It's More Than Running, Its Life

I'm sitting here on the bed in my hotel room in Greensboro, North Carolina, Regionals are Saturday. For us Regionals is the biggest, last and most important race of the year. This is the race that the entire last 3 months have revolved around. All the hard work, long runs and early morning have been leading up to this. And I'm hobbling around on crutches.

I should backtrack a little bit here though. Things were going pretty well after the home meet on September 5th. I had some bad races but then figured things out and was starting to put together decent races. And with cooler weather I didn't have to battle dehydration and heat problems any more.

It started with some pain on the outside of my left knee and a nagging weakness/pain in my right hip. Not a big issue, I'd been running 75 mile weeks for the first time in my life ever and feeling GREAT doing it. I just needed to back off, take some more ice baths, get back on the foam roller and I'd be good. The morning after setting a pr of 28:23 at the regional preview meet in North Carolina on October 17th I set off for my normal Sunday morning long run with the group at the local running store. After grimacing for the first 16 minutes the pain in my left knee was excruciating every time I flexed or extended it. It felt like the knee cap was being wrenched to the side. I finally couldn't take it any more, turned around and walked 2 miles back to the parking lot.

I spent the next 2 weeks in some form of mild hypothermia from spending up to an hour a day sitting in the ice bath. I heated, stemmed, rehabbed, rolled, stretched, iced, even a cortison shot didn't help as much as we'd hoped. Basically I was doing everything I possibly could to heal my knee- including not running. In fact I ran only once between North Carolina and our conference meet on October 31st. The problem was an extremely tight left IT band and I was averaging 2-4 hours a day in the athletic training room or doing some sort of rehab work on my knee. On top of this all that niggle in my right hip had turned into a very worrisome weakness that prevented me from weighting it fully and didn't allow me to put my pants on without sitting down.

I was swimming like a beast though!

After running once in the 2 week lead up I lined up to race the American Southwest Conference Championships with jumping jacks serving as my only warm up. The UT Tyler men's XC team was 4-time defending champions, going for our 5th straight title and as the number 4/5 runner with no real 6th guy to rely on I had to race. Race I did, and I am extremely proud of my performance. It wasn't especially fun or pretty but I ran with all my heart taking 13th overall, 2nd team all-conference and 4th on the team. Others faltered though and we the team took 2nd. At the end of the race I just thanked the Lord for giving me strength to run and compete. God had kept my knee strong enough to run and give everything I had for the team. We still had regionals in two weeks though...

The bus ride home from conference was bad. My IT band kept tightening up and causing me some pretty intense pain that I had to get the trainer to massage out a couple times. Since my knee had been improving I was hoping that a few days off it again and I could try to get 2 or 3 workouts in before regionals. That, I believed would be enough to keep me sharp and the extra rest I knew would benefit me. My knee did continue to heal, but my hip was a different story. Wednesday, November 4th I spent all morning at the Doctor's getting X-ray and MRI done to determine if I had a stress fracture or not. The verdict was no and so Thursday morning I went out and completed a solid workout on the track.

The next few days had my knee hardly bothering me at all but I was now limping noticeably because of my hip. If I didn't have a stress fracture then why did it hurt so bad!?! Sunday morning November 8th, less than a week from regionals I went down to a park with some nice paths and completed possibly my best workout of the year. I was popping! Monday morning I woke up and couldn't walk.

It's not a stress fracture but instead tendinitis of my psoas (hip flexor) where it connects on the femur at the lesser trochanter. I've been using crutches to gimp around all week and it takes extreme concentration, effort and pain to even lift my right knee in the air. It's been getting better all week but the race is only 40 hours away now. Painkillers and anti-inflammatory's have been a mainstay of my diet these past few weeks. I can only swim with a pull buoy and my legs tied together. The decision to race may not come until I'm quite literally on the starting line.

It's so cliché, I know, but you don't really appreciate something until it’s taken away from you. Much worse than the physical pain of a hurt leg is the pain of not being able to run. I love running, I really do. There's nothing like going for a run when your depressed, when your mind is full, when your crying out to God for answers, when you feel great, when the weather's beautiful, when it's early in the morning and the first rays of the sun are causing the dew on the grass to glisten, nothing.

We arrived in North Carolina today and headed over to Guilford College for everyone to run around and re-familiarize themselves with the course. I and my crutches stayed behind and while the team ran I limped around the wet, muddy field and cried out to God. "Why Lord?" “Why?” “Why this terrible blend of physical and emotional pain?” "I've been trying so hard to follow your will Lord." "I just want to run God." "I just want to run."

Spiritually this semester has seen a lot of challenges and growth in me. God has been working on me in a lot of areas and I’ve grown much closer in my relationship with Him. It’s funny how God will choose to work on a lot of different areas of your life at once. Actually it’s not funny, it’s painful and somewhat depressing. I’ve tried so hard to listen to God and hear be receptive to what He’s telling me but it’s not always for us to understand the why of things. The Lord works in mysterious ways. There it is- another cliché but so true. When we’re in the midst of a struggle it’s hard to understand why things are playing out the way they are.

I don’t know what tomorrow will bring, or Saturday for that matter but I intend to run if at all possible. I didn’t come to North Carolina to be a cheerleader. That’s all I ask and if God grants me that gift in two days I will be grateful. In the New Testament Paul calls Christians not to a life of ease but one of hardships and suffering. Physical, spiritual, mental and emotional suffering. My prayer is that God heals my leg enough so that I can suffer this Saturday. Suffer just as Christ suffered on the cross for us. I believe that as we push ourselves in the physical realm, as we sweat, bleed, hurt; that we grow closer to God and gain a better understanding for the sacrifice Jesus Christ made for us on the cross. I pray that God will give me that opportunity to grow closer to Him when the gun goes off in Greensboro, North Carolina at 12:00 pm, this Saturday, November 14^th.

Happenings

Sorry for the long period of silence. I've spent the last month or so moving into my apartment and getting started with xc and school.

So far things are going pretty well. I can feel that I'm fit just not racing well yet. I had a terrible race last weekend and backed off this week. I should be rested and ready to go for another good run of... running. I raced the Rose City Triathlon yesterday. It was fun and I did pretty well for how little biking and swimming I've been doing. I am still super pissed because my 47 year old XC coach beat me out for 3rd spot. He was in a later wave and got me by 11 seconds when results were calculated. I had sort of forgotten that he is an incredible athlete and got complacent with sitting in 3rd spot on the run. Oh well, hopefully that will be fuel for my competitive fire. http://results.active.com/pages/displayNonGru.jsp?orgID=216359&rsID=83742

Classes are going well. All my classes are super interesting concerning the bodies physiology and response to exercise. I love it! Definitely in the right major for me.

I'm contemplating working on a blog post inspired by the sermon I heard this morning about indulgences so check back and see if I find the time to put my pen to work for some real literary work. In the meantime I'll try to post some more frequent updates concerning how the XC season plays out.

Next up: We have a meet at ULM this saturday, September 19th.

The Great New England Outdoor Adventure

Following my return from San Antonio I had less than 48 hours to wash clothes, recooperate and prep for this 2 week trip to the New England area. This trip is offered to all students of UT Tyler but since it is led by the XC coach and he pushes the runners to go we always have a big group of runners/triathletes. It is an awesome oppurtunity to train in some different locations and COOL WEATHER! Believe me, running in 60-70 degree temps is such an awesome break from the 100+ days we'd been having in San Antonio.

I didn't take my bike this year which was definitely a wise choice. I was going into the trip with the goal of running, a lot. And run a lot I did. The first week I ran my first ever 80 mile week doing about 82 or 83. Probably not the smartest way to bump up the mileage as I hadn't even been hitting 50 while in San Antonio but... oh well. The second week I battles some calf/achilles issues that I've had for the past year but still managed to run mid 60's.

We also did quite a bit of strength training and some swimming when we could. I had a few good swim workouts while I was there and have been just so happy with how good I'm swimming this year.

Other then training we were extremely active. I think I counted 7 days that we spent paddling in some facet or another. We did kayaking, rowing, white water rafting/kayaking, sea kayaking and canoeing. Also some rock climbing and lots of walking around during the few days we were in Boston. I absolutely love all the outdoor stuff, its definitely my second passion next to triathlon but spending 6 hours of paddling after a full morning of training makes recovery really tough to non-existent. Oh well, I knew that going into the trip and it was an awesome experience. (As I knew it would be.) I'm not sure what I'm going to do next year when I've graduated, I just had so much fun this year I can't wait to go back.

Here are a few random pictures of stuff we did in no particular order.

San Antonio Reflection

Sorry for the delay once again. I have a lot to catch up on but instead of doing it all in one big post I'm going to do it more slowly and in greater detail. Though my time in San Antonio seems like ages ago many of the things I learned are still fresh in my memory. Below are some of the thoughts I had when I left. I typed this up intending to post it back in July but... stuff happens. Anyways, here are some thoughts on what San Antonio taught me about myself, IconOne Multisport and Triathlon.

First of all it was definitely the right decision to go. Early on I was battling with staying home and making money or going to San Antonio and trying to chisel out a place and role for me there. After the first week I knew I had made the right decision. My first 2 weeks were completely devoted to training and it was awesome to have my coach present at most of the workouts and another athlete or two who were working under the same coach and suffering under the same killer workouts as me.

The next 2 weeks I spent coaching at two different camps and I have slightly mixed feelings about that time. I loved every minute of it and had a blast interacting and testing the many different athletes. Those 2 weeks showed me though that I’m not at the point in my life yet were I feel like I can abandon my own athletic endeavors to coach others. There is a reason most elite coaches don’t have a lot of time to work out. They are so busy pouring their lives and every bit of energy they have into creating strong, fast, successful athletes. I love coaching and know it has a place in my future but not at the level that Shelly puts into it. Yet.

My last week was spent putting in some more solid work and trying to rest up a little bit before my Maine trip.

During my time there I met some awesome people, worked on my Spanish and learned a ton about athlete development and elite performance. Working under Shelly and teaching others the many drills and principles I have been doing for a couple years forced me to gain a better understanding of WHY? WHY? Is the key question Shelly teaches all her athletes to ask and the question she always has an answer for. I now have a much greater understanding of the biomechanics that go into an efficient and fast swim stroke as well as running stride. I’ve learned to look beyond an athlete’s results and examine the other components that will determine whether they can have success 10 years from now. I can better comprehend the idea of making your “hard days hard and your easy days easy.” When Shelly gives a hard day, it sucks. It hurts and halfway through you just want to die, or at least bail on the workout. But that’s the point. To push you, to make you suffer, to see if you can handle it, both mentally and physically. By the same token when she gives you an easy day- MAKE IT EASY! A training program should be designed around specific, intense workouts designed to challenge an athlete but that must always, ALWAYS be followed up with adequate rest and recovery. Every workout and set and rep should have a specific purpose. Junk mileage is pointless and unnecessary. I can see that now. I’m sure I’ll continue to struggle with wanting to do “more” but I believe I have a new found look into why workouts are given the way that they are.

I still have a lot to learn about the sport but that’s just it, I’m learning. And it’s an ongoing process. I want to thank my training partners- Hunter, Mason, Laura, Maggie, Eduardo and JP for doing workouts with me. (And I with them.) Thanks to Shelly Campbell, my coach, for continuing to work with me, teach me, have faith in me and mold me into a better athlete. And a huge thanks to the Riley family for allowing me to invade their home with my sweaty training gear and strange nutrition products. They gave me a bed, a car and fed me on many occasions. My time there would not have been possible without them.

On to Maine, Colorado, Tyler, XC season 09 and whatever life may bring!

Day...

My apologies. An update has been a long time coming due to the busyness of my state here in San Antonio. Once the camps started I had no time and my life was consumed by coaching.

What a great 2 weeks it was. I learned a ton about coaching, triathlon, kids, athlete development and elite performance in general. Saw some wicked numbers layed down in tests and had an absolute blast! The first camp was a junior select camp which meant all these athletes were very good. They were tested 5 times during the week and believe me, after going through it last year its a tough 5 tests. I was glad to not be testing this year but coaching was just as tiring. I still got in most of my workouts but recovery is definitely hurt.

The second camp was a skills camp and saw a pretty wide range of abilities and ages. They "only" had 3 tests and I was once again extremely busy. This time though there were 4 other junior elite coaches who had stayed after the select camp and we got out to do a lot of our workout together when the campers had free time.

I also did my best to keep up with school during that time and finished one of my classes last friday. The other one doesn't end until august.

I leave this Friday to head back to Dallas before flying to Maine on July 20th for a training camp/outdoor adventure trip with UT Tyler. This week should be some solid training before I head to Maine. I hope to update again soon.Te veo mas tarde!

(I've spent the last 3 weeks with a group of spanish speaking juniors and they've been trying to teach me a little bit.)

What Day is it?

I just finished taking my midterm. I think it went alright.

Watch this video. Pretty darn sweet, it gave me goosebumps.

Training is still going. Yesterdays run workout took it out of me and my last 2 swims haven't been too good. Also got dropped on the group ride last night. I was pretty much stuck in 3rd gear. Oh well, life goes on.

Day 9

Saturday afternoon I did exactly what I planned on doing- nothing. I literally spent about 6 hours sitting on the coach with my coach's husband, Jeff while she was doing important things in Canada. It was greatness!

Sunday was an off day so I went to Church with my host family, took a nap and chilled. Oh, I also ate. A LOT. Sometimes when I'm doing all these workout with high intensity I have problems with my appetite being suppressed. Well Sunday I had no issues. I would eat a giant meal and be hungry 30 minutes later. So I ate and slept and rested.

Monday was another early morning at the gym. Coach missed her alarm so Hunter and I did some stuff on our own before heading to Gecko's practice. Then it was hill repeats at TMI again. 5 of them this time instead of of 4 and after the first one, which was pretty slow I nailed the next 4 at a solid pace and all within 6 sec of each other. Consistency was my key and I accomplished that. Mason was awesome as domestique. He was on his bike and would meet us at the top of the hill with water bottles to pour on ourselves as we suffered in the sun.

The rest of the day I slept and watched tv before heading to the pool for an easy swim with a bunch of drills.

This morning was band work again. Ugh, thats a tough one. In between the 5' runs with bands around my ankles I was doing 5x :45sec @5'pace/:30 off. It was supposed to teach my body how to deal with lactic acid and right around :30-:35 sec I could feel my form just fall apart. Very tough but necessary.

A 2hr nap followed by breakfast and I was feeling much better! The maid popped in unannounced today. She's supposed to come on Fridays, what the heck? So I packed up and headed to starbucks where I'm currently studying for my midterm tomorrow in "Theoretical and Clinical Aspects of Weight Management." Fun.

Off to the pool in about 30min then group ride tonight. Hoping to crush it!

Day 6

Ouch. I'm just thankful my legs are still attached. 2 hr run this morning was not what my body felt like doing. I had the option to go to SeaWorld today but I respectfully declined. I'd rather spend the day eating, sleeping and foam rolling. Day off tomorro then its back to work on Monday. I love this life!

Day 5

The days are starting to run together now. Sort of.

Yesterday was super solid, and by solid I mean hard.

The morning saw me chillin on an 80min run on some trails just down the street from where I'm staying. Very cool and lots of lovely gravel and dirt to save my joints. I was feeling pretty lousy at the start but the deer, rain and getting lost made it quite an adventure and I was feeling much better by the end. It's always fun to finish up in a downpour, completely sodden to the bone.

At 2pm I met Hunter at the pool with Mason for a 4500yd swim set. Didn't feel great, the water is super warm at 84 degrees which makes it very tough when trying to swim fast, but I still swam well. Some fast 100's saw me pushing hunter to come in around 1:05, might be a stand alone 100 pr for me :-D. The 3x300's into a 900 swim weren't especiall enjoyable but we got it done.

That evening I met up again with Hunter for another group ride. Me and some triathlete on his DA broke away from the group and stayed clear of a chase pack with about 6 guys in it. He did most of the work but I helped out when I could. Those triathletes man, they can just sit and motor!

This morning was another gecko practice where I hit 'em hard with some run drills and strength stuff. The parents should have some sore little bodies tomorrow. :-) Then after running by the grocery store and dropping the 7 yr old off at her summer camp I hopped on the treadmill for an 8mile tempo at 6min/mile pace. I was really not looking forward to this and it was pretty painful but I was very encouraged to be able to finish it. A workout like that shows some real fitness, especially following a day like yesterday.

Well the cleaning lady should be done at the house so Mason and I are going to head back. I don't think she was expecting to see a sweaty, shirtless man with blue flames on his short running shorts walk into the house while she was cleaning. Haha, I'm sure she's seen worse in her day.

Day 3

I don't anticipate this being a very long post as I'm pretty tired. I have been swimming better than I ever have in my life and that is very encouraging, especially given the lack of focus I had been putting into the swim.

Yesterday the family I am staying with gave me a card and told me to go to the store and get "whatever I wanted." Uh oh, I should have warned them. I loaded up with M and we headed to HEB. Actually, most of what we got was a few things they wanted and then shopping for the 3 meals M had planned for a Team Gecko requirement. One of the things the kids can do to earn "stars" is plan 3 meals, shop for them and help prepare them. We worked on that quite a bit yesterday and it has been really cool to see M start taking a notice in what he points in his body.

Other than hanging out with M my life has consisted of training, eating and sleeping. Quick run down from the last few days.

Monday: Previously mentioned workouts plus 3200m swim w/ MS of 6x100 on 2' These were a mix of pace, sprint and the last one was easy. This workout was my first clue that I might have made a breakthrough in my swimming.

Tuesday:
6am run @ the gym on tm. This was a band workout where Hunter and I had exercise bands tied around our ankles then tied to an elliptical behind us. This keeps you from overstriding and is actually a killer workout. We did 4x5' of that with (5x:30 on/:30 off) in between each band set.. "on" was at 5'/mile pace for me.

Swim @ 2pm with mainset of 500, 3x100 drill, 400, 3x100 on 1:30, 300, 3x100 on 1:25, 200, 2x100 on 1:20. Pretty tough and it doesn't help that the pool is about 85 degrees. 3800m total.

Group ride around 6pm. I thought this was going to be ugly but my legs actually felt ok and I broke away with 3 other guys. About 22 miles of the ride I was just hammering and I'm sure my hr was in the 170's. Felt good to take some pulls and apply some pressure though.

Wednesday: Only a tough swim today. MS was 3x(5x100 on 1:25, 4x100 on :20) straight into a 600 pull for time. Thankfully my arms were still attached after this one, even if only by a thread. 3500m total.

I made granola with the 7yr old daughter today and spent the rest of the time laying around being tired. I'm currently waiting around until 8pm when I have given myself permission to go to bed. Tomorrow's a big day.

Day 1

It's the first real day of training here in San Antonio and I'm pretty whupped. Spirits are still high but the body is tired. Maybe it was the 5:30 am wake up this morning that jolted my system a little.

I arrived yesterday afternoon at my host family's house. I knew them before I came down here from other races and their affiliation with are team but I was reminded again about how nice these people are. I have my own room with it's own entrance to the house. They have given me free reign of the pantry and fridge (uh oh, beware), my own bathroom and even a truck to drive!! In return I will be hanging out with their 2 kids, son who is 12 and does tri's and daughter, 7 who is working on getting the training wheels off her bike. :-)

Last night we went to a barbacue at the uncle's house which just happened to be right next to Tony Parker's place. Needless to say it was super nice.

This morning kicked off at 6am when I hit the gym with my coach and teammate, Hunter for some strength work. I need some work, it was mostly upper body stuff and I can tell I'll be sore tomorrow. I rushed home from that to to pick up the son and get to team gecko practice. This is the kids triathlon team I will be one of the head coach's for this summer. They meet 7:30-8:30 and it's quite a hoot.

After gecko's it was home to eat some breakfast then I met up with Hunter again for a tough run workout of 4x1mile hill repeats. We did not descend the set, we definitely ascended.

The rest of the day was spent napping and hanging with son, (who we shall call M from this point forward.)

The kids are at a swim meet right now so I am at a starbucks getting some studying done with Shelly's intern. The intern, Katie, is one of the other coach's, has no triathlon experience but is an exercise phys major and eager to learn.

Off to the pool now to get in a good swim with Hunter before bed and an early morning tomorrow. I'm going to try and keep this blog updated regularly so everyone can keep up with my goings on this summer.

Ciao

Bleh

This post is being hammered out on my grandparents computer as I sit at their ranch house outside of Austin, Tx. I am currently en route to San Antonio where I will arrive tomorrow for 5 weeks of training and coaching. I am super excited as I will be getting to experience both ends of the spectrum during my stay. I will be working closely with my coach on workouts and training even as I learn from her and get to help coach other kids in the sport. It should be an exciting time and I am looking forward to learning a lot.

As far as training I am hoping San Antonio will be just the thing I need to really kick myself into gear. I still have been struggling with getting out the door for workouts. I'll have a few really good sessions then just not feel like training for a day or two. I'm not sure if I just need a change of scenery or what. I was thinking about it the other day and realized that I've been running the same routes around my neighborhood for 7 years now! I've always been a guy who enjoys change. I like new challenges and experiences, to explore and seek the unknown. One of my favorite things to do when I go somewhere new is it to lace up my shoes and just take off, not knowing where but just... running. Turning down streets, looking for cool roads or paths, dodging cars or animals. Whatever.

Here's to hoping I get my act together soon.

Ups and Downs

Training has been weird lately. I've been slowly building up my mileage and swimming meterage (is that a word?) while also often struggling to get out the door, especially for the runs. I think evening running has been part of the problem and I switched to running in the morning today. I should get about 50 miles this week if I nail my goal of running about 6 hours.

This morning's workout was especially interesting. It was kind of a strength/run combo where'd I do squats, lunges, calf raises then take off for 2-10min in z4 running. Pretty tough actually.

The really interesting part was at noon today as I was leaving work and just threw up in the bushes. I had started feeling a little sick during the last class and well... I came home and slept for 1.5 hours and feel pretty good now. I've eaten and my stomach still feels kind of weird but other then that I feel great. About to head out to work then try and swim. We'll see how it goes...

Training

I am preparing another blog ranting about America's poor health and nutrition but I thought I should hammer out an update on training and racing first.

Track is over. (Thank goodness) I had a dismal conference meet and was just thankful to be done with running for a while. 

After track I took 2 weeks off completely, doing nothing but swimming a few times a week.

Then I started building my running back up and am now on my 3rd week doing that and on track to hit 40 miles this week. My focus has shifted this summer and my plan is to swim and run a lot so that I can have a good cross country season this fall. I'm hoping to hold about 60 miles a week running for most of the summer and be swimming a good 5-6 days a week. I'll try to limit my biking to 3 times a week or less.

I raced the Capitol of Texas triathlon this last Monday and did alright. Considering the fact that I'd done less than 10 bike workouts all year and ran 10 miles the Saturday before the race I guess it was alright. I probably wouldn't have done it if I wasn't already signed up for it but it was fun to hang out with friends and teammates.

My plan for this summer is to race very little and just get back to training, building a base and having fun. I'll jump in some crits here and there probably a local tri or two but none of that will be a focus or events I'm keying off of. I am racing Age group nationals in August, my plan there is to pr my swim and run with the bike being whatever it is.

To all you out there training and racing have a great 09 season!!

When Did Working Out Become Work?

Taking a break from studying here. While most of UT Tyler is done with finals or finishing up I am just getting started. My first real final actually wasn't until today and I have three more before I'm done with the semester.

In my preparation for my 9:30 final tomorrow in motor development I was reading about the importance of maintaining an active and healthy lifestyle in older adults and how it prevents many of the common side effects associated with aging. In fact, much research has shown that older adults who remain physically active often resemble their younger counterparts more closely then their peers in terms of performance and reaction time. Study after study has shown that exercise will improve life expectancy and drastically increase the quality of living as people age.

I think most people would agree that this is fairly common knowledge. We all know that exercise is good right? But putting it into practice is much more difficult. And why is that? I believe one of the main reasons is that people often associate "exercise" with "work" or something you have to "go do." How many times do you hear people say they "have to go to the gym?" This attitude presents exercise as a distasteful task that must be performed to keep oneself from falling into too much of a state of slothfullness.

It doesn't have to be this way. At least that's what I believe. I believe a major change in the common viewpoint we take on exercise is due. What if, we didn't think of it as "exercise" but instead as "play?" Everyone loves to play right? Have you ever watched a child scurry around burning who knows how many calories as they randomly jump from one activity to the other? I know I get exhausted just trying to watch my 8 year old brother.

We all have different likes and dislikes and I believe people should find something they enjoy doing and then go do it! If you love to play soccer then go find an adult league or grab a couple friends. If it's golf then walk the course instead of riding a cart. Racquetball, tennis, frisbee, hiking, basketball, swimming, rock climbing, biking, swimming. Just find something you love doing and go do it. If you enjoy grinding out a 30min session on the elliptical then by all means go for it. But by any means don't feel confined to a gym to get your (hopefully) daily workout in. 

Sure, I know people have crazy schedules. Mom's have kids, dad's have job, students have school and work, people have lives. But trust me, if it is something you enjoy doing and look forward to you WILL find time to do it. Even better, get your friends involved. What better way to "play" then with a group of buddies who like doing the same active things you do. Look for fun ways to get a workout in. Soon exercise will no longer be a chore but instead an integral part of your lifestyle that you couldn't imagine doing without.

 That is my message. Exercise and working out isn't something that has to be a burden. It should be fun and enjoyable. So don't feel confined by the social norms of 1 hr workouts with a 10 minute warm up followed by 45 minutes of the standard lats, chest, quads, biceps, hamstrings, triceps, calves and chest circuit and a 5 minute cooldown. Get out there and enjoy life. Enjoy exercise, enjoy the outdoors and have fun!

This Guy Can Ride a Bike

Beast

Ryan Hall is beast. This is one of his last hard workouts before the Boston Marathon which he will race, (and hopefully win) on April 20th. He's an awesome guy, a strong christian and a freakin SICK fast runner.

Here's the link

Disc Golf

Yes indeed, my title aptly describes the new hobby I've picked up as of late. Here at UT Tyler we have our own course on campus and I played once or twice last fall. Then all of a sudden I played a week and a half ago and I was hooked. For one thing, on that fateful day I shot a 9 over par for the course, and 2 over for the back 9. I just kept nailing par's after par's and even one birdie! Granted we were playing from the shorter red tees instead of the longer blue's but for a novice like me it was a pretty incredible feat that I have yet to duplicate. 

After that round I couldn't wait to play again so Saturday afternoon I called up a friend, we went to academy because I wanted to purchase a few of my own discs and we hit the course for a round. Then Sunday I played 10 holes by myself and another 18 with a friend. Monday me and a friend (All different friends) went to a different course south of Tyler that included water and a subsequent wading into said water. And today I played 27 holes with the director of rec sports (My boss) and one of the on campus ministers. Thats 91 holes of disc golf in 4 days! It has seriously been getting in the way of some studying I should be doing but... oh well. I can tell I've already improved some. My throws are getting straighter and going farther, though I still smack the occasional tree.

It's fun, it's cheap, it doesn't take as long as regular golf and you get some exercise in. What could be better!

Quickie

I have a few minutes before I head to class so I thought I'd bang out a quick blog update.

Training went pretty well last week and so far this week. I did my first real bike workout of the year last wednesday and it was bad. No power in the legs at all. Friday and Sunday were some quick brick workouts w/ 3-5 repeats of a short 5-10' bike right off into a 3-7' run. The workout was a lot more specific then that but thats the general idea. I felt stronger Sunday then on Friday and was able to push it a little harder on the bike so that was good.

Swimming is ok. As ok as swimming twice a week can be. 

This week I've just had a swim on monday, track workout tuesday, and a bike workout this morning. Bike was a little better today than last week but still not too good.

This evening the track team is leaving for San Antonio at 6pm. We added a meet at Trinity University tomorrow and I'm going to give the 1500 and the 5k a go. Since I haven't run either of those on the track yet this year (or ever) I should set a PR!

Blood and Guts

So there was this meet last weekend. This meet was at the University of Texas in Arlington. A bunch of DI schools were there and it was fast. I ran my slowest time of the year by about 30seconds. No reason, no excuse, it was just dismal. I won't embarress myself by publicly posting a time but let me suffice to say that my last lap was 95 seconds. Thats 6:20 pace. I honestly did not know I could run that slow for that distance.

Enough of the bad news. I was rather down in the dumps immediately after the race but I rebounded quickly and put it behind me. My friend John was coming out to watch my race and just missed it after he got stuck in traffic. (Thank goodness) John gave me a ride back to my original home in Mesquite and it was good to see the family, went to panera that evening and pretended to study while actually crusin the net and chllin  with a couple other friends I hadn't seen in a while and catching up on old times.

Saturday evening I discovered I also lack talent in picking out good movies at blockbuster. For everyone out there- Don't, I repeat, DO NOT ever watch the movie "Way of War." It is a complete waste of time and I still couldn't tell you what it was about.

It looks like a good war/action movie right? Well when my brother, who has vastly superior knowledge then me when it comes to all things artistic, took one glance at it and said, "never heard of it, looks like a b grade film." I knew we were in trouble, and we were.

Sunday I got to go to church which was nice. I've realized that the biggest thing I miss at the church I've been attending (when I can) in Tyler is the worship. I guess I took for granted the awesome worship our little Vineyard in Rowlett has and have had trouble dealing with a more toned down, not quite as cutting edge and passion filled worship at the church I've been attending in Tyler.

The afternoon was spent with my buddy John again. Good eatin at AllGood cafe in Deep Ellum, good talking, good book shopping at HalfPrice and Barnes and Nobles. I used a gift card to purchase Into the Wild, by the same guy who wrote Into Thin Air. Finished Into the Wild Monday and it was pretty good, very interesting but worth reading.

The real topic of this post though refers to my track workout today. You see, just lack week I got 2 new pairs of shoes. The Nike Zoom Lanang ST are made especially for us steeplechase athletes. Their mesh uppers are perfect for draining water, which will ideally only by accumulating in the left shoe. They are seen below.

The Nike Zoom Streak XC are my new pair of tri flats and they pretty much rock too.

Their so pretty and white. At least, they were. Monday was my first time trying them out at the track. Of course I had to go no socks because I don't wear socks in a triathlon. 4 miles of intervals later this is what you got-

Mmmm blood. No longer white and pretty these shoes have officially been christened.  The only reason for the bleeding is I already had a scrape on top of my toe that got opened up and bled through. The injury itself was actually quite dissapointing but the result was fantastic. Love the shoes and I plan on racing them this whole year.

Track. Rain. Speed.

Awesome day at the track today! It was a fairly long workout, we went: 2x600, 3x400, 4x300, 6x200 with equal distance recovery jog between each interval and straight through the set. I was feeling good and hitting under my splits every time. As we started the 200's ominous clouds began to gather in the western sky and the formally tame wind began to pick up. People started to leave pretty quickly and even my teammate decided to bail. With 3 200's left me and a recruit that has been running with us were the only 2 people left on the track. On the 5th 200 it started to sprinkle and on #6 all hell broke. Josh, our faithful recruit was still right behind me as we rounded the final turn. Our coach was in his car yelling and honking for us to get off the track as I shouted back "This is the last one!" We finished, rushed to the car and hopped in soaking wet. Good workout, good day.

Sorry for the long layoff. I've just had trouble coming up with proper motivation to write another blog post. Let me fill in a few quick updates about whats been going on the last month or so.

1) Semi-injured hamstring that warranted a week of very easy workouts. The hamstring is fine now so no worries there.

2) Family wedding. My brother picked me up in Tyler Friday, February 20th where we drove back to Dallas to catch a plane for Tucson, Arizona. It was a fun weekend getting to see the family I don't get to see often, including my cousin who's at West Point and a good break from school.

3) Track. 3 meets into the season and I am an established steeplechase runner. It is a fun and different even to run and I am having a blast doing it.

4) Spring break and team training/testing camp- At the end of my spring break week I went down to San Antonio for some testing with IconOne. It was fun to see the athletes I haven't seen since camp and nationals last year and the tests went ok.

5) Overtrained athlete. After the weekend I talked to my coach, who has not been coaching me this spring because of track and other stuff and decided to start working with her again. I have somehow gotten myself into a fairly extremed overtrained/fatigued state which she was able to see just from observing me over the weekend. It was something I had kind of suspected just because I knew I was working out a lot but there wasn't any sort of specificity so it wasn't helping my running and it wasn't helping triathlons. Just junk mileage. I've kind felt lost this spring without a specific plan and just trying to figure out workouts on my own. Anyways I'm working with her again and it feels good to have some direction. Even if that direction has been mostly resting and not much training. Oh well, I have now worked with Shelly long enough to realize that she is ALWAYS right, no matter how much I have convinced myself otherwise so I just trust her and do what she says and somehow I get faster.

Thats about it for now, I'll try to keep the updates a bit more frequent. Collegiate Nationals is April 18th, I'm scared to death because I know I'm not going to be in optimal shape for it but oh well. My goal now is just to go out and have fun. Then the next weekend we have conference track where I plan on running the steeplechase and 5k.

About That Hamstring...

Yeah, about that. Well after a nice recovery day Sunday I was hoping I'd be ready to go on Monday. Jogged to the track, hamstring felt fine. Did some drills and a building 400, hamstring felt fine. Our workout was 6x400 w/ my pace being :67 for the 400's. I did 3 but on each recovery lap I could feel my hamstring start to tighten up a little more each lap. It didn't bother me while I was running fast, couldn't feel a thing. But then as I'm jogging easy I'll feel it, right hamstring, down close behind my knee, kind of on the inside. Anyways, I didn't want to mess with such a big muscle group so I jogged back to the gym, (hamstring tightening up a little more as I went) got some ice and talked to the trainers.

When I got home I gave my awesome coach-who-is-not-really-coaching-me-right-now a call and she told me to back off because I'm basically overtrained. I'd already planned on taking it easier this week because I figured my body needed a break, but I guess this confirmed it. This is the stuff I know in my head, but is so hard to put into practice. I keep wanting to do more and more. I'm running better and better but sometimes I need to follow the same advice I give to people and just back off.

So I didn't run yesterday. I'm going in to get some treatment today then an easy run with some sidelines. Won't run tomorrow then I'll run a workout Friday and an easy 60-70 minutes on Saturday. (At least thats the plan.) I'll keep this week mid 20's as fast as mileage goes to give my legs a break. No strength and minimal cycling as well.

I can still swim though. 3900 yards Monday night, 3500 last night and 2600 at noon today. 10,000 yards for the week so far ain't to bad by my standards.

Next week should see my good as new, fresh, rested and raring to go! First track meet of the season at Texas A&M Commerce next Friday. I'm probably going to do the 3000m steeplechase and the 5000. Hopefully I'll be running fast!

Training Update

Haven't done a real training update in quite some time so I think I'll give it a go.

Last week was a pretty solid week as far as I'm concerned. I had some good run workouts as well as some not so good ones. Friday morning I got up to run at 7am and went to the track for 1x200's. First 2 were a little slow but I held :32's for the last 8. I could tell I was kind of tired though and they were taking a lot out of me. I think I may have stumbled on some weird physiological trend or something as my last 7 intervals all ascended by 2 hundredths of a second almost perfectly. No matter how hard I tried I went: :32.07, :32.10, :32.12, :32.14, :32.16, :32.18, :32.20. Weird huh? On the last one I was determined to break the trend but... it didn't happen.

Anyways, I did my cooldown back to the gym and as I was standing outside doing some light stretching my right hamstring tightened up really bad. Like REALLY bad. Not really a cramp it just got extremely tight. I went in and got ice on it and hobbled home. Did a swim at noon and it loosened up a little but still tight enough that I could feel it on the flip turns. Didn't stop me from doing 7x200's on 2:45 though! That is a super fast workout for me even if I was sitting on Chauncey's feet the whole time.

Saturday morning was a long run. The hamstring was still very weak feeling but it held together for 1:46 and 14-14.5 miles. Longest run in a long time. I could feel it kind of tremoring the whole time though and it had me worried. Once again I put some ice on it and hoped for the best.

Sunday it took every power within me to refrain from getting up and doing a long bike and/or run. I wanted to sooooo bad but reassessed my priorities and realized it would probably be in the best interest of my track season to take the day off. Sigh, oh well, I slept a beautiful 10 hours so I probably needed the rest.

Here are my totals for last week:

Swim- 1700 yards. (Biggest swim week since probably late spring last year)
Bike- 48.5 miles. (This is the one that has me the most worried.)
Run- 42.25 miles. (On 5 days of running too)
Strength- 1.5 hours
Yoga/other- 2 hours

Total- 18.25 hours. Not too shabby for being in school full time and working as well.

America, America this is You

I posted this on facebook in response to a discussion a friend and I were having. So I am going to post it here for the benefit of all:

Well John, since you asked how I REALLY feel about Americans and what they eat, here you go...

I have mixed feelings about the American lifestyle. On one hand the majority of Americans are lazy, overweight and out of shape. They choose to eat crap and are always looking for the easy way out. They make excuses about not having enough time to exercise or eat right but really it is laziness and an unwillingness to even try. They drive around in gas guzzling cars all day, don't give a crap about their impact on the environment and are pretty selfish overall.

On the other hand, it is incredibly tough to make good choices about food when everywhere you look there are companies advertising delicious looking products that wreak havoc on your health. It is such a social norm to overindulge that it’s impossible to get away from. A subconscious peer pressure plays no small role when you’re out with friends eating chips, going out for ice cream, or ordering in pizza. What, are you supposed to do? Starve yourself while everyone around you chows down on burgers and fries? It’s not realistic by any stretch of the imagination to assume that.

On the other hand why is it such a social norm to eat unhealthy foods? What if you and your friends stayed home and cooked instead of going out to eat? What if people brought carrots, broccoli, cheese squares and orange slices to the Super Bowl Party instead of chips, soda’s, cookies, pretzels and chex mix? (All chock full of carbohydrates.) What if Americans practiced moderation in their eating habits and got up an hour early to get a workout in? It’s infuriating but it’s a tough problem. It really is ridiculously hard to live a healthy lifestyle if you want to have any sort of social life at all. I find that to be the biggest stumbling block for me. Left on my own I am disciplined but when I’m out with friends or at someone’s house eating dinner one thing leads to another and soon I’ve had way more food, sugar and carbs than I ever intended.

Most Americans will never change. They don’t want to change. But what if I could make a small difference? What if I brought a big bag of baby carrots to the party instead of fresh made brownies? What if I could set an example that made someone buy a bag of salad when at the grocery store? Or set down that box of Cheez-Itz and grab some fig newtons instead? (Cheez-Itz are like one of my favorite snack crackers of all time by the way, that and Nilla wafers.) What if they saw me fitting in 4-5 hours of training a day while going to school and working part-time and figure, “hey, I can’t do that but at least I can go jump on the elliptical for 30 minutes.”

Can I make a difference? Can I influence people? Even if it’s in just a small, almost insignificant manner. Sure they can make fun of me, prod me to eat the crap their eating. And I stumble, I give in sometimes. I have setbacks, but then next time they’re not so quick to jump on my case. Next time they respect my decision and ask if they can try a few mixed nuts. If I can even help people to start THINKING about what their eating that’s a step in the right direction. I can’t change the world. But if I can help a few people live a little better, with a little more joy than I’ll be satisfied.

Up and Down

While Monday's workout left me pumped and feeling invincible, today's trials at the track were the complete antithesis of that. Monday was 4x4' w/400m recovery jog. Kind of a 5k race pace workout. 79 second quarters were feeling too easy, I'm not supposed to feel this good at this pace right? The last set I went through 1200m in 3:49, running hard but feeling smooth and strong. Thats like 76sec quarters.

Today was 6x800m w/400m recovery jog. I was just going to try for 77sec quarters, or 2:34 800's. Nothing crazy after Monday, should be no sweat right? I mean come on, my last rep Monday I went through the 800m in 2:32 running strong. Not so much. It was rough. I felt sluggish, tired and anything but spry. I ran my 2:34's 2:35's. But why did it have to hurt so much?

I Knew It!

Core strength is incredibly important. Joe Friel just posted a blog that explains the importance of hip/core strength when running. Full post HERE

...The first video he showed was of a sub-2:20 marathoner who had been running for several years. This runner certainly had what could be called ‘excessive pronation.’ Shortly after footstrike, which appeared to be fairly midfoot, his foot collapsed medially (to the inside) quite a bit. Yet when the video was freeze framed at this point and advanced one frame at a time there was no medial collapse of the knee. In fact, the knee and leg held a straight line from the hip to the ankle. That is unusual for a runner with such an extreme amount of pronation. Maintaining a straight line from hip to ankle means that the core muscles must be quite strong to keep the hip from dropping as the recovery leg swings through. If the hip drops the knee must collapse to maintain balance. With this runner, again being viewed from the back, the waistline of his shorts remained perfectly horizontal. That was because his core muscles kept everything nicely in place. So despite an excessively pronated foot there was no medial or lateral stress being placed on the leg, knee or hip. And, in fact, this athlete reported that he had never been injured despite many years of running.

Another video was presented in which a young female runner was viewed from the back as she ran. Her foot and ankle movement were nearly textbook with the ankle showing only a slight amount of pronation, which is considered ‘normal.’ However, she reported a significant history of iliotibial band (ITB) injuries. It was obvious why this was the case. As her recovery leg would swing through the hip on that side collapsed and the knee of the support leg buckled in considerably as a result. Going farther up the chain it was evident that her core muscles were quite weak because the waistband on her shorts rocked up and down pivoting around her SI joint region.

The bottom line of his presentation was that the core muscles are at least as critical to running stability and performance as are the feet. He gave an excellent presentation and much food for thought. I only wish I had gotten his name.

A long run, a long day. I want to go to bed but my acorn squash still has 15 minutes in the oven left. Training has been going well. This week it has left me in a somewhat numbed state. Unable to write more than bullet sentences. I shall make a decision tomorrow whether to bike/run a brick or just do an easy swim. We'll see what time I wake up. I also have another 5 hours to work at the concession stand for baseball. That will make for about 20 hours this weekend. Maybe I should fit studying in there too somewhere. The timer is beeping, my bed beckons, I bid thee all- goodnight.

The Wannabe Triathletes

I just created a new facebook group titled "the wannabe triathletes." It was suggested by a friend that I use the whole story behind this group being created on my blog so... here it goes:


I had an epiphany while on my long run this last Saturday after a late night at dinner the night before. The two girls sitting across from me were your typical American women in their early 20's having a few drinks, eating a bit too much and politely (but not really) interested in these events called "triathlons" I competed in. Their names will go nameless, mainly because I don't remember them.They were trying to act interested and so, as is typical, when they found out I did triathlons they asked me if I did "real" triathlons. I replied to the contrary that "no, I ONLY competed in sprints and olympics," whereupon they inquired as to the distance's entailed there. I told them how an olympic distance triathlon consists of (roughly) a mile swim, 25 mile bike and 6 mile run. They immediately responded with "oh thats not bad at all! Anyone could do that!" I agreed with them that, yes anyone can FINISH an olympic or sprint distance triathlon but that I focus on how fast I go. They were still nonplussed by this, as is usual, so I shut up and allowed them to continue their mindless babble with other guests at the table.The next morning while flowing along on a beautiful morning, a time when I do my best thinking, it struck me? Why should we be ashamed that we race sprint and olympic distance triathlons? Why should we hang our heads, shuffle our feet and reply with "yeah I only race the short stuff?" We should be proud of who we are! Short course athletes race short but they race fast! For some reason American, and the triathlon community in general, are more impressed with those athletes who stumble across the finish line in 16 hours than those who dive across the line in a sprint for glory after breaking 2 hours in an olympic. What, do people think short course athletes don't train? Do they think we don't suffer enough? That a sprint or olympic isn't enought time to really feel the pain? Training is intervals at the track. It's swim sets that make you wish you'd never seen water before. It's sets on the trainer that put you on your knees when you fall off the bike to run your brick. Suffering is tongue hanging out, trying to hang on to the back of the pack. Pain is bleeding out your eyeballs when you try to bridge that gap or make a surge. We know pain, we know hard, we know train. So next time someon asks you how long the triathlons you do are don't look at your feet and scuff your toe replying with, "oh, I just do the shorter stuff." No, stand tall, look em in the eye and say "Oh me? I effin race short course."

800's of Death

Wednesday's post had me a little beat up from a full day Tuesday. Thankfully, even though Thursday was exactly the same I don't feel nearly as battered today. I think the three keys for me this spring are going to be 1) DRINK WATER 2) make sure I fuel properly before and after workouts and 3) get enough sleep. If I can nail those three things I think my body will be able to handle the workload.

Funny story. Wednesday, all I had was a track workout, no biggie right? Just 4x800's with a 400 recovery jog. Based off my 1500m time I was told I was supposed to be running 2:21 for these 800's! You've got to be joking!?? I ran the first one in 2:31, the other guys were about 10sec off to. Sooo... after talking with the coach and hearing the formula that was used to establish these paces (1500m time divided by 2 minus 2 sec) we figured that maybe 2:31 was about right for an 800. I struggled through the next three going 2:33, 2:32, 2:32. And it took everything I had. Tough workout but I'm just out of shape from not running all break right? This morning I wake up to find an email from the coach apologizing and telling me that I was in fact supposed to be running 2:42 for the 800's! That definitely would have made the workout a lot easier. But hey, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger right?

We've got some 200's this afternoon. Hopefully they won't be on any sort of :28 interval.

Back in the Game

The 2009 season has officialy begun. I had a great Christmast break. A full week of backpacking in Oklahoma followed by a week in Colorado for some skiing. I got back to Dallas at 3 am Sunday morning, slept a little, went to church, packed up and got to Tyler around 5:30 pm. From there I rushed off to a Track team dinner/meeting before making it back to my apartment to find out where the heck my 8 o'clock class was the next morning! Such is the life.

Track started Monday with a 1500 Time Trial. I wasn't sure what that was going to be like as I had run once in the last 3 weeks or so. It was not as bad as I expected and I went 4:47. Not fast by anyone's standards but for me it was ok.

Yesterday I definitely felt like I was a triathlete again. Here's a rundown of the day:
7am- wake up, eat 2 eggs.
8am- strength train for 1 hr, kind of sore from TT yesterday.
9:05am- quickly shower & eat a power bar before 9:30 class.
9:30-10:45am- Motor Development class
11am-12:30pm-Work on a small assignment for Motor Control & Learning, (different from Motor Development) make some quinoa, frozen veggies and chicken for lunch.
12:30-1:30pm- yoga
1:30-2pm- buy a couple text books
2-3:15pm- Motor Control and Learning Class
4pm-Easy 30min run
6-7pm- Teach spin class
7:15pm- Take off through the dark streets of Tyler to find the pool I will be swimming with
7:45-9pm- First swim practice with the Tyler Metro Aquatics
9:15pm-Bike home
10pm-Eat a BIG salad w/salmon, shower
11pm-G'night.

All-in-all it came out to be almost 6 hours of training. Thank goodness I haven't started working yet! The swim practice was fun, their all high school kids but not very fast as I'm starting out with the bronze group for now. I'll probably try to move up in a few weeks. I did fine except for kicking where they destroyed me, partly because my legs were trashed from the day and vastus medialis's were cramping on breastroke kick. Good day!

Today I'm definitely pretty sore and tight so I plan on attending 2 yoga classes sandwhiched on either side of track practice. Today is supposed to be a pretty easy day- 4x800 w/400 recovery jog. Thats the word on the street at least.

Less than 3 1/2 months to Collegiate Nationals!