When it's time to eat, eat!

I truly feel that mistakes are how we get ahead in life. Without making them, how else could I know it was a mistake? And it just so happened that an absent minded triathlete forgot one major rule this past training weekend: eat! Saturday morning began with fresh-brewed Kona-blend coffee and a delicious cup of buckwheat with fresh fruit and egg whites. After checking a few blogs, the NY Times and the weather report, it was time to start the weekend-warrior like session. 

I’m pretty new to long runs, but am already addicted. The feel of being on the road for several hours is exhilarating.  I especially love when I see someone either washing their car or taking their dog out for a walk at the beginning of a run only to see them an hour or longer later with a stunned déjà vu look on their face. Yes it’s me again, I say in my head. On one of my longest runs (short for some, but 20 miles was a milestone for me) I started before the sunrise and looped a 5-mile route four times. Each time I passed a group of cows munching on their breakfast of grass, their heads would lift with a quizzical look on their undulating faces. Oddly, I did have an internal anthropomorphic dialogue in my head. It went like this: “There’s some weird guy running around” said one cow while the other replied, “He must be looking for grass.” To where the first cow said, “This is some fine grass here.” But by then, the other cow was distracted by a few stemmed yellow daisies waving in the wind. It is on long runs, though, where, I truly feel a connection with life. Call it a runner’s high or some type of religion, but it is here where I feel both grounded and like I am levitating. This past Saturday marked the longest run I’ve done since the Philly marathon: a 2-hour conversational pace fun run. 

I passed a few runners on the road, all of which offered a warm hello and smile with a word of caution about some icy spots up ahead or puddles to be aware of. I felt connected to one runner as we both slipped on a patch of ice when passing, both laughing it off nervously ignoring that a fall could have ended the season early. After running by some cafes to spot out for lunch, circling around some neighborhoods with houses for sale I’ve been looking at, my feet turned towards home – ready to take a quick hot shower, throw back a recovery smoothie and head to meet a friend at the pool for a swim. 

All went according to plan and I soon found myself gliding along the water to 500yard repeats, again working on my aerobic endurance. Soon, though, my friend got race-happy and we both found each other splashing through the water for a few intense intervals. With red eyes and a runny nose, my body ached telling me enough is enough. Off to the second hot shower of the day. Could there be any better way to start off the weekend? 

And here is where I wonder if anyone has learned from  a similar mistake. After the pool, I rushed home to print off some paperwork and meet a friend whom I am coaching for his first triathlon. Excited to complete his first sprint triathlon, he came prepared with a slew of questions, all of which I was happy to help answer. We went to eat at a local café I’ve never been to. The atmosphere sold the idea of Jamaican relaxation and tiki-hut like ambience, the perfect place to spend on an icy wintry morning. An hour later is when it started. I realized I hadn’t eaten anything since the swim and my stomach gurgled for food. How could I forget to eat something after the swim? I thought. Nutrition is my obsession and I always have backup recovery food for times just like this. All this backup though sat nestled in my car, miles away from where I sat with a forced smile, ignoring the signs that I was starving. To make things worse, the kitchen was short-staffed and our food ended up taking another hour to make. So there I sat, three hours after a killer workout session and I hadn’t eaten much since my run’s recovery shake – albeit a deliciously nutritious homemade green-goodness smoothie. 

I thanked my friend for lunch and walked in my front door. Soon thereafter, I jumped into my third warm shower because chills had overtaken my body. Thirty minutes later I still had not warmed up and my body ached. Couch ridden for the next several hours, my body recouped after a good dose or two of Vitamin C and another meal. Yet, it wasn’t until later that night that I felt back to normal. So, I learned my lesson. It’s quite simple actually: train smart to remain injury free and eat smart to stay healthy.

Nature is the Best Running Coach

“Every morning in Africa, a gazelle wakes up. It knows it must outrun the fastest lion or it will be killed. Every morning in Africa, a lion wakes up. It knows it must run faster than the slowest gazelle, or it will starve. It doesn’t matter whether you’re a lion or gazelle - when the sun comes up, you’d better be running.” - Born to Run

For an endurance athlete, dealing with an injury is nothing short of catastrophic. I’ve been dealing with a bit of Achilles pain for several months and have backed off of running and lessened my hours to combat future injury. RICE – rest, ice, compression, and elevation has helped dramatically; however, every time I have went out for a run, my Achilles would tighten and ache. Not enough to cause severe pain, but enough to where I started hating running because running = aching Achilles/pain whereas before running = wind in face and chasing squirrels.

What do I do to combat boredom? Recently, I’ve been reading Born to Run. Just like the author, Christopher McDougall, my question to many has been, “Why does my foot hurt?” So far, this book is the only legitimate answer I’ve received. Its central thesis is that we are actually built for endurance running and it is modern science (the overbuilt shoe) that has caused us injury. McDonalds has something to do with it too, but, well, that's my own vendetta. I’ll write a book review later on, but I wanted to share a quick anecdote with you.

My recent discovery:

Today I went out for a run – an overly cautious run. If I felt any pain I was going to stop and walk. Right before leaving the house, I remembered something I’ve read in almost any running book - run on grass or a trail to reduce the shock your legs receive when running. This hasn’t been an option because of either snow or mud, but now, with the nice weather, running on the grass, or a track even, is now an option.

So, I experimented. Starting on the pavement, following the usual 4-mile flat loop, I proceeded on my morning fun run (no GPS, no heart rate monitor, no stopwatch). Tuning in to my body, I listened to the sound my feet make when hitting the ground, paid attention to my cadence and ran as natural as a child does. On the pavement, I felt I was forcing my form – slight lean forward, midfoot strike, using the core to swing and lift legs, C – posture. I heard THUD, THUD, THUD and minutes later, running = pain/discomfort in Achilles.

A couple minutes of walking, then, the discovery: running on grass or a trail produces a more efficient form and eliminates any Achilles pain. I jumped onto the grass and almost immediately there was no pain with running. To my right, a large open field where deer usually gather became my newest playground. I set out to become like the Massaii hunters and gatherers of Kenya. I would run around this field, a more natural running track than any other, just the sort of place where long distance runners (like the Massaii) would have grazed. My pace quickened, my breathing regulated itself, my mind focused on proper foot placement, and my cadence jumped to around 90 rpm. My form never felt so right! Running past a decomposed deer carcass really took me back a million years, and holding back my primitive yell to Jane for food, I proceeded onward. For the next hour, I ran on everyone’s lawn and through a couple trails with little to no discomfort in my Achilles and my form felt natural and comfortable. Every five minutes or so, I would jump back on the pavement to feel the difference. Almost immediately, my Achilles would ache and again, form would diminish (decreased cadence, leaning back, pronounced heal strike).

Perhaps then, nature is the best coach.

My hypothesis: If runners were to run mostly on trails and grass with a minimalistic shoe, form would come more natural. The foot would grow stronger. The whole foot – tendons, the arch, the Achilles – would get stretched and utilized, and grow stronger. With a steady and cautious progression in mileage and training hours, a stronger and more efficient runner would come about. 

I'm A Sinner

“You are, after all, what you think. Your emotions are the slaves to your thoughts, and you are the slave to your emotions.”

                                              - Eat Pray Love

Endurance sports are increasingly intriguing to me. I don’t have a resume like most athletes that stretches back to sprinting 100s in the pool using a diaper as a pull bouy. Never sitting still, I spent the days skating around the neighborhood playing hockey – just a pickup game here and there. King of the mountain was the favorite game during the winter (visit Buffalo in January and you’ll surely find this game going on. Find at least three kids hurling each other off a snow pile and into the street and you found it!) After living in Hawaii and meeting a runner, then working with a triathlete, and learning I loved following a strict schedule every day (check out Ben Franklin’s diary if you really want to follow a strict schedule to become successful). The dominoes eventually fell into place and triathlon became my thing (this whole story will be another post, yet, in short, it followed this path: meditation -> running -> almost drowning -> triathlon -> 15-20hrs avg/week of training ->health nut ->fiancé questioning my allegiance to her or the bike -> injury -> happy fiancé, sad triathlete -> lessened training hours -> happy triathlete, happy fiancé.)

Like meditation, endurance sports require hours of training one’s body and mind. What most people consider being ridiculous repetition, endurance athletes silently press onward to a finish line at the "thud! thud! thud!" of their feet (by the way, take out the Ipod and listen to your body! This walkman fad needs to go away. Carry a boombox and listen to Run DMC and I might be impressed). By mile 26, the gut and muscles scream in pain, but we push through, knowing that at the end of the finish line it will have all been worth it. Like Lance Armstrong often alludes to explain his motivation to dredge through weeks of intense torment, pain is only temporary while the memory of giving up can last a lifetime. Perhaps, this is the eighth deadly sin – a gluttonous form of behavior. The overindulgence in pain for pleasure. Masochistic even? If so, then I am a sinner.

By the way, below is Ben Franklin's daily schedule when he was a kid. He would have made a great triathlete.
 
 

http://jslr.tumblr.com/post/161907561/buzzandersen-benjamin-franklins-daily

POOL CLOSED

Thursday 1-21-2009


Triathlon is the only thing that will get me out of the warm, cozy bed at 4:30 in the morning. My routine? Set everything up the night before so there is no time to second guess. Within five minutes, I'm driving down the road before I can convince myself to sleep in. Thick gloves and a hat fall short of mimicking the comfort of the warm bed. Usually, though, all of this is negated with a few hundred yard warm up - the solice of the water.

Today, however, a large sign hung on the door of the pool: POOL CLOSED! Do I go back to the car and sleep till I go to work? I had one hour till I needed to drive to work to be on time.

 

Luckily, intuition had me grab sneakers, shorts, and t-shirt while I ran out the door juggling my briefcase, breakfast, lunch, swim bag, running gear, and a thermos full of tea.

Sometimes, when a "Pool Closed" sign hangs in the way, you just have to go with the flow.

Improv AM Workout:

Treadmill Run: 5.5 miles at 8min pace (roughly 145-150 HR) working on form (ChiRunning focus and technique)

 

PM Workout:

45 min swim

• 200 warm up
• 200yd x 10 @ 3:20
• 100 backstroke
• 200 tech
• TOTAL: 2500 yds

Wednesday started off at 4:30 in the morning with a 1.5 hour spin on the trainer. Good thing the new BBC series, Robin Hood, is really good, because the time flew by.

 

Warm Up:

 5 minutes under 130 HR

 

Main Set:

 20 min @150 HR w/ light spin (cadence at 105) till HR goes down to 120

 

Become the Ferrari!

Now to start cataloging my training.

The 2010 training season is well under way in Base 2 of aerobic endurance training. During this time of the season (unless your “A” priority race is in a month) it is extremely - EXTREMELY – important to focus on aerobic training, well below lactate threshold. Breathing should be easy and inaudible. No huffing and puffing (yet!). I could get into the reasons behind this, but that will have to wait for another several posts. Friel and Kearns both strongly urge this. It is part of per iodization, a key element all elite athletes follow for peak performance. Kearns actually even suggests consistant easy pace overdistance training like Mike Pigg or Mark Allen (for a time) while Friel focuses on prepping for race pace as you get closer to peak performance (the “A” race on the Annual Training Plan).

 In short, with training above lactate threshold (like sprints or racing friends every weekend), there is a negative effect of increasing lactate on the bloodstream and, subsequently, the body relies more on carbohydrates to burn energy. Fat is far more efficient, yet the body needs to be trained to use it. A well-developed aerobic system is the key essential. Let this analogy serve for understanding:

 Many of you have heard of this analogy as it is canonical in triathlon. I first read it in Kearn’s book, Breakthrough Triathlon. If one spends time carefully developing the body’s aerobic engine it can produce greater results. Two bodies, both pushing to the maximum will depend on the aerobic engine within to beat the other in an endurance race. If the one body is tuned like a Ferrari and the other a Volkwagon, the Ferrari will undoubtedly win. Lesson here: increase time spent on developing aerobic system, increase in revving capacity of body – become the Ferrari!

 There are several ways to determine whether you are training aerobically or not. FYI: the amount of information on this topic on the web and bookshelves is overwhelming and often contradictory. Use the guideline below to gauge whether you are in the aerobic zone:

• Breathing should be easy, inaudible or barely audible (no huffing or puffing)
• Heart rate(HR) is below 80% max HR
• Maffetone method
• 180 – age = highest HR allowed to stay within the aerobic zone
• I.E. 180 – age (25) = 155
• Set HR monitor to beep here so you don’t go over it.
• This is the method prescribed by Mike Pigg and Mark Allen

Tuesday January 19, 2010 Aerobic Workout

AM – Swim – E2

• Warm Up
• 200 Easy Free
• Tech Work
• 50 spiral kicking (arms at sides, flutter kick, rotate smoothly clockwise one way, opposite back)
• 50 catch-up
• 100 one-arm freestyle (switch every 25)
• Main Set
• 10 x 200 @ 3:20
• I lost count and did an extra 200 and on one split, an extra 50 (I was in the zone OR daydreaming, whichever )
• Warm Down
•  100 Backstroke

 Total

• 2750 yds
• 50 mins

Notes: My pace is set by following Friel’s pace chart based on a 1000yd time trial I did at the end of the last rest period. It felt great!

PM RUN – Aerobic

Pre Notes: Keep this light because the legs are sore from lifting/plyometrics yesterday. Focus on C-Posture, and lifting heals. Not too much lean, but lean from the pelvis.

Warm Up: 5 mins light jog

6.5 Miles under 150HR

Warm Down: 5 mins light job

Post Notes: My right hip felt a little tight at times. Not too sore though. Be careful with running. You don’t’ want to get injured!

Overall, it was a great training day. I’ve been reading ChiRunning and am, so far, very impressed. I highly suggest it. More on this book later.

Satisfy the Taste Buds and Keep Your Waistline

With the recent wintry weather, many have begun to crave “comfort” food: french fries, chili, baked potatoes, and other warm spicy foods that make us feel good inside. Most of these cravings, however, are belly busters that leave many struggling to get back into shape come spring time. Well, you can still feel good inside and meet these cravings without the caloric load. How? By creatively substituting healthier alternatives to satisfy those taste buds. Don’t ignore the taste buds. They are natural stress relievers when satisfied. Use the nutrient dense ideas suggested below to help satisfy those cravings, keep your waistline down, and boost the immune system you demand so much out of.


1. Tea. The tea scene is exploding with creative varieties that would leave grandmothers around the world in awe (Sorry Nana, “normal” tea is not black tea anymore). Drink tea to satisfy your cravings for intense flavor. Try new flavors throughout the week. Warning: This will become a healthy addiction. Watch the caffeine intake and try any of the red tea (Rooibos) variations. Red tea has all the well-known healthy benefits of green tea without the jolting caffeine. My favorite flavor? Anything with zing: chai variations, ginger peach, blueberry Rooibos, or relaxing peppermint with chamomile at night. If you like it sweet, use stevia or licorice root powder for a safe and natural zero-calorie sweetener.

Red tea has recently grown in popularity. Republic of Tea offers a wide selection of variations and is available at popular chain grocers. Besides having zero calories, your body will appreciate the ancient healthy remedies found in herbs.

2. Life French fries? Sauté asparagus in extra virgin olive oil adding sea salt and garlic powder in the last couple of minutes. Serve crispy, dip in ketchup and satisfy your starchy fry craving. Tip: sauté the asparagus a bit longer than usual (around 10 minutes), making sure to keep the heat on medium to prevent the olive oil from losing its flavor.

3. A dash of balsamic vinegar, a sprinkle of coriander on grilled veggies (like zucchini and squash), or throw some crunchy wheat flakes on top of grilled chicken (don’t tell your taste buds it’s not fried and they will never know the difference).

Be creative with your alternatives. If you have a favorite alteration that you would like to share, write in with your suggestion.

Notes on Form – In the Zone

At 5:30AM my planned recovery swim began. And if you are like me, recovery weeks can be the toughest weeks for training. If you’re a type “A” person who is used to pushing yourself to exhaustion and always “one upping” the other guy, recovery weeks are probably migraine inducing. Having to cut calories because there are less calories burned in the day, watching the heart rate to stay within the recovery zone can be more stressful sometimes than rigorous workouts.

My trick? Working on form. Instead of just running, biking, swimming lightly for 45 minutes or less, I break up the time into segments. Each segment has a drill that produces excellent form. Check out the last several posts on Friel’s blog (to the right) where he goes into depth about a plethora of excellent drills and practices.

Besides eventually producing faster times and improving your overall triathlon, form helps me stay in the zone. Today, for instance, I had to drag myself out of the pull to be at work on time. In a steady-state light intensity swim at the end of my workout, my improved form (from focusing on the swim the last couple months) put me in this Zen state of mind where I moved almost effortlessly through the water. Seven months ago this would have not been the case. The water and I did not get along and I struggled to put in a good swim workout. My arms and back did not work in sync and breathing (well that’s another story).

With the use –and focus- on drills, especially during these base period months, the body and mind seem to come to a closer understanding of how to work together to achieve better and faster times. One should never feel they are fighting with their body to either run, bike, or swim. Yes, you have to push yourself to finish strong, but the movements should –and could- feel natural.

Brad Kearns often refers to this Zen-like state of mine in his book, Breakthrough Triathlon Training. Check this book out if, like me, your life demands a lot out of you or if you want to keep both your training and your spouse.