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."