Triathlon Training: Training & Injuries
I’ve been training for Triathlon for about a month now. My training schedule is is not as structured as I would like, but as I learn more it is starting to take shape. Over the past month, I’ve accumulated a number “tools” (my wife would tell you “toys”) for this trade: a Timex Global Trainer GPS watch, new goggles, a Cervelo’ tri-bie, lights/reflectors for running/riding in the dark night, compression socks, triathlon pants, etc. Over these past few weeks, each of these items has popped up as an “essential” although one could argue that none of them really were. I admit that this is kind of an expensive hobby, at least in the beginning.
So far, I’ve been getting multiple swim, bike and running sessions in each week. I frequently swim at a local pool and immediately jump out of the pool and go for a run. Running is my weakest part, however I’m quickly getting the hang of it. Unfortunately, I’ve suffered an injury while trying ramp up my distance. A few weeks ago I was on a run and felt a cramp in my right calf. I thought I could “run it out” and kept going. This caused a noticable limp for a couple of days. About 3 days later, I decided to try again and push my distance. I felt another cramp and once again “ran through it”. However, soon I felt something, kind of like a bursting water baloon, in my calf. This shot pain up my leg and I had to walk/hobble home.
My running style if not pretty. I run on my toes and this put excess strain on my calves. Also, I live in a very hill neighborhood. Running hills on my toes only causes additional strain. After that incident, I took an entire week off of running and focused on ice and compression treatments. After a week, my pain was nearly gone and I tested the muscle with a short 1 mile run. It felt good and this past week I’ve done two more runs over 3.5 miles. I think I’m back on track. Since the injury, I’ve been focusing on striking with the middle of my sole. I’ve also been wearing tight compression pants (they are white and my wife laughs at me) to run in and wrapping it tight with an ace bandage post run. This seems to be helping.
The real negative of the running injury is that I feel like I’m missing training in the area that I need it the most. However, I feel like I’m getting through the injury and my training is back on track.
Race Report: My First Triathlon
I had been thinking of giving a triathlon a “tri” for a while. After browsing through some local races I noticed an indoor “sprint” tri at a local fitness club. I marked it on my calendar. It was a 500 yard swim, 6 mile bike and a 2 mile run. I’m coaching two kids soccer teams, however, and when the game schedules came out it overlapped with the race. I scratched the idea. I strongly prefer not to race on Sundays (it doesn’t work with my schedule for church, teaching, family, etc) and this was pretty much the only “sprint” race available.
Fortuantely, about a week before the race, I found out that my soccer game had been rescheduled. Suddenly, my morning was free. I started running on the treadmill to make sure I could run two miles (ugh). I traded about a dozen confusing emails to the race coordinator. I was nervous and totally did not know what to expect. I didn’t get lots of great info from the coordinator either. I decided to go for it.
The morning of the race, I woke up and felt butterflies. I ate a banana, had some coffee and then ate part of a granola bar. I didn’t feel hungry but also had some nerves and knew I needed something for energy. My wife kissed me and wished me luck then fell asleep.
I arrived early and just sat around. Checked out the equipment and watched people way more experienced than I get prepared. Many of them looked very serious with serious equipment. I asked around if the 1st heat was “the fast heat” or not. I was told it was. (I found out later that it probably actually was not the “fastest heat”). I sat on the ground and did some light stretching while watching the other people who looked like they knew what they were doing. I was surprised by the variety of people: I saw grandmas and seasoned athletes. I saw more than one Ironman tatoo. I tried to relax. I met my timer and she appeared to have less of an idea than I did. We talked over the format of the race and I explained that I would really depend on her to count laps because I fully expected to lose my mind during the race.
Before long, the first heat stared. I watched as some non-athletic looking people jumped out ahead. I also carefully watched the first transition to see if there was anything that I should learn. It mostly went how I expected but I noticed a few of the dudes who looked experienced were very anxious in the transition and to my uneducated eye looked like they were rushing too much.
As I watched the 1st heat ride the Lemonds Spin bikes, I quickly noticed problems. The bikes were brand new and evidently were not programmed properly so many of them did not record distance. The leader set the pace and they had everyone ride for the same amount of time. After they jumped off the bikes it was time for my heat to get in the water. I quickly claimed a bike (one with a distance guague that was working!) by setting my shirt and knee brace next to it.
I stripped down to my Under Armour box briefs (which I planned to swim in before putting some mesh workout shorts on over after the swim) and jumped into the pool. The rest of my heat was also in and I kicked off the wall once. I noticed that directly to my left was a guy who looked kind of big, but he was wearing a tri-suit and a swimmer cap. I knew from watching the 1st heat that appearances do not neccessarily mean a whole lot with regards to performance. I thought this guy may be trouble (I assumed since he had the gear, that he was experienced…and I was correct…I overheard him talking later about all the races he had done and had scheduled). To my right was another guy that I didn’t pay too much attention to.
At the “go” signal, I pushed off the wall and half way down on the first lap I could tell I was ahead. I wanted to pace myself but I could tell right away that the guy to my left was not as fast of a swimmer as me and could not hang. The guy to my right stayed right on my shoulder and stayed there for the first lap and half. After that he faded and I was pretty sure I was in the lead (although I could not see real well on the outside lanes). I wasn’t long before the initial adrenaline just faded. I was in the lead and kept checking on the guy to my right when I breathed. I quickly lost track of my laps and was convinced that my timer had too. About half way though the swim I think I started to come unglued a bit. The water felt hot. Too hot, and I couldn’t help but think that I was going to dehydrate in the pool because it was so hot. Why would they keep the pool so hot? (it’s funny the things that you think of). In the previous heat, I witnessed the leader swim an extra lap because he didn’t see the notification from his timer. I was convinced that I had done the same thing. Eventually, however I saw the blue kickboard in the water indicating that I had one lap left and I tried to sprint. I was easily the first one out of the pool, although I stumbled a bit trying to get out. I threw my shorts on and walked to the bikes and noticed a guy standing in front of me taking pictures. I sat down and dried off my legs and feet and put my shoes on. I put my shirt on and noticed a few guys walking in to do the transition. I am pretty sure the guy to my right in the pool was on the bike pretty close to the same time as me so his transition must have been a little faster. Right after getting on the bike, I started pumping away. Soon, the director of the race came around and told me “not to kill myself” as they were giving all the riders the same time on the bike. I wasn’t really satisfied with this. I could have relaxed and just road for 12-13 minutes but I was there to race and to challenge myself. I kept pushing and quickly saw that my ride pace was faster than the leaders. I really focused on keeping that pace up. I finished about a minute and a half faster than the leader’s pace and jumped off the bike. I headed upstairs to the running track and that is where things started getting wacky. The guy that was close to me in the pool arrived at the track very close to the same time as me and we ran close to each other for a couple of laps. I pulled away from him and at this point I realized that I had completely forgotten an important piece of information for the run portion: I had no idea how many laps I was supposed to do. Some may think that is crazy. Keep in mind that I hate running, and will pretty much do anything I can to avoid it. Since I try not to run often, and due to my mental state during the race, I did not have a good “feel” for the distance. More experienced runners undoubtedly can feel how far they’ve gone, but all I could think about was running, not blowing my knee out, and trying to keep ahead. Because of all this, I tricked myself into thinking that I only needed to run 8 laps (like on an Olympic track). About lap 7 I approached a guy in a red shirt and passed him up–lapping him. At the end of 8 laps, I stopped running and felt a brief bit of joy about having completed my first triathalon…in first place. At that point, my timer and about 3-4 other timers started yelling at me: “keep going! you’re not done”. I also heard a guy yell “12″ but I wasn’t sure what he said. So, I started running again. Red-shirt guy was right on my tail. As this point, I started getting very sad. I hate running, and I didn’t know how far I had gone or how much was left. I tried to push myself, but with no real goal in mind I struggled. Red-shirt guy pulled away. When I got to lap 11 I wondered if I was on my last lap but my timer didn’t give me any cues as I passed her. At each increment after that (lap 12, 16, 18, etc) I wondered if I was nearing the end. Soon, I approached the big guy in the tri suit and worked on lapping him. That proved a good bit of motivation but shortly afterward I noticed that red-shirt guy was closing the distance. I could see him in a mirror at the turns of the track and started to panic a bit. I was still leading my heat, but red-shirt guy was closing fast and my big lead was nearly gone. I worked to fend him off until I hit lap 19 and my timer told me it as the final lap. That was all the motivation I needed: I turned it on and sprinted the final lap. I left red shirt guy way behind and finished first in my heat. I was very excited to have finished and was a little bit stunned that I won my heat, even though winning the heat didn’t really mean anything. The guy that was to my right at the start finished a little bit after me and came up and congratulated me: “that was awesome” he said. I’m not sure what he was talking about: the race or me…but I’m going to go ahead and accept the compliment. It was pretty awesome to finish it.
I went and found a place to relax and I was surprised at how quickly I caught my breath and felt recovered. I decided to go check out the freebie snacks that were avaiable. I grabbed a couple of pieces of bagel with honey butter but pretty much as soon as it touched my mouth my stomach started churning. I couldn’t eat. I relaxed and about 45 minutes later I was able to eat.
I stuck around for the awards. I wasn’t sure how I’d fare but since I won my heat I wanted to see how it turned out. I’m glad I did. First, they announced the overall winners. The overall winner was about 4 minutes faster than me. I saw him running on the track after my race and could tell he was very experienced and he looked like he was moving effortlessly. My time was slower than the top 3 overall. When it came time to announce the age group winners I was stunned when I was announced as the winner of the 25-34 age group! I proudly went up and accepted the 1st place award (a gift certificate for a free massage at the club) and opted not to mention that they had me in the wrong age group! (I’m 35 and it was clear on my paperwork!). Perhaps they knew this and they were being nice. I’m glad they had me in the wrong group because the winner of the 35-44 age group was also the overall winner.
Next, they had a drawing for some door prizes. Once again, my name was called!. I received 4 gift certificates to a restaurant. So, all in all, I came away with some cool prizes, a positive experience, the proud feeling of some success and a strong desire to “do it again”.
After the race, my attention immediately turned to racing again…a “real” triathlon.
Triathlon Training
Well, I’m switching up my workout and training regimen again. This blog started as a P90X blog and then morphed into a P90x/Insanity/RushFit blog. Soon after, it became an ACL rehabilitation blog and now you’ll see a new focus: Triathlon training.
As a kid, I was a very good swimmer. I was on the swim team and won all sorts of medals. I’ve always been a fast swimmer. In Junior High, I once completed a “bike hike” which was a 30 mile bike ride on a mountain bike. But I’ve always hated running. I’ve always admired triathletes and thought the sport was cool, but never saw myself as one who could do it because of my aversion to running.
It’s time to defeat that sort of thinking. So, as of now I’m in training for a triathlon. I’ve got my sights set on 3-4 races this summer. I’ve already done one short triathlon (Race report coming soon) and think I’m hooked on the sport.
Stay tuned…
Workout Recap – Insanity Cardio Power and Resistance
This morning I did the Insanity Cardio Power and Resistance workout. At 40 minutes long, this workout pairs with the Insanity Pure Cardio and Plyometric workouts as kind of the “introduction” to the Insanity world. Personally, I find this workout to be the least challenging of the three. If done start to finish with great effort, however, it will still give you great results. Don’t be confused by the name–this is a cardio workout and while it has some pushups-type moves, it’s not going to be a muscle-building routine. Insanity is all about cardio, heart rate and endurance.
Here’s the exercise list for this workout:
Warm Up:
Jog, Power Jacks, Log Jump, 1-2-3 Heisman, Butt Kicks, High Knees, Vertical Jumps (repeat 3 times)
Stretch sequence
Power Jumps, Belt Kicks, Hit the Flooor, V-pushups (similar to Pike Presses). This sequence is completed 3 times with a short break between sets. At the end of the third set, there is no break.
Tricep-dips (Legs on the floor, then a set with each leg raised)
Break
Tricep Ball Push ups
Break
Hurdle Jumps, Globe Jumps, Moving Push Ups, Floor Sprints (similar to mountain climbers). This sequence is completed 3 times with a short break between sets.
Break
8 hop squats + 8 pushups
Stretch sequence.
Workout Recap – Insanity Pure Cardio
This morning I did the Insanity Pure Cardio workout. This is a good little cardio workout that is a good stand-in for Plyometrics or Kenpo X if you’re on the traditional P90X routine. I thought it would be helpful to publish an exercise list for Pure Cardio.
Pure Cardio checks in at 38:17.
Here is the exercise list:
- Warm-Up (30 seconds each move, no breaks):
Jogging, Jumping Jacks, Heisman, 1-2-3 Heisman, Butt Kicks, High Knees, Mummy Kicks
Repeat this sequence three times, each sequence increases in intensity.
- Stretching
This includes various hamstring and hip flexor stretches, basic yoga poses (cresent pose, half moon, etc.) and quad stretches.
- Workout (1 minutes each move, no breaks)
Suicides, Switch Kicks, Wide Football Sprints, Stance jacks, Pedals (sprint, jumping lunge on each leg, repeat), Hooks + Jump Rope (8 hooks, 4 high jumps, repeat with alternating sides), Power jacks, Level 2 drills (8 push ups, 4 mountain climbers, then a jump), Frog Jumps, Power Knees (8 each, alternating sides), Mountain Climbers, Ski Downs, Scissor Runs, Suicide Jumps (Plank to Stand to Jump, repeat), Push up jacks.
- Cool Down Stretch
Workout Recap – Plyometrics
My workout blogging has been quite sporadic (or absent, I guess). That’s mainly because I haven’t had a real program that I’ve been following. I’ve been keeping a pretty workout schedule by including 2-3 lifting days alongside 2 cardio days per week. I’ve basically just been maintaining my current condition which is not really ideal as I’m still carrying extra weight I’ve put on since I had knee surgery.
Today I broke out my P90x Plyometrics CD out for the first time in ages. I opted for no knee brace and expected the worst. Surprisingly I hung through the entire workout and suffered very little discomfort in my knee. I also hung with it cardio wise which was a bit of a surprise. Most of my cardio over the past 2-3 months has been on the elliptical machine and the Fight Conditioning workout from RushFit. I expected to really struggle, but I did pretty well. The only move I really stuggled with was hotfoot on my bad leg…although I guess that is to be expected.
I did not wear my knee brace and felt no ill effects as a result. My knee was rock-solid stable and I never once felt an ounce of hesitation doing lateral movements. I can’t go super deep with my lunges, but honestly never went too deep before. All of this was encouraging because other than a little bit of tenderness to lots of impact, I didn’t feel any performance deficiencies(that were the result of the knee).
RushFit Day 52 – Strength & Endurance Workout
I haven’t been watching the calendar much, but I’ve suddenly realized that I’m almost done with this workout series. Today’s workout was supposed to be done yesterday. But I rested yesterday. On July 4, my brothers and I got involved in another round of grappling. As a result, my entire body is sore. There is a big difference between working out all the time and wrestling with a real live opponent. My sore body, combined with the late night of watching fireworks equalled a day of rest yesterday. So, I was back at it this morning.
I was still pretty sore in starting out. In fact, it wasn’t until about the 28th minute of the workout that I finally felt like I was getting into the groove. By that point, the workout was over.
On another note, if I have a quibble with RushFit (as compared with P90x), it’s the nutrition program. In RushFit, the nutrition program is essentially a few pages in a booklet that provides a Caloric Needs calculator and some basic instructions of nutritional philosophy. This is fine for the self-disciplined person. I found the P90x nutritional guide to be informative and simple to follow. Over the past 52 days, I think I’ve improved my overall fitness, but I haven’t lost any weight or inches around my waist. That’s not RushFit’s fault. It’s the donuts and cake fault. Effective yesterday, I’m following the P90x Fat Shredder nutrition program. We’ll see if I get good result again.
Day 44 – Explosive Power Training
Today was supposed to be Core and Abdominal Strengthening day, however I swapped yesterday’s workout with today for the sake of my workout buddy. When we didn’t get out of bed this morning, I was on my own. That’s not a problem for me, but I do admit that it’s a little easier to ramp up the intensity when I’m working out with someone.
This workout is quite fun, but honestly it worries me too. I think this one is the hardest RushFit workout on my knee. Last week I was really dealing with some pain and I’m pretty sure it all started with Explosive Power Training. There are lots of jumps in this workout and I think the impact took its toll. Today, I wore my cross-trainer shoes and also laid out an extra piece of carpet to land on. That seemed to help.
One thing that would really help, however, is if the trainers Erik Owings and Georges St. Pierre would take a hint from Tony Horton and advise us to “think like a cat” when landing.
As annoying as Tony Horton is, he is also very charismatic and I think that he does actually do a good job of providing meaningful advice…as long as you don’t mind the occassional (or rampant) nonsense talk about his uncle throwing no-hitters.
Day 43 – Abdominal Strength & Core Conditioning
Today is supposed to be Explosive Power Training, but since it’s Tuesday I didn’t have my workout buddy. Knowing that I’ll be more “explosive” tomorrow, I decided to take on Abdominal Strength and Core Conditioning today.
This is really a good workout. I still think that “opposites” is a very difficult move. Also, in Round 5 I’m simply unable to do a “sit through”. Other than that, the workout went well and felt pretty good.
RushFit Day 37 – Cardio
Today was supposed to be Cardio + Balance and Mobility. My knee is still quite sore and so I was a bit hesitant to jump into the Balance/Mobility workout, even though it’s not a super intense workout, while the knee was hurting. Instead, I did 45 minutes on the elliptical machine.
In thinking about it, I think my knee is hurting from the pounding of working out in the basement. I’ve been working out barefoot, and we just have a plain berber carpet over a concrete basement floor. Yesterday’s workout involves quite a few jump squats. I think the past few weeks of jumping and landing on this hard floor has taken its toll. I’m 98% certain that I haven’t torn my ACL again. But I do kind of wonder if I’ve agravated/strained my meniscus again.
I plan to spend the next few days just taking it easy on the leg. This weekend is an important one: we have our family campout which will also feature a grappling tournament among all the males in the family. This is an important event and I really plan to win it: even with a bad knee.
