Feedback Requested -- Endurance Nation SufferLevel Concept...
Folks, just playing around with a concept that's been in my head for a while. And hell, I like procrastinating my workouts as much as the next guy...so here goes.
We do a lot to educate folks here on the Team, but there's clearly a time -- especially with the proximity of a race looming, when we'll have a higher success rate (aka "compliance") when we just tell people what to do.
Think, more Coach Rich, less Coach P. 
So, what's the #1 thing that Fs people up on race week and race day??? THE WEATHER.
Which got me thinking, what if Endurance Nation had a way to issue a "Race Advisory" like the weather, or like Smokey The Bear with his "about to burn the forest down" threat levels? I brainstormed some criteria, conveniently presented them to Rich when he was head down with Wisconsin, and created the following. For the record, I checked Weather Underground for the general forecast, then cross referenced with my favorite aviation website (great with the winds too; www.usairnet.com) to fill in the blanks.
Presenting...drumroll, please...the Endurance Nation SufferLevel Index!
I'd love your input, considering that (A) this will most likely live external to EN in some way and (B) that the weekend racer has only 2' to give me before they space out again.
Thanks in advance!
SufferLevel — How conditions will affect your race in Wisconsin.
View: http://j.mp/1Lq5DvP
Download: http://j.mp/1Lq5ybM
Comments
Great idea!
sometimes we might see it worse than it will be and coming from an external person (aka someone not racing) can help calm down.
Patrick,
I like it. Another product that you might want to look at, if you don't already, is the NWS Forecast Discussion for the area of interest. For instance this is the link to the forecast discussion for Wisconsin. http://www.nws.noaa.gov/view/prodsByState.php?state=WI&prodtype=discussion
The thing I like about this is that it's the meteorologist's thoughts and interpretations of the current models and it's often more nuanced than the forecast. It's especially good if there is a storm or other type of extreme weather event that they're dealing with and trying to forecast.
Yes. I'll take one. Thank you Coach.
A few thoughts... Weather temperatures vs Course Temperatures can be very different animals. Weather temperatures are measured in the shade. Bike courses and run courses are mostly in the direct sun light. The latitude of the course (Cozumel vs Mont Tremblant) has a big impact on the effect of the direct sun light. The Surface of the road (black tarmac vs white cement) also have a dramatic impact on the temperature impacting the athletes.
As I look at the forecast for CHOO and see temperatures in the lows 80s on race day - I anticipate that this could be a very hot run... one that is a lot hotter than a low 80s race in MI and one that feels more like mid 90s on the run course.
During some races, the SufferLevel will be different at different times of the day - perhaps a metric that has 4 numbers: A Swim # / Bike # / Early Run # and Night Run # or marking S/B/R on the scale would be helpful? I remember Tahoe, for example, was miserable cold in the morning, but was pretty toasty towards the end of the bike and we needed to shed loads of clothes, and I finished the race with long sleeves in the evening.
Another thought is to give some definition/context to the levels: Low, Moderate, High, Very High & Extreme
- What do these levels mean in terms of hydration & nutrition?
- When is it necessary to employee cooling / warming strategies?
- What do these levels mean in terms of race attire?
- What do these levels mean to performance on bike / run?
I'm not sure there is a perfect answer to these questions - but if the run is "yellow" and I know that yellow means "no impact to bike but that i need to push fluids and that run will be slower..." or that red means "expect higher than normal bike HR and slow accordingly" that will help the planning and course adjustments.
I personally use Heat Index (which incorporates temperature + relative humidity) as a measure to estimate how it will feel on race day. I also add ≈10º to this number if it is in direct sunlight and another 5-10º based on the road surface.
I look forward to seeing where this goes!
In this article (temps in ºC) they indicate that you should add 8ºC to the temperature calculated for the Heat Index!