Category: What

𝐆𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐝 – 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐬𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦

With the goal and structure in place, I realised I was going to need help, for a few different reasons:
🔸 I’ve been using power since 2018, but the audience would be new to power
🔸 I run road races; trail runners and track athletes can also use power
🔸 I use a Garmin with a Stryd – what about wrist-based power or other watches?
🔸 I wanted a good mix of runners and coaches, watches, and experience

𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐭𝐞𝐚𝐦

I asked for volunteers, with the promise of a copy of the book for those able to contribute.

The response was fantastic, 35 people volunteering. After video-calling 20 of the volunteers, 13 made it onto the testing team.

𝐃𝐞𝐦𝐨𝐠𝐫𝐚𝐩𝐡𝐢𝐜𝐬

The testing team included:
✅ 2 people who’d never used power before
✅ 6 Garmin users, 4 Apple Watch, 1 each using COROS, Suunto and Polar
✅ 2 using wrist-based power
✅ 7 road-runners, 1 track, 2 triathlon, 3 trail/triathlon
✅ 6 coaches

I couldn’t have hoped for a better cross-section 😊

𝐅𝐢𝐫𝐬𝐭 𝐨𝐫𝐝𝐞𝐫 𝐨𝐟 𝐛𝐮𝐬𝐢𝐧𝐞𝐬𝐬

The video call outlined the book and book goals, coverage of the five fundamental power concepts, and 22 ideas for activities that runners could use to try out power.

Using an outline of each activity, the testing team tried them out and made suggestions … eventually we merged and rearranged the original 22 ideas, landing on 13, and moved on to the rest of the book.

𝑺𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏’𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒃𝒆 𝑹𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑷𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓?

❓ Questions?
📖 Getting Started

𝐆𝐞𝐭𝐭𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐒𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐭𝐞𝐝 – 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐬𝐭𝐨𝐫𝐲 𝐛𝐞𝐡𝐢𝐧𝐝 𝐭𝐡𝐞 𝐛𝐨𝐨𝐤

‘Getting Started’ is my third book. It’s the book I most enjoyed writing.

After ‘The Basics’ and ‘Why would you?’ I thought I was done.

But then I started to explore wrist-based power and realised that runners who wanted to try Running with Power using the power meter built into their running watch had little or no guidance about how to do that.

𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐠𝐨𝐚𝐥𝐬

I was aiming to meet the following goals:
✅ No assumption of a particular power meter
✅ Lots of advice on making the right equipment and app choices
✅ Just enough conceptual content to provide a solid foundation
✅ A learning by doing approach to support the concepts and to start using power
✅ Minimal overlap with the existing books

𝐁𝐨𝐨𝐤 𝐨𝐮𝐭𝐥𝐢𝐧𝐞

With the above goals, a three-part structure seemed to be the best approach:

1. Equipment & Apps. Information about options, and how to combine those to end up with something that worked.
2. Fundamental Concepts. The key concepts underlying Running with Power, to provide a solid foundation for future learning and fine-tuning. This part would include activities that runners could use to try out the use of power.
3. Setups & Configs. Because Running with Power is still relatively new, things don’t always work as smoothly as they ought to. This part would provide detailed setup and configuration information to make it easier to arrive at a working setup.

𝐍𝐞𝐱𝐭 𝐬𝐭𝐞𝐩𝐬

With the goal and structure in place, I realised I was going to need help …

𝑺𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏’𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒃𝒆 𝑹𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑷𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓?

❓ Questions?
📖 Getting Started

𝐑𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐬 & 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 – 𝐓𝐡𝐞 𝐞𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭

Power can help you perform your personal best on the day.

How? By:
⚡ identifying a single target you can maintain throughout the event
⚡ helping you 𝑛𝑜𝑡 go out too fast
⚡ reducing anxiety associated with trying to achieve a goal time

𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭 𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐬

Before the event, power race calculators use your current fitness, your fatigue resistance (or stamina) and how effectively you convert effort into forward motion to identify a race power target.

Some calculators also allow you to create scenarios, by varying your fatigue resistance or running effectiveness to show best case/worst case targets.

These calculations are based on you – your fitness, your capabilities.

Which means power targets are personal – they identify an effort level you can maintain throughout the event.

It also means that you can’t run with pacers, as they’ll be running to a pace target.

𝐃𝐨𝐧’𝐭 𝐠𝐨 𝐨𝐮𝐭 𝐭𝐨𝐨 𝐟𝐚𝐬𝐭

Your race power target also helps prevent you starting the event too fast – at too high an effort.

Which means you should have enough energy left to finish the event strong.

𝐑𝐞𝐝𝐮𝐜𝐞 𝐚𝐧𝐱𝐢𝐞𝐭𝐲

There’s nothing worse than running to a (hopeful) goal time, translating that into pace targets, then finding that you’re falling behind the pace.

And there’s nothing better than running to a power target that represents the effort you can maintain throughout the event … to achieve your personal best on the day.

𝑺𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏’𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒃𝒆 𝑹𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑷𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓?

❓ Questions?
📖 Getting Started

𝐑𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐬 𝐚𝐧𝐝 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 – 𝐑𝐞𝐚𝐝𝐲, 𝐬𝐞𝐭, 𝐠𝐨!

You’ve trained, you’ve tapered, and the event is just about here.

Using power, what’s important?
⌚ Your watch setup, so that you don’t get distracted during the event
🪫 Your equipment, so that it’s fully charged
⚡ Your warm-up, so that you’re primed for the event

𝐖𝐚𝐭𝐜𝐡 𝐬𝐞𝐭𝐮𝐩

I’ve arrived at a ‘less is more’ philosophy.

It took a few years, but gradually, I’ve come to trust power (and power metrics) and chosen the few metrics I want showing on my watch.

I’d recommend setting up your watch to:
✅ auto-lap every mile or kilometre (your preference) to reset lap average power
✅ show lap and 3s average power (or real-time power if 3s average isn’t an option)
✅ include last lap power if you have it, so that you don’t need to glance down every auto-lap

Resist the temptation to include elapsed time, time of day, pace or heart rate, as these may distract you from maintaining your power target.

𝐂𝐡𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐞𝐪𝐮𝐢𝐩𝐦𝐞𝐧𝐭

A simple reminder – to avoid flat batteries part-way through the event.

𝐖𝐚𝐫𝐦-𝐮𝐩 / 𝐩𝐫𝐢𝐦𝐢𝐧𝐠

Your warm-up should include mobilisation and dynamic stretching and 5-10 minutes of jogging – no different than if you were using pace or heart rate.

Then run some short intervals at just below Threshold Power, just above Threshold Power and finish with some strides or short sprints. This will prime your different energy systems – with power, you can ensure your intervals are at the correct intensities.

Ideally, prime the day before the event and during the 1-2 hours before your start time, so that you don’t start the event feeling sluggish.

𝑺𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏’𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒃𝒆 𝑹𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑷𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓?

❓ Questions?
📖 Getting Started

𝐑𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐬 & 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 – 𝐓𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫𝐢𝐧𝐠

Tapering aims to achieve a controlled reduction in your training so that your body has time to recover from training fatigue without losing too much fitness.

It aims to deliver you to the start line with maximum fitness and ‘on fresh legs’.

It’s a balance. Start the taper too soon, and you’ll miss out on training; too late, you’ll arrive with tired or heavy legs.

𝐏𝐥𝐚𝐧𝐧𝐢𝐧𝐠 𝐲𝐨𝐮𝐫 𝐭𝐚𝐩𝐞𝐫

Tapering uses two metrics:
✅ Your Stress Balance. As you approach your event, you can plan your workouts so that your Stress Balance becomes more positive.
✅ Your Ramp Rate. As you approach your event, you can plan your workouts so that your Ramp Rate becomes less positive.

Both metrics use planned numbers based on your upcoming workouts to ‘look ahead’ at the numbers that will be in place on the event date.

𝐖𝐡𝐚𝐭 𝐬𝐡𝐨𝐮𝐥𝐝 𝐲𝐨𝐮 𝐮𝐬𝐞 𝐚𝐬 𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐬?

This depends on the event duration (shorter events usually need a shorter taper) and how the event factors into your longer-term plans:
🎯 If it’s the event you’ve been training for, you might aim for a positive training balance and a negative ramp rate, ‘giving up’ some training leading up to the event.
🎯 If it’s an event you’re using to test fitness or race-day strategy, you might aim for a training balance around zero but maintain a positive ramp rate, scaling back your training but not giving up too much.

There are many other things you should also consider when tapering, but using your training load metrics provides a solid foundation.

𝑺𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏’𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒃𝒆 𝑹𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑷𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓?

❓ Questions?
📖 Getting Started

𝐑𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐬 & 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 – 𝐑𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐓𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐬

If you’re like I was (before power), your race target is a goal time: “I’d love to break 1 hour for the 10k”, or “… 2 hours for a half”.

You may have used online calculators to put in a 5k time (or an 800m time) to see what your equivalent 10k or half time would be.

And then when you ran the event, you struggled to achieve the predicted time … because it was more ‘hopeful’ than a prediction, based on using a single data point with data averaged across thousands of runners, many of whom are nothing like you.

𝐏𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫 𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐝𝐢𝐟𝐟𝐞𝐫𝐞𝐧𝐭

Event targets when running with power are based on:
✅ your current running fitness
✅ your measured fatigue resistance (or stamina)
✅ your proven ability to convert effort into forward motion

All three (metrics) are based on your completed workouts and are individual to you.

𝐇𝐨𝐰 𝐚𝐫𝐞 𝐫𝐚𝐜𝐞 𝐭𝐚𝐫𝐠𝐞𝐭𝐬 𝐜𝐚𝐥𝐜𝐮𝐥𝐚𝐭𝐞𝐝?

If you use a Stryd footpod, you have access to the Stryd Race Power Calculator. The calculator will prompt you for the information needed for the calculation.

If you don’t use a Stryd footpod (or even if you do), you also have access to SuperPower Calculator for Sheets (SPCs). Steve Palladino has recorded several videos showing how to use SPCs to calculate race scenarios.

𝐍𝐨 𝐦𝐨𝐫𝐞 ‘𝐡𝐨𝐩𝐞𝐟𝐮𝐥’ 𝐠𝐨𝐚𝐥 𝐭𝐢𝐦𝐞𝐬

Race power targets represent the effort you should be able to maintain for the entire event. The calculators can also provide an estimated finish time, but this is an estimation – instead, run to effort … and let the time take care of itself.

𝑺𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏’𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒃𝒆 𝑹𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑷𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓?

❓ Questions?
📖 Getting Started

More about the Race Calculators can be found at:
🔹 Stryd: Race Power Calculator in PowerCenter
🔹 SuperPower Calculator for Sheets (click to download a copy)
Steve Palladino’s videos are on YouTube

𝐑𝐚𝐜𝐞𝐬 & 𝐄𝐯𝐞𝐧𝐭𝐬 – 𝐰𝐢𝐭𝐡 𝐏𝐨𝐰𝐞𝐫

Races & Events are a little different when Running with Power.

The next few posts will dig into the detail, but in summary (and as a taster):
⚡ Your race-day power target is based on your fitness and capabilities
⚡ Tapering uses power-based metrics to determine when and how to taper
⚡ On the day, your target is your target for the entire event (no adjustments needed)
⚡ You won’t be able to (or need to) run with pacers
⚡ You’ll run to power, to achieve your personal best on the day

This is quite different than:
❌ looking up a hopeful goal time from a table compiled using data from thousands of runners (many of whom are nothing like you)
❌ tapering for a period and approach determined using general guidelines
❌ wearing a wrist band telling you your pace (per mile or kilometre) based on whether the section is uphill, downhill or flat
❌ going out too fast and suffering the consequences later in the event
❌ trying to keep up with pacers to achieve your hopeful goal time

It takes a little getting used to.

Especially the part about running to a power target rather than a (hopeful) goal time.

But this effort-based approach has been proven hundreds of times and has produced many unexpected personal bests.

𝑺𝒉𝒐𝒖𝒍𝒅𝒏’𝒕 𝒚𝒐𝒖 𝒃𝒆 𝑹𝒖𝒏𝒏𝒊𝒏𝒈 𝒘𝒊𝒕𝒉 𝑷𝒐𝒘𝒆𝒓?

❓ Questions?
📖 Getting Started