Getting Techy

• Lowering Resistance

• Increasing Power

• Improving Efficiency

• Monitoring Performance

Wetsuits• Benefits:

– Floats body higher in water

– Insolation, lowers cold water

shock,

– 3-7 % speed increase

– Biggest help to weak swimmers

and people with low body fat

• Negatives:

– overheat in warm races

– Hard to get off in T1

– Hard to feel the water

• Types

– Full length

– Sleeveless (Farmer John)• 1% slower, cooler, easy to get in/out

– Speed suit• For non legal wetsuit swims

Drafting

• 18-25% improvement!

– Next to their hip is most

efficient behind the bow

wave

– directly behind them if

they are not kicking

– Stay on lee side if

possible

Bike Types

• Road Bike

– Handling

– Power

– Comfort

– Group riding

Bike Types

Road bike with aero bars

- Support body

- Faster

- Shifting issue

Bike Types

• TT/Tri bike

– Fast

– Aero

– Unstable

Biking Form

1. Your form is a balance of Aerodynamics vs Comfort vs Power.

2. Aerodynamic is not just important for the fast biker. Slower bikers spend more time on

the course and the benefits add up.

3. Body take time to adapt to more aggressive positions.

Air resistance

• Air drag is major resistance

above 10-12 mph

• At race speeds 70-88% of drag

is air resistance

• Body takes 65-80% of the total

drag at race speed.

• Drag is not linear but goes up

at a cubic rate with speed

• Aerodynamics goal

– Decrease frontal surface area

– Smooth the flow of air.

– Retain as much power and

comfort in the position.

0

2

4

6

8

10

12

1 2 3 4 5

TT

ROAD

Friction

Reducing Wind Drag

• Body is 65-85% of drag

– Changing body position is the

best and least expensive way

to become faster

– Aero helmet can save 3-7%

total drag ~$150

– Tight fitting clothing instead of

loose fit can save 3-4% ~$50-

150

– Clip-on aero bars 25% ~$100

• Bike frame is 15-25%

$1500-5500

• Wheels are 6-16%

– Deep dish 60% decrease

~$900

– Disk 70% decrease ~$1200

– The best wheel < 10%

Rolling Resistance

• Each tire takes can take 10-30

watts to move depending on

tire material, inflation, and

weight load.

• Tire inflation

– Most tires work best between 90-

120 psi.

– Lower pressure for wet roads

– Over inflation does not let the tire

deform over bumps. This hurts

traction and slows you down.

– Front tire should be ~5 psi lower

then rear to help turning

– Too low of pressure and you can

pinch flat

• Training tires

– Made of thicker rubber, puncture

barrier

– Longer life 2000+ miles

– Fewer flats

• Race tires

– Light, supple, no puncture barrier

– Wear out quickly 500-1000 miles

– Can save 10-20 watts

– Easier to puncture

– Need to be watchful of road

• Risk vs. reward, you have to

decide how much of a risk you

are willing to take of puncturing

to go faster.

–

Case Study at Got Energy

Getting faster working less

• Updated tires

• Updated bike

• Updated body

position

– Lower body

– Moved arms in

– Form fitting jersey

• year 2011 2012

• norm 273 264

• avg 259 252

• mph 22.7 24.0

Net: 7-9 watts less work

to go 1.3 mph faster

Cadence

• Slower 50-80 rpm• Recruit fast twitch muscles

that burn glycogen stores

• Muscles are depleted for

the run

• Feels harder

• Higher stress on joints

• Stress muscle system vs

cardiovascular and

respiratory

• Fast 80-100 rpm• Use slow twitch muscles

that burn mostly fat

• Can have similar cadence

as run (85-90)

• Lower perceived effort

• Become more efficient at

high intensity

• Become inefficient at very

high cadence

• Stress cardiovascular and

respiratory systems more

then muscle system

Gearing

• Run out of gears

– climbing

– descending

– tailwind

• Important to have the right

gear ratio for the race terrain.

Brice Prairie vs. IM Wisconsin

• Standard Crank 53 X 39– Gives high end speed 35+

– Not great to climb without a

bigger rear cassette.

– Requires strong power to weight

ratio

• Compact Crank 50 X 34– Easier to climb with

– With new cassettes still give

good top end speed for most

races

• Rear Cassette – Old style 12-23, 25, 27

– New 11-23, 25, 27, 28, 29

Standard GearingStandard Crank 53-39 rear 11-23 cassette

Granny GearingStandard Crank 53-39 rear 11-28 cassette

Pedaling

• Pedal Efficiency

• Zone 1 12-5 o’clock

– Power zone everyone does

this well

• Zone 2 5-8 o’clock

– Keep force by pulling through.

– think scraping mud off

• Zone 3 8-12 o’clock

– Unweight leg as it come up. This

is harder the more aero you are.

Don’t let your leg be dead weight

• Increased efficiency

– Studies showed a full stroke vs.

down only increased power 57-

87% with using more muscle

groups and added efficiency.

Extra Weight

• Run

– Drop 2

sec/mile/pound.

• 5 lbs = 30 sec on a 5K

• 10 lbs = 60 sec on a 5K

– Deal with heat better

• Bike

– Each pound of weight

lost is like gaining 1.5

watts of FTP when

climbing.

– Less air resistance

Tech to train and race better

• How do you

– Find your race pace

– Hold that pace over

different conditions

– Train smarter

– Learn from your

mistakes

• What to measure

– Perceived effort

– Mph/pace

– Heart rate

– Generated power

Run pacing using GPS

• Benefit

– Gives consistent pacing

with instant feedback

– Do interval training

anywhere. Don’t need a

measured track.

– Use tools like VDOT for

pace guidance

– Able to test and recalibrate

your training zones as you

get stronger

– Store races and training

runs to review

• Negates

– Pacing on hills is hard with

only MPH

– Can take time to acquire

satellites in T2

– Tools

– Garmin Forerunner series

– Garmin 310XT/910XT (tri

design to be used for

swim, bike, and run)

– Nike+ SportWatch

Minimalistic Pacing Strategy

• Perceived effort

– Must be in tune with their body

– Have to fight adrenaline rush at the start

– Physical/Mental peaks and valleys during a race

– Very few people can accurately do this

• MPH on bike

– Influenced by everything, wind, elevation

changes, tires, road….

– Both are impossible to review afterwards to see

how you did

Heart Rate Zones

• Benefits:– Shows stress on your body

– You have zones to target

for training and racing.

• Negatives– Reactive measurement of

body stress.

– Delayed 30-90 seconds

after intensity change

– Zones will be different on

bike vs run 5-10%

– Affected by outside forces

Caffeine, sleep, hydration,

stress, people around you

– Drifts during a race

– Hard to measure fitness

Power (watts)

• Benefit:

– Measures how hard

your body is working

– Not affected by

outside stimulus

– Changes in fitness

levels can be

measured and

charted.

– You can use data from

others.

• Negatives

– Expensive $1000

– Information overload

at the start

– Requires learning new

ways to train and race

– Only used on the bike

Power Measurements

• Power

– Power you are exerting on your

crank or wheel. Measured in

watts

• Threshold power (FTP)

– Max power you can hold for 1

hour

• Intensity factor (IF)

– Average power of a ride divided

by FTP

• Training stress score

(TSS)

– Adding intensity factor of a ride.

– How much stress you had in a

ride based on your current FTP

• Normalized power (NP)

– Average power taking into

affect metabolic cost. More

accurate then average

power as it penalized

harder efforts.

• Variable index (VI)

– Normalized power divided by

average. Shows how steady you

rode. Below 1.05 is considered a

well paced.

Pacing Using Power

• Intensity for different distances– Ironman age group 60%-70%

– Elite ironman 70%-79%

– Half Ironman age group 70%-79%

– Elite Half Ironman 80%-89%

– Sprint and Olympic bike 90% - 104%

Pacing on a hill

Hill Pacing Guidelines

• power to weight rules on hills.

Climbing is done at a slow

speed. Get out of the aero

position and open up you

chest and get as straight as

possible. Move back on your

seat to be in your most

powerful position.

• Below 6 mph work well above

goal pace. Big return on

output with no wind resistance

• 6-12 mph work above goal

pace. Wind resistance is

minimal.

• 12-24 mph ride at goal pace

• 24-30 ride slightly below goal

pace. Most of energy is going

towards wind resistance.

• 30+ coast Majority of energy is

going to fight wind resistance.

Stay as aero as possible

Software and Hardware

• Detailed Analysis

– WKO+

– Garmin Training

Center

• Online tools

– Strava

– Mapmyride

– Vdot

• Bike Computers

– $10 Speedometer

– $30

cadence, lap, min, max, av

g, odometer

– $100 heart rate

– $300+ GPS, elevation, %

grade, maps

– $1000+ watts

Strave

Strava Segment CTY II South

Garmin TC 5K race pacing

WKO+

WKO+

WKO+ w/kg

5 second 30 second 5 min 20 min+

VDOT

Questions?