Does Physical Stress Hurt Work Performance?
Endurance Training Experiments In Rotorua, New Zealand
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!
Kirwans Hut - Welcome to the Jungle
On a high from the rugged beauty and raw challenge from bike packing the St. James Trail, we set out for Kirwans Hut just outside of Reefton, NZ.
On a high from the rugged beauty and raw challenge from bike packing the St. James Trail, we searched for another hut to explore on our journey to the North Island. We landed on the Kirwans Hut just outside of Reefton. The recent rain in the region made the climb a tough and boggy march. It was well worth it for the next day’s decent: Over two hours of loam surfing through mud and jungle.
Trail Type:
Singletrack with some unridable sections in either direction
Trip Plan:
We left mid-day and arrived just in time for dinner. Kirwans Hut was easily the nicest hut I’ve ever encountered. We're talking a mudroom, kitchen and double pain windows. In the morning, we had a leisurely breakfast waiting for the clouds in the valley to break, then returned via the same trail.
Elevation Gained:
1380 meters
Peak-a-boo view from Kirwans Hut
Kilometers Traveled:
About 28
Kirwans Hut
Weather:
Out: Humidity was high but we didn’t experience any rain.
Return: was hot and sunny.
Dan getting barreled in the green room
Company:
It was great, as always. We only had to share the hut with two other people.
Pack loaded, decent ready. Dan looking over the valley from Kirwans Hut
Bike:
Yeti Sb5c and Giant Reign
The Yeti Sb5c and Giant Reign ready to shred on day 2
DNF - 5 Things I'll Do Differently For My Next Multi-Day Bike Race
Here are five things I'll pay special attention to, in order to avoid a future DNF during a multi-day race.
DNF - 5 Things I'll Do Differently For My Next Multi-Day Bike Race
D.N.F. - It's an acronym that stands for "Did Not Finish". It's a tough call that almost every endurance athlete has to make at one point in his or her race career. For me, it was this past weekend at the Enduro World Series Qualifier in Dunedin, New Zealand.
Signal Hill lookout || Photo: Dan Harmon
The week kicked off in incredible form. The local Yeti Bikes tribe at Bike Otago was full of friendly advice and high fives. We set out each day exploring the awesome local trail networks.
When day one of the race kicked off I was brimming with stoke. The event was huge: 3 giant climbs and 3 of the 4 stages were blind. Mentally and physically I was spent. It was glorious. Below is a short video of the course my Suunto watch generated at the end of the day:
When I woke up for day 2, my body was stiff, cramping and mentally I just couldn't muster up the energy to withstand another dozen "accidental brushes with trees" or "over-the-bars" crashes. I limped around our hotel room until I finally made the call not to race. To be totally honest, I felt ashamed and embarrassed. But I put my ego aside and signed up to volunteer marshal with Dan instead. I had plenty of quiet time on the way home to figure out where I went wrong. Here are five things I'll pay special attention to, in order to avoid a future DNF during a multi-day race:
St Kilda Beach || Photo: Nina Arnold
1. Physical: More stretching and rest. Leading up to the event I rode local trails nearly every day. My logic was ride slowly and it wouldn't set me back too much but it did. If there are two rest days in my taper week, I'll stick with that next time.
Signal Hill || Photo: Nina Arnold
2. Nutrition: Cook at home. Dan and I wanted to treat ourselves after a big effort to a meal out. We chose Indian and asked for spicy. You can imagine how well that played out. Next time we'll prepare all of our meals at home with the right recovery foods.
3. Comfort: Have clean racing kit ready to go. I was exhausted after day one and neglected to wash my gear. In a perfect world I'd have a second jersey, shammy and shorts ready to go, but at the moment I only had one. In hindsight, I'd get my racing gear clean as soon as I was fed and showered (before that awesome nap) so I had something fresh and warm to wear the next day. It gets a bit tricky at a hotel, but having a plan is key.
Fixing my bike during practice || Photo: Dan Harmon
4. Tech Support: Give the Yeti another bike check. My tires and suspension were caked in fresh Dunedin mud and my bike needed a once-over after a few crashes on day one. Sometime after meeting my recovery food and shower needs and before having a snooze, giving the bike a wash and bolt tighten would have been stellar.
5. Mental: Quiet reflection and low stimulus. There was so much activity leading up to and mid-race that I forgot to take time to close my eyes, visualize a successful weekend ahead and relax. On some level, I may have subconsciously already written off Sunday before the day began. This may be one of my most important take-aways. The more I experiment with nutrition and training, the more I am discovering that the mental aspect of training is wildly important.
I've found a cool article on Sport Psychology Today that has been keeping me occupied: "The Power of Visualization".
After writing down my thoughts, the negative feelings quickly dissolved. There is something special about those trails. The community of riders, trail builders, and racers that make up Dunedin are so warm and welcoming. Many thanks to Bike Otago, Kashi, Kane and the Yeti New Zealand Team, Mountain Biking Otago and the rad ladies that shared there trails with me. I can't wait to get back down to shred that awesome part of the South Island again.
Rad little rainbow after the storm || Photo: Dan Harmon
