Very interesting article Can Coffee Ease Asthma Symptoms? – NYTimes.com. I would suggest this link http://molinterv.aspetjournals.org/content/7/5/236.long to learn more about the xanthine alkaloids.
More power to you!
Marc
November 30th, 2010
More News On Coffee
Analyze This
Taken from norcalblogs.com
Personally, 5 broken collarbones( presently recovering form #5), broken hip with 3 ti screws, partially detached ear,broken knee cap, fractured 7th cervical, fractured eye socket, broken scaphoid and hit by a car 4 times. I know I’m missing something.
Where do you “fall” in this analysis?
After a Cycling Injury, a Vow to Never Ride Again – NYTimes.com.
More power to you!
Marc
Posted by Marc Walter as general at 3:58 AM MST
November 27th, 2010
Extensive Endurance Testing
During the extensive endurance phase of training I like to use a test, called aerobic threshhold testing by Joe Friel, to test the conditioning of the athletes I train. Below is an email discussion that I’m having, with an athlete of mine, about this persons test. This person did very well, with 4.1%, and I believe he is ready for the next phase of conditioning.
Hi ( insert superhero/heroine name here),
Looking good on the test. What we’re looking for is called decoupling. It’s when your power to heart rate ratio is above 5%. When it’s below 5%, over the time period I prescribed, I have a good idea that your aerobic endurance still needs worked on. Over the 2 hrs you did this test you did 4.1%. This shows that your fitness is doing great.
Actually, I think the percentage might be closer to 3%. Your avg heart rate of 130 was a little high. I would of liked to of seen it around 125-128. This is 20 beats below zone 5a that we have set up in training peaks. This would of probably brought your power down into the endurance range . That’s ok, though. Even at this slightly higher heart rate your aerobic endurance is great. I have another tests set up in two weeks and we’ll check again.
Here is a link to what we are trying to do. There isn’t much scientific basis behind it but in my experience this test works.
Again, great job. Your aerobic fitness is coming along just fine.
Marc
Below is the analysis that I pulled out of Training Peaks WKO+ 3.0
Entire 2 hour workout.
Lap 2:
Duration: 1:58:39
Work: 1156 kJ
TSS: 128.3 (intensity factor 0.805)
Norm Power: 165
VI: 1.02
Pw:HR: -4.18%
Pa:HR: 17.99%
Distance: 35.106 mi
Elevation Gain: 765 ft
Elevation Loss: 653 ft
Grade: 0.1 % (115 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 322 162 watts
Heart Rate: 120 135 130 bpm
Cadence: 43 104 87 rpm
Speed: 5.6 29 17.7 mph
Pace 2:04 10:44 3:23 min/mi
Altitude: 1215 1492 1363 ft
Crank Torque: 0 344 158 lb-in
First hour of workout
1st half:
Duration: 59:02
Work: 562 kJ
TSS: 61 (intensity factor 0.787)
Norm Power: 161
VI: 1.02
Pw:HR: 0.21%
Pa:HR: 6.99%
Distance: 19.209 mi
Elevation Gain: 448 ft
Elevation Loss: 185 ft
Grade: 0.3 % (270 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 322 159 watts
Heart Rate: 122 135 130 bpm
Cadence: 43 104 89 rpm
Speed: 9 29 19.5 mph
Pace 2:04 6:40 3:05 min/mi
Altitude: 1223 1492 1384 ft
Crank Torque: 0 344 152 lb-in
Second one hour of workout.
2nd half:
Duration: 59:37
Work: 594 kJ
TSS: 67.1 (intensity factor 0.822)
Norm Power: 168
VI: 1.01
Pw:HR: 1.13%
Pa:HR: 3.95%
Distance: 15.898 mi
Elevation Gain: 320 ft
Elevation Loss: 557 ft
Grade: -0.3 % (-235 ft)
Min Max Avg
Power: 0 254 166 watts
Heart Rate: 120 135 131 bpm
Cadence: 54 101 86 rpm
Speed: 5.6 23.9 16.0 mph
Pace 2:31 10:44 3:45 min/mi
Altitude: 1215 1492 1342 ft
Crank Torque: 0 272 165 lb-in
Posted by Marc Walter as performance, periodization, power, power file at 4:34 AM MST
November 26th, 2010
Lactate shuttle may fuel the injured brain
Lactate shuttle may fuel the injured brain. Interesting article on how replacing glucose with lactate in people with brain trauma can help.
Marc
Posted by Marc Walter as general at 7:56 AM MST
November 25th, 2010
Give the Gift of Pain
For that special loved one or maybe a gift for yourself try out one of my training services. Let me design a training program, for next year, and they will remember you every day of the year. Maybe you, yourself, need that extra push. I’ll be there for you to get you to the next level.
Rightway Performance » Gift Certificates!
Marc
Posted by Marc Walter as general, power, Rightway Coaching Services at 12:00 PM MST
Winter Interval Trainer Session
If you’re short on time here’s a zero excuses workout.
First, you’re going to have to determine your maximal aerobic power. You’ll need a power measuring device. Here is the protocol:
1. Maintain a constant workload at a constant cadence for 3 min.
2. Increase the workload by 30 W each 3 min interval. Keep the same cadence and gearing throughout this test (e.g., 90 rpm in 53×17) and future tests to maintain consistency.
3. Continue to exhaustion. Record exercise time.
Ideally, the protocol should consist of not more than 4-6 intervals. Your MAP is the final workload plus any uncompleted 3 min interval:
e.g., if your test consisted of 180, 210, 240, 270, 1.5 min @ 300, then your MAP = 270 + 30 (90 s / 180 s) = 270 + 15 = 285 W.
Interval Session
In the base phase of your training you want to do quantity type intervals. As you progress through the season you’ll want to move from these quantity type intervals to quality.
Here is a quantity type interval based on your MAP:
Warm up well for 15-20 mins
Main Set: 7-8 reps at 85% of MAP x 4 sets. 1:30 on/ 1 min recoveries between reps and 3 min recoveries between sets. Recovery is at 50% of MAP.
Cool down: 10 mins
Now, no more excuses.
Marc
November 24th, 2010
Failure=Success
November 23rd, 2010
Ice Delays Recovery from Injuries
As I sit here recovering from a broken collarbone I came across this article, Ice Delays Recovery from Injuries , by Dr. Mirkin on ice and anti inflammatories. I’ve always wondered why you would block the bodies natural process to healing? I also disagree with the use of compression clothing for the same reason. Now there’s compression clothing with ice pockets. The double whamy. My thought is that you want blood to flow to an injured area for repair. I’ve yet to try compression clothing. It’s a fairly expensive item to just throw into your dresser drawer if it doesn’t work.
Marc
Posted by Marc Walter as Compression, Ice, Recovery at 10:48 AM MST
November 19th, 2010
What Just Happened?
I’ve been doing a little of my own personal analysis of how my training has been progressing. In question was, how have I lost 1 pound of weight over the last 18 days? When your already at a a low weight for your height, 6’0″ and 152, having data and a graphs to chart these details is indispensable. As you can see, I don’t track my food intake (macronutrients). Doing this would give me a more accurate idea of what is going on. Just looking at the daily(~3500-4000) Calories for a week (25,000) and knowing 1 lb = 3500 Calories I’ll take a guess that I’m lacking ~250 Calories/day. I eat the same things pretty much everyday so my calculations do put this at ~250 Calories/day that I’m lacking. I’m not a very “big” eater. I can’t eat larger meals without getting gastrointestinal problems. Solution: it looks like a bit more eating between meals is on the agenda.
Another handy feature is to be able to compare last season at this phase of training. Last year I was just starting back on my bike from a broken knee cap. That wouldn’t be a good comparison. In the future, if this happens again, I will have this data for comparisons.
Having your data in one convenient location can be very handy. Looking at the graph of fitness summary and knowing that the training hours are increasing can give you a good idea of how your training is going, both good and bad.
(On a side note, this is the free version of training peaks. The version I use with my athletes is the premium version with much more graphical analysis possible to explore what really is happening. Even with this free version I can get a good approximation and if I want an expert such as a nutritionist or coach look at it then it’s available.)
Marc
Posted by Marc Walter as Nutrition, performance, periodization, power, power file at 10:27 AM MST
November 15th, 2010
Planning With WKO
Having a plan is key to success. Whether is be knowing what you’re going to do that day, week, month, or years ahead planning can help you reach your goals. Planning is even so much more important for those that have limited time, families and careers. Even professional athletes, who we think might have all the time in the world, need a plan to guide them and keep them on course. This is where an exceptional tool like Training Peaks WKO+ comes in handy.
With WKO I can plan a whole season for an athlete to peak for a particular event. In general, I don’t like to plan every exact workout for an athlete for the whole season. I do give my athletes a general idea of what to expect for their future by using an annual training plan such as what is provided by trainingpeaks.com. There are unforeseen circumstances that will arise, and trust me they will, that can change a plan right in the middle of a season. It depends on the length of the circumstance but then any workouts after this will need to be changed. Most athletes I deal with have a good idea of what their schedule looks like at least for the next month.
The first image below is an example of a months planning. This is a very broad plan for extensive endurance base 1. The specific workouts I plan on a weekly basis. Even then, there are times where I also plan workouts day to day. For this first phase workouts are based on endurance with high and low rpm drills. WKO+ let’s you manually enter the duration and intensity factor (IF). Duration and intensity factor are the basis of training stress score (TSS). More info on IF and TSS can be found here.
Now that I have training stress score I am able to see a progression through a time period using the performance manager chart. More information on PMC can be found here and here. This first month progressively builds for 3 weeks and then 3 days of recovery with testing on the 3rd day. This is an unusual month, for this plan, because of the Thanksgiving holiday weekend. With the holidays sometimes an athlete is able to do longer workouts if they have the free time from family obligations, as in this plan.
When you look at the raw data for the month you can see how close CTL, ATL and TSB are predicted. More info on these metrics can be found here . Again, this is just an approximation of how the training is going so far for the athlete when using a planner. Fairly close prediction for the first 10 days of this plan.
With a tool like training peaks WKO+ planning is simplified. With any plan always remember to be able to adjust. Life will get in the way.
Posted by Marc Walter as periodization, power at 3:38 AM MST