Tips for Quality Run Training Train no faster than one pace quicker than the race you are training for. For example, 5k pace is good for an Olympic-distance race, while half-marathon pace suffices...
Goof Race Recap – HITS Ocala
HITS is a fairly new triathlon series, with a unique concept. Their tag line is “A distance for everyone”, which really says it all. A HITS weekend consists of 70.3 (half-iron distance) and a 140.6(full-iron distance) on Saturday, and on Sunday, Sprint and Olympic distance triathlons. It is a pretty cool concept, and they are really well-organized.
After having breakfast with the Team Foley after the Fight for Air Climb I headed out to Ocala with the hope of seeing at least Margie, Kari and Megan cross the finish line. I have to admit, while I have been training, it hasn’t been as focused as it should have. My “off-season” mentality didn’t quite transition into the race attitude just yet, but I thought I was at least in shape to do the Oly. In triathlon season, usually the first couple of months, is usually “Base” phase which just gets the wheels and legs rolling again, develop some strength and start gaining the endurance needed for race season. With that in mind, I figured an Olympic distance would be perfect to baseline where I am in my training. Imagine my surprise when I saw a lot of my friends out on Saturday competing in the 70.3. As I was watching competitors and friends cross the line there was a familiar itch developing in my heart. I didn’t quite notice what it was at the time.
The course for the 70.3 was pretty intense with loops that included a 1.2 mile swim in a 65 degree Lake Weir, 56 miles of rolling hills and wind of the bike, and an intense mixture of soft trails, and asphalt out-and-backs for the 13.1 mile run. I was too busy losing my lungs to catch any of the swim or bike, but I was happy to be around to see the finale of the run.
I had my first blog recognition, which was really nice. I was at the expo, grabbing a couple of Honey Stinger gels for my race the next day and I was chatting with the owner of Kickstart Endurance and she told me she followed IronGoof. I tried not to make a big deal out of it, but secretly I was really excited.
I missed Margie, but I was really happy to see Megan and Kari cross the finish. They both were finishing their first 70.3 along with some other members of the Tri Psych Club, so for them this was a huge accomplishment and deserved a celebration. That itch started to intensify at Chili’s that night as everyone’s conversation about their race surrounded me.
I really attempted to be nonchalant about this race. I kept telling myself, “Self, this is no big deal. You know you are not ready to race, this is a small race and this is going to tell you what you need to work on.” Unfortunately, waking up the next morning at 4:30a, and preparing my gear not only woke up my consciousness but the competition juices and anxiety levels as well. I showered, dressed, applied my TriTats, loaded the car and off I went.
As I mentioned before, the organization of this race was first-rate, from, staff organizing parking to the transition areas. Have I mentioned the transition area? In previous races I have barely glanced over the amenities of the transition areas, well except for the Rev3 Venice Beach. Let me put it this way, if the transition areas were cars, then every other race I have been in were Toyotas, the Rev3 was a Lexus, and the HITS series was a Bentley. Not only were there boxes that held gear and clamped a tire for easy removal of the bike, plenty of room for transition setup in-between the bikes, but each participant had their own personal stool with their number and last name on them. It doesn’t sound like a lot, but it really is the little things that make an impression.
I headed down to the beach with my wet suit on halfway, goggles and swim cap in hand. The temperature outside was perfect with just a slight breeze and the sun was starting to slowly creep up over the horizon. I was incredibly grateful to see my friends down on the beach. Pete, Kari, Megan, Michael, Stan and a couple f others as it made me feel slightly less stressed. After the mandatory meeting, all of the males waded out a bit into the water for the start. My anxiety reared a little due to the fact, I was using my backup goggles because my regular goggles broke in transition and this was the coldest water I had ever swam in.
The whole beach counted off, “Three, Two, One…” and the horn blew. We all ran or dolphin dived toward the first buoy. The water was kind of shallow so I did have some time to start to get used to the water. I remembered my strategy and my stroke count and I started swimming. I started losing ground within the first 200m, which was normal for me. My new stroke technique is still relatively new, so I figured I wasn’t going to be fast immediately. When I reached the first buoy, I started feeling short of breath, even though I thought I was relatively relaxed. My chest started to feel compressed like I was being stepped on, and my arms were not moving as freely as I wanted them to. I moved to breast stoke to see if I could relax a bit, but it was to know avail, the compression would just not loosen. I have never had an issue with my wet suit. Except for getting out of it, I kinda like it. I feel more buoyant, warmer and protected from other things that may cause issues in open water. Now I just felt like it was python, strangling me. I kept going, but it was a combination of freestyle, side stroke, and breast stoke. When I reached the second buoy, my mind went into overdrive trying to get me to quit. The ideas popping in my head were asinine. I kept hearing, “You aren’t trained for this”, “You don’t belong here.”, “Just get out of the water. It is only a baseline remember?”. The thing was, I had another loop to do. I swam toward third buoy, and the water became very shallow, so we really didn’t have any choice but to run through it and start dolphin diving again. I forced myself to have the one thought that has gotten me through tough training, cold, wet and rainy workouts, and exhausting races; “The mind will quit one-hundred times before the body does.” I told myself, “Self, that is first and only time that is going to happen today.” I ran around the third buoy and headed out for my second loop.
The second loop felt a little better, but I was so happy to get out of that wet suit. I am still not quite certain why I felt that way. It wasn’t the size of the wet suit because when I bought it I was 25 pounds heavier. Either way I ran out of the water unzipping and getting out of it on my way to transition. One of the strippers told me to lay down and she yanked it off of me. I grabbed my helmet while I put on my shoes and crossed the mat in less than 3 minutes.
The bike course was actually pretty nice. Rolling hills, with well conditioned roads and plenty help by the Sheriff’s department. I wanted to make up sometime, so in my head I thought to just keep passing people. I only got passed twice during the first ten miles of the twenty-five mile course and I was happy with that. I played cat & mouse with a couple of them, and ended up passing them in during the last half of the course. Unfortunately, there was a storm on the horizon and the wind picked up quite a bit on on the second half, not to mention the hills were more abundant and steeper(at least for Florida). My speed, that I was holding quite consistent at 21 mph started to drop to 18, then 17 and at that point, I refused to go under 18 mph. I came into transition, averaging 19.1 and I was proud of that.
I racked my bike and sat on my stool to put on my socks and shoes. I got hung up a little bit, but was still out of there in less than 3 minutes, and it was off to the run. Pete yelled at me as I headed into the trees, “This is the fun part”. At first I agreed with him.
I decided to wear my Hoka One One Biondi Speed 2 running shoes with the large sole, because I wanted to test how they felt on a triathlon after being on the bike. Big mistake. At first the ground wasn’t very soft, and I was ok running about an 8:15 mile, but as I got further into the woods, the trail got softer and softer. With that big sole, not only was my foot pushing down on the sole, but then into the soft ground causing three times as much resistance as the a regular running shoe. I didn’t figure this out at first, but after one-and-a-half miles, I felt like I needed to stop, and that was not usual, not matter what kind of shape I was in. I walked at the aid station for about 200 yards and then I continued running but at a much slower pace. I had to do two loops of the run course as well, and I could feel the resistance ease off when I hit the asphalt again. All of the sudden I was lighter and faster, but I had to do a second loop into the woods again. I decided my strategy would be to walk a hundred yards at the aid station and 100 yards at the turn-around, but other than that I would let my legs do what could. It worked out well as my splits were faster on the second loop.
I ran out of the woods with Pete snapping shots and hearing cheers from Megan, Kari and a couple of others. As, I crossed the finish line it became clear to me, that I am not in the shape I was in for my last 70.3, but I would enjoy this moment as a victory. It was not a PR, but it this race let me know what I need to do over the next months in order to take on the rest of my race schedule.
After calming down a bit and chatting with Pete and a few other friends, Summer Bailey found me. She had competed in the 70.3 the day before. Summer lives in Georgia, so we really only see each other at races and occasionally chat on Facebook so it was really incredible to actually chat and catch up with her in person. She is an amazing woman and with a huge heart and ferocious determination. We both agreed that neither one of us had trained enough for our races, but it was good to have a race under our belt for the year. Chatting with her was encouraging, and I know we will be seeing each other again during the season. To be able to see and chat with her and some others that I do not get to train with allowed me to remember one of the greatest thing about triathlon and racing in general. It’s the friends and connections we make. Other than having a good race and crossing the finish line, it is the best part about it.
Besides crossing the finish line what are the best experiences you have competing?
Carpe Viam!
The 1st week: Are my goals realistic?
I have come to the realization that even I, as the epitome of the positive mental attitude, still hear those negative voices in my head. For all the conversations I have with clients, friends and other athletes about going out and just having fun, I still have grand notions of finishing races with a PR(personal record) and while working out this week those goals seem daunting.
I had three Lactic Threshold tests I had to complete this week; one each for swimming, biking and running. While just doing these tests I felt like I was really out of shape, and truth be told, I did take an off season for the last couple of months, at least by triathlete standards. I did complete at least 5 hour long workouts a week with a half-marathon and a 10k thrown in there, and, oh yeah Ragnar, but I wasn’t in “training” mode per say. This week I started back “in training” and my goals seem so far off and this is only my third day.
Monday, I completed my Bike and Run LT tests which consisted both of a 10 minute warm up, followed by 40 minutes of the event at a pace that burned my legs and put me into a feeling of oxygen deprivation but not so much that I couldn’t complete the full 40 minute main set which was then followed by a 10 minute cool down. My running LT is 173 and my biking LT is 165. I looked into my future workouts they are noted with requirements that include the LT. For instance: Bike 12×1 minute climbs at LT+10, meaning I should be climbing and my heart rate should be 175. Sounds like fun doesn’t it? I know my body will acclimate, hopefully I won’t make a mess before it does.
Tuesday, I completed my first bike workout and strength workout. The bike was 8-12×1 minute climbs in the saddle at a RPM of 50-60. Now my normal riding RPM is 85-95, so you can imagine the resistance that had to be on the bike. I ended up doing it on the spin bikes at LA Fitness, because, well, there are no hills in my general vicinity which is Tampa, Florida. Nothing but flatland here. I have to travel 45 miles north to San Antonio to get any resemblance of some hills, and during the week, that just is not happening. Why? I have a responsibility to this activity called “work”. I wish I could sit here, blog and comment all day, but unfortunately I cannot. I blog in between meetings, lunch and then edit when I can. This workout while being fun, was what I would call, THE QUAD KILLER. It was brutal.
Unfortunately, I was late getting to the gym so I was not able to get my strength workout in, so I showered, drove to work and then returned that evening. Luckily, I always have an extra set of workout clothes in the car. (I think I got that from Ben Mena. He is notorious for spontaneously telling his girlfriend to just drop him off 10-15 miles from home and after changing into a spare set of shorts and shoes he runs home.)
I haven’t worked out with weights in a while, and I know from my studies of the anatomical makeup of muscles and the neurological systems of the body that there is a “breaking in” period no matter how much experience you have lifting. In order to activate the pleasure center of my brain instead of the pain center, I had to drop the weight down and do the exercises concentrating on good form. It was a circuit of 5 supersets and it was not easy, no sir, not easy at all. Deadlifts, pull-ups, squat to overhead thrusts, medicine ball wood choppers, side planks, cable twists and more. I felt beat to death afterwards. Of course, I understand my body enough that I had to stretch very well afterwards or my back would be yelling at me later.
I also learned why I really enjoy working out in the morning. It was extremely busy at the new South Tampa LAF last night. I barely got a parking space, and I ended up having to do most of the movements in a tiny little space, while other members were just waiting to pounce. It was at that point I read myself the riot act and vowed that no matter how much I had to do during the week, I would just wake up early to finish all of my workouts in the mornings.
That vow started this morning as I was up at 4:30 and ready to leave at 5 even though my first workout was track at UT which didn’t start until 6. That workout was brutal as well; 800-400×3-1mile-400×3, at least this week I didn’t falter until the last 400 and only by a couple of seconds. As soon as I finished and cooled down I headed to LAF to do my swim T-test. Basically this is 1000 meters swam as if I was in a race and then the average time of a 100 meters is considered my T-Pace for workouts. Future workouts for example included “4×100 at T-pace – 10 seconds”. I have been working really hard on my body position in the water, but I am still really slow. (Notice I am not mentioning what my T-Pace actually is.) With a pull buoy or fins, I can go forever at 1:50 min per 100m, but without I am…well…a little slower.
After going through all of this, I guess I feel like I should. There is a long journey ahead. I might as well enjoy it.
Lazy, Hazy, Crazy Days of the Off Season
There have been so much I have been wanting to write about, but my time has been taken up by this thing I have to do called “a job”. Do any of you out there have this same problem? It is really starting to get in the way of my training, coaching and especially my blogging. I cannot believe how long it has been since I have posted something, and it is a crime with all the ideas that have been flying around in my head.
Let me use this post as a way to get back into the habit of blogging daily or at least a few times a week. Subject – The Off Season.
I have been toiling with this for the past month just because I have been finding myself not working out a little less than normal. When I do, I am enjoying lower durations with small bursts of high effort, a.k.a intervals. As I speak with some of my fellow cohorts in triathlon I have been getting two primarily different opinions. One is coming from the die-hards, “Off season?? What off season? There is NO off-season!”, the other is coming from most of the guys that actually take podiums, but have more time to train during race season. “Dude, you have to come down a bit and give your body a rest. You have been putting it through a lot of stress. Trust me bro, you will have a better race season if you slow down a bit and take some rest.” So, what does a guy in my position do? I want to improve, but my philosophy is all about injury prevention.
Looking at the science of it I came up with the following opinion (notice I said opinion?):
Working out is cumulative – everything you do to a muscle repeatedly continues to impact it no matter what you are doing. Why do most marathon training plans have the mileage go up for 3 weeks and then dramatically falls the 4th week? The quadriceps hamstrings, calves, have taken a beating for three weeks and they need time to recuperate. The fibers of the muscle need time to repair, but if they keep being taxed then they stretch and start to heal they are taxed again. Even though they have started the healing process, they cannot fully heal unless they are put at rest for a significant amount of time. Yes, with proper nutrition, and preemptive injury therapy the healing can be expedited to a point, but they surely will not heal completely unless they are at rest.
Running everyday for 15 days in a row no matter how much the workouts change from slow to fast twitch muscles and back again, put a cumulative toll on your body. Now put that in perspective of a triathlete’s season that starts with base workouts in late January and doesn’t end until late October early November. That is 10 months of a cumulative toll on the body, whether you are an age grouper or pro. Do you think with that kind of wear and tear on the body that if there isn’t a slow down in the frequency and a lowering of the effort level that there might be some injuries awaiting or at least some backsliding in the coming racing season? I do.
Fact: It takes even a pro marathoner 20 days to fully recuperate from a race. 26.2 hard miles on the body of a fully trained marathoner, still takes a long time to recuperate doesn’t it? What do you think that does to an age grouper?
I am going to take this month as it comes. I am going to do a few races, and if I don’t feel like working out when the alarm goes off, so be it. When January comes I’ll be doing my base mileage and continuing my strength and flexibility training as planned, but when February 1st comes…..IT”S ON!!!!!
Early ChristmaRamaKwanzaKah for the Goof
My Thursday turned out to be an extremely awesome day. At work things seem to take a positive step and coaching at Fit2Run last night was enlightening and productive, but the best part was all the cool stuff I received without notice.
I went to Fit2Run last night just to mainly help out with the Half Marathon groups. There are runners that are training for all the races coming up; the Clearwater Holiday Halfathon, the Clearwater Marathon, Disney Distance Weekend and the Princess Half, Gasparilla, Best Damn Race and the Rock n’ Roll Half Marathon. Thursday’s are speedwork days for these runners and Eric planned numerous one minute sprints with one minute rest in between. I have no idea how many we did, but I was tuckered afterward. Of course I can’t help but put in my own two cents as a coach with runners when I notice issues in their form. One runner I spent about fifteen minutes on his form and things changed immediately for him and he was so grateful. That is the best gift I was given, but they just kept coming.
I was leaving for the night when Eric caught me and told me the Brooks representative sent gifts for us. I got a brand new pair of Brooks Green Silence which are incredibly light. I haven’t run in them yet but I am totally looking forward to it. They sure look cool, am I right? I did try them on and they are so comfortable, that I am aching to get a run in them tomorrow. With the Brandon Half Marathon on Sunday I probably won’t do too much but I it is going to be fun.
The gifts didn’t stop there. Eric handed me two more packages from Brooks. This really awesome running jacket and a pair of shorts. James said that he is getting all sorts of compliments on the jackets and the models are not even out yet so he can’t put them in the store yet. What an awesome night. Speed work and then early holiday gifts….what could be better than that?
I will tell you, a package arriving with the new Nikon Coolpix S10 that’s what!
Taken with my 3 mp camera phone |
Pretty sweet right? The camera fits perfectly in that little change pocket in your jeans and can be taken anywhere. I was thinking it would be perfect for this blog. It takes pics from 2-10 megapixels, has a flash, a 5x optical zoom, virtual stabilization, HD video the works. I was so excited as I was playing around with it, unfortunately, I am sad to say, as a Nikon it does not live up to my expectations. I am going to write a full review as a posting later on, but the gist is that the pics are grainy when the light is not optimal.
Taken with the Nikon Coolpix S10 |
As you can see, this was in decent light with a flash and my beautiful little Mikali looks grainy. I took a bunch of pics with different settings and this was the best one. *sniff* *sigh*
I have repackaged it up and I am returning it to Amazon. It sucks because the camera is just perfectly convenient. This is the first version of this camera, so it’s obvious I have not learned my lesson on buying the first generation of electronics as of yet.
I have signed up with the ladies to do a picture a day holiday challenge, where I post one photo a day that coincides with a word for that day. If you see anything in the area that makes you think of the daily word let me know, or take the challenge yourself. Just take the pic and post it on Twitter with the hashtag #Holidayaday.