May 14, 2022
Welcome to Episode #336 of the 303 Endurance Podcast. You are listening to your weekly connection to coaches, experts, and pro athletes to help you reach your endurance goals. We're your hosts coach Rich Soares and 303 Chief Bill Plock. Thanks for joining us for another week of endurance interviews and discussion.
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In Today's Show
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Training Discussion: Regular Testing
Regular testing to determine your threshold intensities in each discipline is an important (arguably essential) practice to getting faster. This works for new and experienced athletes. Newer athletes may find this a bit demanding, but it will help you get faster, faster. Testing regularly is particularly helpful for athletes who have some experience and find themselves plateauing in their performance.
Here's how the cycle works. Take bike power for example. You want to take a baseline FTP test to determine your Functional Threshold Power. FTP is theoretically the power in Watts you can average for 45-60 minutes. This FTP becomes an anchor point for determining your training zones. Having accurately determined training zones is important for making sure you do prescribed training in the right zones.
For example, if you want to increase your threshold power you need to train at that Z4 Threshold zone to train your body to process muscle lactate efficiently. The more time you spend in that zone, the more adaptation you get. Without the FTP number or accurate substitute, you may be training in the wrong zone (eg Z3 or Z5), neither of which create the same adaptation of teaching your body to improve lactate processing and increasing your capacity to do work. Training regularly and progressively overloading the correct training zones over the course of 3 weeks on the 4th week you retest. If things are working, the next FTP test is at a higher average power than the one 4 weeks earlier. You then adjust the training zones. In this case increasing the power ranges for each zone. Another 3 weeks of training at the new (accurate) zones causes another adaptation, another test, another increase, another adjustment to training zones, etc.
Swim:
Looking to calculate CSS or CV as Meters or Yards Per Minute. The higher the number the faster your are. If you go real fast on the 200 and real slow on the 400 - that counts against you. Your 200 should be about 6% faster than the 400.
Bike
Power on a trainer is best
20 or 45 minute
Or 15 miles without power
Run:
5k Time Trial as if racing
Do on a track or flat course
Always repeat on the same track or course if possible
How to execute a perfectly paced test.
Consider how big of an improvement over the last two tests in that discipline. Consider how well the athlete is training at Z4 and Z5. Start with the average pace or power from the previous test and set a reasonable increase as the target pace or power. Execute at that power or pace start to finish. Don't start faster.
Excerpt from Swim Test Pacing:
For the 200 target 58 seconds per lap which will put you close to 1:56/100 pace or 3:51 200.
For the 400 target 59 seconds per lap for the first 4 and 60 seconds per lap for the last 4. If you feel you have some gas increase the stroke rate on the last lap.
If you want to talk further about how to test regularly to get better results, reach out at Rich@303colorado.com or message @tripodcasterrich
Check out the TriDot Free Trial https://app.tridot.com/onboard/sign-up/richsoares
Endurance News:
Ironman World Championships St. George results
Utah Sports Commission Expected To Create Total Economic Impact Of More Than $35m Dollars
The event will see six of the world’s top professional athletes race an Olympic-distance course alongside Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF) athletes and special guests including former UFC star Paul Felder and Olympic silver medallist Heather Fell. CAF athletes will kick-start the day with a 1500m swim in the beautiful pearlescent sea off Venice Beach. Once out of the water, they’ll tag in a highly-ranked PTO professional who’ll rip up the road over a 40km bike course finishing in downtown LA between the Crypto.com Arena and Microsoft Square, outside the Herbalife Nutrition HQ. From here, another CAF superstar, or one of our special guests, will complete a 10km run to close out this first-ever PTO Pro Am event.
TEAMS REVEALED
The PTO is proud to work alongside the Challenged Athletes Foundation to celebrate life through sport at the first PTO Pro Am. The six teams taking on the challenge of the PTO Pro Am in LA are:
Swimming and track runner Haven Shepherd, PTO World #3 Lionel Sanders and former UFC star Paul Felder.
Swimmer and para climber Emily Gray, PTO World #8 Sam Long and swimmer and para-triathlete Rudy Garcia-Tolson.
Para-triathlete Allysa Seely, PTO World #4 Daniel Baekkegard and GTN presenter and Olympic silver medallist Heather Fell.
Swimmer Ahalya Lettenberger, PTO World #11 Holly Lawrence and swimmer and para-triathlete Roderick Sewell.
Para-triathlete and hand cyclist Andre Kajlich, PTO World #7 Skye Moench and influencer and Herbalife ambassador Shirley Alvarez.
Para-triathlete Chris Hammer, PTO World #14 Heather Jackson and para-triathlete, cyclist and marathoner Willie Stewart.
What's New in the 303:
Upcoming Multisport Events in Colorado (runningintheusa.com)
Upcoming Classic Races in Colorado (runningintheusa.com)
Colfax Marathon
Video of the Week:
Ironman World Championship St.George 2022 | Race Movie
Closing:
Thanks again for listening in this week. Please be sure to follow us @303endurance and of course go to iTunes and give us a rating and a comment. We'd really appreciate it!
Stay tuned, train informed, and enjoy the endurance journey!