I earned a spot on Team USA for the 2010 Long Course Triathlon World Championships in Immenstadt, Germany. I'm pretty stoked. Also, I'm pretty motivated to get my butt back in training.
Thursday, October 29, 2009
Redman Half Ironman Mini-Report
The Redman 1/2 was a crazy race. I haven't had a good 1/2 Ironman since my first one in 2005, so I agonized quite a bit going into the race over how to pace myself for the various events and over what kind of times I could expect. Despite having spent a ridiculous amount of time analyzing my past results, I had absolutely no idea what to expect. I did know that the lingering shoulder injury and the resulting time away from swimming weren't going to do any wonders for my swim time. I decided to play the swim completely by ear, ride the bike more moderately than I did at Gulf Coast (where I wasn't planning to run at all), and then try to hold 8min/mile pace on the run (which my running leading into the race led me to believe was possible).
The day of the race, just after setting up my transition, the bottom fell out of the sky and we were hit with a veritable monsoon. There was 6" of water in the transition area, stuff was floating around, and it was cold! Some parts of the bike course were impassable due to flooding, so the race directors postponed the start to decide whether or not to cancel the race. There was a full IM distance race being run concurrently with the HIM, and the HIM was the national championship, so the gravity of this decision was not lost on anyone. Eventually they decided to start the race, with a mandatory dismount through one portion of the bike course. At this point, I was pretty much numb with cold, which may have had an impact on my swim leg.
I had a great swim. I don't understand how, or why, but I finished with a better swim time than at Gulf Coast, and was one of the first in my age group out of the water. My shoulder didn't hurt. All day. Not at any point. I am beyond mystified.
On to the bike. I had a terrible bike leg. I'm not sure why. I don't know if I was subconsciously saving too much for the run, or what. I did find an inch or so of water in my rear disc wheel after the race (that probably resulted from pushing my bike through the water hazard instead of carrying it over it), and that may have sapped a little energy, but overall I didn't feel strong at all. And I got passed by lots of people.
I had a good transition, and then was off on the run. The run was fun, because much of it was through puddles hundreds of feet long, and it felt way more adventurous than your average triathlon. I had struggled a bit with my choice of shoes for the 1/2 marathon- wear the heavy long distance shoes, or the light Newtons with no cushioning or support. I had opted for the Newtons, which meant that I was carrying about 6 pounds less water than I would have if I'd chosen the other pair. Lucky choice. I held an 8 minute pace throughout the run, and finished strong.
I ended up with a 21 minute PR. Overall, a pretty good race, though I almost certainly could have done better. My shoulder mysteriously didn't bother me all day, or the day after. The day after that, however, it was clear that I had set back my recovery pretty significantly (pain galore- well deserved), but I was glad I had eked out one last good race (triathlon) for the season.
The day of the race, just after setting up my transition, the bottom fell out of the sky and we were hit with a veritable monsoon. There was 6" of water in the transition area, stuff was floating around, and it was cold! Some parts of the bike course were impassable due to flooding, so the race directors postponed the start to decide whether or not to cancel the race. There was a full IM distance race being run concurrently with the HIM, and the HIM was the national championship, so the gravity of this decision was not lost on anyone. Eventually they decided to start the race, with a mandatory dismount through one portion of the bike course. At this point, I was pretty much numb with cold, which may have had an impact on my swim leg.
I had a great swim. I don't understand how, or why, but I finished with a better swim time than at Gulf Coast, and was one of the first in my age group out of the water. My shoulder didn't hurt. All day. Not at any point. I am beyond mystified.
On to the bike. I had a terrible bike leg. I'm not sure why. I don't know if I was subconsciously saving too much for the run, or what. I did find an inch or so of water in my rear disc wheel after the race (that probably resulted from pushing my bike through the water hazard instead of carrying it over it), and that may have sapped a little energy, but overall I didn't feel strong at all. And I got passed by lots of people.
I had a good transition, and then was off on the run. The run was fun, because much of it was through puddles hundreds of feet long, and it felt way more adventurous than your average triathlon. I had struggled a bit with my choice of shoes for the 1/2 marathon- wear the heavy long distance shoes, or the light Newtons with no cushioning or support. I had opted for the Newtons, which meant that I was carrying about 6 pounds less water than I would have if I'd chosen the other pair. Lucky choice. I held an 8 minute pace throughout the run, and finished strong.
I ended up with a 21 minute PR. Overall, a pretty good race, though I almost certainly could have done better. My shoulder mysteriously didn't bother me all day, or the day after. The day after that, however, it was clear that I had set back my recovery pretty significantly (pain galore- well deserved), but I was glad I had eked out one last good race (triathlon) for the season.
Tuesday, September 15, 2009
Tapering
I am officially tapering for the upcoming weekend's Half Ironman! For my long run on Saturday, I ran 16 miles, and on Sunday my long ride consisted of 30 easy miles at the park. My run felt pretty good (though a little slow), and I had a reasonable pick-up at the end, finishing at a sub-8-min/mile pace. For some reason, on my ride I felt really fatigued and frustratingly slow (which is consistent with how painfully slow I'd felt during my tempo runs at the end of last week), but I'm trying not to be discouraged. I'm going to stick to the plan of using this week to heal up and recharge. I took yesterday off completely, and I've gotten a couple of good nights' sleep in a row. Let's see if I can keep it up through the end of the week, and hopefully head into Saturday's race healthy, energized, and ridiculously, blisteringly fast.
Can you say acromioclavicular separation?
So, several weeks after my injury, an update:Shoulder pain has diminished significantly, but I still have a bony bump consistent with an acromioclavicular separation. It is probable that this bump will be permanent, but in any case I have been treating the injury appropriately (with the possible exception of the swimming- more on that later).
Though the shoulder has been feeling better, I've been dealing with upper back pain that borders on incapacitating and has even been impairing my sleep. I've actually gotten this "snapping scapula" syndrome a number of times from swimming, usually from swimming excessively hard at the end of a workout when I'm not completely back in swimming shape.
Usually it requires at least a full week off from swimming for the pain to subside. It's essentially due to inflammation in the bursa(e) that separate the scapula from the rib cage.Now for the confession: I started swimming again two weeks ago, just after my first weekend back on the bike. The first couple of swims I did entirely one-armed. I did 1000m for the first one, and 1600m for the second. Recognizing that my last scheduled triathlon of the season is imminent, and feeling that being able to actually swim would be critical, I then started trying out the injured shoulder. I found that I could reproduce the motion of swimming with that arm without substantial pain in the shoulder (barely pulling with that arm), but swimming was definitely not helping the scapula pain. Interestingly, my body alignment is off a bit; I don't seem to swim completely straight. My next 2 swims were very deliberate workouts (2000 and 2500m), in which I was extremely careful of the injured arm. I could feel the injured arm getting better and better (though the scapula pain was not, of course, improving). So, last Thursday I swam for real. I swam 3000m, forcing myself to fully extend the injured arm (but still being careful on the pull). Afterwards, it was clear that my shoulder had been adversely affected by the workout. For the first time in quite awhile, my shoulder was noticeably more painful that it had been the day before. When continued symptoms over the next few days made it clear that I had regressed, I decided not to swim again in the 8 days remaining before the race, and to see what value "healing up" might bring. At this point, I can't really add any fitness before the race, so I might as well try to go into the race as healthy as possible.
Monday, August 31, 2009
Back in the saddle
Well, I had a pretty good weekend! I ran 20 miles on Saturday and actually felt pretty good! Since I hadn't run long the previous weekend, I started the run with no intentions whatsoever of running 20; I was going to be happy with anything greater than 15 miles. However, the company was good, the temperature was fairly moderate, and my feet felt better than they have (running long) in months. I'm not sure exactly to what to attribute the last factor: to the two weeks off I'd taken nearly completely off from running, or to a last-minute shoe substitution I made nearly immediately after putting on my usual "long-run" shoes. I was prescribed these shoes when I went to buy a new pair of Newtons, and came away with a pair of shoes that promised to "correct" my form (I'm convinced that my form over the last many months has been subtly altered to try to minimize the pain associated with plantar fasciitis, and does not necessarily represent my natural body mechanics). Anyway, I'd been running my long runs in those and all of my weekly runs in the Newtons, still focusing in both pairs on mid/forefoot striking. When I put my "long run" shoes on early Saturday morning, the near instant plantar pain I felt caused me to rip those off and to don a pair of neutral trainers (the model I'd been running in for the past 3 years), which in this case I'd been using for my "walking around" shoes. Anyway, I ran 20, had a solid kick at the end over the last 4 or 5 miles, and finished the run feeling pretty great!
On Sunday, I went to Galveston for a 100 mile bicycle ride organized by Houston Racing. I've been trying out a behind-the-saddle water bottle holder on my bike ever since the retainer nuts on my downtube broke (that's what I get for removing my water bottle holder to improve aerodynamics for a sprint race), and these holders are notorious for ejecting bottles when riding on bumpy roads. True to form, my bottle of Infinit was ejected at about mile 5 of the ride, and I was left to complete the ride with a Camelbak full of water, and no nutrition or electrolytes. I got through the first 3 hours of the ride with a couple of emergency Gu's I had stuck in my jersey, and then tried to make up the difference with Gatorade purchased from a local store. At around mile 75 I crashed completely. It was ridiculously hot out, and I was out of calories to burn, and subsequently out of will to continue. I wasn't excessively fatigued, but I couldn't think and I completely stopped caring. I just wanted to pull over and curl up in some shade. I tried to get myself to sing a song to take my mind off of things (this is typically a pretty effective trick), but couldn't think of any songs. I somehow persevered to the gas station at mile 88, where I downed a Mountain Dew (nectar of the gods!) and a couple of bottles of Gatorade. It was a much longer stop than I would have preferred, but when I got back on the bike I had gotten my spirit back, and I finished the ride feeling relatively peppy. I was pretty much destroyed for the rest of the day, but I was pretty satisfied with my weekend of training.
On Sunday, I went to Galveston for a 100 mile bicycle ride organized by Houston Racing. I've been trying out a behind-the-saddle water bottle holder on my bike ever since the retainer nuts on my downtube broke (that's what I get for removing my water bottle holder to improve aerodynamics for a sprint race), and these holders are notorious for ejecting bottles when riding on bumpy roads. True to form, my bottle of Infinit was ejected at about mile 5 of the ride, and I was left to complete the ride with a Camelbak full of water, and no nutrition or electrolytes. I got through the first 3 hours of the ride with a couple of emergency Gu's I had stuck in my jersey, and then tried to make up the difference with Gatorade purchased from a local store. At around mile 75 I crashed completely. It was ridiculously hot out, and I was out of calories to burn, and subsequently out of will to continue. I wasn't excessively fatigued, but I couldn't think and I completely stopped caring. I just wanted to pull over and curl up in some shade. I tried to get myself to sing a song to take my mind off of things (this is typically a pretty effective trick), but couldn't think of any songs. I somehow persevered to the gas station at mile 88, where I downed a Mountain Dew (nectar of the gods!) and a couple of bottles of Gatorade. It was a much longer stop than I would have preferred, but when I got back on the bike I had gotten my spirit back, and I finished the ride feeling relatively peppy. I was pretty much destroyed for the rest of the day, but I was pretty satisfied with my weekend of training.
Thursday, August 27, 2009
Back on the run
I ran two loops of Memorial Park last night (~6 miles). I kept my arm pretty stiff, so that there was virtually no shoulder rotation on my recovering shoulder. I still have a painful cramp (or stitch, or something) in my back that delivers stabbing pain when I take a full breath or cough or sneeze, and last night by the time I went to bed it was nearly immobilizing. I get this from time to time from overdoing a swim (I think it's due to excessive tightness in my right "lat"), but the stretch I usually do to get rid of it involves a shoulder contortion I'm not able to do in my current condition. Anyway...
The run was slow. I took the first loop easy, but I ran the second loop pretty hard (as hard as I could without really pumping my arms), and that loop still took me 20:40. That's disappointingly slower than the times I'd been hitting a couple of weeks ago, but maybe a little more recovery time will get me back where I need to be.
At least I can run. :)
The run was slow. I took the first loop easy, but I ran the second loop pretty hard (as hard as I could without really pumping my arms), and that loop still took me 20:40. That's disappointingly slower than the times I'd been hitting a couple of weeks ago, but maybe a little more recovery time will get me back where I need to be.
At least I can run. :)
Wednesday, August 26, 2009
National Championship Qualifier!!
I realized today that I have qualified for the Halfmax National Championship (half-iron distance), and, fortuitously enough, I was already entered in the Redman 1/2 Ironman. It's the same race, but the "qualifiers" are competing for spots on the national team. So on September 19, I will be in Oklahoma City competing for a spot on Team USA to compete in the 2010 Long Course Triathlon World Championships in Immenstadt, Germany. I don't have any crazy aspirations of actually going to the World Championships, or any corresponding delusions of being that good, but just competing for a spot will be pretty cool! Hopefully by then my shoulder will be working...
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