Comeback 1.0

About 13 days to go before the end of A Levels, and the 12 years of formal education before I enter a new phase in life. It's pretty exciting to think about the prospects of life after school, with about 5 months of free time to do ANYTHING I WANT. ANYTHING!

I've already set my sights on the Singapore Duathlon National Championships 2012, on 25th February. Once again, to quote the great Macca, I'm Here to Win. But the journey from now to then will be arduous, considering I have not trained much ever since OSIM, about 4 months in total. And I only have 14 weeks to train.

But as I said, I can do anything I want. And I choose to return, even if for a short 5 months (probably) before I enlist. Thus begins Comeback 1.0

Less is Less: the Myth of More Recovery

From Slowtwitch.com (the best online triathlon resource ever!)

From all-you-can-eat buffets to credit card debt, it seems that as long as it's couched in the guise of "more," human beings want more of it. I think that it's very possibly related to our internal hardwiring for loss aversion. Loss aversion is commonly demonstrated by two games with equivalent odds but a difference in perception. In game one, a donut (or some other desirable object, like a piece of bacon) is placed in front of you and, based off of a coin-toss, you either get a second donut (or piece of bacon) or just the original solitary donut; in game two, two donuts are placed in front of you and, based off of a coin toss, either one of those donuts is taken away or nothing happens. In both cases, the odds are exactly the same. In 50% of the cases, you get two donuts, and in 50%, you get one. But human beings (and, incidentally, Capuchan monkeys) demonstrate a very strong preference for game #1. The idea is that we much prefer the idea of maybe getting more, which is how we perceive game #1, than we like the idea of maybe getting less, which is how we perceive game #2. With regards to triathlon, the latest phenomenon sweeping our sport (and others) along these lines is the idea of getting faster as a result of, more recovery. But recovery is really the lack of activity (at least on a macro scale; there's plenty of "activity" on a micro scale when your body is recovering); it's not something you can "do" or something you can have "more of." In practice, learning this truth may not in any way change how you choose to implement certain changes to your life. As in the two games mentioned above, in practice, the odds are often the same. The idea of "more recovery" often effects the exact same changes that one would implement even if you correctly understood what was going on.

The human body (and even, it appears, the human brain) function as what we can call an impulse-response model; we apply a load to the body, and the body responds in a way that is a commensurate with the load applied. In actuality, the body over-responds in what's known as supercompensation. The idea being that some "margin of error" is important, and so if you are going to apply a load to the body, the body would like to be able to handle more than that load. This how we get fitter/faster/bigger/stronger. Sometimes, the load is too much – such as when you break a bone - and you can't supercompensate, and that's when you get injured/sick/broken-down. Things are further complicated when you consider that "load" is generally interpreted by your body as all one thing. Your body doesn't really, on a macro scale, distinguish between a really stressful day at work and a really hard training session. We distinguish between the two semantically - "unproductive" load we call "stress" and "productive" load we call "training." But, as anyone who's tried to do a hard workout and failed after a rough day at the office knows, the body considers all stress to be pretty much the same thing. But where the body differs is how it responds to each. The principle of specificity means that your body reacts in very precise ways, which is why if you want to get better at swimming, biking, and running, you need to train by swimming, biking, and running. (Though, with all three being "aerobic" or "endurance" sports, there is indeed some crossover benefit from "general fitness.")

Many disciples of the school of "more recovery" will tell you that you can get faster if you put more focus on recovery into your schedule. A common example is, "take one day a week to focus on recovery." Here's what actually happening when you do that - you are training less. You aren't recovering more. You are simply training less. The easiest way to demonstrate this is that if, for example, you spend that one day a week installing hardwood floors, you will probably not see much of an improvement. Why is that? Well, because installing hardwood floors is a form of load. It's just not productive load unless you want to get better at installing hardwood. Very often - but not always - what "more recovery" really means is less training. But those two things are not really the same thing. Let's look at another impulse-response model - how your body heals if you break a bone. Ideally, we'd like our bones to get back to being as strong as they were before the accident, and maybe stronger, but as anyone who's been to the orthopedist knows, mostly that involves two things - waiting, primarily, and a very long list of stuff we are not allowed to do.

There are, of course, numerous ways that you can influence recovery, many of which are illegal precisely because they enhance your body's recovery mechanisms. Anabolic steroids would be the most obvious example. There are some legal things that influence recovery, but the net effects are much less clear, which is probably a large part of why they are legal. Ice baths would be a common example. Ice baths definitely reduce the level of inflammation - part of the body's stress response - that you experience after training. The problem seems to be (according to research on the topic) that in reducing that inflammation, ice baths also reduce the degree to which your body overcompensates. The nerdy explanation is that ice attenuates the anabolic response. This same logic - and research - is being applied to all manner of recovery "aids," including things like anti-oxidants. The idea being that if you remove the stress, well then your body is simply going to compensate less.

There is one thing that is an "activity" which boosts recovery and has (sort of) no real downsides and a lot of upside, and that is sleep. The more you sleep, the more your body recovers, mostly because you can't do anything else when you are sleeping, so your body can go about the business of repairing itself without interruption. Unfortunately, for many people, training and sleep are inversely proportional. It'd be nice if we got to sleep more whenever we trained more, but that's very often not reality. And even if it was possible, it's not like sleep and training directly correlate. You can't simply ride twice as long and balance it out by sleeping twice as much. But sleep is certainly a very good thing. And so is its close cousin, commonly referred to as "doing nothing." Most triathletes, in general, seem to prefer "doing something" to "doing nothing." Sometimes that "something" is your job. Sometimes, however, it's just "stuff." But doing something requires energy, which means that energy is not going into repairing your body. Now, of course, some people would tremendously unhappy just sitting on the couch "relaxing" whenever they weren't training. And being unhappy has a physical cost as well. That's where the balance comes in, and it's different for everyone. This is really where you can make the most progress by "focusing on recovery." Not by doing anything, but by doing nothing. It's really what you are not doing which is important.

If you want to improve, you need to train (meaning that you apply a specific and productive load to your system). If you want to improve as much as possible, you need to train as much as possible. Whether you are a triathlete or a chess player, the more you train, the better you will get, unless… Unless what? That, "…as much as possible" part was important too. With chess, it's easy to just play more chess. But with endurance training, it's much more nebulous. Can you run for two hours? Can you run "well" for two hours without your form breaking down? Most often, you don't actually find out what was "too much" until you are injured or sick or really depressed, which inconveniently happens quite a bit after the fact. There are tools that can help - experience is the best one - and a good coach is an invaluable asset, but there isn't a simple answer to, "how much is possible?" Typically, it's something you learn by trial (and error). And you learn by changing how much you train. And by changing how much you rest. And by changing how much other stuff you do (or don't do). And this is where understanding what is going on becomes important. Because when you plateau - as every one does, whether it's in your Scrabble playing ability or your triathlon training - if you don't understand that it's training - and only training - that makes you improve, then you'll be stuck. If you plateau, and your first instinct is too look for, "more recovery" instead of "more training," then you aren't going to make any progress.

Less is never more. Less is always less. Now, that doesn't mean that less is bad. Sometimes less is good. Sometimes less (than what you were doing) is actually the right amount. But that doesn't make it "more;" that only makes it "appropriate." If you want to improve as much as possible, then you need to train as much as possible. Now, sometimes, that means being honest about what "…as much as possible" actually means, and realizing that you may have been doing more than what was possible, for you, at this particular time. In that case, what you need is to do less. You don't need, "more recovery." You might need less training, and that's fine. But it's not because less makes you better. It's because too much is, quite simply, too much.

So you can put away your divining rods. There is no such thing as "more recovery." There's only more - or less - stress. And more - or less - productive stress. And more - or less - unproductive stress. Less is always less. More is always more. Except if you are talking about "more recovery," in which case, it's just more hot air…

Officially 1st!

TAS finally decided to update the results! Next thing to come will be the trophy, which would take a while :(

Based on my results, and my expectations, I have a lot of work to do on my swim. After my exams or when I start doing triathlons again, swim classes will be No. 1 on the list.

My bike is right where I expected/wanted them to be. The weather certainly played a part in the slower than expected run, but I'll take that timing nonetheless.

Overall, even though I didn't meet my A goals for all the disciplines, I met my A goal for the whole race, so all is well!

Right now training is taking many steps back, but I will still do the occasional run/bike like my century ride yesterday simply because it's fun! As for this blog, it will remain here until training picks up again, doubt I will have time or anything to update about.

Till then, ciao!

After the race…

Appeal results are out and they told me that I’m first! Still waiting for the official results on the website to be released and for it too be 100% confirmed.

Don’t understand why they took so long to post the results though, and trying to search for myself on www.sportsphotox.com is just ridiculously impossible, even harder than finding a needle in a haystack.

Watch this space! Will post a picture of the results once they release it, and also the trophy when I get it (which they say will take about a month; I’m assuming they gave the other one to the “1st” place guy)

OSIT 2011 Race Report

The day finally arrived! After 13 weeks of preparation since my previous race, and 104+ hours of training, my A race of the year came! With a 10.45am flagoff for my wave (M18-19, 20-24 AG), I didn't have to wake up at ungodly times and crept out of bed at a more humanly 7.40am. Ate my breakfast, packed my everything and made sure I didn't miss out anything essential.

We reached the race venue (boring East Coast Park) at around 935, giving me just enough time to set up my transition area and swim a few strokes. The waves were incredibly choppy and I knew the swim wouldn't go well. What an understatement.

At approximately 1045am I found myself at the start line of a multisport race for the 3rd time this year, hungry for another podium spot.

The last photo of the CC...

When the horn went off, everyone rushed in and it was chaos all the way until the first buoy. People were climbing over me, kicking me, groping me...I tried my best not to do the same to others, tried being the keyword.

Just after the first buoy, some hand grabbed my left ankle and the next thing I knew my ankle felt a little empty. The worst thing had happened - my Championchip (the thing which records your timings as you cross the electronic mats and makes sure you actually complete the required number of laps) had come off. Immediately I was faced with a decision to make; try to find my ChampionChip amidst the murky waters of ECP with tons of other swimmers who would try to swim over me, or just swim on, do my best and not worry about it for now. Within that split second I decided the sensible thing would be to swim on because I didn't even know if the ChampionChip would float or sink. With hopes of podium slipping away from the first 5 minutes of my race, I wasn't really happy with how things were turning out at that moment...

From the start till the second buoy we were swimming against the current, which was really difficult and the choppy seas made it worse. I came out of the first lap feeling fine physically but mentally I was in quite bad shape. As I came to the first buoy of the second lap I contemplated asking the people on kayak if they had seen my ChampionChip, but decided that it would probably be futile. This lap was much worse and my lack of swim training showed. After the first buoy my left foot started cramping a little and I had to swim breaststroke once in a while so as to not aggravate the cramp. I was really afraid it would explode into a full blast cramp which would end my race before I even got to the bike, but thankfully the foot held up and I completed the swim, albeit very slowly and with a stomach full of sea water.

I ran into T1 and my dad signalled to me that I was about 5 minutes down on the first person in my age group. I found my bike in the transition area pretty easily, and ran about 200m to the mounting line. I hammered hard on the bike to make up time on my competitors and caught quite a few of them on the first lap of the bike. I was going at around 37+kmh, which was in line with what I wanted before the race. My stomach didn't feel that great probably because of the sea water, and the extremely strong sun made me sweat buckets. I was thirsty but couldn't drink too much 'cos my stomach might not be able to take it.

Notice the missing CC :(

While the bike course wasn't ideal, it also wasn't as bad as I thought it would be. There was enough space to pass people, and there was only 1 sharp turn at the turnaround point per lap. Throughout most of the bike I was passing people and few were passing me, none of them with bib numbers starting with a 6. Starting the last lap, I passed another guy in my age group (bib 6010 if I remember correctly) who I think was the leader up till that point, which meant that I was leading! Coming into T2 I didn't see any other bikes racked at my row, but I can't be 100% sure when there's so much adrenaline in me and the heat just makes everything fuzzy. But I was pretty damn excited to see so few bikes!

Bike time (according to cycling computer): 1h08min. Amazing!

The run didn't feel that fast, and I walked quite a bit to drink/dump water on myself to cool off. The heat was really terrible and I think everyone suffered quite a bit. I was a bit conservative because my stomach still wasn't feeling that great and my suit was too tight which hampered my breathing. I reached the 2.5km mark at around 11 minutes or so, which meant that I was still on pace for a sub 45. I think I must have slowed quite a bit coming back because I only completed my first 5k in around 23min. My dad told me that I was still in the lead, and I certainly didn't see anyone in my age group anywhere near me while running. The second lap didn't go as well as the first. I was a little dehydrated because of the excessive sweat loss, but couldn't drink much if not I would vomit. I felt like barfing a couple of times on the second lap and had to walk to make sure that didn't happen. I don't think anyone would like to see my race nutrition by the side of the running pathway.

Just starting on the second loop

With about 1.5km to go, I sped up slightly and still didn't see anyone from my AG ahead of me, so I was pretty sure I had this race in the bag (disregarding the CC issue). I completed the 10k in around 46:50, which was a decent timing considering the terrible heat.

Volunteers also need to makan...and sms

After rehydrating, I went over to enquire about my situation and whether there was anything that could be done. Along the bike and the run there were volunteers who were recording the bib number of participants as they went by, so there was a little bit of hope for me. Thankfully they have manual timing, so I appealed for them to check that (deposit of $50 which will be forfeited if appeal unsuccessful). I'm still waiting for the results of the appeal which would take a couple of days, but I know that I finished in around 2h30min.

I'm keeping my fingers crossed!

Analysis of training

Here are some interesting data from my training from Sprint Series Triathlon till now (a total of 13 weeks)

Overview
Average number of activities/week: 7
Max number of activities: 12
Min number of activities (exclude taper week): 5

Average time spent/week: 8h14min
Most time spent: 12h28min
Least time spent (exclude taper): 5h10min

Running
Average time/week: 3h24min
Most time: 2h30min
Least time: 5h16min

Average distance/week: 38.3km
Furthest distance: 54km
Shortest distance: 27.5km

Average pace/week: 5:21min/km

Total number of speed workouts in 13 weeks: 8

Cycling
Average time/week: 4h22min
Most time: 6h57min
Least time: 1h39min

Average distance/week: 146km
Furthest distance: 228km
Shortest distance: 56km

Average speed/week: 33.1km/h

Swimming
Total time in the pool in 13 weeks: 9h40min

Goals for Osim Tri

With 3 days to go to OSIT2011, it's time for me to review my goals for this race and my race plan. Best case scenario would be A and I would be super happy for the next 1 week. Next best is B where I would be pleased with how well I did but secretly pissed that I couldn't get A. If I get C I wouldn't be too happy but still accept it. If D...haven't thought of how I would feel and I hope I don't have to feel it anyway.

Overall goals:

A) Top in age group (18-19 yo)

B) Finish in 2:25

C) Finish in 2:30

D) Cross the finish line in one piece

Swim:

A) <30:00

B) 30:01-31:00

C) 31:01-32:00

D) >35:00

Bike (excluding T1):

A) <1h:05min (36.9kmh)

B) 1:05-1:07 (35.8kmh)

C) 1:07-1:10 (34.2kmh)

D) >1:15 (32.0kmh)

Run (excluding T2):

A) <44:00

B) 44:01-45:00

C) 45:01-47:00

D) >50:00

As for race plan, I plan to take it easy during the swim and not push myself unnecessarily because I know I am undertrained for it and don't want to risk the rest of my race for a few seconds that I can easily gain back elsewhere.

I plan to start pretty easily on the bike, maybe around 35kmh and start pushing the pace after the first lap (total of 4). I will also take a gel (which will be taped to the top tube) at the start of the bike. Hopefully there will be people for me to pace off (not draft off!), but seeing as how my wave is one of the last (last before the elite wave actually) I think I will spend most of the time avoiding people from the earlier waves. Add to that the narrow bike course and I predict that it certainly wouldn't be an ideal bike ride. On the start of the last lap I will take another gel depending on how my stomach feels at that point in time. Note to self: don't take in too much fluid in the last 5-10km or else the same thing would happen as in the Singapore Sprint Series.

Once off the bike I hope to be able to go straight to ~4:30 pace. For the first 5km, unless I am feeling superb and high on drugs, the goal pace is 4:30. Then from there its all out until I cross the finish line.

One important thing I must remember to do: Cross the finish line with a nice pose! Zip up my suit, make sure the race belt is at an appropriate level (if you get the drift), and smile for the cameras!

All the best to everyone racing this weekend, and let's pray for good weather :)