For me personally, this is the toughest to do in the pool.  Not having a swimming background, I don’t have that natural set of “gears” that swimmers do.  While they’re able to adjust their pace to achieve a variety of intensity levels during a workout, I’m more limited to 3 basic speeds: easy/slow, threshold and all-out.  In fact, dialing in that threshold pace only comes easily after consistently swimming at least a few times per week.  During the offseason it’s been a challenge, as I’ve seemed to only have the slow and fast gears to use.

Thus, the class that we finished last week (Swim Tech II with Well-Fit, which I have mentioned in previous posts) was truly a challenge.  Not only was deconstructing my swim stroke and focusing on small details tough, but to really absorb the technique work I had to slow myself down.  So while I was front sculling with closed fists, for example, I was trying not to scull too quickly, kick too hard or worry much about how fast I was moving across the 25-yard pool.  Some people seemed to scull faster than others, though it didn’t have a direct correlation to their true swimming ability.

The drills in the pool reminded me a lot of yoga.  In our everyday lives, many of us tend to rush to and through meetings, meals, emails, work or whatever else is on our to-do list.  It’s a caffeinated, hyper, attention-deficit kind of world.  That is precisely why I love and crave my time on the yoga mat.  The simple act of lying on the floor in savasana (corpse pose), eyes closed and focused solely on breathing, forces me to block out the aforementioned mental clutter.  Using that same approach, yoga encourages you to slow down and focus on the moment and task at hand.  This is exactly what I felt myself trying — truthfully, struggling — to do in the pool during that four-week swim technique class.

So my homework, aside from practicing drills in the water, is to force myself to slow down and focus on the task at hand.  At this time of year, when training is focused more on technique and form than fitness, I plan on trying to make the easy workouts truly easy and the hard workouts truly hard.  Wish me luck.

Certainly I already have moved past my offseason and unstructured workouts and into preseason, where my current focus has been running. However my overall diet has not followed suit and I’ve had that feeling you just can’t shake sometimes, where you just KNOW you’re not helping yourself, or doing yourself justice in the nutrition department. Simply put, I’ve been kind of crawling in my own skin the past couple weeks thinking “why’d I eat that extra cookie/slice of pizza/etc” or wondering if I really needed those last few drinks with the crew.

In any case, I entered the week determined to switch things up and start eating better. Yesterday and today have gone pretty well, with the exception of a couple leftover cookies and, rumor has it, a few Twizzlers. Damn sweet tooth is a curse, I tell ya.

Today I had a hill run session on the treadmill, which I was able to knock out in the late morning following some client meetings. An hour stop at the training center on my way back to the office and the hill workout was complete. As I ran at 2, 4, 6 and then finally 8% for my hill repeats, my mind drifted back to how it felt doing similar workouts last winter. Yup, they still kick your ass…but damn they pay off when it comes to the open road. So despite my lack of enthusiasm for running on treadmills, the hill workout felt great both physically and mentally. My right hammy/glute continues to hurt a bit, but I’ll continue to try to work it out via foam rolling and getting massage therapy.

This evening we had our second of four swim technique classes. Tonight was focused on having an efficient catch and really developing a “grip” on the water. Not just having the proper rotation, but also the right form with respect to the leading arm and hand position, a high-elbow catch and then being able to pull with the entire hand, forearm, upper arm and lat muscle. About 90 minutes of drills, drills and more drills made up class, with a few 50s, 100s and 200s mixed in to shift from seeing and practicing drills to actualizing it in the water. While many of the concepts aren’t new, Coach Keith is great and has a good knack for explaining things in such a way that they click quickly.

So far, so good. Time to rest up and work on that “other thing” that has been a failing so far this preseason, which is getting to bed at a reasonable hour so I can wake up early for morning workouts. Tomorrow morning is a run, so I’m off to bed with a solid day of training in the books.

I also went in for acupuncture and some massage therapy at AHG, where they did work on the glute/hamstring that’s been bothering me. Turns out my neck and upper back are all out of whack as well, so they spent a lot of time poking and prodding my neck and back too. While it feels good afterward, this definitely was not one of those relaxing sessions where you can zone out and let your muscles decompress. The needles force you to just breathe through some of the tension and pressure you feel, but that massage was also a strong one. I needed it, obviously. Crashing during cyclocross couldn’t have been helping my neck and back, it seems. I also got some Chinese herbal powder to make tea with, which is supposed to help clear my system of much of the internal inflammation that Yogi Tim (owns AHG) said was the root cause of the issue. His diagnoses are always funny but hit home.

“Have you been drinking a lot of beer lately? Not eating great?”
“Yeah, actually I have Tim.”
“I can tell. Your system is retaining a lot of dampness, leading to inflammation which you can see both on your skin (on my back) and in how your muscles feel. Drink this tea 3x per day til this powder is gone and see how you feel.”

Funky Chinese tea? Check. While I did yoga Monday and swam on Tuesday, I took Wednesday off.

Thursday morning was the Turkey Trot here in Chicago, situated in Lincoln Park near the lakefront. It was chilly and windy, but at least clear with no rain on the way. I hopped in a cab to the race site, dropped off my stuff at gear check and ran for about 15 mins to warm up. A few strides and some muscle activation drills and I was ready to go, though not quite sure how my glute/hammy would hold up during an 8K race.

My goal was to average 6:30′s, which I figured would be fine since I had not been training to go much faster than that anyway. A few 5K’s this fall have been good for me just to help keep a feel for race pace, as well as leg speed. However my training has almost all been more aerobic and not nearly at race effort.

While I wore my Garmin 310xt, was determined not to look at it and instead go by feel for the first mile. I knew it would hurt but I figured I’d go out and see how it felt. The clock was slow, because it said 5:50 when I passed it and I knew from looking at my watch I’d run the first mile in more like 6:05. Still, much faster than necessary. Mile 2 was 6:30, so I had banked some time but my right leg was starting to ache pretty badly in the upper hamstring area. Not to mention that my lungs were a bit inside out from not running at this intensity much since summer. In any case, I hung on as best I could but ended up being passed by a fair number of runners the last 2 miles. My finish time was 33:47, which amounted to a 6:45 min/mile pace. Not what I had hoped for, but given my leg and lack of intensity in training, I am okay with it. Not happy, not completely pissed…just “meh.”

So Friday I hopped into the endless pool at Well-Fit for an hour of technique work, along with kicking, to help clear the lactic buildup from my legs. I actually was supposed to take Friday through Sunday completely off, but couldn’t sit around the way my legs felt. I’m REALLY not a fan of endless pool swimming, except in the case of video analysis I guess, but I didn’t have access to another pool that day. I went home, took a nap and shifted into full-on relaxation mode.

Saturday I slept in, walked Haley and took her to the dog park, napped and did almost nothing. That night a friend threw a dinner party for one of his buddies visiting from Canada with his wife and kid, so there was even more eating and drinking that night. And tonight (Sunday) I wrapped up my weekend/time off with a “Core Restore” yoga class at CorePower Yoga. It was just what I needed, aside from not being a heated class which I was hoping for. Lots of stretches and holding poses for up to 5 minutes each, to release muscles, fascia and connective tissues throughout the body. This felt pretty good on my glute/hammy, though per Tim I’ll need to spend some time stretching in half-pigeon every day to address it.

Something else I noticed was that a week of very light training, combined with the indulgence that comes with Thanksgiving, resulted in me absolutely CRAVING a chance to go run. I can’t wait to throw on running shoes and get outside, cold be damned, if only to avoid feeling like such a lazyass. When you’re used to training, even at lower volumes during the offseason, such a light week is a weird feeling. So getting back at it and really focusing in on my run in the next 8 weeks leading up to the Miami half-marathon on Jan 29th will be great. I definitely have some turkey, sweet potatoes, dessert and booze to run off starting tomorrow!

I worked pretty hard at improving in 2011 and saw good results in the water. Moving up near the front portion of my wave and age group in most of my races (save for the much bigger ones like Kansas and IMOO) was a new experience for me. But, this isn’t an area where I am going to rest easy and focus solely on my bike and run. Hence, this class.

Back to tonight. We did a ton of technique work, lots of sculling and balance drills as well as working on developing a feel for the water through a better hand and arm position. In talking with Keith after the class, he felt some tweaks and more pool time would net me at least a few seconds off my threshold pace, which is great news. Obviously the work remains, but it’s fun hearing positive reinforcement from such a good swim coach that my stroke looks sound and provides a very solid base to now get faster.

So aside from my early preseason focus on the run, I am going to go back and review my training plan beginning next week and shift it to accommodate about 3-4 swims per week (4 being the goal I would love to hit).

Lots of improvements to be made in the water, but it’s exciting getting started on that path.  We took some video of us swimming from the pool deck as well as underwater…next week we break it down.  That should be ugly (but helpful)!

In fact the more I’ve been thinking about it, taking a more proactive approach could help with respect to yoga. I went pretty consistently all tri season once per week, with only a few lapses lasting a couple weeks each. I’m going to shoot to maintain at least once if not two yoga practices per week from now on, both in the interest of stretching and core work as well as mental decompression. Plus with hot races on tap for 2012, specifically Ironman Louisville, the heat adaptation in those classes could only help.

This was the first of my five years at this race where we had a choppy swim.  Cold or warm, the water has always been pretty smooth.  I’ve worked on my swim a ton this year, so when I saw the wind kicking up small waves I was excited.  I positioned myself on the front row of my wave and to the left side.  As the horn sounded I sprinted off the front and could see one other swimmer to my right.  After a minute or so I settled into my race pace and felt another swimmer on my feet and one just off my right hip.  The guy next to me ended up passing me and I latched onto his feet to the first turn buoy, where we turned around and into the chop.  I sprinted out of the turn but lost his feet.  However after maybe 5 minutes I passed him back and swam away from him.  The swimmer who shot off the front of our wave was long gone…I saw his cap ahead of us while sighting earlier in the swim, but by this point I began working through the waves in front of me and it was more chaotic than previous Chicago swims, including the Elite Amateur wave in 2010. The day’s conditions were wreaking havoc on a lot of people, with many floundering in the choppy water.  I noticed more backstroke, breaststroke and dog paddlers than usual, not to mention swimmers clinging to the rope strung along the Monroe Harbor wall, slowly climbing their way to the swim exit.

As I climbed the stairs out of Lake Michigan I checked my watch, 26 minutes and change.  Not as fast as I’d hoped but I was second out of the water from my wave, which I figured meant other guys had been slower as well.  I ran the quarter mile route into transition, finding my spot quickly.  A quick change and I was headed out onto Lake Shore Drive.

Swim (incl. run to T1) – 28:42
T1 – 1:53

Though Chicago was during my taper from IM Wisconsin, I had a simple plan for the bike and run.  Build my effort the first 10 minutes, then ride at threshold watts the remainder of the bike.  Build my effort the first mile and run about 7:15 and then see how much faster I could go the rest of the run.  The bike was solid and I was passed by only a couple people.  As usual, the course was a complete mess due to the reversed passing rule, where you ride on the left and pass on the right, closer to traffic moving in the two outside lanes of Lake Shore Drive.  Despite race briefings, people never seem to get it and this year was no exception.  Several times I rode EXTREMELY close to the cones splitting the bike course up from car traffic, just to stay to the right of people.  There were lots of incidents of blocking and drafting, but I was determined to try to ride my own race and ride hard.  Also similar to previous years (and likely familiar to everyone who has run or ridden on the Chicago lakefront), there was a nasty headwind moving north which turned into a wicked tailwind coming back south.  I yo-yo’ed back and forth being passed and then re-passing a couple riders on the course, exchanging words with one guy who refused to move to the left, near the end of my ride.  It was wasted energy, but shouting “ON YOUR RIGHT” three different times didn’t work and I had to execute one of those risky, almost-in-traffic passes up against the cones.  As I passed he had a few choice words for me which my mom wouldn’t want me to repeat, so I won’t.  I might have even turned and said something back along the lines of “learn the rules,” but I can neither confirm nor deny this.  Though I’ll say that if I HAD said something, it was probably much more polite than what he had to say.

I came off the bike feeling great, thought having worked pretty hard.  I only spun out my legs the last minute or so, just after crossing the Chicago River and turning through the 180-degree curve down the exit ramp, to ride a couple hundred feet back to transition.  One flying dismount later in front of a few cheering friends and I was off to my spot in transition to grab my shoes and race belt, to go hit the run.

Bike – 1:04:37 (23.5mph)
T2 – 1:36

I managed my effort that first mile, which can be tough because the first mile on the path runs along the same route where swimmers are still coming out of the water and running into T1, plus most of the fans tend to group themselves on the grass along this part of the run.  It’s tough not to get a lift from the cheering, especially having met many folks in the local tri community and thus hearing a few “Go Henry” shouts along the way.  My first mile was 6:57, slightly faster than planned, but I felt fantastic so just brushed it off.  I wasn’t too worried as I was running with the wind at my back too, so I hoped this meant I could bank a little time along the way to try to average under 7:00/mile for the first time in an Olympic distance race.  The second and third miles were just about 6:45’s, though after the turnaround down at 31st street beach, the wind hit us in the face pretty hard until we got back to some shelter.  Nevertheless I held my pace and knew I had a shot at running under 7’s.  I sprinted the last quarter-mile as hard as I could, coming across the line and seeing my watch stop just around 2:19.  I was a bit disappointed at first, as my goal was 2:15 for the race, having gone 2:23 in 2010 while racing Elite Amateur.

Run – 42:47 (6:54/mile)
Finish – 2:19:38 (Olympic distance PR)

Overall Place – 23/3326
Gender Place – 23/2332
Age Group Place – 6/403

Once I got a chance to see results though, my disappointment was replaced by excitement.  Bo Parrish, a Timex Multisport Team athlete who I had met earlier, won our age group and placed 6th overall in 2:15:27.  I finished 6th of 403 in our age group and 23rd overall out of 3,326 people in the Olympic distance race.  That felt (and continues to feel) like my best accomplishment of 2011.  Times were much slower than usual due to the strong winds and I didn’t hit the swim or bike splits I’d targeted, but the wind affected clearly affected everyone and my performance still showed vast improvement.  In more ideal conditions I now have no doubt I can come pretty close to the bigger goal of 2:10 in an Olympic distance race.  I also crept closer to a podium in a huge race, which also will be rewarding when it happens.

All things considered, Chicago is a fun race that I plan on coming back to do again next year.  The con’s about Chicago: it’s a beginner-heavy race which makes for a messy swim and bike, not to mention the race is huge in terms of participants (8k this year) so transition opens before 5:00AM and closes at 6:30AM…overall it’s just a hassle due to its sheer size.  The pro’s, which in my mind make it worth the experience: sleeping in your own bed the night before a race, seeing the Chicago lakefront and skyline laid in front of you during a race and of course, having friends and family able to attend a race without much travel on their part.

See you at the 2012 Chicago Triathlon!

P.S.  As a nice surprise, two weeks after the Chicago Tri, I got an email from Lifetime Fitness that as a top-10 finisher in my age group, I qualified for a free entry to their championship race in Dallas in early October.  I didn’t end up racing because IM Wisconsin was so close to that date, but it was a fun bit of recognition.  Maybe in 2012 I’ll do just as well at Chicago and actually take them up on Dallas.

However, I know my goals for the “real offseason,” which is the time between the end of cyclocross (Dec 5th) and the beginning of the tri training (Feb 1st).

1. Get faster on the run — run 3-5x per week
2. Get faster in the water — swim 3-4x per week
3. Get stronger and leaner — core/functional strength sessions 2x per week

It isn’t magic…if you put in the work, you see results.  Until Dec 5th rolls around, I’ll probably continue to get a jump start by running the 4x per week (which I’m on my second week of), along with 1-2x swim practices focused on drills and technique.

Based on advice from Coach Liz and Sharone, I’m going to follow the general guidelines above as my preseason plan.  I’ll still try to ride a couple times per week, but given my big race in 2011 is Ironman Wisconsin, improving my run is the #1 goal.  Hopefully I can get into an “I love running” kind of mood, because to-date I’ve just been “in like” with both running and swimming.  Major goals require major commitment and and major work…so here goes nothing.

For Hot Chocolate, I signed up for the 5K.  I wanted to do a race to gauge my run fitness, plus not be ridiculously sore for ‘cross the next day.  This event went from ~2,000 people in 2008 to ~8,000 people last year…to 30,000 this year.  The popularity shot up enough that the course was moved from the Montrose Harbor area of the lakefront path, down to Grant Park, with closures of a short stretch of Lake Shore Drive, all of Columbus and then a chunk of the lakefront path.   Added benefit of the new course and location: I ran down to the race start, about 1.5 miles, as my warmup.

The registration was split evenly, about 15,000 people doing each distance.  I was in the “A” corral for the 5K, which was the first corral right on the start line.  For a very large race, the A corral was fairly empty with less than 100 racers and we all had plenty of room to stretch, hop around and chat.  I felt bad for those in the general corral, as I saw how crowded it was…it looked a lot like the Shamrock Shuffle and other large races, though since it was chip-timed it didn’t really matter where you started.  Regardless, I was thankful to avoid most of the crowds.

Before leaving my house, I put on some embro — Mad Alchemy Medium — to both help my legs warm up and keep them fiery after the race.  Once I got to the race site and dropped off my small backpack at gear check, getting down to my race gear and just a sweatshirt to ditch (which I retrieved), I could already feel the embro keeping my legs toasty on a chilly morning.

With about 3 minutes to go they played the national anthem and before I knew it, we were off.  Having only run once a week since the end of August (Chicago Tri), I figured I’d do what worked in my two 5K’s earlier in the year: go out hard the first mile and see if I could hang on from there.  Again, since I had not run much I was mentally hoping I would be alright and not have a completely crappy race, but still hoped to come in under 21 mins.  My previous two open 5K times from 2010 were 20:25 in April (a personal best) and 20:20 in July (improving on my best time).  I also ran a 20:16 5K off the bike at the Hy-Vee Triathlon in June too, so all three of those times were in the same small range of seconds.  Secretly I hoped to break 20 minutes before the year was over, and this was probably the last 5K I would run.  Needless to say, those times are a HUGE LEAP from running a 23:36 5K in October 2009 and given my lack of run training, I didn’t see breaking 20 as a realistic possibility for this race.

I used my heart rate monitor watch and pressed the lap button at each mile marker…so my splits are not perfectly accurate but fairly close to the following:

Mile 1 – 6:12
Mile 2 – 6:33
Mile 3 (and the .1) – 7:02
Finish time – 19:47 (6:22/mile pace)
Overall: 40/12,702 — Age Group 8/587

Sprinting to the finish line, with a full-on race face

After mile 1 I actually didn’t feel as terrible as I anticipated.  The cold air made it a little tougher to breathe at a threshold pace, but the benefit was that I didn’t feel like I was overheating, as I had during earlier races this summer.  I definitely felt myself slow down a bit during mile 2, as we turned at 18th street under northbound Lake Shore Drive and ran back north on the lakefront path, past the Shedd.  However, I saw the mile 2 marker and checked my watch (6:33), noting that to break 20 was still well within reach…that requires averaging a 6:25 min/mile pace.  I figured if I pushed it the last mile, I might just make it.

We turned onto Columbus to head back north where you can see the finish line up ahead.  I checked my watch and it had just ticked over to 18 mins…I had no idea how far the finish was, but I could see it and really tried to push myself to run as hard as possible.  As we ran past the main corrals of people still walking up to START their 5k, nearing the finish line, I saw that I would make it.  I still kicked as hard as I could and passed a few people.  19:47!  I was pretty happy and stopped shortly after the finish to catch my breath, down a couple cups of Gatorade and think “wow that hurt.”  My legs were hurting and I knew I’d be sore for cyclocross, so I picked up my stuff from gear check, threw on a few layers and grabbed my postrace chocolate fondue and hot cocoa.  Time to go spectate and cheer on a few fast friends running the 15K, then brunch and a nap.