August 2023

Hope everyone’s summer has gone well and if you have kids that the return to school has been smooth. Speaking of school…

Need another reason to get your kids lifting? This meta-analysis finds evidence that it improves cognitive performance and academic outcomes.

Training intensity distribution - As a quick reminder of my review of my own training approach, I’ve covered:

• overall philosophy and approach to sport

• defining a “long” day 

• TSB as a throttle on overall volume / intensity

• intensity distribution within the week

High intensity work is the smallest part of my training (<20%) and the part I’m least specific about. Lest every minute of working out become regimented, I generally do 2 workouts per week that feature some intensity and one of those is the local group ride (typically ~ 45 minutes of Z3+ work, including some short hard efforts that are effectively sprints at 800+ Watts), then a short Zwift race for another 30 minutes or so of Zone 4+. When I want a bit more structure, I use TrainingPeaks to create workouts and run them on my Wahoo Kickr in ERG mode, generally VO2 max intervals of 5-10 × 5 min at 110-115% of FTP. For threshold work I’ll do over-unders at 95% / 105% of FTP typically more like 10-15 minutes. But I’m generally not too focused on these workouts because between the group ride, a Zwift race, and a few hard efforts on hills here or there, that gets me close to my 20% goal for the week. At the moment all of my running is Zone 2, just ramping the volume. Once I hit about 17 miles a week, I’ll hold the volume and build in some intensity work while running, and I’ll share what that looks like in a few months.

Speaking of power numbers, I just upgraded my bike with Favero Assioma pedals. So far so good, easy setup, solid data. They work with my Look KEO Grip cleats and although the clip out is not as smooth as my Look' pedals, it works well enough. It is really nice to have a power meter that is not tied to a particular crank / BB / drivetrain/gearing choice. My old Pioneer just got too finicky.

In this months installment of D2C presidential campaigning, it’s been a little while but there was an excellent, lengthy interview with Vivek Ramaswamy on the All-In podcast. If you’re still undecided about who to vote for (and IMO at this point in the campaign you should be) then this interview will give you a good idea what this particular candidate is all about.

A few months ago I mentioned I was getting interested in a technique called doubly labeled water (DLW) and the metabolic limits on exercise that had been found in research studies. DLW is the technique researchers have used for decades to accurately measure metabolism. The test also turns out to be a quite accurate at-home body composition measurement and provides an assessment of energy availability, the key determinant of RED-S. The company commercializing it, Calorify, is up the road from me in Scotts Valley, and I’m very excited to join them as Vice President of Business Development. I’m looking forward to helping grow the company and make this test accessible to more people. Over the next few months I’ll be sharing some of the studies that have been done with DLW and what the findings imply about metabolism, health and performance.

After a brief pause to nurse a bad SI joint I’m back to ramping running mileage and combining runs with walks to get more time on my feet.