Welcome to Episode #338 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.
Show Sponsor: UCAN
Take your performance to the next level with UCAN Energy and Bars made with SuperStarch® UCAN uses SuperStarch instead of simple sugars to fuel athletes. UCAN keeps blood sugar steady compared to the energy spikes and crashes of sugar-based products. Steady energy equals sustained performance!
Use UCAN in your training and racing to fuel the healthy way, finish stronger and recover more quickly! Use the code 303UCAN for 20% off at ucan.co/discount/303UCAN/ or ucan.co
In Today's Show
Training Discussion: Lactate Threshold Test
Last couple of weeks we have discussed how regular testing and consistency at the correct intensities improve performance. To improve our endurance, we want to be more efficient at an aerobic intensity. To improve our speed, we want to have a higher anaerobic capacity. Besides doing "field testing" like the Swim CSS, Bike FTP and Run TT, one scientific way to test is how well the body processes muscle lactate. If you've ever done a Lactate Threshold Test (LTT), here's how the test administrator interprets the lactate measurement to determine your training zones.
The LTT is performed by starting the athlete a warmup at a very easy intensity. We'll use the run discipline for this example. The athlete will walk on a treadmill for 10 minutes before starting the test and once the test starts, the intensity is increased every 2 minutes. At the beginning of the 10 minutes, the test administrator takes 4 metrics - pace, rate of perceived exertion (RPE), heart rate (HR) and lactate millimoles per liter of blood with a blood sample and lab kit. The lactate compared to the pace is the primary metric and the HR and RPE are secondary but useful to confirm and interpret the data. The administrator takes those same 4 metrics at the end of the 10 minutes and every 2 minutes there after. Every 2 minutes the treadmill pace is increased by 30 seconds of pace (11:00, 10:30, 10:00, 9:30 and so on).
There are two key inflection points the test administrator is looking for. When the intensity is increased and the lactate level remains the same as the previous level means that the subject athlete is predominantly aerobic (zones 1-2). When the lactate level increases and levels out after each increase the athlete is in between aerobic and anaerobic (zone 3). When the lactate level continues to rise without an increase to intensity, the athlete is above lactate threshold (zone 4-5).
Our News is sponsored by Buddy Insurance.
Buddy Insurance gives you peace of mind to enjoy your training and racing to the fullest. Buddy’s mission is simple, to help people fearlessly enjoy an active and outdoor lifestyle.
Get on-demand accident insurance just in case the unexpected happens. Buddy ensures you have cash for bills fast. This is accident insurance not health and life insurance. Go to buddyinsurance.com and create an account. There's no commitment or charge to create one. Once you have an account created, it's a snap to open your phone and in a couple clicks have coverage for the day. Check it out!
Endurance News:
May 26, 2022
Reigning Champion Ben Kanute Returns to Attempt Fifth Straight Win
SAN FRANCISCO – (May 26, 2022) /ENDURANCE SPORTSWIRE/ – IMG, a global leader in sports, events, media and fashion, today announced the pro field for the 41st Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon, set to take place June 5, in San Francisco. The line-up includes Olympian Ben Kanute (USA), 2016 IRONMAN World Champion Holly Lawrence (GBR), seven-time IRONMAN Champion Ben Hoffman (USA), and more.
Four-time Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon Champion Kanute returns to defend his title this year. He represented the United States in the 2016 Olympics and recently took first place in the 2021 IRONMAN 70.3 California, second place in the 2021 IRONMAN 70.3 Texas and third place in the 2022 Clash Miami.
“Winning my fourth straight win was special and now having the opportunity to go for a fifth seems unreal,” said Kanute. “I cherish every Escape win and never take them for granted as this can be an unforgiving course. Escape is one of my favorite races and it is even more special this year since my dad, brother and coach are all racing!”
The field also includes 2016 Escape from Alcatraz Champion Holly Lawrence (GBR). Lawrence returns after placing second in the 2021 Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon. She is also a 14-time IRONMAN 70.3 Champion and the 2016 IRONMAN 70.3 World Champion. She recently took first place in the 2021 IRONMAN 70.3 Des Moines and third place in the 2022 IRONMAN 70.3 California.
Jason West (USA) returns to attempt to overcome Kanute, after placing second in last year’s Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon. West recently took first place in the 2022 Sunbelt Bakery IRONMAN 70.3 North American Championship Chattanooga, first place in the 2021 IRONMAN 70.3 Memphis and first place in the 2021 IRONMAN 70.3 Des Moines.
Returning for her third Escape, Jackie Hering (USA) will attempt to move up the podium after placing third in last year’s Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon. Five-time 70.3 Champion Hering, recently took first place in the 2022 Sunbelt Bakery IRONMAN 70.3 North American Championship Chattanooga, first place in the 2022 Clash Daytona and second place in the 2021 IRONMAN 70.3 Memphis.
The pros will join 2,000 amateur triathletes for this annual event. The full list of professional triathletes set to compete in the 2022 Escape from Alcatraz Triathlon and stake their claim in the $50,000 prize purse includes:
Women:
Holly Lawrence (GBR)
Jackie Hering (USA)
Jodie Stimpson (GBR)
Daniel Lewis (GBR)
Megan Foley (USA)
Ginger Howell (USA)
Men:
Ben Kanute (USA)
Jason West (USA)
Ben Hoffman (USA)
Eric Lagerstrom (USA)
Brent McMahon (CAN)
Gregory Harper (USA)
John Dahlz (USA)
Austin Hindman (USA)
Triathletes will hit the water at 7:15 a.m. to embark on a challenging 1.5-mile swim from Alcatraz Island to the shoreline of Marina Green, an 18-mile twisting bike ride through the Presidio, and an 8-mile trail run out to Baker Beach and up the infamous 200-plus step Sand Ladder. To finish the race, triathletes will follow a path back under the Golden Gate Bridge, pass Crissy Field and finish on the grass at Marina Green. Fans can experience the excitement at Marina Green, where the swim exit, athlete transition area and finish line are easily visible. This year’s event will also feature the 2022 Escape Aquathlon on Saturday, June 4. For additional information, visit www.EscapeAlcatrazTri.com or follow @EscapeAlcatrazTri on Instagram and Twitter and www.facebook.com/EscapeAlcatrazTri on Facebook.
New Garmin Varia RCT715 tail light has a camera to record your crashes
The Varia’s high-definition camera will record everything behind you and its radar will alert you to approaching vehicles. Garmin has released the Varia RCT715, a new version of its tail light that features a high-definition camera to record any incidents out on the road.
The Varia RCT715 features the same radar technology as its predecessors. When paired with a Garmin bike computer or smartwatch, the Varia will alert users to vehicles approaching from behind up to 140m away. Garmin says the device can be paired with selected cycling apps such as Ride with GPS. This will enable users to overlay maps with the radar notifications.
Garmin claims the Varia RCT715’s tail light can be seen up to one mile away in daylight. The camera records continuously and will save footage if an incident is detected. Garmin says the Varia’s camera will “capture sharp, clear footage” at up 1080 pixels and 30 frames per second.
The camera will record constantly when the Varia is in use. If an incident is detected, via Garmin’s Incident Detection feature, the camera will automatically save footage from before, during and after the event. According to Dan Bartel, Garmin’s vice president of global consumer sales, this is to provide users with evidence of an incident “should they ever need it”.
However, the camera also provides more recreational functions, in line with how you might use a GoPro. Via the Garmin Varia app, users can access the video footage, transfer files and customise the camera’s settings, to do things such as overlay data, including speed and location.
Garmin says the use of the camera will be prohibited or regulated in some jurisdictions, adding that it is the responsibility of the user to know and comply with applicable laws and rights to privacy. While Garmin has added a camera to the Varia, it has retained the radar and tail light functionality of the device.
Like the previous Garmin Varia RTL515, the radar on the new version will still detect and alert users to vehicles approaching from behind to the same distance of 140m.
Similarly, the tail light on the new version is said to be visible up to one mile away in daylight, which is the same as the Varia RTL515. But while the RTL515 has a claimed battery life of up to 16 hours, the RCT715 has a shorter claimed battery life.
The Varia RCT715’s battery life is said to be up to four hours with radar and the tail light on ‘solid high’ or ‘night flash’, and up to six hours with the light flashing. The reduction in battery life is presumably because the camera is recording continuously.
Why Running at Night Feels Harder
An interesting new study by researchers at Sweden’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology, working with the Swedish military and colleagues in Slovenia. They’d noticed that soldiers on night marches seemed to burn more energy than would be expected from the physical demands of the mission, especially when wearing night-vision goggles that restrict peripheral vision. They wondered whether not being able to see forced the soldiers to alter their strides, sacrificing efficiency for stability, so they decided to test this theory.
The new study, published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology, had 15 volunteers do a series of ten-minute treadmill walks in four conditions: with and without a 56-pound pack, and with and without a blindfold on. The treadmill was set at a comfortable pace of around 30 minutes per mile, with a laser warning system to alert them if they were about to fall off the back of the treadmill.
The results showed that oxygen use (a proxy for energy consumption), breathing, and heart rate all increased substantially when wearing the heavy pack, as you’d expect. The surprise was that they increased by nearly the same amount when adding a blindfold. Here are the graphs of those three parameters, with (circles) or without (squares) the blindfold:
If you compare the circles on the left (i.e. blindfolded with no backpack) to the squares on the right (i.e. not blindfolded with a backpack), you see they’re almost the same. In other words, walking with a blindfold takes as much extra effort as walking with a 56-pound pack. To be precise, the backpack increased oxygen consumption by 20 percent, while blindfolding increased oxygen consumption 19 percent.
The explanation for this effect seems to be that the subjects adjusted their strides when blindfolded: their steps got 11 percent shorter and 6 percent wider, and they also lifted their feet 18 percent higher. Bear in mind that this is on a perfectly flat treadmill, so there are no bumps or potholes to avoid: this is just an instinctive response. It’s also worth noting that the effect probably isn’t just because they’re unfamiliar with the challenge of walking while blindfolded: a similar test of blind subjects found that they burned about 25 percent more energy while walking than sighted controls.
Of course, being blindfolded is significantly more disruptive than wearing night goggles, or simply being out at night in poorly lit conditions. That means the size of the effect is probably exaggerated. And walking is different from running. But it seems reasonable to assume that similar mechanisms are at work when you’re running in the dark—along with other, more subtle mechanisms like optic flow, which is the pattern of objects flowing through your vision as you move through space.
When you’re running or cycling in the dark, you can only see objects that are relatively close to you. That means that they appear in your field of vision only briefly before disappearing behind you, which corresponds to faster optic flow than you’d experience in daylight. A few previous studies, most notably those by Dave Parry and Dominic Micklewright of the University of Essex, have tried manipulating optic flow in virtual reality setups, making the scenery fly past more quickly or slowly than the speed of the treadmill or exercise bike. Sure enough, when optic flow is faster—as you’d experience in dark conditions—you feel like you’re moving faster, and any given pace feels harder.
There’s an interesting corollary to these findings about optic flow, as Parry explained to Runner’s World’s Scott Douglas back in 2012. “Running in an environment where most of the visual reference points you can see are close by, you experience a greater sensation of speed than when in an environment where your reference points are far away,” he said. That means running through a forest or through city streets will likely feel faster than running across an open field.
Ever since reading about those optical flow results, I’ve dismissed the gap between my actual and perceived pace during night runs as a quirk of how my brain estimates effort. During most of my runs, that gap doesn’t matter—but if I’m trying to do a tempo run or hard workout before sunrise, the slower pace can be a bummer. So I’ll take the new Swedish results as reassurance that night running might really be physiologically harder, not just a brain error—and if that’s what it takes to avoid tripping in the dark, I’ll accept the trade-off.
What's New in the 303:
RUN. CAMP. SLEEP? REPEAT.
Ragnar Trail Snowmass-CO presented by Salomon brings you the perfect fusion of trail running, high-country camping, and Rocky Mountain beauty. Teams of 8 (or 4) will find their inner wild on three separate mountain trails, or “loops" that start and finish at Ragnar Village. Glacial valleys, snowcapped peaks, and blooming wildflowers set the scene as you make your way along rolling single-track. Though you may blame the altitude, in the end it will be the stunning mountain views that take your breath away. Conquer each climb and you'll be rewarded with panoramic views of the Maroon Bells -Snowmass Wilderness — not to mention a much needed downhill.
Without Limits Productions
May 13 at 8:30 AM ·
This season we usher in a new era of cyclocross, but an era built upon the champions and friends who have defined excellence over its past 23 seasons. We're proud to announce, on the 1-year anniversary of her tragic passing, the new Gwen Erffmeyer Inglis Cup for the SHIMANO Cyclocross Series - Women OPEN Series Champion!
Upcoming Multisport Events in Colorado (runningintheusa.com)
Upcoming Classic Races in Colorado (runningintheusa.com)
Video of the Week:
Upcoming Guests:
World Champion Adventure Racer, Robin Benicasa with us today. Robyn is an award-winning keynote speaker, a 20+ year veteran San Diego firefighter, a 2014 CNN Hero, a Guinness World Record Endurance Kayaker, a best-selling author of "How Winning Works", and founder of The Project Athena Foundation, a non-profit dedicated to helping survivors of medical or other traumatic setbacks achieve their adventurous dreams.
Closing:
Good luck to those racing Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga and Ironman Tulsa this weekend!
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!
Welcome to Episode #337 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.
Format recently has been less interview focused.
Show Sponsor: UCAN
Take your performance to the next level with UCAN Energy and Bars made with SuperStarch® UCAN uses SuperStarch instead of simple sugars to fuel athletes. UCAN keeps blood sugar steady compared to the energy spikes and crashes of sugar-based products. Steady energy equals sustained performance!
Use UCAN in your training and racing to fuel the healthy way, finish stronger and recover more quickly! Use the code 303UCAN for 20% off at ucan.co/discount/303UCAN/ or ucan.co
In Today's Show
Training Discussion: Consistency Is Key
Last week I spoke about how regular testing of your threshold intensities in each discipline will keep training zones current to make sure you are training at the correct intensities. In that discussion I used the example of training in your threshold training intensity zone. 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.
I also mentioned that training regularly and progressively overloading the correct training zones over the course of 3 weeks will set you up on the 4th week for your 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.
This week I'd like to build on that concept and talk about the importance of consistency in training and how inconsistency can sabotage the process and will likely result in no improvement in the month over month testing.
Lets first discuss the concept of progressive overload and we'll use a simple example. Last week we used training at threshold as the example, but I want to be clear that the concept of progressive overload to achieve adaptation is not limited to the threshold training zone. If we break it down to a fundamental level, there are just a few adaptations that we are trying to affect in our training. We want to adapt our body to have greater endurance (go longer) and we want adapt our speed (go faster). The faster we go for longer, the better our race performances will be.
To improve our endurance, we want to be more efficient at an aerobic intensity. To improve our speed, we want to have a higher anaerobic capacity. Besides doing "field testing" like the Swim CSS, Bike FTP and Run TT, one scientific way to test is how well the body processes muscle lactate. If you've ever done a Lactate Threshold Test (LTT), here's how the test administrator interprets the lactate measurement to determine your training zones.
The LTT is performed by starting the athlete a warmup at a very easy intensity. We'll use the run discipline for this example. The athlete will walk on a treadmill for 10 minutes before starting the test and once the test starts, the intensity is increased every 2 minutes. At the beginning of the 10 minutes, the test administrator takes 4 metrics - pace, rate of perceived exertion (RPE), heart rate (HR) and lactate millimoles per liter of blood with a blood sample and lab kit. The lactate compared to the pace is the primary metric and the HR and RPE are secondary but useful to confirm and interpret the data. The administrator takes those same 4 metrics at the end of the 10 minutes and every 2 minutes there after. Every 2 minutes the treadmill pace is increased by 30 seconds of pace (11:00, 10:30, 10:00, 9:30 and so on).
There are two key inflection points the test administrator is looking for. When the intensity is increased and the lactate level remains the same as the previous level means that the subject athlete is predominantly aerobic (zones 1-2). When the lactate level increases and levels out after each increase the athlete is in between aerobic and anaerobic (zone 3). When the lactate level continues to rise without an increase to intensity, the athlete is above lactate threshold (zone 4-5).
Let's set aside other adaptations like muscle and tendon strength and flexibility as well as other adaptations to prevent injury. To achieve greater aerobic efficiency and aerobic capacity requires consistent and progressive overload dosing of aerobic and anaerobic training. Think of dosing as the number of minutes in each zone that we are trying to affect. The following example is conceptual, but can be extrapolated to fit a training plan for different distance events or performance goals.
Assume that your baseline of training is 200 minutes in aerobic training the week before your last threshold test. To progressive overload dosing, you would increase the load of training over the next 3 weeks as 210, 220 and 230 minutes. It's the same with anaerobic adaptions. Assume you had 20 minutes of anaerobic training in the week before your last test. To progressively overload the dosing of anaerobic training, you may increase that as 43, 46 and 49 over then next three weeks.
A well designed training plan will have this progressive overload concept built into the cumulative training for each week over the course of the weeks between tests. Each training session will have a goal number of minutes for specific training zones which collectively make up the dosing for the week. Using the previous example of threshold dosing, let's assume there were two run training sessions in week 1 that cumulatively added up to 23 minutes of threshold dosing and you nailed the total of 43 minutes. In week 2 your goal was to achieve 46 minutes and assume there were again 2 sessions that totaled 46 minutes of threshold. The first session prescribed 20 minutes, which you nailed.
Lets assume you cut the second session and instead of 23 minutes of threshold you only get in 10 minutes, resulting in 30 total minutes for the 2nd week. Even if you nail the 3rd week of 49 minutes, you have interrupted the progressive overload process. Just looking at the run threshold stress load for each week, the minutes of threshold dosing in minutes would be 43 for week 1, 30 for week 2, and 49 for week 3; 43, 20 and 49. The training stress is inconsistent and the body's reaction to the stress will likely stagnate resulting in plateauing performance.
Cutting workouts short or missing the altogether across a single or all disciplines can sabotage your adaptations, training progress and race performance. There is another problem as well. When you miss or cut training stress short, your body is less prepared for subsequent training. When you try to do that next harder week of training, you can potentially present more stress than the body is prepared for, which can lead to risk of injury. Athletes will try to make up for missed workouts by adding the missed training. Using the previous example, imagine if you tried to add the missed 16 minutes to the 3rd week and did 46, 20 and 65 (49+16), the risk of injury becomes even greater.
Training software helps athletes by converting training dosing into training stress scores across each discipline to help you track your progress and consistency. Some even weight higher intensities with a higher stress coefficient. This will give you visibility to the inconsistency but its after the fact. One of the things I like about TriDot is that it makes the goal dosing in minutes for each training zone visible before the workout. Most workouts will have a warmup, main set and cooldown, each with goal minutes by zone. The workouts can be pushed to your Garmin or other device and alert you if you are out of the prescribed intensity zone, helping you achieve the goal training stress. TriDot gives the athlete a training execution score called TrainX. If the athlete follows the prescribed training and consistently get high TrainX scores, they get faster results with fewer injuries.
If you want to talk further about how to train consistently to get better results, reach out at Rich@303colorado.com or message me @tripodcasterrich.
Check out the TriDot Free Trial https://app.tridot.com/onboard/sign-up/richsoares
Our News is sponsored by Buddy Insurance.
Buddy Insurance gives you peace of mind to enjoy your training and racing to the fullest. Buddy’s mission is simple, to help people fearlessly enjoy an active and outdoor lifestyle.
Get on-demand accident insurance just in case the unexpected happens. Buddy ensures you have cash for bills fast. This is accident insurance not health and life insurance. Go to buddyinsurance.com and create an account. There's no commitment or charge to create one. Once you have an account created, it's a snap to open your phone and in a couple clicks have coverage for the day. Check it out!
Endurance News:
New Garmin Varia RCT715 tail light has a camera to record your crashes
The Varia’s high-definition camera will record everything behind you and its radar will alert you to approaching vehicles. Garmin has released the Varia RCT715, a new version of its tail light that features a high-definition camera to record any incidents out on the road.
The Varia RCT715 features the same radar technology as its predecessors. When paired with a Garmin bike computer or smartwatch, the Varia will alert users to vehicles approaching from behind up to 140m away. Garmin says the device can be paired with selected cycling apps such as Ride with GPS. This will enable users to overlay maps with the radar notifications.
Garmin claims the Varia RCT715’s tail light can be seen up to one mile away in daylight. The camera records continuously and will save footage if an incident is detected. Garmin says the Varia’s camera will “capture sharp, clear footage” at up 1080 pixels and 30 frames per second.
The camera will record constantly when the Varia is in use. If an incident is detected, via Garmin’s Incident Detection feature, the camera will automatically save footage from before, during and after the event. According to Dan Bartel, Garmin’s vice president of global consumer sales, this is to provide users with evidence of an incident “should they ever need it”.
However, the camera also provides more recreational functions, in line with how you might use a GoPro. Via the Garmin Varia app, users can access the video footage, transfer files and customise the camera’s settings, to do things such as overlay data, including speed and location.
Garmin says the use of the camera will be prohibited or regulated in some jurisdictions, adding that it is the responsibility of the user to know and comply with applicable laws and rights to privacy. While Garmin has added a camera to the Varia, it has retained the radar and tail light functionality of the device.
Like the previous Garmin Varia RTL515, the radar on the new version will still detect and alert users to vehicles approaching from behind to the same distance of 140m.
Similarly, the tail light on the new version is said to be visible up to one mile away in daylight, which is the same as the Varia RTL515. But while the RTL515 has a claimed battery life of up to 16 hours, the RCT715 has a shorter claimed battery life.
The Varia RCT715’s battery life is said to be up to four hours with radar and the tail light on ‘solid high’ or ‘night flash’, and up to six hours with the light flashing. The reduction in battery life is presumably because the camera is recording continuously.
Why Running at Night Feels Harder
An interesting new study by researchers at Sweden’s KTH Royal Institute of Technology, working with the Swedish military and colleagues in Slovenia. They’d noticed that soldiers on night marches seemed to burn more energy than would be expected from the physical demands of the mission, especially when wearing night-vision goggles that restrict peripheral vision. They wondered whether not being able to see forced the soldiers to alter their strides, sacrificing efficiency for stability, so they decided to test this theory.
The new study, published in the European Journal of Applied Physiology, had 15 volunteers do a series of ten-minute treadmill walks in four conditions: with and without a 56-pound pack, and with and without a blindfold on. The treadmill was set at a comfortable pace of around 30 minutes per mile, with a laser warning system to alert them if they were about to fall off the back of the treadmill.
The results showed that oxygen use (a proxy for energy consumption), breathing, and heart rate all increased substantially when wearing the heavy pack, as you’d expect. The surprise was that they increased by nearly the same amount when adding a blindfold. Here are the graphs of those three parameters, with (circles) or without (squares) the blindfold:
If you compare the circles on the left (i.e. blindfolded with no backpack) to the squares on the right (i.e. not blindfolded with a backpack), you see they’re almost the same. In other words, walking with a blindfold takes as much extra effort as walking with a 56-pound pack. To be precise, the backpack increased oxygen consumption by 20 percent, while blindfolding increased oxygen consumption 19 percent.
The explanation for this effect seems to be that the subjects adjusted their strides when blindfolded: their steps got 11 percent shorter and 6 percent wider, and they also lifted their feet 18 percent higher. Bear in mind that this is on a perfectly flat treadmill, so there are no bumps or potholes to avoid: this is just an instinctive response. It’s also worth noting that the effect probably isn’t just because they’re unfamiliar with the challenge of walking while blindfolded: a similar test of blind subjects found that they burned about 25 percent more energy while walking than sighted controls.
Of course, being blindfolded is significantly more disruptive than wearing night goggles, or simply being out at night in poorly lit conditions. That means the size of the effect is probably exaggerated. And walking is different from running. But it seems reasonable to assume that similar mechanisms are at work when you’re running in the dark—along with other, more subtle mechanisms like optic flow, which is the pattern of objects flowing through your vision as you move through space.
When you’re running or cycling in the dark, you can only see objects that are relatively close to you. That means that they appear in your field of vision only briefly before disappearing behind you, which corresponds to faster optic flow than you’d experience in daylight. A few previous studies, most notably those by Dave Parry and Dominic Micklewright of the University of Essex, have tried manipulating optic flow in virtual reality setups, making the scenery fly past more quickly or slowly than the speed of the treadmill or exercise bike. Sure enough, when optic flow is faster—as you’d experience in dark conditions—you feel like you’re moving faster, and any given pace feels harder.
There’s an interesting corollary to these findings about optic flow, as Parry explained to Runner’s World’s Scott Douglas back in 2012. “Running in an environment where most of the visual reference points you can see are close by, you experience a greater sensation of speed than when in an environment where your reference points are far away,” he said. That means running through a forest or through city streets will likely feel faster than running across an open field.
Ever since reading about those optical flow results, I’ve dismissed the gap between my actual and perceived pace during night runs as a quirk of how my brain estimates effort. During most of my runs, that gap doesn’t matter—but if I’m trying to do a tempo run or hard workout before sunrise, the slower pace can be a bummer. So I’ll take the new Swedish results as reassurance that night running might really be physiologically harder, not just a brain error—and if that’s what it takes to avoid tripping in the dark, I’ll accept the trade-off.
What's New in the 303:
Costa Rica Leatherback Turtle Conservation
Bill's updates
Video of the Week:
Costa Rica Coast to Coast, Highlights 2022
Closing:
Good luck to those racing Ironman 70.3 Chattanooga and Ironman Tulsa this weekend!
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!
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.
Show Sponsor: UCAN
Take your performance to the next level with UCAN Energy and Bars made with SuperStarch® UCAN uses SuperStarch instead of simple sugars to fuel athletes. UCAN keeps blood sugar steady compared to the energy spikes and crashes of sugar-based products. Steady energy equals sustained performance!
Use UCAN in your training and racing to fuel the healthy way, finish stronger and recover more quickly! Use the code 303UCAN for 20% off at ucan.co/discount/303UCAN/ or ucan.co
In Today's Show
Our News is sponsored by Buddy Insurance.
Buddy Insurance gives you peace of mind to enjoy your training and racing to the fullest. Buddy’s mission is simple, to help people fearlessly enjoy an active and outdoor lifestyle.
Get on-demand accident insurance just in case the unexpected happens. Buddy ensures you have cash for bills fast. This is accident insurance not health and life insurance. Go to buddyinsurance.com and create an account. There's no commitment or charge to create one. Once you have an account created, it's a snap to open your phone and in a couple clicks have coverage for the day. Check it out!
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!
Today is our interview is with Suzie Snyder. Suzie Snyder (Boulder, Colo.) . USA Triathlon in March announced Suzie earned top honors for Women’s Elite Off-Road Triathlete of the Year. Snyder, 39, placed sixth at the XTERRA World Championships, and picked up wins at XTERRA Beaver Creek and XTERRA Oak Mountain. Snyder also took fifth at the XTERRA Pan American Championship in Ogden, Utah.
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In Today's Show
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Feature Interview: Suzie Snyder
SUZIE SNYDER Boulder, CO, United States
EXPERIENCE:
15 years
CERTIFICATIONS:
XTERRA Certified
Masters Degree in Exercise Science, Springfield College, MA (2006)
B.S Physical Education, Springfield College, 2004
NSCA Certified Strength and Conditioning Specialist (CSCS)
USA Triathlon Level 3 Certified
USA Cycling Level 1 Certified
USA Track and Field Level 1 Certified
HIGH LEVEL COACHING EXPERIENCE:
My coaching experience includes athletes of all kinds; XTERRA and Ironman triathletes, road, mountain bike and cyclocross riders, and elite level tactical athletes (FBI Hostage Rescue Team, SWAT Teams & K9 Units, and US Army Special Forces teams). I've also enjoyed the challenge of coaching tactical athletes who are also competitive endurance athletes as the demands of each are significantly different and difficult to balance.
PHILOSOPHY:
My passion lies in coaching anyone with a goal and a drive to challenge themselves, but feel it is also very important to emphasize balance. Endurance athletes tend to set high goals and rather than needing to be pushed, they sometimes need to be held back a touch in order to maintain balance in all aspects of life- work, family, hobbies, training and racing, as well as balancing endurance training with strength and injury prevention. For most of us, attention to detail and doing "the little things" that we don't like or want to do can make a huge difference in both our daily lives and athletic performance, but need to be held accountable by someone else in order to actually do them!
Endurance News:
IRONMAN World Championship presented by Utah Sports Commission, both the female and male professional triathlons will have live race-day coverage globally via IRONMAN Now™ available on Facebook Watch as well as on NBC’s streaming service, Peacock. The live coverage will offer millions of fans around the world digital access to the event activities, with the ability to follow along and support their favorite athletes in action, while witnessing the breathtaking views of Southwestern Utah, USA via computers and mobile devices.
For more information about the 2021 Intermountain Healthcare IRONMAN World Championship presented by Utah Sports Commission event, please visit www.ironman.com/im-word-championship-2021.
The Ironman World Championship in St. George features a stellar cast of athletes seeking glory. Learn about the contenders in our race preview.
PTO IRONMAN WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS ST. GEORGE PREVIEW
The stage is set for the ‘Battle of Champions’ at the Ironman World Championships in St. George, Utah. This is the first time that the race will be held outside the island of Hawaii and provides a brand new and challenging course for the athletes to contend with.
The strength of both the men’s and women’s fields is seriously impressive with Olympic champions, multiple Kona winners, young blood and experienced veterans creating a plethora of athletes who could contend for the win or reach the podium.
However, the lack of athletes including Jan Frodeno, Patrick Lange, Joe Skipper, Laura Philipp and Lucy Charles-Barclay – unable to race due to injury or illness – will no doubt shake up the race dynamics as triathlon looks to crown its first IM world champ since October 2019.
Thorsten Radde's Report
Page 62 of 166
Page 64 of 166
What's New in the 303:
Comparing federal eMTB rules and directives
In the last few years, federal agencies have undergone processes to revise policies regarding eMTB access and management. With both the U.S. Forest Service (USFS) guidance and Bureau of Land Management (BLM) rule now finalized, IMBA's Policy Manager Aaron Clark has analyzed both in-depth to compare similarities, differences, ramifications and next steps for eMTB access on the federal public lands mountain bikers ride and steward most. We want to hear the community’s questions about the analysis, the policies, and about these changes.
On March 31, 2022, the USFS finalized long-awaited e-bike guidance. The guidance incorporated a number of IMBA’s recommendations made during a public comment period in October 2020, in which thousands of mountain bikers took part. The guidance has some great elements in line with IMBA’s recommendations: it requires a local public process to adequately collect local sentiment on possible pros and cons of eMTB access; thorough National Environmental Policy Act (NEPA) and Travel Management Planning; the guidance distinguishes between class 1, class 2 and class 3 eMTBs to ensure quality experiences for all trail users; and the guidance manages eMTBs as a new category, separate from traditional mountain bikes. Unfortunately, USFS fell short by reclassifying non-motorized trails to motorized trails where eMTBs would be allowed, even if all other motorized uses were to remain prohibited.
What You Need to Know About New Colorado Safety Stop Law
By Mike Raber, Board member of Bike Jeffco
There is a lot of misunderstanding about the recently passed amendment to the Colorado Safety Stop statute, so I am providing clarification.
The Colorado Bicycle Safety Stop law was enacted in 2019 as an opt-in statute for municipalities and counties to implement on a voluntary basis. The amended law changed the existing law effective statewide on April 13, 2022 when Governor Polis signed the bill. It has been shown to assist in reducing bicycle automobile collisions at intersections in those municipalities and counties where it was implemented. 8 states in addition to Colorado have adopted Safety Stop laws statewide with positive results for reducing collisions. Colorado State Patrol and Colorado Department of Highways statistics for the last several years document over 70% of bicycle & motor vehicle collisions happen at intersections. Collisions don’t happen between bicyclists and motor vehicles when bicyclists can cross an intersection when there is no traffic and it’s safe to proceed, this is what the 2019 statute provided for. Due to the confusion on where the 2019 statute was and was not adopted between municipalities and counties, the law was amended on April 13, 2022 to make it effective statewide to eliminate this confusion.
New Bike Day
Argon 18
Every component and part itemized
Andy Schmit
Service Course - Custom Bikes — The Service Course
The Article
Saturday Ride
Video of the Week:
XTERRA athlete profile Suzie Snyder
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!