I was mentally reviewing past seasons of triathlons and racing, and while I’ve gotten much better, I noticed that many of my times have been consistently good, but that’s it. Just good. I’m not happy with good. Not only do I want to be great, I want to see improvement from “good”. Good is fine if it’s continually improving. For example, if your run a 1:30 half marathon and year over year decrease that to 1:29, 1:28, 1:27, etc, that’s awesome because you are getting faster! But if you stay 1:30, 1:30, 1:30, year after year, you’re not making any progress in your training.
That’s when it hit me—I workout hard and I know what it’s like to hurt… but I know how to hurt jusssst enough. I’ve said it before—you’ve got be comfortable with being uncomfortable. If I want to get better, I’ve got to realize that there are going to be some workouts where I collapse at the end of my run or hang onto the side of pool gasping and panting thinking it’s the first time in my life I’ve ever breathed in Oxygen.
And the same goes for racing—at the end of that half Ironman, I need to be able to kick into black-out mode for that last 5k of the run—and not have been holding back for that leading up to it. I always try to currently, but when I try to go fast, it’s maybe 1 or 2 seconds faster per mile. Insignificant.
So what’s the point here? If you want to get faster, you’ve got to embrace the hurt (and also the recovery!) I’ve been adhering to my coaches plan and we have been swimming as a group a couple times a week
Swim squad! Me on the far right
It’s amazing what having your coach watching you and having competition will do to your effort levels. I’ve set PRs each practice… and also almost drown. Using paddles while having my ankles bound together with an old bike tube? Not fun. I enjoy breathing, actually. Or 50m kickboard races against someone who is faster than you and seeing black as you try to catch them.
I love it.
Rest and repeat. If you want to get better, hurt a lot, occasionally, go easy a bit, recover correctly, and know exactly what you are looking to achieve!
I’ve got a race next weekend so I’m stoked to see how it’s going to go!
This Monday is the Boston Marathon, for which I qualified, registered, and had planned to race. Until last Monday. I’ve done something to my knee and running on it doesn’t feel good at all. Admittedly, it’s getting better and feels ok today, but do I risk a month (or years or lifetime?) of recovering if I decide to do the race and create some irreparable damage?
Two weeks ago I had my half Ironman. Felt good after the race, recovered well, and didn’t do any running until Friday, focusing fully on biking and swimming. Oddly, though, I woke up Friday with some weird pain in my knee. Strange I thought, but after a good trainer ride that evening, I had a great run off the bike. The next day, I had a long ride scheduled, so a friend and I headed out on the Suncoast Trail for 51 miles. The course was straight out and straight back basically. We had a moderate tailwind on the way out, but as we turned around, we could see a storm rolling in. The winds picked up and it was a hard ride into a headwind the whole way back! We got 50 miles rain free… and 1 were we got drenched. So much for my brick run outside. I got home and did the run on the treadmill instead and everything was good. Although, I could still notice my knee.
New Fresh Wattie Ink speedo suit!
Sunday came, I got up to do my long run, and realized it was already 10AM, so being that it’s pretty hot in Tampa, I put it off till the afternoon and set out that afternoon for the run instead. Guess what—it’s even freaking hotter at 4:00 than at 10:00. The heat didn’t bug me too much, but I knew the run would be hard from the get go. I was physically tired from the previous 2 days and felt that as I headed out. As I got onto Bayshore, a straight road than runs along the water, I found myself plowing into a headwind in the blazing sun. Every bit of me was just like, “dude, turn around and head back now”, but I was getting my 18 miles damnit. I finally hit the turnaround, but my pace was all over the place for the run. Haha, when my coach saw the pace chart he was just like wtf did you do??
Recovery shake- coconut milk, goat milk, banana, avocado protein powder! Sooo good
I made it back though and felt great about myself—longest run I’ve done since November. But back to my knee—when I woke up on Monday, it wasn’t feeling too hot and pretty swollen. 2 weeks before the Boston Marathon. Wonderful. 30+ miles in 3 days didn’t help probably.
So since Sunday, I haven’t run at all. Just bike, swimming, and water running. I got a new bike trainer which is awesome so it’s making riding a lot more bearable, but this knee needs to heal… and quick! I don’t want to go run Boston and F myself up for the rest of the year… or more. It’s Monday… ask me again on Friday! I’ve been trying to get my rest, icing, nutrition, and supplementation spot on and I’m sure it’s helping. But it’s one of those, “Really? Now?” kind of moments. I just damn sure want to run this!
But the more I’ve talked about with a lot of people—coach, family, friends, I don’t think it’s the best option for me right now. I’d rather be a damn good (and healthy) triathlete than a decent (and possible injured) marathoner. Plus, I can be a good marathoner by being a great triathlete. So who wants to run a marathon with me after triathlon season? I’m thinking about the Richmond marathon in November (where I BQ’d in 2010) and planning to smash my time there!
I hope everyone had a good Easter—mine was spent on my trainer lol, but I did go see the Hunger Games, made some BBQ Turkey in my slow cooker, and had a Cadbury Crème Egg!
So. Good.
Solid enough right? Plus, the day before was the Final game of the NCAA Frozen Four here in Tampa—the championship for men’s college hockey. I was able to snag a lower level ticket which was awesome, for a great deal! The key is just to show up a little after the game starts when the scalpers won’t be able to sell the tickets anyway!
So please, say a prayer for me and hope that these winds change and blow in my direction for being able to run healthy for a long long time.
Boston College vs. Ferris State
What would you do? Would you run the race? Or are you already?
An experiment of one. What works for one person may not work for another. People are different and thus respond differently to different stimuli. Some may be incredibly healthy on a vegan diet and some may thrive on a paleo style diet. It’s all about what makes you look, feel, and perform better.
So beginning last week, I have been seriously trying to be better about my eating plan the my nutritionist has helped me design. Yes, Chuck, embracing eating a little more and seeing what my performance does. Now, granted, I’ve only been doing this for about a week, and my sleep hasn’t been on point, but I have felt good, especially amid a big training week. I have been focusing on workout recovery, even when it comes to the times when I know dinner will be coming soon after the workout, I am still eating. And it’s good, because it always turns out the dinner never actually occurs soon after the workout, ha! Why does it take me so long to prepare it every night? Damn squash fries…
The biggest changes are just working on being more consistent, even on lower volume days, knowing that I’ve created a deficit during the big days. I’ve been reading a lot from some of the top pro athletes who have experimented with optimizing recovery and eating more, better, quality foods. We’re not talking Snickers bars that I’m shoving down, but sweet potatoes, coconut milk and oil, grass-fed meat, chicken, etc…. even all natural, organic bacon! (Yes, me!)
As Robb Wolf says, “try it for 30 days” and if I don’t like it better, I can go back to the way I was before… but we all know that wasn’t getting me anywhere. I’m RACING this weekend!!
Will be the Rockin The W in my new kit and helmet
And I’m determined to focus on eating appropriate calories during this race so that I perform optimally. I usually just try and eat “just enough to get me through” so that I can “save up” calories for my post-race dinner. This is moronic. If I want to be great, I need to fuel that, plus that deficit is going to be so big all of it will be used (including that dinner) to fuel me and help me recover.
Speaking of previous race, I’m realizing that I’m good, but I’m not great. I’m stuck maintain habits that have kept me “good” as well. I have a world champion coach with 16 years of experience who is asking me to change a few things. If I want to be great, wouldn’t listening make sense? Clearly, my way is adequate, but not ideal. So embracing this, I am ready to move forward.
Look at the new toy Felipe got me... thanks. Yay.
We had a great training day at Fort DeSoto this weekend and it was a lot of fun to just hang out and enjoy the beach afterward. Can’t complain about having this in my backyard:
North Beach at Fort DeSoto
And speaking of good food—here were some delicious, however, not very appetizing (and I’ll admit to that) meals from the past weeks!
Coconut milk cheddar cheese sauce
Meatloaf topped with the cheese sauce! Like I said, not really appetizing from my iPhone camera, but so delicious
So I can’t wait for the half ironman Sunday! Wish me luck!
Have you made any big changes in your life lately?
2012 is off to a fast start and it’s not messing around! My life has been plenty busy, and while fun, I’m still trying to keep my head above water… and keep my head held high at the same time. Tampa is good, although it actually got a bit cold here for past couple days, I mean, the high was only in like the 60s! I don’t know how you guys survive up north!
Before I talk about anything else, I some cool news and a big announcement.
After a pretty successful 2011 triathlon racing season, I applied and have been offered a spot the Elite Triathlon Team of Wattie Ink and will be Rockin’ The W in 2012! I am really stoked for this, as the team only accepted 50 athletes from across the country and I feel really honored to be able to race as a member of this team. This means I’ll be racing in the K-Swiss Wattie Ink uniform (check them out on the site) as well as be able to work with a bunch of great sponsors!
My second piece of triathlon news is that I will be coached by Felipe Bastos this year, a triathlon world champion, many times over, from Brazil. Not only does Felipe know triathlon more than I can ever imagine, he won’t take any my crap excuses and is going to push me this year. Already I’m beginning to focus on going to bed earlier! This year is going to be focused on my training and building a strong base. As Felipe has outlined, I will still have a very successful 2012, but this year is really meant to set me up for 2013 and later years. Triathlon is based on a multi-year planning and putting in the work early to be successful later. Make sure to check out my race schedule for 2012 here.
Felipe Bastos
So I’m stoked for 2012!
In other news, since my family decided to put off a vacation to somewhere fun until March, when the waters get warm enough to swim in, they decided to come here instead which was pretty cool. They flew into Orlando and spent 2 days there before coming over to Tampa and seeing me. I joined them on their first day and we went to Universal Studios, Islands of Adventure, which included going to Harry Potter World! Haha, it was a lot of fun. Having grown up reading the books, it was cool to see.
Hogwarts
I also grabbed a picture with Rogue from the X-Men… ; )
Hey girl...
Then they went to Universal Studios the next day…
My little brother with the Blues Brothers... that kid would fit right in
…While I had to work…
Keepin' it fresh
On Thursday, we all went to see the Bolts play the Hurricanes! The Lightning lost, surprise, but it was a lot of fun
Me and the Lightning Bug!
That’s all I got! I’ll be back again soon- remember to follow me on Twitter @Chuckfeerick and let me know if you have any fitness, nutrition, or triathlon questions that I can answer. In future posts I am going to be talking about the importance of sleep and about why I eat paleo.
Leap: that term can be met with one of two answers:
Skepticism and what are you talking about? Leap? What??
How high?
I find myself being on both sides of this answer depending on who the direction is coming from. And I think this is the simplest factor in success of your goals and overcoming your fears and restraints.
For years I’ve been struggling with eating right, exercising correctly for my goals, and devoting more time and brain power to thoughts about food and workouts than to the people who matter most in my life.
That’s where the skepticism occurs. I can do research all day online about the best ways to eat or exercise, listen to different experts in the industry speak on health and nutrition, or have intense conversations with loved ones about how much more I could be getting out of life. But if you don’t truly BUY IN to this, and are willing to Leap, you won’t meet your goals if you’re the one holding yourself back.
I’ve spent years meeting with different registered dietitians trying to find the right ones. The majority I haven’t been able to make progress with. Either they didn’t understand me and my goals, or they were completely wrong about nutrition and the sessions were spent with me educating them! I’ve had a few who have been amazing—they knew what they were talking about, I believed them, I respected them, and most importantly, I trusted them and looked up to them—almost like a boss or celebrity.
These are the ones where they told me to “Leap” and I respond “how high?” Maybe you don’t have this problem with your goals. I have no problem doing many things where I trust myself, but nutrition and exercise are the points in my life that I need the most guidance on. Currently, I am putting my team together to help get my life in order.
I have an amazing family who I trust and love and who I know will always be there for me
I finally have a doctor who understand the implications of what disordered eating and strenuous exercise can do to your health and is keeping tabs on me
I have a great triathlon coach and friend who is helping me with my plan and racing who I really trust, and I also have a number of close friends in the triathlon community who support me
Finally, I have a new Dietician who is incredible. Not only does she know far more than I do, she GETS me and she has been through the same struggles I have. She is also extremely responsive and I can tell she actually cares! I’m sure you all know what I am talking about—when someone truly cares, their input makes a world of difference. She was straight up with me and said “do exactly what I’ve told you to do—I will not get you fat, I promise!”
So what do I think one the keys to success and change is? Trust. You must buy into the commitment you are making and trust those who are there to help you. This goes for all goals—if you’re trying to lose weight or gain weight, you need to find a nutritionist you can trust. Find a personal trainer who cares about you and wants to see you succeed and buys into that goal WITH you. Finally, connect with your family and friends and get them on your team.
Thus, I’m ready to embrace this change heading into 2012. But I’m not waiting until January 1st to start—instead I am already embracing next year and the ones to come after that. After all, health and happiness aren’t annual entities—they are life long.
My nutrition is improving too and I’m making the adjustments that my nutritionist and I have planned. I’m eating much more fat from natural sources than I ever have in my life. It really is so much more satiating and makes you feel so much better—grass fed meats, avocados, coconut butter and coconut oil, olive oil, nut butters, eggs, and raw organic full-fat dairy like whole milk, whole yogurt and cheese, and real butter.
Cedar plank salmon... Yeah I did light the plank on fire at the very end- shut up
Grilled chicken, raw cheddar, and avocado on corn tortilla
I’m also focused on eating better around my workouts and during my workouts! I made my first batch of paleo energy cookies last weekend and I’ll start posting some of those recipes. The biggest limiter for me is sleep. What do you mean 4 hours isn’t enough? I know, I know… Amy, my nutritionist has also given me guidance on my strength training as well and her number 1 rule is, if less than 6 hours of sleep, not allowed to workout. You won’t have the energy and your body will instead just secrete more Cortisol which can lower testosterone and other factors of increasing fat storage and hampering muscle gain.
My triathlon support team is also making progress. I want to have my most successful year to date in 2012 and know I can improve when pairing a better diet and sleep with better training. I looked at a few of my results this morning and I noticed that I have gotten faster, and raced longer, but not substantially from when I was a new triathlete to now.
So, 2012 goals—besides being healthier, happier, and a better friend and family member!
Do a full muscle-up! Check out the video—basically a full pull-up into a dip (Means I’ve got to get stronger!)
Break 3 hours at the Boston marathon and possibly at another marathon later in the year
Qualify for ITU Long Course Duathlon Worlds
Qualify for ITU Long Course Triathlon Worlds
PR in every distance race
Break 4:50:00 in a half ironman race
What else? I know I’ve got more that aren’t so result oriented and I’ll add them as I think of them
Speaking of change, I’m thinking about changing the name of my blog… the content wouldn’t change, but being that I write about more than just recipes, I’m considering the change.
Vote here and let me know what you think!
What are your goals for 2012? How are you going to achieve them- do you have a plan?
