Pictures!! And a quick training update!!

Everyone likes pictures... probably b/c it's easier and more fun to go through as compared to reading!  Now, if only I could put out a 3-D blog....  :)

F.I.S.T. Bike Fitting @ Tri Your Best (aka Decatur Bikes)

 Finding the exact point of rotation on my hips...

 Pre-fitting, as he takes a long look at my pedal stroke and body positions....

 Mid-fitting... I think he was trying to find my hip rotation points while in the saddle

And... FIT! (check out that leg extension!!)

After this fitting, I gained about 1 mph on average, but the most valuable gain from this fitting was confidence... I feel so much more power going into each pedal stroke and my long rides are MUCH more comfortable.  Huge thank you to Dave Wilson from the Tri Your Best shop!!

A few pics along my bike route (Silver Comet Trail)...

As for what's new with my training with Endurance Planner... I've finally nailed down a potential nutrition (calories, water, & electrolytes) plan for the IM world championship, and it turned out to be a little insane on the water side!!  I'll be taking in 2-3 cups (depending on the size of the cups) on each mile of the marathon... this equates to ~90-96 oz/hr, or 1 large water bottle every two miles!!!  Fortunately, my stomach is finally becoming accustomed to taking in so much fluid every mile (yes, that means I have to drink 1/2 a water bottle every mile!), so I'm getting very excited to concentrate more on building my speed for each discipline... gonna be awesome!  As for calories... I'll be taking in ~350 cal/hr on the bike and ~280 cal/hr on the run via Hammer Perpetuem.  And electrolytes... entirely thanks to nuun!!!  I couldn't finish long workouts without my nuun.... I've recently learned this from experience when I forgot my nuun tube for a 4.5hr bike ride... long story short, I got (what I think was...) the beginning stages of hyponatremia (too much water, not enough salt... LINK).  What it feels like.... I felt lightly cross-eyed w/ blurred vision, sense of balance was a tad off, and I couldn't get thoughts into words very efficiently.  If you've ever seen "the crawl" (video) or many other dramatic videos of people stumbling to the finish line, hyponatremia, insufficient calories, or dehydration are the leading contributors to this state. 

As for performance, I'm certainly feeling a little quicker this year in the bike and run.  This is primarily a result of working on my cadence (pedals strokes or strides per minute) and overall form. My swim is still sub-par... but, I recently went to see Tracy Palmer with The Sport Factory for a brief swim consultation and I'm beginning to get some hopes for some moderate gains in my swim performance.  So far, I'm definitely seeing improvement only 6 days later!!

I threw that out there in a bit of a ramble b/c I'm hungry (as usual) and it's getting late.  Later, I really want to talk a bit about some thoughts I had recently on what it means to me to "finish strong"... this seems to be very popular amongst most people, but I am not much of a believer in the common practice of sprinting to the finish.. but, that's just me  :)

Till next time...

Hard Work is Necessary for Success... But, Planning is Vital

Certainly, the most exciting part of the sport of triathlon is the morning of that goal, or A, race when you're full of butterflies and overwhelmed with a consuming sense of euphoria.  Nothing can beat this, it truly is something that can't be entirely portrayed through words, but rather, has to be experienced.  Possibly the second most exciting part of the sport... the beginning!!!  When your season goals can be limitless (within reason!) and you have the unique capability to foresee exactly how the next 3, 4,..., or 12 months will play out for you... or so you hope!!  This foreseeability comes in the form of planning your entire season training plan and races. It can be a long, drawn-out process as you second and third guess every week, but when it's complete, you're in a unique position to envision how your fitness will progress for days, weeks, and months at a time.  Whether you're just starting out or several years (even decades!!) into triathlon, you have to be very very careful about knowing your body's progressive limits and when to give your body some rest.  Creating your own training program can be amazingly rewarding, but if you're too ambitious you WILL get injured and end up in worse physical condition than when you started.  Do research, feel your body's limits, know when to sleep/eat/relax, do more research, discuss/learn with people who are very experienced, do more research, and keep in mind that your training plan will not go as planned... unfortunate, but guaranteed.

This whole preface is in prep for nearly this entire post.  I'd like to share a few things that I've learned from training over the past few years, and give more details about this season's training plan (which was essentially adapted from my previous Mark Allen Online (MAO) plans... I am not even close to having the knowledge to build my own plan from scratch, but I did tweak it slightly).

Disclaimer... everything below is my interpretation of what I've learned and experienced.  It is certainly an art, rather than science.  And I am giving you my perspective... feel free to add more input in the comment section!

Most importantly, there is a simple framework that is most popular (can be considered the rule-of-thumb) for starting a training plan called Periodization.  I briefly described this approach in a previous post, but in short, it's a way of breaking up a training plan that is meant for your peak fitness to occur for your A race.  My favorite picture to portray how these periods are organized and how they differ is below....

Ok, let's skip a LOT of technicalities because I'm already elaborating more than I planned... if you want to learn more about Periodization, check out this link.  This will help you visualize why my training volume (total time) progresses the way it does for my plan overview below... this goes from last week to October 8 (A race day!).

I won't spend time pointing them out, but in my plan is 2 base periods, 2 build periods, and a peak/taper.

So... why a taper?  Why not just build as high of volume and intensity as possible and use it for the race?  Put simply, the taper is solely meant to give your body a chance to repair itself in preparation for the A race.  Effectively, by building training volume and intensity over a 10-15 week period, you are damaging your fast (via intensity) and slow (via volume) twitch muscle fibers (see another link) over and over again while giving them just enough rest to barely repair before the next hard workout.  Finally, when you reach the peak phase of training and taper begins, your body finally gets a chance to fully repair all this damage which results in a large and sharp spike in fitness/performance!!  Keep in mind, as pointed out in the earlier figure, training intensity will not taper until the final week or two.  Without a taper, you're simply not taking full advantage of the hard work through which you put your body because your muscles aren't fully ready. 

What do my weeks look like?  Well, I was able to put together a consistent schedule adapted from one of my previous MAO programs in the ever-so-awesome Endurance Planner software.  Seriously, can't say enough about how amazing this program is and how helpful it is with building and maintaining your own program.   Each week generally looks like the week shown below (which is actually this week)...

Beyond setting each discipline to have at least one day between consecutive workouts, I also set my day-off for the very end of the week.  My thought in doing this... it allows me for more flexibility in case I'm feeling very fatigued and need some rest earlier in the week.  If I took the day off on Wednesday, I would not have any flexibility to adjust the schedule for the rest of the week without sacrificing workouts.

I had planned to give more in depth information here, but this got long fast... my bad for those who are interested in hearing more.  But, please don't hesitate to drop me a line on Facebook or email if you want to talk more about something specific.

Some other amazing news to share!!  I have added a new sponsor to Team Bernatovich, and I can't express how excited I am about this one!  I've used their product since my first triathlon and have used it as a crucial element for fueling ever since.  Welcome, Nuun, to Team Bernatovich!!  And thank you for this great opportunity... I'm really looking forward to sharing this season with you and spreading the word about such an amazing product.   Whether you use Nuun already or you're interested in giving it a try, let me know and I'll throw a tube your way!!  Yes, free compliments of me, but I'm not going to ship one tube, so those of you in Houston will have to wait a bit (still let me know tho).   Consider it a thank you for keeping up with my blog and dealing with my incessant rambling at times when I get excited.   Here's to Nuun!!

Next time I'll talk more about cadence... bike and run... since it's my main area of concentration this season.  And, of course, I'll talk more about my progress with training for Kona  :)

Till then... stay healthy & be happy!!!

A hint of bitter, and oh SO SWEET

Times like this make me wish cliches weren't... well.. cliches.  It's so common for people to use the phrase "it feels like a dream", and I'm not saying it's always fake or misplaced when people use it... but sometimes, and this time included, I wish I came up with the phrase myself because it captures exactly how I've been thinking and feeling since this past Friday.

Short story time (for those of you who don't know what I'm talking about, this should help clear it up). So this past Friday, after finishing up the last class of the week I was taking my daily ~1.5mi walk back to my car... checking my email on my phone I see something that starts with "Congratulations Ford Ironman World...".  After a thousandth of a second worth of excitement, I get over it and realize that it's probably an announcement of who won this year's highly coveted Kona lottery spots.  But wait... they didn't send out a similar email last year... <big smile> hmmmm.  Still walking, I press to open the email while controlling every ounce of me to just wait a couple seconds before going crazy... I mean, there's no reason for me to torture myself over suspicion.  I swear it took minutes for my phone to open the email (realistically, a couple seconds)...  sure enough, the rest of the email subject  "Conrgatulations Ford Ironman World Championship Lottery Winner!".  Stopping in the middle of the walkway, I'm still skeptical... I have to read every word of the email before giving in to this surge of excitement... after seeing my registration password and some more intricate details, I gave in!  Immediately, I start calling the people closest to me to tell them this truly unbelievable news... first on the list was my double Iron crew  :)  Most of my crew didn't even know that I submitted for the lottery... you can call it superstition or whatever, but mostly, I knew the probability of getting a lottery slot on my first try was miniscule to next-to-nothing... so I didn't want anyone to deal with the hope of getting this outcome, except me.  Also... I simply didn't want to jinx it (call me crazy, but whatever... it worked)!  I'm still not entirely sure what was going through my head when I submitted for the lottery because I had previously decided not to waste the money ($40 I think)... it was really a spur of the moment thing, where I saw an Ironman email and simply decided to buy the lottery "ticket" a few days before the deadline.

Since that afternoon, I've been feeling like I'm in a dream... I'm literally waiting for this agonizingly teasing dream to end.  One of the first things I did when reading that email was pinch myself and count my fingers on each hand (I've read that if you do this in a dream you'll count something other than 10... and I still have 10!).  I cannot get over this amazing stroke of luck that I've had, and I plan to take full advantage of it.  This is a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity that thousands of others would give anything for, and I am not going to take that for granted!!  I may not have earned this spot with a top-3 performance (i.e. traditionally qualify), but I am going to train as if I did!!  Here's to what will hopefully be a perfect training season!

The double?  Well... you do the math.  With the double Iron starting on the same morning as Ironman Hawaii, I simply cannot do both races... for this sole reason, the Ironman Hawaii news does come with the slightest, minute hint of bitterness.  I'm trading off a once-in-a-lifetime feat for a once-in-a-lifetime dream... for every (or, nearly every) triathlete, the ultimate success is lining up in Kailua Bay and getting your swim on at the sound of a cannon.  Even for non-triathletes, this is a huge deal... it is THE Ironman race about which everyone knows!   This said... it sucks to have to cancel my double Iron registration, but I didn't have to think twice about this decision.... I'm Kona-bound!!  (wondering what will happen with the blog now... we'll see)

Oddly enough, I'm more intimidated by Ironman Hawaii than the double Iron in Virginia... speaking with a good friend (a while back) who has podium finished in Hawaii, he said that this race is the ultimate Ironman challenge.  Every race has it's unique challenges, but very few (if any) contain the brutal combination of challenges that only Kona provides.  There's a reason why it is the championship race for the best of the best.  It's going to be a day of ultimate pain that I'll thoroughly enjoy and never forget... I'll simply cross my fingers for an injury-free season!!

This changes my training plans, but not in a devastating way... training for a double is not entirely different than training for an Ironman.  The most notable difference is the long weekend workouts are longer for a double, and there are less tempo (anaerobic) workouts for a double.  This said, no major changes there... but there are always unique challenges with every training season, so we'll see how that goes.

I'm not entirely sure how this blog will change... this was initially set up to share my unique training experience for my first double Ironman.  Since there are a good amount of regulars for my blog and a bunch more sporadic readers, I'll continue the usual updates with a change in destination  :)

One more thing, my brother found a quick description from Ironman about typical weather on race day...
"What is the weather typically like on race day? 
Temperatures on race day range from 82 to 95 degrees, with the humidity hovering around 90 percent. Crosswinds on portions of the bike course sometimes get as high as 60 mph."

And more course descriptions... definitely a good read, in my opinion!!
Ironman Hawaii Course Description 

Till next time... Stay healthy & be happy!!!

Don't be the best, just keep getting better

Before I get into the more obvious good news, I realize that it's been way too long since my last post here and several things have happened since then.  So to keep this to a reasonable length, I'm going to split all these updates into two separate posts

About a week or two ago, I got an opportunity to get some medical advice from a friend-of-a-friend podiatrist over the phone, Dr Shelly Levulis (www.shellylevulisdpm.com).  Obviously this advice was in regards to my bunion issues.  My biggest worry with those issues was the risk of the unknown... I simply couldn't get consistent and detailed information through my online research, so I couldn't come to a conclusion if there was the chance of long-term risks of running with advanced bunions.   Some of my research hinted that there was significant risk of irreversible damage by pushing through the pain of advanced bunions.  Fortunately, by talking with Shelly, I first learned that my bunions are not in the advanced stage, but rather light to moderate.  Additionally, (and definitely the best piece of news from the discussion) I have no reason to be worried about irreversible foot damage... irreversible, meaning not surgically fixable.  This sounds like a run-of-the-mill piece of good news, but this was really a turning-point in my mindset for training for the double Iron... at this point, I was 100% certain that I had nothing in my way to do this race!!  This was such a big deal with my mental preparedness that I remember the date and marked it as a major benchmark... Monday, April 4  :)

Now this doesn't really mean that I'm completely out the woods yet though, since I do have to find ways to manage and reduce the pain that I have to deal with on long runs. To help with this part of the problem, I had to take several steps that include new wide running shoes, wide cycling shoes, and (per Dr Shelly's advice) orthotics.  Fortunately, I already got new running and cycling shoes, but still need to make my move on getting orthotics.  After trying on several pairs of running shoes at Academy, I decided to go with Mizuno's Wave Rider 14 (wide)... I cannot express this enough, but I finally know what a good-fitting shoe is supposed to feel like!!  I never realized that my previous shoes were a bad fit until I put these new kicks on... AMAZING!!  And as for the running feel of the shoe,  after getting used to the added weight and different shoe construction... my gait has become very consistent and controllable.  I've always been a huge fan of Mizuno, and these shoes definitely get the Bernzy Stamp of Approval (BSA)!  I also bought a few other goodies, as you can see in the pic below.

And, though you might not remember from my last post, but I was going to try to get a pic of the Rudy Project backpack that I got recently.  In short, if you're looking for a good-looking, low-profile bag that stands up the mother nature's elements well... this gets a several BSA's!!  Thanks Rudy, for putting out some really great products and standing strong to the big corporations!!  For those who don't know Rudy well, it's a relatively small company that puts out some great eyewear and athletic gear for triathletes, golfers, shooters (aka gunmen?), etc etc... let me know if you're looking to by any Rudy gear and I'll likely be able to share my 40% discount  :)

  

Now... let's move on to the OTHER big news...  :)

Till then... Stay healthy & be happy!!!

edit:  One last thing... for those of you in PA, if you're ever in need of a great, friendly podiatrist that takes the time to make sure you're well informed about what exactly is going on with your feet... I HIGHLY suggest giving Dr. Shelly & Co. a call/email  ---> www.shellylevulisdpm.com

edit #2:  I forgot one product review... the fuel belt that you can see in the first picture was something I bought since I knew I would need it for my very long runs planned for the HOT summer months.  In short and to be honest, I wasn't impressed with this.  I've always avoided buying fuel belts bc of concern that it would bounce too much for comfort causing chafing... also, I had a feeling it would make me feel sluggish bc of he extra weight.  Turns out, both of those concerns are true... oh well.  That said, some people LOVE these things and won't run without it... if you want to try it out, anyone is free to borrow mine.  Just let me know

Fate is what you make of right now

Since I was trying to keep the most recent post short, I didn't include something that I've wanted to start including in most, if not all, of my posts.   After thinking about it some more, I should have included it because it's an important addition to this blog, in my opinion.

So what is "it"?  I'm going to start giving shout-outs to family, friends, and others for making athletic accomplishment(s) big and small...  unfortunately, this blog doesn't get enough hits to make their accomplishments well-known, but every little bit counts and they deserve every bit of recognition.  I already had a few people in mind, so here it goes....

Shout-out numero uno goes to Allison&Avery for the Galveston beach 5k I mentioned in the previous post.   Avery took the beach 5k like a champ and finished in 45 minutes-ish.  Yea 45 minutes may seem like a slow time for the common runner, but with Avery being 6 and the run being on sand??  That's bad-ass... she'll be a marathoner in no time  ;)

Number two is preemptive (and I apologize for that, Donna) goes out to Donna Adams who will be competing in her first 70.3 (1/2 Ironman) in just two weeks.  This is the New Orleans 70.3 that Dustin and I did last year (the same 70.3 I said was my hardest race) and though it is a very flat course, mother nature sure can bring the HEAT!!  Good luck Donna, and enjoy a good ole Miller Lite after the finish... it's delicious!

Another shout-out must be given to my friend Andrew Brodbeck for a very impressive finish at the Dallas 1/2 marathon last weekend. I think he finished with a ~8:40 pace, which needless to say is pretty awesome.  This race was a build-up race for his first marathon later this season (sorry man, I already forgot the race specifics).  Keep up the good work man, I know your times have improved dramatically from your earlier 1/2 marathon this season... and in my opinion, improvement is VASTLY more important than actual performance.  Keep it up buddy!!

Finally, one more shout-out will go to Jen Vogel.  Jen got 1st female and 4th overall at the recent Florida Double-Iron triathlon... what else can I say to that??   Very awesome performance and amazingly consistent effort through the entire race.... welllllll done!!

Alright, that's all the shout-outs for today... if I've missed anyone or if you have someone who deserves a shout-out, please feel free to do so with a comment below!!

Also, if you are interested in buying anything from Rudy Project, please let me know and I'll give you my sponsorship code for 40% off.  I'd rather not post it for all of the internet to use, so just text me or send me a message on Facebook and I'll give you the gold!  I recently discovered that this can be shared, and I like to share

Stay healthy & be happy!!

Argue Your Limits

Finally an update... my apologies for being late with this update, but it's been a few weeks and my goal was to come back here with some good news.  Fortunately, that is actually going to happen!  Though it's a long, twisty road up ahead, I'll take any amount of positive thoughts that I can get, especially with the feet issues I was having!!  Honestly, I have a few things I want to get out there and I don't know when I'll have some free time again, so I'll just touch a bit on everything... without going into encyclopedia mode

First, my feet... so the last update I gave all of you was simply the fact that my bunions could be a major upcoming issue b/c of the pressure/pain they were causing on my middle toes was significant.  Though I still am not positive as to what will unfold over the next few months (seriously, who does in this sport?), I was able to make some changes that have significantly mitigated the pain issues I was having.  In short, the biggest benefit came from one of the purchases I made during a $35 CVS trip (yes, $35 in ONLY bunion "fixes" with which to experiment).  I bought these little gel "wedges" that are placed between the big toe and the "index" (?) toe... effectively, this soft gel-like wedge helps absorb the pressure that was causing all the pain in my middle toes.  The result?  Several runs greater than 8 miles (one being 14 miles) with NO pain whatsoever!!   Additionally, I've just purchased a new pair of training kicks that will likely help a lot (Mizuno Wave Rider 14, wide).  Of course, I'll keep updates rolling with this, but it's looking MUCH better now and it's showing in my training performance!

As for my issue of not having a lot of time for training due to school... recently, this has changed dramatically so I'm keeping a very stable and consistent training schedule lately.  Though I know this will not continue for the remaining semester, I do expect this summer to be a lot different and I'll certainly be able to make up for the time lost!!

My 2011 season officially began this past weekend with the Eco Duathlon (sprint) in Galveston, TX.  Though I am not in any form of anaerobic shape right now, I was able to squeeze out my first ever overall podium finish with 3rd place.  It was a very new and good feeling to go through the transition area and see only a few bikes racked up from those who were in front of me... usually enough are racked where I just don't notice how well I'm placed at the moment.  I ended up passing the (then) 3rd place guy on the final run, which was a really cool feeling!  I've had success with age group placing in the past, but it's such a great feeling to make that final pass in the final stretch!  Additionally, Allison and Avery competed in the 5k race and did awesome!  A 6yo doing a 5k (in the sand, btw) is always an impressive feat.  And they did just as well with cheering me on during the duathlon :)

It's been an interesting month with regards to meeting more and more of the ultra-distance community and I've made some really great friends all around, with NO exceptions. These people are at the highest aerobic fitness you could imagine and they love what they do. Before I go on, I cannot stress that enough... I loved meeting every single one of them and I could not think of a better race community with which to become involved.  However, I did notice that there tends to be a bit of extreme pride, verging on arrogance, with their mindset on the distances that they are able to accomplish.  This is by no means all-consuming for the ultra-community, but rather something of which I've noticed a slight presence.  And to be fair, on some level, I don't blame them.  I think you need to have a large amount of confidence in the endurance events, in order to keep yourself motivated and to keep a strong mental toughness during those grueling long training days and races.  The only part that stood out for me in a negative light was when this confidence transitioned into arrogance.  For instance, someone who is competing in a double-Iron triathlon must have a good amount of confidence to succeed in such a daunting feat... but, that does not entitle them to talk down about shorter races such as 5k's, marathons, or any triathlon of Iron distance or less.  This does not entitle them to doing so because these are races that a large number of people are very proud to accomplish and deserve every bit of respect that an ultra-distance athlete deserves.  To refer to these races as insignificant, purely b/c you're competing in an ultra-distance race, is just plain non-sense.  ALL races have their unique challenges, no matter the distance!  To be honest, the hardest race I've ever competed in was either New Orleans 70.3 or the Wilkes-Barre olympic (note, it wasn't IMFL).  Just because one race is longer than another, does not mean it is more challenging... and anyone who feels otherwise, can certainly bring up the debate to me... but you'll lose, so be prepared for that  :)  (remember, the confidence thing?  ;) )
Sorry... that was a bit of a rant, but if one person takes a positive thought from it, then I'll consider it well worth the effort.    Feel free to ridicule me in the comments!

Alright, I'll wrap it up with a quick product review from my sponsor Rudy Project.  I recently bought their backpack b/c I was in need for a new bag for school, and race-days.  In short... AMAZING!  Seriously, I am always impressed with the quality of their products in that they seem to stand up well to the toughest elements... and they do so while looking good and having some great features.  If you do become interested in one of their products, I strongly suggest signing up for their emails and waiting for a sale (they happen quite often!).
Sorry I don't have my own picture... may be upcoming
Rudy BackPack

That's all people, nothing else to see here.  Keep checking back for updates, otherwise I'll try to keep you notified on Facebook.

Stay healthy & be happy!

Simply, wait and see...

So this post will be relatively short.  Mainly since it's not one that I'm particularly excited about putting out here... but, I know there are a lot of you out there who are interested in following my progress with this adventure, so here it is...

As most, if not all, of you already know, I'm currently in grad school at Georgia Tech to earn my masters in Aero Eng.  Over the past few weeks, I've gone through an exceedingly busy phase of this semester due to multiple projects and homeworks being due around the same time of an exam.  Of course this busy schedule won't continue at this rate the entire semester, but when it does happen, it is severely detrimental to my training... as low as 4 workouts per week, which should be upwards of 10-12.   In the beginning of the year, I made a few promises to myself when setting out on this adventure of training for a 281.2 (double Iron tri).   One of the top promises being that I would put a very high priority on my education and not allow for training to get in the way of my success on that.  It's come to my realization recently that, with the amount of time dedicated to my education, I cannot train for this race to the extent that I had planned.   This sucks, but I'm OK with it since I'm holding to my priorities.  This said, I am not giving up on what I set out to accomplish this year.  But, I am questioning whether I will have enough hours in the week to do everything that needs to be done in the long run. 

What now?  Simply, wait and see.   I'll try to keep my invaluable supporters updated as things progress, but (as you can tell from the previous long silence here) I will not be posting here as much as I would like. 

On a lighter note... follow this guy, Dean Karnazes, who is running across the country!  You'd think he'd be satisfied with a simple West-East path... but no, he's going from LA-ish to NYC.  What an incredible inspiration!!!
Dean Karnazes... going to distance, and then some

Till next time... stay healthy, and be happy!!!