Hungry Like The Wolfgram

Taking a break

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 04 May 2017 20:55:00 +0000

It's been a long time since I've written a blog post. Training hasn't been much to write about so I haven't been very motivated to blog.

IM Louisville was yet another bad race for me, and post race I was dealing with twitchy calf muscles and numbness in my toes. The twitching is constant, all day, and still continues today. The numbness has finally gone away. It seems to be related to my sciatic nerve, which goes back to my injury in 2014.

I did some 5Ks last fall until I strained my hamstring (same side as my sciatic issues so possibly related). I then dialed things back and have been training all winter but my volume has been about half what it typically is and my motivation has been low. I had some good training days, but they would be followed by increased calf twitchiness reminding me that something isn't right. I've been to the doctor and the PT and have tried several things and the twitching continues. It's frustrating and it has me concerned about my long term health.

Last week, my sciatic issues got really bad and I've been in a lot of pain and haven't been able to train. So I decided that I need to take a break from triathlon. I need some time off....completely. I need to heal.

I've never regained the fitness I had prior to my back injury in 2014, and nearly every race since then has been disappointing and frustrating. I still enjoy the training and racing and would like to return, but I'm honestly not sure I'll be able to. My comeback from my back injury in '14 didn't go well and has led to a couple of tough years - physically and emotionally.

I wouldn't say I'm quitting, although the timing would be right to confirm an old friend's theory that people only do hobbies for 10 years before moving on to a new hobby. I'd like to rest up and return to running sometime this summer and then do some sprint and olympic tris next year, although since swimming and cycling have been harder on my sciatica than running I'm not sure I'll be able to make a solid return. We'll see.

To be completely honest....this decision to take a break isn't entirely physical. Losing my dad to cancer hasn't been easy, and since his death I sometimes find myself questioning if I'm spending too much time training and racing....if I'm missing out on too many things in life. Lately, I find myself daydreaming about taking a backpacking trip...or hiking in Utah...or visiting Italy....or New Zealand...going kayaking...or taking my dad's old fishing boat out to see if it still floats...or sleeping in on a Saturday morning and going to the Farmer's Market with Courtney without worrying about fitting in a long ride...

Downhill "track" workout & MATC Turkey Trot 5K

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 07 Nov 2016 02:23:00 +0000

The Middleton HS track is a one mile run from work - perfect for my warm up - but students are using it sometimes. Rather than run there hoping to get on the track, I decided to do a "track" workout on the bike path close to work Thursday. Instead of 400s, I chose to run 10 x 90 seconds, then jog back to the start for recovery. Most people run toward Pheasant Branch so I headed the other way toward the baseball field figuring I'd find a good flat stretch of trail that I'd basically have all to myself. I was close...I did have it all to myself but it wasn't flat. It was a gradual downhill.

It felt a little like cheating running a slight downhill for my intervals, but I liked it. My heart rate was a little lower, which allowed me to relax a little and focus more on leg turnover and speed. I wouldn't want to do all my track workouts downhill, but it was a fun change of pace and something I might work in from time to time.

Turkey Trot

Sunday was a beautiful day - sunny with a high of 70. I decided to do the MATC Turkey Trot 5K. This is a cross country race at Warner Park, so it's all off-road. It's mostly flat running around the park with one steep, tough hill and another longer, gradual climb. My goal was to pace this race better than the Haunted Hustle 5K last weekend and see if I could beat that time. That was until my warm up. I guess we got more rain earlier in the week than I realized. The ground was really soft and wet and it was instantly clear that this wasn't going to be a fast day. A few years ago I did some cross country races for fun and decided to buy a pair of spikes. I felt like they weren't really necessary in most races I wore them in so I debated on wearing them, but Courtney suggested I wear them because...well, I own them so why not? Good call.

.

About 3/4 of a mile into the race.

I went out easier than last week and the first mile felt tough, but not brutal. It was flat and there were only a few spots that were mushy, so I was thinking the race might be a bit faster than I was originally thinking. I hit the first mile marker at 5:50..again...except my Garmin didn't register a mile until 6:07. This had me wondering...did I start another 5K at a 5:50 pace or are their mile markers off?

The second mile starts with a short but very steep climb. It's tough, and I was glad I had spikes on because some people were slipping. The hill is followed by a short, flat section and then a downhill and I managed to work past a few people who probably hit that hill too hard. Then we had a longer, gradual hill. I've run this race before and I like this hill. I like powering up this hill trying to pass people. Again, I was glad I had my spikes on because this is a dirt trail and it was a little muddy and slick. Then we had a downhill and a flat section where we run through a playground and then we hit the second mile marker. It said 11:XX. Umm....what?

At this point I knew their mile markers were off. No way was I running a sub-6 pace with the mushy ground and those two hills on mile 2. My watch registered mile two at a 6:32 pace. That felt about right.

The rest of the course was flat, but the ground was pretty soft so it was hard work. I crossed the finish line at 17:49, but had 2.8 miles on my Garmin (6:20 average pace). I worked my way into 7th overall, 2nd in my age group. Even though my first mile was my fastest, I feel like I paced this race a lot better than last week. My slowest mile was mile 2, and conditions were the best on mile 1 so it's no surprise it was the fastest. I felt like I held steady and even though I was tired the final mile I didn't feel like I was falling apart like last week.

I like cross country races so I had fun and actually enjoyed the tough conditions, but I'm frustrated the course was so short. The only thing I really want in a 5K is an accurate course. Chip timing is great, but an accurate course comes first...especially when you're in a park where you can literally run the course anywhere you want. I don't need t-shirts, goodie bags, finish line food, finisher's medals, awards, etc. Just give me an accurate course.

Haunted Hustle 5K

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Tue, 01 Nov 2016 02:28:00 +0000

Saturday I raced the Haunted Hustle 5K. It was my first 5K since May of 2015. Before that, my last 5K was the Lake Geneva Turkey Trot in November of 2012. So I haven't run many 5Ks that haven't followed a bike ride in the past few years.

My 5K PR is 18:31 (5:57 pace) from 2012. I've done two track workouts recently - 6x400 and 7x400 - that went well. I hit each 400 in 78-80 seconds (5:12-5:20 pace) and I had a good tempo run a few weeks ago so I felt like my fitness was decent. I didn't feel like I should go for a PR, but I was thinking I could probably manage something around 6 minute pace. I planned on going out a bit conservative with the hope that I could negative split and finish strong.

The race started and I let several people go and tried to settle into a comfortably fast/slightly conservative pace. I checked my Garmin about 2 minutes into the race expecting to see a 6:15 (ish) average pace. It said 5:30. Must be wrong. I kept the pace strong but eased up a bit just in case my Garmin was right. There were a few runners up the road, and I was right behind two other runners so I paced off them and tried to run relaxed and find a rhythm.

My Garmin signaled one mile right as we hit the first mile marker. 5:50. Oops. I didn't feel bad (yet), but I was starting to feel the effort. The two runners I was chasing were starting to pull away a bit. I told myself to be tough and keep fighting to hold my pace.

Mile 2 was a 6:05. Fading, but not too bad. I figured if I could manage to hold this pace I should come in just under 19 minutes. Not bad.

Mile 3 was ugly. It hurt...bad. I ran a 6:28 pace but it felt soooo much harder than mile 1. I had nothing. I lost touch with the two runners I was chasing at mile 1 and was starting to worry about being caught. I refused to look back. I focused on pushing through the pain and holding my pace the best I could.

I finished in 6th place overall, 1st in my age group. My official time is 19:21 (6:14 average pace).    I don't think I've ever blown up that bad in a 5K. I've faded, but never 40 seconds per mile. Despite the suffering, I had a good time and am looking forward to running another 5K soon. The Haunted Hustle is a well-run race and drew a big turnout with 950 people in the 5K. The course is also right by our new office so I'm familiar with some of it from my lunch runs.

The next day I watched the half marathon where Courtney exceeded her goal and set a 6 minute PR running 2:00:55. A little later in the day I ran the half marathon course for my long run. I really liked that route. It's challenging, but not super hilly. It also has a lot of variety - roads, bike paths, boardwalks, crushed limestone, etc. Courtney's PR is from a really flat course so a 6 minute PR on this course shows a lot of improvement.

Off-season swim plan

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 24 Oct 2016 10:00:00 +0000

In my last post, I talked about the swim video I got so I could analyze my form and figure out some areas to focus on in the off-season. I identified 3 things I want to focus on: not over-rotating, improving my catch and improving my kick.

Identifying problems is one thing. Fixing them is another. To start, I broke my training into three phases...

Phase 1 - Form phase. This is about 2 months long and the focus is form. All short repeats (less than 200 yards) with longer rest periods. Lots of kicking.

Phase 2 - Base phase. About 3 months. Higher volume, less form work but still working on form. Repeats will be a little longer, but still mostly short intervals. Rest intervals will tighten a bit. Not as much kicking.

Phase 3 - Race specific phase. This goes through the race season. Trying to maintain gains made in phases 1 and 2 but lowering volume to increase bike/run volume. Maintaining speed but adding in more endurance work and some longer repeats and open water work. Rest intervals tighten up a bit more.

I also bought a few new swim toys to help me work on form....

Ameo Powerbreather Snorkel. I've read about the benefits of training with a snorkel many times - mainly, by eliminating the need to turn your head to breathe, you can focus on other aspects of your stroke like the catch, symmetry, body roll, head position, etc. I bought a center-mount snorkel a few years ago but didn't like it so I never used it. Slowtwitch wrote about the Powerbreather recently and it sounded like an improvement over the center-mount snorkel so I ordered one. They're also good for kick sets. I'll be using this a lot in phase 1 as I work on form then I'll use it mainly in my warm up and cool down to continue working on form.

Finis Alignment Kickboard. No more kick sets with my head above the water practicing bad body position. This board forces you into a streamlined position so you're kicking with good form. It works best if you have a snorkel so you don't have to lift your head to breathe. This will get a lot of use in phase 1 as I focus on my kick.

Fins. To work on ankle flexibility and strengthening my kick.

Finis Tempo Trainer. I love this thing. I use it for pacing and stroke rate sets. I probably won't use this until phase 2 and definitely in phase 3.

So those are my training phases and the swim toys/aids I'll be using. I plan on getting video a few times if possible to make sure I'm making progress with the form work. I'm also thinking about signing up for a few masters swim meets this winter for motivation.

To test my progress I'll be doing the occasional 1000 yard time trial. I've done those in the past, so I have prior times to compare.

I started my swim phase with video last week and then a few days working on form with the snorkel and kick board. A few days ago I did my first 1000 yard time trial to set my bench mark. I surprised myself by swimming it in 13:17, which is a 2 second PR. I was expecting something closer to 13:40 - 13:50. It's a good surprise, but it makes me wonder. Did I improve already? If not, why have I been swimming some of my slowest open water times in years this season if I'm capable of a 1000 yard PR?

I suppose it doesn't matter. All I can do now is focus on improving my swim in the pool and then try to make that speed transfer to the open water next year, which has been a challenge for me in prior years.

Swimming: Suck Less in '17

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Tue, 18 Oct 2016 11:59:00 +0000

If you want to improve your swim, get some video. Seriously. The last time I got video was late 2011 when I did a swim focus that off-season. That was the last time I made progress in my swim. It's actually gone backwards a bit the past couple of seasons.

To start my off-season, Courtney went to the pool with me to get some video with the GoPro. My plan was to analyze the video using Kinovea (great, free software for analyzing video, measuring angles, going frame by frame, etc.) and find two or three big form flaws to work on. I don't want to try and work on too many things at once.

2016 on the left. 2011 on the right. My left arm has improved, but still a lot of work to do.

I watched a great webinar from USA Swimming on rotation so that was on my mind when analyzing the video. I over-rotate, especially when I turn to my right to breathe. I'm not as bad as I used to be - I used to rotate almost completely on my side - but I'm still over-rotating. I'm starting my pull with my left arm too soon and I'm rotated too much. Then when I rotate back to my stomach, my arm is pulling under my body, which is not an effective pull. You can see it very clearly on the right image above from 2011. The one on the left is from 2016. It's better, but I'm still missing out on a lot of my pull by over-rotating. My hand should be below my shoulder like the image below.

An image from the webinar showing good rotation.

Above is an image from the webinar showing good rotation (about 30-35 degrees) and a good catch.

Me. Rotating too much. Arm is too deep. Not a good bend in elbow.

This is me. I'm rotated too much, about 60 degrees. Because of that, I can't get my arm in the same position as the pic above. I don't have shoulder flexibility like that (who does?). My arm is too deep and my catch isn't very effective....and this is my right arm, my good arm.

Another shot from the webinar.

Above is a shot from the webinar showing a bad catch on the left and a good catch on the right. I'm much closer to the image on the left. The good news is that those images are of the same person 6 months apart. There's hope.

So that's 2 things: rotation and catch. The third thing I found that I want to address is my kick. It's actually come a long way since I started, but I still have some work to do.

Look at my left leg. That's a lot of drag.

Your kick is supposed to be tight. You shouldn't bend your knee that much. I'm creating a ton of drag doing that. I suspect it might be related to my over-rotation. I think I'm kicking my leg out to the side for balance, so if I can minimize my rotation I think my kick may start improving as well.

So those are the three big things I've decided to work on immediately. I'm not going to worry about any other form flaws until I improve those three things. I think, if I can improve those, I'll make some good progress.

It's one thing to find issues. It's another to address and fix them. In my next post I'll go over my plan to make improvements and my new swim toys I think might help.

Starting to plan my off-season

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Fri, 14 Oct 2016 13:00:00 +0000

I'm still working on my race schedule and goals for 2017, but in the meantime I've been working on my off-season plan. 2017 will be my 10th year in triathlon. I'd like it to be a good one, so I need a good plan for the off-season to address my limiters and take care of the things I feel have been holding me back...

Swimming

My swim was never strong, but it has gotten worse since my back injury. I'm not sure what the deal is exactly, but I think a lot of it has to do with my left leg (that's the one that was numb for several months when I was injured). That calf still cramps when I swim and I think that leg has a really weak kick right now and I suspect I'm not pointing my toes on that leg so that foot is creating drag.

Other than calf cramps, I'm tired of giving up big chunks of time in the swim and playing catch up the rest of the race. It's time to make some improvements.

Weights

This is mostly related to my injury, but also I think hitting the weight room this year will be good for me. I think my back injury created some big imbalances that I need to address. My plan is to do some light lifting to build a bit of a foundation and then do an 8-week block of heavy lifting to build strength. Then I want to dial it back to a maintenance routine that I'll continue through 2017. I also plan on working in some plyometrics and speed and agility drills. I think those will be a good change of pace, and that stuff can be fun. Also, core work will be a big part of my weights routine.

Diet

My diet has gotten worse over the past few years. I've gotten lazy and have lost a lot of the variety I used to have in my diet, and Ironman training has never been good for my diet. I want to clean up my diet, cut out the sugar, add more variety and then see if I can keep that going throughout the season next year. This will be the toughest change for me to make.

Running

Running hard after my injury caused issues so I haven't done much intensity the past two seasons. I think I've gotten to a point where I can handle higher intensity, and making sure I can handle more intensity will be a huge focus for me in the off-season. I want to do track workouts again, run 5Ks, etc. I'm thinking about doing a block of 5Ks this fall and maybe doing some indoor track workouts over the winter like I did several years ago. I set a goal of breaking 30 minutes at Crazylegs back in 2008. The closest I've come is 30:36 in 2013 so I'd really like to focus on that and see if I can finally check off that goal.

Yoga

I felt like yoga helped me a lot last year so I want to get back into it and hopefully continue doing some yoga throughout the season next year.

Cycling

Last on the list because it won't be a focus this off-season. I'm going to back off for a while and focus on other things. That's a risk because it's my strength, but I'm banking on it coming back quickly. I'd still like to improve my threshold a bit for next season, but I have more to gain in the pool and on the run so I'm going to focus on that for a while. I've never felt like a very complete triathlete with my bike usually ranking much higher than my swim and run so for my 10th year in the sport I'd like to finally become a more complete triathlete.

So those are the general things I want to work on. Now I need to spend some time figuring out my plan, and then I need to execute that plan. It's one thing to say I want to improve my swim (or whatever), it's another to actually pull it off. To do that, I need to have a plan. I'll post more details once I get them figured out.

Race Report: Ironman Louisville

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Tue, 11 Oct 2016 19:55:00 +0000

Ironman Louisville was my 9th Ironman since 2008 and my second Ironman of 2016. I changed up my training a bit from prior Ironmans and did a little more volume than I ever have leading into my taper 3 weeks out, and then did less volume than I typically do leading into a race. I wanted to be very fit, but also well-rested and ready to race. I think in the past I've done too much work too close to race day and carried some fatigue into the race and I didn't want to repeat that mistake again. I think this plan worked out well as my legs felt strong on race day.

Swim - 1:05:04

The Louisville swim is a time trial start. I didn't feel like getting up really early to try and get to the front of the line so I slept in a bit until 4:45 and got to transition about 6. Fortunately there wasn't any traffic and the lots across from transition were open so getting to transition was really easy. Since I got there a little later, transition wasn't busy so I got my stuff done and got in line only to find out, to my surprise, that the line was all the way back to transition (about a mile long). Wow.

So we waited....and waited...and waited....

I finally got in the water about 8:10, 40 minutes after the first swimmer. The swim was pretty uneventful. I had very little contact and just focused on my own swim. I didn't get any cramps like Texas, which was a good sign, but my left calf did threaten to cramp several times (an on-going issue since my back injury so I expected it). I predicted a swim time of 1:05 so I was happy to see a 1:05 on my watch when I got out of the water.

T1 - Since I started late, transition was packed. There was a line to get in the tent so I emptied my bag outside the tent and put on my helmet, grabbed my bike shoes, put my wetsuit in my bag and then plowed my way through the change tent to get to the bike racks.

Bike - 5:07:18

I loved the Louisville bike course. It was really crowded the first 30 (ish) miles, and cold, which sucked, but the course itself is awesome. It's challenging enough to be a fair course, but it's not that hilly and still fairly fast and the road conditions are really good. The roads are narrow and I got held up by cars about 6 or 7 times which was a new and frustrating experience. I've never been held up by traffic in an Ironman before.

I trained to hold about 210-215 watts but decided to go conservative to see if I could really nail the run so I held about 205 the whole way. I dialed it back on the way back into town and I think my final average power was 203. I had predicted a 5:05-5:10 split so I was right in line with that. The best part was that for the first time ever in an Ironman, I had to pee on the bike...twice actually. And my legs felt strong coming off the bike. They haven't felt this good at the end of the bike since 2010, and with the perfect weather I was in a good mood and looking forward to the run.

T2 - I got through T2 pretty quickly except I had to pee again so I stopped to do that so my T2 time wasn't very fast. I had estimated about 10 minutes for both transitions combined and that's where I ended up so still right on target.

The run - 4:12:38

I wanted to run between 3:20 and 3:25, hoping maybe I could break 3:20. I started out holding a 7:45 pace and was hitting that mile after mile. My legs felt good and the pace wasn't a struggle. My stomach didn't feel great, but it was good enough that I was able to take in water at every aid station and I stuck with my plan of 3 gels per hour and a few salt pills per hour as well.

Everything was going great...until it wasn't. I started struggling and feeling weak and a little sick. Nearing the turnaround I knew it was going to be tough to hold my pace, which was already slipping. My legs felt like they had more, but I was beginning to struggle. A friend of mine, Anton, caught me and ran with me for a while trying to help me get back on track, which helped a ton, but I lost him soon after the halfway point. After that the wheels completely fell off and I ended up doing a lot of walking on the second half. I still took in fluids and calories (I tried it all - coke, broth, pretzels, grapes, gels) but I couldn't get moving again. It felt like Texas all over again, and soon my motivation was gone. My only motivation to continue running was to get the race over with sooner.

Overall: 10:35:04

Once again, I ended an Ironman in the med tent. My blood pressure was really low and I needed an IV. The low blood pressure issue I have with Ironmans tends to be related to electrolytes, and even though I drank a lot of gatorade and took salt pills, I guess I didn't get enough. It's extremely frustrating and disappointing, especially since the weather was perfect. I felt like I had the fitness and the discipline on race day to finish with a strong run. I was on pace for a 9:45 (ish), which it turns out wouldn't have been enough for a Kona slot, but would have been a race I would have been happy with.

What's next?

Not Ironman. It's a distance I struggle with. I've done 9, and all but 2 of them have left me disappointed and frustrated feeling like I didn't race to my potential. It seems to be more related to electrolytes/fueling/hydration than fitness, which I guess is why I keep chasing this elusive perfect race. Honestly, taking a break from Ironman after several bad races makes me feel like a quitter. Deep down, I want to have the desire continue that chase, but the truth is I don't. The fun is gone. The drive is gone. I'm tired of it. I won't say I'll never do another Ironman, but for now I need a break.

I want to get back to shorter races, higher intensity training, racing more often. I want to find that speed I feel like I've lost over the past few years. I want to bring the fun back.

I will either focus on olympic distance or maybe half ironmans. I really enjoy the training for those distances and the lower training volume allows me more time to focus on my coaching which is something I really enjoy. 70.3 Worlds is in Chattanooga next year so it's tempting to try and qualify for that and see if I can do well there. I had a lot of fun at AG Nationals this year so that will definitely be on my plan for next year. It's a qualifier for Worlds in Gold Coast, Australia in 2018 so I may put my focus on that.

Catching up

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 15 Sep 2016 11:30:00 +0000

It’s been several months since I posted so here’s what I’ve been up to….

Ironman Texas

Since it’s been so long, I won’t bother with a full race report, and I don’t really have that much to say about the race actually. This was my first time doing a rolling swim start and I was really surprised how little contact I had in the water. Practically none. It was a non-wetsuit swim and my time was slower than I anticipated despite feeling like I swam well, although looking at my HR after the race I think I may have been a bit too conservative. I did get a few small cramps about halfway through, which was a sign of things to come….unfortunately.

The bike was going well until about ¾ of the way through when I started getting some hamstring cramps, which is something I’ve never gotten on the bike. My power faded which led to a slower than expected time as well. Coming into T2, my hamstring cramped up putting on my shoes. I worked it out quickly and got on the run, where things went downhill fast. I was struggling in the heat and fading and fighting off threats of more cramps. About halfway the skies turned black and the rain started. At first I was happy because I needed to cool down, but things flooded quickly and the winds picked up and they actually stopped the race for a while. They told us we could keep going, which I did, and ran through the worst thunderstorm I’ve ever run through. The aid stations were abandoned so we had to dig through the coolers if we wanted something. My legs ached and cramped and I’ve never worked so hard to run so slow. As I crossed the line alone in the pouring rain, Mike Riley said, “Tough day, huh, Mike?” Yep.

After Texas I wasn’t quite sure what I wanted to do with the rest of my season so I did a few random triathlons here and there, my first short course triathlons since before my back injury in 2014. It was really fun to go back to local races for a while, but my experience at Texas was eating away at me. I couldn’t let it go, and I found myself constantly checking the Wisconsin and Louisville pages to see if registration was still open. Wisconsin had foundation slots, but Louisville had general entry open still. I talked it over with Courtney and we ultimately decided I should do Louisville. Wisconsin is much easier logistically, and it’s great having so much local support, but I’ve never done Louisville and I’ve wanted to for years.

So I’ve been putting in a lot of hours training for Louisville, more or less repeating the plan I came up with for Ironman Wisconsin 2010 which is probably my best executed Ironman to date. More details on that in my next post.

IMTX - The day before

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Fri, 13 May 2016 21:33:00 +0000

For those of you unaware of all the drama surrounding Ironman Texas this year, I'll give you a quick recap. A couple of months ago, local political BS resulted in the loss of permits for the bike course (long story). Ironman scrambled to come up with a bike course last minute and had a 112 mile course when the floods hit and damaged a portion of the bike path that was part of the route. That led to last minute changes, and a 94 mile bike course that winds through the city. If you've never been to The Woodlands, it's really busy around here so we now have a 94 mile bike course through town on busy roads. I'm not sure how that's going to work out.

After all the bike course drama, yesterday it was announced that due to the floods, the water quality in the canal where we finish the swim isn't safe so they had to change the swim course. We now finish by the swim start. This gives us two different transition areas and it adds a mile to the bike.

So that's where we're at now, the day before the race. A 2.4 mile swim, T1, a 95 mile bike, T2 and the old 26.2 mile run course. It was images of the run course that drew me to this race so I'm happy it's the same. We had a chance to run one loop (it's a 3 lap run) last week and it's a great route along the canal and should have lots of spectator support. Some of it is on a running path, and I think that's going to get pretty crowded on lap 3. It's basically all concrete so it's going to be a pounding. I hope I hold up.

I'm not too nervous right now, but I will be tomorrow. I always am. I feel like the Ironman distance has gotten the best of me since 2010 so my confidence isn't very high right now. I nailed IMWI 2010, but since then I've come up short of what I feel I'm capable of. It's been a combination of not executing my race plan, mistakes, bad luck, getting sick, etc. But none of that really matters. What matters now is tomorrow. The past is the past. What I need to do tomorrow is forget about everyone else, focus entirely on myself and execute my plan, be mentally strong and push myself to my limits.

Ironman Texas is known for being hot and humid and tomorrow looks to be another toasty one. The high is the upper 80s with a real feel in the mid 90s. There's a chance of thunderstorms, which I'm hoping hit while I'm on the run. I've had some great long runs in the rain so I would welcome a storm. If it hits on the bike, things could get ugly. The course is busy, has a lot of turns, and lots of concrete which can get slippery when wet (my only crash in a race came at Hyvee a few years ago on wet concrete in a corner).

I did what I could for heat training at home, and I've been here for a week and have had a chance to do some training in the heat, but the heat concerns me. I've struggled in the heat in the past, but I have a new fueling plan based on my sweat test results. I've only had a couple of chances to test it out, but those workouts went well so I think I may have a solid plan. I thought about increasing my power target with a slightly shortened bike course, but I've decided to race it as though it's the full distance and save my legs for the run. I think the 18 miles missing from the bike will shorten my ride about 50 minutes, which is less time to deal with the heat. I think I'm better off pacing conservatively rather than taking risks on a hot day. There is a ton of time to be made up on the second half of the run if I feel good.

If you happen to be following along online, I'm #726.

Hooray for Science! Sweat Testing

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 02 May 2016 23:53:00 +0000

Last year, a friend of mine told me about an at home sweat test she did where she got info on her sweat rate and electrolyte loss. I've done a few sweat tests to figure out my sweat rate (weighing yourself before and after a workout) but those were informal tests that didn't give me any info about electrolyte loss. I was intrigued, but didn't act on it....until I ended up in the med tent (again) after the Galveston 70.3. It's time to figure out how to end this med tent streak.

So I ordered a test from Levelen. A couple days later a package showed up in the mail containing my sweat test kit - an alcohol swab, cotton swab, a little plastic vile, tweezers and info card.

The cotton swab on my arm....ready to start sweating.

You're supposed to replicate race conditions so I rode indoors and cranked the heat and humidity and got the temp up around 80 with 70% humidity. I didn't use a fan (mistake) because I wanted to make sure I'd sweat enough to get good results. I rode for an hour at Ironman power, but the heat, humidity and lack of a fan made for a pretty intense workout. I was burning up and ready for the hour to end so I could drink something and cool down.

As soon as I finished I used the tweezers to remove the swab and put it in the vile and I weighed myself. I had lost 3.8 pounds - 60 oz. Ouch.

I dropped everything in the mail the next day and a few days later they emailed results...

I was and wasn't happy to see these results. This does help explain why I keep ending up in the med tent, especially the significant electrolyte losses. This will definitely help me prepare for races, but losing a lot of fluid and electrolytes can definitely make long course races more challenging than they already are, especially hot races.

But now I have some real numbers to work with.

I lose:
- 53 mmol of sodium per liter of sweat
- 8.1 mmol of potassium per liter of sweat
- 51 mmol of chloride per liter of sweat

That comes to about 1200 mg of sodium per liter of sweat (34 oz). I've done a few sweat tests in the past and on hot days outdoors I tend to lose between 40-50 oz per hour. That's about 1400-1750 mg of sodium lost per hour.

They recommend replacing 60-70% of fluid and electrolytes lost. So I need to drink around 30-36 oz per hour and take in about 850-1200 mg of sodium per hour for a hot race. I'm probably getting about 300-400 mg of sodium per hour right now...maybe.

I asked them if electrolyte losses stay the same per liter of sweat lost regardless of sweat rate and they said yes, so now that I know how much I'm losing I can adjust my intake based on conditions and how much I think I'll sweat.

I got my results back about a week ago, so about 3 weeks before IMTX. It's a little late in the game to make changes, but what I'm currently doing isn't working so I'm taking a chance and more than doubling my electrolyte intake.

Race Report: Galveston 70.3

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Tue, 26 Apr 2016 23:55:00 +0000

As part of my Ironman Texas build, I raced the Galveston 70.3. I did this race back in 2012 and decided to return this year to see if I could improve on my time, and I thought it would be good prep for IMTX. With Galveston being so close to IMTX, I wasn't able to do a real taper but I did give myself a few easy days and my legs felt pretty good on race day despite less rest than I'm accustomed to for half ironmans.

Swim - 32:59

I have a habit of dunking my goggles in the water prior to swimming. I didn't even think about it, but Galveston is a salt water swim. The water isn't very salty, but it was salty enough to put a thin layer of salt on my goggles. I didn't realize this until I put my goggles on right before jumping into the water for my wave start and realized I could barely see. I had a sliver of clear lens near the top and the rest was cloudy.

The gun went off and I did my best to hold a straight line, but it was tough. Looking up, I could barely see the buoys. Fortunately, I don't think I went off course too bad. I know I was out by the paddle boards at one point so I did drift a bit, but I don't think it cost me too much time.

It was a stupid mistake, and it definitely made the swim a bit of an adventure, but other than that it was a typical swim. I feel like I'm capable of better, and have concluded that I'm simply not swimming hard enough on race day. I think I fear wasting too much energy on the swim so I get conservative, but if I'm going to swim the times I want to swim I need to take a few chances and push the pace a bit more....not swim stupid, but push it more than I have been. Something to work on.

Bike - 2:19:14 (24.1 mph)

There's not a lot to say about the bike. Despite focusing on my run all winter, my threshold is right up there at an all time high so I felt like I could go a tad conservative on the bike and still manage a competitive bike split so that was the plan. Other than a few sketchy moments working through traffic due to being one of the last waves, the bike was pretty uneventful. I held steady at about 230 watts and felt much more comfortable staying in the aerobars the whole time uninterrupted than I did in 2012 (I did a ride on the trainer a few weeks prior of 3 hours straight without getting out of the aerobars once).

Run - 1:38:05 (7:29 pace)

I really wanted to have a good run, and by good run I mean sub 1:32. Ideally, sub 1:30. That's my ultimate goal, one I've been chasing for a few years now, but I didn't feel quite ready to hit that goal in Galveston so I was hoping to come close.

I started out right about a 7 minute pace and felt good. My legs were a little heavy and tired from the bike, but nothing too bad. I held this pace pretty steady until about the 4-5 mile mark when I took a gel and a little Red Bull. Not long after, I got a terrible sideache that forced me to do a little walking almost every mile to get it to ease up. I didn't really drink or eat much after this, and my pace dropped and I struggled to the finish. On a positive note, my "struggling" pace has improved, but I'm pretty frustrated with my run. I've never gotten a sideache like that before so I need to figure out what caused that and how to prevent it. It happened not long after the Red Bull and gel, and if I had to blame one of those it would be the Red Bull although I don't think this was nutrition related.

As for the race itself, I liked Galveston in 2012 and wanted to come back and I liked 2/3 of the race this time. The swim and bike were good, but they changed the run course this year and I thought it was pretty bad. There was one out and back section that was so crowded the only way to pass was to run right down the middle and run into everyone going in each direction. The weather was perfect and Moody Gardens is a great race venue, but that run course needs work.

Despite not having the run I wanted, Galveston was a big step in the right direction. Last year, I struggled at every race and set some of my slowest times ever. This was a good time for me and I finished in 7th in my AG and I can finally say that I wasn't affected at all by my back injury.

A few lessons learned:

- I don't perform as well as I want/expect at early season half ironmans. I either need to stop doing them, learn to better prepare for them, or adjust my expections.

- I need to push the pace more on the swim and take a few more risks in the swim.

- I went to a less aggressive position on the bike this year, by quite a bit actually, and my power/speed were in line with other races so I don't think it's costing me time. My power is actually better so I think I can push more watts in the future and still run well. I'm much more comfortable now and I think that's ultimately going to help my run.

- I finish way too many half and full ironmans in the med tent and I need to figure out how to end that streak. Once again, after Galveston I was in the med tent with really low blood pressure. *sigh*

Just a few more weeks of training before Ironman Texas. Even though I was hoping for a better run in Galveston, this race was good for confidence. My running legs were there, but I couldn't execute. The challenge now is figuring out that piece of the puzzle, but I feel like if I can do that the fitness is there.

Adding Intensity Back In

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Tue, 01 Mar 2016 13:03:00 +0000

After my last post, my Maffetone experiment officially ended and I started adding in some intensity. One thing I learned from my FTP test was that I might not need as much intensity as I’ve done in the past to maintain my threshold. My threshold has been between 285-305 for several years now so I decided that this year, rather than beating myself up all winter hoping for a few more watts, I’d take a chance and let go a little bit on the bike and see if I could improve my running. My bike is generally strong enough to get me to my goals, but my run needs work, and I’m banking on being able to get my bike fitness back quickly since that’s been my strength.

In the few weeks following my threshold test, I did 3 hard bike workouts. The rest were either easy or a mix of zone 2 and 3. A month after my test, I did another FTP test…a spontaneous test. I loaded a route on Cycleops Virtual Training and picked a couple of virtual partners to race against for a threshold workout. I got going and felt really good so I decided to continue after the “race” ended and finish off the hour. To my surprise, I held 310 watts for 60 minutes, an all-time PR by 2 watts. Just 3 really hard workouts got me from 295 to 310. Normally I do about 2 hard bike workouts per week, plus a ride that includes a mix of zone 2 and 3, so I was very surprised to set a PR on only a few hard workouts (lots and lots of tempo though – my entire 12 weeks of MAF).

You can see where MAF ended and my easier rides started because my avg drops quite a bit.

Running - Rather than running the same intensity all the time like I did when I was doing MAF, I backed off a bit on my “easy” runs (easy in quotes because I only backed off a bit and am not running very easy anymore) and added some tempo runs as well as 800s. I’ve also been using the treadmill more than in the past, partly because it’s winter in WI but also because the treadmill doesn’t beat me up as much so I can log more miles and recover quicker. I’ve been doing my 800s on the treadmill, which has allowed me to target a really specific pace and finish the workout without feeling so beat up. I’ve also been doing most of my long runs on the treadmill, which has been kind of nice because Courtney has been riding the trainer while I run. We don’t get to work out together very often so this works out well.

A couple of weeks ago we had some nice weather on a day I was supposed to do a tempo run at lunch. I ran my usual route, doing a mile warm up, 6 miles of tempo and a mile cool down. Normally, I’m between 6:50 and 7:10 pace for tempo on this route so I was really happy to hold a 6:32 average pace this time. That’s a pretty solid improvement. Maybe the Maffetone training worked, and it helped me rebuild from my injury and give me a big base to build off.

These are all my runs on my tempo run route. They're not all tempo runs though.

Despite a good tempo run, I had some lingering doubt on my running improvements. For weeks, I had been doing long runs on the treadmill. I felt like I was getting quality workouts, but I do find the treadmill a little easier than outdoors so I feared that I was losing my ability to sustain the pounding of the outdoors for long runs. With Ironman Texas less than 3 months away, this was starting to hurt my confidence, and one good tempo run wasn’t enough to build that back up.

Fortunately, this past weekend we got a good blast of spring weather. I’ve been doing my long runs on Thursdays after work and I mixed up my week so I could run long on the weekend in the warm weather. My route was pretty flat and with 15-20 mph winds predicted I decided to do a double out and back so I wouldn’t have to deal with the wind in my face for a really long stretch.

Double out and back on the bike path.

This was easily my best long run ever. Normally, a good zone 2 long run would have me running a 7:30-7:50 pace. I expected faster than that because my MAF pace at the end of my experiment was around 7:10 so I was hoping for that or maybe even a tad quicker. What I didn’t expect was a 6:50 average pace for 14 miles. I actually felt like a runner out there. I felt smooth and surprisingly comfortable at a sub-7 minute pace. It was a great run and really good for confidence.

My Ironman run PR is 3:26 and I’d love to run 3:20-3:25 at Texas, but if I plan on running that pace in the heat and humidity after riding 112 miles I need to be able to (somewhat) comfortably hold ~ 7 minute miles on a 50 degree day with no bike before my run. There’s still a ton of work to do in the next few months, but for right now I feel like I’m sitting in a good spot.

My Maffetone Experiment - Part 2: The Results

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 18 Jan 2016 12:54:00 +0000

In my last post I talked about my training using the Maffetone Method. This past week was a recovery week where I did some testing so I thought I'd share those numbers as well as some thoughts on training by heart rate.

On Wednesday I did my last MAF ride and held 257 watts. My first ride was 224 watts, and my best MAF ride was 2 hours at 264 watts, so I gained about 33-40 watts on my MAF power over 12 weeks.

Thursday was my last MAF run and I held a 7:12 pace. My first MAF run was an 8:12 pace so I gained about a minute.

I had a pretty good idea what to expect with those workouts. It was my FTP test that I was really curious about. I did a test prior to my MAF training and my FTP was 280 watts. I've never done a 3 month block of training without any threshold work so I had a tough time gauging where my threshold might be.

FTP Test

I managed 295 watts for 60 minutes. Physically I think I was strong, but mentally I was weak. I was struggling already about 12 minutes in and was considering pulling the plug because I didn't think I'd make it the full 60 minutes. I broke it down mentally into 6 minute chunks (10%) and just focused on getting to the next mark. I was able to pick it up at the end so I think there was more physically but mentally this was brutal (central governor?).

One thing I found interesting is that my average HR was 156. Normally when I do a full hour at threshold my HR is between 165 and 168. I don't know if this means I could have gone harder of if my threshold HR has changed.

So my FTP went up 15 watts, but this isn't new territory for me. My peak 60' power is 307 and it's pretty typical for my FTP to hover around 290-300. So the big change was that my MAF power went from 80% of FTP to 87%. Probably not a bad thing for a triathlete focusing on long course.

One thing to remember about training is that the training you do now stands on the shoulders of the training you did in the past. Now that I'm going to start introducing some threshold work, will I reach a higher peak after building a bigger aerobic base? Or did I just lose out on 12 weeks of working on my FTP? Time will tell.

What I'd like to do is hold my MAF power and raise my FTP, which will make my MAF a lower % of my threshold but I think that will work out because it will have me racing at a lower percentage my threshold - hopefully with a bigger aerobic base.

Normally my training is a hard day/easy day style but for the past 3 months I've been Steady Eddie. Below you can see how that changed my average pace/power per week.

The break before 2015 was my back injury and you can see how my run pace took a hit.

I got another power meter in 2010 so nearly every ride since then has been with power. Before that I usually only rode my key workouts with power so my weekly average is inflated.

Sidenote - Average power/pace is cool to see general trends over time, but be careful with it. Chasing averages makes you go too hard on your easy days.

If you use Training Peaks, maybe you've noticed a metric called Efficiency Factor (EF). It compares your normalized power or pace to your HR. I used that to help track my progress. The only problem is that you can't graph it in Training Peaks so I had to track it in Excel.

You can see the trendline moving up as I was getting more efficient.

The trendline is a bit steeper for cycling. Cycling has always been my strength so maybe that's the reason.

Some final thoughts on HR training.

What I liked -

- The intensity felt about the same at ~140 bpm every time. All that changed was my power or pace. I felt like I was controlling the input (HR) and measuring the output (power/pace).

- My power/pace increased gradually as I got fitter based on feedback from my body rather than a per-determined build and just forcing it. It felt more natural.

- I was very focused on efficiency the whole time because I was limited in what I could input and I wanted the maximum output. When I focus only on the output, I don't worry about how much energy it takes to get the desired output.

- I got to see my progress week after week without having to do a max effort (threshold) test. Seeing steady progress is very encouraging.

- I learned a lot about HR training, which I think will make me a better coach, and it was fun to mix things up for a while.

What I didn't like -

- My biggest complaint about Maffetone training is the 180 formula. It put me in Friel's HR zone 2. An athlete I coach has very similar heart rate numbers to me but he's 9 years older so his MAF range would have him in Friel's zone 1. Another athlete I coach is 8 years older than me, but his heart rate tends to be about 10-15 beats higher so he'd be at an even lower intensity level. We could all do the same program, but we would be at very different intensity levels.

- A lot of things can affect HR, such as heat, stress, caffeine, etc. so it's not the best measure of intensity. All my riding was indoors so I had the same set up every time. My running was mostly outdoors, but I never had to deal with any heat. I think HR works best if you have a similar set up every time (and if you ride indoors get a good fan, and by good fan I mean one that was built for a construction site or barn).

Where to now? I want to find a good mix of my old program and the program I just did. I'm ready for some intensity, but I made good gains doing a lot of zone 2 so I want to keep that going. I'd like to bring in some heart rate training as well as utilizing power and pace for more than just measuring progress. Why use just one measure of intensity when you can use 2? :)

Speaking of heart rate training, I'm in full on geek mode with my new Garmin swim HR strap. I'll write up a post about that. I just got it, but so far the numbers are not what I was expecting.

One final note: For anyone new to endurance sports doing the Maffetone Method who finds this post, I want to point out an important detail - I got my first road bike and went for my first ride April 1, 2006. I did my first triathlon in 2007. I made good gains in this 12 week block, but preceding it is a decade of consistent training. I got injured in 2007 and my PT made me start out with some really easy running in the winter of 07/08. I dug through my old training log and discovered that my first run was at a 10 minute pace at an average HR of 148 (which would have fallen in my MAF range back then). Be patient. Be consistent. Enjoy the process.

My Maffetone Experiment - Part I

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Wed, 13 Jan 2016 03:01:00 +0000

My training hasn't changed much since 2008 - keep the hard days hard and the easy days easy. I've mixed things up a bit from year to year, but generally my training hasn't changed. Until now...

With 2015 being a rough year I figured this was a good time to mix things up and try something new. I wanted something completely different from how I've trained in the past.

The Maffetone Method.

I've been curious about this approach for years and after listening to many Maffetone discussions/interviews on the Endurance Planet podcast I decided to give it a try. I figured I'd need to give it a few months to give it a fair shot so I decided on 11 weeks of training followed by an easy week with some testing. I started with a month off completely after IMWI and then did a couple of easy weeks to build up a bit of a base before starting my 11 week block.

If you're unfamiliar with the Maffetone Method, it's HR based training and you use a formula to find your MAF (Maximum Aerobic Function) range (mine is 134-144 bpm) and then you train in that range day after day. I've been training by power and pace since I started triathlon in 2007 so this was a big change.

My first MAF run was 4 miles at an 8:12 pace and my first MAF ride was an hour at 224 watts. So now I had my starting point. All that was left to do was train in my MAF range....everyday.

I loved the simplicity of the approach. No trying to remember complicated workouts. It's the same thing everyday - get your HR into your MAF range and hold it there. The only variable I changed was duration building my overall volume slowly week after week.

Things progressed quickly....too quickly. By week 5 my pace was 7:30 and my power was in the mid 240s. Day after day. MAF was getting tough. (to add some context to these numbers, I held 236 watts at the Muncie 70.3 in 2014 and followed that up with a 7:16 pace on the run)

I needed to back off a bit so I came up with 3 workouts to do - LMAF, MAF and PMAF.

LMAF = Low MAF. I took my MAF range and subtracted 10 beats so it was 124-134. These were my "easy" days.
MAF = Regular MAF range.
PMAF = Progressive MAF. Starting in LMAF and finishing at MAF.

Sidenote: My MAF range is more or less Joe Friel's HR Zone 2 and my LMAF range was Friel's HR Zone 1 so at this point I was basically moving from MAF to zone-based HR training. Traditional base training, I guess you could say. Lots of zone 2.

A basic week now looked like this:

Monday - "Easy" day
- 4 mile LMAF on treadmill + core work at lunch
- 1 hour LMAF ride on trainer after work

Tuesday - MAF day
- Swim before work
- 8 mile MAF run at lunch

Wednesday - "Easy" day
- 4 mile LMAF on treadmill + core work at lunch
- 1 hour LMAF ride on trainer after work

Thursday - Long run day
- Swim before work
- Long PMAF run after work

Friday - Easy day
- Swim before work
- Yoga after work

Saturday - MAF day
- 90 min trainer ride at MAF in the morning
- 6-8 mile run on treadmill later in the day (MAF if feeling good, otherwise LMAF)

Sunday - Long ride day
- Yoga in the morning
- 2-2.5 hours at LMAF (or MAF if I was feeling good)

So that's what I've been up to. 11 weeks of Maffetone training. This is week 12, my recovery/testing week. I'm doing a MAF ride Wednesday and hope to do a MAF run Thursday if the weather cooperates. I'll repeat my first MAF workouts so I can compare. Saturday is an FTP test. That should be interesting, and by interesting I mean painful. I haven't ridden at threshold in months.

I'm working on part 2 - the results. I'll go over my progress and share the results of my FTP test and final MAF workouts. I may write one more post about my overall thoughts on this approach and heart rate training.

2015 in pictures

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Fri, 01 Jan 2016 17:02:00 +0000

A little different from my usual posts, here are some pics from my year....


I bought a new truck.

3 weeks after buying my truck, someone backed into it. $500 that cost me.


I raced the San Juan 70.3 in March. I'd love to go back and do that race again.

Puerto Rico. This guy followed me around. Orange cats...always the orange ones.

Speaking of orange cats, Calvin's highlight this year was proving he's not worthless by catching and killing a vole in the basement (and bringing it upstairs, of course, to play with it).

The Awake the Grapes 5K on Memorial Day weekend in MN. It was cold, but we did well and both won our age groups.

My dad loved to fish. I never went with him as an adult. We were planning on going but he was too sick to go so I took his pole and caught a fish for him. I will forever claim that fish was much bigger than it actually was.

My dad put up a good fight, but unfortunately his battle ended on June 9, 2015.

I love summer. I took this on my way home from an evening ride.

I spent way too much money on wetsuits this year. The Orca 3.8 was the winner.

Devil's Lake swim.

I finally got to be part of a Door County Half Iron relay team. It was fun and I'd love to do it again. I think I can ride better than I did that day.

I bought new shoes the day before a half ironman. 1/2 size too small (oops). I wore them anyway....because I'm stupid.

While I went slower than ever before, Courtney went faster than ever before. Lots of PRs for her this year.

The Clean Lakes Swim.

IMWI

2015 Volume in miles.

Here's to 2016 being better than 2015.

IMWI

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Wed, 30 Dec 2015 01:30:00 +0000

I guess it was bound to happen eventually. If you race enough times, there's going to be a time when one of your biggest fears comes true - getting sick right before an Ironman.

A couple of days before IMWI, I felt a cold coming on. I hoped it was nothing and that I was just being paranoid, but by the day before the race it was clear. I was sick. It was a pretty good cold, but still just a cold, so I thought maybe I could still manage a good race. I wasn't in my best shape ever, but I felt like I'd had a pretty good 6-8 week block of training leading into race day so I thought maybe...just maybe...I could still have a decent day.

Swim - 1:07:18

I lined up toward the outside hoping to avoid some contact and get through the swim without too much effort. The outside worked for avoiding contact, but I'm not sure it worked out well time-wise. I came out of the water a few minutes slower than expected, but I felt okay. I had been doing a lot of coughing the day before the race and I got through the swim without issues and felt like I didn't waste too much energy. All things considered, not a bad start to the day.

Bike - 5:25:24

The bike is where my cold caught up with me and everything started to fall apart. I went out a little below goal power holding about 210 watts for the first 3-3.5 hours. The next hour I struggled a bit and my power faded to around 185. After that, I had nothing left and my power dropped to 135 for the last 60 minutes of the ride as I soft pedaled on the way back to the terrace, debating if I would even head out on the run.

"Run" - 5:12:08

I didn't do much running. I was walking within the first 2 miles and just had no energy. I had little desire to continue and every time I thought I had found a good place to call it quits and turn in my chip, there was someone I knew cheering me on. I guess that's the problem with a local race. :)

So I continued and eventually figured out that I could still break 12 hours so I used that as motivation to keep pushing myself to get to the finish line.

My final time was 11:55 which makes this my slowest Ironman. It's fitting, I guess, considering how this year went. Knoxville was my slowest half ironman. In 2014 I set my fastest half ironman time and 2015 was my slowest. What a difference a year makes, huh?

With my injury, my struggles with training and racing and losing my dad to cancer, 2015 is a year I'd like to forget.

My plan post race was to take a full month off, my longest break since getting into triathlon in 2007. 4 weeks....nothing but rest and recovery. Unfortunately, my cold got really bad after race day and ruined about 10 days of my break, but after that I got to enjoy some of the best fall weather we've ever had.

Then the rebuilding began.....

Looking Ahead: Ironman Wisconsin

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 07 Sep 2015 17:11:00 +0000

I’ve finished my last training block and am now tapering for Ironman Wisconsin which has given me a little time to reflect. 2013 through most of 2014 was my best block of training and racing. I was handling the training really well and was setting PRs and felt like a really solid contender for a Kona slot at Ironman Chattanooga. Then I injured my back and had to drop out. It was during the worst of my injury when I registered for Ironman Wisconsin. It felt a little crazy at the time, but I was determined to prove this injury couldn’t slow me down.

That wasn’t realistic.

I made some mistakes pushing too hard too soon trying to get back to where I was. Going to Puerto Rico was fun, but doing that race was a mistake. I wasn’t ready. The same is true for Knoxville. Muncie was an improvement, but still well behind last year.

It hasn’t been all bad though, just inconsistent. I set a best 90 minute power earlier this year. I had a good brick long run a couple of weeks ago and set a best 5 hour power last week on an indoor ride. I’ve also had some really bad workouts and have missed some training due to setbacks. I’ve struggled with my swimming all season and can’t quite figure out what the problem is, if it’s related to my injury or not. Cycling has been good, but running has been a big struggle this year.

_____________________

Recently, I heard/read a couple of great quotes that really struck a chord with me….

“When I was at my best I was overcoming myself. When I ended up disappointed I was trying to overcome others, to win, to beat other people.”

- Gordo Byrn on the Primal Endurance Podcast

And two good quotes from a Slowtwitch interview with Jordan Rapp....

Jordan: "...I told him I wanted to talk about the idea of “resilience.” My friend Paulo Sousa introduced this idea to me about a year ago. Resilience is caring enough that you are willing to bounce back and try again if you fail. But you also need to not care so much that you get crushed by failure and by setbacks. It’s a tricky balance..."

ST: What was stopping you from your highest level of performance?

Jordan: I think it was an exclusive focus on objective goals - winning or hitting certain numbers in training. I stopped caring about having a good race or having fun...

___________________

Back in 2010 my training went really well all season and I still needed a roll down to get a Kona slot. I may have a bigger fitness base now, but looking back over the season and being brutally honest with myself, it doesn’t look like the work of a Kona qualifier. It hit me in the middle of Devil’s Lake the other day struggling through yet another sloppy swim. I’m just simply not where I want to be. I’ve been fooling myself. I won’t lie, it’s a very disappointing realization, but then I thought about Jordan’s quote on resilience.

I initially said I wouldn’t race if I didn’t think I could qualify because it wasn’t worth it to go through all that and run the same time I’ve done several times already. I want to reach the next level. But I decided that after all this work, good or bad, I need to follow through and finish what I started.

I believe you need to focus on the process and not the outcome. If you work the process, the outcome will happen naturally. I typically enjoy the process, but I haven’t been focused on the process this year - only the outcome - which has led to mistakes and frustration. It hasn’t been a fun season, but I can’t blame my injury. I blame my approach.

Fortunately, it’s never too late to change your approach. Ironman Wisconsin is just another day in the overall process of training and racing triathlon. So my goal is to focus only on myself and take pride and find satisfaction in a well-executed race. I know it’s a cliché, but I just want to have fun. I want to cross the finish line knowing I did the best I could on that particular day.

After that, I’m taking a month off. Mentally I want to continue training, but physically I need to recover from years of training and injuries.

Then I’m going to rebuild.

Resilience.

My inspiration for race day. My dad may have lost his battle with cancer, but he never gave up.

Building....

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Mon, 17 Aug 2015 18:16:00 +0000

It's been a few weeks since I've blogged. Since then, I've been training trying to see if I can get my fitness back and make a decision on IMWI - will I do the race? Transfer to Cozumel? Call it a year and wait until 2016?

My training block started out a little rough. I just didn't feel fit and running was rough - really rough. I decided not to make any decisions until my build block was over so I just kept plugging away even though week 1 wasn't giving me any confidence. I was having some knee and hamstring pain so I was questioning if I would be able to hold up with volume building.

Week 2 was a little better. Things were improving and my knee and hamstring pain was slowly disappearing. It wasn't a great week, but my confidence was returning.

Week 3 was a little better yet and I ended with a solid weekend. Saturday's ride was 2x30' @ 290 watts followed by 5x18 miles at 220 watts. I managed to push 232 watts for the final 18 mile loop and end with a 230 watt average for 5 hours and 13 minutes. That was a tough ride, but good for confidence.

The key to the weekend though, was my 20 mile run on Sunday. I decided to return to the run/walk, which has worked really well for me in the past. Conditions were a little tough for a 20 mile run with humidity being really high, so it was pretty tough, but I managed 20.4 miles at a 7:58 average pace. It wasn't my best 20 miler, but it was an improvement over previous weeks and really good for confidence, especially the day after a tough ride.

Although not ideal (for me), I opted for a 4-week build cycle. Normally I do 3 weeks on, 1 week off and often switch to 2 on, 1 off when volume gets really high. But a few athletes I'm coaching were doing a 3-day training camp and I wanted to join them so that meant I'd have to build for 4 weeks. I was getting fatigued leading into week 4 so I was a little worried. My 20 miler put a hurting on me. I anticipated a rough 3-days with them beating the crap out of me, which they were looking forward to, but I held up well.

4-week build

The forecast for our camp had highs in the low 90s. Not having dealt with the heat much this year, we opted for a really early start each day. I was afraid too much heat in addition to 3 days of big workouts on fatigued legs might push us over the edge. So we hit the road by 6 am Friday and Saturday and 7am Sunday.

Friday was a 106 mile ride followed by an 8 mile run. My legs felt a little sluggish on the bike and my power was a little low. The sun came out for the last two hours of the ride and things really heated up. Temps were in the 90s when we got off the bike and I was afraid my run was going to be a death march. Surprisingly, it went well. I did struggle with the heat on the second half, but part of that was because I felt good the first couple of miles and pushed the pace too much. Miles 1 and 2 were a 7:31 and 7:36 pace, which includes walk breaks, so I was pushing. I faded after that and ended with an 8:12 for the final mile so a pretty big fade. Overall, I ran 8 miles at 7:53 average and I was really happy with that.

Saturday was a century - no power goals, just a fun group ride. We avoided the IM route as much as possible, partly because we're sick of it but also because Saturday was the Madison Open Water Swim and the loop is super busy that day and it seriously sucks to be out there. One of the athletes I coach mapped out a great route. We had good road conditions, very little traffic, a few tough climbs, plenty of places to get water, etc. It was a really good route. I'll definitely do this one again.

Saturday's Century. It kind of looks like a dinosaur.

We had a good group, including a few guys who didn't join us for Friday so they were feeling fresh and did most of the work. My legs were pretty heavy so I sat in most of the day. Despite that, I ended the day with 288 TSS for 106 miles. I was hoping for an easier day because I really wanted to have a good run Sunday, but it was a really fun ride with a good group so I didn't mind pushing it a bit here and there.

That's me in the Wisconsin Indoor Cycling kit.

Sunday was a 16 mile run on the Ironman loop. I mapped out the route and added two out and backs to Brittingham Park and chopped off the section out to Picnic Point. That gave us a 16 mile loop with 4 water stops. I was hoping to match my average pace from the week before so I started out about that pace thinking I might step it up on the second half if I felt good. We've had some humid weekends lately and the humidity dropped a bit so even though it was hot it didn't feel that bad out there. We all had great runs (we've been doing this camp for a few years and so far no one has blown up on the Sunday run).

I did my run/walk (9:30 run with a 30 second walk break so it's a 10 minute cycle) and managed to step it up on the second half and finish strong with 16 miles at a 7:45 average pace.

Miles splits from my long run.

Sunday run route.

I ended the camp with an easy swim a few hours after my long run.

Overall, it was a really solid 4-week block. It didn't start that great, but it ended strong with my best long run of the year. All total for the 4 weeks, I swam 40,172 yards, biked 931 miles and ran 143 miles. My knee hasn't bothered me in about a week and while my hamstring isn't quite 100%, it's getting close.

Now it's time for a recovery week and then one more big week and a taper for IMWI. Unless something goes wrong in the next few weeks, I'm planning on being on the starting line September 13....and maybe Cozumel as well. Things are turning around and Courtney and I are throwing around the idea of doing both races.

Race Report: Muncie 70.3

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Tue, 14 Jul 2015 02:23:00 +0000

Last year, Muncie was a great race for me. I came out of the water 3rd in my age group and took the lead in T1. I set the fastest bike split in my age group and then managed to hold on for my first age group win at a WTC event.

Naturally, Muncie was on the schedule again this year. I thought I could go faster, maybe finally get my sub 90 minute run and with a solid swim and fast bike I thought I could come real close to breaking 4:20.

With my injury, all that was out the window and I had to readjust my goals.

*sigh*

I think I mentioned in my last post my back injury left me with some weakness in my left hamstring and calf. Well, that led to some hamstring issues and brought back my old knee injury. So I did very little running between Knoxville and Muncie, which was discouraging because the Knoxville run was ugly.

A friend of mine loaned me some Powercranks to try out to see if those would help me hang onto some run fitness. If you don't know what Powercranks are, I envy you. They're cranks with a clutch so the crank arms move independently ( a video - not me - if you're curious). They're hard work, and they really work your hip flexors and hamstrings, and if you have weakness in one leg they'll let you know...trust me.

I thought I might do anywhere from 30-60 minutes on my first ride. I did 90 seconds. That's it. I progressed quickly and worked my way up to an hour before Muncie. I did get out for a couple of runs prior to Muncie and they felt okay, but I could tell I lost a lot of run fitness. The interesting thing was that my cadence running uphill was easily above 180 and that's never the case. So maybe Powercranks help with that. I'm not convinced they helped my running, although I did end up running faster in Muncie than Knoxville so maybe.

I went into Muncie with low expectations. I was hoping to swim well, bike a little faster than last year and survive the run.

The race....

The swim - Like last year, the swim was rough in terms of having to swim through a lot of people from prior waves. People were backstroking, floating....it was chaos. I did my best to avoid the carnage, but plowed into two people taking a kick to the eye on the second one. That hurt and I was sure I'd end up with a black eye.

I came out of the water in 32:32, nearly 2 minutes slower than last year. That wasn't a big surprise because I've been struggling with my open water swimming this year. My pool swimming is fine, but open water has been slow and I can't quite figure it out. I did get a new Roka wetsuit so that might be the problem, but I'm not ready to place the blame on the wetsuit just yet. I tend to suck at swimming so the problem is likely me.

The bike - The bike was okay, not great. I felt a little sluggish and struggled to hold goal power and ended up about 7 watts low. My lead in to the race was very different than usual, so I suspect I was paying for my last minute panic training and the spontaneous 15K TT I did on Thursday before driving to Muncie. My speed was good despite my power being a little low (put my wheel cover back on) so I biked about a minute faster (2:15:57) than last year on 3 fewer watts. Conditions were very similar to last year, so I'm happy I was faster, but I really wanted to break 2:15 and I think I could have if I had hit 240 watts.

The run - The run was tough, but A LOT better than Puerto Rico or Knoxville. I felt okay coming off the bike, but can't say I ever felt good on the run. It was hard work from the very first step. I ran the first half at a 7:35 pace and the second at 7:55 for an overall average pace of 7:45. All things considered, I'm happy with that. It got me a 1:40:37 run split which ranks as my 5th fastest ever. Puerto Rico earlier this year was my slowest ever at an 8:43 pace. I managed to pick it up a bit at Knoxville and run an 8:07 pace. So....progress.

I'm not 100% sure I'll be on the start line for IMWI yet, but I am going to start my final build and see how that goes. I really want to find out what I'm capable of for an IM, but unfortunately this isn't going to be the year, so I'm trying to figure out how to salvage a decent race. What I need to do is swim well, bike fast and manage the run. With my current condition, that's all I can do. I'm working on my swimming, and also ditching my Retul bike fit and working on replicating my fit from my Cannondale the year I did short course. Then I'm going to teach myself to hold that position for 112 miles. I think I can be a little more slippery and get a little more speed for my power.

Next up - The Door County Half Iron Relay. I'm finally doing a half iron relay. I'm the cyclist. I can't wait.

A Frustrating Season

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Thu, 25 Jun 2015 01:01:00 +0000

It's been a while since I've written so rather than try to get caught up on race reports, I thought I'd write a general update and go from there.

I left off with my training leading into Puerto Rico. All things considered, my training went well but the race did not. My swim was alright and my bike was okay but I got a little dehydrated and faded a bit on the second half. Coming off the bike I had a lot of pain in my left hip, which was unexpected since I never had that in training. But that was the side of my sciatic pain so it makes sense. I struggled a lot on the run and just couldn't get moving. Overall, I really enjoyed the race and might go back again, but it wasn't a good day.

After that, training went alright. I was able to get in more outdoor miles but running remained a challenge. I lost a lot of strength in my left hamstring and especially my calf and outdoor running put a lot of strain on my calf and it was sore everyday. My next race was Challenge Knoxville, which went about as well as PR. The swim was alright but it rained through the entire ride just like it did the last time I did this race so that wasn't much fun. The run was a disaster and I just couldn't get moving. More issues with my injury, and in the end it was my slowest half ironman ever.

Since then, I've struggled with training. The loss of hamstring strength led to a minor strain which went away quickly, but it also brought back the return of my old knee injury. So right now I'm swimming and cycling and haven't run much in the past few weeks. We're less than 12 weeks out from IMWI and my run fitness, whatever I had, is slipping away. I'm still holding out some hope that I'll be able to race, but right now it's not looking promising.

I bought the insurance so if training doesn't improve in the next couple of weeks, I'll probably drop out and spend the rest of the summer cycling and put triathlon on hold for a while and see if maybe I can rebuild over the winter.

So it's been a seriously frustrating season so far. I'm about 10 months out from my back injury and still struggling to put it behind me. In retrospect, trying to race Puerto Rico and Knoxville was a mistake. I'm not sure if those races set me back at all, but they didn't go well so they weren't much fun and weren't good for confidence.

So that's where I'm at right now - frustrated and unsure of the future of my season (and the rest of my tri career since this back injury is making returning to running very difficult). I'm not giving up yet though. I'm still trying to turn things around and trying some new things with my training since I'm not able to do my typical training plan.

A tough treadmill session

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Wed, 04 Mar 2015 03:47:00 +0000

Sunday, I hit the treadmill for my last long run before Puerto Rico. The PR 70.3 run course is a two-loop out and back with a big climb that you eventually hit four times. Then there are some rollers, which I believe can be short and steep.

The best I can tell, you get a little more than 100 feet of climbing on that hill. I figured mimicking the course exactly would be tough, so I just focused on overall climbing rather than trying to match the grades. I came up with a set that was 3.5 miles and then repeated that 4 times, similar to the run course.

I ran this mostly at 7.7 mph (7:48 pace), which is about my typical long run pace. The first half mile was a warm up as well as recovery on the start each rep. Then I stepped it up to a 2% grade, which made my graded pace equivalent to about a 7:30 pace. Then a bit of "recovery" at 1% followed by a mile at 3%. That bumped my graded pace up to 7:13, which is about my goal pace for Puerto Rico so I was kind of getting some goal pace work in as well as hill work. It also gave me more than 150 feet of climbing. It wasn't steep, but it got tough in the later stages of the workout. Then more "recovery" at 1% followed by a 5% grade at 7.1 mph, which gave me a graded pace of 7:14 so again right about goal pace. That was a tough half mile, giving me more than 130 feet of climbing.

All total I had 8 "climbs" of more than 100 feet and ended just short of 1600 feet of climbing in 14 miles. The pace wasn't really a challenge, but the climbing really wore on me. It was a tough set, but time went quickly so I enjoyed it. I've been doing hill repeats on a steep hill by work so I'm hoping those help me handle the steeper grades on the PR run course, and this workout helps prep me for the overall climbing.

As of writing this, I'm 12 days out. Today I ran at lunch and did a workout that had 8' at 8.3 mph (7:14 pace) slowly increasing the incline from 1-2.5%, then some short hill repeats and finished off with a half mile at 9.3 mph (6:30 pace) at 1%. I did the same workout last week, except this week I cut all the work intervals in half. I'm feeling some fatigue from the last two weeks of training so this wasn't an easy set, but it wasn't really tough either. I should recover fairly quickly.

After work, I had what might be my best distance swim set ever. Last week I did 2500 yards straight in 34:50. I was really happy with that workout, and this week wanted to extend it to 3000 straight. It went really well...better than I expected. I managed to negative split it swimming each 1000 in 13:55, 13:52 and 13:49. I think I hit the 2500 yard mark at 34:42 so a bit quicker than last week.

I just bought a Garmin 920XT so now I have swim data...

I still some work to do, but I'm starting to taper a bit. I have one last big bike workout Thursday, 10 days out. Then things get pretty easy.

I'm nervous about this race, but getting excited too.

17 Days

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sat, 28 Feb 2015 19:08:00 +0000

My training for this race has been all over the place. It took me a few months to get feeling back in my leg from my back injury. After that, cycling and swimming were going okay. I was definitely behind previous years, but not too much. But running was rough...really rough. I lost a lot of strength in my left leg, the calf especially, which really hurt my running. I felt like 7 years of training had been erased as I struggled to hit paces I hit back when I started.

I've made a lot of progress in the past couple of months, but my left leg is still lagging behind my right and I still struggle to do more than 15 calf raises. It's frustrating, but I'm getting there. PT has helped a lot.

And my running is finally coming around. One of the biggest contributors was throwing away my Pearl Izumi running shoes and buying Hoka Cliftons. I never thought I'd run in Hokas, but I tried them on at REI out of curiosity and they felt really good...really good. I haven't had them very long, but so far I'm starting to hit my old paces and I'm not feeling nearly as beat up as I used to.

The biggest frustration training for Puerto Rico has been the inconsistency. I'd have a couple of good days and then I'd have several bad days where I would be way off pace and my running would feel lopsided as the strength difference in my legs became more evident. In some cases I was forced into unplanned easy days or rest days, so my training plan got rewritten many times.

I'm nearing the end of my final training block for PR, and this block has gone really well. Surprisingly well. I've had some good workouts, a notable one being my brick this past Thursday....17 days out. Normally, my half ironman bricks are right around goal power/pace, maybe a bit higher power. I decided to try something a little different this time, and do a harder session.

I did a really short warm up on the bike and then...
45' @ 270 watts
5' Easy
35' @ 270 watts
5' Easy
25' @ 270 watts

My goal watts for this race will probably be about 235-240 (last year I held 236 average power for Kansas and Muncie, so I'm shooting for the same range). So I was well above goal power. The bike workout was 2 hours and had an average power of 258 and normalized power of 264. I'm due for an FTP test, but I'd say this was about 90% of FTP, maybe a tad higher.

Strava Link for Bike

Then I hopped on the treadmill and did 6 x 1 mile at 9 mph (6:40 pace) with 30 seconds rest. My goal is to run sub-90 minutes in a half ironman. I've come close, but haven't quite hit that number. A 90 minute half marathon is a 6:52 pace, so this is a bit above that goal. Since I haven't raced in a long time, and I'm a little unsure of my fitness, and because Puerto Rico is hot and hilly, I'm thinking I might aim for a 7:15 pace (1:35 half) and see how that goes....so this was quite a bit faster than that...but I'm also building toward that sub 1:30 half and working on that pace.

Strava Link for Run

That was the toughest brick I'll do leading into the race. I've got some hard work left to do, but no workouts as hard as that one. My last long tempo ride will be Thursday, 10 days out. Then it's taper time.

Physcial Therapy

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sat, 13 Dec 2014 14:57:00 +0000

I've been going to Sport and Spine on the East side for a couple of months now. I had to go to PT a few years ago with my torn tendon and that was okay, but I wasn't impressed. Progress was minimal and we did the exact same thing every time...even though I wasn't making much progress. This time has been completely different though.

I've been making great progress and we've been trying a lot of different things. As soon as it seems I'm not responding anymore, Joe (my PT) mixes things up. Initially we focused on massage and foam rolling to try and get my muscles to loosen up. They were locked up all the way down my glute, hamstring and especially my left calf. The muscles were so tight I couldn't bend over to lift the toilet seat without bending my knees. The massage and foam rolling hurt, but after a couple of weeks things started to loosen up and my mobility began to return.

Then we moved on to dry needling and continued foam rolling, massage, etc. At this point I was able to ride again but wasn't swimming or running and I still had numbness all the way down my leg. I wasn't limping anymore and was getting around a lot better. I had lost strength in my left calf so I wasn't walking with my normal gait yet, but there was big improvement.

Joe believed a good part of my problem was my piriformis muscle pinching my sciatic nerve. We don't know if that was caused by my herniated disc or not (chicken and the egg) but that was the focus of most of my PT. The dry needling was interesting, and in a strange way I enjoyed it, but it wasn't very effective for me. I only did a couple of sessions and then we moved on to Astym (similar to Graston, but not as harsh). Astym was the magic bullet.

With Astym, they take plastic tools and scrape the area they're treating. For me, that was my left leg and foot. The thinking behind Astym is that the scraping creates micro-trauma under the skin and your body then sends blood to that area to heal. So it stimulates blood flow which speeds up healing.

It only took a few sessions of Astym and the numbness began to disappear. At this point, I was cycling but hadn't been swimming or running in 2 months. My PT wanted me to go to the pool to see if I could handle it. That went well, so swimming was added to my cycling. 2/3 of the way there.

We continued with massage, foam rolling, Astym and now some strengthening work to try to regain the strength I lost in my left leg, especially my left calf. He wanted me to go aqua jogging to start working on the running motion and to see how my body handled that without the pounding of real running. So, on a Saturday afternoon a couple of weeks ago, I went for my first run. Ten minutes...outdoors. He said aqua jogging, but it was raining out so I figured that was close enough.

Wow...that was rough. Ten minutes....ten ugly minutes. My form was sloppy and my left leg was stomping the ground flat footed like I had no control over it. I was sure I was running with a limp but Courtney said I didn't look quite that bad. Fitness was hovering right around zero. I ran an easy pace, but it was far from easy. The only hill I had to climb was brutal. I was huffing and puffing like I was on day 1 of a couch to 5K program. Two months was my longest break from running since I started in late 2007. I couldn't believe how much fitness I'd lost.

I survived the run with no issues, other than horrible form and zero fitness. My disc/piriformis handled it well...although my left calf was extremely sore for 4 or 5 days after this. Then I ran again. Still ugly...still very unfit...but a little progress. When the pain in my calf went away, I ran again.

Today, the numbness is gone and my strength is returning. I'm swimming, cycling and running, although running is still a bit limited. My form is improving, but still has a ways to go. This week I will run 3 times for 30 minutes each time. There's an Alter-G treadmill at the West side location of Sport and Spine which I may try to use to get in a few more miles...and because I think they're interesting and would love to try one out.

So that's where I'm at. Unfit but recovering and back to triathlon training...and registered for the Puerto Rico 70.3. :)

13 weeks til race day. I have my work cut out for me.

Injury Update

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sat, 25 Oct 2014 13:49:00 +0000

Unfortunately, I missed Ironman Chattanooga. I was hoping that maybe things would improve suddenly and I would be able to race, but I had some pretty extreme sciatic pain radiating down my leg for about two weeks which included numbness and weakness in my leg. I couldn't lift my left heel off the ground and was walking with a limp. I figured even if I could get through the race, I wouldn't be able to perform my best and would probably make things worse so I cancelled the hotel and skipped the race.

That left me wondering what to do. I was hoping to qualify for Kona and felt like my fitness was there. My last two attempts to get back to the big island didn't go well and now attempt number three came and went and I wasn't even on the starting line. Should I sign up for another Ironman? Should I just give up on Kona and focus on halfs? I had a couple of good half ironmans this year and really enjoy that distance. My year of olympics was fun too. Maybe I should focus on those.

Then I saw a Facebook post stating that Ironman Wisconsin had less than 100 slots left. Hmmmm..... I've done Wisconsin a few times so I felt tempted to pick a different race, something new...but IMWI is the easiest one for me to do in terms of logistics. I get to sleep in my own bed the night before the race. I can train on the course all year. It's easy for my family to come watch. Etc.

I talked it over with Courtney and then limped over to my computer and registered (yes, I paid for the refund insurance). We decided one last shot at Kona was in order, and that IMWI made the most sense. Then we'll pick a couple of 70.3s to travel to so we still get to see some new places.

I wanted an early season race, and a little bit of research led me to the San Juan 70.3 in Puerto Rico. I haven't registered yet, but I did book the hotel.

If I'm going to be on that starting line on March 15, 2015, I need to get healed. I had an MRI which showed a bulged disc at L5-S1. I started PT last week and he thinks I have two things going on - the bulged disc (which the doc says is mildly hitting the sciatic nerve) and piriformis syndrome (he thinks my piriformis has tightened up and is pinching my sciatic nerve causing the majority of my problems).

I'll write more about my PT in my next post. Right now, I'm about 5 weeks out from my initial injury and I've made a lot of progress. I still have a long ways to go, but I'm no longer limping, I'm able to ride and I can now lift my left heel off the ground 10 times. I still have numbness all the way down my left hamstring, calf and into my toes, but my strength is returning.

Derailed

noreply@blogger.com (Mike) — Sun, 21 Sep 2014 23:47:00 +0000

This season was going really well. My training was great. My FTP was at an all time high, I was running well and my swimming was as strong as ever. I had two great 70.3s finishing 3rd and 1st in my age group. I came out of the water in 3rd in one of them, which is my best ever swim. I was also running about 10 minutes faster in 70.3s than I have in the past. I felt like I was on track for a good day in Chattanooga and hopefully another Kona slot.

Then came an old injury....my back. I hurt my back two days before AG Nationals. I strained some muscles in the middle of my back, and I managed to get it loosened up enough to race fairly well at Nationals so while it wasn't my best weekend of racing, it wasn't horrible either. I even snuck in there for a Team USA qualifying slot in the sprint race so I get to be a part of Team USA again next year.

After Nationals, my back healed and I thought all was good. Just a minor setback...it happens. Two days before Worlds, it went again. This time during a warm up workout and this time it was my lower back. I survived Worlds, but my back issues made the trip very difficult. Flying with a bike with back pain isn't fun.

Worlds was worse than Nationals, and my back cost me about 2 weeks of training. One of those weeks was supposed to be an easy week so that wasn't a problem, but it cost me a build week as I let it heal.

After that I managed a week and a half of really solid workouts and felt like I might be on track again. Then, earlier this week, my lower back pain returned. I made an appointment with a chiro who took the situation from bad to worse and left me with sciatic pain so bad I couldn't even stand up and walk around. That was a couple of days ago. The next day, Courtney convinced me to go to urgent care where they gave me a muscle relaxant. That helped with the pain, but the problem still persists. It's now Sunday, day 4 of sciatica. I have pain radiating down my left hamstring and calf into my foot. I have numbness and tingling and my calf has locked up. I can now stand and walk around, but I'm walking with a limp.

Ironman Chattanooga is a week away. I can barely walk and haven't done a workout in 4 days. I'm not sure this thing is going to go away in time for the race, and even if it does what damage might I do if I race? So as of right now, I'm not sure I'm going to be heading down to TN.

To make matters even worse, my dad changed up his chemo schedule to try and come down to watch the race. He was on a 3-week schedule, but moved a treatment ahead to give himself time to recover to make the trip. That treatment didn't go well, and he's in the hospital and can no longer make the trip.

So here I am trying to decide what to do. Do I go down and try to race? Do I skip it? If I do skip it, do I sign up for Cozumel? Do I sign up for an Ironman next year? Do I give up on the iron distance and focus on 70.3s? I had a lot of fun with those this year. Unfortunately, The Austin and Miami 70.3s are sold out or I would consider adding one of those to my 2014 schedule.

I haven't made a decision yet, and I haven't given up on Chattanooga yet....but I have given up on the hopes of getting a Kona slot. I don't see that happening. My back has cost me too much training over the past 6 weeks or so.

I'll post a Worlds race report soon. It was a pretty cool event.