Here is another question from my coaching column on mtbracenews.com

The USA Cycling Rule Book http://www.usacycling.org/forms/USAC_rulebook.pdf defines ultra-endurance events as:

6A19. Ultra-Endurance Events: A term used to describe the following types of events lasting more than 4 hours: Marathon, ultra-marathon, 6/ 12/ 24 (etc) hour racing.

The first thing to note is that recovery from a 4 hour race is significantly faster than from a 24 hour solo race.

Race duration or distance is one of numerous variables affecting recovery speed. Many of these variables are under the control of an athlete.

• How rested you were at the start of the race
• How well prepared you were for the specific race effort
• How well you fueled and hydrated during the event
• How much sleep deprivation you accumulated
• How deep you dug during the race: Did you pace to finish comfortably or did you empty the tank for a personal record time?
• How diligent you were with post race recovery practices: recovery nutrition, sleep, stress management, time to rest, massage.

Two variables are not under the control of the athlete.

• Age. Recovery slows as we age. A 25 year old will recover faster than a 55 year old given equal recovery practices.
• Personal differences. Some athletes have a phenomenal recovery rate and some simply do not. The athletes on the slower end of the recovery bell curve should be more careful about how closely they space ultra-endurance races on their race schedule.

As a generalization, given the impact of the above variables, here are the recovery times an athlete can expect after an ultra-endurance mountain bike event:

• Mountain bike races lasting 6 or less hours take 1-2 weeks for recovery and can be scheduled twice per month.
• 100 mile mountain bike races last anywhere from 7-13 hours and take 2-3 weeks for full recovery. 12 hour solo races are in the same recovery zone. Scheduling one per month is reasonable.
• Recovery speed from a 24 hour solo race depends largely on how well an athlete executed the race. A personal record (PR) level 24-hour solo, perfectly executed, non-stop 24 hours on the gas with no sleep that an athlete started well tapered, peaked and rested will take 4-5 weeks to fully recover.

PR level 24 hour solo mountain bike races take a lot of real estate in an athlete’s race schedule with 3 weeks to taper for, and 4-5 weeks for recovery. Scheduling one 24-PR level solo per season is ideal.

• 24-hour solo races paced at a finisher level effort where an athlete stops for rests, meals and sleep during the race will take 1-3 weeks for recovery. 24 hour solo races executed on this level can be scheduled 3-4 times per season.
• Mountain bike stage races such as Trans Rockies, BC bike race and Breck Epic are similar to 24-hour solo races in that recovery rate is highly dependent on the manner in which the athlete raced. Generally, 7 day stage races fall in the 3 week recovery time frame. Scheduling 1-2 stage races per season is reasonable for most athletes.
• At the top end of the ultra-endurance racing category are the multi-day, self-supported events such as Colorado Trail Race, Arizona Trail Race and Tour Divide. The clock runs on these races non-stop, day and night, start to finish. These events can take 4-40 days to finish.Full recovery from these races can take 2-6 months! Volume of sleep deprivation is a large part of the fatigue accumulated. A loose rule of thumb is to start with 2-4 weeks for recovery then add one day to recovery time for every hour of sleep missed during the event. Scheduling one multi-day self-supported race per season is reasonable. Racing more than one of these events per season puts you in the manic category I do know a few of those guys…

High altitude mountain bike racing heats up each summer with Firecracker 50, Cross Country Nationals in Colorado, Breckenridge 100, Colorado Trail Race, Leadville 100 and Breck Epic stage race to name a few.  Most of these races start near 10,000 feet and go up from there. Colorado Trail Race is the altitude champion reaching 13,200 feet. Whew!

Locals who live year round in the Colorado high country rarely have problems with the altitude. The rest of us are very likely to. For some things in life, there are simply no short cuts, and altitude adaptation is one of those things. Living at altitude is the only sure fire way to adapt. Keep in mind, too, that there is considerable variability between individuals in their ability to adapt to altitude.

Here are the basics for the “rest” of us when racing over 10,000 feet.

Studies show that endurance performance bottoms out within the first few hours of arrival at altitude, and then improves steadily after that. The earlier you can arrive at altitude prior to your race the better your performance will be. Arriving 4 days before the race is good. Arriving 4 weeks before the race is better!

Some artificial methods of simulating altitude can be used at lower elevations to help speed up the adaptation process (or attempt to pre-adapt).

• Live or sleep in a hypoxic environment using an altitude tent to simulate altitude by lowering the content of oxygen in the air.
• Intermittent Hypoxic Exposure (IHE). An athlete breathes hypoxic air while at rest.
• Intermittent Hypoxic Training (IHT). An athlete breathes hypoxic air while exercising.

Prior to arriving at altitude:

• A month out have your iron levels checked and follow a physician’s advice on iron supplementation if necessary.
• Take 80-120 mg of Ginkgo Biloba twice per day in the 5 days leading up to arrival at altitude.
• Altitude induced asthma can appear in individuals who have no asthmatic symptoms at sea level. If you suspect you are in this group bring an inhaler with you to the race.

After arrival at altitude:

• Avoid any medications that will depress breathing rate. This includes alcohol, sleep medications and narcotic pain killers.
• Increase carbohydrate intake
• Increase antioxidant intake
• Continue Ginkgo Biloba use
• Drink plenty of liquids

We have launched a new series of training plans designed specifically for masters 50+ racers. Specifically for masters who want to kick some a**

We’ve been listening! The 50+ guys say they need more recovery AND more intensity AND more strength training. These plans have more and less than the regular plans! The masters 50+ series of plans are designed to optimize the abilities and recovery rate of 50yr + racers.

The first LW Coaching Masters 50+ plan published is the Park City Point 2 Point 50+ masters PR training plan which was requested by a single athlete. We currently have no direct affiliation with this race but we do like the PCP2P guys a lot and we are both (Dave and Lynda) signed up to race in 2010. Dave is signed up SS and Lynda signed up with gears for this one.

If you have a specific race or distance you would like a plan designed for, send us a request using our contact form.

Our LW Coaching Colorado Trail Race training plan is live!! This is a first for LW Coaching in that the plan is a collaboration to two coaches Dave Harris and Lynda Wallenfels. Lynda brings to the table tried and true training methods and training plan design. Dave brings to the plan specific expertise and experience in  multi-day self supported racing with many wins and course records on his resume. 2 coaches for the price of 1!

We are very, very excited about how this plan turned out. In fact excited enough that now both of us want to follow the plan and race CTR! ha, ha!

Below Dave describes his experiences and plan details:

Self-supported racing is near and dear to me. No other style of riding has the potential for so much enjoyment, satisfaction, challenge, discovery, tears and angst. It’s the kaleidoscope of cycling experiences. I’ve spent the better part of the last 5 years passionately engrossed in the genre.

Photo credit Mike Curiak

Last summer I jumped into CTR. It was never all that attractive when I lived in Durango, but now that I live in southern Utah getting to cool temps and alpine riding mid-summer was the ticket. That route had some big lessons for me, and I have been studying up on just what it takes to do a good ride in that event.

Why not share the love? At LW Coaching we had some interest in a CTR plan so I went to work on putting all I’ve learned on paper. This is a bit different than the other plans here. There are so many details in self-supported multi-days that this plan is more of a book The training part is central but I also added an appendix containing strategies on everything from acute mountain sickness to keeping your GI happy for days.

Here’s the crazy thing. Altitude kills me. I was gasping for air, coughing my brains out during CTR on the Monarch Crest trail with Scott Morris last year. If you’d have told me I’d want to do the event again I’d have laughed uncontrollably! Well, if I could get enough air to laugh I would have…but researching for and writing this plan has me convinced I can overcome the altitude part…and makes me very excited to give it a go again! I must be crazy.

If you are just as crazy check it out. I dare you. But be careful, this stuff is addicting!

Question: Should I train and race with a heart rate monitor or a power meter? What are the pros and cons?

For mountain bike training, I recommend using a power meter, perceived exertion and a heart rate monitor. The more data you have, the more tools you have at your disposal to measure performance and improve your training. 

The Bottom Line
Use a power meter extensively in training to best mimic racing demands, track measured changes in fitness, nail training objectives, and effectively calibrate perceived exertion with reality.  Changes in power output give you a direct, objective measure of the effectiveness of your training plan.  Heart rate will let you know you are alive.

Direct vs. Indirect
Power (Watts) is a direct measure of exercise intensity, whereas heart rate is an indirect measure of exercise intensity. Heart rate is a response to exercise and other factors (heat, humidity, altitude, diet, caffeine, stimulation, motivation, fatigue, time of day/night).

Crystal Clear vs. Crystal Ball?
Performance is accurately measured with power. Power data is crystal clear. You either produced the watts or you did not. Heart rate data requires guess work to interpret the result due to the many variables included. A crystal ball may be helpful in order to draw real conclusions from heart rate data.

Immediate vs. Time Lagged
Power has an immediate reaction to changes in exercise intensity. Heart rate has a time lag of about 30 seconds in its response to changes in exercise intensity. This makes heart rate a useless pacing tool for efforts of less than 30 seconds and for the first 30 seconds of any longer interval. Heart rate encourages athletes to over-pace at the start of an interval in order to quickly get their heart rate into the target zone. When training with power you can immediately peg the exact goal exercise intensity and train with accuracy.

Here’s an example:  The goal in the following workout was to maintain a steady power of 265 Watts.  The rider also wore a heart rate strap, so we have both sets of data.

Not only does heart rate lag effort by 30 seconds, it can also creep upward over time.  Imagine if this rider didn’t have the benefit of the power readings, and instead attempted to drive HR up to 165bpm in the first few minutes.  The result would likely have been an interval ending meltdown about 18 minutes in, and at the very least a drastic reduction in power in the 2^nd half of the interval.

Software
There are several software applications available to crunch your power data. They will analyze, interpret and summarize. You can look at how fast and hard you are pedaling with Quadrant Analysis (QA) to see if you are mimicking the demands of racing in your training. You can get a measure of the intensity of a ride (IF), the variability of a ride (VI) and the training stress (TSS) of a ride.

Performance Manager Chart (PMC)
PMC is a valuable tool for mountain bikers. It uses ride TSS scores, averaging them over days and months. Analyzing a single ride is like looking at a single tree in a forest. You get a nice picture of that tree but don’t know where it sits in the forest. The beauty of the PMC is that it tallies up TSS over time to give a bird’s eye view of the forest – or your entire season (or even cycling career). The PMC can be used retroactively to look at scores during times you had personal best performances and during times you thought you should have but didn’t. It can be used for forward planning to target a specific set of scores known to put you in peak form and to time that peak form to land smack bang on race day. The PMC takes much of the guess work out of training, tapering and peaking.

Racing
Whether or not to race with a power meter depends on the priority of your race. In low priority training races, go for the power meter.  Race data often uncovers one’s strengths and weaknesses, and can also turn up some surprising finds with regards to race demands.  Race files are a powerful piece of the training puzzle.

As an example, using Quadrant Analysis (a feature of WKO+ 3.0) with power meter data from single speed mountain bike races shows a particularly high concentration of power in the VO2max range with cadences below 60. This means pedal forces are much higher on average than when riding with gears.  This has led to some novel training methods for single speeders.

Goal events are different.  By the time you have reached a fitness peak, all those hours of training with a power meter have worked to “calibrate” your perceived exertion (PE).  PE is your best option for pacing goal events. You’ll know what you can do and for how long, and with enough experience, PE alone will guide you to your best results.

Potential drawbacks to mountain bike racing with a power meter
Power meter and heart rate monitors are not 100% reliable. How will you pace the event if your gadget malfunctions?

Power meters are heavier than race-weight wheels or cranks.

The highly variable nature of power production in mountain bike races makes it quite difficult to turn the real time power data into actionable information.  Short accelerations and race starts are deep into anaerobic power levels, even for longer endurance events.  It is tough to make sense of the numbers without software.

Mountain bike race starts are mayhem. The place for your eyeballs during a race start is on the trail, your surroundings and fellow racers and not on a little monitor screen.

Power meters can even make you slower in a peak race!
More importantly, pacing with a power meter may actually hold you back from a breakthrough performance! On a top priority race day your body should be in peak condition; trained, tapered, fueled, hydrated and ready to go. You should be poised to set records by producing more power and going faster than ever before. Pacing yourself using power numbers established in training may act as a governor on your peak day and could hold you back from a potential record performance.

Post Race Analysis
There is often quite a difference between what you think you did in a race (or, what you tell your coach you did) and what you actually did. Power data tells all! You can learn how to pace races more accurately and how to repeat outstanding performances from the data. Race data is useful in learning how much power you needed to win a certain race and in what pattern that power was created. This type of information is valuable in order to design better training plans and improve future performances.

Without a doubt, train with a power meter.  Also, race your lower priority events with the power meter to help objectively assess your strengths and weaknesses, helping you dial in your training for the goal event(s).  For peak priority races use your lightweight race equipment and rely on a well calibrated sense of PE to reach new performance heights.

Lynda Wallenfels is a USA Cycling Cat 1 certified cycling coach and pro mountain bike racer. She is owner of LWCoaching.com. She always trains and often races with a power meter.