As I sit here writing this article about the benefits of utilising new technologies to aid your triathlon and endurance performance, the world's media is going "crazy" over claims that the new Speedo LZR Racer swimsuit (which has "claimed" 13 of the 14 world swimming records this year at various meets to contest placings at the Beijing Olympics '08), may be subject to review and subsequent dismissal from the Olympics over claims that it is "just not fair and ethical".

Its not the first time (nor will it be the last) that new technological advances have been frowned upon by the "establishment" with the UCI (Union Cycliste Internationale) being particularly against the various design elements that were brought into the cycling arena in the mid-1990s to improve a rider's aerodynamic positioning. If you have not seen the movie "The Flying Scotsman" about the prolific life of the Scottish track cyclist Graeme Obree and his battle against the UCI's many (and varying) regulations, I highly recommend you do - its very enlightening!

Having studied Sports & Exercise Science at University I am personally very interested in the potential benefits that training with various so-called "new technologies" may have for myself and my athletes. Rather than look at any of the external equipment which can (in theory) make you faster, i.e. aero wheels, carbon fibre monocoque frames, super-fast skin suits etc, this article will focus on the technology that can help you and your coach develop your own inherent physiological "engine" to the best of its capabilities...all the other technology would thus be the "icing on the cake". As such, we'll be discussing the potential that the following products may offer you:

1. Heart Rate Monitors
2. Bicycle Power Meters
3. GPS / Footpod Running Computers
4. Performance Management with WKO+ Analysis Software

And if you'd prefer not to read this lengthy account, why not listen to the majority of it with our first Podcast on Training and Racing with New Technology! You see, we think of everything at The TEAM CORE! ;-)

My first 3 years at Univerisity were great - I was the wide-eyed "bushy-tailed" triathlete keen to absorb as much scientific information about how to improve my own performances as possible! Heart rate monitors were still the "buzz" and we were beginning to be introduced to cycle powermeters and their benefits, albeit on stationary ergometers. Lactate Threshold testing was a regular aspect of our studying, as too were expensive VO2 Max testing sessions.

By my final (4th) year at the University of Bath (UK) however, I had grown a little despondent with all the various training and testing protocols that our tutors would "throw at us". Much of what we learnt seemed to be way too research-orientated and very rarely did we apply any of what we learnt to the "real world". Lab tests would take several weeks to filter through our coaches and by the time we had the analysis, our training levels had moved on (often substantially!). There seemed to be a distinct lack of communication between the tutor, the lab technician, the coach and subsequently, the athlete. Much of this I would suggest was due to these practices still being in their relative infancy, knowledge and experience being limited, and the ability to "self-test" being obsolete at that point.

I left University feeling the same way about sports science and technology as many athletes I now speak to feel:

"Sod the numbers! Just give me my bike, I'll ride it as hard as I can, as often as possible, and then I'll see results!"

Little did I know that I was missing out on so much potential for improvement with a more simplistic approach to applied sports science, as practiced by the Peaksware Group, notably coach Hunter Allen and physiologist Dr. Andy Coggan.

In July 2006, coach Stuart Ashley got me thinking about the growing interest in cycling powermeters and GPS running computers that allowed athletes to track and measure their own performances easily using a quantitative benchmark. I initially balked at the cost of some of these items but then figured that if I were to personally invest in some of this equipment, learn how they work, see the benefits with my own training etc etc, I'd be better versed to offer advice to my athletes.

It all started with me reading the revolutionary book "Training and Racing with a Powermeter" by Allen and Coggan and subsequently buying both an Ergomo powermeter and a Polar RS800sd running computer. I have since attended lectures both online and in person with Hunter Allen and the Peaksware Group (USAT Coaching Congress, January 2007) and have immersed myself in learning more about how to make best use of this technology.

The results that I have (for the first time) been able to guage and track using the fantastic WKO+ Training Peaks software program for both myself and my athletes have been literally mind-blowing. No more "stabbing in the dark" - this is realtime applied sports science that is simple to implement and a true joy to work with! Yes, there are teething issues that we all go through when working with these products - the beauty of working with The TEAM CORE is that we know how to guide you through these issues, saving you time and the headaches some people experience! At this point a quote from Rich Strauss of Crucible Fitness Coaching may be quite prudent:

"When you enter the powertraining arena you are investing in a system, not just hardware. That system involves manuals, procedures, buttons, software, com ports, device drivers, books, websites, strange terms, cost of installation, chargers, calibrations, batteries that need to be replaced, troubleshooting, pre-flight checks, buttons to push, software and more buttons. Your PM is only as effective as your commitment to making the investment in learning how to do all of this and accepting that the above list is largely a cost of doing business. Get over it :-)"

Rich Strauss from the Google Wattage Forum

Keen to learn more and find out in an unbiased, independent analysis of which products may work best for you? Good - read on! You may also like to read our summary of Periodisation which will further educate you on why it is beneficial to structure your training time more efficiently with effective key workouts that can be monitored with this equipment.

Its worth knowing a little bit of the science behind how and why these new technologies can help you ascertain appropriate training zones and thus allow you to train more efficiently. So sit back, this won't take long and I promise it won't "hurt"!

No other physiological parameter determines endurance performance better than your lactate threshold (LT), since it integrates VO_{2 MAX}, the percentage of VO_{2 MAX} that can be sustained for a given duration, and swim, cycle and run efficiency (Coggan, 2006).

Lactate threshold can be measured in numerous ways, with the general consensus between applied sports scientists as this being the pace or power output that a swimmer/runner or cyclist could maintain for a period of 60 minutes.

In the sports laboratory, physiologists would conduct an incremental step-test with regular blood sampling for lactate production (measured in millimols per litre, or Mmol^-1). Essentially, the harder you work, the more lactate you produce. Unlike your Rating of Perceived Exertion (RPE), i.e. how hard you feel like you are working, and heart rate (which tend to increase uniformly with increased workload up to a maximum “ceiling”), lactate production increases exponentially after a period of steady state equilibrium. The inflection point at which blood levels of lactic acid begin to rise in an exponential fashion is deemed to be the lactate threshold or LT. For the majority of endurance athletes, this point occurs at or around 4.0 Mmol^-1 and historically, this figure has been used as a fixed reference point for LT.

Studies have shown that Maximal Lactate Steady State (MLSS), which is where lactate production exceeds lactate removal, occurs at 4.0 Mmol^-1 in most individuals and is the best indicator of endurance performance in events such as 10km running, 40km cycle time trial, 1500m swimming.

By viewing VO_{2 MAX} (i.e. the maximum volume of oxygen in litres that can be utilised by the body per kilogram of body weight per minute) as the actual given size of your sports ‘engine’ (e.g. a 2.0L Ford compared to a 5.0L shiny new BMW), where your LT ‘sits’ in relation to this could be viewed as how well tuned that engine actually is (e.g. standard or turbo-injected). Whilst VO_{2 MAX} is essentially determined by your genetic makeup and as such has limits on how much it can be improved, your LT is actually highly trainable. Because of this it should be nice to know that just because your arch nemesis has the ‘potential’ to be better than you, doesn’t mean to say he/she necessarily will be!

By working to progressively increase your LT over time, you are ensuring that you are reaching your own true potential and not that of someone else. Working like this will be encouraging and motivating by nature of the fact that your goals become that much more realistic and attainable and ensure longevity in your quest for peak performance.

Knowing at what pace (swim / run), or power output (cycle), your own LT occurs is the most insightful way for you and your coach to plan a structured, periodized training program tailored specifically for you. From this data it is possible to define a number of different training “zones” that will ensure that each and every session is maximised in both effectiveness and time efficiency. This ensures optimal training adaptation in the following key areas for development:

Whilst in reality the physiological responses to exercise actually fall on a continuum, being able to closely target these areas allows sessions to be easily understood by the athlete ensuring that the ‘easy’ sessions are indeed easy, and thus allowing the ‘hard’ sessions to actually be hard. All too often athletes tend to train in a very muddy “grey” area, such that even when they feel that they are going steady, they are still pushing way too hard. Doing so impacts on both recovery and the ability to excel in the ‘harder’ sessions where the real improvements in their performances are made. These same athletes typically report a sensation of stagnation in their training and/or results, as well as potentially opening them up to an increased likelihood of injury / illness.

Now, if you could have an objective measure upon which to base your training zones to complement your subjective level of Perceived Exertion in a training session or in a race, you'd be onto a real winner! Working efficiently with new technology allows you do this and as such be so much more "accurate" and confident in your ability to carry out training sessions in an effective manner. Some people argue that "working by numbers" can take both the enjoyment out of training and the learned feeling you get from perceiving your own level of exertion; however, I have found this to be completely to the contrary - there's nothing more enjoyable than knowing and being able to see that the hard work you are putting in is not only paying off, but also teaching you so much more about how your body works and functions at the same time!

Once our athletes have completed a week of testing (simply a 400m swim Time Trial, a 50m swim Time Trial, a 20min all-out bike effort, and a 5km run Time Trial), their results are fed into our unique Athlete Toolkit to assign these appropriate training levels.

The Polar Electro OY Company released the world's first production heart rate monitor (HRM) in 1982. Since this date HRMs have become a popular choice for fitness enthusiasts and those wishing to guage their level of training intensity. They are also very reasonably priced this days and come with a variety of functions allowing the less "tech savy" among us to readily make use of this technology.

A directory of recommended HRMs can be found here. Expect to pay ~USD $80 to $500 for a HRM.

Monitoring heart rate (HR) allows the athlete to see exactly how hard their heart is working in resonse to a given workload (i.e. riding into a headwind at 30km/h), but it does not allow the athlete to see improvements in performance without this constant reference to a known workload. Equally, HR is also affected on a daily (even hourly) basis by such things as your level of hydration, your core body temperature, how well you slept last night, the levels of stress in your everyday life etc and as such is very variable by nature. Using it as your sole guage for ascertaining your training levels is no longer the optimal way to work - as such we need a more absolute measure of performance rather than (or as well as) this relative measure. This is where a powermeter on the bike - which measures how many watts you are putting out (effectively how hard you are pushing on the pedals), or a GPS / Footpad monitor on the run - which shows how fast you are running over varied terrain - come into effect.

One of the really neat things about working with both HR and power / pace, is that the athlete can accurately guage things such as levels of fatigue, hydration and fueling status as well as the level of aerobic conditioning that a given program has provided you with:

1. Fatigue - if you know that you can normally hold a steady-state 250 watts on the bike for 60 minutes with a HR of ~160bpm, but after 7 solid days of training can only get your HR to 150bpm with a strong sense of fatigue in the legs, it may be time to back off a bit. Conversely, if you used to sit on 250 watts and 160bpm but after 6 weeks of structured training with adequate rest you can now do the same session at 150bpm and feel "cruisey" - chances are your performance has improved dramatically!

2. Hydration / Fueling - again by accurately knowing your body's response to a given workload (e.g. 250 watts), you can see whether your hydration and fueling strategy is as effective as you would hope. At a constant 250 watts but with a HR that starts to climb readily after the first hour or so, may be indicative of dehydration setting in*. Equally if your workload begins to drop substantially along with HR well into the ride, this may indicate insufficient carbohydrate fueling. A post-ride analysis will confirm the number of calories expended against your cross-reference of what you have consumed - any imbalance against what would be considered "normal" would highlight the need for increased fuel intake or rather, a more diligent fueling regime.

3. *Aerobic Conditioning - at a steady-state level of training (i.e. below threshold), it would be hoped that with good aerobic conditioning your power / pace and HR curves would display a fairly parallel formation with HR neither drifting up or down more than ~3 to 5% over the given session. If HR steadily increases by more than 5% and you are confident that you are riding in the correct zone, this may indicate the phenomenon so-called "HR Decoupling" which is described in full by Joe Friel here.

Clearly, there is still benefit in using a HRM as a relative guage of your training intensity, but to fully maximize on your training time, investing the time, effort and money into a power meter and/or GPS / footpod monitor would be a worthwhile investment.

POWER = FORCE x VELOCITY

...simply put that means how hard you are pushing on your pedals (Newtons), multiplied by how fast you are turning your legs around (RPM).

Power measures the sum of all forces resisting you from moving forward on a bicycle. e.g. aero drag, rolling resistance, gravity, drive train efficiency, mass of rider and bike, etc. Basing your performance in a session or race on how fast you covered the course is only the outcome of what it took to get you to achieve that time. On a windy, hilly course you are going to ride slower than on a flat course with a tailwind - which was the better ride? When were you the fittest? You don't know. If you were measuring your power output on each ride you'd get a much clearer picture of which was the better ride as power output is independent of all the variables you cannot control. Remember that your HR on both these rides is purely the response to how hard you had to pedal and is not absolutely indicative of how hard you actually pedalled! Most power meters come with a HRM interface also built-in.

By monitoring your power output in every ride and becoming familiar with how to quickly and efficiently analyse your data, you and your coach can quickly ascertain if you are meeting your objectives, addressing your strengths and weaknesses and as such working as efficiently as possible within your program. By utilising the industry-leading WKO+ Training Peaks analysis software we can also manage your performances that much more effectively too!

A directory of recommended PMs can be found here. Expect to pay ~USD $1200 to $4000 for a power meter.

More Information:

As this is such an expansive area to try to cover, I would recommend you have a listen / read through these areas to help familiarise yourself a little further:

• listen to our "Training and Racing with New Technology" podcast for more detailed information.

• If you're in the market for a power meter, I would first highly recommend purchasing a copy of "Training and Racing with a Powermeter" by Allen and Coggan.

• You will also find our Forum Resource an indispensable collection of guides to familiarising yourself with this relatively "new" area.

• Coach and author Joe Friel offers some advice on whether a power meter is necessary here.

Summary of Benefits of Training with Power:

• Perfect control of your power at intense efforts (sprints, intervals).

• Optimal dose of training load and  control over over-training.

• Motivation through visible progress in your efforts increase in Watts while maintaining HR.

• Virtual wind tunnel improvement of your body positioning and material, e.g. wheels, clothes, helmet, etc.

• Training zones can be determined and controlled very precisely and training targets can be reached and controlled easily.

• Perfect estimation and control of your power at lactate threshold and optimized planning of your season and races.

• Watts in combination with HR as indicator for your fitness weight, fitness and well-being.

• Power in Watts is the action and heart rate is the reaction of your body.

• Below is an excerpt from "Training & Racing with a Power Meter" detailing some of the benefits you can gain from working with a coach to fully utilise this technology:

Know Thyself:

A power meter supplies a great deal of information about your ride and this information will enable you to identify your strenghths and weaknesses.

Record your effort, add meaning to heart rate monitoring, track fitness changes, analyze your races, pinpoint your strengths and weaknesses.

Work Together:

A power meter communicates this detailed information to your coach in a way that enables you to work together more efficiently.

Improve interaction with your coach and/or team-mates.

Focus Your Training:

With this information at your fingertips and with better coaching you can better identify training goals and methods.

Gain motivation to work harder, improve your position and aerodynamics, pace your efforts, create a mobile testing lab, enhance indoor training, coordinate your sports nutrition for best performance.

Achieve Peak Performance:

With better information, better communication, and better training, you will be better positioned to do your best in cycling.

Allen and Coggan, 2006.

The GPS monitors and Footpod computers offered by companies like Garmin and Polar look set to revolutionize the running training market in much the same way as the power meter is doing for cycling. Now you can have an absolute objective measure of your running performance all on the small user-friendly interface of your wrist-watch! These watches typically measure:

1. Running Speed
2. HR
3. Distance Covered
4. Stride Rate
5. Stride Length
6. Vertical altitude gained / lost

They are all compatible with the WKO+ Training Peaks Analysis Software too and as such ensure that all your training data can be kept in one place and cross-referenced easily with the same format / software.

Again, the information on this topic is forever expanding, but a really neat and concise collection of some of the benefits of this topic can be found at the Training Peaks website and is welll worth a read.

A directory of recommended running computers can be found here. Expect to pay ~USD $250 to $500 for a running computer.

The real benefit in working with our TEAM CORE coaches is their knowledge and experience when it comes to analysising your data and helping you to understand why certain sessions are key for your improvement. Utilising the industry-leading WKO+ Training Peaks Analysis Software allows us to ensure you reach peak performance at the right time with the Performance Manager application (PMC). This application allows us to effectively blend the art and science behind coaching into one seamless, highly effective program tailored for you.

For the PMC to work most effectively, the athlete will be utilising both a power meter and footpod / GPS and be able to commit to regularly downloading this data from the respective devices and uploading them to their TEAM CORE Online Coaching Log. This will allow their coach to monitor their progression much more effectively than has ever been possible with online coaching.

Fig. 1 The beneficial effects of a well periodised training program can be clearly seen in this graph. The blue curve (fitness) needs to gradually progress over a period of time with workload (fatigue) being balanced against appropriate recovery (effect being the yellow "form" curve).

Essentially when you train you fatigue your body (pink curve), but this regular dose of training is essential for fitness to be progressively built (blue curve). The balance between how tired you are from a given session or period of training against your relative level of fitness can be described as your "form" (yellow curve) . Obviously you want to be in peak form for your A-race and as such need to balance your fatigue and fitness to its most optimal point. In doing so we can estimate with a good degree of accuracy just how well you will perform in a given event. Doing so, and with a vast array of experience in this, allows us to confidently manage your training workload so that the "mystery" of nailing your taper correctly is anything but a mystery. When working with the Performance Manager, athletes begin to really appreciate the benefits of hard bouts of training balanced with adequate periods of rest and recovery. Seeing this progression graphically as well as with improved results is one of the biggest confidence boosters you can do for your training and preparation!

To find out more about how The TEAM CORE can help you with your training and racing with new technology and to register for our unique online coaching service, please visit the online triathlon coaching page.