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Dr. F speaks out

The Science of Training Is a Soft One

The text before you is the printout I use at my lectures to sum up what I have found useful in my own training. I present it as a collection of possible choices to consider according to vagaries of our personalities and physical abilities. Of course, the oft repeated safety precautions must be followed and one's personal physician should be asked about the appropriateness of contemplated exercise.

So, here are some items to review, adopt, reject, or toss in that large file marked "I knew that!"

Some coaches don't read voraciously and prefer to stick to what The Big Name told them a stretch of time in the past. Since I tend to overdo things, a good starting rule for me is "If in doubt, don't." However, even that varies from week to week.

For many, the slogan should be "If in doubt, do." Listening to your body is most important, but can be overdone; if I listened to my body too closely I would stay in bed half of the time.

Before starting, stretching after a brief warm up is useful, because it makes moving more enjoyable. It may or may not prevent injuries, or it it may cause them, depending on the study you read. Therefore, I like to walk before I run, start my swims with the longest, slowest strokes possible, and, before starting to bicycle in earnest, I start with a slow, low gear spin.

If you warm up slowly, adrenalin brings fats into the blood out of the storage, so you can burn those to a greater extent. If you start with a sprint, the level of fat (free fatty acids) has not risen yet, and you burn glycogen (=the carbohydrate stored in the muscles), and very fast. In a long effort, fats are the main fuel, but they need glycogen to burn, so it is obvious that fast starts without warmups are unwise, as well as unsafe.

If a well trained, healthy athlete starts sprinting without a warmup, the ECG may initially show the same changes as if (s)he had diseased coronary arteries.

Once warmed up, I get a lot of help out of commanding myself "Accelerate!" on and off. Intermittent rise in speed requires more concentration than steady, time killing plodding with ear phones. Such surging brings into action the fast twitch muscle fibers (type IIa, which are glycogen packed, like white chicken breast muscles needed for soft landing after jumping off a high perch). Such muscles gradually adopt some of the aerobic, endurance qualities of the slow twitch muscles (type I), and are then called type IIb.

Type I endurance fibers carry some fat within the cells, and some oxygen stored in myoglobin, and are therefore red and fat ("dark meat"), like chicken thighs, which are made for slower work. Now you know why dark meat of chicken carries as much fat as beef.

Fast twitch fibers produce a great deal of lactic acid which stops us when it raises the muscle acidity too much. The body learns to remove lactate faster if challenged with large doses often enough. These high levels are attained by competitive athletes by repeated short efforts with incomplete removal of lactate after each one = lactate stacking. Repeated surging (fartlek = Norwegian for sport play) helps raise heart rate, and is easier to do than endless, steady level effort, at least for me.

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It makes me think of myself as more vigorous than I really am. I include this kind of interval training into runs of any length. My heart rate monitor has an average heart rate feature. Comparing average heart rate with the average speed on my bike speedometer gives me a good idea of my fitness, as the pulse soon starts dropping for the same speed. Thus I see the progress better than if I just measure time over a distance.

The warning beeping, when pulse drops under the lower limit, wakes me back into reality. A heart rate monitor is a great motivator, and on the windtrainer or treadmill perhaps the only thing to look at. When you are too tired to work up a certain heart rate, you are better off skipping a day. The record holder for one hour cycling trial gave this explanation: "I only train when I am rested."

It takes about three minutes for the heart rate to catch up with the next degree of exertion, which is why diagnostic exercise test stages last that long. I like to do some training in three minute blocks, and some in 20 minute ones. (see below). I do almost everything in intervals. Harder effort with easing off pays off especially in swimming, the more complex sport. Just five seconds' rest every 25-50 yards keeps me from falling apart technically.

It seems that such rests help neuromuscular coordination. Continuous swimming could become boring, but pool clock readings between intervals can really give me a lift (unless they are slower than I expected).

At the end of a training session one should feel that one could repeat it; such criterium helps avoid overtraining. Overtraining is more likely to come from too long sessions than from too intensive ones. Same goes for injuries - matter of mileage rather than intensity.

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Should I first learn to run fast, and then a longer distance fast, or should I learn to run longer distance first, and then learn to do it fast? My choice was definitely the former. Some famous coaches (remember, they become famous in part through their pupil's achievements), feel that you should learn to do it slowly first, unlearn that, and then learn to do it fast.

Long slow distance training can become one of those "practice makes permanent" bad habits. I have met some runners who didn't know that they could run faster until they ran with us. There is a wise and popular saying: "Train slow, race slow."

The year I did some long runs, I ran the slowest marathon. Therefore I rely on the bike to give me long, fat burning stretches. The winner of the 1996 Ironman (continuous race: 2.4 swim, 112 bike, 26.2 miles run) never ran a marathon before, nor did I before my first Ironman (the only similarity).

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A training diary is a must. It always surprises me to see, how much less I train than I think I do, what with all the talking and thinking and reading about exertion. There is much enjoyment to be had from the diary, too, especially when you see that you are maintaining fitness through the years, if not increasing it.

Cycling 

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First, there is no reason to bike in bad weather. It is harder to be seen by drivers and to come to a stop, for you and for them. When the weather looks if-y, we bike on the velodrome and are never farther than 200 yards from the cars. Hard riding on the track takes a lot of concentration so we don't miss looking around and listening to the birds. It is surprising, how much greater energy output one can achieve there (or on a windtrainer), as there are no distracting culverts, cars, cats, kids, or significant cracks.

Frequent accelerations sitting way back, and pulling back on the cleats, prepare us for climbing, and hills afterwards become challenges rather than feared drudgery.

When climbing, one can slide forward and just push down for a few strokes here and there, to change muscle use. That is why the seat is long and narrow. Changing the position on the seat also helps unload gentle structures. Besides, letting up on the pedals every five strokes or so allows for better venous blood flow, a useful practice for time trials and climbing.

I decrease my exposure to the elements and cars by spending a fair amount of time on the Computrainer (Racermate, Seattle). It is essentially a windtrainer (a triangular frame which grips and lifts bike's rear axle and sets it on a roller, which propels a fan to create a road-like resistance to pedaling). Computrainer has no fan but instead, variable electromagnetic braking, and it also creates your image on the computer or TV screen next to the second racer for whom you program as much fitness as you want.

The lead in the race is expressed in tenths of a foot. Besides that, there is a display of the instantaneous watt output, speed, distance, pedalling cadence, your position on the cross section of the course you chose, vectors of pedalling force every fifteen degrees, percentage of work performed by each leg separately, heart rate, etc. If you save your race, you can race against yourself or your friend on the next day.

Time passes quickly, especially if you dial in the cross section of the Ironman course and dream a little.

Half an hour on most of the days, before the furnace is turned on, is a good start, which also prepares the legs for running. In a recent study, the group which biked and ran, did better in the running races after such cross training than the group of running purists training at same total amount of energy expenditure.

Currently very popular spin classes can be very motivating.

One can, of course, overdo it with group enthusiasm beneath one's wings.

In a health club, you can find a bucket seat Lifecycle, which can give you rest from a bike seat where it counts. If I pedal in my running shoes, I cinch a locking strap from REI from the toe strap around the heel, so I can pull back on the pedal, which should be a never neglected chief source of propulsion according to Greg LeMond.

Riding without cleats is as inefficient as skating in slippers. We rarely bike on the roads, since path system here is outstanding. Purist who wants to ride from the doorstep is wasting good intensive time, and taking unneeded risks. If we ever do that, we keep each other in sight; drivers seem to be more cautious if there are witnesses.

Biking in traffic is not worth it if you consider the dangers to your limb and lung. Drafting in training is not a good idea for triathletes, who are not allowed that in a race, and at least unwise for others, because sooner or later there is a break in the pace line, and a collar bone or two, plus road rash.

Aero bars are not just for racers. They allow us to transfer some of the weight from the seat to the elbows. If you cannot stay on your aero bars most of the ride, your setup is wrong.

Here the instinct comes first, since there are many more opinions than solutions. I see most people's bikes as too short from elbow pads to the seat tip, so riders don't have enough room to roll the pelvis forward to bring it in line with the straight and horizontal back. One bends in the hips, rather than bending in the spine, and for that one needs space.

I see no benefit in the fashion to move the seat way forward, which causes the back to buckle unless the stem is extra, extra long, or the trunk is very, very short. I ride on the front part of the seat if I want to try the forward position for a change, but I still have a lot of seat behind me to slide back on while climbing, which enables me to pull back on cleats, thus to rest the quadriceps muscles here and there. Aero bars riding is a necessary skill on long, upwind rides. They also unload the wrists and spare the nerves inside them. For those who learn to ride them safely they are of great value. I have my front brake mounted close to the end of the aerobar so I don't have to look for it if a dog jumps in front of me.

Running

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Even if you are not a runner, check this out. Running after a bus is a very elemental skill. To run well, however, requires a fair amount of concentration. That is why great athletes are "associators," i.e. they keep scanning the body's action from head to toe, and continue doing it. "Dissociators" listen to music, run less well, step in holes, and follow the bank of the road until knees start hurting.

On the other hand, they can list themselves as sophisticates, who find a primitive motion like running too boring. Running does not seem to harm knees not previously damaged by irrational sports.

Every discomfort is not a reason to quit happily.

I spend much of my time training at the maximum intensity I can hold for 20 - 30 minutes, which equals the definition of anaerobic threshold.

It seems that the best predictor of running performance in a 10 km (6 miles) race which is run at the anaerobic threshold is - no surprise - anaerobic threshold speed.

At that speed the body is not getting enough oxygen to burn all the lactic acid, and is starting to build oxygen debt. It is also starting the measures to improve oxygen delivery next time, which is the reason that such training gives results. Obviously I don't run many miles.

Running through Carnation Valley on the old railroad bed path is great for socializing and putting in quality time. We all turn around after exactly the same number of minutes (say 40), which means that the fastest get the farthest and have the challenge of catching the slowest, who are trying to prevent that from happening. We end up at the cars more or less together, and sit somewhere to quote excuses for not having done better. Sometimes we just run circles around the slower ones.

Trails are better in rain when any gravel sinks into soil more readily.

On some trails unseen holes may make running hard on the joints. The new Green Lake path with fine gravel is another choice. There are many more trails on the Tiger Mtn., Cougar Mtn., at Rattlesnake Lake etc. Again, it is worth driving reasonably far for an enjoyable run.

Many people drive a lot farther to get a lot less out of skiing, formerly my favorite sport.

Accumulating about a quarter hour of downhill running per month has been reported to make us immune against delayed muscle soreness, since the braking quadriceps muscles (front of thigh) get little tears, and presumably heal to be longer and stronger. This kind of eccentric contraction (like that of the biceps, when lowering a weight - muscle is contracting while being lengthened) also produces the greatest increases in strength (so lower weights slowly, if you use them.

I don't, but I am keeping my mind open. I prefer sport specific resistance exercise like sprints, hills, and running in the water). To rest the structures, I run in the deep part of the pool with two pull buoys at my sides, and watch my monitor and the clock, trying to keep the stride cadence above 100/min. I push my thighs back and then flick my ankle for final acceleration, and if my heart rate doesn't rise, I kick my knees higher, too.

Water is a better coolant than air, and therefore less blood needs to be pumped into the radiator (skin) for cooling, thus expect slower pulse in the water. I also run in the mid-chest depth water in a pair of clean running shoes and push the bottom of the pool back. This is not as easy on the body, but helps my strength more.

Swimming

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I am not an outstanding swimmer, but I know the books. Sally Edwards wrote in one of hers: "Swimming is a sideways sport." It is something I have never forgotten. I try not to be on my chest more than it takes to kick myself from one side to the other, and then glide.

When researchers pulled swimmers through water, sideways position produced less resistance, so the sooner you are over, the easier the pull of the arm. If I keep my chin closer to my chest, the latter won't curve up like a bow and start planing, which would push the legs down and cause me to make a larger hole in the water.

For the same reason, I don't pull down with my arms, so I wouldn't push up my head and curve up my chest. I insert the arm with no downward pressure, cock my wrist, and then pull back. Thus legs stay up high, and light. Planting the arm not too far in front of the head makes it easy to spear it down ("swimming downhill") for an early, full length stretch on the side (the longer the boat in comparison with its width, the lesser the drag).

I try to get my shoulder under me in the midline as soon as possible, and to keep it there, together with the rest of the body on its side.

Rotation helps a high elbow, close to the trunk recovery of the other arm, instead of having it sweep out to the side and weigh you over like an outrigger, which would be hard to lift during the rotation of the trunk. I wait with my pull until I am pretty well on my hip, and thus I find the resistance less, as promised. I kick infrequently and superficially, just enough to help flip myself over to the other side to glide. This hesitation helps to maintain the body teeter-totter in balance, by keeping the weight of both arms in front as long as possible (that is why they tell you to "swim in front of yourself," or "swim more like a catch-up stroke," which is a drill in which we touch palms in front).

A good drill is floating quietly, arms in front, with the chin on the chest and lungs hyperinflated, so the air reaches farther towards the heels. Bringing the arms only part of the way back causes the feet to sink promptly. I have considered myself a heavy boned sinker till I learned that feet will finally rise up behind me.

Terry Laughlin (Total Immersion, about 10$ through amazon.com) suggests that only a narrow sliver of the head should be visible while swimming. We now look lower down, which extends the neck and projects the head further forward and puts more weight there, bringing legs up. Swimming in such balance decreases number of strokes per length which should be counted routinely.

I notice in the Ironman underwater shots that many leading swimmers momentarily arrest nearly all the motion during the glide. I warm up by gliding and counting strokes, trying to keep them to 15/25 yards. Then I usually do 10x25 yards with full intensity. After that, the 24x50 yards with 5 seconds rests feel less strenuous.

I do drills, too; some teams spend on those 30% of the time. There are other ways to train, many better, I am sure. The important part is to keep learning, improving, inventing, and enjoying.

Who wants a second job, and a boring one at that?

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