high intensity short course training and overtraining?

Since I switched from Iron distance to short course triathlon training 4 weeks ago my legs have been constantly sore. The day before yesterday I got sick. I may be overtraining, not recovering enough in between workouts. My body just isn't used to the 180 degree switch from long course to high intensity lower duration training.

I've decided I'll continue doing the sprint distance training plan I'm currently on for another 14 days then reassess how I feel. At that time if I still feel like the training plan is too much for my body I'll switch to an easier one. Hopefully in the next 2 weeks my body will adapt to all this awesome speed work.

Even if I have to lower the intensity level, everything will be fine. I'm best at sprint distance racing, my body responds really well to sprint distance training, and there's not much I enjoy more than sprint course training. Even if my body cant handle this much speed work right now, it'll be up to or beyond this level later this year.

IRONMAN SWIMWEAR & WETSUIT POLICY

After I got hypothermia at my last Ironman swim I looked into the policy of using neoprene socks. The Ironman website said they are legal if the water temperature is colder than 65 degrees. Turns out I could have used a neoprene skull cap & socks on the swim! I got this article from their web site:

What are the current legal swimwear/speedsuits?

Effective September 1, 2010, all swimwear/speedsuits at Ironman and Ironman 70.3 events MUST be comprised of 100% textile material such as nylon or lycra and may not include rubberized material such as polyurethane or neoprene. Swimwear/speedsuits may NOT cover the neck or extend past the shoulders or knees. Swimwear/speedsuits may contain a zipper. A race kit or trisuit may be worn underneath swimwear/speedsuits.

What is your new rule regarding swimwear/speedsuits?
Effective September 1, 2010, the following guidelines will apply to swimwear/speedsuits in non-wetsuit swims:
Swimwear/speedsuits MUST be comprised of 100% textile material such as nylon or lycra and may not include rubberized material such as polyurethane or neoprene.
Swimwear/speedsuits may NOT cover the neck or extend past the shoulders or knees.
Swimwear/speedsuits may contain a zipper.
A race kit or trisuit may be worn underneath swimwear/speedsuits.What swimwear/speed suits are allowed after September 1, 2010?The following swimwear has been approved by Ironman to date. (This list is NOT all-inclusive. If your suit is NOT on this list and you do NOT know whether your suit is 100% textile material, please contact the manufacturer.) *Please continue to check back for updates
De Soto
Micro Tri Short – Femme
Liftfoil Speed Trisuit (non-rubberized)
Forza ITU Trisuit
78 Degree Swim Top
Forza Tri Short
Forza Tri Short Low Rise
Forza Riviera Tri Short
Carrera Tri Short
Carrera Tri Short Low Rise
Profile Design
Mako TXT

Skinfit
Speedsuit II
Plasma

TYR
Torque Pro
Torque Elite
Tracer C Series
Tracer B series
Tracer Light
Fusion2
Aquashift
Aquapel

Xterra Wetsuits
Velocity-M
Velocity-Y

Zoot
CompressRx SpeedsuitRocket Science Sports
FU Racer
Rocket Racer
Elite Racer
RJ RacerZerod
oSuit
iSuit
uSuitBlueseventy
PZ3-TXKiwami
The Amphibian
The Konami
The Trinergy
Oomphsports
Oomph!
Men's Classic SpeedsuitOomph!
Men's KONA LE SpeedsuitOomph!
Unisex 'ProPel" SkinsuitSLS Tri
SLS3 FXC Fobic Speedsuit

WETSUIT POLICY

What is the current wetsuit rule?
Effective September 1, 2010, at all Ironman and Ironman 70.3 events the following changes to our current wetsuit rule will apply:
Wetsuits cannot measure more than 5 millimeters thick. A standard variance will be allowed to account for seams and jersey material (non-buoyant).
Wetsuits are permitted if the water temperature is up to (and including) 76.1 degrees Fahrenheit (24.5 degrees Celsius) or colder.
Wetsuits will be prohibited in water temperatures greater than 83.8 degrees Fahrenheit (28.8 degrees Celsius).
Athletes who choose to wear a wetsuit in water temperatures between 76.1 degrees Fahrenheit (24.5 degrees Celsius) and 83.8 degrees Fahrenheit (28.8 degrees Celsius)will not be eligible for awards, including World Championship slots.
Full wetsuits are permitted (arms and legs covered).
NOTE: Rohto Ironman 70.3 Hawaii is a non-wetsuit race.
Which wetsuits will be prohibited after Sept. 1, 2010?
The following wetsuit has been prohibited by Ironman:
De Soto Water Rover wetsuit is PROHIBITED
*Please continue to check back for updates
How will your new wetsuit rule be enforced?
Race Officials will monitor the transition area and swim venue on race morning. Athletes caught using a wetsuit on the list of prohibited wetsuits will be DQd.
Can Age Group athletes wear a wetsuit that is on the prohibited list, even if they are not pursuing awards or entry slots for the Ford Ironman World Championship/Foster Grant Ironman World Championship 70.3?
No. Athletes are never permitted to wear a wetsuit on the list of prohibited wetsuits. However, athletes can chose to wear a legal wetsuit in water temperatures between 24.5 degrees Celsius/76.1 degrees Fahrenheit and 28.8 degrees Celsius/ 83.8 degrees Fahrenheit, with the understanding that they will not be eligible for awards and/or World Championship slots.
Are neoprene swim socks illegal?
Neoprene socks are allowed ONLY when the water temperature is 18.8 degrees Celcius/65 degrees Fahrenheit or colder
Originally from: http://ironman.com/faq/rulesfaq#ixzz1eohfLCAC

running with the neighborhood cycling team

Today I ran to the NMCD track with my kids and the neighborhood kids, they all rode their bikes. I ran just shy of 5 miles. The bigger kids rode anywhere from 1.75 to 4.5 miles, the 2 little guys who rode the plastic tricycles made it around the track once (a quarter mile). Here's a picture of my neighborhood cycling team.

I spent most of the run  helping get rocks out of their shoes, open water bottles, pick up bikes that the wind blew over, etc. Even though I'm not able to run as much with them with me, I wouldn't trade this for the world. We're having a great time. If they continue training consistently with me I'll take all of them to the Las Alamos kids triathlon.

my run training partners and the Los Alamos kids triathlon

Today I ran to the NMCD academy track for a quick zone 1 run. I took my daughter and 4 neighborhood kids with me on their bikes, ages are 6, 6, 6, 8, & 9. They've been riding their bikes with me each time I've ran for the last week and a half. Already I've seen a huge increase in their endurance. The 8 and 9 year old rode 4.2 miles, the three 6 year old girls each rode 2 miles. Taking them with me on my runs has made my run days a ton of fun!

I told them if they continue to train with me the entire summer I'd take them to compete in the Los Alamos kids triathlon on Aug 19th. The divisions each are as follows:

Pee-Wees: Ages 3 - 4
1/4 Mile Bike / 100 Yard Run / 25 Yard Swim
Pee-Wees: Ages 5 - 61/4 Mile Bike / 100 Yard Run / 25 Yard Swim
Juniors: Ages 7 - 8
1/2 Mile Bike / 1/4 Mile Run / 50 Yard Swim
Juniors 9 - 10
1 Mile Bike / 1/2 Mile Run / 50 Yard Swim

The link to the Los Alamos triathlon is:
http://www.losalamosnm.us/rec/Programs/Pages/LosAlamosKidsTriathlon.aspxhttp://www.losalamosnm.us/rec/Programs/Pages/LosAlamosKidsTriathlon.aspx

Cody's 1st ride w/out training wheels

I've been trying to convince my son Cody, age 4, to let me take the training wheels off his bicycle for months, but he's refused. Last night Cody saw a video on Facebook of his favorite cousin riding his bike without training wheels. Aparently seeing Nathan riding without training wheels was all the motivation he needed. Today he had me take his training wheels off, this video is of his 1st attempt.

short course training

Due to the lack of time to train I've given up on all 2012 Ironman aspirations and started training exclusively for short course triathlons. Year after after my triathlon goals have always been Iron or 70.3 distances.

My body has always seemed to excel at the shorter more intense races. Thus far I've loved every minute of sprint training! There's not many things more fun than going out for a bike ride or run filled with sprints at %100 efforts with equal active recovery time! A short course workout that pushes my body to the limits only takes 45 minutes for running and 90 minutes on the bike. Compare that to the 6 hour bike rides and 3 hour long runs it takes to get the training needed for long course triathlons, I think I've made a great decision.

I'd only trained for short course triathlons once for a 4 month period back in 2010. That was my most successful triathlon season. In that 4 month stretch I finished in the top 10 overall 6 of the 9 multisport races I competed in, 2 of those I finished in 3rd place overall!

If I enjoy the racing half as much as I've been enjoying the training it'll be a fantastic year! I'm really excited about this seasons racing. My current training plan is a twelve week training plan ending with a peak performance at the Dam It Man triathlon in late July at Elephant Butte Lake New Mexico.

Two-a-Days

This post was the suggestion of a reader. If there is a topic you'd like to see discussed here please write to me. I'm always open to your ideas.

It’s common among advanced multisport athletes to do two workouts in a day. Some even do three-a-days. The demands of such a sport make multiple daily sessions a necessity for high-performance. Some of these two-a-day triathlon workouts may be “bricks,” workouts combining two or more sports such as bike-run, swim-bike or swim-bike-run sessions. In triathlon such workouts are done year round.

There are also some mono-sport athletes, such as runners and cyclists, who do two-a-days. But these are not nearly as common as in multisport. Should you as a cyclist, runner, or swimmer do two (or more) sessions in a single day? There is no easy answer for this question. There are only possible advantages and disadvantages. Here are some of them.

Advantages
The way you increase fitness is to gradually increase stress. Stress comes in the guise of workout duration, intensity and frequency. Increasing any of these while maintaining the others improves fitness. Duration and frequency taken together are called “volume” – how many hours or miles you do in a week. By doing two workouts in a day you have the opportunity to increase volume and thus fitness.

Double workouts also increase the possibility of greater intensity of training. And intensity is the key to success for high-performance athletes. How does intensity increase? Let’s take an example. You could do a single, two-hour workout in one day including intervals followed by a long, steady effort. This would produce a lot of fatigue and you would likely not produce your best-possible performance for either portion of the workout as a result. But if you divided this into two sessions, one in the morning and one in the afternoon, fatigue (and your perception of expected fatigue which may cause you to hold back somewhat) would be lessened and so performance could rise. The first session might be the intervals and the second the steady-state effort. By the afternoon workout your greater recovery could produce a higher power or pace output. So, more stress from increased intensity would mean more fitness even if volume didn’t increase.

Two-a-days also increase your fat burning helping to reduce excess body weight. Following a workout, especially an intense one, your body continues to burn fat during recovery. The harder the workout, the longer this fat burning continues. By doing two workouts in a day you get this fat-burning benefit twice. It may not last any longer in total for the day than had you done only one long session, but causing it to occur twice in a day may have some fat-burning benefits although I’ve not seen any research to support this. This is based strictly on experience.

Disadvantages
Of course, as with everything in life, there are disadvantages to working out twice in a single day. And they are potentially more deleterious than the benefits.

Increased stress means increased fatigue. Some athletes seem to handle that very nicely and bounce back quickly. Others, especially novices and seniors, recover more slowly. So several double days could easily lower the quality of your training.

And more stress also raises the specter of overtraining from trying to do too much in too short a period of time. Raising the workload significantly by doing two-a-days could cause an athlete to become overtrained in just three to six weeks depending on how well he or she copes with stress.

For many runners the risk of injury rises quite quickly as the frequency of training increases. I have coached many runners over the years who have what I call “glass legs.” It doesn’t take much stress to damage them which could leave such an athlete hobbled for days if not weeks. So for the runner, two-a-day workouts are very risky. What some do to avoid this problem while reaping some of the double-daily benefits, especially the fat burning, is to ride a bike as the second session of the day. There is even some research showing that riding a bike improves running performance.

While cycling isn’t an impact sport like running, increased risk of injury can still come with riding twice a day. For the cyclist the knees are typically where overuse injury is mostly likely to occur. This may be related to mediocre pedaling skills, unusual biomechanics, too much climbing in too high of a gear, or, most commonly, a poor bike setup.

Guidelines
So if you’re a mono-sport athlete and decide to start doing two-a-days, how should you train to minimize the downsides while reaping the benefits? Here are some basic guidelines.

+ Only do twice-daily workouts if you are an advanced athlete, meaning, primarily, that you have been at the sport for two or three years.

+ For runners and cyclists the best time to start doing two-a-days is in the base period. Keep the intensity low with the focus only on volume at first.

+ Allow your body to adapt gradually over several weeks. Start by doing only one day in a week with two workouts. If your body handles that alright then eventually bump it up to two. Do a couple of weeks like this before going to two double days. I’d recommend doing no more than three such double-dailies a week in your first season of trying this. Keep the risk low as you learn how your body responds.

+ At first use your easiest training days for two workouts. If you handle that alright then begin to carefully experiment with a more intense session followed by an easy session the same day.

+ Provide adequate time for recovery between the two daily sessions. There should be at least one meal in the recovery period. Two are better. This could be a workout before breakfast and a second session before supper with a lunch in between.

+ Allow for variety in these workouts. Don’t always do the same sessions each time you do two-a-days.

vacation over, tri-zombie returns

I just returned from a 10 day vacation. In almost 17 years of working at the prison this was the best vacation I've ever had. I raced in the Dog House sprint triathlon, got to visit my favorite cousins in Lubbock TX, but best of all was that I got to be at home with my wife at night, tuck my 3 kids into bed, take them to school, go to their soccer practices, and go to church with my wife and kids on Wednesday nights; all the things I've been missing from working at nights.

While on vacation I became used to sleeping at nights- having a normal persons schedule. Last night was my 2nd night back to work, I feel like a zombie, I'm probably acting like one too. I'm no longer used to sleeping during the day, it usually takes a couple weeks to acclimate to working the graveyard shift again. Until then I'll be chronically fatigued and struggling to find the energy to bike and run. Today I'm scheduled for some sprint work at the track and a strength training workout. It's a toss up as to weather I'll do it.... Dang I'm tired.

I keep reminding myself, just 37 more months until I'll retire from the prison, my wife will have graduated from nursing school, and I can finally go back to working a regular shift and feel like a normally functioning human being again.

Ride solo to build aerobic threshold

My notion of a base ride is a long, steady workout with heart rate mostly in zone 2. This is roughly a well-conditioned athlete’s aerobic threshold. Riding two or more hours at this effort challenges the body to make some improvements. One is to become better at using fat for fuel while sparing muscle glycogen stores. The longer your races are, the more important this shift is. The other critical shift has to do with increasing the capillary bed in the working muscles. The more capillaries you have the easier it is to get fuel and oxygen to the muscle. There are other benefits also, but for now we’ll focus on these.

The problem with this base workout is that it seems too easy at first so the athlete is tempted to abandon the 2 zone and start riding variably paced with hard and easy efforts – fartlek intervals, essentially. And by so doing reduces the aerobic benefits of the day’s workout.

The aerobic threshold ride is sort of like Chinese water torture. What at first seems easily manageable eventually becomes challenging. One has to have the patience to hang in there to see what I mean. (This is one of the numerous reasons why I so often say that patience is necessary to be a good endurance athlete.) Ride for two, three, four hours at this effort and you soon learn what the aerobic system is all about.

Doing such a workout with a group presents problems, however. The greatest is that not everyone’s heart rate 2 zone produces the same power or speed. The highly fit, usually young riders are talking easily while riding in zone 2 – as they should be. The slower, usually older riders who try to keep up are often well out of zone 2 but determined to hang on. While this workout is best done alone, if in a group the best option is for the group to split up into smaller groups of like ability.

The 2012 Dog House sprint triathlon race report

Today I competed in the Dog House sprint triathlon in Buffalo Springs Lake outside of Lubbock Texas. In 2010 I had one of my best races of all time at this race and finished in an hours twenty two minutes and in 2011 I finished in 1:23:13. This year they increased the distance of the swim, it was some where around 575 meters. I finished the swim in 9:22 and 19th overall.

I've been racing with a new aero helmet and I had serious problems getting it on in transition. I lost a good 9 seconds trying to get that dang thing on. I'm usually great in transition, but today I had a 79 second 1st transition. Very slow. My transition was 16th overall.

The bike was 17.6 miles and it was WINDY! I've been struggling to find the time to get in much cycling this year. The times I've been able to ride has been predominantly on the indoors rollers which isn't great for building short course speed. I finished the bike 54:18, maintaining a 19.4 mph average and finished with the 8th fastest bike ride of day.

T-2 was much better for me than T-1 with a 46.4 second transition 2 which was the 4th fastest transition 2 of the day.

I felt good on the run considering I've been struggling with a pulled quad muscle for the last few weeks. I finished the 3.1 mile run in 23:46 keeping a 7:40 pace. There was some confusion about where the turn around was. 2 athletes in front of me and 3 who were close behind me turned around about 25-30 meters early. I'm not sure why, but the volunteers didn't try and get the athletes to stop and come back. The time they got ahead of me by turning around early I wasn't able to make up. The RD's should have had a better marked course and more volunteers to prevent that from happening. A timing mat at the turn around would have provided the info of which athletes cut the course and who ran the distances they were supposed to. Oh well, such is life.

I finished 10th on the run.

My total time was 1:39:34, 8th place overall, and 2nd place in my age group.

I now have 5 races and 45 points for the SW challenge series 35-39 age group.

My next race will be the Tri Raider sprint triathlon in 5 weeks right here in Lubbock Texas.

change of race plans

Thanks to my wife who has been willing to make some adjustments to her schedule I've been able to get in all the training I need for my Iron distance triathlon. Unfortunately I've had no time for anything other than Iron training. To be able to fit in all my training on Tuesdays, Thursdays, and Saturday's I only get 3 hours of sleep which I'm ok with. But in a few weeks my training will get so time consuming it'll start to infringe with the special one on one time I spend with my kids. I'm not ok with that at all. So starting today I'm no longer planning on training for the Redman Iron distance triathlon this September. Instead I'll be training for some late season sprint distance triathlons. On one hand I'm glad because I love training and racing for sprints and I hate training for Irons. But one of my life goals was to go sub 13 hours at an Iron. All my training thus far showed I was going to break 13 hours easily. Now that goal will have to wait. Since my wife will be entering nursing school this fall I wont have the opportunity to start training for another Iron until late 2015. Oh well, such is life.

My diet fell apart this Saturday and Sunday. My weight is now 197.4. It pisses me off that I struggle so badly with the eating aspect of triathlon. The mad scientist Pete Alfino (my former triathlon coach) told me training for sprint distance triathlons would help keep my metabolism higher than Iron training does and would help keep my weight down, so there's another great reason switching to sprint distance triathlons is a good thing.

Yesterday I attacked some hills on the bike. It felt great. I love hill workouts, lactate threshold intervals, & power intervals! Sprint training is going to be great fun! I'm looking forward to this!

Base phase of training and weight loss

During the Transition period after your last race season you probably gained some weight. That is expected. And it’s probably a good thing - depending on how much weight you gained. Trying to stay at your optimal race weight year round is not good for your health. It’s also not good for your psyche. Staying focused on maintaining race weight 12 months of the year, regardless of your training load, requires a monk-like lifestyle of continual sacrifice and near suffering.

So I hope you’ve enjoyed life a bit and gained some weight in the last few weeks. The Base period is the time to start trimming down any excess beyond your best training weight. Training weight is a bit heavier than race weight. Your training weight by the end of the Base period may be roughly three to five percent more than your race weight – the weight you will have on the day of your first A-priority race. The higher workload of the Build period should be enough to gradually bring your training weight down to your racing weight by race day.

The extra calories you are burning as you move into the Base period may be enough to help you accomplish this initial weight loss. If not then you need to become more aware of your eating habits and modify them appropriately. Keeping a food log is a proven way of doing this.

Athletes who have been through this weight-loss process before generally know what they need to do to shed the extra flab. What I have found works best with the athletes I’ve coached is to greatly reduce their intake of starch and sugar replacing these foods with non-starchy fruits and vegetables. Examples of starchy foods are pastries, cereal, bagels, bread, corn, rice and potatoes. Limit your intake of such foods to the first 30 minutes following your long aerobic endurance and higher-intensity muscular endurance workouts. This will compromise your recovery a bit, but it’s better to do that now than in the last few weeks before your A race when recovery is becoming increasingly important to race performance.

USAT National Championship qualification and injury recovered

I received this email yesterday:

Congratulations Cody Hanson. You have qualified for the 2012 USA Triathlon Olympic Distance National Championship after finishing in the top 10 percent in your age group at the Spring Fling Triathlon.

The 2012 USA Triathlon Olympic Distance National Championship will be held in Burlington, Vermont, on August 18. Registration is currently open. This event is expected to sell out, so be sure to sign up soon.

The USA Triathlon Olympic Distance National Championship is the nation's premier Olympic-distance event with the top age group athletes from all 50 states forming one of the most prestigious fields in the sport. Athletes from each age group will qualify to represent Team USA at the 2013 International Triathlon Union World Championships in London, England.

For more information on the 2012 USA Triathlon Olympic Distance National Championship, please visit www.USATNationalEvents.org. Please note: athletes must be current USA Triathlon annual members through August 18, 2012, before registering. You may renew your membership at www.usatriathlon.org.

On Monday I ran 6.25 miles and had no problems from my pulled quad. Monday night my quad was starting to feel tight so I spent an hour on the rollers spinning and keeping my rpm's high. Spinning made the tight feeling in my thigh go away completely.

I ran 6 miles again today to see if I truly am healed up. It felt fine. As long as my leg continues to feel healthy I'll go ahead and attempt my long training days this weekend. On Friday I'm scheduled for a 3 hour bike, on Saturday I have a 90 minute run. I sure hope my leg holds up to the training, this year is my last attempt at going sub 13 hours at an Iron distance triathlon until after my wife graduates in late 2015.

On Friday and Saturday of last week I fell off the diet wagon yet again. An entire month of refraining from binge eating seems impossible, how the heck did I reach 14 months earlier this year? I dunno, but I know I keep screwing up and am gaining more and more weight. I've gained 20 pounds since early April. I'm only 5 pounds from being a Clydesdale again, and in all reality I'm only 1 binge away from being back up to 300. Man-o-man, the last 30 days has been rough.

Aerobic Capacity

Aerobic Capacity. Exercise physiologists generally agree that there are only three things you can improve to become physiologically more fit for endurance sports performance: aerobic capacity, lactate threshold and economy. Ultimately, these are the reasons you train. So what are they and how do you improve them? I'll discuss aerobic capacity now and come back to lactate threshold and economy in a few days.

Also referred to as VO2 max, aerobic capacity is your ability to use oxygen to produce energy. The more oxygen your body can process the more energy you can produce and the greater your output (power or pace). It’s common to find that the fastest athletes in a race have the highest aerobic capacities of the entrants. The farther down the race results you go typically the lower the athletes’ aerobic capacities. But don’t take this to mean that knowing your VO2 max tells you how fast you will go or how well you will do compared with others in your race category. The two other physiological factors – lactate threshold and economy – also play a major role in race outcomes. One of these by itself does not constitute all of what it takes to race fast.

Aerobic capacity is literally at the heart of success in endurance sport. Improvements in aerobic capacity have largely to do with how much blood (which contains oxygen) the heart pumps out to the working muscles with every beat. This is called “stroke volume” and has a lot to do with how much aerobic capacity you have. A purpose of training is to improve your stroke volume. There are basically two ways to do this. The first is to focus on the volume of your training. The heart responds to lots of time spent at higher-than-resting intensity (above about 50 percent of VO2 max) by becoming more efficient and effective which ultimately means pumping more blood per beat.

The other way to improve aerobic capacity is by doing high-intensity intervals, especially those done at about the power or pace associated with your VO2 max. At that intensity your heart rate is approaching maximum, so these are very hard efforts. This method will produce a higher stroke volume sooner than by relying only on volume. Most experienced athletes employ both strategies.

There are other physiological contributors to aerobic capacity such as aerobic enzymes found in the muscles, blood vessel diameter and ability to dilate, blood volume and related hematocrit (red blood cells). Many athletes seem to believe their lungs are the deciding factor when it comes to aerobic capacity. Training produces insignificant changes in lung volume.

Body weight also has a lot to do with aerobic capacity. The formula for determining VO2 max is expressed in terms of milliliters of oxygen consumed per kilogram of body weight per minute. What this means is that as you lose body weight, especially fat as opposed to sport-specific muscle, your VO2 max increases. And most of us have experienced this at both ends of the weight spectrum. When we have gained weight it’s harder to run or ride a bike uphill. Conversely, when body weight has been low the effort of exercise is decreased at any given power or pace. This is clearly the affect of body weight on aerobic capacity.

Aerobic capacity is largely dependent on who your parents were. Research (Bouchard, 1986) has shown that identical twins have nearly identical aerobic capacities. While genetics probably sets the boundaries for the upper limit of your VO2 max, proper training can take you to near the upper limit. But also bear in mind that there are two other physiological factors that contribute to endurance performance.

Atomic Man duathlon 2012

I competed in the 2012 Atomic Man duathlon today. This was my 80th multisport race, and my 19th duathlon since 2004.

I pulled my quad last week at the Spring Fling triathlon and hadn't been able to train all week. I decided to approach the Atomic Man as a light workout to test my leg. I decided to jog/walk the runs and bike very light.

On the 1st half of the 1st run I felt a little pinch where the injury was, but nothing bad enough to worry me.  I finished the 2.25 mile run in a safe and leg protecting time of 22:22.

I was worried about my quad on the bike because this course has some big climbs. I wasn't sure if my leg was ready to attempt climbing like that yet. Thankfully I completed the entire bike without any pain at all. I finished the 8.13 mile bike 33:28.

On the 2nd run my leg felt great. I picked up the pace to a high zone two and never felt any pulls or
pinches from my leg at all. The 2nd run was 2.42 miles  in 21:03.

I finished in a total time of 1:19, taking third place out of 3 in my age group and 27th overall 40out of.

I have completed 4 races in the 2012 South West Challenge series, one 1st place, two 2nd place finishes, and one third. I have a total of 36 points and am in 1st place overall in the 35-39 AG.

Looks like I'll start training again this week. I plan on cutting all my rides and runs in half this week. If my leg feels better after this weeks long days on Friday and Saturday then I'll try and train my full schedule the week after.

societies accepted prejudice

I'm well aware that some of my posts about my overeating aren't pretty, and that some people will be uncomfortable with my rampant and destructive overeating. I am trying to keep a promise I've made with myself- to accept responsibility while at the same time striving to shed guilt and leave shame behind I don't think I am shirking if I say I don't believe that I could have behaved any differently than I had. There is a paradox at work there. At each particular moment and with every bite of food I took in, I had a choice. By eating so rampantly, I made the wrong choice again and again. But in a broader, deeper way, I don't believe I had a choice at all. Something was controlling me.


If the exact nature of the fat disease is beyond my understanding, some of its implications have become painfully clear to me during the 7 years I was overweight to obese. During the time of 2000-2007 I had been shunned for dates, heard unkind nick-names, I came to know firsthand about our culture's deep biases against fat people.

Like every form of prejudice, those biases interfere with our being seen as individuals. Once someone got to know me I became a person. I was Cody. But until that point was reached-if it ever was- I was a stereotype, a silhouette, a cut out with a rounded shape not deemed to be attractive.

If the bias against fat begins as a prejudice regarding how we look, it ends up running much deeper. People tend to make all sorts of assumptions about those of us who are fat. They tend to imagine that in some perverse way we have chosen to be fat and that we could be thin if only we'd get a grip and show some discipline, if only we'd rise up off our fat behinds and get some exercise. In allot of cases its not that easy. Unfat people tend to blame us for our burden even though its our burden, not theirs.

Not only do many people disapprove of us for being fat; they feel perfectly free to show it. Even now, in the 21st century, as we are finally becoming respectful of diversity in things like race and gender, we as a culture still seem to condone sneering and smirking at fat people. Unfat people seem to think it's fine to stare at what we order in restaurants and glare if it doesn't meet with their approval. Fat jokes are still a staple of so-called comedy on TV and in the movies. Fat stereotypes still abound. A fat man is likely to be presented as falsely jolly or a pathetic man. A greedy politician will nearly always have an ample belly. A hero's side kick may be portrayed as fat, for comic relief. The hero of course will be lean.

These insensitive representations of fat people are bad enough if we think of fatness simply as a human difference. They become simply inexcusable as we accept the idea that fatness isn't just a difference but a disease. Can you imagine civilized people making jokes about any other disease the way they make jokes about being fat?

Now, even if you refuse to admit that fatness is a disease let me ask you, why is it ok for our society to treat fat people like they are diseased. If your friends with one, or God forbid you date a fatty, -as if being with a fat man cast doubt on their own attractiveness. Some of the people I've debated this with say it’s because fatness is a choice. We are fat because we are too lazy not to be. It’s true, I can, just like any other fat person could, take steps to become thinner, or in societies eyes become better looking and more attractive. A person who gets cancer, isn't it their choice to get treatment. If they are unsuccessful at that treatment, could any person in their right mind make fun of them or treat them unkindly? People make that choice to treat fat people poorly all the time. I felt horrid about myself every moment I was fat. I didn't like myself. Others made me not like myself, because they acted like they didn't like me. Others treated me differently once I got fat who had never treated me poorly before. I'll never forget the day a family member whom I loved and trusted pulled me aside and told me to be a good Father and husband I needed to not be overweight. Why would he say that to me? I was still the same person I was before I had gained my weight. I feel so bad for people who are fat because of the way they are treated. Treating someone differently because they are fat, being uncomfortable having to talk to one, or being disgusted if you are on a blind date with one is a prejudice. Think prejudice is to harsh a word? Could someone imagine the uproar there would be if someone actually suggested a person of color get some kind of treatment to become less dark so that they will be more successful, trusted, or even accepted? How virulent is today's bias against fat? I recently came across a study in which a group of college students were asked whom they would least likely marry. When the results were tallied, it turned out these students would Rather be wed to a cocaine user, a former mental patient, a shoplifter, a sexually promiscuous partner, a communist, an atheist, or a blind person than someone who is fat. Welcome to a fat person’s life. That's what people hint, and even say to us every day.

Be nice, fat people are human too. We have emotions just like everyone else, if anything we are even more sensitive than most because we are so often the brunt of mistreatment. Don't treat us differently because we're the same person no matter what we weigh. It’s not healthy to be overweight, but we shouldn't be treated like we are doing something wrong.

inury update and a day off

My quad is healing relatively quickly. Not as quickly as the last time I pulled it, but fast enough for me to not be freaking out. I can climb stairs and stand up from a sitting position without much pain. I’m thinking I’ll take today and Thursday off completely. Friday I’ll do an hour long bike all zone 1 and zone 2, Saturday I’ll try a 45 minute zone 2 run. I have the Atomicman duathlon on Sunday. I’m relatively certain I won’t  be able to push myself at race pace but I’m still going to show up to run and bike nice and easy with my only goal being to finish. A finish still gives me points for the South West Challenge series, and I love competing in the SW series!

I didn’t work last night. This week was the 1^st time since December that I took more than 1 day off in a week, and being home with my wife and babies is my favorite thing in the world. Unfortunately celebration is a huge trigger for me, so I ended up struggling with my eating last night. I was able to avoid binging, but barely. With the exception of my struggles with my eating disorder it was a perfect night. As we were going to bed I told my wife, “For just one night I wish I wasn’t an addict. I wish I could be home and enjoy myself rather than having to struggle with my desire to binge eat.”

Today I start working with a 12 step sponsor, so I’m hoping I’ll begin to struggle less. He sent me a list of his expectations and I’m in agreement with all of them. I posted what he sent me in the email, but I changed some things to keep him anonymous.

He wrote:

So... I've been thinking about our sponsoring relationship. I am attaching the first set of reading/writing I'd like to have you work on. In my experience, it works really well to read my answers aloud to my sponsor. Have you ever done this?

Let's think about the tools:

1. Food Plan... Check. Could you please type up your plan and send it to me via email so I have it in print?

2. Sponsorship... Hey, that's me!

3. Meetings... What is your plan here? I'll admit that my own meeting attendance is spotty. Do you have a stated goal for meetings?

4. Telephone... Tell me about your phone usage for recovery/outreach calls. When I started OA-HOW, it was mandated to me that I would make or receive THREE live phone calls every day. I did it for 14 months, and it was awesome... and very stressful. It was definitely one of the things that drove me away from the program eventually. What's your willingness? What's your desire? What do you think your NEED is for phone calls?

5. Writing... I think this is key. Stepwork is WHY we get abstinent in the first place. I think, if at all possible, you should be writing every day, even if it's just to answer only one question. Or less... I like to just look at a clock. If I don't get the question answered in 15 minutes, I start on it again the next day, unless I'm really into it and I want to continue.

6. Literature. Ditto. Every day... But this goes hand in hand with the writing. Read, then write. Every day is a great plan.

7. Anonymity... Well, I don't know that I have any special thoughts on how to use this in our relationship, but of course I think it's important.

8. Service... We'll talk about this as we go.

9. Action plan... Again, I think this will be addressed as we go forward.

So, I guess the things we need to determine are:

How often should we talk on the phone? Are you able/willing to do reading and writing every day? How many people can you commit to calling every day, if any? What food plan will you follow? What's your plan for meetings?

Cody, it all boils down to this: How can I help support YOU in your recovery? If it fits into what I believe is helpful, from my experience, then I'm happy to do it. It helps me too.

racing injury

I pulled my left quad during the bike portion of yesterday’s triathlon. I hate missing training time. This is only the 2nd time I've been injured because of triathlon training or racing. The last time was about 3 years ago, the injury was my left quad then also. My body is usually bullet proof, when I over train I've become sick, but not injured. The last time I pulled my quad I only had to take off 3 days. I'm hoping and praying for another quick recovery. My triathlon training is something that I have learned to rely on to keep my eating disorder under control; not being able to train is new and very disturbing to me. Falling off the diet wagon, losing control and gaining weight are my greatest fears. I'd be very grateful to any followers of Christ to pray for me to be able to stay abstinent from destructive overeating while I'm recovering.




Thanks for tuning in.

Wellington to take break from triathlon

I found this article on Hawaii24/7. I think she could win more Kona races than any triathlete ever. I was disappointed to see her step away, even if it is only temporary.

Four-time world champion and World Ironman Distance Record Holder, Chrissie Wellington has announced she will be taking a break from competing in Ironman during 2012 to explore other opportunities, including publication of her autobiography, “A Life Without Limits.”

Wellington, who won her fourth World Championship in Kona, Hawaii, last October and maintained her unbeaten record at Ironman distance – making it 13 victories from 13 races – made the announcement Monday, Jan. 16 in London.

“I’ve given absolutely everything to Ironman over the past five years. However, this year I’ve decided to take a break as I would like to spend more time focusing on other pursuits including dedicating more time to my chosen charities, the publication of my book and more active promotion of the sport in the UK, as well as giving myself the chance to explore and seize new opportunities within triathlon and outside,” she said.

Wellington said she believes she would not be able to pursue different goals while dedicating the energy and time needed to compete in Ironman events.

“The past five years have been absolutely incredible and I am extremely happy, proud and content with everything that I have achieved in the sport – topping it all off with the race of my life in Kona last year,” she said. “I have always seen triathlon as a part of my life, rather than the be all and end all, and am looking forward to a little more variety and balance by pursuing other interests, as well as spending more time with my family and friends.”

Wellington said she looks forward to being able to spend more time around the sport without the commitment of full time Ironman training and racing.

Ironman: Women’s season gets interesting

MEDIA RELEASE

Chrissie Wellington’s announcement that she is “taking a break from competing in Ironman during 2012 to explore other opportunities” has opened the door for some dramatic women’s racing through the 2012 season.

2010 Ironman world champion Mirinda Carfrae (the Australian runner up to Wellington in 2009 and 2011) and Kona Points Ranking leader Leanda Cave (Great Britain) now head into the 2012 season as the women to beat. Both, however, will be challenged by an unprecedented level of women’s competition.

Wellington has enjoyed an unparalleled career in the sport. She is unbeaten in all of her Ironman and full-distance events, holds the course record in Kona and also the world-best time for the full distance.

Her withdrawal from the 2010 Ironman World Championship dramatically changed the event, but also opened the door for athletes like Carfrae, Cave and Switzerland’s Caroline Steffen to gain higher profile.

Last year’s race in Kona was the closest women’s race in over a decade – due, in part, to injuries Wellington had sustained heading into the race, but also a sign of how competitive the women’s Ironman field has become.

“I didn’t grow up with childhood dreams of becoming a professional athlete, and even when I did so in 2007 I never had any aspirations of racing at, or even winning, the World Ironman Championship,” she said. “Consequently, the biggest highlight of the past five years has been the huge element of surprise. The fact that, at every step, I have somehow defied what I ever thought possible for my body and mind, to achieve. I feel so incredibly fortunate and grateful to have found a sport that I love; to have had the opportunity to make that passion my career, to have forged countless new and lasting friendships; to have experienced some of the world’s most beautiful places, and of course to have developed a platform on which I can now build. This is by no means the end, merely another chapter and i cant wait to see what the future holds!”

A look at the top-12 finishers from last year’s race in Kona shows how fast the top women are.

Another Great Britain athlete, Rachel Joyce, finished in the top-five for the second year in a row in Kona. (Karin Thuerig, the sixth place finisher from last year’s race, has announced her retirement from the sport.)

Germany’s Sonja Tajsich, seventh last year, has a number of Ironman titles to her credit and could contend for the world title this year.

Heather Wurtele (Canada) won two Ironman races in 2011 (St. George and Lake Placid) before rounding out her season with an eighth-place finish in Kona.

Fast-running Caitlin Snow (USA) is just a bike ride away from being a contender at the world championship.

Spain’s Virginia Berasategui has multiple top-five finishes in Kona, while Scotland’s Catriona Morrison has yet to show her potential in Kona after dominating Ironman wins in Lanzarote and Texas over the last few years.

Rounding out the top-12 from Kona last year was Ironman France champion Tine Deckers (Belgium).

There are two other athletes who seem destined to compete at the highest levels of the sport over the next few years. Like Wellington before her, American Mary Beth Ellis burst onto the Ironman scene with three dramatic wins in 2011, including the fastest Ironman debut with her impressive win in Austria.

Ironman 70.3 world champion Melissa Rollison also exploded into the Ironman picture (should she move to the full distance in 2012) with her dominating performance in Las Vegas.

Suffice it to say that the Ironman world will certainly miss Wellington through the 2012 season, but also has a lot to look forward to.

Economy

Exercise physiologists generally agree that there are only three things you can improve to become physiologically more fit for endurance sports performance: aerobic capacity, lactate threshold and economy.

Economy, it has to do with how efficiently you use oxygen while exercising. Measuring oxygen used is just another way of measuring energy during exercise since in the human body how much oxygen you use also tells you how much energy you’re expending. Your economy is much like the economy rating for a car. – how many miles per gallon of gas. Only in the case of exercise it’s how many milliliters of oxygen per mile.

The longer the race is the less important aerobic capacity becomes and the more important economy is. This is because at the longer distances you exercise at a lower percentage of your aerobic capacity. So having a big VO2max won’t be of great benefit. But wasting even a little energy per stroke or stride due to poor economy will add up to a lot of wasted energy – and a slow performance – in a long race.

We know what can be done to boost your aerobic capacity. You can do lots of miles and mix in high-intensity intervals. Economy is a bit different. There are some things you have control over, but many you can do nothing about. For example, we know that for swimming being tall with long arms and legs and big feet improves economy. Unfortunately, you can’t change those. In the same way, for cycling having a long femur bone relative to your total leg length improves economy. For running being short and small are good for your economy. As an endurance athlete economy is improved by having a greater percentage of slow twitch muscle fibers. And there are other improvements to our physiology we would also make if we had control over them such as increasing the number of mitochondria we have (these are the little powerhouses in the muscle cell that produce energy). These are all things we have little or no control over.

So what things can you control to improve your racing efficiency and use fewer milliliters of oxygen per mile? The most common technique. You must realize that if you decide to go this route and make changes to your current technique that there will be a period of time during which you become less efficient. This will show up as a higher than normal heart rate at any given speed or power. And it may take weeks if not months to make the new technique your normal. At that point you should be faster at the same heart rates as before.

Others that are beneficial for the bike and run are reducing excess body weight and using lighter equipment. Then there are sport-specific efficiency improvers. The most notable is aerobars on the TT or tri bike along with other aerodynamic equipment such as wheels, helmet and bike frame. As a swimmer you can improve economy by improving the flexibility of your shoulders and feet, especially the ability to point your toes. Interestingly, the research shows that having less flexibility in the ankle joint makes for more economical running as this appears to improve the release of energy stored in your calf muscle with each footstrike.

Training components that improve economy are intensity and frequency. Training at a high speed or power has been shown to make athletes more economical at all speed and power outputs including the lower range. But it doesn’t work both ways. Going very slowly doesn’t pay off with greater economy at the high end of speed and power.

One of the best ways to improve your technique and therefore your efficiency is to do your sport frequently even if each session is very brief. For example, for a triathlete to become a more efficient swimmer with only two hours a week to devote to it, swim four times a week for 30 minutes each time. That will improve your efficiency sooner than doing two, one-hour swims each week.

Plyometric exercises have also been shown to improve economy in both runners and cyclists. This involves doing explosive jumping, bounding and hopping drills. For the run brief, powerful hill repeats are much like plyometrics.

There is still a great deal of debate about whether or not traditional strength training with weights improves economy. I believe it does as I have seen so many of the athletes I’ve coached over the years improve their performances remarkably after a winter of lifting weights – provided they did exercises which closely mimic the movements of the sport. Doing curls is unlikely to make you a better runner. But doing step ups may help.

In summarizing the three physiological fitness determiners remember that aerobic capacity is largely the result of your genetics as optimized by steady training over many years. And the longer your race is the less significant this is to performance, even though it wouldn’t hurt to have a high VO2max. Lactate threshold is highly trainable and you should see a steady improvement in your speed or power when you reach this threshold. Economy may be the best determiner of performance of the three. But, as mentioned, we don’t know a whole lot about it and much of what is known to be important is out of your control. The things you do have some measure of control over often take a long time to accomplish (e.g., changing your technique), are difficult to achieve (e.g., lower body weight) or are expensive (e.g., lighter bike).