Bricks For Legs

Blogging less doesn't mean I've been training less! In fact it's the opposite... As I started my ride today my legs felt like BRICKS and I was like well duh I've ridden 5 of the last 6 days... and the day I didn't ride I ran 15 miles... so... That's why it was ugly today. That's my story and I'm sticking to it.

I meant to write about a fun day training with Heidi yesterday. It was her birthday and she took the day off work and wanted to train all day... so ok I'm a good coach like that I'll join her! We started with a 46 mile ride to Laie Point.

Then Heidi had never run in the Botanical Gardens (what??) so we drove over to the gate so we could run 4.6 miles in the gardens. Tons of pigs out- seriously we saw at least 12 pigs... This one was with a group of ~9 including 5 keiki and he came right toward us while the others walked away... Clearly the man of the family doing his job protecting his clan. You can see a few of his family members in the background...

We ran an extra tenth of a mile bc Heidi wanted to get the famous shot... so I ran ahead and we pretended she was an Athleta model for a minute. It was a fun run!

Then we went to the pool where we finished up with 46x100's. I did them all bands only because #birthdayswim and then later was plastered to the couch like OMG I'M TIRED. I have to say though, it's easier to do those when I'm not drunk.

I figured I'd be too tired to do a quality Tantalus Tuesday session but there wasn't really another place to put that key brick this week... and I missed it last week b/c of the car fiasco and next week doesn't work for it either... so I sucked it up and decided to go give it a shot today. First pedal stroke (yikes!) I knew it was not going to be a PR up the hill kind of day... I debated with myself for a bit on the worth of slogging through a longish brick on that mountain given the state of my legs but in the end decided that I'm training for an Ironman so pushing through sessions when I don't feel like riding anymore is kind of a key part of that... So my mindset became this... You've done a lot of work to get to this fatigued state so this session is a durability session just get it done and you can rest tomorrow...

So that's what I did. I still climbed the mountain 3x but didn't time any of them and if I had to guess I'd say my HR never went above 150 (it's likely suppressed right now anyway). I don't think it was a waste of time because sub-max training, if I do enough of it, has really helped me get strong in the past... Or maybe that's just how I justified my half ass effort today. I did "try" when I started the third trip up but that lasted about 30 seconds before I was like nope this is stupid and I went right back to my sub-max effort.

I got off the bike and ran my standard 2 miles up/down and I did time that b/c I was just curious. Running I felt 100x better than I did riding (go figure?). I jogged up easy 22:36 (about the same as the last 2x) and then turned around and damn all of a sudden I felt awesome?? 2 miles down in 13:45 weeeeeeee! I didn't even feel like I was pushing- just floating. It's interesting to me that I've been doing this run consistently (4 of the last 5 weeks now) and my uphill running isn't getting much faster but it's getting easier. Downhill running has gotten a ton faster though. I do think that is closely related to hip function and an increased ability to extend my hips. Plus I think it's making my quads bombproof.

Anyway, check out this orchid. I think the previous owners of this house must have planted some because they randomly pop up every once in a while in our front yard.  Stunning flowers.

Computrainer Virgin

I don't own a bike trainer. I have rollers and have used those off/on over the last few years but mostly just for skill/balance/cadence work, not real 'training'. I'd been thinking though that I wanted to experience a Computrainer, mostly b/c many of my athletes have them and use them regularly, so I felt like if I had my own experience with it I'd have a better grasp as to how they might manage when using them. It was another wet/soggy day today so I thought it would be a good day to try it out in my friend Nalani's garage.

It took a while to get set up and Nalani helped me do it... warming up and calibrating it. We didn't get it exactly at 2 but got 2.1 a few times and called it close enough. To be honest I don't even know what that means but just throwing that out there in case some of you do?

Nalani worked her way through the settings and eventually the Honu course came up, which was pretty cool. I think the main reason I liked that was because I have ridden the actual course a bunch of times so could envision the different spots based on the inclines/declines.

I was mostly curious about how the wattage would read on the CT vs what I know about power from the road. I pay really close attention to power most of the time (when I'm riding with it) and I feel like I have a decent grasp on what different wattage levels feel like. What I felt from today was that on the flats and descents the power was pretty much what I would have expected for effort (maybe a hair low?), but on the hills it was way low. Like 40-50watts low? I mean there was no way I was climbing out of Kawaihai at 130watts... That's a steep climb! And I didn't have a way to hit lap and see lap avg for different sections of the course. I think on the road, lap avg keeps me mentally engaged in a way that overall avg does not, so after like 2 hours today I was over it and wanting off. But either I was riding slow or the calibration of 2.1 vs 2.0 made the ride longer than it should have been but gah in that last hour all I wanted was to stop dripping with sweat. I'm not exaggerating when I say I kept saturating my towel and every 20min had to sit up and wring it out. It was flat out disgusting.

My thought today was that I'm not sure I'd be a triathlete if I was forced (for whatever reason) to do the bulk of my riding on a trainer. I can see the allure of it for sure (can watch Netflix, is safer, can get a good solid efficient workout in, etc) BUT it removes the joy I feel when riding my bike outside. There wasn't a lot of joy today. It was just a training session. I'm not in a mode this year where I'm sacrificing joy for training purposes. So while I appreciate the experience, tomorrow I'll go back out on the road. :)

Answering Some Questions...

For the last few months my Training Peaks calendar has included this...

I really didn't know if it was a good idea. My questions/concerns were Did I really want to do another Ironman? Would my hip allow me to train for one? Would Scott be okay with it? Would it still be open to enter by the time I could answer these questions?

Anyway, the answer to all the questions turned out to be YES... So I entered the race today. It seriously pumped me up to do so! I texted a few of my athletes (and my mom!) and told them then headed out on a longish bike ride. Nice sunny day... 73 miles later I got home still feeling good... and I had time before I needed to go get Moana so I tacked on a 3+ mile run and again felt super! Woot! Let the Ironman training begin...

I feel genuinely excited to train for Vineman right now. I've only got less than 12 weeks so it won't be a super long build but I think I can get my fitness to where I want it to be in that time frame. I don't have it all mapped out yet, and I suspect even if I do map it all out it'll still end up being quite fluid (as much of my training has gone the last few months)... but I have enough motivation that even just winging it I think will end up being ok. What I know for sure is that I liked being out there riding my bike and running today. That's an essential first start. I always wonder why athletes sign up for an Ironman if they don't really love riding their bikes? I mean, there's a lot of bike riding involved in training for an Ironman. I mean, a lot!

Anyway, I'll leave you with this fun shot. Maia was super interested in Moana's swim team practice today.

The Prime Movers (Comparing Swimming to Running)

I drank 3 shots of espresso this morning... because Wednesday. Jogging down to the pool I was trying to decide on the main set I wanted to do today... something long and strong, I thought. After a super easy warm up I told my friends, "5x500 @8:00, descend 1-5." Boom. Let's do it.

Nalani and I used paddles while Mark and Lectie swam. Lectie only had time for 3 which I thought was perfect b/c Mark would kill himself trying to keep up with Lectie then she would get out and he would be trashed and by then I would be swimming faster and I would try to make Mark suffer on the last 2! #gameplan

#1 was 7:29 which was faster than it felt. That's typically a good sign. Lectie and Mark were way ahead.
#2 was 7:23, again faster than it felt and I kind of thought crap I still have 3 to go I hope I didn't just screw myself!! Lectie and Mark didn't get any closer.
#3 was 7:14 OMG how am I going to do 2 more faster than that?? I decided #4 would have to just feel fast and #5 was going to be a nausea inducing effort. Lectie got out after racing Mark on this one.
#4 was 7:11 and the nausea was already setting in (uh-oh). Mark swam mostly beside me the whole time and he noted that we were getting faster.
#5 was 7:05 and I honestly thought I was going to be sick. I beat Mark to the wall by maybe a body length and it took a minute before I could speak.

So. Solid set! I was trying to think of something of value I could write on this blog other than just blabbing about the main set and how it went down. I was thinking about that blog post yesterday and how I mentioned those runner girls and how I felt when I find myself working so hard and they just float right by me with seemingly so little effort... I guess my situation in the pool is pretty much the opposite of that... where I'm often the one gliding by. Why is that? Here's my thinking... Just like efficient runners, efficient swimmers are powered by the prime movers. Except instead of it being glutes, it's lats.

How's this for some bulging lats??

When I teach swim lessons in person I find myself constantly trying to figure out how to cue athletes to use their lats. It's not an easy thing to learn, but it's the difference between how efficient swimmers power themselves through the water vs how 'normal' people try to do it. I suppose just like the example I used about trying to fire up my glutes in the kitchen, athletes should try to fire up their lats on land before they're going to be able to do it in the water. Stretch cords are likely the best option for this because you can play with them pretty easily and cue yourself in different positions figuring out which is the best way for you to get those lats working. This guy does a decent job of explaining what I'm trying to say!

Of course there are other pieces to it but when thinking about what I changed today from my first 500 to the last, it wasn't really turn-over (well maybe a little turn-over increase) but the difference was mostly about the amount of tension I was holding via my lats. This is likely where the concept of distance per stroke comes from, because if my cadence stayed about the same but I was swimming 5"/100 faster, then the distance I was moving with every stroke must have been getting further. The confusion with DPS comes when swimmers sacrifice cadence to achieve it. Again the parallel with running here is between cadence and stride length. Ideally you're always running with a high cadence, but when you're running fast you're increasing your stride length. How to do that? Use your glutes to extend your leg out further behind you. Maybe every once in a while you see runners bounding as a drill but you never see runners actually trying to run fast by slowing their cadence way down and extending their stride length. It's not effective. And it requires a ton of energy! Same with swimming... to swim fast you need to keep your cadence up but at the same time use your lats to extend your reach and the amount of tension you're holding on the water.

Not sure if that makes sense, but there's absolutely a parallel there if you think in terms of prime movers (glutes for running and lats for swimming). When efficient runners run, the way their glutes work allows them to just spring right off their rear foot from one step to the next... vs quad dominant runners who have their butts in buckets have to work exceptionally hard to overcome gravity to get to that next step. So it's actually exponentially 'easier' to run when you're efficiently using your glutes! Same with swimming. If you're not using your lats as prime movers, you're likely not moving quickly enough through the water to overcome drag and then you lose momentum between strokes... It's WAY harder to swim because you're restarting your forward movement with every stroke vs continually gliding the way an efficient swimmer does. You still need an enormous amount of swim specific fitness, but when you combine that fitness with effective use of prime movers, you're really on your way to moving fast, regardless of the sport!

On How I'm Attempting To Fix My Running Form

I packed up all my crap for my Tantalus brick today (including lunch- no easy task!) then got in my car, backed out of my driveway, attempted to shift into drive and... nothing. Did you know the shifter cable on your car can break? I didn't. But it can! So off my car went to the Nissan dealership... and my whole morning went with it. Blah.

So. No Tantalus brick today, which sort of bummed me out. I was trying to figure out how to salvage my day. Might have been a blessing in disguise to stay off the mountain today because it was raining... and my favorite thing to do in the rain is to run in the botanical gardens. So that's what I opted to do. I felt good enough to give myself a solid thrashing today so I went out with the intention of running strong. And I did! I hadn't actually run back there since early January- that was a good solid run, but today was even better! Which got me thinking...

Back in the fall I was running 50-60 miles/week. Now I'm running ~1/2 of that. So how is it possible that I'm running faster? I have my theories! Let's see if I can type them out in a coherent way...

I've often thought that my lack of run speed can't be a fitness thing. I mean, shoot, I've been running consistently for years and I run a ton more than lots of gals who can run faster than me. So the obvious answer there would seem to be to do more 'speed work'... but when I do speed work inevitably I end up injured (as do many athletes!). And I just haven't often seen great success in long distance racing when (most) athletes focus on speed work on the run. So there had to be something else.

I figured it had to do with efficiency of movement. So many times in races I've found myself working HARD and getting passed by gals who just floated by... GAH! So there's all sorts of information out there about run form and efficiency... often focusing on heel striking or whatever. I think heel striking probably isn't ideal but I don't think that's the root of the problem. More like its a symptom. I started really paying attention to the way it looks when real runners run vs when non-runners run (I put myself in the non-runner category). Runners have this beautiful hip extension that non-runners do not have. Bobby McGee has done a lot of explaining about run form and he talks about how some runners look like they are "running with their butt in a bucket". I was definitely doing that. And I also just felt like every time I landed on the ground I would just sink into it... while real runners would land on the ground and spring right up into their next step with seemingly no effort at all. From the sunken position I was in after every step I had to work really hard to push off every time. Something just wasn't right about that.

So you hear all sorts of stuff about how important hip function is in running and how the glutes are the prime movers (or should be). So Glutes play a roll in hip extension because they are the muscle that theoretically should be driving your leg back. So I would stand in my kitchen and drive my leg back but my glute was never doing any of that work. My hamstring was doing it. How was I supposed to get my glute to do it? I really wasn't sure. But I kept experimenting with different things trying to get it to do what it was supposed to do and I figured some things out along the way. Fwiw, I don't have any degrees in this stuff- in fact I learn just about everything I know by following smart people on social media and reading the things they post and I think I'm pretty good (at this point) at filtering out what is spot on vs what is bullshit. Anyway, here's what has been working for me:

~First off, have to get flat hips (Lawrence van Lingen is the PT guy who I follow on Twitter and he harps on this). If pelvis is tilted front or back, glutes just aren't going to be able to do their job. I think mine, like many people's, were tilted forward... which is caused by tight hip flexors and quads which we get from sitting a lot and that can be in a chair or on a bike seat... So ok, to fix that have to first go after the hip flexors and quads. Read that as: Couch Stretch Daily. It took some time and I did some other stretches along the way, but I think I have resolved my pelvis tilt issue. I think until this is resolved nothing else really matters (like the strength stuff you do won't work like it could so don't even bother with the strength stuff until pelvis is flat and neutral). Lawrence constantly says that we should not be applying load to hips that are dysfunctional. I'll go out on a limb and say that my hips were dysfunctional throughout the fall and I was applying load every day in the form of running and eventually they just said Nope! Not gonna take it anymore. So if I wanted to start running again I really was being forced to figure this stuff out.

~I've been writing about all the hip/glute exercises I'm doing so won't go over all of the again here, but really, I've been consistently spending 10-20min/day doing targeted glute and hip strength stuff. I was trying to think if there's one exercise I think is the magic bullet... not sure there is just one? I think a combination of exercises is important, and if you do any research you know there are a TON of them out there, so really, pick like 3-5 that you like (and that you can do properly) and feel like are effective... and do those all the time. I would say that for me the single leg squat might be my #1. That one is tough though b/c to do it correctly you have to have enough flexion in your hips and ankles and many people don't have that... If you don't you'd have to go back to basics and get the flexion in your ankles before really being able to nail single leg squats. Anyway.

Now I can stand in my kitchen and drive my leg back and glutes turn on immediately to make that happen. Woot! Seems like this turns on a whole cascade of events that allows for way more efficient running form. So this is what I was thinking about as I was running today- it wasn't like a conscious effort to change run form, it was just about having functioning glutes, which required flat hips/neutral pelvis. But today I just felt like I was floating and like everything was stable and I wasn't sinking into the ground wth every step but rather springing forward more like the way a real runner would. It was super cool! So I don't expect this to overnight change me into a fast runner but I do have hope that maybe I'll get a bit more bang for my buck in being able to use my run fitness if I'm moving more effectively when I'm running. We'll see I guess. It worked today! This was the fastest I've done my gardens run in ~4 years.

Monday

Pretty mellow day today. This morning I walked Moana to the bus stop (with the dog!) then headed over to the park and went through a full glute/hip strength routine. I sort of have 2 different routines I tend to go through but today I did them both. My hip continues to remain the same... Something is still not right in there but the pain is manageable and doesn't seem to escalate so I'm just planning to continue doing what I'm doing and hope it continues to stay the same. For sure I feel like I have better glute activation and function than I did a few months ago, so that feels good.

Maia jogged a few miles with me super easy then we went to our hill for our short hill repeats. She knew the routine of it today and went back and forth with me like the loyal companion she is. Then she came home and passed out.

I didn't really swim today. I did teach a swim lesson which had me in the pool going back and forth but I'll call it a recovery effort at best. We stopped to talk swim technique after every 50. I think the easy recovery day was in order.

My husband and daughter are back home so it's back to life as normal at our house. I told them that I really enjoyed my alone time this weekend, but one weekend was enough of that. I don't think I'd want to be alone like that every weekend, for multiple reasons. If I was single and childless I might be a faster triathlete but I wouldn't be a happier person.

The Risk We Take

This morning I got an email update from a new athlete I am working with- she's new to the point where riding outdoors on the roads is a super scary challenge because of hills and cars... I remember those days! I encouraged her to keep at it b/c the more we get out there the more comfortable/confident we get, and if you're going to be racing long course triathlon, confidence riding your bike outside is an essential skill.

That said, it did get me to thinking. I mean, riding on the roads is not without risk. There is legitimate risk involved. I had a long solo ride home today after my training partner went to the ER to consider this.

Story of the morning... Kevin and I were ~30 miles into our planned long ride. I was leading and he was behind me but not right on my wheel... like maybe a few bike lengths back. I tend to ride quite defensively and always heads up paying attention to cars and stuff around me, so when I saw a car coming at me I sat up and eased off the gas a bit... That car was passing a moped so he was in my lane... no worries there was space but then the moped driver also then started to cross the lane and was coming right at me... His head was down- not looking at me- so I started screaming at him. He still wasn't looking and I wasn't sure what to do? I slammed on my brakes and swerved into the middle of the lane to avoid a head on with the moped, but in the process I heard Kevin yelp out from behind me then I heard that horrible sound of bike hitting the pavement. ARGH.

So I stopped and went back to assess the situation... blood dripping everywhere from Kevin's face... several witnesses stopped to help but the moped driver was long gone. Long story short: ambulance came but Kevin declined and instead we waited for his wife to come get him and take him to his preferred ER so a plastic surgeon could do what needed to be done. I considered (for ~1/2 second) taking a picture of Kevin's gashes but really it was so bad no one needs to see that kind of stuff. The cut on his chin was so big and so deep it almost looked fake.

Turns out, when Kevin got the the ER he saw another cyclist friend of ours who was out riding the same route as us and went down on some crappy pavement and ended up with a broken collarbone and 5x broken ribs and a bruised lung... Obviously not a good day for Oahu cyclists. :(

After all this my mojo (not surprisingly) went away and I didn't have much desire to finish the ride as planned. I didn't have much choice though other than to ride back home. Definitely more cautious than normal and the whole time thought about risk. Cycling outside is risky. What was I going to do about it? Seems like there are a few options:

~Quit riding/triathlon
~Do all my riding inside
~Accept the risk and just do the best I can riding defensively

I've been riding for 20+ years and I've had maybe 4 bike wrecks? All in all, those are pretty good odds I guess. The idea of quitting riding/triathlon because of the risk doesn't sit well with me... On most days I really like riding my bike. So I can't see myself quitting the sport because of the potential of crashing. And if I did all my riding indoors a couple things would likely happen... #1) I wouldn't enjoy riding and #2) I'd lose my confidence and skills on the road. So really, as paradoxical as it sounds, I think the best defense against crashing on the road is to ride on the road a lot. Get really good and confident and never forget to pay attention at all times. This doesn't guarantee you always keep the rubber side down but I think it does increase your odds of managing yourself through potential sketchy situations.

To each his own I guess. It is up to each of us to figure out how we are going to manage the risk... The way I see it, there is risk in just about everything we do. So as long as I continue to enjoy riding, I will ride outside. I'll be smart about it and wear my helmet and keep my antenna up at all times, but I accept the risk. If at some point I change my mind on this, that would be ok too.