Wow. I’m finally back. I can say with confidence everything has returned to normal but I have a new since of normal. Good news, I had a summer and fall free of IT band injuries but encountered a season changing accident 5 days after my last post.
While doing the Macon Rock n Roll HIM course, I had a run in with the pavement. We had a vehicle that was going to follow us for the final miles and I decided it was necessary to wave to them. In the process, I hit some gravel and accidentally (not sure why I would do it on purpose) slammed on my front brake and launched myself down the road. It’s one of those things you replay over and over. I immediately sat up, felt my collarbone, and knew my season was over and started screaming unmentionables. About 45 seconds later the pain set in and it was on like Donkey Kong. Since I landed head/shoulder first, they called the ambulance. A 30 minute ambulance ride and 6 hours in the ER later, I’m out with a sling and minor road rash.
The following 4 weeks were a roller coaster of emotion due to changes at work, loss of family members and severe reactions to the pain killers. Not to mention, I couldn’t drive my care because it was manual and I had to rely on my coworker for a ride everywhere. One of the most frustrating things was that there was nothing I could do for rehab. Coming from a heavy sports background, I knew if I could find something to work hard at, it would decrease the needed recovery time. No such luck. It was a 12 week recovery. Period.
I was able to return to the spin bike after 2 weeks and then was cleared for all running and cycling after 10. There was a triathlon in 4 weeks that I registered for in March. I contacted the race director and worked out the switch over to the Duathlon. I made it my mission to get back into some kind of decent shape for that race. After a few sessions on Columns Drive and steady tempo sets at Piedmont Park, I was ready and pumped to race again.
The race went well and walked away with another 1st Overall at the Tri The Parks: Mistletoe State Park Duathlon. This was a great confidence booster and got me back into the training routine.
Jumping back into training was awesome except the swimming. As I found out, I may have rushed back into the water a bit too soon. I ended up having discomfort after a few sessions and was forced to take another 6 weeks off from swimming. With that said, I missed the majority of my planned races. However, new opportunities arose.
Throughout the spring/summer I had been working with a new triathlon shop in town called Cadence Bikes & Multisport. They were positioning themselves as the one stop shop for everything triathlon for the metro-Atlanta endurance athletes. After designing their logo and setting up their website, and racing for their team, I had ingrained myself in the foundation of the new store. I was super eager (still am) to do anything and everything I could for the shop because it was an Atlanta triathlete’s haven.
As the relationship grew, I started taking over the training facility in the back. I managed 8 spin classes a week on top of my full time banking job at Georgia Primary Bank. The days were full but I loved my new part time (almost full time) job.
Between October and January I often pondered what would happen if I took the leap and went on full time as a coach, trainer, fitter, and advertising guy for the shop. In December I received my USA Triathlon Level 1 coaching certification and promptly started coaching a select few athletes to get my toes wet. I loved every second of it.
On January 17th, I put in my 2 week notice with the Bank and decided to stop wondering. I made the leap. I’m now a month into my dream job and find myself waking up each morning excited about all of the things I have to accomplish.
Over the past month I have also been recognized through Slowtwitch as a F.I.S.T. certified fitter. I’m working with Cadence as their triathlon fit specialist and able to utilize their state of the art Dynamic Fit Unit by Guru.
All in all it’s been an incredible 10 months. I can only hope that the next 10 months are as much fun as my first month fully engaged with the multisport lifestyle.
Here’s to change.
If there’s one thing that can derail an endurance athlete physically and mentally, it’s an injury. Training plans aren’t built with the assumption that you will have to take 2-3 weeks off from a particular sport and as you watch the workouts you had planned tick buy it weighs heavy on your mind and body.
Over the last 2 months I’ve been battling severe IT band issues and have finally got a handle on treatment and future prevention. This is the reason I’ve been avoiding the blog. I didn’t want to put my frustrations, anger, and sometimes depression on the screen. It made it more real and I didn’t think it would serve a therapeutic purpose. Luckily, I built a strong enough base in December, January, and February, that I’m picking up right where I left off. This post will go through the stages of what happened and hopefully shed some light to other athletes of what to look for when they amp up volume and start to notice little changes in their body. We’ll start back in September and move forward as some of the things start to make sense in aggregate.
September:
I raced Nationals at the end of September and the week after it was an eye opener. I took a complete recovery week and was immediately hit with flu/cold systems followed by a complete body shutdown. I was at the lowest weight I’d been since high school. I knew this weight was not a long term thing and I would be able to get to a more training weight over the next month.
October:
The weight stayed low and I wasn’t training too much. Really enjoying spending free time with family, friends and having the ability to take time for myself. I did start getting into a routine around the end of the month to do the (almost) half marathon on Turkey day.
November – December:
I settled into a weekly schedule with decent volume and really focused on the run and swim during November and a more even approach in December. The weight still didn’t come back and the volume was approaching normal in season levels. Fortunately, my body felt great.
January:
Boom. I made the conscious decision to really push the volume and see what my body could take in the pool and on the bike. I had my highest volume month ever but noticed my knees were tight after every run. I chalked that up to cold weather and “it’s just something that happens.” I also start noticing that my legs and pectorals look constantly flexed. This may be great for the ladies but that should have sent off some signals.
February:
The tightness in the knees turns to pain and running is the first to go from the training plan. I still truck along with the bike and swim workouts and have a couple of outstanding rides in Cartersville. Then the shoulders get angry and I’m out of commission from Dynamo workouts as well. One week later, I am at ATS and realize I can’t get through a trainer workout. I talked to Coach Tony and we developed a plan that included stretching, dropping volume, and getting back to the basics of stroke work, pedal technique and avoiding the run until it all sorted out.
March:
After a massage, I get back in the water and do half-practices at 70%. I cannot tell you how hard it was during sprint sets and the competitive spirit would come out. I would get to 90% and Maria would be at the end of the lane looking down at me shaking her head with a simple, “what happened to 70%?” I would smile and say “It’s all in the legs, wasn’t using the arms…” Riiiiight… I make it through the Azalea triathlon in March with a great bike and swim and hold on through the pain of the run. Doing that race was probably the biggest mistake of the season. I was so excited to see my family out in Wilmington and show them what I’m passionate about, I lost sight of the big picture (the one Maria would remind me of at the end of the lane).
April:
5+ massages later, lots of stretching, I’m finally 90% and feel I have a grasp on what ticks in my body and how to prevent ticks from turning to bombs. Now, with two 10+ hour weeks under my belt and some real running, I’m ready for the season.
Part 2 will go through the massages, the stretches and more things I learned along the way.
There are points in a plan when you have to evaluate long term goals and immediate ones. Between the craziness going on with the knee and tired shoulders, I continued to back off running and eased back on the swim volume. As much as I wish I had been doing this kind of volume for the last 5 years, forcing the issue probably isn’t the best for the long run (or swim).
However, that does leave me with lots of time for some serious cycling. I’m continuing on my cycling trend and cranked out another 150+ mile week. Most of that was at ATS with some exciting power numbers but the highlight was Sunday’s ride with Tony and the crew at Cartersville.
On Tuesday, Tony and I had a talk about the triathlete mindset. I’m not a cyclist, preparing to chase down a breakaway, or someone looking to draft an entire workout for the sake of a fast mph and easy day on the road. In essence, I need to focus on constant efforts for the 60 mile rides. Chasing down roadies for kicks and giggles won’t help me on race day. However, if I decide to lead a break, I darn well better hold that pace for atleast 30 minutes.
This was my mindset for Sunday. We started with 20+ folks and by mile 5 I was with Tony at the front and someone decided to pickup the pace, I followed and 3 guys came with me. Granted, I did chase a “breakaway” I went into it with the mindset that I would hold catch him and then maintain that pace. The group of us caught the guy and over the next 15 miles maintained a solid threshold workout with each person taking 3-5 minutes out front. By mile 20, it was down to me and Stephen (a relatively new rider to the group). We held a solid pace, continuing the rotation through mile 35 when the inevitable bonk hit Stephen. We slowed to get some nutrition in Stephen but didn’t stop. Over the next 30 miles I pulled him only losing a two tenths of a mile average on the ride.
Between dialing in nutrition and controlling my effort to just above LT, the ride was perfect and the kind of confidence boost I needed for long course racing.
Week Totals:
Swim: 2 hours (7,300 yards)
Bike: 8.5 hours (170 miles)
Run: 45 minutes (2 miles actually on the road!)
Week two of the no-run plan is complete. Body feels good and ready for more. The week was very similar to last week with high bike volume and 4 days of swimming. I did make aqua jog twice and it is… enthralling, as billed. Courtney came up with a better name for the activity: Aquard Jogging. Ha!
Mid week, I finalized plans to compete in the Georgia Cup Time Trial cycling series in Adairsville. I had never done one of these races and figured it would be a fun way to race at speed and evaluate where I was in the greater scheme of training. Along the way, I convinced my roommate William to travel up 75 with me to do the race. I also promised a good ride in Cartersville following the TT (Full race report here).
Following the TT, we did make it to Cartersville for 31 miles of fun. My compatriot ate a bit too much of the $5 tuna foot-long from Subway and felt the aftermath. We took it easy on the last half and enjoyed the weather.
Workout of the week was definitely Sunday’s gorgeous ride on the Silver Comet. A bike gang-sized group of 20 met up at mile 0 of the Comet and the pace groups were divided. Eddie, Blake and I led up the front group and held a solid pace to mile 25 then they turned around. I finished the final 5+ miles to “The Tunnel” by myself and then turned around to meet the second group at around mile 27, to return to the tunnel again. Throughout, we averaged a great pace and served as a good barometer for my longer distance conditioning.
Here are the stats:
Swim: 4 hrs 40min (16,600 yards)
Bike: 9 hrs 30min (189 miles)
Aquard Jog: 1 hour (2 miles???)
Total: 15 hrs 10 min
I made the final decision to sign up Wednesday of that week for the Georgia Cup TT in Adairsville. I started to get excited about racing again and going fast (cheesy but very true). However, more than anything, this was a test to see where I am cardiovascularly and how much speed work on the road I need to do. In short, cardio=great; speed work=iffy.
TT’s in the winter with small venues are odd creatures. I’d best describe them as a 10k running race that hurts a lot more, people take more seriously (people got there an hour before the race and were cranking on their trainers the entire time), few people (15), and there is zero fanfare at the end. If you’re looking for glory or a sense of achievement from crossing a finish-line, you’re at the wrong event. It is strictly to get folks off the trainer and on the road. I’m still not sure how I feel about it but I do know that it’s the last one I’ll do for the winter and I gained what I hoped to from it.
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I am an amateur triathlete and analyst for a commercial bank. This blog will be a guide through the lessons I've learned and adventures I've had in the world of multi-sport.
