Training Update: The Lead up to Ironman 70.3 Wisconsin

My last three posts were all about my thoughts on indoor training, and tips for creating your weekly plan, and ultimately becoming a better cyclist. My last true training update was all the way back in January, so lots to update you all on, but I'll try to stick to the highlights. Since I started my run training again post Miami I had been building my mileage extremely conservatively, more so than I ever have done in the past, and was avoiding doing true speed workouts until I felt that my body was ready to handle the workload. I had started running again post-Miami November 28 and in terms of mileage my weeks of running looked like this:

Nov 28 – Dec 4	41.1 km	Feb 20 – 26	102 km
Dec 5 – 11	45.7 km	Feb 27 – Mar 5	106 km
Dec 12 – 18	50.1 km	Mar 6 – 12	108 km
Dec 19 – 25	55.8 km	Mar 13 – 19	61 km (Recovery Week)
Dec 26 – Jan 1	61.6 km	Mar 20 – 26	6 km**
Jan 2 –8	69 km	Mar 27 – Apr 2	73.7 km
Jan 9 –15	77.1 km	Apr 3 – 9	18.6 km**
Jan 16 –22	78.8 km	Apr 10 – 16	0 km
Jan 23 –29	80 km	Apr 17 – 23	0 km
Jan 30 –5	85.7 km	Apr 24 – 30	20 km
Feb 5 - 12	65.4 km ( Recovery Week)	May 1 – 7	43.2 km
Feb 13 – 19	96.3 km	May 8 - 14	40 km

As you can see it was a very gradual progression hovering around a 10% increase in mileage per week. Something I had added this year as well was every 4-5 weeks to throw in a recovery week where I would drop bike, run, and swim mileage down a notch (atleast by 25%) to give my body time to soak in the adaptation from the last block of training. In addition, compared to previous years where I would pretty much get right into speed work from the get go, this year I waited atleast 3 months of uninterrupted base running before started to do speed work. On top of that, when I started doing speed work Feb 20 I had changed the emphasis and direction of it entirely compared to previous years. Basically, instead of running set paces for a set distance, I started to all my speed work sessions by feel and time, essentially turning them all into fartlek runs. During these workouts I mostly focused on threshold running to build the aerobic engine and strength, and never really went near top-end repetition type workouts which would normally mean paces in the 2:45-2:50/km range for 400s and such. Things were really coming together, my strength on the bike was unreal, was making big breakthroughs in the pool, and my running legs were back in business after a 3 and a bit year hiatus. However, sometimes you can do everything right and you just get unlucky. As you can see on the Chart Mar 13-19 I had a recovery week. Was pretty fatigued to start the week, but after a few days of low volume training was feeling great again. Had a breakthrough swim on the Thursday of the week and was super motivated for the next block of training to start again the next week. On Friday of that week, I went out for a incredibly simple low-low volume run workout which was 6,5,4,3,2,1 minutes of threshold running with a luxurious 2 minutes of recovery between each (for that type of a workout would normally have something like 30 sec-1 min max recovery between efforts, but since a recovery week kept it pretty chill). About 200 m into the morning run I felt something a little strange in my lower-back (left side), at the time I remember thinking I probably just slept funny, and by the end of the street it would be fine. It persisted throughout the run, not hurting I was aware of it but it didn't effect how I ran at all, and actually had an amazing workout averaging 3:20 for the 6 minute and got quicker and quicker down to 3:03/km for the 1. However, on my cooldown back, suddenly this minor twinge felt alot worse, and when I got in the door I was on my knees is unbelievable pain. I hurt just to breath, and standing straight up was unbearable, I had to stay bent over. Figured out quickly that it was the facet joint issue in my lower back on the left side that I have had a flare up about once a year for the last 3 years (first getting it after running too many indoor track workouts at McMaster always going around the track counter-clockwise putting alot of stress on the facets on the left side). This was one of the worst flare-up though that I have had, as I couldn't swim for a little, and was only okay on the bike if I stayed in bent over in the aero-tuck (not necessarily a bad thing but rather not have to do purely out of necessity). My breathing was even messed up and painful for at least a week, as the diaphragm was not expanding on that side cause every muscle in my back, and abdominals was fully flexed and was essentially walking around like Frankenstein for a week and a bit. 

I took 10 days off running for the back, and started very easy and slowly up again. By mid-week of the first week back, the back was feeling pretty good, and by about Thursday of that week, was 100% in my mind. Didn't feel it at all on runs, no pain swimming, biking, and during core workouts. Sunday of that week I had my usual brick workout (running immediately after a long bike), and felt incredible on the run. But the streak on unluckiness continued. At the tail end of the run, started to feel a little tightness in my right hip (the same hip that I tore the rectus femoris muscle way back in Sept of 2014, then had a flare up the injury in 2015). With the right hip's extensive injury history, I got in quickly, did a very light foam roll on it, and got the ice pack of it right away, and did ice on and off for the rest of the day. At this point the hip didn't even feel that bad, it was more just me being paranoid about that hip with its history, and I knew how quickly things could change from when it happened in 2014. Well this time was no different by Wednesday of the next weekend I was limping badly, it was very painful at night when I changed position, getting up out of chair was brutal, and running was a definite no go, and just as its been every time with the issue the lymph nodes of that side were very prominent. But as it was in 2014 and 2015 when I did it, swimming caused zero pain, biking was absolutely fine, it was just running that did it. I could even do hip flexion bent knee or straight (targeting either rec fem, or illiosaos hip flexor) with a black theraband and their was no pain. I quickly got into to see doctor who sent me off to Sport Med doctor here in the Toronto. He was beyond useless (no wonder he went to a Med School in the Caribbean cause any Canadian med school probably laughed him out the door). I told him about all my issues from the hip, to my back to hamstring issue that had bugged me only while running on pavement (perfectly fine on grass, trail, gravel, any surface other than pavement) for the last 6 months since Miami, and all he assessed was the hip for all of maybe 1 minute. I would've thought given the time proximity between the back issue and the hip one that he would even just look at the back for just a minute, but nothing. Said illisoas strain that was all, even though thomas test was not painful, and resisted straight leg raise was strong. He recommended I do the "Runner's Stretch" to stretch the muscle that was all, even though being in the acute phase of the injury stretching a strained muscle would be absolutely the worse thing since your just going to tear more of the already torn muscle. To me it just didn't make sense that a person who does as much strength training as I do, and legs are as strong as an ox, could get the same muscular injury year after year. So I went to see another Sports Med doctor, this time one in Guelph who is world renowned and does a lot of work with professional triathletes, runners, and all sorts of Olympic athletes. Her name is Dr. M. Mountjoy and if you look her up you'll see what I mean. As soon as she started the assessment it was clear why she was so highly recommended. She noticed right away the my right leg was much much smaller than my left. The quad measured an entire 5.5 cm smaller on my right than left, and as she said a muscle tear so acute would not cause such atrophy so quickly, and given that hips history something else was definitely going on in there. She figured could potentially be a labral tear, and that would explain a lot in terms of why the issue keep coming back year after year (because the joint has always stayed the same), and referred me for an MRI (although unfortunately it doesn't mean I go to the front of the line for it, mine is scheduled for June). The reason it is so long a wait to get it is that there are only two MRI machines in ON capable of doing the type of MRI she wants to get done to see inside the hip joint. In addition she noticed I had a wack of scoliosis in my back which you can't really do anything about but it will be something I'll need to deal with and can make some modifications to my bike position to help avoid future back issues. She also noticed and remarked that in her entire career she has never seen feet, or flippers as she called them, like mine being so unbelievably flat, but also with accessory navicular bone (an extra growth of bone on the medial side of the foot). She was shocked to hear that I was not in orthotics, and never had been. Given the cycle of injuries especially stress fracture in the past, and the latest stretch of them, she sent me for blood tests, and a bone mineral density test. The BMD I haven't got the results back yet but given my history of stress fracture, and being lightweight she figured it was likely going to be low. The blood test showed my Iron level were low, along with low testosterone levels (likely from overtraining which is why she wanted to see the testosterone - and testosterone also has a key role to play in bone formation which could help explain the stress fractures in the past). As I would never go near any banned substance (and she hasn't actually diagnosed anything yet anyways) so far my strategy of trying to naturally boost my testosterone levels is just to workout while listening to hard rap music and 50 cent. I feel tougher already. 

In the weeks since, I have been going to physio few times a week, and doing through the Fowler Kennedy protocol (Fowler Kennedy Sports Med Centre at Western is world renowned especially the ACL protocol they developed) for femoral acetabular impingement (FAI). The physiotherapist there, who normally has a nine month wait list cleared his schedule to work with me being a high performance elite athlete, agreed with Dr. Mountjoy that it is looks like it could be a torn labrum from FAI, something that just develops normally in early teen years. FAI is a condition where an extra growth on bone occurs at the hip joint giving the joint an irregular shape. Because they don't fit perfectly together they can rub against one another and the friction overtime can damage the joint and labrum. I have also been biking like an absolute mad man since Dr. Mountjoy told me if swimming doesn't hurt do it, if biking doesn't hurt do it, and eventually if running doesn't hurt do it. I can honestly say my biking has never been stronger in my life with so many epic workouts the last month (which I'll discuss in another post), and swimming is unreal right now. Just the other day I broke a new milestone being able to do 100s on a 1:15 pace time, and just couple days ago going into a workout my lifetime best 100 was 1:12.5 and I broke that PR 7 100s in a row. The last couple weeks running is very slowly coming back. I am not running outside yet, just on treadmill. The first week all I did was speed walking, since essentially you need to be able to walk before you can run, and then last week ran 43 km, and this week will likely be 40 km as well. Also been doing all the running with the door closed and fan off to get some heat acclimatization since I'm not running outside yet, and in that room with the door closed and fan off it can get stupid hot. Lost 4 and bit pounds after only a 40 minute run couple days ago which works out to an unbelievably high sweat rate. I figure it was close to 40 degrees in the room when I was done.

Basically the gameplan going into Wisconsin which is in less than 30 days is this: with my swimming and biking being incredibly strong right now, I am going to run the bare minimum to just be able to run half-decent off the bike and do so pain free. With the swim and bike being so good, I am not going to need to run a super super fast time anyways I predict to get the time I am aiming for in Wisconsin, and if the run is pain-free based on past performances really good things may still in fact happen. I believe that if I am pain free it really won't matter if I've done this or that workout, in fact my plan is to do zero speed workouts going into the race. Why? In 2015, when I had the same injury, in the four weeks of running post-injury in May I only did very easy easy running with zero speed workouts, and then was able to run a 1:12:05 half marathon the first weekend of June on a tough course in Barrie (with a wrong turn along the way that cost me a chunk of time). I am coming to triathlon from a running background, and having racked up so many workouts over the years, plus being in fantastic shape on the bike and swim and aerobically fit to run, if I can run pain-free I know I can still put a really solid time on the board. And the thing is even if things don't go as planned and I can't run well off the bike, I will give it my best and never ever give up. I have absolutely worked my tail off in training the last 6 months or so, so many workouts on the bike that have sometimes brought me to tears, and swims where I feel like my heart is going to just beat right out of my chest, pumping so hard I can feel it thumping against the wall of my chest and moving my whole body. And yes, prior to the string off these injuries in the last month and a bit, I did put about 4 months of very good running together. The training is all there to have a good one, and the thing is if doesn't happen there are other races afterwards and what I've gained on the bike and in the pool I think has taken me to a new level. And every training block gives opportunity to learn and make changes going forwards to get even better. As Churchill said and is one of my favourite quotes, "To improve is to change, to perfect is to change often." In terms of what to change in the running program still need to figure that out because as I explained I thought I had already made a number of changes to make me better and more injury resistant. But maybe I wasn't doing enough of looking at the big picture looking at the overall training load which was quite monotonous from day to day, and realizing that being from a running background I could "get away" with even less run mileage. Yes 100 km a week seems like not much to me when in my past career 100 km would be a tiny week, and I was so used to running well over 160km per week, and had stretches where I was running over 200km a week for week after week (for two whole months). But given biking almost 600km a week, and swimming 25-30km a week, 100km running is a lot. The only triathletes that may run that much are either elites training for full Ironman, or those who think running is there weak point of the three disciplines so they need to dedicate more time to it. For me this isn't the case being from a running background so the mileage can definitely be reduced going forwards. In addition polarizing the weekly schedule even more (which I have already started implementing the last 3 weeks) to reduce the overall weekly strain.

Anyways, in my next post I'll talk a little more about the changes I have been making, and a little more specifics about my race plan, and the race itself (the course and its challenges). Until next time all the best with your training and racing. #HaveaFastDay