Paul Laursen (00:00)

we have to almost look at this a little bit like a battery. And it's a battery across any of the different, you could say, looking at your energy systems. When we say energy systems, it's almost like you've got your sprint your sprint ability.

And you've got your endurance ability. And we're looking at any one of those bandwidths across the the entire continuum of that.

Paul Warloski (00:46)

Hello and welcome to the Athletes Compass Podcast, where we navigate training, fitness, and health for everyday athletes. If you've ever wondered just how much you have left in the tank during a hard effort, Athletica has some tools that might change how you train and race. It's Atletica's workout reserve and is designed to track your performance relative to your absolute maximum so you know exactly.

When you're fresh at 100% and when you've hit your personal best at zero percent. Today we're going deep with the Atletica team of Paul and Marjaana to learn how the workout reserve works, how to use it during training and racing, how to analyze your workout data to become a smarter, more strategic athlete. Plus, we'll get insight into a brand new tool called systems engagement. So first of all,

We've talked about workout reserve in in different episodes, but we've never discussed you know discussed it on its own. What is workout reserve?

Paul Laursen (01:50)

Yeah, so really we we have to give full credit to Dr. Andrea Zignoli, ⁓ our back end specialist at Atletica. And, you know, this is really his baby. he has been on a number of different times explaining this. So refer back to those episodes if you want the core foundation from a mathematician and genius that's invented this. It's his invention. But we're we're the fortunate

beneficiaries of this technology. And ultimately what workout reserve is, you know, f for for us with with the simple minds, and I include myself in that, we have to almost look at this a little bit like a battery. And it's a battery across any of the different, you could say, historic energy looking at your energy systems. When we say energy systems, it's almost like you've got your sprint ⁓ your sprint ability.

And you've got your endurance ability. And we look we're looking at any one of any one of those bandwidths across the the entire continuum of that. And that comes from your historic data. So you're out there training as you do with with Athletica, and that data is always being fed back and looked at by the algorithms in Athletica. And at some time you've probably sprinted.

You've ⁓ either in and that's been measured either in pace or that's been measured in in power output. And that that registers. And for workout reserve, it takes that over the last six months. And it's and at any given time, if you're actually watching this live on ⁓ a platform like Velocity that shows you your workout reserve in terms of your battery, ⁓ or on ⁓ the Garmin app, there's an actual dedicated Garmin app that you can download.

Measure your workout reserve, or you can retrospectively look at this in your analysis tab in Athletica. So there's three main ways that you can look at this. But when you're doing that and you're looking back, you're seeing this ultimately this battery line, and it's ⁓ it spans from 100% fully topped up to 0%. ⁓ or yeah, and it can actually go negative too. And that is really looking at the combined level.

of of these what are called maximal mean paces and maximal mean powers. And then these these little windows, windows of sprint, windows of mid-range or mid windows that are looking long range in terms of of the average power that's in every one of those given bandwidths. And it's always looking back at that and giving you an insight into how deep you've gone ⁓ into your energy systems, how down how deep you've dipped into that.

⁓ and that can be really important for a a number of different ⁓ reasons that we'll get into later in the podcast.

Paul Warloski (04:39)

Yeah, so explain physiologically what happens at a hundred percent versus zero percent. What does that hundred percent mean? What is zero or below zero? What does that mean?

Paul Laursen (04:52)

Sure. Well it depends on what you're actually, you know, what window it's looking at. So you know, are we looking at five seconds? And if we're looking at a five second window, well, we're we're looking at how deep we've gone in terms of our sprint ability, right? But if we're looking if we're reflecting back at say, sixty minutes, well, we're looking at a more of an aerobic window.

Right, like you know, that's closer to like your probably your FTP or your threshold number. ⁓ that's that's probably what it's looking at. So the and the energy system to your question, Paul, will be different depending on which window that you're looking at. And you know, to that you might always you might you know naturally ask, Well, how do you know ⁓ how do you know which window Athletica's looking at? It's looking at the one that's ultimately relevant at that at that given time. So in the first five, ten

Paul Warloski (05:40)

That's my next question.

Paul Laursen (05:48)

20 seconds, one minute, it can only look back at those given at at those exact durations. ⁓ but as the time goes on, it's more selective in terms of the the window that it's looking at, in terms of the one that is most relevant at any given moment in a total exercise total exercise period. And that's where it gets very interesting and different to what we learned initially in the exercise sciences.

Paul Warloski (06:17)

Could you explain that more? What I mean you mean by the initial what you what you've learned?

Paul Laursen (06:23)

Yeah. Well this and this is really where s you know some of the interesting findings come from system engagement and otherwise, but you know, if say you're doing and this came from a lot of the work that ⁓ and Andrea and Atletica get to do with the team, the Bardiani team ⁓ that is competing in the Giro, Giro ⁓ Giro d'Italia and ⁓ this is like, you know, we're so fortunate to work with these professional cyclists. But what

What came through and they we know we have a fantastic blog on this and we also have the paper that's recently been published in ⁓ European journal sports science. And you know, ultimately what they were looking at were these sprint performances, ⁓ you know, say a three you know, a three-minute sprint or a twelve minute sprint. And initially you would think that that would only come from ⁓ ultimately a sprint window that's three minutes or twelve minutes.

But when this is done later on down the road, you know, i after a three hour bike, well, it's actually looking more at the longer term duration window, implying that actually the aerobic energy system is a lot more decisive in determining that sprint power output. And we, you know, we didn't really ⁓ feel that that would have been the the case from the prior work that we've done.

So there's there there's there's really great there's new insights ⁓ on the importance of the of the energy system that matters in any given moment from Andrea's new invention here.

Paul Warloski (08:01)

And and we'll link to the article and the study in the show notes. ⁓ can you explain a little more about how energy systems are related to those different durations in the systems engagement?

Paul Laursen (08:16)

Sure. So there's you'll you'll see this. So if you're an Athletica user, what you'll want to do is you'll want to go into your analysis tab and then so click on your analysis. So do any session that you want. I you know, cycling or say running, and then click into into your analysis and then click into your advanced features, and then you'll see system engagement. Click on a system engagement there, and it actually shows this little like ⁓ graphically.

How much engagement was was required for any given effort across neuromuscular sprints, anaerobic lactate sprints, longer sprints, ⁓ VO2 max, so five minute duration, ⁓ threshold level, or you know, more more into that critical power, critical speed level, and the aerobic system that's all you know always on and filling a

important component. So in any given workout that you did, you can actually see which system was taxed, or in any given ⁓ race you can actually see what system was was taxed.

we had an incredible ⁓ blog post recently from

Matt Hudson, he did a two forty one, two forty two marathon, outstanding, incredible. And it actually shows in that in that blog post his system engagements. And what what it shows is that, you know, ultimately all systems were Go. Obviously the Aerobic system was maxed out at two forty one two forty two, providing full support. But of course

you know, we also know that the like your threshold if you're doing a if you're doing a marathon, your threshold is totally taxed out as well, too, right? So he was right at critical power, critical speed also in that one. And a little bit of VO2 and and downwards it kind of goes. But it just it's it's one great example to, you know, retrospectively look at any given race and see which systems are taxed. And of course

when you know that this is how, you know, ultimately we design HIIT science. So ⁓ we do we we first of all ⁓ in any of the given 20 sports that are in HIIT science, the science and application of high-intensity interval training, what we asked our our contributors, these world experts in s in all the various different sports, 20 different sports, we said, here's how we want you to break down your chapter, go in there.

Describe what the physiological demands are of your sport, and then talk about how you leverage training to hit those targets. Well, isn't this kind of cool and convenient? We now have system engagement there where you can analyze any given race, like Matt Hudson just did. You can see what systems were engaged, and now you can design a training program that targets those systems, those energy systems.

Because that's that's the whole purpose of training. That's how we should be designing our training. For any given sport, we should be breaking it down, analyzing it, and then reverse engineering our training so that we're our we're hitting those targets to develop those target those physiological systems that are gonna meet the the the demands. MJ.

Marjaana Rakai (11:44)

When you're looking at your workout, do you need to ⁓ pick like a a heel or proportion of the workout to get it analyzed or does how does it actually work? Like does it automatically choose the entire workout or

Paul Laursen (12:02)

You can nail it. You great, great question. So by default, if you're just landing on your session, it it it covers the entire session. But and this is again a new Athletica feature, kudos to Andrea for bringing this one. You can select any given portion that you know that you're interested in. And if you click and s select that proportion, it will only look at the system engagement that was required over that portion.

So that's again very, very convenient if you're, you know, just kind of like you said, you're training for a race and you know it has a pinch point ⁓ of a of a certain hill that's gonna be, you know, likely taking X amount of time, you could either do that race beforehand and do a bit of a recce on it, ⁓ or or do something similar if you had to travel to it and and actually look at the the system engagement that occurs in that specific

session, make sure then that of course your training is is hitting those targets.

Paul Warloski (13:06)

So I may have looked at this wrong, but in the systems engagement it answers that question. Did you engage the system you intended to train? You know, for example, I did a 3030 workout on Monday. The systems engagement says that I did a fifty two percent in VO two max system and a seventy three percent in the threshold. That may have been for the whole workout, but did I engage the right systems?

Paul Laursen (13:32)

Yeah, that's pretty good. ⁓ and and and that's actually what I would expect. It's and that's typically what we see in terms of in terms of the physiological systems that that improve. When you do a thirty thirty VO two session, you get improvements in both VO two max and threshold. So it makes perfect sense that system engagement was was hitting both of those systems.

when you when you scrolled over that ⁓ that thirty thirty session. ⁓ yeah, that's exactly what we expect. Even though it's it's almost a little bit like an overunder, right? Because much of that that power output is usually sitting in around zone six, which is above the five, you know, your VO two ⁓ proportion. But you'll notice if you trace back and look at heart rate. Heart rate of course peaks up ⁓ into the VO two max range. So ⁓ this is why, you know,

Paul Warloski (14:12)

Mm.

Well.

Paul Laursen (14:29)

Both short intervals and long intervals are the the the training sessions, the hit sessions of choice for the endurance practitioner. That's why you see them in Athletica, both, you know, short and long intervals. And ⁓ yeah, outstanding for ⁓ for contributing to to the development of VO two max and of course threshold as you saw, Paul.

Paul Warloski (14:50)

Can athletes use real time workout reserve data to adjust their effort during a race or training and can they ⁓ can workout reserve help us optimize our pacing?

Paul Laursen (15:04)

Yes. Yes, it certain can it certainly can. ⁓ so in the context of velocity sessions, and I I actually do this, ⁓ I I keep an eye on my workout reserve, even and Coach MJ does I know sometimes as well to to others that are that are particip participating in the in the given session. But but yeah, it's you can actually keep an eye on it right there in in that session to see how deep it's going. And usually

you know, it's usually reflecting on velocity specific workouts. And ⁓ yeah, it's looking back again, always looking back at s the your last six weeks of data and it's looking at, you know, how deep are you going relative to that past. That's how it's that's how it's ⁓ that's how it's looking back. And yeah, you can you just get great insight in terms of, you know, whether you're almost hitting a personal best.

And velocity MJ'll tell you, it gives personal bests, ⁓ Maximum power per personal bests. is that right, MJ?

Marjaana Rakai (16:07)

yeah, yeah. So Velocity has their ⁓ banners for ten seconds, thirty second, personal best, ⁓ compared to what you've done before.

Paul Laursen (16:20)

Right. So in workout reserve, it's often doing it's doing the same in real time. So if you're hitting those personal bests, it it's, you know, usually reflecting also on those same historic bests, at least from the athletica standpoint in terms of your athletica historical data. So ⁓ that now that's that's one feature. And then of course if you're using the workout reserve Garmin app.

⁓ there's another feature that Phil Weisshurst, who's been on the podcast before, has has sunk into that, and that is a ⁓ a time to exhaustion. So it's you can actually ⁓ scroll through on your Garmin app and actually look at how your your likely time to exhaustion. And this is to to Paul's question about pacing. It's like, okay, so if I'm ⁓ say I'm riding at 200 watts, historically

What's my countdown till I'm dead? What's what's the countdown till I I can't ride 200 watts anymore? So it actually has that. And this is like this is ⁓ this is an incredible feature that you've you know we would only dreamt about in the in the past because it's like, you know, when you do a an exercise physiology test and or ⁓ or a laboratory experiment, they usually ask you to come to the laboratory after usually some sort of an i intervention, whether it's a

Paul Warloski (17:23)

Mm-hmm.

Paul Laursen (17:40)

carbohydrate, caffeine trial, ⁓ you know, ⁓ bicarbonate, whatever it is they're investigating, they will they will give that condition to you and then ask you to ride to exhaustion at 200 watts or 250 watts or whatever percentage of VO2 max based on that. Well, you actually have that in any given time live on workout reserve in the Garmin app. That's pretty cool. So ⁓ again another incredible workout reserve feature.

courtesy of Andrea and and Phil Whitehurst

Paul Warloski (18:16)

Is is there a a a difficult process to set up the workout reserve on Garmin devices or is that a pretty easy process?

Paul Laursen (18:27)

Yeah, it's pretty easy. It's you know, it's not without some some challenges because everyone has a different Garmin, everyone has a different kind of setup. But if you go to your Garmin I Connect IQ app and you download the Athletica Workout Reserve ⁓ data field by Phil Whitehurst ⁓ and you'll you'll actually have that there and and you can, yeah.

actually have that in your in your app and then it that app syncs to your Garmin device and then ⁓ you load it up. If you have any problems, your Phil is always kind and in and available on our forum. So just message Phil Phil there. You'll be able to s do a search on the Athletica forum for that and and Phil's usually quick to chime in ⁓ on any issues that that you may be having in terms of

troubleshooting ⁓ mechanism to to get that up. But that's pretty cool. Ul ultimately though, the like it does help with pacing for me. So I I often do like a a standard hill climb ⁓ here in Revelstoke and I love watching my workout reserve number you know slowly sink down every every summer ⁓ as I pr you know progress ⁓ and become faster and

get higher and higher, higher up on the mountain. ⁓ and, you know, it's ⁓ 'cause ultimately like the the snow keeps melting and I get higher and higher and higher week after week. And ultimately the ⁓ the negative like I you know, I'll often hit negative numbers kind of consistently. Remember when you hit a negative number, it it means you're in new uncharted territories. It it's

It's it's almost like a breakthrough workout or breakout workout and it's like you've you've hit a personal best. So it's kinda cool from that perspective.

Marjaana Rakai (20:17)

our ambassadors ⁓ so cal likes to call workout reserve painometer pain ometer so when when you're approaching zero or negative you're definitely in the pain cave we should we should actually call it i love i love that name i mean like you remember it pain painometer like indicate indicates how how hard you're going it's very

Paul Laursen (20:24)

Pain a meter, yeah.

Yeah. Exactly. Often.

Okay.

Paul Warloski (20:40)

Ha ha ha

Paul Laursen (20:44)

Totally. But also remember the process

of training. So equally, it's not every session should be ⁓ you should be hitting the painometer and and ⁓ you know, you should be doing a lot of sessions easy and there's no, you know, most of your sessions you shouldn't be doing necessarily negative work at reserve unless it's a duration, because it can be duration specific. So say I say, you know, here we are, it's it's you know, spring weather here and I'm just gonna s I'm starting to get back out on the bike.

And you know, I'm going from one hour to ninety minutes to two hours to three hours, etc. Every time I do that, from the duration standpoint, I've I'm going into uncharted territory. So I will hit na ⁓ negative workout reserves in those in all of those sessions. But once I'm consistently doing three, four hour rides, then you know it's I'm I'm used I'll be used to just doing sessions.

where ⁓ you know I'm just getting to 30% in every every ride and that's perfectly fine. So ⁓ it's a new variable, a number that you'll start to become more familiar with. ⁓ and then it's a great one to reflect on with ⁓ in your in your analysis and with system engagement as well. But it's it's grounded on pure exercise physiology, which is why all of this is published in a high ranking peer reviewed journal.

and ⁓ that we you know we can link to. and yeah, it's a feature we're super proud w of and it's you know it's ⁓ it just speaks to our science backed philosophy that we take with Athletica.

Marjaana Rakai (22:23)

Can I ask about ⁓ system engagement? If on a like a aerobic ride or aerobic run, ⁓ you're supposed to stay nice and controlled, zone one, zone two. When you look at that session afterwards, what are you expected to see?

Paul Laursen (22:46)

So I would so if I'm doing zone one or zone two run, the first thing I'm gonna be looking at is my heart rate relative to its zone and the zone that it should be in. That's the that's the first thing. But I know you asked the question on the system engagement and the the answer is it's it depends on the context. So it depends on what I've done before. If I'm just entering Athletica and I have no history ⁓ of of sessions, ⁓ then it's gonna be

It's not really gonna be valid. But if I have a long history of sessions in Athletica and that, you know, right across the the spectrum of external training loads or or power and pace all over the map, then I should expect to see ⁓ an aerobic ⁓ target being hit. So I should see

The aerobic green at the very end there. That's that's likely gonna be the one that I'll I'll see live and and engaged.

Marjaana Rakai (23:43)

So say I'm supposed to do aerobic. So nice, easy, zone one, zone two, nothing crazy. And I go ahead and go do my run and then you as a coach you're looking at was MJ ⁓ compliant with what we agreed on and you can see my heart rate higher than it should have been.

Paul Laursen (24:08)

What it should be.

Marjaana Rakai (24:09)

So what

Paul Laursen (24:09)

Yeah.

Marjaana Rakai (24:10)

what would energy system show that there?

Paul Laursen (24:14)

Well then the energy system is likely gonna transfer over to more to threshold levels. and if you're really violating, it's gonna it's gonna be moving into the VO two ⁓ spectrum. So ⁓ and that's when I would that's when I would ⁓ get on the horn and say, Hey, what's going on? You feeling good today? And yeah.

Marjaana Rakai (24:26)

Mm-hmm.

Yeah.

Paul Laursen (24:41)

That that's right. I s and and s you know, maybe, you know, what's the what's what's the plan or what do we ⁓ there's don't forget there's a purpose to the the the aerobic fat burning, oxygen consuming base sessions that we are prescribing there for you.

Marjaana Rakai (24:58)

Okay. But the system's engagement is based on pace and power, yes?

Paul Laursen (25:05)

Yes, it is. And that is the and I'm so happy that you brought that up because that is a key limitation that we all need to recognize. And this is not what we call an internal load measure with something like heart rate or lactate that's an internal load measure or you know, even RPE. This is an external load measure. So we can't we're we can only imply some of these energy systems being ⁓ targeted or hit based on but they become more powerful when you have a

lot of data, a lot of historic data. So that's that's the so if you have a they are valid or more valid when you have a long history of sessions ⁓ that are that are done from the past.

Marjaana Rakai (25:50)

Yeah, so workout reserve looks at every single session the past six weeks, right? And then if you haven't done test week or any calibration ⁓ sessions like 5k hard out or FTP test, then you don't have complete power or pace profile, correct? Okay, so

Paul Laursen (25:55)

Correct. Correct.

That's right. Yeah. Absolutely.

So you yeah.

Marjaana Rakai (26:16)

somebody

somebody who's coming in, they don't bring their data or they haven't trained with us for six weeks, ⁓ it's not gonna be perfect. So the longer you stay with us, the better it will get.

Paul Laursen (26:29)

Yeah.

Absolutely. That's correct.

Marjaana Rakai (26:36)

Again, garbage in, garbage out, so

Paul Laursen (26:37)

Garbage in, garbage out, that's right.

Paul Warloski (26:37)

Yeah, yeah.

Paul Laursen (26:39)

Yep. So yeah, you do the ⁓ you do your test sessions and you know in your test weeks in the sport that's specific to you, and that's how you ⁓ you know, you'll you will obtain a valid power or pace profile. So ⁓ in the context of cycling, you know, the use the power profile test and an FTP test so that you've also got the twenty minute

maximal mean power that's in there and now you've got a nice shape of that curve. And then any session that you do, you're always reflecting back on all of the personal bests that are in that that power profile. Likewise for for running, you can do the test week that is prescribed in any of the running programs. And again, you'll have, you know, 400 meters, you'll have 1K, and you'll have ⁓ you'll have ⁓ 5K

that's out there and we can get a nice curve from that. And again, we get a ⁓ a good a relatively valid profile to reflect back on so that workout reserve becomes valid.

Marjaana Rakai (27:46)

What about swimming and rowing?

Paul Laursen (27:50)

Swimming and rowing should be in there as well. And you know, of course, I think, there's limitations with the I think the rowing power on a ⁓ a concept to erg or other is going to be much more is going to be quite valid. ⁓ and then the swimming one is is a tricky one because of the device that you might be choosing to use in in swimming and

the precision ultimately of the device and its ability to to calculate paces and s and speeds that you're that you're actually going on ⁓ in the water. It's ⁓ you know, it's just counting laps and ⁓ so the yeah it's it's not it's not as precise.

Marjaana Rakai (28:31)

Tricky.

Yeah, it's tricky.

Paul Warloski (28:34)

Can the workout reserve help identify when an athlete is is ready for ⁓ a good performance or needing recovery? Is that in is that part of the process?

Paul Laursen (28:46)

Well, I think, you know, f I I love it for progression because I I kinda like I mentioned before, it's lovely to see the consistency of the negative workout reserves with enhanced, you know, increased durations. It's a v it's a variable I always look at. ⁓ when I'm you know, w in my coaching process, I'm always looking at where where workout res reserve was. And then ⁓ you know, I think it's

Paul Warloski (28:51)

Yeah.

Paul Laursen (29:14)

Yeah, it it's just it's really part part and parcel of ⁓ and a variable to understand. And ⁓ and yeah, in terms of knowing where you're ready, like again, context is key, but you know, one thing that you know we see if we reflect back to Matt Matt Hanson's marathon performance, the two forty two that I mentioned, ⁓ and this was this was in a number of

Paul Warloski (29:26)

Mm-hmm.

Paul Laursen (29:41)

programs that we analyze that where athletes are are doing their athletica training. Well it's interesting that workout reserve in those races hits negative zero negative and then going negative after about ⁓ halfway of the individual's event. ⁓ and that r be means that they've you know they're by halfway of the marathon, they're actually into uncharted territories.

Which initially you would think, that's probably that that doesn't sound like it's a good thing, but it's how we shape the performance ⁓ with lots a high frequency of sessions over any one long run. We have this we have this chat a lot ⁓ on you know in various different different locations, but this is why we ⁓ we don't prescribe these absolute high long runs, because we know the frequency trumps it. You want to actually accumulate a

a lot of training in your week, but not necessarily in any any given session. But it's in in terms of the how it works from the physiology standpoint standpoint, it's always signaling the for these aerobic adaptations. And then when you go to perform, ⁓ yeah, you're gonna see that workout reserve hitting negative by by halfway. So there's a lot to get around, get your head around ⁓ if you're new to this whole space, but it is a very

Paul Warloski (31:00)

Mm.

Paul Laursen (31:05)

powerful tool once you get to or to understanding it, Paul. And I would I would say also if you ask the AI coach questions about this as well as it relates to your data. AI coach is very good at you know talking about all of this with relevance to your data, which is going to be way more interesting than trying to understand me and ⁓ and listen to this, you know, my

Paul Warloski (31:10)

Mm-hmm.

Paul Laursen (31:32)

general global talk about this one, but the AI coach is equipped to talk to talk about this with your data and what it means and reflects for you.

Paul Warloski (31:43)

And again, we'll link to the article and a whole bunch of other information about workout reserve, in the show notes so that you get a better picture of how to not only use it during workouts and racing, but how to analyze it after your workouts.

Thanks for listening today to the Athletes Compass Podcast. Take a moment now, subscribe, share, and let's keep navigating this endurance adventure together. Improve your training with the science-based training platform Athletica, and join the conversation at the Athletica Forum, especially about now about workout reserve. For Marjaana Rakai and Dr. Paul Laursen I'm Paul Warloski and this has been the Athletes Compass Podcast. Thank you so much for listening.