Indoor TriUMah

The training season fast approaches, beginning Feb 16th. Before that, arrives the indoor triathlon at the local university. It will be the first time I have ever participated in such an event. It appears to be quite popular with frozen locals who are faced with a few more months of indoor training.

The race, run by Lifetime, no doubt has all the usual flavor. Lots of peacocking from the big boys looking to impress each other with their fast times - in actual fact it's distance in this format. Plenty of first timers and hopefully lots of good humor between the racers. The event has a unique feel in the fact that each athlete is assigned 30 minutes in each discipline and must achieve the furthest possible distance during each segment. An early test of how the winter has gone. For me, a good laugh with some fellow triathletes and a nice high intensity training session. Not much to expect, but who doesn't just love a free t-shirt!?

Feeling tired going in to this. Have been focusing closely on lots of strength training and keeping all my sessions to 1 hour or less, before it all gets out of hand in a few weeks. Haven't been in the pool recently, so diving in will be fascinating at the start of this race.

It might be a little chaotic. Arrive home at 1020am for a 1245am race start. Here's hoping my flights are on time! I will make a feeble attempt to review how the race goes. In any event, I will report back when IM training begins in earnest.

Good luck to us all!

Under the weather

It's been quite the start to 2014. Mother Nature has aided and hindered my training for the first two weeks.

The temperatures have plummeted to all time lows and work, as a result, has a been quite dynamic. This has led to a distinctive lengthening of the work day, shortening of the training opportunities and even less time for recovery from the sessions. Stress levels of this unwelcome start to the new year has also played havoc with my body's ability to rebound.

Seemingly unrelated, mother nature has led, as perhaps with many amateur athletes, to a certain amount of over-training, or as is more appropriate, under recovering. It's been preached on here many times, the importance of emphasizing recovery. However, it is often very enlightening to experience how hard it is to practice what you preach. Yet again I have found myself run down and excessively. It's easy to think that only running an hour, or strength training for an hour or spinning for an hour is not the fatiguing. What has been fatiguing is the intensity practiced during those sessions, experimenting with different style of workouts that can be incorporated in to the upcoming training season. However, by doing so, a continued high intensity 60 minute session following a long work day, will lead to under-recovery. Becoming caught up in the fun of experimenting with these new found hour workouts is easily blinding to such a result.

Yet, as the story of David and Goliath has taught many generations of school children, the weakness of a situation can easily become a strength. Having taken three days in a row off - one dedicated to sleep. One to ensure I recovered and an additional day for good measure – the body has bounced back as it invariably does, allowing me to enter the final phase prior to beginning training well rested and somewhat fatigue free. Additionally, it has also reaffirmed my commitment to Dr Maffetone's method of training for endurance. You must train within yourself if you are to arrive wel rested and race ready. That requires a disciplined approach to controlling your impulses and not always reacting to your peers when training. As I seem to read more and more these days, in numerous articles in activity related glossy print, recovery is key, whether you are a pro or amateur. It's senseless gaining that extra yard and then arrive at the race injured or fatigued. It's been occurring for decades. It is frequently sympathized with that so and so didn't make it because they are injured, but perhaps a more appropriate statement would be “why is so and so injured and not able to start?” Injuries frequently occur as a result of the athlete ignoring their bodies and pushing beyond their daily limits. “Daily” because to often each day's limits will very greatly. We are naturally driven to train for ultimate performance, however a time for that attitude is race day, to push the limits. Training is to ensure that you arrive at that on that day ready to perform to that extreme. It isn't to try to discover that ability everyday, although when training with Napoleon, or any of the other reprobates that are nice enough to keep me company during the season, it can be hard to resist the pull of the competitive drive.

This blog serves the purpose to enable experience based learning. There is a popular phrase in my profession that can be well used here. We hope that our bag full of luck doesn't run out before our bag full of experience is filled. As we age, that bag of luck becomes lighter and lighter and we must dive in to the bag of experience to ensure we call on the bag of luck less and less.

Good luck to us all!

Twerk, Hash and Selfie

The New Year is upon us. Many people have spent this last year making new words and working towards 2014 in order to create even more ridiculous words. I may have spent 2013 taking many "selfies" in order to chronicle my training, but luckily I have not used the word in earnest.

Even thought twerking could be a good core workout, I feel that most of the time, be it by myself or with witnesses, I would simply create animosity if attempted. That only leaves hashtag, which ultimately means something completely different a few decades ago. However, now we find ourselves, me included, held in the vice grip of trends that need to be perpetuated with a hastag. No longer are we getting high from a hashtag, simply being social.

That said, none of this pertains to 2014 and the quest for the third Ironman. An iron distance race is tough, just by itself. Throw in altitude and summer sun and it will be exponentially more challenging. However, these kind of conditions bring out the community spirit within the triathlon world. Allow me to tell you a story.

Not a million weeks ago, I had a passenger board one of the flights I was working wearing a Ironman Lake Tahoe finisher jacket. When I see this type of finisher jacket I often take the time to converse and share stories. When I see one from Lake Tahoe an effort is particularly made. The unique thing about this gentleman was his extreme stutter. This provided a little awkwardness as I tried to chat about his extreme experience that was said to be had by many during that race and he struggled to describe what he went through. However, the eagerness I held to hear the story, made me hold passengers up so I could block the aisle and listen to the man. The experience, as simple as this story may appear, did not end there. My co-worker teased me as she said the gentleman had asked for a piece of paper and pen to write some words down. She ribbed me that he was writing an ironman love letter. What he in fact did was probably exactly that. Having heard about my quest for Ironman Boulder, my co-iron triathlete, who lived in Boulder took the time to note down the key ingredients of mistakes not to make in August. What a generous thing to take the time to complete for a complete stranger.

This is something that is particularly endearing about the triathlon community. There certainly are some numpties out there, but much of the time we find a lot of positives out there. Triathletes such as this man really keep my inspiration and motivation to continue putting my body through these experiences. If I can pass on this kind of inspiration to anyone else, as this man has done for me, then it makes it that much more worthwhile. 

Training begins, in earnest, February 16th. Hopefully this year, with a little motivation from a virtual coach. Another year of "firsts" await, preferably without any new words frivolously added to the Oxford Dictionary. 

Good luck to us all!