramps in the legs afterward. Not so much the day itself, but probably the previous 3 days were also quite steady - certainly relative to what I have been doing in the recent past. Tuesday was solid with a sprint swim session, and bike intervals (2 1/2 hours total), Wednesday a steady swim and steadier bike class (3 hours all up), and Thursday school cycling and a hill run (around 3 hours). I wore the polar RS800 heart-rate monitor in conjunction with the power meter, to see compare a few bits of information. The RS800 is suppose to measure training fatigue, and be able to tell you how well "recovered you are. It does this by measuring the variation between heart beats. I can assure you that as the week progressed I was getting pretty stuffed! I was not sure whether I can get out of bed to train over the weekend! The HR monitor tells me I am at a "normal" level! Right, time for a fitness test then. I have always been dubious about this, as every time I have done this test, my fitness rating has always been the same until a birthday, then it goes down one point! Does not matter if I do it after a rest day and feel great, or after a really hard session and I am stuffed. According to the monitor I have a VO2 max of 43, and my status is "normal" (2/5 - 1 is fully recovered, and I am guessing 5 means don't leave bed for a week). Under "normal training load" my resting HR is usually a little under 40, (if I sit down and relax, I can get it under 40 most days), today - I am struggling to keep it under 50 - so definitely a fair degree of fatigue! I am not sure what I have to do to get to a 4 or 5 on the recovery/stress status with Mr polar!! I won't be relying on that too much anyway!

Another little experiment for the week has been to compare the polar calorie count to the energy produced through the powertap. The polar HR monitor is estimating your calories burnt from the settings you enter and the HR. The powertap is measuring the actual energy you produce. If you know your efficiency for energy conversion (can be measured), or at least you can estimate it, you can calculate your energy expenditure from your energy produced (the conversion factor is probably not going to change much). There are also a few formulae around to estimate this for running and swimming - based on body weight and speed. As a rough guide, the KJ you produce on the bike multiplied by 1.1 should give you the kcal you actually burnt off. So for the two rides this week - measuring both:

1 - powertap gives 1130 Kj, which converts to 1243 kcal burnt. Polar estimates 1081kcal.

2 - Powertap gives 1853Kj which converts to 2038 kcal burnt off. Polar estimates 1963kcal.

This is much closer than I was expecting. The older polar models were know to be quite good for females but underestimate males by 20%. So this give a good estimate at a steady effort, and an average estimate at and easier effort (first ride). Obviously a fair amount more data would be needed to make it more meaningful - however it was a good spot check. I am not sure I want to wear two chest straps for most of my bike rides - 1 is plenty enough!

Of course if you then want to be a little more diligent with the training and diet, you make sure you eat what you burnt off (plus or minus weight loss/gains you want to make). So for my 4 hours training on Friday, I probably went through around 3600-3800 kcal in training plus base metabolism of 2400kcal, gives a total output of around 6000 kcal for the day. I better get eating...