Putting that Pricey Math Minor to Use, Sort Of..

Early in the week you may have noticed my coach (Frank Overton, owner of Fascat Coaching) posted on Facebook "This graph and the athlete's race(s) this past weekend makes me a very happy coach" and attached this:

Which gave me the idea to tell you all what that means, and how Frank's plan, and my legs, come together to make me the best possible cyclist at the perfect time. Its science and math, I love science and math. SO, here we go. This is my job.

Frank is a pioneering contributor and implementer of a mathematical model originally developed by Dr. Andy Coggan, Ph.D that aims to predict an athlete's peak capabilities by quantifying his fitness according to his training over time. Their concept hinges on a very simple formula:

Fitness - Fatigue = Form

Simple enough, right? Form, as a cyclist would describe it, is another way of saying an athlete's ability to do well, often an athlete is described as "being on great form" when he is peaking. Mathematically, form is best described as an athlete's potential to do well, like a rock held up high has the potential to create energy if let go, the higher the rock, the more potential it has to do work. Ultimately, form is an athlete's ability to do work, more specifically, form is POWER.

Every day I ride with a power meter, which records my energy output and saves the data to be later transferred to Frank so he can monitor my training. Power meters provide a unique opportunity for cyclists to quantify with great certainty the difficulty of a training ride. Dr. Coggan developed a method of quantifying training with a metric aptly named "Training Stress Score" or "TSS":

TSS = Exercise Duration * Normalized Power * Intensity Factor ^ 2

Using my power data, and Dr. Coggan's mathematical model, Frank is able to determine my Training Stress Score (TSS) for every ride I do, and thereby can determine the following graph (don't worry, its not as confusing as it looks):

Behold! The Performance Management Chart, 'Ye Holy Grail o Training

This is my Performance Management Chart, starting on October 1, 2013 and showing all the way out to mid-April. There are 3 important lines, numbered sections (which I have added) that correspond to different training blocks, and dots (which you do not need to worry about). SO, Lets get right to it:

• Blue Line with area beneath shaded: This is my Chronic Training Load (CTL). CTL is fitness.  It describes the historic load on an athlete over time according to training. It is logical to say that as you train more, you gain more training load, and you have more ability to perform as that load increases. Think of CTL as lifting that rock higher and higher.
• Purple Line: This is my Acute Training Load (ATL). ATL is fatigue.  It describes the recent effect training has on the athlete, or the negative gain training has on an athlete in the recent future. In other words, if you do a 6 hour day, your ATL will go way up, showing the fatigue associated to the intense load of that training day, however if you take the next 2 days off, ATL decreases as you recover from the effort. So, the higher the purple line, the more tired I am. 
• Yellow Line: This is the Training Stress Balance (TSB). TSB is form, which I talked about above. Form is what we are training for, and it is the relationship between your historic training load (CTL) and your recent activity (ATL).

See? Its not that complicated. We use TSS to quantify the training load each day. That has 2 effects on an athlete:

1. He gets more fit.
2. He gets more tired.

It is easy to conclude, then, that an athlete wants to increase his ability to preform as much as possible, without getting too tired. That is where Frank comes in, and where those numbered boxes are useful (which I will list at the end of this explanation for those interested). Frank implements Dr. Coggan's training model in order to monitor my rising fitness and fatigue, and applies scientifically proven training planning to help me increase my fitness as much as possible before the season of racing begins without getting too tired. Getting too tired can result in over-training, which can be detrimental to an athlete's season, and Frank knows how to walk the line without crossing it (believe me).

Every day during the build Frank has a targeted TSS that I am to hit. My job is to do everything in my power to be ready to hit that number, which means sleeping, eating properly an and off the bike, actually riding said bike, naping, stretching, and self massage with a triggerpoint roller. I also need to give him feedback with how I am feeling during and after rides, which can be valuable information when determining how much ATL is too much ATL. 

Put this all together, and you can actually schedule a peak performance. Look at the Performance Management Chart, on the right side you see dates that have not actually happened yet. That is the model's prediction of the 3 metrics if I were to take each day completely off as far as the chart shows (Frank often puts future training on the chart, which shows where I will be, but for this blog I kept it with 0 training to show what happens). My ATL (fatigue) plummets with the rest, while my CTL (fitness) gradually decreases and my TSB (form) rockets upwards. This, as my coach so eloquently puts it, is "The Shit That Will Kill Them." or the TSTWKT training plan.

That is my job. You can see why sometimes I feel like Frank's surrogate for graph making, because truly that's what I am; a spandex-wearing, sometimes princess-like, surrogate for Franks TSTWKT. Going back to that first graph Frank posted at the top of this blog; the first test of the season was a success that showed Frank we were on track for a great year with a 31 minute 376 watt effort in the opening time trial of the Madera Stage Race. 

We are both working hard and looking forward to a very successful season!

That concludes blog proper, here is the in-depth look at what each box was for my training so far this year (Yellow boxes are rest blocks):

1. Off Season. I was not riding during this time. You can see my CTL decrease from where it left off at the end of the 2013 season.
2. Double Days Part 1: Mornings in the weight room (Adaptation and Hypertrophy phases) and afternoons on the bike in Zone 2 with strength intervals
3. Visit Jackson for some time off.
4. Double Days Part 2: Mornings in the weight room (Strength and Power phases) with afternoons on the bike in zone 2 with anaerobic intervals.
5. Visit Jackson for some ski touring and rest.
6. Double Days Part 2 Cont.: Final build before Christmas break.
7. Christmas in Milwaukee, some weight room and spinning, mostly rest.
8. Riding Build 1: Monk mode training. Eat, sleep, ride, sleep some more. I dealt with some over-training symptoms for most of this build, luckily Frank kept an eye on the power numbers and kept the foot on the gas and got me through it. Big CTL gains with 6, 5, and 4 hour ride blocks with tempo and sweet-spot intervals.
9. Jackson rest with ski touring.
10. Riding Build 2: More CTL building, lots of tempo and sweet-spot intervals. The arrow at the top of the build was the highest CTL I had ever achieved to date, that includes after Tour of California last year. Thats some HUGE training!
11. Rest weekend in Jackson
12. Maintenance rides before camp
13. Rest before Team Camp
14. 5-Hour Energy p/b Kenda Team Camp
15. Big Regeneration Block in Jackson before transitioning into VO2 Efforts and training races.
16. Madera Stage Race and getting sick from the pollen, doing maintenance rides while my body heals.
17. The future!

Now you know how to train. Frank is probably going to be mad that I told you (read more here and here).

Gas Should be $20 per Gallon

I was driving to Bend, OR (one of my favorite places on earth) listening to the Planet Money podcast entitled "The One-Page Plan to Fix Global Warming" and was reminded of an email I wrote Annie a few months ago ranting about how I think gas should be $20/gal. The podcast briefly sums up what is an elegant 2 word answer to global warming: carbon tax. It basically would slowly increase the price of gas over time, so as to not shock the economy which heavily depends on oil, but to give the country incentive to move in other directions than oil consumption. Economists, after all, tend to believe incentive is the root of all action, I tend to agree.

In addition to reducing the effects of carbon emission on our planet, which is most likely the gravest problem we face right now as a community of people living on earth, I think it would have a great number of added solutions to problems that we face as a country.

1. Health Care (Exercise)

The Centers for Disease Control and Prevention states on their website that over a third of adults and 17% of children in the United States are obese. They also note the cost of that epidemic:

In 2008, overall medical care costs related to obesity for U.S. adults were estimated to be as high as $147 billion.

 $147 Billion. In the 2012 fiscal year the United States Government Federal Education Budget was $121 Billion. That is $26 Billion more than our government spends on schools. Granted, that does not include individual state spending, but this is just for perspective. I should not have to cite any specific research, as there are thousands upon thousands of studies all linking exercise to a reduction in chronic diseases resulting from obesity. And lets not forget to mention that a large portion of the population that are diagnosed with high blood pressure, heart disease, or chronic stress which are synonymous with obesity, are not considered obese and are therefore not included in the $147B figure.

Another study, "Waging War on Modern Chronic Diseases: Primary Prevention Through Exercise Biology" Estimates that the total cost of epidemic chronic diseases in this country is nearing $1 Trillion and attributes 250,000 premature deaths a year to conditions related to insufficient exercise. Our country's gravest health problem is that of chronic disease, which is preventable. How might we circumvent this preventable epidemic? Well, if your car cost you $250 to $400 a week to drive to and from work, you might just consider, well I don't know, a bike?

I agree, you live far away, it might take you an hour to bike to work. Here is a simple solution to that. MOVE! You think that is a big deal? I just talked to a guy the other day who went in for a check up and left with a quadruple bypass. Are you telling me that the fact that you don't think you can, or just don't want to, relocate, is the reason you sit in traffic not exercising every day? That is a terrible reason, and its a choice you do not have to face thanks to the modern marvel of the car. In order to make positive change, you have to make changes. Moving is not hard, and if it is, you have too much stuff. Move near to where you work, increase your productivity by commuting and exercising, and take another car off the road which will also emit less carbon. Save money. Save the environment. Save your life.

2. Industrial Food

You've read Omnivore's Dilemma. You've seen Food, Inc. You've heard about how industrial agriculture works. If you have not, I suggest you start with either of those publications that can do a much better job than I can explaining how we feed our population in this country. This is my best attempt to paraphrase what I think is the most important part of this issue:

Natural Food Cycle

Industrial Food Cycle

Get quickly acquainted with the industrial food industry here, then check out the farm featured in Food Inc. and Omnivore's Dilemma here. Fascinating differences between two groups of people doing essentially the same thing (feeding people) while also doing so much more. For the sake of my article, however, its the gas that is important. Raise the price of things you do not want. The simple fact is that its cheaper to buy something processed than fresh, and that is due to subsidies and cheap gas. If veggies at my farmers market were cheaper than oreos, we might have some significant changes in diet in America, which relates to the first topic of this article: Health. My bottom line: a McDouble should not cost less than kale, but it does. (The relationship between food and health in America is greatly explained in the documentary Food Matters, check it out!)

Since I'm not an expert at all, but I feel like I am trying to sound like one, I should include a rap lyric from Lupe Fiasco here to break the serious tension that I feel I have so far conveyed:

How many fries can these arteries take?
I'll give McDonald's a little help here
I think they should expand into healthcare
And then you'll have all ends covered
Even make caskets, have it all umbrella'd

Speaking of covering all ends....

3. Government Policy

In 2012, according to OpenSecrets.org (the nation's premier research group tracking money in U.S. politics and its effect on elections and public policy), the Energy and Natural Resources sector and Transportation sector combined to spend more on lobbying ($622 million) than any other sector in the United States (even more than the health care sector, which spent $487 million). That makes those two sectors combined the most powerful force in influencing government policy of the most powerful government in the world. For me its safe to say that from time to time you get what you pay for in US Politics, and with the Oil and Gas industry dominating the Energy and Natural Resources sector with $140 million in 2012, they are having a great influence on our government policy making. The interest of these sectors is inversely related to the interest of the environment and the health of the people who live in it. They ignore scientific proof that our earth is changing (According to Greenpeace, in 2000 Koch Industries contributed $61 million to “climate-denial front groups.”), and profit from every second we sit in traffic.

Think back to when people actually smoked cigarettes in earnest. I want to think of oil companies as modern day 1970's tobacco companies, which were reduced to a helpless pulp by people making changes in the way they live their lives. Its just better for everyone.

Ahhh yes, everyone, my segue train keeps on a rollin'...

4. Community

What do cars have that bikes do not? While there are many right answers, the one I am looking for here is giant steel boxes with sound proof windows surrounding the driver. Another answer that I would accept: "empty seats."

If gas is $20 a gallon, maybe, just maybe, people may begin to go out of their way to team up and buy gas together. The easiest way to do that is let a bus driver do it for you, or a person who gives you and 2 other people a ride to work, or even to just not buy gas at all. Cars help us ignore what is happening around us. The exhaust pipe is situated as far away from you as possible which helps us ignore our impact on the environment. The radio is there to help us ignore that we are alone. The power they possess help us ignore how far away things are. Their design make us feel less responsible for our actions on the road, like cutting someone off or buzzing a cyclist. We are separated from our actions in a car, which is bad for us as a community. As a pedestrian you would never cut someone off to show rage, or stop in front of them, or run by them so close that you nearly knock them over, because you are accountable for your actions. Even when you pass gas you are IMMEDIATELY aware of your impact. I truly believe you are more courteous and considerate when you are held accountable for it, and you owe that to the people around you. 

I also feel, in my own utopia, the idea of streets filled with bikes and people would be an amazing thing for a community. Increasing the interactions between people within a community would no doubt increase its tight-knitted-ness. 

5. All those opposed?

What about people who cant get around without a car?

I believe THIS is what subsidies are for. Since we are talking a tax, which would be a great source of revenue, it would be very easy to subsidize legitimate need for gas. I think it would be interesting to see what would happen if a person were to claim that due to their obesity they would need a subsidy. I agree you are free to do what you want, so that is a tough one. 

You seem to think people can just up and move their entire lives.

Yep. I do. People are amazing.

What about vacations? You love those!

I do! Man, I really do, and this would destroy me as a person who puts nearly 30,000 miles a year on his car driving around the country. Maybe airlines are not subjected to this tax. After about 5 seconds of the country knowing about this, companies will be building rails and buying buses to make good money running long distance transportation companies. I am saying that it needs to be a serious decision to drive a car, a decision that takes into account your impact on the people around you, and I believe that you should be accountable for that, and if you want to spend $1000 driving half way across the country instead of taking a $300 plane, that is your choice. A big part of this is accountability for actions, and $20/gal might just be the cost of my actions in a car.

It would take me about an hour to bike to work, I dont have that kind of time.

This is the crux! This is how we can be sure our priorities are a mess. Lets start out by noting the average commute time for a worker older than 16 not working at home: 25.2 minutes. (Check out the study, as well as a map of commute times by state here) Its 25 minutes to get to work. In 25 minutes, at 15mph average (you can do it, I know you can!) that's 6.25 miles! Imagine all the houses you could find within a 6.25 mile radius of where you work!

Here is why it is the crux of the problem: who does not have the time to stay healthy and improve the outlook of the global environment? What are our priorities in this country that we cant spare an additional 30 minutes to an hour commuting to work, when we would not even have to go to the gym once we got home. We are so focused on being here and there and getting this and that and making this other trip, but when you just stop and think about it, why are we so caught up in all this crazy running around? Sitting in our cars for an average of 50.4 minutes a day getting to and from work? Say it takes you 2 hours to bike to and from work every day, is the additional 35 minutes in the morning and 35 minutes in the evening so hard to swing when you consider the benifits? I almost hate to ask, but why are you not doing that already?

I have to pick the kids up from soccer, or school, or Bobby's house, etc.

This is a lifestyle change that I propose. Hopefully school is close, just like work is close, and car pooling is an option. Burley makes a great thing:

So Happy!

The bus is still a great option for kids, and moving close to your school is a very good idea. We have to make changes to prevent the things I listed above, and they are big changes, but they are good changes. All we would be doing is creating people who understand that cars are not the main form of transportation, and that is a good thing. We cant keep letting the car excuse us from making real changes in our lives. When we drive somewhere, we make an impact!

6. Closing

We have the most unhealthy population of all time in America. Fully preventable diseases are the primary health threat in this country. Our food system is subsidized and Doritos are cheaper than spinach. Industrial food and cars both allow us to ignore the consequences of our actions (eating and moving). It takes energy to move places, and it takes food to get energy, and the addition of gas to that equation has toxic waste products that harm us and our planet. Gas should be incredibly expensive if you consider its consequences. I truly believe that increasing the price of gas to what it should be worth would have positive effects that far outweigh the negative in this country. We would be healthy, our planet would be healthy, our community would be stronger, and our government would be stronger. $20/gallon gas for everyone!!!!

Add your comments below and let the conversation begin!