Instagram story viewer> @bowstead_performance_coaching> Posts
Bowstead Performance Coaching(@bowstead_performance_coaching)'s profile avatar HD Profile

Bowstead Performance Coaching

@bowstead_performance_coaching

1.4K
followers
289
following
Premium personalized triathlon/endurance coach, Former professional long distance triathlete (2011-20). Ironman 70.3 winner and multiple 70.3 podiums.
POSTS STORIES REELS TAGGED
@peterfitzweijers raced the Ironman World Championship in Kona on Saturday: 9:43:55, 27th of 241 in the age group. Swim 1:09:17, bike 4:55:36, run 3:29:13. I went back through the build and the race file together, because they tell two different stories. The build first. Twelve weeks out the fitness score (CTL in TrainingPeaks) was 41, after a rough June. By mid-September it was 89, about 5 points a week. The biggest week was 922 TSS and 19.2 hours: 351km on the bike, 66km running, 9km in the pool. It was the only week over 800, and both 791 and 922 were followed by a lighter one. Then the taper took the hours from 19 to about 9.5, and race morning was CTL 78 with form (TSB) at plus 15. What I watched through the big week was whether it got absorbed. Resting heart rate stayed put and all 4 key sessions got done. The build predicted the run. In training he held 245W four hours into a ride with under 2% drift, and ran 25 minutes straight off a 5 hour ride with 0.65% drift. In Kona, after 4 hours 55 on the bike, pace while running went from 4:35 per km in the first half to 4:45 in the second, drift 1.0%, and the last kilometre was 4:36. The build couldn't predict the heat. The plan said 236 to 248W on the bike. He rode 215W normalised at a heart rate of 155 to 158. Output per heartbeat was about 14% lower than on the home race-power blocks. The race-week sharpener on the course had already shown it. The first block went out at 245W with heart rate at 157, and the last two settled at 222 to 226W. I wrote the bike watts off the home numbers, and I should have re-set them off that session. For a hot race I take the power from a ride in the heat now. Home numbers are a starting point. by @bowstead_performance_coaching
1
2 days ago
Download
How many grams an hour are you getting in?? You have to train nutrition as well! My athletes are even noting it themselves in @trainingpeaks One put 285g in on a long indoor ride, another 300g over three and a half hours. What I like about it is they're actually thinking about how much they need to get in now. Fuelling is probably the biggest change in this sport since I was racing. We understand a lot more about the absorption pathways and how to get the most carbs in, and athletes are really pushing the limits of what the gut can take. When an athlete asks me how much to eat on a ride, I ask what they've been doing first. Then we build up from there and work out where their ceiling is. Under an hour, not having much is ok. Once you're past an hour it matters, and when you're stacking day after day after day your metabolic furnace is burning the whole time. You have to eat so much more than you realise. Where most people go wrong is pretty simple. They don't have enough, and they don't train what they'll have on race day. A lot of athletes worry about putting on weight. I was one of them, and I underfuelled because of it. I regret that now. When you're training this much the furnace burns it. The other reason people underfuel is cost, and it's a fair one. Gels are $5 or $6 each, a drink is $6 or $7, and on a long day you go through a few. That's $30 to $40 for one training day, sometimes more. In the general training phase you can get the carbs in cheaper. A banana, a cheap oat bar, some lollies, sugar in your drink bottle. It's not what I'd recommend as race day gets closer, but it gets them in. I'd still always practise race nutrition on the key sessions. Getting the full race intake in during training is what teaches the gut to handle it on the day. @puresportsnutrition do a good job of it. by @bowstead_performance_coaching
2
5 days ago
Download
Kona week, so I keep thinking about the first time I raced the Big Island. June 2012, Ironman 70.3 Honu. My first pro race outside New Zealand, and Lance Armstrong was on the start line. This was before everything came out. I was a huge fan. I'd watched him for years, and now I was standing in the same swim start as him. I was a bit starstruck, which isn't ideal when you're about to race. It was never going to be close. He came out of the water in third, got on the bike and rode 2:01:46 on the harder half of the Ironman course, up and down the Queen K in the wind. I rode 2:21:01. That's nearly 20 minutes (although it was seriously windy and he had a huge motorcade around him due to his status at the time). He then ran 1:22:29, won in 3:50:55, and I watched him go. I finished [8th] in 4:18:05. Here's the thing though. It was a brilliant race. A proper field, a hard course, and a heap of people to race against for the first time. I came home knowing exactly how far I had to go, which is more useful than any pep talk. Whatever you think of him now, that's the thing I took from it. You find out where you actually sit by racing people better than you. Not by training alone and guessing. Wish everyone racing in Kona this week a good one. by @bowstead_performance_coaching
1
9 days ago
Download
IRONMAN KONA athlete stats: Same session. Same 275 watts. Four weeks apart. 7 fewer heartbeats a minute. BUT their FTP test only moved 1%. Their heart rate at the same power moved 7 beats. I love the numbers but dont believe in doing an FTP test too frequently So i'll look at similar sessions and measure progress that way In July my athlete's heart rate averaged 163 across the three blocks. In August it averaged 156. Same power, 7 beats lower. And these were big IM sesisons! I look at this more than I look at FTP tests. Their FTP went from an 303W to a tested 306W this block (yes i did actually test it this block as it had been ages) , which is about 1%. If that was my only data I'd say not much happened. The race-power blocks inside the long rides tell a different story #durability. About an hour in, 240W at a heart rate of 156 in August and 241W at 146 in September. About four hours in, 235W at 154 in August and 245W at 154 in September, in a block twice as long. So the engine efficiency improved and the headline number barely moved, which is often the case in high level athletes (hence why they are in kona) One caution. This is one athlete, and heart rate also moves with sleep, heat, caffeine and how much you've had to drink. I only trust it as a trend across several sessions. The August blocks were also on a hillier virtual course. by @bowstead_performance_coaching
1
11 days ago
Download
The last post I told you about my hamstring. Good run build, gym twice a week, and I still got hurt by the one area I skipped. So this week I went looking for what the research says about the gym work actually getting done. 433 recreational runners in Gothenburg, 18 weeks. 228 were given a 30 minute routine to do twice a week: 7 strength moves with a band, then foam rolling. The rest just kept running. Across the whole group the routine made no clear difference. 23% injured against 27%. Then they looked at who actually did it. The 65 runners who did almost every session: 4.6% injured. The 100 who did less than one a week: 43% injured, worse than doing nothing. Fewer than 3 in 10 kept it up. By week 9 the drop-off group were doing 15% of their sessions. Being straight: runners chose how much they did, so the keen ones may have been different to start with. They also ran a bit more. And a 2024 review of 9 trials found prevention programmes only clearly helped when someone supervised them. The bit I use, and the bit I'm now doing myself: the routine that protects you is the one that survives a busy week, and it has to cover the back of your legs. So I write 15 minutes, put it straight after an easy run so there's no extra session to find, and keep it in your TrainingPeaks week so I can see it getting done. If it's slipping by week 3, I cut it down before it disappears. Full breakdown in the slides. by @bowstead_performance_coaching
1
13 days ago
Download
Always learning, Coaches get it wrong too and especially when coaching yourself! From February to July I built back into marathon training the way I'd build it for any of my athletes. My fitness (CTL in TrainingPeaks) went from 9 to 49 over 21 weeks and never jumped more than about 5 points in a week. Run volume went from 10km a week up to 90-110km very gradually, and the long run from 10km out to 30km, with a few easier weeks along the way. On paper it was a pretty solid, progressive ramp. I was in the gym twice a week too. Looking back I neglected one area of it, and that was my hamstrings. That's the one that got me. Hamstring insertion tendinopathy. It started as a niggle in July, I didn't start the Taupo Marathon, pulled out of Auckland, and it's had me sidelined for two months now. My learnings You can get the load side right and still get caught out by the bit you skipped. A good ramp only protects the parts of you that are strong enough to take it. The gym plan matters as much as the run plan, and it's usually the first thing to get squeezed when life gets busy. If yours is mostly squats, lunges and calf raises, have a look at what's in there for the back of your legs. And it's ok to get it wrong. I've been in this sport since I was 11 and I still did. I'm back running easy and slowly building again, mostly on the treadmill for now. Send this to the training buddy who always skips the hamstring stuff. by @bowstead_performance_coaching
3
15 days ago
Download
Tauranga Half entries go up after tomorrow (30 Sep), so if you’ve been umming and ahhing, this is your nudge. 23 January is about 16 weeks out. That’s a really nice runway for a half, enough time to build the bike properly and still have a few weeks to sharpen up at the end. If you want the plan sorted as well, I build 70.3 plans to your race date and the hours you’ve actually got. Answer a few questions and it lands in your TrainingPeaks within 2 days. See website for full details and customization questions #TaurangaHalf #MountFestival #703training #triathlonnz by @bowstead_performance_coaching
2
18 days ago
Download
We all love a big block but this study found where it it works against you and how to 'check in' on if youve over cooked it or still ok. 33 trained triathletes, all men, Olympic distance in 2 to 2:20. 23 of them did 3 weeks of overload. Every session 30% longer, same content, same intensities. A 1 hour run with 10 x 400 m became 80 minutes with 13. Then a 4 week taper at about half the hours, with a max bike test every week to catch the peak. The overload group split in two. 12 were very tired but still holding their power. Their best taper test came out 2.6% higher than the other two groups. 10 were very tired and their power had dropped. They gained no VO2max, peaked no higher than the athletes who trained as normal, and 7 of the 10 got sick. The researchers expected the opposite. Their bet was that the most overcooked athletes would bounce back highest. The bit I use: both groups felt wrecked. Fatigue scores went up a lot in both. What told them apart was the power on the bike. So in a big block I keep one repeatable marker each week, a set you've done before, and I watch whether it slips. If the numbers drop and you're flat, I ease off a few days early. Also useful: most athletes peaked in the first 2 weeks of the taper, even straight off the heavy work. Being straight: groups of 10 to 12, men only, and nobody was randomised to overreach. The same block tipped some over and they were sorted afterwards. The test was a lab ramp, with no race in it. Full breakdown in the slides. #triathlon #triathlontraining #ironmantraining #70point3 #triathloncoach #enduranceathlete #overreaching #taper #trainingload #periodisation #trainingscience #sportsscience #agegrouptriathlete #nztriathlon #aucklandtriathlon by @bowstead_performance_coaching
0
19 days ago
Download
Your threshold is mostly two numbers. The one you're probably chasing is the third. In 1991 Michael Joyner wrote down what makes an endurance athlete fast. Three things, and two of them get mixed up constantly. VO2max is your ceiling. The most oxygen you can move per minute. Economy is what it costs you to move. The oxygen you burn at a given pace or power. Lower is better. Fractional utilisation is how much of that ceiling you can tap before you tip over. Car version: VO2max is engine size, fractional utilisation is the share of the rev range you can hold all day, economy is kilometres per litre. Threshold is the ceiling times the fraction you hold, divided by what it costs you to move. A new paper in Sports Medicine tested this at scale. 888 people, recreational to world class, and Joyner co-authored the re-test of his own model. VO2max and economy together explain about 95% of threshold speed and power. VO2max carried 65 to 76%. Economy carried 20 to 24%. Fractional utilisation, the number everyone quotes, carried 4 to 11%. That gets misread. It still matters, it's in the equation. It scored low because across 888 people it barely varies, roughly 70 to 91%, while VO2max spans 30 to 80. A number that barely moves between people can't explain why they differ. In their own data, improving economy by 11% takes their example runner from 16.9 to 19.0 km/h. Improving his fraction by 11% takes him to 18.7. It's a real lever. It just isn't what separates people. Being straight: this compares 888 different people once. It can't tell you whether raising your own fraction would move your own threshold. They say so themselves. Best bit is buried in their data. Two runners, both turning at 17 km/h. One had VO2max 74, economy 216, held 82%. The other 58, economy 192, held 91%. Big engine spending carelessly, smaller engine spending well. Two roads to the same threshold. The one open to you is what your block should be built around. Full breakdown in the slides. by @bowstead_performance_coaching
3
a month ago
Download
If you spend money on recovery, this one is worth 2 minutes. A review published last month pulled together every randomised trial of a physical recovery method in competitive endurance athletes. 16 trials, 273 athletes, across running, cycling, cross-country skiing, swimming and triathlon. Nine methods went in: cold water immersion, compression garments, active recovery, superficial and deep massage, whole-body cryotherapy, electrical stimulation, compression boots and far-infrared. Passive rest was the reference they were all measured against. Nothing beat passive rest on any of the three things they measured: muscle soreness, creatine kinase, or performance in the athlete's own sport. One of the trials had also run a sham. An immersion in 27 degree water, warm enough to do nothing at all, entered as a method in its own right. It ranked at or above every active method it was compared against. Top of the flexibility network, third of eleven for performance. That is the part I keep coming back to. If a fake treatment scores as well as the real ones, a good chunk of what you feel after an ice bath is expectancy. The authors say it plainly: in a literature where nobody can be blinded, expectancy and physiology cannot be told apart. Being straight about the size of it. This is a thin evidence base and the authors are the first to say so. 35 of the 55 comparison points rest on a single trial each. Only 7 of the 16 trials reported VO2max, so calling every cohort elite is a stretch, and 4 of them were adolescents. The soreness network flips its answer when 2 of its 5 trials come out. Certainty was very low for most of the comparisons. So read it for what it is. The research is too thin to recommend any of these on results. Showing they actively fail would be a much stronger claim, and nobody has done that either. The one clean result in the whole paper is a null. Compression garments do not improve performance, SMD 0.04, rated moderate certainty. That is the strongest rating anything in the review earned. What I tell my athletes. Sleep and food are where the recovery money goes. If you like your ice bath or your compression boots, keep them. by @bowstead_performance_coaching
4
a month ago
Download
Its funny how a few races stand out in your memory and not always, good memories. Timberman 70.3, New Hampshire, 2015 is one of them. My heart rate was stuck in the 130s and I couldn't work out why. I'd raced 11 half Ironmans in the previous 8 months and been in the money at every single one. Onto the bike and Leon and Paul rode away from me. I was trying my hardest. Perceived effort was through the roof and the power was low, and my heart rate kept dropping into the 130s when I race in the mid 150s. It was going to be a tough day. You can talk yourself into a bad power number for a while. A heart rate that won't come up is your body telling you the day has already gone. I finished 12th, my slowest half in a couple of years, and first one out of the prize money. A lot of the mistakes were avoidable and heres a short summary of the days leading in Landed in Boston 1.30pm Friday off a 10 hour travel day. The drive north was meant to be 1h40 and took 3.5 hours. Dinner at 8pm ended up being Subway, because the place we'd been told about had an hour wait. Saturday we tried to microwave an egg (don't), gave up, and ate at a pancake house. We walked into race briefing while they were describing the run course, so I missed that bit entirely. By Sunday morning I'd been chasing my tail for 48 hours and I still lined up expecting my normal race. That one comes back to me every time an athlete tells me they're flying out Thursday night for a Sunday race, especially if they havent been there before. The fitness is there but sometimes the logistics decide whether you get to use it. So the thing I watch now, on myself and on the athletes I coach, is morning resting HR and HRV through the travel week. If someone is sitting 6 to 8 beats up on the Saturday, I'd rather change what we're doing that day than find out about it on the bike. Book the earlier flight. Take your own breakfast. Go and see the course before you have to race it. Devils in the details! by @bowstead_performance_coaching
1
a month ago
Download
3rd place @sandsmorrison World TT Championships, 15km. 10 seconds covering the top four riders. 22min perfectly ridden TT across a technical course. Very low variability of 1.01 even with the turns and power spikes and 4bpm HR variation across the 15km shows a perfectly executed threshold performance. Sarah Also went on to 12th in the Grand Fondo, We built this campaign in blocks. Base work through May, teaching her engine to hold power longer. A build phase in June sharpening her ability to hold race watts even in the aero position. A race-specific block in July dialed straight to her tune-up time trial. Then a final peak into the World Champs. by @bowstead_performance_coaching
5
a month ago
Download

Download All

Save the photos and videos currently loaded on this page.

0Photos
0Videos
Ready to download 0 / 0

Keep this tab open until your download is ready.
back to up