New Digs

I've moved! My new blogsite can be found at:

http://www.trilikemike.com/.

Going forward I'll no longer be posting on this website - see the new site for my continuing adventures!

Closing Shop

Hey! I'm still alive! I haven't been posting lately because I'm in the process of closing up shop here in blogspot and moving to a different blog hosting service. Why?

Last week I went Mac. Once you go Mac you'll never go back. I agonized over this decision for about a month. Bottom line is that I just got sick and tired of spending time at home trying to keep my Windoze computers running - I was the IT guy at home as well as work. The whole "It just works" mantra from the Apple crowd was appealing. I'm a believer now. I've also discovered .Mac which allows me a lot more ease and flexibility in what I can publish - I can finally easily share photos, run and bike routes, create adhoc websites, etc. I'm in the process of transferring my blog contents over to the new site. Once I'm fully setup I'll post the link to the new digs here.

BTW - competed in the Memphis in May tri this past weekend. Trip report will be up on the new site when I'm done (hopefully over the weekend). Short story - awesome course and race, great day, and a new Olympic distance PR for me - 2:16.

The Bonfire

The past few weeks have been a mixed bag for me. During many of my workouts my energy level has been low and I've felt sluggish. My form is solid but some of my workouts have been a huge struggle to complete. Getting out of bed in the morning to workout has been tough. My mental guard has come down as well. Now I realize that that came first and the rest followed.....

A few nights ago I had a dream. Dennis was sitting comfortably on a lawn chair in front of a fire roasting marshmallows and looking content. For those who don't know Dennis, he's my left side shoulder angel. The dark one. The fire was high, the flames prolific. A huge raging bonfire blazing brightly and belching noxious foul smelling fumes. The odd thing was that it gave off no heat. It seemed only to consume, not produce.

A long way off in the distance there was another much smaller fire. It sputtered and sparked like a flame drowning in wax at the bottom of a candle. After a bit I realized that it wasn't off in the distance after all. It was actually the same distance away as the other bonfire. It was just small and weak in comparison.

I looked back at Dennis' fire and noticed him occasionally reaching down and throwing in crumpled bits of paper. There were piles of them scattered around. A few blew around my ankles and I bent to read them. "I'm not going to be able to finish." "I can't do this anymore - what's the point?" "I'm getting to old for this." "You're going to injure yourself and end up in a chair for the rest of your life."

I thought back to my recent workouts. These and scores more like them were the very thoughts that drifted through my head during the hardest moments. These thoughts were feeding the bonfire of negativity.

I look from the bonfire to the other fire. A match in comparison to the raging inferno next to it. "I should feel this way - my training plan is supposed to be tough." A little scrap of paper materializes and drifts into the little fire. The little fire sputters as it consumes the paper and then grows a little brighter. I feel a little stronger. "I can do this. I will do this." The little flame is definitely getting brighter now. I can feel it's warmth begin to creep in.

Dennis' marshmallow falls off his stick. He curses and looks up at me. He shrugs, gets up, and drifts back into the dark corners he loves so well.

The raging bonfire begins to falter. Fewer scraps of paper feed it now. In time it will be reduced to a smoldering pile. It will never really go out - it will lay smoldering, waiting to be fed again by scraps of negativity.

I intend to keep it starved.

Targets

So there I was, minding my own business, swimming leisurely laps in the little pool when Mountain Dave and Athena plunked in to the swim lanes next to me. They both patiently waited until I pushed off the wall and then shot out after me. After four laps they were still tracking me on either side. I started getting the feeling that I'd been marked. I kicked up the pace.

Athena cracked after a few more laps and took a lap off to recover. After that lap though she launched after me and tried to match the pace. She could match it for about four laps and then had to take a lap off. One down, one to go.

Meanwhile Mountain Dave, whose form was beginning to crack by now, continued tracking me. This continued for another 1K before I finally began to shake him loose. He's a persistent guy though and never gave up. I finished up my 2K straight set with him only a 1/2 lap back.

In between spinning and running I saw him in the locker room and commented on his vastly improved swimming form. He looked up, smiled, and in a frank voice said "My goal this year is to beat you." He's hired a trainer. He has a plan which he follows religiously. And his main goal this year is to beat me. How sweet is that?

Much to my surprise I seem to have become some sort of measure by which some judge themselves. At last year's Ironman Wisconsin a friend of mine crushed my finishing time from the previous year. Later he said the one thing that kept running through his head on that extremely difficult day was that he had to beat me. I find this quite surprising because it's not like I'm freaky-fast. It's not like I've ever finished higher than the top 25% in any race I've competed in.

And maybe that's why. Maybe I'm close enough that people want to close the gap. Kind of like in a road race or group ride where you see the lead group ahead. It inspires you to put your head down and work a little harder to latch on.

So bring it on. Chase me down, catch me, match me, and then blow me out of the water. If making me your target makes you better then come and get me. When you succeed I will be genuinely happy for you. And when you do pass me know that I in turn will be coming after you.

Weakness

Since I was the only parent who showed up at my son's first lacrosse practice with my own lacrosse stick the coach promptly recruited me as an assistant coach.

I glanced around at the three boys awaiting assignments for the next drill. "Ok, you're the attacker, you're the midfielder, and you're the defender." Two of the boys trotted off to begin the drill. The boy I had just designated as the defender hanged back and looked up sheepishly from under his helmet. "Hey coach, I'm really not good at defense." "That's why your defense for this drill" I replied.

This particular boy has a great shot, is fast, and catches the ball well. He's a good attacker once he has the ball. He's right though. He's not good at defense. He's not good at finding and passing to the open man. He's not good at getting out of a jam. In a nutshell he's not balanced.

When I first came to triathlon I was a cyclist. My running was mediochre and my swimming was, well, I just plain sucked at swimming. For triathlon I was totally overspecialized. Totally unbalanced. In order to get balanced I had to work hard on my weaknesses. By making my biggest weakness (swimming) my top training priority I was able to balance things out. Yes, the cycling has definitely suffered, but if I look at my comparative splits for events I typically fall around the top 25% for swim, bike, and run. I'm more balanced and enjoy the sport that much more.

He struggled through the drill. The next go I put him on attack. The next two after that I put him back on defense. He frowned each time I put him on defense but he improved and I let him know it. "By working on your weaknesses you'll become stronger. You'll become a better overall player." He nodded, he got it. Mission accomplished. The seriousness of the moment was suddenly broken when another boy piped up "That's that parental wisdom stuff isn't it?" and the whole group cracked up.

A serious message chased by a dose of humor. Now that's balance.

Break Time's Over

I'm back from break - a catchup on the last few weeks:

Spring Break trip was fantastic. Originally I was planning to do lots of workouts but my body began complaining so I chucked them all and focused on relaxing and having fun. The only real exercise I got was lots of one arm swim drilling - I was able to coax Super D into donning snorkeling gear and coming out to the ocean with me, but the only way he'd do it was if I had one arm around him. Currents were strong so I had to pull with the other arm. Was able to get in some fantastic dives. During one of the wall dives I saw several moray eels, a sea turtle and some reef sharks. The Beaches resort we stayed at was great - food was awesome and the grounds were beautiful.

After the spring break trip we got invited to go down to St. Louis for the Frozen Four college hockey championships. St. Louis is a great city and we had a great time (despite the fact the Michigan State won the championship). In addition to lots of hockey we also got in lots of site seeing. Got to go up into the Gateway Arch, and also had trips to the Art Museum, Science Museum, and a totally cool place called the City Museum.

---

All in all I ended up taking about 3 weeks off of working out. My ankle was really starting to bug me (to the point of limping) and I was getting a bit burnt out. Early this week I made a few decisions:

Dropped my Wednesday mid range runs. I think given my injury creep that my body needs a bit more recovery than I'm giving it. Double bricks on Tuesdays followed by 8 mile runs on Wednesday followed by bricks on Thursday were a bit over the top. So, I'll keep the bricks but make Wednesday a recovery day. This was what I did last year and I wasn't having so many issues.

Dropped my yearly training hours target from 800 to 700. Trying to squeeze in 20+ hours of workouts in a week was too much for my schedule. Super-D decided to do spring hockey and lacrosse this year. Pip will be doing t-ball and soccer soon. Plus it'd probably be good to spend a little time with my family this summer!

Dropped plans for a spring marathon, but add two olympic distance tri's - Memphis in May and the Chicago Triathlon. Both are C races.

Swim Camp - 2007

All packed up and ready to head south for the annual "open water swim camp". This year we're heading down to Turks and Caicos - a small group of Islands between Haiti and the Bahamas. Like last year we'll be staying at Beaches an all inclusive resort that is geared towards families with kids. Six days of open water swimming, sailing, scuba, and hanging with the family. Perfect time to rest, relax, and recharge.

Blurry

We had just finished up a very nice two mile walk. We went in through the garage since it was a wet out and Luke's paws were muddy. We've been working on sit and stay and he's been doing pretty good. "Sit!" Down he went. "Stay!" He looks at me, panting, tongue rolling out the side of his mouth. "Yeah boss - got it - staying...." Since he's doing so well I took off his walking harness and turned to reach for the towel. I turned back to reach for Luke's paw. No Luke. He had completely vanished.

When it comes to running Luke has two speeds. There's fast - which is a twitch under the neighborhood speed limit of 25. Then there's what I call blurry. I call it this because that's all you see - a light brown blur as he streaks by. This dog is freaky fast. As he runs his back paws actually come in front of the rest of him. He grips the ground with his nails and literally tears it past him with every bit of strength he has. He runs so fast that I think he forms his own gravity well in space time (for the non-physics geeks the mass of an object actually increases as it approaches the speed of light and large masses create large gravity wells). He gets blurry because the light is unable to escape the gravitational pull. This dog is a mobile black hole.

I walked out in front of the house and looked up and down the street. No Luke. By this time about 5 seconds had past. He could be in South America by now.

The first time he "escaped" was after he pulled a Houdini trick which is why he wears a harness instead of the traditional collar and leash. Once again we were out in the garage and he was on his leash. He saw the open garage door, spinned to face me, twisted his head, stepped backwards, and his collar magically dropped to the floor. He looked up at me with a mischievous, playful look and then went blurry and was gone. I gave chase and he lead me on a 45 minute tour of the neighborhood that spanned six blocks through yards and the townhouses behind us. People looked out their windows as I tore through their back yards screaming "Luke! Come! Stay!" Women pushed their bewildered children behind them as a fast moving brown blur went by followed by a screaming maniac holding a leash with an empty collar. I cornered him in a back yard and he began running large figure eights crossing in front of me just out of reach. He thought this was great fun. I thought he'd look great stuffed and mounted to a wall.

I really didn't want a repeat performance. I jogged down to the end of the street and saw him eight houses a way. I called out to him, made sure I had his attention, told him to come, and then began walking away hoping that he'd follow. A light brown blur whizzed by my left side and suddenly materialized into Luke about ten feet in front of me. He was sitting calmly and panting like a freight train. "Hey boss, still staying...". I approached slowly, clipped on the leash, and we walked back home as if nothing had happened.

The bad news is he's still a long long way from me trusting him off the leash. No trail runs, no frisbee on the beach. Not this summer anyways. The good news is that at least he's making some progress. A little slower than I'd like but still going in the right direction. He finally knows that his name is Luke and will respond to basic commands if his ADD (he definitely has Attention Deficit Disorder) isn't in full tilt. He's definitely a challenge but at some point in the future the memories we'll have and the stories we'll tell will make it all worth it.

Gonna Be

"Every time I see you it reminds me that I should start working out."

She meant this as a compliment but I couldn't help thinking how her and many others think this way and yet do absolutely nothing about it. It's the vocabulary of the wanna-be's. "I should...." "I might...." "Maybe I'll..." "Possibly I'll..." The list of "weak" commitment phrases could span pages. The problem is that they leave the escape hatch propped open just enough to insert "...but..." followed by an equally long list of excuses why you won't.

At one time The Rooster called me out as an Ironman wanna-be. Without even thinking about it I replied "Not wanna-be, gonna-be." The vocabulary of the gonna-be's is a lot simpler and more direct than that of the wanna-be's. "I will.". Done. Period. No room for "...but...". No room for excuses.

Sure, sometimes you won't and sometimes you can't. Injury, work, family, life. Things get in the way. For a gonna-be it's only a postponement. The difference is that the "I will" part doesn't go away. It's still there, you just need to find a different route to get there. And as long as you continue to think "I will", you will.

The next time you catch yourself saying "I should..." stop and think about it. If it's truly worth doing then think "I will..." instead. And then go do it. If it's not worth an "I will..." then it isn't worth considering any further.

Back in the Saddle

The last couple of weeks have been a bit of challenge - evident from my relative lack of posting lately! Things are finally settling down though so I can start back to some of the lower priority items.

This weekend the weather warmed up so I dusted off my mountain bike, pumped up the tires, and went outside for a change. It was a long, rambling, unstructured ride. More like the kind of rides I did as a kid. After a while it turned into a sort of scouting trip. I explored some neighborhoods that I'd only glimpsed at as I blazed by on my road bike last summer. I looked for alternative ways to get to my favorite routes, and new ways to piece those routes together. I lost track of the number of times I doubled back after hitting a dead end or getting dumped off on a heavily trafficked road. I didn't care. It was just good to be back in the saddle, cruising around and enjoying being outside again.

Week in Review (2/19 - 2/25)

This week was my recovery week in my three week cycle. I actually completed all workouts according to plan for a change!!!!! I did have to make some adjustments due to bad weather over the weekend. I ended up shifting time from my run to my bike to minimize treadmill time for my "long" run. Had hockey a hockey tournament all week but was able to pull things off despite that.



The Good
Finally - a successful week! Am beginning to see some improvements in my run based on my coaches feedback. Still doesn't seem quite natural as I'm going more from a "swinging leg" stride to a "lifted knee" stride. When I focus on lifting the knee it causes my foot to swing into a much better position for landing flat footed. Still needs lots of work but it's getting there. Foot speed is up as well - though not quite the 90 turnover my coach wants. In time.... One good thing about running on icy roads - it forces you to run more flat-footed.

The Bad
Crashed while running on Tuesday. How does one accomplish this you ask? Two words - black ice. I was running along having a good time and suddenly the world slanted by 90 degrees. Knee and elbow were banged up a bit (of course it had to be the elbow I'm already having trouble with), but was able to dust off and complete the run - though I paid a lot more attention to the pavement after that.

The weather Sunday sucked. Roads were reasonably clear but it started raining (sleet and freezing rain combo) about three miles into the run. Running with the wind was ok but running into the wind was painful because I was only wearing tights. By the end of my run I had to ring the doorbell with my forehead because my fingers wouldn't work right anymore.

The Ugly
Groin pull flared up big on Monday and Tuesday afternoon, to the point where I was considering pitching my Wednesday run. Looking back on my logs I noticed that on days where I didn't stretch as well after the run I got a flare up. Spent some time Tuesday night warming and then stretching so Wednesday was still a go. Seems reasonably under control now - just have to make sure to stretch thoroughly before letting it cool. Elbow flared on Thursday's swim as well. Once I warmed up things seemed to get better, though again I was considering pitching the swim. Seems ok today - will see how it feels this week.

Luck

A little while back I was commenting to one of the regulars at the club that I was having some issues keeping weight on. The guy in the locker next to me looked up and said "Man, I wish I had that problem. Guys like you have no idea how lucky you are to be so skinny."

Luck? Luck has nothing to do with it. Workout 15 hours a week at mostly aerobic levels and see how much weight you drop if you keep your diet the same (barring any medical conditions of course!). The fact that I weigh 150 soaking wet and have about 10% body fat has little to do with luck and everything to do with a whole lot of hard work.

And yet, there is some luck involved here. I'm lucky to be gifted with a body that can handle the punishment of training year in and year out (though it's been protesting a bit lately). I'm lucky to have an extremely understanding family who can put up with my training time needs and my occasional trips for events and "camps". I'm lucky to possess the self discipline and determination to continue to do this week after week, year after year. I'm lucky to have found a sport that has given me several vehicles for self development on multiple levels.

The results part is not where luck lies. Being astute enough to recognize opportunities to use your gifts effectively is where the luck really lies. The results are what happens as a consequence of luck. That and a lot of hard work.

Week in Review (2/12 - 2/18)

This week was supposed to be a "big" week but a costly mistake during Tuesday's morning workouts derailed me. Was supposed to hit 19 hours of workouts this week but only managed to churn out 8:45.



The Good
I did complete my swim workout on Friday (only workout I fully completed this week!). The swim started out pretty rough but after I warmed up and got dialed in it was all good.

This past Friday I had my VO2 max tested (still waiting for official results to be emailed) and my running form analyzed. Turns out that I'm a bit of a "heel striker", which means that I tend to land more on my heel than the flat of my foot. This causes me to "brake" briefly each time I touch down as well as send a nice impact shock throughout my body. The coach gave me a few exercises to help teach me how the correct strike should feel as well as instructions on how to gradually bring the new technique into my running.

The Bad
See my previous post on the "Little Things". My midweek workouts were a wash, and I had to scrimp a little on my long bike and run over the weekend due to time constraints. Overall this week has been my worst yet in terms of making the numbers.

The Ugly
Had a nasty shin splint on Tuesday but that has fortunately healed though I had to take most of the week off to do it. My groin pull is still present but my elbow issue is nearly gone. At this point I'm beginning to think that my groin pull issue may actually be a hernia. I'll be scheduling a visit with a doctor this week to see what's going on as ignoring it doesn't seem to be getting me very far.

Little Things

It's funny (or not so much in this case) how the little things can affect the big things.

It started about a week ago. A slight pain in my right big toe while running. A blister. I haven't had toe blisters since I stopped running on treadmills. Yet another thing to add to my "Why I Hate Treadmills" list. Ok, just a blister so no biggie. I lanced and drained it and then forgot about it. At the time I didn't associate it with my strange ankle pull later in the week.

It bugged me a bit during my long run on Sunday. More of an annoyance than anything else. I had a look after the run and sure enough the blister had reformed. A little bigger this time. Ok, just a blister. Lance, drain, forget.

Yesterday I felt the pain again while spinning and then on the treadmill. That's when I messed up. I was determined to get my hour run in. The pain from the blister was enough this time to cause me to shift my stride slightly - to roll a bit more on the outside edge of my right foot. I broke one of my cardinal rules of training - if an injury causes you to break form then stop.

By the end of the run I could feel a nasty shin splint developing. Work through it I thought. My gait changed a bit to accommodate the pain. Another violation of the rule. My ankle was stiff and sore by the time the run ended. By mid morning I had a full blown shin splints. It was so bad that I couldn't drive because I couldn't pull my foot back to operate the brake.

This of course torpedoed my planned workouts for yesterday afternoon (Tuesdays are my 2-a-day days) as well as my mid-range run for today. This was supposed to be a 19 hour week and instead will probably be more like 2. All because I didn't pay enough attention to a wee little blister.

Lesson learned. A single missed workout or two is better than trashing the whole week. Sometimes I hate being type A.

Week in Review (2/5 - 2/11)

First week of "base" training. Overall the basic pattern remains the same but my volumes are creeping up from 13 hours during prep to 15:40 for this week. Workouts are also shifting from mostly zone 1 to some zone 2/3 work. No interval work yet though. You can see all my workout details on my Training Peaks public site.



The Good
Long swim on Friday was the best I've had in weeks. My rotation and pull-through felt terrific. Despite the swim being a 4K straight set I felt smooth, strong, and fast through entire set. Ended up finishing earlier than planned and through in another 500 yards of form sets (18 yards with 15 seconds rest - focus on perfect form, balance, and rotation).

The weather warmed up (all the way to 5 degrees!) on Sunday so I ran outside. Was a bit cold at the start especially into the wind. I'll have to invest in some wind proof glove shells I think. Kept it slow and steady - between a 10 and 11 mpm pace. Messed up my timing a bit so I was short by about 10 minutes or so.

The Bad
NIHL hockey playoff game was on Tuesday evening so my double on Tuesday got axed. Wasn't able to squeeze in another 1:30 worth of workouts as it was a pretty busy week so as a result I was under for plan vs. actual. The other bad bit is that the weather has ABSOLUTELY SUCKED this week - no higher than -5 degrees in the morning every day this week so I had to bite the bullet and hit the treadmill for my mid week runs.

The Ugly
Backing off pull based weight training has helped my elbow issue a bit but it's still an issue. Will continue dropping pull based strength training this week as well. My groin injury flared up again as well - thought I had that one licked. After Thursday's treadmill run I developed a nasty pull on the back of my right ankle. Walking around Friday hurt a lot until it loosened up. I tested it out again during Saturday's bike and it only hurt when I stood on the pedals. I was worried that I'd have to pull up short on my Sunday run but aside from it being a bit tight at the start it didn't affect my form so I toughed it out.

Week in Review (1/29 - 2/4)

Yet again - sorry for the lack of posting. It's funny how life comes at you in waves sometimes. Last week and this week a number individual "life waves" have converged into a single giant crest that consumed all of my time. I'm getting on the backside of the crest now so I can get back to some of the other lower priority stuff.

This was my last week of prep before I start entering into the official base phase of training. Starting today I'm going to start stealing Bolder's Good/Bad/Ugly format here as I like the way it allows me to summarize.



The Good
Physically I'm still holding up well. I'm not thoroughly wiped out and I have yet to catch any of the colds that are going around. I'm also getting better at focusing on the prescribed workouts (though I have to tailor the swim workouts a bit to fit my time availability) and keeping my heart rate where it needs to be. I successfully hit all workouts except my long run.

I was having some issues with too much weight loss but with a little more attention to my diet that has stabilized.

The Bad
Yeah, back to that long run thing. This weekend the jet streams freaked and sent polar air down our way. Air temp for Sunday morning was -4. Plus it was windy so -25 with wind chills. I'm nuts but not that nuts. In addition our last hockey game of the regular season was on Sunday and I've also started going to church. Excuses, excuses. Bottom line is that I didn't do the run because I just couldn't stomach being on the treadmill for two hours.

Rest assured that I will beat myself up mercilessly over the coming week for missing this workout....

The Ugly
Still having some elbow pain. For next week I'll completely eliminate any exercise that pulls at the elbow (bicep curls, lat pull downs, etc.). Pushing doesn't seem to be the issue - I only feel it when I pull. The good news though is that it doesn't affect my swim stroke at all.

Week in Review (1/22 - 1/28)

This is my fourth prep week period. One more week of prep before I begin bumping up the volumes as I progress into my first build phase.

Overall I'm still feeling solid - though definitely not as peppy as when I started. Since the holidays I also lost nearly ten pounds. I had gained about seven or so over the holidays and now I'm three below my "fighting" weight of 150. Apparently I need to start eating more! I plan to start doing more eating directly after workouts to help with recovery and also throw in a few more snacks during the day.

This weekend turned out to be a bad one for training - had to flip my long run and bike days and then was only able to get half the time I had wanted on the bike on Sunday. The skip was partially due to things I had no control over, though I think that with better planning I could have found a way to get the whole workout in.



Still doing fairly well with the heart rate zones. Numbers probably would have been better had I completed my long bike on Sunday but overall things are about where they should be with a majority of my time being spent in zone 1.



Injuries

Groin injury: Definitely getting better, though I'm still a bit sore after my long run.

Lower back - left side: Still a bit weak though definitely getting better due to focusing on stretching in that area. I think also that going to single limb based workouts during strength training (single leg lifts, single leg squats, etc.) has helped to balance things out a bit.

Right foot: No Planchar pain at all this week. I suspect that the issue was my running shoes. I picked up a pair of Asics 1110's to gain a bit more cushioning which probably helped.

Left elbow: My joitn pain is not getting better. I think it's a touch of tendonitis. It's not affecting my tri-specific workouts but I can definitely feel it during some of my strength training and throughout the day. This week I plan to cut back on any any strength exercises that put a lot of stress on the elbow and see how it goes.

Next Week's Adjustments
For next week I plan to adjust my nutrition and bump my swim times up a bit. I'm finding I don't have enough time to complete the prescribed swim workouts so I'll try to start a bit earlier and see what I can fit in. Will also be adjusting my strength training to not stress my elbow. Finally, the big goal next week will be to complete all workouts as prescribed.

Catchup and Tag

Ok, so first I have to apologize for posting so infrequently over the last week or so. Last weekend we had a new addition to our family - a 16 month old golden lab named Luke. To say he's been a handful is a tremendous understatement. We're the third family he's had and he's had little to no training and needs a lot of work. The good news though is that every once in a while we get a glimpse of the dog he'll become and we know he's going to be worth it.

As it turns out I've been tagged by Sheila! So here are my responses to the tag questions:

1. Describe a memory from your first triathlon ever. During my first open water swim at the Lake Zurich tri I remember thinking "that's it?" as I hauled myself up and onto the beach. Before the triathlon began I remember looking out at the 1K course and doubting that I'd actually be able to make it. The turn buoys looked so far away. Fortunately it was a time trial start so I didn't have to worry about a mass start. Despite that though I was consumed by doubt and trepidation as the official gave me the nod and I reluctantly waded into the water. In the end the swim went by much faster and much easier than I expected - proving once again that the anticipation is much worse than the reality.
   
2. Describe a memory from your most recent triathlon. At the Deer Creek tri I remember turning a corner and being blown to a standstill on the bike. The winds that day were some of the worst I've ever encountered during a triathlon.
   
3. What's the most embarrassing thing that has ever happened to you in a tri?. I once started out of T1 without my bike. Somehow I momentarily lost my mind after putting on my helmet and cycling shoes and thought I was starting the run. A volunteer saw me coming towards the run course entrance and began laughing hysterically. It was then that I realized that not only was I going the wrong way, but I was also missing my bike!
   
4. What's the most thrilling thing that's happened to you in a tri? Turning the corner and seeing the finish line at Ironman Wisconsin. Added bonuses were seeing that my time was under 13 hours and catching sight of my family cheering wildly moments before I ran across the finishing line.
   
5. What is something you discovered about yourself by doing triathlons? I discovered that a lot of decisions I've made were based more on fear avoidance than personal fulfillment. Fear of failure. Fear of not being accepted. Fear of not measuring up. Triathlon has taught me to face and exorcise fear which has empowered me to make decisions for more significant reasons than simple fear avoidance.
   
6. What is The Big Goal that you're working towards? The Big Goal this year is Ironman USA. Every day I make sure that I'm doing something to contribute towards the achievement of that goal.
   

Week in Review (1/15 - 1/21)

All workouts continue to be solid. I'm getting a lot better at focusing on the goals of the workouts on my training plan, though it's difficult to follow them to the letter, especially the biking workouts since I'm doing spin classes. This was week 3 of my prep phase - another two more before I start adding more weekly hours as I move into base training.



My time in zone 1 is getting better as well due to a lot of focus keeping my distance workouts in lower heart rate zones. I still think my current heart rate zones are not correct though. My tri club has a coach that offers LT testing so I'm going to arrange a time with him to do that as well as a gait analysis of my run.



I missed my run target this week by a little over ten minutes, though in the grand scheme of things I don't think this will hurt me! My long run was tough because of the weather conditions - snowy and pretty slick. I used this to my advantage though. If you strike with your heel in slick conditions you end up on your butt pretty quickly. So the conditions forced me to focus on running flat footed during the entire run, which will hopefully help my run form along.

Another positive this weeks is that an old groin injury that has been plaguing me for months is starting to go away as is some left side back pain that started creeping in a few weeks ago. I think that switching my stretching routine to yoga and mixing up my core routine has definitely helped, as has dropping the intensity of my workouts due to the prep/base training nature of the workouts.

Anticipation

Sometimes our minds see mountains where there are really mole hills, especially when anxious anticipation is in play.

Over the past couple of weeks I've had a weekly meeting at work that I dread every week. Without getting into details I'm basically spearheading an effort to standardize the use of a particular technology across our division. The other participants in the group are very senior engineers (most more senior than me) whom I have little to no control or leverage over. Despite this I'm expected to drive the team to institutionalize the adoption of technology that many of them would rather not have to deal with.

As the meeting date draws near I begin obsessing over the agenda items. I try to anticipate all the issues and arguments that will arise and how I'll deal with them. I try to be completely prepared for anything because I don't want this particular group to think I'm a fool. Particularly because many in that group will be involved in determining whether or not I get to progress up the company ladder. The morning of the meeting my mind is spinning with various scenarios and agonizing over what I may have forgotten or prepared insufficiently for.

This sounds an awful lot like the run-up to a triathlon doesn't it? You spend tons of time agonizing over your training schedule, your taper approach, your pre/during/post race nutrition, and your gear selections. My wife loves teasing me over the fact that I spend more time obsessing over what goes into my tri-bag than what goes into my suitcase for week long family trips. I have to laugh because she's totally right. And those of you that are OCD like me don't see any problems with this either!

And yet despite all of my obsessing over this meeting I've performed just fine. Many contentious and difficult issues have come up (most of them things I didn't anticipate or prepare for) and yet I've handled each of the issues with calm and controlled ease, coming up with spontaneous solutions or negotiating compromises with the ease of a seasoned politician. My frazzled, overwhelmed "pre game" state is replaced by my intense and focused "game time" state as soon as I enter the room.

I'm able to do this because I've learned to by training for and competing in triathlons. Sure, I'll continue to obsess insessently at ridiculously silly details and scenarios leading up to game time. Did I bring enough clothing? Do I have enough tubes in my tri-bag? What if it rains? Snows? On and on it goes. And yet when I hit the line I'm prepared to accept and deal with whatever the day brings whether I'm fully prepared for it or not.

Week in Review (1/7-1/14)

Overall I'm feeling pretty dang good. Still in prep phase so this week looked a lot like last week. The good news for me was that my energy levels didn't suffer too much this past week so my body is reacting ok to the sudden 30% increase in weekly hours. I've been doing more Yoga to help compensate for the additional load. It's actually accomplishing two things - keeping my fairly limber, and increasing my body awareness - which helps big time when doing form workouts.

I really need to focus on reigning in my Tuesday and Thursday bricks - keeping them at the heart rate I'm supposed to be at. When I feel good I tend to push a hard but I still have a few more weeks at this level before I start adding more time so if I don't reign it in I'll implode soon. Fortunately the overall percentage of time spent going gonzo on the spin bike is low compared to my overall averages - thoguh I don't have data for my swim heart rate so the results may be a twitch off. Graphs show that overall I did a better job of keeping my heart rate more towards zone 1 and minimizing the time spent above zone 3.

Long swim on Friday felt extremely good despite my poor fueling choice the night before (see the Sea Monster post). I had really good balance and rotation throughout the 3K straight set and had enough in the tank to go hard for the last 300 yards or so.

This weekend the weather turned bad so I did three hours of spin bike on Saturday for my long bike (back to back classes plus I showed up an hour early). While not as much fun as being on the road it certainly beat the hell out of sitting in my basement.

Messed up on my navigation for Sunday's long run. At a certain point on the great western trail I had a choice between heading back or heading deeper using an untried route. Of course, I took the untried route, which added 1/2 hour to my planned 2 hour run. I kept the pace pretty slow to avoid causing too much damage though. Good news is that I now have a new 15 mile route which I can reuse later as I move into by base and build phases.

Gory details available on my Training Peaks public site.

Training Time Per Week


Heart Rate Zones

The Sea Monster

While stretching my shoulders a bit after my swim this morning I noticed the woman in the lane next to me was looking at me and desperately trying to suppress a giggle. When she saw me glance over she couldn't contain herself and burst into uncontrollable giggles - her eyes welling up with tears. I quickly tried to decide if she was truly amused or just plain nuts.

"I'm sooooo sorry - I couldn't help it!" She gasped in between giggles.
"Help what?"

More giggles, starting to shake now. I glanced around the pool evaluating possible escape routes.

"It sounded like I was swimming next to a sea monster!" she replied and then launched into an absolute fit of laughter.

Nuts was looking like the right call at this point. And then I got it.

For the record, Indian food the night before a long swim is not a good idea. In fact, it's a very, very bad idea. My stomach was a burning caldron of bubbling marsala chicken and curry laced dal. As I swam I kept having to burp underwater. I guess my burping was a bit louder than I thought.

I promptly joined her in hysterical, shrieking laughter that caused waves to ripple across the pool. What a great start to my day - a 3K TT swim and spontaneous shared laughter with a complete stranger - priceless.

Negative Thoughts

We've all heard it at one time or another. That little voice or thought that whispers in your ear. "You can't do it." "You can't go any further." "You're not fast/strong/good enough." In the midst of struggle and adversity it slithers up from our personal pit of fears and manifests as a thought that invades our consciousness, erodes our resolve, and undermines our confidence.

One thing I've learned from practicing Zen is that these thoughts are really just that. Thoughts. No different from any other thought that rambles its way through our consciousness. They only have meaning to you if you decide to give them meaning. They only affect you if you choose to let them affect you. Thoughts by themselves can't harm you if you don't let them. It's what you do when you get them that determine their affect on you. Do you solider on? Do you quit?

In Zen meditation the idea is not to block all thought. The idea is to not be affected by them. If you can do this then you've essentially blocked the affect that negative thoughts can have on you by not reacting to them. The thoughts will still be there. They still continue to slither through your consciousness like the dark snakes they are, looking for opportunities to snuff out the fires of determination. But you just choose to not be affected by them. You choose to let them come and go without having an affect on your mental state. Do this and you'll take away all the power that negative thoughts have. Master this and you'll master the mind.

Week in Review (1/1 - 1/7)

Last week was my first week of "serious" training in preparation for Ironman USA. I ended up about 40 minutes above plan - due to a bit of floor work on Monday which is normally my off day. I was a bit concerned at how my body would hold up given the sudden increase in workload. I had been working out somewhere in the order of 8 to 10 hours a week but my new plan called for being at 13:20 for my prep period (shooting for 800 annual hours of training). To get there I added an additional bike/run brick on Tuesday evening, a midrange run on Wednesday, and bumped my long bike on Saturday. Everything else remained the same.



Despite the additional load I felt very strong, had good energy, and my form felt solid on all workouts. I did have a tough time keeping my heart rate reigned in on the zone 1 and 2 workouts - especially during my long run on Sunday. Overall though my training graphs show most of my work being done in zone 1 and 2 which is good.



I had been having some issues with my groin and lower back which I now believe were due to inadequate stretching, as well as poorly focused strength training. I've revamped my core/circuit/stretching block to more of a functional strength training approach - mimicking the movements of triathlon under weighted resistance, as well as working on strengthening the supporting muscles in order to avoid imbalances. In addition I've incorporated a lot of Yoga into my stretching routines. This should help me remain relatively injury free through the season. Guess we'll find out!

The gory details on my workouts and results can be found by selecting the "My Training Peaks Data" link on the sidebar.

Tacking

Back when I first moved to the Chicago area I crewed on a J24 racing sailboat for a couple of summers. For a while I played the role of rail monkey (which essentially involves scrambling from side to side as the boat tacks in order to counterbalance - everyone starts here) before "graduating" to managing jib and finally the spinnaker (the big and often colorful sail used when running with the wind - takes a ton of concentration and skill to deploy, fly, and recover).

In order to navigate swiftly around a course it's necessary to periodically perform a maneuver called tacking. This is essentially a combination of changing the heading of the sailboat, redistributing weight, and readjusting the sails to maximize the amount of air they're catching. It's a frantic time - the helmsman steering and shouting orders, the rail monkeys scrambling across to the opposite side rails and trying to avoid getting whacked by the boom as it swings across, the sail owners (those assigned to manage particular sails on the sailboat) adjusting any sails that need to be adjusted, getting them up, getting them down, etc. But once the tack is complete and the sails are trimmed the sailboat leaps forward like a greyhound after a rabbit.

During a tack there's always a point where the sails go slack. The air that once filled them and propelled the sailboat forward is dumped as the sailboat angles head on to the wind at the midway point of the tack. Once the tack is complete the sails are quickly trimmed up by the crew to maximize the amount of air in the sail for the new heading. Failure to properly trim the sails will turn you into a bobber - bouncing up and down on the waves until the sailboat can swing around and pick up the wind again.

I was reminded of all this during today's workouts. The last few weeks I've been midway between a tack. Surprisingly I've gotten in a lot of my "planned" workouts but I've kept them at an easy, relaxed pace, and didn't sweat it when I missed a workout or overindulged a bit at dinner. My sails ruffled in the air and my momentum slowed.

But now I'm on a new heading - my prep period. I've completed the tack and I'm trimming the sails by committing to my plan and bringing the right amount of intensity and seriousness to my workouts and my nutrition. Everything I do from now until July is in preparation for Ironman USA. I can see that particular buoy bobbing up and down in the distance. There will be several tacks needed in order to reach it. From prep, to base, to build phases. During each transition there will be an ever so brief period of slack in the sails as I readjust the heading. But once the tack is complete the sails will be quickly trimmed and I'll be off - running with the wind as alternating splashes of pleasure and pain wash over me.