Is all stress created equal? It’s a thought that swirled around with me during the first stop of the World Tour in New Zealand several months ago. There’s a theory that one’s body and mind tap into the same stress management reservoir. In other words, work all day on a really cerebral and demanding project; and a person’s body will struggle to step out and put a huge workout down (performing at a baseline best). Vice versa for doing a huge session on the mountain bike and then trying to spend a rigorous day tapping keys on the ol’ laptop.
“Endure” has sparked an idea that I had to explore
Endure a book by Alex Hutchinson has kept me up a bit past my bedtime exploring this concept. Hutchinson refers to the legendary Tim Noakes and a study he did that found that people who were exposed to either a series of computer based challenges or a watched a dull documentary then both performed a ride to failure type of test on a spin bike had some confirming results.
Relieving some mental stress while following EWS Rotorua.
People that did the challenges prior to exercising noted that they experienced fatigue sooner and the perceived effort was harder than those that watched the boring movie. Both groups had the same heart rates and cycling durations. Rotorua, the land of working hard and playing hard was the perfect place for an experiment of my own.
The bright minds making Crankworx Rotorua happen.
During Crankworx Rotorua I put in big days and vast amounts of screentime. I’m periodically checking on projects from the moment I wake up until the final highlights and recaps go out sometimes as late as midnight. It’s exciting, cerebral and you guessed it: taxing on the brain - perfect for the first variable of this experiment.
Pausing to celebrate the festival on Slopestyle Day.
Now, for the body stress portion. A few weeks prior to stepping off the plane in Rotorua I had completed my first 50k Nordic Ski Race. I was fit and fresh from a week’s recovery. Ready to play outside. For my gear I had a wetsuit, mountain bike and trail runners at my disposal. Game on.
To test the theory I wanted to see which workouts would serve me best. What workouts could I do that danced on the line of achieving fitness goals and arriving sharp each day to work. I put a plan in place to test out shorter workouts before heading to big days at the venue, then doing the inverse: Two days of long workouts before working on some post-event projects.
Light Swim w/ Long Intervals
Hard Group Ride
Running with Short Bursts of Power
Running Slowly Without Structure
Light Swim with Long Intervals
10 x 75 meters at 85% of max pace - 50 meters rest between intervals
There are plenty of lakes to swim in around Rotorua. It’s dreamy. The one nearest to our little Airbn’b is Blue Lake aka Lake Rotuiti. There are two great buoy lines to sight off of. It might be a small detail but I feel more comfortable in the open water when I have smaller targets to swim towards rather than just aiming for the horizon. For this day of the festival, I took a solid 10-15 minutes at a relaxed pace to warm up and a 5-8 minute cool down. My body was feeling the fatigue. Shortening the duration from a typical hour but still working up to some harder efforts was the goal.
Verdict: Easing into the workout gave me the time and space I needed to switch gears and apply physical stress. The first long interval felt like I was dragging an anchor but after the recovery interval I felt sharp and ready to attack the day. This workout was a winner!
Hard Group Ride
2x 85% of Max Climbs, 1x Technical Descent Race Pace, 1x False Flat Time Trail, Cool Down
I set out for a sunrise ride with a few other strong riders on the team. We did a 400 Meter climb through slightly technical trail (“As You Do”, one of the best climbs in the area) at 85% of max then recovered for several minutes at the top. We rolled into a technical race pace decent on “K2” a gorgeous open descent with flow, tech and expansive views of the forest. From the valley floor we time trialed at max effort on a false flat through some non-tech flow trails like “Sweet and Sour” and “Dragon’s Tail”. For one final punch we did another 85% of max climb (up “Lion’s Tail” then a recovery decent to 80-90 cadence on the flats that lead home.
Verdict: This was a tough workout but pushing the pace energized me. To adhere to the high output I left most of my energy on the trail. Although this was a time efficient way to get a great workout in, my energy dipped around 3PM making my thoughts a bit cloudy and caffeine requirements shot up big time. This one might be best left for outside of festival time.
Ali taking a minute to enjoy the jungles of Rotorua
Running Slowly Without Structure
I’ve had my eye on running the Tarawera Trail since my first hike on it several years ago. It’s the perfect terrain for long distance running and the reward of finishing on a beach fed by natural hot springs isn’t too shabby either. Luckily, I have some amazing friends on the Tour that are always game for giving adventures a go. This run was a 15k point to point effort with no structure or intervals. We mostly ran at conversation pace over 2 hours and 20 minutes with an elevation gain of 740 meters. A water taxi picked us up at the end point so we didn’t have to save our legs for the return. Genius move, Totally Tarawera.
Verdict: While this was a highlight of my stay in Rotorua, the workout unsurprisingly doesn’t lend itself to productive afternoon thinking. Even-though the effort felt relaxed, I felt exhausted and in need of a snooze when I sat down at my keyboard later in the day. This one’s best left for days when not much mental brainpower is required post-workout.
Running with Short Bursts of Power:
Longer Trail Run session on the undulating green bike trails with 14 x 20 second sprint intervals with 45 second recovery.
My dear friend Ali and her pal from University joined me on a breathtaking run near Blue Lake. We set out on a rolling flat shoreline trail at a conversation pace and then opened up our strides once we hit the trails that skirted Green Lake. Pushing the pace at 20 second intervals we bounced through the red volcanic flow trails and returned along the other alternate side of Blue Lake. This is the second “long” session that I followed up with some project work back at my laptop.
Verdict: Although this wasn’t a long session in the traditional sense, the compound fatigue from previous days was noticeably accumulating. The continuous intervals of this workout left me feeling a bit more drained in the cool down phase but once I was showered, re-fueled (and re-caffinated) I felt calm, sharp and happily settled into an afternoon of work. This one’s a winner!
Although the outcomes of these “experiments” are purely qualitative and based on “feel”, it was a fun way to deliver a hot serving of some of my favourite workouts and the spectacular venues around Rotorua. If you’re curious and want to learn more about how stress affects our bodies mentally and physically these are a few cool articles:
Training Peaks Blog - Training Stress Vs Life Stress
NPR Health - Can Too Much Training Tax Athletes Brains?
Triathlete - Triathletes Suffer Better, Unless Their Stressed
What are your thoughts on stress? Leave me a comment!
