I ran off a cliff today. Literally.

As someone who gets a bit of vertigo at heights, this wasn’t exactly in my comfort zone.

But I’d promised a friend I’d join him paragliding.

The trick my tandem instructor shared with me?

Fix your gaze on where you want to fly—out on the horizon—not at what’s below your feet—and go for it.

Now, running off a cliff isn’t something I usually do, but that tip—look where you want to go—is one that regularly keeps showing up in my life.

It’s a fundamental principle in sports psychology—research shows that the body follows where the mind directs it, and athletes who leverage this to sharpen focus enhance their performance.

It’s also a non-negotiable in motorcycle riding. You must stay focused 5-10 seconds down the road—not on distractions in your periphery—otherwise you’ll crash.

I can’t help but feel like it’s such a powerful mantra to help you through difficult moments where you must believe in yourself.

So if you need a push this week… Keep your head up, eyes on the prize. Trust yourself, trust the process, and enjoy the ride.

Movement of the Week: Dumbbell Push Press

The DB Push Press is a versatile compound movement that can be programmed for strength, power, or endurance, depending on load, volume, and execution.

Unlike a strict press, the push press incorporates leg drive, allowing you to lift heavier weights while reinforcing force transfer, core stability, and overhead control—key skills for both strength and endurance athletes.

😍 Why It’s Great

• Full Body: Trains triple extension (ankle, hips, knees) and explosive force production from legs up through shoulders.
  

• Versatile: Can be programmed to focus more on strength, power, or muscular endurance.
  

• Efficient & Travel Friendly: Requires just two dumbbells—or one if you do single arm at a time—making it ideal in any setting.

🏋️ How to Perform

1. Set Up – Stand hip-width apart, with dumbbells at shoulder height, elbows slightly forward.
   

2. Dip – Bend the knees slightly, keeping an upright torso and engaged core.

3. Drive – Extend the hips, knees, and ankles forcefully to create momentum.

4. Press – Use the generated power to drive the dumbbells overhead, locking out the arms.
   

5. Control the Descent – Lower the dumbbells back to the shoulders smoothly and reset before repeating.

✔️ Load & Volume

• Strength Focus: 4-5 sets of 3-5 reps, heavy load (80-90% 1RM), 3 min rest.

• Explosive Power: 3-5 sets of 3-5 fast reps, moderate load (40-60% 1RM), 2-3 min rest.

• Endurance: 3-4 sets of 12-15 reps, moderate load (50-65% 1RM), 30-60 sec rest.

Give it a shot and let me know how it goes!

5 Advanced Training Metrics That Will Change How You Optimize Training

A few newsletters back, we discussed more generally the concept of training stress and the role of progressive overload in driving physiological adaptation.

This week, we’re going further with 5 metrics that go beyond basic pace and power numbers.

By using advanced training metrics, athletes can gain deeper insight into performance trends, fatigue levels, and efficiency—allowing for more precise adjustments to training intensity, volume, and recovery.

Here’s what they mean, why they matter, and how to use them ⤵️ 

1️⃣ Rate of Perceived Exertion (RPE) – The Foundation of Effort Tracking

RPE is a subjective but powerful measure of how difficult a workout session feels to an athlete on a 1-10 scale (10 being most difficult).

While not based on external data, RPE correlates strongly with heart rate, power output, and fatigue levels—making it a valuable tool for tracking effort across different training conditions, especially when you don’t have external devices capturing your work.

Research shows that athletes who develop strong RPE awareness can self-regulate training loads more effectively, leading to improved long-term performance.

📌 How to Use It: Start logging your subjective RPE each workout, alongside heart rate and power data, and see how that trends over time. If your sense of RPE rises, but power or workload stays the same, it could indicate fatigue, dehydration, or under-recovery.

2️⃣ Lactate Threshold - Your Sustained Output Ceiling

Lactate Threshold (LT) is the highest intensity you can sustain before lactate buildup outpaces clearance, marking the shift from aerobic to anaerobic effort. A higher LT allows you to sustain harder efforts for longer without early fatigue, making it a key predictor of endurance performance and an essential pacing tool.

📌 How to Use It:

• Determine your LT through a lab test (measuring blood lactate) or a 30-minute maximum effort field test, where you use the last 20 minutes’ average pace or power as your LT (watts, heart rate, or pace).

• Then train at 90-95% of LT in threshold intervals to improve lactate clearance.
  

• Track LT over time—if it improves, your body is adapting to higher workloads, enhancing endurance and delaying fatigue.

💡 Pro Tip: In cycling, Functional Threshold Power (FTP) is often used as a field-based estimate of LT, representing the highest sustainable power output (~60 minutes). While FTP and LT are not identical, they offer comparable insights into aerobic capacity and pacing strategies.

3️⃣ Intensity Factor - Measuring Relative Load

Intensity Factor (IF) is a data-driven measure of workout intensity, comparing your session’s effort to your own Lactate Threshold (LT) or Functional Threshold Power (FTP).

By quantifying intensity relative to personal limits, IF provides a standardized way to assess workload, optimize training zones, and prevent overtraining.

📌 How to Use It:

• IF = Normalized Power / FTP
  

• Log IF for each session to track training intensity over time.
  

• IF > 1.0 → Race-level or maximal efforts.

• IF 0.85-1.0 → Hard training session, often at or near threshold.

• IF 0.60-0.85 → Optimal for endurance-focused sessions.

• IF < 0.60 → Recovery or low-intensity training.
  

• If IF stays consistently high for multiple sessions, it may signal fatigue accumulation or inadequate recovery. Adjust intensity accordingly to balance adaptation and avoid burnout.

4️⃣ Variability Index - Measuring Pacing Consistency

Variability Index (VI) measures how evenly you distribute effort during a workout.

A lower VI indicates steady pacing, while a higher VI suggests fluctuations in intensity. This metric helps athletes refine pacing strategies to avoid unnecessary energy spikes that can lead to fatigue.

📌 How to Use It:

• Variability Index (VI) = Normalized Power (NP) ÷ Average Power (AP)
  

• Analyze pacing efficiency—if VI is too high in a session that should be steady, work on controlling effort.

• A VI close to 1.00 means effort was consistent—ideal for time trials, triathlons, or steady-state endurance sessions.

• A VI above 1.05 suggests pacing inconsistencies, which may indicate wasted energy. In races with frequent surges (criteriums, rolling terrain, or interval sessions), VI can be higher than 1.10, reflecting natural intensity changes.

• If your VI is consistently high in endurance sessions, focus on even pacing drills and smooth power application to improve efficiency.

5️⃣ Efficiency Factor - Measuring Aerobic Efficiency

Efficiency Factor (EF) measures how efficiently you convert cardiovascular effort into power or pace by comparing normalized power output to heart rate.

EF = Normalized Power (NP) ÷ Average Heart Rate

A rising EF over time suggests improved endurance efficiency, meaning you can sustain higher outputs at the same cardiovascular effort.

A sudden drop in EF may indicate fatigue, dehydration, or overtraining, signaling a need for adjustments in recovery or intensity.

📌 How to Use It:

• Compare EF across similar workouts—if it’s increasing, your endurance is improving. If it plateaus or drops, assess recovery, fueling, or training load. For the best insights, track trends over time rather than focusing on single-session fluctuations.
  

• Since EF is highly influenced by external factors like temperature, fatigue, and terrain, ensure consistency in your testing conditions to make meaningful comparisons.

Tracking these metrics over time helps you optimize training intensity, refine pacing, and improve endurance efficiency—allowing you to train smarter, not just harder.

If you have any questions about these, or want to see them in action in TrainingPeaks or another platform, let’s talk! Reply to this email ;-)

Okay, ya’ll. That’s it for this week. I’m en route back to the US and will be back in SF this weekend.

That means, this coming Monday (17th) and Tuesday (18th), I’ll be back to Flagship marina for my 430, 530, and 630pm classes each day.

If you’re around, come swing by and work out with me!

have a nice weekend <3

Ivan