Chris Froome Coaching and Triathlon Coaching

Before a race in Veracruz this past weekend, we had the regular chat with the team before the race and an exercise to boost our athletes’ egos.  I am careful not to inspire cynicism in our competitors when we do this exercise because of the “excess of ego.” But unfortunately, that is a risk we take when giving information without full background.  In this case we discuss the graph of Froome during the time trial in La Vuelta a España (2011), http://www.trainingpeaks.com/av/Z3JDD63H2UVGP77YSXNITPULAE  

And the question was: “How would you help Froome to be better cyclist if you were the coach?” What they discover was that Froome has room to improve from what we saw; but during the triathlon race, they did not do their best effort to do things right, not even what they discover reading the graph.  The study of the graph and how they perform has nothing in common; they were in automatic mode from the life they have known at home and school.  Whatever they learned from the graph was remotely related to their performance.  This is a problem we constantly encounter in our population, what they learn is not considered useful and is out of mind when performing (it happened in this competition).  We have seen that unless specific learning is generalized after years by team members, it does not belong to them.

The selection from the graph below is when Froome is going downhill and his heart rate increases.  Nine pulses as an average compared to his going uphill.  Increasing three pedals per minutes does not explain the increased heart rate, unless Froome is not trained to go higher than 100 rpm (something that I do not believe).  Froome is a climber and it appears that going downhill is not what to practice as a climber.  Normally, the pulse increases even when we keep the same rpm over time.

Selection
0:42:48 - 0:56:32

Total Time: 0:13:44

Distance: 13.18 km

Energy: 330 kJ

TSS: 20 (0.96)

NP: 412

VI: 1.02

Pw:HR 1%

EF: 2.69

Gain: 12 m

Loss: - 121 m

Grade:-0.8 %

VAM:52

W/Kg:5.9

	Min	Avg	Max
Power (Watts):	0	402	766
Speed (km/h):	35.7	57.6	71.4
Pace (min/km):	01:41	01:02	00:50
HR (bpm):	138	153	167
Cadence (rpm):	22	95	110
Elev (m):	832	861	953
Temp (C):	<29	30	31

First Half: 414w
0:00:01 - 0:29:16

Total Time: 0:29:15

Distance: 22.98 km

Energy: 726 kJ

TSS: 45 (0.97)

NP: 415

VI: 1.00

Pw:HR 5.6%

EF: 2.88

Gain: 210 m

Loss: - 36 m

Grade:0.8 %

VAM:431

W/Kg:6.1

	Min	Avg	Max
Power (Watts):	0	413	598
Speed (km/h):	31.5	47.1	73.6
Pace (min/km):	01:54	01:16	00:49
HR (bpm):	91	144	149
Cadence (rpm):	26	93	114
Elev (m):	835	934	1031
Temp (C):	<28	30	35

What would be our recommendations?

1)   Practice downhill speed.

2)   Practice cadence above 100.