If I Were Your Coach...

It's a Rebus, Ya Butthead...

2009-12-07T13:44:00.007-06:00

(A tip of the swim cap/cycling helmet/running visor to "Chuckie V" Veylupek. A little more obscure & cryptic than his road sign, but hey! That's the way I am, right?)

So, the end of the calendar year is always great fun for me. Not only does it allow me to scale back the running or cycling I do in order to spend more quality time - running - with my wife, I also get to play my favorite puzzle game, called "What The Heck Did We Do Wrong This Year?"

Well, it's not the official name of the game, but it's the working title for what new twist do we want to try in our training to replace the things that didn't do so well last year? I know, it's not as catchy as Scrambled Eggs, which was the working title for one of the greatest pop tunes of the past fifty years (kudos to anyone who knows the title - I don't have anything special I can give, short of my admiration!), but it will have to do.

Last year I tossed the fairly-well tried-and-true three weeks on, one week off training intensity cycle right out the window for a shorter three/four/five day on, one day off cycle. Unfortunately, I don't control all of the workout factors; I can swim up to six days a week (seven if I wish to engage in open-water!), and I can bike, run or do strength training almost any time I please. But sometimes I like the idea of getting out on a ride, or a social run, with a friend. We're social animals, we humans. While we may not have identical training goals & our physiological make-up varies by chronological & training age, there are times we like to have someone else suffering along with us.

So, this year I have decided to carpe the damned diem...seize the day. There are enough social-like training-like situations where I can get the necessary intensity in without feeling like the Lone Doggone Ranger. Rather than focus strictly on hard mileage/yardage, I've borrowed from a number of guides to gauge the volume & the balance between the disciplines.

The first guide is from Joe Friel's The Triathlete's Training Bible (I have the next-to-most-recent-edition). Since I'm focusing on two IM 70.3 events this year & I'm a middling-to-back-of-the-pack (blame it on my swimming) participant, I'm looking at the middle of Friel's 500-to-700 hours of training per year window. So, when I look at the amount of time I spent this year it's not going to be a big change, time-wise (this makes my wife very happy!). Friel has a week-by-week breakdown through each of the base, build, and prep cycles leading to the event, & the events are far enough apart to give me a chance to re-cycle through base & build in the summer.

Even neater than this, Friel lays out a division of hours per day for each week. Sundays have the most time available; which seems in line with most middle-class triathletes, & the week slowly tapers off in hours for training, with Saturday being the shortest day of the week, where your most intense stuff, or your C & B races, fit in. But there are days where my swim work is 'etched in stone' because of my masters' group, & the twice-weekly Six At Six beatdown is becoming a regular thing again...so there's a healthy chunk of the week taken up. But it's probably a better thing to have a little too little training volume than too much, right? I doubt if anyone ever got injured from undertraining over time.

The second tool is Dan Empfield's aerobic points system. For me to get out & run 8-to-12 miles on the weekend, 8 miles in the middle of the week, & five-to eight miles worth on the elliptical trainer (or treadmill, if I'm not too beat up) may...or may not...be such a good thing, especially in light of how badly I swim. Empfield's point of view, as well as many other coaches is race your strengths, train your limiters.

(If you're strictly running you will be better served by Jack Daniels' points system, which is published in the latest version of Daniels' Running Formula. But if you're a beginner tri-geek you might want to use this guide to keep your training balanced...so you don't spend too much time working on the stuff in which you are already good.)

Empfield's system works like this:
1 mile cycling = 1 point

1/4 mile running (~400 meters on track!) = 1 point

100 meters (yards) swimming = 1 point

I did a little bit of adaptation because of my tendency to beat myself up on the run: If I use the elliptical trainer (with a heart rate monitor!), I'll divide the time spent on the ET by 2.4-to-3.3 (2.4 if the average heart rate is closer to maximum, 3.3 if the average is closer to 50 percent) and give that score to the ET workout. (In essence, it's a way to equate elliptical trainer with cycle!) So, 25 miles of running might equate to 100 miles on the bike or 10,000m (yd) in the pool.

A hard-core runner might not need to develop strength by hitting the weight room, & some triathlon coaches consider hitting the pool to be better than pumping iron. Empfield prefers weights, so, every five minutes pumping weight (after 20 minutes) earns a point. A one-hour session would give you 12 points, but that assumes no lollygagging, definitely a hard-core weight session.

If there's a weakness in your training or you aren't certain how to balance out life & training, or the disciplines for which you are training, it helps to figure out what some of the good coaches are doing or telling their charges...might work for you; might not. We're all an experiment of one. Don't do the same thing over again if you're looking for different results.

Take A Deep Breath And Read The Fine Print

2009-12-02T09:13:00.012-06:00

Some friends outside of the immediate area enjoy borrowing my posts; I guess every so often I manage to transcend the personal & slide right into the universal. Doesn't happen as often as I like, but when a good post is borrowed I really appreciate it.
If you've ever read a piece of literature or an article - or for that matter, a blog post - without looking closely into the perspective or the context under which it was written you might miss the point. Sometimes I have to point the reader to a piece of literature, a song, or a movie in order for them to understand exactly what I'm talking about. I've had friends tell me, or more often, my wife, 'you know, he's a good writer but sometimes we don't have a clue exactly what he's talking about.'

The main page of my blog has a disclaimer I adapted from one on the weblog of two-time Olympic medalist Simon Whitfield. In essence, it says: 'dude, this is my opinion. Take it with the amount of salt needed to be palatable.' My wife is wise enough to ask me to clarify. My father has read enough missives from me in the past three decades to translate (now you know why the Bible can be so hard to interpret?). Most other people only read a piece of what I've written then go off on a tangent, have a conniption fit, & set out to prove me wrong.

My friend Kevin Spain is a sportswriter for a large newspaper. There are certain times of the year he has no lack of material for the on-line & print versions. Other times he looks for something that's a little more out of the ordinary. Occasionally he borrows from me, or asks me to write something on a topic which he feels the need for coverage. I'm not one to deny the request of a friend. A blog post of mine about a Red Dress Run & my observations was decent enough to make the electronic world. I harbor no fantasies of being a big-shot writer, much less a big-shot coach or a big-shot in the running community, as I was once called by a USATF official in Dunedin. To think my opinions & observations of a very large running/social event (frankly, one of the largest of it's kind in the country!) would hold water with the lumpenproletariat is beyond my understanding.

Hey, I'm just a guy telling my story.

Imagine my surprise last night when I received a couple of e-mails: One was from the organizer of the event in question. Another was from a person who did not provide their affiliation, but must have been a member of the same organization, or all-too-emotionally attached to the event.

The rebuttal from the event organizer was gracious; to the point she wished to provide her side of the story, with a press release about the charitable proceeds of the event. The second e-mail was, er, less-than-gracious, & quite typical of e-mails I've received from members of the organization in question when they feel they've been wrongly maligned. I proceeded to tell the event organizer she missed some of the salient points of my blog, & provided some additional information I left out in the intent of putting a best face on the event.

We all have, some preacher once told me, the opportunity to influence 150 people. We have close enough relationships with that many persons; most will not hesitate to speak well of the good customer service situations, or restaurant experiences, or holiday trips, or running events. Same goes for bad experiences - those 150 can be influenced to be a future customer or to never darken the doorstep of your business. I didn't want to tell this event organizer I would be a dissuading influence on her event, but merely a single customer who decided his preferences would lie somewhere else for that particular event in the future.

After the second e-mail, I decided on dissuasion. I can spend the same amount of money in that town; stay at the same hotel, & have as good a time as a spectator...better, actually...than as a participant. And I told the event organizer thus.

That's the joy of capitalism. Sometimes the hired help shoots management in the foot.

Barry White? We're Talking Barry White!?

2009-12-01T09:52:00.009-06:00

While R&B/disco great Barry White has no longer been with us for three years, there's still an opus of work which has not seen the light of day. Well, not any longer. His long-time friend & producer saw fit to release a three-disc collection of alternate tracks, unreleased tunes & (to borrow from Steve Taylor) some stuff which initially didn't make the cut...just in time to celebrate what would have been Barry's 65th birthday.
The interview on NPR's Morning Edition brought out some really neat stuff which could relate to your own training:

1. If you're smart enough - knowing your strengths & limiters - you can take anything & make it your own.

One of White's greatest songs was originally supposed to be a country song, called 'My First, My Last, My In-Between.' Expand what comes between the first & last to everything, hey, Barry, this turkey just might fly! NPR's Steve Inskeep & White's producer then went off the rabbit trail & into the weeds, mentioning the potential of taking a song as simple as Mary Had A Little Lamb & Barry Whiting it. I almost had to pull the car over, I was laughing at the sound in my mind.

The smart athlete considers a training plan more as a road map & less as an itinerary, because we are all an experiment of one.

2. Do One Thing. Do It Well.

When you listen to Barry White's songs, they are all about love between two people. There are no break-up songs, no songs about fighting or the hard parts of a one-to-one emotional relationship. Okay, that's why I could never stand to listen to more than one or two Barry White songs at a sitting. It was kind of like doing lunch at an all-you-can-eat pizza joint; the first plate was fantastic, the second one pretty good...after that it's self-abuse.

Focus on a particular range of distances. Try the others if you like, but keep it in perspective. While you can not suck at most everything, you aren't going to be good at everything...all at one time.

So, here's to you, Barry. We can learn how to be good athletes, and good people, perhaps, by listening to your stuff every so often. Oh, yeah...I never thought I'd hear a better version of Billy Joel's Just The Way You Are, but somehow you did it.

Over The River, Through The Woods...

2009-11-27T08:15:00.005-06:00

When holiday decorations are on (our!) downtown light poles not long after Veterans' Day (Remembrance Day for those not in the US...) & 'Wally World' moves all the lawn & garden stuff to an undisclosed corner of the building (especially frustrating when you are looking for more cheap Chinese-made solar-powered stake lights) after the Hallowe'en candy gets moved out on sale...you know the shopping season goes on way too long. Kind of makes Thanksgiving, even if it is a dietary/gastronomic/sociological disaster waiting to occur in every US household, a small island of semi-sanity during those last 60 days of the year.
Really, I like Thanksgiving. I enjoy the fact it's a holiday for hanging out with the ones you most want to hang out with (the ones you invited because you knew you had to weren't going to show anyway). Even if there's some emotional stuff that comes to the surface (Remember what Robin Williams said? 'Catholics have confession. (We) have Thanksgiving...') after being held down over the course of the year, it's loosened in the presence of people who (pretty much) know, love & care about us.
One of my former bosses was very opinionated about the holidays. During one memorable conversation about careers and future goals, he said: 'Christmas, to me, is an economic nightmare. I'm not fond of the commercialization, & my family & I work to keep it as simple as possible. For me, Thanksgiving is the big holiday; it's all about the family, the food & a sense of gratitude.' Surprisingly enough, that conversation has stayed in my mind since 1992. It wasn't all about the holidays as much as it was about the brevity of life, the brevity of memory, & most of all, about the need to enjoy what you do for a living.
As part of our Thanksgiving, if we made the turkey, I get to take down the remains of the carcass & make stock for soup. Unlike other households, we don't go from hot turkey to turkey sandwiches to turkey a'la king to turkey in the dog's dish. Nope. I get to play Jack The Ripper and pull all the leftover meat off the carcass the day after...which means starting the stock after the last guest leaves.
Before Suzanne & I moved into our own home we had this little two-story apartment. Actually, it would have been fairly good size if we had used both floors, but we (Suzanne, me, & eventually Rubin) were all on the first deck. Some of the kitchen stuff we had included a nice, big stock pot. I mean, you couple have placed Godzilla-Turkey in this thing. Ended making so much stock we couldn't store it all in the fridge. Oops.
So yesterday, I was looking for that same stock pot, to no avail. Must have been one of those things we gave away after we moved into the new house, or when one of our related young'uns got married and moved into a place. Not certain. So I had to make do with the roasting pan. Definitely field-expedient. The good news is that the stock is all done, the bones, tendons, turkey skin, fat, & assorted inedible stuff is now in the trash can (where I pray the d-a-w-g doesn't assault it). The forecast calls for soup. Lots of it. No tacos, thanks.
Suzanne & I discussed 'what do we want/need for Christmas?' the other evening over a couple of Dos Equis' & quasi-Mexican (Called thus in deference to my southwestern-based, Latino-influenced family - not a place I would willingly take them were they to come visit me. A former significant other took my father to a Chi-Chi's about ten years ago. The manager somehow learned my father was New Mexican & asked his opinion of the cuisine. Refer to the old Fleetwood Mac song, 'Oh Well,' for a hint to his response. Suffice it to say I was cringing when the manager asked...), food at Moe's.
We have little difficulty getting around on the road to the places we enjoy traveling. Going to New Orleans...we know like the back of our hand. Other places are a tad different. Getting there is usually uneventful. It's a little more challenging, though, on the trip back. While I remember to get turn-by-turn for the outbound, the return trip is always, er, entertaining. I saw stuff around Augusta, GA I didn't want to see. Once we got an idea where the interstate was, it was time to grab enough coffee & munchies to fuel us so we could make up for lost time...oh, & a head call was in order for both of us, too.
I'm going to blame my masters' swimming friend Bill Evans for turning me on to the Garmin Nuvi GPS. It was a neat piece of gear & made the trip from Pensacola to Auburn last February at the least entertaining. Nothing like changing the b!tch-in-a-box to sound like Vincent Price-meets-James Earl Jones to make us all kind of laugh our butts off. Between that, & my conversion to the benefits of GPS receiver-as-training tool, I started to think how nice it would be to have something like that for either my wife's Mercedes or my little Scion xB when on the road. We're going to Hawai'i in January for business, again; this time we're going to have a car to get around (I've promised my father I'd make a pilgrimage to Pearl Harbor to visit the USS Arizona Memorial...a good idea regardless, since I work for the Navy.). So, rather than depend on maps & drive like a bunch of touri...yep, bring on the whiny wahine.Haven't been out for a run since I (almost) started feeling better...still breathing a little funny. But, everything I do is probably funny from the external. The local running emporium is having a Run For The Money this morning. Participants receive a $5 discount for every mile, up to six, they run on the emporium's six-mile training loop. Don't know whether the discount is transferrable to later purchases or has to be spent on the day, but it sounds like a good way to sweat off the stuffing, perspire off the pie, catabolize the cranberries & discard the dark meat calories.
Would love to have been there, but the powers that be (and we know who those powers are!) did not decide to let the non-mission essential civilian employees take the day off. Of course, the bad news is that we have to be here. The good news is that we're not at the mall.

I doubt management is in today. And I doubt we'll hear much from them, either. Not like I need to hear from them...as long as they don't call for a civilian staff meeting or call a muster at 1:00pm I don't care.

If you're traveling today, stay safe. Blessed Eid to those who celebrate the end of the pilgrimage.

Does This Course Catalog Make My Butt Look Fat?

2009-11-25T13:35:00.006-06:00

(EDITORIAL COMMENT: I WEIGHED 183 POUNDS IN 1992, SO I UNDERSTAND WHAT IT'S LIKE TO HAVE A FEW EXTRA POUNDS. THANKFULLY, I MANAGED TO DROP 20, BUT I STILL FIGHT WITH IT REGULARLY. MB)

I heard a report on NPR's All Things Considered yesterday afternoon & said to myself: 'dude! Perfect blog material!' The initial posting in the next paragraph is from the NPR site. The article included a Getty Images photo of "adipose-enhanced people" walking down a path.

I like to think of myself as a tad more enlightened than the average bear, but I find it frightening to see very overweight people...at the Golden Corral (like I did when visiting my in-laws last month), or complaining about how they cannot lose weight, or trying everything but sensible diet & a consistent long-term exercise regimen.

News Flash: You did NOT get this way in a single day/week/month. It took years of conscious decision-making to get to this point. It's going to take time & discipline to get back...if you want to. You can make excuses, or you can make effort. I applaud effort, because I've heard more than enough excuses.

...a Pennsylvania college is telling students to shape up--or else. Entering freshmen at Lincoln University get their body mass index, or BMI, measured. If the result comes back above 30, the students have to take a physical education class or they can't graduate. The requirement kicked in for students who enrolled at Lincoln in the fall of 2006. That class is now in its senior year, and most are looking forward to their graduation this spring. But for 80 seniors, graduation will hinge upon their taking phys ed or passing the required BMI test, according to minutes of a Nov. 3 faculty meeting. The chair of the department of health, phys ed & recreation at Lincoln brought the issue up at the meeting, because he wanted to remind everyone of the requirement. About 15 percent of the entering freshman class in 2006 tested above 30. Some of the faculty were concerned about the legality of enforcing the requirement. "After all this is virgin territory," he said. "But we want to be proactive about this issue." Lincoln is a historically black university; the issue of medical disparity makes the obesity epidemic particularly concerning. "Minority folks are particularly vulnerable to diseases associated with obesity. We knew that it was potentially a political quagmire but we believe that it's that important. Do we have the answer? No. Are we trying? Yes. Will we stumble? Probably." While the school's administration deals with the legal issues, he is busy looking out for student health. "As health educators we're concerned with the whole student, not just the academic part, but all the components that make up health & wellness." An op-ed in the latest issue of the campus newspaper put a point on the problem with a headline: 'Too Fat To Graduate.' The author says she'll take a phys ed class, even though her BMI was in the acceptable range. "Not because Lincoln is requiring me to, but rather, because I would like to be healthier. This was a decision that I made... and that's the way it ought to be."
Personally, I think it's a great idea. The PE department head, when interviewed, couldn't help but admit that HBCU's are historically underfunded, & that the bill of fare at the college's dining facility might also be to blame.
How many civilian co-workers do I have who are, quite literally, ticking time bombs? I leave most of my military co-workers out of this equation because they have fitness requirements which are part & parcel with their enlistment...yes, there are some fat, nasty chiefs & officers out there who look like dog sh!t in their khakis. Sorry boys (and girls!), dunlap disease is not an acceptable medical condition in my book.
Even I, at age 47, am not immune to something sneaky underneath the surface; one bad day at a long-distance triathlon might bring up a previously-undetected medical issue. Developing a life-long habit of consistent aerobic exercise...and perhaps a cleaner diet...is not going to do anything harmful to college students. Healthier, slimmer graduates are more likely to earn higher incomes and just might be that alumni donor who improves the dining facility once and for all.
Have a fantastic Thanksgiving, everyone! See you on the road this weekend...

When Things Come To A Head

2009-11-24T10:18:00.003-06:00

Feels like the end of the tunnel has been reached, so to speak. In the past I've always managed to survive the stretch from Thanksgiving to right around Christmas without catching whatever nasty cold or flu or creeping crud was circulating. However, this year was a major change in the immunity, or susceptibility to the stuff, I guess. I don't think my training volume changed all that much this year, & it's not like I was over-fatigued from IM FL. But I got something before the holidays, pretty much the same cold/flu bug/crud (more like upper respiratory infection, head cold, low-grade fever kind of stuff) I have visit days after Christmas.

The timing was nearly perfect...and not so perfect; it all hit like a ton of bricks last week when I was scheduled for a general practitioner's appointment. Unfortunately, it stuck around & became more noxious through the weekend's tri club party/meeting - if the photos taken showed I looked like I rolled out of a sickbed to quaff a couple of beers, well, that's because I did. The bad news is I don't feel like doing anything that resembles exercise. The good news is I didn't have any major plans for this month, anyhow.

At least that's what my body is telling me. My mind, on the other hand...wanted to jump in on the weekend's masters' swim meet a couple of days back. Hey, it would have been warmer in the water than on the deck, but I doubted hacking a six-pound loogie at the end of the 800-yard freestyle would have been a pretty sight. Some times you have to be smarter than your desire.

So, other than a couple of brief walks around the park with the wife & the woofer, my exercise regimen has been limited to a single set of 12-ounce elbow bends each evening.

Plan out your holiday period as judiciously as you would plan any other training period. It's a time to spend with family, friends, co-workers, but make certain you don't run yourself directly into the ground. I make a conscious effort to decline invitations...as nicely as possible...if I feel the schedule has become too hectic. All the same, I try not to become too bunged up if I can't get everyone to show up at a single social function.

As for the training, it's a great time to run, bike or swim with people you normally wouldn't train. We've got local runs which occur at the same time as our track workout; I'm not one to give carte blanche & say, 'go ahead and run with that group,' but if the change of pace gives you a new perspective on your training...

ISO A Guy With Initials After His Name

2009-11-19T09:17:00.005-06:00

(EDITORIAL COMMENT: MY USE OF THE MASCULINE FORM DOES NOT MEAN I AM A MALE CHAUVINIST - USE OF MALE FORM ONLY MAKES FOR EASIER WRITING.)

Spent a few minutes after getting my weekly Six at Six beat-down talking to Mark. He asked me what I knew about chiropractic, & whether I had ever been treated by a doctor of chiropractic. I had to admit a certain degree of ignorance about the benefits of chiropractic; while I've read much in the running world about athletes being adjusted on a regular basis, I also had to look past some formerly/deeply-held (religion-based) convictions. I'm not in the mood to get into the theological side of this, so I'll stay with the semi-scientific side.

I spent 14 years working in the medical field, as an administrative person (transcribing doctors' orders), a file maintainer/receptionist & a transcriber (history/physical examinations, ER visits, progress notes, discharge orders, treatment notes, and so on). During that time I had close working/personal relationships with most of the relevant medical professions (doctors are willing to engage in some back-scratching to get their work expedited), which gave me the chance on many occasions to ask 'what's the difference between...?'

So, if I were to place the three forms of medicine on a spectrum, I would consider osteopathic medicine (practiced by doctors of osteopathic, or D.O.'s) at the center of the spectrum. Chiropractic, Homeopathic, Chinese and Ayurvedic would be on the left side; allopathic medicine (practiced by doctors of medicine, M.D.'s) would be on the right.

A V.A. friend of mine is a D.O. I would visit him on occasion in the Rehab Medicine department when I had an issue, or just to ask 'what would you do in this situation?' I always found his approach to medical issues to be pragmatic & holistic. He was more likely to try something outside the box than fall back on more traditional methods of treatment. I decided to see what Wikipedia had to say about osteopathic medicine, and whether I had gone far afield with my description to Mark.

Wiki says: "...osteopathy has been considered a form of complementary medicine, emphasizing a holistic approach and the skilled use of a range of manual and physical treatment interventions in the prevention and treatment of disease. In practice, this most commonly relates to musculoskeletal problems such as back and neck pain. Osteopathic principles teach that treatment of the musculoskeletal system (bones, muscles and joints) facilitates the recuperative powers of the body."There's a time & place for pharmaceuticals in the treatment of medical issues, but I'm always amenable to something a little more on the natural side. Mind you, the most important issue is not so much the type of initials after the name as much as whether they are compatible to your needs.

I have spent more time over the past two years in dental offices than doctor's offices, so it wasn't that important to me. However, after my episode in Panama City I knew I did not want to visit the general practitioner near my home. There's nothing worse than being an athlete who has a medical issue; a physician's visit usually leads to the typical 'stop running/cycling/swimming altogether' advice. I also could tell from the first visit the practice would not be compatible; contemporary religious background muzak & copies of Christianity Today are not preferred waiting room material for a recovering fundamentalist.

Fortunately for me, I was able to get the contact information for the physician my friend Steven sees. The guy's a masters' swimmer & does some of our long swim events, so he recognized me right away when he came into the examination room. Right away, I knew this would be a fairly comfortable fit.

And when it comes to your life, your health & your avocation, comfort is darn near everything.

A Place For Everyone; Everyone In Their Place

2009-11-16T09:28:00.008-06:00

This morning's NPR newscast (Morning Edition) had soundbites from the President's trip to Shanghai. Cool stuff. Of course, then I read a little more in the AP wire about the "benefits of an uncensored society." You know, I don't think our society should be uncensored as much as it should be self-censored. Too many persons engage in irresponsible communications over the media and in public life. When I get to read a nasty two-way conversation via e-mail/weblog between a Canadian triathlete and an American entrepreneur; the digital equivalent of bar fight-meets-catfight...as Rodney King once said, 'can't we all just get along?' There's a fine, thin line between one's personal opinion & the truth, as evidenced by the immediate fact-checking which ensued once the press obtained a copy of Sarah Palin's new book. Probably not a cool idea to tick off the moderate members of your political party, especially if they're still in office & you're not.

So we have to take the time and energy, or at least the salt box, to figure out what is the real story here? Of course, most of us don't have the time, the energy, or the willingness to take something presented with a grain/shake/shaker/box of salt necessary to make it palatable. Is that the reason the 24-hour news cycle exists; to give us the same information over & over again, with little drips & dribbles of new (dis?)information so we think we're getting something else, but all we're getting is cotton candy?

One of the neatest things I saw this last week was a video shot by an Ironman Florida participant; IM FL has been considered notorious for the large number of participants who (shamelessly?) draft or ride in large peloton-like packs on the 112-mile, relatively-flat bike course. It's the stuff of legend, having been complained about by coaches, journalists, professional athletes and the like.

The participant mounted two cameras on his triathlon bike; one was affixed to his bike frame and faced forward, another facing to the rear. He also had a camera attached to his helmet and carried a small hand-held cam. Talk about an eye-opener.

The scariest thing was not so much that drafting existed - some participants were nailed with drafting calls - but the fact so many persons were drafting and could not self-enforce the seven-meter (AG)/ten-meter (pro) drafting rule. While there may not have been a WTC referee to record the illegality, it was still wrong.

Guess it's just part of the sport.

Deja vu weekend afternoons at Chez Bowen. Replace small cat named Ludwig with large 'hound named Rubin. Guess we all know our place, right?

Things Which Make You Go "Hmm..."

2009-11-13T11:19:00.007-06:00

Thing 1 (...which has nothing to do with The Cat In The Hat...):
A brief trip to the men's facilities in my office building reminded me of something I observed last week, but didn't have the chance to talk about. So, I'll talk about it here.

It's nothing off-color or bad. Just something to make you scratch your head in wonder, or say to yourself: 'dude, why didn't I think of that?'

I think it was in the men's room of either the Mellow Mushroom or Pineapple Willy's in Panama City Beach. In fact, it was the 'Shroom, because I didn't hit the 'head' anywhere else I can recall...Senator.

Okay. The urinals in the mens' room (I don't think there are urinals in ladies' rooms, but if there are, I don't want to know...) had the rubber/plastic screen to keep cigarette butts & various/sundry debris out...imprinted with the name & phone number of a local urological practitioner.

Whodathunkit?

Thing 2 (...still, nothing to do with TCITH...):

Went to the local running emporium yesterday afternoon to have a chat with the proprietor about stuff, provide a post-mortem of what went awry, talk about the way forward, & assure him I had not fallen off the face of the earth. Darned if Mark wasn't setting up a bike fit, & John Murray, a local swim impressario (who did an open-water swim seminar a month ago at the store) was up taking care of business.

John has an understanding of cardiac issues, so when I told him the tale he shook his head knowingly. Something he said made perfect sense. Actually another one of those things which make you go, 'hmm...'

"No athlete minds having an event named in their memory; the hard part is you have to die to earn it."

Thing 3 (...which has much to do with Thing 2, but nothing to do with the aforementioned Cat...and how many card-carrying, hat-wearing cats have you met?)

While discussing the way forward, event-wise, I started to mention my thoughts about doing a marathon in eight weeks, just down the road in Mobile. However, as the words began to come out of my mouth, I realized the unrealistic expectation I would place on myself. I then said: 'y'know, John...I'm worried that if I set myself up for failure on the marathon; have a bad day, get injured, or whatever...it will be impossible for me to train for the events I know I can accomplish.'

So, today, I'm reading an on-line article from some Ironguides cat (well, a coach!) by the name of Vinnie Santana, who's talking about letting your competition beat themselves rather than you doing the deed. What I borrowed (okay, stole!) from Vinnie was this:

"Training too hard too close to your big race is a mistake. If you really want to perform on that specific day, you should be training “hard” for months and months before it - even years depending on what your goals are (N.B.: Okay, I've told my athletes this in the past...). Doing a six-week training camp will only create a load your body is not used to. And those...tend to get back into training too soon & train too hard....It is extremely difficult for a working age grouper, in many ways, to do...in such a short time bracket....athletes put too much pressure on themselves, which kills their confidence & they just quit the race before they have even started. Athletes might compare their training performance...realize they are going slower which can be a result of deep fatigue instead of a lack of fitness per se or life circumstances that are not 100% optimal & think it is better to just wait for another opportunity."

Waiting for another opportunity. Sounds simple, but very few listen to that simple advice. And as Tom Petty sang, the waiting is the hardest part.

Get Up And Do It Again, Amen...

2009-11-12T10:22:00.007-06:00

(PROBABLY SOMEWHERE NEAR FIRST YELLOW MARKER BUOY, UPPER CENTER)

I received an e-mail (one of many from friends and family, wondering what the hell happened and whether I was all right) the day after IM Florida from a friend of mine, Mark Sortino. Mark's an experienced triathlete; he's finished multiple IM events & qualified for his first trip to Kona at IM Louisville last August. He's one of the smarter tri-geeks I've met in the past few years. He has never hesitated to provide advice, counsel, a pat on the back or a dusting off of the bike shorts to less-experienced wanna-be tri-geeks like me. He's a F.I.S.T.-certified fitter who does bike fitting on the weekends at the local running emporium; our initial 90-minute fit session turned into a two-plus-hour discussion on nutrition, technique & the mental side of triathlon.

Mark's blog is always insightful & a lot of fun to read, because he's not talking about the nuts & bolts of training & racing all the time. He likes to look at the lifestyle part of being a tri-geek, too. When I say lifestyle I mean the balance of work, family, training & competition. He's got it fairly down pat from what I can tell, & has no problem putting things into proper perspective. The video clips taken by his wife Andi after he finished Kona said much more than thousands of words of written commentary; the mix of joy in achieving something that very few people do (complete IM Hawaii) & disappointment in not being able to give the performance he really wanted to on the day (because you never know if you'll make it there again) was palpable.

So when Mark's e-mail came into my inbox I took the time to really read through it. Not only did he knock the dust off my bike shorts but provided a little nudge (in the direction of my swim gear, mind you!) to get back on the horse that threw me.

It's hard to think about the existential 'now what?' when you're five or six hours out from sitting on the tailgate of an EMS truck on the beach with a tech worrying over you with a heart rate monitor, pulse oximeter & stethoscope. The perspective doesn't exist there...add a few more hours of hearing Mike Reilly welcome someone else into the IM family as you're going to pick up your crap in transition. That's something which hurts like a punch in the ribs. Even then the perspective is still far down the road.

I stood out on the run course outside the Mellow Mushroom, after my beer & salad, watching the athletes come through on the first - some on their second - loop. I had the privilege to see my friend & (part-time) business/training partner come through the first loop:

Steve - 'What are you doing here? What happened?'

MB - 'Bad day, dude. Now, go finish this thing!'

The perspective usually comes as a result of the same cycle a'la Elisabeth Kubler-Ross' death/dying/grief cycle: Denial, Anger, Bargaining, Depression, Acceptance. Kubler-Ross' stages don't progress in any particular sequence, which is a good thing...'cause I think I shot right past Bargaining. IM doesn't allow you to bargain after you are on the shore, the side of the road, or in a medical tent/emergency room.

No. There is Bargaining: 'Get me out of this alive & I'll do it right next time.'

Denial: 'I cannot believe I busted my chops for all these months & still got my butt kicked.'

Anger: 'I hate myself for not putting in more open water time. I still can't swim!'

Depression: 'I don't want to be near anyone; I'm ashamed of my failure.'

Acceptance: 'IM is not easy. If it were everyone would do it. This year wasn't your time.'

The beginning of the closure from my bad day came as Steven finished. His family, my wife & I were standing at the beginning of the finish chute & cheered like crazy people. Hey, the company had a fifty-percent success rate on the day.

I had a brief thirty-minute temper tantrum the next morning as I saw all the finisher shirts/hats/acoutrement & thought to myself: 'dude, that should have been you.' But it was balanced with the ER physician's comment: 'you probably made the right decision today.'

Today. It all boils down to today. And today. And today. And today.

So, I feel much better today. I've got a few hundred more of those on the way to the next stop on the journey.

And maybe I'll have a better today in the Gulf of Mexico on a November morning two years from today.

Thanks, Mark. Thanks also to my long-suffering wife, Suzanne...you didn't panic or freak out through the whole ordeal. We'll do it right this next time.

...Months Which End In "R"

2009-11-06T07:53:00.003-06:00

Steven and Beverly arrived yesterday afternoon and checked in to their condo...which is way down along the run course. For pre-athlete meeting dinner, we all decided to meet at a local oyster bar. I'm happy to say the oysters were delicious, even though I had only three...maybe four.

Naturally, there was nothing new in the athlete meeting a seasoned triathlete probably doesn't know...drafting rules, penalty tent locations, warnings against littering and public...well, let's just say I won't be trying to make a new meaning out of the old phrase void where prohibited by law. Good stuff to hear, if nothing else, to remind you what you're really here for.

Suzanne and I went for a very easy jog the other morning on the front three miles of the run course, which weaves (now there's an apt description!) through the rows of condos and through the residential neighborhoods along Front Beach. That sense of deja vu, all over again. The IM FL run does the Gulf Coast Half course twice, how nice. Of course, without about 10-to-15 degrees of excess temperature as compared to May.

Roch (Frey) and Heather (Fuhr) sighting on the road which goes northeast (the other side) of Signal Hill Golf Course. I kind of smiled and waved...and they did back...after which I told Suzanne, 'Roch and Heather...' Yeah, like she's going to know who the heck those folks were. Of course she would...she reads my magazines. She knows the guys in the goofy costumes.

But you still have to do the miles, no matter how nice the weather is.

...Of Course, There Was A Line

2009-11-05T10:05:00.003-06:00

Brief observations from yesterday's arrival & check-in:

1. Never, ever trust an elderly gentleman who says he's never been to a particular place in the world. Odds are very good he's pulling your leg. I had the supreme good fortune to have my check-in nerves soothed by a couple of Johns. Really, both of these gentlemen were named John. After signing my life away to WTC and promising I would never even think of the phrase lawsuit at the same time as I participate in IM FL, I sat down with these two gentlemen to receive my numbers, my chip, my cap and all the other good stuff. John asked where I was from, to which I replied: 'Pensacola, just up the way.'

"Never heard of it."

"You're kidding," I said. As I began to mention the relative distance from PCB, Destin, FWB & other locations on Planet Earth, I saw the slightest twinkle come to the eyes of both Johns. At that moment, I laughed and said, 'ah, so THAT'S why I feel that tugging sensation at my ankle...pull my leg, will ya?' We had a great conversation which lasted probably about ten minutes after that, got the necessary business completed, and went on my merry way.

2. Wal-Mart is the same no matter where you go, except for the layout. After a late luncheon at Pineapple Willy's we made the command decision to acquire some light snacks, social beverages and ibuprofen, and quickly. A four-buck Abita Amber will do that to you every time. Fortunately for us, there's a Wal-Mart approximately a stones' throw from the hotel.

Nothing changes from store location to store location. Trust me on this one. Go to the web site People of Wal-Mart.com and you'll understand what I mean. I swear I've seen each of those people in each location I've ever visited. Well, it was a little different for this trip, as you had pre-race triathletes going through the grocery and personal care sections, too.

The dichotomy was pretty funny. There was a lean, hawk-faced, serious-looking gentleman in front of Suzanne and me (was in the 10 items or less line) with six bottles of PowerAde, two packages of lettuce hearts, two packages of tomatoes, a package of frozen chicken filets, two sweet potatoes, and a few other salad makings here and there. There we were with a box of ibuprofen, a box of Clif Bars and a 12-pack of Corona. The Brasilians behind us, I think, were somewhere in between the two extremes, well, at least they were smiling. Suzanne asked if they were here for Ironman...of course, they spoke little English. I held up my wristband and smiled. They held up theirs. Suzanne wished them luck...which they didn't catch. I told them Bom Suerte, pidgin bastardized Spanish/Portuguese for good luck, to which they smiled.

"...every body every where smiles in the same language..." - Wooden Ships (Jefferson Airplane)

...Making A List, Checking It Twice

2009-11-03T13:36:00.003-06:00

Today is the first day of "IM week" for me. While the goal event (in this case, IM Florida) is Saturday morning, the gear and the bike need to be in transition by mid-afternoon on Friday. Oh, yeah, there's also an athlete meeting on Thursday afternoon.

Kind of funny the way the IM series works, at least the IM part...the event is on one day, with the award ceremony the following day...well, makes perfect sense when the last official finishers will hit the line at midnight. That means taking several days in succession for travel, getting comfortable with the area, and getting one's collective stuff together. There might need to be a day or two afterward for recovery, too, but that's a topic for another time...perhaps in a few days. I remember seeing rentals for the week of Gulf Coast and IM FL as a five-day minimum...and thought "are you out of your mind!?" Then, when I saw the agenda for IM week I realized why. Sounded like some sort of evil agreement between the local CVB and the race promotion company, though.

The long-distance triathlon has the marathon beat when it comes to necessary preparation...to the power of three. Perfect for the anal-retentive.

Those Days Which Are All Too Few

2009-10-29T13:26:00.014-06:00

This morning's perusal of Facebook led me to know several of my friends' bib numbers for next week's 140.6-palooza. Regrettably, I can't get to the website to find out my number, because the computer fascists have seen fit to limit my access to http://www.ironmanflorida.com/. Oh, yeah, I can get onto Facebook to waste time, but looking for triathlon information is out of the question. No sense whatsoever. Therefore, my buds & bud-ettes will have to wait a few more hours to know whether I have an auspicious number. By the way, what is an auspicious number? I remember in August 1988 when Chinese parents were having births induced; seems the number "8" sounds a lot like the word for good fortune or something like that. Last year, they began the Olympic Summer Games on August 8 at 8:08 a.m. for the very same reason. Must have worked well (enough!) for Michael Phelps, who earned eight gold medals.
Steven and I were looking at matching triathlon tops for the run portion of the event the other week. We both have identical bike jerseys (yellow, with a black panel down the side), so we wanted to match up on the run. Steve found a great-looking Louis Garneau Shark Tri Tank through an on-line retailer...black...my favorite color (I know, Lisa. Black isn't a color, but the absence of it!) for just about anything. He originally ordered a small top and found it to be much too small for comfort. I thought to myself, 'self...if a small is too small for Steven, then a medium might just do the trick, as Steven is a little more broad in the upper torso than I.' Ordered two tops, which arrived yesterday afternoon. Tried one on. The good news is it fits like a glove; the bad news is that it fits like a very tight one. No worries about material flapping in the breeze with this thing. Steven tried the other one on last night for a lark; seems as though he called the customer service folks when he returned the first top to try and get the sizing correct. Watching him put the top on looked like something you'd see in a Monty Python or Benny Hill episode.
Since there were very few Funistas running last night (most were more concerned with their Hallowe'en costume than their training) we ended up with a small cadre going out from the Sound to do the old Pensacola Beach Triathlon run course. It's not all that often we get five of us all going out at a (fairly!) conversational pace for the majority of the run. The last mile was a little sprightly, but a great time was had by all...you know the old story. It's the kind of thing you look at & say: 'that doesn't happen often enough nowadays.'
Yep, I definitely miss the old social running days. Most of the old gang have either burned out, rusted up or faded away, to paraphrase the old Neil Young tune. I guess we learn to enjoy sleeping in, or to exercise a little more autonomy in our own running lives rather than willingly be accountable to each other over time.

I'd rather not be the first guy running through the forest trail anyway. Ask Brant Speed in Austin about the Sunday morning runs we used to do out at Flatwoods Park, near Tampa...back in the UTampa days. I think that's why Coach Slaven used to hang back & let the tall guys go through the trees first. Always good for a laugh during the rest of the run...you felt less miserable when laughing at your speedier, taller, spider-webbed teammates.

Following Your Bliss

2009-10-25T15:58:00.003-06:00

It's definitely "beer o'clock" here in the P'handle. Been up since four a.m. & in a state (fairly much) of "on-the-go" since five-ish. Not much difference between the wake-up time for participants of a triathlon & the workers & volunteers who make it possible.

There's always (so it seems) some sort of crisis, some kind of "oops, we gotta get this issue worked through" moment...and we had a little bit of it this morning, but it was all right...once we got the solution. While it's tiring, maddening, frustrating, and sometimes even boring, it's also rewarding. I think every race participant should work with a race promoter at least once a year, & I'm not talking about one of those 'two-hour, packet pick-up' cushy, beer-in-one-hand, marker-in-the-other jobs. Ride the back of a rental truck setting up & picking up cones. Hand out water at an aid station of a marathon, or a 70.3. Tear down & put away speakers, tables, & various/sundry supplies.

It makes the thank you of the back-of-the-packer that much more sweet...if you hear it. It definitely warms the heart of the race director, just in case you hadn't figured.

FOLLOW-UP, Monday, Oct 26:

The need - or my need to rant - about volunteerism is as much aimed at myself as the next person. More often than not, people are in the throes of training for a long-distance triathlon are predisposed toward selfishness & self-centeredness. I used to have a t-shirt that summed it up precisely: 'as a matter of fact, the world does revolve around me.' It might still be tucked away in one of my dresser drawers.

I guess last week was either National Volunteer Week, Make A Difference Day, or one of those marketing ploys to get people off their behinds to do something they probably should be doing anyway...helping their fellow man. You'd have thought I'd have caught the message through the weeks' comics. It took until some time around Thursday for me to figure it.

To follow on to the 'marathoning' post from a few days back, someone posted a comment about how much different the triathlon community is from the running community. In many ways I cannot help but agree. Many tri-geeks are personable and approachable...a couple are grade-A type-A...ain't going there right now... But, some are tightly focused on their own training, & can't/won't take time to teach newer tri-geeks some of the tips & tricks which make racing less painful and more fun. In the back of my mind, I think it would solve some of the 'on your left, on your left, oh, $#!+...' moments you hear about, especially on the bike course.

(I can't help but feel grateful to a number of local tri-geeks who I've managed to corner at local shops...they've provided great advice/counsel and helped me get past the intimidation factor of the long-distance event up to this time. Thanks again, dudes & dude-ettes...you know who you are!)

Do I Consider You A Marathoner? Why Not?

2009-10-23T09:53:00.003-06:00

Some of my running friends are in a bit of an uproar over this morning's New York Times article.

There are a number of runners who chafe at the thought of slow, plodding penguins having the nerve to call themselves marathoners. They believe slower participants have diluted the challenge of the marathon distance & lessened the cachet of their identity as - gasp - a marathoner.

Once you read the article, you'll realize something seriously missing. There are no 'elite' marathoners quoted in the article. I think in their case a marathon is "another day at the office." To the elite marathoner, slow participants are a non-issue. It's the folks who are slightly more slow & plodding than they - John Bingham calls them "slightly fast runners" - who are kvetching like a bunch of whiny, wounded animals.

While the trend is for marathon finish times to become more slow, as cited by Running USA, that may be more due to the democratization of the marathon than anything else. Remember that concept of selectivity we all learned about in college psychology? That was the same reason more students in graduate school scored no lower than a "C." Grad school was more selective to get in, & the grades reflected that very fact.

So, when Mr. or Ms. Marathon Race Director opened their event to the lumpenproletariat, the great unwashed run/walking masses, they spread out the total range of the bell curve a bit more. Of course, I don't think all of the race directors are pleased with the unintended consequences of larger fields of slightly slower participants...it means more time for the course to be closed off for safety reasons. Some events have taken to instituting cut-off times. Which is all right, in my opinion. If you can't make the cut-off, you'll look for another event where your chances of finishing is better. If I were a penguin looking for a marathon & saw a cut-off faster than my best effort, I'd find another event & say, 'their loss. Sucks to be that RD.'

Frankly, I haven't mastered the marathon yet. My best effort is in the high-threes, my worst in the mid-four range. I marvel at the elites as well as the three-hour folks. I'm not going to think any less of a person who wants to go out & do a marathon. But, what I'd like to see is running programs/coaches work over an extended period of time with their charges.

First, coaches need to be honest with the athlete about the social stigma which exists about plodding/walk-running/penguining...whatever the faster people want to call slow-paced participation.

Then, work with the person; get them off the couch doing 5Ks for six months-to-a year, then 10Ks, then half-marathons. After a couple of years of consistent training and racing shorter distances, then put them on a conservative, mostly run-based training program focusing on a marathon that has entry-level marathoner-friendly conditions...preferably a small one.

I'd personally recommend something as small as the Tallahassee Marathon, (next years' RRCA Southern Region Marathon Championship) which has about 250-300 participants, or Melbourne's Space Coast Marathon, which is on a very flat course. I'm not saying they can't do Chicago, New York, Honolulu, Disney, Marine Corps or any of the big name ones, but I'd rather see them get their first marathon in on a course where they can learn the art of marathoning, rather than be treated like children of a lesser god by wanna-be elites, fairly fast runners, & Runners' World/Slowtwitch/Let's Run.com forum posters, the gatekeepers of marathon/road running purity.

A Thought On Tapering

2009-10-20T07:53:00.009-06:00

...or two. I guess this train of thought started last Wednesday evening during our "easy" 60-minute run on the beach. Quite frankly, it felt like a bit of a slog for a good portion of the run; just couldn't get comfortable. The heart rate wasn't going sky high...in fact, it seemed quite reasonable. Just a little bit of lead in the legs. When we got back to the start I had to admit I was glad we kind of went off the beaten path; heaven knows I'd have been tempted to slap it into B-for-boogie...and might have felt like ten pounds of used kitty litter afterward.
That kind of feeling has persisted for this past week, & almost two. I'm certain lots of it has to do with a subconscious effort to conserve energies for the day. But it's not like I'm really going into taper mode. Friends who know I'm (about) three weeks out from the Ironman have hinted, 'yeah, you should be starting your taper next week...' Trouble is, I am not certain what I'm supposed to be tapering from.
The bicycle crash, by necessity, forced me to back off about 30-percent of my intended training volume. I've had to limit my swimming to twice a week, & at an intensity which is just comfortable enough to not strain the trapezius, deltoid, or latissimus muscles on the left side...unfortunately, life has managed to make up for the lost efforts. If you've ever tried to get out of a Mercedes sedan on the passenger side, it requires a certain degree of assistance from the left arm to help roll you out. So, when I whine about wanting to drive it has as much to do with physical comfort as it does with personal autonomy.

I managed to do well through the long bike ride on the IM FL course, so there's little to worry about there. Even running, when the shoulder feels good & hasn't been over-stressed, is all right. The heart rate is good. And now, the weather has become almost nice. So it's not like I'm really going to cut back on volume that much...or intensity...not until next weekend.

At that point it's going to be little more than a single hour of a single activity. Spend a little more time with the feet up, with the coffee pot, with the good book, with the light jazz or baroque music. Definitely. I'll revert back to one of the things I said before...just kind of be like my greyhound: eat when I can, go out when I want, & rest otherwise.

So, I'm not really tapering as much as maintaining.

It's Your Fault. Trust Me. I'm A Doc.

2009-10-15T07:52:00.016-06:00

Before becoming a "documentarian/running bureaucrat/anal-retentive measurer/backyard shade-tree coach" I worked as an analyst in the human factors, medical, education & communications world. Until seven years ago I hadn't developed any real taxonomy by which to break down root causes to things. I just worked by feel.

After I entered my (Navy) educational internship I was enrolled into a human performance technology course track at a local university. One of the first documents I read was based on the work of Thomas Gilbert, considered to be the father of human performance technology. Gilbert was a disciple of B. F. Skinner, the human behaviorist. Think pigeons pecking metal plates in response to a flashing light in exchange for seed. Think Walden Two. Fortunately, Gilbert was thinking more humanistically.Gilbert believed all barriers to worthy performance (not just doing something, but doing something of worth to society) could be broken down into six areas; three at the organizational level, three at the performer level. Other theorists borrowed the Pareto (80/20) principle; 80 percent of performance deficiencies were caused by 20 percent of possible root causes. They believed 80 percent of performance barriers were organizationally rooted. In other words, as Gilbert wrote in his 1978 book, most workers go to work wanting to do a good job. Management screws it up by unclear communications, inefficient processes, & disincentivizing worthy performance. If the only tool you have is a hammer, you tend to see every problem as a nail. - Abraham Maslow (1908-1970)I've always had the tendency to look more at the organizational - in my own case, coach-rooted - barriers to an athlete's performance first, and then the worker - or athlete-rooted - barriers...or I've left them alone entirely. Unless the athlete places 100-percent trust and confidence in me there's not much I can do to control an autonomous, adult, post-collegiate, recreational athlete. (I prefer to think I was more accountable to my coach; he might beg to differ.) Sometimes we want to say to the athlete, 'I don't think you want to work that hard...you don't want to train to perform that well...' The coach's job is to do what it takes to prepare the athlete to execute the plan, given their state of fitness, on the day.Lately I've been reading & noting the guidance Brett "Doc" Sutton provides to amateur age-group as well as professional triathletes he trains as part of Team TBB. He's had some great success in the ITU, 70.3 & IM world, has coached swimmers, trained racehorses & world triathlon champions. He's able to read the athlete & see through the b.s. His brand of coaching blends tough love & stoking the inward fire, for want of a better term on my part.Doc's way of looking at a problem is simple:"...in every thing, we break it up into three steps. We don't believe in making it more complicated than that, what ever it is. You come with a problem that has five or six points? "The Doc" sends you back to the corner & says 'bring me back three & we will find a solution.'"Let's take a day where an athlete doesn't perform up to their expectation. Rather than blame the coaching, the weather or the course, what about the pace they ran in the first mile, where they staged themself in the starting corral, or the warm-up that was not done? As "Doc" says, 'no discussion...we reap what we sow.'Timing or scoring issue? Get scored fourth place in your age group when you know you were third? Some sports don't allow the opportunity for 'argument, no pity-partying , or you get your head punched off by the opposition within the next ten seconds.' Sometimes you need to 'make the very best out of a...hand that is dealt. That is your hand; how you play it is up to the individual. Some get inspired, some crack.' Don't place yourself in a position to be vulnerable to the frailties of human judgment. 'Don't like it? Don't race. This is your sport; can it be done better? Well of course. But that is not on the table on race day.'

While the vast majority of us are recreational athletes & not making dollar-one from our pursuit, we can still borrow the mindset & adapt the mental toughness of the professional. Sometimes that means looking in the mirror for the first cause, then going on from there.

A Dead Helmet...

2009-10-08T11:34:00.010-06:00

...is better than a dead rider. Since I also whacked my helmet on the pavement during the weekend bicycle accident, I figured a brief trip to my local bike guru was in order. Well, there was no way I was going to ride the Panama City Beach course this weekend helmetless or in a damaged helmet...either one of those two decisions would have been insane.

It's a good idea to take a very close look at the lining of your helmet, not just the plastic exterior. If there are cracks, even the single one like Robbie Mott & I saw near the left temple, the helmet is pretty much toast. Some helmet-makers will replace your helmet free-of-charge, provided you can show proof-of-purchase. Since my Rudy Project Krypton helmet was a USA Triathlon premium gift I cannot rightly recall whether I registered it. I think I did, but the only thing I want Rudy at this time would either be their Syton Comp helmet, or a good pair of eyewear...preferably with a large, garish white frame...to replace the Oakleys which took the hit. The issue of time-to-replace also was important. I'm not Mellow Johnny, so the odds of me getting my next helmet overnight hair-on-fire shipped is either slim or nonexistent.

I didn't even look at the price tag for the helmets in Robbie's shop, just grabbed up a decent Trek road model & immediately began to size it up. I've worn $20 helmets & I've worn $120 helmets. I like the $120 ones better...but you can choose for yourself. If you have a $20 head, get a $20 helmet. The $120 models are not only a little better in fit and user-friendliness, but seem to have a little more, er, oomph in their engineering. Okay, I know there's a couple of helmets made by Specialized which are carbon fiber-ized and lighter than a $20 helmet, but I'm not spending that much...not until I'm spending more time on the bike than I am in the pool. Speaking of the pool, it was the first morning back in the friendly confines since... And really, I was looking forward to knowing how bad I felt. I found out within the first five minutes of hitting the water...really, more like the first five seconds; the time it took to take one stroke with the left arm. Ouch. I managed thirty minutes of fin-assisted swimming, letting my left arm kind of go through the motions of freestyle or backstroke.
Impact activities worry me some, especially from the experience of two years ago. One of my athletes at that time is a dentist and warned me to exercise caution even with elliptical trainer (ET) workouts. I found the ET was all right over a 35-to-40-minute workout a couple of evenings ago; but I figured the real test of how things would fare was a run. My original plan was to go for a 6-mile run on the beach. The first mile was 8:00, speeding up to a 7:40 on the second mile. I didn't look at the next two miles, but I shut it down for a minute at that point & segued into a run/walk for the remainder. Funny, but the shoulder/trapezius didn't seem to hurt after the second mile...wonder if it was one of those relative pain things: Ever have something ache in your body until the moment something else traumatic happened, say, stubbing your toe...when your attention is focused on that new hurt?
I stopped the Flexeril (muscle relaxer) after yesterday afternoon. Seems as though the drug was relaxing the wrong muscles & leaving the ones which needed to be relaxed alone. I was joking about being on the planet Flexeril for a little while; kind of like a bad Star Trek episode, and I was Captain Kirk. Great. Two poor, unsuspecting red-shirts get to say little more than: "Captain, look! AAUUGGHH!" Then I get beat down in some trial by combat & manage to escape by some medical shenanigans which completely escapes Vulcan logic.

Rubin, my faithful greyhound, hasn't quite figured out what's temporarily wrong with Dad. He looks at me with the same stare as if I were doing two workouts a day, but what's wrong with the right side of Dad's body...

The Perfect Storm

2009-10-06T12:34:00.003-06:00

All too often, when we write up training plans we pay little regard for what can best be described as the John Lennon principle of training: 'Life is what happens to you when you're busy making other plans.'

Get a patch of bad tropical weather, a new project at work, a family crisis & the next thing you know you're spending more of your previously-disposable time (much like disposable income, if you buy into the time = money philosophy) which was formerly spent on the training on the situation.

You realize I haven't mentioned illness or injury. Right?

Nobody wants to talk about being ill or getting hurt, or the effect it may have on training. At least not at the immediate; an elite who's forced by illness or injury to curtail their regimen for four-to-six weeks we only hear about in the event they come back strong as before & win their particular race. But we all know that's the Disney-fied, fairy-tale story. Happens so rarely that we cannot help but cheer when it does.

What about the weekend warrior, or the Average Joe who's five or six weeks out from their goal event? What if they have the perfect storm of factors which, when all added up, spells mother? Face it, nobody plans a 50-mile ride in wet, windy conditions, on a pair of deep rim wheels, hits the highway striping paint at almost the exact time as they are leaning into a crosswind, then hits the pavement at 20 miles per hour. (Okay, perhaps it was a stoopid idea to ride the deep rims after Steven mentioned about being buffeted at times on his Augusta ride.) The best thing I think you can do, in the words of Gunnery Sergeant Tom Highway (a.k.a. Clint Eastwood) in the movie Heartbreak Ridge, is 'endure, adapt, adjust, overcome...'

Yep, little buddy, there is a very thin silver lining attached to that big, honking black cloud. I certainly am NOT going to start singing the last tune from Monty Python's Life of Brian, however. I did minor damage to my body in the grand scheme of things: a very banged-up shoulder (at least that's what the doctor said...) & some minor road rash. My bike looks like it took a little bit of the shock (nothing like an American-made steel and carbon frame) & it rode all right back to the car...probably worth a check-up from the LBS to make certain.

The training calendar has a few more blank spots this week than I care to admit, & it looks like a big, honking plan B (okay, plan C...) is in order. But since my plan is really to finish the goal event without ending up in medical, all systems are (near) go.

It's just going to take a few small adjustments on the way.

Georgia On My (Tri Suit) Back...

2009-09-30T10:13:00.006-06:00

For the small number of people who really want to know how the coach fared on his training day in Augusta, GA this last weekend, here we go. I'll provide a brief commentary on the host city, the courses, my performance, some possible root causes/lessons learned and what I might try in order to not have a repeat on a grander (and I dare say, a more painful...) scale in five weeks.

Augusta - Venue
Augusta is definitely Old South, with dry town-style blue laws & that roll up the sidewalk, put out the cat at five o'clock feeling. If you're looking for a race venue in which to party during the days immediately before/afterward, this is definitely not the race to choose. However, if you can handle walking down a tree-lined main drag on a Saturday morning to a bakery for coffee, danish (there are only two Starbucks' in town; one's in the Marriott) & a quiet read of the local newspaper/USA Today, this is your kind of place. Even Monday morning traffic didn't come down Broad Street en masse until about nine o'clock, while we had breakfast at a breakfast joint which did open during the week. Yes, there are dining, drinking & clubbing establishments which open later, but don't expect a boatload of early morning joints nearby.

We stayed at the Ramada Inn, about six blocks from the headquarters hotel, three blocks from the swim start, & approximately 1.2 miles from the transition area. What it lacked in facility quality & neighborhood location - the freight train line, which awakened us at least four times nightly, reminded Suzanne & me of our first place - it made up by proximity to the run course just plain good-hearted attitude of the staff working there.

The courses were, in the opinion of this race guy, fairly good. I truly enjoyed the point-to-point swim in the Savannah River, as well as the rolling, often-tree-lined bike course in the vicinity of Jackson & Aiken, SC. The run course was, however, a mixed bag. If I had been the course designer, I probably would not have run the course over the train line four times each ten-kilometer loop. Yes, I'm being a whiny-butt, because I know what happens every time I try to run over a very uneven piece of pavement when I've been moving for the previous four hours. Can you say calf or leg cramps?

Swim - 1.2 miles - 35:00
Swimming in the 72-degree waters of the Savannah River was nice, even though the water was quite murky, with seagrass, sticks & the like. After the first couple of hundred yards I was forced to either do the side stroke or the breast stroke. If your shoulders aren't used to swimming, even a two-millimeter wetsuit (great for flotation when compared to no wetsuit) can pose difficulties. A couple of panicky moments here & there when I caught a little too much water, as well as the drat! I knew I should have used the tinted goggles moment when the sun finally burst through...all I could tell was I was going in the right direction - downstream - but seeing specific signs was another story altogether.

(Talk about a fun swim venue - you probably could have walked on the levee for the majority of the swim & watched your athlete do their thing.)

T1 - Unlike most other 70.3 events according to what I've been told, this event had wetsuit strippers at the transition area. Nice. The downside was the strippers were in the grass; by the time my wave (23rd of 25) arrived in T1 the nice grass had turned more into nice grass and mud. So, I ended up with a nice coating of Georgia grass/mud/dirt on the back side of my bright yellow tri-top. I know. Waah, waah, waah... I didn't know there was junk all over my back until the bike course, when some 40-44 woman I passed told me.

Contrary to my first triathlon efforts, my time in T1 was fairly short, probably about three minutes at the most. However, I did the same thing I've done in every other event. I broke my right little toe during my first triathlon trying to get into my cycling shoes...it's happened every time since then. When I told my wife later she freaked out. Hey, it's only a little toe. I have nine others.

Bicycle - 56 miles - 3:10
The first 20 kilometers of the bike leg went by quickly; I was probably at 30 km/hour (20 mph) average for it. The first climb on the course did not come until about the 18-mile mark, when I heard the first signs I did not want to hear; grinding noises from my chainring area as I started to pull my way up the hill. That's a certain sign I've got a chain issue, caused by a dry chain...not enough lube...exposed to rain the night before while in transition. Stupid! Should have taken my bottle of chain lube to transition & that extra half-hour of TLC; probably would have saved me a good ten minutes of ride. By the end of the bike leg I was limited to probably four gear combinations which did not make a lot of noise. The last 15 kilometers were the price paid for my folly, as I dropped my chain off the small chainring not once, but twice...the second time on the last incline leading back into Augusta.

When we looked at the course profile, the first reaction was one of shock & worry; there were some serious elevation changes on the course, a couple of hundred feet in difference, in three separate locations. Fortunately, the scale of the course profile was skewed in favor of showing all of the elevation...only three of the climbs were tougher than three percent in grade...and only one was tough enough to make me get up out of my saddle for the climb. Looked at my heart rate on the climbs &found I was expending no worse than 77 percent of maximum heart rate, which means I was probably at the high end of aerobic threshhold.

It was on the bike where the first signs of wheels falling off were noticeable, just after the 40 kilometer marker at the second of two U-turns on the course. I almost overcooked the first one about ten kilometers earlier, but managed to pull it back in. The second U-turn was snug enough to slow me down good. Pushing the pace to get back up to speed (into a steadily-increasing headwind) caused a beauty of a calf cramp, one of those cramps that you cannot pedal through & can barely unclip out to let it rest for about ten one-legged pedal strokes.

(Another one of those rides where I wish I had a basket to pick up all of the stuff which was discarded on the course. Danny Turner said he saw a wad of money on the road...dude, you didn't stop!?)

T2 - much shorter than the lead-in from the swim, thank goodness. Yes, I had to walk the bike through the entire transition area, but since there was low grass, smooth gravel & carpeting it was fairly quick & painless. Took the time to kill off the 20-ounce bottle of Gatorade Endurance Formula I picked up at the third bottle exchange - part of the 60 ounces of fluid taken on the bike course to supplement the 60 ounces (40 of Accelerade/Hammer Gel/water mixture, 20 of straight water) I carried on board - and hit the head.

So the answer, Mimi, is: No. No peeing on the bike. I waited until T2.

Run - 13.1 miles - 2:22
Regardless of whatever plans you make, the run leg of a triathlon is uncomfortable. It all depends on how you define uncomfortable. Compared to my previous half-iron experience, this was not so much a kick in the groin as a slap very, very close to it. The first & second miles were just plain awful, but I knew that was going to happen. That's why (most) people do transition runs, or bricks. The warmth of the run course in downtown Augusta made it almost necessary to play it cautious; I already planned to walk through the aid stations which were located about every two kilometers on the course in order to take enough fluids to forestall cramping. Things seemed to work well until mile four, then the wheels fell off. They did not fall off like my previous half, where I walked for a solid hour; they fell off closely enough to the wagon I could pick them up & replace them. And replace them, I did. Every other block for the next three miles; I tried to go further than a block, or as far as I could until the cramp would start, then I'd take a minute or a block & walk.

(How many stoopid people do you know who take a cell phone on the run at a triathlon?)

Every run course, every race course, has a point on it where the crowds are sparse or nonexistent, the view is dismal, & your body begins to debate very loudly with your mind. My point was somewhere between the sixth & seventh mile, on Reynolds Avenue, heading back toward the Augusta Rowing Club. The bad news was I developed a major cramp in my left hamstring, the kind that makes you literally pitch off to one side, hopefully into something soft & comfortable. The good news was that it stopped me dead still rather than pitching me off into the bushes along the roadway. The real good news was that a fellow participant gave me the one Hammer Endurolyte capsule she had left...which perhaps made the difference between walking/jogging the next 6 miles & just walking the next 6 miles.

And this happened at a point where at least three of the aid stations on the course were beginning to run out of cups, cold drink & sponges. I had to forego aid on the southern side of Broad Street because there were no cups whatsoever. (If you're in a later wave of a large triathlon event, consider yourself warned.)

Finish - 6:20:22
Compared to the last half-iron triathlon, I finished two minutes faster...on a less-challenging swim but a more-challenging bike. If I said I was not hoping for a quicker time, you could call me a liar. But I'm pleased with how things turned out (especially the way I feel days later - sleeping without waking up to cramps from the nether regions are a plus).

Lessons Learned/Training Foci:
Swim - more full suit-swims & resistance training - strengthen the arms for longer wetsuit swims and decrease fatigue. Able to make 1.2 in hour, so no need to panic on longer swim, just do one stroke at a time and stay focused.

Bike - check function (air/lubrication/gears/brakes) both during check-in & pre-race in transition. 90-minute bottles worked wonderfully; set-up either one 6-hour bottle or two 3-hour bottles for IM. Use aero bottle for water. A couple of 3-hour-to-4-hour road or trainer rides should work well to get comfortable in saddle.

Run - carry electrolytes of some sort in fuel belt; don't trust race course to have enough good stuff. Use HEED/Perpetuem and/or Endurolytes. Long, easy-paced (8:00min/mile) runs/ short transition runs over next weeks.

The To-Do List

2009-09-23T11:29:00.004-06:00

Inevitable. Take a day or two...or seven...from real-world employment in order to engage in a little R-and-R (or, as some folks used to say, I-and-I)...read some books, drink some coffee, straighten up some cluttered rooms...and the world suddenly figures out you're away.

As long as you're incommunicado, you're good to go. But if you have a job like my wife, where cutting edge technology is part and parcel...it's not happening. Sometimes her to-do list suddenly becomes mine. I guess that's acceptable, since she supports my training. But there's the occasional moment when you want me to be lazy, you need me to be lazy.

Looks like some of that is happening today. But it won't happen manana (sorry, I haven't figured out how to get the tilde on this keyboard). And it certainly won't happen this weekend.

Now I know why my friend Mimi enjoyed her Ironman Florida experience.

Sounds Like...

2009-09-22T12:53:00.006-06:00

There are positives & negatives to social media sites, such as Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn...I'm certain I've spoken about this before, but Sunday's Candorville strip made me laugh for a few minutes over the Sunday-(late) morning coffee!

Some of the people I know who have Facebook or MySpace accounts only post when they have something important to say. Others, I note, have too much free time on their hands, in my humble opinion; every single detail of their lives goes on the status line. They post via e-mail, on the site, and even from their cellular phone.

I too enjoy passing on some of the more humorous details of my life and my training for the entertainment of my family and friends. The ones who follow me - or that I've made a social network friend but more closely fall under the level of acquaintance - I guess they tolerate. Well, some send retorts. But it made me think about the painfully obvious question: How many people in this world really give a rat's behind about the minutiae of my - or anyone else's - training?

I'm at the point in my life where I am (75%) self-coached; it's not like I need to pass along a detailed status report to my own coach. I usually talk to him when there's a problem in my training (to quote from one of my fave Talking Heads tunes, 'how do I work this?') or when I need a second pair of eyes on a plan I'm constructing for me or one of my athletes.

So, do people really need to know how many hours I spent in training over the last seven days? Do I need to compare my workouts - in quality and in volume - against the other athletes in the immediate area? Are people going to make a comparison between us as to who is the better athlete or the better person? And, if they do, should I really to give a damn what they think?

I'd much rather lose sleep because my dog is keeping me awake than obsess over who thinks I suck bilge. Sounds like, as Shakespeare might have said, a lot of sound & fury, signifying (for damned certain...) nothing.

(EDITORIAL COMMENT-One of those cranky moments we all feel like having as part of a taper. I'll be back in a couple of days. Coach MB)

Ask Coach: Pre-Workout Snacking

2009-09-16T12:06:00.005-06:00

What is a good pre-workout snack? I tried some Raisinets before a recent workout, but wanted to get your opinion.

Take this as a do-as-I-say-not-as-I-do; nutrition is one of my weaker areas, & something which I constantly strive to improve. I think something a little less “simple sugary” – a banana or a slice of whole-grain or rye (see the article below!) toast with peanut butter & jelly (or honey!) – will stave off hunger, provide beneficial fats/protein, & not die out on you at 7 p.m.

Through the spring & early summer I had a serious fling with the mini Clif Bars, they have 100 calories per bar, & are loaded with fiber & good (natural) nuts, grains/soy, fruit. But they were so good I probably took in too many calories - a couple of hundred calories of snacking a day is fine; a couple of hundred calories of snacking three or four times a day on top of meals can do some damage. I probably took in more calories than I thought I was burning in my workouts.

Without looking at the nutritional data – if you’re looking at nutritional data to justify your snack, it’s probably not worth putting in your body, anyway - there are natural sugars in the raisins, caffeine in the chocolate…and God knows what other chemicals from the processing. So, two out of three are not bad; better than Little Debbie cakes. There was a time I would scarf on one or two of them (Oatmeal, Devils’ Food, Raisin…all evil!) a couple of hours before a track workout. Most of the time I found the short-term sugar rush was NOT worth the crash which occurred on the last set of the workout.

While I'm in the mood to talk about hunger suppression and bread, I saw this article the other day (Isaksson H, Fredriksson H, Andersson R, Olsson J and Åman P (2009), Effect of rye bread breakfasts on subjective hunger and satiety: a randomized controlled trial. Nutrition Journal 2009, 8:39, August) and thought it rather interesting:

Several studies report that dietary fiber promotes the feeling of satiety & suppresses hunger. However, results for cereal fiber from rye are essentially lacking. The researchers investigated subjective appetite during eight hours after intake of iso-caloric rye bread breakfasts varying in rye dietary fiber composition & content.

The first part of the study compared the satiating effect of iso-caloric bread breakfasts including different milling fractions of rye (bran, intermediate fraction (B4) & sifted flour). The second part investigated the dose-response effect of rye bran & intermediate rye fraction, each providing 5 or 8 grams of dietary fiber per iso-caloric bread breakfast. Both study parts used a wheat bread breakfast as reference & a randomised, within-subject comparison design. Appetite (hunger, satiety & desire to eat) was rated regularly from just before breakfast at 8:00 a.m. until 4:00 p.m. Amount, type & timing of food & drink intake were standardized during the study period.

The milling fractions study showed each of the rye breakfasts resulted in a suppressed appetite during the time period before lunch (8:30 a.m.-12:00 p.m.) compared with the wheat reference bread breakfast. At a comparison between the rye bread breakfasts the one with rye bran induced the strongest effect on satiety. In the afternoon the effect from all three rye bread breakfasts could still be seen as a decreased hunger & desire to eat compared to the wheat reference bread breakfast.

In the dose-response study both levels of rye bran & the lower level of intermediate rye fraction resulted in an increased satiety before lunch compared with the wheat reference bread breakfast. Neither the variation in composition between the milling fractions nor the different doses resulted in significant differences in any of the appetite ratings when compared with one another.

The results show rye bread can be used to decrease hunger feelings both before & after lunch when included in a breakfast meal. Rye bran induces a stronger effect on satiety than the other two rye fractions used when served in iso-caloric portions.

To Wee Or Not To Wee

2009-09-07T08:24:00.003-06:00

"You're not planning to pee on the bike, are you?"

Excuse me?

"At Ironman. Do you plan to pee while you're riding, or will you stop?"

In the vast realm of planning & execution which takes place in the months before a long-distance triathlon, I've got to admit the highly-personal choice of when, where, & how to, er, perform ablutions has not been high on the list. I've been more worried about whether I'll be able to swim well in a wetsuit, if I can change out a tire without pulling a Chrissie Wellington, whether I'll get the nutritional needs (and after a certain point in the game, wants) correct, and so on. Time trial versus road bike, aero versus vent helmet, short sleeve versus no sleeve...got it.

Worrying about whether I'll wee-wee in the wind on a winding road wasn't even a blip on the ol' radar.

A mutual friend of mine & the questioner experienced the joy of soaking ones' chamois without feeling any shame. Another friend mentioned in their race report about (willfully) releasing their bladder contents on the run. Stories abound about experienced tri-geeks using their swim warm-up to warm up inside their wetsuit...the topic of peeing on (or is that down?) the bike leg is one of the most requested replays on a long-distance triathlon podcast hosted by a friend of mine.

Since the bike leg of my goal triathlons are going to comprise at least fifty percent of the time I spend out on the course, it might be a good idea to consider what I'm going to do. Of course, the plan has much to do with what waste needs to be discarded. Number two is going to require a trip to the box...boxen stop, as my friend Christian would say. However, I think it depends on what I've taken in during the 24 hours prior to the race. Probably prudent to limit my calories to those food items which are more liquid in nature during that period of time. Save the pizza for those moments of celebration/recapitulation once I'm reunited with my gear and my wife.

Until then, to borrow from the bard of Avon: 'to wee...or not to wee on the fly...that is the question.'