This week’s episode is another grab bag full of insights! Topics include: the benefits of Zone 0 movement, good data and bad data in training and in pregnancy, why mountain adventures are so great, how to approach workouts and training in periods of high LSS (life stress score), governing effort on big days, bike handling tips, training in bad air quality, how muscle memory helps you retain your season’s gains even when you take time off, and an interesting discussion on doping in amateur endurance sports. Check it out!

Katie:

Movement is movement is movement

Continue discussion on Z0-1 movement in the context of moving (houses)

Good data / bad data in pregnancy (and in general)

In my experience as an athlete and coach, data can make or break your performance.
Challenge comes in knowing what type of data is serving you and what type of data is holding you back
For a deeper dive on this topic, head to the archives and check out Episode 20: Good Data and Bad Data
My experience in pregnancy:

Oura ring (HRV, resting HR, body temp, sleep) and other health stats: useful for planning pregnancy, not useful at all during pregnancy

Unnecessary health anxiety coming from data overload when I honestly have no idea what to expect

Stats on training:

TP fitness/fatigue/form - not useful!
HR during activity - often useful (best bet is often HR + time)
Speed/pace/power - not that useful

Most useful: RPE, going by feel, listening to your body; detailed subjective comments on how I am feeling physically and mentally

Hot take: This may be true outside of pregnancy too

Anecdote from an athlete on concern about oxygen saturation during sleep according to Garmin

PSA: Garmin wrist HR is NOT qualified to tell you whether your oxygen saturation is good or not
And related, can’t tell you how many times I have had athletes freak out because their vo2 max or threshold paces are going down according to Garmin, or their training is “unproductive”. Reminder: the algorithm is bad and fitness can and should fluctuate over time. When in doubt, turn it off and listen to your coach and your body.

One thing I do appreciate: Garmin has a “pregnancy mode” that lets you turn off training readiness/fitness metrics. Recommend turning this on! (And consider ignoring these stats if you are not pregnant too!)

Fun with recent mountain adventures

Related to the above, I have been having a ton of fun with some recent adventures in the White Mountains especially as I have been feeling a little bit better in the second trimester.
Why are mountain adventures so great? Partially because pace, especially in Whites terrain, means absolutely nothing. A 50-minute mile going from HoJo’s to the top of Mt. Washington is fast!

By contrast, running my standard loop on the Esplanade in Boston at increasingly slow paces is a pretty in-your-face manifestation of the pregnancy fitness decline - which is totally normal, but still impacts me some of the time.

Also great because:

Often social – reconnecting with values such as community and joy
Adventure spirit, as we talked about in Episode 92 (three types of movement: exercise, training, adventuring)
Usually more options to modify effort, distance, and other stats on the fly based on how you are feeling and listen to your body

Suggestions:

I feel like a broken record, but plan an adventure! And reach out to us if you need some route inspiration!
As always, fuel like a race for long days in the mountains.

Some challenges I am anticipating as the pregnancy progresses:

Change in center of gravity: Alpine Zone terrain in the Whites is basically all rock-hopping and balance. Once my center of gravity starts to change, I may need to be extra careful in rocky terrain. For now, enjoying hopping along while I still can.
Those damn ankles! Pregnancy = hormone relaxin goes up, which means I roll my (especially left) ankle a LOT. Taping can help. May experiment with poles going forward, and need to pay very close attention to every step I’m taking.

Reminder on how to approach workouts and training in periods of high LSS

Many athletes experiencing various forms of LSS in recent weeks
Check out Episode 22: Life Stress Score (LSS)
For some people, training provides structure and normalcy when life is going haywire. If this is you, it’s okay to stay on a plan while LSS is crazy. However, if LSS is substantially impacting your sleep, fueling, and ability to recovery, we as coaches highly recommend toning the effort down to Z2 focus with pickups at the most rather than structured speed/intervals etc. since injury risk has skyrocketed.

Anecdotally we see the most niggles and overuse injuries pop up when LSS is high…

For others, movement is helpful, but structure is not. If this is you, consider connecting with your why and your values (adventure, community, solitude) and trying to align movement with those. A trail run somewhere that calms you down (even if you are training for something that isn’t on trails) may help! And definitely loop in your coach if “structured unstructured” movement is helpful. I will literally sometimes program, e.g., “45 mins move your body in a pretty place outside”
In most cases, zero movement at all for weeks on end (a few days up to a week is totally fine) is not actually helpful for combating LSS in the long term. Consider incorporating some walks in nature or easy social activities to see if it helps.
As always, your coach is your partner in figuring this out and you don’t have to do it alone!

Jim:

Governing Your Effort on a Big Day Around a Set Point

I recently tackled a big ride—the 6 Gaps in Vermont. It’s ~130 miles with 12,500 feet of climbing, and it took me 8 hours and 45 minutes on the bike.

The crux of the day is Lincoln Gap, famous for being the steepest paved mile in the U.S., with pitches hitting 24%. The hardest section comes right at the end and demands full physical and mental commitment.

Going in, my main goal was to arrive at the base of Lincoln Gap with full energy stores and a calm, focused mindset. I knew of a particular house at the bottom of the climb, and I visualized reaching that spot feeling fully fueled and race-ready. That visualization acted as my governor for both effort and fueling during the first part of the day, which was about 4.5 hours and 3 Gaps before reaching Lincoln. Throughout the early miles, I kept asking myself, “Is what I’m doing right now in service of that goal?” I reminded myself quietly, “The day doesn’t start until Lincoln Gap.”

The bonus? Knowing that after conquering the hardest climb, there would still be miles and climbing ahead—but the toughest challenge would be behind me, and a well-earned lunch was waiting on the other side.

Key takeaway: On big days—ultras, long-distance events—it can help to visualize a specific point in the day or race where you want to arrive feeling a certain way. This mental anchor helps break up the day, pace your effort, and keep fueling on track.

Sub-Thread topics:

Be comfortable with low cadence efforts especially on big uphills where the goal is just to keep the bike upright and moving forward. I was surprised how much work below threshold I could do on the bike with this approach.
I used my HR reading as an indication of how fueled and thermoregulated I was, especially after my heat bonk experience from a couple weeks ago. I knew if my HR was under control, that even as the day became very hot, I was well heat regulated. Also pairs well with low cadence (and fueling and patience).
On big days, your early fueling and hydration may be the most important. For me, sometimes I get taste fatigue as the day gets long and I anticipate not wanting as much food later in the day. This makes starting your fueling and hydration that much more important in hour 1. If you keep topped off for the first 80% of your big day, you can often improvise your way to the last 20%.
I’m also appreciating having multiple gel options at the end of the day as each brand tastes a little different or has different consistency. Even when I have taste fatigue, I can usually knock back gels late in the day. My go to gels are Maurten, SIS Beta and Enervit.
Check your tires before any big ride. I found a huge gash in my tire and a bulging tube the night before this ride. Disaster averted.

Tips on Bike Handling
I was riding down our local state highway the other day along the river when I came across a crew sealing cracks in the road. The sealant they use seems like a mix of hot oil and a rubbery substance. Most of the cracks run perpendicular to the road, but some run parallel—especially along the white line. I wasn’t paying attention and rolled right onto one of those parallel seals. My bike instantly started swerving left and right. Before I could react, I was already past it. Honestly, I’m glad I didn’t react too quickly—because often, when you hit a small disturbance on the bike, the best thing to do is nothing at all. Just keep moving forward.

Take wind, for example. Maybe you’re riding somewhere windy—like heading to Hawi on the Kohala Coast—and you’re protected at times by road cuts. But then the cut ends, or there’s a notch in the rock, and wind sneaks through and smacks your front wheel from the side. It can easily push your wheel—or your whole bike—off course. It’s scary. But again, since it's a short disturbance, the best move is often not to react. Just keep steady pressure on the pedals and get through the section quickly.

Another situation: gravel or sand. If you hit a patch and your instinct is to brake or swerve, that often makes things worse. Counterintuitively, the best thing to do when you roll into loose gravel is to get into the drops, shift into a low-cadence gear, and drive power through the pedals—like you're doing a threshold effort. Put more weight over the front end. That added momentum will help you “float” over the loose surface and get through the sketchy section faster. The natural tendency is to slow down and tiptoe through it—but practice doing the opposite!

Take the zero or modify on low air quality days

Like how we approach high heat and humidity days, this is a suggestion to modify or skip your workouts on days with a lot of wildfire smoke. I recently modified and skipped a couple of workouts due to the high AQI (Air Quality Index). The day the AQI was over 120 I bowed out of any outdoor activity, even a Zone 2 run. While it was possible to run or bike easy that day, I could smell the smoke and the air was thick with haze. It seemed like the cost was higher than the reward especially this time of year when we are fit and an extra day of recovery will probably make us faster (shedding some acute fatigue).

Another case for taking an off season: You will retain your muscle memory gains from this season.

This time of year, it can be hard to start thinking about taking an off season or just going to unstructured training after your big “A” race. Every year we assure athletes that when you come back to structured training later this year or early next year, you leverage all the skills, training, experience from this year. As long as you stay somewhat active, you will retain your gains.

A new study seems to confirm this: Human skeletal muscle possesses an epigenetic memory of high-intensity interval training

Human skeletal muscle displays an epigenetic memory of resistance exercise induced-hypertrophy. It is unknown, however, whether high-intensity interval training (HIIT) also evokes an epigenetic muscle memory. This study used repeated training intervention interspersed with a detraining period to assess epigenetic memory of HIIT.

Cells possess a “memory” such that adaptations can be more quickly regained when a previously encountered challenge is reintroduced. Exercise provides an excellent experimental model to explore the concept of cellular memory to physiologically relevant stressors in humans. This study highlights molecular mechanisms that contribute to muscle memory in response to high-intensity interval training in humans, showing retention of DNA methylation and gene expression profiles from earlier training into detraining and retraining.

Conclusions: Human skeletal muscle possesses an epigenetic memory (via DNA methylation) of high-intensity interval training characterized by retention of DNA methylation from earlier training into detraining and retraining.

Shout out to Northeast Trail Adventures

Shout out to Eli Burakian and Justin Chapman from Northeast Trail Adventures for their inaugural running camp based out of Hub North in the White Mountains. I had the pleasure of participating in some of their social events this last weekend.

They had a killer line up of talent and resources for their campers - David Sinclair - pro ultra runner, Hilary McCloy - PT & mountain athlete, Vic Johnson from Mountain Sports Nutrition, Alyssa Godesky - pro triathlete / adventure racer. Plus Eli and Justin who have TONS of trail running and racing experience at all levels.

If you are interested in trail running to any extent, I highly recommend following Northeast Trail Adventures on Instagram and look for their next year’s camp.

Athlete Questions:

How should I govern my effort at a training camp?
Continuous glucose monitoring?

Challenge of the week

Katie: Identify a data source that is not serving you and start ignoring it!
Jim: Stuff your water bottles with ice to keep cool. Loving the Bivo bottle with ice on the bike and for keeping electrolytes cool in the car.

Gear pick of the week

Katie: Leukotape
Jim: Escape Collective Subscription - best cycling news source