CyberCoach

What an interesting week as a coach. I am not in the habit of sharing my athletes' results in social media. For one, they all know I am proud of what they achieve in training and at the events but secondly, not everyone wants that sort of attention and I also don't want to try to claim any of their limelight.

In a week where we had people running the Two Oceans Ultra and half marathon, the London Marathon, the PE Ironman and 70.3 and the Tour Durban Trail, MTB and Road races we also had the husband and wife team of Chris and Jonette who rode self supported on the gravel roads from Clarens in the Free State to Blouberg in the Western Cape. A distance of more than a thousand miles.

The weather was not always favourable and the road conditions were sometimes far from ideal for riding heavily laden bikes but they never really seemed to have any problems. A testament to their amazing relationship and their incredible work-ethic, which got them in such good shape, I think they could do the ride back as well.

Inspirational!

Have a look at these power and cadence graphs from two different races of similar length and the difference in effort between a bunch ride effort in a bike race, and a time trial effort in a triathlon, becomes glaringly obvious.

Looking at the line graphs first we can see how much smoother and consistent the TT effort is compared to the spikey effort in the road race. A long time trial is all about pacing ourselves. We should be holding back on the climbs and keeping the pressure on the downhills so that we hold a very narrow range in power and heart rate. There is very little freewheeling and the effort doesn’t spend much time over FTP. So, we are always working aerobically, at an intensity that allows our bodies to keep up with the demands that our muscles are producing. In other words, we are never going into debt so there is no need for recovery and we can keep the pressure on throughout.

In the road race the situation is very different. Here we cannot pace ourselves. We have to follow attacks, make a few of our own and recover when the opportunity presents itself. There are some significant spikes in power which required an anaerobic effort. Here our bodies can not get enough oxygen to the muscles or clear the lactate produced, fast enough and they fall behind. These efforts are not sustainable for very long. Fortunately for my result in this race, there were sufficient periods of quiet where my body could catch up and a good indication of that is the 47+ minutes of Z1 power compared to the 5 minutes in the TT effort.

I think that the bar graph comparison is even more significant. Here we can see the wide distribution of power in the road race compared to the much narrower distribution in the TT. The peak is almost in the same place but most importantly, there is a significant amount of time spent pushing out power over that peak in the road race.

Other significant numbers to compare are the average power which was 22W higher in the TT, and the normalised power, which was 20W higher in the road race. This again demonstrates the staccato nature of road racing compared to the steady controlled effort of a TT.

So, what do we take from this comparison? Triathlon or TT training on the bike should be focused on steady-state, efforts. We want to develop our ability to work at high levels of intensity at or around FTP. When doing these efforts our acceleration can be gentle and controlled. For road racing our focus needs to shift more towards shorter Z5 and Z6 efforts where we give our bodies the chance to become more efficient working anaerobically. The efforts in a road race are also more explosive and more muscle fibres are recruited to accelerate rapidly.

What if we’re a triathlete but enjoy the odd bike race but not so much that we want to train specifically for them? Here we need to play to our strengths. We can sustain a good, high effort for long periods of time but we will be found wanting in the short, sharp accelerations. A triathlete should always try to stay near the front of their bunch in a road race. Here we can accelerate a little less aggressively when attacks are made and drift backwards until the pace inevitably eases. We will still be in the group instead of off the back and we won’t have to make the high Z6 type of efforts that we are not prepared for. We will also be able to see opportunities to roll off the front in a small group when these arise. A small group rolling through and off in a paceline is much more our thing, and one where we will thrive. Of course, that is until we come to the sprint finish, but there is only so much that can be done without specific training.

Whatever events we are training for and whatever our goals are at those events, our training needs to be targeted and specific. Even more so for those who are working their training into their busy lives. We don’t want to waste a second of training-time on something which is not relevant.

Onwards!

Gravel definitely has the potential to be the next big thing in South African cycling. Coming exclusively from a road background (I never even had a BMX as a youngster), gravel riding and racing was always going to ask some serious questions of me. Here is an article I wrote for Tread about my first month on the 'groads'...

GRAVEL RACING: ‘NOT WHAT I EXPECTED IT TO BE, SO FAR’ I wrote my first article for TREAD Media about my desire to try my hand...

One more post and then we'll move on to what's next. Some pics of three older dudes with close to a 100 years of combined triathlon experience, doing what they love and loving what they do...

What a fun day we had yesterday. We managed to cross the line ahead of all the individuals. Let's be honest though, expecting one guy to race against three who are only doing one leg each was a bit unfair. We are old but we're not cold.

Glen, Claude and I have had some epic battles over the years and we've seen the sport go through many changes. From the early days of no racks and laying your bike down in a parking lot transition area; speedos; cut-off vests and very few rules apart from those we enforced ourselves, to the well-regulated and orderly sport we have today, with all the tech that goes with it.

All three of us have been fortunate enough to have made our living from racing and we continue now with our different coaching businesses but it was lekker to toe the line together with a common goal for once.

So... the all important time predictions... who was the closest? Well, first we have to mention that the course was a bit out and the surf was on it's head a bit. Not a problem for Mr. Surf Swim but it does make things a bit slower.

Glen swam 1:29 pace for 2.4km which equates to 28:00 for 1.9km.
I rode 41kph for 94km which equates to 2:11 for 90km
Claude ran 3:37 pace for 19.7km which equates to 1:16 for a 21.1km

If we add those three times together for an accurate course we would have been around 3:55. I think the three of us will take that.

(Pic thanks to Trish Eksteen)

It's race week for 'Team over the Hill and Picking up Speed' at the Ultra Tri-Series Durban. We haven't heard what young pros are coming to the race so we are not really sure what we are aiming at. Maybe Damian V Bradley can let us know who's entered?

What time do you think the three of us can put together? If the conditions are good we'll be disappointed if we are over the four hour mark but we may need to go a bit faster than that to finish ahead of the current crop of pros, who may or may not be on the beachfront on Sunday.

Attached are some pics from the first half iron distance race where we competed against each other and I am pleased to say that I managed to come out on top in this one. The race was the Pharmaton SA Half Iron Distance race held at Homestead Lake Benoni in 2001. It was a close affair between the three of us. Glen was in the lead off the bike with Claude not far behind. I had a bit of work to do but managed to catch Claude with 3-4km to go and Glen in the final kay. I was helped by the fact that Glen had done an ironman the weekend before and Claude had only consumed water and maybe one gel for the whole four hour race.

So, 22 years later we are working together to try and beat some okes who were in pre-school when this race happened. We're all in pretty good shape and are keen to read in the comments, your predictions for our splits and overall time and whether you think any one will be ahead of us at the end.

GRAVEL-RACE TRAINING: FIVE AREAS TO FOCUS ON As his first Gravel race nears, TREAD Media’s new Gravel contributor, Donovan van Gelder, considers...

Am I ready...? Physically, I probably am but I still have to get to grips with the different surfaces involved and how a gravel bike handles. I rode some of the route last weekend and it definitely does lean a bit more towards easy MTB than it does toward a road race, which I was hoping for but, I'm up for learning some new things and have a few more weeks to do so.

One thing I will say is the route, whilst being a challenge for a roadie like me, is definitely a lot more picturesque than any road races I have ever done. If you have a bike with fat tires, gravel or MTB, you should come and join in. I think this is the future of bike racing in SA.

Team 'Over the Hill and Picking up Speed' is hard in training for the Durban Ultra Tri-Series relay on the 6th of August. Glen is swimming a few hundred metres a day and eating donuts. Donovan is zwifting and riding gravel bikes and Claude is carrying sandbags and climbing over things but we are confident that we are going to present a tough challenge to the young pros on the day. After all, we are forgetting what the laaities still have to learn... and they have to do the whole triathlon on their own...

It dawned on us that many of these twenty-somethings may not even know what we used to get up to back in our day. After all, none of it is on the web, so we can claim just about anything without the fear of Google catching us out.

Something that the pros of today should be very envious of was the Energade Triathlon Series of the late 90s and early 2000s. Between September and December we would race almost every weekend around South Africa, Mauritius, Zimbabwe and Namibia. The TV coverage was exceptional, allowing us to make a decent living from personal sponsors.

Between the three of us, we must have won more than twenty of these races with a couple of overall series wins as well. Claude and Glen didn't keep count of their wins but I know that I contributed... two to that total ;)

We had some memorable battles over those years but we are looking forward to working together to push the youngsters of today over the ultra distance in August. If you are not doing the race, come down and give us a cheer and a push... we may need it.

I am back on Zwift again after overdoing it a bit during lockdown and not being able to face it for a few months afterwards. Zwift is a great platform for training. The control and variety that it provides allows a more efficient use of my training time than can be achieved on my training roads in real life, with cars, pedestrians and intersections breaking rhythm, concentration and output. Most of what we do on Zwift translates directly to riding and racing in the real world but there are some differences and idiosyncrasies.

Here are some unwritten rules and truths that I have observed / learned during my time on Zwift:

- Get a good fan. Get two or three if you can.

- Don't be shy with the chamois cream.

- Always remember which end of your sweat-towel you use for blowing your nose and which end you use for mopping your brow.

- Learn how to type on the Companion App whilst riding above FTP.

- Wipe your bike down after a session if you ever want to use it in the real world again.

The older we get, the better we were. On the 6th of August at the Durban Ultra Tri-Series, Glen Gore; Claude Eksteen and myself Donovan van Gelder will compete in a team in our favoured disciplines. Our combined average age is 50 and I am too lazy to calculate how many years of triathlon experience we have between us but we are definitely passed our peak as triathletes. Damian V Bradley tells me that the teams will start with the individuals so we are very interested to see how many young pros can beat the three old-timers of SA triathlon. The last edition of the race was won in a speedy 3:55. On a good day we would definitely like to go under four hours. How many laaities do you think will be ahead of us... if any?

Phenomenal race going on at Challenge Roth. Ditlev and Laidlow rode a sub 4:00 180km cycle. That is 45kph+. Crazy!

‘WHY I’M SWITCHING TO GRAVEL RACING’ After chasing podiums in triathlons and road races for almost four decades, Donovan van Gelder...

It was so lekker to compare 1992 and 2021 Donny on the bike last week that I thought I’d do a comparison of the run as well. I have a picture from the run that followed the bike ride in that 1992 race but I couldn’t find a comparable one, where the angles and timing were similar, from the 2021 race that I used for the bike comparison. I did however find a comparable pic from a race I did in 2019, where I was having a bit of fun racing in old-school kit, speedo and vest.

I have also added two other pictures where I am in almost the exact same phase of my running gait. The early pic is from 2001 but I am amazed at how similar my running posture has remained over the years.

The biggest differences I can see in the 1992-2019 comparison is in the hip extension. Although the distance in these two pictures is the same at 10km, 1992 Donny is clearly running faster. The foot on my recovering leg (right) is much higher and further back. If memory serves me, 1992 Donny ran about 5-6 minutes faster than 2019 Donny did in this race, which is a considerable difference over 10km and it can be seen in the stride length and the effort displayed on the face. Everything looks a bit more lose and less controlled in 1992. Again, as for the bike, all effort and determination for younger Donny while 2019 Donny has probably calculated that he is not going to catch whoever is in front so is just doing enough to stay ahead of whoever is behind. Not that he could have run much faster off the bike anyway.

In 2001 Donny is again, definitely running faster. The posture is more upright and he is clearly driving off harder to get more distance per stride. The slightly higher arm carriage also suggests more speed. More relaxed in the face than 1992 Donny and has lost the ‘baby fat’ of his predecessor. Something which 2019 (and 2022) Donny has to work a lot harder to maintain.

The major thing that struck me when comparing these different pictures is how little things have changed as far as how I run (apart from the speed obviously). Back in 1992, I never thought about things like cadence, posture or running form. I just ran as fast as I could, the way that it felt natural for me to do. In 2001 I was making a living from racing triathlon, not a good one you understand, but I was trying to do everything right. I had worked with some really good coaches and studied and researched endurance training and physiology. There is a lot of extra time in the day when all you are doing is training and besides, I was certainly not going to retire to a life of leisure, so I had to plan for what I was going to be doing afterwards.

Although my training and racing knowledge had undoubtedly improved in the ten years between these pics, I still didn’t worry about how I was running. I was probably running double the weekly mileage that I was doing in 1992, but as far as form goes, I was still running as it was natural for me to do.

In 2019 I had learned a lot more about running posture, optimum cadence, foot-strike etc. All things that I have experimented with and worked to improve where I thought I was not optimal. Apart from a few years where I played at just being a cyclist, my weekly running mileage has not differed much from the early 2000s.

As it turns out, I don’t think the outcome has been much different as a result though. Which brings me to a conclusion I came to many years ago – while there are obviously things we can work on to improve the way we run, running is not like swimming, where we can adapt and perfect our stroke. We run how we run according to our physiology and trying to mess with that too much, will not have a positive effect.

I passed the time during my December training break reading through some of my old training diaries. I used A4 hardcover books which I covered and decorated with pictures for motivation. I have one for every year from 1986 until the late 90s, after which, digital options became available. It is always entertaining reading what my younger self wrote in these. I have always been over the top, detail focused, and I made note of everything from training, eating, sleeping etc. etc. My race reports and analysis are especially entertaining but most are not for sharing!

I digress though. The reason for this post is the picture from a triathlon in 1992 which was on the cover of the 1993 diary. I found it interesting to compare 21-year-old Donny to 50-year-old Donny in the picture alongside, from the Durban ultra last year.

Position – Although the angle of the picture is not exactly the same, I can see that my body position is pretty similar. I pride myself on having maintained my flexibility over the years, so that I can still get myself into pretty aggressive, aerodynamic positions. One area that I have improved is my shoulders. I am able to get my elbows and hands closer now than I could thirty years ago.

Clothing – We didn’t wear much back in the day. Trisuits were available back then but most of us still opted for the speedo and cropped top option. I’d like to say it was because the suits were not nearly as good as they are now but I think it was more that we wanted to show off as much skin as was legal on public roads. I mean look at the tan on young Donny! There are also a lot less scars and wrinkles.

Helmet – In 1992 I am wearing one of the early hard-shell options. This was the second or third generation Vantage. A locally made helmet which replaced the leather ‘hair-net’ variety that we used in the 80s. The aero lids of today do so much more than protect us. The head is the first part of the body that hits the wind and, as a result, makes a huge difference to our overall aerodynamics.

The bike – In 1992 I was using ‘Grip-Shift’ to change gears. These are the rotating barrel you can see on the end of my bars. They worked very well and I can remember being very happy with them compared to other options of the time. I have a Zipp tri-Spoke and J-Disc in, which I bought when racing in the USA. The J-Disc was a spoked wheel covered in Mylar, which made the wheel much lighter than other carbon disc options of the time and the elliptical shape made the handling in cross-winds much better than the flat models that I had used before. The frame is a Cannondale 2.8, which was one of the first triathlon focused aluminium frames I think. It had steeper seat and head tube angles, which made getting into these aero positions easier, and more efficient by keeping the hip angle more open than could have been achieved on road bike geometry.

On the subject of hip angle. I was using 180mm cranks here and continued to do so well into the 2000s. The thinking is the longer the lever the more leverage and power. The physiology of my legs actually allowed me to use these long cranks without too much penalty (closing up the hip angle) but in the 2021 picture I am using 165mm cranks and I don’t feel any loss in power or force. It would be interesting to have had a powermeter to see what I was able to hold back in the 90s though.

The tyres in 1992 would have been 19mm tubulars pumped to 12 bar. Pressure was speed back then. In 2021… still tubbies but 25mm wide and probably only about 8 bar pressure.

A side note – I have never ridden stock-standard bikes. Even when I had bike sponsors. This Cannondale was provided by my sponsors at the time but the components, wheels, saddles and bars are all a mash up of what I preferred and found to be faster or more comfortable. Always the emphasis on the former. You can’t see it in this pic but I had actually drilled out the chainrings on this bike to save weight. To this day I do love to tinker.

The bike computer has cables neatly wound around the front brake cable and then running down the length of the downtube to the speed and cadence sensors mounted on the rear stay. I stuck the cable to the tube using tape. I preferred these to the front fork mounted models because I have always liked cadence as a metric for training and racing. I think this was a Cateye and probably only gave me speed; distance; cadence and time. In 2021 I am using the Polar V650 which connects via Bluetooth to the powermeters in both pedals and my HR strap on my chest. It measures distance and speed via GPS and tells me more things than I think are probably necessary.

Before I go… we have to mention the facial expressions. Young Donny was all aggression and determination and he never had the best poker face. It was simply, go as hard as you can, for as long as you can. Older, wiser, more mellow Donny is still riding hard but at a more controlled effort, trying to stay relaxed. He is also a much better poker player.

I had some fun writing this article for Road Bike Magazine. Not about preparing for a bike race this time. Rather, how to approach the race if you have... or haven't prepared well. You can see the digital edition here... https://joom.ag/u5GI

This is CyberCoach HQ. My own training happens or, at least begins, out of the front, and training schedules for the team get planned in the office at the back. I like to divide the room as it helps me to change 'hats' between athlete and coach, so to speak.

I haven't always had the luxury of a dedicated space for training or storing equipment. My early career as an athlete was spent making the best with what sponsors provided or what I could afford. This makes me appreciate my current situation so much more, and it definitely adds to my enjoyment of the hard work, which helps with consistency and productivity.

I know many of my clients have set up dedicated training spaces. I'm interested to see/read about yours. Do you decorate with memorabilia, medals, race shirts etc? What do you have that helps set the mood for a hard session?

Please post a pic or describe in the comments your training space and what you would change or add.