Visiting the dark places

Summer is finally here, and training 6 weeks out of race day is like a triathlete’s paradise: plenty to do, plenty to organize, lots to eat, lots of rest and you can forget about house works for a month or so. I am blessed with the best wife in the world, which makes things even easier. A few days ago I left for a swim, then work, then ride and then we met at the pool for a second swim, chillax and catching up.

On another subject, I often chatted to buddies training for long distance triathlons that every now and then they’ve been to a dark place while training. The reasons were many, the cold, the wind, the climbs, the intensity of the interval, the minimalist rest periods, the pace, the hunger, the thirst.

On 4 years training quite formally (over 8hr week), I’ve experienced most of the above symptoms at some point or another, however I’ve never thought of it as been in a dark place.

But all of a sudden IM training came along and I discovered a new meaning for dark place. It is that point where there are more reasons not to keep going than there are to keep going. Pain, heat, tiredeness, the elements but more importantly, the confidence that we’re more than ready already and changing or skipping one session is OK, and the same for the next day and the following.

This latter is the greatest of the dark places, because you cannot tell you’re there and you think you’re doing the smart thing. It is like radiation. You don’t see it or feel it, but it is there, and is very dangerous indeed. As the famous line from the usual suspects goes: the biggest trick the devil pulled is to convince the world he did not exist.

I had to pull myself out of that one a couple of times over the last month. Having someone with experience to talk, or calling the coach makes a difference, and changes the whole outlook.

More importantly, though, I am keen to hear from you and learn a bit more about this. What’s the darkest places you been in for endurance training?

gear review - K-Swiss K-Ona

The K-Ona is advertised to be a multi-use shoe and not only a lightweight trainer. I bought them with the idea of using is as a racing shoe for half marathons or more.
The Looks:
the shoes are a nice piece of work, good finishing and a mighty look. They have IRONMAN written on the side, which is not of my liking, but they look quite racey.
The size:
When I bought the shoes I did not know much about how the sizing worked out on KSwiss and I ended up with shoes that are a tad too big. This is not great for two reasons, the first one is that my feet travel .5cm at sone stages, creating the potential for blisters. The second reason is that bigger shoes don't grab my feet as well as the perfect size, and my stride does not benefit fully from that.
The pros:
These shoes are like a feather, wearing them for longer (over 2 hours) runs I noticed the weight not becoming an issue, allowing me to keep good form.
Besides the light weight, they provide a great deal of mid-foot support and the material has gone over 200km of running with minimal wear.

Another test is the ability to go off road, in the few ocasions that I did take the shoes for a light off road run (park, mud, no roots, a bit of gravel) they stood very well.

The Cons:
Sizing-wise the shoes are on the wide side, so if you're like me, with thinner feet, they're not ideal.
The IM branding on the side. I'm not on for free advertising, but the prize was good and I did make a choice based on my wallet.
Even though the shoes were a bit big for me, the seams were a problem on the upper part of my feet, and the couple of runs I did without socks, the result was not great.

So, not an ideal start for K-Swiss and Valentino. The multi-use shoest turned out to be the plan B trainers. However, with time I started to venture more and more miles into them, and the last 3 hours run in the rain I did I did with my KOnas, and they responded. I am a happy customer.

The reset button

The holiday is almost gone, I've been enjoying the not-having-to-work-and-not-having-to-plan mood for the last 10 days and it was great. 

Every now and then I need to reboot and these days have been great at that. It was a rather uneventful Xmas break, but it did the job (I think) of cutting up the long IM training calendar. It would have been great to have the tramping trip done, but the weather gods weren't playing for us this year. In any case, it was all about attitude and I think we had a great one this time around.

Training was aided by a very lazy routine and lots of stretching and keeping a healthy diet (maxed out at 2 glasses of wine). All in all there was a couple of good days and a couple of days were character building sessions. 

The ability to set oneself up again is not as easy as it sounds. There is the peril of going too much off the path and taking a lot to come back (typical holiday piggy out). There is also a matter of timing (can't do too close to a race as re-setting takes a lot of energy). And there's the top 2 inches, re-setting is all about the top 2 inches and if one doesn't have a good network of close allies to talk about stuff, then it may not work at all. 

I then got to explore neuromuscular reset literature on the web, if you haven't done it, here's a sampler, but you can do your own homework. All I have to say is that it did spark a bit of curiosity, to the point that this may be my strategy for IM. I shall carry on reading, and check with coach, but I reckon there's something to it. 

Then it was Resolutions time, and this year I kept it to the minimum. There's three races that matter and they are IM, Sprint Worlds and a half in Argentina. Then it will be a matter of slowly going off road. That's all.

I wish you all a great 2012 and see you at the races

The glory box and the experience box

For most of us age-groupers it is a given that we will not be chasing podiums in every race we do. However we prepare and target some races for a best possible scenarios such as “I want to be in the top 25%” “I want a top 10 age group finish” or else. If things go right we get what we wanted, and if they’re really OK many of us surprise ourselves and others with a great result. If things go wrong we find plenty of excuses and ways to deal with it.


And we also learn. If I am to classify the races I’ve done I could easily put them on either box. There will be two or three on the glory ones. And a bunch on the experience box. It is certainly an experience to race 10k for the first time and have a stitch the size of my chest and it is a whole new thing to ride a bike with a falling seat. It all tells me something I can improve for next time: be it race preparation or race execution.

Last weekend’s Rotorua half will certainly go in the experience box. It was meant to be a solid race, and on paper I should have had no trouble with race prep or race execution. But I did, and I paid with a sub-par run. Let’s go and see some numbers:

Swim – 28:15 – HRAv 144 HRMx 172

Nothing that you wouldn’t see in other races… a bit of punching here and there but all nice and clean after 500m. I realized I was doing all the work for 6 other people behind me after the 1st lap, so I let them share a bit of the effort for the rest.

Bike 2:40:35 (incl T1 and T2) – HRAv 167 HRMx 173

All of a sudden it started bucketing down like there’s no tomorrow. I got sights on a group of 4 guys ahead of me and would not let them go no matter what. It was testing… but certainly paid off. I was expecting a 2:35:00 or less and I did just that. The rain was a problem for visibility and safety, but I did not realize it would be a problem for later as well.

As a side story, it kept raining for the next 24 hours which was quite a bummer for the post race activities such as pricegiving and trash talking.

Run 1:38:36 – HRAv 155 HRMx 172
I don’t recall how and when, but somewhere after the first couple of k’s I started to feel cold. Not, chilly, not fresh, really cold through the spine and spreading all over the rest of the body. I kept pushing but the ticker would not go any harder. I kept the nutrition regime as per plan and added a few cokes here and there to see if the extra calories would heat me up. Unfortunately they didn’t and although I won’t throw away a sub 1:40 for a half marathon off road run, I was happy it was over. I jumped into the car for a hot bath right after I crossed the line. I was aiming for a 1:25:00 run and to go so much out of the way was a bit hard.

Learnings:

Heat loss by water evaporation takes a lot of energy. I did not feel any signs of it, and I didn’t feel the cold when I was on the bike, but moving onto the run something happened. It will be good to plan for this in case IM is a wet day.

Another one under the belt. That’s 3 years after my first half ironman, and 5 half IM races. Not bad for a beginner. I never quitted and I’ll make sure I never do. These are races to finish.

Now it’s Xmas holiday, so I will enjoy a couple of days off before starting with the schedule for the holiday.

Stay safe

Inspiring names

I was reading a race report from the Taupo Half ironman and kept thinking that branded races are taking the flare of race naming. From the name of the race I can gather It was a half iron distance triathlon raced in taupo. It could tell me more.

Let's be a bit more clear...the name of a race says a fair bit about it. For example, The Ironman, is quite a descriptive name. But The Half Ironman... mmmm not so much. I mean... it is a full race, why call it half ironman? The alternative of 70.3 is not great either... it is a mere description of the amount of miles you've done, it takes the epic sense away.

Let's draw a parallel, whould you take a train that is called "London/Edingburgh" or would you rather ride "The Flying Scotsman"? I know where I'd put my money.

Naming is not just liking a word to a thing, it is way more than that and race naming should be taken as seriously as race organizing (well... not so much.. but it would be so cool if it happened). The names of the races should be more than a reference to the distance and where it was held... let's hope it gets a bit more creative in the future.

And here's my two cents. I've named the training sessions for my the holiday:

	m	t	w	t	f	s	s
	19	20	21	22	23	24	25
	The great stretcher	The gentlemen’s TT	The final crash	the big easy	The parnell 5 K'yer	Santa’s big ride	the hangover cure
AM	Pool Swim	Off	Off	1 hr run	swim squad 5k	150k ride + Run off	1:30 run
PM	Off	Gents TT	Off	Working at SSS	45min run	OFF	sea swim
	26	27	28	29	30	31	1
	the airporter	the battle of Omaha	The Thorpedo	the west coaster	the top up	The well deserved hike
AM	Ride 3hr + Run off	Trail Run (2.5hr)	Ultra swim (7 to 10km)	180km bike - 45min run off	2:00 run	OFF	OFF
PM	Off	Off	OFF	off	sea swim	OFF	OFF

12 Fridays to IM!

I guess this is the time when it should start getting really interesting. In the meantime, I have a half next Saturday (predicted 4:35:00) then a week off (completely off for 4 days and then we'll see) and then nothing until February.

In the spirit of this blog I've entered the sprint nationals in February. Not a wise decision but hopefully a rewarding one. At the end of the day, I enjoy the sport, running, swimming, cycling and racing... don't have a favourite distance or one I hate, they're all different in their good and bad aspects.

12 weeks out of race day I can report that I'm tired. I am finishing a couple of hard weeks and entering a taper period. Coaches' observations are that I've been a bit too much keen on keeping up with the fast boys and I should be taking a step back.

but hey!... it's all learning

Go and read this post

Chrissie Wellington talking about gender and minority sports and more serious matters

http://www.chrissiewellington.org/blog/spoty-a-window-of-opportunity/.

so well said