Exit self-interview after a prolonged bout of high-end racing….
On January 7, 2018, I was near the end of a 4-5 month stretch of lacking any specific athletic focus, after competing at the ITU LC WC end of August ’17. That was the earliest I had ever ended a season; usually, my final big races were in mid-late Oct or November (Kona, Xterra, IM FL, IM AZ, ). I added daily running (got up to 115 days) during this time along with the beginnings of heavy rotation on Zwift rides and races. I was planning for a two-year assault on my age-up year. I have a little game I occasionally play, which is to check out y body’s fatigue, aches, pains, and assign a %-age score. The best I usually could get to would be maybe 95-8%, always a little something in some joint or other. On Jan &, I gave myself 100% for the first and only time in my life. On Jan 8, I put 450# on the leg press machine instead of the 360 I had built up to, trying to get ready for the next ski trip which was less than two weeks away. The next day, my right knee hurt, so much that I ended the daily run streak, and only ran two days the erst of the month. I ran 10/15 days before the next ski trip in Feb/Mar. On Mar 5th, a stellar powder day, I went 50% more time than usual, and ended up really hurting as I tried to climb stairs to a lunch break. But I kept skiing. Luckily, I had a sports MD appt scheduled for my return. Got an MRI which showed a lot of bone swelling and cartilege erosion in that right knee. More down time and efforts to find out just what I could handle running, after being told I could “run as long as it didn’t hurt”.
This chart tells the story. Far right column is my average pace for all runs in a given month. After my return to running following the dual insults to my knee from weight lifting and skiing, the only time I got below 9 min/mile was Oct ’18, when I did three half marathons all at about 8:20.
In Nov ’18, I had a fairly good race @ IM AZ, with a sub 6 hour bike (from all the Zwifting and time in the mountains and at camps) and a marathon with minimal walking. It had been preceded the week before by a half iron in Miami, where I qualified 2019’s ITU LC WC. But I also learned there that the timing of the race had been moved from early Sept to early May, same weekend as Santa Rosa, I think. My plan had been to try a KQ in Santa Rosa, race in Spain in early Sept, then Kona/AZ in Oct.Nov. But all that got blown up, and I switched to Boulder which was only 5 weeks after Spain. The end result is from April-Nov, I felt like I was on a treadmill of peak/taper/rest/peak/taper/rest. As I went from ITU WC to IMB to USAT SC NC (Aug), Kona, then AZ. I was satisfied with my races in Spain, Cleveland, and Tempe, but came up short in Boulder and Kona.
I’m not quite sure what I’ve learned from all this, other than that my right knee does not like to run more than 2 hours at a time. It will put up with 3 hours if managed carefully, but longer than that, I’ve gotta do some walking to survive. IM races are no longer “fun” like they used to be – they seem too much like work, with the pressure to perform (win) exceeding the inner rewards I feel purely for myself during and after. So I’m looking at the new challenge of ITU races as an opportunity to stay invigorated and race without feeling like there’s an impossible standard I have to meet.
My plans for the next year go something like this right now:
Dec: Ski for a week or two, mix in Zwifting and return to running
Jan/Feb: ski from Jan 18-Feb 14, return to Zwifting and running frequency
Mar: Road trip to Arizona to support Cronk UM and partially participate in EN Tucson camp.
Apr: Build-up to May/June activities
May: Start with Belgian Wafer Ride, two week Grand Canyon rafting trip, then get to CO for 2-3 weeks
June: another week or two hosting campers in Snowmass, end with June Alps camp
July: Maybe do Calgary 70.3 to qualify for WC in St George 2021
August: Local races, then ITU SC WC in Edmonton
Sept; Back to CO for serious Kona preparation
Oct: Kona.
Nov/Dec: consider a 70.3 if needed for St George Qualification.
I’d appreciate scheduling a phone call to review my past two years and process it a bit.