"How To" Secrets of Training with Heart Rate, Power, and Nutrition

This is a video showing how to use software to train for endurance events.  Watch closely and you can see the magic mix of nutrition, effort level, and time all at work.

Summary: My energy levels fade after about two hours.  You can see where I supplement calories and energy levels come back up.

The Good: You can see how workouts in a controlled environment allow for great analysis of what you need to go long.  I'm fueling every 15 minutes and staying at an even effort level that I can sustain for a long time.

The Bad: Even though my fuel intake was precise, I never bothered to see how many calories it was before I even started.  Post analysis showed it to be 200 calories per hour.  Bumping it up to 300 calories per hour mid-ride allowed for me to get back to performing at a nice level.

Other Notes: Heart rate is a great reflector of how you're doing. If you can't sustain a given HR, you're either bonking or dehydrated.  If your speed (indoors) or power (indoors or out) falls off and at the same HR or both of those fade, you're in trouble.

How to Use This Data: This type of software exists so you can analyze what went right or wrong during a workout so you can fix it on the next one.  For me, I'm using this dataset to ride the next ride at 300 calories per hour the whole time and see if that slump goes away.  The effort level was in my Zone 2, which tells me I should be able to sustain this for 112 miles (an Ironman bike distance).  A little later in the season, I will extend this ride to 5 hours and then run afterwards to ensure that the fueling pattern is sustainable for a full Ironman.  In the meantime, I'll also start adding electrolyte sources into the fuel for cramp reduction in hotter conditions.  It's also important to notice how I am able to calculate exactly how many calories were involved.  Many athletes train long and have no idea what's happening and then can't replicate great training results during a race.  The longer the event, the more important it is to remove any guessing.

How to put tire sealant in your tubes. Never have a flat again!

Want to stop having flats?  Try this out!  Put tire sealant in your tubes on your own and save a ton of money.  Spend more time training and less time changing tubes.

Wheel Purchasing 101

Wheels are barely noticeable when they work right. When they are bad, you can't ignore them.

I purchased a nicer set of wheels for my road bike after having a great (and expensive) lesson taught to me. After buying a low-end Shimano rear wheel, thinking that I was being smart and saving money, I had to make countless trips to the bike shop to replace busted spokes and get the wheel trued.

At around $8 - $10 for each spoke and $20 for truing, it wasn't more than a couple trips when I realized I should have bought a better wheel. Don't let it happen to you!

But the real lesson the bike shop guys taught me is this - Whenever you get a new wheel, ride it a few times and then take it back in to get it trued and tightened. A good shop will do this for free, since it's a new product from their shop. This gets the wheel under control before things go bad. "A couple of quick visits and that wheel should be good to go for a loooooooooong time," they said.

Have wheel purchasing tips or questions? Post them in the comments section below!

Evening Caffeine - A Triathlete's Training Enemy

"No caffiene within four hours of bedtime." That's a great rule for healthy living in general and endurance training alike.

Drink coffee, tea, or take any kind of stimulant too late in the day and you will end up going to bed later and/or having a bad night's sleep. You'll end up dragging ass the next morning and have a bad workout or skip it entirely. Lame!

The best way to handle this is to have a rule and live by it. "No caffeine after 5 PM" works best for lots of endurance athletes.

Of course, this is tougher with more signs of the coming A-coff-alypse.

Homemade Energy Gel!

This was forwarded to me by ZenTri fan Benjamin - How to make your own energy gel! Visit Mark's website for more details. Very cool!