Phil Ellison Triathlon Coach

Pace and Power lie to you in the heat 🔥

This is a very common scenario;
Athletes prioritising pace and power as their gold standard metrics for training. Indeed, the plans that I write are also a little biased to these metrics.

But right now, with soaring temps, they are lying to you. They aren’t representative of how hard you’re actually working.

Mentoring and educating clients to recognise how and when to use HR and RPE is a large part of what we aim to do.

This will pay off in training and racing.

Your heart rate will be higher as more blood is diverted to the skin for cooling (sweating) as well as to the working muscles. And HR represents the internal stress on your body better therefore that the external strain measurements of power and pace.

RPE is the master governer - you cannot outrun or outride it! Respect it. LT1 is 5-6/10 and LT2 is 7-8/10. Use these feelings right now for more successful training sessions.

Success can be viewed by -
1. Getting through the workout without falling short (blowing up)
2. Switching to stress based metrics like HR and RPE
3. Demonstrating awareness of your body, your effort and the goal of the workout
4. If you have to use pace / power then use the low end of your training zones and not a single, largely arbitrary, number

Don’t be a slave to ‘gold standards’ in the heat.

5 years ago Phil Boyd Aidy Key (Katy Key)
Older, wiser, faster!
🧡💜💙

AS TEMP goes UP 👆🏻 the size of the WINNER goes DOWN 👇🏻

The recent warm spell has prompted me to re-share this blog article 🥵

If you are of smaller stature than your competition then you have an advantage in hot and humid conditions! Research shows that smaller, lighter runners accumulate less heat during hot weather comparative to taller, heavier runners AND (importantly) this allows them to run at higher speeds during races.

Let’s look at why this is the case?

Firstly, we need to understand 2 things; working muscles produce significant amounts of heat as a by-product of their contractions.

There are 3 processes the body can utilize to regulate body temperature when we are exercising.

When the air is much cooler than the temperature of the body (skin surface), heat is basically lost from the skin to the air via CONVECTION and RADIATION.

When there is little difference between skin and ambient air temperature then we rely heavily on sweating, which cools us via the process of EVAPORATION.

However, in warm, humid conditions the surrounding air can accept only little or no additional water vapour and so heat struggles to leave the body in this way also. The net result is rising core body temperature, discomfort and the need to slow down.

Heat production, when running, is the product of an athletes mass and their speed.

The bigger a runner is and the faster he/she runs the more heat will be produced per minute.

Dissipating that heat comes down to the surface area of the skin and the speed of the air travelling over it. Larger surface area means more sweat glands able to produce sweat for evaporation and more heat loss via both convection and radiation. The higher speed of the air means these processes are accelerated further.

At first glance it may seem that ‘bigness’ could be both good and bad; larger body mass (produce more heat) but also a larger skin surface area (to cool). Unfortunately though these factors are disproportionate in reality. That is to say that in warmer climates body heat production rises more steeply than the ability to dissipate it in the bigger runners.

As an example, one study shows 2 elite marathoners of 45kg and 50kg respectively. The lighter has a skin surface area of 1.45m2 and the ‘heavier’ 1.53m2. That’s a difference of 11% body mass but only 5.5% in surface area.

Another study compared the maximum speed that athletes could run at while maintaining a stable core body temperature in very hot and humid conditions (95 degrees, 60% humidity):
45kg athlete = 5:03 per mile
55kg athlete = 6:07 per mile
65kg athlete = 7:06 per mile
75kg athlete = 7:54 per mile

Comparison shows a difference of almost 3 mins per mile from the lightest to heaviest. If the heavier runner tried to close the gap he/she would soon begin to run into heat accumulation problems. Calculations show the heavier runner’s core body temp would rise 1 degree every 13mins and that by 40mins he/she would likely hit 40 degrees and suffer from heat exhaustion or possibly worse!

Ok, so what’s the take home message?
If you’re heavier than 45kg (LOL – and who isn’t?) then you’d be wise to ditch plans to run a PB on the hottest of days. When the temperature is over 70 then adapting your pacing plan is likely necessary to ensure a successful race outcome. Heart rate will be useful as will RPE to help guide your efforts, however holding to a strict pace goal may lead to trouble. And finally, if your key race this year is going to be a hot one, this may be a great reason to (safely) shed another few unwanted pounds of body-fat.

Cheers

Is the BRICK RUN a thing of the past?

In numerous interviews with long-course professional triathletes it seems like running off the bike is being utilised less and less.

In hybrid sports training this way is called COMPROMISED running and maybe this gives us the major clue as to why brick runs are less favourable to stand alone runs.

To run well off the bike you first have to be able to run well. Whatever that means for you.

Running off the bike is highly specific and so is best left for the race build / prep phase. As we mentioned yesterday, specificity only comes in as you get closer to your chosen KEY race.

For the majority of the year running off the bike should not be prioritised over high quality fresh run workouts and overall weekly mileage. When introduced it can take 1 of 2 forms - brick run or transition run.

Brick run - longer / goal race pace / fueling
Transition run - short / familiarity with the feel of ROTB

As a balanced opinion; amateurs, with less training time available compared to pros, could use bricks a little more often and perhaps a ‘soft’ brick is concept to consider. See below.

*the soft brick session / allow 20-30mins between bike and run to change clothing, fuel and partially recover.

🏃‍♂️ Race Pace Practice:
Essential… but not ad nauseum! 🥱

One of the most important skills in triathlon is learning how your goal race pace actually feels. And maybe more CRUCIALLY allowing your body to become more efficient at that pace.

Here’s the main benefits:
⬆️ Pacing judgement
⬆️ Running economy at target pace
✅ Confidence in your race plan
✅ Ability to hold form under fatigue

But here’s the mistake many uncoached athletes make…

❌Running at race pace all year round.

Race pace sits in one specific region (zone) that varies based on goal distance. But irrespective of the intensity it can’t possibly reap all of the benefits that come from varied pace training.

😌 Easy running develops aerobic fitness, durability and recovery capacity.

😓 Faster running develops speed, neuromuscular efficiency and raises your ceiling.

Race pace training then teaches you how to connect those adaptations to the demands of your event.

The closer you get to competition, the more specific your training should become. The further away you are, the more freedom you have to develop the underlying qualities that support performance.

Easy Running → Builds Capacity
Hard Running → Builds Capability
Race Pace Running → Builds Specificity

It’s been an inspirational 2 weeks for the team.

We secured 3 podium spots and a world champs slot at IM 70.3 Bolton and followed that up with a further 2 podiums this weekend at the European Tri Champs on Tarragona.

To all those who represent at the pointy end of races. Well done and keep setting the standard.

Surrounding that, it can be more tricky to see the first timers, the self-improvers. To those whose trajectory is upward, well done to you too. This 2 week period has seen first time middle distance racers, first time GB representers and more besides.

And then we have outliers, running over 24hrs (over 100 miles). Showing each of us that our limits lie way outside our personal comfort zones.

Well done team

From a very proud Coach
🧡💜💙