Zone 3? Not me.

Not a bad week this past week, legs a bit tired Sunday night after my 1 hour Z2 spin.

Weekly summary: Jan 14-20

Swim: 920 m (3 sessions) 3 hours
Bike: 115 miles (4 rides) 6:50
Run: 36 miles (4 runs) 4:30
14:20 for the week.

For the first 3 days of this week, a bit of a blur. Only about 6 hours of sleep each night. Wed. was my day off so I caught a few extra Z's in the afternoon. So, thus far this week:
Monday: 4400 swim (200 wu and cd) 10x400/30
Tues: Spin 200 watts steady at 80 rpm, 40 minutes.
Wed:
morning swim, 2000 (4x500/30). 35 min.
early afternoon spin on trainer, 200 watts continuous for 1:50 at 72 rpm. Road the first couple of hours of IM Wisconsin's course. Man, it is pretty much continuous hills.
lunch and 2 hour nap.
late afternoon run on treadmill, 10 miles in 1:11 First 2 miles 7:30 then 7 min pace remainder.

So, ask yourself a few questions:

1: Do I feel pressure to bike the same loop at the same or faster pace/time?
2: Do I feel uncomfortable falling off the back on a group ride even though I am tired?
3: Do I feel pressured to be toward the front or at least finish toward the front on every group ride?
4: On a typical ride, and an unknown rider passes you decisively, do you lose pride? Do you feel pressured to have to catch up to him?
5: Do you often go out for a ride alone or with others as a nice aerobic or recovery pace and it turns into the world championships?
6: Do you believe that riding anything less than 2 hours is a waste of time and not worth the trouble?
7: Do you believe that any ride with a Heart rate below 130 is a waste of time?
8 Do you have a max heart rate of 185 and havent been able to get your HR above 165 in weeks?
9: Are you beginning and ending any rides with sore legs?
10: Are you proud of your average speeds and your record of "climbs won" on rides, and believe that others really care?

Yeah, if you said yes to any one of these, then be concerned of the "zone 3 syndrome" as Josh Horowitz puts it in an article I read a few weeks back. This is part of the chronic over-training syndrome I see in many athletes I 've trained with, including myself in the past.

I consider "zone 3 syndrome" a power zone 3 problem. Typically because you can easily produce power in zone 3 and remain in heart rate zones 1 and 2, especially as you become fit.

I fell into this trap on a ride recently, decided to stay near the group who were in my opinion pushing the pace a bit much for January. I averaged 116 heart rate for the ride, Zone 1 HR for me. Yet my power at 230 ave watts and 255 normal watts clearly in zone 3 for me. After over 2 hours of this, the weather turned poor, sleeting and rain, so I pushed home the final hour in zone 3 wattage to finish.

The fallout?

Cancelled my scheduled 5 mile run later that day.
Ran slower than I needed (original plan) on the following morning.
Cancelled my scheduled 2 x 10 Z3/4 low rpm intervals on my 1 hour ride the next day, instead just riding steady.
Cancelled my run on tuesday of this week.

So, not only was it a poor decision to not ride my own pre-determined pace, I lost a good portion of workouts planned over the next few days.

The light at the end of the tunnel? It happened once last summer...and this will be the only time I let this happen to me this year.

Some riders unfortunately, esp, IM athletes, train like this week after week. The log looks great, yet they consistenly run 10-11 hour races when they have the physiology and endurance to run well under 10. They lose their podium slot, they lose their Kona slot, they may drop out.

I have stated this so many times in the past: know yourself.
So many athletes try for too much too early, or just try to shoot for the moon for a race in one giant leap instead of taking a few steps into the water first.

Dont be proud. Be confident. I am hardly ever at my "race intensity" in workouts, and very few people have seen me race. I am a completely different person when I race. Much of this is because I am physically prepared, even though injured at times. More importanly, I am emotionally prepared. I believe spending too much time in the "race zone" emotionally in workouts tends to burn an athlete out. Now, dont get me wrong, I am all about detail and re-creating the race in workouts, but that's mostly in terms of nutrition and visualizing my goals during my TT training.
So, the zone 3 syndrome athlete tends to put too much into workouts, not really resting enough, and not really racing. Just marginally competing ride after ride. This athlete cant wait until the 3 week taper or the upcoming rest week because they are chronically tired. When it comes time to do an interval in Zone 4 or Zone 5 power? They cant muster up the performance. So, they dont get much benefit of near-threshold and threshold training. Likewise, they cant generate consistent strength throughout the race.
Thus, you race at, or perhaps only 20-30 watts above your "recovery ride watts". Then it only gets worse on the run.
6 months of training wasted. Then, for the next big race...all over again.

One piece of advice. If it doesnt work for you, try something different. Something different doesnt mean more work. Train in your own element. Save the racing for race day.