Love the Hurt: Minor Set Back

So I took a week off of blogging to enjoy Thanksgiving with family and friends. There's no doubt it's one of my favorite times of the year. It's just a great way to get all the families together to enjoy some good food, beer and watch the kids run around. I even hit up some local breweries (Societe and Stone) with friends to make the long weekend an even better one.

Flashback a week before Thanksgiving and I was on the track doing 10x400 repeats at 5k pace. I was contemplating whether or not to jump into an ultra competitive "Turkey Trot" a week later and this workout was going to be my answer to that question. I was just getting back into the swing of things running wise and hadn't really done any speed work so a 5k was going to be questionable at best. After cranking out 10 all right in at 1:17 (5:09 pace) with only 40 seconds rest I felt really good and decided to pull the trigger on racing a week later. The goal was to go 16:16 which is what I did 2 years ago on the same course. I felt it was obtainable and was really excited to race until...

Tuesday I was slated for a short little tune up workout on the track. Some 150's and 600's, just to get the legs woken up for some speed! After only a few reps my calf grabbed and I was done and so was my shot at an over 30 5k PR a few days later. Even though it was my calf the injury really lies behind my knee. There's some weird misalignment with some tendons/muscles (excuse my lack of savvy-ness here) that creates issues from the knee all the way down to my heel on that same leg. It's been giving me problems dating all the way back to San Diego International this year. We think it is stemming from a poor bike fit. So this Friday I'm going to see Jim Manton at Ero Sports. He's fit folks you may have heard of: Bradley Wiggins, Heather Jackson and a ton of other pro's not to mention a few of my teammates who said to never use anyone else. So needless to say, I'm excited to spend some time there and get my bike fit done by the best in the business.

There are a bunch of other exciting things in the mix for 2014 - some I can't share quite yet but it's really starting to motivate me during the "off season." My blog will go live at Lava Magazine starting in January which I'm excited about and is already opening some cool opportunities. Although I will be posting all of my workouts, I still want to keep this blog intimate. Not a place to just see numbers but more of an avenue of inspiration (so I hope).

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Some cold 4:30am wake up calls with Mike & Sarah![/caption]

For now my life has been all about the pool. Been spending a lot of time there and I feel like I am seeing drastic improvements in my efficiency/form. My swimming "fitness" isn't quite where I want it yet but I'm definitely going faster with less effort which is so SO huge for me. Not only do I have fast lane mates but a lot of them are coaches or have a very successful backgrounds in swimming. So I've just been trying to learn as much as I can and come into 2014 as a different swimmer. I want to be that triathlete that gets on the bike and can hit it hard right away without the swim taking away from the bike or run which it always has done to me in the past. For those of you that have trained with me know that my bike and run times in races don't nearly match what I'm truly capable of. I believe that it all stems from the swim. It's equivalent to doing a 2x1 mile run all out and then trying to do a fast 56 mile ride and 13.1 mile run afterwards. I'm getting into oxygen debt and cramping up just 30 minutes into a long race! I'm hoping to change that next year and race up to my capabilities because I really don't think I've reached my peak or potential yet. Hopefully these consistent 16-20k yds/week with a 12 week drill/technique swim (2 times/week) gives me fresh legs for the bike/run, gets me on top of the podium and ultimately to Kona!

As far as the mustache goes...December 1st came and the mustache left! Movember was a lot of fun. I raised a little money and got a lot of weird looks. It will truly be a month I'll always remember!

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