Swim 1.9km –
32:49
T1 – 6:01
T1 – 6:01
Ride 90km –
2:46:00
T2 – 2:47
Run 21.1km –
2:15:23
Overall –
5:43:00
A beautiful day for triathlon but not a very beautiful
experience for my body.
In the weeks leading up to Ironman 70.3 Ballarat I incurred
my first ever, proper battle with injury and not being able to move adequately
for training or racing. In hindsight, it was something that was building up for
months and I had not heeded the early warning signs while I continued to push
myself in training as I prepared for this race.
Over an extended period of, possibly, 6 months or more, I
have developed some significant imbalances which resulted in my body making
excessive compensations and in the end I am very crooked. My right side has
become very tight and is pulling me over to the right. Meanwhile, my left foot,
ankle, knee and hip are compensating and suffering while riding and running. I
tried adjusting my cleats constantly to no avail and I’m feeling very lost for
what might have caused this. Training through these imbalances has exacerbated
the problem and I will need to take an unknown amount of time off from training
to recover.
**NB: I was about to
upload this blog post when I came across new information which gave me an
answer which I have detailed further down. But, here is what I thought to be
the problem prior to that discovery.
I didn’t think the little niggles were anything to worry
about a few months ago. I just figured I would be fine as I got fitter and
stronger. However, my recent approach to becoming stronger in the disciplines
of swimming, cycling and running has been limited to the following:-
Ø
Swimming – often using paddles, pull buoy and
ankle band.
Ø
Cycling – extensive use of a very large gear and
riding inclines in my aero position on a weekly basis.
Ø
Running – using slight inclines and performing
some drills.
Ø
As well as occasional, very basic core workouts
1 – 2 times per week and regular basic stretching.
There were no other complementary maintenance, functional movement
or strength based exercises aimed at balancing my body or for injury prevention
because I thought the above mentioned practices were more than sufficient. Each
of those practices are very important to any well rounded training program.
However, they may not allow for appropriate development and maintenance of the
entire body, as well as the smaller, individual areas that are key to achieving
overall structural integrity, on their own.
This problem has put a major dent in my 2016/17 season as I couldn’t
perform properly in Ballarat, which was a huge target race for me, and I have
had to withdraw from a half ironman distance event, in Nagambie, which was
scheduled for January 29. The short term future will now be focused on
resetting and re-balancing my body prior to returning to proper training. I
hope to be ready to race again by March 12 when there will be a new half
ironman distance event, in Bendigo, but I won’t be entering any race until I am
certain that I can be ready to perform at a high level.
**NB: As I post this,
it is clear that I won’t be ready to compete in March so I currently have no
idea when I will race again.
The Race
Swim
Conditions were very good at the swim start on the banks of
Lake Wendouree. The air was quite cool and the cloud was beginning to clear
away with the forecast suggesting plenty of sunshine and the temperature
reaching approximately 23 degrees. The water temperature was only 16 degrees so
a wetsuit was essential to keeping the body adequately warm.
Fortunately, I had recently invested in a new wetsuit to
replace the one I had used for the past seven seasons, which had seen better
days. I got myself a ‘Mach 4S 0.5’ from Dare2Tri
because I had spoken with Bill (co-founder of the company) when I was at
Ironman Australia, during May, and he gave me plenty of detail about their
wetsuits which impressed me. Since then, I was able to compare that information
with the top of the range wetsuits from other brands, including several independent
reviews and comparisons I found online. By getting the Mach 4S 0.5, being the
top offering from Dare2Tri, instead of one of the top wetsuits from any of the bigger,
established brands, I have saved approximately $300-$600 without sacrificing
anything in quality of performance or materials.
Although I didn’t get a chance to do a practice swim in the
wetsuit before race day, when I tried it on at home it fit me perfectly and the
range of movement was amazing. When I got in the lake for a brief warm up swim,
before the race start, it felt awesome. It almost felt like I wasn’t wearing
sleeves because they are only 0.5mm thick making it so flexible from above the
shoulder and the under arm all of the way to the wrist. I, also, found this to reduce
muscle fatigue around my shoulders which I have had problems with previously.
The 5mm thick panels around the lower torso, hips and upper
leg provide me with terrific buoyancy and a super comfortable position in the
water. The knee and lower leg have slightly thinner covering for comfort and
ease of removal in transition. The collar doesn’t rub at all due to specific
protection from the zip and velcro seal built in which is something I struggled
with in my old wetsuit. Finally, removing the wetsuit is super quick and easy
because of the flexible sleeves and the design around the lower leg. It just
pops straight off over the feet and hands.
This probably sounds like a paid endorsement but it certainly
isn’t. I simply feel the need to tell of my great satisfaction for this wetsuit
so that it might assist others in choosing a wetsuit in the future, all the
while saving some money.
One thing that was clearly evident when I met Bill at
Ironman Australia was that he is extremely passionate about what he does and
producing the best quality equipment at a more affordable price. That passion
is revealed further in the outstanding quality and performance of their
wetsuits and I highly recommend them. They do more than wetsuits too including
swim skins for non-wetsuit races and tri-suits for racing in.
Now, to tell you about the actual race swim. Although my
fitness had seen a decline in the month leading up to the race due to the
inability to train properly, I was very happy with my swim. I felt calm all the
way through the 1.9km. I felt consistent in my stroke and breathing and I held a
predominantly straight line to each of the turn buoys. My time of 32:49 was a
couple of minutes outside of my PB but, considering my highly interrupted
preparation, I felt this was very good and when I came out of the water I
didn’t feel I had exerted myself greatly at all. As I was just aiming to get
through the event in the best possible shape, this was the perfect start.
The Ride
The air was still cold when I came into transition but I had
prepared for this by leaving an extra cycling jersey, bib shorts and gloves
next to my bike. I knew that I wouldn’t be getting as warm as usual on the bike
because I wouldn’t be able to push as hard so wearing the extra clothes was the
right decision. I took my time getting myself sorted in T1, six minutes in fact,
not having added pressure of every second counting for this race.
Ballarat has a two lap, 90km bike course, with the first 5km
approximately of each lap being some winding roads around some park lands. On
the first lap I took it fairly easy during those first 5km to assess how my
body was feeling but once out onto the long out and back section I tried to
stay aero and concentrate on keeping my body tracking as symmetrically and as
comfortably as possible to preserve as much as I could for the run which I knew
would be the biggest issue.
Despite having not ridden for about 3 weeks before the race,
as well as not trying to push on the bike very hard at all and taking two
toilet breaks during the 90km, I was very satisfied to have rolled through the
bike leg in 2 hours 46 minutes. I just tried to remain calm all the way, keep a
low heart and look after my body as best I could.
The Run
Another relaxed transition, not quite as relaxed as the
first, and I was about to see what my body might be able to do on the run. The
answer was not much at all. I felt very crooked so I stopped after less than
1km and found a nice grassy area to stretch and do some self massage using a
tennis ball which I carried for this exact reason. I decided then that I would
keep doing this until my mate, Dallas, came along. I knew he wasn’t far behind
because we are in the same age group and we crossed paths a couple of times on
the bike. My plan from then on was to try and stick with him for the duration
of the run as motivation to get to the end as soon as possible. I hoped that
having a mate to run with would, somewhat, take my mind off my twisted body.
Unfortunately for Dallas, he was not feeling too well and
was battling some stomach issues so he couldn’t run anywhere near his best. As
it turned out, it was a good thing we were able to stick together, otherwise,
we would have both either taken a lot longer to finish or perhaps not have made
the finish at all. Prior to the race and during the run I had real concerns
about not finishing. After getting through the first lap of three with Dallas
we knew we would make it, the question was just how long it would take.
Eventually, our approach became jog between each drink station and walk during
them, taking our time to consume fluid and nutrition. It was a good method as
jogging to the next station became a mini goal with the reward being a walk and
my body was definitely thankful each time it was rewarded.
Throughout the run we chatted about various things and even
chucked the tennis ball to each other to keep ourselves from getting too wound
up in the negatives of the situation. We saw a few people we knew along the
way, including our family who came to watch us and some friends who happened to
be there too. It’s always great to see those important people during the race
no matter how good or bad things are going.
We crossed the finish line together and we were both proud
to have reached that finish under such circumstances. It was terribly
frustrating having not been able to give our best performance but it was an
achievement of a different kind.
Where to from here?
I’ve come away from this event with an altered perspective
on training and how to look after my body. Once again, I have found out that I
have over-trained in preparation for a race and this realisation has only
occurred several weeks out from the event. The obvious sign being my body
failing me but, also, I had some of the other usual signs which I have had
before, albeit not quite as prominent in this case. Those other usual signs included
some lethargy, slight training performance decline, not feeling quite as rested
after a decent night sleep, change in body fat composition and irritablility.
As I have mentioned, I need to look after my body much
better and maintain structural integrity with activities other than swim, bike
and run but there’s more to it. I absolutely must learn how to better gauge my
effort in every training session to ensure proper recovery from the higher
intensity workouts. This means finding and establishing clear parameters to
ensure much lower intensity in sessions, more often, to limit excessive stress which
should allow for greater adaptation to the much higher intensity sessions when
they are done. Also, I need to understand what level I should be working to in
the hard sessions knowing they shouldn’t be done as often as I have been doing
them to get performance gains.
How can I keep track of what stress I am putting on my body,
how it is recovering and knowing if I need to back it off? I believe the answer
will be heart rate (HR).
Although, there are several ways to monitor stress, gauge
training effort and keep track of training adaptation, not all of them are
economical. Heart rate monitors (HRM) come in a wide variety of options, most
commonly in the form of a watch which will record your HR via the combined use
of a chest strap. Also, there are a number of current models which record your
HR directly from your wrist with varying degrees of accuracy, based on a few
reviews I’ve seen. Basically, a HRM will be easy to source, not particularly
expensive and can be used across swim, bike, run and races.
Not only can you record your HR while training but you can
record it while you are sleeping which may possibly be the best way to gauge
whether or not you need to take extra rest. An elevated HR while sleeping can
be the best early warning sign of being over-trained or stressed.
I have used a HRM quite a lot before but never effectively.
I, like many inexperienced athletes, used the HRM to see how hard I was pushing
myself and how many calories I was burning. The higher my HR stayed the more
calories I burned and I had no idea that was a bad thing to always aim for.
Never did I use it to help myself not push too hard for recovery purposes or
strategically plan when to increase the intensity.
I stopped using any HR detection several years ago because I
got sick of trying to reach certain numbers and on the days when I couldn’t
reach them I felt very bad about myself. I began to realise that I can’t go
hard all of the time even if I am doing a different activity every day. This is
the same for the speedometer on my bike. Several years ago I stopped using one
because I was constantly looking at it and feeling bad or thinking I wasn’t
working hard enough if every training ride wasn’t at least an average of
30km/h. My mental state would also be negatively affected during races for not
hitting certain numbers.
More and more I am seeing information that reminds me that I
am spending far too much training time in an intensity zone which is far too high
such as race intensity or very close to it. Far too often I believe it is what
I have to do to be race ready but I get ahead of myself when I’m feeling really
good and push my body even further. Then, I get over-trained and my body
suffers.
It is essential that I find a way to regularly monitor my
exertion. I must study how to properly use HR to manage my training effort,
recovery, physiological stress and the breakdown of my training program. I have
very high expectations for what I believe I can achieve in triathlon but I
haven’t come near to them yet and I am determined to do what is necessary to
reach my goals.
80/20 Rule
80% training done at low intensity (conversational pace) and
20% done at or above race intensity – or another ratio consisting of even more
low intensity and even less high intensity – is a very common breakdown and one
I have read about in various places. However, I have never used this mentality
when scheduling or performing training and I’m struggling to provide a good
reason why. The fact is I always feel the need to push harder. I have never
exercised genuine restraint in my training intensity and, as I look back over
my training diary from the past 4 months or so, I would say that I had been
working at around a 50/50 breakdown or possibly even 60/40. There was nothing
that was done at an exceptionally easy level and, basically, every session had
some form of higher intensity.
I think I have justified not doing regular low intensity
sessions by only doing one session per day about 95% of the time and
alternating swim, bike and run each day. I always felt this approach would
allow for adequate recovery as I would be performing a different activity each
day. However, I have never properly factored in the physiological stress and
accumulated fatigue from each workout. Each day would have a different focus
and level of intensity but not to the extent that any one workout could be
considered genuine recovery. Also, I usually felt that with the limited amount of
time I have available to train, it should be devoted to doing harder workouts.
I must understand
This lack of previous understanding and implementation in
appropriate distribution of training intensity is as big a factor in why my
body is messed up. It’s that old mentality to keep pushing harder, believing
that’s the only thing that will make me better. Along with thinking I am doing
more than enough for recovery despite there being signs to suggest otherwise,
which has put me in a highly vulnerable physical and mental state. I am a
classic triathlete in this way and I have said time and time again that you
can’t improve without there being the right amount of recovery.
The ‘more is better’ attitude does not work. Smart is
better. Understanding is better. Tracking real physiological data in relation
to the distance, speed, sets and reps performed is better. I am excited to
learn more about all of this and I’m going to be working very hard on my mental
state to help me to be patient as I try to get back to my best physical shape.
It’s by far my biggest physical and mental battle to date and it sucks but it
might just turn out to be one of my greatest achievements in this sport.
**New Information – Bike Fit
As I was almost ready to upload this post, I came across
some information and YouTube videos about bike fit. One particular video which
was an interview with Steve Hogg – I hadn’t heard of him before but it turns
out he is one of the most highly regarded bike fitting professionals in the
world – and one of the things he spoke about was called the ‘right side bias’.
I, then, found his website and blog where I read a post about this ‘right side
bias’. He explained that no single person will ever sit perfectly square on
their saddle but having the correct saddle height is one of the major things to
ensure that one side of the body is not significantly favoured more than the
other. He then explained how having a saddle which is too high will commonly
result in the cyclist rolling their hips to one particular side and forward in
order to not over extend that leg but this means the other side and the pelvis
makes compensations to protect that favoured side and sacrifices the other.
He says about 90% of people with this issue will favour
their right hand side, hence calling it the ‘right side bias.’ One of the early
symptoms is pain in the left knee when cycling (or pain in the right knee if
you are in the approximate 10% of those who are left side bias). The most
eye-opening comment I found was that, on the favoured side, the pelvis will
extend or rotate forward as well as roll further to that side on the saddle.
The other side will extend or rotate back causing the hip to rotate outward and
the hip, knee, ankle and foot to all be unnaturally loaded and strained. When I
heard this it was like an epiphany. I had not thought for a second that the
cause of my problem could be my actual bike position. I thought I had a great
position which was aerodynamic, powerful but not extreme. However, I had been
tinkering with my set up all year as I was constantly trying to find greater
comfort on my saddle and in my left knee.
One thing I had done in about February or March was raise my
saddle. In hindsight, ever since then there has been a very slow progression
for my left knee to have some pain and rotate out more. I had tried adjusting
my cleats constantly looking for some improvement but it has never helped in
the slightest.
My physical problems have developed over the past 8 – 10 months
which makes me wonder how long it may take to rectify the issues. It may take
months to return to normal working order but several months more to return to
some type of decent fitness. One seemingly insignificant change to my bike set
up has resulted in an extremely frustrating problem. A proper bike fit done
after I have recovered should ensure this problem is avoided in the future and
help me to become a better cyclist as well.
The unknown
I don’t know how long it will take to get my body back to
where it needs to be and not knowing is the worst thing. I want to know when I
will be fit again. I want to know when I can train like I used to, again. I
want to know when I will just feel normal again and stop noticing parts of my
body which twinge crookedly with every little step. I want to know if this will
be a problem for months or just a few more weeks. Unfortunately, it’s
impossible to know. I might recover quickly and be back to it without much more
hassle or I might be dealing with it for a long time. Whatever happens, I know
I will come out the other side stronger and smarter for it.
I am getting a range of treatments at the moment and
performing some small exercises for rehabilitation. All of this, combined with
no training, is aimed at resetting my body and its neurological patterns which
is allowing it to return to a neutral point where I can begin rebuilding from
scratch. To say it is frustrating is an understatement but I don’t really have
a choice if I want to come out the other side as quickly as possible.
I’ll keep you updated.
Cheers,
Lincoln.
