Tri Talk Triathlon Podcast

The audio for this podcast can be listened to here.

Introducing the decoupling protocol as a method to determine sufficient aerobic base, and how kick drills and circadian rhythms affect your swim performance. Today, on Tri Talk.

Welcome to Tri Talk your podcast source for triathlon tips, training, news and more. New listeners since episode 60 primarily hail from Wisconsin and welcome to our new listeners from Mumbai, India. In Wisconsin, it is a little known fact that Ironman Wisconsin 2009 will take place on my 35th birthday! What better time for me to try and qualify for Kona in the M35-39 division. That is if I can actually get in to the race. In India, I have fond memories of the 2 weeks I spent in Mumbai in 2006. Although, there was a minor episode where a monkey stole my lunch right out of my hands and then taunted me from a nearby tree. That really happened. My goal at Tri Talk is to help you swim, bike, and run faster, to meet your personal triathlon goals. Whether you are an elite or amateur triathlete, we cover sprint distance to Ironman distance. I’m your host, David Warden, and this is Tri Talk Episode 61.

Hey, I know it has been a month, since the last episode but I’ll make it worth your wait. By the end of this episode, you’ll be armed with the information you need to determine if you have a sufficient aerobic base before moving on to higher intensity training. We are going to take out all the guesswork in determining if your aerobic base has been achieved. Absolutely fascinating information. Plus, we have not discussed a swim topic in a long time on Tri Talk, so we will make up for lost time by covering 2 swim-specific research studies. This will allow me to maintain the claim to help you swim, bike and run faster.

This episode is sponsored by PowerTri.com. You know PowerTri.com as the finest Internet retailer of triathlon wetsuits and apparel, but did you also know that they carry the new Zoot triathlon running shoe, disk wheels, rollers, tires, pumps, aero helmets, goggles, paddles and fins, the list goes on and on! Everything from just finishing your next triathlon to finishing your next triathlon fast, visit PowerTri.com. And since I coach the owner and founder of PowerTri.com, if you are not completely satisfied with your experience, let me know I’ll make him run an extra 50 miles each week.

You can contact me at david@tri-talk.com, or have your questions answered on the Tri Talk forums. To access the Tri Talk forums as well as access to archived episodes individually or from the Tri Talk Archive CD collection visit www.tri-talk.com.

Let’s get onto the good stuff! And I do mean good stuff in this episode.

One of the fundamentals of classic periodization training is that the macrocycle, let’s say 6 months, is divided into Base and Build phases. The purpose of the Base phase is to establish an aerobic base prior to introducing higher intensities in the Build period. The Base period is therefore filled with higher volume and lower intensities until that aerobic base is met.

As an athlete, one of the challenges is how to determine when that aerobic base has been met before moving onto higher race-simulation intensities. Yes, in a classic periodization training plan, there are 3 Base mesocycles, or about 12 weeks of aerobic base building before moving into the Build periods. However, what if an athlete is able to achieve their aerobic base after only 10 weeks of training? That would allow 2 more precious weeks of higher intensity training prior to their first A race. Or, conversely, what if an athlete has gone through a full12 weeks of base building, and assumes that they have achieved that aerobic base when in fact they have not.

Also, another risk of classic periodization is that it has a tendency to fit all race distances into one program. How much of an aerobic base do you really need for sprint-distance triathlon? Do you really need to work 12 weeks on the Base periods for sprint-distance racing? What if you just need 8 weeks and can spend the remainder of the time leading up to your A race with more focus on intensity?

Or, on the other extreme, with Ironman training, how do you know that you are ready to stop working on the long, slow rides? Maybe you need more than 12 weeks, even 16-20 weeks of base building without ever even flirting with those Build period intensities.

There is a method to determine if you have a sufficient aerobic base, and I want to thank Joe Friel of TrainingBible coaching for providing me with this information.

This test protocol simply compares your power or speed with heart rate over an endurance ride or run. There is some research to indicate that when aerobic endurance improves there is reduced heart rate drift relative to constant power or constant speed. And, of course, the reverse of this is that when heart rate is held steady during extensive endurance training, output may be expected to drift downward.

For example, the next time you download a workout from your training device, you probably have the ability to graph HR and power or speed on the same chart. In a perfect endurance ride, where there were no intervals or significant intensity, just a nice long Zone 2 ride, these two lines would run relatively parallel to each other.

However, you may have noticed that on some of these long rides, your HR tends to drift up even when output remains the same. Or, if you are trying to maintain a Zone 2 effort, you may notice that when you look at the graph that even though HR remained the same, out (power or speed) went slowly down. In those cases, the lines on the graph representing HR and output no longer run parallel, but begin to drift apart.

The parallel relationship between heart rate and output (power or speed) is referred to as “coupling.” When they are no longer parallel in a workout they have “decoupled.” Excessive decoupling would indicate a lack of aerobic endurance fitness.

But how much is excessive? There is an acceptable amount of decoupling that can take place and still indicate a solid aerobic base. A good indication that a base fitness has been met is less than a 5% decoupling over a Zone 2 workout.

That statement simply generates more questions. How do you calculate that 5%, and how long does the endurance workout need to be? Let’s review.

To determine the % of decoupling that took place in an endurance workout, you will need to be able to get the average HR and output (again output means power or speed) for the first and second half of the endurance workout. You then calculate the ratio of output to HR for each half, and determine the % difference between those two ratios, the ration from the first half and the ratio from the second half. Let me give a specific example. On a flat course, let’s say you performed an hour run in Zone 2. For the first 30 minutes your HR average was 150, and for the second half your average HR was 153. Your average speed for the first half was 7.5 miles per hour, and for the second half it was 7.4 miles per hour. You can already see that there was some drift in that workout. But was it too much?

The power to HR ratio of the first half of the run would be 7.5/150, which equals a ratio of 0.05. For the second half, the ratio is 7.4/153, which is 0.0484. The difference between these two ratios is 3.2%, which is an acceptable amount of decoupling, under that 5% goal.

Another quick example: on a 4 hour Zone 2 bike ride an athletes averages 230 watts for the first 2 hours and 220 for the second half. His HR averaged 141 for the first 2 hours and 149 for the seconds half. His power to HR ratio for the first half was 230/141, or 1.63. For the second half the ratio is 220/149, or 1.48. The difference between those two figures is a 9.3% decoupling. That would be an indication that this athlete’s cycling at that distance has not yet met an appropriate aerobic base.

I gave examples of an hour run and a 4 hour bike ride, but you certainly don’t have to get to a 4-hour aerobic cycling base for Olympic-distance training and racing. Joe Friel also sent me his recommended durations for running and cycling to test for decoupling, for each of the triathlon distances.

Bike decoupling portion of a long ride
Sprint - 1hr
Oly - 2hrs
HIM - 3hrs
IM - 4hrs

Run decoupling portion of a long run
Sprint - 0.75hr
Oly - 1hrs
HIM - 1.5hrs
IM - 2hrs

By the way, Joe is still experimenting with these numbers, and they could change as he refines his decoupling process, but this is what he is using now.

Now, there are a few more points to cover regarding this decoupling protocol.

First, when on the bike, you really have to use power. If you try to use speed as a measure of output on the bike, your numbers, of course, will be totally off. A slight tailwind for the first half and a slight headwind for the second will make your decoupling % artificially soar. Unless you can pull off a flat, windless ride, which we all know the cycling gods would never allow, you have to use power on the bike.

However, recall our discussion on the poor-man’s power meter in episode 54. It would be possible to use speed when on a trainer or set of rollers, where the topography and wind conditions would not be a factor. In that indoor environment, you could take your average “speed” for the first and second half of the ride and get the speed to HR ratios.

On the run, there is a similar problem. You would need to do this endurance run on either a very flat course, or on a two-loop course where the ascent and descent for both halves of the run were identical. What you would need to avoid was an out-and-back run with significant change in total ascent or descent, as this would really mess with your pace data for the first and second half of the run. And although wind does not play as much of a factor on the run as the bike, doing this protocol on an exceptionally windy day could influence the decoupling data. For the shorter endurance run decoupling tests, doing this on a track would be perfect.

But, you could also use some software from trainingpeaks.com called WKO+ which will take the GPS data from your run and calculate your actual output factoring in those ascents or descents. For example, if you did an out and back run that had a total of 300 feet of descent on the way out, and 300 ascent on the way back, WKO+ would know that a pace of let’s say 7:30 on the way out was the same output, or run power, as 7:40 on the way back, factoring in the total grade of that net ascent on the way back. WKO+ will also automatically calculate your decoupling rate for any given workout, and can adjust for topography if it has GPS run data.

Another item that is blatantly missing is swim decoupling figures and durations. Joe Friel did not supply me with any swim decoupling data, but based on the theory of decoupling, and what we do have, I think we can create a rough estimate for the swim. Joe, if you are listening, I hope you’ll allow me some scientific license.

As with the bike and run, you can perform a swim and get both the average HR and average pace for the two halves of the workout. It can be tough to find a HR monitor and strap combo that works well in the water. But, let’s say that you perform the first half of a 30-minute swim with an average HR of 145 and the second half in 149, with an average pace of 1:55 per 100 meters for the first half, and 2:00 even per 100 meters for the second. The two ratios become 0.79 and 0.81, a decoupling rate of 2.5%.

The remaining question becomes what is the endurance swim workout duration to perform the test at? Here are some recommendations which are totally of my own making, simply based on the figures Joe provided on the bike and run.

Swim decoupling portion of a long swim
Sprint 0.5hrs
OLY 0.75hrs
HIM 0.75hrs
IM 1hrs

Of course you’ll note that I have both HIM and Oly distances the same duration for the decoupling test. Since the swim distances of these two events are only a few hundred meters apart, I didn’t see the point of getting anymore granular than that between the two distances.

So there you have it! I would suspect that for Tri Talk listeners in the Northern hemisphere, many of you are just about to start your higher-intensity Build periods since we are into the Spring season. This information is very timely, because doing this test will give you the confidence that your aerobic base is solid before moving onto the Build period.

Before we move on, I need to put on my commercial hat for a moment to ask: What do Conrad Stoltz, Xterra World Champion, Robin Benincasa, World Class Adventure Racer, John Howard, US Cycling Hall of Fame member, and other elite athletes all have in common? They are all breaking personal records and barriers with Acid Zapper. Acid Zapper is an all natural alkalizing sports supplement that breaks barriers that limit performance giving athletes a safe, legal, and effective edge. Acid Zapper is a product which truly deserves to be called a break through. For more information and to purchase go to Tri Talk.com and click on the Acid Zapper logo to see how you can break barriers too.

Moving on! Do you do kick drills regularly? Do you feel like they help you? Let’s talk about a 2007 study published in the International Journal of Sports Science & Coaching that looked to objectively answer that question.

Fifteen male competitive swimmers were randomly assigned to either a control group or an experimental group, 7 in the control group and 8 in the experimental group. Both groups swam 3 times per week for 6 weeks. The experimental group spent 20% of their training distance performing kick drills, while the other group just did kick drills for 4% of weekly training distance, or only 1/5 the amount of kick drills as the experimental group. Before and after the training program, all swimmers performed a 200 m leg-kicking and a 400m freestyle time trial. After the 6 weeks of training, there were improvements in leg-kicking time in the 200m kicking-only time trial by about 6 seconds for the experimental group, or the group that spend 20% of their time with kicking drills. The control group did not see any improvement in their kicking times. But what was interesting was that neither group changed their 400m time trial over those 6 weeks. All the extra kicking, or the lack of kicking, had no effect on their swim times. The researchers concluded that, “These results suggest that normal leg-kicking swimming does not improve middle-distance, full-stroke, swimming performance.”

Based on this study, performing kick drills in your workouts appears to improve your ability to…perform more kick drills.

Seriously, I’m not very objective when it comes to this subject. This may be a case of me searching for the answer I wanted to hear, because I have always felt that kick drills were a waste of time. One could argue that this study really does not apply to triathletes, since our swim distances at any triathlon event would almost always exceed 400 meters. However, the amount of kicking that you do only decreases as the distance increases, so I don’t think this is an applicable argument.

On the flip side, it did not appear that the kick drills harmed performance in any way. If you continued to do kick drills, it looks like it would not hurt your swim performance. However, if you could be spending your time on other swim weaknesses, the risk of kick drills is that even if they do no harm, it takes away from other skills you could be doing that do have an established benefit.

Also from 2007 from the Journal of Applied Physiology, researchers from the University of South Carolina wanted to find out if swim performance was influenced by circadian rhythms, or in other words, if you swim better during different times of the day. To do this, they convinced 25 athletes to spend 50-55 hours in a lab environment.

The researchers were concerned that if they simply allowed the swimmers to sleep on their own schedule, that the variance would be too great between all the swimmers. What time a subject goes to bed, what time they get up, would be significantly different between all 25 participants. So, they kept them in the lab, and moved them all to a 3 hour sleep cycle. 1 hour of sleep and 2 hours awake for 50-55 hours. This way they could control the circadian rhythms of all 25 swimmers. Each swimmer did 6 200-meter time trials separated by 9 hours within that 50-55 hours at different times during the new “day” that had been introduced on them.

The researchers also knew that despite the temporary 3 hour sleep cycle, the subjects bodies were still primarily functioning on a 24-hour cycle. They way they decided to determine where they were in their true 24-hour sleep cycle was to measure the swimmers body temperature before each swim. Body temperature is one way to measure where an individual is in their normal circadian rhythm. Body temperature begins to drop as a person gets closer to their normal sleep time, and rises as they approach their normal wake time

So the 3-hour sleep cycle was only introduced to level the playing field in terms of the amount and timing of sleep between all 25 swimmers, but the ultimate goal was to determine how the swimmers performed in relation to their regular circadian rhythm, and they used body temperature to determine that.

What the researchers found was that the best swim performances took place 5-7 hours before the body reached it’s minimum temperature, and was the worst within the 1 hour before and after minimum body temperature.

Since the average adult reaches their minimum body temperature between 4-5am, this would indicate that the worst swim times for the average adult who sleeps from 10pm-6am, would be either from 3-4am, the hour before minimum body temperature, or 5-6am the hour after. The best times appear to be 9-11pm. The different in swim performance between these two times was 3 seconds per 100 meters, which is a significant amount of time.

I know that this information is interesting, but I’m concerned that it is not very helpful. It is unlikely that you can regularly swim that late in the evening, and the fact is that virtually all triathlons start early in the morning.

What this does assist with is perhaps deciding between morning or evening masters classes, if you have the choice, or even deciding between morning or evening swim sessions. Even then, since your swim racing will take place in the morning, training with evening swimming may not do you much good at all.

I think the real benefit from knowing this potential link between swim performance and time of day is that it is another one of numerous environmental factors you can be familiar with to truly interpret your training and help you understand why you might have completely different results from one training session to the next. Plus, now you know that you can also probably perform your kick drills even better at night, and as a result you’ll get even better at…performing more kick drills! See there I go again. Let’s queue the music.

If you listen to podcasts, and something tells me that you do, may I recommend the newly published TrainingBible podcast and get information from the real experts in triathlon. Interviews, Q&A sessions, content from Joe Friel’s blog conveniently for you packed into an audio format. You can access the podcast from iTunes or directly from the trainingbible.com website.

I want to congratulate Cameron Lasky of Highland, Utah and Jason Crompton of Evanston, Wyoming for their first and second place finishes at the recent 350-participant USAT sanctioned Icebreaker Sprint Triathlon. After guaranteeing an overall 1st place at the event to all my family and friends who came to support me, I was humbled by these two athletes, and I came in a distance third. Ouch.

A final warning to you, the Tri Talk listener! Shaving your legs can be fatal. After nicking myself with a razor while shaving prior to the aforementioned event, I developed a staff infection that spread almost to my groin before successful treatment stopped the spread. Yes, I almost died from shaving my legs. I’ll be back next month with some outstanding wind tunnel data from Colorado Premier Training. Don’t miss episode 62. See you next time!

The audio for this podcast can be found here.

The gluteus medius strengthening exercises can be found here.
Rethinking lactic acid and the cause of muscle soreness, the most under-rated muscle in endurance runners, and an on-site report from a first duathlon. From lactate threshold to calcium threshold, today on Tri Talk.

Welcome to Tri Talk your podcast source for triathlon tips, training, news and more. I want to say hello to listeners from Reno, Nevada and Newfoundland and Labrador. Reno is home to one of my favorite Tri Talk forums users, Nate, and congratulations to Newfoundland and Labrador for a successful inaugural 70.3 Ironman series event. I hope it is the first of many more. My goal at Tri Talk is to help you swim, bike, and run faster, to meet your personal triathlon goals. Whether you are an elite or amateur triathlete, we cover sprint distance to Ironman distance. I’m your host, David Warden, and this is Tri Talk Episode 60.

That was the finale to the William Tell Overture by Gioachino Antonio Rossini, played today in honor of his recent 216th birthday. Rossini was born in leap year on February 29, 1792.

Today on Tri Talk it is a physiological cornucopia. We’ll discuss just how important the gluteus medius really is to an endurance runner, why you should care and how you can strengthen this muscle group. Also lactic acid. The very name sounds ominous and evil to an athelte, like something a super-villain would use on the innocent citizens of Gothem city. Oh no, Batman! He’s using lactic acid! But, is it really so bad after all? Let’s talk about current research on this subject. Finally, after 5 years of triathlon racing I finally decided to try a duathlon, and I mic’d myself up for the event so that you could get a play-by-play of how it went down, plus how you can use my experience to help in your next duathlon.

This episode is sponsored by the Battle at Midway triathlon. The Battle at Midway triathlon is nestled in the beautiful mountains of central Utah, at the same venue used for the 2002 winter Olympics. One of the largest purses in Olympic-distance racing with $22,000 up for grabs. Not a pro? Come compete for your share of the $2,000 elite prize purse. Awards for age groupers, and the event includes a relay and team division. An open-air stadium finish to a roaring crowd puts the finishing touch on a race that will make you feel like a pro. Add it to your list of “A” races for next year. For more information, or to register, go to www.bamtriathlon.com. It’s an event worth traveling to this June 14th.

And let me give you 1 more reason to travel to Midway, Utah this year. Not only will I be there, but I’ll be doing the play-by-play over the stadium PA system. If you ever wanted to feel like a pro and have your moment in front of a roaring crowd this is your event. Come see why triple triathlon world champion Emma Snowsill traveled to Midway herself last year to participate in the event. That’s www.bamtriathlon.com.

Thanks to all the athletes who took advantage of the one month of free coaching from TrainingBible Coaching. We filled the 50 athlete slots in a matter of days, and even went over that 50 athlete limit to accommodate the demand. If you missed your chance, the offer was so successful we might do it again in the future, so stay tuned. Also, the new podcast for TrainingBible Coaching is up on iTunes. If you just can’t get enough of endurance podcasts, you’ll want to add this one to your list. Just two episodes available as of this podcast release, but subscribe now to get automatic downloads of new episodes coming each month. Just search iTunes for TrainingBible, one word. Or visit trainingbiblecoaching.com

Let’s get onto the good stuff!

Before we begin this section on the gluteus medius, let’s go back to an audio clip from Tri Talk episode 36. In this clip, I am having a mobility and strength assessment by Marc Evans, the former head coach of USA Triathlon, where I learn an unpleasant truth about my gluteus medius.

(audio clip)

That was back in March of 2007. After receiving that assessment, I completely changed my attitude toward flexibility, and made it a priority in my training routine, and can honestly saw I have seen good results. However, for some reason, I did not adopt the recommendation from Marc to strengthen my gluteus medius, and it has not been in my strength or flexibility regimen since.

A recent IT band injury I sustained started me on the track to research causes and treatment for IT band syndrome. The IT band is a thick ligament that runs from the hip to the knee, which when tight can begin to pull on or inflame the knee where the tendon connects. What I discovered was a consistent link between the gluteus medius and IT band problems, which was finally confirmed by a study done at Stanford University, which I’ll share with you in a moment.

Sometimes it is hard for a triathlete to accept that one muscle group more than 2 feet away from another muscle or tendon could have such an impact. This research for me has been a reminder that almost all our muscle groups and tendons are connected and dependant on each other, and that the pain an IT sufferer feels in the knee when they run does not necessarily start in the knee, or even at the hip at the top of the IT band tendon, but rather even further back in the gluteus medius. But, there are even more reasons to focus on the gluteus medius than just IT avoidance.

Let me give more specifics on the gluteus medius. The gluteus medius runs from your greater trochanter, or your big hip joint ball and socket, to the back of your butt cheek. It typically is just a mover muscle. However, during running the normal role of gluteus medius as a mover muscle is reversed, causing it to act as a pelvic stabilizer. So, for instance, during right stance phase, the muscle contracts to slow the downward motion of the pelvis so that the pelvis doesn’t tilt more than seven to eight degrees from parallel to the ground.

The consequences of that pelvic tilt can be significant. That pelvic tilt can cause a chain reaction that reaches all the way down to the feet. That pelvic tilt can cause your body to “cheat” in ways to compensate for that tilt. For example, your knee may have to rotate inward or outward to balance and compensate for a dipping pelvis. Anytime that knee goes outside its normal plane of movement, all kinds of things can happen. That inward knee tilt toward the other leg causes the IT band to stretch and can inflame the knee. That inward knee bend can put more pressure on the gastroc and soleus muscles of the lower leg. Other reported issues from a weak gluteus medius are the femur rotating excessively, the tibia to rotate internally relative to the foot, and an increase in weight transfer to the medial aspect of the foot, introducing several more potential foot problems.

In fact, one of the articles I used to gather this information was written by physical therapist Sean Fyfe who states that “The gluteus medius should be considered in every running injury. So many athletes with running overuse injuries of the lower limb present with poor gluteus medius function that I have come to the view that the strength and function of this muscle is probably the most important active component in the achievement of a biomechanically efficient running technique.”

That is a pretty strong statement on the importance of the gluteus medius, and frankly Marc Evans gave me a similar lecture on the muscle back in 2007.

To support this, Stanford University did a study on a group of 54 distance runners, of which 24 were suffering from IT band syndrome. The researchers measured the strength of that gluteus medius muscle in all 54 runners, using a formula that factored in their body weights and height. In the males, they found that they were able to resist only 6.86% of their body height/weight ratio (BWh) on their injured side, versus 8.62%BWh for their noninjured limb, while males without the problem could resist 9.73%BWh. That means that the non-injured males had 30% more strength in their gluteus medius than the injured side of the other males. Remember, we aren’t even talking about an injury to the gluteus medius, we are talking about IT band injury and the gluteus medius strength on that injured side. Even the non-injured side of the injured runners had a gluteus medius 11% weaker than the non-injured runners. These injured runners just had weak gluteus medius on both sides, but particularly on the injured side.

To put that into perspective, that is the difference of being able to dead squat 300 pounds vs. 210 pounds. Can you imagine the difference in your cycling strength if you could squat 30% more? That is similar to what was happening with those injured runners.
Now, the researchers did not just stop there. The injured runners were then enrolled in a 6-week program to strengthening the gluteus medius. After those 6 weeks, the injured male runners had 51.4% increase in their gluteus medius strength and 22 of 24 athletes were pain free with all exercises and able to return to running, and at 6-months follow-up there were no reports of recurrence among any of the 24 runners.

Let me quickly go over a second study I found linking gluteus medius muscle to performance. 36 endurance athletes had a biopsy taken of the gluteus medius muscle. 20 of those athletes were considered excellent performers, and 16 were considered average performers. The researchers found that by looking at the enzymes and muscle fibers of those gluteus medius muscles, they could determine the aerobic capacity of those muscles. They found that the aerobic capacity of gluteus medius muscle in the excellent endurance athletes was significantly higher than in the moderate performers. This study is great, but there is just one catch. It was published by the British Veterinary Association, and the endurance athletes in this case were horses. I know I’m stretching this a bit, but it’s all I could find. If you bet on race horses, can I suggest that you quickly go and feel the firmness of the horse’s gluteus medius before placing your bet.

Don’t make the same mistake I did! If you are like me you are probably already disregarding this advice on the gluteus medius, because you probably don’t have an issue with your run form or an injury currently. My appeal to you is to consider adding a few more minutes to your strength training session and add a few gluteus medius exercises as a proactive way to avoid injury and to possibly improve your running form at the same time. Triathletes tend to do all of their movement in straight lines, with very little lateral motion, and as a result the gluteus medius becomes very weak, and can become even weaker over time until before you know it, you have an injury out of no where, like me. I’ve been running for 17 years, have never had IT band when running, and it came out of no where, and has kept me from running more than 40 minutes at a time for 4 weeks now. I was warned a year ago about my weak butt and did not incorporate the exercises, and I can’t help but feel I am paying the price now.

My hope is that your focus on the gluteus medius will help you bike and run faster in the sense that it will both reduce the chance of injury, allowing your to train longer and harder, as well as possible improving your running economy.

The best site I found that give good descriptions of gluteus medius exercises was at http://www.bodyresults.com/E2gluteusMedius.asp If I said that too fast, don’t worry, you can get that URL at www.tri-talk.com in the Tri Talk Blog which includes the episode transcripts. These are very simple exercises that can be done without weights that take just a few extra minutes.

Now, while you are at Tri-Talk.com looking up that URL for the gluteus medius stretches, make sure you stop and register for the wildly popular Tri Talk Forums and complete your Tri Talk collection with the Tri Talk Archived Collection CD, or even access the unpublished episodes one by one if CDs are too 20th century for you.

Moving on! What images are conjured up in your mind when you hear “lactic acid”? It has a fairly negative connotation. Most of us, including me, have been taught that a buildup of lactic acid is a bad thing, and that it is the primary cause of having to slow down at high intensities. That lactic acid builds up, the body can’t clear it, and is makes our muscles fatigued. It is even blamed for the soreness of muscles after exercise.

The currently thinking on lactic acid began almost 100 years ago by a Nobel scientist, Otto Meyerhof. Meyerhof cut a frog in half and put its bottom half in a jar. He then gave the frog’s leg electric shocks to make the muscles contract, but after a few twitches, the muscles stopped moving. Later, when he examined the muscles, he discovered that they were bathed in lactic acid, and the current theory on lactic acid was born. The frog’s legs became so saturated in lactic acid, that the muscles stopped moving.

To further understand this, let’s take a quick review of the two primary energy systems: aerobic and anaerobic. Both systems burn carbohydrate in the form of glucose (blood sugar) and glycogen (muscle sugar). The main difference between the two systems is the presence of oxygen–and the end product. Moderate exercise is mostly aerobic, with oxygen; it’s clean burning, so there is no end product. When exercise becomes more intense and the aerobic system can’t provide enough oxygen, the anaerobic system kicks in to provide energy, without oxygen. The end product of anaerobic exercise is lactic acid.

However, over the last year, while the cause of lactic acid has not come into the question, the body’s use of lactic acid, the advantages of lactic acid, and the link between lactic acid and muscle fatigue and soreness have been significantly challenged.

You may remember this story from May of last year, when George A. Brooks, a professor in the department of integrative biology at the University of California, Berkeley gave an interview with the New York Times. Over more than 30 years, he has been promoting the theory that lactic acid is actually a fuel source for muscles, not just toxic waste from intense exercise. The current understanding by many physiologists, as first proposed by Dr. Brooks, is that muscle cells convert glucose or glycogen to lactic acid, and that the lactic acid is taken up and used as a fuel by mitochondria, the energy factories in muscle cells.

Dr. Brooks even found that mitochondria even have a special transporter protein to move the lactic acid into them. In other words, the muscles want to take in that lactic acid as a fuel source, and have evolved with special receptors to do so. Intense training makes a difference because it can make double the mitochondrial mass, therefore increasing the amount of lactic acid that can be absorbed.

So let’s compare the classic lactate theory to the current theory. The classic theory states that as carbohydrate is broken down for fuel, the byproduct is lactic acid. Lactic acid is believed to be a major contributor to muscle fatigue. This lactic acid is cleared from your blood until you reach a certain intensity, usually around Zone 5, and that lactic acid then interferes with muscles and causes muscle fatigue, and you then must slow down. You become faster as lactate is reduced in your body at high intensities by one of 3 reasons:

One, your body through training becomes more efficient at burning fat for fuel instead of carbohydrate, therefore less lactic acid is present.

Two, your body becomes more efficient at clearing the lactate away, therefore less lactic acid in the system.

And three, more slowtwitch muscle fibers. Slowtwitch muscle fibers produce less lactic acid than fastwitch muscle fibers.

All three of those factors, which are a result of endurance training, are reasons under the classic system how we think lactate behaves and is removed from the system.

Let’s fast forward. The current new theory is that while lactic acid is still a byproduct of carbohydrate, it is cleared away not in the blood, but absorbed by the mitochondria in the muscles. This still explains why elite athletes are able to have very little lactate in their blood at high intensities. It’s not being cleared away in the blood, it’s been sucked up by the muscles.

This theory has been accepted by many physiologists, and is growing rapidly. One of the problems in accepting this theory is that it left a gaping hole. If lactic acid is not the cause of muscle fatigue, what is? Before we can accept this new lactic acid and muscle fatigue theory, we should have something to replace it.

Well, also recently reported in the New York Times, is a new theory to explain muscle fatigue. Dr. Andrew Marks, principal investigator of the new study from Columbia University, suggests that muscle fatigue comes from calcium leaking from the muscles. That calcium is a critical mineral required for muscle contraction. Less calcium means less muscle contraction, and more muscle fatigue.

To help confirm this, the researches gave an experimental drug to mice that inhibited the leaking of calcium from the muscles. The mice were able to run 10 to 20 percent longer when using this drug.

Let’s extrapolate that to potential implications to humans. Let’s say that you are a pretty good runner, and you are able to run a 30-minute time trial at 6-minute miles, and that is your exhaustion point. That means you are running 5 miles in that 30 minutes. If you could run 20% longer at the same speed, that would allow you to run 6 minutes longer at that pace before exhaustion, letting you run almost a full 10K at a 6-minute pace. This gives you an idea of the significance of the ability to increase your exhaustion point by 10-20%.

This drug is still too risky for trial on humans, and even if it were approved by the US Federal Drug Administration, it would certainly immediately be made a banned substance by any given athletic body. The purpose in telling you about all this is not to say “hey, there is a potentially cool new drug that you can use” but rather to share with you the evidence behind the new theory that calcium loss is behind muscle fatigue as opposed to lactic acid.

To further support this calcium theory, the researchers then worked with other scientists at Appalachian State University. They had several cyclists ride hard for 3 days in a row. For a control group, they had another group of trained cyclists sit in the same room for those 3 days.

Muscle samples were then sent them back to Columbia, without telling the Columbia scientists which samples were from the cyclists who rode hard, and which ones were form the ones who sat. The findings showed that calcium had in fact leaked in the muscle samples from the cyclists who rode hard.

That might help to settle one piece of the latic-acid puzzle, but what about muscle soreness? If lactic acid does not cause it, what does?
There are two types of muscle soreness. The type that occurs during and immediately after intense exercise. This type usually is gone a few minutes to a few hours after exercise. This is called acute muscle soreness.

But the type of soreness that is linked to lactic acid is the kind that lingers for up to several days, and usually takes a day or two before it peaks. Because the soreness occurs about a day or two after the exercise, it is referred to as Delayed Onset Muscle Soreness, or DOMS. Yes, it even has its own acronym. It is believed to be caused primarily due to the introduction of new eccentric muscle contractions, where the muscle lengthens, as opposed to concentric muscle action, where the muscle shortens. Anytime you engage in a workout or exercise where you introduce lots of new eccentric muscle contractions, such as running downhill, riding uphill, strength training, running on uneven surfaces, or even introducing high intensities where stride length might increase slightly, all are examples of increasing your chances of suffering from DOMS.

One study that helped to confirm that lactic acid had no relationship to muscle soreness was done with a group of runners. They ran for 45 minutes on two separate days, one day on a level surface and another day on a 10% downhill grade. That downhill running introduced more eccentric muscle action to the runners. Blood lactate levels were taken during and after both running tests. The amount of lactate was higher in the runners during the level run than during the downhill run, and yet the runners reported DOMS after the downhill run. Again, more lactate in the system during the level run, but no muscle soreness was reported compared to less lactate in the downhill run and lots of soreness reported.

One of the most fascinating things in studying for this episode is that I came across a 1984 theory on DOMS which stated that is was a result of eccentric muscle contractions, which was universally accepted, but that this researcher also suggested that it was a result of a loss of calcium from the muscles, which led to cell death over the course of 48 hours. Fast forward to 2007, where new research shows that calcium begins to leak like crazy at high intensities, and over 20 years earlier it was suggested that leaking calcium was the cause of muscle soreness as well.

In conclusion, there is lots of evidence that it is not lactate in our blood that is our nemesis, but rather calcium in our blood leaking from the muscles. I am speculating that within the next 5 years that we won’t be performing lactate threshold blood tests, but rather calcium threshold blood tests to find the point at which we begin to leak a significant level of calcium.

All right, this is all very interesting. I just spent the last 15 minutes telling about current lactate and calcium physiology theory. But how the heck are you going to apply that to swim bike and run faster, as is the commitment from each Tri Talk episode? I don’t exactly know. The research on calcium leakage is nice, but the research does not suggest ways to reduce that leakage other than experimental drugs. It is really unknown how the heck we can reduce that leakage, and it is debatable whether we even want to, as that leakage may be a protective mechanism to prevent several and long-term muscle damage.

Here is how I think we can apply it. First, for Sprint and Olympic distance training, the thought of spending even more time in Zone 5, or the point at which more and more lactate is accumulating in my blood, does not seem so bad anymore. Can we take the idea that lactate is our friend, not our enemy and apply it to training? As long as my muscles and soft tissue can handle the increased load, I think that this changes the thought of the amount of time we can spend in Zone 5 training for short events. Perhaps from the rule of 30% to as high as 50% of your total training time in Zone 4 and 5. This will increase the mitochondrial level in your muscles, and then you can begin to consume more and more lactate.

But, for marathon, half and full Ironman racing, I don’t think anything has changed with this new theory. The ability to burn fat as fuel becomes critical, not in terms of lactate production, but rather in terms of available energy. After 2.5 hours of exercise, we just can’t take in as many carbohydrates as we will burn, and we have to turn to fat as the almost unlimited fuel source. Also, I want to have lots and lots of slowtwitch muscle fibers as a distance triathlete in terms of reduced muscle fatigue, as those slow twitch fibers can go longer than the fasttwitch fibers. Training too much at high intensities puts long distance triathletes at risk losing these advantages.

Maybe this is stretching this a bit far, but I found myself training differently after I read this research. During my intense intervals, I no longer felt a feeling of dread that lactate was building up, hurting my muscles, a toxic substances running freely through my blood. Rather, I let myself imagine that I was opening up a new fuel source for intense racing, developing mitochondria to suck up even more lactate. Perhaps if anything this information can help us psychologically as we train.

Moving on. I hope you will indulge me for the next section of the podcast. This is only the second time on 60 episodes I have taken the liberty of forcing you to listen to one of my race reports. There are plenty of other websites, blogs, and podcasts that only focus on the athlete and their racing and training, and so you certainly don’t need one more. But, I hope you’ll find this duathlon report exciting, entertaining, and informative. In this report I’ll cover duathlon strategy, pre-race side stitches, and even manage to work in some Star Wars. Listen in.

This is the second time I have began an on-site report whining about my swim. The fact is, I am a decent swimmer, but if one were to look at the return on my swim investment, I’m sure they would conclude that for all the time I have put into it, I should be much better. There have been many mornings where the alarm went off at 5:00am, where I spent an extra 30 seconds in bed deciding whether or not swim training was worth it, and if I should just pick up duathlon instead. With my bike and run consistently at the top of my age group, duathlon is a tempting option. Yet every morning there is something that gets me to the pool. Something inside that wants to conquer the swim and make it one of my strengths. As a result, I have viewed duathlon as an unnecessary and tempting distraction. That is, until Eric Schwartz, the former national duathlon champion hosted Tri Talk and discussed how duathlon could make me a better triathlete. At that point, I decided to give it a try.

I’ll be participating in the Castle Rock Duathlon, my first duathlon, in the scenic backdrop of Southern Utah. A small event in only its second year, it will only draw about 70 participants, of which only 25 will be competing at the Olympic duathlon distance. A classic duathlon, the format will be a 5K run, with a shorter bike of only about 20 miles, followed by a final 5K run. I’m treating the event as a workout, with no taper and coming at the end of a 12-hour training week.

I’ll also be brining my 3 children with me, while my wife takes a well-earned break at the house all by herself for 36 hours. No problem. How hard could it be?

The morning of the race is cold but clear. My pre-race protocol includes 200mg of caffeine an hour before the event starts, and a 30-minute warmup with several brief bursts at race pace. I’m also in week 3 of an 8-week creatine phase. My strategy is to stay in high Zone 3 for the first 5K, building into Zone 4 for the second half of the bike, and finishing hard at the second 5K. My goal is to have my second 10K be within 1 minute of my first 10K, per Eric Schwartz suggestion. I am committed to not racing this event. I have another 12-hour workout week the next week I need to be recovered for.

After some brief instructions, the runners line up at the starting line, and we’re off.

(Blog note: This section contains several audio cliops that can only be accessed by listening to the poadcast)

The first thing I realize about a duathlon, which should have been obvious to me before, is that your placement in the race is very easy to determine without outside assistance. In a triathlon, when you come out of the water, you have no idea what place you are in until you start to see cyclists come back from the turnaround, and if it is a looped course, you have no idea at all. Within 1 minute of the duathlon, I can see that I am in 2nd place, with just one runner cruising ahead.

At 9 minutes into the run, we hit the turnaround, and I am passed by another runner. I congratulate us on our splits, but in turn he reminds me that the second half of the run is all uphill.

That runner takes off like a bolt up the hill, leaving me in the dust. I’m now in third place, watching the other two runners get further and further ahead, and it’s temping to drop the plan and play catch-up.

I come into transition feeling very strong with a sub 19:00 5K and take off on the bike. I parked my car directly next to the transition area so that I could check on my kids every time I came through transition. They said it was too cold to get out of the car, and since I only plan on racing for an hour and a half, they agreed just to stay in the car. I check out the car as I leave transition, and they are alive. Does this make me the ultimate white-trash triathlete? That I leave my kids in the car while I race? Did I remember to crack the windows?

My heart monitor is going crazy, saying I am way over my pre-programmed zones. But my perceived effort is very good, and I’m going to stick with that hoping my heart rate will settle down.

By now, you know two of my weaknesses. A weak gluteus medius and a weak swim. But there is a third weakness I have that is more damaging than any of my weaknesses, and that is pride.

Yes, I committed to myself to treat the race as a workout, yes I didn’t taper for it, but dang it, even then I came in expecting to win. With only 25 participants, there is no reason I shouldn’t win. I know, I know, you can never tell who will show up to a race, and there is always someone faster than you, but after 40 minutes of seeing the same two guys ahead of me on the bike, and getting further and further ahead, I’m ready to ditch the plan and start to race. All that talk about sticking to the plan is out the window. This goes against everything I know, and against everything I tell my athletes, but that damn pride just rears it’s ugly head, and before I know it, I’m racing.

The other problem with this deviation from the plan, in addition to jeopardizing my carefully constructed annual training plan over a 25-man event, is that I completely forget that I am also getting material for the podcast, and pretty much stop giving commentary for the rest of the race.

At 50 minutes into the event, I finally pass both riders, and at this point I feel I have it pretty much wrapped up. During a steep descent I go hard, and turn around to find that both are well in the distance, and I drop back the pace just a little bit confident that the win is wrapped up.

At this point I’m having just as much fun as I would at a triathlon. Those 5:00am swims are starting to look less and less appealing as the race continues and my duathlon hubris increases.

However, 5 minutes later, I turn around and it is clear that one of the two riders has broken free and has made significant ground on me. I decide that I need to put psychological clearance between the two of us, and pour on just a bit more to create some distance. One more glance and he is further back again, and I’m feeling confident again.

One of my favorite movies is Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid, starring Robert Redford and Paul Newman. As part of the Wild Bunch gang of outlaws, Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid had a hide out, the Robber’s Roost, ironically located in southern Utah not far from where I am racing.

In the movie, after several brazen robbery attempts, Butch and Sundance are finally chased by a relentless posse of lawmen, over rivers and sandstone, on foot on horses, nothing seems to be able to shed the marshals who seem to possess super-human tracking abilities. The frequent exchange between Butch and Sundance as they stare incredulously at the oncoming and never-ending pursuit is, “who are these guys?”

After looking over my shoulder again, I can’t help but feel some sympathy for Butch and Sundance, because despite my best efforts at shaking this cyclist, he is right there behind me as we make the final turnaround on a steep hill, and head in for the transition area and the final run. Who is this guy?

I hit the gas and pour it on going into the last section of the bike, flying into transition. I put on my race belt and I’m off, holding onto first place.

As I pass the car, there is no sign of my kids. They are not in the car, I don’t see them near the car, I have no idea where they are. I can either fulfill my parental duties, or I can win this stupid race. I think I remember hearing that Utah is has one of the lowest crime rates in the nation, and so I make the logical decision to keep racing and let the kids fend for themselves.

I look behind me and there is no sign of the mystery super-human cyclist behind me. Yet.
I hurting, but feeling pretty good. You might recall a Tri Talk episode where I talked about the performance advantages of entrainment, or having your breathing fall into some rhythm with your cadence. A few minutes into the second 5K run and you can hear a good example of this taking place.

But then, at just 8 minutes into the run, it happens. About every 4th or 5th race, I get side stitches. I can follow the exact same pre-race meal in terms of timing, calories, food content, warmup intensity, and out of the blue I’ll get these darn side stitches which slow me way down. One method that works fairly well is to breath out hard on the opposite foot strike from the side of the stitch, as you can hear here.

The side stitches subside a bit, and I turn around and don’t see anyone behind me, but the course is curvy here, and it is hard to tell how much of a lead I have. I take a chance and slow way down to see if I can get rid of them altogether. At the turnaround point, to my dismay, I find myself facing the same athlete who has managed to catch up again, he is right there, less tan 20 seconds behind me by my estimate. As we pass each other, we exchange the required pleasantries, and I try to look as strong as possible.

Inside, I’m dying, and he just keeps gaining. Who is this guy! The last 1.5 miles is all uphill, and on the same section of the course where the first two runners put serious distance between us. At this point, I am positive I am going to fade. Every glance behind me shows that the runner is getting closer, and every glance I make only confirms for him that I am worried. I go from Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid to Star Wars, where Luke flying into the trench of the Death Star yells “I can’t shake him”. 200 meters before the finish, I can literally hear his footsteps behind me, I give it everything I have and manage to cross the line winning by 8 seconds.

Despite the side stitches and slowing down, I ran the second 5K in 19:30 which placed me right within Eric Schwartz’s guidelines. I mingle with the other athletes eating snacks, and track down the mystery super-human chase vehicle that stayed on my tail for the entire event.

About 20 minutes later I remember I have kids. I find them safe and playing near the race venue. My 5-year-old has found a wonderful place to play, and is not happy about leaving. Forgetting I am still recording, the moment is captured forever.

Late that night I as I crawl into bed, again I wonder if I should forget the swim altogether and just do duathlon. I’m a strong runner and a strong cyclist. I won’t ever be good enough to turn pro, but maybe it just isn’t worth my time to keep swimming and I can make some noise in the duathlon circuit, and get more sleep at the same time? I sit and think for a few more minutes, remembering how far I have come this year with my swim, then the roll over and set the alarm for 5:00am. This is David Warden, for Tri Talk.

I want to congratulate Brian Jeppson who did such a good job of pushing me on that race and making it exciting enough to make a good story. Had the run been 100 meters longer, he would have had me.

Before you go and report me to the Division of Child and Family Services, my two oldest are 13 and 11, and are more than enough of a match to watch the 5-year old. I don’t want you thinking I had 3 kids under the age of 5 wandering all over the place. Also, the IT band problem I told you about earlier occurred just days after that race, which I am confident was a result of not only a weak gluteus medius, but also due to my silly pride and pushing it too hard with no recovery the following week.

Also, I’ll be changing the Tri Talk episode schedule from twice a month to once a month. I’m very concerned about keeping the quality of the podcast high, and this is one way that I can do that. Now that I am doing the podcasts for both Triathlete magazine and TrainingBible Coaching, I need to slow it down a bit. Don’t worry, keep subscribed and you’ll get your automatic download each month. I’ll see you in April.

The audio for this podcast can be found here.

Don’t forget to take advantage of the free month of coaching from TrainingBible Coaching! Just fill out the application and tell them Tri Talk sent you, and they will waive the startup fee and give you a no-obligation no-contract free month of coaching.

Compression sock research and dimpled aero bottles. It’s aerodynamics, speed and spandex. A podcast for superheroes and triathletes! Today on Tri Talk.

Welcome to Tri Talk your podcast source for triathlon tips, training, news and more. To the bulk of new listeners from Southern California and London, thanks for checking out the podcast. In Southern California, I’m getting excited for Ironman California just a few weeks away. You triathletes in San Diego have a great local coaching resource there in Jim Vance. In London, thanks for being the #1 Tri Talk demographic outside the US. My goal at Tri Talk is to help you swim, bike, and run faster, to meet your personal triathlon goals. Whether you are an elite or amateur triathlete, we cover sprint distance to Ironman distance. I’m your host, David Warden, and this is Tri Talk Episode 59.

Today on Tri Talk we are going to talk about specific data supporting compression socks. They were all the rage in Kona this year, and the image of Torbjorn Sindballe in his knee-high white compression socks running to a third-place podium finish certainly fueled even more interest. We’ll look at some studies on compression socks. Also, we know dimples help golf balls soar and even help aero wheels cut through the air, but what about dimples on water bottles? I was lucky enough to get some data tested by John Cobb on whether dimpled water bottles actually improved aerodynamics. Also, stick around later in the podcast to find out how you can get some incredible free one-on-one coaching.

Before we get onto the good stuff, I’d like to review some feedback from Episode 57 and 58. In my excitement from publishing that episode, I had billed it as possibly the best Tri Talk Episode ever. The feedback from you the listener was a resounding, “huh?”

From listener Phillip in the UK, he points out the difference between correlation and causation and observed the following:

“I just want to point out that a correlation does NOT imply a causation. It might help to prove causation, but not on its own. If A is correlated to B, it means just that - they are correlated. It does not prove A caused B in itself. For example, if you want to find out what causes house fires, you could try correlating “fires trucks in operation” to “fires that happen in a year”, for 100 cities. You’d find a positive correlation, but that does not prove that fire trucks cause fires”

Phillip also pointed me to a site that through the process of correlation could link global warming, earthquakes, hurricanes, and other natural disasters as a direct effect of the shrinking numbers of Pirates since the 1800s. Since pirates are indeed in decline for the last 200 years, and since natural disasters are on the rise, they are technically correlated, but that does not imply one causes the other. The same judicious approach has to be applied to the correlation research that I’m trying to do. Although mathematically and scientifically we can’t firmly prove causation between triathlon performance and spending, age, height, weight, etc. if we can accept that there is likely causation as well as correlation, then there may be some benefit to the research.

William, a professor at Iowa State University wrote to point out that although this was a correlation exercise, the values may not be significant.

“Your R2 values are SO LOW that to me they are almost meaningless. I really couldn’t tell you off the top of my head of whether an R2 of 0.05 even means ANYTHING AT ALL! I wouldn’t be surprised, however, if you had enough data, you would find much GREATER correlations by breaking the data down more. For example, you might find different correlations between experience and performance as a function of age. You might find different correlations between performance and height or weight outside certain norms (e.g., outside 135-180 lbs for men) or in different age groups. But the bottom line is that in order to do that, you really need a ton of data to sort through!”

Both Phillip and William are correct in their observation, and it is important to me that if you are going to take the time to fill out this survey, that you understand its limitations. ut Buf you listen back in episode 58, I think I spent a good 3 minutes discussing all the flaws in this survey process. I hope that it never came across as a true scientific study, and that I used the term for what it really is: a survey for which I applied a correlation analysis. The only way we can get the most value out of this is to, as William pointed out, get more samples and break down the data even more to see if we can find greater correlations in more granular data comparisons. To do that, I need your help in getting thousands of surveys back, and you can do that by visiting tri-talk.com and clicking on research. Thanks to the hundreds of you who have taken the 10 minutes to fill that survey out. Please keep them coming!

One thing I did learn from this episode is to avoid the superlatives. “Best episode ever” is something that a producer should never bestow on his own work, and it erodes credibility. Another reason why I am not a professional radio host.

One more comment that came in on the cycling to run faster topic in Episode 57. From long-time listener and two-time guest on Tri Talk, Dr. Bill Thompson of Florida State University wrote:

“I feel obligated to share my disappointment in your shallow comments regarding the book *Run Less Run Faster.* It is not so much your opinion, but the fact that you hadn’t read the book, that puzzles me. We, your listeners and supporters, have come to know you as meticulous and thorough. You are correct in that world class, elite athletes will probably not benefit from this (this being cycling to run faster). But as shocking and painful as it may seem, I don’t think the Kenyans are listening to your podcast!”

If I portrayed the topic of cycling to run faster as a review of the book Run Less, Run Faster, then I apologize. The interest surrounding the book was the reason I wanted to research the topic on my own. It was not intended as a review of the book, but rather an independent look at one of the many reasons how cycling could be used to run faster. Perhaps I should not have even mentioned the book title to avoid the confusion.

Before we get onto the good stuff, I wanted to let you know about a way that you can help raise $100,000 for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society. At 140miles.com you can not only donate to this important cause, but track the progress of two amazing athletes as they link their Ironman training to raising money for this charity. If you are training for an Ironman, or even thinking of training for an Ironman, why don’t you follow Chris Elmore and David Miller’s training on their website and blog, and compare what they are doing to what you are doing. And, of course, please consider donating to their fight against blood cancer. They have already raised more than $2,000 of their $100,000 goal in just a couple of weeks. That’s 140miles.com.

Let’s get onto the good stuff! I know I billed the compression socks topic as the lead on today’s itinerary, but I’m feeling more like starting with the dimpled water bottle story. You can imagine that I get lots of requests from manufacturers to review and talk about products on Tri Talk. They send me samples, they make claims, their product is the best in the world, on and on. One company notified me of a product they were interested in me talking about on the podcast, specifically a dimpled water bottle that they claimed was more aerodynamic that a standard water bottle. I gave them my standard reply, which was, “thanks, I typically don’t review products unless I know for sure they are a benefit, can you send me any data.” I didn’t hear back for a few weeks, but then one morning I received an e-mail from the company that included data. Not only data, but wind tunnel data on the product from John Cobb himself, possibly the leader in wind tunnel testing for cycling. I’ll give you those numbers in a minute, but first let’s review why dimples could make a difference in a water bottle.

Cylinders and spheres are very convenient and strong shapes when designing bicycle frames and components, but it turns out they are terribly un-aerodynamic. I know they look all smooth and round, how could the air not just flow right on by them? Part of what makes an object aerodynamic is the object’s ability to keep the air attached to the surface as long as possible. As soon as you have what is called flow separation from an object, drag increases. This is why deep rims and disk wheels are more aerodynamic, because the air stays on surface longer, and the flow separation takes place much further along the flow of that object. The same with those thick downtubes that almost all tri bikes have now. More surface area on certain parts of the frame mean less flow separation and improved aerodynamics.

It turns out that with a cylinder or sphere, that flow separation takes place very early as the air travels over the object. But, please dimples on that sphere, like a golf ball, and something changes. Those dimples increase turbulance, which normally you would want to eliminate in aerodynamic design. But this turbulence, or “dirty air” on a sphere has the effect that it actually speeds up the airflow and gives it more forward momentum. As a result, flow separation takes place much later in the flow over the sphere. Even though there is increased turbulence, the trade off is that the increased speeds in airflow has a net benefit on the aerodynamics of the sphere, and the air stays attached to the surface much longer.

It is also important to note this is why we don’t put dimples on just any shape or object for which we are trying to improve aerodynamics. If dimples improve aerodynamics on a ball, why don’t we dimple the wings of an airplane? Or make the bike frame itself dimpled? The reason is that those dimples increase turbulance, and on a wing or aerodynamically tapered bike frame, the flow separation is already fairly good. The net result of increasing turbulence on a shape that already has late flow separation is decreased aerodynamics, while the net aerodynamic result of turbulence on a sphere is positive, because the turbulence contributes towards delayed flow separation.

This is also why there are critics of the dimpled rim of the Zipp 404 wheel. That deep rim already has good flow separation, so why add the dimples and more turbulence? I don’t know, but it is hard to argue with the results of the wind tunnel test of the 404s. It’s possible that the rim is just shallow enough, and the dimples just shallow enough, that the combined result is improved aerodynamics on that wheel.

So, back to this particular product. In theory then, since a cylinder is such a similar shape to a true sphere, the dimples could actually help airflow over a water bottle. And with the typical water bottle much wider than the down tube and seat tube, it certainly sticks out like a sore thumb in the bikes total aerodynamic profile.

The data on this particular water bottle is quite surprising, and I would have been skeptical of it had I not seen John Cobb’s actual comments. He found that over a 40K time trial, the savings from this dimpled water bottle over a standard water bottle was 53 seconds. At a cost of only 19 cents per second saved, that is a very economical aerodynamic purchase, and if it were on the Tri Talk Top 20, the #2 most economical purchase you could make. From the test, most of that savings took place when the water bottle was placed on the downtube, as opposed to the seat tube.

Now, before you get too excited, remember that this was a 53 second savings over a conventional water bottle. The data I did not get was the baseline aerodynamics of the bike without any water bottle. Yes, the dimpled bottle was faster than the standard, but I would guess that it would be slower than no water bottle on the frame at all, depending on the frame, or the bottles mounted behind the seat.

Way back in Tri Talk episode 18, I talked about another water bottle study that John Cobb did, which found that a water bottle mounted on the downtube was in fact actually more aero than no bottle at all, with John Cobb speculating this was due to the air breaking around the down tube before it got to the seat tube. So, you might be saying that this means if a standard water bottle on a frame is good, than the dimpled much be better.

That test that John Cobb did was from 2003. Much has changed since then. It is hard to find a real tri bike now that does not have a true aero seat post. Very few tri seat posts and tubes are cylinders any more. In 2003, when the first tests were done, this was not the case. If your bike is a true tri bike with an aero down tube and seat tube and seat post, I would not place a water bottle on the frame. You are best with the aero drink up front and high mounted water bottles in the back. If it is a standard road bike that you have converted to a tri bike, and the seat and down tube are standard rounded cylinders, then yes, a dimpled water bottle seems to be the way to go. Or, if you are doing an Ironman, and you need lots of fluids with you, you may have to use the water bottles on the frame even on your tri bike, and then these dimples aero bottles would be a good idea.

The company that makes this product is Rocket Science Sports and you can check out their very inexpensive dimpled water bottle at www.rocketsciencesports.com.

And I though I was going to spend just 2 minutes on that topic.

Moving on. You’ll remember that I am now affiliated with Joe Friel’s new company, TrainingBible coaching. I have two exciting announcements regarding the launch of this company. First, TrainingBible.com will be launching their own podcast which will include the current writing and research of Joe Friel. Plus, the podcast will include interviews with the experts from TrainingBible’s coaching staff. But best of all, it will be hosted by me! It’s like putting my voice on Joe Friel’s mind, it’s a thrilling combination. Look for the release of the TrainingBible podcast to release on February 23, just a few days from now.

The second announcement is this: I just came back from Arizona for a seminar with Joe Friel and Adam Zucco, the co-founder of TrainingBible Coaching. Adam was so pumped up about how well the seminar went, that he pulled me aside and said “Hey, David, how can we find a way to get more athletes to try our coaching services?” I said “Let’s give it away free for a month.” In his excitement, Adam said “Great idea! Let’s do it!” So before he changes his mind, right now for the first 50 athletes who sign up, you can get one month of free personal, customized, one-on-one coaching with a TrainingBible coach, and TrainingBible will waive the startup fee. This is 100% free for their Level 1 coaching service for one month. There is no commitment, there is never any contract with TrainingBible coaching, and you can always quit at any time.

Imagine sitting down with a TrainingBible coach and have them review your goals and annual training plan for the year, come up with 4 weeks of customized workouts, with the ability to followup by e-mail. Many of these coaches have been personally trained by Joe Friel with his latest research in training physiology. You have nothing to lose with this offer, and so much to gain. This offer is only for the first 50 athletes, and only for new TrainingBible athletes.

All you have to do is visit Tri-talk.com and click on the free coaching offer and follow the instructions. Or, send me an e-mail to david@tri-talk.com and I will answer any questions you have about the offer, and ensure you that this is in fact a 100% free month of coaching with no continuing obligation.

Speaking of TrainingBible coaching, Joe Friel provided me with some data on behalf of TrainingBible.com for another hot triathlon topic: compression socks. They look cool, they feel pretty cool, and they are relatively inexpensive. But do they really work?

There are 3 proposed advantageous of compression socks. First, improving blood flow back to the heart during exercise. Second, preventing muscles from moving unnecessarily as with excess vibration meaning less fatigue. And third, speeding recovery through that same benefit of increased circulation.

Compression socks have actually been around and used for quite a long time. But they have been primarily used in the medical field for patients with circulatory problems. In fact if you do a Google search for “compression socks”, 90% of the hits will be for the medical use of compression socks. Therefore, almost all of the research has been done on less-then-fit subjects, and almost none of it has been done on actual athletes. Even the data that has been done is contradictory. Two primary studies from 2003 had conflicting results. One showed that the socks did not improve athletic ability, but most patients reported reduced swelling when wearing the socks. But, all of these subjects were suffering from thrombosis, or blood clots, to begin with. The other study from 2003 did show some improvement when wearing compression socks when walking, but the subjects in this test were again, patients, and the maximum speed that they walked as 1.5 miles per hour. Not athletic speed.

In short, there really is no research to support the athletic benefits of compressions socks on athletes, yet.

However, in terms of recovery, there is some good data. From just last year published in the Journal of Vascular Surgery, which I keep on my coffee table right next to Sports Illustrated, there was a study of 14 runners who performed 2 strenuous 10K time trials while wearing the compression socks, and another while not wearing them. 13 of the 14 runners who ran without the socks reported muscle soreness after the run, while only 2 of the 14 reported muscle soreness after the run when wearing the compression socks. That’s pretty good data to support recovery!

However, this same study noted no performance benefit in that 10K time trial. Since this is one of the only compressions sock studies done on athletes, so far the evidence for performance in athletes is neutral. There was no performance improvement when running a 10K with compression socks with these 14 athletes.

But for recovery purposes, almost all the studies support compression socks for recovery.

Here are a couple of other things to consider. Do compressions socks really reduce vibration and therefore muscle fatigue? Many athletes claim that they do, but at least in this 10K study, there was no performance improvement. Also, I question the use of compression socks when performing regular endurance training. If they truly do limit muscle fatigue, are you limiting the amount of soft tissue strengthening by wearing them all the time? In the course of trying to reduce injury by wearing them for every run, are you simply conditioning the muscles to not tolerate race-level vibration and fatigue? Would you do all of your running year round on a cushy treadmill, and never subject your legs to the realities of running on the road? Would you stay on your trainer for every ride and never subject yourself to hills or wind? This argument is not bullet-proof because unlike wind, hills or running surface, you actually can control what you wear on race day. Technically you could train with compression socks 100% of the time race with them 100% of the time. But again, long term the effects to soft tissue strength and tolerance are suspect.

I suspect that the best use of compression socks would be during breakthrough workouts where intensity is high, like racing, and recovery takes longer. But for use during Zone 2-3 endurance running, when you might have 2 days to recover before the next run, that seems excessive. Just like taking supplements, just because a little is good, a lot is not better. Reserving compression sock use for intense workouts and racing, running on a recently recovered injury, or for after your workout during recovery, may give you all the benefits of racing and recovering with compression socks, without the risk of pampering your legs and soft tissue unnecessarily.

I suspect that in the coming months and years there will be much more research on compression clothing and this will have much more clarity. For now, I say get them and try them out. I’m actually wearing a pair of compression tights that I got for $32 at Walgreens in their pharmacy section, far cheaper than the full tights you can get online. But these do look kind of funny when you run. PowerTri.com sells some killer black compression socks for $40 from Skins that look very cool when running. More expensive than the tights from Walgreens, but you look much faster. By the way, I learned a new term when researching this subject. You know that there is aerodynamics, and hydrodynamics, the study of the flow of air and water. There is also hemodynamics, the study of the flow of blood.

That’s all for this episode. If you have not checked out the Tri Talk forums, you are missing out on some fantastic discussion. It’s clean, it’s friendly, it’s current and it’s informational. Have your training question answered on the Tri Talk Forums.

But what is better than the Tri Talk forums? How about a month of free personal coaching from a TrainingBible coach. Go to tri-talk.com and follow the link and instructions on how you can get 1 month of free coaching by a real person at no cost or obligation.

Finally, don’t forget that you can get access to all the old Tri Talk Episodes back to Episode 18. If you have not listened to all 59 episodes, your education is incomplete. Would you only watch Episode 4, 5, and 6 of Star Wars? Would you only read the last 3 books in the Harry Potter series? Of course not! Complete your Tri Talk collection today by visiting tri-talk.com and access all the old episodes. See you next time!