The Comeback

It’s been over two years since my last half ironman event, in December 2016, and it was a month before that when I realised my body was a mess. I got myself to the finish line in that race, but it was an ugly experience. I was in big trouble. 

On February 17, I will return to half ironman (swim 1.9km, ride 90km, run 21.1km) racing at the Ironman 70.3 Geelong event with a new perspective on training, movement and health. The 18 months up to April 2018 saw me try and fail to improve my body through mainstream, conventional treatment. It wasn’t until I gave adequate time to an alternative approach, and properly understood it, that I was able to see it change my body for the better. It took me a long time to find what would ultimately be my saviour but once I found it, I was changed for good and now I see it as something that would benefit just about anyone. 

Dynamic Neuromuscular Stabilisation (DNS). 

During 2016, and probably the several years leading up to then, I trained my body into a twisted state. My body had developed a wide range of bad compensation patterns and imbalances. I now know, this was a result of not having an appropriate protocol in my training for maintaining and improving my mobility, muscular balance and movement patterns. 

Developed by The Prague School of Rehabilitation, in Prague, Czech Republic, DNS is based on the progression of an infant as they learn to move, control their limbs and body, roll, crawl, stand and walk.  

When we are born, we are programmed to progress through these milestones without assistance. All we need is plenty of time spent on the ground and we figure it out.  

I have had the added benefit of watching my second child go through this progression over the past nine months. While I have been re-learning to move my body, he is doing it naturally. This has helped me immensely having him lead by example. 

Ultimately, I am re-training my body to move in the correct way, establish greater neurological connection between body and brain and maintain these movement patterns forever. I have only scratched the surface of DNS but I have seen outstanding improvement in a relatively short time so I know it will be something that will be key to continuing to improve my athletic ability for years to come. 

The Diaphragm. 

The first thing I had to learn again was how to breathe. Seems simple but how many people understand the integral role of the diaphragm in breathing? I certainly didn’t. I only thought of my lungs and chest cavity and had no idea that it is the diaphragm which contracts to effectively draw the air into the lungs. 

One of the most prominent issues I had at the height of my physical dysfunction was having extraordinarily tight abdominal muscles. For so long I had been over using my abs to try and stabilise my body, particularly while I was swimming. I was under the false impression that I needed to remain tight through my abs in order to maintain alignment and allow my limbs to produce more force, whether it be in swimming, cycling, running or any other exercise. However, I didn’t know this was greatly restricting my movement overall and contributing to other parts of my body over-compensating and under-performing.  

The other integral role that the diaphragm plays is through creating intra-abdominal (internal) pressure or IAP. The best way to understand this is to practice ‘belly breathing.’ While sitting or lying down, as you breathe in, try and breathe deep into your belly (abdominal cavity). Essentially, your ribs shouldn’t need to move or expand much. Your diaphragm should be able to expand down into your belly to draw air into the lungs. This expands the abdominal cavity and creates IAP which provides stability for your abdominal region. This occurs most noticeably in babies. 

Also, you can create IAP by expanding your belly and trying to fill your abdominal cavity with pressure. Practice breathing in and out of your belly while holding this pressure. Do this the next time you are attempting a standard abdominal strength exercise instead of trying to tense and contract your abs.

That big belly look on babies is a lot to do with IAP. They don’t need their superficial abdominal muscles to contract in order to have a stable core region. Using IAP to stabilise the abdominal area doesn’t restrict your movement like when you tense your abdominal muscles. Instead, it still allows for freedom of movement and rotation around the axis of your spine which is critical to having good movement patterns.

There is so much to learn in this DNS space and I will endeavour to tell you more about my experience and progress with it in the future. To view some videos of a wide variety of DNS movements, please see the YouTube channel of Mark McGrath at 5D Movement. He is an expert in the field based in Melbourne.

Race Preparation

As I write this, it is just a few days out from the race. I am excited and feeling healthy. Being healthy at the start line is one of my main goals for this return to half ironman racing. In past years, I would not reach the event in a good physical state. I would do all the necessary hard work but not recover from it effectively so that I could put it to good use during the race. This resulted many times in suffering through the last half of the race physically, but more so, mentally as I wasn’t achieving what I expected.

Previously, I would believe it was essential to put in 10 – 15 hours of training per week across swimming, riding and running to have any chance of being competitive. Anything else, such as strength and conditioning or extra recovery protocols, was an afterthought and never prioritised. I practically never did a recovery session and if I did, it was never done at a low enough intensity to actually be considered recovery.

In comparison, over the past three months preparing for this event, I have not exceeded 7 hours of weekly training across swim, bike and run. I have done a lot of those hours at a very low intensity, a small portion at very high intensity and a smaller portion at half ironman race effort.

In conjunction with this training, I have performed anywhere from 3 – 7 hours per week of DNS. The great thing about DNS is I can do it almost anywhere, anytime, so it almost doesn’t factor in as extra time spent training. I might do multiple small portions throughout the day while at work or at home. I try to do some before most training sessions to activate my body and I will do at least half an hour of DNS as my warm up for this race.

Expectations

Ultimately, the race will tell me if my preparation has been effective. I am not expecting a personal best time because I have only prepared for three months but I believe I am in as good a shape as I would have been for most of my previous half ironman races. I believe this because I have traded over-training and excessive fatigue with possible under-training and feeling healthy.

I wouldn’t be surprised if I feel great all day and go as fast as I’ve ever gone. My personal best for the half ironman distance is 4 hours 25 minutes from Ironman 70.3 Shepparton, in November 2013. My personal best on the Geelong course from three attempts is 4 hours 42 minutes, 3 years ago. Alternatively, I wouldn’t be surprised if I finish in 4 hours 45 minutes and feel good the whole way. It’s likely, mainly due to the low run training miles, that I will find it difficult to maintain a strong pace throughout the entire half marathon but time will tell.

I haven’t done anywhere near as much swim, bike and run training in the lead up to this event as I did for those. Now, I am moving more freely and I feel more relaxed while doing them as opposed to using brute force to try and go fast. It is a liberating feeling as I realise how much more efficient I can be and how much better I can feel all of the time instead of a cloud of fatigue following me around.

Regardless of my finishing time or position on Sunday, I have come a long way in the past two and a half years to get to this race. I have learned some invaluable lessons and have a very bright outlook on what I can achieve in the future.

It’s going to be a good day, no matter what.