A wet and rainy Wednesday

Hello. Today's post is sponored by the letter "R".
- R is for rain, and rest, and recovery. It's also for respect.

On this rainy day I'd like to point out that in this writer's opinion, the greatest task that each endurance athlete has to undertake is the practice of staying injury free. Nothing, well almost nothing, will ruin the most well-planned, best-intended, training schedule than an injury, especially one that could have been prevented.

Over the long course, a training plan is divided up in to periods. Each period has a particular goal, be that base building, or strength training, or peak building. Within each period there's a rest. Rest is necessary to allow the body to recover from whatever you were training it to do.

Even within a set, say a track session, rest is built in. Respect it. If your prescribed set is 400 @ (name your pace), followed by 1200 @ (name your pace), with a (X:XX) rest in between, respect the rest interval just as you would your pace interval. IT'S NECESSARY.

What's that you say, you have an easy week on your schedule? Then, TAKE IT EASY!!! Rest, recover, SLEEP.

That's all I got. See you next time. Anyone out there want to sponsor this blog? I think I'm running out of letters in the alphabet.

'Tis a beautiful Friday

For whatever reason I decided to walk to work today. I got an early start, bought a cup of coffee and a bagel from a local coffee shop and made my walk down by the beach and up an urban river trail to work, which is pretty much right off the trail.

It reminded me of something that gets left out more often than we should let it. The world moves pretty fast and this is mostly out of our own design, not so much that of the world. We cut up our days in to work, sustain (eat, sleet), recreat(ion). Recreation time is time that we use to re-create who we are, waking rest and recharging. This is usually the first thing to go when we get busy and overwhelmed. Commuting edges it's way in to this time as well. To that end we drive as fast as we can to cut down on the perceived time lost between the activities that we participate in. This becomes the norm and our lives are hurried merely as a matter of course. We hurry from one place to another, from one appointment to another, from one person to another, a hurried attempt to get it all in before we miss the next thing on the calendar.

I'm guilty of this too. I freely admit to being an over-scheduled volunteer-itis afflicted adult. Which makes what I did this morning all the more valuable.

I got to slow down. I got to slow down to the ambulatory pace of a human being. I was able to allow my body, mind, and all of my senses to experience life and the world around me as they were designed to, as opposed to how they were conditioned.

I thought about how much more I was able to see, much like riding my bike over, around, and the same streets that I drive on, how much more I noticed of my surroundings.

Long story short, it was a three and a half mile urban hike. Good coffee, ocean breeze, and I got in to work awake, calm, and somehow a little more prepared for the hell that Friday would be. I'm taking a break now to write this post, hoping somehow that the same peace of the morning will enter my afternoon.

Ahhh... The off-.. err PRE-Season

It's August. I took almost a full month off. That is to say that I took a month off from training for triathlons. I've been to concerts at the Hollywood Bowl, camping, hung out in Hawaii, catching up with friends and family, and every now and then napping. All those things that I apologized for here: ("Apologies in Advance") I seem to have made up for in the last forty or so days.

I've sat on my road bike two or three times for a little less than an hour. I've been running. I even put a goal out in front of me, but my body wasn't ready to get back to it... Until now. It's back to training for me.

I've taken to helping out with the LA Tri Club as the Race Day Support Coordinator. The LA Tri Club has had over 4000 members join in the past six or seven years. I know this because I'm member number three thousand eight hundred something something... If it wasn't written down on a card I probably wouldn't be able to come up with it. Here's the point. When you're training it's nice to have support out there. Whether that be a running partner (Thanks Karen), a riding group, or a group of crazies to charge the surf with at 6am, it's good to know where to find people. LA Tri Club has a massive calendar of member led workouts in addition to a list of clinics and social events throughout the year. If you're a triathlete in the LA/Valley/OC area this is the place to be. The Race Day Support crew that I coordinate is all about bringing that kind of support that we have for workouts, out to the races for our members.

We're looking to support around ten local races throughout the calendar year and we always welcome your help. If you're a member of LA Tri Club come and join us through the club RSVPs. If you're not a member, What are you waiting for?? Join UP! Coming out the race anyway? Come see us at the LA Tri Club tent.

See you at the races!
-dean

Touchdown! Home at last!

Yup this ironman is in the books. I'm back in Los Angeles now and I know I still owe you a recap. Stay tuned. -dean

http://irondean.blogspot.com

In the works

I'm working on my race report now. I'm just trying to work all the lactic acid out of my quads. More on this to come. In the meantime congrats to all my Ironteammates. You were awesome out there! I met some new friends on the road too. Congrats to everyone! You are all now IRONMEN (IRONWOMEN too). Much love goes out to Mike Riley, the voice of ironman, as well for once again for sending us out and calling us all in straight up to midnight.

11pm - Do you know where your sanity is?

I'm getting on a plane in six or seven hours to fly to Seattle to then fly to Spokane to then get in a car or a shuttle to ride for another hour in to Idaho where my race weekend will begin. A year ago I was sitting in my apartment in Long Beach, my bags weren't packed, my brain heavily in denial over where I was going and what was about to happen. I tell people at work that I'm going on vacation, but this is hardly a vacation from their perspective.

I'm leaving the state for a couple of days. I'm staying in a hotel in a resort town. I'm travelling with friends. We'll see the sights, eat good food, and enjoy each other's company. All true. It's a Holiday inn express in Coeur d'Alene, Idaho, a picturesque town on a lake in Idaho. I've trained the whole year with a fantastic group of athletes and we're going together to Idaho. Ironman is in our future, but that's not until Sunday. We'll drive the bike course and see the hills and the long straight aways in our future.

To be honest it'll be an experience not to be missed. I can only hope that it means as much to them as it has to me. A chance to return to a course that pushed me to test myself and my desire to get what I wanted. I don't think that I wanted any thing more in my life than to finish that course that day. Nothing was going to stand in my way, nothing was going to keep me from that finish line. I'd worked for nine months, given up my weekends, and my nights to train my body to accept distance, pain, and the joys of a hard day's work. At the end of it all it was a joy; A joy to walk through the airport. A joy to walk the expo. A joy to see my teammates on the out and back stretches as we passed one another. Training for ironman was worth every minute.

And now here I am again. Five hours from having to be in a cab on my way to the airport all over again. I feel ready. Though I'm not sure I know what that really is yet. It takes time to know what that means. I feel better than I did last year. Stronger. Leaner. Smarter. I want it just as much.

It's ok. I'll sleep tomorrow and Friday night. I'll see the things that make me happy. Wake up in a new place. Swim in a lake. Ride in the mountains. Run near a beach. It'll be a vacation. A vacation called the 2007 Ford Ironman Coeur d'Alene. An adventure. I'm ready.

G'night.
-dean

Begging forgivness from the Tri-Gods

If the training of an athlete for an event was under the supervision of god, like in Greek times, and the actions of an athlete answerable to that god, this is what my most recent prayer would have looked like.

Dean: Hear me oh great god of triathlon, one who speeds transitions, suppresses the head wind, and calms the currents of the open water swim.

god of triathlon (GOT): Greetings athlete. What brings you to me today?

D: Forgive me for I have sinned (for lack of a better phrase) in my training.
GOT: How have you sinned?
D: I allowed my bike to fall in to disarray and somehow damage it to an unrideable state.
GOT: Equipment is sacred. You must not allow yourself to err in this way. Without gear we cannot complete the distances we strive for.
D: Yes, I have erred. I will endeavour to be more mindful of my equipment. There is more.
GOT: What else then?
D: I'm in the last phase of my training for my next Ironman race, Ironman Coeur d'Alene in Idaho. Without my bike, I have not been able to ride for three weeks. Please forgive me.
GOT: That is what base training is for you idiot. Nonetheless you're probably fine and thus easily forgiven. Besides you've been injured too haven't you?
D: *GASP* How did you know?
GOT: Do you question my omnipresence?
D: Oh, right. See everything, hear everything. Slipped my mind. Got it.
GOT: The rest probably did you a lot of good. Tell me, do you now want to run?
D: Oh yeah!
GOT: Do you want to go out and ride?
D: You better believe it.
GOT: Did you want to do these things three weeks ago?
D: Not nearly as much as I want to now.
GOT: Then you're most definately better for having been off for a few weeks. No skimping on the training now that you're six weeks from taper.
D: This I can do. Is there anything else?
GOT: No, and stop stealing my lines.
D: *Ahem* Thank you for listening, it stills the demons of doubt that haunt me. Amen.
GOT: And while you're at it go chase down an ironman PR why don't you!
D: You got it... Amen.
GOT: Don't forget the hydration or the salts!
D: Um... Amen.
GOT: Get some rest!
D: Umm.. Really, got to get back to work now, so... Amen?...
GOT: .....
D: Hello?... Amen?... Hello?
GOT: Yes, I heard you. Your sins have been forgiven. Get back to work.
D: Amen.

Over the hump part II

For the past two or three weeks I've been in a funk, a training funk. If you had to give it a clinical name it would probably be training fatigue. In looking back over the my training history I found that I'd been more or less in long course training mode for the last 18-months with little or no break. That's a long time. A part of me had lost the spring that usually comes with working out and being on the road. There are still workouts on the calendar both in the things to do column and in the training recorded column. But the stuff that I've done has been really half-hearted, and that's the truth.

To this we add a second major pain, that of my mind against my body. My brain just says, "C'mon it's just a 45-minute run, real low effort." My body on the other hand says, "Hey! Leave me alone and let me just sit on the couch and play a little Madden '07 on the 360. I need a day/week/month off!" For the most part the body wins, but not without stressing out the mind. The mind sees every workout not done as an unraveling of everything that has been accomplished, every goal achieved, and a floating backward from the next sets of milestones.

Here's the hard part. Sit down. Breath in. Breath out. Blink. Repeat. Repeat until the voices are silent. Now think, Training Fatigue. And now ask, do you feel like doing this anymore?...

For me that answer is yes. So like most addicts we deal. I got between my own body and mind and we agreed that we wouldn't quit, everything just had to be dialed back for a few weeks. Maintain less than half the mid-week workouts, and dial back the intensity of the weekend workouts unless I felt good. And with a 2400 yd swim last night as a short sprint workout I feel like I'm back. I got out of the water with my shoulders screaming, and heart pumping, but invigorated from the activity. I might have even mentioned that I felt great, and that I missed the workouts.

One more week of building, two key weekend workouts, and then I have a gate race. The California 70.3 for me is a test, a barometer to see whether or not this has been worth it for me. I think that it has been even if my times are horrendous. I feel like a healthier person. I feel faster than I was last year. I feel that despite my time off so far this year I've been more fastidious to the program than I've ever been to a training program in my life.

I know that there is more in me. I know that my body needed the rest. I know that I love the distances... I know that there is more in me. I know that I'm ready for it.

Rest. 'nuff said? Not quite

"Respect the rest." That's what I heard at my first track workout. I hate track workouts, but respecting rest was something that I could really get behind. We'd run 400 meters, and practice a 1:2 work to rest ratio. Basically if it takes you 2 minutes to run around the track, you rest for 4 minutes. This was a concept that I could definitely get behind.

Triathlon is swimming, riding, and running. Ironman throws in nutrition and a complete loss of sanity (that's what my mom says anyway). Training is a completely different beast. The human body is one of the most adaptive things that we've come across. It responds to the stresses that we put upon it and consumes what we put in to it, hence my caffeine prob.. issue.. enjoyment. Most training programs for shorter distances have a standard build, you see the distances increase steadily over time then decrease just before race day.

See this 5K training plan:
Five little weeks then race day.

At longer distances, and for the day that we're training for we enter periodized training, where we ask nicely, rather force, our body and mind to take on a series of build weeks, where distance and intensity rise over the period, and then we recover. The body doesn't get stronger during the higher intensity training. That's where we're tearing small pieces of muscle, taxing our cardio systems, and getting in the mindset of being at this for the distance. It is in the recovery or rest week where our bodies do the repair work, fixing the pieces that we've broken, torn, taxed, and abused, and in doing so makes an effort to make it harder for us to do the same damage with the same amount of work. Adaptation. Without these periods of rest and recovery we'd be running on muscles desperately in need of repair, and just asking for injury.

There is no growth without challenge. Sometimes the biggest challenge for someone training is to stop or slow down for a little while. Rest. Recover. Grow. A marathon is no easy feat, nor is 100 miles of anything, much less bike riding. Build phases are relative to each other. They're timed to give you the greatest benefit over the time that we have. From week to week the results are hard to see but by completing marker sets, where you do a prescribed distance or other time trial you will see how far you've come.

Recovery is built in to most of what we do. We drink a recovery mix after workouts to prepare for the next workout even if the next workout is the fight I have with myself getting out of bed and going to work. I'd feel so much worse had I not had the drink or the sleep. After each period we rest and recover. After all the build phases we rest and recover, it's called tapering just before the race. After the race we recover, it's called a night out at the bar, and a few weeks of getting back to life. Get your sleep in. Respect the rest in the schedule it's worthwhile and necessary.