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Newsletter
- October 1st, 2003
Welcome to the Wes Hobson Performance Newsletter!
Sponsored by Clifbar and Cervelo
In This Issue:
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In this issue:
* SBR has sold over 14,000 copies!
* Escape From Alcatraz on TV Sunday, featuring Wes' commercial!
* Getting Back Into Training.
* Uh-oh…..Doing the Las Vegas Marathon.
* New Marathon World Record
* CP What? by Adam Zucco - associate coach of WHP Inc
* Tyler Hamilton's Confidence
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Swim, Bike, Run has sold over 14,000 copies! Many thanks to all that have purchased the book. I am a firm believer in Joe Friel's Triathlete's Training Bible (as I wrote the foreword for it). However, myself and the co-authors of S,B,R wanted to come up with a book that was more simplistic for the beginning to intermediate triathlete. We feel we achieved this with this book. Get a personally signed copy at Signed Copy Of Swim, Bike, Run! |
ESCAPE ON TV THIS SUNDAY
This Sunday, October 5, the Escape From Alcatraz Triathlon is on network television (check your local listings for air times). This race is one of the favorite races of my career. Sure, winning t n 1999 helps, but it is a very unique race. Last year, registration opened one night in December at midnight. Within two hours, 1500 people had registered and the race had sold out. See why Sunday. In addition, my Clif bar commercial airs twice during the one hour show. Follow our link to get a sneak preview of the commercial (a high speed connection is recommended for best viewing) from Clif Bar featuring Wes Hobson. The commercial is also included in the film Triathlon~Racing Faster which you can purchase here Triathlon - Racing Faster.
GETTING BACK INTO TRAINING AND RACING
Here is some advice for those who have completely fallen off the wagon, eaten Twinkies every day for the past year, and are just now getting back into an exercise routine. This may be do to lack of motivation, injury or you just haven't had the time to train for several months.
1. To help you get and stay motivated, you need to have a goal or goals. These goals need to be realistic. Most likely, they can't be the same goals that you had when you were at the peak of your physical fitness. If you set a goal that is most likely going to be unachievable even if you were at your fittest, then you are more likely to quit training all together if you don't come within 30% of the goal you made.
Get with a training group. This will "force" you out of bed in the morning. As long as you can maintain base (low) intensity training, groups are very motivating. If you aren't at a workout, you might here about it from your group "team."
2. You can't be a superwoman and start training right away from 0 hours of training per week to 15 hours a week. This increases your chance of injury. Realize that training to get ready for a race is a journey. If none of us had to train and yet could race awesome, then what self satisfaction and personal accomplishment would you feel if there was no process to achieving that success? If you race and don't train, then you most likely will be sore for at least a week depending on the distance of the race. I have in my office a picture of my first triathlon when I was 16. During the race was the first time I had ever biked 20 miles. I had no idea what to expect and I was sore and aching for two weeks. I had to go up the stairs backwards on my butt. I still have that picture staring right at me because it makes me know that if I don't train for a race, then I will feel like I did at that race.
3. Start your training at a low intensity. Work on your speed skills such as cadence and your form with drills. One advantage of taking so much time off is that your body has forgotten what its old form felt like. Learn better technique in all three disciplines before you get into the habits of old.
4. Stay away from a high carbohydrate diet. If you eat fruit, meats and vegetables when just starting to train again, you will lose weight and not feel hungry. The first three to four weeks of getting back into training is the most difficult for the body to adjust from its old cravings, including Twinkies. If you are training up to 10 hours a week, you don't need to restore your glycogen levels with specific carbohydrate drinks etc. because the glycogen stores aren't depleted enough to need replenishment. Eating fruits will more than keep your glycogen stores replenished. After a few weeks, you body will adjust to your healthier way of eating.
5. Be patient. As I mentioned previously, you need to earn your fitness!
LAS VEGAS MARATHON CHALLENGE:
I coach 11 one-on-one athletes. For the upcoming off-season, I wanted to motivate them with a short term running goal. I challenged them with this:
"If more than half of you will decide to do the Las Vegas Marathon on January 25, 2004, then I will do it with you as well." Well, so far 7 of the 11 have committed. One can't because he is doing IM NZ two weeks later, one has already signed up for the Phoenix Marathon and the other two are still concentrating on Hawaii and Florida Ironman races this year before we make a decision.
Now, for the last year, I have been running about 30 minutes to one hour a week. Needless to say, work and other items in my life have taken a toll on my training. Finding out that I am doing a marathon 12 days ago, my first run was 1:10 to the top of a mountain and down. Here is the motto "Do what the coach says, not what the coach does!" (I.E. read above article J) I couldn't walk for two days! The past two days, I have run 1:05 and :55. During the 1:05 run, I ran with house guest, Aussie Courtney Ogden, who is preparing for and going to have a great race at IM Florida. Trying to hang with him, I felt like I was at my lactate threshold the whole way. I dare not test for my LT until I get in somewhat of a decent shape. After today's run, I have a beautiful blister. I love it!!!
Back in the ole days, when I was 21-23, I would take two months off from training completely. Then I would head down to Tucson, AZ and start my base training. I would go from training about two hours a week for two months while I was a swim coach for my alma mater high school (State Champs and runner-up for two years I might add) to swimming 20,000 yards, biking 250 and running 40 the first week of "Spring Training." Sure, I shocked my body, but back then I could handle this illogical training regimen. Realization hit me full swing this past week as I started to run again. My body just ain't what it used to be. So for all of you getting back into training, whether you have taken a month or a year off, be patient. Enjoy the road to getting back to fitness. This will help sustain your motivation to keep training six months from now.
PS. If you see me in Las Vegas with my head on the pavement at mile 20, give me a swift kick in the butt!
MARATHON WORLD RECORD!
Paul Tergat just broke the world record at the Berlin Marathon by running a 2:04:55!!! That is an average per mile pace of 4:45. Try going out and running a loop around your local 400 meter track in 71 seconds. Now do that 105 times straight!
POWER TRAINING by Adam Zucco - associate coach of WHP Inc.
"CP What?!" I am sure every coach can attest to hearing those words at least one time from every athlete. Sometimes you will see your workout have a CP value attached to it along with a heart rate value. This off season I know many athletes will be getting Computrainers, Power Taps, an SRM, or other wattage calculating devices. All of them to effectively use these new toys will have to understand what "CP" stands for and how it is going to apply to their training.
Training with wattage is one of the most accurate indicators of fitness that we have. Wattage is another way of monitoring your effort, just like HR (heart rate). Power however, is not affected by heat, cold, your motivation, hunger, wind, rest, fatigue, hills, etc. 1 watt is going to be 1 watt any day of the week. Therefore, your coach can establish power "zones" for you and set your efforts based on those instead of HR.
Establishing your "zones" is critical in training with power. Many athletes have done a test for their LT before. Testing for your power zones is no different. If new to power meters, or if you are looking for a place to start, let's begin with establishing your CP30. I define different zones with Critical Power (CP) tests. The best way to understand the meaning of critical power, as it is used here, is to substitute CP with; "The maximum amount of watts I could average for" and then the number TIME. So, CP30 would be interpreted as: The maximum amount of watts I could average for 30 minutes. CP6 would be for 6 min, and CP180 would mean for 3 hours.
I usually have my athletes start with two tests. CP30, and CP6. This will require two separate tests on separate days, and they should each, as any test, be your "key" workout for the day. In other words, you want to make sure you are fresh for each effort. For example:
Let's say I have an athlete named Jill. Jill just got a computrainer for the winter, and she has a goal of being more competitive in Olympic Distance triathlon next year. One of her limiters was the bike this past season, and we discussed and feel the Computrainer was a worthy investment. Our first test shows Jill has a CP30 of 140 watts. This means that after a warm up, we did a flat course, as fast as she could go for 30 min., and 140 was the average wattage for that 30 min. On a separate day, which Jill was also rested for, we established her CP6 value to be 195watts.
CP30 = 140 notes: cadence was 98
CP6 = 195 notes: cadence was 102
Going into next season we have a goal of raising her CP value of at least 10 percent. My challenge now as a coach or you as a self cached athlete is to find ways to train Jill to elevate her CP values. We could do several things. We could have her re test the next time, with a cadence restriction. I might say to Jill for her next test she is not allowed to spin faster then 95, and see what happens. OR if Jill were a "masher" and found herself under 85 rpms a lot, we could retest with instructions to ride at a minimum of 95.
Most likely the change is going to come from working on efficiency, which in cycling is composed of bike fit, cadence, pedal stroke, and fitness. When first looking at these wattage values, there seems to be a large gap between the CP6 and CP30. This MAY be an indicator that endurance, or more specifically muscular endurance needs to be focused on. While still working, to improve her mechanics, we are going to have to go to work on her fitness as well. So an example of a workout we may do is:
Warm up for at least 15 min, then ride 4x10 min @ CP30 with 5 min easy spin between. By doing this, I just got Jill to spend 40 min. at her wattage she can only sustain for 30. Over the course of the winter I could increase the number for example: do 4x10 min @ CP6 for 2 min, then the last 8 min @CP30, with 5 min. easy spin. I could start to decrease the rest intervals. I could do many different things to start to elevate her capacity to work at that wattage longer.
It is hard to test for any CP value greater then CP30. Some athletes are motivated enough, and have the right roads or Computrainer to do a CP60 test, but that is hard. Anything over an hour I still like to revert back to HR zones. You can calculate CP values over 30 min. if you have CP30 by subtracting roughly 10-15 percent. For example CP30 of 140, we can estimate Jill's CP60 to be 126. Most Ironman athletes usually average or should try to average about 65% of CP30. SO if Jill was training for Ironman we would like to see her theoretically average around 91watts. Problem with this is on down hills you will be producing close to zero watts, and up hills she will be close to 200, she will achieve her average based on those numbers combined, not the ability to just pedal 91 watts. So, as I said before if you are going over 60-90 min., I much prefer to go back to HR, and RPE (rate of perceived exertion). You can set "ceilings", so I could tell her never go over 225 watts anywhere on the course, but Ill have her watch her HR the most in an Ironman event.
If you are doing long rides, let's say of 5 hours, you absolutely CAN add interval into it. For example ride 5 hours easy except insert 4x15 min at 125 watts.
Power is just another tool to be used. Like anything else it has its place. At the end of the race they are not going to ask anyone what their wattage, HR, or what their RPE was to hand out the awards. It will ultimately come down to who crosses the line.
Do you need a coach such as Adam to help you achieve next year's goals, write Wes@weshobsonperformance.com.
TYLER HAMILTON'S CONFIDENCE
I had dinner with Tyler Hamilton last weekend as he was in Boulder for three days visiting. During our conversation, I asked him "When did you know you had the stage victory in the Tour?"
He said, "100K from the finish, I knew I had it won! I knew they would make time on the downhills so I rested on the descents. However, I knew that I could make up time on the uphills so I sprinted every one of them."
He was confident, think about how important the mental aspect is to racing.
Newsletter Forwarding:
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About Wes:
Wes Hobson has competed in over 220 triathlons, from sprint- to Ironman-distance. He garnered 35 first places, 60 top-three finishes and 96 top-five finishes during his 12-year professional career that also included being selected "Triathlete of the Year" by the USOC. Wes co-authored Swim, Bike, Run, and created three triathlon and cycling related films. Wes coaches multisport athletes, single-sport athletes and puts on the Wes Hobson Performance Triathlon Camps. He can be reached at wes@weshobsonperformance.com. To purchase any of his films or book, visit www.weshobsonperformance.com.
