Relaxing is the key to everything, especially swimming

In honor of my biggest swim week ever, 12,600 yards this week, I just thought that I'd comment on the importance of relaxation.  It's remarkable that trying to swim harder often just leads to getting tired, and not swimming faster.  Relaxing is also key in biking and running, but it's a little less obvious in these disciplines.  That said, I've been learning that when I'm doing a really hard workout and things get tough, I try to relax, and that allows me to make it through the workout.

Relaxing is also the key to life.  Taking a deep breath and just trying to relax is often the key to a challenging situation.

So, my thought for the day, Relax!

It's never about winning, it's all about the journey

I've often contemplated how hard the pros must have it.  Trying to win every time out.  So, you win some races.  Maybe you even win Hawaii six times.  What then?  At some point, you can't win.  It's an impossible task to set a goal of always winning.  Life is similar.  I know people who always have to win.  Some of these people are very sucessful (in other people's eyes, of course).  So, they win.  What then?  They have to win again, and again. 

I don't care whether it's triathlon, a game of basketball, chess, business, or life.  If you make it all about winning, you will ultimately lose.  If you make it about the journey, you can always win.  We learn something on every journey that we take.  I've had races where my times aren't what I wanted, but I learned something about myself.  I love Ironman St. George because of the beautiful surroundings.  At the end of the day, the racing will take care of itself. 

My journey to St. George this time around has been unique and different from the last two years.  My life is different, as it always is.  My training is different, as it sometimes is.  I've continued to train well, but I've had my bumps on the road.  A torn quadriceps muscle at the end of December, my left achilles continues to nag at me, but hasn't slowed me down yet.  The body responds, sends messages, sometimes I listen, sometimes I don't.  Most days I wake up looking forward to the next workout.  Yesterday, I woke up looking forward to my workouts, but recognizing that I wanted today off from training.  So, with the blessing of my coach, that's what I did.  Mentally, I know I'll be raring to go tomorrow and especially this weekend, which will be full of workouts!  Six weeks and two days to go to St. George.  Really, it's three weeks and two days to beginning my taper.  Which means, only three weeks of "serious" training left. 

We never really "win" in life, we just continue our journey.

Third Times a Charm: My Journey to Ironman St. George

Two years ago, I was just starting to ramp up my training for my first ironman, what I would later learn was one of the hardest (if not the hardest) ironman course in the world.  After seeing Julie Moss crawl across the finish line of the Hawaii Ironman almost thirty years earlier, I, like many others, had always wanted to do an ironman.  I had originally made a goal of doing one when I turned forty, but life got in the way.  I decided that I wasn't going to let the age of fifty pass without doing an ironman.  What I didn't plan on was a bike accident six months before the race which left me with a broken clavicle and a broken hip socket.  Fortunately, everything healed, leaving me with four months to prepare.  Looking back at my training logs, as of this time in my preparation for St. George 2010, I had somehow managed to do 5 long runs (over 2 hours), the longest one being 16.7 miles.  I had done 5 long bike rides (over 4 hours), the longest one being 5 hours/88 miles.  I ultimately completed my first ironman in 13 hours and 18 minutes, walking half of the marathon, but still doing the marathon in just over five hours.  I was hooked, and it didn't take long for me to sign up for the 2011 Ironman St. George.  By this time in my preparation last year, I had completed 7 long runs, the longest one being 20.1 miles.  I had also done 6 long bike rides, the longest one being almost 5 1/2 hours/100 miles.  I improved my bike time and finished my second St. George ironman in 12 hours and 44 minutes, again walking half of the marathon and completing it in just over five hours.  I thought I was done with ironman until I watched the 2011 Ironman World Championships and realized that I wanted another shot at St. George.  I spoke to my coach and started my training.  I've done 13 long runs (fifteen if I count a couple of "two a day" runs), the longest one being 21 miles on my daughter's 21st birthday.  I've done 10 long bike rides, the longest one being almost 6 1/2 hours/90 miles as part of a 360 mile/6 mile vertical week of riding.  Over the past three days I biked a solid 3 hours (58 miles), ran 18 miles and biked 3 1/2 hours (63 miles), and I'm feeling good.  I have seven weeks to go before St. George and I feel better than ever.  I don't know how I'll do, but I know I will enjoy the race once again!

55 Days to St. George

It's been awhile since I've blogged. So much has been going on, I should recount some of the things. I spent February in California visiting my daughter, who got married and started a new job and move in the fall. I was able to get a ton of great sea level training in during this time, including 5 days of cycling 360 miles with over 6 mile of climbing. Oh, we also bought a house near my daughter and we'll be moving in May, after Ironman St. George. I'll also be going into semi-retirement at that time, which I'm quite excited about. So, I'm winding down at work, packing, spending time with my wife, and continuing to train for Ironman St. George. My training was going great until my wife and I finally got the respiratory virus going around about 12 days ago while driving back from California. It kicked my butt a few days, but hell, I showed it, running a half marathon on the fifth day of the bug, and then running another 15 mile this weekend! All at low to moderate intensity, there's a very fine balance between training/exercise and illness. My training and fitness are better than ever, and, I shouldn't admit this, I'm going to smash my previous times at St. George! Our new Internet business in California is about to take off. What else is new? I think that's enough. Of interest, we always have to remember that to some degree, stress is stress, when it comes to the impact on our bodies. Our system doesn't always appreciate the difference between good and bad stressors. So, this afternoon I get to rest, aside from dealing with an overflowed toilet and clogged plumbing. Seems like we've been dealing with one plumbing issue after another all winter. The new house looks good, though. I've also been enjoying the comedy channel, which is any channel showing the republican primary. I'm quit e tired of the people calling for the appeal of "obamacare", so, it wasn't the best bill, but the people condemning it have no clue as to what was wrong, or right, about it! Health care has been my business for the last 20 years, and, the Affordable Care Act isn't the end of civilazation as we know it! While this blog has historically been about my athletic pursuits, I may extend out a bit from that onto other issues in e future.

55 days to go before St. George. At this time last year, I put in about half of the long bikes and long runs as I've done this year. If I can bring this home over the next 8 weeks with some solid runs and bikes and swims, it will truly be fun to see what my body can do. 52 years old and getting stronger and fitter, I love it!

Confidence

In 2009, due to my hip socket fracture, I couldn't start running until January, then, did 6 long runs of 12-18 miles prior to St. George. I run/walked the marathon in 5:02, so this worked to a point. In 2010, I began my long runs again in January and did 10 between 14-20 miles (average of 17) prior to race day. Again, I did the marathon in 5:02, albeit after a bike that was 25 minutes faster. I also had GI problems that slowed me down, but my legs felt fine. This year, it's early December and I've already done 4 long runs. My coach has me aiming for a total of 16-20 prior to race day. I'm hoping that this is my year to have a breakout run. My 16 mile run today felt really solid, and I've had no soreness afterwards. My first long run last year didn't happen until January 16th. I've got six weeks until January 16th, and I've already completed 4 solid long runs. I'm on pace to do my 16-20 long runs. This gives me the confidence that I need to have a successful run at St. George this year. I'm excited and I'm confident. I'm ready and committed to the task before me.

Another Journey to St. George

Five and a half months ago I completed Ironman St. George for the second time. As I walk/ran the marathon, I can still remember feeling like I had accomplished everything that I had set out to accomplish. I thought to myself, "I don't need to try to qualify for Hawaii, I'm completing the hardest ironman in the world for the second time." That night I told my wife that I would not do another ironman until she told me it was ok to do so. Life took over this summer, my daughter had a wedding to be planned, we started a new entertainment business, it seemed like there was some new life stress every day! Training diminished to nearly non-existent levels, and I just never felt right. I knew that ironman training was an addiction of sorts, and I kept trying to fight this feeling. After all, I had made a promise to my wife. It seemed like there was never time to contemplate my next step, and I really focused on being there for my family and not let training get in the way. But the uneasiness persisted.

The weekend before last I watched this years Ironman World Championship on streaming live video. "I want to do that again", I kept thinking. Finally, I realized that I had to tell my wife. Which I did. Her immediate response was, "I never believed you anyway". Since that discussion I have felt a degree of calmness that I have not felt in awhile. My coach said that many of his athletes might show nervousness after making this decision. I'm the opposite. I know it's what I want to do.

One thing that I have learned from training for two ironmen is that this is something that suits me. I love the long runs and the long bike rides.. I love the feeling that my body has that there is nothing that I can't do. The level of fitness comes with a feeling almost of indestructibility. Are my competitive juices also engaged? Certainly, but as I have learned long ago in triathlon, I am only competing with myself. If I give it my best on race day, I will be happy, satisfied and proud. That said, I have asked my coach to prepare me for the best race I can do. I am only working 20 hours a week, so I have time to train without sacrificing the time I want to spend with my wife, while I love triathlon, I love my wife more. But I must do both. I will take off the months of January and February. This will allow me the opportunity to fully commit myself to doing the best that I can do.

I met with my coach yesterday. Some of my key goals this year will be to focus on my core and overall strength. More regular tie in the weight room. I will spend more time with more vertical miles training on the bike. I will do 15-20 long runs between now and St. George. From this coming saturday, I am 28 weeks away from the race. I have plenty of time to prepare myself. I am excited. I am ready.

Crescent Moon Sprint Triathlon Race Report

Well, I guess no training had to catch up with me sooner or laterJ. Really, my training declined precipitously after Ironman St. George in early May, but I pretty much proved that you can maintain a pretty good level of fitness off solid ironman training for at least a few months. However, since doing the Boulder 70.3 six weeks ago, I’ve literally done next to nothing. I probably swam a few times (at the most), ran intermittently, and did get in several bike rides (all of them relatively short). So, today was about guts only. I planned to race as hard as possible, and just see what happened.

The swim was a beach start, which is always interesting. I knew that it would be a running start, and I had decided that from now on I need to start my swims as hard as I can, in order to keep up with the lead swimmers, at least until the turmoil settles. For an in water start, this is one thing, for a beach start, it’s double the challenge, but I was up for it! So, I started at the front, in the middle, and ran as fast as I could into the water, did one dolphin swim and then started swimming as hard as I could. If someone pushed into me, I kept swimming hard, no slowing down. I got past the first buoy (about 30 yards), turned right and kept swimming hard. Now, my swim fitness probably sucks, so sooner or later this was not going to work, but what the heck! At about 150 yards, I could still see the lead people right in front of me, decided to take a breath to my left to see what was there, and whammo, inhaled a mouthful of water. Usually, when this happens, I keep swimming and just let the breathing come to me. That idea lasted about 2 strokes, when I quickly realized that I was already anaerobic and not being able to breath was not very compatible with this. So, I did a couple of breast strokes, and the lead group quickly put distance in front of me. I actually felt a little panicky for about 30-40 seconds, but just tried to relax and start swimming easily. I figure that I lost at least a minute doing this. I then got into a nice relaxed rhythm and just kept that until I hit the half way point, I then tried to intermix some harder efforts, until I briefly inhaled a little more water. I actually realized somewhere along the way that my nose felt stuffed and it was affecting my breathing. I also knew that the run from the beach to T1 was all uphill and that if I came out of the water winded, I wouldn’t be running. So, I just kept a solid and relaxed effort for the rest of the swim. Got out of the water, felt reasonably good and started jogging up the hill and stairs. I never walked, passed a number of people and got to my bike and found the guy next to me, Allen, (in my age group and probably a better swimmer than me), still getting ready for the bike. My swim time (including the run up to T1) was 18:06, which was ~100th/470 people. I probably lost 1-2 minute due to my breathing issues, which would have put me much closer to the top of my age group. Considering my lack of swim fitness, have to be pretty happy with this. I made my usual quick transition (just losing about 10 seconds getting my wetsuit off inefficiently, and ironically my 64 second transition was 8 seconds slower than the fastest transition in my age group) and actually got out of T1 before Allen. Mounted my bike, got my left foot in my shoe and made my way as quickly as possible on the bike path to the rode, headed down the road and got my other foot in the shoe and got the straps on. I tried to start out reasonably fast and solid, and shortly thereafter Allen passed me. I stayed right behind him (3 bike lengths) and realized that it was feeling too easy and so I ultimately passed him. Not sure how close he stayed behind me, but he ultimately passed me again on the longest uphill. I kept a solid effort and pace, in fact no one else passed me, not surprising based on the timing of the age group starts and my lackluster swim. I hit the first short hill and hammered up it, and then stayed solid going up the longer hill that Allen passed me on. I didn’t get on his wheel this time, although I probably should have thought about it, but kept him in visual range until T2 (although he kept getting a little further ahead). At the top of the hill I wasn’t able to shift into my 53 front chainring for almost a minute, probably losing some top end speed coming down the hill. My battery was low, oops, my fault! Stayed aero the whole bike, tried to keep a solid effort, but didn’t want to blow up and be trashed for the run. Interestingly, my average power was only 145, and Normalized Power was ~155, less than my half ironman efforts, and probably ironman as well. Still managed to average about 22mph over the roads. My bike split was 33:46 (61st overall).
Got to T2, good dismount and got to my rack, Allen was still getting his shoes on and actually just headed out of T2 several seconds in front of me. My transition was 55 seconds, again, just 10 seconds slower than the fastest transition in my age group. My legs felt good, my breathing was ok, but, per my usual recent M.O., I just wasn’t very fast. I got into a rhythm and kept it the whole run, trying to keep my breathing about every 3rd step, which meant that I was going as hard as I possibly could. Passed half way on the run by John, who never beats me, and he looked fresh, so I just kept pounding away. Hit the finish line, I was tired, as usual, felt like I gave it everything I had, but I didn’t really have that muchJ. My run split was 26:26, 8:32 pace, the slowest sprint tri run I’ve had in a very long time (ranking me 160th overall). My final time of 1:20:16 was 5th in my age group (out of 19) and 70th overall (out of 470 people). Still, not bad for 52 years old, but not up to the standards I’ve been setting for myself. Imagine what I can do if I actually train!

Just as I realized as I finished Ironman St. George that I needed to reduce my training and focus on my life, as I finished the run today, I realized that it is time to fully reengage in training. I needed to focus on life, but that’s under control now, and I want to focus on training and getting back into shape, or at least the kind of shape that I want to be in!