INCURABLE DATA GEEK

Snorting caffeine: Get buzzed and ripped off all at once

Sun, 15 Jan 2012 20:59:00 -0800

I’ve had an obsession with the world’s most widely consumed psychoactive drug, caffeine, since I had to perform caffeine extraction in my 10^th grade chemistry club. In the last couple of years this obsession has turned into a frustration for two reasons:

shopping caffeine FREE products has become increasingly difficult, and;
too many people are getting ripped off by ridiculously over-priced caffeinated products that are marketed as magical innovations when in fact they only “work” due to their caffeine content.

First, for reasons I don’t understand, FDA does not require listing caffeine content in any products. It is enough to mention “caffeine” or any of the sources, such as cola nut, green tea extract or guarana in small print and most people don’t even know that means a source of caffeine. I was hoping we had reached the limits of imagination with caffeinated soda, energy gels, energy bars, mouth spray, lip balm, “5 hour energy”, chewable sheets and caffeinated beef jerky. But no. Today I stumbled on a product to snort caffeine called Turbo Snort. Yes, snorting caffeine. It must be easier to profit from Turbo Snort than from selling a good night sleep.

Most of these products are obvious buzz generators and marketed as such, but many other (sports) drinks and snacks have purposefully hidden caffeine. The immediate buzz and feel-good that comes from ingesting the product creates a quick feedback loop: “this works!”. When in reality you are just paying for ridiculously over-priced commodity product: caffeine. All the other ingredients and herbs, for the most part, are just for confusion. For example, 5-Hour-energy’s “2100mg Energy Blend” would do little pick up without the 138mg of caffeine the tiny bottle has. Go to any well stocked sports store and it is quickly clear that it is now harder to find a caffeine FREE energy gel, energy blocks or a bar than with doses of caffeine. The most recent addition to the list of caffeinated sports products: salt tablets with caffeine. Brilliant innovation.

Second, those who actually are proactively looking for more buzz, more caffeine, are increasingly getting ripped off financially. Case in point: SaltStick’s new salt tablets with caffeine, are a combination of table salt and caffeine (for the most part). Both are commodity products that cost nothing; however, this product has a 3,897% market-up compared to caffeine retail price sold at Walgreens. Similarly, 5-Hour-energy sells at a 8,575% mark-up. The “snortable caffeine” tops the list though: 13,357% markup! Many Internet entrepreneurs dream of these kind of (gross) margins.

If you need a safe, strong and economic buzz: buy pure store-brand caffeine tables from Walgreens or any other convenience store. That “cup of coffee” costs less than 4 dollar cents. (Or: sleep more and better.)

Scary: How to spend less than $3/day on food and still live fat and happy (and die young)

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 19:57:00 -0800

I just had the pleasure to visit Europe and upon landing at one of the Middle-European airports, I saw hundreds of people around me and something seemed off in the scenery. Soon I realized what looked so different from what I was used to in American airports: I didn’t see a single truly obese person in sight, except one: a lady carrying an American passport in her hand on my right (for real). But that hardly is surprising; by now everyone knows that we’ve become the fattest country (the U.S.) in the world and by far the number one killer of Americans is obesity - either directly or indirectly.

Although the causality map of obesity is ridiculously complicated, the final gate for gaining or losing weight is practically always one’s mouth and the food that goes in there. And as I was shopping food after returning from Europe, I accidentally picked the wrong brand of Almond milk. This “milk” had water and sugar as ingredients and a cup of it had 190kcal – in comparison a cup of Coca Cola has only 100kcal. I thought this is so screwed up. Does it really make business sense to produce horrible junk and throw sugar and other needless ingredients into every product?

While grocery shopping, I decided to take a look at some of the typical products sold in super markets (Safeway in this case). I compared the daily cost of each product assuming a 2,000kcal/day diet and getting all energy from that single product. The frustrating list of results is below: You can easily live on $1-$3/day, eating highly processed food and fill your fuel tank with them. The problem: it’s all horrible junk you should never be touching anyway = Oreo Cookies, Twinkies, RedVines, soda, chips and cerials diet? All easily less than $4/day on a $2000kcal/day diet. Rather disgusting. You would think highly processed food ends up being expensive, but no.

Ramen Noodles also makes the top of the list. I wouldn’t recommend it either, as it’s all refined carbs and comes with a long list of stuff you want to avoid (courtesy of Safeway.com): Ramen Noodles: Enriched Flour (Wheat Flour, Niacin, Reduced Iron, Thiamine Mononitrate, Riboflavin, Folic Acid), Vegetable Oil (Contains One or More of the Following: Canola Oil, Cottonseed Oil, Palm Oil) Preserved by Tocopherols and/or TBHQ and/or Ascorbyl Palmitate, Contains Less than 2% of Salt, Sodium Tripolyphosphate, Potassium Carbonate, Sodium Carbonate, Sodium Alginate. Seasoning Mix: Salt, Monosodium glutamate, Hydrolyzed Soy, Corn and Wheat Protein, Chicken Powder, Soy Sauce Powder (Wheat, Soybeans, Maltodextrin, Salt), Onion Powder, Garlic Powder, Spices, Chicken Fat, Calcium Silicate (Anticaking Agent), Celery Powder, Sugar, Dehydrated Leek, Turmeric Color, Autolyzed Yeast Extract, Citric Acid, Disodium Guanylate, Disodium Inosinate, Natural Flavors, Artificial Flavors.

I’m waiting for the day when producing, selling and eating junk food is considered as bad (and is as expensive) as smoking today. I am sure that day will come, but it might be another 5+ years away. Junk food tax, anyone?

You mention that you track everything about your workouts, nutrition, sleep, etc. I'm guessing most of your spreadsheets are homegrown - do you mind sharing (offline is fine...)? I've started to build my own but if there's something out there that works, I'd love to use that at least as a starting point?

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 04:36:51 -0800

A simple spreadsheet does the trick, plus it allows the maximum flexibility for later analysis. Happy to share a template offline. Email me direct please.

Sami,Love your blog and info. I just competed in my first Ironman and unfortunely succumbed to the most common rookie mistake; poor nutrition. I started cramping up at mile 60 of the Bike, and fought for the next 10 hours to finish until Mile 18 of the run had me working hard to break a 22 minute mile. I'd be interested in hearing more about you pre race nutrition plan and your race day nutrition plan.

Mon, 02 Jan 2012 04:36:07 -0800

Hi there, my race-day nutrition is quite straightforward: 100% liquid only. All “electrolytes” come from table salt, liquid is water and calories are 100% carbohydrates (mostly from maltodextrin, which you can buy in bulk at a few dollars per pound), no protein, no fat. Simple, cheap, reliable.

Of course, you need to know how much and when and there are a lot more nuances behind that, but the basic formula is that I try to rehydrate 100% of fluid losses on the bike (if it’s an Ironman) and always eat max carbs per hr (that you can tolerate and absorb).

Hi Sami. I wanted to ask more about the run sessions you do. I know you like a just below, just at, and just above marathon pace, but what other sessions do you do? As I'm gaining improvements on the bike, is it reasonable to assume 4x8 mins and 8x4s at threshold or just above are good run sessions too? I quite like a pyramid session to get my HR really high for short periods too as I feel I get the benefit from this. In any event, the new training regime is a revelation! Thanks!

Thu, 24 Nov 2011 08:23:00 -0800

Hey Marc - first off, I’m not a professional coach, so I’m not trying to pretend I can give a scientifically proven answer.
However, based on my own experience and smarter people around me, I think the overall approach to fitness gains (e.g., to increase mitochondrial density) in endurance sports is pretty simple: perform enough high intensity exercise, rest enough in between to let body supercompensate, and repeat the same with even more power/speed. Some people would still argue that slogging slow miles will get you there too - I think the evidence support good doses of high intensity exercise to build fitness (even long distance endurance) much faster.

With that, I don’t think the exact internal pace or minutes matter that much. The key is to work hard (not too hard), then recover enough to be able to be stronger next time (or very soon). The “work hard” for running could be 10*1min with 1 min recovery really fast (call it Z5+ or well above lactate threshold) or 5*5minutes(about a mile) at threshold. If you start spending more than 30minutes (running) well above your lactate threshold in one workout, you’ll probably need too many days to recover.

I typically start doing longer and closer to race pace intervals closer to the race and more super high end (close to VO2Max) earlier. As with any exercise, variety is key to improve optimally, so I would not do 4*8minutes in each interval workout for 4 months.
KISS = keep it stupid simple. :)

Hope that helps.

Getting fatter with more exercise? There is a way out

Wed, 23 Nov 2011 16:55:52 -0800

I recently had lunch with another entrepreneur, who was complaining how he’s again gaining weight after increasing exercise. Not all weight gain is bad; everyone knows that the same volume of muscle weighs more than fat and it’s possible to gain muscle weight with increased exercise, especially weight training. But now we are talking about fat! (I’ve yet to find a healthy person, who wants to gain fat on purpose)

I’ve now heard this same question so many times from friends, colleagues and recreational and more serious athletes. And, several times, I’ve fallen into the same trap myself, gained more fat especially after increasing exercise intensity. But I’ve found an easy way out of that cycle.

First, why is this happening? Exercise burns more energy, no matter what is the intensity of exercise. Higher intensity exercise burns more glycogen (i.e., carbs) – both in absolute energy and relatively(%) speaking - from the muscles and liver, which are the limited fuel tanks we carry. I’ve noticed anecdotally from myself (and my wife and other people around me) that when the glycogen stores get very low, our normal appetite picks up significantly. Even a short (say 45min) high intensity workout during which you can burn ~1000kcal and mostly carbs, can empty most of your glycogen stores (most people carry about 2000kcal of glycogen in muscles when fully loaded).
I don’t have scientific proof of this, but appetite (and especially carb cravings) pick up VERY significantly in the following 24hrs to “force” you to refuel that lost glycogen. 2-3hours of hiking or very easy cycling that also burns that 1000kcal (but mostly from fat, which is pretty much unlimited energy source for 99.9999% of us), doesn’t have that impact on appetite.
So the bottom line is that appetite increases and I believe it increases much more if you’ve depleted your glycogen stores during the exercise. This is obviously a good thing, but gaining fat in the refueling process is not.

Second, why are we then gaining fat? Everyone knows that you gain weight when you eat more than you burn. The more nuanced version of this is that when you eat, that energy can be stored in different parts of your “fuel stores”. Optimally, all the carbs are packed into your high-octane glycogen tanks (muscles) and NONE goes to your fat stores. Then you can hit hard in your exercise session and have the energy to work out at high intensity, while further burning your fat too.

The best way to ensure that food is not stored into fat, is to only eat moderate amounts of carbs (And food in general) at any one sitting and leave the fast carbs (sugar, enery gels, bread, drinks etc.) for just before/during/after exercise. On the other hand, the best way to GAIN fat is the sumo-wrestler diet, in which you skip breakfast and then eat massive amounts of food (mainly carbs) in a rested state, and mainly just before going to bed. Your body tries to get rid of all the sugar traveling in bloodstream and with the help of insulin, that sugar is transported to fat cells and muscles as rapidly as possible.

Most people who gain fat while exercising and/or increasing high intensity exercise, tend to skip food during or right after exercise. They may exercise in the morning and think “I just had a great workout and burned 700kcal, why would I eat it back when I can just drink a cup of coffee and go!” and have their first real meal at lunch. Then eat lightly and eventually the (carb) cravings get so bad that you gorge bread, rice, bars, candy, etc. And after eating all those carbs, great majority of them are quickly transported to your fat cells. This is the sumo wrestler’s diet here. Congratulations!

So what is the solution? You need to break two things:
1) Get rid of the hunger that follows from depleting your glycogen stores
2) Make sure the fueling carbs are transported to your muscles, not to your fat cells.

The solution is simple: Eat 300-400kcal of carbs (glass of juice and a typical 250-300kcal bagel will do it) immediately or within 20minutes of finishing your workout (do not wait for 1-2hrs). Two things will happen: you’ve curbed the carb cravings for good. Secondly, right after exercise, certain enzymes (and processes I don’t even understand) transport the carbs from your blood to your muscles, NOT to your fat cells.

I’ve tried this approach and helped others to do it as well and it works very very well.

If you’re exercising for 2+ hours (e.g., bike riding) and doing high intensity exercise, that 300-400kcal is obviously not enough. In that case, it is important to eat carbs even during the exercise and eat more during the hour(s) following the workout. I’ve witnessed (with myself and others) 48hr long massive carb cravings after big workouts that totally deplete glycogen stores if I haven’t re-fueled quickly after the exercise. The net results of eating massive carb meals 6 hours after the workout and just before bed time is very often gaining more fat.

So my simple recommendation: Never finish a workout without an immediate carb snack or meal.

Sami - great blog post on IM training. I own my own business and didn't want to jump back into IM because last time I did one I was training 20+hrs a week. You've given me the confidence that it is possible to compete on less training. Question for you on nutrition - what is your approach to it during an Ironman? What do you like to eat and how many calories do you like to consume per hour? I'm sure with your love for data you've tracked this aspect of performance and I'd love your thoughts

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:56:43 -0800

Re: Nutrition. That’s probably worth a post of its own, but all my triathlon race nutrition (regardless of distance), follows these three principles:

- all calories from liquid and 100% carbs (combination of glucose and different simple sugars)
- there’s a lot of research re: maximum carb absorbtion and typically the results range from 240kcal/hr(pure glucose) to about 360kcal/hr(glucose+fructose). I’ve also done various tests of my own(which I can write about later) and I can say that for optimum performance I take even more per hr. Your goal is to absorb the maximum amount of ingested carbs in an Ironman, since it’s an “energy constrained” race, unlike e.g. Olympic distance race. If you can make your glycogen stores (in muscles) last longer at the same race pace, you will finish faster. Simple.
- I try to replace all lost fluids on the bike and let dehydrate some during the run, whether 10K, 21K or a marathon
- I also have a special 24h pre-race nutrition cycle I have followed for the last ~10 years and have never had GI issues in any race despite very sensitive stomach

Loved the article. Doing first IM next May (St. George). I have indoor trainer (Cycleops 400 Pro) could you PLEASE post/email your bike interval workouts? Thx. Steve

Wed, 16 Nov 2011 20:46:29 -0800

Hi there,
I’m afraid posting my workout(s) isn’t directly applicable to anyone. To get most out of workouts (training in general), you have to customize the intensity and type of workouts for your specific needs, goal race, time of season, etc.
My trainer set might be as simple as 20min@Z1 warmup, 4*8min@Z3-4 with 3min@Z1 recovery. 10min@Z1 cool down. That’s 1h 10min and done.

Hey Sami- Nice work this year! I wanted to know what you focus on when you're training on the bike. I assume you use a power meter, as do I, but I tend to get wrapped up in the average watts for the workout. I feel this compromises my recovery during the sets. Do you focus on the overall watts of the workout or just the watts for a particular set/interval and how do you track? I too track my watts, but I'm not sure I'm collecting the right info. Thanks for the feedback-Dan

Thu, 27 Oct 2011 06:52:55 -0700

Hi - thanks.
To your question, I never record and couldn’t care less what are my average watts for the entire workout. For example, if the purpose of my recovery period (between intervals) is to fully recover, I may ride that at 200W or 100W or even 50W, depending on how I feel - not thinking of how that might affect the overall average.

What I do pay a lot of attention to is the “Work sections” or intervals. And, of course, those intervals (let’s say 4*8minutes) are defined to create specific training load (stress) for the race I’m preparing, not trying to “max out” watts every time. Hope that helps.

I've been really inspired by your article on IM secret source. I've been a follower of the conventional wisdom and have sorta accepted a lot of the associated problems, namely being tired, home issues, work issues. However, I recognise now and again when I am recovered, I have great training sessions! You mention about mini-tests to see if you are improving. What might be an appropriate mini-test I could do given no power meter and just a HRM for bike and run?

Mon, 17 Oct 2011 08:00:05 -0700

Thanks!
I use mini-tests that I think are (i) good proxies for half-Ironman distance race performance and (ii) also quick and easy to perform without messing up with the actual work outs.
E.g. research shows that 10K running performance is one of the best proxies for Marathon performance. But running an all-out 10K is not very practical every week.
These are the ones I use most often:
- Run: After a quick warmup, run 10mins at strong half-marathon pace (on treadmill), measure HR and Perceived effort (1-10) average during the last minute. HR and PE should go down over time. And this can be just a warmup before a hard interval set.
- Bike: 15mins at constant half-ironman or slightly slower pace, HR & PE during the last minute. Same as above. This is obviously easier if you have a computrainer or powermeter so you can set the power constant for each test. But you could do this into a gradual 15min uphill where there’s little wind and aim for the same effort (or time). Again, this is a good warmup before the actual interval set.
- Swim: I typically do 5*200yds with 10s rest and measure time.

These are all tests that I can do even several times a week without affecting my actual training (Except the swim could be almost one of my swim workouts…).

Congrats on your success! Have you ever had your VO2max tested? (I understand if you'd rather not answer, it's sort of a personal question). I've seen similar athletes who excel on high-intensity and minimal volume work, and I always wonder how much genetics factor into the response you get from that sort of training (my vo2max is around 60, and getting my FTP to 290 is going to be multi-year effort). I also imagine you have a high threshold for suffering :)

Fri, 14 Oct 2011 21:52:54 -0700

Hi - yes, I’ve had my VO2Max measured a few times; however, it’s been a different lab and different protocol each time and the results have been all over, so I wouldn’t rely too much on it. But: it’s well north of 60ml/kg/min or even north of 70 and more than 6L/min without weight adjustment.
I don’t think scientists still agree what is the relationship between genetics, training and (best possible) results. Also, Vo2max has not been shown to be a great predictor of endurance performance; efficiency and threshold levels and fat utilization play a huge role.

I read your article (and passed it to many of my tri friends) (MY) SECRET SAUCE TO A SUB 9HR HAWAII IRONMAN: UNCONVENTIONAL WISDOM. What a great article. What does your caloric intake look like? Are you training with watts when you are on the bike? Are you blowing yourself up on the days you are running and biking? What does a typical interval training day look like? And CONGRATS! I did IMWI last year and I'd love to qualify some day.

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 22:40:36 -0700

Thanks Ryan!
Yes, all my interval training on bike is power based.
I’ve (anecdotally) found that blowing yourself up on the bike or run in workouts is just a recipe for injuries and extended recovery (before another serious workout), so instead I often cut workouts shorts or take the last set easier to make sure I finish the last set with a good form and somewhat strong - not blown up. This doesn’t mean you don’t train hard or be very exhausted.
Of course, ifyou don’t carb fuel or hydrate during interval sets, you can blow up prematurely and not get a maximum out of your workouts..

Sami, thanks for sharing your season and your incredible results. I follow a similar methodology as you, and am curious to know what your sporting background was before triathlon. I know a ton of triathletes, but only a few with an FTP of 390....I am guessing that you have lived a pretty fit life before dominating the start up and tri space. Thanks!

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 22:34:44 -0700

Thanks!
I wasn’t a collegiate athlete of any sort. I did some cross country skiing as a kid and biked to school quite often ( that’s more than 15yrs ago now) and ran a couple of marathons for fun around 2000-2003, but results were mediocre at best. Add some weight training to that and you have a full picture.

Hello Sami - your last post was quite interesting for an amateur semi-ironman like me - who tries to train as little as possible but who's aiming to complete in a goot time. :-) I was wondering if you'd share your semi ironman program with me? It will give me an idea... Thank you in advance, Stephane C.

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 06:50:09 -0700

Thanks for the kind words.

I’d be happy to share a few tips and guidelines 1:1 specific to you , but I’m afraid a cookie cutter program never works well. You have to look at your own life, stresses, time etc. and customize for that situation to get most out of your training plan.
(and note: I don’t pretend to be a professional coach)

Sami: I really like your Ironman training philosophy. Are you using a training program that is available to someone like me or is it a plan you developed yourself? I just completed Ironman Louisville on very limited training time and would like to increase the quality of my workouts to better my overal time. Thanks.

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 06:48:28 -0700

I work with Matt Dixon from www.purplepatchfitness.com and get amazing guidance from him.

At the same time, I create my own weekly and daily workouts and schedules.

Hello Sami congratulations on a great 2011 season you must be over the moon. I have read your great write up on how you have trained for this year and I'm very interested in knowing more , like what kind of training session you do on the run training and do u always on the long bikes just go steady or is there intervals in that session with under IMRP -IMRP-OVER IMRP . I think you should do another blog to go into a bit more detail in the sessions you have been doing and some of your test sessio

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 06:47:29 -0700

Thanks! Yes, very happy with this year.

Maybe I’ll write more about the work-outs later. As far as my “long” bike rides go, they are mostly social time with my wife during the weekend and the pace is ~Z1-2 i.e. easy/recovery pace and the stimulus comes from distance (4-5hrs once a week). I do all the intensity on a trainer, typically twice a week. Closer to a big race, I might take an hour of the 4hr ride to do 2-3 intervals (10-20min each) of that sort (below-at-above target race power). Running workouts follow the same pattern: 1-2 interval sessions on treadmill or trails, then a long run (70-90min) during the weekend with my wife…rarely pushing the pace above from conversational.

Hey Sami, A huge congrats on both Vegas and Kona. I'm intrigued about your latest post (kona) and what looks like a lack of swimming. It looks like you could have swum maybe 90 minutes per week. I'm defintiely in favor of the less is more approach and have also gone under 9h twice, but 1 maybe 2 swims seems hard to see how you swum well enough in Kona to get that results. Just interested. Cheers Kristian

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 06:43:46 -0700

Thanks very much!
I actually have zero swimming background. I could barely swim, certainly not more than 100yds of bad-form freestyle at a time in 2004 when I had to learn it for my first triathlon. So my starting level was zero and then I’ve gradually improved my swimming to a ~28-30min half-ironman swim or ~60min (above without wetsuit, at/below with a wetsuit) Ironman swim. I don’t think that’s fast or very good at all, but it’s the best I can do with my very limited swim training time.

I usually swim 2-3 20-40min weekly workouts, so about 90min on average per week. However, closer to big races, I often freak out because of the lack of swimming and then swim 5-6 times a week for two weeks even if just 10-20minutes a day. I’ve found that swimming (due very high water resistance) is so technique dependent that frequency (e.g., 5-6 swims a week) is the easiest way to improve swim times quickly.

If I had the time to swim 4-5hrs a week, I’m sure it’d improve my swim time, but this is the best I can do with limited time.

First, great season. For years I succumbed to the more is better IM training philosophy and quickly reach a plateau rife with overuse injuries and withering motivation. This year, while at a class with Max Testa (BMC team doc and longtime cycling expert) he advised that current thought chose specific intensity over volume. Never ride more than 4 hours unless it is a social need, he told me. The latter part of my season saw marked improvement. My question: what do you do in the off season?

Thu, 13 Oct 2011 06:38:05 -0700

Thanks for the note and question.

I usually stop ‘training’ and start ‘exercising’ during off-season. What that means is my daily 60-80minute workouts often become daily 45-60minute exercise sessions with my wife. Some jogging, some biking, some swimming, just for fun. So I rarely stop being active, but certainly have a big mental break from focused, progressive workouts.

(My) Secret sauce to a Sub 9hr Hawaii Ironman: Unconventional wisdom

Tue, 11 Oct 2011 23:54:00 -0700

To do very well in – or even just to complete - an Ironman distance triathlon (2.4mile swim, 112mile bike, 26mile run), you would need to do many bike+run brick workouts, complete weekly 2-3 hour long runs, pedal 6+ hour rides and spend at least 20 hours swimining-biking-running per week? Yes or No?

I did none of those and had the best triathlon results of my life in 2011, including a sub 9hr finish at the Hawaii Ironman World Championships. An accident, luck or a secret sauce for endurance success? Read below and let me know what you think.

I met a number of ordinary, yet super-fit, individuals during my recent race trip to the Hawaii Ironman World Championships. With a limited sampling, it seems that many of the even first time Ironman triathletes who qualified to the event train 20hrs or more per week and some consistently 25hrs a week. I was not surprised to hear that there was one common denominator between my and most others’ preparation and training: I had done almost the opposite from everyone else. Since I heard the disbelief and question “..and you did what?” so many times, I thought this topic is worth a brief post for others’ benefit.

I won’t have a scientifically or statistically meaningful sample of individuals to draw conclusions from, but I hope that I can make a point by using my own experiences as a data point to extrapolate from. For context, this year 2011 has been so far (and by far) the most successful year for me in the triathlon adventures. For example, I have become the 2011..

Overall amateur champion at Wildflower Triathlon Long Course
Overall amateur champion at Hawaii 70.3. Ironman
Age group world champion at Ironman 70.3. distance
Age group world champion runner up at Ironman World Championships (Hawaii) with a sub 9hr finish time

In addition, all objective metrics (such as power measured by “watts” on the bike, running pace) as well as relative metrics (how I’ve performed against my other competitors) are significantly up from the previous two years. So something is working quite well, while many other things have remained constant over the past three years: my overall health, work load, sleep, nutrition/diet and race body weight.

With a 300+ employee company to run and just more than an hour per day to dedicate to workouts, my training has always been “little, but with great quality” thanks to the amazing principles by Matt Dixon of PurplePatch Fitness.

Here’s what 9 out of 10 triathletes and training tips in most magazines tell me about triathlon training (the conventional wisdom), and especially, how to become a superb athlete at the Half- and Ironman distance.

1. It takes 20+ hours a week to qualify to Hawaii Ironman, and certainly that if you aim for a “top” age group performance.
The unconvential wisdom: No – it is possible with about 12hrs/week

Since the beginning of the year, I’ve had 2 weeks with more than 15 hours of training, and one of those weeks included three days (3-4hrs/day) of casual bike touring in Finland during a mini-vacation. An average week is around 12hrs, which also includes warm-ups, cool-downs and some commute bike riding.

Weekly training hours in 2011:

In comparison to my own previous years, this volume is about the same or 1-2 hrs per week LESS than earlier.

2. You need a massive, fatigue accumulating 2-4 month build-up and then taper 3 weeks to be really fit for a big long distance triathlon race.
The unconventional wisdom: No – it is possible to be race ready almost every week without the need for a long taper, by focusing on intense efforts over a day or two and then recover well during each week without training oneself into the ground.

Even more so than limited training hours, weekly focus on recovery has been the most radical change for my 2011 “season”. Most endurance athletes (from recreational to more serious) seem to purposefully dig a really really deep hole (in terms of fatigue) over several months to barely survive until their taper period, and then start a 2-3 week race-taper and hope for the best to get out of the hole and be fitter and fresher on the race day than when they started the massive build. I’ve seen this ranging from first time marathon runners to experienced triathletes.

In weight lifting this approach would be unheard of: If you don’t get stronger (lift more weight or more repeats on a given weight) after each workout, you’d immediately change something or have a significant recovery period before next lifting session. It is obvious that if you don’t become stronger, your body is doing the opposite: breaking down due to too much or too frequent weight workouts.
Many endurance athletes tend to think that grinding through workouts day in, day out, no matter how tired, makes them stronger eventually at some point.

The approach we applied to my training this year was that of the weightlifters’. I never trained more than 2-3 days before a good rest day. And if my numbers (pace, speed, watts) weren’t up in the next workout, I took another rest day or two. The principle was simple: I should get stronger and faster every week (or day), not just hoping to get there after a 3-4 months of hard work and a 3 week tapering period.

I started using Restwise (which I’d highly recommend to every athlete) to better quantify my recovery (chart from last 3 months below). If my recovery score was too low, I took a rest/easy day until the scores were up (80-100%).

Similarly, I used quick 10-15min mini-tests in most workouts to see if I was improving; and sometimes stronger efforts like 20min max effort on the bike with maximum power. If the numbers weren’t up from previous time – time to rest.

I was race ready and well rested with 2-4 days of easier workouts throughout the previous 8 months. My final Hawaii Ironman taper was 4 days, after a 50minute all out (395Watts average; which, again, was a personal all-time record) bike time trial race just 5 days before the Ironman race. Similarly, I decided to race a Leadville 100Mile mountainbike race at 11,000feet altitude and prepare with a 48hour “taper”. These were only possible because I didn’t have 3 months of accumulated fatigue to shake off, but fresh and progressively fitter legs throughout.

3. You need to do big brick workouts (bike+run) to be able to run fast off the bike. You also have to train to run on tired legs by doing massive bike rides a day before a long run.
The unconventional wisdom: No – I’ve had my all-time fastest runs and overall times in triathlon events in 2011 with literally ZERO brick workouts in the last 8 months (except 4 races).

I couldn’t find a single real brick workout from my training log in 2011, except a couple 5 or so minute shake ups and one 10 minutes jog after a bike ride. It certainly takes a few events (or workouts) to get used to the feeling of running after a long and/or hard bike ride, but that feelings will never go away. I still feel crappy for the first 5-15minutes of running off the bike, similar to feeling in my first triathlon 5+ years ago.

Secondly, I’ve avoided doing any major run workouts with tired legs. Running with tired legs and/or bad form is the easiest way to injure oneself. I haven’t found scientific research that would explain why training with tired legs (=lower power) and bad form (=injury risk) would actually make a better runner even if you have to do that after a bike ride in a race.

Instead, I’ve had all my runs in an almost fully recovered state, which has allowed me to run much faster and stronger each time.

4. To be able to run a strong marathon at the end of an ironman or half-ironman, long runs of 2-3hrs are must, maybe even more.
The unconventional wisdom: No – most amazingly, I very rarely ran more than 80minutes and only did one 2h run during entire 2011.

As you can see from the chart below, I rarely hit the trails for more than 80 minutes. I did one 2 hour, mainly for self-confidence as I couldn’t believe that I had to run a marathon in 3 weeks but had not done a single run more than 15 miles.
At the same time, I’ve recorded my fastest ever runs on both half-ironman (13.1mile run) and Ironman (26.2 mile run) distances this year.

Instead of logging miles and spending hours running, risking injury and compromising other workouts 3-4 days following a massive run, I’ve focused on a lot of race pace (below/at/over) running. A typical “marathon” workout could be 3-4 times 15minutes where 5 minute sections are below, at, or slightly above expected race pace. That’s a 75-80minute workout and I’m able to recover in 24-48hrs vs. 3-4 days after a massive 20mile+ run.

More often than not, after people fade at the last half of the run in a triathlon, they say they need more and longer long runs. I would guess that the most common reason for fading at the end is just bad pacing in the beginning (of the bike or run), bad nutrition/hydration or simply not enough race pace running in training – and not that the long run wasn’t long enough in training

5. You need to do double sessions, maybe even triples with lunch hour training.
The unconventional wisdom: No – Except one single week in March, I never did more than one workout per day (always morning) in 2011.

I’ve found that is is completely possible to get strong performance gains with a single workout per day and 10-12hrs or so per week. Typically a big week for me looks like this:

Monday: Rest (or 30min easy swim)
Tuesday: Bike intervals on trainer (60-90min)
Wednesday: Run intervals on trails (60-70mins)
Thursday: Bike intervals on trainer (60-90mins)
Friday: Rest / Swim (40-60mins) / easy run (legs recover)
Saturday: Bike “long” (4-5h with no intervals, social time with wife/friends)
Sunday: Run “long” (80-90minutes with intervals and Swim if time)

Accident, luck or a secret sauce?
I realize that I am extrapolating from a single data point, but before you stop spending time with friends and family, reduce nightly sleep to 4hrs and spend all your time logging miles in a quest for improved endurance performance, read this post one more time. It might help you reinvent the conventional wisdom.

For the business readers: Many of these same principles apply to improving performance at the office. For example, unfortunately hours spent at the desk, lots of “hard work” and conventional wisdom are often associated with great performance, when in fact efficiency, true business impact and unconventional wisdom are the things that actually propel individuals, teams and companies to a greater performance these days. And too often the person who gets the promotion is the one who spends the most hours at the office rather than the one who comes up with a real break-through idea and executes it efficiently. Not very different from the mile counting triathlete who still follows the conventional wisdom and finishes at the bottom of the race results despite most hours in her training log?

How we put a number on employee happiness and did something about it

Fri, 12 Aug 2011 20:06:00 -0700

I just recently – finally – finished reading Zappo’s CEO Tony Hsieh’s Delivering Happiness book, which I liked a lot. With my first company I didn’t think much of employee happiness; if something couldn’t be solved with spreadsheets, it didn’t matter. And something as fuzzy as happiness certainly couldn’t fit into that framework.

The approach that we’ve taken at my current company Trulia since the 2005 beginning is quite different and we had the hypothesis that if we can even try to measure Employee happiness, it will always be front and center in our minds, and possibly we can even improve it as a result.

I thought to share a few insights about our very own Happiness Project.

First, on a quarterly basis we send out a simple anonymous survey that has multiple choice (1 to 5 points) questions around three areas:

How happy employees are?
How well are we living up to our stated culture as a company?
How well we are aligned as an organization (i.e., does everyone know what/why/how we are trying to achieve something)?

The basic idea is that if we truly are what we say (as an organization) and if we are all working towards a well stated goal (that everyone knows and buys into) and if we enjoy the process ,we ought to become very successful! Here are some of the questions we use to try to get into the heart of those issues:

On Organizational alignment:

I understand company’s top business priorities?
I believe the company is heading in the right direction?
My manager keeps me informed about relevant information that helps me do my job?

On Happiness:

I would recommend Trulia as a place to work?
Trulia provides the flexibility needed to balance work and personal responsibilities?

I’m sure we’ve got a long way to go to make our system world class, but here (chart) is a good example how we’ve step by step improved our metrics, from 2010 to 2011 while doubling the size of the organization.

Here are a few lessons that I’ve learned along the way:

It’s easy to create survey fatigue unless the loop is closed with consistent reporting of results back (to all employees) and action plan to improve things. In other words, there’s little incentive to offer feedback, unless participants get something tangible in return.

Our thoughts about happiness seem to be influenced very heavily by the very recent memories. A raise is the 3 days leading into the survey, will surely spike the results! To get consistent results, it is important to measure results at the same time, e.g., just before quarterly reviews.

Averages are useful, but I’ve typically found the open ended feedback and business unit (or by function) results most actionable. If, for example, engineers are loving the company every moment, but sales is having tough time, they both average out the results and you obviously can’t draw many conclusions.

I’m (still) a huge believer in measuring employee happiness and drawing insights and actionable improvement ideas from the results.

I’d love to hear more ideas and resources how to improve this. Feel free to shoot me an email sami at trulia (dot) com.

(If you’ve never heard of Trulia where we do all this magic, check out http://www.trulia.com/about for reference)