Friday, May 11, 2012

Hello again.

Alright, once again it has been a long time since my last post.  There are many reasons for this lapse, but it ultimately comes down to being very busy as we all are. 

So to catch back up.  Last time I posted I was with Northwestern Mutual, I have since left that job and am now with R.W. Baird as a Sr. Project Manager.  The move was a necessary one as I was just a contractor with NM, but its always somewhat sad to go.  NM was a good place to work overall, despite the challenges with the project I was on.

In any case, to get to the topic of this blog, training, triathlon, and all the goodies that come with it.

So as a reminder to all, last season sometime early in the year I tore my hamstring and glute medius.  It was primarily an overuse injury due to my bike saddle being so high.  I ignored it, and raced on it for a while.  It then got so bad I took time off.  It then went mis-diagnosed for a long time.  Finally I saw a chiropractor at the Froedtert spine center who ordered an MRI of my hip, and a real diagnosis was found.  From that point on I went to see Mark Lydecker at the Froedtert sports medecine center who had me doing all kinds of rehab stuff, and after 3 weeks I was able to lightly jog.

From a prognosis standpoint, I was told the injury would stick with me for about a year.  My chances of a 100% recovery were good, but the injury may always be with me to a certain extent.  Fast forward to now and I am training at full capacity with the exception of hard running.  And I define hard running as 5k or even 10k pace for any real length of time.  I can handle easier paces for just about as long as I'd like, but the real hard stuff still creates some trouble for the glute, hamstring, and the rest of the leg.

In any case, the season is upon me.  In early June I will travel down to Kansas for the Ironman Kansas 70.3 and see if I can qualify for the Vegas World Championships.  Given my situation with running, I consider an actual qualification something of a long-shot.  In order to do that I think I would really need to be in the mid 4:20's.  While I think my swim and bike legs are strong enough, the hamstring injury has hampered my running enough to make a 4:25ish unlikely.  A rolldown is certainly possible at this race, and considering the injury and how it will improve over the course of this season, I think I'd take a rolldown.  Next season I don't think I'll allow myself that luxury.  For this year, assuming good conditions, I am targeting a 4:3x.  The lower the better.

From a training perspective, everything is going really well.  I'm currently swimming about 4x per week.  Typically getting in about 3-4k per session.  I am about as fast as I've ever been as a triathlete.

I'm getting in about 4 rides per week.  I was really struggling on the bike for a while, but overall my power and pacing on the bike are just about as fast as my fastest last season.  Given the new bike fit and some recent results it is possible I am actually a bit faster.  The glute does give me a little bit of trouble if I really push the pace on the aero bars for an extended period of time.  But it has really improved lately.

And as far as running is concerned, I am running 6x per week.  I'm probably approaching about 35 miles of running per week, and getting much more consistent with that.  For me, right now, the important part is getting consistent again.  The consistency will build the durability I need to start running harder and doing intervals again.

My weight is dialed in at 196 right now.  So I am about as light as I have ever been...which is probably why my biking is a bit faster dispite similar power profiles.  Most of my previous race results are at a weight about 15lbs heavier.  Maybe even more than that.

So, I'm firing on about 6 of 7 cylinders and we'll see where that takes me.  I'm about 2 weeks away from beginning my taper...and certainly looking forward to that.

Beyond Kansas I've signed up for IM Racine 70.3.  I may do the Rev 3 race in the Dells, possibly Pigman, and possibly the world championships in Vegas if I manage to snag a spot.

I'll be sure to post a bit more now that I am able to do some real training and racing again.

3 comments:

  1. I just saw your post on slow twitch (2009), when u decided to try some hoodia to supress you appetite. I was wondering what u though of hoodia? How did it effect your training, side effects, etc?

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    Replies
    1. It was very short lived for me, so much so that I can't specifically recall what happened.

      Overall I've found that tracking exactly what I ate compared to calories burned worked out much better.

      In order to combat the hunger I added more protein for breakfast. Most mornings I have an omelette of some kind. Typically a mixture of real eggs and egg whites.

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