Running Off The Bike

[Source: East Coast Cycos newsletter, in Tri-Rudy newsletter, May 19, 2011]

A common complaint I hear goes something along the lines of “I can run 38 minutes in a 10km road race, but in a triathlon I have an incredibly hard time breaking 45 minutes for the run.” Running fast off the bike is one of the seemingly great enigmas in triathlon.

The ability to run quickly off the bike, ironically, begins on the bike. Given two equal runners, the person who is more efficient on the bike will run faster every time. There have been many incredibly talented roadrunners who thought they could conquer the triathlon world only to find they are unable to replicate their fantastic runs during a triathlon. More often than not, the limiting factor for them or anyone struggling to run off the bike is the amount of energy spent on the bike. Runners who do not have a background in riding are inefficient on the bike, consuming valuable energy that could be otherwise used on the run.

This also helps to explain the emergence of crossover athletes like Steve Larsen. Larsen is extremely efficient on the bike and as a result, he has more energy left for the run portion of the race. His lack of experience in running is more than compensated for because he is able to ride quickly and, more importantly in triathlon, efficiently. So, if you are looking to improve your run, then don’t solely focus on running farther or faster, but also look at your riding efficiency. Improving your efficiency on the bike will allow you the opportunity to lay it all out on the run, rather than struggling to survive.

What follows are some thoughts on pedalling efficiency that you can use to help increase your ability to run fast off the bike. Using these techniques will also help you ride faster – a great win-win situation!

Pedalling Technique and Efficiency

Using a power meter we can determine the wattage a cyclist produces over any portion of a race or training ride. What is more interesting to see is how his/her power delivery fluctuates. Some would say 500 watts is 500 watts, no matter how you get it, but I think there's an important element they are not considering.

If you take a look at graphs of power delivery through a pedal stroke, you see that the vast majority of a cyclist's power is produced in the down stroke portion of a pedal stroke. Power production falls drastically as the pedals approach and pass through the top and bottom of the stroke. The power of the down stroke is so great that it negates the opposite leg's capacity to produce any power during the upstroke. The best a cyclist can do is to unweight the upstroke leg, or try to get it out of the way of the pedal coming up at it. In some senses, the upstroke leg can be seen as working against the rider. A portion of the force being applied in the down stroke is going to lift the opposing leg instead of propelling the bicycle forward.

Biomechanical efficiency is the element people miss when they say a watt is a watt, no matter how it is produced. For example, an inefficient cyclist needs to produce 350 watts to stay with the leading cyclists in a race, who are efficiently producing 300 watts. The inefficient rider is fighting his own forward progress from within his pedal stroke. In the final 10km run, he/she did not have the energy to stay with the leaders, whose superior efficiency allowed them to go the same speed with a lower sustained power output, thus saving their legs for the run. Through training, the inefficient cyclist’s mechanical efficiency can improve to the point where he/she can afford the energy cost of matching the race leaders pace, and have enough left to attack during the run.

The way to improve mechanical efficiency is to learn to apply force through as much of the pedal stroke as possible, especially through the top and bottom. Over geared, high-power, low-cadence workouts are essential. Climbing hills, seated, in a big gear forces a cyclist to keep force flowing to the pedals over the top and through the bottom of the stroke. It is the only way he/she can maintain enough momentum to keep the bike moving forward. Later on we add sprints up steep hills, again in a big gear and with slow, rolling starts.

During these workouts, the cyclist has to accelerate through increasing resistance. In races like the Ironman Canada, with unpredictable weather and many steep climbs, poor pedaling economy results in a spinning rear wheel, followed immediately by a dismount and a run in equally slippery cycling shoes. To avoid this scenario you need to learn to pedal efficiently. One way to do this is through getting out on your mountain bike occasionally.

Mountain bike racers were the most biomechanically efficient pedalers in recent tests done at the US Olympic Training Center. Their efficiency comes from having to apply high force in a 360-degree manner so the rear wheel won't break loose in steep, loose terrain. Doing one of your rides every couple of weeks on the trails instead of the road will help you master this technique. This in turn will aid your cycle efficiency in triathlons, which will leave you feeling fresher and ready for the run. So remember, the key to fast running in triathlon doesn’t always lie in doing more miles or more intervals; sometimes it comes down to the bike.

Running slows the aging clock, Stanford researchers find

[Source: East Coast Cycos newsletter, in Tri-Rudy newsletter, May 10, 2011]

STANFORD, Calif. — Regular running slows the effects of aging, according to a new study from the Stanford University School of Medicine that has tracked 500 older runners for more than 20 years. Elderly runners have fewer disabilities, a longer span of active life and are half as likely as aging non runners to die early deaths, the research found.

“The study has a very pro-exercise message,” said James Fries, MD, an emeritus professor of medicine at the medical school and the study’s senior author. “If you had to pick one thing to make people healthier as they age, it would be aerobic exercise.” The new findings appear in the Aug. 11 issue of theArchives of Internal Medicine.

When Fries and his team began this research in 1984, many scientists thought vigorous exercise would do older folks more harm than good. Some feared the long-term effect of the then-new jogging craze would be floods of orthopedic injuries, with older runners permanently hobbled by their exercise habit. Fries had a different hypothesis: he thought regular exercise would extend high-quality, disability-free life. Keeping the body moving, he speculated, wouldn’t necessarily extend longevity, but it would compress the period at the end of life when people couldn’t carry out daily tasks on their own. That idea came to be known as “the compression of morbidity theory.”

Fries’ team began tracking 538 runners over age 50, comparing them to a similar group of nonrunners. The subjects, now in their 70s and 80s, have answered yearly questionnaires about their ability to perform everyday activities such as walking, dressing and grooming, getting out of a chair and gripping objects. The researchers have used national death records to learn which participants died, and why. Nineteen years into the study, 34 percent of the nonrunners had died, compared to only 15 percent of the runners.

At the beginning of the study, the runners ran an average of about four hours a week. After 21 years, their running time declined to an average of 76 minutes per week, but they were still seeing health benefits from running.

On average both groups in the study became more disabled after 21 years of aging, but for runners the onset of disability started later.

“Runners’ initial disability was 16 years later than nonrunners,’” Fries said. “By and large, the runners have stayed healthy.”

Not only did running delay disability, but the gap between runners’ and nonrunners’ abilities got bigger with time.

“We did not expect this,” Fries said, noting that the increasing gap between the groups has been apparent for several years now. “The health benefits of exercise are greater than we thought.”

Fries was surprised the gap between runners and non runners continues to widen even as his subjects entered their ninth decade of life. The effect was probably due to runners’ greater lean body mass and healthier habits in general, he said. “We don’t think this effect can go on forever,” Fries added. “We know that deaths come one to a customer. Eventually we will have a 100 percent mortality rate in both groups.”

But so far, the effect of running on delaying death has also been more dramatic than the scientists expected. Not surprisingly, running has slowed cardiovascular deaths. However, it has also been associated with fewer early deaths from cancer, neurological disease, infections and other causes.

And the dire injury predictions other scientists made for runners have fallen completely flat. Fries and his colleagues published a companion paper in the August issue of the American Journal of Preventive Medicine showing running was not associated with greater rates of osteoarthritis in their elderly runners. Runners also do not require more total knee replacements than non runners, Fries said.

“Running straight ahead without pain is not harmful,” he said, adding that running seems safer for the joints than high-impact sports such as football, or unnatural motions like standing en pointe in ballet.

“When we first began, there was skepticism about our ideas,” Fries said. “Now, many other findings go in the same direction.”

Fries, 69, takes his own advice on aging: he’s an accomplished runner, mountaineer and outdoor adventurer.

Hanging on his office wall is a photo he jokingly describes as “me, running around the world in two minutes.” In the dazzling image of blue sky and white ice, Fries makes a tiny lap around the North Pole.

Fries collaborated with Stanford colleagues Eliza Chakravarty, MD, MS, an assistant professor of medicine; Helen Hubert, PhD, a researcher now retired from Stanford, and Vijaya Lingala, PhD, a research software developer.

The research was supported by grants from the National Institute of Arthritis and Musculoskeletal and Skin Diseases and by the National Institute on Aging.

Swimming Better To Do List - 10 Better Swimming Tips for Swimmers

[Source: East Coast Cycos newsletter, in Tri-Rudy newsletter, May 10, 2011]

By Mat Luebbers,

There are many things that swimmers can do to swim better. This to do list of 10 ways to better swimming could help any swimmer improve their swimming. Get this to do list done and swim on!

Do swim frequently

If you don't average about three swims a week you will lose your feel for the water and your technique will begin to deteriorate. No feel, no technique, no speed. If the option is between one or two long workouts or three or four shorter workouts, swimmers seem to do better when they swim more frequently as opposed to only doing a few longer workouts each week.

Do swim with good technique

Maintain the best possible technique at all speeds during a workout. If you try to go fast with bad technique, you are wasting energy. If you can teach yourself to go fast while using good technique, you will make bigger gains.

Do drills as part of every swimming workout

Early in your workout, in the middle of your workout, or at the end of your workout (or any combination of the three!) do some specific technique work to reinforce good swimming skills. There are many drills you can do to stay tuned up, or to help you develop better technique.

Do challenging workouts

One or two times a week (depending upon how frequently you swim) do part of your workout with oomph - push the effort, go hard, whatever you want to call it. If all of your workouts are focused on technique, your technique will improve. But what will happen when you try to go faster? You will get tired, your technique will deteriorate, and you might as well call it a day. If you are doing some hard or challenging workouts - mixed in with technique work - as different workouts or as part of the same workout - you will learn how to hold good technique while going faster.

Do easy workouts

Depending upon your swimming goals, there may be no reason to do more than one or two tough workout sets a week, as long as you do one or two easier workouts, too. Work hard on the hard things, and easy on the easy things, and each kind of work will give better results.

Do streamlines

It might be a start, a push-off, or a turn, but you should always do things the same way - streamline, then into the transition between the streamline and swimming. But first, always a streamline.

Do leave the wall the same way every time

Always push off the walls the way you would if you were coming out of a turn. When you starting a set, you should push off the wall exactly the same way that you would be pushing off the wall if you were coming out of a turn. Most races have more turns than starts, and getting some extra practice with any part of a turn is a bonus.

Do wear a swimsuit made for competitive swimming

This doesn't mean spend $300 on the latest and greatest high-tech slicker than skin piece of swim wear. It means don't wear baggy beach shorts if you are trying to improve your technique or go learn how to hold technique when going faster. There are times to wear a swimsuit that gives you some extra drag, but not before you have mastered good technique.

Do ask someone to watch you swim

Better yet, get someone to video you. Getting some eyes to watch what you do (or using your own via a video review) while you are moving through the pool can yield some great feedback on your swimming technique that you may have not realized.

Do use flippers occasionally

Among other benefits, swim fins or flippers can help you achieve (artificially) a better body position and you will learn what that position feels like while moving. Then, when the flippers are off, you can try to recreate that position by feel, since you will already have a better idea what it will feel like when you get there.