Run types

Half-fast is a great read, the blog is truly funny and I got a good laugh out of his 9 Types of Runs, check it out...

Training secrets from a 6 yr old's perspective

No matter how old you are, what your experience or expertise are, you can always learn something from a child.
My son is into riding his bike lately, it's cool. Dave and I never push him into doing anything, we want him to figure out what he likes on his own. No doubt he is influenced by the both of us making the time to fit in the training we need to accomplish goals, we hope it is a positive influence and we hope he finds joy in whatever it is he likes to do. For a 6 year old, that changes quite frequently. He's been all about the skateboard in the last couple of months, including growing out his hair into a "skateboard cut" so when he wants to go out for a bike ride, Dave and I drop everything and take him. We have a perfect one mile loop around the block but it's not flat. For the past couple of years since he has learned to ride a bike, we have to push him up the steeper rollers, he just wasn't strong enough to make it up on his own. Starting out on today's ride, we took the usual counter clockwise loop and he said he wanted to do 2 miles. Keep in mind that little man is all of 45 inches tall so 2 miles cranking the pedals on a mini bmx bike is similar to you and I riding 15-20 miles easily!
Going down the first mini hill on the way out, it made my heart sing to hear him "woo-hoo! woo-hoo!" the sounds of real enjoyment. He was proud of himself that he "didn't hit the brakes, even once mom". We rounded the next corner to the first "climb" he made it half way and stopped. I said "You know Van, you are a bigger boy now and I bet if you got your momentum going down the next hill, you could get up all by yourself if you work hard"- he needed to think this over and I could tell he was because as we were cruising down hill, he started yelling "Oh Yeah, Momentum! Oh Yeah! Momentum!" but he still didn't quite make it up the next big hill, I had to give him a little push again. When we made the last left towards home (with Van stopping at the stop sign, looking for cars and yelling out "Clear!" before we made the turn, you can tell he's a cyclists child) he decided that he wanted to do the second mile in the reverse direction. "Wow I said, that's pretty huge, the hills are a little steeper when you go in reverse" he replied that he could handle it. After telling me it was "car back!" before we made the u-turn at home, we started mile 2. Delight on the first down hills with more whoops and smiles and I thought for sure that I was going to have to stop and give him a boost up the next roller. To my surprise, he stood up and those little legs cranked it up to the top of the next hill. He flew down the backside and then once again, up out of the saddle and really worked hard and pushed to get to the top of the last hill! I said "WOW Van!!!! That was great!! What made you decide to go for it??" he said, "Mom, I pictured that hill calling me a 'big fart' and I'm not, so I just went up." LOL I thought it was priceless, the next time I ride a challenging course and I'm tired, the legs are aching and I just want to get to the top, I am going to use that little mental picture he created for himself and picture that hill calling me a big fart and I am going up as fast as my legs will take me!

Sleep

I love the Olympics but thank God they are over. I haven't slept in 2 weeks! There is something so cool about watching the best in the world do what they do and how fast they do it!!! The swimming was amazing of course, so was the track but I would watch whatever it was they had on. As soon as Van knocked out for the evening, I planted myself in front of the tube, even though I dvr'd the NBC broadcast, I never quite had the time to watch it the next day so I ended up staying up until 12, 12:30, 1 am! The only thing I wish for was the ability to pick and choose the sports I wanted to see and watch them all in a row. They didn't show much on track cycling, triathlon, rowing, mountain biking or marathon swimming. The women's and men's marathon were cool to watch though and I was glued to the TV watching the men's marathon on Saturday night, what a strategy.
For more really awesome images that you can view and save, click here.

For an excellent article on Olympic men's marathon running technique and economy, click here.

Weekend events and 18.25 in the books

1

172

SNOBLE, Anthony

EAST ISLIP NY

Overall Male

00:12:24.084

00:00:32.074

00:43:30.929

00:00:25.855

00:21:36.301

01:18:29.243

Check that out, it's awesome!!! Anthony won the Xterra Schiff Scout race this past Sunday which is even made greater by the fact that he raced the Xterra Mountain Championship race in Utah, brutal climbing up to 10000 feet on the bike. Congrats!!!

Larry Costantino finished 10th overall at Xterra Schiff!

Kate Tormey finishing 2nd in her AG at the West Point triathlon with a great swim, fast bike and blazing run!

Sam Cila was the 14th overall military finisher at the West Point Triathlon and he took 10 minutes off his time from last year on tired legs from finishing the Timberman 70.3 last week!

Elizabeth McCourt had a great Tobay triathlon, clocking a faster 5k split by almost a minute since the Montauk Light house sprint, congrats on a sub 1:30 finish!!!

Mary Ellen Stajk (who before the race had no idea that she was part Polish as the Polish Firefighters recorded "Stajuck" on her race entry), Ingrid Braun and her boyfriend Andrei and myself did the Jamesport fire department 10k after running long first. A week after Timberman and 7 weeks before the Chicago marathon, I needed to get in a progressive 18 miler, so what not a better way than to finish with a 10k with the goal of running it at "marathon goal pace". If you've never done it, the Jamesport 10k is also called the "sound to bay 10k" it's run from the Iron Pier beach on the north shore, through Jamesport to finish at the marina on Peconic Bay Blvd. It's a fairly flat point to point and the best part about it is the raffle: everyone wins something and the local wineries, nurseries and farms donate the prizes. In the past I've won mums, and 10 lb bags of potatoes, this time Ingrid got the 10 lb bag of potatoes, Andrei got a bottle of wine and a cool plant. I walked away with an azalea and a 52 minute finish for the last 10k of an 18 mile run. I was very pleased!
I got to the finish at 6:30 and ran for an hour easy- 6.3 in 59 minutes. I met up with M.E., Ingrid and Andrei and we ran to the start- 6 miles then about 10 minutes later we started the 10k. I used Dave's Garmin yesterday, here are the splits:
1 9:22 HR 137
2 9:18 155
3 9:32 156
4 9:06 155
5 9:59 155
6 9:33 156
7 9:43 153 On the way to the start
8 9:31 154
9 9:07 159
10 9:03 159
11 9:09 155
12 8:58 157
13 8:02 165 First mile of the 10k, whoops too fast!
14 8:37 166
15 8:44 164 Much better, settled in. Goal, try and drop the last 2 miles.
16 8:45 167
17 8:14 168
18 7:36 170 I surprised myself over the last mile, run threshold HR hit
.25 8:14 173 DONE! :)
Average pace for the 18.25 = 9:01, 2:44:38 total time and 2172 cals burned.
I used diluted gatorade and 4 hammer gels (chocolate, yum). My stomach was not feeling great afterwards, I have to order some Heed from Hammer. The word is that Chicago uses gatorade endurance and it's concentrated. I may over the next few weeks experiment with water, endurolytes and gel only.
M.E. finished second in her AG, Ingrid finished 5th in ours. It was a great day and a fun time! Recovery is in full swing today, I still haven't taken the compression socks off yet!
j

The "magic" ingredient- a coach's rant

"[For] those that listen I tell, there is no secrets, and average Joes can make good gains too with out going full-time or getting a divorce. Now, regarding tech, it’s a crutch. And the first thing I do with my athletes is kick the crutches out."

~ Brett Sutton

I absolutely love this quote from a recent Slowtwitch interview with the controversial triathlon coach of superstar triathlete Chrissie Wellington. Sutton has been coaching some amazing athletes over the course of the last 15-20 years but has gotten a lot of press and noticed after Chrissie won IMHI last year. Everyone wants to know what his secret is, but that's just the thing, there is no big secret! Just a great coach with good intuition about what the athletes need to do to succeed, his results prove that he knows what he is doing and if you haven't read the three part interview on Slowtwitch, check it out, it's worth it.
This quote reminds me of myself as well, I just never expressed it as well as Mr. Sutton and it reminded me of an experience I had with an athlete early in the 2008 season. This person called me in February, having gotten my name though a mutual friend and was looking for a coach for the upcoming 2008 season. One of the first questions he asked me was "do you require athletes to have power meters?". Of course I said "No" and asked him his reasoning behind this question and I also asked him how long he had been into the sport of triathlon. He did his first race the year before and his friend signed on with a coach that refused to train him unless he used a power meter for the bike. At the time, I thought to myself, "Wow!"! Maybe for the locals on the eastern end of LI, money is a little tighter than the Western end of LI, but throwing down on average another $1000 for a power meter is a huge chunk on change on top of coaching, race fees and travel expenses to get to the events we love to do. I have been thinking about this "requirement" a lot since then and the quote from Brett Sutton really put it into perspective for me as to why I was so offended by a newbie triathlete having to buy a really expensive piece of equipment that for your average Joe, is not the most necessary tool to have in the first year or two of dabbling in the sport of triathlon.
Don't get me wrong either, I love training an athlete with a power meter. I am a sports scientist and all sports scientists love data, the more the better. Training with power on the bike is one of the most effective tools in improving performance. You can gauge fitness, effort levels, strengths and weaknesses. It can help you with pacing, it provides targets to reach for and can prevent overtraining. It can help you determine the most effective position on your bike. Training with power is great, whereas HR can be affected by what you ate, how much you slept, stress, the environmental conditions, watts are watts- YET IT IS STILL A TOOL and it can also be a crutch for many people and for a relatively new athlete just getting into the sport, there is so much to learn in the beginning, particularly about how the body even feels and responds to changes in training that if they are going to spend a 1000 bucks on a piece of equipment, I would much rather see that invested in a good set of race wheels or even better, a dietitian so that they could lose the extra 10, 15, 20 or 30 pounds that would ultimately offer them more speed than and greater gains in fitness than a power meter could!!!!!
There are many tools to use in gaging and interpreting fitness. The most critical of these tools is feedback to your coach. If I don't know how fast or not you are going, or what workouts you did or didn't do, or how you feel, if you are recovered, what you are eating and drinking when working out, if your muscles feel sore to the touch, if you feel like you are coming down with sickness then I can't help you by making the decisions that you sought me out for and if you tell me too late then I just end up as a tool for damage control and that's not good either. Feedback is critical and it can come in many different forms, hopefully with the new software I will be implementing for the 2009 season, it will make me an even more effective coach as it will allow you to upload your Garmin, Powertap, Ibike, Polar, etc directly so I can read and interpret the data for you. Even better! Let the exercise physiologist's trained eye make sense of it- that is one of the things I am here for, to interpret it and make the adjustments necessary so you can be and have the success you seek. Will you need to have any one of those instruments to take advantage of a higher level of coaching??? NO! I will still set your target heart rate and run pacing ranges based on field tests and workouts, "real world" data. The cool thing for my high and for my low tech people will be that I will be able to compare what I wrote for you with what you did, immediately, that day as soon as you log it in, instead of the excel formats or word documents or email reports or phone calls. If you do have them, all the better! They are great tools and we will utilize them well, but don't forget to log how you feel as well, because that can tell you more than all the gadgets ever can.
So is tech a crutch? It's a great topic for debate. Technology can be a fantastic way to interpret fitness gains or help you determine when to take a rest, especially for obsessive compulsive athletes that hate to take a day off. Technology is great for determining your pace and the threshold level before you enter the red zone. Technology is great for providing hard data and feedback to your yourself and your coach. I am super psyched about using power to work on the climbing abilities of a world class Xterra athlete so that we can mimic the demands of the Xterra circuit with training right here on LI. I am psyched to be working with a professional cyclocross racer to improve the high power outputs and neuromuscular adaptations necessary to that sport. I love the Garmin as it can really teach you to run at a consistent and steady pace and give you real time feedback as to how fast your repeats really are. It's all cool, but you can also learn to run at a steady pace on a track or by clocking your mileage on a bike and using a stopwatch! You can improve power in an number of ways without having a watt readout! Technology can be a crutch! I have seen athletes become such slaves to their power meters and gadgets that they forget that perceived exertion plays an enormous role in pacing and let's not forget the "x" factor, motivation! If you are a slave to your gadgets constantly the fun and the excitement, the anticipation and the extra reaching to go that much faster near the end can also be compromised and performance can fall short. Gadgets and technology are tools to be utilized to help you and assist your training to reach peak performance but they are not the be all end all, sometimes the best workouts and races come from simply leaving the watch and the expectations home and just enjoying yourself instead of constantly checking splits. Sometimes you just need to let go.
So what is the magic ingredient? How do successful coaches do it? What is my secret to helping athletes achieve consistent top level results and PR's year after year? The big secret doesn't exist, it's intuition about what every individual athlete needs to do. It's good instincts and experience, it's being able to continually learn from all the different types of people that I coach, it's trial and error, it's risk taking, it's believing in myself, it's trusting my judgment, knowledge and good decision making. It is also knowing the athletes I work with on a personal level for a long commitment of time- years. It's investing that time and energy in "the grand plan". 90% of the people that train with me have been loyal to me and have trained with me for years, this is the key, this is what makes it work. I invest an enormous amount of time and energy planning and thinking about your training, probably as much as you do and in that time spent, I get to know you well, it takes a lot of time to hone in on the weaknesses to improve. Friendships and trust forms and it's a great bond, it's the magic that leads to success.
It takes time to get to know anyone really well, when I first start working with someone I like to know what the goals are for the year so I can structure the immediate program but I also like to know, what's in store for next year and the year after, where do you see yourself as an athlete because there needs to be a progression in time, frequency, duration, recovery, communication and it takes a while, years really. I know how to set up that progression and I know what you need to do to get there and you need the time to adapt to the training, I also need that time to tweak it. I am always learning from you and with you, it's a constant process.

For those of you that know me well, I do not advertise or promote myself in anyway. The athletes that I work with have come to me through word of mouth. It usually works like this: "Dave [or Charlie or Anthony or Sinead or Danielle, insert any number of names here] who is your coach?". This happened recently at a post IM celebration party over at Lori G's house, it happened last winter when Stefan Judex contacted Dave to find out who was coaching him as well! Many people know who my husband is, or have seen his results, consistently at the top over the past 8 years and they inevitably ask him "who is your coach, what kind of plan are you following?" and Dave's response is "talk to my wife" and if I happen to be there this is usually met with looks of surprise or a raised eyebrows, people don't know who I am and the anonymity is fine with me, I like the results of the people I have the pleasure to work with, or have worked with in the past, speak for themselves. The person who asked this question recently then picked my brain for the next hour and I was happy to answer his questions. It's all about fun and working towards improvement, everyone can always improve and I love a good challenge.
Everyone loves to do what they are good at or comfortable with, but challenge yourself, work on identifying your weaknesses and then train the weakness to become stronger, use the tools to help you along the way and use your head to. Or use my brain, pick it! The crutches can be technology, it can be lack of sleep, it can be food, it can be a lack of feedback to your coach, it can be making the time. So figure out what your crutches are and kick them out!

Timberman 70.3 Race Report

What a great week!! I have some great photos and stories to share from Timberman week up in New Hampshire. We just arrived home this evening so I'll do a quick race report and get those photos uploaded and a very funny story about Anna losing her shoe in THE flume over the next few days.
First of all: Congratulations to Sam Cila, Gary Despres, and new friend Chris Chandler on completing their first half ironmans!!! Timberman is a very tough half ironman, especially for a first ever! Congrats guys, you did great! Sam and Chris also race for Operation Rebound, the wounded warriors division of CAF. Sam just started triathlon one year ago in the recovery from losing the function of his left forearm and hand from a near death experience with a roadside bomb in Iraq- it is so great to see the strides and improvements in fitness over the last year, you have truly come a long way and it was a pleasure to watch you race and to listen to the 2009 year line up- back for more!
Post race, Gary and Sam had some great comments: Gary said that the only flat part of the entire race was the swim and Sam replied that he thought there was a hill in the swim to. LOL very funny, but true- "rolling hills" takes on a new meaning in headwinds in NH.
4 weeks post Ironman Lake Placid, Dave and Larry both turned in great races: Dave finishing a solid 10th on what he refers to as "short course" and Larry finished 5th- both said that they could still feel Lake Placid in the legs and that the Timberman course was tough. That says a lot right there coming from Dave Gatz and Larry Costantino.
My report: I felt GREAT! The whole day. With my focus on the marathon this year, Timberman played a "B" priority role. All I wanted was to go in feeling good the whole day and have a decent run off the bike. I accomplished both goals and came in under 6 hours (another goal and barely, that seems to be a theme this summer, my total time was 5:59:41!).

• The swim: Dave and I were in the last few waves of the morning. While we were standing on the beach, we noticed that the officials were allowing athletes to swim just to the right of the buoy's, we decided that it would be a good tactic for both of us being that we are lefty sided breathers. When it was time for my group to start, I did exactly that and only 2 other girls followed me. It was great, I had clear water, stayed right on the buoy line and swam comfortably. I figured that I would swim right around 40 minutes and I was accurate with that pace range. I wanted to feel comfortable swimming, half iron is a long day and at this point in my fitness, I need to conserve as much as I can for the run. I feared pushing the pace at the start because I did not want that left shoulder burn I still get a year post surgery. I cruised the swim and was making great time until the last turn- coming back into shore was a little rough with the wind chop and it took me a little longer to get in, but all in all- I felt awesome, like an easy swim in my own Wildwood Lake and got out in 41 minutes.
  
• A semi quick transition- and off on the bike...
• I did about half of the bike training that I did last year and I expected that I would not see any improvements in split times this year. Going into Timberman based on what my long rides in training have been I felt that I was in 3 hour shape. Last year all I could do was bike and I did a lot of it, with Sinead, up at Bear Mountain a couple of times, Lake Placid riding twice, Gold Coast ride and sucking off Dave's wheel every chance I got. I have always been fortunate to whip myself into shape on the bike very fast. Since the bike is a strength for me, I chose this year to step it back and concentrate on the running, my weakest discipline and I am happy I did this because I think it will pay off hugely in the next couple of years. I was a little nervous about the bike in Timberman knowing that I did not do all of the preparation because I sacrificed the time on the bike for the marathon training. It was a good sacrifice. I could feel that I did not have the same level of zip on the uphills as I have had in the past, I love to climb- a tough bike is my favorite kind of course. Even without the zip, I caught and passed many of the women in my age group that came out of the water ahead of me. I felt strong and was confident that I could keep it conservative and come in right around 3 hours and I did that. After the first climb out of the start area, I hit a bump and it knocked out the cyclo computer so I rode without speed data. I was a little annoyed at first because I like to keep tabs on what I am averaging but in the end I think it worked out for the best. It forced me to rely on pacing myself by feel and with the HR monitor. I felt great the whole time. Nutrition was spot on- one 2 hour bottle of Perpet, one regular bottle of Perpet, all 5 hammer gels and water in between. My belly felt great, my legs never felt the pinch of the climbs. I had to pee so bad by mile 30 and there were so many people around that I couldn't just let it fly however, I actually stopped- I haven't done that since year 2000 in all these years of distance racing, but for the minute I took, I was glad of it- relief and comfort never felt so good. I did this only because I knew that I am not anywhere near vying for a Clearwater slot- I will get there, and when that happens, I will not be stopping in the future but for Sunday's race it was just fine! We had a headwind all the way out to the 28 mile turn around- which I hit in 1:26 and I was looking forward to a tailwind on the return and an even faster split, at the halfway point I was thinking I would go 2:55! Not to be. The winds changed and the headwind was even stronger on the way back in. It was tough, especially on the open highway up the long graduals. Not fair but life isn't. My return split was 14 minutes slower (13 really if I didn't stop) and I came in at 3:10 on pretty good legs, certainly feeling better than last year when I rode 3:01. Could I have ridden faster? Yes. I didn't push myself at all but I think that it would have cost my legs in the end if I did. So I rode 3:10 instead of 3:00. A mile per hour slower almost than last year. Yikes! I'm not worried about it in the slightest though because I truly believe I have a 2:45-2:50 in me on that course in the next year or two and I'll get it. It's a realistic goal based on past and present fitness and my current training reflecting a 2 day cycling schedule for this season to run more. Onto the run...
• I felt great and confident going out onto the run. My goal was to try and hold marathon pace plus ~5%. I did it. The strategy was to run steady and easy over the first 9-10 miles and then to pick up the pace over the last 4 progressively by dropping 10-15 sec per mile. For a hot and humid day, I did a great job keeping myself hydrated because I had to stop at the port-o-john! My first mile was 10 minutes with the stop so I ran a little bit faster in the second mile to keep myself on track. Second mile was 8:50. Third mile- 8:50, 4th: 9:00 (both of these miles are the only flat sections of the run). Coming out of the 4th mile you hit the rollers again and there are some really big uphills on the way back in from miles 4-6 so mile 5 and 6 were on the 9:30 mark. I felt great coming back in for the turn around through transition. Mile 7 is an uphill- a nice long gradual, I ran 9:39 and tried to pick it up- for miles 8 and 9 I ran 9:15's, 9:05 for mile 10 and then I just focused on keeping the pace steady and trying to drop it each mile. Mile 11 was 9:03- 12 going uphill was 9:20 and looking at my chrono if I wanted to make it under 6 I was really going to have to step it up. I ran an 8:23 finishing mile, crossed the line happy and hot and immediately went and jumped in the lake!

I'm pleased. Timberman and Montauk Sprint were my only planned triathlons this season and I accomplished my goals in both. I do believe that it takes a good 8-10 years of endurance training to really begin to be able to "race" a long distance triathlon. I'm 6 years in now since the 2000 IM Florida that started the long distance adventures of Jen and Dave Gatz. One year to childbirth and one almost 2 years to injury from that bike accident and only now am I finally really feeling good at the end of an endurance event, this is huge for me. I am fully enjoying marathon training this year but Timberman rekindled my love for the sport of triathlon again. I almost feel like I raced for the very first time on Sunday and I see all kinds of potential for myself in half and full ironman again, I had lost sight of this for awhile and now I have a whole new set of goals for 2009 and I'm PSYCHED to race half ironman again, I believe there is a lot of untapped speed in me that only needs the right vector in training to come out and it will. I have much more gray hair now than when I started this sport in 1995 but have a look at the times for the 40-44 year old women at Timberman, they were the fastest!!!!! I'm 37 this summer- I have a PR half IM of a 5:23 on the flat course of Eagleman. Timberman is a good 20-30 minutes slower and I do believe I can hit the 5:30 mark up there. I can't wait! Sign up with me! :)
j

Step down week recap

I have officially finished the first step down week of taper going into the Timberman Half Ironman next week and I look forward to an even easier cruise this week into the race. It took me quite a few days to recover from the 17 miler, not as many as after the NYC half marathon however so the adaption to long running is coming along nicely. I finally feel that I am back to previously strong levels, but not at a peak yet, hopefully with the continued taper this week I will hit that peak on Sunday. The recap: Monday and Tuesday I took off. I needed the rest. The progressive 17 mile run took a lot out of my legs and although I scheduled myself to ride easy and swim on Tuesday- I was tired and enjoyed the day off at the beach. Wednesday am I ran for 50 minutes easy, got caught in the rain and made it to the house just as the thunder started- it was a theme for the week. Thursday I got in a nice 60 minute ride on the trainer with 4 x 5 min goal paced efforts in. My heart rates were a good 10 beats lower than last months and I felt strong- I always enjoy the data that points to increased fitness. I swam in my pool for 30 minutes doing 8 x 100 on a 1:45 pace with 10 sec rest. My youngest sister, Amy and her fiance Dan were up from NC, so we headed over to my mom's on Friday. I got a nice 32 mile ride in on the Fri am Kreb cycle ride course. I did the 32 miles in 1:31, averaging 19.8 for the ride. I was really happy with this as I was riding at an easy to moderate effort. The last 10 minutes of the ride were probably the fastest as I got caught in the thunderstorms and stinging sideways rain close to home. Scary. Amy told me she is going to run a couple of 5k's this fall and aim for a sprint triathlon or two next summer. I am very excited about this and look forward to helping her complete her first triathlon! She's an ex-college swimmer so the swim is no problem, she's already running a 9:30 pace and with a little biking in over the winter and spring, she'll do great! With her 5k in mind, I went to the track with her later on that afternoon. We warmed up easy together, then she went onto her 2 laps easy/1 lap faster workout and I completed 4 x 1000 at a 10k pace on the track. I did them consistently on 4:55 and was comfortable. I finished the last half mile cool down just as the lightening and thunderheads came back and once again finished in a torrential downpour for the day. Three times the charm this week. Saturday was a lake swim day with 5 x 2 min race pace efforts. Today I did my last longer workout before the shutdown this week. I rode my favorite Halsey Manor loop two times, finished with 40 miles in 2:04, averaged 19.4 and then did a transition run off the bike for 3 miles. My intent was to run at marathon pace of 8:45-50's. I did the first loop in 7:57- yikes! Too fast! slowed myself down for the second loop in 8:15, still too fast! and slowed myself down again but ran 8:20 for the third mile. I have to start using Dave's Garmin. The good news is that the taper is kicking in because I felt fine but these are not realistic splits for me for 13 miles off the bike. If you have never ridden the Halsey Manor Loop with me, you should join me sometime. It's got a little of everything: short steep hills and long gradual inclines, windy sections and a good downhill to practice descending safely. The traffic is minimal and the major roads have plenty of shoulder room for cyclists. It's a great ride. Halsey Manor does not have the really steep inclines that the Timberman course has at the beginning and end though, I do not expect to average as high up there. Last year I averaged 18.5 and finished the bike course in three hours. I would be happy to do that again this year and if I go a little faster comfortably, than that's a bonus only, I really would like to have a good run so holding back a little on the bike there will be important for me to have enough in the tank to run the half marathon decently. Perception is am amazing thing. Last year, Timberman was the focusing tool I used to get through extensive physical therapy after shoulder surgery last year, I was very nervous to race and I am typically not like that. This year, Timberman is almost an afterthought because I am so focused on completing Chicago to the best of my ability. I have no expectations other than to have a fun day, enjoying each discipline and the well organized race and the benefit the long endurance day will have on my marathon training. I am tapering into the race because it's a half ironman, it's a long day and I need to be fresh to do as best as I can and recover quickly. I am already looking towards and more nervous for the 18 mile progressive run ending with the Jamesport 10k that I have planned on the 24th! In the meantime I look forward to more rest and step down week part II...
j

Recovery

Breakdown, repair, build. Training is a physical stress on the body, the "breakdown" results in micro trauma to muscle tissue, especially in the legs for endurance athletes. The breakdown phase typically follows a longer duration of exercise than what the body is accustomed to (long rides or runs) or a more intense period of training (intervals). Muscle soreness occurs from cell damage. Excess force beyond what the body is capable of handling at the time breaks down the cell membranes of the muscle cells (the sarcolemmas). This breakdown causes a release of calcium and other metabolites which can build up at abnormal levels leading to further tissue breakdown, inflammation and muscle soreness. Repetitive activities like cycling or running at higher intensities or prolonged durations can breakdown the muscle fibers and damage to the muscles can occur more extensively several days after exercise rather than immediately after the workout is finished! The term for this is delayed onset muscle soreness (DOMS). Training to improve strength and endurance requires that you overload the body so that it can adapt and grow stronger BUT if you do not allow yourself to recover from the exercise, you can actually over-reach in training and send yourself on a downward spiral for performance decline. What you do immediately after exercise and the hours that follow it is just as important as the workout itself. To promote recovery from long duration or high intensity workouts:

• Have a nutritional strategy in place during the workout so that you are getting enough calories to complete the required activity and not dipping into your muscle glycogen reserves. For more information on exercise nutrition, click on the link or on the right for "Exercise Nutrition 101"
• Immediately after exercise within the first 60 minutes, replenish your fluids with water and eat a meal/snack that contains carbohydrate and protein. If you have trouble eating immediately post workout, than have a bottle of Recoverite or Endurox ready, drink that, and eat a meal within two hours of the workout. In a recent study, whole wheat flake cereal with non-fat milk was shown to facilitate recovery at least as well as a carbohydrate sports drink. Even more interesting was the finding that only the cereal and milk blunted the rise of blood lactate while raising insulin levels significantly higher than the sports drink. Insulin's job is to facilitate the uptake of blood glucose into the muscle tissue- very important for restoring muscle glycogen supplies to normal levels.
• Recent research has shown the benefit of taking NSAIDS (a.k.a. ibuprofen or naproxen sodium) after exercise in preventing muscle injury, soreness and strength loss in older individuals. It is NOT recommended to take ibuprofen during a longer distance event to mute the effects of pain. Recent research conducted on athletes at the Western States Endurance Run has concluded that ibuprofen taken while competing actually cause MORE oxidative stress compared to athletes not taking it. This would definitely increase your recovery time. A 2006 study concerning Ironman triathletes also indicates that NSAIDS taken during competition can actually increase the risk of hyponatremia. In summary, DO NOT take an anti-inflammatory during competition. NSAIDS after a long run or a high intensity interval session may be beneficial in reducing recovery time but further research will need to be completed to see if the benefit that is extended to older individuals in a strength training scenario, has a benefit in recovery for endurance athletes as well.
• Compression socks: while some research has shown no advantage to wearing compression socks during running in controlled trials, a field test study did show a decrease in muscle soreness and DOMS after completing a 10k in compression socks. This is a significant finding and would suggest that the socks with 18-22 mmHg of pressure worn for races 10k through marathon significantly decrease recovery time in the days after the race. It has long been known that compression socks increase the return of fluids back to the heart and this benefit in increased circulation is what aids recovery. If you don't own a pair yet, go down to the local drugstore and get a pair off the shelf but you may consider buying a more fashionable pair for long distance racing and training.
  
• Supplements: I recently posted on the efficacy of certain supplements. Certainly glucosamine and chondroiten has been shown in numerous studies to benefit joint health with its anti-inflammatory properties. The anti-oxidants are equally as important in sopping up the free radicals produced from the oxidative stress of exercise.
• Yoga: Its been a fabulous recovery and injury prevention tool for me and many other people. The dynamic stretch and tension release cannot be mimicked by static stretching. If flexibility problems contributing to injury have plagued you in the past, consider taking up a mild form of yoga at a local studio. I can also recommend some great DVDs to do at home.
• Light intensity exercise: an easy 30-45 minute spin in the small ring or a 20-30 minute easy recovery swim can go a long way in increasing circulation and blood flow to sore muscles speeding up recovery. After a hard interval session, refuel and rest and later on in the day, go for a short REALLY easy no effort spin or a swim, it can help flush the legs out and prepare you for the next days work effort.
• Rest: Last but not least. You do need to take a day off, sometimes two. If you are really sore to the touch, it's a sign that there is significant damage. Allow your body the time to adapt to the overload. You will not lose fitness. On the contrary, the proper rest can speed the recovery and adaption process instead of just wearing you down. Listen to your body, if you spot a decline in performance, chronic fatigue and lack of motivation- take a few days off and you'll come back feeling stronger than ever.

I hope some of these tips and tricks help you on your quest for increased fitness! Thanks to Elizabeth this week for the great questions she sent me concerning recovery :)
j

On Supplements

Americans have the most expensive urine in the world. It's true. Vitamins and minerals are essential for living a healthy life but some of them, taken in excess, can actually be harmful. Added to this are marketing claims like:
"Quick and effective cure-all" , "All natural, no side effects", or the supplement may claim to treat or cure a certain disease. Think twice about chasing the latest marketing claim in some of your favorite magazines. Sound medical or health advice is based on a lot of research that comes to the same conclusion, not a single study run by the company themselves. So what do you need?
Dietary guidelines are based on the food pyramid above. You should consume a variety of nutrient dense foods while at the same time limiting saturated and trans fats, cholesterol, added sugars, excessive salts, and alcohol. You should meet these goals by eating a balanced diet that contains all the food groups. But what if you don't? This is where supplements come in, but you do not need to overdo it. More is not always better and in the case of fat soluble vitamins like A, D, and K- more is really harmful so make sure that you read the labels of your supplements so that you do not exceed recommended doses for these vitamins. Water soluble vitamins are easily absorbed by the body, which doesn't store large amounts. The kidneys remove those vitamins that are not needed. That is why Americans have the most expensive urine in the world.
This is what I take, all of which have shown benefits backed by solid science:

• Glucosamine and Chondrioten- 1500 mg per day, has been shown to act as an anti-inflammatory and improve joint health
• Antioxidants: Vitamins C and E, prevent and slow down oxidative damage to our bodies
• Co-enzyme Q-1o, also has anti-oxidant properties and has been shown to improve heart function.
• Stress B formula- The B vitamins work together to boost metabolism, enhance the immune system and nervous system, keep the skin and muscles healthy, encourage cell growth and division
• Muti-vitamin

With these dietary supplements, I feel I make up for anything I lack in my daily consumption of foods and hopefully provide a little protection against cancer and heart disease, both of which run in my family. If you take something beyond this, that's fine as long as they are water soluble and if you don't know, then look up the ingredients- this way the worse thing that could happen is that you'll just pee out the excess, that expensive urine thing again!

Milestones

It's been a great week. Some R & R, some fun with Van and an awesome day at the beach today. The surf was perfect for Van, I have to remember the video camera next time so you can see him body surfing, it's great. Van was a busy bee at skateboard camp this week. Last Sunday he could barely stand on it, by the end of the week, he was skating down the midsized ramp, across the park up a second ramp, turning and coming back. It's great. Now that he's got the basics down, we will be heading over to Red Creek Park and Stotsky Park for some solid ramp time. He told me today he wants to be "grinding" by next year... It's awesome.Training recap:
My legs were pretty blown from last Sunday and now it is Sunday again, I am blown out again, but it's a happy blow out.
Tuesday was a super easy spin to flush the legs out at very low heart rates to promote recovery for 45 minutes on the trainer.
Wednesday morning I did a really nice swim in the lake here in my new wetsuit for 45 minutes.
Thursday- feeling better, I ran from my sisters house really easy for 7.5 with a 140 HR average. I felt great, it's hilly in Shoreham but I was fine, I could feel that deep tissue soreness over the last mile. A trip to the doc, back on my meds.
Friday was an easy hour on the bike with Dave, which is never really easy but he is still in recovery mode from LP and it's rare that we get to ride together. He was nice to me on Friday :)
Saturday- a 6 mile run with 2 x 2 miles at 8:12 pace; .5 mile recovery in between- I felt great. We had a really fun wedding last night, out late way past Dave's early to bed time and we slept in until 9 today, a treat!
Today- Beached it, body surfed a little and then ran home 17 miles in 2:41; which averaged out to 9:28's. The plan was to run 10% slower than goal marathon pace (8:46) for 12 miles then progressively pick it up to 9's into to goal marathon pace for 12-15, then cruise it in for 16. It was tough holding myself back to the 9:39's required for 10% but I was glad I did because I had plenty in the tank to drop it down to 8:45's over the last progressive mile. I felt so good that I ran 1 more around the block for 17 total. A great, feel good milestone and a confidence builder. I can run the paces I set for myself in training and it was a beautiful after noon with plenty of shade, cooler temps and no humidity- a great day!
Ice bath immediately for 10 minutes when I walked in the door- it's worth it to speed recovery from the long stuff. I sit for 10 minutes in the tub full of ice and cold water, reading something to distract myself. The ice water constricts your blood vessels, decreasing inflammation and the micro trauma done from longer distance. Once you warm up in the shower afterwards, the increased circulation to the area speeds healing.
Compression socks on and a belly full of whole grain pasta and snow peas, my supplements in (next post on those), feet up on the couch, and soon off to bed. Two week countdown to Timberman is on, no more long training, full taper mode into the race, I'm on the descent. I love taper!