3️⃣ Three Simple Self Tests to Improve Your Training
Scientific training doesn't have to break the bank!
These days there’s a lot of science in sport. The good news is that it doesn’t have to break the bank to be beneficial!
Here are 3 simple self tests you can do at home to start training with more precision.
The MAF Method
Sweat Testing
Heart Rate Decoupling
Let’s dive in.
The MAF Method:
This is a simple but effective test to start working on you’re fat burining. MAF or Maximal Aerobic Fitness, is a formula to see what intensity levels equal your highest fat burning. It’s not 100% accurate but it can be pretty close and help guide your training to be more metabolically efficient. For example, mine is off by about 5bpm from my true Fat Max.
The formula is 180-Age = MAF heart rate.
Take this heart rate number and get on your bike or go for a run at that heart rate for 30 minutes without going over it! Your average pace/power output is essentially your “Zone 2” or Aerobic Endurance effort cap. At and below this you’re working on fat burning!
Over time, continue to come back to this test to see how the pace/power changes at this heart rate. This measures progress in metabolic efficiency!
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Sweat Test
When we exercise we sweat. Sweat gets a bad rap, but it’s actually extremely important. Sweat is our body’s mechanism for keeping ourselves cool. We love to be in “homeostasis”, so if our core body temp starts creeping up above it’s normal we respond by sweating! If we didn’t stay cool, we’d eventually start shutting down important bodily processes due to overheating. Not good.
Unfortunately, in order to keep ourselves cool we have to excrete water, which can lead to dehydration. Sweating is double edge sword. We need to do it, but too much can be damaging in other ways!
Being as little as 2% dehydrated can mean up to a 10-20% decrease in performance. If you’re amazing for a 3 hour marathon this means adding ~15-30 min! Or if you’re trying for a 10 hour Ironman it’s a whole 1-2 extra hours!
Clearly, we need to stay on top of hydration. We can use a simple sweat test to help.
Method:
Weigh yourself before going for a 1 hour run or ride at a steady effort in normal conditions.
It’s helpful to be in minimal clothing so that your sweat soaked clothes don’t cause you to underestimate after the workout!
Don’t drink water during your workout!
If you do, make sure you know exactly how much you drank in oz.
Towel off and weigh yourself again before drinking any water.
Each pound lost = 16oz of water.
Most of us are around 28-32oz of fluid lost per hour, but it can range quite a lot! The longer the race, the more important it is to have a plan to help prevent reaching that 2% dehydration level!
For example:
If an athlete weighs 150 pounds, 2% of 150 = 3 pounds
If they have a sweat rate of 32oz per hour and don’t hydrate in a workout, it will only take 90 minutes to reach dehydration status
In everything over a half marathon, this means they’ll need to take in some fluids!
Intensity, heat, and humidity all play a role here as well. Humidity is a real pain because it’s actually the evaporation of the sweat that cools us off! When it’s humid, the water in the air makes it harder for the sweat to evaporate, so even though we’re sweating we aren’t cooling off as quickly!
However, dry climates are tricky as well. When the air is dry, sweat evaporates quickly which does help the cooling effect. Unfortunately, we don’t notice how much we’re sweating since it’s not as evident on our clothes and bodies.
There’s also electrolytes involved with hydration, but that’s a topic for another time!
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Heart Rate Decoupling
The third test can be done really at any time or intensity, and will help determine race preparedness for longer events.
For example: If your goal Half Ironman race effort is 170 watts and target heart rate is 140 for a 3 hour bike split, then you simply try to hold those two things together for as long as you can.
If you get to 90 minutes and heart rate is at 150+ for that 170w power, you’ve decoupled.
You might still be able to hold 170 for 90 more minutes, but it will cost too much in terms of extra cardiovascular and metabolic stress (lactate).
Use this as a way to measure race readiness and progress. For instance, as you build up the duration of a long ride or run, it’s a great way to see improvement even if the duration and average power/pace of the exercise is the same as it was in previous workouts. Average heart rate is useful, but doesn’t always tell the whole story. As an example: if most of your long runs are 2 hours and you’re consistently at a 9:00 per mile pace for those but you see heart rate start decoupling at 90 min, it won’t have a super material impact on average heart rate. But over time, if that break point pushes later into the run or disappears altogether, you know you’re on the right path!
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There you go! Three very simple but effective ways to help get make your preparations more purposeful.
Best part is, most of these can be done in normal and relatively easy sessions. If you’re starting to get a bit bored of the monotony, instead of trying to spice it up by adding in harder or more complicated workouts, dive into the nuances of training.
Until next time,
Happy training!
Coach Griffin
PS: Know someone who might benefit from this post? Share it with them!
PPS: In the next week, I’ll be sharing how I’m using all of the previous chapters to attempt to chase down a Kona slot. Stay tuned 😉