Here is my final blog post for the Dirty Dozen.  CAUTION, data abounds!  Data geeks should not operate heavy machinery after reading

Part of why I didn’t update my blog for 4 weeks since the event had past was the frenzy of activity in launching Cycling Fusion™. The other part of the problem was due to wanting to do a more thorough analysis of the final day’s data as well as reviewing the process as a whole (this blog alone required over 6 hours of data analysis & review). So, for all you statistic freaks and data geeks out there, you’ve come to the right blog spot today. However, if you wanted to read more about the drama at race day, my last post focused on that.

Why spend so much time on looking at the data? It’s simple. First of all, I have a lot of clients that are neither experienced or inclined to look at the data, they just want to train and ride. However, that doesn’t mean they don’t want to make the most of their time and energy. They know the value of training smarter, not harder. Nothing is worse than spending 6, 7, 10, or more hours training in a week only to find out the type of training you were doing would not produce the results you want. It’s one of the reasons personal trainers are hired; to provide the right exercise for the desired result.

So, that means I spend the time, so you don’t have to. Not only that, but it provides the basis for a lot of the classes and training methods we use at Cycling Fusion™.

Focus on Muscle Relaxation & Time Above Threshold
If you read my last post, you will know that my strategy for training was focused on two things: First, I needed to keep my legs very relaxed while climbing due to the enormous muscular requirements of climbing the grades above 15%. These grades would put my muscles in cramping land very quickly if I did not learn to keep them as loose as possible regardless of the pitch of the hill or my cadence. Secondly and directly related, I needed to get dialed in to my fueling and electrolyte replenishment for the same cramping prevention purposes. These were objectives more specific to my personal situation than would be applicable to the average rider.

The second focus and more universally applicable tactic however, was to focus on efficiency and not pure power. Since I knew I did not have the power to actually be a contender in this race (those guys were pushing more than 3 watts a pound on some of the hills), my focus was on minimizing the cumulative fatigue on my muscles so that I could last to the end of what would be a very long day going uphill. Another way to put it, my focus was on efficiency, and not on speed or power. I needed to generate the maximum Watts/Lb with the least amount of stress and damage to the body.

Each training session added more Dirty Dozen Hills

Efficiency work always comes back to Heart Zones®. Heart rate training allows me to reduce the impact of my limiters (VO2 and Anaerobic Threshold), thereby reducing the stress on my body while producing the same amount of energy. In this case, that same amount of energy would be equivalent to the power required to get to the top of each hill without stopping or touching down in any way.

More specifically, I needed to zero in on my Threshold work, and my body’s ability to tolerate greater amounts of lactate that would result from grinding out very low cadences during very steep climbs. This was almost opposite training I did for the Giretto. That preparation focused more on being able to handle 400 miles in 4 days for someone who had never done their first century. That was more about endurance and enlarging my VO2 so I could keep a steady pace for long eriods of time. The efforts of the Dirty Dozen though are short when we are climbing, and all the between hills riding amounted to simple recovery.

Heart rate analysis - shows the price you pay for the power you produce

The DD training rides were done about every 2 weeks, and they would serve to both validate the training I was doing in between sessions as well help me ramp up to the number that would be required to complete on race day.

Notice the average and max heart rate increased for the first 2 months of training. I was effectively increasing my ceiling. Even though I made it up each of the 4 and 5 hills in the early training rides, I knew how I felt in my body, and the stress my legs were under to complete those. I knew that if I didn’t reduce the price (whatever it takes for one to generate power, is what I call the “price” of that power – it costs you something to generate it), I would run out of currency before the final hills on race day. So all training rides between Dirty Dozen days I spent climbing as fast as I could, to stay as long as I could over threshold. Then, all rides done on the Dirty Dozen hills (every 2 weeks) were done at the least energy expenditure possible, to continue to develop efficiency and body awareness and relaxation of the leg muscles.

Notice how things changed dramatically half way through the training rides. This is about as good a visual explanation of the body’s response to training as I could ask for. I hit a new fitness level, which resulted in me being able to complete more hills, at lower average and maximum heart rates This is exactly the type of result I needed. My highest efficiency came at the final training ride, with efficiency gains as much as 30%, and the resulting power gains approaching 40%.

However, the most telling statistic of all when looking at the final training ride is the percent time spent over threshold. On 11-15-10, I spent only 37% of each climb above threshold, while I spent an average of 72% of my climbs over threshold in the early rides. What makes this even more impressive is that this reduction was also done in the face of double the amount of hills as well – 9 compared to 4. I say impressive not to pat myself on the back (well, maybe a little), but as an impressive training method for improving climbing, or anything that would otherwise peg your heart rate. The method was simple but intense: focus on % of time over threshold, or the time spent in Zone 5 more than just training load.

This is what Nina and I focused on almost exclusively. Yes, we also tracked training points, but it was more important that our percentages for the weeks showed us increasing our portion of all training in that zone, than it was a function of the higher points in and of itself. It was nevertheless easy to increase training load since Zone 5 garners the most points anyway.

Six hrs and 14 hills of cumulative fatigue eats into power and efficiency gains

At Canton avenue (the dream killer for Kristen, and dream maker for Nina), something really interesting happens. While power was about equal (notice 0% improvement line) cardiac efficiency is still being enjoyed and even more than in previous hills. Ultimately it was this efficiency that bought me enough time to hold on till the end.

Given the fact that I did ultimately cramp on the last hill, well into hour 6, and had to repeat that hill in its entirety, made me realize I left nothing on the table that day. Will I do it again… probably not, but that would be due to one and only one reason – the torque put on my two artificial hips is certainly not what the doctor ordered

If you aren’t woozy from all that data, click on the thumbnail below and you can see the summary spreadsheet that these few graphs were produced from (I had more, but in the interest of public safety I did not include them).

Click to download a pdf of all the gory details...data geeks in glory!

But wait – look below at the summary of grades for each climb according to Google Earth (and verified by my Garmin 705), looks like 16% is indeed worthy. Personally, I think the traditional “Bakers Dozen” that equates to 13 has just been upstaged by the “Pittsburgh Dozen” that now represents 14. Way to go Danny, you’ve just added to the Pittsburghese language!

The “Plus Two” also refers to my 2 training buddies pictured above also – my daughter Nina to my left, and her husband Paul on the other side of Danny. It was a perfect final training ride since it was completely unplanned. As we approached our first climb of what would be the most attempted since training started almost 3 months ago (10 hills was our target for the day), we see two others on bikes starting their ascent about 2 blocks ahead of us. In all the training rides we’ve done so far, we’ve only seen one other person training on these inclines of insanity, so we were keen to catch up and see who it was – it was Danny and Laura who happens to be on the cover of the DVD just released from last year’s race. We knew at that point, it was going to be a good day.

I’m thrilled to report that I had no cramping through all 10 hills by the time we finished almost 4 hours later. This has been the number one concern for me throughout this entire training. This brings me to my third “Plus Two” reference. My two artificial hips have given me new life, allowing me to do everything and more than I did when I was in college. However, with my recent attempts at road racing, and now training for the Dirty Dozen I’ve finally come face to face with some of the real fallout or limitations that result when you take two of your most vital joints and “modify them”.

I’ve tried to research the topic, but both time and expertise have kept me from confirming my suspicions definitively. I suspect that the weakness developed in my abductors and glutes as a result of the 10 years of favoring one side over the other, in combination with the damage done by an “L” incision that cut across both of those areas in about a 12 inch span, is to blame for my quad, hamstring and calve cramping tendencies. I believe my continued over-dependence on these three muscles have created a level of muscular stress that is not normal, and thus the tendency to seize up.

Grade taken from Google Earth and power based on Avg. 5mph speed

The Plus Two I really want to emphasize though, is that this training was done in two environments – in keeping with the mission of Cycling Fusion; to wit – the bringing together of indoor and outdoor cycling. What lots of outdoor cyclists may find even more unusual though, is that I did 75% of my training INDOORS for this event. I rode one day per week outside on the steepest hills I could find around my house and the office, and 3 days indoors. Once every two weeks my two training buddies and I did a few of the actual climbs of the Dirty Dozen (starting with just 4 hills and working up to 10 by the end). After all, that was part of why I did it – to continue to demonstrate, under real world situations, that indoor training can be incredibly effective and efficient to the outdoor rider.

Finally, the Plus Two that has become a central driving concept in all my training, is the value of Heart Zones® Training as a part of the overall plan. At first blush, when you look at the range of grades and required Wattage numbers to just get up these punishing Pittsburgh hills, you would think of how power training would be top of mind. Of course, it was very power specific training, with regular 3X3 Climbing Power tests performed on the Keiser m3 power bike. However, without getting into several volumes of discourse on how your cardiovascular system is your chief limiter for all power generation, let’s just suffice it to say that I simultaneously was working on cardiac efficiency along with increased power generation.

The table below shows how both increased throughout the training. However, particularly noteworthy is the comparison to the overall numbers and comparing those to hills that I did early in the sequence and those that come later. Danny is famous for harping on how every hill is different if you put them/climb them in a different order. This is due to the significant effect of fatigue on both the muscles involved, as well as the depletion of glycogen stores and the increased dependence on the anaerobic energy system at the continued and repeated time being spent over threshold (high or L2 threshold).

Top line summarizes training rides comprised of 50% or less of DD

But notice how that while power decreased by almost 10% (9.93), my efficiency decreased by only 2% (1.95). Consequently, it will be the Heart Zones® training that will save my ass at the end of the day… literally. As I try to complete 4 more climbs than the most I have ever done, it will not be my new bike (yes, I was “forced” to buy one), my improved power, or my shrewd cunning (as substantial as it is ) that will get me to the end. It will be the cardiac efficiency and my concentration on increasing my time spent over threshold during training, that will be responsible, right behind the prayers offered up, at the bottom of each hill.

One of the unexpected treasures I discovered about Road Riding is that I can do it alone (something I don’t do on single track for lots of good reasons). Don’t get me wrong, I love riding in big and small groups, but riding alone on my Road bike offers something MTB can’t – the ability to think without being distracted. When I MTB, I am constantly engaged every second; the terrain, the obstacles, the trail itself demands full attention. On the road however, provided you are not in an urban area or where there is a lot of traffic, you can get a rhythm going and you can sort of put your body on automatic pilot.

My ride today should have been awful. I woke up after a restless night, in a bit of a panic. Having concluded two company acquisitions in a span of just 2 weeks, with November right around the corner, my sense of “put up or shut up” was quite palpable. I had a flood of negative emotions, something quite rare for me. I felt fear, disbelief, frustration, confusion, even a sense of hopelessness. I also had fallen behind in training due to the nature of these deals, and expected one horrendous training ride. This was especially anticipated because I configured a route with the most number of hills with the steepest grades in my area.

What happened though was completely unexpected, yet not surprising. Even though I set the music on “shuffle”, it was within my “inspirational” playlist. The music mood of the first song quickly set a FAST pace, with the heart rate hitting threshold right from the start. I matched that feel, and went out pretty hard, looking for a supernatural break through, to get me out of this “stinkin thinkin” that was plaguing my mind.

After about 20 minutes of high Zone 4 and over threshold work, I figured I was going to blow up and be forced to cut the ride well short of the 30 miles I had planned. I wasn’t warming up properly, and I had planned a route that would find the worst, steepest hills within reach of those 30 miles. Instead I got stronger and stronger. My spirit was finding peace, while my legs were at war, and my heart was running its race.

At about 45 minutes in, I figured that my little “run” at this was going to be over, and the inevitable need to recover was going to overwhelm me like an Outer Banks head wind that wouldn’t quit. It didn’t happen, and the frequency of climbing did not let up. I decided that my normal refuel and electrolyte replenishment schedule had to be adjusted if I was going to keep up this pace, so I did some Hammer gel and 3 more Endurolytes 15 minutes earlier than my norm, and I pressed on.

I continued to stay in Zone 4 and felt the legs in a constant state of burn. I found myself continually working on keeping them relaxed and loose while engaging more hamstrings whenever possible to keep from overtaxing my quads. I focused on some technique thrown my way earlier in the week by my new partner Tom Scotto, and allowed the body to find it’s limits while I continued to maintain the gap I had put on my doubts and insecurities that I left the starting line with just 90 minutes ago. I was in the home stretch and I was not about to let them make “the catch”.

By the time I finished, my legs, heart, lungs and spirit were all put to the test in multiple ways. They all performed above and beyond what I could ask or think, and I dismounted my bike with an incredible sense of confidence in the future. After downloading my numbers, it was confirmed. I had the highest average heart rate for that amount of climbing for the entire year. The only set of data that was close was the last road race I wrote about where I spent almost an hour in Zone 5, but even that day I climbed 1500 feet less than I did today.

Riding has always represented much more to me than just staying fit and having fun. It has acted like a symbolic window into my soul. I’ve found the intangible but powerful components of honesty, integrity, discipline, peace, joy, and even ones perspective on life itself to be represented there. Like strands of a rope intertwined, the physical and spiritual each support and strengthen the other.

I’m clearly out of my funk now and ready to take on the world. Will it be any easier? Not a chance. Will I respond and experience it differently… with that there is no doubt.

When I put a training plan together for myself or a student, I’ve gotta’ work backwards. Where do we want to end up, and then back it up to where we are, and the rest will fill in by measured and deliberate progression. As an endurance rider, and someone who helps people do their first epic ride or century, we have the luxury of focusing on a slow periodized program from start to finish with more and more time in the saddle.

However, this total event is only about 50 miles in length, with 3 food breaks. Endurance is not what I need to train for. My focus needs to be on producing the required power for each grade of hill I will encounter, sustaining heart rates above threshold for varying amounts of time, and keeping the legs from seizing up in the process.

Consequently, instead of a 6 day a week riding schedule with rides between 1 and 3 hours long, I’ll be training 3 to 4 days per week where all but one of those days each week will be fairly intense; very little time in Zone 1 & 2, about 50% in Zone 4, and a progressive increase of time above threshold. In most cases, I will want a day off or active recovery after each day of training.

I will be focusing on improving lactate buffering, and increasing my threshold. Starting my “pre-training” routine a couple weeks ago, I’ve already begun to feel an increase in my threshold, but I will do a New Leaf metabolic test this week to establish a true baseline.

While at first blush this doesn’t seem like a lot of training, the intensity creates a significant challenge. In fact, I’ve averaged over 1000 points per week just for the pre-training weeks. So, I’ll be using 1150 training load points as my starting baseline, and shoot for a 5% increase each week to keep the body honest. This will get to about 1800 points at the week I will begin to taper. I need to get fitter, stronger and more tolerant of the inevitable pain, and this seems to be the right approach.

So here’s the outline of the training plan:

3 days intense training: 2 days outside, 1 day inside
1 day of active recovery riding inside
1150 starting points, and % splits: Zones 1: 0%, 2:10%, 3:30%, 4:50%, 5:10%
Ending targets 1800 points, 20% in Zone 5, Threshold increase of 10 – 15 BPM

Unfortunately, they have missed more than the point. If you have read our Cycling Fusion Manifesto, and subscribe to this blog, you already know how much fun riding indoors can be. This alone is a good enough reason to give indoor cycling a second look if you live in a climate that locks you out of riding outside for months on end. However, it’s the performance improvements that are the real draw of indoor cycling. There a number of cycling workouts that are nearly impossible to accomplish outside. This applies to both Heart Zone® centric workouts as well as Power workouts. Many of these workouts are designed to accomplish some of the coveted objectives of higher VO2, greater power, and an elevated threshold.

Here are a few excerpts from some diehard outdoor cyclists who are just discovering for themselves that Indoor Cycling may be the key to their next performance jump:

UK Rider
“…this started me wondering whether there is an argument for doing roller sessions even when you could ride outdoors. The problem with riding outdoors, certainly around here, is that you are often prevented from applying power for various reasons. There’s traffic lights, roundabouts, junctions, cars blocking you, downhills with tight bends etc. Then there’s also uphill parts where it is almost impossible not to go anaerobic. I could post some pictures of graphs of power distribution and quadrant analysis, but I’m sure you get the idea – my power output is much more variable outdoors, so to hit the same average power as I would on the rollers, I actually end up spending a lot of time at much lower power output and also quite a bit of time at higher power output to pull the average back up to where I want it to be.”

USA Rider
“I took 30 seconds off of my 10 mile TT PR last year and was putting out crazy watts compared to the previous year.  In road races I felt like I had an enormous depth of strength and pretty much went on a reign of terror during the spring and won a lot of races. Interestingly enough though as the time changed and I spent more time outdoors I had a smaller amount of total quality time on the bike per week than I had during the winter.  Of course I was racing and doing more threshold, VO2 max work than during the winter, but in retrospect I felt like my fitness went down during the summer.  In retrospect, if I could I would have sent the April version of me to Nationals in July.  I wasn’t bad in July, but I was better in April.”

UK Rider
“One of my points, though, is that outdoor training can be even worse than this, in that interrupting the time spent at the target power with time spent at a much lower power, might have a negative impact on the effectiveness of the training. Accumulating 60 mins of tempo over 3 hours as 5 mins tempo, then 10 mins AR (Active Recovery), then 5 mins tempo, 10 mins AR etc, may not have the same training benefit as a continuous 60 mins of tempo, on top of the inefficient use of time.”

However, all of this does come with a catch of sorts. This caveat pertains specifically to any cyclist who wants to improve their performance outside. If you are content to stay inside and ride, this is only an issue if you are pushing for the next level of fitness, or perhaps cross training for another sport. But for those that enjoy riding in both venues, this is vital to understand. Without a power indicator on your indoor bike, my current feeling is that you are almost riding blind. This may seem a bit harsh or extreme, but I’ve now cycled with a number of Indoor-Only instructors who have asked me to take them outside and give it a try. While they do have to get used the equipment, shifting and the sport in general, they typically lack the ability to climb real hills. The lack of an indicator for tension or power creates an almost artificial ceiling, where it requires a great deal of personal conviction to keep reaching for the next level and making that simulated road that much steeper.

Let’s hope that soon this will be a non-issue, as old bikes get replaced with new ones like the Keiser M3 and other indoor bikes with Power. Members, instructors and indoor cycling advocates of all kinds all need to let their voices be heard if this trend is to take hold and sweep across the nation.

The first thing to do is establish your baselines, and commit yourself to keeping good records. If you don’t keep records of where you’ve been, how will you be able to chart a clear path to where you are going. Also, if you don’t have personal proof that your training methods work, you’re likely to waste a lot of time and energy assuming that what you are doing is making you stronger, faster, fitter, when they could be doing little more than maintaining the status quo.

There is another reason for doing baseline tests. It can provide a weekly or bi weekly goal for what can be an otherwise boring season of base building. While our Winter Training group logs a lot of hours in the saddle during the winter, we use the weekends for baselining and doing a variety of testing to keep us motivated, interested, and assured that our training is working. The weekdays are used for staying steady with our training plan.

Here is a list of all of the baselines we have tested ourselves on so far:

20 min Zone 2, and 30 min Zone 3 Decoupling & Power Slide tests
Explanation: This is Efficiency Testing. What is your maximum power you can sustain without leaving the specified heart zone. As you maintain a heart rate within the zone, does your power slide. In other words, do you have to lower your power to keep your heart rate from going higher and into the next heart zone. This is what we call a “Power slide”. Improve your ability to maintain power, and you improve stamina and your overall average power. The bottom line here is we want to produce as much power as possible, without deterioration, in every heart zone – making each heart zone efficient and sustainable.

2 X 20 Sustainable Power Test
Explanation: This is testing your “functional threshold power”. This should be the power you can sustain (within 5%) for actually an hour or so, but we test it in 20 minute increments since it is more convenient to manage. This is generally the most talked about power metric there is.

Climbing & Explosive Power Tests
Explanation: Testing these types of power is usually done on different days, but since we were just wanting to get a baseline, we testing them in the same 80 minute session. These represent the highest power we can generate for these two types of Power – Climbing (3 to 6 minute efforts), and Explosive (1 to 2 minute efforts).

60 min Zone 3 Decoupling & Power Slide tests
Explanation: This is Efficiency Testing at the highest level. We started at smaller levels (shorter time periods) as we were just establishing our base building routines. However, in Heart Zones 2 & 3, a full hour is customary as a real indicator of long term capability. This tests and trains the mind as well as the body.

Resting Heart Rate
Explanation: As we enter our 6th week of training, it was important to begin to look for signs of fatigue or overtraining. It is vital that we know when and how to increase our normal recovery or restoration time periods. A resting heart rate is an essential element to check, but one must have a “normal” baseline to know what to compare it to. When your body needs more rest than normal, it is quite common for your resting heart rate to be elevated 5 or more beats from its average.

Note: Most people confuse Resting HR with Ambient HR. Your RHR can only be measured while you are still in bed, before you rise in the morning. Your Ambient HR is what your heart rate is under normal, non exercise or physical labor conditions.

Threshold Heart Rate
It should also go without saying that the very first baseline we established was our Heart Rate Threshold (the cross over point between aerobic and anaerobic energy production) – in order to establish all of our heart zones, and set our training plan.

With these baselines set, we are ready to log a lot of hours in our first big phase of training, that of Heart Rate Training with an eye towards Power. This is not a focus on Power, but it is designed to raise our Limiters to better prepare ourselves for the targeted Power work we will work on later.

Finally, having the Keiser M3 power bikes to train on allow us a very convenient way to track every aspect of our development. Without Power on the bike, we could still raise our limiters in our heart zones, but could easily falter in improving our Power. With a class mix of experienced racers to those who have never ridden since they were in grade school, we will see just how effective this tool is at both ends of the spectrum.

The age-adjusted maximum heart rate formula (also known as the “age regression formula“) was developed a half century ago, at a time when the science of exercise physiology was in its infancy and the technological means to create a more accurate exercise prescription or testing protocol was scarce. The result was that the “220 Minus Age” formula was neither created nor validated based on supported research or clinical testing1. Today, the health and fitness industry continued support of an archaic, unproven formula is (a) potentially hazardous to the public, (b) a severe blow to our effectiveness and credibility, and (c) a tragic undermining of the proven advances and discoveries in exercise physiology over the last half century.

Here ten reasons why “220 Minus Age” gets a failing grade:

1. The formula’s inventor acknowledges its unscientific development.
The equation was created in the early 1970’s by scientists Fox, Naughton, and Haskell who intended it to be a rough formulation and not meant to be representative of the entire population. All subject in the studies referenced were under 55 years of age and male. Although the equation has become accepted and the standard in the literature and is used widely in clinical and fitness settings, its validity is uncertain.

2. There is no scientific research to support it.
There is no scientific validation of this formula. There is simply no research to support it.

3. It is physiologically nonsensical.
There is no physiological reason why everyone of the same age should have the same maximum number of heartbeats in a minute’s time. In fact, we KNOW this isn’t true. For example, as fit individuals age, their maximum heart rate drops very little.4 Research has shown that the maximum heart rate of individuals of the same age can vary by 11 bpm based on many variables especially sport activity.5 Yet this formula claims to scientifically prescribe intensity-based training levels for individuals, even as it ignores their scientifically established individuality.

4. It is useless.
There is a common assumption that any of the equations that predict your individual maximum heart rate will be both reasonably accurate and reasonably useful. Such is not the case with “220 Minus Age.” Intended to guide users to exercise in the right cardiovascular training zones (CVT), in fact, the formula doesn’t accomplish this. “The 220-age formula designed to predict maximum heart rate is useless” according to Carl Foster, Ph.D. and past president of the American College of Sports Medicine, “because it simply is not accurate.”

5. It is elitist.
Don’t believe Dr. Foster? Well, how about trying to convince pro athletes that they should go back to using “220 Minus Age,” if they ever did. Why do we think that pro athletes somehow deserve more accurate training regimens than fitness exercisers? There is value to increased precision, especially for those seeking weight loss or true aerobic benefits from their physical activity.

6. It may be dangerous.
The formula is built into and displayed on the consoles of most pieces of cardio-equipment. But, if followed, it can be dangerous overestimating maximum heart rate in young adults and underestimating it in older people. Using 220-age forces finess enthusiasts, with the air of scientific authority, to exercise at too high or too low a cardiovascular intensity. Similarly, the formula also leads some individuals to exercise at intensities too low to achieve needed health benefits. As finess professionals, we need to ask ourselves if we could be at legal (not to mention ethical) risk for using an equation to prescribe exercise intensity which we have ample reason to suspect is inaccurate.

7. It is an embarrassment.
Savvy consumers can prove for themselves that their Max HR isn’t what the formula says it is, so how much credibility do you think they give training professionals who say otherwise? Yet working this formula is a requirement to pass most personal trainer certification tests. And, worse still, the formula is posted in most health clubs.

8. It allows us to be lazy.
In the early 1990s, I created the original five heart rate training zones, each built on 10% of your maximum heart rate. Those zones were first published in my work, The Heart Rate Monitor Book, and have subsequently been adopted as the standard CVT zones programmed into millions of cardio machines. I acknowledge that at that time, almost twenty years ago, I, too, was unwilling to change and to recommend alternative methods for prescribing CVT zones. Accepted by the ACSM, this mythical formula was just too easy, and it was even then a dogma. I have subsequently confessed my error in recommending the formula and apologized for supporting such a simplistic means of determining such an important value.

9. There are scientifically validated alternatives that are safe and effective.
To the best of my knowledge, at this time there is no equation that has been proven accurate enough in predicting maximum heart rate. None whatsoever. This does not mean that we don’t have any proven means of achieving the same end, because we do.

Sub-maximum testing protocols, or “sub-max tests,” are a straightforward method of estimating maximum heart rate, based on a physiological response to a safe level of exercise stress. One such test, “The Can-You-Speak-Comfortably Foster Test” is scientifically validated by Carl Foster, Ph.D. There are others.
And, yes, I have a business that promotes these alternative tests and protocols, yet I’m sure there are many other means of setting CVT levels that I haven’t even heard of and from which we would all benefit.

10. We have a responsibility to do our best.
Because the estimation of maximum heart rate comes from a professionally supported mathematical formula, it carries an air of scientific authority. If we health and fitness professionals want to continue to be seen as authorities, we need to do our best for our clients, whether it’s easy for us or not. Supporting the use of this outdated formula is simply not the best we can do.

Sally Edwards, MA, MBA
CEO, Heart Zones USA
Applied Exercise Scientist
Author of 22 books on health, training, performance, and fitness
Professional triathlete and runner
sally.edwards@heartzones.com

Heart Zones USA, The Training, Education, Coaching, and Club Programming Company
2636 Fulton Avenue, Suite #100
Sacramento, CA 95821 USA

November 20, 2009

Let’s talk about a perfect example of small thinking as it relates to Cycling Fusion.  How about buying bikes that have power built into them, and not buying the computers that display that power, to go with them.  A major fitness chain has already done that.  Small thinking says that this will intimidate people and confuse instructors.

Here’s another popular train of thought.  “When we are ready to buy new bikes for our Spinning® or Indoor Cycling room, we are going to get the same ones we got before because that’s what everyone is used to, and anyway, nobody uses heart rate, cadence or power around here”. Geez, I wonder if the fact that you don’t have any bikes that have those tools, has anything to do with that?

Here’s one of my favorites.  “We really don’t have many cyclists here, so we don’t need all that computer stuff.”  Well, here’s a news flash, there are many cyclists that don’t use that stuff even while riding outside – did you ever think that you might be the ones to teach them?  As far as the cyclists that do use training tools outside, is it no wonder they also don’t come to your classes?  We complain about not attracting a certain segment of the population, and then we don’t do anything about understanding how to reach them.

Cycling Fusion & Heart Zones Are Fighting Small Thinking Together

This weekend I had the pleasure of launching Power Training for Indoor Cycling at the annual Heart Zones conference in St. Louis.  I had the largest group of the tracks offered even despite the fact that many of the students do not yet have power bikes in their cycling rooms.  These are not the small thinkers.  These are the leaders that are not content to maintain the status quo, but want to learn all they can about what the future may hold, and have a hand in shaping it.  They are big thinkers.  Despite the odds against them, they see the opportunities around them.  These are the folks that want to be change agents, not the victims of change.

Sally Edwards herself is one of the original big thinkers!  From making history with her Heart Zones training methodology, to partnering with Cycling Fusion on our brand new approach to training with power, she’s always tried to think creatively and break with the status quo.  This new system of training is directed specifically at the average indoor cyclist, in the average fitness facility, who may not even ride outside, and yet with very sound cycling principles to help even local competitive cyclists reach new levels.

Keiser Corporation is another big thinker.  It’s refreshing to see a corporation working in a recession impacted industry like fitness say – “We believe in the future, and we’ll back the leaders who are taking the risks to be there.”  They provided 20 bikes to the conference so that the power training could be experienced first hand by most who have never been on a power bike.  The Keiser M3 has been a tremendous tool in developing this curriculum, and while it is designed to work with any bike that can measure and display power, we’ve been really delighted to work with them on this project.  It’s no wonder that every bike was already pre-sold before we left the conference.

While this blog will begin to focus on the Giretto, and other Cycling Fusion projects in the near future, I will be writing a series of weekly blogs about Cycling Fusion’s Power Training for our friends over at the Indoor Cycling Pro membership site.  If you follow along there, you should be Power Proficient in time for winter training.

I’ve used that saying (“If you can measure it, you can improve it”) as long as I’ve been in business for myself.  It’s not just a saying, it’s virtually an axiom of life.  Just google the phrase, and you’ll see what I mean.  The results are incredibly varied, from the expected business references, to literary writing, and everything in between.  Heck, there are even YouTube videos in this category. Here are some of the more interesting links from just the first page.

Business (From site called “Goliath” Business knowledge on demand)

Life (from a blog called “Life Optimizer”) I love that name.

Neobluepanther (Writing, among other things)

What got me thinking about this truth of truths today was my Physical Therapy visit.  It was my last visit for my wrist, broken a couple of months ago from my first road crash.

What’s the first thing they do in PT?  They measure.  What’s the last thing they do?  They measure.  On my last visit, all my measurements improved except for one.  Truth be told, it was the only thing that I didn’t do my “homework” for.  The poor results then made me ultra aware of its weakness, and so from Thursday till Monday, I worked the wrist in the weak direction.  In just 4 days, upon my return and remeasurement, I increased 14% of mobility.  No matter how many times I see this process work, it still gets me excited.  I think it’s the control freak in me.  If I can improve whatever I measure, I can improve my life.  Cool! Let’s see, what can I measure… (hey, I know what you’re thinking.  Stop that, this is a family show).

The obvious connection here is TRAINING.  This again points to the critical importance of using training tools; heart monitors, cadence counters, power meters.  These are more than just tools, once you get used to using them, and understand how to exploit them, they become the closest thing you have to a personal, full time, always at your beck and  call, coach.  They give you the means to measure your effort, the tools to set your targets, and best of all, it keeps you honest along the way.  Without the constant feedback, what do you have to tell you when you’re slackin’ off or working too hard, or worse than both, training without focus and discipline.

I received an email this summer from one of the members at my club who had just completed one of the best “measurement” experiences – a complete metabolic assessment for Heart Zones, VO2 max, and lactate threshold.  In her own words “ … took 3.5 minutes off my best time….and that is due to nothing more than awareness and data! watched my heart rate the whole time” Danielle

Without these tools, we end up thinking something stupid like “Wow, I sweat buckets today, I must have been working really hard”, or “I want to do better this year.  I’m going to ride more”.  The interesting thing about these common misconceptions is that it shows how inherently people want to measure; the amount of sweat, the miles of riding – the notion is there, but without the tools, it will inevitably leave them frustrated.

So why is it, at least in the field of sports, that the average person seems to use only one thing to measure success; winning and losing.  Even if you don’t race, the only measurement seems to be “I did __________ “(fill in the blanks with your latest accomplishment) or I didn’t.  That sounds a lot like pass/fail.  Don’t get me wrong, I celebrate the mere completion of hard endeavors as much or more than the next guy.  But I am still perplexed by the lack of measurement and hence training along the way.  The reasons why are likely to be wide ranging, but could it be that sports and “exercise” in general don’t often merit this consideration?

Take my original Google search as an example.  I was shocked to not see a single reference to any sport or physical activity on the first three pages of the search results when I put this phrase in the search box.  Every other subject imaginable came up:

Pg 1 results – primarily business and a few other stray subjects as noted in my links above

Pg 2 results – Marketing, Internet Traffic and Conversion, Manufacturing, I.T. Security, BioMed, Carbon Emissions

Page 3 – more of the same Search Engine Optimization, Healthcare, and on it goes with no sports references

So, let’s use this post to change this pitiful state of searchability.  After all, one of the key tenants of the Cycling Fusion manifesto is the need for training tools in cycling indoors, where we have control of the environment, and thus have the ability to be very specific in our training.  If you write a blog, or have a website dedicated to sport – link this blog (this specific post) to your blog or site, and let’s represent sport in this vital life lesson of the need to measure something in order to improve it.  On my next post, I’ll report whether we did enough to fight our way into the first 3 pages of Google or not.  After all, isn’t that the measurement standard of any good blog performance

Instead I felt this surge of adrenaline and inspiration like it was shot right into my heart. Speakers who have “been there” in both athletics and business were passing their drugs around like they weren’t even controlled substances. Check out the goodies I got to sample:

CIH2 - Courage In Honesty:
This drug took an interesting path from the mind to the heart. By being honest with yourself, it turns out you stop trying to be that person everyone else wants you to be, and you start becoming that person you were meant to be. To stop playing that game however, takes a lot of courage. Sometimes it means leaving some old stinkin’ thinking’ behind. Other times it means leaving friends that keep dragging you down, and in some cases, it even means leaving a long standing job and striking out on your own.

DM.iB – Details Matter in Branding:
This drug isn’t very portable, but it is reproducible anywhere I go. It turns out that our experience when we encounter our training facilities is quite sensory. Our senses are taking in everything before we even begin our workout. How the place smells, the sounds we experience before, during and after our rides, the visuals we see and feel on the walls, and even the conversations – even casual ones with any staff member – all produce “who we are” – our brand.

UCAx – Unfair Competitive Advantage:
This is the drug that really made us give into temptation, and begin doping. We want that uniqueness that no one else has – that unfair advantage that sets us apart. The challenge is finding what it is, clearly identifying it, and then attacking the climbs ahead with it. This drug required direct injection – it needed to flow through every vein in our bodies.

MbtM – Meaning Beyond The Money:
Ironically, this drug is not actually a controlled substance. It turns out that every one of us at the conference had already been on this drug before turning up at “camp”. I think though, that it is only a matter of time before this will be outlawed, as it almost immediately gives every person an unfair advantage. While we made it clear that we should establish a fair monetary value for our time and expertise, if that was what made us wake up every day and turn the cranks, we were probably going to get dropped in one of the early stages. To sustain the long multi-stage race of building a business in our industry, you need the desire to truly help people – achieve their goals, become healthier, achieve what they never thought possible – in short, change lives in one way or another.

BdH – Bonding With The Heart Zones™ Family:
This was the actual “bonding agent” that kept all these drugs working together towards the finish line. I never would have imagined having the opportunity to improve my own performance through others in the room, and they through me. The aforementioned drug UCAx works differently in each person’s such that we are able to play off each other, and work like a finely tuned team in an opening time trial.

SEf3 - Sally Edwards Factor:
This probably comes as no surprise, but this always seems to be the catalyst that gets all these drugs working in the first place. Sally may hold older world records in multiple sports, but she is still pulling off new victories in inspiration and dedication. Without this catalyst, we would be stuck in the middle of the peleton, working hard, doing our best to avoid crashes, but not really leading the charge. With Sally as our captain, we see constant progress. She is constantly reinventing herself, constantly attacking every climb, constantly making herself and Heart Zones™ relevant to today’s athletes. In a decimated and fragmented industry, she is undaunted by crazy break away attempts, and has a quiet confidence that we will pull them all back before the end of the race. In short, the rest of the team is inspired to pull longer, train harder and embracing the sacrifices needed to win.

Even though I’ve brought a good supply of drugs back from the conference, I’m sure I’ll need to go to the annual conference in October to restock. In the meantime, it’s off to train for the Giretto, and see how these drugs can enhance my performance!