Top Posts from 2013

Well, 2013 is officially in the books. It's been a great year - my first full year of blogging. I hope you have enjoyed reading my posts as much as I've enjoyed writing them.

Here are the most popular posts from the past year:

1. Minimalist running shoes: Are they really what we want them to be? 

2. What's wrong with the conventional wisdom on cholesterol and how it could actually be harming us

3. Making the best of it when things don't go your way: NJ State Triathlon race report

And, of course, if there are specific topics you'd like to hear more about, let me know. I'm always looking for new ideas and would love to hear from you.

Happy New Year and best wishes for a healthy and successful 2014.

Overcoming Setbacks and Injuries

I hate injuries. They come at inopportune times and they keep me from doing what I love doing - training and racing.

Since taking up endurance sports I've been relatively injury-free. That was until recently. I've mentioned in previous postings that I've been having some issues with my calf. A short period of feeling good, training a bit more. And then bam, you're back to square one.

Injuries are extremely frustrating like that. You feel as though you're slowly climbing up a hill. You're making small progress. You're eager to continuing climbing (maybe too quickly). Then when you re-injure or have a slight set-back, it's like you're back at the base all over again.


Injuries can be valuable though. They can teach us a lot, both physically and mentally. But, we can't learn from them if we're still fighting them. Be open to the valuable lessons that dealing with an injury can teach. It's all part of the journey. Here's a few thoughts when those nagging things come up.

1. Stop - Don't push it. Once you feel something isn't right - stop. Even if it means walking the 3 miles back home. It's tempting to keep going, to push through the end of the session. I've had that feeling too. As endurance athletes we're conditioned to persevere through pain. But push at mile 25 of the Boston Marathon. Push at mile 99 of your first century bike ride. Don't push at a time when results are meaningless and jeopardizing your season is at stake. 

2. Diagnose - If the injury is severe and/or debilitating, your first step is to obviously consult a physician, chiropractor, physical therapist, or other health professional. But for other injuries, those small, nagging issues that just pop us, self-diagnosis can be useful. What do I mean by this? Think about what's changed in your training between the time you were healthy and the time you got injured. Did you come off a three-week break and increase the training load too quickly? Have your biomechanics changed at all, possibly from tightness or imbalances in some muscles? Are your shoes different? For me, the most useful process is to think about all constants and variables in my training, and see where things may have changed. Ask questions of yourself. I took the month of October off. Could this level of inactivity have contributed to tightness in my calf? I wasn't doing yoga during this time either. Culprit? Possibly. When I resumed training I was running 2-3 times per week. These were mostly base runs of no more than 1 hour 15 minutes at a fairly comfortable, zone 2 effort. Did I ramp up my training too quickly? Probably not because my intensity, frequency and volume were all fairly low.

3. Get Input - I'm not a one problem, one solution kind of guy. I have the strategies that work for me, but there are tons of athletes, coaches, friends, doctors, physical therapists, etc, who all know something I don't. Those are the things I want to hear and the things I try to search for. Resources like blogs, Youtube, and journal articles can all be helpful. I'm open to learning and constantly looking for new information. That's the only way to improve and perform better.

4. Adapt - Your training plan is never set in stone. Use this time to improve other weaknesses. My calf injury forced me to look at and focus on other aspects of training. One goal of mine is to improve my endurance and power on the bike this off-season. The 10 days I took off from running, I did a focused block of bike training. Instead of seeing my calf injury as a set-back, it helped me think about and prioritize other things that need improvement.

5. Patience - This is, in my opinion, the hardest lesson to master, but also the most valuable. Why? Because patience requires an intimate understanding of your body. How much is too much? What's just enough? I remember back in college, when I was playing soccer, where this really came back to hurt me. After a solid spring my freshman year I headed into the summer excited about the prospects for the next season. I was playing well and in really good shape. That summer, during a match, I fractured a bone in my ankle. The timetable wasn't ideal. Rehab took the rest of the summer and it was doubtful I'd make the first game of the season. I pressured myself to get back as soon as I could. The pressure from my coaches was equally as tough. I was compensating in my running and agility to try and minimize the pain. I just wanted to play. I did play in the first couple games. But, then I re-injured my ankle in training. Long story, short I only played in a few games that year. I was sidelined for about 75% of the season, which ended up being my last. It was a tough way to end my career in the sport I loved in that way. But it was also a valuable lesson in patience, one I won't forget.

Timex Factory Team

The other day I received an email that truly made me happy. My wife can attest. She watched me jump around the house like a little kid.

I was accepted onto the Timex Factory Team. For the 2014 season, I'll join more than 300 other multisport and endurance athletes from across the country and some from around the world. 

Endurance sports, including triathlon, are highly individual pursuits. They are your goals, your training sessions and your finish times. No one else can claim them. 

But I've noticed one thing over the past few years. Triathlon and endurance sports have an incomparable sense of community. Is it the distance and our individual suffering that unites us together? Put a few triathletes in the same room and they'll be content for hours talking about race destinations, the last time they bonked, their training, or even the latest politics in the sport. I know I'm guilty of this.

This is why I'm so excited and grateful for the opportunity to join the Timex Factory Team. I'm looking forward to sharing my dedication and passion for the sport with my teammates. They will undoubtedly teach me a thing or two along the way.

2014 should be a great year!

New Paleo, Low-Carb & Health Blogs

I always love finding new resources. Thanks to Jimmy Moore for his great work compiling new blogs in health, low-carb and Paleo.

Here's his list of "46 New Paleo, Low-Carb & Health Blogs for November 2013" -- stoked to be included as #6 on this list!

So, as you take a few days off from work, kick your feet up on the couch and eat Thanksgiving left-overs, take a look at some of these resources.

I didn't win a turkey...but my face went numb: Vienna Turkey Trot Race Report

My face was numb. As I tried to talk to my wife, Stephanie, after I cross the finished line she said "it was like you had a stroke." I was talking, but my facial muscles sure weren't moving much. We quickly went inside the Vienna Fire Department, a partner of that day's race, to warm up.

****

Just 19 minutes before that I toed the start line in what was probably the coldest race I've ever participated in. Wind chills were in the mid-teens - I think around the start time it was 15 degrees. Nonetheless, a fairly sizable crowd of runners came out to run either the 5k loop or 10k double loop of the 11th annual Vienna Turkey Trot. I ran the 5k.

But, as much as the cold was front and center on my mind as I went through my warm-ups, my thoughts also zeroed in on my left calf, the site of some nagging on-and-off soreness/tightness over the past month or so. 

After about a month off in October, the month of November was suppose to be a slow re-entry into training and starting to set the foundation for my training build for Boston. But, this whole calf thing has really thrown a wrench into my running plans. My workout on Tuesday this past week was my first after about two weeks off from running.

Nonetheless, my calf was feeling pretty good after about 20 minutes of warm up and a little light stretching to complement the foam rolling I've been doing on an almost daily basis.

****

After a best attempt at the Star-Spangled Banner by a kid I didn't envy playing a brass horn, I took my place at the front of the pack. Judging by the race results from last year I knew I had a decent shot at another podium but it would be tough having been out of training for a bit. This was also at the very beginning of my training block for Boston (and next year's triathlon season), so I went into the race hoping to take a baseline of where I was. I won't lie though, the Whole Foods turkey awarded to the first overall male and female sounded pretty awesome.

I couldn't have been more happy when the start gun went off and to finally start moving. My hands were really the only cold thing at this point (despite wearing gloves), though I felt my legs start to stiffen a little at the start.

I didn't go out with the lead runners, who seemingly sprinted off the start line. I settled into a small disperse second wave not too far behind. Judging by how fast the lead runner ran the first 400 meters, I knew I couldn't keep pace. Oh well, so much for the turkey. He ended up running a 5:15 pace.

The first mile I felt pretty good. Not sure if it was the slight downhill grade or the fact that my legs were warming up (I may have been one of three wearing shorts), but it went by pretty quickly. I was somewhere in the 5 to 9th place range at this point. I focused more on simply keeping pace with some of the runners around me.

The course was a fairly standard out and back, but knowing I was running slightly downhill the first half meant only one thing, an uphill second half. Coming up on the turn around, I ran in a small group with two other runners. One of them, obviously in a bit better shape, would pull in front on a a few of the uphills, while I acceleratd on the downhill to draw even.

The turn around was at the worst spot. It was right after about a 75 yard downhill, meaning, of course, that right when you rounded the cones, you faced the challenge of a hill straight away.

I steadily climbed that hill and tried to push as hard as I could on the second half. I definitely felt some fatigue in my quads from being a bit out of shape.

The order of runners was pretty much set after the first quarter mile and remained that way most of the race. With about a half mile left, the women's overall winner passed me. I was able to pull ahead of the guy I had been jockeying with earlier in the race, though. 

The last quarter mile was a downhill. I was so happy. I let gravity help me a bit and gave it whatever I had left. I crossed the finish line, and tried to catch my breath. My wife came up to me to see how I was doing. I tried talking, but my facial muscles didn't move much. They were pretty numb. We quickly hurried inside to warm up and congratulate some of the other runners.

I finished exactly at 19 minutes - good for 8th overall and 1st in my age group of 20-29.

It wasn't close to a PR, but I was happy considering where I am in training. Time to start building.