Calf / Popliteal Recovery

In September of 2011, while on a ten mile run I had to stop running. The upper portion of my calf was aching. Thinking it was a cramp, I began to walk a little. After a half a mile of boring walking, I started to run, and the pain returned to the point where even walking was painful. I limped home, iced my leg, and even though there was considerable pain, thought nothing of it. I took a day off and tried to run two miles the following day to no avail.

After taking three weeks off, I tried running again. No luck. As soon as I returned to running, calf hurt.

Then, I took six weeks off and went through a regime of physical therapy, which consisted of calf raises, heel drops, stretching, massage, therapeutic ultrasound, balancing exercises, and a gradual return to running (mostly on the treadmill). No luck. As soon as I hit three miles, calf hurt.

Ultimately, I read about a number of individuals having problems with their popliteus (a small muscle at the back of the tibia) and read a little about recovery. All of my "calf" pain went away as soon as I did a week of this:

1. Quit running on the treadmill and ran outside. I thought running on the treadmill would be better for my body but, while there is less shock, I think some of the give in the belt aggravated my injury (plus I had never run on a treadmill before my injury).
2. Continued but reduced calf raises and stretching.
3. Did the following exercise:

Genes or Lifestyle Choices?

I recently ran at the Syracuse Festival of Races 5K on October 2, 2011. I was surprised to see some of the great running times of people in their 50s, 60s, 70s, and even 80s! Often times, people complain that they are too old to do something and say things like, "Well, when you get to be my age, you won't be doing those things." Or "These old bones can't do what they used to." I guess my question is, are these people running such great times because of excellent genes or plain old hard work and active lifestyle choices? I suppose it could be a combination of both, but I'm hoping for the latter because I do not believe I'm blessed with good running genes. Take a look at some of the ages and times below and please comment on what you think to be the case.

Lee Foster Memorial 5 Miler

As I mentioned in my previous post, this race was to serve two purposes. To check out a half marathon pace and to determine my threshold heart rate. I arrived in St Marys an hour before the start so that gave me plenty of time to check-in, warm up and talk to a few other racers. I probably had too much time.

I warmed up with Ean King and it felt like the race had started already. We did a two mile warmup in about 14 minutes. At one point I looked at my watch and we were close to 6:30 pace! He was pushing it pretty good and even started dropping me. It was nice to chat with him and hear what he's been up to over the last 15 years. We were District IX rivals in cross and track while in high school. I don't think I ever lost to him in HS, but he always talked a good game.

Ean and another local high school rival, Andy Micheltree, were both at the race and posed a big threat in my age division. They both had beat me in May 2010 at a local 5k quite handily. I was back to running for just a few short months at the time.

The race was small (50-60) and started as expected with a few taking the lead from the gun, including Ean. Micheltree eventually passed me 1/2 mile into the race and stayed about 30 seconds ahead the whole way. I caught one guy (fellow 30-39er) at 1.5 and ran with him close to the turnaround. He wanted to run sub-31 so I thought we could work together. My splits on the way out were 6:11 and 6:16 en route to a 15:33 at the halfway point. Pretty much right where I wanted to be on this 'tempo run.'

After making the turn, I dropped my pace (and the guy I was with) to sub-6. I held a nice pace around 6 minutes per mile and I negative split the race going 15 flat for the final 2.5. I ended up 4 OA and 3rd AG. Most years my final time of 30:33 would have challenged for the win but not this year. I grabbed my 3rd place trophy early and headed for home.

While this course was fairly flat and the half mary course has some hills, I feel confident in my mile pace goal for the HM. I've got a few more weeks to keep logging the miles and adding some intervals and tempo runs. I'm happy with my progression back as well. I'm confident that I can continue to drop time on my pace and overall splits as I increase my mileage and intensity each year.

I'll save talk about my heart rate test and training zones for my next post.

Train through race

"Racing" a 5 miler tomorrow in St. Marys. It will serve two purposes. 1.) To see how I handle an aggressive half marathon pace and 2.) to do a threshold test for heart rate training.

After considering my fitness gains this year, I have mentally figured on a 6:20/mi pace for my half marathon coming up next month. That pace equates to a :30 second per mile increase from my PR (and only) half marathon last October and would drop my overall time 6 1/2 minutes. My plan is to run 6:20 pace tomorrow for the first 4 miles (or try to!) and then do what I can in the last mile. This will be a great chance to physically test the pace to see if it's reasonable to sustain over 13.1. I then can adjust the goal pace accordingly if need be.

In order to determine one's threshold, a test of some sort needs to be done. One very popular test is to do a 30 minute hard run and use the average heart rate for the final 20 minutes. Tomorrow's race should take 31-32 minutes so this will be near perfect. Once your threshold HR is determined, the appropriate training zones can then be figured.

Weather will be iffy with a 50% chance of rain. Course is flat. Look for a follow-up next week.

Chocolate Milk

Mouth-watering chocolate milk!

You've just finished a long workout. You're tired, thirsty, your bones are brittle, and your muscles feel more like mashed potatoes than lean, mean killing machines. What do you eat or drink to recover? Drop that anti-freeze-colored liquid in a bottle, chuck your powerbars and water to the side, and pick up a refreshing and cool glass of chocolate milk!

Why?

1.Research by Karp et. alia (2006) shows that chocolate milk is a Gatorade. They showed that when carbohydrate content of chocolate milk and a recovery drink were equivalent, individuals could cycle 49% to 54% longer if they drank chocolate milk than if they drank a carbohydrate replacement drink like PowerAde.
2. Chocolate milk is full of carbohydrates and protein, and these two components together improve endurance performance.
3. Chocolate milk has been shown to have a greater effect on post-workout recovery than water alone.
4. Chocolate milk is super delicious.

So, the next time you finish up a long run, a race, or that hard workout at the gym, drink a chocolate milk within 30-45 minutes.

Me vs Myself

As I was reflecting on my last triathlon of the season, I found myself to be somewhat despondent. Upset that I hadn't achieved a goal time that I believed to be reasonable, and probably more upset with being beat by a local competitor by :26 seconds. As I scoured the results to pinpoint my mistakes and the other's advantages over me, I began to question yet again why they don't let us all race one another - together. After all, if that triathlete was in my wave I would have been able to run him down and beat him to the finish. Nevermind the 3-4 other racers within a minute of my final time - one who finished 1st in my age group - who were in other waves.

Triathlon is one of the most demanding physical events that you could ever compete in. A "sprint" is about as short as they get and that includes roughly a 750m swim, a 13-15 mile bike and a 5k run. Mention these distances to most people and they squirm. Ironman distances soar to a 2.4 mile swim, 112 mile bike and a full marathon of 26.2 miles. That's just downright crazy. Training your body to complete such an event takes 5-20 hours per week of swim, bike and run. Oh, and don't forget to do some core type work and stretch. And eat right. And sleep 8 hours a night. It's no wonder marriages and families become strained by the demands of tri'ing.

Despite all of the physical stress we inflict on our bodies, nothing compares to the stress that needs to be placed somewhere else. I've completed 4 tri's thus far and it finally hit me. Our minds are our greatest and most important weapon when it comes to competing in triathlon. When you run a race everyone toes the line together and they're off in ready, set, go! In cycling, the peloton weaves along the roadways with bikes all around you as you work with one another until a final sprint to the line.

In triathlon, it is Me vs Myself. From start to finish. Sure it's chaos at the start, but you swim by yourself and then you bike by yourself and then you run by yourself. There may be a few people to catch and pass, but big deal. The good guys are in the "other heat." You don't know how you compare to them because they're not there. They started 5 minutes ahead of you or 8 minutes behind you in another wave. If only we had a way to create an apparition of the other racers, just to give us a glimpse of our true standing. But alas, we don't and we can't.

So there I am. Alone. I hear my hard breaths on the bike and I focus on my pedal stroke. My feet slap the road beneath me while I try to keep a rhythm on the run. I've chased all those that I can chase. There are no more in sight - at least in my sight. This is when triathlon gets tough. When your own mind battles against itself. There's no one else to compete against anyway.

You've got to dig deep at this moment and start to realize that every second counts. It may not seem like it at the moment, but you'll realize their importance once the final results are posted and you've lost by :26 seconds. That's 6:22 pace instead of 6:30 over that 5k run. That's two seconds per mile on the bike or 4 seconds per 100y in the swim. And don't underestimate the importance of good transitions.

The mind is a powerful weapon in triathlon and needs to be trained in practice. Solo tempo runs, hill repeats on the bike, intervals in the pool. Pushing yourself to go harder and faster. It's just you and how bad you want it. Mind over body.

Presque Isle Tri Review

The 2011 Presque Isle Tri was held this past weekend. I'm going to change up my report some and just highlight some things and post my times and places for each respective part of the race. As usual, you're welcome to comment and ask questions.

Swim: Hardest to date. 150 in wave all beating on one another. No clear water for the first 200 yards to the first bouy. Spent nearly every stroke taking a look to see where to go and also to find the bouy. Next 200 yds were fairly clear but I was gassed from the start. Felt like I stayed on course well despite being blinded by the sun and not being able to locate the next bouy.

Time: 12:17 (includes run from shore to transition area)
Overall Place: 98/349
Age Group: 8/21

T1: Transition went better than last two races. Wetsuit came off a lot quicker (could have been the BodyGlide I used on ankles). Ground was dirty so that was annoying.

Time: :54
Overall Place: 37/349
AG: 3/21

Bike: Got clipped in a lot better than in previous races. I haven't practiced this so I just got lucky I suppose. Lots of people to catch since I was so far back coming out of the water. Passed a number of people throughout the first 8-10 miles. After that only the "good guys (and gal)" were in front of me. Used a set of clip-on aerobars which I believe helped me to keep a better speed. Went back and forth with a guy for most of the bike segment before putting some time on him in the last few miles.

I was able to get out of my bike shoes towards the end of the ride which helped me in transition 2. See below.

Time: 32:52  (23.7mph average)
OA: 31/249
AG: 4/21

T2: Had a great transition. Didn't waste much time here. Noticed that the bike next to me was still 'out.' It was also gone when I had started the bike leg so I passed him somewhere.

Time: :32
OA: 8/349
AG: 1/21

Run: Took off on the run and it took some time to get my running legs. My goal was to get close to 6min pace for an average. I struggled to get there, but pushed on. I saw one guy just take off on the run. I believe he may have been 1st in my AG. Two others were in striking distance - one guy and one woman. I knew I had plenty of time to make a move on them so I took my time. I caught both of them shortly before the turnaround on the out and back course. The guy was in my AG and finished 3rd behind me. The woman finished 2nd overall in her race.

After getting by these two, I was on my own and all alone. I tried desperately to keep a strong pace whenever I noticed my avg pace slowing down. At first I was pretty bummed with my pace, but a closer look reveals this:

Results show a 6:41/mi pace.
Reported race distance of 3.5mi with my time comes to 6:30 pace.
My watch said 3.57mi and 6:20 pace.

More importantly were my mile splits. 6:27, 6:20, 6:13, 6:23. Pretty happy with that 3rd mile.

Time: 22:44
OA: 12/349
AG: 2/21

Overall: My initial feelings of the race were ones of disappointment. I had set a 'happy' goal of 1:08 and another goal of 1:06 that I felt was attainable. It's tough to set goals like that when you've never competed on the course. After having a few days to reflect on the race, I can't be too upset with it. I put in a good effort and learned a lot of things about this crazy sport.