Power is an output. Just like speed or pace, it’s a result of the effort, or stress, that you put your body through. And similar to all outputs, it’s absolute. In fact that’s one of the talking points that the uber powermeter crowd touts. A watt is a watt. I would agree. Most outputs are. A pace is a pace, a mph is a mph. BUT, and this is a big but, your body’s ability to produce that watt is variable. And therin lies rub #1.

A lot of the discussion out there is that a power meter is more accurate than a heart rate monitor, so just training via power  alone is a better way to go. I gotta say, that statement doesn’t really make a lot of sense to me. That’s like saying the fuel gage in your car is more accurate than the temperature gage. They measure 2 entirely different things. Powermeters measure the power that your body has generated. Heartrate measures the stress your body is under while you produce that power. So if you leave the heart rate monitor at home for your next ride or race and simply go by the goal wattage that you have calculated for the event, you may be setting yourself up for a tough day. This is because 250 watts in hour 1 in comfortable weather is much different that 250 watts in hour 5 in the heat. It’s these slow changes over time that make it so critical to have an eye on your body while you have the other on the power.

Another problem you run into is the need for constant testing if you want to do it right. Since a watt has no connection with effort of the body, your improvement will be tougher to recognize without constant testing. For instance, lets take our fictional athete Joe. He does a threshold test for power and comes up with a wattage of 100. So he builds a training plan around that wattage and follows it to the T.  After a couple weeks of training though, his body has adapted and improved. So now his effort level has dropped well below what it was intended to maintain the test goal power. Because of lower effort levels his improvement stagnates some. The next test shows that his power has increased to 150.  So somewhere along the way he should have increased the ride wattage to keep up with his improvement. Without testing though, it’d only be a guess. 

Now take Larry who trains wattage and heart rate, but does his threshold tests based on heart rate. So Larry finds that at his threshold heart rate of of 150 he is crankin out 100 watts as well. Larry follows his plan just as religiously, except Larry’s wattage increases througout the training cycle as he maintains the goal heart rates. The next time Larry tests he finds that his his threshold heart rate has increased to 152, but his wattage at that effort level is now 165. Larry’s rate of improvement is faster because he’s monitoring both the stress of the work and the output of that stress.

The other big problem with training exclusively with watts has less to do with the technology and more with the approach. If you look through the training practices, you’ll see that there are goal and average wattages that tested for. So Joe buys a powermeter, tests for his functional threshold power (ftp) and finds an average or goal power for any given distance. So far so good, but the next part is the problem. Once given the average power, Joe tries to stay at that average regardless of terrain. So he ends up riding  easier than normal up the hill and then harder than normal on the descent.  On the surface, not a big deal, but add in aerodynamics and wind resistance and the worm starts to turn. The air resistance on the climb is much different than the descent not to mention the gravitational resistance.  So while power is much more important on the climb, Joe eases up, and when aerodynamics are much more important on the descent, Joe pushes harder. Need an example? Where is the Tour de France won and lost? The mountains. An not just the mountains, but the climbs. If you have 2 riders exactly the same size, and both average 250 watts for a ride, they should have the same time, right? Wrong.

Take rider A, who does just as I mentioned earlier. His goal for average watts is 250, so he keeps that wattage across the entire ride. Up hill, downhill, flats, whatever. His effort is balanced and his ride seems strong. Well done.

Now take rider B, who rides the exact same course and averages the exact same wattage, but takes into account all aspects of the ride. On the climbs when he can get the most power bang for his buck, he pushes 350 watts instead of 250. While this is a bit more tiring, he also makes huge ground on rider A. With little air resistance climbing, all that added power translates directly into speed. Then, rider B only puts up 150 watts on the descent, and at times, even coasts. Why? because the air resistence is exponentially stiffer as speed increases, so with a focus on aerodynamics and rest, rider B only loses a small amount of time to rider A and is able to fully recover.

"The Look"

Now the real world example (although admittedly a bit extreme). Watch a mountain stage of the Tour de France. All the moves are made on the uphill because the power output most directly influences the pace. Once you’re dropped, it’s pretty much over. Sure, riders can make up some time on the downhill, but it’s incredibly small by comparision, even if the wattage is considerably greater than your compeition. You could even call it return on investment.  So while you kill it on the downhill and get a small return, your competition is banking that effort for the uphill, where they will get a huge return by comparison.

So if you get more bang for your buck generating more power on the uphill, how can you tell when more power is too much power for you to handle? That great big red thing between your boobies. Strap on a heart rate monitor my friend, and find out how much stress your putting on yourself.

Power on Wayne. Power on Garth.

Being one the first people to get into the water I had a few minutes to swim around. nothing fancy, just tried to loosen up best I could. As more people started getting in I swam over to the starting line to get a good position. While we waited I was able to notice the strength of the current. While it moved us backwards while we waited, it was clear that it wasn’t as strong as previous days, and seemed not nearly as strong as last year either. The swim splits eventually proved this. Good news for me!

Being a strong swimmer, I have a pretty simple strategy. I hit the gas for about 50 yards and then settle into a strong pace for another 150, or in his case, the first bouy, then I turn it off and settle in. The inital blast gets me away from any of the fighting and brings the group around me to about a 2 dozen. The next 150 shrinks the group down to a dozen or less. This is the group that I start paying attention to. Now typically this group dwindles considerably too, as some of these folks are swimming way too hard for this distance. Anyway, my first effort after the gun got me clear of the fighting in about 10 strokes. I kept the solid effort to the first buoy and was pleasantly surprised to be the first one there. I backed off a little as this point and started to settle into my pace. at the first turn buoy there was 1 guy on my feet, a small gap, and then a group of swimmers. I make the next turn a few meters later and settled in for the long stretch swimming with the current. about a third the way through this section the guy on my feet went to pass. Happy to take some time drafting, I let him go by. it gave me some time to get the lay of the land. behind us, the pack of swimmers were around 5 meters behind. Good enough for now but I didn’t want them to latch back on, so I kept an eye on them. I pretty much turned the engine off at this point. Sitting on this guy’s feet my effort level was considerably lower than what I normally warm up with in a workout. Drafting is great. After about 400 meters I looked back again an the pack was at the same point, meaning we had slowed down a little. In hindsight this was probably a mistake. I should have maintained my normal pace. So I decided to take over again and swam at a nice comfortable pace. The swim caps they gave us were pretty large and somewhere along this stretch my cap came off. I lead down to the turn buoy at the submarine and then a relatively quick turn again to head for home. On the second turn I looked behind and that group was nowhere to be seen. So now it was just me and him. Now I enjoy winning like the next guy, but I don’t kill myself to get out of the water first just ’cause. The race is way to long for that. As expected the other guy made a move. Not a big problem as it wasn’t a very strong move. The problem though, was that he didn’t see the final turn buoy to the stairs (we kept buoys to our left the whole way until the final right turn to the stairs)and so he begins to cut the course. I kept pace with him quite comfortably, waiting for him to realize his mistake. Sure enough, he did and started swimming back my way, but he saw that he wasn’t going to beat me to the turn and therefore the finish, so he CUT THE COURSE! Are you kidding me! People would throw a hissy fit if I just cut the course on the run, so why aren’t there penalties for this sort of thing?? OK so remember that thing I just said about not working to hard just to win the swim. Nevermind. That pissed me off. problem was I only had about 25 meters or so to get it done. He touched the stairs just a half stroke in front of me and then we ran up to the timing mats, at which time I beat him to the finish. We finished with the same time, but I don’t know why the results gave him the nod for place, as you can see by the photo how this actually turned out. Swim time: 48:59

What would I have done different? Nothing. Well…. maybe used some less than civil behavior in the last 25 meters, but I’m sure officials would have had a problem with that. Cutting the course is just fine though apparently.

I ran down the long pier while taking the torque off to the bags and off to the tent. Threw on my stuff and jogged out to the bike. Transition time: 2:37

I hopped on the bike and immediately started taking tabs on the heart rate. (This is where RPE is completely useless) All the fun and excitement of cheers, transition and starting the ride bring the heart rate up, so I wanted to get it down as quick as I could. The bike is very flat and the wind doesn’t kick up until the east side of the island so I had some time to do some easy pedaling. As things got into check I started to settle into my pace. My main goal was to get off the bike. Yes, I know. Not very ambitious, but I didn’t have a great deal of time to ride leading up to this race, so I knew I wasn’t going to set the world on fire. I planned on a nice steady pace and would be satisfied if I came in around 5:20 or so.Nothing to set the world of fire, but fast enough to set up the run. I got to the coast and the wind was mild relative to the nightmares I had about this section. I still got tossed around a bit but I was expecting Kona type wind and that just wasn’t the case. I focused on my hydration and salt stick schedule. I’ve learned with heat that I just don’t eat as much, so kept a looser schedule for the food. As we approached the turn away from the coast, the crosswind turns to a nice tailwind. It was about this point that I started feeling some cramping. the pain started where the hamstring connects around the buttbones, and slowly radiated out. The hips slowly started to cramp as did the gluteus muscles. At first I just thought that if I stood on pedals for a few seconds the problem would disappear. But it didn’t. So while we had the tailwind I sat up and soft pedaled, trying various things to get the cramping to stop. Nothing I did helped and it got excruciatingly painful. I could barely sit ont he seat. What the hell? I’ve never had this problem in training. I always tell people that when you do an Ironman you will plan for A, B, and C. Then D will happen. I guess this was my unplanned problem. I was running out of ideas though. After about an hour of this, I decided that maybe getting off the bike altogether might help. If I take a moment to really stretch, maybe I can fix this. So a little ways into lap 2 I pulled over and just got off. Again I tried everything and nothing worked. I climbed back on the bike and rolled on. I had no more ideas. All I could do was pedal and try and find the least painful way to do so. Slowly the pain reduced from almost unbearable to a duller, more tolerable pain. I also kept trying to think of what would cause it. It wasn’t until much later in the ride that I noticed my stem looked different (stem is covered with a gel flask by the way, so it’s kinda hidden). I couldn’t remember right off hand but it looked like, based on the number of spacers, that my stem was lower. I had the mechanic at the resort help me put the bike together since he had the space and the tools, but I don’t take the stem off in transit, so why would he have moved it? And would it make enough difference to cause this kind of cramping? Apparently so as this is the only thing I could find. Anyway, I kept rolling along, and kept up the gatorade intake with perpetuem for calories. I also had 2 flasks of gel but ended up not using either. The stomach was full enough. The final loop felt the best of the 3 but I was ready to get the heck off the bike and get on with the run. Other than gatorade, perpetuem, and stalt stick, I had a half a powerbar for the entire ride. Meager in comparison to what I had on paper for nutrition, but my energy levels were high so I wasn’t worried. Bike Time: 5:34.58

First steps off the bike were very painful. Did a bit of a shuffle to try and get the hips to loosen up. Got into the changing tent and couldn’t sit down at first as the hips/butt/hamstrings hurt so bad. Eased into the chair and got to work. While I did that a volunteer put sunblock all over me. Slowly stood up and headed out. Transition Time: 2:11

As I started running the pain from my hips started to diminish. I kept a close eye on my heart rate as I wanted to start the marathon conservative. I changed my stride some as well to compensate for the hips. Ran through the first mile in 7:11. Heart rate was right on, RPE was fine, but I still felt this was a tad hot considering the conditions. It was freakin hot. So I eased off a bit. Next few miles were in the 7:30′s and more in line with where I thought they should be. As a side note: One of the pro men passed me in the first loop, and as he got  ahead by about 60 yards, he ran off the road to a grassy spot next to the sidewalk, dropped his drawers and took a monster dump right there for the world to watch. pulled up his shorts and took off. all in the span of about 5 seconds! haha!). On my way back I noticed a couple of things. 1st: keeping cool was going to be a major challenge as it was 94 degrees now, and 2nd: my legs were falling apart quicker than they should be thanks to the bike problems. I also noticed a sunburn setting in. So every aid station I dumped ice and water all over myself. My stomach was not cooperating as I could feel it was full of fluid, so I skipped drinking for a few aid stations (they had them every kilometer afterall). coming through town, which was great as the crowds were large and loud!, and onto lap 2 I started feeling better and could feel my stomach issues disappear for the time being. Didn’t think I was ready for gatorade and solid food wasn’t going to happen, so I opted for Coke. Glorious Coke. Quite possibly the greatest invention for Ironman racing ever. This became my method for the rest of the run. water on body, ice in the clothes, a little coke and drink some water (along with a salt tab at every turnaround) No gels for the entire race. So for those keeping track I had no gels for an entire Ironman, and only Coke for a the marathon. Go figure. My pace had slowed a bit as I hit the halfway point at 1:44. I knew I was going to miss any goal times for the run, but I was still content with what I was doing considering the circumstances. I went through the highs and lows with both my legs and my stomach like everyone and needed to walk through a few of the later aid stations to keep it together. The last 4 miles the legs were really not cooperating anymore and it took more and more effort to keep a steady stride. I was pretty adamit though that I didn’t want a glow stick (aka night finish) and knew the sunset was at 5:06 pm (or a 10:06 finish time). The last few miles I could see the sun slipping into the ocean. At this point though I was back in town with the huge crowds (They actually parted as you ran like the Tour De France!! It was second to none!) and knew that even though I was going to miss beating the sunset, it was only by a few minutes, so I was going to finish while it was still light out. As I came up to the jumbotron I could see Andy Potts standing on the podium while they played the National Anthem. Nice! I made that final left turn to the finish line and soaked it up. One thing was missing though, the announcer! I guess because they were doing the awards ceremony for the pros, they stopped calling out the finishers. Small bummer (Let’s face it. I’ve had MUCH worse finishes, let’s not relive the damn bum in Kona), but I was not going to think twice about it. As I finished I needed some medical help walking as the change in stride made my legs wobbly. A few minutes sitting down in the med tent and I was able to steady my legs. Run Time: 3:44.10

Kissed my family at the finish, got some pizza and a massage. Then headed for the hotel. Total Time: 10:12.55

So what most effected my performance? The cramping in my hips/butt/hamstrings were an absolute gamechanger, not only for the bike, but for the run. I did a 3:12 marathon as a training run one morning building up to this, so the 3:44 was way off target thanks to the bike.

All in all, I’ll take it. Ironman racing always seems to throw a few curve balls. For those thinking about doing this race I would highly recommend it. The best Ironman swim in the world, scenic ride and great crowds on the run. Just bring some sunblock. The forecast was for low 80′s. 94 was not part of my thinking. I have a feeling I will be back to do that one though anyway.

On a side note: I prepared this 1 week after the race and my hamstrings/hips are still sore. Hopefully I didn’t screw something up!

The courses offered are impressive. The Kona bike course is right on the money. The turns and hills are all where they should be and the scenery is accurate as well (you can pan your view and check out the mountains and the ocean on each side of you). I can actually see the hotel I stayed in when was there when I’m riding the course. Same goes for some of the other courses. They have an Alp’d Huez course complete with cheering fans that I’m actually a little scared to ride.

One thing that I have found particulary interesting is that you can connect to the internet and race/train with others. Want to ride the Kona course with your buddy who lives 2000 miles away? Hook up the headset (if you want to talk) and meet him online for a ride up the Queen K. This feature seems to be quite a hit as there are groups online that have regularly scheduled rides in which dozens of people meet up to churn it out. I’ve even seen links to racing leagues.

Having said all that, Netathlon 2.0 is not without it’s flaws. First of all, installing it was more of a challenge than I bargained for. It was a bit buggy, and I needed the folks at NA to reset me and help me a couple of times to get me up and running. It also (initially anyway) was buggy with the upgrades. Running Vista, I downloaded the latest patch and lost the graphics to the courses. After many attempts they got me fixed and it seems they have stablized their product.

The other issue I have with Netathlon 2.0 are the number of courses that are offered. I love the ones that they currently offer, but I haven’t seen a new course in at least 2 years. If the folks at NA were wise, they would create and sell an application that allows us the user to create courses and share them. If they did that you would see virtually every bike event in the world become available overnight. This thing could become a massive hit if they would just let it.

At the end of the day, I would recommend Netathlon 2.0 to anyone who has a trainer and can’t stand riding indoors. I would rather do anything than ride indoors and with NA I’ve had an hour ride just fly by. And who knows, maybe I’ll see you out on a cyber ride one day. I’ll be the guy sitting on your wheel.

EDIT: I forgot to mention, for you loyal Computrainer users, it’s fully compatible.

The fitness center also had a couple of stationary bikes that had a 3d graphic of the course you were riding complete with other riders and your previous best effort. Great application but the bike is very upright and not anything close to my riding position. With these two thoughts in my head I started looking for some kind of spin bike that had the ability to control the resistance and have a graphical interface. Well, long story short, the search took forever, but I found the Kettler Ergo Racer and pulled the trigger.

The bike itself is very sturdy, just like the spin bikes and it has a 40 pound flywheel, so the ride feels very realistic.

Although it looks a little strange in the picture, the Kettler design allows you to set it up just like your actual bike, aerobars and all. This was a concern of mine before I bought it as I wanted to be positioned just like I am on my triathlon bike. The only difference I noticed is that the aerobars are wider that what I have on my bike. Very minor and to me a non issue. The saddle is a standard saddle which I found comfortable, but if you prefer something else like Adamo, it’s an easy switch. It comes with pedals, but I never took them out of the package, opting instead for my Look Keo’s. The Handlebars are made of a heavy duty metal (same size as your bike handlebars, just much sturdier) and can be changed from a road setup to triathlon bull-horn, or upside-down for a cruiser position. I found the bull-horn setup to be too deep, but am very happy in the road set up.

The resistance is controlled magnetically and unlike a spin bike has a freewheel, so you can coast. It’s also whisper quiet. No need to apologize to the neighbors about the noise or even turn up the TV, the only noise you will hear is a quiet hum. Very nice for someone who has two small children that I don’t want to wake.

The Kettler Ergo Racer comes with a computer console in which you can ride some preprogrammed workouts or do your own thing in the manual setting. For a quick workout, I think they work just fine. The console also shows your heart rate (it will pick up your Polar signal) speed, cadence, time, watts, distance, and calories burned. I will say that the speed/distance isn’t all that accurate, but that wasn’t a big issue for me as I had a fix for it.

The only piece of this puzzle that was missing was the 3d simulation of the course you are riding. I really wanted this as it held my attention better than anything else I have tried. In my research I found that there is a product made by Fitcentric called Netathlon2. It allows you to ride courses (some famous) against yourself or others online and will work with dozens of bikes/trainers (I will review this soon). Underneath the console of the Kettler is a port that will allow you to hook into a computer. I got Netathlon2, plugged it into my Kettler and I am riding the Ironman Hawaii Course in 3D. Perfect!

Overall I am very pleased with my purchase. If I were going to complain about anything it would be the console and native technology that seems to be a bit outdated. If Kettler wanted to hit a home run they would stick a better chip, screen and software in the console to give more options out of the box. As I mentioned though, I rarely use the console as I bypass it by plugging it into my computer so as to get all the bells and whistles.

Lance as a Teen

Growing up in Texas, I had the privilege of racing Lance in his early years as a triathlete. Well, I was racing and he was racing, but he wasn’t exactly looking over his shoulder for me (only once did I make it close). As a teen he was absolutely amazing. At 15 this guy was a professional triathlete and was leading top pros like Mark Allen and Mike Pigg into the run. It was just unheard of to do what he did at that age. So when I read that Lance was scrapping the swim and run and joining the world of cycling, do you know what the first words out of my mouth were?

“He’s gonna win the Tour de France.”

There was no doubt in my mind that was going to become an all time cycling great. It was as obvious to me as the sun in the sky. Now I had to wait nearly a decade to be proven right, but man was I right.

The Teenage Pro

Lance has been followed around since his first win under a cloud of suspicion on whether or not he uses performance enhancing drugs to be that good. 7 tour wins and not a single positive test from the most tested man in all of sports and he’s still not in the clear. But the fact that he’s willing to go back into the lion’s den of the french media and race again tells me that he’s not all that concerned with the accusations. Nowadays, if you do great things people are just going to wonder. I’m no different. I saw this guy do amazing things from the start and I still wonder if the rumors are true.

So will Lance win number 8? Well, he’s got a few things on his side. First of course are his genetics.  That might help him overcome some of his age, because he be racing people 10 years younger than him. He also has, at least as I type this, a strong team. Hopefully they’ll get their sponsor problems cleared up in time. Above all else though, he has a crazy work ethic and knows how to win this race.

Will it happen? Not as sure as I used to be about that question. If I had to bet on it, I would put him somewhere on the podium. Can’t wait to see where on that podium he ends up.