| Jaakko's Blog: Triathlon Season 2009, Review and SRM Data |
 Jaako Hiekkaranta is a 23-year-old triathlete and student from Finland. He started triathlon in 2004 and bought his first SRM System in the spring of 2009 to prepare for the IronMan 70.3 Hawaii. He is not a professional triathlete, he studies marketing as a major at the University of Jyväskylä.He will publish intermittently in our Triathlon blog and we will analyze some of his SRM data and show interesting aspects. You can follow him also on his blog: www.jaakkohiekkaranta.blogspot.com Triathlon season 2009My triathlon season 2009 was filled with lots of ups and downs. It started with a lot of self-doubt whether I was going to race or not due to injuries and sickness. A very trying spring was followed by a great learning trip to Hawaii and a narrowly-missed World Championships qualification owing to another running injury. Some heavy fatigue and more injuries mid-summer followed by a very hard-fought age-group victory in a tough end-of-the-season race ensured that the valleys were low and the peaks were high. Triathlon is a beautiful sport in that whatever the race outcomes are the journey to the races enables grow thboth as an athlete and as a person. This year taught me that life and triathlon are not something you just have to rush through mindlessly. The more successful approach is to be patient, enjoy the little moments, keep believing in what you do and be really passionate about it. This can be well seen at the very top of the sport where most of the champions have had really long and building careers.
Although I didn't reach my goal of qualifying to the Hawaii Ironman this year, 2009 was a success in that it made me even hungrier for next year. And I learned a great lesson: staying healthy and injury-free are the most basic and important elements of athletic success.
Jaakko Hiekkaranta's SRM-Data
Let's have a look at the SRM data Jaakko has sent:
It's his first race with SRM - the IronMan 70.3 Hawaii May 30th 2009, plus a long training ride in July and the IronMan 70.3 in Elba on September 27th 2009. It is very interesting to see how he got used to training and pacing with a powermeter and how a consistent smooth ride can increase the overall performance. When Jaakko raced in Hawaii he just had done some training rides with the powermeter around San Diego. It was more or less just a tool to gather data. It was not a very constant ride, the power line (green) fluctuates quite a bit, and there are a lot of power peaks above 300 watts. But his average power for the race is 224 watts (3.7 w/kg), and peaks more than 30% above the average power are most likely anaerobic and will lead to a higher fatigue. He didn't use a heart rate monitor so we cannot see how his physiological response was to these efforts.
It is difficult to compare the IronMan 70.3 in Hawaii to the Elba IronMan. The race course in Elba is much harder. Two laps on very hilly terrain, you could even think about using a regular road bike. But still there are some things to compare: Jaakko's average power was 220 watts, pretty much the same as in Hawaii, but on a course like this, where you don't pedal on some of the downhills the average power is always lower than on flat terrain. The green power line shows no peaks above 300 watts, so his pacing was smarter. It is interesting (but typical for triathletes) to see that his heart rate needed about 30 minutes into the ride to reach a lower level after the swim.
A closer look at the uphill sections of both races shows the differences even more conclusively: In Hawaii Jaakko pushed very hard in the beginning of the very smooth and slight uphill to Hawi. 533 watts max power, and there are a lot of peaks above 350 watts. It seems as if he reminded himself to go harder, pushed for a few pedal strokes and had to decrease power to recover directly after.
He took a totally different approach to the - of course steeper - uphill in Elba. Jaakko had to ride it twice, and he did it with about the same power, cadence and heart rate. Power shows a low fluctuation around 260 watts, his heart rate is very constant at 156 rpm in the first and 157 rpm in the second lap. His pacing now is much better than 4 months earlier.
The statistic view is very convincing showing the change in Jaakko's pacing. Remember that the race in Elba had a much harder profile - but still his power distribution is narrower around the peak of 260 watts. The Hawaii power distribution is wider, there is no peak, the max is around 210 to 240 watts. The cadence distribution is - due to the profile of the courses - just opposite to the power distribution. Narrow, with a peak at 93 rpm in Hawaii, wider with a peak at 86 rpm in Elba.
Jaakko also sent a training file. It is a long training ride. His main focus was on endurance, to get used to the IronMan distances he wants to compete at in 2010. It was a very smooth 5 ½ hour ride with an average power just below 200 watts and an average heart rate of 139 bpm. Jaakko wrote that he didn't have enough food and water, so he felt that he bonked after 4:45 hours. It was right after a short uphill, when the hammer hit him. But already after 3 hours the heart rate and power graph show the start of the fatigue. It is always interesting to watch the relation between power and heart rate in long distance rides. While his heart rate increased, his power decreased slightly. Refueling at this point might have postponed fatigue and avoided bonking. Rehydrating and the sufficient amount of energy are the most important and most critical factors of success for well-trained endurance athletes.
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This year's athletic growth for me came on the bike. I was finally able to feel confident on my bike when I raced and not fear losing races because of a bad cycling leg. I started training with an SRM in the spring and consequently my bike training became much more efficient. Learning how to properly use the SRM as a training and racing aid has taken much of the guessing out and brought in a lot of confidence. Although I still have lots to learn before I can say I master training and racing with power, thanks to the SRM I have learnt to pace myself correctly when racing and to train at the right intensities when needed. My age-group win at Elbaman 70.3 was based on a well executed bike-leg on a tough course and it would have been much harder without the help of my SRM.
