This episode is all about one of the terms we use the most as coaches: Life Stress Score (LSS). Like Training Stress Score (TSS), we think of LSS as a way to quantify the mental and emotional toll brought on by life being hard, and our goal as coaches is to help you manage training and performance through periods of high LSS. We cover what LSS is, how to track it, why to track it, how to manage it, and how to adapt training when LSS is high. We also go over a bunch of really fun coaching and training insights, celebrate Katie finishing her PhD, answer listener questions, and share some favorite gear items. This is a fun one!
Extended show notes:
Coaching and Training Insights
Katie:
The power of napping! // How to nap like a pro
The days are getting longer and we all feel amazing! We recommend trying to get outside for your workouts when you can (I think some people get so accustomed to sitting on the trainer and running on the treadmill that they are scared to get outside / think it won’t be quality training. News flash: you race outside!) -- this is especially true on the weekend when you have more time to be out during daylight hours and can get your work done outside.
Jim: Good time to purchase the bike you will ride for the race season or service current bike. Make sure you are visible: front and rear light, bright clothing.
Many folks asking about nutrition guidelines. Defer to our episode with Cate Ward to start and loop in a dietician if you need, but here are four golden rules of triathlete/endurance nutrition:
3 meals / 3 snacks
No fasted training
Carbs before, carbs + protein immediately after, healthy fats and throughout the day
Fuel during for activities over 75 minutes
If you think you’re missing the mark, get blood work and supplement as needed and/or loop in a dietician
Swimming as part fitness, part technique, but also a big part mobility
Jim:
Athletes are starting to get fit from solid winter training. (Are you seeing this?)
I’ve had two athletes recently do our 2 x 10’ run test and both improved their threshold run pace by ~30”. Another athlete increased their FTP by 40 watts.A couple of keys: We tested last year which means these athletes had at least another 6 months of consistent Z2 training. It takes time to make this type of fundamental jump in fitness.
Many athletes find testing stressful so I tend to test less often than maybe some other coaches. And I want to encourage everyone to be patient and realize that you just need a certain level of training volume to really move the threshold needles.
And since we aren’t doing lactate testing in a performance lab, it can be hard to pick up small fitness improvements with these backyard science tests. There are many variables we can’t control or account for in our standard 2 x 10’ run test or a FTP test. (What’s your general approach on testing?)
Another great way to test your winter fitness is to sign up for local 5Ks, local sprints/OLY, bike races, etc. These are great ways to serve as organic run/FTP tests. Races often reflect our best effort and those are the levels we like to plan around for your “A” races.
Aerobic downhill intervals. Once we get a decent run base in your legs, you can start playing with these on every run. It’s a game of how fast can you run while still maintaining Z2 HR and good to even better form.
Start with 1’ - 2’ downhill.
Focus on good foot turnover.
Don’t overstride, easy to overstride going downhill.
Keep HR within Z2.
Play with arm swing and lean to try to get the most efficient run pace while keeping HR in low to mid Z2. Think of it as run play.
Remember the goal in all three sports is velocity i.e., speed. The fastest person over swim/bike/run wins regardless of watts, heart rate, perceived effort, etc.
This one is a shout out to all my athletes. I’m continually inspired by our athletes. Every morning, I sit down to review all my athletes training from the evening and early morning. I’ll see workouts from the late afternoon / early evening and then that same athlete may have already done a spin in the early morning before work. It’s very inspiring to see people working consistently toward a goal and unlocking their inner masterpiece.
Katie: have especially been noticing this as I’m on pacific time, I wake up and I have 50 notifications every day from all of my athletes on the east coast getting after it!
Main Topic:
Jim: As a way of introducing our topic today, race season is getting close. Some of our athletes are already doing Race Simulations as they are 12 or 8 weeks out from their first races. These are perfect days to test our physical and metabolic fitness as well as test race gear.
Race Sims are an example of a good type of stress which is called Eustress. Eustress, in the context of exercise, is usually about feeling challenged but also doable and leads to strengthening and growth. Tough workouts, like Race Sims, can send you to the edge of your abilities but they can also leave you happy and confident.
Also, big goals, long training blocks, and races are examples of opportunities to experience eustress. But they are also opportunities to experience distress - the unhealthy stress.
Adding fuel to the distress fire, most of our athletes are high achievers. Type AAA. They tend to be amped as a natural default. This is our blessing and our curse. The dark side of all of this ambition and drive is we sometimes shift from eustress to distress. Distress can become the center stage of our lives. If you can relate, we have an episode for you today!
Katie: In last week’s episode on Good Data, Bad Data, we outlined TrainingPeaks Training Stress Score or TSS. TSS aims to capture the physiological load of a workout based on time and intensity. TSS rolls up into other metrics that help us understand short and long term fitness and fatigue metrics and trends. It’s a very useful tool for both athletes and coaches.
Jim: Many years ago, in my early coaching career, I began to notice that TSS was only one piece of the athlete puzzle. We were quantifying the load on the body but not necessarily on the mind or the holistic body. As I saw athletes struggle with workouts and the plan, it was often not the workouts themselves but rather life circumstances that made training difficult or impossible. As we know, normal daily life is full of stress and anxiety both professional and personal. In fact, these are the biggest factors in how much an athlete can progress that day/week/month and year.
We needed a new data metric to capture life’s daily stress, or distress, and thus Life Stress Score or LSS was born.
Katie: In today’s episode we are going to deep dive into what is LSS, its impact, how to track it, and most importantly, how to manage or reduce it.
LSS is one of the trademark terms of the Endurance Drive (not copyrighted yet but it should be), a universal experience, and something we think about a lot when we plan out our own training and our athletes’ training
What is LSS?
Life stress score
Training stress score captures physical strain (difference between fitness and fatigue). LSS captures mental/emotional strain brought on by life being hard
Some things that can contribute to high LSS: travel, negative emotions (anxiety, uncertainty), stress from work, stress from family, stress from relationships, disappointing things happening, tragedies (both close to home and in the world)...anything that works against you feeling calm, cool, and collected
Keep in mind: STRESS is STRESS is STRESS. Physical and mental/emotional stress impact your body in the same way.
On the science side, LSS usually parallels / reflects high cortisol
Cortisol: stress hormone that is produced and released by your adrenals
What cortisol does: suppress inflammation in all of your bodily tissues and control metabolism in your muscles, fat, liver and bones; regulate blood sugar, blood pressure; impacts sleep-wake cycle
You need some cortisol! All about the right balance (example: too low cortisol -- fatigue, low blood pressure, etc.)
How does LSS impact training?
When LSS is high:
Sleep is impacted → recovery is impacted
Anecdotally, we see RHR go up, HRV go down, immunity goes down, training response goes down, HR is higher than it should be during workouts, workouts feel extra challenging, etc.
Often we have also had athletes experience more GI issues when stress is high, with or without activity
There is often a direct correlation between stress and injury. The body is a highly tuned being. When we have stress or negative emotions this creates wrinkles in the neurological pathways. This millisecond detour is just enough time to create a misstep in training, particularly running.
Jim: For me I notice this trail running. It is a highly coordinated and challenging activity and almost all of my stumbles are preceded by some negative thought or emotion.
The key: LSS can compromise training adaptations *independently* of big volume or intensity
How can you track LSS?
You can usually feel it when LSS is high, although this can manifest differently for different people (anxious feelings, depressed feelings, generally feeling ‘on edge,’ feeling exhausted even if sleeping)
Katie -- For me can manifest as stress in upper back and/or chest pain
Metabolism may feel off -- hunger cues may be different/disrupted, may be hard to sleep through the night
Objective indicators -- back to data:
RHR
HRV
Sleep quantity and quality
Some workout metrics (HR, perceived effort)
Also: be realistic about what is going on with your life and share with coach
Why should you reduce LSS? (Jim) From an athletic standpoint:
Relaxed muscles are more fluid and contribute to greater coordination, strength and endurance.
Relaxed bodies react more quickly. Anxiety, fear and tension inhibit your reaction time. A relaxed athlete wil react to challenging race conditions more quickly and make better decisions. Think late in a race when confronted with unexpected obstacles and conditions. You want to be in a relaxed state so you make the best race decision.
Relaxed bodies burn less energy by keeping stress in check. Tension contracts blood vessels, inhibiting blood flow to the muscles and causing fatigue.
Relaxation lowers blood lactate. High lactate levels inhibit performance.
When relaxed, your concentration and focus improve, positively affecting your confidence. And with that you are more likely to reach your highest potential in your workout or race.
How can you reduce LSS?
Like with TSS -- you need mental recovery and/or higher mental fitness to change the equation
Mental recovery is key: switch to easy / AR training only, take time off dedicated training plan, do what you like to do (trails, yoga, etc.); focus on joy and community through movement
Mental fitness to ward against LSS impacting you a lot: meditation/breathwork/journaling/therapy etc. -- useful all the time, but doesn’t work on its own / must reduce life stress. A few recommendations:
App recommendation: Headspace
Book recommendations:
The Brave Athlete: Calm the F--k Down and Rise to the Occasion by Simon Marshall and Lesley Paterson.Wherever You Go, There You Are - Amazon book
Wherever You Go, There You Are - Spotify audio (free with Premium)
There Is No Right Way to Meditate - Amazon (super fun short, illustrated book)
The Physiological Sigh - one long deep inhale through the nose, hold, then another short (snort) inhale and then long exhale. Real time stress management.
Incorporate other things that bring you joy and community: good food, time with friends, time with family, etc.
Listen to music. Classical music is my go to.
Comedy / laughter is great medicine.
Instead of self help, help others. Give back to the community.
How do we think about LSS as coaches / how should you factor LSS into training?
Keep open dialogue (anecdote: Katie talk about rolling out weekly mental health check-in survey with U25 athletes; disclaimer that a coach is not a therapist but can use information about your life for training context)
Adapt training plan (more easy, AR, days off, unstructured adventure time, etc.)
Upshot:
Really honoring LSS earlier this year → key to race day success for me at Placid? (ie skipping race sim, a bunch of time on trails, etc.)
Listener questions:
Katie: what is your dissertation about? :)
When to do strength workouts? Before or after cardio?
Usually after, unless in off season
Often it can be useful to do on the same day as big sessions so you can keep easy days easy -- i.e. on a speed day on Tues. Avoid after Thursday so you can protect the weekend
Super shoes - how much to run in them?
According to Bu, not much as the carbon plate shuts off using the small muscles in your foot. If your foot does not get a stimulus, you will initially be fast but the super shoe effect will stop you from getting a run stimulus.
You can do some training in “high efficiency” shoes but how much is still unclear from science.
Our recommendation is to do just a few key sessions in them to ensure they fit and don’t blister on race day but the majority of your training and key sessions should be in normal, training shoes.
Katie: Hoka Carbon X story
Challenge of the week:
Katie: Journaling practice -- useful in times of high LSS to journal for 5 minutes before you go out for a run so you can leave any negative thoughts/feelings/emotions behind and still be present in the workout
Jim: Take the last 5’ of ride or run and think of one thing you are grateful for while taking in some deep, conscious breaths. Reduce that LSS!
Gear pick of the week:
Katie: Large skinny resistance bands for simulating cable strength workouts while traveling (a rec from my strength trainer)