Hot Stuff

I thought that I’d share some ideas on training in the heat. I’m currently back on BA, above the Rockies and far removed from the heat and humidity of the Big Island.

I really enjoyed my training camp there and know that it added materially to both my fitness and my knowledge. That island is a neat place – there is a groove that you need to find in order to train well. Of course, we found our groove a little differently than Peter does. We had a condo in Keauhou and a guest pass at the Hualalai Four Seasons spa. That made a huge difference.

Peter living up high makes a lot of sense to me but I doubt they have high speed internet up there so it really isn’t practical when you need to stay in touch. If you are doing an “eat, sleep, train” gig then the commute wouldn’t be an issue and (without central aircon) you’d certainly sleep better up high. I haven’t tried that in Hawaii but if I was true iron-monk then it would have certain appeal for me. Heck, just because Peter does it, there is appeal for me.

I kicked off my training camp with an Olympic distance race. I didn’t swim or bike particularly memorably but I ran great and that must have made me feel a bit bulletproof when it came time to start “training” again. As well, by not gaining a stack of weight last year (when I wasn’t training), I am in the fortunate position at spending most of my time training very close to race weight. It is a HUGE advantage in a lot of ways. The greatest is that it reduces the stress on me because I don’t have to seek to trim down while training stress is high. In fact, I can eat a little bit extra and avoid the risk of depletion training – one of the easiest and most common ways to nuke ourselves.

Anyhow, my first big day was a decent swim followed by a big ride through the Kohala Mountains. I completely nuked myself and wasn’t able to hold anything down from Noon until 6am the following day – threw the entire contents of my stomach up three or four times. It was a bit embarrassing! My stomach completely shut down and things piled up until I threw up. Even after getting sick, I think that my electrolytes where whacked at I kept throwing up until I settled the following day.

Now I could blame my sports drink…
Or my electrolyte caps…
Or the brand of my sports nutrition…
Or the water that they were serving on the course…

However, I think that answer was a lot simpler. I ate too much, went too hard and blew myself to bits. With 90F temps in Tempe, I am sure that a few folks experienced the same thing as me that weekend.

M saw my issue immediately and recommended that I scale my morning intake way back. So I had to make some material adjustments to my nutritional timing. Normally, I like to front end load the bulk of my nutrition. In the heat, I wasn’t able to do that.

Breakfast was pretty similar most mornings – two cups cooked quinoa mixed with four eggs. That was served with a cup of strong coffee. I’m guessing that was probably 50-65% of what I would normally take in and 40% of what I ate the morning that I was sick.

Dave Scott recommends that athletes consider liquid nutrition when racing IM – I’ve tried that but I’ll usually eat a full breakfast on top of that as well. In Kona, I think that the liquid breakfast is a great idea.

As well, I think that highly efficient athletes (like Dave) enjoy a material performance benefit in Hawaii where processing calories is so tough. If you are a big, cold weather powerhouse then you might not be able to process enough to keep yourself rolling – probably best to lean out or stick to cold weather races. Even if you can do it on the bike in training, can you do it trying to stay close to Faris in the water then riding hard up/down Kuakini?

On the bright side, I’ve found that nutrition and hydration are highly trainable. So if it really matters to you then you could come and get a bunk beside Peter. However, most people aren’t willing to do that – and it’s pretty tough to beat an experienced guy that’s willing to do everything (just about year round) to beat you.

When training, I consumed less calories than normal. Sports drinks and gels gave me the bulk of my calories. When I thought that I needed more nutrition than that, I would stop, sit down and eat some real food (while not training). That worked much better and, once adopted, my stomach didn’t give me any more issues. I also used some electrolyte caps but, probably, more for insurance than anything else. I wasn’t particularly well acclimatized upon arrival and wanted to make sure that I didn’t deplete myself too badly. I also supplemented with magnesium each morning.

I’d do all of the above (minus the stopping and eating) if I was racing Hawaii here in October. I came to realise that some of the spectacular blow-ups that we witness each October could simply be too much early food combined with excessive early intensity. It appears to me that (for the guys) unless you are the fittest guy on the planet then going a bit too hard is unavoidable if you want to win, most years. Why? Because you are seeking to optimize your performance within a group of athletes that are following a sub-optimal strategy.

That is a fundamental point about Ironman pacing – there is a lot of social proof available on the swim and the bike that you are going too easy. This social proof comes from nearly everyone self-detonating. If your only experience in Ironman is the death march then you have no deep emotional understanding of the power of being able to run well. For your mind, it simply doesn’t exist. No matter how much I tell you about it, at a basic (animal) level, you won’t believe it until you’ve had the emotional experience. Most will never get there and that is a huge edge that some have.

More on this in a book called Deep Survival. An Ironman is the closest that many of us will come to a survival situation. It’s worth knowing how your mind is likely to react in these situations. Again, this is part of what I seek to program, and experience, in training. It’s probably also part of what Molina means when he talks about racing being a separate skill.

I also walked away very impressed with the athletes that have consistently performed well in Hawaii. The folks that armchair quarterback the elite performances each year should try this simple workout – I would be grateful if you could post this on your favourite internet board at 6am on October 22nd…

Wake up at 5am, eat breakfast and at 6am run to/from the Energy Lab at an easy pace – probably 9 minute miles for most of the critics. Mark and Dave held 6s starting a bit past Noon having smoked the swim/bike. That blows my mind.

In terms of pacing in tropical heat, I had an interesting workout at the end of my stay. Presumably after three weeks (and plenty of training) here I was reasonably well acclimatized. I did five intervals of varying length on the Queen K. I was holding Olympic distance race effort – moderately hard to hard in my lingo. Easy to do when you are in reasonable shape.

I found that my heart rate was about ten beats above normal but it felt pretty easy as I’d had two maintenance days before this session. I imagined how it would feel to go 5% harder when surrounded by the fittest athletes on the planet and completely fresh. Most likely even easier.

Following the main set, I was holding 50-65% of my threshold wattage but my heart rate was at a “cold climate” level equal to 85% of threshold wattage. In other words, I was generating “easy pace” power with “Half IM” race heart rates – not exactly spectacular! It took a ten minute break at a Chevron station for my heart rate to get back to normal.

The main set wasn’t all that demanding either. The total probably worked out to 45-50 minutes worth of just under threshold work.

The lesson for me is that hot weather pacing errors as far more costly than where the majority of us train. Combine that with a “World Champs” atmosphere and it is easy for me to see why each year the bulk of the top male contenders are done before they ever get to the run.

Even if you train in the heat – it’s different in Hawaii. There’s something unique about the combination of the heat, the wind, the lava, the tarmac… it all adds up. I’ll be pretty cautious the next time I race here.

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Finally, how did I make up the calorie deficit from less early day and training eating?

Liquid recovery calories (sports nutrition, rather than beer) and high quality burgers! The Residents Beach Club at Hualalai has an amazing bacon, mushroom, cheese burger. It costs fifteen bucks but the view is fantastic. I think I averaged two per week.

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Pitfalls

A couple other ideas that hit me overnight as I snoozed across the Atlantic.

Intensity – it is very easy to convince one’s self that it is OK to ride/run “one level higher” due to the heat. Personally, I think that this is a mistake. What I was doing with my own training was giving myself a 3-5 bpm cushion in terms of HR zones. Typically, I’ll train at the bottom of all my zones (steady and mod-hard mainly). In Hawaii, I was training 3-5 bpm above the bottom, accepting a lower wattage/pace and remaining outside of my grey zone. To train the higher end of my power/pace profile I would add some mod-hard at the _end_ of my longest training sessions. For long course racing, this approach greatly enhances endurance when moving back to a more temperate race environment. Constantly holding back involves a level of faith (and self-belief) that is challenging at times (but great training for race day).

Tempo – similarly, it is possible and (even more) tempting to make nearly all endurance training a tempo session (when tested by heart rate). I see this quite a bit in reviewing many (most?) athletes’ plans, not just in the heat. Psychologically, we see that we are working “harder” and therefore assume that it is better. While you can get away with that for a couple (or even several) weeks in the heat, I think that it is a mistake. Training a “half gear” too high all the time leaves the athlete flat for key races. You’ll look like a rock star in training but you run the risk of your well being dry when it really matters. You will also be in for a surprise when you go past the seven hour mark on race day.

Hydration – a general observation that most athletes will be chronically dehydrated when transitioning to training in the heat. This results in extended recovery and increased muscle damage from training. In order to correct this situation (I spent my first 7-10 days dehydrated working this out), I needed to place water in my car, beside my bed and ensure a minimum of one liter per hour when riding, drink consistently for 3-6 hours after my long days and through my nights. Athletes that don’t like to stop during training or use depletion practices will find extended recovery as well as low long session quality.

Training Timing – start your key training as close to dawn as possible. We get enough heat stress without training in the middle of the day. All of my running routes were designed with access to fluids in mind and I had three one-liter bike bottles that I used on my bike.

Cooling – we stayed at a place with central air con and had access to a cold swimming pool. Completely eliminating heat stress at couple of times per day helped avoid the foggy feeling that builds up from constant heat stress.

Altitude – Coastal Hawaii is a hot, humid place but it is possible to do some riding at higher altitudes. Riding between 500-1,500 feet is, generally, cooler and subject to more cloud cover. If you do get yourself to the east side of the island, or above 2,000 feet then bring appropriate clothing. These areas are subject to a completely different climate than the lava fields.

Hope this helps,
gordo