In the last newsletter, I introduced first principles thinking - breaking something down into its most fundamental elements to better understand it. Today, I’ll show you how I break endurance sports into their core components to better understand performance and, more importantly, improve it.
Let’s start with a chart!
At the top of the chart is velocity, the end goal and the ultimate determinant of race results. But what creates velocity?
1. Mechanical Power
Mechanical power is how much force you apply to the pedals, ground, or water. It’s what you see on your power meter. Mechanical efficiency determines how much of your mechanical power translates into forward velocity. Factors like air and water resistance play a major role in this efficiency.
2. Metabolic Power
What creates mechanical power?
Metabolic power - the conversion of chemical energy into work - dictates how much mechanical power you can produce. In short, the higher your metabolic power, the faster you can burn calories and generate energy for movement. Metabolic efficiency determines how much of the energy from fats and carbohydrates is converted into mechanical power. This is different from “fat-burning ability” or glycogen sparing. We’re talking about maximizing the number of ATP molecules produced from each unit of fuel.
Fun fact: Oxidizing carbohydrates is about 10% more efficient than oxidizing fats when it comes to ATP production.
Why This Matters
Just like dollars don’t grow on trees (they come from paper, which comes from trees, which come from nutrients and sunlight), velocity doesn’t appear out of thin air. It’s built from layers of contributing factors - mechanical and metabolic power - each playing a critical role in your performance.When you understand these components and how they contribute to your performance, you’ll know exactly where to focus your training for the biggest improvements. Show me the money!!
In the next newsletter, I’ll dive deeper into the subcomponents of velocity and share practical methods to improve them.
Thanks for reading!
Robbie
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