Race Week!

Well here we are... Honu race week once again. I lost count of how many times I've done Honu but went back and counted... figured it out this will be my seventh time racing this one. Crossing my fingers for some RDM and maybe some Lucky7 or something like that to help me get through that run... Anyway.

It's been a little tradition to swim Mokes on the Monday before Honu... mostly b/c pools are always closed on holidays around here and the Monday before Honu is always Memorial Day... and when you're a swimmer and you live in Hawaii and pools are closed, well, it's easy. You go ocean! Anyway, apparently if you put an invitation out on Facebook, they will come. Biggest group ever out to Mokes yesterday morning! How awesome is this!?! Decent conditions, several first timers, lots of fast-fishie talent in this group too. That's Oahu (Lanikai) in the background.

We head over on Thursday... Moana is super stoked to go to Kona again. This will be her FIFTH time at Honu! How cool is that? As she gets older she gets more and more into my racing. I didn't tell this story after HNL tri but it's kinda cute... The night before the race I told her that I was going to get up early and go to the race, but that she and daddy would come watch the finish so she needed to be quick in the morning (if you have or have had a 4 year old you understand the challenge being presented in doing anything quickly in the morning). Scott told me that on race morning, Moana came in to wake him up before 6:00.... she was all dressed and ready to go! Daddy wake up wake up we need to go watch Mommy race! How cute is that?? Melts my heart. Anyway, the point is that she'll be excited on Saturday and it should be a ton easier for Scott too. In years past he'd had to schlep her (and all her stuff!) around while she's passed out in her stroller...

I've been checking the weather forecast too of course to see if I can get a feel for what we're in for this weekend. Weatherman says winds are supposed to pick up and be strong this weekend... but weird looks like that's only for Oahu? I don't quite understand how Oahu can have strong NE winds while forecast for Waikoloa calls for moderate (12mph) winds from the south? We are not THAT far away... Anyway, I'm mentally prepping for strong winds then if it's only moderate winds I'll just be pleasantly surprised.

So as I pack I find myself feeling cautiously optimistic about the race on Saturday. I don't feel like I have quite the form I've had in years past (or the form I would prefer to have going into this race) but I'm in better shape than I anticipated being in given that 4-6 weeks ago I wasn't able to run a step without pain. So there's that. And I haven't had any peanut butter or almond butter in over a week. That has taken Discipline. So I've got that going for me too! Here's my prediction: my swim and bike will be fine. Then if you're checking splits online, send me some positive energy in the form of something like HANG ON BABY JUST HANG ON... That'll be best case scenario for me I'll do the best job I can putting one foot in front of the other on that golf course grass... 13 miles will be my longest run since Cabo- or before Cabo really b/c in Cabo I only made it to 12 miles before I seized up... So ya. Send positive thoughts I'm going to need them. :)

2013 Honolulu Triathlon

I'll be honest (as always!) My expectations of myself were not very high today. Training has been sort of hit or miss and I just wasn't super excited about showing up at a race where I've been top 3 OA the last 3 years in a row when I knew the chances of me having my ass handed to me were high. That said,  I went through the motions getting ready for the race yesterday... which really just means I cleaned my bike and painted my toenails with blue sparkle. I also put on my new BSC bracelet hoping it would work some magic or something.

So I really tried to remove any pressure from myself as far as expectations about where I might place... I did not opt in to the Elite wave because my confidence in my running was too low. While I could have given those top girls someone to chase on the bike, I was not going to contend on the run and I knew it. The age group wave was the best choice for my head this year and I wouldn't go back and change my decision now that its over.

My swim has been fine. Goal for the swim was simply to start hard and stay on Nalani's feet as long as I could. That lasted until ~the first buoy where we started running into the men who started 3' ahead of us. I lost her there and then played the obstacle course swim game for the remainder of the swim, trying to avoid being kicked in the head by the breaststrokers. (#fungame #not) I wouldn't call it a stellar swim but it was fine. I came out in 22:14... over a minute behind Kathryn and ~50" down on Nalani. Maybe a little further back than I would have expected but no worries. I made it up with the fastest T1 of the day. Totally got a full 4 seconds right back on Kathryn there. Lol.

Two years ago, when I was riding well, I split 1:00:07 on this bike course. Given that fact, it doesn't take a brain surgeon to figure out what my goal was this morning. :) I knew my run wouldn't be there anyway so figured I'd ride like I stole something and see what happened... This is where I think the age group wave start helped me today- last year I rode alone the whole time and it was just weird- didn't feel like racing b/c the roads were just so empty! This year I played a little game of Pacman just picking off athletes in front of me. There was never a shortage of athletes to catch and that absolutely played in my favor. It was fun! The only bad part was that some of the men I passed didn't seem super thrilled to be passed by a rider who didn't have a penis. I got passed back by a lot of men who would SURGE after I passed. So then I had to SURGE to pass them back. Which I did. A lot. This might have been the least steady I've ever ridden in a triathlon. At one point I was trying to stay legal while surrounded by some men- one of whom (#740) had been riding like an asshole for miles (passing me then stopping pedaling, passing others on the right, etc. It was ridiculous!) I watched him almost take Kimberly down as she was trying to pass a guy who sped up (trying to not let her pass), then it appeared #740 was going to try to make a pass between them?!? I was watching from behind and yelled at him... he got the message and backed off but I was PISSED. I put in a massive surge at that point and as I passed I yelled in the most scary yell I could muster (which can be pretty damn scary) "QUIT RIDING LIKE AN ASSHOLE!!!!" He didn't quit riding like an asshole though- I watched him for the rest of the bike because he kept playing leapfrog with me and every single time he'd pass me he would stop pedaling. So that's why I don't mind calling him out publicly on my blog. Yes. #740. You rode like an asshole.

Yikes. I'm on fire. Sorry.

Anyway, the good news about the bike is that I smoked it. 58:02!! It's not a full 40K- I think they call it 38K. But still!! I'm pretty stoked with 58 flat. I felt invincible on the bike today. And I didn't feel smoked in T2.

So next up 10K run... My goal for the run was to focus ONLY on my form. Quick feet, landing directly under my center of mass. That's it. Whatever happened, whatever pace I ran, whoever passed me, it would be fine. Just focus on form! Usually in these scenarios I'm looking around and taking splits and trying figure out who is going to catch me and when, etc. But today I did not even look around at anyone. One of my athletes who saw me on course told me afterward you looked so focused! And indeed- I have to think about every.single.step to not fall back into old habit and end up leaning back and stepping too far out in front of myself... So in this regard, I am encouraged by my run today. I did get my ass handed to me as the fastest gals ran 36-40' and I ran 48... My slowest run at this race in several years (ok, ever). BUT. I am not actually too disappointed in this because a) I was capable of running a 10K with no injury/pain in my hips/hamstring and b) I kept my head together and focused on what I could control (my posture, where my feet landed) instead of allowing myself to consider what others around me were doing. After having to sit out and watch Lanikai last month, I felt grateful to be out there this morning. And in the end, I was 4th female and 1st in my age group so really nothing to complain about at all...

After these races it's always fun to catch up with everyone and hear everyone's war stories... I managed to socialize enough to miss out on awards even though I was probably only ~30 feet away. HA! I don't know if they even did age group awards? Honolulu Triathlon is cheap like that. It's fine though. The finisher medal was shiny (and big!) and therefore Moana LOVED it. She also seemed to enjoy the post race hang out more than in years past... Plus, surf was big enough to lure Scott into the ocean with his board... so it was a fun morning for the whole family. :)

Take Responsibility

Are you guys tired of hearing me rave about K-Star and MobilityWOD yet?? Ha! Sorry. I'm going to do it just a little more today.

One thing he says quite often in his videos is "Take Responsibility. Make A Better Choice." I love that because it really can apply to just about any aspect of our lives, right?? It drives me NUTS when people are constantly blaming others for their situation in life... whatever is going on with me (good and bad!) is a direct result of the choices I have made and I need to take responsibility for that... If I am not happy with my situation, I have the ability to change it by making different choices going forward. Simple. Profound. Boom.

So. I feel fat right now. You know why? Because I suck at controlling myself around peanut butter and almond butter. I know those foods pack right on my stomach/thighs/ass but I've made the choice to eat them (a lot!) lately anyway and now I'm living with the consequence of feeling fat. I take full responsibility for that and will pay the price if/when I see pictures of myself in a bathing suit this weekend.

Moving on. I just finished up a little 3 day block of crash training. Nothing really that big but 3 days in a row totaling 4+ hours each day and it has left me feeling satisfyingly fatigued. I swam 3x, biked 3x, ran 3x, and lifted weights 1x. No one session was extraordinary at all- in fact, much of the training was actually very skills focused.

In swimming, I've been working specifically on my kick. I don't really use my legs much at all when I swim. For an Ironman, this is really perfectly acceptable and maybe even preferred. BUT, for shorter races (and I have 2 of these coming up in the next few weeks) where swims last <30' and do not allow wetsuits, its not a bad thing to have the ability to kick in your toolbox. I can tell you right now that a couple of the girls who will beat me out of the water on Sunday use their feet very effectively when they swim. So, if I want to stay near them, I need to use my feet more effectively too! I've been focused on that the last two weeks and I'm seeing some improvement there I think. It's really just a coordination thing and when you're in love with your pull buoy, as I am, you don't tend to get a lot of practice coordinating the timing of your kick. I take full responsibility for this so I have been making different choices in the pool to address my dissatisfaction with this. For example, I did not use my buoy at all today in the pool. (Nalani would keel over and die in disbelief if she reads this. Ha! I cannot remember a training session where I didn't use a buoy for at least part of it?!? So today was quite special.)

On the bike, I've been working on making some changes to the alignment of my hips/knees/ankles as I pedal. There have been a couple recent videos on MobilityWOD that discuss this exact thing and I realized that I was doing exactly what he was saying to NOT do... so I headed out this morning and did a little field testing on myself with my power meter and focusing on some different things... Interesting when I made the changes he suggested I stopped 'dumping torque' as he likes to say and my watts went up! I should not be surprised... everything else that guy has said has been spot on but seeing such a black and white immediate change was pretty cool.

On the run, pretty much every session lately is a technique based session. Mostly b/c I believe the #1 thing I must do at this point just to stay injury free is learn to run correctly vs just going out and putting one foot in front of the other... My main cue has been to drop my foot right under my center of mass vs letting it stretch out ahead of me. I also think about keeping my core engaged so I don't arch my back, lifting my heels a bit behind me (engage hamstrings!), and keeping cadence up. I def still have a lot of room to grow here but in good news, I can feel it immediately now when I lose focus and start over-striding or leaning back. The hip mobility stuff I've been doing is helping a great deal in this area as well b/c the basic ability to extend ones hip is sort of an integral part of being able to run correctly.

So, two weeks til Honu. Yikes. I'm actually going to try to get in a quality brick session this Sunday in the form of the Honolulu Triathlon. My swim and bike are not outstanding at the moment but they are fine, and I think I'll be capable of covering 6.2 miles without injuring myself. Maybe even without walking. We'll see. However it turns out, I'll take full responsibility for the outcome because it will be a culmination of all the little choices I have made over the last few months...

I swear I am not going to eat ANY peanut butter or almond butter between now and Sunday. And I know I'll adhere to this rule because both jars are currently empty (yes- have been licked clean by the dog) and I'm just not going to buy more for a while. ;)

Mid-May

Updating your blog is harder when you do it less often. It's like where do I start??

How about with what I just did?? I just updated my homepage to MobilityWOD.com so every time I open my browser that's the site I'll see from Kelly Starrett. He just recently made that site subscription based for new content. I'm glad I found him before and realized how much awesome info he has to teach b/c normally I'm not a fan of subscription based websites. But this one is worth the $8/month for sure. Every day there's new awesome content and the amount I have learned in the last few weeks from this guy is unreal. I have never heard anyone explain how our bodies should be functioning like this guy does and I find myself glued to the videos he makes... watching them over and over until I'm sure I understand. I've finished reading his book though I continue to go back and reference it often. This is like continuing education at it's absolute best.

Can you tell I'm a fan?

My obsession with that website stems from the fact that I am fixing my hip/hamstring/glute situation by using his mobilization and stabilization techniques. It's not all better quite yet but it's getting there and I'm running a little here and there. It's super frustrating of course because I'm not able to train the way I'd like to be able to train in order to see the fitness gains I'd like to see. Doing things half-ass is not my style but it's all I've got right now so I'm trying to be patient and work within my current limiters. Some days I do a better job than others. Yesterday my PWN after my run said something like, "I wish I could say I'm being all mature about how slow this was but I am not. Feeling super frustrated." So there you go.

Let's talk about something more cheery than how slowly I move when I am "running".

How about how cool my cats are? My neighbor took this picture over the weekend. That's Harriet running down our roof. One day I hope to be as agile as she is. She's got great downhill skillz.

Friday morning I swam Mokes with a couple of friends. It was one of the most perfect morning ocean swims ever. Glassy water like a lake. So rare out there.

Sunday I swam it again. Here's what the radar showed Sunday morning. For those of you who don't live here, I should note we live (and were swimming) on the east side of Oahu.

Hence, it looked a little different in the water Sunday morning. The ocean is like a box of chocolates. You never know what you're going to get.

Wet soggy days are not my favorite, especially in mid-May. But the waterfalls are pretty. I'd say this is what it looked like on my run, but while I was running those mountains weren't actually visible b/c of the low and thick cloud layer. It poured on me the whole time, which I actually sort of liked. Though I'm hoping the sun comes out again tomorrow. I am solar powered.

I'm Trying to Become A Supple Leopard

How about a random bullet point style blog for a Sunday night? Bear with me, it's all I've got. :)

~I'm seeing decent improvement now in my hamstring and sit bone area. Yay! Honestly after reading so much on different forums, etc I was preparing myself to be out of commission for the long haul, but turns out if you're super diligent about the strength and mobility exercises, hamstrings will forgive you for abusing them earlier. The jump band and other exercises/stretches I detailed on my previous blog post continue to be the ones I go to (daily!) and they are working. I am more motivated to do them now too b/c of how obviously different I feel after I do. I think I actually have some ability to extend through my hips now and it makes me feel like gumby. Lol.

~Becoming A Supple Leopard is now my favorite resource when it comes to all things physical movement. I have been reading it every day- it's a really long 400 page hard cover textbook style book and I feel like I should be earning some sort of college credit for learning all this stuff but honestly I was never as interested in any of my college courses as I am in this book! The level of detail he goes into to make sure he is clear (and there are lots of pictures!) is incredible. And he keeps it interesting enough because his writing style just sounds like he's talking. I laugh out loud sometimes, which never happens when reading an actual textbook... but when he writes stuff like "Having a glass of wine can make mobilizing a little more tolerable, but getting drunk and passing out on a lacrosse ball is never a good idea" it's hard to not laugh!

~The author of that book is a big CrossFit guy and a big chunk of the book goes into high detail about how to perform just about any strength movement you could think of (and some you've never imagined!) with perfect form. He also goes into common errors and how to correct them. All of a sudden this stuff is pretty interesting to me so I hit up my first Intro to CrossFit class a few days ago. I went in with an open mind... I've heard lots of different stuff- good and bad- about CrossFit and wasn't sure what to expect. The intro sessions are pretty basic where they're teaching you about the language they use and philosophy of the sessions as well as how to perform the movements. Mostly we just did a ton of different types of squats. I was a little sore the next day but not bad at all- just enough to let me know I'd worked some but I wasn't crippled or anything. I told the coach that I am a triathlete and I was planning to use CF as a compliment to triathlon training so I didn't want to work so hard I'd be debilitated for days. She totally understood and was respectful of that. So, I'll go back for more intro sessions this week! If I'm honest, after Honu I can see myself really getting into Crossfit. We'll see.

~So that's my plan for Honu. I figure I've got 3 weeks of 'training' (race week won't count for 'training') but it's not like I can just ramp back up to normal run training, and even if I could, three weeks wouldn't get me to the run fitness I want for that race. So. My plan is just to get as functionally strong and mobile as I can and then just cross my fingers on race day. Maybe if I'm strong enough I can gut it out? It's my only hope so I'm going with it.

~In good news my biking isn't as weak as I thought it might be after weeks of simply doing very haphazard random rides as I felt. I needed a break from having a set training plan for a while because I didn't want to feel the pressure of 'having' to ride or run (b/c if it's on the TP calendar I would have done it regardless of what my body was saying- not so bright I know but it's like how I'm wired or something)... I wanted the freedom to just do what my body and mind allowed each day without feeling any pressure. Turns out, I suck at making myself ride my bike if I don't have a coach monitoring it! In good news though, I got my power meter up and functioning again and rode yesterday and was capable of hitting decent power... not quite as good as before Cabo but it wasn't awful so that gave me a little confidence. If I'm honest, I wonder if I'll ever get back to riding as strong as I was riding before Cabo? Mostly b/c I'm not sure I'm willing to ride that kind weekly mileage again. That was really a lot. But maybe I can get close on half the volume?? Lol. Wishful thinking. We'll see though. Saturday would have been good but I ran over something that my tire didn't like and the giant hole in the sidewall wasn't something I could repair on the go. So I sat by the ocean and checked race results on my phone while waiting for my husband to come pick me up. Bummed to miss out on the end of that ride, but chillin' here on a Saturday morning didn't suck.

How To Fix Your Hamstring... In 8 Easy Steps

Ok so first of all, huge Mahalo to those of you who took the time to reach out to me privately after that last post about my hamstring situation. Really appreciate you taking the time to offer your experiences and suggestions! Ii've tried lots of different avenues trying to resolve this thing and here's how it's going. :)

The other day I was riding and that Alanis Morrisette song came on my iPod... Thought the Eight Easy Steps line was funny so I was originally going to write a post called How To Fry Your Hamstring (Eight Easy Steps) but then realized really it's only like Four Easy Steps to Fry Your Hamstrings:

1. Mash big gears a lot while you pedal mile after mile after mile in your aero bars until your hip flexors get like super short and tight. Don't stretch them because, um, that hurts.
2. Look at your Trigger Point roller a lot but decide it probably would be too painful to actually use so don't use it. Ever.
3. Notice people posting on social media all those dumb little functional strength exercises you should be doing to strengthen your hamstrings and glutes but, um, who has time or energy for those?? Not with all that biking and running you're doing... Don't be bothered with those silly things.
4. Run with super crappy form (see #1 above tight hip flexors and #3 above weak glutes/hamstrings) and when it starts hurting, just ignore that and run as fast as you can anyway.

Turns out, hamstrings hold grudges and fixing them once you have fried them takes a few more steps. For simplicity sake, I'll see if I can narrow all that I've been doing down to just eight. In no particular order (ie I think my fix has been a combination of all of these)...

1. Stretch those hip flexors. I found a version of this that uses a resistance band around your hip- you can't see it too well but that green band is wrapped around the base of my ass and pulls that hip forward even further and OMG. Wow. Stretching on steroids. Part of my problem has been that I feel a pinching feeling at the base of my ass, especially when I get done with a bike ride. Doing this stretch daily, holding for 2' at a time (each leg) has helped ease that pinchy feeling. Photo credit goes to Moana. She's pretty good for a 4 year old, no?

2. Hamstring pull against Jump Band. Found this one on MobilityWOD which has truly been my go-to for curing myself this time around... tons of good videos there and I spent so much time clicking through them all that I finally just bought Kelly Starrett's book (I will be such a Supple Leopard when I'm done with all this shit!) so now I have all his awesome info organized in a coherent way and I don't have to dig through videos online to find what I'm looking for. Fwiw, that book is hands down the best info I've come across when it comes to how to organize yourself for physical movement- totally thorough but also very well written and easy to read/understand. Anyway, I had to buy a jump band for this one (and the one above- also idea from Kelly @MWOD) but that thing is worth its weight in gold if you figure out how to use it. Best therapy tool I own. (Ok, next to some others that I'll get into soon. I have a whole freaking' arsenal of PT tools now. Lol.) Anyway, this one hurts a ton if you have little micro-tears in your hamstring but something about the eccentric nature of the exercise makes it like 100x more effective in fixing that muscle than any other exercise I've tried. So, start in this position:

Then pull straight down.

Then slowly allow your foot back up to starting position. Yikes! That is hard but only if your hamstring is compromised. Doesn't hurt at all on my right side but left side LIGHTS UP. But, after ~15 reps or so it feels 100x better. I've been doing this one 2x/day because it really feels like it's made the biggest difference.

3. More Functional Strength! Single leg glute bridges have probably been the #1 exercise for me in this category. When I first started these I could hold for like 10" before feeling like my hamstrings were going to cramp. But I did them often (several times/day) and eventually got up to 20", then 30", then 40", etc. Now I can do 3x1' each leg. PT suggested I get up to 6x1' each day so I'm still a work in progress here. The key to these is to drive down through your heel while keeping your pelvis level. Try it and you'll see what I mean. And ya, sometimes Ozzie likes to get right under that bridge, which is good b/c it's like extra motivation to not collapse on top of your cat.

For simplicity sake, and also b/c this is supposed to be only 8 Easy Steps, I'm going to group the other Fx Strength exercises I do here under this same point... planks, side planks, firewalkers with band around ankles, Jane Fonda's, clams, reverse clams, hip hikes with ankle weights, eccentric calf dips, single leg romanian dead lifts, good mornings, kettle bell swings, walking lunges (all directions), single leg squats, step ups holding weights each hand. All of these I can do right in my own living room and they're pretty much all targeting posterior chain. You can find lots of examples of good exercises just by googling posterior chain.

4. Use your Trigger Point Roller and ball. I finally stopped ignoring these things! :) If you take 5-10' to roll out your hot spots every day, it really hurts quite a bit less. I focus not only on my hamstrings here but also my quads (especially upper quad) as well as adductors b/c those suckers are T.I.G.H.T. Then I take that ball and sit on a solid chair that is up high enough off the ground and do my own version of ART on my hamstring trigger points- stick the ball under a hot spot on my hamstring then just bend and straighten my knee like I'm doing a leg extension. Yikes. It's not tough to figure out where your trigger points are. They're super obvious when you find one.

5. Find some good professionals to help. I always start with ART and acupuncture for the acute issues... They do a good job of loosening things up at least for the short term. For a more long term fix this time around I also went to see Anica at Longevity Bodywork as well as Marissa and Jaco at Jaco Rehab. Learning from professionals like this about your own personal weak/tight spots and how to fix them has been priceless. This is really how I discovered in the first place that I need to find a good hip flexor stretch and that my hamstring strength was abysmal.

6. Have a run gait analysis done. As horrifying as it can be to watch yourself run in slow motion, you'll learn so much about proper run mechanics. I used to prescribe to the line of thinking that if you just run enough, your body will figure out the most efficient way. Well, given that I have run a ton of miles over the years and my run efficiency has simply gotten worse over time, I'm going to call bullshit on that theory. Check out how far ahead of my center of mass my foot lands when I run... no real mystery why my hamstring eventually gave out! So I am working on fixing this by doing very short bouts of running with more correct form, forward lean, all that stuff. Then I stop, rest, regroup, and start again. I am up to 30x1' trying to land with my feet directly under my body, keeping turnover up, core engaged so I'm not arching my back, etc.

7. This one might be fairly controversial and I thought about leaving it out so people who know better wouldn't judge me, but I'm nothing if not honest and straightforward here so I'll include it since I do believe it is helping. I've been scraping myself with this jade heart tool thing. I've had graston done several times so I have an idea of the type of pressure and speed used and when I get desperate I'm willing to try just about anything, and I have to say, I feel awesome after spending 3-4' scraping myself. I use this Cramers rub down hot oil stuff that gets pretty hot. I def don't do this every day but maybe 2x/week for a few minutes and it's the best my hamstring ever feels after I get done with it.

8. This one might sound odd as well, but I do believe that eliminating sugar and grains from my diet recently has also made a positive difference. I read a book called The Permanent Pain Cure where Ming Chew talks about how sugar and grains can act like glue in your fascia... and if you have pain you need to get that fascia smoothed out. Willing to try anything so I could run again- even giving up pasta and bread- I tried this as an experiment. I found it interesting that within 3-4 days I felt super loose and my body was cracking (all on its own) all the time- everything is cracking! Neck, toes, shoulders, wrists, ankles, hips... It's like snap crackle pop around here these days! So while other people might eliminate sugar and grains for other reasons, this is my reason and the way I feel now it's motivating enough to continue to bail on cereal for breakfast in favor of a banana with almond butter.

So there you go! 8 Easy Steps! Simple eh? Ok, probably easier to just take care of yourself better in the first place so you don't end up in this mess having to take these measures. Lesson learned? I'd like to say yes but unfortunately I can be a moron at times when it comes to dealing with myself so we'll see. My hamstring is certainly not 100% yet but it's improved significantly over where it was 2 weeks ago and I am cautiously optimistic that I will be able to actually run train again at some point.

One month til Honu. Argh.