nose plugs and skin lotion

I must be alergic to chlorine.

I'll go for one swim and I'll sneeze and snivel for two days.

Pool water dries my skin and I get itchy - winter only.

So I did a bit of surfing and found a guy with the same problem.

The answers - Vaseline in the nostrils and a nose plug. Shower before and after the swim and put on some lotion.

I'm not sure why I have resisted this for so long. I've done it for my past 3 swims and I'm not so reluctant to go to the pool any more - well, at least I've eliminated a couple of excuses.

Now I just have to get the nerve up to wear a nose plug when I swim with the masters. Of course they will say I'm doing something wrong if I get water in my nose. Bullocks! My nose has always had this peculiar way of storing water deep in the recesses of my nasal cavity when I'm not paying attention. Hours later I'll bend over to pick something up and a gush of water will pour out. Don't ask me - just another strange biological anomaly like my deep set eyes that do not like normal swim goggles.

Skin lotion is an easy one, but for some reason I had it in my head that all skin lotions smell 'flowery' (might have something to do with being surrounded by estrogen most of my life - single mom, 6 sisters, wife, 2 daughters - I did have 3 brothers, but growing up lotion was for girls).

So Sena picked up some 'fragrant free' lotion today (now I just need to figure out how to get it in the middle of my back!).

The joy of hyperventilation

I did a hard 13 mile run today - averaging sub-7 including my warmup and an uphill 13th mile. The course has lots of 'rolling' hills.

aside: I'd like to find a place where someone has actually classified hills on a race course. For example, a gradual 10ft rise over 100meters would classify as green; whereas a 50 foot rise over 100 meters would be fairly significant and sucks the energy right out of you and might classify as yellow. Of course a 1000 foot climb over 1 mile would be very difficult and would classify as red.

Anyway, this course has a bunch of yellows ( 50 foot climbs over 100meters). 25meters before I get to the base of these I take several long, deep breaths - far more oxygen than I need for the flat part of the course, but when I get halfway up the hill I'm far better off than steady state breathing. The key is to stay relaxed - don't tense up when climbing. Same for biking. Try it, it works!

This also works when doing 25meters in the pool with no breathing. I'm not sure why swim coaches recommend this drill, but the only way I can pull it off is if I take 10 deep breaths before I begin.

Give it a shot, but don't over do it.

remember to thank people...

I'm looking for a road bike. I only have my Quintana Roo Caliente triathlon bike and my Specialized Rockhopper Mountain bike. I've been looking for a road bike for a while now - I'm very picky and very cheap - not a good combination.

Anyway, I was looking at the BiKyle web site in my search. I purchased my Tri bike from Kyle at the end of 2003. On his web site, he posts customer feedback, so I thought I would let him know the impact of having this bike had on my Triathlon career. Here is the note.

I purchased my QRoo Caliente from you at the end of 2003 after finishing my first triathlon (Eagleman Half Ironman). The following year I did the same race and knocked 14 minutes off (53 places) of my bike split, which put me in the top 10% of my age group for the race.

I continued to do well in many races throughout 2004, 2005, and in 2006 I raced the Florida Ironman on my Caliente, finishing 7th overall in my age group and qualifying for the 2007 Hawaii Ironman, which I completed this past October.

I just wanted to thank you for providing a high quality product and such a comfortable fit. My trusty Caliente has carried me through thousands of training miles and many great race finishes.

The main thing is to try to remember to thank everyone that has helped you along the way. The bike mechanic, message therapist, supporting family, boss at work, training partners, coaches, and blog supporters!, etc. I'm quite certain that without all of these people (and more), I would never have done so well.

This little tidbit applies to everything in life, not just triathlon, so go out and thank someone.

building up before breaking through

Winter is the time to build your body and get comfortable with those long distances. It isn't easy.

Yesterday I ran 9 miles followed by a 50+ mile bike ride. I was really, really, really tired. But I know from experience, that if I pushed myself through even at a snail pace, I will be strong in the spring.

It's harder now. In previous years, a workout like this would have been a rewarding experience, just having finished it; braved the elements, did the distance, etc. Now it seems like a minor accomplishment compared to workouts I've been able to do. I try not to think like this. I try to enjoy the slow build, knowing my body and mind are getting stronger again, but it is hard.

Breakthrough workouts are not important for me right now. I had one last week, when I did a 6 mile tempo run at 6:20 pace. It felt good to push myself through this workout and the benefits were evident in subsequent workouts.

But I have to be careful - I know from experience that doing too many of this type of break-through workout without the long slow endurance runs and rides is simply building on a soft foundation and will lead to injury and burnout.

What do you think?

boys shaving

I read somewhere that if you shower before you get in the pool, your skin won't absorb the chlorine so much and won't be as dry and itchy.

So I'm in the shower and there are 6 skinny high school boys shaving their legs. I guess they are swimmers and trying to reduce drag, but it was a very strange sight - particularly as a group - made me uncomfortable. My high school didn't have a swim team, so I don't know if this was normal back in the day, but there would have been some serious taunting if this was seen in my high school locker room.

That said, there are many cyclist and swimmers that shave their legs, and the elite triathletes almost always have hairless legs. I haven't tried this. I can't imagine that it would make much of a difference and I would rather spend the time training and actually getting stronger / faster / better rested, etc. But then again, I spend time blogging - I could use that time for leg shaving ; ) So time isn't the real reason.

This sport demands a lot. Wearing spandex is about as far as I'm willing to go. I like having body hair - I don't want my legs to look like a woman. I don't want a passing redneck in his pickup truck to have any doubt that the person on the bike is a guy when I'm out on those long solo rides in the middle of nowhere. I don't want to confuse my daughters or my wife. I don't think it will make me faster; I don't think it will make me feel faster; and I haven't heard a really good reason for this 'one more sacrifice', so I'll keep the little fuzziness on my legs unless I have a compelling reason to do otherwise.

What do you think?

Training through Plantar Facsiitis

I got hit with Plantar Facsiitis last summer while training for Ironman Kona. I did not have a healthy respect for this injury, but I did manage to train through and competed without the injury causing issue to my race. However, there was some impact to my training regimen.

After the big race, I did properly nurse the injury, hoping that taking a month off would simply resolve the problem. Unfortunately things got works since all of my muscles simply tightened up during the month off, and my Plantar Facsiitis was simply worse as a result.

In January I started training for the Big Sur Marathon in April. Slowly adding miles and only running 3-4 times a week. On Thursday I ran a 6 mile tempo run at a 6:20 pace. I ran 18 miles today at a 7:20 pace. My foot was sore, but not debilitating. So, here is what I have been doing to train through this...

I ice the foot several times a day. I stretch regularly (2-3 times a day). I wear a foot splint at night, to keep my foot at a 90 degree angle. I do some strength training for my hamstring. I self message my foot and calf regularly.

I'm not convinced that if I stop running it will get better, since it always seems worse when I stop running. I did check in with my Podiatrist and she told me I could continue running, but needed to stay on top of it.

Let me know if you have had similar experience.

The joy of positive suffering...

National Geographic is one of my regular reads. Fun to read, and if you're too tired to read, the photography is art. Actually the writing often seems to be 'filler' for the pictures (that is, the writing usually isn't very good).

The Jan 08 issue has an article about Himalaya Winter Climbs. Apparently the Polish people have elevated winter climbing to celebrity status over the past few decades. One quote in the article resonated with me 'promote the joy of positive suffering, because if something is easy, you will not enjoy it, really'.

This principle is not universal, but certainly seems to apply to endurance sports.

"Positive" suffering is an interesting choice of words, because it implies that there is "Negative" suffering - unfortunately, the world is full of negative suffering. Without a debate with Krzysztof Wielicki, it will be difficult to fully understand how much thought he put into these words and what he really meant by these words, but I have a few thoughts...

In my view, positive suffering requires that the suffering results in improvement to the person that is suffering AND that there is a goal achieved at the end of the suffering AND the suffering is self activated.

If you think about it, positive suffering is literally built into our DNA and has evolved over millions of years. We suffer on our long runs, but we get stronger (improvement). Historically, the goal that this provided us with our basic needs - food, clothing, shelter. By self activated, I mean that we choose to take action, as opposed to torture, in which case one would have no choice - i.e. negative suffering.

We still have those instincts that tells us to positively suffer, so we train and push ourselves, which gives us part of the equation, the improvement and the self activation. But we still need a goal, and we no longer driven by our basic goals (i.e. food, water, etc.) , so we look for a replacement goal, say a 5K, or an Ironman. Perhaps Maslows hierarchy of needs comes into play her.

What about the part that says 'if it is too easy, you can't really enjoy it'. This seems to mean the enjoyment one gets from something that is easily obtained is as fleeting as the effort expended (i.e. you get out of it what you put into it).

So training 6 months for an Ironman distance event and finishing it, is that more enjoyment than say eating a bowl of ice cream?

Maybe 'enjoyment' isn't the right word, I would replace it with the word with fulfillment.

It isn't the race finish alone that creates this fulfillment - it is the character building, the moments of epiphany; the sights, the sounds; the smells encountered during 6 months of training. The neurological fluidity you build on the bike, swim, run that translates into every movement you make. The deep sleep. The perspective and context on life. The relationships built. The etched in memories (this one deserves it's own blog entry).

So, promote positive suffering, because a life that is too easy will not be fulfilling.

What do you think?