Training Camp Vegas - Day Zero

After a winter and early spring of questionable riding weather in Vancouver, the planned week-long training camp in Las Vegas with Chris, Robo, and Cam couldn't come early enough!

4 guys, 4 bikes, and a whole ton of bags packed into Robo's van for the trip down to Belligham.  When we reached the terminal, check-in went smoothly thanks to our flight attendant who asked "what kind of bikes do you have ... I ride a Pinarello"

And, as you can see, the bikes made it safely to the tarmac in Vegas

 
We packed our nutrition all neat and tidy like

Bonk Breakers, Gu Chomps, Roctane, and Carbo Pro.  This week's gonna be awesome!

But the photo of the day goes to Chris, taking a picture on our easy "recover from travel day" spin.  Three generations of Speed Theory kits, ripping it up in Red Rock country!

~ liquid

Sometimes all it takes

Sometimes all it takes is one good ride to gain back your confidence.

Backstory:
If I haven't told you yet, a couple of weeks ago when we were riding our first 10 Before 10 from Speed Theory (that's 10 laps of Stanley Park done before 10 am), I injured my Achilles.  Not a rupture, no surgery required, but I couldn't bear weight and it was pretty depressing.  I couldn't stand all day at work, and walking three blocks to Starbucks was out of the question.

I had booked the following weekend off of work to get some serious mileage in.  Nope.

I watched as all my friends put in hours and hours of training over Easter Weekend.  I logged 2.5 hours, and most of that was noodling.  But it was okay, because every day I was getting a little better.

Then it hit me

Tuesday morning, I woke up to head to Masterswim.  Maybe it was the fact that it was 5 in the morning, but as an athlete, that was about the worst drive in I've ever had.  I had counted down the days until Ironman Coeur d'Alene at the end of June, and at my current rate of recovery, I just couldn't do it.

I can't train for a 180km bike ride on 45 minute rides. Despite some great indoor spins throughout the winter, I really hadn't logged the long rides I'd need in February or March because the weather was so terrible.  I just wasn't going to have the legs to do this ride.

and 30 seconds of running, then walking for 5 and a half minutes to recover is no way to run a marathon.

I was ready to pull the plug

-----

But, I thought I'd give it one more ride.  I took my tri bike into work, as I knew the steeper saddle position would force my ankle to stay a little higher, thus relieving the pressure at my foot.  It was the last day of a 4-week-long Hill Climbing clinic (of which I'd missed 2 classes), and we were riding up Grouse.  It was while climbing Prospect Point at Stanley Park where I first noticed the injury, so I thought this would be the way to really test things out.

I told myself I'd be honest.   The week before, I had devised a Pain Threshold Scale (where 1 is barely feeling any feedback, 10 is excruciating pain) and made a deal that if I reached a 6, I'd stop and completely back off the intensity, and if it reached a 7, I'd go home.  Honesty was the key.

Well, I started climbing, and kept things at maybe 80% of my usual effort, but nothing ever rose above a 3, and that mostly when I climbed out of saddle.  If I sat back down, the feedback would lower back down to a 1.

----

Fast forward to today, where I rode out the Sea 2 Sky Highway to Murrin Lake and back.  4 hours, 100 kilometers, riding every hill, every headwind, solo.   Achilles Pain Rating: 0

Now, before you caution me:

Yes, I know I have a lot of work to do, both in continual rehab and in training.  Currently, every C priority race on the schedule is cancelled, and B races are on hold.  In 2 weeks I head down to Las Vegas for a week of riding with the boys, and I'll use my performance and recovery there to gauge how to proceed on the rest of the season.

But I no longer have to quit, and that makes me happy.

----

I'd like to throw out a couple of shoutouts:

First, to Drs. Jenn Turner and Sarah Jung from Moveo in North Vancouver.  Thank you for fitting me into your busy schedules, and for laughing when I cursed the Graston "Butter Knife"

Second, to my co-workers at Speed Theory and our fantastic Ambassadors.  I know I wasn't a pleasant person to work for a while - thanks for putting up with me.

Also thanks to CEP Compression and Compressport Canada.  Whether socks, my new compression tri shorts, or full-leg compress sleeves, the high-quality garments from these two brands have got me back in the game.  If you're an athlete and still have hesitations about compression technology, I'd seriously recommend giving it a try.

And last but definitely not least, to my wife for putting up with my misery, though I think she may have enjoyed the extra 15km/h bike rides with me :)

Onwards to victory (or ending up in a ditch)

~ liquid

Who are you calling mental?

Recently, I read a CNN article by Chrissie Wellington on some of the mental tricks and cues she recommends athletes develop for racing.  If you read my blog, that probably means that you're an athlete.  So you should read the article.

Go on, I'll wait

...

Now that you've read the article, and in case you're wondering, I usually have two songs going through my head while I race: The Killers - Human, and Foo Fighters - My Hero

(Incidentally, both of these songs have played over the loud speakers before the gun at Ironman Canada, and both years I raced to personal bests ... just sayin')

Wellington's article got me thinking: while I certainly haven't figured everything out, I have developed some effective mental skills, which I'll periodically start posting here on my blog.

To start, I'll talk about swimming.  If you know me, you know that of the swim, bike, run, transition portions of a race, the swim is the aspect where I am least competitive.  Slow gains, slow gains.

Anyway, I also find swimming very frustrating, especially (at times) swimming with other people.  In an open water situation, I believe there are two types of swimmers: those who push, and those who are pushed.   And while I might have a high strength-to-weight ratio, I still get pushed around.

Which is frustrating.  Sometimes infuriating.  Then my swim stroke gets infuriated.  Then I slow down.

So I've talked with coaches and fellow athletes about it, and have developed some strategies that, for me, have worked.  I figure that there are 3 actions you can take when you find yourself congested in the pool, lake, or ocean.  Whenever my feet are hit, calf is slapped, or I get a shoulder to the face, I quickly make a decision between:

1.  Extricate from the situation.  Find clear water, swim on your own, and stay calm
2.  Embrace the chaos, draw energy from the competition
3.  Get frustrated and lash out

Unfortunately, my natural inclinations are to tend towards Number 3.  But those people swimming around you don't mean to hit you, they just do.  And it's a big lake, or ocean, or pool (maybe), so can't we just all get along?

So, try the other two in your next race or training set (tending towards Number 1 if you're a strong swimmer, and Number 2 if you're still developing like me)

And stay tuned for more mental tips as the season progresses

~ liquid

Tunnel Vision

Typically, tunnel vision refers to having a narrow point of view - you're so focused on what's in front of you that you miss or ignore those things around you.

However, there are times as athletes when adopting a kind of tunnel vision can be extremely useful.  I experienced one such point this past weekend, when racing the Pacific Road Runner's "First Half" Half Marathon.

I'll be blunt - this isn't going to be a race report.  I signed up for the event 5 days before, wasn't really training for it, and couldn't have cared less as to how it went.  I just like the course, lots of people I knew were racing, and I helped someone out by buying their entry.

So the race started, and suprise suprise, I went out too hard.  Not that just things started to hurt (aren't they supposed to in a race) but I can honestly say that this was the first event to ever stop me dead in my tracks.  Even in my marathons and Ironman runs where I've felt like s**t, I've at least walked.

But on Sunday, shortly after Mile 4, my side cramped and I stopped.  Put my head between my legs.  And seriously contemplated walking back to the start (there were, after all, 9 miles to go).  But then I walked, and jogged, and slowly ran (and then had a nice if brief chat with a good friend - thanks J)

This all probably only took a minute, but it still felt fairly daunting.  All the work I'd done in the first 20 minutes of the race was gone, those athletes now far ahead of me.  What to do now?  I seriously needed to talk with someone.

That's when Coach Doug took over

"You can keep running, but only if your side's not hurting"

Okay!

"You can run, but I want you to only run fast through smoothness and good form.  Don't push hard"

Hey, I'm passing people.

"Okay, see that runner up ahead, the one that just passed you?  Focus on his back, and smoothly bridge the gap"

It took 3 kilometers to catch him, but it felt great.

"How's the side feeling?  Test it a couple of times - are you ready to get back to work?"

Ready to go

"Okay, there's just 6 kilometers left in the run, start picking off runners ahead of you."

And the rest is in the books

~ liquid

Back at it!

Happy New Year faithful readers!

It seems that since my last post Blogger has changed some things up ... wonder if this will look any different once I press "Publish"

Some exciting things coming down the pipe for 2012, and I thought I'd quickly share!

Goal Race - Ironman CdA

The goal race for this year is Ironman Coeur d'Alene, held at the end of June.  While I'll normally only race an iron-distance event every second year (2011 was Ironman Canada, and so will 2013), the reality is that this is my final season racing in the 25-29 year age group, so we thought it best if I take advantage of the "big fish, not so little pond" syndrome.

Lots of strong Vancouver athletes are heading down to do this race, so I'm sure I'll have lots of company on those early season long rides, and lots of motivation to race fast when June approaches.

Fun Race - The Mission Classic Gran Fondo

missionclassic.ca

While I don't always settle on my B and C priority events leading up to something big like Ironman Coeur d'Alene, one ride I'll definitely be doing at the end of May is the new Mission Classic GranFondo.  This race is organized by Outback Events, the same team that puts on the Oliver and Desert Half triathlons in the Okanagan (among other races)


Back in September, Joe Dixon had a small group of riders head out to Mission to ride part of the course, get some video footage, and give our feedback on the ride.  Some pretty cool shots of Speed Theory athletes Anthony Toth, Rachel Kiers, and myself.  You've probably seen the promo video for the event, but because I'm in it, you should probably go watch it again (scroll to the bottom of the page)

New Old Friends - Leading Edge



Another exciting development is my new involvement with Leading Edge.  I trained with this group of dedicated athletes back in 2008 (I think?) and have always admired how they are able to mix hard work with having a lot of fun.  So, after being approached by Head Coach (and all-round awesome guy) Andrew Tuovinen I'll be joining the club as their Run Coach for their Wednesday night quality sessions.

Judging by the number of athletes who braved the sideways rain this past Wednesday, this should be a fun year!

And Speaking of Coaching

And speaking of coaching, I have also started to coach dedicated individual athletes for triathlon, running, and cycling events for 2012.  Not a whole ton I want to say at this point, as I'm dedicating all my energy towards getting my athletes going for their key races.  When I have more information that I want to get out publically, though, you'll see it here first!

All the best in reaching your own goals for 2012!

~ liquid