How much training does one need to do in order to really race an IM?
As a coach I should have a definitive answer to this question. But I don't. I have had three different coaches, I have trained for and completed 4 Ironman races, and I've coached athletes of mine to do the same, I have read copious books about training and I have completed gobs of course work on the matter. I have been at this for quite a long time now. But I still don't know the answer, or even if there IS an answer.
It's a question that intrigues me--or plagues me--depending on when you ask it. I'm not talking about the training volume required to complete an IM. I think that question is less interesting. I'm talking about the training required to actually compete in an IM; attempting to race the thing and get to the end in as quick a time possible.
There seem to be two general camps when it comes to training for IM: I call them the Volumists and the Qualitiers. Oh sure, there are folks who stand between the two, but in general I find triathletes lean to one side or the other.
The Volumists believe that a great IM time cannot be achieved without logging the necessary hours. What is "necessary" is up to debate, but generally people in this camp get in and/or prescribe plenty of 20-25 hour weeks. The volume isn't necessarily intense. In fact, it can't be if the hours are to be gotten in each week, week after week.
The Qualitiers believe in "quality." They use terms like junk miles to describe the copious zone 1 runs and rides completed by volumists. They use words like precision, targeted and focused to describe their own training. They complete IM after only hitting 20 hours, or close to it, a very few times in the weeks leading up to the race.
There is so much that is complex about this debate between quality and volume.
It is not as simple as high or low volume--zone 1 work or quality work--and I know you all know that. Age comes into play--the fact that when older we recover less quickly--which is a strike against volume for me and many of those I coach. Intensity of training is a part of this too; it is not simply a question of hours, but how those hours are achieved. And then there is the part about how you can believe in volume intellectually before your body follows suit. It takes years and years for some people to build up to the point where they can complete high volume without routinely getting sick or injured, or both. Likewise, some people can't stand much quality before they break. All quality makes for extremely tough training as well.
This was a rather long preamble to what I felt like talking about when I started this post. What I felt like writing about is my own struggle with volume. I like the idea of MORE as a general principle, and so I have always leaned toward the volume side of things. It makes sense to me that in order to train long you need to go long, and less sense to me that to go long you simply train precisely. This is not to say I don't believe in precision. I do. It's just that I don't believe precision is magic and can make up for the long hours that actually prepare one for the arduous journey that is IM.
So there you have it. I guess I am a Volumist. Interestingly, however, I have never selected a Volumist coach for myself, and I also do not coach high volume. I find it quite easy to see when one of my athletes needs a break, and I don't fear giving that break. I know that recovery can work like magic in reigniting passion for training and also for improving performance. Yet... I am obsessed with hours when it comes to my own training. I spend time comparing this year to last... am I doing more? How much more? Is it enough more?
Last week I did a lot of work. And by Sunday, I was sort of a mess. I'm angry at my body for breaking down before I am ready to stop working. Why do I break down here... at xxx? And if I can move past xxx and get to xxxx, will I do better at IMLP than I have in the past? Can't anyone promise me anything?
No. And I can't promise anything to you, either!
When we first start our journey in triathlon or running or swimming or anything... improvements abound with consistent work and recovery. But after several years.. it gets so much more tricky to figure out the puzzle of how to eek out more improvement. Do I need more hours? Do I need more rest? What do I need to get more out of myself this year than last?
And then there is the question... why do I need to get more out of myself this year than last?
And onward I go.
Monday, March 12, 2012
Thursday, March 1, 2012
Gone Fishing
Actually, I don't fish.
And anyway, it's winter. And I definitely don't ice fish, though I did grow up in Maine, where people do, in fact, go ice fishing.
My very very very first boyfriend sometimes went ice fishing. And duck hunting. And in the summer he lobstered. He had these extremely tall rubber boots he would wear to school sometimes after a morning of duck hunting. I loved those boots. Why did I love those boots?
Anyway.
I can't think of a suitable excuse as to why I haven't been blogging lately. So I will leave it as Gone Fishing.
I did write an article for a new online publication called Sparrow Magazine. My friend Emilie (editor) invited me to write it, and I am grateful. It turned out as I wanted it to, in the end, although there were moments when writing it that I wondered what the hell I was saying and where I was going with it. Anyway, thank you, Emilie. I have tried and tried to convey in my writing why triathlon is so important to me. It is hard to convey because it sort of defies logic. Why would I want to add more to an already overwhelming and busy life, and why would I take a "hobby"-so incredibly seriously?
http://www.sparrowmagazine.com/issue03/sharp-turns/
Here it is.
And anyway, it's winter. And I definitely don't ice fish, though I did grow up in Maine, where people do, in fact, go ice fishing.
My very very very first boyfriend sometimes went ice fishing. And duck hunting. And in the summer he lobstered. He had these extremely tall rubber boots he would wear to school sometimes after a morning of duck hunting. I loved those boots. Why did I love those boots?
Anyway.
I can't think of a suitable excuse as to why I haven't been blogging lately. So I will leave it as Gone Fishing.
I did write an article for a new online publication called Sparrow Magazine. My friend Emilie (editor) invited me to write it, and I am grateful. It turned out as I wanted it to, in the end, although there were moments when writing it that I wondered what the hell I was saying and where I was going with it. Anyway, thank you, Emilie. I have tried and tried to convey in my writing why triathlon is so important to me. It is hard to convey because it sort of defies logic. Why would I want to add more to an already overwhelming and busy life, and why would I take a "hobby"-so incredibly seriously?
http://www.sparrowmagazine.com/issue03/sharp-turns/
Here it is.
Monday, February 6, 2012
You Gotta Have Faith
Having a good race doesn't just happen. There's a recipe for good racing, and usually the ingredients need to be in place and mixed correctly in order for the race to come out right.
I raced yesterday. I didn't have all those ingredients in place. In fact, looking at this homespun list, I actually think none of the ingredients were in place. Still, I secretly hoped for a good outcome. You never know when the recipe is going to just randomly work--even if you didn't follow the directions, right?
(Are you sick of this analogy yet? Me too. I'll can it now. It's just become less than appetizing. I cant stomach it anymore!)
Anyway.
Here's what's interesting: even if you know the ingredients aren't in place, if you're like me, you're still disappointed when the result isn't spectacular. I'm sure this disappointment is annoying to those people who must deal with me and my whining. Nevertheless, I feel the need to foist my disappointment on said people (read Andy, Kurt, Ange...) AND you out there in Bloggy-Land! Sorry guys.
Just to annoy you further, I will itemize my lack of proper ingredients/preparation for this race. I will start at the top of my special list, and work my way down.
1. I have been training. I have been getting in all my workouts, with focus and as prescribed. So that is good. The only problem is my training has been focused on building a very solid foundation for my IM this summer. It hasn't been focused on racing a 10 mile road race.
2. I had two bowls of Wheat Chex with raisins before the race, which isn't perfect, but for me, it's fine, because it is akin to what I eat before many of my morning workouts. My problem was in forgetting to bring water or sport drink with me to the race. I actually felt thirsty during warm up, which is never a good sign. When I got in from warm-up I went into what I thought was Ange's stuff and took a big swig from her water bottle. Some guy looked at me really strangely while I did this. Later I learned that Ange had no idea who the water bottle belonged to.
oops.
I had a gel before the run. Without water. I brought a gel with me to take at mile 6, also, but then mile 6 came and went and I didn't take it.
Bad move.
I also took in no water or sport drink during the race.
Why did I fail to take in any sugar or drink during the race? I'm not sure. Self sabotage perhaps. Maybe just race-induced stupidity. Maybe both. I think my reasoning was that I shouldn't need much in a 70 minute race. This is true. But I know me... and I do need something in a 70 minute, all-out race.
3. It's a luxury to be fresh and tapered for any race but your A race, in my opinion. I don't expect to be fully rested in a race that is just "for fun" and I also know that even when I'm not fully rested I can often pull out a pretty result IF I have the right mind-set. Not this time.
4. I wanted to run sub 7s. I have done nothing close to sub 7 in my training recently, however, save during a few well-placed, down-hill strides. I did take the race out in sub 7. That was pretty much the only mile that was at that pace, however. Again,I should be clear. Just because I had not been training in the sub 7's doesn't mean I couldn't run that pace.
But I didn't run that pace, and I guess that's all there is to say about that.
Okay. I have finally arrived at what I want to write about! Took me long enough.
When you have a race that doesn't go as well as you'd hoped it would, you often learn something. Here's what I learned in this race:
You Gotta Have Faith. (Thanks be to George Michael.) I knew this before the race, but I learned it anew when reflecting on why the race didn't go very well.
Whether you have prepared appropriately or not, you MUST have faith that you can race hard and do well, NO. MATTER.WHAT. If you allow yourself to detail the reasons you shouldn't race well (as I have done so above) you will sabotage your race before you even hit your first quarter mile. In my opinion, the reason to prepare well for a race by adhering to the principles of good racing prep is, ironically, less about your actual preparation and more about knowing you have done what you needed to do. What does it take for YOU to believe you can race well? A good taper? A good breakfast? A pair of good luck socks? Does it matter?
No. What matters is that you believe. You must believe that you can crush the race, and you must not allow anything to puncture holes in that faith.
Going into this race I did not have faith. Maybe I had good reasons not to have faith, but what I want to make clear is that I truly believe the reason I did not race well has mostly to do with this lack of faith--and not my lack of race preparation. I raced poorly before I even took my first step on the course, because I did not believe I would race well.
Linked closely to faith is fight. During the race, even in a sprint that lasts under a minute, there will be moments that your faith gets shaken. For me, it first happened at mile 2 when my super- fast friend Stacy, silently and with assurance, passed me, and didn't look back. She had the faith. And her faith rocked my faith... which was barely in existence in the first place. A wave of hopelessness passed over me, and I did not fight it.
You must fight it. The minute your faith lapses you must see it for its ugly self, and you must hammer it back into submission. I often find that getting angry helps. WTF! I see you Stacy! I'm going to get you! Let's go, body! Let's go! And welling inside me I can feel the fight and the faith return. On Sunday, however, because my faith was so lacking, I could not, or would not, fight. I let Stacy go. And she went on to crush the race, and I went on to fall further and further behind her.
And so that is what I learned. Whether you are ready to race or not, you better come equipped with faith and fight. If that's not in place.... why bother?
I must pat myself on the back for the moments my faith and fight did show up during this race. When I could conjure it I did have stretches of running relatively well, and the result was that I eked out a 1:12... which isn't a PR, not even close, but is respectable enough (for me) not to want to hide myself under a rock. And today I went to the pool and tore up 3800 yards to make up for the stretches of faithlessness that soured my race yesterday.
And now I'm hungry to race again and make all this lack of faith and fight shit right again. You really do get something out of your bad races, you know?
You may note I did not yet reflect on the final ingredient on my list: sock choice. Perhaps not quite as important as faith and fight, sock choice is something to think carefully about prior to racing.
For this race I chose to wear my Sock Guy Donut Socks.
I selected them because they matched my current running/racing shoes, which are black and pink. However, they are not good luck socks, and this is where I went wrong. I have used them in training and I have never run well in them. I'm quite sure it's subliminal. The donuty mindset is one of sugary indulgence. Really... is that what I was aiming for on Sunday? I think not.
Better to wear tried and true socks... like my Speed Socks, which have proven repeatedly to be good luck when training and racing and also send an appropriate, if somewhat sassy, subliminal message to my legs.
My cat socks may have been another sound choice. Though still relatively new, these socks have proved themselves worthy of racing after allowing me to perform very well in several recent workouts. They are also fun and attaching grabbing... which is always good, I believe. Of course, neither my speed nor my cat socks matched my black and pink shoes, which was obviously extremely problematic.
Probably the best choice would have been my Gnomies, which matched somewhat, since they are black, and which have provided me with great luck recently when biking outside. Plus, I just like the idea that I am racing with my Gnomies...
My point is only that a final thing to think carefully about before you race is the sock that will both match your shoes/outfit, provide you with good luck and send an appropriate subliminal message to your legs and body. Such things cannot be overlooked. You can be sure I won't make the Donut sock mistake again.
Race on.
- You need to train adequately, if not exceptionally.
- You need to fuel correctly before and during the race.
- You need to go into the race fresh, tapered, and not having been sick in the week leading up to the race.
- You need to pace the race intelligently--based on how you have been running in training recently, as opposed to how you want to have been running recently.
- You need to have faith.
- You need to have fight.
- While racing, your faith and fight cannot waver for longer than a millionth of a second before you put them back into their correct place.
- You need to wear the right socks.
I raced yesterday. I didn't have all those ingredients in place. In fact, looking at this homespun list, I actually think none of the ingredients were in place. Still, I secretly hoped for a good outcome. You never know when the recipe is going to just randomly work--even if you didn't follow the directions, right?
(Are you sick of this analogy yet? Me too. I'll can it now. It's just become less than appetizing. I cant stomach it anymore!)
Anyway.
Here's what's interesting: even if you know the ingredients aren't in place, if you're like me, you're still disappointed when the result isn't spectacular. I'm sure this disappointment is annoying to those people who must deal with me and my whining. Nevertheless, I feel the need to foist my disappointment on said people (read Andy, Kurt, Ange...) AND you out there in Bloggy-Land! Sorry guys.
Just to annoy you further, I will itemize my lack of proper ingredients/preparation for this race. I will start at the top of my special list, and work my way down.
1. I have been training. I have been getting in all my workouts, with focus and as prescribed. So that is good. The only problem is my training has been focused on building a very solid foundation for my IM this summer. It hasn't been focused on racing a 10 mile road race.
2. I had two bowls of Wheat Chex with raisins before the race, which isn't perfect, but for me, it's fine, because it is akin to what I eat before many of my morning workouts. My problem was in forgetting to bring water or sport drink with me to the race. I actually felt thirsty during warm up, which is never a good sign. When I got in from warm-up I went into what I thought was Ange's stuff and took a big swig from her water bottle. Some guy looked at me really strangely while I did this. Later I learned that Ange had no idea who the water bottle belonged to.
oops.
I had a gel before the run. Without water. I brought a gel with me to take at mile 6, also, but then mile 6 came and went and I didn't take it.
Bad move.
I also took in no water or sport drink during the race.
Why did I fail to take in any sugar or drink during the race? I'm not sure. Self sabotage perhaps. Maybe just race-induced stupidity. Maybe both. I think my reasoning was that I shouldn't need much in a 70 minute race. This is true. But I know me... and I do need something in a 70 minute, all-out race.
3. It's a luxury to be fresh and tapered for any race but your A race, in my opinion. I don't expect to be fully rested in a race that is just "for fun" and I also know that even when I'm not fully rested I can often pull out a pretty result IF I have the right mind-set. Not this time.
4. I wanted to run sub 7s. I have done nothing close to sub 7 in my training recently, however, save during a few well-placed, down-hill strides. I did take the race out in sub 7. That was pretty much the only mile that was at that pace, however. Again,I should be clear. Just because I had not been training in the sub 7's doesn't mean I couldn't run that pace.
But I didn't run that pace, and I guess that's all there is to say about that.
Okay. I have finally arrived at what I want to write about! Took me long enough.
When you have a race that doesn't go as well as you'd hoped it would, you often learn something. Here's what I learned in this race:
You Gotta Have Faith. (Thanks be to George Michael.) I knew this before the race, but I learned it anew when reflecting on why the race didn't go very well.
Whether you have prepared appropriately or not, you MUST have faith that you can race hard and do well, NO. MATTER.WHAT. If you allow yourself to detail the reasons you shouldn't race well (as I have done so above) you will sabotage your race before you even hit your first quarter mile. In my opinion, the reason to prepare well for a race by adhering to the principles of good racing prep is, ironically, less about your actual preparation and more about knowing you have done what you needed to do. What does it take for YOU to believe you can race well? A good taper? A good breakfast? A pair of good luck socks? Does it matter?
No. What matters is that you believe. You must believe that you can crush the race, and you must not allow anything to puncture holes in that faith.
Going into this race I did not have faith. Maybe I had good reasons not to have faith, but what I want to make clear is that I truly believe the reason I did not race well has mostly to do with this lack of faith--and not my lack of race preparation. I raced poorly before I even took my first step on the course, because I did not believe I would race well.
Linked closely to faith is fight. During the race, even in a sprint that lasts under a minute, there will be moments that your faith gets shaken. For me, it first happened at mile 2 when my super- fast friend Stacy, silently and with assurance, passed me, and didn't look back. She had the faith. And her faith rocked my faith... which was barely in existence in the first place. A wave of hopelessness passed over me, and I did not fight it.
You must fight it. The minute your faith lapses you must see it for its ugly self, and you must hammer it back into submission. I often find that getting angry helps. WTF! I see you Stacy! I'm going to get you! Let's go, body! Let's go! And welling inside me I can feel the fight and the faith return. On Sunday, however, because my faith was so lacking, I could not, or would not, fight. I let Stacy go. And she went on to crush the race, and I went on to fall further and further behind her.
And so that is what I learned. Whether you are ready to race or not, you better come equipped with faith and fight. If that's not in place.... why bother?
I must pat myself on the back for the moments my faith and fight did show up during this race. When I could conjure it I did have stretches of running relatively well, and the result was that I eked out a 1:12... which isn't a PR, not even close, but is respectable enough (for me) not to want to hide myself under a rock. And today I went to the pool and tore up 3800 yards to make up for the stretches of faithlessness that soured my race yesterday.
And now I'm hungry to race again and make all this lack of faith and fight shit right again. You really do get something out of your bad races, you know?
You may note I did not yet reflect on the final ingredient on my list: sock choice. Perhaps not quite as important as faith and fight, sock choice is something to think carefully about prior to racing.
For this race I chose to wear my Sock Guy Donut Socks.
Better to wear tried and true socks... like my Speed Socks, which have proven repeatedly to be good luck when training and racing and also send an appropriate, if somewhat sassy, subliminal message to my legs.
My point is only that a final thing to think carefully about before you race is the sock that will both match your shoes/outfit, provide you with good luck and send an appropriate subliminal message to your legs and body. Such things cannot be overlooked. You can be sure I won't make the Donut sock mistake again.
Race on.
Thursday, February 2, 2012
How You Know You are Getting OLD
An easy way to determine this is to simply look at your next birthday fast approaching. If you're like me, you no longer cherish you birthday. Or I should say, in the first moment you think on your birthday you experience a certain warmth, followed by an almost immediate bittersweet wave of angst. Another year bites the dust. And yes, you were alive, kicking, and attempting to listen to it in reverse when that classic song hit number 1 on Casey Kasem's American Top 40. Am I right?
Yep. You're old.
There are other ways to determine you are getting on in years--a few uplifting, but mostly extremely depressing. Recently Alina and I, over cups of hot coffee and scrambled eggs, discussed qualities that manifest as one ages, and came up with a list to share with you. Here it is. I'm sure you could add a few good ones to this list. Please feel free to do so in your comments.
1. After a morning swim you look in the mirror and witness goggle marks so deep you know you will spend the day explaining that NO, you are not extremely tired or sick. You just have permanent indentations in your eyeball sockets from wearing goggles. And no, you don't wear them too tightly. It's just because you are OLD.
2. You look in the mirror and notice that you are growing sideburns, and you are a woman.
3. You constantly are on the verge of throwing out your back. Or you neck. Or your knee. And then you must discuss this fact ad nauseum with anyone who will listen--most likely another old person who knows what you are going through and can compete and compare with his own old people ailments.
4.While sitting in a work meeting your brush your hand to your chin and feel a CHIN hair. You begin to panic. Is it long? Is it black? You notice yourself covering your chin with your hand and excusing yourself to go to the lavatory so you can pluck that mother fucker out. right. now. Yep, getting old.
5. You begin to think that drinking Metamucil on a daily basis is actually a very good idea.
6. You carry a really tacky dog purse.
Exhibit A.
(This was Alina's, naturally, in reference to my lovely purse choice of recent months.)
More accurately, you no longer give a rip if someone--anyone--thinks you're a tool for carrying the bag you carry, the shoes you wear, the brand of your jeans you have on etc and so on. In fact, you relish carrying a tacky dog purse because you spent so many years caring way too much about that stupid fashion shit.
7. You find yourself buying ridiculously expensive facial creams and half believing that they will make you look younger if you just stick to the "regime" described by the skin "clinician".
8. You develop bunions. And they are really ugly. And they make it hurt to wear funky cowboy boots or sexy heels, or really any attractive, made for a young-person-without-bunions type shoe. So you wear slippers or clogs. And that's it. Even at work.
9. You find a white pubic hair.
10. You knick yourself shaving and it takes three weeks to heal.
11. You appear to be developing elephant knees.
12. You go into a room, wonder why you are there, leave the room, remember what you needed, return to the room, forget why you are there. And so on.
13. You continually find skin tags in odd places like in your arm pit or by your left ear.
14. Staying up late means you are up past 10 p.m. on a weekend night.
15. You fall sound asleep at 9 pm. and awake at 2:30 a.m. You don't fall asleep again until 5:30 a.m. Fifteen minutes later your alarm goes off and it it's time to start the day.
16. You drive a minivan. And your second car is a Prius.
17. You worry those night sweats you are having are the first stage of menopause and not just because your husband throws the covers off himself and onto you in the middle of the night.
18. Going out for drinks with the girls actually means meeting them at 6:30 pm on a Tuesday evening at a local restaurant in the burbs, having one glass of wine and dinner, and returning home by 9:00 p.m.
19. You look at your hands and think, Wow. Those are old people hands.
20. You thank those who card you profusely, and say things like, Oh, You don't have to do that. So thoughtful... And you find yourself frequenting the establishment just in the hopes that said carding will happen again.
21. Everything you remember from your high school and college days is now considered "retro".
22. You have forsaken plucking out white hairs in favor of just dying your whole damn head. Enough already. The white has won.
++++++++++++++++++++
Okay. Enough of that.
Here is my training update:
I have been training.
Some days I feel uber confident. Somedays I feel like I should just throw in the towel, get fat, and can this IM stuff.
But I keep trucking along, hoping I will see the IM result on 7/22 that I so desperately want and have worked for these last few years.
Old lady or not.
Yep. You're old.
There are other ways to determine you are getting on in years--a few uplifting, but mostly extremely depressing. Recently Alina and I, over cups of hot coffee and scrambled eggs, discussed qualities that manifest as one ages, and came up with a list to share with you. Here it is. I'm sure you could add a few good ones to this list. Please feel free to do so in your comments.
How You Know You are Getting Really Fucking Old
1. After a morning swim you look in the mirror and witness goggle marks so deep you know you will spend the day explaining that NO, you are not extremely tired or sick. You just have permanent indentations in your eyeball sockets from wearing goggles. And no, you don't wear them too tightly. It's just because you are OLD.
2. You look in the mirror and notice that you are growing sideburns, and you are a woman.
3. You constantly are on the verge of throwing out your back. Or you neck. Or your knee. And then you must discuss this fact ad nauseum with anyone who will listen--most likely another old person who knows what you are going through and can compete and compare with his own old people ailments.
4.While sitting in a work meeting your brush your hand to your chin and feel a CHIN hair. You begin to panic. Is it long? Is it black? You notice yourself covering your chin with your hand and excusing yourself to go to the lavatory so you can pluck that mother fucker out. right. now. Yep, getting old.
5. You begin to think that drinking Metamucil on a daily basis is actually a very good idea.
6. You carry a really tacky dog purse.
Exhibit A.
More accurately, you no longer give a rip if someone--anyone--thinks you're a tool for carrying the bag you carry, the shoes you wear, the brand of your jeans you have on etc and so on. In fact, you relish carrying a tacky dog purse because you spent so many years caring way too much about that stupid fashion shit.
7. You find yourself buying ridiculously expensive facial creams and half believing that they will make you look younger if you just stick to the "regime" described by the skin "clinician".
8. You develop bunions. And they are really ugly. And they make it hurt to wear funky cowboy boots or sexy heels, or really any attractive, made for a young-person-without-bunions type shoe. So you wear slippers or clogs. And that's it. Even at work.
9. You find a white pubic hair.
10. You knick yourself shaving and it takes three weeks to heal.
11. You appear to be developing elephant knees.
12. You go into a room, wonder why you are there, leave the room, remember what you needed, return to the room, forget why you are there. And so on.
13. You continually find skin tags in odd places like in your arm pit or by your left ear.
14. Staying up late means you are up past 10 p.m. on a weekend night.
15. You fall sound asleep at 9 pm. and awake at 2:30 a.m. You don't fall asleep again until 5:30 a.m. Fifteen minutes later your alarm goes off and it it's time to start the day.
16. You drive a minivan. And your second car is a Prius.
17. You worry those night sweats you are having are the first stage of menopause and not just because your husband throws the covers off himself and onto you in the middle of the night.
18. Going out for drinks with the girls actually means meeting them at 6:30 pm on a Tuesday evening at a local restaurant in the burbs, having one glass of wine and dinner, and returning home by 9:00 p.m.
19. You look at your hands and think, Wow. Those are old people hands.
20. You thank those who card you profusely, and say things like, Oh, You don't have to do that. So thoughtful... And you find yourself frequenting the establishment just in the hopes that said carding will happen again.
21. Everything you remember from your high school and college days is now considered "retro".
22. You have forsaken plucking out white hairs in favor of just dying your whole damn head. Enough already. The white has won.
++++++++++++++++++++
Okay. Enough of that.
Here is my training update:
I have been training.
Some days I feel uber confident. Somedays I feel like I should just throw in the towel, get fat, and can this IM stuff.
But I keep trucking along, hoping I will see the IM result on 7/22 that I so desperately want and have worked for these last few years.
Old lady or not.
Friday, January 27, 2012
Why Swimming Training is Important in Tri
My vow for 2012 (or one of them) was to blog more consistently.
You'd think I'd learn after 41.5 years on this planet that making any kind of resolution, especially one dictated on January 1, will result in FAIL. Had I not made that commitment I likely would have posted every day for the last month.
Anyway.
I wanna write about swimming.
And triathlon.
And how so many triathletes create reasons why blowing off swim training in favor of other training, or even in favor of no training, makes sense.
I, for one, have had enough of this view. Enough! Triathlon consists of three athletic disciplines, and one of them is swimming. If you don't like to swim, or you don't want to train the swim, or even if you don't have the time to swim because you need to spend every ounce of your limited free time on the bike and run, become a duathlete and shut the fuck up.
What follows is my diatribe against the powers that believe swim training is expendable. My arguments are based in logic, not research, so are easily attack-able. Still, I'm right. Just saying.
It might be true that no one ever won a triathlon by crushing the swim portion of a triathlon (although I think I could argue that, in fact, some races HAVE been won on the swim--(namely by Angela Bancroft, ranked number 4 in her AG this year by USAT, btw... ). It is also true, however, that races have been lost on the swim. (I lost a sprint just last year because an ITU girl out-swam me, for example. Although I posted faster times than she did on the bike and run, I was never able to catch her after my mediocre swim and her devastatingly fast one.) So to those of you who are blowing off the swim in your training, I say get your scrawny little running and biking heinies over to the pool, or you will be one of those losers. I promise.
Here are the arguments against swimming:
Reason #1:
You swim for like an hour--maybe 1.5 hours in a long course tri.
You bike for like 5+ hours.
You run for like 3+ hours.
Hence, you should spend far less time training the swim (or no time, according to some) than the bike and the run.
Reason #2:
If you are a 1:15 or faster swimmer for IM, you probably won't get much faster even if you train the swim very hard and consistently. (I'm not sure where this reasoning originated, but it seems quite popular...)The possible time gain on IM day is not worth the training hours put in to achieve that time gain.
Reason #3:
Swimming is all technique. You don't need fitness to swim fast--you just need "to be efficient in the water." Therefore, you should spend limited time in the pool, and when you are there, you should only work on your technique.
There are probably other stated reasons to blow off swim training. However, I think these are the most common arguments triathletes use to justify it.
Here's why the aforementioned reasons are total bullshit:
1. Okay, this one isn't total bullshit. You should spend more time training the bike and run (especially the bike) than the swim. Most long course triathletes I know (who believe in swimming) swim between 3-5 hours a week, and usually not longer than that. Most of these same triathletes spend considerably more than 3-5 hours each week on the bike and run, however. That said, if you are racing long course and only logging about 3000-4000 yards of slog each week, or worse, somehow justifying not swimming at all, you can be quite sure your swim will suck come race day.
Long course racing is about persevering over fatigue. The training we do serves to condition both our bodies and minds to deal with the exhaustion of going and going and going.... The goal is to make it to each leg of the race still completely intact and ready to meet the demands of the remaining part of the race. The swim only lasts between 1-2 hours for nearly all long course athletes, but the amount of energy you expend on the swim directly affects the energy you have in reserve for the bike and run. Of course it does! If you swim minimally in training you go into the swim portion of the race both physically and mentally under-prepared to swim hard for an hour +. You exit the water battered, bruised, exhausted and with a shit swim time to boot. Conversely, if you spend even just 3 hours a week training the swim year round, you can be assured that you will have the confidence and the stamina to insure your swim is of little consequence in terms of fatigue expenditure. You want to come out of the water feeling like your swim was just a blip--a little warm up to the rest of the day. If you don't train the swim then that is NOT how you will experience the swim on race day. Don't feed me bullshit about how this is not true... I don't care who you are or what kind of a swimmer you are. If you don't do any work on your swim, the swim will kick your ass, and you will prematurely exhaust yourself before 8 am on race day.
What I think is funny is that you never hear the argument that you should bike and run in favor of the swim from swimmers turned triathletes. Swimmers know that to swim even slightly fast you need to spend TONS of time in the water.
Let's compare Michael Phelps and Kara Goucher in terms of training time.
Phelps, according to most sources, swims an average of 8 miles a day (13,200 yards), 50 miles a week (about 80,000) yards and spend more than 30 hours a week training. Phelps swims many events, but his longest event is usually the 400 meter IM. The 400 meter IM--for Phelps--lasts just over FOUR MINUTES. Yet he trains 30 hours a week. Of course, he is also expected to swim many events, all out, in any given meet. That requires a stamina that requires extensive training for sure.
Now let's take Goucher. From what I could find, Goucher runs between 110-120 miles per week for a total of 11-13 hours of run time. She also does Pilates and strength work, which brings her weekly training up to, at most, 18-20 hours per week. Yet Goucher's longest event? 2 hours and 25 minutes. So Goucher trains at least 33% fewer hours per week on her discipline than Phelps does on his, but she spends 36 TIMES more time running during her key event than Phelps does competing in his. Don't you find that interesting? And what do you think it says about volume needed to swim well versus volume need to run well??
And, of course, running is much harder on the body than swimming. She can't spend as much time logging miles as Phelps can/does logging meters.
But wait, did you just read that?
Could it be that perhaps we should be spending MORE TIME IN the pool building sport specific aerobic and upper body strength, b/c we simply can't spend that much time on the run without risking injury? And is it also possible that swim training requires a much higher ratio of training to racing time in order to achieve at a high level than running does? Methinks... perhaps....
Okay, onto negating reason #2.
I'm not sure who decided that 1:15 was the magic number, but some folks seem to believe that if you can swim an open water 2.4 mile swim in 1:15 or faster, you won't make any more significant gains in terms of swim speed unless you log a lot more time. That time, the time it would take to make you faster than 1:15, would be better spent training the bike or the run. The reasoning, it seems, is that if you don't spend extra time swimming you can MAINTAIN that 1:15. You then put that extra time toward the bike and run, resulting in a gain of speed in those two disciplines.
Here's the problem. You can't just maintain a 1:15 when you don't swim enough. Let me explain. If you finish in 1:15, I'm sorry, you are not a "swimmer." You may have swam when you were a kid on a rec team, or you may have worked steadily to improve a swim you learned as an adult. But if you swam competitively through high school, and definitely if you swam through college, you can complete an IM swim in much, much faster than 1:15. It is possible that a swimmer with a competitive background who can swim sub one hour with solid swim training might be able to get away with limited swim training and complete an IM swim in 1:05 or so. (This does not take into consideration the amount of fatigue--fatigue that would affect the bike and run--accrued in doing so, of course.) However, an adult who does not have a competitive background in swimming who has improved her/his swim to a 1:15 per sheer work and will, will bomb the IM swim without continuous proper swim training. This is because they do not have that competitive background (read experience) in the sport, and hence have no foundation from which to draw. Without consistent training to maintain it, that 1:15 devolves quickly into a 1:25--or a 1:35-- or slower. And last I checked there were very few athletes on the podium with swims that slow... even if their bikes and runs did rock the house.
Finally, reason #3.
If you are a part of a masters group that has a coach who WATCHES you swim day in and out, then you might make improvements in your swim technique. You also might make improvements if you take the time to study swim videos online and bring that visual knowledge to your training, and try to implement it. However, I can pretty much guarantee that if you do drills to improve your technique--alone--with no one watching to critique you--you are wasting your time. People who swim well have worked for years on both their fitness AND their technique, but they have done so with the help of a coach, or a group, or careful study. If you don't have a coach or you aren't studying online videos of excellent swimmers, your technique will not improve. Developing better swim technique requires time--and if you are blowing off swimming in favor of the bike and run, well obviously you are not doing that, right? That said, you can have excellent technique but still be slow if you don't develop any swim fitness. Granted, you won't be as slow as the person who has no technique at all, even if said person swims daily, but still, like ANY sport you need swim fitness (not bike or run fitness) to SWIM well.
I think what bothers me most about the swim less movement is that grounded within it is the idea that there might be a short cut to becoming a competitive IMer.
There's not.
You know it. I know it.
Swimming builds your upper body strength, it develops aerobic fitness without stressing joints, and most importantly, it is a PART of triathlon and triathlon training. If you're looking to try to get the most bang for your buck in terms of training time, don't fall prey to the idea that a half hour more spent on the bike each week will translate into a better race time than a half hour that SHOULD be spent on the swim. It won't.
You'd think I'd learn after 41.5 years on this planet that making any kind of resolution, especially one dictated on January 1, will result in FAIL. Had I not made that commitment I likely would have posted every day for the last month.
Anyway.
I wanna write about swimming.
And triathlon.
And how so many triathletes create reasons why blowing off swim training in favor of other training, or even in favor of no training, makes sense.
I, for one, have had enough of this view. Enough! Triathlon consists of three athletic disciplines, and one of them is swimming. If you don't like to swim, or you don't want to train the swim, or even if you don't have the time to swim because you need to spend every ounce of your limited free time on the bike and run, become a duathlete and shut the fuck up.
What follows is my diatribe against the powers that believe swim training is expendable. My arguments are based in logic, not research, so are easily attack-able. Still, I'm right. Just saying.
It might be true that no one ever won a triathlon by crushing the swim portion of a triathlon (although I think I could argue that, in fact, some races HAVE been won on the swim--(namely by Angela Bancroft, ranked number 4 in her AG this year by USAT, btw... ). It is also true, however, that races have been lost on the swim. (I lost a sprint just last year because an ITU girl out-swam me, for example. Although I posted faster times than she did on the bike and run, I was never able to catch her after my mediocre swim and her devastatingly fast one.) So to those of you who are blowing off the swim in your training, I say get your scrawny little running and biking heinies over to the pool, or you will be one of those losers. I promise.
Here are the arguments against swimming:
Reason #1:
You swim for like an hour--maybe 1.5 hours in a long course tri.
You bike for like 5+ hours.
You run for like 3+ hours.
Hence, you should spend far less time training the swim (or no time, according to some) than the bike and the run.
Reason #2:
If you are a 1:15 or faster swimmer for IM, you probably won't get much faster even if you train the swim very hard and consistently. (I'm not sure where this reasoning originated, but it seems quite popular...)The possible time gain on IM day is not worth the training hours put in to achieve that time gain.
Reason #3:
Swimming is all technique. You don't need fitness to swim fast--you just need "to be efficient in the water." Therefore, you should spend limited time in the pool, and when you are there, you should only work on your technique.
There are probably other stated reasons to blow off swim training. However, I think these are the most common arguments triathletes use to justify it.
Here's why the aforementioned reasons are total bullshit:
1. Okay, this one isn't total bullshit. You should spend more time training the bike and run (especially the bike) than the swim. Most long course triathletes I know (who believe in swimming) swim between 3-5 hours a week, and usually not longer than that. Most of these same triathletes spend considerably more than 3-5 hours each week on the bike and run, however. That said, if you are racing long course and only logging about 3000-4000 yards of slog each week, or worse, somehow justifying not swimming at all, you can be quite sure your swim will suck come race day.
Long course racing is about persevering over fatigue. The training we do serves to condition both our bodies and minds to deal with the exhaustion of going and going and going.... The goal is to make it to each leg of the race still completely intact and ready to meet the demands of the remaining part of the race. The swim only lasts between 1-2 hours for nearly all long course athletes, but the amount of energy you expend on the swim directly affects the energy you have in reserve for the bike and run. Of course it does! If you swim minimally in training you go into the swim portion of the race both physically and mentally under-prepared to swim hard for an hour +. You exit the water battered, bruised, exhausted and with a shit swim time to boot. Conversely, if you spend even just 3 hours a week training the swim year round, you can be assured that you will have the confidence and the stamina to insure your swim is of little consequence in terms of fatigue expenditure. You want to come out of the water feeling like your swim was just a blip--a little warm up to the rest of the day. If you don't train the swim then that is NOT how you will experience the swim on race day. Don't feed me bullshit about how this is not true... I don't care who you are or what kind of a swimmer you are. If you don't do any work on your swim, the swim will kick your ass, and you will prematurely exhaust yourself before 8 am on race day.
What I think is funny is that you never hear the argument that you should bike and run in favor of the swim from swimmers turned triathletes. Swimmers know that to swim even slightly fast you need to spend TONS of time in the water.
Let's compare Michael Phelps and Kara Goucher in terms of training time.
Phelps, according to most sources, swims an average of 8 miles a day (13,200 yards), 50 miles a week (about 80,000) yards and spend more than 30 hours a week training. Phelps swims many events, but his longest event is usually the 400 meter IM. The 400 meter IM--for Phelps--lasts just over FOUR MINUTES. Yet he trains 30 hours a week. Of course, he is also expected to swim many events, all out, in any given meet. That requires a stamina that requires extensive training for sure.
Now let's take Goucher. From what I could find, Goucher runs between 110-120 miles per week for a total of 11-13 hours of run time. She also does Pilates and strength work, which brings her weekly training up to, at most, 18-20 hours per week. Yet Goucher's longest event? 2 hours and 25 minutes. So Goucher trains at least 33% fewer hours per week on her discipline than Phelps does on his, but she spends 36 TIMES more time running during her key event than Phelps does competing in his. Don't you find that interesting? And what do you think it says about volume needed to swim well versus volume need to run well??
And, of course, running is much harder on the body than swimming. She can't spend as much time logging miles as Phelps can/does logging meters.
But wait, did you just read that?
Could it be that perhaps we should be spending MORE TIME IN the pool building sport specific aerobic and upper body strength, b/c we simply can't spend that much time on the run without risking injury? And is it also possible that swim training requires a much higher ratio of training to racing time in order to achieve at a high level than running does? Methinks... perhaps....
Okay, onto negating reason #2.
I'm not sure who decided that 1:15 was the magic number, but some folks seem to believe that if you can swim an open water 2.4 mile swim in 1:15 or faster, you won't make any more significant gains in terms of swim speed unless you log a lot more time. That time, the time it would take to make you faster than 1:15, would be better spent training the bike or the run. The reasoning, it seems, is that if you don't spend extra time swimming you can MAINTAIN that 1:15. You then put that extra time toward the bike and run, resulting in a gain of speed in those two disciplines.
Here's the problem. You can't just maintain a 1:15 when you don't swim enough. Let me explain. If you finish in 1:15, I'm sorry, you are not a "swimmer." You may have swam when you were a kid on a rec team, or you may have worked steadily to improve a swim you learned as an adult. But if you swam competitively through high school, and definitely if you swam through college, you can complete an IM swim in much, much faster than 1:15. It is possible that a swimmer with a competitive background who can swim sub one hour with solid swim training might be able to get away with limited swim training and complete an IM swim in 1:05 or so. (This does not take into consideration the amount of fatigue--fatigue that would affect the bike and run--accrued in doing so, of course.) However, an adult who does not have a competitive background in swimming who has improved her/his swim to a 1:15 per sheer work and will, will bomb the IM swim without continuous proper swim training. This is because they do not have that competitive background (read experience) in the sport, and hence have no foundation from which to draw. Without consistent training to maintain it, that 1:15 devolves quickly into a 1:25--or a 1:35-- or slower. And last I checked there were very few athletes on the podium with swims that slow... even if their bikes and runs did rock the house.
Finally, reason #3.
If you are a part of a masters group that has a coach who WATCHES you swim day in and out, then you might make improvements in your swim technique. You also might make improvements if you take the time to study swim videos online and bring that visual knowledge to your training, and try to implement it. However, I can pretty much guarantee that if you do drills to improve your technique--alone--with no one watching to critique you--you are wasting your time. People who swim well have worked for years on both their fitness AND their technique, but they have done so with the help of a coach, or a group, or careful study. If you don't have a coach or you aren't studying online videos of excellent swimmers, your technique will not improve. Developing better swim technique requires time--and if you are blowing off swimming in favor of the bike and run, well obviously you are not doing that, right? That said, you can have excellent technique but still be slow if you don't develop any swim fitness. Granted, you won't be as slow as the person who has no technique at all, even if said person swims daily, but still, like ANY sport you need swim fitness (not bike or run fitness) to SWIM well.
I think what bothers me most about the swim less movement is that grounded within it is the idea that there might be a short cut to becoming a competitive IMer.
There's not.
You know it. I know it.
Swimming builds your upper body strength, it develops aerobic fitness without stressing joints, and most importantly, it is a PART of triathlon and triathlon training. If you're looking to try to get the most bang for your buck in terms of training time, don't fall prey to the idea that a half hour more spent on the bike each week will translate into a better race time than a half hour that SHOULD be spent on the swim. It won't.
Monday, January 16, 2012
I'm Onto You...
I figured it out. You husbands are all so busted, because with this blog post I am exposing you! All of you!
My husband has a saying: “Nothing gets done until
after the THIRD trip to Home Depot.” It reflects his irritation at the
seemingly inevitable pattern of going to Home Depot to get supplies for his project, coming home and realizing he needs to go back for
something else, returning home again and realizing he needs ONE MORE
CRITICAL nut/bolt/tool to finish the job. This same kind of hassle has
probably happened to you, whether it is Home Depot, the grocery store or
some other place, so I’m sure you get it. His saying conveys the
annoyance and a certain fatalism about the whole pattern, perhaps along
with a tiny little tinge of “Look how much hassle I go through on your
behalf.” Fair enough. I sure do appreciate everything he does around
here and I certainly appreciate the hassle of those lengthy, repeated
trips and all that comes of that hard work. These are whole afternoons he is giving up, after all.
Except that it’s BS. You know it. I know it. He knows it.
He’s
escaping. He’s hiding. He’s taking off to avoid dealing with the kids
and leaving me to endure the chaos. Those stands he built for the
washer and dryer? Avoidance. The new sink he plumbed in the basement
(for the laundry)? Escapism. What about the spectacular shed he
built from scratch in the backyard? Nice, but 2 years and 97 Home Depot
trips later, he has far fewer gray hairs than I do.
As I count and pluck those gray hairs in the bathroom, I have reflected deeply on the suspicious signals. Fact: Sometimes he is gone for hours. Can you really spend hours in Home Depot? What do you do, wander the aisles? Fact: Sometimes he comes home empty-handed, muttering about how he couldn't find exactly what he needed. Fact: Sometimes he comes home with exactly what he needs for a project... as if, perhaps, to quell my suspicion that something is indeed seriously awry with this Home Depot thing.
And so, like the dutiful and suspicious wife I am, I did my research and I am now officially ready to blow the cover on this Home Depot ruse. That's right! I've got your number!
Through
a combination of private investigation, GPS, and an active imagination,
I’ve figured it out. There is a place at Home Depot where only
men are allowed. You (my sisters) and I have never been. Entrance can
only be gained if you are married and have a Y chromosome. He goes
there, I know he does, and your significant other probably does too.
Yes, he does. Stop crying and face the truth.
Perhaps
you’ve gone to Home Depot with your spouse and perhaps you’ve lost
track of him there for a few minutes. Did you see him duck into the
closet and shelving aisle? Like he gives a S—T about home
organization! He walks 10 paces, turns a hard left, and steps into one
of those crappy, particleboard and laminate wardrobes he tried to give
you for your birthday a few years back. And he closes the door behind
him. And time stops.
Once
inside the wardrobe he takes a few steps through darkness
and…voila—it’s ClubHD! Women. Beer. Football games. About a thousand
big screen TVs with a live picture-in-picture in the lower corner
showing you struggling at home with the kids. (Or ignoring them and
writing a blog post.) The men are all laughing. This is not Narnia,
girls. Or, if it is, there are about a hundred White Witches and
they’re not wearing anything that would get them through an eternal
winter.
There are three rooms in ClubHD: The
Happy Beginnings Room, The Happy Middles Room, and the Happy Endings
Room. Massage and manscaping; food, beer, and TV; and more “massage”.
All while being attended by a bunch of young chippies who are all
smarter, funnier and have bigger racks than you.
Starting to make
sense, isn’t it? Starting to come together, huh? Yes, yes it is.
In
the corner of the first room a guy sits on a commode, taking a dump
while some chick massages his back and shoulders. As if she weren't even
there, he narrates his dump to a bunch of guys who are also taking
dumps and getting back rubs. For HOURS. They're laughing, he's
laughing. Even the chippies are laughing. Good times. At home, my
daughter throws a 100 gigawatt tantrum because I won't let her wear a
tshirt outside in 20-degree weather.
In
the second room, the men rest. And dine. And drink and watch TV and
laugh. About the dumps they took. Food, fun and friends! Spectacular
memories, to be shared amongst each other for a lifetime! Alas, it,
too, is taxing eventually and after another several hours they migrate
to the third room, presumably to recover from their efforts in the first
and second rooms.
Saturday, January 14, 2012
A Few Book Reviews--!
I have read two books in the last week that I want to write about: The Primal Blueprint by Mark Sisson and The Athletes' Guide to Recovery by Sage Rountree. I found both books helpful. I also found both books somewhat frustrating--Sisson because of his often righteous tone and also his lack of footnotes, which would've helped me buy into his theories just a tad more than I felt willing to do, and Rountree's simply because she failed to tell me anything I didn't already know (which, I realize, is not a fault, but I still was frustrated by it). Still, I enjoyed reading both books--and more importantly I came away newly committed to eating better and recovering better--neither currently a strength for me.
Mark Sisson is a former endurance runner who--bottom line--had an epiphany and changed his life. At one point in his life he logged 100+ mile weeks and was frequently injured, though at this time he was also quite successful as a professional runner. Then he stopped that crazy shit and reinvented himself as a health guru--and then later as a paleo health guru.
His book mostly focuses on eating. He writes convincingly about the evils of refined carbs--or really any carbs other than fruit and vegetables. He emphasizes that excess insulin surges (brought on by carb intake) are the true culprit behind heart disease, obesity and general poor health. He encourages readers to eat what our hunter gatherer ancestors ate: nuts, seeds, local fruits and vegetables (organic) and free-range, organic meats, fish and eggs. One should strictly limit alcohol, dairy, breads etc and should eliminate entirely refined carbohydrates. Yep. Heard it before, and I do buy into it, even though I have been unsuccessful in my bid to eliminate refined carbs, and definitely have failed to eliminate bread, which I use as a vehicle for my nut butter addiction.
One thing that Sisson's book made me reflect upon, though he doesn't get into it at all, is the intake of gels, sport drink and other packaged products I use for fuel during training and racing. I'm a pragmatist to some extent, and I see the use of these types of fuels as smart and practical because they work. When working out one needs intake of easily absorbed sugars, sodium and other electrolytes, and certainly gels, shots and sports drink supply these things well. But when you train as much as most of us reading this blog do, you start to ponder the fact that these packaged sugar/electrolyte/synthetic "foods" have become a staple of your daily eating. I work out between 1-3.5 hours a day currently, and as I approach race season some of those days become 6-7 hour workout days. This means I am taking in sports drink and gels at such a fast rate that I must order the shit in bulk.
Case in point--my shelves dedicated to fueling:
Granted, I share these shelves with my also training spouse (eg--I am not a fan of chocolate GU or Accelerade) but still, you know you consume a lot a lot a lot of packaged energy products when you needs shelves devoted to them...
And the question is--can I, and do I need to, find alternatives to these products given I train year round and hence consume them daily? I think the answer is yes. I have been experimenting with Lara Bars for some time (just pressed fruit and nuts) and they work quite well--still high in carbs, but the carbs are from the sugar in real fruit. I also have been drinking coconut water (usually chocolate, Zicco). This is also good, but heavier, and not as quick acting as a simple sport drink. I'm interested in your thoughts on this. Comment if you have ideas or things that have worked for you. I know that gels/shots and sport drink work the best. They are designed to. I'm just worried about my long term health in consuming them in such huge quantity.
Sisson also talks about sleep, and this was another helpful chapter. We all know we need more sleep--especially parents,who seem to get, well, none--. When you have to get to work or get the kids to school by 8:00 am your workouts need to start at the latest by 6 am--and often much earlier. If you want some time with your spouse or with your snugly computer after you get the kids to bed, then you usually get to bed too late for such an early rising. And, Sisson points out, the alarm that rudely awakens you out of a sound and needed slumber causes a daily cortisol spike that is also gravely unhealthy. Of course, I don't have an answer of how to rectify this. I need and want to train... I have kids... I work...
But Sisson does have an answer. Can the excessive working out.
The dude clearly has a bone to pick with endurance training and racing. He describes endurance triathletes on more than one occasion as emaciated, drawn, unhealthy,and racing to the grave.
I must admit I take his diatribe against endurance athletes as bitter resentment because the lifestyle did not, apparently, work for him. He believes endurance racing causes early aging and poor health, but he has little data to support this theory. It is true that often endurance triathletes and runners look older (in their faces) than others their age, but this is often, I believe, because of constant sun exposure throughout their lives, and also because when you are thinner, you show your age (in your face) in a way you don't when you are plump. But does this mean that endurance athletes are physically less healthy and aging more quickly than others their age? No, I doubt it very seriously, and he does not have the data to support his assertion that this is the case, either. Further, I believe endurance athletes, aside from in their faces, belie their years when you look at their lean, strong, youthful-looking bodies. What is perhaps most shocking is when you are biking behind someone in a race, and she looks so young and fit, and then you pull alongside her, see her face, and realize she is likely in her 50s or 60s. The machine that is the body has been preserved--and that is amazing, and certainly not worthy of Sisson's disdain and disapproval.
His method of getting beautifully fit is to constantly be on the move like our hunter gatherer ancestors. You shouldn't work hard... just move. And sometimes sprint, and lift heavy stuff for only 10 minutes at a time a few times a week. I don't disagree with this. Moving is certainly a far better alternative than not moving. Still, I am pissed that he is so dismissive of the "ignorant" masses who have bought into the idea that working out above 80% of your max hr is wise or useful in maintaining health and fitness. Sisson will have to find (any) research(aside from his own personal experience) to support this argument before I buy into it, that is for sure.
Okay. Onward to Rountree's book! I like her tone, I like her message, I like the structure of her book and her use of actual research to support her thoughts. However, I experienced the book as simply a compilation of known material,which isn't bad--it just wasn't particularly illuminating. I had hoped to learn something new--or to have the material synthesized in a way that I would come away with something new. But I did not. This likely has more to do with the fact that I am an endurance coach, and hence constantly reading about important aspects of training, like recovery, than it has to do with the success of her text.
I was reminded, however, that recovery is a key aspect of training. I think most of us still subscribe to the more is better and no pain no gain philosophies. And you know... more IS better and there really IS no gain without some pain. It's just that sometimes more becomes too much, and pain, especially without ample recovery, can be destructive. Further, we are aging. Most of us reading this are not in our late teens and early twenties any longer. The simple truth is that as we age we need more recovery, and denial of this fact leaves us injured, burnt out, and with declining race performances.
I need this message more than anyone. Doing more and making it hurt are strategies I use to make me feel confident that I am going to be better than YOU. So in the end, reading, and re-reading a text like Rountree's is valuable. I need to be reminded.
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Mark Sisson is a former endurance runner who--bottom line--had an epiphany and changed his life. At one point in his life he logged 100+ mile weeks and was frequently injured, though at this time he was also quite successful as a professional runner. Then he stopped that crazy shit and reinvented himself as a health guru--and then later as a paleo health guru.
His book mostly focuses on eating. He writes convincingly about the evils of refined carbs--or really any carbs other than fruit and vegetables. He emphasizes that excess insulin surges (brought on by carb intake) are the true culprit behind heart disease, obesity and general poor health. He encourages readers to eat what our hunter gatherer ancestors ate: nuts, seeds, local fruits and vegetables (organic) and free-range, organic meats, fish and eggs. One should strictly limit alcohol, dairy, breads etc and should eliminate entirely refined carbohydrates. Yep. Heard it before, and I do buy into it, even though I have been unsuccessful in my bid to eliminate refined carbs, and definitely have failed to eliminate bread, which I use as a vehicle for my nut butter addiction.
One thing that Sisson's book made me reflect upon, though he doesn't get into it at all, is the intake of gels, sport drink and other packaged products I use for fuel during training and racing. I'm a pragmatist to some extent, and I see the use of these types of fuels as smart and practical because they work. When working out one needs intake of easily absorbed sugars, sodium and other electrolytes, and certainly gels, shots and sports drink supply these things well. But when you train as much as most of us reading this blog do, you start to ponder the fact that these packaged sugar/electrolyte/synthetic "foods" have become a staple of your daily eating. I work out between 1-3.5 hours a day currently, and as I approach race season some of those days become 6-7 hour workout days. This means I am taking in sports drink and gels at such a fast rate that I must order the shit in bulk.
Case in point--my shelves dedicated to fueling:
Granted, I share these shelves with my also training spouse (eg--I am not a fan of chocolate GU or Accelerade) but still, you know you consume a lot a lot a lot of packaged energy products when you needs shelves devoted to them...
And the question is--can I, and do I need to, find alternatives to these products given I train year round and hence consume them daily? I think the answer is yes. I have been experimenting with Lara Bars for some time (just pressed fruit and nuts) and they work quite well--still high in carbs, but the carbs are from the sugar in real fruit. I also have been drinking coconut water (usually chocolate, Zicco). This is also good, but heavier, and not as quick acting as a simple sport drink. I'm interested in your thoughts on this. Comment if you have ideas or things that have worked for you. I know that gels/shots and sport drink work the best. They are designed to. I'm just worried about my long term health in consuming them in such huge quantity.
Sisson also talks about sleep, and this was another helpful chapter. We all know we need more sleep--especially parents,who seem to get, well, none--. When you have to get to work or get the kids to school by 8:00 am your workouts need to start at the latest by 6 am--and often much earlier. If you want some time with your spouse or with your snugly computer after you get the kids to bed, then you usually get to bed too late for such an early rising. And, Sisson points out, the alarm that rudely awakens you out of a sound and needed slumber causes a daily cortisol spike that is also gravely unhealthy. Of course, I don't have an answer of how to rectify this. I need and want to train... I have kids... I work...
But Sisson does have an answer. Can the excessive working out.
The dude clearly has a bone to pick with endurance training and racing. He describes endurance triathletes on more than one occasion as emaciated, drawn, unhealthy,and racing to the grave.
I must admit I take his diatribe against endurance athletes as bitter resentment because the lifestyle did not, apparently, work for him. He believes endurance racing causes early aging and poor health, but he has little data to support this theory. It is true that often endurance triathletes and runners look older (in their faces) than others their age, but this is often, I believe, because of constant sun exposure throughout their lives, and also because when you are thinner, you show your age (in your face) in a way you don't when you are plump. But does this mean that endurance athletes are physically less healthy and aging more quickly than others their age? No, I doubt it very seriously, and he does not have the data to support his assertion that this is the case, either. Further, I believe endurance athletes, aside from in their faces, belie their years when you look at their lean, strong, youthful-looking bodies. What is perhaps most shocking is when you are biking behind someone in a race, and she looks so young and fit, and then you pull alongside her, see her face, and realize she is likely in her 50s or 60s. The machine that is the body has been preserved--and that is amazing, and certainly not worthy of Sisson's disdain and disapproval.
His method of getting beautifully fit is to constantly be on the move like our hunter gatherer ancestors. You shouldn't work hard... just move. And sometimes sprint, and lift heavy stuff for only 10 minutes at a time a few times a week. I don't disagree with this. Moving is certainly a far better alternative than not moving. Still, I am pissed that he is so dismissive of the "ignorant" masses who have bought into the idea that working out above 80% of your max hr is wise or useful in maintaining health and fitness. Sisson will have to find (any) research(aside from his own personal experience) to support this argument before I buy into it, that is for sure.
Okay. Onward to Rountree's book! I like her tone, I like her message, I like the structure of her book and her use of actual research to support her thoughts. However, I experienced the book as simply a compilation of known material,which isn't bad--it just wasn't particularly illuminating. I had hoped to learn something new--or to have the material synthesized in a way that I would come away with something new. But I did not. This likely has more to do with the fact that I am an endurance coach, and hence constantly reading about important aspects of training, like recovery, than it has to do with the success of her text.
I was reminded, however, that recovery is a key aspect of training. I think most of us still subscribe to the more is better and no pain no gain philosophies. And you know... more IS better and there really IS no gain without some pain. It's just that sometimes more becomes too much, and pain, especially without ample recovery, can be destructive. Further, we are aging. Most of us reading this are not in our late teens and early twenties any longer. The simple truth is that as we age we need more recovery, and denial of this fact leaves us injured, burnt out, and with declining race performances.
I need this message more than anyone. Doing more and making it hurt are strategies I use to make me feel confident that I am going to be better than YOU. So in the end, reading, and re-reading a text like Rountree's is valuable. I need to be reminded.
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Tuesday, January 3, 2012
Ahh... The New Year
Racing Highlights of 2011 (with a few other 2011 LIFE highlights mixed in):
January: After some whining and begging, Kurt agreed to coach me. I think he figured I would likely never leave him alone in my quest for his advice anyway, so I might as well pay him for it.
February. Andy, me and the kiddos went to Orlando with my parents and visited the PARKS! We spent oodles of money and waited in really really really long lines . But it was still super fun. I ran every day in shorts. That was also really awesome.
March: I ran the Quincy Half Marathon and PR'd with a 1:30:59. This was a rather humongous PR and I was pretty happy about the whole thing. (Thanks, Kurt.)
April: I ran the Boston Marathon and PR'd with a 3:15:54. This was another rather humongous PR and I was again pretty happy about the whole thing; maybe even MORE than happy. (Thanks, Kurt.)
May: I raced the Sudbury Sprint and finished 2nd overall behind some 19-year-old ITU chick dressed in a Worlds unitard which had her name scrawled on her butt. (And no, I don't remember her name. I have repressed it.) Even though I lost, I raced fairly well given sprinting isn't exactly a strength o' mine. I won a Fuel Belt and gave it to Jordan, who now wears it for her five minute + "long runs" around the neighborhood.
June: I raced Mooseman 70.3 and had a seriously kick ass race, finishing in 5:06 and placing 3rd in my AG. This wasn't a PR for the distance, but the new bike course is so hard I considered it one. Moose, in retrospect, was definitely my best race of this season.
At the end of June I turned 41 and went to Lake Placid with Ange and friends for an IMLP camp. That was fun. and hard. I'm going back this year... but this year I am co-running the camp instead of just participating. Can't wait to take a dip in Mirror Lake.... (and not barf).
July: I got a stomach flu five days out from racing IMLP. I felt better by race day, but the weight I lost that week and the weakness from being sick still affected my race--big time--as did my anxiety about being sick and my anxiety surrounding my mega-desire to qualify for Kona. I barfed once on the swim, twice on the bike, and then did some record-breaking booting on the run course. I did my best to hang in there, though, and finished well enough to finish 5th AG. The Gods of Triathlon rewarded me for my sufferfest (or rather the two girls who decided not to take their Kona slots did) and I snagged a spot to Kona in rolldown. (Thank Michelle and Sylvie for saying NO to Kona, and thank you Stacey for being such a kick ass triathlete that you qualified before IMLP at Oceanside.)
August: After committing to putting on some pounds after my pukish race at IMLP, I spent most of August drinking wine, lounging on the beach, and eating ice cream with Alina and our families in Ocean Park. In late August I went to Burlington with Andy and raced AG Nationals. A ton of my good tri friends were there, and so it was good time. I raced okay, placing 16th in my AG with a 2:20:39.
September. I raced the Pumpkinman Half and loved it. Mostly I loved it because I won money. That was very very very x a billion exciting and cool. I raced elite and finished behind greats Karen Smyes, Kim Webster and Lisbeth Kenyon, and got to stand on the podium with them, which made me feel like a super tri-stud. I also PR'd at the half distance in 4:52, which was a bonus.
October: I went to KONA! It was everything I had imagined it would be .. and then 10 x more than that, too. I had a great race. My family was there. I went to Lava Java every day. I hung out in the water with sea turtles. Life was good.
November. I sat on my ass and gained weight and stressed out over stupid shit and mourned that my Kona trip was in the past instead of the future.
December: I swam a 400 meter IM at the SCM championship at BU. I consider mysef a swimming stud now, as you should as well. (Notice I did not list my TIME for the 400 meter IM.) snort.
Well, that pretty much sums it up.
It was a good year of racing.
It was also a good year in other important ways such as:
- Andy and I made it another year without killing each other or deciding to divorce.(five stars)
- All of my children did mostly well in school and seem mostly happy and mostly still like to hug me when I require it of them. (five stars) Also, my kids are super cute and smart and this is a fact, in case you were wondering, not just my opinion. (five stars)
- My dogs shit and piss on the floor LESS now than they did at the start of 2011. (two stars)
- In 2011 we got a new refrigerator, a funky new coffee maker, a new blender, and a new washer and dryer that tolerate my habit of washing and then drying tens tons of laundry at once. It was a swell year for appliance acquisition. (three stars)
- My two best friends put up with me and profess to love me still... 30 years into our friendship.(five stars)
- Ange and I have grown the TriMoxie Biz quite a bit this year and our athletes have earned some pretty sweet race results. (five stars.)
- I remained mostly sane and have needed only a few prescription drugs to keep me this way. (five stars.)
Friday, December 30, 2011
Swimming
I love swimming. Except that I don't love it as much as running, and I don't value it as much as biking, and so it constantly gets the shirked. I have only been swimming twice a week lately, and although I have tried to make the workouts of true quality, two workouts is still just -- TWO workouts.
My big obsession is the fly. I want to be able to swim fly... on and on and on and on...
That is my new goal. And then I will swim a 200 fly in a meet.
Why is this important? Because only bad ass swimmers swim the 200 fly in meets! (and of course I want to be a bad ass swimmer...)
On Wednesday I went swimming with my super swimming studress daughter, Jordan, and she made us this workout:
1000 swim with every 4th length IM order
with fins : 2 x (100 free hard, 150 IM kick, streamline)
200 easy pull
200 fly--no stopping
4 x 300 as
1. pull with buoy, paddles-- easy/moderate
2. paddles, swim no buoy--moderate
3. paddles, fins, no buoy--moderate
4. fins-- hard
off 30" rest
100 cool down
3200 SCY
Though she tried to convince me to try, I decided to the 200 fly with fins. But the important thing is I DID NOT STOP. GO SUPER MARY!
But I did have fins.. Next time, I will try it without. Jordan did it without. Show-off.
____________________________________
My friend Son asked me to write a little piece for the MESC newsletter on what it is like for a triathlete to swim in a Championship Masters Swim Meet. Here is what I wrote. It is very exciting, so I thought I'd share it. :)
____________________________________
Just recently, on a balmy morning in early December, I gathered my swim garb together, got in the car with my MESC swimming companion, Alina Perez-Smith, and headed to Boston University for the Short Course Masters Swim Championship.
The plan: to shed my triathlete persona and play at being a swimmer for a day....
because, the thing is, I am not really a swimmer.
I am a long course triathlete and coach. As such, I swim, and I actually swim quite a bit. But swim meets are not my territory, and as much as I love them, swimmers are not my people. So I come to these championship meets as an outsider--an imposter--as a pseudo-swimmer playing in a world that is not my own. And I love it. I love it so much that sometimes attending a meet like this makes me--gasp--want to drop everything else and just swim.
All the big dogs come out for the big meets like this one, the SCM Masters Championship. And when I say big dogs? Yes, I mean big. Often, though not always, the best swimmers are huge--with broad shoulders and smooth, toned muscles. Swimmers aren't wiry like many triathletes and runners. They are more lumbering than lithe, except when they hit the water. Then they are not just lithe, they are lightning--a blur of smooth, rhythmic, powerful body parts skimming the water. It is amazing to watch. Amazing.
At this meet I witnessed world records being broken. A MESC teammate, the ageless and gorgeous Diann Uustal, for example, broke the record in the 100 meter IM. Watching her swim the event in 1:20 was awe-inspiring. To swim that fast at 65? And I witnessed it!
The best part of these meets for me, aside from watching the real swimmers swim, is to hang out with the MESC team. Our Maine teammates are so humble, easy-going and down to earth. I love my triathlon peeps, but we are not really, well, humble, and most of us are more than a little Type A, not easygoing. Meets, unlike running events or triathlons, leave lots of time to socialize. A swimmer warms up, then races, then warms down, then waits a long time (usually) until her next event, and during this time she can socialize! I love this aspect of meets, as it turns them into social events as much as athletic events.
The one thing I haven't mentioned in my description of such a swim meet is the actual swimming! For me, swimming in this type of meet is always humbling. I consider myself a very competent swimmer--when among triathletes. But when around swimmers? Not so much! Unlike triathlons, in which athletes start in waves specific to their age group, swim meets do not distinguish the young from the old until the entire event is over. Heats are seeded by time, not age, and so in any given heat you could swim next to a 70-year-old on one side, and a 25-year-old the other. I am nearly always seeded in a very early heat, given my very mediocre times (compared to swimmers, that is...) and I nearly always place in the bottom portion of my AG when the results are tallied. I will say, though, that at this meet I chose to swim the 400 meter IM--my first 400 IM ever at a meet. And I placed 2nd in my AG! Of course, there were only two people in my AG, but who's counting.... right?
I have been a part of MESC for almost three years now. I can't tell you how lucky I feel to be able to experience these meets, and to compete with and for such a great group of people.
See you at Harvard in March! Go Blue Lobstahs!
My big obsession is the fly. I want to be able to swim fly... on and on and on and on...
That is my new goal. And then I will swim a 200 fly in a meet.
Why is this important? Because only bad ass swimmers swim the 200 fly in meets! (and of course I want to be a bad ass swimmer...)
On Wednesday I went swimming with my super swimming studress daughter, Jordan, and she made us this workout:
1000 swim with every 4th length IM order
with fins : 2 x (100 free hard, 150 IM kick, streamline)
200 easy pull
200 fly--no stopping
4 x 300 as
1. pull with buoy, paddles-- easy/moderate
2. paddles, swim no buoy--moderate
3. paddles, fins, no buoy--moderate
4. fins-- hard
off 30" rest
100 cool down
3200 SCY
Though she tried to convince me to try, I decided to the 200 fly with fins. But the important thing is I DID NOT STOP. GO SUPER MARY!
But I did have fins.. Next time, I will try it without. Jordan did it without. Show-off.
____________________________________
My friend Son asked me to write a little piece for the MESC newsletter on what it is like for a triathlete to swim in a Championship Masters Swim Meet. Here is what I wrote. It is very exciting, so I thought I'd share it. :)
____________________________________
Just recently, on a balmy morning in early December, I gathered my swim garb together, got in the car with my MESC swimming companion, Alina Perez-Smith, and headed to Boston University for the Short Course Masters Swim Championship.
The plan: to shed my triathlete persona and play at being a swimmer for a day....
because, the thing is, I am not really a swimmer.
I am a long course triathlete and coach. As such, I swim, and I actually swim quite a bit. But swim meets are not my territory, and as much as I love them, swimmers are not my people. So I come to these championship meets as an outsider--an imposter--as a pseudo-swimmer playing in a world that is not my own. And I love it. I love it so much that sometimes attending a meet like this makes me--gasp--want to drop everything else and just swim.
All the big dogs come out for the big meets like this one, the SCM Masters Championship. And when I say big dogs? Yes, I mean big. Often, though not always, the best swimmers are huge--with broad shoulders and smooth, toned muscles. Swimmers aren't wiry like many triathletes and runners. They are more lumbering than lithe, except when they hit the water. Then they are not just lithe, they are lightning--a blur of smooth, rhythmic, powerful body parts skimming the water. It is amazing to watch. Amazing.
At this meet I witnessed world records being broken. A MESC teammate, the ageless and gorgeous Diann Uustal, for example, broke the record in the 100 meter IM. Watching her swim the event in 1:20 was awe-inspiring. To swim that fast at 65? And I witnessed it!
The best part of these meets for me, aside from watching the real swimmers swim, is to hang out with the MESC team. Our Maine teammates are so humble, easy-going and down to earth. I love my triathlon peeps, but we are not really, well, humble, and most of us are more than a little Type A, not easygoing. Meets, unlike running events or triathlons, leave lots of time to socialize. A swimmer warms up, then races, then warms down, then waits a long time (usually) until her next event, and during this time she can socialize! I love this aspect of meets, as it turns them into social events as much as athletic events.
The one thing I haven't mentioned in my description of such a swim meet is the actual swimming! For me, swimming in this type of meet is always humbling. I consider myself a very competent swimmer--when among triathletes. But when around swimmers? Not so much! Unlike triathlons, in which athletes start in waves specific to their age group, swim meets do not distinguish the young from the old until the entire event is over. Heats are seeded by time, not age, and so in any given heat you could swim next to a 70-year-old on one side, and a 25-year-old the other. I am nearly always seeded in a very early heat, given my very mediocre times (compared to swimmers, that is...) and I nearly always place in the bottom portion of my AG when the results are tallied. I will say, though, that at this meet I chose to swim the 400 meter IM--my first 400 IM ever at a meet. And I placed 2nd in my AG! Of course, there were only two people in my AG, but who's counting.... right?
I have been a part of MESC for almost three years now. I can't tell you how lucky I feel to be able to experience these meets, and to compete with and for such a great group of people.
See you at Harvard in March! Go Blue Lobstahs!
Wednesday, December 21, 2011
Hustling
“Things may come to those who wait… but only the things left by those who hustle.” - Abraham Lincoln
Today I continue on with my series of posts that take mid-life reflection (read crisis) as the theme....
I'm a hustler.
Saying I'm a hustler is nearly as bad as mentioning that I played hooker in college, isnt it?
Playing hooker allowed me to play aggressively in a big girl sport even though I'm a physically small person. The flaw in it: Once my neck almost snapped in the scrum while playing the (more adept, aggressive and large) Portland Women's Rugby Club and also, the sport fostered my already supremely developed collegiate drinking habit.
I abandoned playing hooker following college, which is probably good in terms of saving both my neck and my liver.
But I've never abandoned being a hustler. When I was younger I didn't always understand the most expedient way to get what I wanted--especially in terms of school and sport. It came most naturally to me in terms of the social: I wanted a certain friend, I would get her. I wanted a certain guy, I would go for it. I put fear aside. Who could say no to my wit and charm, right? As a result I met with some painful rejection, specifically on the guy front. But I also ended up getting what I wanted a lot of the time.
As I got older I began to understand, however, that hustling didn't just mean going for it by putting fear aside and taking the plunge. That was a big part of it, but the other part was to take immediate action--and then to follow up that action with hard, consistent work. Suddenly not just the social world was my domain. I could also get straight A's. I could get the job I wanted. I could run a marathon. I just had to take action, right now, and then work harder than everyone else and it was mine.
What I didn't realize at the time was that by hustling--by taking immediate action and following that action with ferocious and unrelenting work--I was also limiting my options. I couldn't do it all. I couldn't become an animal behaviorist and also a a teacher. I couldn't become an English professor and also a specialist in organizational psychology. I couldn't be a master gardener with a degree in horticulture and also a top age group triathlete. I couldn't be a published writer, and a voracious reader, and own a thriving coaching business and be a dog trainer who also owned fifteen different types of dogs. And I couldn't do any of the above, at least really really well, if I wanted to be a good, loving, focused, attentive mom and wife.
Being extraordinary at any one thing requires a willingness to take action, a will of steel, and a singular focus. I figured out early that the hustler got first choice, and if she backed that action up with work she could usually keep that choice. What I didn't realize is that the hustler still didn't get all she wanted--because in going for what she wanted she automatically limited all the other options in her single minded pursuit.
I tend to have the most admiration for people of have achieved greatness in one realm. Actually, I think this is a national preoccupation. But these most successful people, more than anyone, have limited their options, haven't they? No one achieves greatness without that singular focus. No one is at the top of the game without having sloughed off the extra weight that hinders progress. These people have had to be ruthless in their taking action at the expense of reflecting on other choices.
So.
To hustle. or not to hustle. To focus or diversify. What makes a person most happy? The satisfaction of achieving no matter what it takes, or the satisfaction of letting success go so you can enjoy more than just the pursuit of one, great thing?
Nothing like pondering these things when I could be taking action....
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