Thursday, June 30, 2011

No Internet!!!

Sorry to my few followers about the delay in postings!  I am currently having issues getting my internet AT MY NEW PLACE!!! I will definitely recap the last week in terms of training, moving, living, etc.  Here is a little tease at the new crib....

One of many "Disasters" at the new residence

Definitely be looking for an extensive write up Tuesday, which SHOULD be the day the cable installer can come by.  I hope everyone has a wonderful and safe 4th of July, and more importantly, 3rd of July (the day of my birth). Now I SHOULD be racing in the 25-29 age group... 

And to celebrate the holiday, here is one of my FAVORITE videos via Youtube!  Warning, may be a little creepy, but definitely a lot of awesome!



Thursday, June 23, 2011

Bye Bye Bike Computer

As you may have read in my Tinman Race Report, my bike computer hasn't been functioning properly. I have literally gone step by step on the owner's manual for common problems, but can't seem to figure it out.  I have tried resetting it, measure the spacing for speed and cadence sensors; everything is right where it needs to be.  And yet still no speed, distance, cadence, etc.

Today, as I rode the bike to my swim workout, I uncovered the problem.  Let's go through my thought process, pic by pic:

Hmmm.... this seems to be working....

Rear tire looking okay... yup, that's lining up within 5mm....

That looks righ...oh.... wait....

Not to be a poopmouth, but damn....

Well, there's your problem!

So, yeah.  At some point between my arrival to the race and the race itself, I seemed to "lose" a fairly large segment (about 2 feet) of the wiring that connects my handlebar-mounted computer to the sensors for my speed and cadence.  Mystery solved.  The only problem is that I kinda like knowing my cadence, distance, speed, etc., when I'm training.  Kinda important info, ya know!?

My solution to the problem is a few weeks away.  I am HOPING to get my first Garmin watch for my B-day.  While the 310XT would be ideal for triathlons, I am going for the 305 because:  1. My parents are purchasing it for me (hopefully).  2. I live on student loans, and am hoping to also grab all the extras, like cadence for the bike, foot pod, bike mount, etc. 3. I am MOVING this weekend, and will probably be needing to by some stuff for the new place.  Eventually there might be a 310XT or something even newer in my future, but I would be fully content with the 305.  All I have to do now is figure out how to get my parents to read this.  Step 1:  A blog is.....


Sunday, June 19, 2011

Race Report: Topeka Tinman

Saturday was the Topeka Tinman, the first triathlon I have ever heard of, and definitely my "A" race this year, mainly because it's my hometown, my family would be there, and I knew the course.  Despite having some tough training "challenges", I had a great race and a wonderful time.

Pre Race: I headed back to Topeka on Friday night, after I got off my clinical.  Rach and I arrived in Topeka a little after 7, made some pasta at my parents' house, went for a walk, and headed to bed.  Unfortunately, I have my bed in Kansas City and my parents haven't replaced it, so I spent the night on a twin mattress on the floor.  I wouldn't say I slept sleep "soundly." 


Saturday the alarm went off at 4:50am and I heard it! I got up pretty easy, mainly because when I glanced outside, it was hardcore storming.  After quickly checking the weather, I grabbed some OJ, a bagel with PB, some gatorade, and my transition bag.  Rach and I were out the door by 5:25! Not bad!


Gameface.

We were there pretty early, and luckily I got a great transition spot right on the end of my pre-determined rack.  This was only my 2nd race, but I now know the purpose of getting there early to get the "pick of the lot" for transition spots.  It makes it so much easier for me to see my stuff when I'm hauling in after the swim or bike.  Once I got my bike on the rack, I went and got marked, got my chip, and set up transition!



After setting up, I basically just hung around and warmed up.  Obviously went to the porta-johns a few times (3!).  I finally got to meet Scott and few others from the KU Tri Club.  I was happy to see a friend from high school racked 2 bikes down from me, who finished his first tri that day. Awesome job, Justin!  After a brief warm up jog, I downed a Gatorade Prime and I headed down to the swim start to warm up the shoulders. 



Swim: After the warm-up, everyone got out of the water, and got ready to go.  My wave went first, and it was a beach entry to start the swim. 


The weather was great.  Luckily, the storms passed earlier in the morning, which actually pulled all the swim buoys off their original locations and the finisher's shoot was lost.  They fixed the buoys into a triangular out and back course, but never found the shoot.  Somebody probably has it on their roof...  The water was 76 degrees and no waves.  I previously made up my mind to not bring a wetsuit, and I'm glad because I wouldn't have used it. I lined myself in the 2nd row, dead center.  I planned on pushing it hard, and was lined up right behind the guy who ended up winning the wave. I picked the right guy to draft off of!  At 8:00am, the gun went off, everyone hit 'start' on their watch, and dove in. 

I'm in there somewhere, probably in the front...haha
The 400 yard swim went awesome! Although it was only my second OWS, I felt much more comfortable. We swam with the buoys on the left, and I'm a little more comfortable breathing on my right, so I just did that, along with lifting my head every once in a while.  Eventually I was comfortable with bilateral breathing, and my pace really got going. I was able to get in a groove almost immediately, which was nice, because I avoided most of the kicks to the face (key word was most).  Before I knew it, I was heading back towards shore with only 2 people in front of me, and within reachable distance. I pushed pretty hard at the end, and was probably 8 feet away from the leader.

The leader, second place, and ME!
Time:  5:10
Rank: 16/201

Bike:  Once I got to T1, things went good.  Got my shirt on (partially), shoes, sunglasses, helmet, and out!  The shirt was "on", but it resembled more of a sports bra from the front.  It was stuck on my shoulders, so I just thought I would fix it when I got up to speed. I was in 3rd place heading out of transition.

Pulling. It. Off...
The 13 mile bike leg of the race is when the wheels all fell off.  First off, my bike computer decided to stop functioning.  I had no idea of my cadence, speed, or distance.  Although this affected my pace, I still felt pretty good, pushing hard, but not too hard.  About halfway into the race, a police officer blocking an intersection was talking to a driver and I saw him pointing across the street, thus signaling me to make a left turn.  Since no other riders were within sight to follow, I turned left.  Just as I had turned and started hammering, I heard the police officer yelling at me, saying sorry and to turn around.  It turns out I needed to remain going straight through the intersection.  As I turned around, I got passed by 5 riders.  I was pissed.  I know it wasn't the cops fault, but it definitely got me out of a rhythm.  

As I pushed on, I tried to catch the group of 5.  Unfortunately, I think I ended up just tiring myself out.  I got passed by 3 more people before entering back into the park.  On a good note, they were in "full aero" attire, equipped with tri-bike, aero wheels and helmet...

As I began heading towards T2, there were a few quick little turns to maneuver.  Near the end, my right foot came unclipped.  More unfortunately, my right shoe slipped off my foot.  I have no idea how this happened, but my shoe was on the ground!  I stopped, slipped my shoe back on, and was back on my way towards transition after the 15-20 second delay.

Time:  43:49 / 17.8 mph
Rank:  97/201

Run:  T2 went smoothly. I got my bike quickly mounted, shoes on, helmet off, grabbed my hat and race belt, and took off.  I was a little bummed about the bike, mainly because of those extrinsic factors that I couldn't control.  My HR was through the roof, and was really starting to feel the humidity.  My calves were burning pretty bad, and I felt like they were about to seize up.  How ironic would that have been?  I had no mustard!!!

Exiting T2, in my "aero" run position




Getting in the groove...
The 3 mile run went fairly well, overall.  I got passed once early, but I ended up chasing him down at the finishing sprint.  Turns out, he wasn't even in my AG.  The course itself was a little hillier than I expected.  There wasn't a single flat section on the run, it was either up or down (it seemed like there was way more ups...). 

Chasing down some guy close to the finish
Got him...

Time:  22:10 / 7:23 min/mile
Rank:  32/201


Overall:  It was a great day and a great race. After finishing, I grabbed my finisher's pint glass, saw my family, and began to start sucking air.  After recouping, I took some photos, got some food, and ran into Big Tom and his friend Rocco, thanks for saying hello! and nice job on the MTB!

Worth it...
Time:  1:13:33
Rank:  43/201
Age Group:  6/25

This race really gave me a little more insight into my training.  I know the last few weeks have been unplanned to a certain extent, but I now know I need more time on the bike.  I felt a significant decrease in power on the hills, especially closer to finishing.  I could also use a little more hill and speedwork on the run. I did learn that I'm a swimmer, though.  Shocking...


I just want to say thanks to Ultramax for putting on a good event ( I will be back next year fa sho), thanks to my family for the support, and thanks to my GF Rach for helping me carry, organize, photograph, and strategize!  

Next race will be in July, at Shawnee Mission Park! Can't wait!

Friday, June 17, 2011

Tinman Race Prep and Strategy

This post is more for me and less for everyone else, but hey, feel free to dive into my race strategy for Saturday!


I have today off of my clinical (awesome), and will be focusing equal portions of the day to my online classes and prep for the race on Saturday.  After reading about Scotty Tri's race prep for the Kansas City Triathlon, I thought I should probably devote a little more time getting everything together, instead of attempting to through everything in a bag at 4:30am on race morning and hoping everything I need is in there.  So, here's everything:


If it's not obvious, I'm going pretty minimalistic with the transition equipment.  I will have no wetsuit to contend with, which makes packing easy, and no socks which also makes packing easy (I guess).  I have been going sockless on quite a few of my shorter training runs and now feel like giving it a try to help cut down my T1 transition time. The biggest thing I will be bringing has to be everything hydration-related.  It supposed to be a hot one!

Pre-Race:  Tomorrow will be my 2nd favorite day concerning triathlons, 2nd only to the actual race:  CARBOLOADING!  Since I have to go to the clinical tomorrow, I will be having a "training partner" (my Supervisor) for my high carb lunch at Chipotle (thanks Ryan for the excuse to consume even more Chipotle than I normally would!).  After my clinical, I will be heading straight home, packing my bike and gear, and then my GF and I will be heading to Topeka!  I may drive the bike course one more time, since they recently made some minor adjustments.  I am planning on a pasta dinner once I get to my parents' house, doing a quick swim in there pool, quick ride and run, then nighty-night!


I will be setting MULTIPLE alarms that morning, as I slept through my 5:00am wake-up for the Heritage Park Tri back in May.  This will NOT be happening this weekend!  Once up, I'm going to grab a bagel, some OJ, a gatorade, and hit the road!

Race Strategy:  Despite my unanticipated training changes, I am still planning on having a decent race (well, decent for me).  I had a good workout today, and did a portion of it at race pace and felt good.  REAL good.  I'm excited to see what happens when I let everything loose!

Swim-  I am planning on imitating a bullet shooting out of a gun for the swim.  I have contemplated not going all out on the swim this race, mainly because I won't be wearing a wetsuit and I really like the buoyancy they give you, but screw it.  It's 400 meters, and apparently the swim is my strongest discipline (still can't believe it).  I just hope I can get into a groove early and keep my breathing consistent.

Transitions-  I am hoping to be under 3 total minutes on my total transition times. I am going sockless, don't have a wetsuit, and now know what a slow transition is.  I am better prepared for the transitions then my last race.

Bike-  This one is up in the air for me.  I am REALLY going to push it.  13 miles is pretty long for me to be going hard, but after driving it, I hoping I can average close to 19 mph for the bike leg, but would settle for something close to 18. My time goal is 44:00.

Run- Tough, slightly hilly 3 miles.  I am shooting for 22:00 for the run.

Total time:  1:14:00

We shall see how it turns out...

Monday, June 13, 2011

Tinman Taper Week!

Taper week is finally here for the Topeka Tinman!  I can't wait for the race because it's my hometown, and my family will be there!  I'm hoping for quite the cheering section!  I will be heading back to Topeka on Friday to pick up my race packet and check out the run course!

I know, that guy looks creepy...

Although my taper "officially" started this week, it really started last week with all my medical issues.  I was "encouraged" by my Doc to take some training off, and I finally did after a few days of continued pain.  I am feeling much better now, but unfortunately I found out today that I have another issue: a torn cornea that is now infected!  AHHH!!!!  I just can't seem to catch a break lately. 

So, after a very, very painful week, I finally went to the eye doc today, got some antibiotic drops and some steroids for the eye.  Can you say PEDs for this weekend?!  Hope I don't get tested.... My eye has been tearing up constantly, and I had to explain to all my patients today that I wasn't crying. Some believed me, others lost a little respect...


Race Goals:  I originally had 3 main goals for this race: 
  1. Finish
  2. " " Under 1:14:00
  3. Run split of 21:00
While I think some of these goals are manageable, I still am going to adjust them accordingly.  Well, maybe not adjust, but I will not be as disappointed if I don't hit them because of my altered training schedule the last few weeks.  I'm still going to bring it (Tony Horton, I hate you...), and am excited to see what I run!


Training:  I did it!  5:00am workout this morning!  Okay, 5:10am, but still pretty good.  The gym was EMPTY.  It was kinda nice.  I am really going to need to fit in more early morning workouts the next month, so I am hoping I can keep this going.  I am going to get up for a ride tomorrow morning, and am excited about not having to deal with traffic ( I live in a fairly busy part of Kansas City). Although nice to get my day started, it does make for a long day at my clinical, especially after lunch.  I'm hoping some of my patients want nap time!


IM KS- CONGRATS TO ALL THE FINISHERS! And how classy was it for Chrissie Wellington to pass out medals after she killed the run?!  Awesome!

Thursday, June 9, 2011

Muscle Cramps and Quick Fixes

As summer approaches and the temperature and humidity start to skyrocket, exercise associated muscle cramps (EAMC) start to increase in endurance athletes.  EAMCs are defined as painful, spasmodic, and involuntary contraction of skeletal muscle that occurs during or immediately after exercise (Schwellnus et al, 2008). This may affect some athletes more than others, me being "the some" because I am a fairly heavy sweater.  So, why does it happen, what can you do to prevent it, and if you do get them frequently, what are some things to get them to "release"?

Why?-  Muscle cramps have been studied pretty heavily, and luckily there are several studies with endurance athletes as subjects.  The etiology and risk factors behind a high prevalence of EAMC's in certain athletes isn't fully understood, mainly because there are several contributing factors, not just one cause (Schwellnus, 2009; Schwellnus et al, 2011).  Some of the factors to consider and are linked to an increased likelihood of muscle cramping is heat, dehydration, electrolyte (sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium) depletion, and altered neuromuscular control (increased muscle excitability). All of these factors are associated with exercising, especially in endurance-related sports.


Prevention-  Some things you can do to prevent those dreaded cramps:

  • Keep electrolyte levels high before and during exercise (Gatorade....)
  • Hydrate!  More blood volume...
  • Passively stretching after exercise!  Stretching after a warm up is a good idea, but not if you are going to be working out.  Passively stretching after warming up actually cools your muscles!
  • Drink Vinegar!  Yeah, I know... gross... research has yet to find out why it works, but it is probably linked to condensed electrolytes (Williams, 2000).
Treatment-  Okay, so you have a cramp.  OOOOUCH!  If yours are like mine, they are tough to alleviate.  Here's what has worked for me!
  • Take a shot of vinegar, pickle juice-  It will alleviate the cramp in about 1 minute, usually less!
  • Ice-  also combine with stretching
  • Stretching-  see Ice
  • Massage- Constant grip and massage of the muscle will allow the skeletal muscle to relax sooner than normal.
  • Replenish your fluids!  

Mark's Big Tip:  Bring a mustard packet with you when you train!


A cheap, portable, and effective option is to take a mustard packet with you when you leave on a run or bike ride (and also a reason to stop by any Micky D's).  If you get a cramp, just try to suck down the mustard.  It will help in under a minute!  Every time I have used this, I have had a cramp in one of my calfs, and was able to keep walking while I waited for the mustard to do it's thing.  I was able to keep running after the cramp subsided. It works because of the high vinegar content in mustard.  It's basically like portable vinegar!  Word of advice: bring water to chase it down because the aftertaste is pretty bad. But better then a cramp! 

References:
Schwellnus, M.P. (2009). Cause of exercise associated muscle cramps (EAMC)- altered neuromuscular control, dehydration or electrolyte depletion? British Journal of Sports Medicine, 43(6): 401-408.

Schwellnus, M.P., Drew, N., & Collins, M. (2008). Muscle cramping in athletes- risk factors, clinical        assessment, and management. Clinics in Sports Medicine, 1: 183-194.  

Schwellnus, M., Drew, N., & Collins, M. (2011). Risk factors associated with exercise associated        muscle cramping (EAMC)- a prospective cohort study in ironman triathletes. British Journal of Sports Medicine, 45(4): 316.

Williams, R. (2000). Those Devilish Cramps. Training and Conditioning, 10(9), retrieved from        http://www.momentummedia.com/articles/tc/tc1009/cramps.htm. 

Tuesday, June 7, 2011

What the eff, alarm?!

As I have previous written (uhh here!), I cannot seem to wake up before 6:00am to get workouts in during the week.  My body just won't let me, even for races!  Well, today I decided to take a huge step and make it happen!

I spent last night preparing for my early morning by getting everything I could possibly get ready set out.  I got my coffee programmed ( a must...), gym bag packed, work clothes out, shaved ( I shave once a week, and it's only for my own self esteem. Still waiting on puberty!), made my lunch, and went to bed early.

It felt weird going to bed so early, but I actually slept great.  A little too great.  Turns out, I either slept through my alarm (possible) or my phone alarm didn't go off (probable).  Either way, I looked at my phone and it said 5:53am.  No swim before work.  What really sucks is I had to  got to volunteer tonight till 9:00pm, right after my clinical. Luckily, I got out early and fit the swim in.

This may have been the first step towards totally giving up on the early morning workouts.  The only fight I have left is the humidity and temperatures at early evening in Kansas, which is usually the time I fit in my workouts.  Its much cooler in the mornings, hence the attraction.  But if I physically can't wake up, I have a problem.

I'm hoping for a surprise post sometime this week, and a minor research summary on some training practice I have yet to choose... going to get on it...

Sunday, June 5, 2011

Unwanted Recovery Weekend

This weekend turned into a very unproductive training weekend, with possibly the worst timing possible. I went back to the Doc on Friday, mainly because I haven't had any improvements.  I talked more this visit to my doctor than the previous one, and I feel like I gave a better representation of what is going on. My doctor thought I was crazy from an exercise standpoint, and as he listened to the last few weeks of my training schedule, realized I may have 2 different infections.  So, she changed my meds, I took the weekend (and Monday...) off of training, and am finally seeing improvements!  Still not completely healed, but definitely a step in the right direction.  Unfortunately for me, I have missed some pretty important workouts the last week.  My volume is down bigtime, which I'm not too worried about, but I was REALLY wanting to get in the speed workouts I missed.  My "A" race for this year is on the 18th, and my taper starts Tuesday.  I am kinda bummed, thinking that I would be in top condition to race, and now I'm wondering if the days off will affect my race.  Oh well... I'm sure I will still win (hahahah!)

Tinman Course Preview:  Despite not training, I did get in some good race-specific re-con in!  I had a wedding in Topeka this weekend (a high school friend), so my GF and I took off Saturday morning, stopped at Dunkin Donuts for breakfast, and after a 45 minute wait in the drive-through (not joking...) headed to Topeka.  On the way to my parents' house, we checked out Lake Shawnee, and more importantly, the bike course.  I definitely wanted to ride it, and it kinda killed me to be driving it and seeing several different bikers out on the course, but it still was beneficial.  It looked pretty flat, LOTS of country roads, with some minor hills the last few miles.  I also glanced at the run course.  I thought it was pretty hilly, nothing too big, but constantly up and down, at least for the stretch I saw.

I can't wait!  This is going to be my homecoming race, and will be the first race my family will be at.  I think they will be pretty surprised, especially with the clothing, or lack there of...

And so it begins....  With my GF coming back home with me and going to a wedding with my family, wedding talk was kinda in the air.  It's not necessarily something I'm not ready for, but it is kinda funny to act like it's this crazy thing to talk about, especially with my Mom.  I guess my GF and Mom had a nice convo without me, and thought that I should "get it into gear" and "find a church".  Haha, it's funny to me, but I'm going to see how long I can hold out...


Despite the unwanted relaxation, this weekend was really nice.  It was good to see my family and hang out at my parent's pool with great weather, and just kept my mind off of what's been going on medically. I did some laps there, but it was pretty difficult to get into a groove. I needed to turn every 4 strokes... 


Not this weekend, but the first time I've seen my Dad in the pool! He's not a swimmer...








And I got Joe Friel's The Triathlete's Training Bible in the mail yesterday!  I have wanted to order it for awhile, and decided to when I purchased my summer text books online!  As if I didn't have enough reading... I hope to get through it fast and post a review of some sort soon!


Hope everyone had a great weekend, got some miles in, and is ready for the week ahead. Thanks for reading!




Thursday, June 2, 2011

I'm going insane...

This week has been ROUGH for training/just living...  I am BATTLING a pretty intense case of Folliculitis (inflammation of hair follicles).  Nothing too serious, but I have been itchy. Non-stop, can't sleep, can't think, can't swim, shouldn't sweat excessively (so no training...).  I am on some antibiotics which appear to be slowly working.  But definitely not as quick as I want.

Training:
Swims have been a no go this week, I'm hoping to be able to get back in the pool on Monday. Also missed a ride (Doc said no bike shorts for a week, too).  Yeah, not exactly on my training schedule 2 weeks before the Topeka Tinman on the 18th.  Sucks, but I just am hoping I get this cleared up before it gets worse. I just want to be able to sleep....

Clinical:
I had my first day yesterday, and it went great. My supervisor is going to be awesome, I work 4 10 hour days a week, so I get Thursdays off!  Pretty awesome.  I got pretty excited about the possibility of fitting in a long run or bike in the middle of the week, just not this week.  Going to be great!

For my first Thursday off, this is my view:

Cleaning out the DVR, Parks and Rec!
Yup, sitting on the couch.  The 3 things of toenail polish, I swear, are not mine....  Just going to get some laundry done, work on an online class, and try to get a short brick in later today, even though I'm not supposed to... Don't tell my Doc!