6 Tips to Planning Your Next Race Season

Fall is here and for most people in the northern hemisphere that means triathlon season is over.  Some of you may opt carry that fitness into late season half or full marathon, others have chosen to take some time off from structured training to chill out and enjoy moving for the fun of it.

This is also the time of year that many people start planning their 2020 race season.  Early bird pricing for many races means most people commit to races well in advance without giving too much thought to how to structure their training in terms of building and recovery between races.  This can result in lacklustre performances in key races, which results in an unhappy athlete.  

How do you avoid this?

1.  Race Selection.  When you sit down to plan out your season, pick your goal race.  I have some tips on how to do that here

2.  Where to start?  Figure out where your fitness level is currently at.  Be honest with yourself.  Did you spend the last 3 months after your last goal race sitting on the couch and binge watching Netflix?  Or did you give yourself a bit of recovery time and then resume some easy training?  If you are starting from square one, then you're going to need a longer build than if you kept up some activity post race.

3.  Work Backwards.  Once you've chosen your A race and you've figured out how long you think you'll need to build towards it, work backwards to figure out your start date.

4. Other races. Most of us like to do more than one race per season.  The key here is not to "over race".  You have to allow for sufficient recovery between events.  The shorter the distance, the less recovery necessary.   Here are some examples of recovery times for various distance triathlons:

* Sprint:  1 week

* Olympic:  2 weeks

* 70.3:  up to 5 weeks

* Ironman:  roughly 8 weeks

If you're a runner:

* 5 km:  up to 5 days

* 10 km:  up to 5 days

* Half marathon:  up to a week

* Marathon:  up to three weeks

This can vary depending on age, gender and time in the sport.  Men tend to recover faster than women and the younger you are the faster you recover.   If you are newer in the sport, it will take you longer to recover than someone who has been in the sport for longer.

5.  Test early and test often.  Do some testing to figure out where you are at fitness wise.  If you're a runner, sign up for a 5 km race, plug your race time into an online calculator to figure out your current training paces and go from there.  If you're a triathlete, you'll need to test swimming and cycling as well.  For swimming, you can do a 1000 meter time trial or a CSS test.  On the bike you can do either a ramp test or an FTP test.

6.  Make your plan and stick to it.  If you are an athlete that doesn't need the one on one guidance a coach can provide, there are plenty of great resources for online training programs.  Online training platforms, Training Peaks and Final Surge have stores that you can purchase plans from a variety of coaches.  There are also a ton of fantastic books out there.  The Triathlete's Training Bible by Joel Friel and Matt Fitzgerald's 80/20 Triathlon are a couple that I've read.

You invest a lot of time and money into racing so taking the time to map out your season before it starts will give you the best of chance of success.  If you fail to plan, you plan to fail.  If you're not sure where to start or you don't want to think about planning, I will have 3 spots for my one on one coaching opening up November 1st.  If you're interested and want to know more, shoot me an email

Do you plan your race year out in advance or do you wing it?

Hello, is it me you're looking for..?

Yes, I'm alive!  And maybe you weren't looking for me, LOL.  I totally just dated myself with that title...

In all my years of writing this blog, I've never taken a hiatus this long (almost 5 months!!).  Truth be told, I've been spending most of my time over on Instagram.  But, there's something to be said for the written word so I'm back.

A little catch up for those of you that don't follow me on IG.  We came back from Florida at the end of March to less than stellar weather in April.  I didn't actually get outside on my bike until May 1st.  But, this summer has more than made up for our lacklustre spring.  It currently feels like a jungle outside it's so wet and humid.  But I will take it.

Race wise, I crammed 3 races into 6 weeks.  Maybe not the best idea, especially since 2 of the 3 races were sub-par performances.  Back in June we did Hawaii 70.3.  I had no real goals for this race because I wasn't sure how the heat would affect me.  I did my very first open water ocean swim and I absolutely loved it.  It was my favourite part of the race.  The bike course was the middle 1/3 of the Hawaii Ironman course - it was essentially one big climb and then a descent.  I had hoped to come in around 3 hours and I just squeaked under that in 2:58.  It was hot and windy and that kinda cooked me for the run.  The run took place on a golf course (yup, we ran on the greens!) and it was a mix of grass and pavement along with some pretty short and steep hills.  I ran at comfortable pace for the first 17km and walked through every aid station on the first lap to make sure I drank and got ice and cold sponges.  The second lap I went through the first few then at 17km decided I had enough in the tank to drop the hammer so I did.  I missed the podium by just under 2 minutes.  It wasn't my goal to get there but knowing how close I was and where I could have made that up, bugged me for days afterwards.

Smile every mile! 

The #RickyBobbyTurns50 Crew

The trip itself was amazing.  We had a blast with our friends and I'm so glad we opted to go because I don't think we ever would have gone there otherwise.

Two weeks after I got back from Hawaii I did the Welland Long Course race.  I had a horrible swim a decent bike and a fantastic run.  I clawed my way into 2nd place in the last 400m of the run.  It was really nice to finally nail a solid run off the bike.  I thought that bode well for me for Muskoka two weeks later.

Muskoka 70.3 was my goal race of the season.  That was where I hoped to qualify for the 70.3 World Championships.  My AG was pretty stacked.  They changed the bike course so it definitely played to my strengths - less steep climbs, more rollers.  But, I did not have the day I hoped to have.  My swim was alright but as soon as I got on the bike, my legs felt flat and my heart rate was super elevated.  I rode well within my power range but watched the watts I could hold drop throughout the race.  With about 15km left on the bike I threw up.  I was drinking my race fuel and it went down and then came right back up a few minutes later.  I was aiming for a 2:40-2:45 bike but I came in at 2:49 with legs that felt like lead.  I went flying out of T2 and as I got going my legs felt a bit better.  At least for the first 2km and then I started to get a side cramp.  That's when everything started to go sideways.  I started to have a tough time keeping nutrition or fluids down.  Every time I drank, I felt like I was going to throw it right back up so there was a lot of stopping and walking.  My stomach was not happy.  I suffered through that first loop and then I finally clued in that I should try to have some flat coke or pepsi because I know that settles my stomach.  So that's what I did at the 9km mark and by the 11km mark I felt better.  I started taking in a bit more fluid / nutrition but the damage was done.  I was running on fumes.  I did manage to catch 3 women in my AG though but it still wasn't enough for a podium spot.  Once again I missed the podium by 2 minutes.  I was heart broken.

I knew there was only one Worlds spot in my AG so I figured there was no way I'd get it but, I thought I'd stick around anyway just in case a spot rolled down.  Patience has never been one of my virtues but it certainly paid off in spades that day.  The woman that won the 60-64 AG didn't show up so her spot rolled down to my AG, which was the biggest and myself and another woman wanted it.  I finished ahead of her so I got the spot.  I started crying.  Definitely not the way I wanted to get the spot but, it's done.  I'm headed to Nice next year and I can't wait!

I am currently enjoying a very unstructured summer.  I really feel like I needed a mental break.  I lost that fire that I had at the beginning of the year and I need to find it again.  So right now, I'm not thinking about next year.  The most planning I've done is paid for the race and booked a place to stay. I am very torn about my goals next year - if any.  Part of me wants to muck about like I did this year, but maybe with a *bit* more focus and only do the 70.3 WC, with maybe a few sprint races thrown in.  The other part of me wants to see what I'm really capable of with some guidance and someone to be accountable to and tackle one, maybe two 70.3's leading up to the WC in September.  That also means I NEED to stay healthy and of course I can't help but think about the last time I worked with a coach, I ended up getting injured and not being able to race.  But, I didn't realize I had all these underlying issues so, there was that.  Now that I know there are certain things I need to be doing, hopefully I will be better off....

I also have to realize that I may have to give up some of the things that I really enjoy, like riding with Morning Glory.   But, I also know that I was incredibly dissatisfied with both my 70.3 race performances this year so there's that.  The question I am currently wrestling with is, how bad do I want it?

Only time will tell.

I may not post every week, but my goal is to get back on here and share training tips and some of my adventures.  I got tired of posting weekly recaps - it just felt a bit redundant and I'm sure it didn't always make for interesting reading.  So, my goal is for this blog to be a place where I share my knowledge as much as possible with some stories thrown in for good measure (and entertainment of course).

It's nice to be back!

~ Coach PK

Monday Musings: A Magical Week

Happy Monday!

The dust has settled and the house is quiet once again.  This past week was a big one!  We hosted some elite triathletes for the weekend, I went to Disney for the first time and I celebrated another trip around the sun.

Last December, one of our coaches here, Sarah McClarty, posted in the Clermont Triathletes FB group that another USAT coach was looking for a home stay for 3 athletes that were coming in to race the draft legal race in Lake Louisa State Park.  It happened to be the same weekend as my birthday.  Gary asked if I'd be ok with having some athletes stay with us and I said sure why not.   The girls emailed us shortly after to introduce themselves:  Sophie Chase, Ellie Abrahamson and Mary Alex English.  They were arriving on the Wednesday and staying until the Sunday.   Fast forward to January and I book a trip to Disney for the day with friends of mine that were going to be visiting.  I booked it on the same day the girls were arriving.  Oops.  Turned out that they weren't going to be arriving until much later in the evening.  That meant that I could stay and watch the fireworks at Disney and still make it home before they arrived.

WHEW.

I never went to Disney as a kid so I never really understood what all the fuss was about.   I always thought that adult Disney fanatics were a bit crazy.  Now that I've been there, I totally get it.  Especially if you went as a kid.  It is a pretty amazing place.  I am thankful that I went with my friends David & Elyse - they are fanatics and they know all the ins and outs of the various parks.  I trusted my trip to them completely and I had a blast.  I'm not a big ride person, mostly because they scare me, but I went on Space Mountain and another roller coaster and I was totally fine.  Space Mountain was a bit disorienting at first because you're in the dark but it ended up being a pretty fun experience.  And none of the rides are terribly long so even if you are a bit freaked out, you know it's not going to last very long.

I got there just after 10 and we were in the park by around 11.  I was given two buttons to wear, one that said it's my first time and another that said it's my birthday.  Sure it was a bit early but whatever.  I was celebrating all week, ha ha.  Every single staff member  (or cast member as they are referred to here) wished me happy birthday.  Definitely made for a fun day.  I wasn't sure if I'd last until the evening fireworks but the day flew by.  There is so much to see.  They even do a full on parade at 3:00 pm every day.

Yup, that's a fire breathing dragon!!! 

We saw some shows went on a bunch of other rides and wandered around.  Surprisingly the park wasn't that busy.  Yes, there was a lot of people around but it wasn't as insane as I had imagined.  Thankfully!  Knowing that our guests were coming in later in the PM I stayed for the fireworks.  I wasn't disappointed.  Disney definitely knows how to put on a show.

Pre fireworks

I was back home by 9:45 pm, totally sweaty and exhausted.  I really wanted to go to bed but I knew the girls were coming so G and I stayed up until they arrived around 11:15.  We met them all, along with Jarrod, their coach and got them settled.  They were still on west coast time so they stayed up for a bit while G and I went to bed.  G got up to swim the next day but I opted to skip that and hang with the girls in the morning to make sure they were a-ok.  They had to go pre-ride the course but before they could do that, they had to assemble their bikes.  They had no idea how to really do that so G would come in and check on them from time to time.  Their coach told them they had to have their bikes assembled and ready to go for 9:15 am.  I headed out with a couple of friends to do a ride before he got there but I heard he was a little annoyed with them when he arrived.

The girls were racing on Saturday but G and I had committed to doing a charity poker ride that one of my other friends here had told me about.  It was leaving from Winter Garden and was finishing at The Crooked Can which is a great local brewery.  Any ride that ends with a beer is a good ride, in my books.  We got to Winter Garden at about 7:15.  It was COLD.  And by cold I mean 10 degrees celsius, which, when you've been used to 28 to 30 degrees celsius, that feels cold.  My toes were frozen and I wished that I had worn full fingered gloves.  We collected our score card and rolled out with the group.  There was a lot of chit chat.  Again, one thing I've noticed here is that people don't know how to ride in a group properly.  And they wonder why cars here yell at them.  There were a few guys trying to maintain some order and give directions but, it was a bit disorganized.  We did stick together which was nice as there were all levels of riders.  I figured it was going to be an easy ride for me so that was perfect.  Last week was a hard week of training so it was nice to just cruise for a change.  We collected all our cards and headed back to Winter Garden.  I had a crappy hand, but not the crappiest so I didn't win a prize.  There was a prize for the best / worst hands.  G and I sat around for the draw prizes and then went to get a beer.  Well, I had a beer.  We then hit a patio for lunch and after lunch we headed home.  I am not a good day drinker so I was ready for a nap.  But I rallied an managed to keep my eyes open, ha ha.

The girls came back and filled us in on their race.  We were checking their progress online.  We had figured that Sophie would probably win but she wasn't showing any splits after the swim so we figured something happened.  When she got back we found out what went down.  Her top tube snapped.  So, she was out.  She was PISSED.  But Ellie and Mary Alex rallied and came in 4th and 3rd respectively.  Ellie is an insanely fast runner.  She ran a 16:35 OFF THE BIKE.  That works out to 3:19/km.  WTF.   She was so nonchalant about it too when we told her her split.  She had no idea, ha ha ha.  

It was so awesome to have the girls with us for the weekend.  On the Thursday night I made dinner for everyone and we sat around and chatted for a long time.  They told us about their experiences so far.  All of them are VERY new to the sport.  This was only their second race.  They were recruited from various track programs.  They weren't necessarily the fastest or highest ranked but they fit a certain body type that USAT is looking for.  They had to pass a swim test and a run test to see if they had potential.  The cycling they would learn.  All 3 of these girls are swimming 750m between 10-12 minutes.  They're averaging around 35-37/kph in pack as this is draft legal and then running anywhere between 16-18 minutes OFF THE BIKE for a 5km.  So amazing.  What I found really interesting was their mindset.  For them it's a job.  They had no real feelings about the sport like age groupers do.  It was kind of strange.  They thought G and I were awesome because we went out and trained on our own vs. being told to.  I thought that was funny.  It's just normal for us.  I suppose if I had started at a high level in the sport, my mindset would be different as well.

L to R:  Ellie, Mary Alex and Sophie

They left us yesterday to take over an Airbnb in downtown Clermont for the next few days then they're off to Sarasota for another weekend of racing.  We'll be cheering for them for sure.  Before they left they gave us a card and a signed USA Triathlon cycling jersey, which I thought was super sweet.  I'm SO glad we got the opportunity to do this!

Even with all the goings on, I still managed a solid week of training.  I'm working my way up to a 400km week of cycling.  That's my goal for our last week here.  So there will be plenty of time in the saddle over the next little while.  I'm trying not to neglect other things as well but there is only so much time in the day.  This is how last week went down:

Monday:  OFF - when Training Peaks suggests you may need an extra day off because your form is so low and you're not feeling so awesome, you take the day off.

Tuesday:  2650m swim in the a.m., followed by an 80km  hilly ride to the Yalaha Bakery with fellow TTC'ers Kim Robinson & Halley Georgas.  I got the eclair I didn't get last year.  All is right in the world.

Wednesday:  9.7km run with 4 at tempo pace.  My legs were feeling pretty heavy after the previous days ride but I still managed to nail my paces.  Then off to Disney where I spent all day on my feet.

Thursday:  83km on the TT bike with Halley on the Van Fleet Trail.  It was SUPER windy out.  Definitely a good day to be on the TT bike.  And I did my second brick of the season, we ran 12 minutes off the bike.

Friday:  OFF.  I had planned on doing my long run but I wasn't feeling so hot when I got up so I decided to give myself the day off.  I woke up with a headache that was bordering on a sinus attack so I chilled out.

Saturday:  72km ride

Sunday:  16.5km long run with 4x2km race pace repeats followed by a 36km spin along the trail for coffee.

Totals:

Swimming: 2,650m (UGH)
Cycling:  271km
Running:  26.2km

Total time:  13h 17 minutes.  My TSS this week was 742 vs 801 and I felt pretty good for the most part.  Accumulating this much fatigue is new for me so I'm trying to be careful and really listen to my body.  I don't know how far I can push things, but I don't think that I want to dip much past -35 in form.  I've gotten down to -28 and I felt pretty tired but not totally smashed.  I was toeing the line for sure though.  A few more negative points and I think I would have been toast.

Tomorrow Eric is flying in and we're getting ready for our first camp that starts on Saturday.  The weather is looking like a roller coaster ride for the next two weeks so I'm crossing my fingers that the rain stays away at least!

Anyone else been to Disney World?  What was your experience like?  Have you gone back again?   I'd go back again but I think I'd go to Epcot instead.

Happy Monday!

~ Coach PK 

Monday Musings: Halfway There

Hello!

I'm still here, I'm just not spending a lot of time online.  Honestly, it's the last thing on my mind when I've got spectacular weather and great people to hang out with.  If I'm not out training, I'm either sitting on the back deck reading or working.  Weekends are spent out and about exploring.  There is always something going on.   It's funny how last year I thought that 2 months was going to be a long time.  It's not.  It's far too short when you've got places you want to see and people you want to visit.

It has been between 28-31 degrees celsius every day for the last two weeks and that is going to continue until this weekend.  It's made for some excellent heat training that's for sure.  I have had to pay extra attention to hydration.  I learned that the hard way on a long run last week.  I'm not really sure what I was thinking but I only brought one bottle with me on an hour and 10 minute long run.  I went out at 9:30 am and ran along a part of the trail with NO shelter.  And it was super windy.  It was like running into a blast furnace.  To say I caved was an understatement.  Strava assigned me an extreme suffer score and my Garmin told me I'd need 3 days to recover.  Needless to say I've learned my lesson.

I've done a LOT of volume in these last few weeks.  More so than last year.  But I came to Florida in much better cycling shape than last year as well.  I certainly didn't think that when I did my first FTP test back in November, but things do come back quickly if you stay the course and do the work.  My body is actually feeling ok.  I've been doing mobility work several times a week, along with my physio work.  I've been getting to the gym more often as well since it is so close.  My cranky SI joint seems to be happier these days.  I've been on my road bike most of the time but I took my TT bike out this past Saturday and I am very happy to report that my back managed to hold up ok.  And it wasn't like I was just spinning my legs.  These were hard efforts with climbing.  I was a bit sore / tight after I got off the bike but once I started moving around, I was fine.  I'm going to keep doing all that I'm doing and hope that things keep improving bit by bit.

I do have a few bits of exciting news to share.  I will be leading a beginners running workshop at the Lole Yorkville store when I'm back in Toronto in April.  WOOHOO!  I will be hosting 4 workshops in total.  The first two are geared towards beginners.  I am working on topics of discussion and I will be giving people a plan they can follow that will get them up to running for 30 minutes straight by the time the group meets again at the beginning of July.  I'm really looking forward to this!

The second bit of new is that I have finally gotten a PKPC kit in the works.  I've gone with Louis Garneau and they've created an awesome design that I absolutely love.  For now I've gotten tri and running stuff done but I may end up getting some cycling stuff made as well given how much time I spend on my road bike.  We'll see.  Next up - HATS!  I want a technical trucker hat and a regular running hat so if anyone has any recos, let me know.

So that's been the update.  Nothing crazy to report.  I've started a few blog posts on some topics of interest but they will require a bit more research so stay tuned for that at some point in the next week or so.

On to the fun part - TRAINING!  After my epic weekend at the Hunter Allen Camp, I took a couple of days off and then got sick, so I ended up taking another day off later in the week.  Needless to say I was well rested coming into this past week.  This is how last week unfolded.

Monday:  35km easy spin to Winter Garden for coffee with G.

Tuesday:  Skipped swimming due to a late night watching the Olympics.  13km long run with 3x2km repeats that completely killed me.   30 minutes of Upper body & core work followed by a 30 minute mobility class.

Wednesday:  30 minute easy swim (1554m to be exact)

Thursday:  100km ride with "Centre Hill Gang".  Nice easy 5km spin to meet the group, followed by roughly another 5-10km at a civilized pace and then the hammer got dropped and I hung on for dear life for the next 75km.  It was nice to actually have to work hard.  I haven't pushed myself too hard since I've gotten here and this ride was just what I needed.  I stopped for a coffee and a smoothie on the way home so I'd have enough gas to take the long way home so I could get my first 100km ride of 2018 in the bank.

Friday:  This was going to be a tempo run but given the previous days effort, I did a recovery run instead.  I then hit the gym for a 40 minute full body session, followed by a 40 minute swim.

Saturday:  Just under 60km TT Fun with the Swim Like a Pro Tri group.  I took Tom Sawyer out for his first outdoor ride of 2018.  I was surprised at how comfortable I was for most of the ride.  I'm not in the most aero position but I definitely seem to be able to crank out the watts on this bike.  I've been contemplating changing my fit to try to get a bit more aero but I may save that for the off season.  I know there is a trade off.  I may get more aero but loose more power.  I'm not sure what's better.  I'm also not sure if my back will be able to take a more aggressive position.  I do know that my neck and shoulders were totally fine at the end of this ride, which is NOT normal for me.  So something has changed in my mobility through my upper back and neck.   The bike was followed by a short run but I didn't know they were running so I didn't bring my running shoes.  After the run we did a short open water swim.  I swam about 1000m I think.  My Garmin said 817m but I went around the 400m course twice and did about another 100m out and back.  So something is up.

Sunday:  90km with the Epic Cycles crew.  This was a SPEEDY ride.  I do find riding with this group to be a bit stressful as no one seems to want to take charge and organize HOW we ride so the pack is a little messy.   I try to stay close to the front where it seems to be a bit more organized.  I did have a 20 minute run off the bike scheduled but that didn't happen.  I was tired and hungry so we made lunch and I did some work.

Totals for the week:

Swimming:  4,567m (I kid you not!)
Cycling:  284km 
Running:  20km <----- NEEDS WORK

I keep saying I need to work on my running and I've been better this year than last year but the bike always seems to take precedence.  My bike V02 max is now better than my run V02 max.  Funny how things have changed.

Total Time:  14h 22 minutes.  Total TSS for the week 801.   Which is the highest it's been in a while.  Which is also why I thought it would be a good idea to take today off, even though I felt ok.  I know this week is probably going to be another big one in terms of cycling.  I've got 4 longer rides on tap, one of them will probably be a really easy / fun ride but it's still time in the saddle.   I'm doing a Poker Ride on Saturday in Winter Garden.  It's my birthday and I figured that would be a fun way to get out and do something different.  It also ends at the Crooked Can Brewing company so REALLY how could I say no?  Beer + Bikes = awesome.

Happy Monday!

Has anyone ever done a poker run / poker ride?  I've done a run but this will be the first ride.  It's gonna be FUN!

What I've Tried: Heart Rate Variability Monitoring

If you've seen my IG stories then you will have seen snippets of me talking about HRV.  What exactly is HRV?  HRV stands for heart rate variability and it is the variation in time from one heart beat to another.   I'm sure you're now wondering why you should care about it.  Well....I'm going to get up on my heart rate training soapbox now and tell you why.

Despite how good exercise makes us feel, we have to remember that it is a stress on the body.  Our bodies can't distinguish between exercise stress and other stress.  If you train with heart rate and pay attention to your data, you will notice changes in your resting heart rate over a point in time.  This can be due to increased cardiovascular fitness (your heart rate becomes lower) impending sickness (your resting heart rate is higher than normal) or dehydration (resting HR will also be higher than normal).  Many things can affect your heart rate.

Your heart is controlled by your autonomic nervous system (ANS), which is the involuntary part of your nervous system.  This system breaks into two more branches, called the sympathetic and parasympathetic branches.  When you're under stress, the sympathetic part of your ANS is active.  It puts all systems on alert.  The other branch, the parasympathetic branch, is the relaxed part that just goes about it's business when you're in a relaxed state.  When your heart rate increases, that means the sympathetic branch is more active.  Your heart rate beats in a more regular rhythm when you're stressed.  That also means that your HRV (time between heart beats) decreases. (source)

When you're more relaxed, your heart rate decreases and beats only to meet the body's requirements.   If you've ever taken your heart rate manually, I'm sure you've noticed that your heart rate doesn't always beat like a metronome.  In this state, your HRV increases.  Meaning that the time between beats increases.   Because of these differences, HRV is a great indicator of the balance between the activity of the 2 branches of the autonomic nervous system and therefore it's an indirect measurement of stress.  Higher HRV means lower stress.  Lower HRV means higher stress (source)

Heart rate offers athletes as to how their body is responding to the stress of exercise as well as any other stressors they have in their life.  Garmin and Polar have factored this into their watch technology with their versions of recovery advisors.   They measure the stress put on your heart through your effort and give you an estimated time to full recovery.  I say estimated because everyone is different.  Some people recover faster than others.  Also, what you do post activity will greatly affect your ability to recovery.  If you don't eat and rehydrate immediately after a workout, that will delay your recovery.  If you don't sleep well, that will also affect your recovery.  There are several external factors that can affect how well you recover.

How do you know when you're fully recovered?  That's the tough part for a lot of athletes.  These days with all the technology available to track our fitness, there really is no excuse not to track your recovery.  The latest Garmin (735xt) has an HRV recovery feature in it.  And you can download various apps that will also track your recovery by monitoring heart rate variability.

For the last year I have been using HRV4Training.  It is an app that I downloaded on my phone.  I think it was $13.  I chose this one because it didn't require a heart rate strap.  The last thing I wanted to do was to sleep with my heart rate strap on.  No thank you.  Instead, this app takes a reading from your fingertip.  According to the creators, this is just as accurate as using your heart rate strap because "current generation phones can be used to detect changes in blood volume during a cardiac cycle by illuminating the skin and measuring changes in light absorption using the camera"  (source).

HOW FREAKING COOL IS THAT?!?!??!?!

How it works:

When I get up in the morning, I go and get my phone (I don't keep it in the bedroom) then go back and lie down.  I fully relax and let my heart rate come back down before I take the measurement.  The measurement takes 1 minute and it's quite bright since the uses light in addition to the camera.  The app can link to Strava and Training Peaks so it can collect your workout data for analysis.  Once the measurement is done, you answer a series of questions based on your training, how you feel, how your training was, if you're sore, if you drank any alcohol the night before etc.  Based on your answers and your HRV, it will tell you if you're good to go, if you should limit intensity or take a rest day.

The app also allows you to track your CTL and ATL (fitness and fatigue).  It gives you a V02 max estimate.  You can analyze correlations between various things like sleep and heart rate.  You can analyze HRV trends to see if you're adapting to your training.  There is SO much information and data in this app.  If you're a data junkie, then you'll love this app.

Current bike fitness over the last 2 months.  As you can see I've had a few hard bike workouts in there.

This is based on my last 2 months of riding.  Some de-conditioning happening + going a bit too hard on my last two rides means that I have to be careful with my effort over the next little while.

Even though I'm in the moderate category for injury, my training is still considered well polarized.  

So how does this affect my training?  I still plan my workouts for the week, but I will adjust my intensity accordingly depending on how well I've recovered.   So there is always a plan B depending on what my HRV score says in the morning.   No more powering through workouts when I really should be taking it easy.  No more dogging it on days that I am totally able to go hard.  The thing that really changed in terms of my training schedule is my regularly scheduled day off.  I used to schedule one day off a week religiously regardless of whether or not I needed it.  Now, I will do a short easy workout, usually a swim or a restorative yoga class vs taking the entire day off.  Sometimes there are days where I mentally don't feel like doing anything and I'm feeling a bit tired so even if my HRV is within normal ranges, I will still take a day off because while I may not need to physically recharge, I need the mental break from training.   As a result, my training has become a bit more fluid and I have yet to feel any sort of burn out.

Training this way has definitely made me pay more attention to recovery and patterns that start to emerge when I don't necessarily take the best care of myself.  The older I get, the more important tracking recovery becomes.

How to you track your recovery?  By feel?  By resting heart rate?  Or not at all?

Monday Musings: We have arrived

Hello from somewhat sunny Florida, ha ha.  It's overcast this morning but it's WARM so that's a-ok with me.

We left Toronto on Friday and had a pretty uneventful drive down to the US.  G had to do his visa at the border so we had to stop for a bit.  The process was pretty smooth, I think we were in and out in 30 minutes or so.  The weather was awesome on Friday, sunny and 3 degrees when we started and it climbed steadily the further south we went, so we had a really smooth drive.   We drove into Charleston West Virginia on Friday night after spending the majority of the day on the road.   Saturday was our big day on the road (almost 9 hours of driving).  We drove from Charleston to St. Augustine, Florida.  Last year we stopped in Savannah but it was still roughly 6 hours to Clermont from there so this year we opted to at least get to the top of Florida so we only had a couple of hours drive to Clermont.  That way we could spend a bit of time exploring in the morning before we hit the road.  We did a day trip to St. Augustine last year and loved it so we thought it would be nice to stay the night there.  G and I went for a bit of walk on the beach in the morning and then I left G to continue his walk and I went for a very sweaty run.  It was 17 degrees and very muggy.  I only had my tights and a short sleeve dry-fit t-shirt in my overnight bag so that's what I ran in.  OMG I was drenched.  At least it got me used to the heat. 

Going through West Virginia on our first night

Walking along the beach in St. Augustine yesterday morning

The house we’re in this year in pretty freaking awesome.  It’s in a newer development within walking distance to the NTC.  Being in a newer development, it also has a POOL.  WAHOOOO.  The house we stayed in last year was a very old home with no real useful outdoor space which was a shame given how awesome the weather was.  This year, I intend to take full advantage of the upgraded outdoor space.  Here's hoping the weather cooperates!  

This past week was nuts.  For some reason I thought it would be smart to schedule all my appointments in the week before we left.  UGH.  So much scrambling!  It meant a lot of missed workouts but whatever, I know the next two months will give me more than enough time to get some solid work in.   My back was also causing me some grief so I opted to skip a swim to let it rest.  I really wanted to come to Florida feeling as good as possible.  I don't want to spend my time here sitting on the sidelines.  So let's just say I had a really good recovery week, ha ha.  I'm going to spend my morning planning out my next few weeks here.  

So, this is how my big time recovery week went:

Monday:  OFF

Tuesday:  9km run with 4km at tempo

Wednesday:  2450m swim

Thursday:  45 minute ride, 1 hour of strength training

Friday:  OFF

Saturday:  OFF

Sunday:  6km run around St. Augustine with 2km at tempo pace.  Easy to do on the flats!

Total time:  3h and 50 minutes.  I am clearly very well rested, haha.

Today I'm headed to the NTC for a swim and probably some strength training and then the afternoon will be a Training Peaks review day.  Last night we met up with a couple of our friends from here (Hi Marianne & Butch!) and I was talked into doing the Cherry Lake Duathlon this weekend.  I always say make sure your first race of the season isn't your first brick.  OOPS.  I had planned on starting brick workouts this week so, looks like I'll get ONE in before the race on Saturday.

Now it's off to Target to do some grocery shopping.

Happy Monday gang!

~ Coach PK

Maintaining Fitness in the Off Season

For many beginner triathletes, the off season is a funny place. What does off season mean?  Do you stop training?  How much rest is too much?  How do I structure my training?  These are some of the questions I've gotten as a coach and I will do my best to tackle them in this post.

I know when I started out in triathlon, after my last race of the season, I stopped training completely for at least a month, probably longer.  I had no fall races planned and I thought because I was relatively fit, I could stop all activity and pick up where I left off.  HA.  Was I ever wrong.  You know that saying Use it or Lose it?  That's exactly what happened to me.  I didn't have a big fitness base at the time so taking over a month off resulted in some serious deconditioning.  I would stay that when I got back to regular activity that I was starting from square one but it was pretty close.  It usually takes about 7-14 days for endurance to start to decline so bear that in mind when taking time off.  The theory is the bigger the base of fitness you have, the longer it will take you to become deconditioned.   So seasoned athletes can afford to take a bit more time off without losing too much fitness.  Beginner athletes shouldn't take too much time off if they want to maintain a good measure of fitness.

How much time is enough? 

How much time "off" depends on the length and intensity of the last race of your season.  The shorter the race, generally the faster you recover.   If you've done a summer of sprint racing, then I'd suggest a week to 10 days off any structured swimming, biking or running for you to relax and regroup.  That may not be necessary for you to fully recover physically but you may need to mentally recharge as well.  If that means sitting on the couch for a week binge watching Game of Thrones, then so be it.  After that getting back to some kind of regular activity is key to maintaining your fitness over the winter.

For myself, I always like to take at least 5-7 days off completely after a major event like a marathon or a half ironman.  That doesn't mean I'm sitting around on the couch.  I still like to move my body so I will go for a walk or do some gentle yoga.  If I've run a marathon, I find one of the best things for my legs is swimming.  Recovery varies by individual.  Some people take longer to recover, others take less time.  Men tend to recover faster than women and the younger you are, the faster you recover.  So us old broads really need to learn to listen to our bodies, ha ha.

Structuring Your Training

As I mentioned in this post, this is the time of year where you focus on improving your weakest link in the sport.  A typical training week in season looks something like this:  Swim 3x a week, run 3x week bike 3x a week.  In off season for me, it looks more like this:  Swim 4x a week, bike 3-4x a week run 2x a week.  Running is hardest on my body so I prefer to do less of it.  That is just enough to maintain a decent amount of running specific fitness, especially if one of the runs is a long run.  Swimming is my weakest link so I'm adding a 4th swim that is all technique and drill focused vs. volume.   And it's now cyclocross season so I will be doing one ride a week like that and then ideally 2-3 more easy rides.

Off season isn't the time for high volume or a lot of high intensity.   My training volume in the off season is about 1/2 to 2/3 of what it would be during my race season.

Integrating Strength Training

This time of year is the best time of year to bring regular strength training back into your training as well.  You don't need to spend hours in the gym.  Two 30-45 minute sessions a week is great.  If you can do three times a week that's even better.  Start by working on muscular endurance with lighter weights and higher reps, and build to working on strength and power with heavier weights and lower reps or some plyometric work.  In the off season I like to do my weight workouts after a short run or ride.  The cardio element can be your warm up so you are ready to tackle your weight workout.  I have some weights in my basement along side my indoor trainer so when I'm done my ride, I can start my weight workout.  It's the most effective use of my time.

Staying Motivated

Over the years I've managed to become fairly self motivated in terms of my cycling and running.  Swimming is where I have a hard time.  Knowing that, I joined a Masters swim club.  If there is any sport that you have a tough time getting done on your own because you either 1) don't enjoy pushing yourself in that sport or 2) you're not sure what kind of workouts to do, then I'd highly recommend you join a training group.  The Toronto Triathlon Club offers coached swim sessions across the city and there are various Masters groups as well.  If the thought of spending solo hours on the trainer isn't appealing, there are plenty of places to ride inside with other people.  There's Watts Up in the West End, Dig Deep Cycling Fitness uptown and The X3 Lab in the east end.   If none of those are convenient, there's always ZWIFT. which is social in it's own way.

Alternatively, you could always hire a coach to help you take the guesswork out of your off season planning and to help you make the improvements you're looking for leading into your next season of racing.

On that note, I do have a couple of openings for coaching as of November 1st so if you're interested head on over to my coaching site and take a look around.  Shoot me a note if you have any questions!

Thanks to all the folks that responded to my IG stories question in regards to posts they'd like to see.  This was the first one and I'll be putting together more over the coming weeks!

Happy Friday!

~ Coach PK

What's Next?

I am officially in "off season".  Or as badass coach Jen Rulon calls it: "the Season of Improvement".  I think that's a better way to look at the down time between the last race of your season and the time you start to build for the following season.  Off season kind of implies that you're taking time off.  That being said, I suppose you could say you're taking time off from structured training i.e focusing on hitting certain paces or power numbers.  This is the season to re-charge mentally and physically and not put a bunch of pressure on yourself to tick all the green boxes in your Training Peaks account.  In fact, ideally there are LESS boxes in your Training Peaks account.  This is not the time to be concerned about volume.  You want to do enough to maintain a good base of fitness.

This is the perfect time to focus on your limiters.  The things that need improvement.  If it's your swim, then maybe you drop a run workout and replace it with an extra swim workout that is technique focused.  This is also the time to bring strength training back into your life.  You don't have the heavy training load, you don't need to worry about DOMS affecting your ability to hit certain paces or numbers.  There couldn't be a better time to start working on your strength.

This is also an excellent time to go out and do things that you may not have tried during race season.  I'd say that's part and parcel of re-charging mentally.  It's nice to take the focus away from structured training and just do things for fun without worrying about hurting yourself or if the whatever it is you're doing will affect your training.

I've got a few plans for my "Season of Improvement".  Firstly, I'm planning on adding one day of swimming a week that is purely a drill and technique based swim.  It won't be too long, maybe half an hour to 40 minutes max.  I really need to work on the entry and catch phase of my stroke.  When my hands go in the water, they just sort of hang out until they get to my waist and then I feel them pulling the water.  So, I foresee a whole lot of sculling in my future.  Time for me to figure out how to use the drill function on my 920xt.

Next on my list of "things to work on" is my run form.  There are a few small tweaks that I'd like to make.  My cadence is good (anywhere between 176-192 depending on how fast I'm running) but I'm not driving my knees up enough so I feel like I'm missing out on some of the gait cycle.  I also need to work on keeping my shoulders back and up.  I'm still rotating a fair bit at my shoulders and that needs to stop.   I believe that these things are muscle and mobility related so before I can tackle new movement patterns, I need to work on my mobility to allow those movement patterns to happen.  This is something I've started to work on daily.   A few minutes a day of dedicated mobility work with a yoga strap, some bands and a lacrosse ball, usually when I'm watching TV.  Hopefully it pays off when I start to build my mileage again for 2018.

While I'm not a huge fan of riding in the cooler fall temps (which don't seem to be happening right now - YAY!), I do love touring around country roads on two wheels and checking out the foliage.  So there will be a lot of that this fall.  There will also be some time spent working on my skills.  Just because triathletes race generally bikes in straight lines, doesn't mean you can't benefit from bettering your bike handling skills.  It will make you a more confident rider when you're around other people and in traffic.  Bettering your skills means riding outside.  My bike handling skills have improved immensely since riding with Morning Glory but I do think there is some room for improvement.  So, I've bought myself an entry level cyclocross bike and  I'm planning on going to the Midweek Cycling Club Tuesday night races starting in October.  Nothing like learning how to handle a bike on GRASS and dirt.  I'm a little scared, but this year has been all about doing things that scare me.

Speaking of things that scare me, I will be bringing strength training back into my life in the form of TEACHING classes.  Yup.  Scaredy cat me is leading a lower body conditioning class at Pur Energy Wellness Lofts on Thursday mornings at 10:30am.  I will be leading other classes as well once the strength studio opens up.  So, not only am I getting a workout in, but I get to work out with other people AND get paid for it.  I taught my first class yesterday and it was SO AWESOME.  I was super pumped after.  I am pretty sore today.  My Garmin told me it was going to take me 21 hours to recover from that workout so yeah, I kicked my own ass for sure.

My first day greeting! 

I love this time of year because you have usually just finished your triathlon race season and can take the time to reflect on what went well, what you might change and what you need to work on while all of it is still fresh in your mind.  I think reflection is important in your growth as an athlete and this is the best time to do it.  It's also a great time to start thinking about your 2018 goals and looking for someone to help you get there.  As a coach, I've noticed in the last 2 years that October and November have been busy months for me.  I have some athletes wrapping up their racing season with fall races and other athletes (usually triathletes) that want to start working on their base fitness for a build to a big summer race.  If you're looking for either run or triathlon coaching, I will have limited spaces opening up at the beginning of November.  Hit me up if you want details or you can go to my coaching website.

G and I have been taking full advantage of our down time.  I've started volunteering with the Morning Glory Grass Tracks program on Wednesday evenings and we've been out pretty much every night this week at various social gatherings.  We've really dialled our workouts back.  I swam on Wednesday and it was probably one of the best swims I've had in a while.  So the bit of time off we've taken has helped us recover so we perform better.   Come the beginning of October, we'll get back into something a bit more structured.  For now I'm enjoying doing what I want, when I want.

Is your season done or do you have fall races planned?  What do you want to work on in your season of improvement?

TGIF Gang, enjoy your weekend!

~ Coach PK