Apologies to The Ventures!

In my previous post I shared some thoughts on walking rather than running the run portion of a long course triathlon. To summarize, coaches always tell their athletes to hold back on the bike, not to pace it like an all-out time trial, because as soon as they get off of the bike they have to run a marathon. My current thinking is that I run so slow I might as well walk. This should allow me to pace the bike faster, and may result in a faster overall time, due to the lower metabolic cost of walking.

There is something that has been bothering me for years. I run slow. Until now I have clung to the belief that if I train well I will go faster. Hardly a day passes without me seeing a post from Runners World or Triathlete Magazine promising as much. Run these intervals. Run in the hills. Work on your core. If it is not about my body, it is about my shoes. Better shoes make you faster. So they say.

I must admit that over the last five years, in spite of a busy training schedule, I have not gotten any faster. 

Last Sunday I ran the King’s Runner 10k, a prep race for the Hapalua Half Marathon. Both races are put on by the same great folks who produce the Honolulu Marathon. I had two goals, 1) to see how hard I could push myself, and 2) to trigger a heart event that so far has eluded detection. I was successful in both.

My heart has been an issue for some time now. We thought we had it licked, until it showed up last December at the marathon. Since then my cardiologist has been doing appropriate testing, in order to get a clear diagnosis. I have had an echocardiogram and worn a full time ekg monitor for fourteen days. Nothing to report, yet, but the results of the EKG are not in.

The idea behind marginal gains is that a number of small improvements can add up to a large overall improvement. Consider a bike. Imagine exchanging one part for another that works just as well but weighs one ounce less. Will it make you faster? No. But repeat that exercise sixteen times and you shave a pound off the weight of the bike, enough to change the outcome of a race. 

On a recent morning I was driving to my favorite beach where I swim regularly, only this time it was to do a time trial. As I approached the park entrance I felt my mood change. It was as if a cloud passed over the sun. Fear? No, not that. But similar. Much less intense than fear, but pretty much the same sensation. 

January is the time we promise we'll do better. Better eating habits. More exercise. Less booze. Mostly personal stuff. Something that should be on that list but too often overlooked is better sleeping.

We start with fuzzy ideas. Good intentions, but lacking clarity. It's hard to measure success, or the lack of success, without a clear statement of what it is we are trying to accomplish. 

If you are like me, Jan Ulrich, and most people, you put on some extra pounds during the holidays. Ulrich was for several years Lance Armstromg’s biggest competitor. Literally. He had a reputation for starting spring training carrying more than a few extra pounds due to exuberant enjoyment of German holiday food. To be fair, these guys are away from home for much of the year, so who wouldn’t want to relax and party hearty during the winter?

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.

This is the time of year when families and friends traditionally gather to celebrate the passing of the longest night, and to reaffirm commitments that will get them through the tough winter months ahead. The days will be bleaker and colder, but the sun will shine a little longer each day until at last spring arrives.