I found it strange that the racing weight calculator doesn't differentiate between endurance sports. It suggests a racing weight for me of 132 lb. whether I'm a distance runner, swimmer, or triathlete.

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Madison photographer Timothy Hughes | Instagram

From Run with Power, also by VeloPress, "Now we can begin to measure economy and efficiency, two essential training concepts that will greatly improve your training. Briefly, economy is a measure of oxygen usage—how many meters of distance you are getting from each milliliter of oxygen. Efficiency is a measure of how much speed you are getting for the watts you are producing." *sigh*

A publisher isn't an editor....

No, but they employ them, and in my experience VeloPress has some good ones (Renee Jardine in particular). That misattribution, however, is something that apparently fell through the cracks.

Assume for a moment that most people in the forum don't know the specifics of who you are and what you have done but know that you are an accomplished scientist...What exactly is wrong with that paragraph?

My work was plagiarized by a WSJ article 12 years ago. I did an interview with a writer on over-exposure to certain mortality risks for a couple of insurance companies; he passed but sent the notes to another writer who published a front page article with zero attribution. I was pissed. Wait. I am still pissed!

You mean aside from the fact that I am the one who developed the PMC approach it describes, and Hunter Allen and Kevin Williams are the ones who developed the software that is mentioned? Absolutely nothing at all.

Rather than being pissed, though, I am more disappointed/amused. But, as I told Steve, I blame the mistake on Al Gore for inventing the internet.

Sssssuuuuuure you did.

Next you're going to tell us you developed normalized power, TSS, power profiling, quadrant analysis, the Performance Manager, the WKO4 power-duration model, auto-phenotyping, elevation-corrected power, and GPR, GPA, KI, and MEPF metrics to describe pedaling. Did I miss anything?

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--Chris

:)

Yes: the new "iLevels":



More info here:

http://home.trainingpeaks.com/...-new-ilevels-in-wko4

What abut your wife, Morgan Fairchild?

Oh, that was good. (sadly, ya gotta be kinda old to get it though)

sigh...

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I saw this on a white board in a window box at my daughters middle school...
List of what life owes you:
1. __________
2. __________
3. __________

Yep, just bit older than Mr. Lovitz himself.

The misattribution should be hung on Fitzgerald, who for a journalist by training has a pretty bad history of misattribution, short quoting and pick and choose for his "references". So I am not surprised. On another note from this book, much of the premise is garbage anyways. He seems to think he is an expert on nutrition (with a weekend nutrition cert) and sport psychology, oddly both of those things generally require advanced degrees to be an expert. Much of his premises are a joke and his Race weight calculator will always tell you to lose more weight no matter what variables you change. Additionally, there is NO metric to nail down someone's "race weight" I've kept a pretty solid database on athlete weights an performances and it is not a linear model. So Fitzgerald is not so much for the real science thing.

What this book does do though, is trigger athletes with eating disorders, make suggestions about unhealthy habits to those who do not have ED's but are looking for any way healthy or not to improve. Its pretty much crap. So a misattribution is a "are you friggin kidding me" that pretty much anyone who pays attention knows are Andy's models and academic/practical work means Fitzgerald sat through a talk where Steve presented this stuff (most likely from Coggan and Allen referenced work) and didn't know it was not McGregor's work. So pretty much par for the course from Fitzgerald.

even better: http://home.trainingpeaks.com/...g-swimming-tss-score

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wovebike.com | Wove on instagram

Is this where you start whining about the stages power meter?

Finally someone who agrees with me on this. I always thought this book was a bunch of "no-shit" ideas churned up into arbitrary rules and theories. Ive listened to interviews with Fitzgerald and he comes off as a contrarian know it all. I am surprised more issues like this aren't raised concerning his work.

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Professional Athlete: http://jordancheyne.wordpress.com/ http://www.strava.com/athletes/145340

Coaching Services:http://www.peakformcoaching.com/

Was IF someone else's idea, or does this need to be added to the list too? As it is based on NP, I would guess the latter.

I will say that Vigil specified those "ilevels" in Road to the Top, as did Canova a bit in his marathon training manual with Rosa. hence the reason, as a runner, I had planned Canova style under-over workouts with AeT-low 80%, AeT-mid 82%, AeT high 84%, AT-low 87% and AT high 92% of maxHR. But, I like Coggan's chart better - never really liked the Z1-Z6/Z7 charts as they just weren't specific enough.

Never been a fan of Fitzgerald, BUT Ironwar is a great book - he researched the shit out of that book! The book could have benefited by the omission of his attempt to talk about running mechanics and economy, though his talk of the central governor theory was accurate enough and added substance. Other than that, he should stay away from self-help books, from what I've seen.

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wovebike.com | Wove on instagram

No, he (they) did not. The iLevels are based on specific, cogently-chosen points on the curve fitted by the WKO4 power-duration model. People have long individualized their training based on their personal bests at various distances/durations, but it's not the same thing.

Oops, that's another one I missed! Will correct my .sig.

I've never been a fan of this guy because of what you said above and the "Iron War" controversy. When the two subjects of your book refuse to be interviewed by you and plead with the public to not purchase the book, it's a good sign you're doing something really fucking wrong.

Ever curious, I went and checked that out. I'm 5'10" and 134lbs. I've got minimal body fat and honestly if I drop any more weight I start under performing. For flatter races I'd be happy a few pounds heavier, for climbing-heavy bike races (which is what I mostly do) I'm always on the cusp of "too light" and sometimes that bites me.

And yes... his race weight calculator says I'm a big fatty and need to lose a couple of pounds.

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http://ironvision.blogspot.com ; @drSteve1663

interesting...
i tried it and yes it said i should lose 2 pounds to get from my current 8%BF to 6.9%BF. i actually think this is correct despite most people saying i'm far too skinny. i have in past been even lighter and lower BF than that and god was i flying - the one time i managed to reach my target race in peak form that is. the problem with being very lean is that you become fragile. it takes a real precise build up to hit that weight just at the right time as you can't hold your form for long without getting fatigued, sick or injured. maybe Matt has the knowledge to guide you to do that reliably?

i do think its odd that his calculator does not take into account what event you're training for - there is certainly a range of appropriate weights depending on discipline, duration and terrain.
the biggest thing its not taking into account though is the rest of life complications - its taking the ideal situation ie pro athlete with coach monitoring everything. for most of us we need to err on the higher weight side as we have too many life complications to be able to peak so perfectly. but hey, its an ideal racing weight calculator - its dealing with ideals not practical realities!

If you read any mainstream article or book on a subject you are an expert in you will find blatant errors usually.

The LA book "Wheelmen" had numerous factual errors and that was by a big legit publishing house.

I work for one of the biggest brands in the world and it is rare that there are not errors when journos write about us.

Training Peaks is killer btw.

Not arguing, just curious - what are the issues with this segment?

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Aaron Bales
Lansing Triathlon Team