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Adaptabilty Driven By Adversity

10/29/2022

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It's been awhile.  Somewhere along the way of providing what's meant to be either insightful or helpful content, I lost some steam and decided to not post anything unless I felt proper motivation to do so.  My goal is to not add to the drivel that gets pumped out ad nauseum on a daily basis.

As I relate this story, I consciously decided to wait to post so that I did not take a 'poor me' approach, which invariably could have happened a few months back.

My big goal for 2022 was the Pikes Peak Ascent.  Typically run in August, this year it was pushed back to mid-September.  Officially, it's 13.32 miles with over 7,800ft of ascent to the peak of Pikes Peak, at more than 14,100ft in height (one of Colorado's more than 50 'fourteeners').  The race begins in downtown Manitou Springs and is a wonderful, professionally run event with huge community support and still that grassroots feeling that so many successful events have lost as they've grown in popularity.  Not so, the PPA or full marathon the following day (ascent + descent. Oof!).  If you enjoy trail running and racing, as well as an epic challenge, put the PPA on your bucket list.

OK, so I jump into a local trail race here in Boulder in early-April and it goes extremely well.  I finish feeling like my PPA prep is right on target.  My goal was to beat my time from a decade earlier, the only other time I had competed at the PPA, but did so off the back of a full season of bike racing.  Would the focus on trail running out-pace the fact that I was now 53 instead of 43?  We would find out. 

Then, on April 29th, things hit the skids.

On a routine trail run, on a slight rocky downhill where you could still get into a groove and either use rocks as springboards or hop over them without breaking stride, as I brought my left foot forward, my shoe caught a rock and the sole gripped.  Something for which I wasn't prepared nor expecting.  I immediately went into a ballistic pistol squat, with my left knee shooting forward and my ass coming down on my heel.  While I didn't feel anything or hear anything, a sharp pain let me know something bad, or worse, had happened.  Like with a rolled ankle, I kept running to get a feel for what just happened.  My knee hurt the final 5+ miles, but loosened up and felt close to normal by the end.  

Adversity.  I felt encompassing soreness and there was a little swelling, but not what would be expected had I torn or ruptured my ACL.  Yet, there was most certainly damage.  As per my nature, I did several things over the subsequent 3 weeks:  I refused to go to a doctor because, to me, surgery is a zero sum option; i did exhaustive research into what I was feeling in the knee to determine what had occurred; and, I ignored the pain and kept running.

The pain would ebb and flow over the 3 weeks, but never get worse.  It was manageable.  It was also weird. I could sit back on my heels to stretch out my quads and also do a frog sit (think of a breaststroke kick when the legs are flared out to the sides) without pain, but an ass-to-grass squat motion sent searing pain into the knee joint.  I concluded that I had at least torn my medial meniscus if not also my MCL (now, a handful of months later, whatever damage may have been done to my MCL seems to have abated).  However, 3 weeks later on yet another long trail run, the pain did get worse for the first time.  Despite my stubbornness, I realized I had to stop running and reassess.

Curiously, lifting weights didn't hurt at all -- including squats and deadlifts, as long as I didn't go down beyond parallel.  Neither did cycling.  So, I adjusted and ramped up both.  I would stay as fit as possible in case I could still toe the line at PPA.  It was mid-June when I started to test the knee again while running.  At first, jogging the half-mile the to gym.  Then, a couple miles after biking.  Then, finally, dedicated run sessions.  I decided to race, but wasn't sure what the results would be.  I got to the points where I could handle long runs, but my effort during them was higher than normal and my legs were pretty shot after.  Still, nothing was keeping me from being able to race.

So, I did.  The event was wonderful.  It started as I had hoped and through 60% of the race, I was having a great race.  As sometimes inexplicably happens, my body didn't seem to be processing the calories I was taking in.  What worked in training wasn't working on race day.  There is no aid the final 3+ miles because of how rocky and steep the course is, which can take an hour or more to complete.  The top runners will finish this section in about 45 minutes.  Over the final 4+ miles, I bonked.  Hard.  The final hour I was shaking from being so depleted.  Effort and HR up to that point where in the range I wanted, so it wasn't from overextension earlier in the race.  Multiple times I had pulled back on effort and followed slower runners who had started out too aggressively rather than blow by them as a conscious decision to keep the ego in the box.  As a point of reference, 10 years ago, the final mile took me 17:30 to complete.  This year, it took 33:01. It was both agonizing from being empty and filled with apathy.  I had zero desire to keep going.  But, what choice did I have being on the rocky face of a mountain with nowhere else to go?

More adversity.

I finished a half-hour slower than 10 years ago, but took some solace in the fact that I was able to race when a few months earlier it had felt like my ability to run the trails might have come to a screeching halt.  I tried to look at the glass as half-full.

The next morning, I woke up feeling fine.  Another indication the meltdown was caloric- related rather than effort-related.  Whatever.  It was still perfect timing for a recovery week.  I started lightly back in the weight room, and pulled back on the running a bit.  On Friday, my wife and I went to visit my brother and his family in Crested Butte.  Coincidentally, Emma Coburn's 5k Elk Run was happening that weekend.  We arrived super late on Friday and the race was the following morning.  What the heck?  I entered on a whim.  I knew it was silly, but I was also intrigued by what a 5k at 9.000ft would feel like and how I would do a week after PPA and with zero specificity in training.

I set an admittedly arbitrary goal to break 20 minutes.  I ended up running 18:24, for which I was pretty surprised.  It made me wonder what I could do down in Boulder at 'only' 5,300ft and with some specific work toward the distance.  Maybe for 2023.

However, yet more adversity.  three-quarters of a mile into the 5k, my left hamstring pulled.  It was shocking in its suddenness.  I nearly stopped dead in my tracks.  Instead, I shortened my stride to a shuffle.  After managing to keep a full-on pull at bay by not fully extended my left leg forward, I kept the pressure on.  My brother and his wife, both accomplished athletes in their own rights, were spectating rather than running and told me I looked like I was running with my trail running gait.  I was!  But, out of necessity.

Completing the 5k was not the best decision.  I could barely walk for several days due to the pain in the hamstring.  As with the knee injury (which persists today; it's definitely a medial meniscus tear), lifting weights hasn't seemed to bother the hammy and cycling doesn't either.  I gave it a couple weeks break from running, then tried running super easy and it came back.  Now, a full 5 weeks later, I'm giving it another go today.  We'll see what happens.

The moral of the story?  I'm not sure.  Other than we're all hit by adversity.  We need to decide how we are going to first react to it, the adjust to it and, finally, overcome it.  It's not a linear path and there is not necessarily any sort of right or wrong answer.  I credit Cian O'Brien for my chosen path forward after injuring my knee.  In short, after Cian ruptured his ACL, he refused to go under the knife and instead chose to make it stronger through aggressive power lifting.  If you don't follow Cian on Twitter, think about it.  He bucks the trend of the strength training establishment; he's made me re-think what I do in the weight room which I have definitely appreciated over time.  Especially since April 29th.  When I fully separated my shoulder in 2005 in a bike crash, I decided to forego surgery.  It took a couple years for the shoulder and arm to feel fully normal again.  Today, aside from it looking kinda gross at certain angles, I don't notice it at all.  Surgery would have been silly and zero help in the end.  As with that, I won't get surgery on my knee unless it's very clear that it becomes the only option.  I would rather practice some patience, challenge it to get better while also honoring when it tells me to back off and give it some TLC.

The hammy pull is just a fucking nuisance.  Yet, if I don't honor it, I'll be telling you about it in another 3 months' time, which would be idiotic on my part.  Trail running is what I love doing right now.  It fills me up.  So, it's tough to not be doing it, even though biking in the mountains is a close second.  I would just rather be on my feet than on the steed.

Well, hopefully this was insightful and helpful.  Until next time.

Happy Training,
​Coach Nate
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Gault On Gatlin:  the G2

3/12/2022

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On March 8, 2022, Jonathan Gault wrote something on Justin Gatlin's recent retirement at the age of 40 from international Track & Field sprinting.  Some called it "well-written;" others, "balanced."  I'm not sure what stringing together of syllables those folks read, because it wasn't this.

It could have been a very short blog entry - Doper retires.  Good riddance.  Instead, whatever it is that Gault was trying to convey is a mystery.  It's like he took swings at a piñata, blindfolded and standing in the wrong yard.  He calls Gatlin's retirement "complicated" and "uncomfortable."  What's complicated about a proven doper retiring, except maybe that he shouldn't have the opportunity to retire in the first place?

Gault begins the whatever-it-is with "Everyone loves a comeback."  This, right here, is where the shit shoveling begins.  He then goes on to, in one sentence, sum up Tiger Woods' complete bed shitting and give relevance to the golf world embracing Woods' triumphant return to winning the 2019 Masters.  Regardless of the idiotically skewed moral compass of those lauding Woods' return to winning ways, using Woods as a parallel, similar story to that of Gatlin is patently silly.  One man cheated on his wife -- a lot and is addicted to pain killers; the other is a doper who cheated other athletes.  How and where are these the same?

Gault then lets Gatlin off the hook -- "As a young athlete, he made a mistake ..." before entering some sort of fugue state as he compares the purity of sprinting to team sports, blitz packages and defensive formations.  Gault then has the audacity to say that "reasonable folk do not hold this first positive test against Gatlin." Oh?  And, why is this?  With Adderall being an amphetamine (banned, performance enhancing drug), why did he not apply for a TUE during collegiate and international competition?  It is a known banned substance.  And, with the knowledge it is a banned substance, why didn't Gatlin look into non-banned, FDA approved versions of ADHD medications?  Let's for a moment allow that pre-first doping ban he and his doctor simply never had this conversation.  What about after it?  Taking the Adderall story at face value does not wash, especially when Gatlin said he was hyper-careful after his first doping ban to steer clear of any situation that might expose him to a second ban.

I know, I know.  Call me crazy for applying basic rational thinking.

Right.  So, on to Gatlin's second doping positive, for exogenous testosterone.  Actions speak louder than words, so Gatlin's associations with slimeballs like Trevor Graham and Dennis Mitchell trump anything he may say about clean sport and every excuse he proffered up.  Couple this with zero contrition and ownership of his cheating, and Gatlin deserves equally non-existent oxygen around his retirement.  That the likes of Michael Norman, Grant Holloway and Allyson Felix paid respects to a doper says quite a bit about them as well.  Omerta lives on because athletes in the dirtiest events in one of the most corrupt sports praise and prop up the cheats.

Gault provides a history lesson on Gatlin, from the not-so-subtle slant of licking the sprinter's boot heels.  Because nowhere does Gault question Gatlin's rise to prominence between his two doping suspensions nor after his second, despite Gatlin running faster than ever before after his second ban.  "What we do not know, nor can never [sic] definitively know, is how (the exogenous testosterone) got (in Gatlin's system)."  Sure we can, you dolt.

When cheaters get caught, they dig in their heels.  Excuses have gotten more absurd over the years.  And, why not?  That some of the most audacious, reality-bending excuses have worked means that a cheater's first line of defense is to say, "Look over there!"  Deflection of ownership and statements about "not knowingly ingesting" this or that substance has become the broken record that's been atomized to vinyl dust particles.

It's rightly pathetic.  And, yet, nothing will change.  Because when those disseminating information about, in this case, track & field get paid for towing the line and not tossing a rock into the calm waters of corruption, then not only will nothing change, but everyone loses.  Except the cheaters.  Gault, Chris Chavez, Fast Women, Women's Running and so many more simply refuse to address the elephant in the room.  They all refuse to ask about doping.  And, in fact, you can find myriad examples of them defending dopers.  Look no further than all the "we believe Shelby!" word salads that came out of the woodwork when Houlihan got popped.  

Has any of them -- just one -- retracted their asinine missives?  Has any of them backtracked even a single step from their adamant support of Houlihan?  If any has, please share because I looked and could not find a single one.  Apparently, it's OK to be dead wrong in defending the indefensible.  But, ask the question, "I wonder if Athlete X is doping?" and you've crossed a line.  The hear/speak/see no evil stance of those covering the sport ... it's like they're salivating as they check their pull-tab numbers while awaiting their turn at the World Athletics glory hole.  The hypocrisy of this is mind numbing.

Don't mistake stating the already-known facts for any sort of investigative journalism.  At the very end, Gault ties it all together by stating Gatlin's "saga is so unsatisfying.  There is no redemption, no Tiger at the 2019 Masters moment."  As if this is a bad thing.  But, then Gault goes on to re-shit the bed, "when one four-year ban casts you as a doper for life, redemption may never have been possible."  This is pathetic.  Truly.  It's a four-year ban on the back of a previous ban and on the heels of a massively meteoric rise in performance by Gatlin which included 2004 Olympic gold and a 100/200 double gold at the 2005 World Champs.  But, somehow, exogenous testosterone was applied one time by a massage therapist in order to sabotage him.  Huh.

And, then, let's not forget post-four-year ban Gatlin.  He managed to run faster than ever before at an age when sprinters have zero business running that fast.  Supposedly clean.  Gatlin is the fucking ValvPiti of Track & Field, and we are to believe his second ascension to never before achieved personal heights was accomplished clean.  Huh.

Any sport has the champions and heroes it deserves.  If a serial doper who was banned twice is one such champion and hero to be idolized, then that speaks volumes for the institution of the sport, those covering it and its fans.

Gault, I think I just heard your number called, by the way.

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Required:  Perspective On Cheating In Sports

4/4/2021

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"Hard work and dedication" is the trademark of the clean athlete. It is also the trademark of the cheating athlete; in fact, more so. This video will explain why "innocent until proven guilty" is both irrelevant and irrational.
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Confidence In What You're Doing

2/28/2021

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I recently re-read "The Race Against Time" which outlines the sometimes friendly, sometimes contentious rivalry between Chris Boardman and Graeme Obree, arguably the best two time trialists on the bike during the '90s and both British.  Two completely different riders with two completely different personalities and two different approaches to training. Boardman was always considered the scientist, creating a methodical, surgical strategy to training and racing; if it could be quantified, Boardman measured it. Obree, on the other hand, seemed to fly by the seat of his pants, riding minimally and completely by feel; he was either full gas or not riding. Boardman trained and raced to the numbers while Obree wanted to see just how deeply he could descend into the Pain Cave.

Two entirely different approaches. Yet, nearly identical results. In the individual pursuit on the track, 10-mile and 25-mile TTs on the road, and in the pursuit of the then romantic and prestigious hour record.

We all strive to find the best, most advanced approach to our training. Sometimes that's getting back to basics; sometimes it's buying in to the latest and greatest training tips. Sometimes it's spending countless hours on the internet looking for some reference to a super secret training method that Racer X used to conquer the world.  We track heart rate, sweat rate, caloric burn rate, power, RPE, cadence, stride rate, stroke rate and anything else we can in order to find some sort of unknown visibility into that which either might be holding us back or propel us forward faster than ever before.

All of these things are important. To a degree. But without comprehension, the numbers are quite meaningless. I think we can all benefit from a greater comprehension of the signals the body is providing us with. More data does not mean more knowledge, nor does it equate to the ability to turn that data into actionable and better outcomes than if we did not have it. Athletes suffer from a syndrome of training to the numbers while tuning out the body's signals. 

I'm prone to wonder how much less effective our training would be if we ditched all the numbers and just trained by feel. How long or short would it take to become proficient at it?  How much confidence would we have in a back to basics approach?  How many of us would be willing to go off the grid?  Does going off the grid scare the Hell outta you?  Would training be more enjoyable if we set ourselves free?


Some of my most enjoyable training sessions are those in which I have no expectations or measurement, yet from which I derive plenty of challenge, fulfillment and fitness benefit.

Think about it ...

Happy Training,
Coach Nate


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Looking Ahead to 2021

12/24/2020

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Endurance athletes train really hard.  Regardless of what methodology they use, or whether they work with a coach or train themselves, they demonstrate tremendous dedication to their sports.  The challenge is that we’ve become a society of immediate gratification and we expect no less from our training.  When new athletes come to me and ask, “How much faster can you make me in 3 months?” I tell them they are asking the wrong question.  Growth takes time; it takes patience.  If we allow for this, the gains will be well worth the wait. 

Here are some nuggets to keep in mind as you hit this Winter with brimming motivation as you prepare for 2021 and what will hopefully be a return to some semblance of regular racing. 


Progress does not occur daily nor is linear

Just as your training should ebb-and-flow, so, too, will your progress.  Rather than looking for every day to get better and better, instead look for general upward trends in your fitness, strength, endurance, speed and performance.  Even if you do everything right, some days will feel like you’re regressing rather than progressing.  Other times, gains will be nearly impossible to measure, while still other times you will notice you’ve taken a big leap forward.  All of this is natural and all of this is part of the process.


The best advice I can provide here is to not emotionally attach yourself to the results of your training, especially on a short-term scale.  Sometimes the progress doesn’t even show up in your training but shines through in your racing.  Don’t allow your confidence to be shaken by completely natural fluctuations in your day-to-day training performances.

Gradually increase your training volume
We are a generally fit bunch.  So, we believe that because we are already in shape that we can start piling on the training and that will make us more fit and better athletes.  The problem here is compounded by all of the fairly terrible “training secrets of the pros” articles that inundate us all.  We see the impressive workouts or training volume of the pros and aspire to all that.  Or, we think that there’s no way we could ever train like that so there’s no hope of ever being able to complete, say, an Ironman or a marathon.  Either way, it’s a skewed perspective that needs to be adjusted to conform to reality.


Patience is key here.  So is perspective.  Rarely does a training article pull back and let us know how certain workouts need to be incorporate into an overall training plan, or what comes the day before and the day after the key workouts about which we’re reading.  It is also challenging for athletes to appreciate the fact that the majority of pro athletes do not have other jobs.  Their jobs are to train and race.  So, while you’re waking up at 0-dark-30 to do your first workout and then complete your second one before a late dinner because in between you’re working hard at the office, the pro athlete is training hard but also recovering, resting up, getting massage and so on.  In other words, you’re continuing to spend energy while the pro is conserving it.  Gaining fitness takes time.  Rushing the process or aspiring to train like a pro when your lifestyle can’t support that physical investment will only serve to detract from your ability to achieve your goals.

Mix up your training
You always hear to “train your weaknesses”, or “train to your weaknesses and race to your strengths.”  While I do not necessarily agree with these statements, I do agree with the underlying principle of both.  That is, focus on various aspects of training to create more well-rounded stimulus so your body adapts in ways it otherwise might not.  Taking the Ironman example from above, if you only put in mega miles to prepare for the race, you’re ignoring other key aspects such as structured intervals.  Sure, you will be able to “go long”, but you may not be able to do it very quickly.  By complementing the long workouts with speed work, intervals and tempo work, you will be able to cover the Ironman distance more quickly.


Mix up your workouts.  A graph of your weekly training should look like an EKG readout, with peaks and valleys representing different training intensities.  If you tend to flat line your training, always going at a certain speed, well … we know what flat lining leads to, right?

The Winter is the ideal time to try new things.  We’re motivated, our first races are months away and, thus, we do not feel the stress associated with “getting it wrong” like we do when our goal race is a mere few weeks or days away.  Look at your last season, dissect your training and provide yourself with an honest assessment of what you did well, but also where you can see room for improvements.  Then, attack those areas and shore them up.  Try new things.  Ask yourself, “What if I did this, that or the other?”  

Challenge yourself to think outside the box.  This is why coaching is so fun to me – seeing opportunity rather than fear when it comes to trying new things in less than conventional ways.  Adopt a little innovation to your own approach and you could hit next season a notch or two better than you were in the past.  One thing is for sure – if you don’t do anything differently, then you shouldn’t expect different results.

​Happy Training,

Coach Nate
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The Jericho Mile

9/26/2020

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"I'm not here to go 5:01."

My answer when my wife, Lori, asked how I was feeling and what I thought I could do as we walked from the car to the track.  A couple people had planted separate seeds in me, unbeknownst to them.  That being the goal of running a sub-5:00 mile at 52 years old.  Not a 1,500 converted.  Not 1,600.  The full 1,609.  It was never on my radar, not something I had even contemplated.  But, given the wonkiness of 2020 and the cancellation of the long trail races I had wanted to do, a novel, invigorating challenge seemed like a great substitute.

'The Jericho Mile' is a 1979 made for TV movie starring Peter Strauss.  Strauss kills his stepsister-raping dad and is sent to prison.  He runs in the prison yard and shows natural ability.  A local training guru is called in to coach him at the warden's request, with the goal of Strauss running in the US Olympic Trials.  The prison yard is transformed into a regulation track.  The parole board denies Strauss the opportunity to run at the Trials.  He listens to the race on the radio, heads out to the yard and, running solo and without fanfare, runs faster than the Trials winner.

Today would be my Jericho Mile.  Just me and the track.  No pacers, no cheat shoes, not stadium energy -- just me and the watch.

I did some research and, while I could not find much, I did ascertain that about a dozen 50+ folks accomplish this any given year.  How many are the same vs brand new to the club, I don't know.  I also don't know how many do it at altitude.  I did find that ex-CU runner and Boulderite Dan King ran 4:57.29 on the road here in Boulder earlier this year.  Dan is 61, which makes his time a phenomenal feat.  He later ran 4:49.08 at sea level in South Carolina, on the CIU mondotrack, hailed as one of the fastest tracks in the country.  Just, wow.

I don't know much about time conversions in running.  But, given my extensive swimming background, I remember geeking out on yards-to-meters and meters-to-yards, and short course-to-long course and long course-to-short course conversion rates.  So, I understand the concept.  Accordingly, running a mile at a little over a mile in altitude creates about a 5.5-second handicap over running at sea level.  From my perspective, it would be all about the raw finish time.  It would be sub-5 at altitude and at the full 1,609m distance or it wouldn't be, any sort of handicap or conversion be damned.  Black-and-white, no grey.

My running had been feeling pretty good when I decided to commit to this.  I hadn't run in any serious way in 20+ years, having instead focused on cycling.  Given the time it would take to prepare, I fast tracked another goal of mine, to do the Peak Traverse, a 17-mile run with about 6,000ft elevation gain over the Boulder Front Range's 5 highest peaks.  The next weekend, I checked it off, but not without impact.  My legs imploded and created some lower leg issues I had to let heal.  I upped the gravel riding to keep the fitness going, slid out on some single track, landed on a rock and broke a handful of ribs.  Not the best way to start attacking a goal.

For a handful of weeks, I did what I could and nothing that caused undue pain.  Interestingly, the stair machine was mostly fine, as was easy cycling on a stationary bike.  Even certain strength exercises were tolerable (most were not).  My first run back was only about 4 miles at close to 9:00 pace; that's all the ribs would tolerate and, afterwards, I felt like I had been hit by a truck.  I nearly pulled the plug right there.  But, slowly and steadily, things improved.  Finally able to do most anything I wanted, I decided it was time to commit to the sub-5 goal.  I planted a stake in the ground 5 weeks out.  I was then, or wait until Spring 2021.

My training consisted of 6 runs a week and multiple strength sessions.  2 fast runs, 2 short easy runs, and 2 aerobic runs roughly an hour in length.  If the legs felt beat up, I would substitute a stationary bike ride on that day.  My fast sessions were limited to The Golden Rule set of 8-10x400 at goal mile pace with 1-2 minutes rest between.  This set has been around for decades and is apparently a solid indicator of mile potential.  Given I had 5 weeks, I decided to dive right in and start with 10 reps, shooting for 1:15 splits and taking equal recovery jogs between.  It took 2 sessions to lock into pace vs effort and stabilize my 400 times.  I then got faster the next 2 sessions and hit 1:12-1:13.  For the final 2 sessions, I slowed it down to 1:14-1:15 and focused on learning what "float" felt like.  I also gradually dropped the number of repeats over the weeks down to 6.  The final week-and-a-half, I ditched the 400s for 1,009m time trials.  One per session for 3 sessions, crossing the line as if I still had 600m to go and asking myself, "Could you run this pace another 600m?"  I'll be honest, only during the last time trial did I answer it as "Probably."  The first two, it was "Probably 200, maybe 300 more.  Not 600."  I was hoping "race day jitters" would carry me through to the end.  The encouraging aspect, though, was that I was completely locked into 5:00 pace.  Even with the extra 9 meters, I was hitting 3:07.5 each time trial.  This helped with the confidence that I could do it.

Breaking 5:00 is simple, but it's not easy.  It's a straightforward math equation:  hit 1:14.5 for each 400m + under 2 seconds for the additional 9 meters.  Simple.  But, getting to the line with the fitness and the body suppleness to carry it out ain't easy.  As I healed up from breaking my ribs, my body was clearly overcompensating and protecting itself from my continued abuse.  My hamstrings were not at all pleased, nor were my calves or feet.  I couldn't get adjustments, which I clearly needed, so I relied on an overabundance of massage work once I was able to lie on the table pain free.  Still, while the legs relaxed and opened up, the hamstring attachment way up under the glute on my left side would not relent.  It was a tendonitis pain, not a pull.  So, then the math equation became related to time on a calendar rather than time on a track -- could I withstand another few weeks of training in order to make it to the track?  I didn't know, but I wasn't going to pull the plug just yet.

The week of the attempt, I didn't sleep well.  Par for the course, my body's way of processing nerves and preparing for what it knew was coming -- deep access to the fight-or-flight response.  The final 2 nights I slept better and awoke feeling fresh and ready to give it a go today.  My hamstring attachment was still angry, but also telling me I had permission to give it an honest whirl.

Given this was my first attempt at this, all I needed to do was hit 4:59.99.  This wasn't about setting a PR.  It was about setting down a marker for future years' attempts.  My wife wanted to provide moral support, as did my best friend, Andy.  Ultimately, I relented and invited them to come watch the fun unfold. As I warmed up, I was encouraged and energized by their presence on the infield.  It would still be a Jericho Mile.

I knew the risk would be going out too fast.  My fitness was good but not great, so if I put myself in a hole too quickly, I'd vapor lock and experience a glorious implosion.  Still, my first 409m was 1:14 followed by a 1:13 split.  I was 2:28 at the 809 mark, arguably too fast.  The third lap exposed the chinks in the armor.  With 500m to go, flashes of the old 1min maximal ramp tests on the cycling erg were pulled from the dark recesses of my brain.  Inevitably, with about 90 seconds left in the ramp test, you start making a deal with the devil -- get through the next 30 seconds, hit the next ramp and then sell your soul to get through that last full minute.  With 500m to go, this is the bargaining I started to make.  I had to fight back the urge to really engage my upper body.  I went through 1,209m in 3:43, a split of 1:15.3.  Andy, a former runner and fantastic athlete in his own right, shook his head at Lori.  It was going to be close. 

With 300m to go, my upper legs started burning and my economy started flagging.  The implosion was beginning.

With 200m to go, I had no idea how I was going to make it to the finish at speed.  A panic took over -- "You're NOT here to go 5:01!".  I engaged my arms and pumped them furiously.  

With 100m to go, Lori came running toward me on the infield, shouting words of encouragement to get me to the finish line.  I recall with about 50m to go realizing my left hamstring hadn't liked me very much the past 4-plus minutes.  I leaned for the line and stopped my wrist watch, fumbling to find the stop button and hitting it a stride past the mark.  Andy had 2 stop watches and stopped them both.  
4:59.50
4:59.50
4:59.71 (my belated stop)

By any measure, mission accomplished.

Happy Training,
Coach Nate
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The Fairytale of the Outlier Athlete

8/30/2020

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Aerobic vs Anaerobic Training

8/23/2020

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Now that things have started to lift on sports a little bit regarding the Covid pandemic, there's been a sort of mad panic to get back at it.  To make up for lost time.  To create certainty during the continued uncertainty, through the structured training athletes do to get race ready.  Because what is more certain and structured than the training plan to prep for a race?

Endurance athletes, especially Masters athletes, train too hard.  I’ll define “endurance” as any event lasting an hour or more.  So, this encompasses a broad range of athletes, from cyclists to half-marathoners and marathoners, to every triathlete on this planet (not to mention all the other endurance sports out there, like cross-country skiing).  We have been done a disservice on multiple fronts, not the least of which is by the vast majority of coaches out there who espouse repeated bouts of interval training per week or prescribe a large volume of interval training on their athletes’ hard days.  The premise is that we get faster by training harder.  This is true – to a very finite point.  In order to better understand how we can extract more from our training and how to best balance aerobic with anaerobic efforts, it’s first important to understand how the body works.


At a high-level, there are 3 energy systems from which the body draws during any exercise of any duration and any intensity – phosphate, lactate and aerobic.  Phosphate is mainly leveraged in all out efforts lasting up to 30sec but typically falling in the 3-10sec range.  Lactate gets produced in greater quantities the closer we get to our LT (Lactate Threshold) and when we exercise above it.  Lactate is a fuel source, a byproduct of our effort that our body processes more quickly than it is produced until such time as we hit and cross our LT.  The aerobic energy system is when carbohydrate burning is slowed (but not stopped) and we recruit some stored fat as fuel because we are training or racing at an effort that is well below our LT.

Even 5k runners use predominantly the aerobic energy system -- as high as 93%. We really don’t elicit a high anaerobic utilization until we dip below 2min in effort, and leveraging a higher percentage of lactate for fuel instead of aerobic energy does not even occur until a 400m all out effort – something that lasts well under a minute. O2 is the fuel of muscles, and it takes about 30sec for the O2 we breathe in to be put to use. People think the O2 is used immediately because when they hold their breath for a long time and the lungs start burning, they take another breath and feel instant relief. But that relief actually comes from expelling CO2, not inhaling O2. A build-up of CO2 -- because we can't inhale enough O2 to replace it -- is what becomes the limiter with higher intensity performance.  When CO2 production outpaces our ability to intake fresh O2, there’s a cascading effect with higher lactate production and other internal triggers that tip us further into an anaerobic state (if you wonder why athletes blood boost, look no further than this explanation.  More blood equals more O2 being carried to the working muscles, which in turn equals more capacity).

So, on the one hand, it is imperative we become aerobically efficient. We do this by tuning our aerobic system so we have a turbo engine rather than a lawnmower engine. By focusing on fat utilization, aerobic training, we can push out metabolic triggers that start tipping us toward anaerobic system/fuel utilization (lactate, phosphate). When these triggers are ultimately pulled, carb utilization speeds up and we burn through muscle glycogen faster. Hence, the more aerobically efficient we are, the longer our muscle glycogen lasts. Also, the less our muscles fatigue, the longer our muscle neurons fire properly and spare us from potential cramping (IMHO, cramping isn't dehydration or salt loss; it stems from fatigue that keeps the muscles from firing properly).

Here's the rub. Part of our ability to become more aerobically efficient (more O2 to the working muscles) gets stimulated by bouts of high intensity training, especially VO2max efforts (lasting up to a handful of minutes). Higher intensity training forces the body to create more plasma and red blood cells, which in turn saturates the blood with a higher amount of O2. Think of a VO2max training block when the first workout of 3min intervals leaves you heaving and out of sorts. After a few weeks, the 4-5min intervals are hard and very taxing, yet there is also a sense that the body is settling in to them. This is due to the adaptation just mentioned.

The key is to stimulate thru high intensity enough, but not too much. Too much high intensity disrupts your ability to make that internal metabolic shift to being more aerobically efficient. Bike racers can dig deep and throw down attack after attack at the end of a 5+ hour race not because they do a lot of anaerobic training but rather because they are so aerobically efficient that when it's "go time", they have the muscle glycogen reserves to support those efforts and their muscle neurons are not too fatigued so cramping typically isn't an issue either. Next time you watch a bike race or mountain stage of the Tour, instead of focusing on the strongest rider, instead focus on those in the front group who inevitably start to fall away. Watch the change in their body language as steam and smoke start to inevitably pour out from under their hoods like a car overheating on the side of a desert road.

The aerobic focus -- and strict adherence to the parameters of those workouts (L2 watts, HR maxed at 70-78%) is what allows you to compete in a multi-hour race at a very consistent effort and pace.  That's aerobic efficiency. It is the complement of the high intensity work -- a little but not too much -- which allows your finish time to be considerably faster than they would otherwise be. The body is a potpourri of response to stimuli. This training stuff would be so much simpler if it weren't, if instead it was more the case of pulling one lever or another to elicit the precise response we want. But, then, I'd be out of a coaching job.


So, when you think about your own training or the training program your coach has you doing, what percentage of time is spent doing intervals at SST or greater intensity?  If it is consistently more than 10% per week, it’s too much.  When we look at our lactate production curve, the biggest limiter to performance is how fast we can go before the curve starts to steepen up and to the right – meaning, when lactate production starts trending toward a greater amount being produced than can be processed causing the body to pretty quickly shut down.  The longer the “tail” of our lactate curve, the more aerobically efficient we become and, thus, the faster we also become.


Happy Training,
Coach Nate

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How Is The Pandemic Impacting Your Life?

5/31/2020

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Time To Relax And Get Back To Basics

5/10/2020

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It should be pretty obvious that a return to national or international racing here in 2020 almost assuredly will not be happening.  Here are just two examples to consider:  the Boston Marathon and the Ironman World Championships in Hawaii.  Boston's opening up has been pushed back to September 7th -- coincidentally, a week before the already-rescheduled race.  To the public and racing community, the race director is very bullish on the race happening the following week.  However, ask him off-the-record what he really thinks and you'll probably get an answer ​akin to "Chances are slim to none, and Slim just left town."  For Ironman, Hawaii already has a trend of zero new Covid-19 cases.  The island state is one of the safest places on the planet.  Yet, extreme nativism is digging in and taking root.  There's a faction that does not want to open the state back up to other USA citizens, let alone the rest of the world.  If nothing else, weeding through this will slow down the dominoes falling in a return to normalcy.

But, larger scale, here's why big races won't be occurring in 2020.  Opening things back up at a local level -- forget about larger scale -- will happen iteratively.  Using Boston as the example, let's say the city does materially open back up by September 7th.  Raise your hand if you believe a week later that 40,000 runners from around the world and about one million spectators will be allowed to congregate.  What we are seeing and hearing is a lot of trying to think out-of-the-box to find a way that an event could happen.  I commend the effort, but the execution of the ideas presented just isn't tenable.

So, it's time to relax.  Stop focusing on trying to remain race-ready for the magical day the world opens back up.  Instead, turn your attention back to the basics and be disciplined enough to shore them up.  Challenge yourself to let go of what will almost assuredly be the empty promise of a return to racing national and international events in 2020.

As endurance athletes, we’ve largely lost our way, being fooled by very compelling – and expensive – marketing tactics and strategies.  We’ve been tricked into believing that by focusing on the shortcuts we will reach new heights previously deemed unattainable.  That we must focus on sharpening the tip of the spear.  And, if we don’t, then we will fail at our own peril.  Think of building a house.  The structure itself can be constructed of all the latest-and-greatest materials and have all the modern efficiencies possible.  But, if that house is built without a foundation, then it will fall apart like a house of cards at the first strong wind or storm.  For example, if you’re not sleeping enough (foundational), then no superfood or magical supplement is going to provide you with more energy or better performances.  

And, here’s another dose of reality.  For the vast majority of endurance athletes, focusing on the final 1-2% at any time is immaterial.  They don’t matter at all.  Unless you are already at the top of the athletic pyramid where 0.5-1% is all that stands between winning and finishing off the podium, then obsessing over the minutia does us little to no good.  Rather than spend $1,000 or more on the fastest, most cutting edge wetsuit to shave time off your triathlon swim, choose to work on your stroke technique to gain efficiency and log more time in the pool to increase your endurance.  Because then the $300 wetsuit will serve you just fine (really, it will).  For the same type of analysis on the bike, you can read another article I wrote on the Cost v Benefit of Aero Equipment.  

Now is the perfect time for endurance athletes to shift their focus to the structural foundation of what they do – to the 98-99%.  In fact, in our lifetimes there has never been a more perfect time to do so.  The more solid your foundation, the more you will be able to build upon it.

The biggest challenge is that we exist in a world of immediate gratification.  The gadgets and the hacks and the super secrets of the pros are very attractive because they provide us with the promise of shortcuts.  Why train multiple sessions a day and put in many hours of dedicated work every week if instead we are promised the same results in less than half the time?  Where the argument of the quick fix falls down is that it assumes or even portends that innovation and creativity occur in the absence of a basic foundation, when in fact it is precisely that foundation which unlocks the power of the innovation.  The foundation is prior or existing knowledge; the innovation is a potential iteration of that foundational knowledge.  See what I mean?

If your diet is terrible, then the best supplement in the world will only start to make up for the holes in your diet plan.  It sure won’t boost your performance.  If you heel strike and hunch over like Quasimodo when you run, better to work on your form before you invest in expensive shoes.  If you ride an ill-fitting bike, then you must first address your position before you slap on a set of $2,000 race wheels.  Yet, we are programmed to do the complete opposite.  We look for improvements in all the wrong places.  Because the investment of money is so much easier to rationalize than the investment of time.

To be clear, nearly all endurance athletes are not at a point in their progression where worrying about the 1-2% makes any sense.  You must first master your craft before you focus on becoming the best-of-the-best.  It is in that pursuit of ultimate excellence when focusing on the minutia will yield measurable return.  Understand the basics and why they are important.  Nail them.  Come back to them frequently. 
 

This path is very simple to both find and follow – sleep more; eat whole, real food; train consistently and tick all the energy system boxes.  The problem is that the best advice isn’t sexy.  It’s not sleek and shiny and full of buzzwords.  So, it doesn’t sell.  

Which is unfortunate.

Happy Training,
Coach Nate


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