I think everyone will agree that 2021 was supposed to see a return to racing. I speak specifically of triathlon, but the same applies to cycling and all of the olympic sports. And it was. Sort of. The pro cycling calendar was shifted radically to the right and compressed, leaving athletes no time to recover between big events, or in many cases lesser known but still popular classics being held on the same day. Japan did pull off the summer games, but without spectators. Near and dear to our hearts, the Ironman World Championship was moved to February 2022, and then again to Utah. Not a popular change.
When I planned my year I was a skeptic, and, sad to say, I was mostly right. I really wanted to return to Honu but I had doubts it would happen and did not want to get caught up in the race cancellation - rollover machine. As it turned out, they did pull it off, but in a way that tiptoes on the edge of insensitive, if not unethical. Hawaii County would not grant permission to use Hapuna Beach. The Fairmount had no problem hosting the run and finish, as always, so the organizers moved the swim to the bay in front of the hotel. The roads are not closed for the 70.3 race anyway, so no special permission was required. Or perhaps permission came from a different agency. In any case, to go ahead with the race was good for a thousand-odd athletes who look forward to a vacation trip to the Islands, but that same race brought a large group of outsiders – in this case even folks like me from Oahu are outsiders – squeezing through an already stressed travel system. The Ironman community has embraced the word ohana, but this was one time I think they failed to act with ohana foremost in their minds.
Besides the uncertainty caused by COVID-19 there was another reason for my reluctance to commit to racing. My heart. Literally. During the 2019 Honolulu Marathon my heart went crazy, racing way too fast for the effort I was putting out. Fearing I might suffer a heart attack out there on the highway, I decided to walk the second half. I finished, but I was not happy. I had experienced this before but always thought it was equipment malfunction. I even bought a new chest strap. That it happened again with a new strap should have been a clue. Amazing what we fail to see even when it is staring us in the face. Because this was the marathon I forced myself to keep going, and it must have been that determination that got me to the point where I realized there was something wrong with me.
I shared this outcome on-line and several friends urged me to see a cardiologist. It wasn’t easy with everything shut down; I finally got an appointment in July 2020, just as the peak began to subside.
Dr. Cogan suspects supraventricular tachycardia, but can’t be sure without an EKG showing the messed up rhythm. That is not an easy thing to do, as in my case it only happens rarely, and only while I am running. He changed my calcium blocker to diltiazem, which also can regulate the heart’s response to the vagus nerve and ward off the crazy heartbeats. He had me purchase a portable Kardia EKG device which I was to carry with me along with my cell phone on all my runs and record an EKG if my heart acted up again. Last but not least, he assured me that in my condition there was virtually no chance of this becoming a heart attack.
Things went well for a couple of months, until I had a bout of vertigo. At first I thought it was plain old vertigo brought on by nerves in the inner ear dying. I have had that. Old age! Except that should only last a few days. This came and went, without end. We decided it must be the diltiazem so we stopped that, and sure enough, no more dizzy spells.
I carried that Kardia on every run throughout 2021. Never had a reason to use it, except every once in a while I would record a track just to be sure it still worked. At our annual checkup in September 2021 we agreed that everything was fine. Because it was.
I only scheduled three events for the year, the Hapalua Half Marathon in April, the HBL Metric Century Ride in May, and the Honolulu Marathon in December. I did a bunch of virtual races in 2020, capping off the year with a virtual Ironman during what would have been Kona week, so I was really looking forward to in-person racing. By February I was fully vaccinated and I knew people were scrambling to get the shot, so I figured there was a slight chance the Hapalua would go off. No such luck. Too many people in the lunatic fringe who believe the vaccine is bad, for any of a number of reasons.
I did my virtual Hapalu the same way I did my previous virtual races, using my car as an aid station and running a one hour loop through Kahala. I am slow, so there were a lot of loops! I was proud of myself that I finished with a loop around Diamond Head, just like the real thing, except I finished at my car in Kahala instead of Kapiolani park. No cheering crowds, no malasada. There was a medal, sent by mail. Ho hum. Not the same.
By May it was still not possible to put on a mass start event, so HBL punted with a DIY virtual ride. So, nothing more than a long training ride, but it was for a good cause.
It was around this time that the UH Gamelan started rehearsals again. After a year of not sitting on the floor we all were moaning and groning, and we cut rehearsals short. Even so, all that running had made my hip flexors super tight, so that sitting cross-legged on the floor pulled my spine out of alignment. Painful! That got me to my old friend and acupuncture master Mike Zanoni, who recommended I get some PT help from another old friend, Sonya Weiser Souza. Together they got me back on my feet, but on the day I planned to do the Metric Century I could barely throw my leg over the saddle. I did manage almost twenty miles, including a visit to the HBL refreshment stand at Triangle Park.
I will pause here to say how important it is to do the flexibility work that I had been ignoring. It wasn’t running or cycling that threw my back out, but it was doing so much of that without the balancing workouts that set up the conditions. It doesn’t take much. Not nearly as much time as actual training. Think of it as the seasoning that, without it, the meal tastes bland.
Smack in the middle of my back pain episode I had a cat bite go bad. That triggered a trip to the urgent care facility, and a cessation of activity to allow the infection to heal. Not that I was doing much anyway.
During June I gradually got back to training, except I was not training for anything. I had no focus. On August 2nd I made a note in my diary to continue Base 3. On the 18th I moved my bike workouts to the turbo-trainer due to overcrowded emergency rooms. Yes, the summer was tough, for everyone.
I was at this time that I decided to make the best with what I had and focus on running. I altered my training plan to include more run mileage and less time on the bike. I even added a second long run on Tuesday, which meant waking up at 4AM. I soon came to enjoy this routine, and I could feel the results. I was definitely getting stronger.
I used to be a big fan of Danny Abshire and his Newton shoes. His book, Natural Running, is a good read. A bit repetitive but a useful argument against marshmallow running shoes. Eventually I became disappointed with my Newtons, only to find out he was no longer with the company he founded. Another victim of corporate greed. I tried the new shoes he developed but they did not suit me. I think they are perfect for medium distance, and fine for elite long distance runners, but do not offer enough support for age groupers like me.
My wife Pattie has been a longtime devotee of Hoka One One shoes. When I expressed my frustration she pushed me to get a pair of Hokas. They even had an Ironman version! I went for it, and loved them. A year later I got the next iteration of their Ironman special shoe. Better looking, and great to run in. This brings us to summer 2021. My Hokas were wearing out. I had a long marathon build ahead, and a race. I needed new shoes.
BOOM! The new Hoka Ironman shoes dropped. I snagged a pair. I started running in them. I hated them. Hate is not too strong a word.
I have always had a leg imbalance. Who doesn’t? These shoes made my left foot strike sound like someone driving a large tent peg with a sledge hammer. It was embarrassing. “Tic tok” does not begin to express the sound. It wasn’t long before my left heel began to hurt after a run. Not the part of the heel that goes inside the shoe but the part above, in line with the ankle joint. I am pretty sure the culprit is the achilles tendon.
I decided that the shoes had exposed an underlying fault that needed to be addressed. I started seeing a physical therapist at East Oahu Physical Therapy. We are still working on this. So far she believes the culprit is weak core and bad running habits that allow the right hip to drop, which throws the left leg out of alignment. This is quite common, and correctable. All it takes is me doing the right exercises. Right in there with the morning flex routine.
Meanwhile I decided that since the shoes triggered the ankle pain, I ought to try different shoes. I stopped in at the Running Room in Kapahulu, and after trying on a pile of shoes I ended up with Hoka Bondis. As luck would have it, I got the brand new, hard to find model. They are super comfy and I could do long runs with almost no ankle pain.
The stage is now set for the grande finale, the marathon. But before we go on I need to go back and mention hydration.
Not so long ago I was a big fan of Infinit Hydration. I could dial in my own amounts of carbs and electrolytes, and they tasted great. But there were three problems. 1) Shipping cost. The drink powder was competitively priced, but after adding on shipping to Hawaii it was exorbitantly expensive. 2) On-Course availability. I was training for Ironman events, and the on-course drink was Gatorade Endurance. It is always preferable to train the same way you will race. 3) Density. One 16oz. bottle of Infinit required one or two large scoops of powder. The same bottle of Gatorade required considerably less. If I had to carry my own, the Gatorade would pack better. For long rides and runs I could carry small zip-lock bags of Gatorade and refill from water on the route. Same for Infinit, except the bags would be bulkier. And for Ironman events I could use the same stuff on course.
During 2021 I was listening to a lot of podcasts that mentioned Precision Hydration. This was back when I was coming back from my back injury. (Three backs in one sentence!) I gave their sweat test a try, liked what I saw, and ordered their sampler kit. I love their drink power. Very light flavor, and a bottle’s worth comes individually packed in small, flat envelopes. Amazingly compact and easy to use. The gels are another story. Same great taste, meaning hardly any taste at all, a big advantage on those long days. The problem was density. While their drink power is super compact, their gels are the opposite. Could be to lower the need for water. In any case, I found that I could not carry more than two or three, and for a marathon at my pace that would not suffice.
My hydration plan for the marathon was to carry seven packets of PH drink mix and six Hammer gels, including a couple with caffeine. I knew from experience those would work fine. I would drink from my bottle until almost empty, or even empty, and refill with water from the next aid station, supplemented with one gel per hour.
The race started fine. Exactly as planned. I felt confident. My training had gone really well. The challenges of earlier in the year were well behind me, long gone. I had been running so well in those last few weeks that I thought I might even set a new PR. The only unknown there was the weather. The good news was it was not going to be miserably hot.
Everything was fine until I was running along King Street. I knew by the time I got to City Hall that something was wrong. But what was it? My stomach? Nope. Checked my heart rate. 155. What?! No way. From there through Waikiki I tried my best to get it under control, but nothing worked. When I got to the park and the 1oK finish I decided I did not want to slow walk for twenty miles, so I bailed with a DNF.
Remember that Kardia portable EKG I had carried on every run? Between my usual hip pack and a second Spibelt I barely had room for my nutrition and phone. I had to have the phone to let Pattie know how I was doing and when to meet me at the finish. I had not needed the Kardia for two years, so I left it out. Too bad, because I missed a rare opportunity to capture the EKG Dr. Cogan needs to be certain of his diagnosis. In the meantime we are going back on diltiazem to see if it makes me dizzy again, and I will wear a stick-on monitor when I run the Hapalua in April.
To wrap up I have included some screen shots of some of my TrainingPeaks metrics charts. They only cover the last quarter, when I was building for the marathon. What they show is a nice, steady progression, including a gradual and much needed drop in weight, a direct result of better eating.
I certainly hope that everyone’s 2022 is a lot better than 2021. I am sticking with my goal to take on a big challenge this year, a once in a lifetime event. I encourage you to do the same.
Duration by Week
Unlike "true" runners I manage my workouts by time rather than distance. The gray bars on the right are future planned runs.
Time in Power Zones
This is a stacked bar chart, with zones progressing upwards. In the last two weeks the duration is reduced but intensity is higher - proportionally more time in zones 2 and 3, even some 4.
Time in Heart Rate Zones
I manage my runs by power using a Stryd power meter more than my heart rate, yet this chart should look a lot like the power chart above, and it does.
Weight
I think this chart speaks for itself. Naturally I wish the line was even lower!