Comeback Theory

In the midst of week one, grinding the gears back into training. It's not pretty. I'm like a rusted-out Datsun from 1979.

Coach Brian Walton, and the rest of the Cadence coaching gang, use trainingpeaks.com to transmit information back and forth to their athletes. It's some high end tech, especially if you have the tools to upload workout data from the various machines you train with. Like heart rate monitors and Computrainers. I've never used this level of technology. I have used heart rate monitors in the past, but never the uplink-to-computer bling. I have a new Polar 625x heart-rate monitor that I hope to get rigged up to a computer this weekend. The same with a Computrainer. I've never been so geeked out in my life. I'm riding a Kuota Kebel, which I'm looking to sweeten with a Polar power meter. I'll be a two-legged exercise physiology lab.

There's a lot of hype, pro and con, on the virtues of super technology. As in anything, it's just a meaningless pile of hardware unless there's brainpower and effort being circulated through it. Clearly though, technology has made long-distance coaching work. Coaches and athletes emailing workout plans and reports back and forth was the first level. Cadence is an example of the high-end possibilities now being explored by coaches. You get specificity and accountability. The machines don't bend the truth. If you run with your running computer for six miles at 8-minute pace with a heart-rate at 145, and the computers talk through an interface, the coach is going to know exactly what you did.

I saw a bit of what they're up to at the Cadence Kona Challenge in NYC a few weeks ago, where they picked six winners to coach throughout the year toward an Ironman (they also won tons of schwag, including a custom made carbon-fiber Cyfac tri bike). Using Computrainers, treadmills and specially written computer code and other wizardry, they get a detailed look at what you're doing on the bike. I haven't gone through their testing protocol yet, but the Kona Challenge athletes did, and went away with a composite look at their strengths, weaknesses, training zones and potential for improvement.

So this weekend I plan to spend time wiring together my little home-based exercise-phys lab. This week, the workouts Brian has been giving me are meant to get my body back into training without injuries. I would say it's especially good to have a coach be the architect of a return to training from a long, horrible layoff. As running coach Jack Daniels has written, one of the most common mistakes someone in my situation makes is trying getting back to quickly; the memories in the brain of being fit training hard seduce you into doing something stupid. With Brian coaching me, all I need to focus on is the workout that he has given me for the day and the preparations I need to make for the workout tomorrow. I just focus on getting it done. It's a relief.