Honu 2014... What Would Peepers Do?

Trying to figure out where to start. This might be a long one so grab a cup of coffee. :)

Honu weekend felt different to me this year. It was my 8th trip over there and I think possibly my favorite one. When I found out- back in March- that my registration had gotten screwed up, I spent ~2 weeks thinking maybe I wasn't going to get to race this year. That was an interesting turning point for me because it made me realize how much I LOVE this race and how much I REALLY wanted to do it. And while part of that desire has to do with the race itself, most of what I thought about missing was the social aspect of the weekend. Having lived in Hawaii for 9+ years now, I feel like I have some deep connections and friendships within this triathlon community and Honu is our weekend. So while I went into the race with some questions about my fitness- specifically my run fitness- It was all fine because hey, I get to race!!

The social fun started early- like in the airport- as a ton of friends happened to all be on the same flight over to Kona. The coolest part was that we probably could have gotten on any given flight all day and found friends all around. Fun for Moana too because everywhere she looked there was another Auntie waving and smiling at her. :) This was Moana's 6th trip to Honu!

Anyway, I'll cut to the chase. It was a beautiful day to race. It was hot, and windy, but not hotter (nor windier) than it's been in the past. I'd call it standard Hawaii conditions.

I would challenge anyone to find a swim venue better than Hapuna Beach. Water was perfect temperature with perfect visibility and hardly any chop. I have been swimming pretty well recently so I put myself right on the front line and sprinted hard when I heard the cannon. Karlyn Pipes took this great picture...

Once again the women started 7' behind the men. We started catching them before the first buoy. Last year I allowed myself to get flustered and frustrated by that but this year I was better mentally prepped and just accepted it for what it was. I stayed pretty much on the inside of the loop all the way around... hit every turn buoy right on my shoulder (dove under/around them!) and always had a few other pink caps in my sights. I felt like I was moving well through the water and as I was approaching the finish of the swim I had the thought that I was bummed the swim was over. I really would have enjoyed doing that all day!

But instead we ran through some deep sand and up a hill that seemed longer and steeper than I remember... Got to my bike and without wasting too much time, I got on it and started pedaling uphill.

The beginning of the bike is more mayhem now that we start 7' back from the men... because while we pass a ton of them in the water, there are also a ton already up the road and it just seems/feels really crowded. And it's crazy because there are all levels of athletes too- so I'm passing some but some men who I passed in the water were then passing me back... so it just forced me to stay really ALERT... riding enough left to pass but not so far left that I'm blocking the men who wanted to pass me... Eventually it sort of settled. I held back a bit to start the bike- more than other years I think- but hard to tell exactly because I'm race by feel not watching power or HR or even splits. (I took my watch off before the race started.)

And as always, a little note about drafting! BUT in great news, I can say I hardly saw any drafting. The race appeared to be exceptionally clean to me this year. There were times where the road was crowded and riders were jostling for position or whatever but there were not packs forming and I saw very few of what looked like blatant efforts at cheating. Yay!

Anyway, I rode steady all the way up Hawi, noted that my legs felt pretty good, and just generally felt pretty happy. One of my goals for this race was to ride bravely on the downhills, so when I got to Hawi, I made the u-turn then told myself this is it stay aero and pedal pedal pedal!! I was ripping it and it was FUN! 

My friend Leigh and I have recently had thing this where when we want/need to be brave, we channel Peepers, my little chicken who finally decided that- even though she was not as big as the other chickens- she belonged in the coop with the big girls... At first they pecked at her, but she was brave! And interestingly, once she decided that she belonged in there, she started acting like she belonged in there... the other chickens accepted that she was there to stay and the pecking ended. So our little joke became What Would Peepers Do?? And riding down Hawi I was thinking to myself, Peepers would stay aero and pedal right through these crosswinds!! And that's what I did. :)

I was ripping it down that mountain and looking over at the beautiful blue ocean down below and singing the most appropriate song in my head... I couldn't have been a whole lot happier.

Eventually, just like the swim, the bike ended earlier than I wish it would have. I got to T2 all smiles and racked my bike on a mostly empty rack. One of my goals for the day had been to actively NOT count women around me... just do my thing best I could at each moment and let it play out however it played out. That said, I had a good feeling that I was doing well because I felt like I'd been moving along pretty well on both swim and bike so if I could just hold my shit together on the run then this was going to be a dream day. The thing was, holding my shit together on this run was going to be a big ask. I cannot remember the last time I'd run 13 miles (November maybe??)... And while I whole heartedly credit Dr Zen for getting me to this start line uninjured, I found him a little too late to be able to fit in all the run training I would have preferred... So I was pretty much just crossing my fingers that my very long history of endurance training would get me through this run.

And interestingly, I started and did not feel as bad as I have in years past. It's at this point that I have to say, Osmo is the bomb. I've been training almost exclusively with Osmo and Bonk Breaker bars this year but I will be honest- I'm an old dog in this game and old habits are hard to break... I've always raced with Infinit and supplemented with gels/water and I was afraid to change that up. Seriously- up until the night before the race I'd gone back and forth about which route I was going to go... It was like The Great Osmo/Bonk Breaker vs Infinit/gel debate in my head. My biggest fear was chewing on the bike... I can chew while I am training but the idea of chewing a bar while racing did NOT seem like something I wanted to do... But I believed what Stacy Sims has been preaching about Hydration is Power and I've heard many other gals saying that it's been a game changer for them so I figured I'd give it a shot and see how it went. I am not an athlete who struggles with stomach upset or GI issues while I'm training or racing so that was not my issue. I do, however, struggle with cramping- severely at times- so I have been drinking the Osmo Pre-load and thought maybe the Active formula would keep me hydrated in a way that might allow my muscles to function better? That was my goal anyway. And you know what? It worked. I did not even have a twinge of a cramp all day on Saturday! And I just felt like wow- my legs are working better than I feel like they should be?!? You know, given how little I ran leading up to this race, my legs should have been a disastrous mess after ~6 miles but they kept functioning for me which was quite a welcome surprise. I drank Pre-load Friday night, Active for Women on the bike (plus BB bars), and had another bottle of Active waiting for me in T2. I downed it in the first mile (that's what's in my hand in this picture) and then for the rest of the run drank water, ice, and Coke. I would not change a thing about the way I hydrated/fueled that race and am now a complete Osmo convert/believer.

Anyway, somewhere around mile 6 I was plugging away and came upon a young gal who had passed me earlier but was now walking... I felt her pain because damn I've been there before (many times!!) so I encouraged her to hang in there. She rallied then and asked me if we could work together. I was happy enough to do that. I found out that she was leading 25-29 age group so it sort of became my mission to help her hang onto that. I had been passed already by a couple gals in my age group so I knew I was not leading mine but I was still trying to hang onto what I had. It was weird though- for some reason I went fully into MamaSimmons Coach mode with this gal... cueing her to relax her breathing, arms up, chin down... we walked up the short/steep hills but ran again right at the top... walked through aid stations just enough to get plenty of water/ice/coke then immediately started running again together... I knew I was helping her but also felt like by doing that I was helping myself. We stayed together for the rest of the race and finished just a few seconds apart. This morning she found me on Facebook and sent me this message, which is apparently what she sent out to her tri team (Ignite Endurance) in DC:

"Hawaii 70.3 - 1st AG, 24th F OA in 5:15. Appreciate this win. At the same time, this was the hardest race I've ever done. Felt strong and relaxed until, I think it was that hot Hawaii sun, I went into total shutdown at mile 5 or 6 of the run. I was walking--walking!--across the golf course until a woman passed me and said, Hang in there, I know how you feel. I asked if she would let pace next to her. This 40 year old mom from Honolulu, Michelle Simmons, talked me up every hill, told me when to walk and when to start running again. I am so grateful to have been able to share this week in Hawaii with my dad. When I said to him, I've never wanted to quit something so bad as I did on that run and Michelle gave me my race--he simply said, But you didn't quit. I keep picking up my 1st place bowl, and just marveling that I did that.

So ya, you can imagine I was pretty much all tearing up after reading that... But that kind of summarizes this whole weekend for me. In the end, I feel like I got the most out of the fitness I had going into that race. I worked as hard as I could have, I kept a positive mind-set, and I showed heart and courage. :) Kebby over at Coeur Sports has been saying all year that her goal is to encourage women in sport and somehow wearing my Coeur kit at that race I felt very strongly that I wanted to represent her mission. 

Coeur is French for heart and the root of the word courage. And that’s what we put into our women's endurance apparel and our sport. As an athlete, you know that athletic performance is about so much more than genetic talent. Its also about heart. Heart is about digging deep and being mentally tough. Heart is what gets you to the finish line when all the body wants to do is lay down.  Heart is at the center of the community and the friendships you find in endurance sports. Heart is what makes you give back to the community that has given you so much. the  Everything we do at Coeur - from our designs to how we play a role in our community - should reflect our values and how we aim to conduct ourselves.

The only thing that  could have made this weekend better would have been if I would have been able to hang onto my third place... Kona rolled to 3rd in my age group this year, so I missed it by 45" and of course that stung. But I have to look back and say that I can't really say here's where I could have found 45"... no excuses here I just didn't have the run fitness I needed to achieve that goal on Saturday. In the end though, I feel really proud of just about every part of this past weekend. I came home with my 4th bowl in as many years and now I'll keep trying to learn how to run. :) Major congrats to my long time friend, Robin, who put together an amazing day taking home the WIN in our age group. I wish it could have been me but if it wasn't me, I'm glad it was her. Also a little shout-out to my friend and training partner, Lectie, who won the OA amateur race. Stoked to see her work pay off like that with such a big win!

So I find myself sitting here on Monday morning, happy and motivated, and feeling like I'm in a good place. I look forward to continuing to work with Marilyn because I know she's got my back and at some point, I'm going to learn how to run! In the meantime, this picture pretty much summarizes the whole weekend.

Success At Ironman- A Case Study

Ironman is such an interesting animal... I have a ton of thoughts about every aspect of it and have been composing this post in my head for like a week and just now attempting to get it written out... Bear with me hopefully I'll be able to coherently share my thoughts!

I 'watch' a lot of posts on social media about how athletes view ironman training and I find this very interesting... For some the volume and frequency of Ironman training sounds doable at first but then they get into it and it's completely overwhelming and they start to crack. Some want to believe that you can race a good ironman on minimal training... I am not a member of that club. While I do believe that some athletes can pull off a decent race on minimal training, those are usually athletes who are genetic freaks or have an extensive background where at some point in their lives they were putting in big volume and they still have that base fitness available.

Ironman is an all day endurance event, and to do one well, you need endurance and strength that is going to last you all day. Rocket science, right?!? ;) That doesn't mean though that you have to spend all day every day for 6 months training... Can set up a decent schedule that works around normal work hours and 16-20 hours/week can get you to your best day.

I have a success story to share and thought some might be interested in the nuts and bolts of what it takes for a 'normal' athlete to end up with a stellar Ironman race. I'll write this from my perspective as coach...

Casey called me last fall after Ironman Wisconsin. It had been his fourth Ironman (10:36) and while he had a decent run there (3:26), he had to bike well below his ability (5:45) to get himself to T2 with enough energy to pull that off. (Previously he'd biked too hard and then paid the price on the marathon...) His swim was standard for many triathletes right in the 1:15 range. He felt like there was a lot more in him but he just hadn't figured out how to put it all together and have a strong day across the board. He expressed a desire to take a shot at Kona. Of course this goal is shared by many and my first thought is always just Ok we'll see... Because those athletes who are qualifying for Kona have a couple things in common- their work ethic, the way their lives are set up, the way they prioritize training and recovery... It's easy to say you've got your life set up to help you accomplish these things but when it comes down to it, few athletes actually do. So no guarantees from me on that but I had in the back of my mind an idea of how things were going to need to go for Casey in the next 6 months if Kona was even going to be a remote possibility...  I explained a bit about my training philosophy and he thought it sounded good so we agreed to start working together in November prepping him for Ironman Texas, then Wisconsin again later in the year.

So what I want to share with you isn't really all the ins and outs of Casey's training (though I'm happy to share some of that!), but more the other things that he did right that made our partnership exceptionally effective.

~Casey's life was set up in such a way so he had ample time to train. He does have a wife and a real job that takes normal 8-5 type hours, but his wife was fully supportive of his goals/training, he didn't have a ton of travel (ok no travel to speak of at all). Casey understood how to set an alarm and get up when it rang, and he rarely missed a morning training session. Many days he also had another session in the evening and often that involved his bike trainer. Because he lives in Kansas, he spent a LOT of time on that bike trainer- rarely having the opportunity to regularly ride outdoors until late spring.

~Casey's motivation level was very high. From my perspective, this comes from an athlete who believes in his ability to achieve his goals. Maybe his wife heard some bitching or moaning from him, but I sure never did. Even when he was spending like 4 hours in a row on his trainer- no complaint. Now to be fair, if an athlete really does hate the training then I think his/her coach needs to know that, but at the same time, if an athlete really does hate the training, he/she probably would be better off choosing a goal other than Ironman. Ironman requires long training days and sometimes those can be quite boring. But get over it! "Wax on" as another one of my athletes would say. Yes! Most successful Ironman athletes embrace the process of 'wax on'.

~Casey's ability to communicate was very good. He logged into Training Peaks every.single.day. Yep. Every day. He uploaded his garmin files for every single session. Yep. Every one. On the day he did the session! And he wrote very detailed notes about how he was feeing including very important info like whether or not the goals of the session felt challenging or not to meet. He listed out the splits he swam in the pool, the power for each lap of key bike sessions (yes not only did he know how to set his alarm clock, he also knew how to hit 'lap' on his garmin! Want to be a coach's pet? Learn where this button is!), and his pace vs HR on his runs. This showed me a couple things: Training was very high on his priority list. He paid attention to himself while he was training. He understood that for me to be most effective with him, I needed all this info. And it worked! Casey is one of the 'easiest' athletes I work with mostly because I never have to guess at how to progress him from week to week. I always knew exactly how he was feeling, what wattage he could sustain vs what wattage caused him to fall off a cliff, what goal pace was for different run sessions... It was obvious when he needed rest vs when we could keep rolling with the bigger training... All this should be STANDARD info every coach should have on every athlete but you'd be surprised how many athletes don't upload files, or upload their garmin with no notes, or worse yet, just type "done". Uh, thanks. How'd it feel??

~As far as the training went, we just built him up week to week... starting with lots of aerobic training on the bike/run. Once I was satisfied that his aerobic efficiency was good (HR shows very little drift across a longer session) then we moved onto stronger/harder interval type sessions... then as race day got closer we started dialing in race effort watts on the bike (long sessions repeating those watts) and running off the bike at IM goal pace... I could see his HR at that pace was very much within his aerobic range which gave me confidence that his goals were realistic. I bumped up his swim volume quite a bit (if you know me this is no surprise!) and gave him some long targeted sets of repeat 100's all the way up to repeat 1000's, all of which he nailed. He also did a weekly strength session which was at first a pretty hard weight lifting type session then we moved on to a more standard functional strength type session instead. He was very diligent about those FST sessions and I think that went a long way toward keeping him injury free and on the road. When it came to taper time we backed him off some but not all the way... I think too much backing off and you end up flat on race day so he didn't completely shut himself down until just a few days prior to the race.

~Casey understands how to fuel himself effectively. He experimented a bit with different products or whatever through the training cycle to see what he liked best, but it never happened that he had a major BONK or that he skipped recovery fuel which caused him to feel like ass the next day. I helped him outline how much fuel he might want to take in during each long/key session but I didn't have to harp on this with him like I do some of my female athletes who think maybe it's ok to bonk and sacrifice 2 days of quality training as long as they lose that last pound.

~Casey is very even-keeled and managed to keep his head on straight through the taper, travel, and race process. He didn't allow himself to get riled up or pissed about anything. It's wetsuit legal? We didn't expect that!?! But ok, go practice in the wetsuit then. (See how easy that can be?) At least from afar, there were no big CRISIS situations that caused him to mentally or emotionally spin out of control... He carried an air of confidence with him right to the start line. He had written out a very detailed plan for his day and when his alarm went off that morning, he just went about following it.

Anyway, given that everything in the 6 months leading up to the race went (nearly) perfectly, I was exceptionally excited and of course a bit anxious for him. I expected that he was going to do great but you know anything can happen in an Ironman. I woke up at 4AM to check his swim split (1:04 flat nice PR there great start to the day!) then sort of managed to go back to sleep... Kept checking in on him throughout the day and every time the news was good... He was nailing it! Of course it got hard toward the end (it always does!) but he kept himself together since he was on his way to such a big fat PR (9:48!).

9:48 is an Ironman time that would often be enough to get an athlete to Kona... but at TX in the 35-39 age group this year, it was not enough. He's on the bubble though now and can smell it so after he gets fully recovered, he'll be back on his bike with a new plan to keep moving forward aiming at Wisconsin. Stay tuned for more success from this guy!

I should note- Casey is by no means the only athlete I coach who operates this way... I have others who communicate just as well and operate similarly! :) I just thought that highlighting one success story like this might give some athletes some insight into what it takes to compete at this level. Casey is just one stellar example of what is required...

This And That

I've had a few friends mention to me that I've been 'quiet' lately... I guess so... but not really on purpose or anything. Anyway, here's a quick update, in case you're interested. :)

~Training is coming along. I guess I'd say it's going well. Overall I'm doing substantially less training than I've done in the last 3-4 years. I struggle sometimes with the belief that I should be doing MORE, but at the same time, I'm nailing all my key swim and bike sessions so it's tough to complain about that. I'm reserving judgement on this less is more approach to the year until after I've given it more time and some more racing opportunities... I like to train a lot more than I have been training recently BUT I would also like to race well and I'm sure there's a balance in there somewhere that I did not get right last year... so I am open to trying something new!

~I haven't had any super hard or long runs or anything as I'm still building back from this calf/ankle thing. It's unfortunate, but I'm running out of time before Honu. I was certainly inspired by Jesse Thomas's performance at Wildflower last weekend (I'm a crazyassfan)- given that he didn't work up to running very long prior to his race- but managed to rip something out of himself anyway. Granted, I am not Jesse Thomas but nonetheless I'm grasping onto that performance to help myself believe I can do something similar (though at my own level) even though my long run going into Honu will be quite a bit shorter than I'd prefer. I'm hoping this will be a scenario where my 20 years of endurance training will be something I can tap into!

~Speaking of racing more, I'm seeing a bunch of new local races popping up this year and it is very exciting because a few of them look really cool and fun. I looked at my Training Peaks calendar for the summer after I got done inputting them all and was like WOW, that's a lot of little yellow boxes. Granted, most of them are just shorter ocean swim races or whatever, but still. Lot's of yellow in there! None of those look/feel stressful to me... just fun local racing with friends... and that pulls at me in a very appealing way right now.

~A good thing about training less is that it gives me more time to coach! Somehow I've ended up with more athletes than ever right now... Mostly I guess b/c I have a hard time saying no to athletes who I've worked with in the past who want to come back... and then there's the local ones who contact me and want help with swimming or whatever... I find myself genuinely wanting to help- and I have confidence that I can- so I say YES LET'S DO IT. And then every once in a while I think to myself shit can I really do it?? But so far the answer has been yes- overall I'd say the team is doing awesome right now and I'm not feeling like I need to rip my hair out keeping up with it all. There are a few races coming up in the coming weeks that I am very excited about watching (online, unfortunately)... When athletes work really hard and do everything I ask of them- and they're nailing everything- I feel this giant sense of responsibility for their performance... Maybe more so than is reasonable but that's part of our success I think. I believe a big reason that my athletes do so well is that they know I am watching all the time and that I genuinely do care, so there's a shared sense of responsibility to it all.

~On the home front, things are humming along as well. Moana lost her first tooth! The Toothfairy left a dollar under her pillow and she was thrilled. Next tooth is loose now so we are on our way down that road- she is growing up! Funny story I posted a bit about on Facebook the other day... she challenged Scott to stop drinking beer because it is not good for him. In his defense, he drinks usually one beer each night so his habit is not truly unhealthy, but she made a good point. He countered and said he would give up beer if she gave up candy. If you have a kid maybe you understand what a giant sacrifice that would be, but she agreed! They had each already had their beer/candy that night so the challenge was to begin the following day. I seriously wondered who would crack first and honestly didn't know, but turns out our little 5yo has resolution of steel, while my husband has habits that are harder to break. So that challenge was over after ~24 hours. Moana, to her credit, said that even though daddy gave up, she is going to go three full days without candy. I think she'll do it too!

~The chickens are growing up too. Ellie has firmly established herself at the head of the pecking order. I think Big Red is next and Snow is last (of the 3), though Snow is not content with her positioning. It's interesting for me to watch and Snow 'challenges' the other two quite often mostly via jumping at them and 'chest bumping' when they are out and about in the yard. The red chickens pretty much just ignore her but she does not give up. It's pretty cute, I think. Peepers is still too young to run around freely without me being back there, mostly because she is small enough to still bring out a primal look in Ozzie's eyes when he sees her. The bigger chickens chase the cats right out of the yard these days, but it's going to be a few more weeks before Peepers has that ability. I've learned a lot about how chickens function socially and they are not just going to accept Peepers into their peer group... I think she is going to have to earn her way in once she's bigger. I tried putting her in their coop one evening and she was scared to death- rightfully so. The other 3 cornered her and started pecking (bullies!!) so I opened the coop door and Peepers flew right up onto my shoulder like Save me mom!! So she's got her own separate penned in sleeping quarters outside for now.

~Lastly, a couple fun songs I found recently that have been added to my ipod playlist... Maybe you'll like them too?
On Top of the World- Imagine Dragons
Best Day of My Life- American Authors
Come With Me Now- Kongos
Girls Chase Boys- Ingrid Michaelson
Raging Fire- Phillip Phillips
Pompeii- Bastille

Swimming: Reducing Drag and Increasing Power

Seems like another post on swimming has been brewing in my head recently so I'll take a stab at it and we'll see how this goes!

I think I mentioned in a recent post that my swim sessions have been taken to the next level recently. Not surprised given that Marilyn is an Endurance Corner coach and the swim sessions that come from their website (when they post them) are always some of the most awesome sessions I see posted anywhere... I'm in love with the sets that Gordo's wife "Monsey" comes up with. Every time I see a session written by her I think NICE that's awesome. Awesome in a hard way of course, but awesome nonetheless.

Most of those sets require athletes to think and do math while swimming. I love this. Send-offs that vary so you have to swim faster to make them or can swim easier to recover before having to go faster again... This morning we did a set of 30x100's that were descend 1-5 (x6) and the send-off got 5" shorter through each rounds of 5. So we'd start at 1:50, then 1:45, 1:40, 1:35, 1:30... then straight back into 1:50, which was our recovery since the 1:30's don't allow much rest. Trying to do the math to figure out the send-off for each one was a challenge for sure but I love doing math while I'm swimming so this was no problem. And it makes the set fly by so fast because you're forced to think the whole time. I *much* prefer this type of set over 30x100's @1:40. Or worse, 60x50's @:50. Blah. Ok so I will admit that 60x50's @:50 has it's place and can be a valuable session but it still makes me want to scratch my eyes out when I see it on my schedule.

Anyway, it's been interesting to watch one of my newer local athletes, Sergio, develop as a swimmer. He was a decent swimmer to start with... as far as technique goes, his was good enough to get him across the longcourse pool in <45". So of course there are a few little things about his stroke that we can tweak but fact is, if you're capable of swimming a 50 in 40"(yards) or 45"(meters) then your stroke is going to be decent enough that technique is probably not your biggest limiting factor. If you can't repeat that pace for more than a few 50's then endurance is your issue and this is what I see very commonly! In Sergio's case, this is what we saw. He could swim a very fast 50! But that left him very winded and he couldn't repeat it without a ton of rest. So what we look to develop there is a better sense of pace (ie what is a sustainable effort?) and much deeper endurance. Essentially, he's been joining us for morning swims ~3x/week for the last few months and in the beginning we modified most sets so he could do part of it then get some rest then do more then get some rest, etc. He kept coming back consistently though and this morning I was so impressed- he knocked out ~4K swimming solidly the whole time and had this big AH-HA moment where he said The key is to take the easy ones super easy and save energy for the fast ones. YES. I love it that he got that this morning! Some athletes swim for YEARS and don't ever truly get that concept. Anyway, it's been really fun for me to watch Sergio's improvement these last few months. And it reinforces a lot for me too as far as how we go about improving one's swim. (I.e. suck it up and work your ass off consistently for several months. Or years. In most cases, years.)

I'm also back to teaching 1:1 swim sessions a couple times/week with some other local athletes. I'll tell you here a bit about what I commonly teach during those: Right off the bat, understand that swimming faster is either about 1) Reducing drag or 2) Increasing power.

~Reduce drag by: keeping head neutral; being more streamline off the wall; reduce excess body movement/fishtailing; avoid sinking legs by keeping head neutral and chest down; avoid crossing over with your hands upon entry; avoid a wide scissor kick, etc. Several of these issues (fishtailing through the water, scissor kick) are really a secondary compensation/result based on improper head position or crossing over with arms upon entry. So fix the root of the problem (head position, entry position) and that wide scissor kick that you're using for balance may just fix itself.

~Create more power by positioning your arms/hands upon entry in a way that will allow your lats to get involved and do the work. This one can be a bit more complicated for some but essentially this means pressing the water down and back with strong wrists while keeping an 'open armpit'. I find the open armpit analogy works better for many than 'high elbow' cue b/c you can keep a high elbow while simultaneously shutting off your lat if you're leading your pull with that elbow first. This is probably the most common thing I see when working with a new athlete. Very few swimmers generate the power they could because they are missing opportunity to create power/propulsion because the elbow leads the pull. Instead, focus power through the wrist and you'll find that's how you can get your lats engaged. One last tip I give all the time: the water should feel heavy because you're pulling so much of it. If it feels easy, like your arms are just slipping through the water, it's because your arms are just slipping through the water! Don't do that! PULL the water, every stroke, feeling tension and resistance from your wrist up your forearm and into your armpit. This will probably make you more tired at first, but that's the feeling you want.

Anyway, so there you go. Focus on form for sure, especially if it takes you >2' to swim 100M. But once you're down in the 1:30/100 range, then you're going to get a lot more gain from doing real sets off real send-offs. Sometimes those send-offs should be roomy and allow plenty of rest so you can practice going FAST. Other times those send-offs should be tight so you can practice repeating efforts on very little rest and just holding pace. And finally, KNOW your pace in the pool. I'm constantly astounded by how many swimmers don't pay attention to their pace in the pool.

OK that wasn't really my final point... I still have more to say, and I'm BatShit Serious! Learn to flip turn! And swim more than 2000 at a time! And get in the water at least 3x/week! There. I said it. Now I'm done. :)

Lanikai Triathlon

About a week ago I jogged ~20' super easy and since my calf didn't hurt I sent an email to Marilyn telling her that I thought I could likely get through Lanikai Triathlon without injuring myself... until then it was very much up in the air about whether or not I'd even attempt to start. So even though I had no options at this race but to simply jog the run course, I'm REALLY glad I was able to do it!

Lanikai is just a fun little local sprint race but it's done in the town next to mine and the course is good and many of our friends show up and it just feels like the kind of event I want to support going into my Golden Years of triathlon. (Ahem, my first race officially as a MASTER now that I am 40!!)

I haven't yet seen many pics of the swim show up on FB so I found this one from 2011. Fwiw, this is not at all what the water looked like for us this year! It was drizzling rain at the start and there was a high wind advisory so we had some legit chop and water that was moving to play in. Honestly, those were my preferred conditions and I was happy! The swim was fun. Short, but fun!

Anyway, I don't have a ton to say about this race other than I'm just really glad I got to do it! I swam, I biked, I jogged, and I enjoyed it. And I came out of it without hurting myself- that's the biggest reason for my giant smile at the finish line. :)

The bigger story is about my new little flock of local BSC athletes... all 3 racing on Sunday are new to me this year and across the board had great success! Sergio won the whole race OA(!!!), Kelly won her age group and Heidi finished right behind me in ours (We went 1-2!). I left there feeling super proud but also quite confident that we are once again on the right track for success this year. It's funny sometimes when I start with new athletes and they think maybe they know what to expect from me as their coach... But it's not always the same protocol, you know? Some athletes need to be pushed for sure... so I push them well outside of their comfort zone and teach them that they are stronger than they thought. With others, right away I see it's better to strap that HR monitor on and use it as a leash and their calendar is filled with words that I feel I need to scream like EASY, RELAXED, HR CAP, etc. Kelly has been one such athlete and I think she shocked the hell out of herself in actually still being able to race strong/fast yesterday even though a big majority of her training has been, in her view, uncomfortably slow. It's good though as time goes on and athletes see for themselves that the program is working for them then they resist less and that makes my life/job a ton easier. :)

After the race a group of us ignored the small craft advisory conditions and went out for a swim to the Mokes. We may or may not have brought along a cooler with some adult refreshments and hung out at the little island a mile off shore happily celebrating Sergio's win... The ocean was indeed as crazy as ever out there with bigger than normal waves crashing everywhere but for experienced ocean people it was absolutely awesome and really fun. I think the key there though is experienced ocean people. Unfortunately not everyone has the experience to be out there on days like that and Sergio and Vicky ended up spending an hour or so sidestroking some stranded kayakers/kids back to shore. I won't go into the whole story here, but suffice to say they saved the lives of 4 family members before the fire department was able to arrive and I am super happy to call them both friends. They are heroes.

Raising A Wild One

Ok this post is really only for those of you following the chicken stories. If you're here for training/racing stuff, come back in a few days I'll have a story for you about my first sprint 'race' of the year. But for today, we're talking chickens!

Yesterday morning I went out back and opened the coop door for my three girls. They flew out immediately. It's a rare treat to come out in the morning- usually it's late afternoon when they get out. But what the heck, it was Aloha Friday and all! Ozzie was actually out in the yard when they flew out and I sort of wanted to watch what he would do. It was sort of funny when they flew across the yard he  ducked down like he was afraid! Eventually he came out from hiding under a chair and just watched them intently from afar. He might have been slightly conflicted because I would scold him if he started looking too much like a pounce attack was pending... it seemed clear he knew that I was not going to let him get those birds but all of his evolutionary tendencies were saying get those birds... After a few minutes I gathered him up and brought him inside, leaving the chickens to their peaceful search for worms and bugs.

I spent the morning mostly inside finishing up work and doing a bit of cleaning (in this house seriously though WHY bother cleaning on a Friday?? It's all for naught come Saturday at noon when the house is full of neighborhood kids destroying the place.) Every once in a while I would peer over the edge of the lanai to see how the girls were doing and all seemed fine... until it wasn't.

At one point late morning I went to check on the chickens but did not see them. Hmmm. So I went down to the backyard and indeed, no sign of any of them. Oh no! Where did they go? I looked over into the neighbor's yards... nothing. They weren't even peeping?? I got a little more frantic. Eventually I heard some scuffling in the coop and interestingly, Big Red and Ellie were roosting up high in their coop. They had put themselves away all on their own, but Snow, who does not go into the coop on her own, was gone.

I'll save you the drama of the rest of the morning, which I spent wandering around our yard and the neighbor's yards, peeping like a psychiatric ward patient.

Then I sent a sad text to Scott.

I went out several more times over the course of the day but no sign of Snow. I thought maybe it was a good sign that I didn't see a pile of her feathers somewhere though... Was thinking that if a neighborhood cat came by and got her that there would be some evidence of a struggle in the form of white feathers somewhere?

Anyway, later when I was bringing Moana home I told her that Snow went missing. :( She was as sad as I was about that and just as we were lamenting the situation I happened to drive by a mama hen who had like 8 new little chicks on the side of the road. Ah ha! Problem solved. Moana and I drove home, grabbed a net and a shoe box and set off on a mission.

It took me like 10 seconds to catch Choco 2.0. These chicks were all really little and when a mama hen has so many it's not hard to catch the one who gets distracted and doesn't follow the flock into the safety of the woods.

Moana was stoked of course and we came home and eagerly took our shoebox into the backyard to introduce our new little pet to her new home and her new big sisters! Oh happy day! So I put the box down in the grass, opened up the top and BOOM! Little Choco flew right out and darted off into the bushes! GAH!

Once again I found myself on a chicken hunt... Choco 2.0 can peep as loud as any, but she's also smart enough to go radio silent when she is being hunted. She went deep into some thick brush in our side yard (note to husband- we you should clear that out!) and I couldn't see her or hear her but I knew she was there and had no real escape route. Eventually I was smart enough to play her game... I also went silent and just waited patiently... eventually I heard some peeping, then some rustling, and then I saw her making her way out of the brush. Long story short, I caught her again and released her into the safety of the coop.

I was super excited to watch Big Red and Ellie act like protective big sisters or something... I figured maybe they'd sit on her to keep her warm... or something like that. Instead, they got tall, fluffed their feathers and silently stared at her. When they finally went near I figured maybe they were interested in getting to know her a bit but instead they pecked her! Choco 2.0 crouched in the corner of the coop and started shaking. Oh no! Moana was super sad watching this unfold and I was thinking I'd possibly made a big mistake in bringing this itty bitty wild thing home. :(

So then Scott came home and saw our new chick, which he thought was fine... I let Ozzie and Tom out of the house (they'd been locked in all day!). Scott then went on his own search for Snow. Turns out, if there's a chicken on the loose, best thing to do is let the cats out and then follow them. Ozzie and Tom are better hunters than I am... they found Snow in the neighbor's yard pretty much immediately. I was cooking dinner and heard Scott yelling to me outside I FOUND SNOW COME HELP! Of course I was stoked so I went running outside and sure enough we had to swat the cats away as they were both cornering her. She came to us eagerly and I held her close feeling her little heart beating 100mph. PHEW! I put Snow in the coop but thought we needed to move Choco out because while that's a good home for the bigger chickens, I wasn't sure it was the best place for a little one?!

Scott set up the brooder in the garage again and we got Choco settled in there on her own. I did some reading then about introducing a new chick to an established flock (maybe I should have done that before going out and catching the wild one?? I can be impulsive, I admit.) Turns out we are going to need to let her get a little bigger then maybe put her in there at night when the chickens are sleeping and have them all wake up together... then just sort of let the pecking happen because it turns out, The Pecking Order is not just a hypothetical phrase of speech but a real thing that chickens must establish on their own... Did you know the chicken who is highest on the pecking order roosts in the highest spot in the coop? I did not know that either. #FactOfTheDay

Anyway, through my recent reading I've also learned that chicks really don't like to be alone, and that if they don't have any other chicks to bond with, they may bond most with humans... Sure enough, Moana and I went into the garage to play with Choco this morning and she didn't attempt to run away at all! In fact, she just wanted to cuddle up close to us. It was super cute! Moana gave up one of her little stuffed animals to put in Choco's brooder so she has something to cuddle up with when she wants to sleep. It's a little polar bear, which should serve to further confuse Choco as to her identity as a chicken.

So for now, Moana is pretty stoked at having a new little playmate in the garage. I'm hoping Choco lives. I think if we make it through the first week we should be good, and then hopefully I can get her integrated into the coop with the others as soon as possible so she develops some social skillz as an actual chicken.

Breaking Through

Whole bunch of stuff to write about today!

Let's start with a training update... I'd say the biggest take-away I'm getting from my current training plan is the polarization of EASY vs HARD. I think last year a ton of my training fell into the mod/hard category... I went without data a lot and most days just pretty much gave it what I had that day then backed it up again the following day again giving it what I had and then the next day giving it whatever was left. And after ~a year of that you know what was left for race day? Nothing.

Interesting with my training plan now I get power caps for my long/easy rides. I will be honest- at first I resisted this wondering if there was really any benefit to going that easy?? I mean, you know I am a HUGE fan of aerobic training and all but when I cap my power like that, HR is even like 10 beats below what I would consider MAF aerobic. I'm sort of used to it at this point though and will admit there's a sense of relaxed relief when I see long/easy ride on my schedule b/c I know that even if I'm out there all day it will really take nothing out of me... and I don't really have to think at all throughout the ride just cruise easy and look at the ocean. Then the next day inevitably I get to do something quite a bit harder and you know how much energy I have left for that? All of it! It's pretty cool to experience this polarized type of training and I can absolutely see how this would/could/should result in faster racing. I can see it in training already (at least on swim and bike) that when my easy days are not just easy but ridiculously easy, my hard days end up with a bit of a breakthrough in power/speed which is super motivating! Seeing those kinds of breakthroughs gives me confidence to continue to keep my easy days EASY.

Swimming has been LEGIT lately too. Yikes. It's good of course and I really like the sessions I'm getting but there is definitely more suffering involved in the pool than I'm used to (and I'm used to suffering in the pool!) Monday the main set was 8x250's as first 50 fly straight into 200 steady swim... It's been like 20 years since I've really trained much fly so 400M of it was kind of a lot... and when you're swimming fly longcourse you really miss the wall/turn at the 25! That first 50 swim after the 50 fly was nothing short of hypoxic hell every time but was pretty proud of myself for even making that one without giving up and breaking into 1-arm fly... I was thinking I never would have made myself do that set but since Marilyn wrote it there was no backing out! It was definitely some good practice too in swimming strong even when feeling severely uncomfortable. Swimming butterfly brings out a level of discomfort that goes well beyond what I can do to myself with freestyle.

I think my swimming has been big recently as a sort of replacement for my running not being big... BUT, I've finally had a bit of a breakthrough with this lower leg injury thing. In good news I found a local chiropractor who is also a triathlete so he understands what we're doing to ourselves on a daily basis... If you're local here and need some help with whatever ails you, check out Dr Zen at The Zen Center. I was super impressed with how thorough he was in examining my lower legs and the treatment/adjustment he did was excellent. I could tell he was going out of his way to really help me. I walked out of there feeling better than I had in a long time and have been jogging pain free ever since! Marilyn is super conservative when it comes to building back from injury so my run instructions often include the words WALK and SHUFFLE like a little old lady, etc... But whatever I'm happy to go easy for now and build back the smart way which hopefully will keep me on the roads consistently going forward for the rest of the year. 6 weeks of ZERO running was so shitty I do not want to have to endure that again so if that means starting back with just 20' easy walk/jogging, whatever. I'm game!

In other exciting news, TeamBSC is offering up a pretty cool opportunity right now... If you're an athlete who has been considering hiring a coach but just haven't yet made the leap for whatever reason, check out Krista's latest blog. As she is building her coaching group right now she has offered up FREE coaching to one lucky athlete. I've had the opportunity to watch/help Krista get started with her coaching and can tell you that she is totally 'on it' with her athletes. She pays attention, she communicates well, and she has the knowledge/passion to help her athletes reach their triathlon goals. This is really a great chance for someone to see how much having a great coach can benefit your season. Hiring a coach is not magic, of course- YOU still have to do the work as directed... and you have to communicate feedback after you do your sessions... but taking the thinking/guessing out of it is wonderful and quite energy saving. So stop procrastinating and send Krista your story. Maybe you'll be the lucky one she picks?!? Then you too could be a TeamBSC athlete. :)

Finally, I'll leave you with a little story about our backyard chickens...

Every afternoon I gather up the cats and lock them inside then go open up the door to the coop and the chickens all happy fly right out. They get at least an hour to run around the yard, sometimes more. Did you know chickens eat lizards? Truth. I've seen it. Anyway, at some point before dusk I go back outside to help them back into the safety of their coop. It's easy with the two red ones- I just show them the food and they walk right up the ramp no problem. With Snow though we've had some challenges... She has not yet conquered the ramp (won't even go near it!?!) and consequently I've unsuccessfully chased her around the yard for quite some time (looking like a total moron I'm sure!)... We finally resorted to going with a two person attack where we would corner her and then quickly leap to catch her... Recently though she has made it a bit easier. I think she finally understands that I'm trying to help her not hurt her. The last few evenings I've gone out and just sort of squatted down with my hands out and we have this little stare down contest. Two nights ago she begrudgingly hopped into my hand and then squawked bloody murder while I carefully carried her to the coop... Last night though it took her less time... I held out my hand and she jumped right into it like she completely understood the drill. And she didn't squawk as if she was super scared. I know it sounds crazy to be so proud of a little breakthrough like that with a chicken, but I'm pretty proud of that little breakthrough I had with my chicken. :)