Injuries are part of the deal?

As the saying goes - "there are two types of triathlete: those that have been injured and those that will be"

Certainly I don't know a single athlete friend (Facebook, Twitter or otherwise) who hasn't at some point carried a niggle or nursed an injury.  Something serious enough to give them pause for thought, or to disturb their training plans in some way.

We train too much and we rest too little.  We don't pay enough attention to our skeletal conformation and we fail to address the bio-mechanical deficiencies we bring to the sport in our middle age.

No doubt I fit this pattern.  I've had mid grade Achilles tendonopathy for about 4-5 years now.  I can't remember the last time I got up in the morning and didn't hobble about for a bit.  My fellow commuters on the railway station platform (who only see me in the morning) must wonder why the NHS won't give me a walking stick.  The causes are, depending on who I speak to, my feet, my hips, my weak core, my shoes, my knees, my glutes.  I'm too tight, I'm too loose etc etc etc.

All true, and yet not.  The real cause of my chronic Achilles problem is easier to figure out.  It's my head.

"All triathlon injuries are 100% mental"

I will not do the 'right' thing and commit to making all the necessary changes to eradicate the problem.  It is a chronic issue that flairs up as soon as I stop running.  Generally, the more I run, the better it gets.  But it never fixes itself completely.  So I continue to kick the can down the road and manage the symptoms, not the cause.

My point is that the way you react to an injury, how you behave as an injured athlete, defines the outcome.  The physical aspect of treatment is the easy part.  RICE, massage, needles (lots of needles), maybe even surgery.  The tough part is sitting on the sofa, or on a physio's bench, when all your colleagues and competitors are out training and racing.  The fear of losing all your hard earned fitness overnight - even though you know it doesn't work like that.  My head is preventing me from dedicating the 6-12 months it would take to remodel myself.

What brought on this bought of introspection?  I had a proper scare last week.  My first phase of 2014 training had gone well with a few weeks of running focus leading up to the Cambridge half marathon.  My left Achilles was a little tender the day of the race and I had some serious calf DOMS from a massage 48hrs previously but during the race there was nothing more than a little ache from the Achilles itself.  I actually ran quite well and posted a PB of 1.23.  Great start to the year and a perfect springboard going into the spring.

However, the next morning my entire Achilles area was swollen and (really) really sore.  Throbbing, aching, can't bear any weight at all sore.  A panicked call to a trusted Physio friend (thanks Tim!) confirmed that I was unlikely to have torn or ruptured the tendon.  The high likelihood was acute swelling of the tendon sheath.  RCE, a bit of I and give it 72hrs minimum to let the swelling subside.  Pretty much bang on 72hrs later the pain was less, I was effecting a hobble/walk quite well.  A day after that I span on the turbo and was walking relatively normally.  A day after that I was walking without issue and went for a 30min jog with Nicola and the dog.  Ten days after the race and I'm into my normal program without issue.  It is hard to think that a week ago I couldn't bear any weight on the Achilles.

So a proper scare.  You would imagine that this is the kick up the backside I need to focus on a solution, once and for all?

Maybe next month, or in the off-season.

Yeah, that sounds good.  Lets do it in the off-season..........

I got goals...

"I've got to swim more - need to get into the front pack"

"Lots of core work this season, need to get stronger"

"Top 10 in my AG at worlds"

"Kona"

Goals.  It's that time of year again and everyone is looking at the year ahead.  More people asking the question "what's your goal this year?

"Not sure really, maybe get a little better at transitions?" is not a suitable answer.  At any time of the year.  Goals need to be specific, they need to challenge you and they need to be a little scary.  Goals provide motivation, direction and (being honest) another reason to talk triathlon to strangers and friends alike.  Goals should be part of every triathletes early season thinking, and mid season thinking, and late season thinking.

And that is the problem, something I have been guilty of - too many goals set in January, without a real understanding of what they will take to achieve or (even worse) how to achieve them.  Sometimes they are simply forgotten as the season progresses and takes random twists and turns.  One of the great things about triathlon is that much of the learning and improvement can be done 'on the job' as it were.  Simply train a lot and you just might hit your goals.  Awesome.  Nailed it.  But you might easily miss by a mile and be left with the old classic "..but I always gave it my best!"

Not good enough for me, not good enough for you and certainly not good enough to get the Kona chasers to Hawaii.

So my take is that goals are good, but plans are better.

I spent most of the off season thinking at three levels.  I setout my vision for the year - the broad outline of what I want to achieve - after which I decide on specific goals based on this vision.  Finally I create a plan that will allow me to effect this vision and achieve those goals.  Incidentally I also apply this method of breaking down a season to a long term (2-3 years) and short term cycles (1-2 months build into a race).


Whats my vision for 2014? I have two:

1) A focus on middle distance racing - after a few years of short course I'm starting to build towards my long term vision for triathlon (more on that in a later post).  A major part of that is racing competitively at middle distance.  The transition from short course in terms of life impact and emotional endurance is manageable and there are plenty of small, medium and large scale events to keep me both humble and competitive.  This year my schedule includes five middle distance races.  Bedford, Fambridge and Aberfeldy will be training races.  70.3 Norway will be my main 'A' race of the season and the 70.3 World Champs (if I qualify) will be a chance to see family and friends in Canada and mark the official end of the season.

2) The bike.  I 'felt' (and the numbers back this up) that my bike was a relative weakness last year.  Not enough passing and too much being passed.  With a focus on middle distance in 2014, where biking ability is over represented as a percentage of race time/distance, I need to address this weakness as a priority.  Like all triathletes I started with the "First Rule of Athletic Improvement" and bought new toys.  Riding with power is a key part of my strategy for success at middle distance.  And if that isn't the most perfect purchase justification line in existence, I don't know what is... seriously though, I look forward to using power effectively this year, both in training and racing.

Based around the vision, my goals for 2014 are:

Racing:
- Qualify for 70.3 World Champs 
- sub 4.25 at 70.3 Norway
- Top 5 in AG at European Champs (Olympic)

Performance:
- Swim: sub 21min 1500m (SC pool)
- Bike: FTP of 300watts
- Run: sub 17.30 5km


It's worth noting that the racing goals are abstract at best.  There are too many uncontrollables in these to measure success directly.  As such it is important to have performance goals that can be directly measured to track progress.  A 1500m pool TT, a turbo based/TT based FTP test and a 5km road TT will form the basis of my testing throughout the season.

And the plan?  What training and racing do I actually need to do to achieve those goals?  At this stage the plan is set at a macro level and looks like this up to Norway 70.3:

The key to this plan is the far right column.  The numbers are minumum km's of swim/bike/run for that week.  Without going into too much detail here, this system has worked very well for me in the past.  It is the simplest way I know to ensure that consistency is at the core of your training plan.  And in my opinion consistency is the number one performance determinant for AG triathletes.  Bar none. 

Except for buying new kit of course.

Next post I'll go into more detail about how I structure the weekly cycle and apply the 70/20/10 rule to my training program.  I've also got some great images from the Laguna Phuket Triathlon, so I'll put a race report up soon.

Thanks for reading,


Rob



(That's Helle Frederiksen in the title image btw - and like me (snap!) she is focusing on middle distance this year.  Check out her Facebook page.  Total pro.)

Lessons learnt....

 I love that Michael Jordan quote. 

It fully captures my approach to triathlon (and life in general).  I think there is real pressure (perceived or real) to be perfect.  I know athletes that are stunting their potential because they are deathly afraid of failing - messily and in public.


While we are on quotes here is another:

"You can never make the same mistake twice because the second time you make it, it's not a mistake, it's a choice"

I'm not sure who wrote that but I get it.  Like the Jordan quote it fits my theory on trying and failing.  That is, you won't find out anything useful about yourself without failing once in a while, but once you do fail - and you will - you must learn the lessons, adapt your approach and keep pushing towards your goals.  If you don't (or refuse to) learn, then you have a problem, and you must fix it, because your continued choices will be unlikely to yield different results and you will derail your progress.  Simple and clear and I'll attempt to encapsulate it like so:

Failure is part of developing as an athlete (person), but only if you heed the lessons along the way.

For a triathlete, this mindset is vital.  As I see it this sport is too complex, too time consuming and too damn hard to be perfect all the time.  You WILL fail.  You WILL have setbacks.  So you'd better start getting your mindset in order to cope with adversity, overcome it and learn the lessons.  In fact you could argue (and I would) that at its core, triathlon is just one constant struggle against adversity: physical; mental and metaphysical, which is why it attracts the type of person it does, but that's another post for another time

So, assuming you have the mindset and you are prepared to fail and learn.  Great.....but how do you know what the mistakes were?  You will occasionally do dumb things that are obvious..........you didn't warm up before your VO2max session and now you have a niggle............you trained through a cold and now you are in bed with the 'flu..........you said "just one Haribo" and now you are holding an empty packet. As I said, obvious and easy to fix.

But triathlon is often a sport of grey compromises..........should I cancel tomorrows swim and get some more sleep?..........should I do an extra rep when I feel great or stop the session as planned?..........should I add another race to my schedule next month?
Adding to the problem is that physical and mental feedback is often delayed and mistakes made days or weeks ago may have become bad choices without you even realising.  How do you know where the line is between mistake and choice?

In season I try two things.  Firstly I am always evaluating my decisions.  The advantage of not having a coach (there are a few) is that I don't have to accept blind faith as a method of getting through a training program.  I can debate the pro's and con's and if I really think something doesn't or didn't work then I can adjust immediately.  Secondly (and this is vital) I back my decision 100% at the time.  No regrets and no looking back (at the time).  It is onto the next session/week/month taking the lessons forward with me.  This constant evaluation and adjustment doesn't have to be time consuming or overly analytical, just ensure your actions are always consistent with achieving your goals, be honest and back yourself when you make your decision.  Rinse and repeat.

The offseason however allows a much deeper reflection on the season as a whole.  Without the mental clutter of racing, heavy training and fatigue, you can evaluate your mistakes at a 'macro' level - something which can be harder to do in season. 

For this evaluation I also try and do two things.  Firstly I look for patterns in training prior to results.  Starting with races that I underperformed at, I look through the training diary in the period leading into the race and attempt to understand the reasons why I performed badly.  Sometimes (most times) the reasons are plain and obvious: didn't swim/bike/run enough; didn't rest enough, not enough race specific work etc etc.  Again it is important to be honest.  I am surprised how often I am caught lying to myself.  It is natural to want to avoid the truth sometimes and despite initially thinking a race went badly because you had a slow T1 or biked a bit too hard (easy and convenient reasons) you dig a little deeper and admit you neglected specific training in the run up to the event.  Or you neglected your nutrition and raced in the Walrus category.  Or whatever.  The answers are there, it is up to you to find them and fix them, or be condemned to repeat them.

Secondly I look for general patterns across the entire season, not specifically in the build up to races.  This is important as it provides me with clear feedback about my mental and physical state over the year and how that compared against my initial plan.  Did my training load decline through the season?  Did I stagnate in my test sessions through the year?  Did I structure too much or little rest between/after races?  Not every season is identical but I guarantee you will have tried to do something this year that didn't work the way you envisioned it when you wrote it down.  Ask yourself why and be honest with your answers.

Summary then:

You will make mistakes
Evaluate constantly
Perform a season evaluation at the end of the year
Be honest and identify the lessons leanrt
Take those lessons forward with you
Make good choices.


So that's the theory, and theory is great until you actually do something.  Theory won't help you when you are in the final km's of a race and your lungs are coming out of your ears.  How about some reality?

How did I do this year?  Did I make mistakes and did I turn them into choices without realising?  What did I learn?

Rather than go through every detail of my mistakes (many) and lessons learnt (lots), i've listed the main three below:


I learnt....that when I'm tired I default to aimless swimming
Far too often I would arrive at the pool fatigued from training (as I should be) and instead of working on race specificity and quality, I'd do the minimum distance I had to do and get out.  3km is 3km right?  No.  Not for me.  Not for my swimming.  The data shows that this 'aimless' swimming allowed me to get a good level of general fitness but in specific race buildup periods I lacked the specific work to cope with the demands of the event and lo and behold I never swam to my true potential in races.  Lesson learnt - more race specific work in the pool before events.

I learnt....that a DNS is way better than a DNF
I logged my first DNF this year.  I went into the MK Olympic distance Tri at the end of July with a calf injury.  It was three days before the race and I was doing a standard midweek long run - nothing special, nothing new.  In the last 3-4km my calf pulled tighter and tighter and by the time I got home it had passed through the niggle phase and straight into an acute injury.  The next day it was not much better.  The day before the race I could jog but as soon as I began to push the pace it started to tighten again.  I wanted to race so badly.  It was a course I knew well and a I had a good chance to test myself against some quality local athletes.  Pushing aside the negative thoughts,  I started the race and the moment I arrived back in T2 (in 4th) I knew it was over - I could feel pain simply running with my bike to my racking point.  As I was putting on my trainers I remember asking myself why I was putting them on - no way could I run, right?  But before I could physically stop myself I had already run 30 paces.  Only then did I slow to a jog, a walk and then stop.  Limping back to transition felt truly horrible.  I was so angry with myself.  Stupid.  I made a bad choice deciding to race, I made another by putting even putting my trainers in T2 and I made a final one by putting them on and trying to run.  Three howlers in the space of one morning = bad day at the office.  Lesson learnt - if I can't go at race pace the day before my race, I'm not racing.

I learnt.....that 2 weeks is more than enough taper for a 70.3
My buildup to Mallorca 70.3 in May was pretty spot on.  Not much I would change about it except the horrible timing.  I planned a 3 week taper from a 4 week block of 20hrs per week down to 10hrs per week, then 7hrs per week and finally into race week.  In hindsight I started the taper too early.  Despite racing fairly well and registering a PB I felt weaker than the previous week - in fact that week before race week I had felt amazing.  Lesson learnt - a 2 week taper is plenty for 70.3, even from a sustained block at 20hrs/week


Of course there were more but I'll spare you the gory details, suffice to say taking on the lessons learnt should provide a significant performance uplift this season.  After which I can sit down with a new set of mistakes to unravel and learn from! 

Like I said - one constant struggle against adversity.


 Thanks for reading!

Rob

(p.s. I know I promised season goals this time but I've written enough and you need to get back to work/sleep/training.  Next time.  Promise)

2013 Season review

With the offseason officially ending tomorrow, now is the perfect time to look back at 2013 and review the year.  They say you learn just as much from your mistakes, so with that I'm interested in what didn't work as well as what did. 

As a self coached athlete, I don't have the luxury of someone else pulling the strings or providing the insight.  I have to learn on the job.  This is both a blessing and a curse.  The insights are mine to uncover and learn from, but I have to have my eyes open.  It is way too easy to settle into a training plan that fails to provide sufficient challenges or training stress.  As Gordo always says: "most athletes do what they want, successful athletes do what it takes".

Simply put, 2013 was a great year.  The most successful of my 6 year 'career' by far.
 
15 races, 5 AG wins, 12 top 10's and 4 overall wins was a marked improvement on 2012.  I improved physically across all three sports but most importantly I improved mentally at every race I lined up at.  I carried a completely different mindset into the season and this only grew as the months progressed.  I'll spare the details for a separate post but I'm convinced this mindset was a key difference between 2012 and 2013.

Looking at the numbers what stands out is a consistent level of training throughout the year - even with a heavy race schedule.  

January through to April saw a consistent number of hours with March showing an increase due to a training camp in Mallorca.  May dipped as I took a taper week and post race recovery week from Mallorca 70.3.  June and July also included taper weeks into the European Sprint champs and British Standard champs respectively.  I managed an uninterrupted month in August prior to the taper for the world champs in September but never really managed to get going again prior to Phuket in November. 

Being honest, I had one eye on the offseason during the buildup and I found it hard to get into a consistent groove.  The  diary details show that I still did the majority of my race specific sessions however - something that no doubt 'saved' my race.


Plenty of positive lessons learned then - here are my top 3:


1.  Long seasons require multiple midseason 'reboots' - I knew I would be racing from March to November and as such I made sure that after each A race, I would have a week of minimal training to reset my mind.  Physically I knew I could handle the tiredness from such a long season (and in the end my body held up relatively well) but I was concerned with my mental state.  Emotional endurance is something we often take for granted as the season kicks off, but it needs to be trained and managed with as much care as the physical side.  If anything I could have added a more significant break this year as in the buildup to Phuket I struggled mentally.  My schedule for 2014 includes a race in October (Challenge Paguera in Mallorca) so I need to make sure I place increased emphasis on my emotional endurance.

2. Race specific training is vital - obvious I know, but when I talk about race specific, I mean completely specific.  For example in the buildup to Phuket, I studied the bike course, the climbs, the gradients and the downhills.  I then created a turbo session that mimicked (as much as possible) the bike route with the different intensities, inclines and nutrition I would use on race day.  During the session itself I would constantly visualise the road, the scenery, the heat and the competition.  I imagined scenarios of leading the race, riding in a pack, riding solo, getting a puncture, getting a penalty.  I completely prepared myself for the demands of the course so that on race day I would know I had the physical and mental tools to get the job done.  Same for the swim and run.  This is something I will now do for all my A races in 2014

3. Consistency is key - again, pretty obvious but so easily ignored.  My plan was simple when I started training in January.  I would commit to a specific amount of training per week, do that for three weeks, have a 'lighter' week and then do it all over again.  No questions and no excuses.  This created some strange (questionable?) situations where I would have to complete crazy weekend warrior training to make up my numbers if my week had been busy - physically not ideal, but mentally very important.  Creating and committing to a simple 'base' week that formed the core of my training plan allowed me to prevent any 'paralysis by analysis' (a constant danger for self coached athletes) and focus on the next session.  Get the work done first - then start thinking about it!


So what about the mistakes?  What parts of last season didn't work at all?  What can I change to make 2014 even more successful.  A quick look at the training data shows I made plenty of mistakes - some of them proper howlers that make me wonder what the hell I was thinking.  This is great news as some simple corrections could make a big difference to my racing in 2014.  I'll outline these and my goals for 2014 in my next post.


Thanks for reading!



Rob

In the beginning..

 
I've threatened to write a triathlon blog for years.  For some reason or another, it never happened.  Lots of thoughts and plans, but no actual words on screen.  As they say - "every moment thinking about doing something is a moment lost, a moment when you could actually be doing it."

So here we go, I'll try and update on training, racing and my thoughts and opinions from the world of multisport.  If you like it, please comment and/or share.  If you hate it, please comment and/or share.  It's not a diary, so feel free to wade in...

The title?  Taken from a great video (see below).  Watch it when you are having a low day.  Guaranteed training fuel.