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Building my 2012 Race Calendar

It’s probably already getting to be too late to be plotting out my race calendar, as the training plan will follow from that – even one of my loosely structured ‘plans’ is in danger of never truly forming.  I have some favourite races, but I don’t want this year to be ‘Been There, Done That’ so there will be a lot of new and novel races for me this year.

Month
Race Name and Date
Quick Note
April
Primary Goal
May
NO RACES FOUND!
I may be supporting my wife in her race endeavours this month so…
June
Met Con Blue. June 2nd
Secondary Goal; Obstacle Course Race
Spartan Race Toronto (Oro); June 24th
Primary Goal; Obstacle Course Race
July
Muskoka 5150; July 22nd
Primary Goal; Olympic Distance Tri
August
Muskoka Grind; August 5th
Secondary Goal; Off-Road Tri
Primary Goal; Olympic Distance Tri
September
Logs Rocks and Steel; September 8th
Secondary Goal; Multi-sport Adventure

5 Peaks Trail run at Rattlesnake Point: I like running on trails and always have.  Still I don’t know that I can be considered a trail runner – I’m not sure if my usual routes are as technical or challenging as they would be if I were an ‘official’ trail runner.  Still, I’d like to try an official race and the races in this series come highly recommended.  This one is early in the season and as it’s my first one, I’ll stick to the shorter ‘Sport’ Course which is 4.5km.

MET CON BLUE: Obstacle races are blowing up as a trend, and what I like about this one is that it’s a Canadian Homegrown effort – I’m hoping that means less overcrowding than the Warrior Dash I did last year.  Collingwood and Blue Mountain have been like a  home away from home for my family in past years, so it would be fun to head up there for this.  It takes place the same weekend as the Milton Triathlon, but it looks like I might give that one a miss this year. I didn’t get much interest from friends when I tried to get a group going, unlike…

Spartan Race Toronto: This one is closer to where I live, and it looks like we have a strong contingent of people from the Jiu-Jitsu club going, so I’ll join in on the fun.

Muskoka 5150: Gone is the old Muskoka Chase triathlon; I guess I have mixed emotions.  It was a long standing race and one of my first.  The long course was always ‘neither-here-nor-there’: longer than Olympic distance but shorter than Half-Iron.  The Olympic Distance (51.5km total swim-bike-run) is probably my favourite distance so I’m jumping at the chance at doing this on my old stomping grounds in what is still technically a ‘new’ race.

Muskoka Grind: Every year I think I’m going to be able to try an off-road triathlon, and every year I don’t knuckle down and buy myself a mountain bike to accomplish it with.  So far, there’s been a dearth of these events in Ontario, but with this addition to the calendar maybe this is the year I get myself a mountain bike.  If only I knew anything about mountain bikes.  This will be promoted to primary race status once I have one…

Bracebridge Triathlon: The Recharge with Milk Series has become my favourite, but I seem to have trouble lining up their races with my schedule (at least last year).  Bracebridge used to have a Half-Iron but now they’ve gone down to the Olympic Distance, which suits me fine.

Logs, Rocks and Steel: In the same vein as trying an off-road triathlon, I wouldn’t mind dipping my feet into adventure racing without that pesky navigation or teamwork (I’m a loner, Dottie, a rebel).  This fits the bill! The Pine Crest Course is 4km of paddling (kayak for solos like me), 22km of mountain biking, then a 5km trail run.  Overall, it’s a lot for me to work up to… good thing it’s late in the season.  Still need that Mountain Bike though.

That’s the plan (so far).  Always subject to change as conflicts and chaos can arrive.  I’ll probably keep updating the table on a separate page of the blog as the year progresses.

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Jiu-Jitsu: The Triathlon of Martial Arts (according to me).

As much as the off-season is more of a mental construct than a true necessity due to climate; I’ve found myself unable to train and exercise to the degree I’d like in recent weeks (largely though not solely due to a health issue).  I was being kept from the bike trainer, I was kept from running, swimming and the gym for any strength training.  When I find myself stymied in my efforts to get in shape, I have a bad habit: I’ll dive into exercise with abandon, rather than easing in to accommodate a body that isn’t ready for the sudden shock.  So I found myself saying yes to a ‘Welcome Back to the Mats 2012’ session of my old club.

This is a triathlon and multi-sport blog, so I’m way off-topic here, but on the other hand, it’s my blog, and I think I can swing a little justification of this post.  And if you still have a problem with that, you have to face these two:

Let me give you a little background. From the Jitsu Foundation website: “Jitsu is a martial art based on the traditional styles of Jiu Jitsu that originated and developed in medieval Japan. The core of the art comprises a system of throws, joint locks and strikes. Based on the principal of using an aggressor’s energy to their own disadvantage, Jitsu skills can be used by men, women and children to counter aggressive situations ranging from unwanted harassment to armed physical assault.”  

(The Jitsu Foundation is the organizational body for Shorinji-Kan Jiu-Jitsu, the style I practice/practiced).

So here are the top similarities between jiu-jitsu and triathlon:

  1. Multi-disciplinarian.  A full jiu-jistu technique might involve blocking a punch, a counter-strike, a joint lock (to put the aggressor off-balance), a throw, then a restraining technique.  So, a jitsuka (a practitioner of jiu-jitsu) needs to be well-versed in many categories of techniques (including chokes, pressure points, etc.) where most other martial artists get to stick to one or two categories.  Swim, Bike, Run…. Strike, Throw, Lock. Get it?
  2. Technical Geekery.  Triathletes are often called tri-geeks – even the more casual participants will use Garmin’s or Apps to track their speed, pace, distance and heart rate.  The hard-core know their anaerobic threshold, VO2 Max, the materials science that goes into making their bikes faster or lighter, and nutritional tweaks to get the best out of themselves on race day.  Jiu-jitsu uses a variety of anatomical principles and physics (like torque and leverage) to ‘use the aggressor’s energy (or strength) to their own disadvantage’.  There is a technical finesse that occurs at higher levels of proficiency that lends itself well to the the more analytical or ‘geeky’ mind.
  3. Masochism.  This may not be universal across all styles of jiu-jitsu (and yet also not unique to jiu-jitsu as a martial art), but doing a grading (where you are testing for the next belt level) is most often a painful, tortuous experience.  During them, you question why you bother to do this in your free time, and afterwards, the rewards make you forget (or at least mentally diminish) the trauma of what you just went through.  Just like a long bike ride, run or brick.
  4. Efficiency.   An attacker can be decimated by a good jitsuka who hardly seems to be doing anything at all.  Proper technique means not using your own strength so much as that of your attacker, ideally with a relaxed demeanour (at least in terms of your outward disposition) rather than gritting your teeth and huffing and puffing.  The motto is ‘Maximum Effort, Minimum Impact’.  Triathlon has a lot of energy conservation, where the work you do to improve technique is meant to make sure you will have enough fuel in the tank to finish the race instead of wasting energy on unnecessary movement.

And here’s where they are the most opposite of hobbies:

  1. Social.  You absolutely need at least one partner to execute a jiu-jitsu technique.  In fact, the more (greater variety of) people you practice on, the better.  Triathlon and endurance sports can be trained in groups, but they don’t have to be, and for me, the appeal has always been in the flexibility in going solo… I like the time to clear my thoughts, and doing it when my schedule allows, not by appointment.
  2. Fitness.  Being in good shape is a good idea in martial arts, and I don’t want to say it isn’t good exercise, however… ‘Maximum Impact, Minimum Effort’ – remember?  I know excellent jitsuka and high ranked instructors who smoke regularly… I can’t say the same for triathletes.
  3. Indoor/outdoor.  Triathlon can be done indoors and jiu-jitsu can be done outdoors, but usually… not so much.

Anyway, that’s enough of a digression for this blog,  I hope to bring things back to the core of triathlon in the next entries.  Thanks for reading!

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Burbathlon Lives!

You may remember me talking about Burbathlon before and the unusually mild weather we’ve had this past week let me get out and give it a try again.  I decided to do live tweets with photos as I went along (though I wish I had turned on the Add Location feature).  I had written up various exercises with links in a Memo on my Blackberry so I could cut and paste the tweets; still it took up time I should have been putting into working out harder.  I don’t apologize for the fun I had, though.  I’ve marked the exercises I did on the map from Endomondo at their approximate locations.  Have a look at the descriptions below.

1.) The trail is gravel till here, but I run up the hill to get into the more forested area.  See the tweet.

2.) I did a balance beam routine down this log.  See the tweet.

3.) Our company running group uses this for hill training.   See the tweet.

4.) This pic didn’t turn out so well (maybe next time I’ll bring a real camera instead of my Blackberry), but it’s Incline Pushups against the fence.  Not the most challenging but I had done a 100 Pushups workout (Week 4, Day 1) prior to heading outside so there!  See the tweet.

5.) Next I did Single Leg Squats while holding onto the lamppost.  This area has benches and tables and little fences that I use for Box Jumps, Squats and other exercises.  Maybe next time, more.  I realized I was running long with all the tweeting and picture taking, so I started to head back from here.  See the tweet.

6.) This tree looks climbable with a good run-up and jump.  It is not, at least to me.  #FAIL.  See the tweet.

7.) The trail seems to be used by mountain bikers/BMXers.  That doesn’t stop me from jumping off or over these on foot!  See the tweet.

8.) I found a tree I could climb (it was leaning at an angle against another tree.  As any cat can tell you, the hard part is getting back down! See the tweet.

So that was a successful (albeit short and sweet) Burbathlon.  With the new snow, it’s going to be a little challenging to do these, but I hope to post more of them in the future.

By the way, this was done on the Etobicoke Creek Trail and I had the pleasure of doing a write-up for Loving the Run’s Unpaved Trail Series..

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Gear Corner: Shoes

I’m going to take a minute to talk about the shoes I run in.  I enjoy running on non-paved surfaces because they seem to be gentler on my Achilles tendons (I generally wear cushioning shoes; I seem to have high arch and supinate while running -cushioning has kept most problems at bay).  I noticed a friend wore Salomon shoes that seemed ideally suited to both the road and the trail (indeed the Salomon XA PRO 3D Ultra are marketed this way).  I’m on my third pair from this series, and I’m very happy; I do 90-95% of my running in these.

For races, I have switched in the last few years to something approaching the idea of a ‘racing flat’ the Zoot Ultraspeed. Being lighter, it’s a little less weight to drag around, and they’re designed for fast transitions at T2, so they just slip on.  Without much cushioning though, I tend not to use them on longer distances, depending on how I think my feet and legs will hold up against the course.

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, you’re probably seeing that Barefoot running is growing in popularity.  This guy makes plenty of arguments that I think hold some water, but I am in favour of cross-training in ways that strengthen my foot and any other supporting players in the run.  So I got a pair of barefoot/minimalist shoes: the Merrell True Glove.

I bought the Merrell’s because they sponsor the Multisport Canada Triathlon Series, they were on sale, and I had concerns about those shoes that look like feet.  What if one of my toes (or other featurs of my foot) is outside the norm?  How would they fit?  I should have been more concerned about the Merrell’s.

I wore them for the first time on a trail near my cottage.  I tried to land mid-foot as is recommended by all the paleo/chi running experts, and have a forward body lean as I ran.  Some problems: people with long legs have a reason to over-stride and heel-strike: it’s the best way to run faster and use your advantage.  Taking shorter strides and having faster leg turnover is hard when your legs are longer, and the second my concentration slipped, I was heel striking again.  I also seemed to be unable to find my mid-foot, when I wasn’t heel striking, I was landing on the balls of my feet as if I was trying to do some kind of ninja-sneak run, and it was murder on my Achilles tendons (especially with all the hills in the area).  Finally, I ended up with blisters on the backs of my heels (I should have taken pictures).

I’m not willing to give up on the barefoot running (as cross-training) yet, and I’ve worn the shoes a couple of times since then.  Once was taking my son to the playground which didn’t involve much running, except when I chased him or carried him for a quick jog from here to there, and the other time was on a treadmill.

I think the treadmill is ideal for playing with the technique.  Right now it’s a little too cold for running with less/no socks and very little insulation/protection on my feet.  Furthermore, the treadmill stays at a constant incline and speed, with no bumps, twists or turns so I can focus on my technique.  Lastly, I find it so boring that I’m guaranteed not to overdo it, and build my barefoot strength slowly.

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LinkoRama

Just checking in with a few interesting links I found over the week.

Caitlin over at Healthy Tipping Point is doing a series for people looking into triathlon.  Where I did a single post in a similar vein, a whole series is that more comprehensive and awesome.  No wonder that blog is so popular.

Meanwhile, Meghann at Meals and Miles drew my attention to an awesome relay that goes from Miami to Key West; a beautiful and fun part of the world to understate things.  It looks logistically difficult to put together, and that’s before you consider the mayhem and TSA blues it would take to get me and my family to Florida.  Still, maybe it’s one for the the Race Bucket List.

Finally, this guy had to go and ruin everything I thought I was doing right in my swim training.  I’ll probably mix in his advice with what I was already doing for some Frankenstein hybrid; that’s how I roll.

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Back to the Pool Part 3: Shark Fin!

Today’s pool workout:

I did 250m of warm-up, then moved into 3 sets of 100m going from easy to medium to hard pace with 30 seconds to a minute between sets.

I completed the first set in 2:15, forgot to time the second set, and finished the third set in 1:52.

Then I moved on to the technical kicking drills.  I did 6x50m of the side kick drill (described in the link).  It’s lucky I found another description of the technique as I had been putting one arm ‘in front’ of my body as in, in front of my chest last time, rather than ‘in front’ as in, the direction of travel.  If you ever find swim training advice, make sure instructions are given relative to the pool, water or your direction of travel.  Swimming is a three-dimensional exercise – ‘up’, ‘down’ and ‘in front’ don’t mean much without a frame of reference.

Doing the sets 50m at a time rather than 25m at a time was taxing on the breathing, but I liked that: I noticed that my stroke count went down most likely due to taking breaths less frequently (every 4th left-right stroke pair rather than every 3rd), so training my lungs to get by with fewer breaths might pay off.

From there I did 12×25 of the ‘Shark Fin’ drill (also described in the link).  As I brought my hand up to the goggle line (it felt more like a military salute than a shark fin, to be honest), I found myself sinking well below the surface like my friend the whale shark over here.  I think that might be the point: your body should stay near the surface even as your arm moves up and out of the water for your next ‘catch’.  If your stroke causes you to bob up and down in the water, it’s not efficient.

The kicking drills took up a lot of time, so that I only got 850m worth of swimming in the 45 minutes I could afford on the workout.  Still, one of the things I’m discovering is that they give a great core burn, especially the obliques.  I’m all for strengthening my core, which not only makes my swim more efficient/powerful but should help stave off the injuries, be they triathlon or fatherhood related.
 

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Winter Running Tips and Reality Checks

If you’re near the 49th parallel or North of there, you probably have a better idea of what real cold is, and all the extra challenges that come from it.

With the holidays I had a chance to take my eldest son (2 years old, and will be known from here on out as ‘Shark Boy’) out in the Chariot on a run.  It was pretty cold, so precautions needed to be taken.  Around this time of year there are plenty of articles about how to accommodate the colder temperatures, and most of them repeat a lot of the same good advice.  I’ll take this one from Active.com and look at some of the tips while adding what they really entail:

  • Gear Up: Wear trail shoes or a traction device like Yak Trax. They will give you better traction and stability in the snow.  The problem with this advice is that traction devices work best when there is ice and snow, but that isn’t the case for 100% of your run.  Sometimes the sidewalks are clear due to diligent neighbours, so wearing your traction devices on concrete is uncomfortable and you’re better off without them… until you hit that patch of snow/ice than hasn’t been cleared.  The best option I’ve found is to be able to take them off or put them on as needed.  When you’re not using them, you have to be able to carry them: run a belt through them or stick them in a pack you’re carrying.
  • Take Extra Time To Warm Up: Your body will warm up more slowly in cold weather, especially if you run in the morning. Take at least five minutes to walk briskly before you start to run.  It’s especially true if it’s been a while since you ran and you need to get used to extra pounds you’ve put on from the holidays, or simply the different equipment you might be wearing/carrying due to the season.  Don’t rush, take your time (this will come up again).
  • Accessorize: Having the right apparel makes all the difference in the world. Layering is the key to avoiding over- or under-dressing.  Putting on all that extra gear takes extra time; you’ve got to integrate it with your iPod/phone/whatever and any other running accessories.  Same thing when you’re done, it takes that much longer to strip and hit the shower so budget for that extra time.  It will probably come out of your time to actually run, when you take real life into account.
  • Run During Light and Warmer Times of Day: If possible, run during daylight hours so you can absorb that needed sunshine we rarely get in the winter.  Sure, this works great if you have the day off like I did on the 27th.  Otherwise, that might mean running at lunch, where time is already way too limited.  You will probably run in the dark.
  • Hydrate: It is just as important to drink fluids in your winter runs as it is in the summer. Bring a bottle of water along with you, especially if you’re like me and the only drink you had before dashing out was a cup of coffee (which dehydrates).

For all that extra time and effort, I’d still rather be out there than on a treadmill; I want the 2012 Winter season to have as much running as I can fit in!

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Back to the Pool Part 2

I finally made it back to the pool today.  The last Back to the Pool post should have made it clear that my swim workouts are not entirely unstructured, just mostly so.  I picked up some kicking drills from an online source, and I figured that when I get too frustrated by the fast lane not being fast enough or too many collisions or whatever, I could move over to the medium lane and do those drills.

It turns out, December 28th is a good day to go for a swim workout, as the lanes were a lot less busy.  I warmed up with 10×25; and for once I remembered to take it easy on the warm up so I could keep my technique clean and have plenty of gas for the main set.

I decided on a little experiment before moving to the kick drills.  I did two sets of 100m (4x25m):

  • On the first set, I simply timed the 100m swim.  I came in at 1:46 which sounded good, but comparing it to race paces of over 2 minutes doesn’t make a lot of sense, since I’m going a lot longer in those cases.  Still, I wanted it for reference.
  • The next set, I counted the number of strokes it took me to complete one length, and averaged out over 4 lengths (stroke count is considered an important measure of your efficiency in the water).  It came out to 24 strokes to complete 25m which surprised me; I’d never had a stroke count less than 25 before.  

Due to the lack of traffic and according to the average pace in the lane, I was able to do my kick drills (12x25m) in the fast lane.  Doing drills like this was a little tedious at first, but once I felt I was getting the hang of it, the lengths started ticking off faster, it seemed.

I re-did the two sets of 100m coming in with a time of 1:42 and a stroke count of 23.  That looks like improvement , though it’s not entirely conclusive since I ended up really sprinting the last timed length to pass a swimmer and avoid a traffic jam in the middle of the pool.

 I’m encouraged by the potential of technical drills, especially ones based around my kick.  From what I’ve read, off-season is ideal for technical work, since the cold weather takes time away from doing more serious distance/volume (even in pool swimming, as the winter drive to/from the pool eats up more time than it would).  I’m also hoping that any improvements in kick strength/power/efficiency pay dividends into my cycling and running due to stronger legs and core.

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Back to the Pool Part 2

I finally made it back to the pool today.  The last Back to the Pool post should have made it clear that my swim workouts are not entirely unstructured, just mostly so.  I picked up some kicking drills from an online source, and I figured that when I get too frustrated by the fast lane not being fast enough or too many collisions or whatever, I could move over to the medium lane and do those drills.

It turns out, December 28th is a good day to go for a swim workout, as the lanes were a lot less busy.  I warmed up with 10×25; and for once I remembered to take it easy on the warm up so I could keep my technique clean and have plenty of gas for the main set.

I decided on a little experiment before moving to the kick drills.  I did two sets of 100m (4x25m):

  • On the first set, I simply timed the 100m swim.  I came in at 1:46 which sounded good, but comparing it to race paces of over 2 minutes doesn’t make a lot of sense, since I’m going a lot longer in those cases.  Still, I wanted it for reference.
  • The next set, I counted the number of strokes it took me to complete one length, and averaged out over 4 lengths (stroke count is considered an important measure of your efficiency in the water).  It came out to 24 strokes to complete 25m which surprised me; I’d never had a stroke count less than 25 before.  

Due to the lack of traffic and according to the average pace in the lane, I was able to do my kick drills (12x25m) in the fast lane.  Doing drills like this was a little tedious at first, but once I felt I was getting the hang of it, the lengths started ticking off faster, it seemed.

I re-did the two sets of 100m coming in with a time of 1:42 and a stroke count of 23.  That looks like improvement , though it’s not entirely conclusive since I ended up really sprinting the last timed length to pass a swimmer and avoid a traffic jam in the middle of the pool.

 I’m encouraged by the potential of technical drills, especially ones based around my kick.  From what I’ve read, off-season is ideal for technical work, since the cold weather takes time away from doing more serious distance/volume (even in pool swimming, as the winter drive to/from the pool eats up more time than it would).  I’m also hoping that any improvements in kick strength/power/efficiency pay dividends into my cycling and running due to stronger legs and core.

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Grab/Santa’s Bag of Stuff from the Web

With End-of-Year crunch and Christmas time gatherings, I don’t seem to have time for training or proper blog posts, but here’s a couple of discoveries from the web that I love and wanted to highlight with more than just a tweet.

My favourite triathlon blogger is Swim Bike Mom; a ‘regular jane’ with a job and family who also happens to be a half Ironman.  Her posts are always heartfelt and funny, but this one took the cake (I was actually jealous that I didn’t come up with the idea myself): Triathletes Are Babies.

My other big find was TriMuskoka:  a newly developed advocacy club for endurance athletes and endurance sport tourism in Huntsville and Lake of Bays, Muskoka. We are committed to athlete development and support for both local and visiting athletes. Our priority is to ensure that every club member achieves his or her goals.  

This area has been home to multiple triathlons in recent years, and I’ve noticed a steep increase in the number of people running and biking out on the roads (I’m sure people are swimming in the lakes too, I just haven’t spotted as many).  I’m really excited to see a formal club/community spring up from all the local enthusiasm, and the icing is that not only is the old Muskoka Chase Triathlon converting to an official WTC 5150 race, but Element Racing is putting on an off-road Triathlon called ‘The Grind’.

A final note: I’ve added an ‘About’ Page for quicker way to introduce myself to new readers.  I’m looking at making some more cosmetic changes on the blog (can’t wait till Blogger’s Dynamic Views allows widgets), I hope they aren’t detrimental.

Happy Holidays and/or Merry Christmas!