MightyMojoMentorGroup -- (Full House!) (Page 153)

CURT -

I'll try to squeeze one in here, although the computer has been stable for a few hours.  So....

It's Tremont in a couple of weeks, yes?  Looks like a nice little race, and if a race swim has to be in a pool, an outdoor one has to be better than indoors, right?  (In all my races, i have never down a pool swim.)

I can't remember where exactly i left things last week in the "red-lining" discussion, but in thinking about it over the past few days I think it is perfectly reasonable for you to push yourself as hard as you can, and for as long as you can, whenever you feel it is right.  and if you enter and exit the red zone a few times in this process, then that's just fine.  It'll give you an idea of what surfing that edge feels like.....and then you can move forward from there.  And it'll just be fun to have pushed some limits.  Wheeee!

What you said in your post is so true -- the weekend presented very different types of tough challenges for all four of those who raced.  I hadn't thought of it that way, and I really appreciate you pointing it out -- especially your comment of "....keep their head and work through them".  SO true!!

TRINA -

I read your comment about dairy and parmesan cheese, and I thought "That can't be a good source of calcium, compared to other cheeses."  WRONG!!  Of the cheeses, it is the best source of calcium, with 138%DV for a 100g serving.  Romano is next best, then mozarella.

I dislike cheese with a purple passion.....so writing about it to you shows how much I care!

FTR, my online sourse for the parmesan listed to ten best calcium sources, with some surprises:

1. dried herbs (savory, celery seed, thyme, dill were highest)

2. cheese (see above)

3. sesame seeds

4. tofu

5. almonds

6, flax

7. yogurt, milk, other dairy

8. green leafies -- turnip greens, mustard, dandelion greens, collard, kale

9. brazil nuts

10. herring

And now i can say it: GOTHUNDER!!!!!!!!!!

(Which translates to:  Boo-hoo Celtics)

To preserve marital harmony (and prevent it from becoming martial) I bolted from the Deep Creek tri camp a little early to get home for my wife's birthday. As a result I didn't attend the session where they conveyed the results of our run video analysis. I followed up with one of the coaches and received the following feedback:

"Definitely need to increase your cadence & work on getting your foot strike under your body. You were landing out in front on your heel pretty distinctly."

I have been working on cadence with my Garmin and foot pod. It's not natural for me yet; I have to focus on it, but I can sustain a 90 cadence.

I also suspected the heel strike, but have been less successful being able to correct that myself. Anyone have advice on how to encourage and maintain a midfoot strike? Running barefoot in the grass? Easing into minimalist shoes? Newton natural running clinic? Particular books or videos? Thanks

DAVE -

If you have a Newton clinic anywhere near you, do it!  There will be no obligation to being Newtons, although they should eb there for purchase if you were so inclined.  I love Newtons, have been in them since Nov '07....but they require adjusting to.  (Maybe you've seen my comments before here?  if not, ask and I will deliver!)

Chi running clinics would also work well, as would the book titled "Chi Running".  Danny Dreyer is the author, and also the Chi guru.

You got good feedback from them after-the-fact.  In fact, the whole camp seems highly professionally run.  i think you struck gold.

Keep working on getting off your heels, if it is comfortable to do so.  But do not try to reinvent the wheel in a day or week or even a month --- a la me in '07.  The key work in doing this is "transitioning", so keep it as a mantra and don't move forward too quickly as doing so might lead to more backwards than forwards.

Gonna post this now and will return shortly.

DAVE again -

Whew!  Thought that wouldn't "go" for a bit there due to ongoing disconnections.  Onwards?

As for cadence, you are probably where you want to be at 90.  Whippets and miniscule Kenyans can sustain higher than 90, but as with swimming and inreasing arm turnover --- too much results in sloppiness.  And somewhat unlike swimming, sloppy running can lead to injuries in a heartbeat, so it is best to aim at 90 and work at increasing your time spent there.

Going back to footstrike issues, don't think about forefoot at all, at least for now and into the foreseeable future.  Midfoot would be good enough, an dmuch current thought is that midfoot is good enough.  This is especialy true for people who come from heelstriking, where the knee and hip joints carry more than their share of the load.  This isn't at all ideal, of course, and that's where midfoot stiking helps.  HOWEVER, the further forward you land, the more the calves have to work.....and that has resulted in thousands (literally) of cases of PF and Achilles woes in people attempting this change. 

You may think your calves are in good shape, and they may indeed have fine muscle definition ---- but there's a big diff between that and getting them to work so hard for an extended period of time.

Nervous now, so.....

DAVE once more -

"Whew!" times two!

Look for videos online, either from Newton or Chi.  Some of the "drills" are incredibly simplistic, but they will help in getting the feel of leaning more forward, changing that all-important center-of-gravity.

Be patient......and consider this also:  that for many of us, we have run perfectly well for years using a particular stride, so there is something to be said for not messing with success.  (That was the case for me.....and for many months of struggling with PF.....I thought about scrapping forefoot running.....but I kept at it......dialed it back slightly more midfootish....and I think it has increased my running career.  It seemed a huge gamble for many months, though, wondering if i might never run well again.  Seriously.)

Also consider that amny runners do really well with their time-honored technique of heel-striker, and this includes amny elite marathoners.  Somehwre on line you should be able to find video of the elite marathoners at Boston, many of whom demonstrably heel-strike.

ALL this said, you hav enot been a lifetime runner, and you are not 100% satisfied with your running......so you stand to gain by improving (maybe that should be "changing") your form.  BUT TAKE YOUR TIME, AS IN MANY MONTHS OF INCREMENTAL GAINS!!!

JEFF -

Um.....what happened?  Was this the foot, and if so, did KS push it over the edge?  Hopefully, though, you're physically good to go, and it's just a matter of the streak being the streak....and it's time to move on.  Please let me know, okay?

Funny you should mention this, because during my own run last evening it dawned on me something you had posted about day 157 being the day before KS.  I wasn't sure you had written that, and I agitated over it throughout the run.....and then I forgot about it.

At the time, what agitated me was that if it was true, then you made it into that final week before KS -- heck, the DAY before KS! -- not giving yourself a full taper, or even, really, a partial taper.  Hmmmm.  So, along with never fully paying the debt for the swim and bike efforts on Sunday.......I have to believe that you also never fully paid the debt of 157 straight days of running -- and especially days 150 through 157.  (I think the numbers are wrong, but you get my drift.)

My experience with 15 or 16 HIM tells me that I could never had done them the justice they deserved had I run every day leading up to any of them.  I think I was pretty well primed by virtue of having taken the last week quite easy: moderate on the swim, low distance&intensity on the bike, soft and gentle on the run.  Numbers might be, for a Sunday HIM -- 3S, 2B, 2R, from the Sunday before.

Just my thoughts!

Anyhow, I hope the foot is okay; IS the foot okay??

Fatigue and logistics, I had planned on Mimi's help and company but she never made it. It was a bit overwhelming traveling, checking in, dealing with a third floor hotel and worrying about my ankle. Sunday after the race I drove to The Farm (Wichita) and Monday home, Monday morning I felt that lazy farm attitude settle in and forced myself to load up and drive home. I was just tired and skipped it. Today I did 3.1 without Ibuprofen and the pain/swelling returned. Pain meds seems to be what it takes to run on it for now.

I found this statement on the IM Kansas Thread:

"I think the swim was long, I noticed on Saturday when they were pulling the buoys out that they had them tied together to be exact distance but I don't think they took into account the offset from the first/last buoy to the dock. One of my athlete's Garmin 910 had the swim at 1.45 miles (~400m long). I had an (almost) personal worst at 41:xx"

Av8rTx - 2012-06-12 1:42 PM My running streak ended at 160 days

JEFF,

Truthfully, I am glad to hear it.   For your future running efforts.   Figured it was just fatigue as you mention, but I agree with STEVE and his comments regarding running every day for that long and also tapering.  

More is not better.    The body is amazing and it will do everything in its power to compensate when we abuse it through over training and/or lack of nourishment and depending on the person can do it for upwards of 15 years, and then the #&$&*#)@&$) hits the fan.    Worst case scenario is disease.   Most often just deterioration of the skeletal frame and constant soft tissue injuries.  

Sorry for getting carried away.   Just concerned for your health. 

JEFF -

Pain is one thing, swelling is another.  I have been there and done that.....and it almost always gets worse before it gets better.  (I'm working through my own foot issues nowadays, but for now I'll keep that on the backburner.)

Swelling is always bad, never bodes well, and can be counted on to deteriorate without rest and/or medical treatment.  Unless I miss my bet, it will become a "limiter" in your performances, gradually (or maybe not so gradually) knocking you down the distance ladder.  That is, today's 15-miler, or half-iron race, becomes by necessity next month's 8km run and oly race, which then becomes....

For me, it was an iron in each of '04 and '05.  Between '01 and '10 there were those 16 half-irons.  But now, I am sure that my iron days are behind me....and I wonder, but hope against, the same being the case with half-irons.  And, honest to god, since about '06 I have been very smart about my injuries, and I have always been a good boy about observing tapers.

But my body got worn down here and there over the years, and regardless of how I've been since maybe '06, the die was cast by more "reckless" training behaviors earlier on.  The odd thing, though, is that I have been able to ratchet my race performances up several notches since '06, and maybe that's because I've become more judicious in my training.  In honesty, though, the mileage I've done in recent years has been much reduced from back when, and my race distances have become clearly shorter, so that has helped me.  (Remember, too, that I'm 63, so declines in one form or another can be expected; my job is to reduce them as much as possible.)

But back to you, those logistics and the associated fatigue were situations practically begging for you to eliminate all training by, probably, Thursday at the latest.  (I would say that an easy swim at the race venue would be fine.)  Tackling 70.3 is never easy, and pre-race rest is paramount if one hopes to optimize their performance.  I find this relatively easy to do in the knowledge that anything that is done in the week leading up to a race (the longer the race, the more apllicable this is) will have no positive effect on race-day performance. 

The caveat there is that it might help someone who is poorly-trained and is working to fill some desperate gaps in their distances.......but that is not you at all.  You DID the mileage and met all sorts of performance-based goals, so the paradox there is that you are one of the least likely to even come close to needing regular (i.e., daily) week-of training.  The flipside to that, however, is because you trained consistently hard, you are one of the most likely candidates for a taper that is not compromised by sneaking in something here, something there (again -- I've been there, done that!)

I try (and mostly succeed) to not say anything rude here, and to definitely avoid offensive words, but my mother used to refer to some peopel at times as being "a on wheels".....and while it's not my intent to come across quite like that, I fear that's how I'm sounding in this email and the last one.  And for that I apologize........although I'm still going to post this right now!

Oh!  Take care of the foot, meaning to get a doc to look at it!!!  I know you'd hate to lose three months later by not losing three weeks (or maybe just three DAYS) now.  Food for thought?

Since I have broke my streak I will rest the foot until the weekend. I am amending my diagnosis of swelling to simply tender to the touch-not out of denial or stubbornness but hopefully a more objective and close examination. Assuming an asymptomatic status by the weekend I will make them token workouts as I design the next 14 weeks.

JEFF -

Oops!  I got edited! The word that was in the offensive line my mom used to use was a five-letter one beginning with "b", and fit in before "on wheels" -- just so you know what I'm kind of sorry to be sounding like!

334 miles is borderline, or would be for me.  i think you've said you are about 150lbs, which is about 20 less than I am, and as long as your mechanics aren't bruatl on shoes, 334 is likely still okay....but not by much.

I think most "old-shoe-induced" injuries affect things such as knees and hips first, less so ankles.  But if you place the shoes on a flat surface and look at them especially from the back, and see them listing strongly to one side or the other, the ankle then could be quite vulnerable.  Or, if you look at wear of the sole at the heel, and see one side worn way down while the other side still shows nice tread, then that could also spell trouble for ankles or Achilles.

GREAT to hear you're resting it for a bunch more days.  I can promise you that you will return not having missed a beat, and by the second run back (let's see, if you run this coming Sunday, the next run after it would be on Tuesday....right???) you have a good chance of feeling sleek and in full rhythm -- maybe like you haven't felt it for a while.  How good would THAT be?

Had a good training day.   Did a 1 hr bike that included  two x 10 minutes at threshold followed by 1km run off the bike where I tried to be fast right away - managed a 6.08 minute km for just over 1km.    My HR is still crazy low for the run.  First threshold bike average was 28.8 and 2nd set was 30.5.  STEVE - if you take a look at my log you can see that each km I continued to increase speed and hit threshold except for the first 3km (only got sub threshold).     Did a lake swim after that.

Tomorrow I am going to focus on swim with a good w/u and then 800 meters race pace followed by a 20 minute bike followed by a 10 minute run.    Race is on Sunday.  

What distance race are you doing Sunday? You're on a roll

Av8rTx - 2012-06-12 12:42 PM My running streak ended at 160 days

That's a tough one -- after putting in over five months had to really hurt missing a day.  Guess you'll just have to start a new one!

CURT -

No, Curt, no!  Lead him not into temptation!

CURT again -

psst.

you still wokring on your own streak?

if so......mum's the word!

Oh.  Hi, Jeff!

ANNE -

My rpinter is being dodgy right now, so i can't print today's log for deeper examination.  It looks mighty fine, though, ambitiously constructed and exceedingly well executed.   Cool beans!

Good on the run HR being low.  That suggests that your cardio is excellene, and just waiting for your run fitness to come around to full form.  I suspect you're tempted to push things in order to get elevate HR and speed.....and there might be merit in doing so.  If you choose that route, keep it on a flat road with minimal camber - no need to tempt the injury hounds!

Also, don't get carried away with speed/HR upticks for very long, and maybe just a couple of surges of 30-60s -- just enough to give a hint of what it feels like.  And, of course, that would also include any parts of you that tend to act up when ypu push 'em too hard.

Hopefully the printer will be in fine fettle by morning!

I've been lazy since Sunday.  Still swimming (Monday and today) but the weather's been really unsettled so hard to get back on the bike and I just haven't been running at all lately.  I guess I'll have to get back at it.  Swimming today was decent and I could feel good power in my swim stroke but I'm still so slow.  I think I'd be :30 for a 750m swim.  We've only got another two weeks of swimming and then I'll be on my own for the summer.  I'll have to time myself on some 750m swims and see where I do stand.  I may be able to knock some time off if I get into the lake where I can swim without having to turn every 25m.

On the plus side - I couldn't swim at all just 7 months ago.

I'm hoping to ride a short 92km tomorrow weather permitting.  It doesn't usually rain much at all here but we've been getting quite a bit lately.

GEORGE -

ENORMOUS plus that you couldn't swim seven months ago....and now look at you!

I support the notion to time yourself on a 750.  At the very least it will give you a benchmark time for mid-June of '12 --- and just wait until you see where you are in mid-June of '13!  (For that matter, how about mid-Aug of '12?)

Don't angst about not biking or running recently; this stuff happens.  The cycling "lapse" is perfectly understandable, given GF just a few days ago.  I eouldn't be too keen on getting back on the steed again so soon after GF, either!

Finally, not many people would use the word "short" to describe an upcoming 92km ride.  That's, like, just a tad shy of 60 miles, which is a mere four miles above a half-iron ride, which is so far beyond the abilities of most mortals that they can't even conceive of it.  And here you are, calling it "short".  Ha!!