​Kia ora team,

Who else at the moment is questioning where this year has gone? We are already half way through May and I am reminded my 30th birthday is now only three months away and is quickly followed by Sunshine Coast 70.3 which I am beginning to build up to now.
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As I begin to get back into the routine of training again I am reminded of the strain that this has on the body but more importantly, because I have a Fitbit which reads my heart rate and sleep data 24/7 it has highlighted the stress a race like IRONMAN has on my body.

Resting Heart Rate

Day-to-day, it can be tough to tell if the hard work on your health is paying off. Resting heart rate can be a great indicator of the changes to cardiovascular health, so you can see if you’re improving over time. To read why resting heart rate matters Click Here

As per the below image you can see that since my race in March my heart rate instantly started to climb over three days from 50 to 59 average beats per minute and in March, April and May I have fluctuated from 50 to 59 with a monthly average of 54-55 which is 8-10 beats average higher than my September to December average which I am still attempting to understand wither it is still the strain on my body or the current state of my fitness after a few months off which I can easily keep and eye on.

Sleep Tracking

Sleep affects every part of life—your health, your mood and more. It can help you perform at your best, stay productive, and fight weight gain and depression. So if you’re ready to make the most of your day, start by improving your night.

I am pretty happy with my consistency of sleep and this has not altered much from when I was in my biggest block leading up to IRONMAN in February and now, but what I have found very interesting with a recent Fitbit update is that now you can see the different zones of sleep you are in ….Click here for more information

I’ve been made aware there is apps available tat can pull your training information from training peaks etc. and also sleep and heart rate data then puts it in a graph which is a simplistic way to keep an eye on your fatigue levels.

The benefits of this can be, if you have a key training session and you can see your fatigue levels will impact your ability to do a quality session it may highlight that you may need to push this out a day, or discuss this with your coach. So you know training peaks actually has the ability for you to put in your actual fatigue levels in so your coach has this in front of him/her as coaching is a two way streak and very important so you are not burnt out.

I feel this is important because I have been taught to train quality over quantity where I had the term make the easy, EASY and the hard, HARD drilled into me and to do this sometimes you need to feel a bit fresher.

Other Benefits

From my perspective, other benefits of a device like a Fitbit outside of heart rate and sleep data and looking the part in my day to day, work life;

• Tracking of workouts and data analysis
• Smart notifications; Call, TXT and Email notifications which come in handy during meetings and social occasions.
• A choice of products available to suit your lifestyle wither it is the Fitbit surge which has GPS tracking, Fitbit Blaze which is my preference for in all occasions or the Fitbit HR
• Step tracker; You can also follow your friends in the FitBit app and challenge each other on who can do the most steps in day.
• Silent alarm which vibrates you wake rather than music which I have found as a better way to get me up in the morning, even at 4,30am

So if any of the above information sounds like interesting data like me, you feel it will add value to your training I say have a look at www.fitbit.com and see what is right for you.

Until next time, train hard, train smart and…. ThinkFit! – Yup that’s a podcast hint, five episodes down and we have had thousands of downloads so, thank you to our listeners!

Robo

Functional Threshold Power Test - Bike

The purpose of this test is to achieve your highest watt average possible for a 20min period then you deduct 5% from this to give you your power that you should be able to hold for an hour time trial. Because no one likes doing a 1 hour time trial and/or it's hard to stay focused for this period of time they do this to keep you on track and get quality.

Obviously you need a power meter but this can also be a good set if all you have is a heart rate monitor and use this as your gauge for training purposes.

Below is the test that I did,

Using the above from my 267 FTP watts I have calculated the below numbers I can use in my training. Most of my active recovery is in the pool or "spinning the legs" is an easy ride on my mountain bike.

​Level 1 Active Recovery: up to 147 watts
Level 2 Endurance: 148-200 watts
Level 3 Tempo: 201-240 watts
Level 4 Lactate Threshold: 241-280 watts
Level 5 VO2 MAX: 281-320 watts
Level 6 Anaerobic Capacity: 321-400 watts
Level 7 Neuromuscular Power: 401+ watts

​to benchmark further I can divide my FTP test of 267 with my weight which is currently 76kg so, my watts per kg is 3.51 watt/kg. As I get through the winter months of training we will be targeting to increase my strength and once again decrease my weight by 3-4 kg back to race weight so both of these changes will have a positive result on my watt/Kg that I can push on the bike meaning stronger on the bike.