When I'm quiet on the blog and twitter there are only three possibilities.
1) I'm out of town
2) I'm too tired from training to think or write
3) I'm injured
Unfortunately it's number 3 that has me quiet lately. Like a recurring nightmare the IT band has gone again, almost exactly 1 year from the last time. Last year it took me until December to get past it and I raced an ironman "through it" (which was not pleasant to say the least).
But now I know the things that need to be addressed to get through it. There are a few possible causes and I'm trying to address each one as quickly and methodically as possible. The frustrating thing about IT band injuries is that once the IT band "goes" it takes some time to get it under control so that it doesn't flare up when running. This involves a lot of rehab, testing, rehab while waiting a few days, then testing again and so on. And once running begins again it is a slow process to get back to longer sustained runs.
So what does this mean for the rest of the triathlon season? Well, Nationals is out. Augusta 70.3 is iffy but I'm holding out hope that I'll get back to form in time to race it. If I am able to race it I will train straight through it with only a few light days leading up to the race. For the ironman ... if I can race Augusta and then back it up with a 2+ hour run then I'll go for it and still expect a sub 10 hr outcome. I told Jennifer that I wouldn't race it injured as I've done that once already with the goal of completing the distance and don't care to do it that way again. If I'm on the start line this year it is to see how close to 9:30 I can come.
In other news ... I'm no longer being formally coached. This was a decision I made based on finances and the needs of the family. I improved as an athlete and learned a lot working with Jonathan and hope to work with him again in the future. In the meantime, there are higher priorities that must be addressed. The lessons I learned I will continue to carry with me and believe my best days of racing lay ahead.
From working with Jonathan I now understand how I need to train to hold my own in Open / Elite. It's pretty simple really ... get in as close to 20 hours of training per week as possible. Train a minimum of 3 hrs a day, 6 days per week, and have one day with light training. Swim at least 4 times per week and get in at least 10,000 meters with some arm and lung searing intensity. Run 4 or 5 times and try to get more than 30 miles in distance. Ride at least 7 hours, but 10 or more is preferable. And most importantly, get to know your body (I'm still in the very early stages of learning my body). Take care of the details (must get better at this!!). Have a lower volume week (12 - 14 hrs) every 4th or 5th week. Have fun.
We'll see how it works out over the next few years ...
I'll leave you with this awesome verse that keeps me moving forward with a smile:
Three times I pleaded with the Lord to take it away from me. But he said to me, "My grace is sufficient for you, for my power is made perfect in weakness." Therefore I will boast all the more gladly about my weaknesses, so that Christ's power may rest on me. That is why, for Christ's sake, I delight in weaknesses, in insults, in hardships, in persecutions, in difficulties. For when I am weak, then I am strong. (2 Corinthians 12:9-10)
Monday, August 17, 2009
Tuesday, August 4, 2009
Reprimand and Advice
After explaining to Jonny that I had been doing some running drills (butt kicks, high knees) just before I felt the tendon strain, here's what he had to say (with some advice from Brett Sutton):
nick......grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr dont do anything that hurt the tendon...give them a rest...dont push it...your fitness wont go away....
and drills...are not a good investement in your energy...running is the best drill there is...
here s a little peice of wisdom from one of the greatest coach of the history of this sport.,..
brett sutton
yes we do a lot of running drills .
we first put the shoes on make sure in this drill we dont tie the laces too tight
2nd we make sure we stretch before leaving the house ,this drill is done by pushing the door open and walk down the steps carefully .
3rd drill is we jog easy to the corner , as to help warming up
4th we run , and this is the magic run drill , we do lots of it .
we run past many people in parks doing run drills , we find that , we dont have a lot of time to waste , so we like forrest gump , just run and keep running .
conclusion ,
we dont do drills , we find them counter productive , and injury intense .
we do howevr try when we run for some to keep the heel low on the recovery ,
no arse kicking drills for us
errr except on race day , then we go out and kick every body elses arse , who spent too much time thinking of how a drill is going to give them free speed .
my tip
run forrest run .
nick......grrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr dont do anything that hurt the tendon...give them a rest...dont push it...your fitness wont go away....
and drills...are not a good investement in your energy...running is the best drill there is...
here s a little peice of wisdom from one of the greatest coach of the history of this sport.,..
brett sutton
yes we do a lot of running drills .
we first put the shoes on make sure in this drill we dont tie the laces too tight
2nd we make sure we stretch before leaving the house ,this drill is done by pushing the door open and walk down the steps carefully .
3rd drill is we jog easy to the corner , as to help warming up
4th we run , and this is the magic run drill , we do lots of it .
we run past many people in parks doing run drills , we find that , we dont have a lot of time to waste , so we like forrest gump , just run and keep running .
conclusion ,
we dont do drills , we find them counter productive , and injury intense .
we do howevr try when we run for some to keep the heel low on the recovery ,
no arse kicking drills for us
errr except on race day , then we go out and kick every body elses arse , who spent too much time thinking of how a drill is going to give them free speed .
my tip
run forrest run .
Monday, August 3, 2009
July 27 - Aug 2
Hey guys,
Just a quick note to let everyone know how things are going. The past 6 weeks of training have been very good with 4 weeks of build then a recovery week. The recovery week had less than 13 hrs training and left me feeling very fresh and fast. Last week I was back at it with 18 hours of training but unfortunately I ended the week on Sunday with a bit of a running injury which will require me to scale back the run training somewhat this week to recover. It's nothing serious, just a tendon / muscle strain on the backside of the knee. There's not much on the Internet about this one so I don't think it's common.
I'm very excited to have finalized the race plans for the rest of the season:
- Nationals in Tuscaloosa on Aug 22 (Olympic distance)
- Augusta 70.3 in late September
- Beach 2 Battleship 140.6 on Nov. 7th
Good times ahead! I'm also REALLY looking forward to a week in the Outer Banks hanging out with the kids and family and seeing how well I remember how to surf. It's always a scary thing when I go on vacation (especially to the beach) because I come back ready to sell the house, rid myself of the corporate job, and get back to a more relaxed and natural way of living.
Train well and have fun!
Just a quick note to let everyone know how things are going. The past 6 weeks of training have been very good with 4 weeks of build then a recovery week. The recovery week had less than 13 hrs training and left me feeling very fresh and fast. Last week I was back at it with 18 hours of training but unfortunately I ended the week on Sunday with a bit of a running injury which will require me to scale back the run training somewhat this week to recover. It's nothing serious, just a tendon / muscle strain on the backside of the knee. There's not much on the Internet about this one so I don't think it's common.
I'm very excited to have finalized the race plans for the rest of the season:
- Nationals in Tuscaloosa on Aug 22 (Olympic distance)
- Augusta 70.3 in late September
- Beach 2 Battleship 140.6 on Nov. 7th
Good times ahead! I'm also REALLY looking forward to a week in the Outer Banks hanging out with the kids and family and seeing how well I remember how to surf. It's always a scary thing when I go on vacation (especially to the beach) because I come back ready to sell the house, rid myself of the corporate job, and get back to a more relaxed and natural way of living.
Train well and have fun!
Monday, July 27, 2009
Lake Placid roll down
I was looking through the results of Ironman Lake Placid and noticed something very strange. In the M30-34 division Kona slots rolled all the way down to 46th and 161st finisher in the division!!!! So either the recession hit the young 30s pretty hard or there are a lot of guys kicking themselves today for not going to roll down to claim their entry!
In my division (M35-39) it was another story ...
But back to the M30-34s, at CdA the slowest qualifier was 9:34:24 ... that's a completely different stratosphere from 13:47:25 or even 11:08:48. Pick your race wisely!!!
| 26 | 09:48:56 | M30-34 | 3/210 |
| 35 | 09:53:43 | M30-34 | 4/210 |
| 40 | 09:57:34 | M30-34 | 6/210 |
| 250 | 11:08:48 | M30-34 | 46/210 |
| 1336 | 13:47:25 | M30-34 | 161/210 |
In my division (M35-39) it was another story ...
| OVERALL PLACE | TOTAL TIME | RACE DIVISION | DIVISION PLACE |
| 13 | 09:32:56 | M35-39 | 1/312 |
| 23 | 09:46:29 | M35-39 | 2/312 |
| 24 | 09:48:04 | M35-39 | 3/312 |
| 31 | 09:51:40 | M35-39 | 4/312 |
| 36 | 09:53:56 | M35-39 | 8/312 |
| 46 | 09:59:20 | M35-39 | 9/312 |
| 56 | 10:08:06 | M35-39 | 10/312 |
| 58 | 10:08:44 | M35-39 | 11/312 |
But back to the M30-34s, at CdA the slowest qualifier was 9:34:24 ... that's a completely different stratosphere from 13:47:25 or even 11:08:48. Pick your race wisely!!!
Monday, July 20, 2009
MEGA POST!!!
Wow, I know it's been a long time since my last post and I offer you my apologies for fading off the blog radar a bit. Unfortunately blogging is low enough on my totem pole of priorities that when time is scarce, very little trickles down that far. But I will make up for it with this MEGA POST!!!!! MEGA POST!!!!! MEGA POST!!!!! MEGA POST!!!!! MEGA POST!!!!!
Yep, it's been crazy here lately. Work has been really intense getting my projects ready for 4th quarter, our most busy time of year. The projects I've been working on are going to have a significant impact on the company's bottom line this year so I am dotting my i's and crossing my t's to make sure everything is in order. Being the único proveedor for mi familia, I have make sure that I capitalize on the opportunities presented me to bring home more tocino entreverado (yes, that was a strange tipping of the hat to Contador for his awesomeness yesterday). And since I have a very weak stomach for the ways of the corporate world, I rely on tangible results to further the old careerski.
But even moreso than work, THE TRAINING has been grinding me down to a limp blob of bone, muscle, soft tissue and brain matter bubbling on the hot Carolina asphalt like the urushiol on Toby's arm. Last week finished off a big 4 week block of training that, coupled with work and family, brought me to the edge of my capacity to keep moving forward. At the beginning of last week I could feel the grump trying to come out. Once I got over that, every workout was a internal argument with the whining little wimp that kept trying to talk me into cutting my workouts short, going easier than prescribed, or skipping sessions all together. But the better side of me held the course and finished strong. At end I had some questions for Jonathan that I thought I would share ...
Q: As you know I don't ride with power and haven't used heart rate monitoring in a long time. As a matter of fact, my Garmin is dead and I haven't wanted to spend the money to ship it off for a new battery, so I'm very low tech at the moment. Without numbers of any kind, everything has been totally on perceived exertion and time. I'm not too worried about just going on rpe for the half, but I'm a little nervous about relying solely on this for the ironman distance. Do you have any thoughts on that?
A: No hr no powermeter not problem! I will give you some hard set on the bike with hard time trial in the last hour of a 5h ride...and the goal is to kick ass at those... If you dont kick ass, you rode too hard in the first 4h... you will learn quick... Ironman is all about holding back on the swim and first 4h of the bike and get into it at the 5-6h mark.... so i will train you to be scare of riding hard! to be smart and hold back.... trainign will do this for you....
"I will train you the be scared of riding hard" hmmmm ... sounds, well, scary!! What's interesting is that, although I used a HR monitor last year for the ironman, this is the same strategy I employed. I capped my HR at 148 for the first 90 miles, the upped it to 151-152 for the last 22 miles. Doing that was enough to drop the pack a 4 guys that rode with me for the first 90 and put several minutes into them by T2. Of course with the IT band injury they made it up really quickly on the run ... but it was fun while it lasted!
Q: Also, I'm comfortable with the CHO strategy on the bike, but what about nutrition on the run since I will just have what's on the course (Hammer Heed, water, coke, gel etc.)? What do you use on the run? Do you get enough calories in on the bike to just hydrate on the run?
A: Nutrition: simple, you need calories but you dont know how your body will fell in the marathon. You might get sick of gels...or gatorade (hammer) or anything else so you will have to take what your body wants at that time... And we will make simple guide line... it s all calorie...you just need to get some.. Coke for sure... on of the best thing at ironman...1 or 2 cup at each aid station If you need more, you take a gel with water.... every 30-45min.... we can work simple strategy like this but in your case... i think coke and gels every 30-45min with water only will be the way.... if you like hammer..you can drink it but coke is more dense in calorie and low volume so you dont get bloated out of it...
Last year I used gel and water mostly on the run and it worked fairly well. This year I will be running at a higher intensity so we will see.
Q: Also curious about where you think I am in terms of my goals, if you are satisfied with our progress, and what's ahead in the training and build up the rest of the year.
A: for goals and your developpement. I cant ask much more. You add a bit of a injury and deal VERY well with it. You PR at most races in times or placing... you are improving and i cant ask for more. I m happy to see you progress and if you enjoy the process, that is the most important. For the ironman, it s going to be a great challenge and something new... the build up will be about 6-7 big week of training with a 3 weeks taper. The taper isnt a holiday... it s still some good work but you will be rested and fresh on race day. so..that is why we arent doing the build up right now.... if we do it too long...you will burn out and i dont want that. You are getting fitter right now with some solid aerobic work and i could get you to do a ironman almost now with a few more rides and long runs.... but we will build properlky...keep it not too long and have a go at it. We will evalute after that we goal you want to set. The ironman will show you were you are at in longer distance but the training will give us a good idea of your final time...you will know before the race ... After the race...we should go into a transition phase... unstructure...more rest...for 3 week...we can talk about that later but that is what i look like. How are you feeling right now? tired? ready for a bit of rest!!!
A: LOL ... you guess it, ready for rest.
So apparently we are not even in the build-up yet. On the flipside, I'm pretty close to being race-ready now. I can't wait to see how it feels to be truly fit to race this year.
On the home front things are well. Yesterday was National Ice Cream day (thanks President Reagan!!) so we celebrated by making our own waffle cones, which we filled with ice cream, and enjoyed with some neighbors and friends.
My little brother was recently married!!! We made the trip back home to Savannah Gee A to celebrate this most momentous occasion. I haven't seen the wedding photos yet, but I'll be sure and post them as soon as I can so y'all can check out my tux. In the meantime take a look at their engagement re-enactment photos - beware, it gets a little steamy at the end ;-) He and Allison make a great couple and have an awesome story as they have been dating on and off since high school!
Jennifer and kids are doing great and enjoying the summer. It took Caleb a few weeks to decompress from 9 months in school, but he's now back to himself. We really wonder if home school isn't the best approach!
They are growing so fast! Soon I will have two fashion chicks and a MMA bada$$ on my hands ..
.
Yep, it's been crazy here lately. Work has been really intense getting my projects ready for 4th quarter, our most busy time of year. The projects I've been working on are going to have a significant impact on the company's bottom line this year so I am dotting my i's and crossing my t's to make sure everything is in order. Being the único proveedor for mi familia, I have make sure that I capitalize on the opportunities presented me to bring home more tocino entreverado (yes, that was a strange tipping of the hat to Contador for his awesomeness yesterday). And since I have a very weak stomach for the ways of the corporate world, I rely on tangible results to further the old careerski.
But even moreso than work, THE TRAINING has been grinding me down to a limp blob of bone, muscle, soft tissue and brain matter bubbling on the hot Carolina asphalt like the urushiol on Toby's arm. Last week finished off a big 4 week block of training that, coupled with work and family, brought me to the edge of my capacity to keep moving forward. At the beginning of last week I could feel the grump trying to come out. Once I got over that, every workout was a internal argument with the whining little wimp that kept trying to talk me into cutting my workouts short, going easier than prescribed, or skipping sessions all together. But the better side of me held the course and finished strong. At end I had some questions for Jonathan that I thought I would share ...
Q: As you know I don't ride with power and haven't used heart rate monitoring in a long time. As a matter of fact, my Garmin is dead and I haven't wanted to spend the money to ship it off for a new battery, so I'm very low tech at the moment. Without numbers of any kind, everything has been totally on perceived exertion and time. I'm not too worried about just going on rpe for the half, but I'm a little nervous about relying solely on this for the ironman distance. Do you have any thoughts on that?
A: No hr no powermeter not problem! I will give you some hard set on the bike with hard time trial in the last hour of a 5h ride...and the goal is to kick ass at those... If you dont kick ass, you rode too hard in the first 4h... you will learn quick... Ironman is all about holding back on the swim and first 4h of the bike and get into it at the 5-6h mark.... so i will train you to be scare of riding hard! to be smart and hold back.... trainign will do this for you....
"I will train you the be scared of riding hard" hmmmm ... sounds, well, scary!! What's interesting is that, although I used a HR monitor last year for the ironman, this is the same strategy I employed. I capped my HR at 148 for the first 90 miles, the upped it to 151-152 for the last 22 miles. Doing that was enough to drop the pack a 4 guys that rode with me for the first 90 and put several minutes into them by T2. Of course with the IT band injury they made it up really quickly on the run ... but it was fun while it lasted!
Q: Also, I'm comfortable with the CHO strategy on the bike, but what about nutrition on the run since I will just have what's on the course (Hammer Heed, water, coke, gel etc.)? What do you use on the run? Do you get enough calories in on the bike to just hydrate on the run?
A: Nutrition: simple, you need calories but you dont know how your body will fell in the marathon. You might get sick of gels...or gatorade (hammer) or anything else so you will have to take what your body wants at that time... And we will make simple guide line... it s all calorie...you just need to get some.. Coke for sure... on of the best thing at ironman...1 or 2 cup at each aid station If you need more, you take a gel with water.... every 30-45min.... we can work simple strategy like this but in your case... i think coke and gels every 30-45min with water only will be the way.... if you like hammer..you can drink it but coke is more dense in calorie and low volume so you dont get bloated out of it...
Last year I used gel and water mostly on the run and it worked fairly well. This year I will be running at a higher intensity so we will see.
Q: Also curious about where you think I am in terms of my goals, if you are satisfied with our progress, and what's ahead in the training and build up the rest of the year.
A: for goals and your developpement. I cant ask much more. You add a bit of a injury and deal VERY well with it. You PR at most races in times or placing... you are improving and i cant ask for more. I m happy to see you progress and if you enjoy the process, that is the most important. For the ironman, it s going to be a great challenge and something new... the build up will be about 6-7 big week of training with a 3 weeks taper. The taper isnt a holiday... it s still some good work but you will be rested and fresh on race day. so..that is why we arent doing the build up right now.... if we do it too long...you will burn out and i dont want that. You are getting fitter right now with some solid aerobic work and i could get you to do a ironman almost now with a few more rides and long runs.... but we will build properlky...keep it not too long and have a go at it. We will evalute after that we goal you want to set. The ironman will show you were you are at in longer distance but the training will give us a good idea of your final time...you will know before the race ... After the race...we should go into a transition phase... unstructure...more rest...for 3 week...we can talk about that later but that is what i look like. How are you feeling right now? tired? ready for a bit of rest!!!
A: LOL ... you guess it, ready for rest.
So apparently we are not even in the build-up yet. On the flipside, I'm pretty close to being race-ready now. I can't wait to see how it feels to be truly fit to race this year.
On the home front things are well. Yesterday was National Ice Cream day (thanks President Reagan!!) so we celebrated by making our own waffle cones, which we filled with ice cream, and enjoyed with some neighbors and friends.
My little brother was recently married!!! We made the trip back home to Savannah Gee A to celebrate this most momentous occasion. I haven't seen the wedding photos yet, but I'll be sure and post them as soon as I can so y'all can check out my tux. In the meantime take a look at their engagement re-enactment photos - beware, it gets a little steamy at the end ;-) He and Allison make a great couple and have an awesome story as they have been dating on and off since high school!
Jennifer and kids are doing great and enjoying the summer. It took Caleb a few weeks to decompress from 9 months in school, but he's now back to himself. We really wonder if home school isn't the best approach!
They are growing so fast! Soon I will have two fashion chicks and a MMA bada$$ on my hands ..
.
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