Again, again, to Base Training

Fitness Journal was kind enough to provide me with my latest distance so far through this period of my base training. It's been 358 miles in riding, running, and swimming and I feel great.

Check out my latest map.

Triathlete Magazine talks about odd running form in triathletes

In an interesting observation, Matt Russ, in an article written for Triathlete magazine , talks about why triathletes as a group seem to have a different running form than runners. The reason for this, as cited by Russ, is that triathletes swim, and there for have a more developed upper body, in particular shoulder muscles that change the way the upper body moves thus affecting our running form.

http://www.triathletemag.com/Departments/Training/2007/Why_do_triathletes_run_funny_.htm

Just how far do we train here anyway?

One of the most significant collective stats that my friend Doron shared with me my after our first ironman was just how much distance we had covered in training. He used a number that I can barely fathom at this point, and wondered if we had been on the same training plan.

This year I want to see how far I end up traveling on my "trip" to ironman. To that end I've been logging my workouts in a personal workout log as well as the one that we are given access to through the teamintraining ironteam.

There's even a nifty map that shows how far I would have gone across the country.

Swimming - Study through Youtube

If you're going to study swimming from videos you really can't get better than youtube for good free stuff. And if you're going to look for technique I say watch some professionals.
The first few here are of Ian Thorpe.



What I like here in this video of Ian Thorpe is the clear shot of the catch (the hand entering the water), and how much of his arm you can see pulling his body through the water. Note the bend in the elbow and the shape of the arm motion through the pull. (Above & Below)



2006 Commonweath games trial (200m)(Below)
Time 830 - Action Starts at 3:10
Check it out, the arms aren't moving especially fast, it's all pull power, form in each catch, pull, and overall body positioning. Smooth.



Kicking too (Below):


Freestyle swim video from the 2004 Olympic games


Just for fun: Men's World Record 4x200 Freestyle


Link to this Blog Post Swimming - Study through Youtube

2007/2008 Ironteam - first practice

It's a new year, a new season, and a whole new race. This year Team in Training has decided to field a team of athletes for both the Wildflower long course, a half iron distance, as well as Vineman a full iron course, and have both groups train on the same team.

Wildflower (2008 link not posted at the time of writing) an annual favorite of triathletes is a race to aspire to. Just think, a lake swim, hilly ride, and an awesome run through beautiful central California (Lake San Antonio, CA just up from the 101 freeway from Paso Robles).


Vineman is a full iron distance race in beautiful Sonoma, California. (Think wine country, and you'll get the idea.

At the first practice we took to the pools and as always there's a great mix of people. Some who've been swimming for years with graceful effortless strokes and people who have just now taken up the sport. Have no fear however, my first year we had a guy (some of you out there know him) who couldn't swim a stroke, and still finished the swim well under the cut-off time just from coming to practice and hitting all of his workouts (and a little extra tutoring).

Tomorrow we will have our first team run. Should be fun. We're about 40 strong as a group and that'll give everyone someone else to run with as the season progresses.

On the whole we're a lucky group. We live in an area that affords us the ability to train year-round, have enough loony people to train with, have a group of great coaches, and will raise a significant amount of money to fight cancer and fund patient services. I feel proud to be here.

Thanks for reading, drop me a note if you feel so inclined.
-dean
(link to this blog post: 2007/2008 Ironteam - first practice)

Race Day Footage from the 2007 Ironman Coeur d'Alene Swim Start

Hello everyone,
As evidence of the start of the day I've posted video of the 2007 Ironman Coeur d'Alene swim start. This is REAL footage broadcast on local television in Coeur d'Alene and shot live on the morning of June 24th.

It is in fact not my imagination or my memory messing with me. The water was a little rough. See the video below (and the one below that):



Look at the flag on the beach almost dead center in the frame:

Race Report : 2007 Ironman Coeur d'Alene : Swim

A year ago I was here in Coeur d'Alene it was summer. The air was warm and the humidity a little higher than anything I'd had trained in. Race day last year brought (see last year's race report here) high temperatures and an introduction to one of the most beautiful courses that I've ever seen.

This year the course brought early spring-like conditions with air temperatures in the low 50's to low 70's, and a 8-12 mile per hour headwind. Of course the more observant amongst my readers will ask, "How can there be a headwind the whole way?" I ask the same thing.

The lake wasn't the smooth glassy surface that I remembered from the year before. Instead we were greeted with an uneven wind chop that produced 1-2 foot white caps depending on the day and time. Conditions were such that as of the race start the swim became optional, with those who wished, an opportunity to work the day as a duathalon beginning the bike at 9:30am. For those of you out there who know me, this wasn't an option worth considering. I didn't come all this way just to bike and run. For those of you who don't here's a little background. I've been around water for a good bit of my life and would tell just about anyone that I'm a fair swimmer. However in open water conditions with a mass of people around me that are kicking and clawing their way forward, I experience a little more anxiety than I'm used to. As a result my swims are a little slower than my pool times would reflect. This time around, the messy conditions did a fair job of seeding the field, pushing those unused to ocean swimming around the course. Many of my team reported finding huge pockets of open water. I was not one of them. I seemed to follow several swimmers who were having a rough time. At almost every chance I had to pass some one would swim cross and close out my path.

That being said I was remarkably more comfortable in the water and despite the water conditions and traffic I finished the swim four minutes faster than last year.

I hear that back in LA while we were in the water rumors were circulating that the swim was cancelled. Rest assured it was not. Though close to 35 people opted out.

Stay tuned, more reports to come.

How does one practice for a swim start?

I was wondering what I'd write about today and then out of no where comes an email from my teammate Trish. A triathlon swim start is a harrowing experience. An ironman one is probably more so. All that energy and anxiety on the shore...

Needless to say, if only I'd had this kind of training prior to my first ironman I would have been set. Thanks Trish!

And to everyone else, TRAIN ON!

The 2007 Ironman California - 70.3

A tremendous season opener. The Ford Ironman California 70.3, a mouthful of syllables and no shortage of meaning. Ironman 70.3 races are distances formally known as "half ironman" races. Don't let the "half" fool you it's a race not to be taken lightly. For many present this was not only their first race of the season, but also their first at this distance.

In previous years this race was two weeks earlier and more often than not race day brought cold water, rainy weather, and slick asphalt. This year on March 31st the race was held to bright blue sunny skies, and a swim nearly five full degrees warmer than last year. For Southern Californians this is the closest race at any ironman distance.

Ahh the swim, a 1.2 mile loop through the boat bay. I'm usually pretty anxious to get in the water. Not so much because I like swimming, though I do, but more because I can't wait for it to be over. In most places I'm perfectly comfortable in the water, but in the open with that may people around me, the irrational part of my brain takes over and starts to freak me out. I say irrational because this year and last year I've trained at double this distance and am fine when I get out of the water. For the next race I need to know how hard and/or how fast I can go and still go out and have a good day. I was in the 18th wave, starting over an hour after the first group of professionals. Basically I watched the first pro, Andy Potts, finish his swim in 22:35 (according to the preliminary results), before I had gotten in to my wetsuit and staged in the starting chute.

Getting out of the water the charming water scenes of Oceanside, CA give way to Camp Pendleton and the hills that lay ahead. I've been on base once, and that was a much shorter ride. This ride had us riding on roads that had markings pointing out artillery ranges and signs that notified you not to proceed ahead of a particular point due to falling ordinance... The most striking notice was a crossing for, yes, tanks. A freakin' tank crossing sign. How was I NOT going to notice a 50-60 ton piece of fighting machine crossing the road?

A scant three hours and twenty minutes later it's on to the run. The run for me has always, and I mean always, been the hardest part of the day. There's nothing but road in front of you and only your legs to cover it. We ran on the strand in Oceanside from the Marina past the pier. If I haven't said it before I'll say it now, it was a beautiful day.

Final for me on the day was a 6:32. I dropped an equivalent six minutes on my swim from Ironman last year, and hopefully something equally significant on my bike and run. For me, keeping that pace for Ironman would be phenomenal. I know today that I benefit from a great training program, a year's worth of base training, the support of a fantastic team (Go Team), and the luck of having such a beautiful day on the course.

Special thanks go out to my Ironteammates, Matt (who had the fastest time on the course for our team at 5:50, go and donate to his team in training campaign if you can), Jen (who beat me by two minutes), Christy (whose persistence on the run continues to inspire and drive me), Karen (whose experience on the bike and run mirrored in many ways my '06 Ironman Coeur d'Alene experience), and to Kevin (whose experience in racing helped us all, and who went back on to the course after finishing the race himself, to find and run with Karen as she finished her race).

I was powered by Lemon-lime Motortabs, Vanilla Crisp Powerbars, Enduralytes by Hammer Nutrition, and despite a little cramping in my calves due to an overall lack of flexibility, had a fantastic day. Success is due in no small part to training, but equally to nutrition. I can't thank the fine people at Motortabs, Hammer Nutrition and Powerbar enough for bringing fine products to market and continuing to improve as endurance sports progressively evolve.

Tuesday Swims

I really do enjoy the Tuesday swims with the team. Sure my stomach complains when I get to workouts that it would much rather have my butt in a chair with a sandwich and a drink of some sort, but it is the one time during the work week when I can count on seeing most of my team. Here's what I like about my Team in Training Ironteam:
- Everyone is training for the same event.
- Everyone is raising money to fight cancer.
- Everyone is training to be ready for the same event.
- When the workout is all said and definitely done, we go eat.

Today was no different really. I showed up to practice and it was threatening to rain on us. But once you're there and dressed, there's really no other option than getting in and doing the workout. (There is another option but don't tell that to my grumbling stomach.)

Today we worked on active recovery, or resting in motion. Makes sense, the impulse after a difficult effort is to come to a stop, recover your breath, take in some fluid, and bring the heart rate down. This is what the body would like, trust me. Instead, following a hard effort we reduced pace kept moving. Very effective in making the body more efficient.

Love it.

Wave Starts

2007 Ford Ironman 70.3 California

Well it's upon us and the waves have been determined. I was hoping that I'd be in an earlier wave but it looks like I'm in the back. Yep, there's nothing like standing in line waiting to get in to the water at the end of winter. The professional athletes will be completely done with the swim and will have been done for close to 40 minutes before I get in the water to start my day.

------------

Wave Starts / Cap Colors

3-minutes between same age-groups and 4-minutes between differing age-groups

Wave No#	Time	Division	Color of cap
1	6:40	Pro M	Yellow
2	6:43	Pro W	Silver
3	6:50	M 40-44	Dark Blue
4	6:53	M 40-44	White
5	6:57	M 30-34	Purple
6	7:00	M 30-34	Neon Green
7	7:03	M 30-34	Red
8	7:07	M 35-39	Light Blue
9	7:10	M 35-39	Dark Green
10	7:13	M 35-39	Pink
11	7:17	M 18-24 / M 50-54	Dark Blue
12	7:21	M 55 + / W 40-44	White
13	7:25	W 18-24 / W 45+	Purple
14	7:29	W 25-29	Neon Green
15	7:33	W 35-39	Red
16	7:37	W 30-34	Light Blue
17	7:41	M 45-49	Dark Green
18	7:45	M 25-29	Pink
19	7:48	M 25-29	Dark Blue

Yep.... Oh well. See ya. -dean

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.