I used to race according to hard metrics - hear rate, power, you name it. Then I got rid of my watch and gained a super power.
TRANSCRIPT
Apologies to everyone for a screw up I made last week. You see, I thought I had uploaded the audio to my podcast but I didn't. So what you would have seen was my written transcript only. I corrected that mistake yesterday so if you haven't heard last week's podcast, it's there now.
And now, onto this weeks' thoughts.
When to comes to your race performance during a race, how do you know if you are doing well? How do you know if you are hitting your splits or your power curve or your heart rate? In other words, what measurement are you using to track how things are going?
You see, when I first started I needed to know a few metrics in each sport so I could determine if I was doing my training (and, or course, racing) as prescribed.
In the swim, I tracked distance. Warm up xM, drills for xM, main set x lengths with x rest. The problem was, I didn't know how fast or slow I was supposed to go. So then I moved into tracking speed - xM "on" :45, which meant swim a certain distance and if I had time left from the initial :45, I would rest and then do another length, resting until the :45 was used up, etc. The problem with that was sometimes the ":45" was too long -Id arrive at the end of the length and just sit there for such a long time. In oher cases, the interval was to short because I'd just finish my length and have 3 seonds of rest before I'd have to take off again. Eventually, I stuck with RPE and would swim a certain distance at an effort of x/10, 4 being quite relaxed, 7 being confortable fast and 9 or 10 full out sprint. Problem was, how fast was "relaxed"? How fast was "hard"? I knew what all out was. For a time I even trained by heart rate, almost like I was running but in the water. I sorta worked? But not really. It was hard to figure out what do do so I ended up just focusing on the distace and effort was either EASY or HARD.
On the bike, I trained exclusievly by heart rate. I made the assupmtion that my maximum heart rate was 15 beats/min less than my run max and treated my bike just like a run. It worked pretty well, until I got into situations where it seemed that I was biking harder or slower than I wanted to because of hills or wind. I then shifted to focussing on distace with effort alteranating between EASY and HARD.
Running was the easiest. I trained by heart rate. Forget pace, I did a maximum heart test by running uo and down a hill 5 times inceasngly faster each time until the final all=out effort where I imagined a bear was chasing me, then I added 3 bpm to extra measure. My training was then set according to 5 ZONES. It was simple and measurable. Then I read a few books on running by heart rate and realized that I needed to be setting my zone by heart rate reserve. All of a sudden, things started to feel complicated again. But my and large, training by heart rate was the way I went.
During races, I was lost as to my effort in the swim. On the bike, I focussed on heart rate and on the run, I watched heart rate and pace. I raced this way for years and grew comfortable with the measurements. In the bike and run, if I saw my heart rate too high, I'd pull back. Conversely, if I saw my HR too low, I'd convince myself to speed up.
About 10 years ago, I realized something that revolutionized my racing. With my experience in traing and racing and tracking a number of metrics, I started getitng very good at perceiving, without looking at a watch, how fast or hard I was going. Even better, I was able to sense how hard I was able to push muself without bonking by just listeing to my body. At any given time in a race, I could tell you within 2 bpm what my HR was or within 1-2kmhr what my speed was. After I had trained for a while accoding to POWER on the bike, I could also estimate by current power output with incredible prescision. But again, the important point wasn;t that I knew my number it was that I knew how sustainable that effort was given my envoronment - wind, hills, heat, energy. And this changed everythign for me 5 years ago.
I raced for the first time without my watch or power meter. I raced 100% by feel. I knew how fast I could swim at a 7/10 effort so that was my goal. I knew what an 8/10 felt like on the bike - I knew what it felt like on the flats, up a hill, into the wind, early or late in a race. So an 8/10 was by goal. But I also knew if I was havig a day where I could push an 8 earlier, or an 8.5 later. I was no longer help back by a number. And on the run, I knew how hard I could and SHOULD push myself according to how I felt, I didn't race according to what the numbers told me. I think in years past, I may have held myself back with an artificial ceiling, limiting myself to a specific HR number rather than trusting my feelings.
My racing friends thought I was crazy! You are cycling and running without a watch? How will you know if you are on plan? How will you know when you can push harder or determine if you aren't pusing hard engouh. And I get it, I was very nervous to get into a race and "fly blind" so to speak. But the reality is, without a watch, without tracking my metrics in a race, I'm racing more free than ever before. I can decide to speed up, maintain, or slow down based entirely on my subjective feeling. It was and continues to be an incredibly FREEING feeling! It no longer feels like I am racing without a plan, it feels like I am always in the driver's seat, not a GPS watch or some pre-determined numbers but ME, deciding on a moment by moment basis how I am doing. I trust my feelings.
After each race I think about how I executed my strategy. Did I have more gas in the tank after the run? How did I feel in the last 2 KM? Upon reflection, I may realize that I am able to suffer more in the final 2km and so I rest what I expect to feel for the next race. And I've made mistakes, I cycled at much too fast a speed for my 70.3 last year and I know how I FELT (I felt great) but the next time I do a 70.3, that sensation needs to feel even less strenuous than "great", it needs to feel "really good and I have a a bunch left over in the tank."
All this to say, I encourage you, even challenge you, to do a race without your measuremnt devices. Go based on feel and perception of effort. Once you make the association between approprite effort and performance that day, you will have gained a new super power. You can race anywhere, unshakled by devices, to great effect. You just have to trust yourself.
Until next time,
Peace
