Tracking training data can drastically improve your performance.

Every endurance athlete knows that there is both an art and a science to training and competition, but not every athlete commits to working on both. I was invited to be a speaker at the Women’s Cycling Conference at the U.S. Bicycling Hall of Fame in Davis, CA. Bill Nicely, General Manager of Pinnacle p/b Argon 18 Cycling Team, organized the conference that brought together a solid group of speakers that covered everything from optimal nutrition and the physiology of training, to improving mental strength and learning how to balance cycling and life. Among the list of amazing speakers (yes – I just referred to myself as amazing) was Robin Farina, Judd Van Sickle, Stacy Sims, Felicia Gomez, and Shawn Heidgen.

After the conference a few of us went out to dinner and Robin, Shawn, and I got to talking about the current state of women’s cycling. During the course of the conversation one of the topics we covered was how some athletes are really intimidated and overwhelmed by gathering performance feedback and delving into the science of their training. Shawn works as an Education Specialist at TrainingPeaks and at the conference she was teaching participants about the TrainingPeaks software and how to train efficiently and measure training progress. She has been involved in the cycling world since 1992, as a regional racer, then later as a professional cyclist turned coach and entrepreneur (some of her career highlights include being the 2002 Illinois State Mountain Bike Champion, 2x finisher of the Giro d’Italia Femminile in 2003 & 2004, and 2x winner of 24 hours of E-rock Mountain Bike Race in 2009 & 2010). She also provides data analysis for the Tour de France, USAPC, and other races.

I brought Shawn here to share her thoughts on the science of sport performance and the importance of using that data to inform your training and racing decisions.

Shawn Heigen – Education Specialist at TrainingPeaks

Shawn: TrainingPeaks is the industry leader for endurance coaches and motivated individuals, to monitor, analyze and plan their fitness and nutrition for peak performance. We are compatible with over 90 devices (Garmin, PowerTap, SRM, Stages, Quark, Timex, etc). Athletes can upload their nutritional and workout data to their TrainingPeaks account for detailed analysis and also plan future training. We offer advanced metrics that will help athletes reach their goal event in peak form.

Carrie: How has using data helped you with your own performance?

Shawn: Now I am going to date myself…and this is going to get long. Before I raced professionally, I suffered what should’ve been a career ending hip fracture in 1997. The really funny thing is that when I broke my hip the first time (yes, I did it twice) I wasn’t even that good of a cyclist. Fast forward a few years and through the Chronic Pain Program at the Mayo Clinic, being on crutches for 6 months, and being told that I’d probably never ride again let alone race, I somehow made it back to bike (thanks to an amazingly supportive husband). I still remember being able to ride for only 15 minutes at first. Well, I may not have been a physically gifted athlete but I am stubborn and determined and that was enough.

Being in chronic pain, I was very limited to the type and amount of training I could do but my mental focus was better than ever. That was the one incredible thing that my broken hip and chronic pain gave me. You really do look at life, at racing, at pain differently. In so many mental ways, I became a better athlete than ever after breaking my hip. I could suffer like you cannot imagine on the bike and I no longer had a fear of failure. I just went for it, whatever it was and gave it everything I had because I was just lucky and happy to be out there and I knew that what ever time I had racing, it was borrowed time and I wasn’t going to waste any of it. So, with the help of some great coaches, we created a very specific and focused training plan. But, in order to make it all work, I had to measure, record, and analyze everything and that is exactly what I did.

I started training with power around 2000. There was an indoor trainer made by Cateye that measured power. Not exactly accurate but it was consistent and it worked. Then came my first Powertap, shortly after the Cateye. So, I was recording my watts, heart rate, gearing, time, cadence, speed, etc. Everything and anything I could measure I did and recorded it all. All hand written back then, but the knowledge I gained was priceless. I learned what I could handle, what was too much, and how to make every workout count. The data allowed me to come up with measurable and attainable goals. Eventually I was able to compete on a national and even international level despite only being able to do a fraction of the training that most of my competitors were doing.

Carrie: Why do you think some people are intimidated by the “science” of sport performance?

Shawn: In the past, scientific analysis was labor intensive and time consuming. The athlete or coach had to perform the calculations themselves (if they even had access to or knew how to), using complex formulas and algorithms. But, with programs like TrainingPeaks, all the number crunching is done for you. We take the raw data and perform the calculations translating it into easy to understand charts and graphs making it ready to be analyzed by the coach or athlete. I think it’s important to note that we don’t prescribe to a certain coaching or training philosophy and we are NOT a coaching company. We are a software company. So, the coach and athlete still applies their own methodology to training, we just report the data so that you can train as effectively and efficiently as possible.

Carrie: How does having this kind of feedback help people with their training and performance?

Shawn: It is truly amazing. Joe Friel likes to tell people that when you start tracking and analyzing your data, it is like getting glasses for the first time. Suddenly, everything is clear and in focus. So many athletes talk about “peaking” at the right time and how difficult it is to do. Using features like the Performance Management Chart, we literally take the guesswork out of peaking. The athlete knows exactly how taxing each workout is and also the cumulative effect it has over time and can then plan future workouts and know exactly how those workouts will affect fitness and fatigue. Pro Tour riders are now using and even depending on TrainingPeaks to track and plan their seasons, to monitor their fitness level and dial in their training and recovery precisely.

TrainingPeaks is just one example of the many tools available for gaining feedback. From using video analysis, to written daily training logs, working with a coach, and reflecting on your race – there are many different sources for feedback and you gain valuable information from each one. Decide right now what kind of feedback you need in order to improve your performance and and then figure out where can you get it.

Are you an artist or a scientist (or a little of both) when it comes to training? What kind of data do you keep track of and has it helped your performance? Let me know in the comments.

Photo Courtesy of rodeomilano used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

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Shelley Olds in the winning break at the 2012 London Olympics before a bit of bad luck with a flat tire

When you are privileged enough to call yourself an athlete (and you may count yourself in this category even if you question am I an athlete?), you can be sure that at some point you will experience a big disappointment on the day of a race. No one had reason to feel that more than Shelley Olds during the Women’s Road Race at the 2012 London Olympic Games. Going into the games she was a top choice for winning a medal, especially if the race ended in a bunch sprint. Olds was in the winning break when she got a flat tire that ultimately changed her Olympic fate that day. She ended up 7th, which is an INCREDIBLE accomplishment, but a difficult pill to swallow when you had a realistic shot at coming home with an Olympic medal.

To know that you were in the winning move and it all went away with a bit of bad luck; to feel the years of dedication, commitment, and sacrifice on the line as you got your wheel change and saw the winning break riding away; when you’ve been training for a specific event it can be devastating to have a little bad luck affect the outcome of your race. When this happens, it can be challenging to see your race as anything else but an unrealized dream and an utter disappointment. It’s seemingly impossible to see it any other way. Or is it? I’m here to challenge you to start re-envisioning what it means to be successful on the day of your event – to step back and gain a broader perspective of the entire landscape. When you zoom out, you see that race day is only part of the picture.

Shelley Olds understands this perspective. In this fantastic interview on the Norcal Cycling News blog, she shares what she learned from her experience at the 2012 Olympic Games and how important it is to take the whole picture into account when reflecting back on your race. She says:

Shelley Olds is proud of everything she did to put herself in position to win at the Olympics. All the work she put in to be her best that day – for every tough training session, for every sacrifice she made, for putting herself out there and taking the risk, for all of it – she’s taking all of these things into consideration when she reflects back on her experience at the Olympics.

When you think about a time something went wrong and wish you could erase that memory from your mind, it’s time to reframe your event and tell another story; the REAL story. You can start by answering these two questions:

• What did I do well during my training?
• What did I do well on race day?

It’s hard not to think that the entire journey was a failure when you didn’t accomplish your goals on race day, but the outcome of your event only tells one small part of the story. Don’t let one moment of bad luck erase your memory of all the sacrifices you made and goals you accomplished along the way to your race. Don’t let someone else’s criteria of what it means to be successful affect how you feel about your performance.

Now that you have taken a step back and looked at the big picture, leave a comment & tell me what challenges you encountered on race day and why you are proud of what you accomplished.

Photo Courtesy of roanokecollege used under a Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike license: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0/

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Last week an incredible feat was accomplished.  The robotic explorer “Curiosity” endured an incredible journey to safely land on Mars. “Curiosity” travelled over 350 million miles. At the end of the 8 ½ month long journey, once it hit the top of the atmosphere, this 1 ton engineered machine had 7 minutes to go from 13,000mph to zero in order to safely land on Mars. They dubbed that time frame; from the moment “Curiosity” hit the top of the atmosphere until it landed as the “7 minutes of terror.” During that time, anxious NASA scientists had to wait to find out whether or not it landed safely. They wrung their hands and held their breath for 14 minutes – the amount of time it takes for a signal from Mars to reach back to Earth – 14 long minutes before people knew whether or not the landing was successful… whether Phase 1 of the mission was complete or it was back to the drawing board. There are so many lessons to be gleaned from this amazing feat. Below are just a few of the things you can learn from “Curiosity”. Be sure to answer the vital questions from each section to apply the lessons to your own athletic endeavors.

Lesson #1

These scientists and engineers that worked together on this mission didn’t have a guarantee of success, yet they were 100% committed. They were ALL in. They believed that the potential for success and what they could get out of the mission outweighed the fear of failure. They did absolutely everything within their control to set the mission up to be successful. There was no holding back. For some athletes – the struggle comes with the ability to even conceive of a mission of that magnitude – they struggle with thinking big. Others can think big, but lack the commitment it takes to actually accomplish a mission of that magnitude. Going ALL in means being OK that your best might not be enough, but you have to believe that it’s worth it to try.

 Lesson #2

When you want to work towards a really big accomplishment, you will have a really long journey on the way to your goal. When you know that the path to your goal will take some time, it can be hard to keep up your motivation and confidence for the duration. There may be times when you get angry or frustrated at how long it’s taking you to reach your goal. You may lose steam along the way and be tempted to cut corners. It’s hard not to want things to move faster than they do. Even when you are facing a 350 million mile journey – all you can do is focus on the mile in front of you and keep moving forward. Every step you take gets you closer to your destination. Just focus on moving forward to the next step.

Lesson #3

Think about the last time you were driving 65 – 75mph on the freeway. Now try for one moment to wrap your head around the speed of 13,000mph. When you are moving at those speeds, you need some serious braking mechanisms in place to be able to bring yourself back to 0mph in 7 minutes. When you are in the middle of competition, the necessity to quickly adjust can feel the same way it would feel to go from 13,000mph to 0mph. The ability to control your emotions, to switch gears from feeling unbelievably frustrated and defeated to focused and confident, is an incredible asset to have on your athletic journey. To be able to be resilient no matter what obstacles you encounter is a skill that comes from the many skills involved in Mental Skills Training. It’s challenging to put those brakes on and land safely, but with these tools, it’s possible.

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I recently sat down to read my February 2012 issue of Outside Magazine and one of the articles highlights Lolo Jones, an Olympic hurdler. Jones is one of the fastest female hurdlers in the world. If you don’t know what hurdling is, imagine sprinting at a breakneck speed and, without breaking stride, jumping over a fence the size of a Great Dane… and then do that nine more times!

During the 2008 Bejing Olympics, Jones had the lead in the 100m hurdle until the second to last hurdle when she clipped the hurdle and lost her chance at the gold medal. In the magazine, they highlight Jones because the article is a list of the things the editors “like” and the title of her section is called “Second Chances”.

Any sports fan can easily list a dozen inspirational comeback stories. (I have some great ones in my eBook Inspired: Monthly Motivation for Athletes.) However, sometimes saying that someone is “getting” a second chance is a misnomer. In sports you don’t get a second chance, you make one. After experiencing a huge upset, we all want to go crawl under a rock to hide and possibly never come out. As Lolo Jones makes her way to this year’s 2012 London Olympic Games, all of the stories we hear about her will include a comment about the dreaded 9th hurdle during the 2008 Olympics. But we don’t hide and neither does she. There’s no crying over spilled milk. We get up, dust ourselves off, and try again. Jones isn’t getting a second chance at the gold – she is working her ass off and making it happen, just like every other athlete that has ever been “given” a second chance. The next time you want to go crawl under a rock, remember that one event doesn’t define you and that your accomplishments wouldn’t feel as good or be as rewarding if you didn’t have to overcome some challenges and encounter some heartbreak along the way.

© Photographer Lksstock | Agency: Dreamstime.com

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