Now Life Will Never Be The Same

It's hard to describe the feeling you have of welcoming your son to the world, I have never been more happy or tired before in my entire life. On February 12th after a long, long labour Amber and I welcomed a new member to our little family- Ryder Darin Hunter a healthy 7lbs 8ozs and he has been a handful. I told Amber that I can see why most people decide to start having a family earlier than we decided to, my ability to function on 3-4 hours sleep is not as good as it was in my 20s. That being said I know I am better prepared emotionally and financially to support a family now than I was in my 20s. It's been a great week with Ryder and I have to give a lot of credit to my beautiful wife for taking on the work of raising a newborn, without her determination to have a child last year he probably wouldn't be here- thank you babe. It's is such an amazing experience to hold your son and know that he is full of promise and potential. I know that the excitement is just getting started but I'm so incredibly overwhelmed with the idea and responsibility of being a Dad.

As for my training, well it's pretty much impossible to train for an Ironman on little to no sleep so I feel like I'm starting from scratch again. One week of no sleep and another week of recovering from it has left me with a little bit of work to do. I can see now why a lot of triatheles take a few years off Ironman training until their children are a little older and more self sufficient. Amber's done a great job at recognizing that I need to sleep and she has taken Ryder out of our room when he needs to eat in the middle of the night. I'm starting to feel a little more normal this week and I managed to do a 1500m TT in the pool in 23:00, not bad but still some work to do there. The biggest challenge I'm finding is getting on the bike consistently- I'm still only able to fit in 2 rides a week and come March I'd like to get that up to at least 4 times a week. Running is going okay I don't have any more achillies issues and the time off has helped my knee, I'm not race ready but I know that a few runs a week and I'll respond very quickly.

March is the month when the 'serious' training begins and I have to really get to work in the following 90 days to incorporate some bricks, intervals, and longer rides/ runs. I have plans to continue the 2hr+ rides on Sunday and 13 mile+ runs Saturday but I think I'm going to start running after every ride just to get the legs used to running after riding. The base training in the past two months has been really beneficial and I'm feeling a lot fitter and ready to attack the hard training that's ahead in the coming months. We'll see how realistic my plans are but with the great family support I have I know that I'll have an incredible Ironman in Coeur d"Alene.

Triathlon and Aging

I think all athletes like to feel like they have taken such great care of themselves that they are the exception to the aging process. True that being physically active can make you feel very young and fit but age catches up to everyone and trying to hold on to my athleticism while getting older is a tough thing to do. I think all my hard training in my 30s is really starting to catch up to me and now I physically can't do the training I used to just a couple years ago. I've stated before that actually participating in a tri is more important than winning and while I want to be physically active for the rest of my life I'm not sure I believe that. The truth is I love winning or placing near the top of most races, it brings an incredible sense of accomplishment and satisfaction that all the hard training was worth it. I'm not saying I won't be a competitive age grouper any more but I can definitely see how it is going to be very difficult to break some of the PR's I've set in the past.

I've been going through this pattern of having a good training week or two and then my body is so broken down that I need to have a week or two off. I'm so excited to be training again I think I immediately want to start two-a-days. It's not necessary right now and I can tell I'm suffering from the same thing Alberto Salazar went through, years and years of smashing yourself into the ground has led to adrenal fatigue and every time I try to up the intensity I get sick... Frustrating, yes but that doesn't mean I can't compete any more it's just that my method of peaking for a race is going to have to change. Amber is focusing on just getting a consistent base built for me right now and I know it's the right thing to do but very hard to hold back. There are plenty of days where I felt like I haven't done enough, however I know that I only need a solid 12 week build and I'll be ready. We are 18 weeks out so I still have a good 6 weeks of base building and then I'll move to 2 workouts a day with more intensity thrown in there.

Back Into Some Consistency Again

I'm finally starting to get back into some consistent training once again, making sure that I keep everything slow and steady zone 2 efforts. I definitely don't want a repeat of last year and right now I'm feeling good about just being able to do regular daily workouts. I know I'm not in good shape right now but I'm learning that part of the ability of athletes who race year after year is going through a regular process of de-training and building slowly.

I'm in the build phase now and just to see where I'm at I did a little 30k TT on the trainer with fellow triathlete Steve yesterday. It wasn't as bad as I thought it was going to be and I managed to average 279W at a weight of 77kg giving me a 3.62W/kg starting point. The idea behind using W/kg allows all of us to compare 'relative fitness' because of course lighter athletes don't need to push the same wattage to maintain the same speed as heavier athletes. Also as I continue training I will hopefully see an increase in lean body weight and this will equal a higher W/kg number. My power might not change but if I'm losing body fat I should see a higher W/kg number and by definition a faster speed at the same level of power. This is the primary reason a training buddy (Robert) can go the same speed as I can at a much lower wattage. He is a 60kg athlete and he averaged 195W for the 30k TT; giving him a 3.25W/kg number a little lower than mine but he's also starting from 0 on the bike, he hasn't done any riding in months but it won't take him long to get back to 220W (giving him a 3.66W/kg number).

So if I continue the slow steady training I should remain injury free and as I build the distance my weight should slowly drop and lean muscle mass increase. I realize that there is a critical tipping point where my power will suffer if I try to get too lean and for me it seems to be between 73-75kgs (160-165lbs) my typical Ironman race weight is about 165lbs and my off season weight is about 175lbs. So I'll give myself a few months to get back into race shape and then start sharpening up with some interval sessions once the outdoor training begins. I've never prepared for a June Ironman before and it's going to be interesting to see if my body responds to the low-slow training the same way as it does to the hard-fast training I usually do as I prepare for IM CDA.

Happy New Year

The New Year is always a great time to reflect on the past year and see what went well and what you feel like you could have done better. It's also a great time to set some new year's goals and 2013 is no exception. Of any year I know this year is going to bring the most change to our lives, our baby boy is about a month from joining us and we're both really, really excited to have him in our modest little family. Amber is getting incredibly uncomfortable and is ready to be done with pregnancy, she's hurting all the time and he's starting to become very strong! Yes he has his daddy's genes so the hyperactivity has started already- he's going to need a lot of sports growing up.

As for me I think the biggest realization I had during 2012 was that I can't train the way I used to. Going hard all the time will work really well for a short period of time (2-5 years) but if I want to keep racing into my 40s then I need to have an off-season, a build, and a peak. So after recovering from an injury for 8 months I feel sufficiently 'de-trained' and I'm ready to start building again. The thing I'm realizing about me is that I have to be going full bore or nothing at all, so I'm trying to find that middle ground where I feel like I'm training enough but not so much that I'm doing damage. I started the year with an easy 50 minute run- in the past I would have felt like that isn't sufficient enough for Ironman training but part of the process is slowly building back while staying healthy and injury free. I just got over one of the worst flu's I've had in about 5 years during Christmas so I'm giving myself a little leeway to build slowly and keep everything in zone 2. A few of us had our VO2 max tested in December so I've nailed down my training zones and it's just a matter of staying in the 'base building' zone for a couple months while I create some endurance again.  

2013 is going to be challenging but my primary focus is on creating a great environment for our baby to grow up and secondary is Ironman Cour D'Alene and Ironman Calgary 70.3. If I can race well and stay injury free then this year will be a tremendous success. Fortunately I have my greatest supporter Amber to help me and we'll be there for each other just like we have been every other year. 

Maximizing Your Ability

I just finished reading 'Iron War' and it really opened my eyes to a lot of the reasons why coaches and athletes follow certain training methods and what they are supposed to accomplish. I always understood that classic training theory states that you need to start building your 'base' in the early season and as you approach your races in the spring/summer you should focus on higher intensity workouts to maximize your fitness. I usually scoffed at this type of approach because I really enjoy training with intensity and doing it all year long, and I figured that I was getting better every year so it was obviously working, right? I read that Alberto Salazar used to do crazy intense workouts all year long and he would destroy his competition at every race. The problem is that you are always riding along a razor's edge between burnout and injury and only complete rest and recovery for a long period of time can bring you back. It happened to Alberto and it happened to me... Such is life.

The one major insight I gained from reading Iron War though had to do with a study done in the US on Cross Country runners. A researcher was attempting to discover why some runners can be as successful as others while having completely different running styles or forms. The study hooked experienced and inexperienced runners up to an accelerometer and measured differences in their running stride, there was no surprise that experienced runners were more efficient and had less of a 'decceleration' phase associated with their stride. What surprised them was that both experienced and inexperienced runners tended to have a less efficient running stride when they were asked to concentrate on how they were running and to try to perfect their form. The conclusion they drew from this was that there is no one 'perfect' running form, everyone has their own unique way of running and there are only two ways to improve it. 1. run a lot of miles over many, many years, or 2. run at high intensity. When you run at high intensity you tend to 'think' less about how you are supposed to run and your body naturally finds it's most efficient way to run. That being said this flew in the face of all conventional wisdom at the time, that a runner needed to be coached and trained to run a specific way in order to be more efficient- not true!

It makes a lot of sense when you think about it, I look back at images of Dave Scott running along Mark Allen in 1989 and you could not have had two completely different running styles. Dave ran like he was trying to catch a bus 100m down the road, arms swinging wildly at his sides, feet outward in his typical duck-like run and then there was Mark, smooth, efficient, long measured strides and they both ran stride for stride and both did a 2:38 marathon at the end of an Ironman! Wow... You can't take anything away from Dave even though he lost the race that day he still did an 8:10 race and over years and years of training his body found the most efficient way for him to run, it wasn't Mark Allen's way but it was just as fast and effective.

Ironman Arizona 2012

What an incredible week, Amber and I spent a short week traveling from the great white north to sunny Arizona. Our good friend Kevin competed in his first Ironman after months and months of hard training and it paid off big time. We left on a Wednesday and returned the following Monday but did a lot in those short few days. On Thursday Kevin and I rode the Ironman bike course and although I was on a beat up road bike I really enjoyed being outside and seeing the course all the athletes would be battling it out on. The ride out was tough with a headwind and slight uphill and the ride back was very fast and tons of fun. Friday we went to the outdoor pool and met some friends from Calgary and banged out a few laps.

It was also the day we got an up close and personal look at our new baby boy, we did a 3D ultrasound and it was incredibly emotional- both Amber and I really saw what he was going to look like and were so excited to see him! He's healthy, happy and ahead of where he should be in terms of development, his due date was pushed up to February 1st so we know he's growing very quickly. I can't wait to have a new member of our little family he'll be the most loved and cared for kid on the planet- that I'm sure of.

Sunday was the race and even though I knew it was going to be tough on Amber she did a really great job, resting when she needed to rest and making sure she ate regularly and had a nap when she was feeling run down. All in all the race was so much fun and had me reinvigorated to start training again for Ironman CDA. I started getting really serious about Achilles treatment and have gone to 2 ART treatments, it's a little early to tell if they are working but the doctor says if I keep it up I should be healed in three weeks.

Keep it Slow and Steady

Anyone who knows me understands that I sometimes have a hard time keeping my training 'moderate' even during the off-season. I know I can sometimes go a little overboard with training hard throughout the year but I honestly believe that's why I've been able to have such incredible results. However there is always a point of diminishing returns, where that extra hard ride or run does a lot more harm than good. When you are new to triathlon and not sure of where your potential lies I think you can get away with hammering fairly hard in all three disciplines and still see very good progress over the first 3- 4 years of racing. After all if you don't really know how the cumulative aspects of training are going to affect you and you may feel like after a hard 60- 90 minute swim, ride or run you can do it again tomorrow. It's not until you've gone to that place where the world gets a little fuzzy around you and you start to have tunnel vision or you simply feel like you want to sleep during a workout that you start to comprehend where your real limits are; for me that's usually during the 20 hour bike week leading up to an Ironman.

But there is a point where training more, or harder does a lot more harm to your body than good and usually that's when you start to notice injuries. Having to deal with an injury this year has been pretty humbling, I've gone from my usual after work run being a 15k jaunt in an hour to running 5k in 1/2 an hour. However I realized this year more than ever how much I enjoy being active and healthy and the competitive side of me has had to take a back seat for the time being. It's been 6 months since my injury and I'm still recovering but I'm hopeful now more than ever before I will get back to normal I just need to do the right things and I'll be on the road to recovery.

Every time I try to push to hard on the bike my achillies reminds me who's in control and I have to back off. I know a lot of people don't like indoor training but I love it, there is no better way to get stronger and stay focused then by being on the trainer for an hour or two. Afterall we live in Canada so if you don't like indoor training you'd better move. That being said I still need to take things slow and keep my focus on recovering more than building right now. I'm giving myself until January 1st to start some serious training again and that will only be 6 months away from my Ironman, that's the shortest amount I time I've put in to prepare for an IM but the law of diminishing returns is starting to show itself just before I turn 40 so I'm listening to my body and preparing myself to peak at the right time.