Philly Weekend Part 2 - TR***

If you enjoyed Part 1 of this report be warned Part 2 is not going to be anywhere near as interesting. You will see that this has a 3 star Trigeek rating (click here for the rating scale) as it is predominantly focused on Sundays Blood Lactate Testing.

Sunday was at last a little bit of a lie-in. Ben slept relatively well and we were not planning to be at Cadence until 1200. Due to the Manayunk Arts Festival we left a little bit early to allow for parking and the walk into town. When we got to Cadence we met up with Todd Parker who was going to do the testing and we also got to meet Lisa Spohn another coach who helped out with the tests who is herself a 5 Ironman veteran.

The testing was done in Cadence’s test lab. Instead of using my bike on a computrainer this time we used the static bike in the lab which was fitted with my pedals and adjusted to mirror the dimensions of my own bike. I had had a tough week and the day before I had worked hard during the time trial and group ride and there was a good chance that these results may be affected by the week’s efforts. Todd explained how it is not unusual for spikes and troughs in the results if you have been working hard before the test and the body has not properly recovered.


None the less I had tried to take it easy after the day before and although my legs were a bit tired we would see how I got on. After warming up for a few minutes we began the test. The bike was wired to the computer and every 3 minutes the computer would up the wattage by 25 watts and it was up to me to maintain 90 rpm. At the same time Todd would prick my finger and take a sample of blood which was then analysed for its lactic acid content. When that content is above 4 you have deemed to have passed your threshold and the test is over. Comparing the blood lactate level, wattage and HR they can then work out exactly where your threshold lies and what the associated Heart Rate and wattage are for that limit. For more information and to see my last set of results please click here.

It soon become apparent that despite yesterday’s riding my body was still efficiently dealing with the lactic acid in my system. I warmed up at 120 watts and my blood lactate was down at 1.3 compared to 1.8 at the same wattage 3 months ago. We started the test at 125 and my blood lactate went to 1.8 but my body then managed to actually process some of this acid and the figure dropped to 1.6 at 175 watts which looked promising. At 225 watts we were still down at 2.1 and at 250 we were 2.8 still well below threshold and clearly already above my old Lactate Threshold wattage of 240 watts. The bike actually got up to 325 watts before the test ended and by then my legs were really starting to protest but in March I was done at 250 watts.


Todd ran the results for me and it was very reassuring to see that unlike the last tests there had been a significant improvement since the selection weekend in Oct 07 and from my last set of tests in March 08. The first thing that stands out is the actual Lactate Threshold which has gone from 240 watts in March to 277 watts this weekend. This is a significant gain in 3 months but the way my Columbia and Philly bike splits went I am not that surprised. It is clearly a reflection of the interval work I have done recently and I am sure that the biggest improvements came from joining group rides around DC. The Tuesday night Wakefield ride and doing the Hains Point Group ride on a Thursday when combined with long rides at the weekend has paid dividends.

The other thing that leaps out at me is how low the heart rates are throughout the results table. This is a bit of a surprise and based on my lactate threshold interval training out on the road I do not believe that these heart rates are accurate. I normally do my LT intervals at around the high 160s, low 170s according to Sunday’s tests I would be 132 to 138. 132 to 138 is normally what I would see during a pretty gentle endurance ride not an LT interval. I was super relaxed on Sunday and perhaps the low heart rates are a reflection of the tiring week I had had. It is sometimes difficult to get your heart rate up when you are tired.



Before I could do the run testing I had to wait an hour for my body to flush out the acid that had been generated during the ride. This was an ideal opportunity for Wendy to leave me with Ben while she had a look around the shops and I sat quietly feeding him while watching Colin doing another of his very thorough bike fitting. It was actually very relaxing and a good way to unwind. Colin came over and we caught up and then Wendy came back very suspiciously the exact second I had finished changing a particularly smelly nappy/diaper.

The run test is very similar to the bike but this time the treadmill is set at a 1 degree gradient and the speed is increased by 0.3 mph every 3 minutes. During the warm up blood lactate was back down to 1.1 which is nice and then Todd set the treadmill to 8mph and we were off. The run is not as much fun as the bike and you ideally want to start closer to your lactate threshold so that you are not left sprinting away for a long time. I settled into a comfortable but fast pace and started whiling down the minutes. When you have a sample taken you have to straddle the treadmill this gives you a brief respite and looking at the graph it is very comforting to see that my heart rate actually fell significantly at 8.6 and 8.9 mph which was presumably when I was having blood taken. A quick recovery is a good sign of overall fitness.

By 9.2 mph I was beginning to suffer and I was willing the little blue blood lactate reader to tell everyone that I was done and it was time to slow the treadmill down. Luckily my prayers were answered and it came in at 4.1 and I breathed a sigh of relief as Todd turned the speed down. After Todd processed the results it was nice to see a steady improvement in my run results as well. The zones have changed a little and the heart rate figures are all up a little bit. My endurance zone is now a whopping 129-172 bpm and my Sub-Lt zone is a tiny 174-173. I am not sure that this means a great deal but what is significant is the pace I can maintain in these new zones. According to the latest testing in my Sub-Lt zone I can maintain a 6:54 to 7:49 min/mile pace. In theory, if your nutrition is right, you should be able to go indefinitely in this zone and should certainly be able to finish a marathon.



So what does this mean for Ironman. As far as I can tell on paper I am capable of achieving a good result at Ironman. My swim is OK and I have plenty of swim endurance so should be able to finish the swim in a reasonable time. According to my bike results I should be able to put down anywhere from 233 to 277 watts in my Sub –Lt zone and my body seems to be recovering very quickly from LT efforts. Additionally it is not just a case of my LT power going up I have also lost nearly 10 pounds so my power to weight ratio has also improved significantly.

Lake Placid has some hills but my power to weight ratio is not going to play that significant a role as this is not a mountain stage in the Giro D’Italia. However in theory I have enough power in my endurance and sub-lt zone to be able to put in a good bike split without writing myself off for the run. With all the road riding and hill work I should also be able to recover pretty quickly from any climbs and therefore not have to take them overly slowly.

On the run if my nutrition is good, and I am feeling OK coming off the bike, I have the ability (again on paper) to run a 3:20 marathon at 7:38 min/mile pace while staying in my Sub-Lt zone and could just about run a 3:30 marathon while staying in my endurance zone.

BUT (and as you can see this is a “big but”) this is all on paper and is at this stage is pure theory. The three disciplines have been examined here individually and not together as a whole but it does show that there is a chance, if everything goes like clockwork and I have a fantastic day, that I may just surprise myself. It helps give me confidence that there is not one discipline which is going to single handedly scupper my dreams of a slot at Kona and in the words of Sir Mix-a-lot “I like big but[t]s”.

A big thanks to the mechanics at Cadence who gave my bike a much needed full race tune. Sorry to have missed two of Cadence's senior management, Matt Heitmann who normally posts the fastest time at the West River TT and Olympic cyclist Brian Walton, who normally leads out the Cadence group ride, both probably saw my bike split at the Philly Tri and both happen to be missing the same weekend I do the rides - you do the maths :-).

The Most Astonishing Lactate Threshold Test Ever - TR***

OK as promised the results from my latest lactate threshold testing in Philly a couple of weekends ago.

The title of this post is actually a total fabrication. The test results were not in any way astonishing and if anything at first look they are actually a little disappointing. That said if we look at them more closely they do raise some interesting questions.

For those who have not seen the earlier posts, whilst I was in Philadelphia visiting Cadence Cycling and Multisport Center I undertook some blood lactate threshold tests. On Saturday I did a bike test and the following day I did the run test.

Lets first look at the run test and how it compares to last years testing at the Cadence facility in New York during the Kona Challenge selection weekend. At first glance the results do not look too different to the initial testing.

The VO2 max HR 181 is unchanged but my lactate threshold HR has gone up slightly from 167 to 171. That means that although my max HR is unchanged my lactate threshold as a percentage of my VO2 max has gone up ever so slightly from 93 to 94%. Therefore I can go that little bit quicker before my body produces more lactate than it can deal with.

The graph shows my heart rate in bpm as diamonds at the top, my RPE or Ratings of Perceived Effort (simply how hard I felt I was working from a scale they held up) as diamonds and the squares indicate my blood lactate levels.

To find my threshold you draw a line through lactate levels and what you should find is two distinct lines that intersect at the lactate threshold. The relatively flat line indicates that my body is coping with the lactate that is being generated and the levels remain fairly level and when the line starts to steepen dramatically it indicates that I have reached my threshold or OBLA (Onset of Blood Lactic Acid) and the body is no longer able to flush the lactic acid being produced and it floods my blood stream.

So my LT threshold has not really changed very much since I started this program which is disappointing but .....

I have done very little LT training and the vast majority of my training has been focused at the endurance zones. According to the algorithm that Cadence use my endurance zone has gone from 117 to 139 bpm, to, 118 to 157 bpm. I am not sure how this algorithm determines the zones but however it does it it did it the same way last year and there has still been a significant change. According to the new figures I ran the first half on my marathon in my endurance zone which means that I have a lot left to give. It also means that I should be able to run 8 min miles in my endurance zone which was supported by a run a couple of days ago when I found I was able to hold 8 min miles for 20 minutes at only 140 bpm.

If there has not been that much change in the run results that is certainly not true for the bike. However again at first glance the figures look a little disappointing. My bike results from last years time trial gave a VO2 max of 180 and a lactate threshold of 168 bpm however this latest LT test gave a VO2 max of 165 and a lactate threshold of 156.

This is a significant drop, so what does it mean. Well it is not actually that bad as my LT as a percentage of VO2 max has again risen slightly from 93 to 95% and my endurance zone has remained pretty similar.

These new results are probably a bit more accurate than the time trial field test. Firstly I have really struggled to maintain my lactate threshold and super lactate threshold zones during training which makes more sense with the latest test. Additionally last years field test was done in a big room with lots of people shouting and cheering and there was plenty riding on it which means I may have given 110% rather than 100% which I may have physically been capable of (mind over matter).

My LT power has allegedly dropped from 245 to 240 watts and therefore as my weight is unchanged my power to weight ratio has also dropped slightly.

So in conclusion:

I am not too concerned about these tests. My run test indicates that I can now run much quicker in my endurance zone which is a good thing. My bike figures are down but I am in the middle of training and did not have much of a break before the test so I would expect to be a bit tired.

Perhaps more importantly I know for a fact that I am fitter and stronger than when I started and I am confident that everything is moving in the right direction. These tests seem to indicate that I am a lot more efficient at slower speeds which reflects the type of training I have been doing.

Perhaps the next round of testing in a few months really will be the most astonishing results ever and put me in league with the uber-athletes or perhaps, as I suspect, I have a perfectly normal physiology and will have to rely on quality training and will power to get me to Kona.

Sorry this has been such a dry post but I did warn you all with a trigeek rating of 3. For new readers click here for the trigeek ratings.

Its Like Running with your hands by your side – TR** (Part 2)

………………………… continued from Part 1.

That afternoon I met Holden back at the Cadence facility and he took me to a local pool. The pool that Cadence usually uses was closed that weekend so Holden took me to a local high school pool. Apparently the regular pool is really impressive but I was more than pleased with the high school pool. The idea of a secondary school in the UK having such an impressive pool was completely alien to me.

I got changed and then sat on the bench while Holden revealed to me the secret of great swimming. Now I am not sure whether I should share this or not because I don’t want to get to Lake Placid and miss a qualifying slot because someone has read my blog and learnt the secret to great swimming. Therefore if you have read this and finish ahead of me in my age group at Lake Placid I would be very grateful if you would decline your Kona slot – thanks for your understanding :-).

So the secret to great swimming is efficiency of effort. I know everyone thinks they know that already but there is a bit a more to it. Holden talked about fluid dynamics and the more energy you expend pushing against the water the more resistance you will have coming back at you. Therefore you want to get through the water without fighting against it. Now for me the biggest resistance I was creating came from my legs. Holden was relatively happy with my arm movement – not perfect but good enough. The glaring problem with my stroke is my irregular kick.

'Holden explains how he is going to kick me in the head if I get the drills wrong.'

I start kicking and then every time I take a breath I scissor kick to regain my stability in the water. Going back to the fluid dynamics every time I do this huge scissor kick I create a lot of resistance in the water and slow myself down. My coach does not want to try and reinvent my stroke this close to the racing season as it would more than likely be counter-productive but I can make a lot of progress if I can coordinate my kick. He showed me a few drills which involve me establishing a steady kicking rhythm, from the hips, and then trying to windmill my arms (not pulling, just rotating them) without disturbing my kicking rhythm.

The importance of a good kick cannot be overemphasized. I must admit I was one of those people that believed you didn’t need to kick during a Triathlon swim and you were better off saving your legs for the bike and run. When I finally decided to start improving my kick I thought it was all about using my legs to provide propulsion through the water. I was completely off track and the analogy Holden used was that you wouldn’t try and run with your arms locked by your side and similarly you shouldn’t try and swim without using your legs. I do not need to develop a kick to power me through the water, although if I was competitive swimmer in the pool I certainly would, but instead I need to develop a kick which will hold me steady in the water and stop me fighting against the water unnecessarily. From there everything else should naturally fall into place in terms of breathing and body rotation.

Holden went on to explain how I should be whipping my legs to create the kick and explained some other body dynamics but the broad theories he was selling me seemed to make total sense and I really feel like I can make a significant breakthrough with my stroke with minimal effort. I was pleased to find out that the rest of my stroke is not too bad and that I have the in water conditioning I will need and only need to really work on technique.

That evening Wendy and I went out in a storm hit Philly city center and had a dinner at a great little restaurant near 2nd St Station. It was called the Continental Martini Bar and the food was delivered to the table tapas style. We had a lobster mashed potato dish, chicken satay dish and a humus dip and it was all top rate food and highly recommended.

The following day I was back at Cadence for another blood lactate threshold test, this time on the treadmill.

On the way to the store Wendy and I stopped at the Art Museum to get the obligatory Rocky photos. It was fun to see a bus load of kids get dumped at the bottom of the steps by coach and then run up and down before being shepherded back onto their coach. One of the little boys even had a pair of boxing gloves on.

Holden was busy so the test was taken by Colin Sandberg who did my bike fitting last year. Colin is about to embark on his first full season as a Cat 1 racer and he is looking super lean in comparison to when I saw him last year and I believe he now has some ridiculously high power to weight ratio.

The test is exactly the same as for the bike test but instead of increasing wattage the tester increases the speed of the treadmill. Colin explained that it is a little more important to start the run a little bit closer your lactate threshold than is necessary on the bike as you do not want the test running too long, as running is a load bearing sport and you tire more quickly. I warmed up and then Colin started me off at 9.1 mph. I had clearly fooled him into thinking I was faster than I am with my marathon tales and snazzy running gear as I was almost immediately over my LT threshold. We stopped the test and started over when my body had returned to a lactate level well below the test base line threshold of 4.0. This time I started slower and we fell into the familiar 3 min blood sample, pin prick routine.

Colin computed my results that lunch time and Holden is going to send me my bike test results by email. I won’t comment on them now as I think it is probably worth doing a separate post.

The last thing I did before leaving the store was say hi to Brian Walton. He is Cadence’s VP of Performance and is a former Canadian professional road and track cyclist who has been inducted into the BC Sports Hall of Fame. He has raced professionally for teams 7-Eleven, Motorola, and Saturn and he is an Olympic Silver medalist, not to mention a winner of the Milk Race (aka Tour of Britain). He normally leads out the Cadence group ride on Saturday morning and I was really looking forward to the opportunity to ride with him but I am sure there will be another opportunity. I also believe he is the only person I know who has their own Wikipedia page (if you look it up he is Brian Walton Cyclist not the 17 Century Bishop of Chester in case there was any confusion). Before I left he put me in contact with a Cat 1 racer here in DC who has sent me information on some local group rides. It would probably be really good for my cycling if I tried to stay with a few of these faster group rides with more experienced cyclists.

As I left I collected my bike which the mechanics had very kindly been working on. Everything is now nice and tight again and the rattles from the slightly misaligned group set have now gone, many thanks Woody.

So all in all a great weekend was had by all but I hope to never have such an awful drive up as we did on Friday. I learnt a hell of a lot and I am really pleased with my swim session and feel like I have a way forward which I can now practice on my own in the pool. It was great to see all the staff again most of whom I had not seen since the selection weekend in November. As I said in my first post way back when everyone there is super friendly but more importantly very, very knowledgeable and the store is well worth checking out if you are after high end coaching or equipment.

Its Like Running with your hands by your side - TR** (Part 1)

I am back in D.C. following my weekend excursion to Philadelphia to see my coach and visit the Cadence Cycling and Multisport Center in Manayunk just outside of Philly.

It turned out to be a great weekend there were highs, there were lows, there were tears and there was laughter (I might be over-egging it a bit but it wasn’t all plain sailing).

Wendy and I left D.C. at about 2.30pm hoping to beat some of the traffic but unfortunately that was a very naïve plan and we joined all the other cars parked on the Beltway. Eventually we managed to get onto the 95 heading North but by now it had started to rain. I know the UK has been hit by storms but over here everything is bigger including the weather systems and for the entire journey there was torrential rain and heavy traffic. We finally arrived at Philadelphia around 7.00pm. We crawled through to the city center and it turned out the very heavy traffic was due to the world’s largest flower show.

We found the hotel car park and as I went in I hit the bar which marked the maximum clearance. There was no way I was going to be able to reverse out of the carpark and I don’t know where else I could have parked so I carried on driving in. I tried to remove my bike rack but to take the base off you need a special allen key which was at home. I took off what I could and squeezed into one of the really tiny parking spaces. When we tried to check in they had no record of the reservation and it turned out that I had bought a room through priceline for the 8th of Feb rather than the 8th Mar. The manager was a nice guy but he was full (worlds biggest flower show) he gave me details of another hotel but it was going to cost well over twice what I had already paid through priceline.

After scraping my way out of the car park (which cost $10 for just over 30 min) we decided to head out of the city as all the hotels were full (world biggest flower show). It was now about 8.30pm and after a call to Holden and a suggestion from his girlfriend we found ourselves driving away from the city desperately looking for a room. We eventually came across a Marriott which was reasonably priced and checked in. After again banging my roof rack getting into another low roofed car park we ordered room service and passed out for the night.

The following day I had 3 options:

1. Join the 3.5 hour group ride leaving from Cadence at 0900.
2. Join Holden’s Tri class doing a track workout at 0830.
3. Arrive at Cadence fresh at 1000 for a Lactate Threshold test on the bike.

Looking out of the hotel window the skies were still very dark and there was a second wave of torrential rain forecast for later that morning. I thought the group ride would be a wash out and opted for the LT test. When I met Holden at the store I still wasn’t certain what form the test would take. It could have been a field test test similar to the one in New York during the selection weekend when you have to go b##ls out for 20 mins or it could be a blood lactate threshold test were you only have to go hard enough to get your blood lactate up over its threshold and then you can stop. Mercifully it turned out to be the second type of test and I knew that my breakfast would remain safely in my stomach.

The test was very civilized. I warmed up gently on the trainer whilst they showed 2007’s Tour of California on the big screen. An added bonus was that I was dry and warm and I could look out of the window and watch the rain coming down in sheets. Holden then set up the wattage, I think we started at about 125 and I simply had to maintain 90-95 rpm. 4 minutes later we jumped up 50 watts and then every 3 minutes thereafter another 25 watts. Just before each wattage increase I would have to say how hard I thought I was working and Holden would measure the lactate in my blood (they make a pin prick sized hole in your finger using a special mini torture machine). I think the test stopped at around 250 watts by which time my body was producing lactate that it was unable to flush from my system.

Lactic Acid is not a bad thing as I once assumed. It is a natural byproduct of energy production and is actually used as a source of energy in its own right with a large proportion of Lactic Acid being converted to glucose. You are always producing Lactic Acid and this is useful during aerobic exercise. However when you reach your Lactic threshold, in other words you start to exercise anaerobically, your muscles produce more Lactic Acid than your system can deal with and the lactic acid starts to flood into your blood which in turn interferes with your bodies ability to transport oxygen to the muscles and can rapidly cause the onset of fatigue. In theory if your muscles are able and you have the right amount of nutrition you should be able to exercise under your Lactate Threshold indefinitely.

The test over I grabbed a shower in Cadence’s changing room and found they even supply posh shower cream, rosemary and mint, before arranging to meet Holden back at the store that afternoon so that he could take me for a swim. I also had the chance to say hello to Matt Heitmann, one of the co-founders of Cadence Cycling and Multisports Center, who I had not seen since the Cadence Kona Challenge Weekend in New York. I said hi to some of the other coaches including Todd, a retired Army Officer and Pro –triathlete, who was just joining the company when I met him last year.

If you are ever at the store in Philly you should try Le Bus across the road for lunch or a late breakfast. I had the 6 grain pancakes with banana and walnut and they were very excellent.

Still to come in part 2:

The secret to great swimming revealed.
The meaning of the cryptic Blog title.
More Lactate threshold testing this time on the treadmill.

To be continued ……………………..