MB PR

This weekend was a blast! I got to hang out with a lot of old friends and totally blew away my own expectations for the race. I absolutely nailed a 3:46:32, and never walked for the first time ever. It was a special valentines day away without the kids, just special time with me and Kelley.

Friday afternoon we started later than expected, but still got the kids dropped off and headed down to Myrtle Beach. We made it to the expo in plenty of time.  After grabbing the gear and swag, I found the beer tent.

IPA for the win!

 The part about this weekend that I was really looking forward to was seeing so many friends. At the expo, we ran into my friend Laurie, who I haven't seen since high school! She actually graduated with my brother Michael, and was a church friend who now lives in Fayetteville with her family, and they were all at the expo too. Really cool to see her again.

After we actually got dinner from the bar upstairs from the expo. It was a really nice environment, great food, and it wasn't crowded. Pretty decently romantic spot for Valentines day! Plus Kelley got to sit in a tremendous oversized chair.

Totally interested.

We always stay at the La Quinta near the starting line, but now they have added a back road that leads to a Target. And you know that means we loaded up on cheap valentines day candy.

Saturday morning came early. 5:15 my alarm went off and I got downstairs to get some breakfast. I discovered it was pouring down very hard rain and it was really cold. Not a good combination. The race started at 6:30 with the crankchairs starting first at 6:25. I knew we were cutting it close when we saw the crankchairs cruising by as we were walking to the start line!  haha, that's a bit too close. Still, I got my good luck kiss, she went to the half marathon side of the street, and I started looking for the 3:45 pace group. They had a 3:35 and 4 hour pace group, so I figured I would get somewhere in between them.

I wasn't going to run with anything that wasn't waterproof, so no music. Figured I could just talk to people. It was 41* and raining at the start. I got to wish a "good luck" to the people I just elbowed my way through, and then we were off! Lots of people were running in trash bags. I didn't want to have to discard anything later, so I just took off. Hit start on the garmin when I got to the starting line and the rest is history.

Mile 1 was in the dark, but the rain did stop.The halfers started on the left side of the divided road, and the full marathoners on the right. Before the first turn we had to cross over the divided median, and I saw a bunch of the halfers looking at me funny. So of course I had to raise both hands in the air attack-zombie style and said "it's the attack of the full marathoners", which I thought was pretty damn funny. crickets. I got nothing out of those people. But I did split an 8:09!

Mile 2 the sun came up. Since the rain was gone and the streets were still crowded, there was plenty of challenge to puddle dodge. Split an 8:07.

At 2.75 miles, something strange happened. I got passed - by a girl. While this would not otherwise be noteworthy, it was the first time I got passed on the day. And she looked at me funny, like she was surprised to pass me. It was odd. Mile 3 split 8:17.

I could see the 3:35 pacer in there, and figured I would hang out near that guy for as long as I could since I still felt great. When Kelley checked the weather forecast the night before, every hour the chance of rain would decrease while the listed wind speed would increase. And the winds were supposed to swirl, so there would always be a headwind. fun times. I did start drafting. Here there was still plenty of people in the race who were bigger than me, so I put them between the wind and my face. While it might not have smelt particularly great, it did make things easier. And I don't think it was too noticeable.  Mile 4 in 8:12, I took my first gel at the mile 4 aide station.

Mile 5 goes out by the airport, and there is usually a band playing there. This time as I ran by I got to thank them for coming out, then they started playing Folsom Prison Blues. 8:46 thanks to the extra time to take the gel.

There is a timing mat through this little shopping village at the turn around, then back towards the airport. Mile 6 was 8:12, then mile 7 was 8:31.  As I was running back towards Ocean Blvd, I could see all of the runners still going to the shopping village. Right before we split off, I found Kelley at my mile 7.5 and got to say hi to her and blow a kiss. Very motivating to know that she was getting through the miles with a smile. Mile 8 was 8:30, and I took another gel then.

Once you get on Ocean Blvd, you stay there until about mile 21. That one road has the majority of the course, but by then it's over an hour into the race so the sun is up, there's a tailwind pushing you forward (sometimes), and you get to see the boardwalk and the ocean.  It's beautiful, and monotonous, and you just let your mind wander and watch the miles run away. Mile 9 was 8:20, then mile 10 in 8:28. Right after the mile 11 marker you start seeing signs for the halfers to split off, which they do. Once the vast majority of the people peel off and head for the finish line, you get a slight depression and a peaceful calm at the same time.  Mile 11 was 8:17. I found another guy from Raleigh who thought I was crazy, but he had a wild beard and was pretty fun to talk to. He was doing a relay, and ran from mile 6 to 10. Great talking to you Tim, ended up being some fun miles.

At the mile 12 aide station I had to stop and poop. I took another gel first, then had to wait on the port-a-let for a little bit. If you've been counting, all of these miles so far have been in the 8 minute range. Mile 12 took 8:14, then mile 13 was 9:49, thanks to about a 90 second crapper stop. It felt good to lighten the load, but I was ready to get back out there.

I hit the 13.1 halfway point at 1:50:44, not a bad split. Again, I was just feeling good and taking each mile as it came to me without any real feeling of push or elevated heart  rate. Pretty crazy indeed.

The second half of the course goes up into North Myrtle Beach. The starting line is on 21st ave, and we finally turn off of Ocean Blvd somewhere around 68th st, if that gives you a frame of reference for how far into North MB we get. Now, start by understanding that there is nothing interesting about North Myrtle, nothing happens there, it's just a few small hotels and lots of beachfront houses. I don't remember much about these miles, but I'm not sure if that's because they are boring, or mindless, or just all looked exactly the same. They were all uphill, however. Which I thought was odd.

I had no expectations to negative split this course but you can certainly see my interest level wain in these miles.
Mile 14: 8:22,
mile 15: 8:38,
mile 16: 8:36 (took another gel),
mile 17: 8:19 (ok must have had a tailwind),
mile 18: 8:44,
mile 19: 8:29,
mile 20: 8:34 and another gel

And that was the most interesting part of North Myrtle. Consistent, plain, meets expectations.

Mile 21 went in 8:58, that's where the course turned and we started running uphill into a stiff headwind again. Heading back to the start/finish line there's a couple of out-and-back spurs to keep the competition in sight. I knew the aide stations at miles 16 and 22 had gels provided on the course, so I took those. Mile 22 took 8:50.

My personal best distance record was 21 miles without walking. So this time I really wanted to get that gel at the mile 22 aide station without having to take a walk break, and I did! So excited to finally break through that one. And I still felt like I didn't need to walk after that, so I figured I'd shoot for 23. Mile 23 took 9:23, but I didn't walk through it. Finally, the first mile over 9 minutes besides the poopy mile 12. This time it was fatigue that slowed me down. My quads were burning. My ass was on fire. Calves were totally starting to melt down. But I was not dehydrated, so I didn't hit the wall at mile 23 like I usually do.

Mile 24 was 8:47, and this might be the biggest surprise. Again, no walking, extending that PDR. To turn in a mile in the 8's that late in a marathon is insane. Never thought I would do that. Mile 25 took 9:19, that's more like what I was expecting. Actually, these really late miles for me are usually in the 10 to 13 minute range, so this whole thing was uncharted territory. And I still wasn't walking. Just trying to maintain good running form. I didn't have to go fast, just had to keep going. I think it was around mile 20 or 22 when I felt confident about my ability to break 4 hours.  But mile 26 was 9:09, and that's out of this world crazy.  I was finally back at Broadway cruising up towards 21st ave again. When I saw that finishing chute I knew it was real.

Not only was I going to break 4 hours (goal!) and set a PR that I didn't expect to get, I was going to smash that PR and might actually get under 3:50, which would also surpass most of my friend's marathon PR's.  And I never had to walk. That was totally unexpected and incredible. I never actually believed that I could run the entire length of a marathon without walking or falling apart in the end. insane.

I came through the finish line on fire and hit stop on the garmin. I got my medal, then looked at the garmin. When I read it, I screamed it. I read it again out (and very) loud - THREE FORTY SIX THIRTY FIVE YEEEEEAAAAAAHHHHHHHH shouted as loud as I could, and the announcer guy even said how happy we apparently were to finally be finished running 26.2 miles. He was right.  I'm not a 3:46 marathoner. I'm maybe one of the typical middle/rear middle of the pack guys who's going to struggle and train hard and maybe break 4 hours once. My old PR was 3:56 in Charleston marathon 2012, and I never actually expected to break 4 hours again. I'm 38, way too old to get any faster. But I just did, and by around 10 minutes. that's absurd. No way I would have predicted that.

As soon as I finished screaming for pure joy, Kelley was right there. She ran the half in 2:33, after only getting in 2 training runs since early december thanks to a piriformis problem. She had enough time to go back to the hotel, get some warm clothes, and make it back down in time.

Right before the scream

and right after!

As soon as I started making my way out of the finishers chute, I got caught by my good friend from college Meredith. Haven't been able to hug that neck for maybe 18 years (she graduated before me) and this, right now, is the time when I run into her? I still haven't come down from the endorphins, still jacked up high and crying over my time and that's when I have to introduce Kelley and meet her friend too. Not exactly my most photogenic moment. Loved getting to see her, but that was crap timing. We need to catch up when I can put together two coherent thoughts.

Finally, I've calmed down enough to take in some fluids and food, and process what just happened.

wow.  just wow. that was totally unexpected.

So was this!

Kelley captioned this "we found an elephant at the finish line of the marathon", and I started making jokes about how I know I've put on a little weight but that's just cruel. ha! The fence here is just to keep the beer drinkers in, not the elephants out.  Interesting fact, did you know elephants eat Fruit Loops? The trainer guy would throw fruit loops and peppermint candy on the ground and the animal would pick them up with his trunk and eat it.

Afterward we got enough fluids and walked around a bit, it was time to head back to the hotel. The elephant followed us out, and we got a few more pics.

No fence or anything, we're just walking down the street when the beast comes up behind us

incredible

That's a swinging tale

Have you ever wanted to Stranger Rodeo an elephant? I was seriously tempted to grab hold of that tail and see how long I can hang on. Maybe if I hadn't just finished a marathon. At the time, the elephant was walking much faster than I was. Opportunity lost.

What made this marathon different?
I've been trying to figure out why I was able to hang on and suffer longer this time than ever before. Maintaining good form is key, yes. As is the mental capacity to keep pushing out miles when your legs are on fire and you want to stop. But I really  think it's got to be the plants!

My fitness overall is still elevated from the B2B full iron distance in October, yes. that takes a long time to calm down. But we did the Paradigm Diet challenge in December, and those habits stuck around. We still eat a mostly vegan diet, and it's become easy to know when my weight is up a few pounds or I just feel heavy from eating too much sodium or meat. And we now know how to make that stuff all go away within a couple of days. I finished the Challenge at 175 lbs, 18% bodyfat - that was in December - and I hit the starting line - in February - at 175 lbs, 18% bodyfat. This was done on purpose. I know when I'm not properly hydrated and need to make a smoothie for breakfast the next day. I know when we need to make some Colon Blow for dinner to push some of that weekend meat through the system.  Overall I feel better, have more energy, and look younger than I did before thanksgiving.

When this becomes a long term habit, the long term effect leads to increased endurance and greater overall fitness. The extent of this was totally unexpected. I mean just 4 months ago I did the Ironman marathon almost an hour slower! (4:37 run split) Nobody is going to claim they can take an hour off of their marathon time in 4 months. It's got to be the plants.

The Paradigm Diet - the basis of our fueling
Starting the Paradigm Detox Day 1
Finishing the Paradigm Detox with a 5k PR

What Else did we do?
After getting all cleaned up, we hit the Planet Hollywood for lunch, and it was quite overrated. Then we hit the outlet stores for some shopping. I got some Kenenth Cole dress shoes that are beautiful (yes I'm secure enough in my masculinity to admit that). Then we got to meet up with the Boys!

Dean, Pat, and Jon are fraternity brothers from college. Pat ran the half, as did all of their wives. I was looking for these people while I was on the course, and they were looking for me. We all get together in the spring for a guy's weekend of heavy drinking, there's about 10 of us that usually jump in. But today we all got to hang out for a couple of beers before dinner, then had a really nice meal together. We all left the kids at home, so this was really special and fun. Like I said, on this trip, getting to see old friends and spend time alone with Kelley was just as important as running the race.

Sunday morning we cleaned up, grabbed breakfast and hit the road back to Raleigh. The whole weekend was fun, social, and fast. The only thing I could have asked for was more of the same. Kelley got to see some people that I didn't. I love being plant-powered, glad I pulled out such a strong race. And I'm grateful for a quick recovery too.

Now let's turn it up and hit the trails! March 1st (yes 2 weeks away) is the Umstead Trail Marathon. Nothing like 26.2 in the woods, this is going to be fun. It's another 1 star Marathon Maniacs streak!

Why Vegan?

Going into the start of ironman training on Saturday this new vegan lifestyle has an important purpose.  I wanted to write something up that explains the expected benefits and reasons behind why I made that switch.  We've had plenty of stints with vegetarianism before, usually lasting about 6 months and resulting in weight loss and a more ideal body composition.  Sometimes we just get to poor to afford to buy meat at the grocery store.  It is a great thing to cut out to save some cash.  But this time was very specific.

Being vegan means cutting out meat as well as all other animal products including dairy and eggs.  I love eggs.  Even doing the vegetarian thing I would still take in sometimes 9 eggs a day.  And for the record, as long as my body weight was in a normal range and I got plenty of exercise my cholesterol stayed at normal levels.  Every day since I was a kid I finish off with a bowl of cereal in milk about 10 pm.  As a family we used to go through a gallon of milk every day.  And don't get me started on cheese.  Lowfat colbyjack, pepperjack, and american cheese are staples in the fridge.  I also had yogurt almost every day.  These things are much harder to cut out than chicken or pork.

So why do it?
Some people go vegan for ethical reasons. They think it's wrong to kill animals just to eat them or drink the lactation of another species.  I come from a family of hunters and am squarely not in the ethics camp.  I'll gladly take the head off of that chicken for you, just don't put it on my plate please.  Farms raise animals that are meant to become tasty morsels on our dinner plates.  Say what you will about factory farms vs free range chicken, that's another debate.  I'm not going vegan for ethical reasons.

The other primary reason people choose vegan is for their health.  A vegan lifestyle has been used to correct the body's imbalances and purify or flush out things like excess body fat and impurities stored from HFCS or the chemical additives in a McDonald's hamburger.  Like in the China Study book, veganism is used to extend life spans or fight cancer.  I am a huge believer in anything that is going to keep me in optimal health for as long as possible.  So I started doing my research.

Here's my sources:
The Paradigm Diet - written by an MD in California, very medically oriented
The Thrive Diet - written by retired pro triathlete Brendan Brazier who started Vega One
Forks Over Knives - documentary covering the China study and lots of other studies. If you only take one thing from my list watch Forks Over Knives. It is amazing and eye opening.
Fat, Sick, and Nearly Dead - incredibly interesting study of juicing and weight loss
Food, Inc - study of farming and organics
Food Matters - incredibl documentary about farming
Freakonomics - made me shift the way I interpreted things
Eat & Run - Scott Jurek, I'm still reading this one now

My Focus
The breakdown of an ironman training plan is to workout twice a day six days a week for about 9 months.  It starts to get a bit long in the build phase.  There are two main keys to surviving this regimen, fuel and recovery.  Typical whole food vegan fare breaks down to about 80% carbs, 10% protein and 10% fat, also known as 80/10/10 or 811.  It's all fruit and veggies.

The Paradigm Diet does a really good job of explaining fuel and digestion.  The primary purpose of the book is to identify the foods that can be easily consumed, taste great, need minimal cooking or prep, and fuel up for a tough day.  It comes down to sweets, greens, beans, and seeds.  By sweets, he means fruits.  Berries, apples, bananas, etc.  The best thing about paradigm foods is that you can eat unlimited quantities, the more the better.  In fact if you can get 3000 calories a day from paradigm foods go for it.

All foods have to be liquified in the stomach before they can be absorbed.  If you find chunks of steak or mushroom floating through a blood vessel then something has gone horribly wrong.  The stomach has to produce acid that liquifies animal products, and that acid actually breaks down most of the protein anyway.  It leaves the body in a more acidic state and promotes indigestion and reflux.  Fruits and veggies get absorbed in the small intestines, carry lots of water to keep the body hydrated and tons of vitamins.  Keeping the body alkaline has lots of benefits too, including helping with fat burning.

The Thrive Diet promotes recovery.  It's a much looser stance on vegan than just paradigm foods.  Since the author was a pro triathlete he knows what it takes to train and race on plant power.  The stomach digestion stuff?  The body has to work very hard to produce all of that acid and get rid of it after the food has been broken down.  Animal products including meat eggs and dairy are very hard for the body to handle.

I don't want the body to work that hard to digest my food.  I want the body to work very hard to recover from my workouts.  All those carbs are going to give me plenty of energy to fuel the next workout.  So faster recovery times means that if I hit the bike before work, I should be totally recovered by the time I hit the pool in the evening.  Get plenty of sleep after that and I'm ready to do it all again the next day.  The extra fuel means that I can push this workout hard, and the faster recovery times means I can push the next workout even harder. 

Whole foods vegan also means nothing out of a box.  This means my beloved breakfast cereal in cow's milk is out.  Regular vegan CJ could still do cereal with almond or soy milk.  But whole foods means no dried pasta or cereal or anything processed or out of a box.  Shopping at the farmer's market time.  Tofu/tempeh is about the limit of processed that I want to do.

Kelley's in as well.  We went vegan as of Jan 1, and absolutely love it.  I love it!  Vegan meals have so much flavor.  It's all new textures, new combinations, there's nothing plain or boring at all.  And we really haven't gotten into too many salads yet.  I bring my lunch to work a lot more.  One of my favorites has to be 3 bananas and 2 apples, plus whatever other fruit we have laying around the house.  Tons of energy and hydration.  I've been working out pretty hard, and the recovery times are a lot faster.  Scott Jurek talked a lot about recovery times in Eat & Run.  And he put lots of recipes in there too. 

So if you take the best parts of Paradigm in fuel and digestion, and combine it with the recovery aspects of Thrive and Eat and Run you get my basic plan.  I want to stay healthy, happy, and awake during the entire training plan, and I really believe that a whole foods vegan approach is the best way.

The Plan
So getting my ironman finish time into the 11 hour range is going to come by volume.  There is no substitute for miles.  and miles and miles and miles.  Training for IMFL I was putting in 300 mile + months on the bike, and this time in the build phase I'm going to be staring down some 200 mile + weeks.  On the bike, volume breeds speed.  You don't put in 200 miles a week going 15 miles an hour.  It's only possible by reaching up into the 21 or 23 mph range.  In running, you can do speedwork, intervals, hill work, etc to speed up without volume.  For swimming, volume leads to a more efficient form so you end up getting in more yards per workout in the same amount of time = speed.  But on the bike miles are miles and you just have to hit the volume to get fast.  And if you do enough volume you get fast. The key is being able to keep the heart rate low.  When a zone 2 effort starts to produce 21 mph instead of 18 mph, you've got an 11 hour ironman.

Guess what maximum volume workouts take?  Patience, time, and fuel.  I'm starting Ironman training on Saturday with a very small swim/bike brick, 1000 yards in the pool and a 15 mile ride.  The 2 week warmup period is very low volume, but it will help my body get adjusted to the pattern of working out twice a day.  I'm going to tweet every workout - @SendCJToKona - just to be really annoying.  My build phase is 12 weeks.  6 of those saturdays will have 80 mile rides and the other 6 will be 100 mile rides.  That's going to take a lot of veggies to fuel those rides.  And I'm going to have to recover quickly from the bike saturdays to get in my bike run bricks on Sundays.  I'm not going to do 6 20 mile runs or anything that crazy.  But it's going to take a lot of fuel and really fast recovery to get in the volume that I'm looking for.  I really think that the vegan lifestyle is the best way to achieve that goal.

How I Got Fast Part 3

Part 1 - Weight Loss
Part 2 - Base building and Endurance

For this section, I want to talk specifically about how to swim faster, and how that affects your run speed.

Swimming

There are lots of well documented ways to get fast at swimming, but there are still a few key points I want to drop.

1. Swim speed is typically measured in the time it takes to cover 100 meters. Really fast pro triathletes can hold a 1:16 pace for the entire 2.4 mile swim in Ironman, finishing between 51 and 58 minutes, typically. Some pro's still come out of the water around 1:10. The slowest age groupers out on the ironman course will average around a 2:45 pace or slower and finish after the 2:30 cutoff time. Typically for olympic (0.9 miles) or half iron (1.2 miles) my swim pace will be just over 2:00. Middle of the pack open water mile times are around 40 minutes per mile. My 30 minute oly time and 40 minute half time were both good enough to get me into the top third of the field.
2. Some tri's want you to enter a swim pace at registration to seed the start times and put the fastest swimmers at the front of the pack. My first swim pace entered was 2:30 for my first triathlon. Last night at Master's swim practice I was knocking down 1:25 hundreds like they were nothing.
3. Improving your swim pace is all about improving your technique. It has very little to do with adding cardiovascular or muscular strength. Don't believe me? Most pools are 25 yards or 25 meters long. Count the number of strokes you have to take (both arms total), and use that as your measure of improvement. The slower swimmers will take 28-30 strokes, and the faster swimmers will only need 12-14. I'm typically around 15 or 16 strokes now.

You cannot get fast swimming on your own. There are plenty of books out there to read, including Total Immersion, one of my favorites. There are TONS of youtube videos on stroke technique. But until you get some types of coach to watch you swim and give you the corrections needed you will never really improve. Books and videos can give you lots of advice, but it takes a coach to actually watch your technique and tell you if you are doing it right. You just can't see it yourself short of using an underwater camera and watching it later.

I think the best way to get this instruction is by joining a masters team. I absolutely LOVE the Raleigh Area Masters Team that I joined back in March to get me through Ironman training. The coaches are amazing. One of the coaches there is also the track and field coach and swim team coach at NC State. She is absolutely incredible.

Before Masters I would typically swim over lunch and get in 800 - 1800 yards in around 40 minutes. Enough to get my heart rate up. average pace was around 2:00.

Last night I went to a Masters practice with the NC State coach. We covered 3000 yards in an hour and 15 minutes. Average pace was about 1:30. The warmup was 800 yards, and it was harder than any 800 yard workout I ever got by myself over lunch. Then the real work started.

Form/Technique

Water provides resistance when you're swimming, this can be both good and bad. You want your body to glide through the water with as little friction as possible, but your arms and feet create a grip on the water to push you through.

Body position is usually the first thing that gets addressed. You want to be as flat as possible with about 90% of your body underwater. The first piece of advice I ever got from a swim coach was to swim like I was trying to hold a golf ball under my chin. Imagine your body laying flat on the surface of the water face down. Being as flat as possible means your body will create the least resistance possible from the water. This is actually controlled more by your head position than anything else.

Right. Level body position will shoot you through the water like an arrow.

Wrong. Lifting your head pushes your lower body down into the water, creating more drag.

Images taken from this great article. If you look up, your tail will drop in creating more resistance. This is why you only want to sight in open water every 5 or 6 strokes, and sight as quickly as possible then get face down again.

Bilateral breathing is the next skill you want to master. You want to take quick breaths to both the right and left sides every three or five strokes alternating sides (bilateral). Mastering this means that if you are in open water and you're constantly getting waves crashing over you from the right hand side, you will also be comfortable breathing to your left. And don't pick up your head to breathe, just rotate to one side with your chin on that shoulder as a relaxed separate motion from the body rotation. Here's a good demonstration article.

There are plenty of other form guides out there for arm technique, kick technique, breathing technique, it's kind of insane. I really like Total Immersion techniques, but your coach will know what's best. As a comparison, you can spend as much time on swim form as you would on a golf swing, and even Tiger Woods has a coach that constantly adjusts his swing.

My final word on technique will be on flip turns, there's a great debate going on with triathletes on flip turns. There are no flip turns in open water, so a lot of triathletes think you don't need to do them in the pool. Flip turns are done with your abs, and I'm all for anything that will help you work your core muscles. Also in open water, you don't get to hang onto the wall for that half a second and take the huge breath that you normally get to take at each turn. Flip turns encourage breath control. You should be able to flip, push off of the wall, and take two strokes before taking your first breath. Breath control and core work will help immensely with open water swims as well as cycling and running. Having said that, I still rarely do flip turns in my masters practices. I'm just too lazy. And I like getting the big breath at the turns.

Volume

Want to swim fast? Swim more. People who log 18,000+ yards in the pool every month will swim faster than those with less practice. Again that means more yards, not more time in the pool, more swim sessions, or more strokes. Get efficient to get faster and you'll get more laps in the same amount of time. See how it all works together? I went from swimming 3 or 4 times a week over lunch to attending two masters practices a week at most, and got so much faster. Went from averaging 7000 yards a month to 16,000 yards a month while actually spending less minutes in the pool!

Gear

I'm really a purist when it comes to swimming. I like a small nylon suit or tri shorts for racing, goggles and that's it. You can really get lots of gear for the pool, and I actually just bought a new Zoot mesh swim gear bag yesterday that's really cool. But I didn't even wear goggles for my first triathlon. Evidence:

Greenville Sprint triathlon 2008. I take my entire head out of the water to breathe, look up to sight, have no goggles on.

Since joining the masters team I've also embraced a kickboard and pull bouy, because they establish a separation and allow you to work on a specific part of your form. Pull buoys provide support for your lower body to keep it elevated. It can help you recognize the feel of being flat in the water and allow you to focus on using your arms in the stroke and on centralized body rotation.

Kick sets actually kill me. I work my legs enough in the bike and run workouts that I think I don't need to practice kicking. Hold a kick board and don't use your arms for a while. ugh. torture. Triathletes typically don't use swim kicking for forward propulsion anyway, just to maintain body position. I do still swim faster when kicking than just pulling, but that doesn't mean I have to enjoy a 700 yard kick set like we did last night.

Paddles really mess with my arm entry and catch in the water, so I have a really tough time using them. Same thing with fins. They make you go so fast that I don't get to use my arms as much and that feels like I'm defeating the purpose of being out there. Plus I tend to get lots of calf and foot cramps when I use fins. It freaks me out and I don't like it. I also get calf cramps from pushing off of the wall too hard.

And since I just stuck a bunch of links out there to my favorite online swim gear website, I should mention that the outlet/clearance section of SwimOutlet.com is fantastic. I've gotten some great suits from there.

Running

How does this affect speed when running? Swimming, by nature, works your entire body. Heavy volumes of swimming will raise your overall level of fitness immensely. It works all of those tiny muscles behind your abs, in your lower back, upper back, glutes, shoulders, pecs, triceps, everything. It's the best whole body workout you will find. And there's zero impact unless you run into a wall (hey, it happens if you don't wear goggles).

Since you spend most of your time face down in the water and focus on breath control and breathing patterns, it teaches your aerobic system to process oxygen more efficiently. You will raise your VO2 Max with regular swimming. This is a huge factor in fast running. I think this is the biggest benefit runners can get from adding in regular swim workouts.

Caution

Don't start swimming while you are trying to lose weight! Yes, it's a huge calorie burner, so after a good hard swim workout I will eat twice what my normal recovery snack is. You can't swim very much and stay inside of the 1800 calorie a day intake limit/600 calorie burn limit from Step 1.

Yes we've all seen the kind of hardbodies produced by Michael Phelps and Ryan Lochte. But they also take in 12,000 calories a day. After you've hit your target weight, adding in swimming with a more protein based diet can really sculpt your abs, yes. You will build some amazing pecs and shoulders.

Final Word

Good form - face down, body rotated, arm taking a nice entry angle into the water. I wish my feet were higher, you should see me kicking more here. But this was at the start of the OBX half iron last month, and I tend to not kick much when there are so many other people swimming around me. Don't want to kick anyone else in the face.

Seriously. Google "masters swim team" and your city name and I'm certain there is a team or two that you can choose from. They will normally let you go a couple of times for free before you decide to join, but the workouts are so good that you will want to join.

After Ironman Florida, I'm going cut back my cycling during the winter. Regular triathlon training wants you to get in three swims, three bike rides, and three runs every week plus strength training and stretching/yoga. I want to spend the off season swimming twice a week with the RAM team, and running three or four times a week. Occasionally I'll hit the stationary bike if I miss a swim practice, and I'll get in more yoga and strength work early in the mornings. But I believe that swimming + running is going to give me the best combination for fast running over the winter.

How I Got Fast Part 2

Part 1 - Weight Loss

Base Building

I didn't realize that I was really working on base building, but I was. If you remember from the Weight Loss post I knew that running burned the most calories per hour, so that needed to be the staple of my winter workouts. I still think it's important to get some cross training in, so I did that on the stationary bike as well.

The four days a week I was running was actually a base building phase - I had no idea that was going to happen. I knew I needed to keep my runs under 45 minutes. I wanted to use the treadmill to see the calorie counter on there, and I eventually figured out that the most effective workouts were burning less than 600 calories. When I ran long I didn't lose any weight. Long runs have no place in base building either.

The first thing I noticed when building my base was the basic endurance factor of not taking any walk breaks. It builds up over time like any other endurance base. First I would go a mile without walking, then two, then three. That's when I started to notice - hey I didn't have to walk for that 3 mile run. Then I could go four, five, or six miles without walking. All still at the same 10 min/mile pace.

Before the Biggest Loser 5k in Myrtle Beach SC last year, I ran a 26:35

If you want to run fast, run fast. Once I got comfortable going 10k at a 10m/m pace it got boring. So I started trying to speed it up some. Some runs turned into 5k at a 9m/m pace. Then 10k at 9m/m. This all just happened naturally.

I did start throwing some intervals in there once I got closer to my goal weight. Interval training isn't base building, but I know they were in there.

The biggest point of base building for speed is to walk less and keep the milage low. Actually don't walk at all and don't make a single run over 10k. If you run like I did 4 times a week at 3, 4, 5, or 6 miles then you've established a base of around 18 miles a week.

Endurance comes before speed

Yes I know that this is the exact opposite of the above framework for base building. But hear me out. It doesn't take much endurance, and we can use it to our advantage. It's really dealing with endurance for the event.

Now it's time to start thinking ahead to a goal. Want to run a fast 5k? After Ironman I'm going to try and break 20 minutes in a 5k. Our base training has taught us that we can run a 5k at a faster pace than 5 miles. So you want to run a 5k at a 6:23 pace (that's 19:50, or 9.4 mph)?

Get ready to run 5 miles very often. Once or twice a week hit a 5 mile tempo run, and keep trying to get that faster until you're about a 34:50 total run time. That's a 6:58 pace, or an 8.6 speed on the treadmill. 5 miles is less than 10k so it fits our base model, and the run is still under 45 minutes so it fits our calorie burn model. Actually that might end up burning too many calories.

Before the Natty Greene's 5k Foxhunt this year, thinner but before Ironman training. Ran that one in 23:43

Lots of 5 mile runs will give you the endurance you need to run a fast 5k. Going 10, 12, or 15 miles will not give you as much benefit as a solid 5 mile speed base will for a 5k. You want to set a half marathon PR? Break 2 hours for the first time? Great. Run 15 at least twice in the month before your race and you've given yourself a much better shot. Once you feel comfortable holding a given pace for 15 miles then holding a slightly faster pace for 13.1 on race day is in the bag. This also gives you a huge mental advantage.

Base and Endurance Conclusion

I didn't make a conscious decision to run lots of base miles in order to get fast, I did it to get thin. I got fast because I started with a solid base of slow miles. As I got thinner, it got easier to run faster, so I kept the same milage and just kept increasing the speed. Now it feels really awkward to run any slower than an 8:00 pace, and when running outside with no Garmin telling me to slow down my natural gate keeps about a 7:30 pace. I know how to push that up for shorter distance races and can force myself to slow down for longer races.

So build your base, then add some endurance and your speed will follow. Give it 6-15 weeks to really get a solid base established. I took 5 months leading up to my ironman training plan to really get that base established and only ran more than 6 miles three or four times. Consistency is the key. Unlock your potential!

Next up is going to be how to get fast at swimming and cycling!

How I got fast Part 1

I'm going to write a series of posts with some details of how I got "fast". How do I know I'm fast? Other people keep telling me things like "dang John, you're really fast". I know how I made the jump from running 10 minute miles to running 7 minute miles and that's really what I'm going for here. I still compete against people running 5:30 to 6:30 miles, and I think that's fast. When I start finishing in the top 10 for my age group in triathlons, or winning small 5k's; then I'll admit to being the fastest for that day. These fast guys are putting in 16 to 18 minute 5k's.

So the first thing we have to admit is that there's always a bigger fish. My bigger fish is the 16:xx 5k that makes me feel slow. Your big fish might be the elusive sub-4 hour or 5-hour marathon. I know I might be the big fish for other people. But there's always a bigger fish.

Step 1: Weight Loss

If your goal is to complete (not compete) then weight loss should not be an issue. For years, I championed "the scale is nothing but a number" from finishing my first marathon in 5:07 to the second one in 4:31. I said I could run as many marathons as I wanted to over 200 lbs. They would all be over 4 hours and I would never get that sense of improvement, but I really could complete as many as I wanted.

Then last year at the Patriot's Half Ironman I had a goal to break 3 hours in the bike split and 6 hours overall. I picked the Patriots because the bike course was supposed to be so favorable for the sub-3 split. No excuses, can't blame the course or conditions, just have to muscle up and hit my speeds. The swim was hard so I missed the 6 hour target, finishing in 6:55 instead. But the killer was the 3:08 bike split. I knew then that I just couldn't push 200+ lbs on the bike any faster than I did that day and I would never be able to complete a full ironman by pushing 200+ lbs over 140.6 miles. I did not want to push 200 lbs around for over 140 miles.

I know plenty of clydesdales do finish ironmans. Some 200 pounders even win ironmans. But that doesn't mean I could do it. If I wanted to get faster, it was time to get lean.

I bought a copy of Racing Weight by Matt Fitzgerald. I read it, and wrote a nice review if you want the specifics of what I got from the book. I set a pretty lofty goal to have visible abdominal musculature (show the 6 pack abs), and discovered it normally requires getting a body fat percentage down in the 9-11% range before they start to show up. I bought a body fat scale from KMart and established my starting point.

Well, really my starting point was established here:


Right after the Evil Genius was born was when I started this whole gig. I was 235 lbs at my heaviest, I sold the stressful business, took a work-from-home job, stopped smoking, signed up for my first triathlon (actually registered for the race before I stopped smoking, bought a bike, or ran my first mile), and Kelley went on weight watchers and got us eating right. So for most of the last 4 years I have been floating between 195 and 205 lbs. Otherwise known as:


One of the thinner times I was racing, but still right around 200 lbs.

To achieve my goals for Racing Weight, I had to take a multilayer approach.

• Go vegetarian - We decided to stop buying meat from the grocery store. It saves a ton of money and made the biggest difference in my health and energy levels. I would still eat meat at restaurants, but not more than once a week - a cheat meal.
• Log everything at trainingpeaks.com - Every morsel I ate and drank and every workout got logged. I didn't know I was drinking 12 cups of coffee a day, all I knew was that the free coffee machine at work kept brewing more.
  
• Limit my intake to 1800 calories a day - more on that later
• Run for weight loss - more on that later too
• Consistent Monitoring
• Establish a target date for completion

Ironman Florida and the Beach 2 Battleship are around the same weekend every year. My preference was IMFL, so I started with that date - 11/5/11. I'm doing this in September last year, remember. Reading the Racing Weight book, developing a race schedule for 2011, researching Ironman training plans, all with this one focused goal of completing a 140.6. I use a spreadsheet to log all of my workouts, so I loaded the training plan up into the spreadsheet.

This gave me the end date for weight loss. I knew I needed to be at my target weight by the time Ironman training started on Feb 28. An old friend from college wanted to get in on some weight loss too, so we kept weekly tabs on each other. I stayed in constant contact with the Snail, and we pushed each other to faster 5k times throughout the spring. He lost a bunch of weight in that time frame too, and got really fast, actually besting my half marathon and 5k pr's by a few seconds each. {{shakes fist like an angry old man}}

I picked my start date when I finished reading the book. I wanted to show slow, consistent progress over the time frame I allocated, and I needed some accountability. Thus was established the Monday Morning Naked Weight (MMNW). Every monday at 6 am I would weigh myself totally naked, and record the numbers on my training log spreadsheet and post them on the blog. I started at 208.8 lbs and 28.5% body fat. There's a long way to go to see 11% body fat.

The good thing about numbers is that you can multiply 208.8 times 28.5% and discover that I contained 59.45 lbs of pure fat. I know some of that is needed to function. But watch this math. 208.8 - 59.5 leaves 149.3 lbs of muscles, bones and organs. Multiply that by 11% = 165.7 lbs is my target weight to get to 11% body fat. That means if I can lose 43.1 lbs of pure fat (no muscle or water loss) then I should get there. Of course there will be some other losses, you never lose pure bodyfat. But under the other bullet points I came as close as possible!


This was the "after" shot taken yesterday. Certainly much closer to the goal, this is an iron hardened body. Less than 60 days to go until Ironman, this is about as sculpted as I'm going to get.

I still weigh myself every monday morning and record it in the spreadsheet. Yesterday I came in at 170.8, and a flat 16% bodyfat, rocking 27.3 lbs of fat. So my weight loss since I started tracking on 10/18/10 is exactly 38 lbs, and 32.13 lbs of that is pure fat. That's a pretty high muscle retention weight in my book. Watching my body fat % drop with the sheer number of pounds lost was the biggest motivator. Since I knew I wasn't losing muscle it became easy to stay strong mentally and physically, and just keep running faster.

So from the bottom up in my bullet point list, I've got my target date established and monitoring systems in place. Running for weight loss is considerably different than running for speed or endurance.

Running for weight loss

Weight loss is about establishing patterns. You eat on a schedule. You workout on a schedule. No tri training, multisport, bricks, or two-a-days. Running for weight loss has to be simple. As the pounds come off, running gets easier. That will naturally make you faster. How and how much you run can also make a difference.

Calories Count

Everyone has to establish a magic number for their own intake. If you are shorter than me (I'm 6'1"), or female, or have a higher starting weight, then your magic number will be different. The best way to find your magic number is through trial and error. It needs to be high enough to sustain bodily function, yet low enough to promote weight loss. Slow, consistent weight loss. My magic number was 1800 calories a day.

I created a free account at Training Peaks. Their food database has almost everything I would eat with calorie and micronutrient values. So everything I would eat and every workout got logged in there. I eat the same oatmeal breakfast every day now, and I cut out the snacks in between meals. Breakfast should really be the largest meal of the day, but it doesn't always work out like that. A large high carb breakfast should keep you going throughout the day, and a smaller protein based dinner or snack before bed should allow the metabolism to stay revved through the night.

Ideally, it should be 500 calories for breakfast, 400 for lunch, 300 for dinner, and a 200 calorie snack after dinner. That leaves 400 calories to cover the overages (a 300 calorie dinner? really?) and any post-workout recovery snack. I knew if I stayed under 1800 calories I was well setup for a loss. My typical day would take in between 1650 - 1775 calories according to training peaks. A meatless lean cuisine became a staple for lunch. Dinner was usually 3 or 4 veggies on a plate. I stayed full the whole time, and fueled up for my workouts. I cut out the pre-workout powerbar, no more sports drink during the run, and I would eat a regularly planned meal afterwards (lunch or pre-bedtime snack), so I needed no extra intake for the workouts.

Workouts needed to be no more than once a day, 5 days a week. My magic formula was 4 days of running, 1 day of cycling. Running burns more calories per mile than any other sport. This is the important part:

*Each workout should burn 400 - 600 calories.*

I liked using the treadmill for my runs because the machine calculated my calories for me. Long runs burned more than 600 calories. I would have to eat more to recover from those 8-10 mile runs, so eventually I cut those out too. As the pounds came off, the run time went down, 3-5 miles to get in that burn range went to 4-6 miles, I started getting faster, and I started walking less. The treadmill lends itself to tempo or progressive runs in this phase, not intervals or other hard core speedwork. Certainly no long runs.

However, it is a perfect opportunity to perfect your running form, and that's what I did. Forward lean, landing with a midfoot strike, pushing off with my quads, using large muscles over smaller muscles. That felt really good, and made a huge difference.

If we take a typical 5 mile run on the treadmill as our example, at the start of the plan it would look like this: Warm up, build speed up to 6.0 max, take walk breaks when needed, finish the 5 in maybe 56:xx to an hour. By the time I was ready to start ironman training (end of the weight loss phase) the same run looked like: warm up, build up speed to 7.2ish, no walk breaks needed, finish in 45:xx to 48 minutes.

Straight weight loss took me from running 10 minute miles to 8 min/miles. I was at a weight where I could conceivably begin Ironman training, so I started the plan. Time to get faster at swimming and biking now too, and see how much I could push my run speeds.


Also, today was Evil Genius's first day of the pre-k program we've got her in at the church. She's a TK Tiger now, in with the other 4 year olds. Daddy is so proud!