Ramping Up Training

The clocks have been changed and you know what that means? Everyone is going to be training more often. I always get a little annoyed around this time of year. I get used to having the sidewalks and trails virtually to myself over the winter, since 90 percent of the Midwest has been in hibernation. Hell, most days I didn't see anyone outside when I was walking my dog. I guess I'll have to get used to sharing all over again this year. I can't be the only person who feels this way, can I?

Last year around this time I noticed a lot of the bloggers I read were injured. This seems to be a common theme every year. People don't train much during the winter and then jump right into high mileage training as soon as it's warm out again. It'll be interesting to see if this happens again. Hopefully it doesn't because being injured sucks.

First Tri Club Meeting and Injuries

You know how people say, "I never win anything!" :-(

As of last Wednesday I can't really say that as much, unless it pertains to my age group in an outdoor tri. I went to my first meeting for the St. Louis Tri Club. They're a pretty cool bunch and much smaller than the DC Tri club. Although which club isn't? The first order of business was having all the new members introduce themselves and having a t-shirt thrown at them. Then the VP said it's getting to be warm and sunny out and I have tan lines. She proceeded to pull out a bottle of suntan lotion and whoever has the best tan lines wins the bottle of suntan lotion...

Remember this?

FROM LAST MAY! It's still mostly visible (not really in the mood to take a picture) 10 months later. A whole summer of tanning couldn't cover it up for some strange reason.

I walked up to compare with the two other measly farmers tans and it was unanimous...I WON! I explained how I left my Tri Tats on too long at a race at the beach, everyone laughed and I made a wonderful first impression...Maybe I'll be known as the race number tan guy...better than Fruit Loops like Howard on the Big Bang Theory.

I'll be nice and skin cancer free for at least 2 weeks depending on how long this thing lasts. Who would have thought my stupidity would pay off...even if it's only $7 Cherish the little things.

I've also noticed that almost every blogger I read seems to be injured right now...and training through it...what a surprise. Did you also notice that I like to use ellipses? I guess it's that time of year when training ramps up but not everyone trained enough over the winter to be ready for it. Luckily my 55 mile ride went well this weekend...almost 20 mph average.

Here's to a speedy recovery for everyone:

Oops, wrong type of toast...

Kanpai!

Taper Anxiety

It's less than a week before the Marine Corps Marathon and I can't wait! However, tapering sucks and it sucks even more when you're slightly injured. Marathon wisdom tells us that during one's taper period, nothing one does will make one perform better during the marathon. But, 3 weeks or so is plenty of time to screw things up.

Basically, I'm in the same situation as I was last year. I injured myself on the same weekend on the same trail, go figure. Same situation, different part of the body. Last year I managed to run a half marathon as a "warm-up" and still managed a second 20 mile run. However this year, I didn't feel comfortable running a half marathon and only managed an 18 miler after the injury.

I'm sure everyone goes through taper withdrawals, unless you're just doing a marathon to cross off a bucket list item then I'm sure you're happy to cut back on the running. You're not supposed to run as much but, you probably have to cut back on your food intake so you don't gain weight.

I've been trying to take it easy as I should be and it's killing me. I'm afraid to run more than a couple miles a few times a week aside from running 7 miles last Saturday and 8 miles yesterday. The long run yesterday was simply a test run to see how my knee held up. What's worse is, I haven't seen anyone about my knee and I don't feel comfortable riding my bike on the trainer out of fear of screwing things up. Also, I'm not in the mood to swim that often. I don't really care what my time for the marathon is, just that I finish. It would be extremely frustrating to put in 5 months of training and have a DNS or DNF even though I won't be the first or last person to do so. I have never had a DNS or DNF and would like to keep it that way. As stubborn as I am about racing my knee would probably have to give out before I stopped. Considering I have my sites set on bigger and better things (a half iron in May), in my opinion, I may reconsider my position on a DNF in the event it would screw up my plan for triathlons.

On Sunday I'll be trying out the Garmin GTU which is a tracking device. I'm going carry it with me during the marathon so the g/f can see where I am on her phone and pick a spot to watch me run by. There has been a lot on Garmin's blog lately about this device. How do you GTU?

There will probably be more to come about this device later.

On another note…Has anyone seen the Fisher Price commercial with the tough digital camera for kids? Does anyone else see the stereotypical humor with using an Asian family for a camera commercial?

Injury and IM World Championship

I haven't been writing that much for one reason, I'm slightly injured and frustrated. I took a two week "break" after my knee tightened up to the point I couldn't run during a 17 mile long run. Luckily, I made it 14 miles before this happen. There was no warning and within 5 strides my left knee went from feeling fine to wanting to give out. It felt fine as soon as I stopped but I walked the last 2 miles (I took a shortcut). I ran three short runs during my break and my knee felt fine afterwards. The only issue was that I felt a pinch right under my knee cap during a track workout. I stopped and figured I'd wait until the long run to decide what to do.  
On Saturday, after much debate, I set out for a 22 miler. I seriously doubted that I would make the entire distance and picked several bailout points along the trail which would only involve around a 30 minute walk to the metro. I had my cell phone in case it was real bad and I could call a cab or God forbid the WHHHHAAAA-mbulance. I started out about 40 minutes before my running group normally does, wondering how far I would make it.
1 mile, feeling great! 2 miles, feeling good but damn is it dark on this trail...I'll stop and wait for the sun or some other people to run by...two minutes later a large group comes flying down the trail, off I go. 5 miles, good, 8 miles (easiest bailout point), good. 11 miles at the turn around, feeling ok, 13 miles, hmmm...is this my legs just starting to get sore because of running or my knee? 14 miles, maybe I should stop just in case. Good thing I did since I walked about 3/4 of a mile to the metro and had to go down the broken escalator I could feel a pain right under my kneecap. It wasn't too bad but enough to have me worried. I iced and heated my knee when I got home and put KT Tape on it later in the day. We'll see what happens...
Anyway, if you have been paying attention to the triathlon world at all you would know that the Ironman World Championship took place in Kona this weekend. I managed to watch a good bit of it online and saw Craig Alexander win for the 3rd time and BREAK THE COURSE RECORD! Chrissie Wellington also made an amazing comeback to win for the 4th time.
There was also another major announcement by WTC, a new system for rewarding serious (and apparently loyal) triathletes but allowing people who have raced 12 full Ironman (the brand not the distance) enter a system to be guaranteed a spot in Kona. It sounds more like a waiting list but, it sounds like a Win for everyone.
“Starting in 2012 we’re making two pretty substantial changes to that [the lottery].  The first is that for athletes who have are serious triathletes who have done twelve or more full’s in their career and are still racing, we’re going to guarantee them a chance to race Kona.”
The first win being for triathletes and not having to enter a lottery system or traveling to places like China to try and win a slot. Granted you have to do 12 of them but, Kona is the Boston Marathon of triathlons. Not just anyone should be able to get a spot. Even if you do win the lottery system you still have to race an IM 140.6 before Kona...unless you're the third "biggest loser" and your name is Tara Costa...BS and great at the same time if you ask me but that's another story.
The second win is for WTC which will certainly make a lot more money with people trying to race 12 Ironmans for a shot. If that's even possible since the races generally sell out.
I'm also and avid Slowtwitch reader and the consensus is mixed. The only way this turns out to be a bad idea is if too many people are able to complete 12 Ironman branded 140.6 races. I'm not sure what the stats on the average number of Ironmans a triathlete has does are but, it would take some serious time, money, commitment and motivation to complete 12 of them. I seriously doubt the majority of average triathletes will complete 12 Ironmans in their lifetime.
Another point which was brought up was quantity over quality. I don't see how this changes. If you listen to the podcast you'll notice they're taking slots away from the lottery system for this purpose. With the lottery system you never know what type of triathlete you're going to get. Maybe all the lottery winners finished over 16 hours? You don't know. Second, how do you know people who have completed 12 Ironmans can afford to get to Kona? I realize the average income of Ironman competitors is something like $140K but, getting to Hawaii is a bit expensive and then you have to factor in the wife and kids or try to explain why they can't go with you. Either way, it's still the same number of slots as the lottery and with around 400 people finishing in 12 hours or more you're still likely to get the same overall quality of triathletes.
Furthermore, I'm sick of everyone bitching about slower people vs. real racers on Slowtwitch. Who cares? These people are out there trying just as hard as everyone else to finish, probably even harder since they're out there for longer. If you people are so fast, why don't you go pro? Oh right, you're too slow.