Birthday Update

After my accident, I’d looked forward to my birthday – about 7 months out – as a check point to reflect on my status and progress. Here’s where I’m at with that day coming up April 9.

There are so many things I’ve done successfully. And there are so many things which have gotten better all on their own. I’ve gotten so far into my triathlon training, that I am continually measuring myself not against “good for someone recovering from a bad accident, but rather “how does that measure up to my standard expectations for training and performance.”

Last Saturday, I entered, ran, and completed my first race since August, 2010. I ran 5K on a very wet road in a steady light rain. My time was one minute slower than last year on the same course. A tri training partner in his early 50’s beat me by 15 seconds; last year, I beat him by 15 seconds. I am usually very consistent in my races at this distance. So there are 4 possible things going on here, maybe all at once, and it’s hard to know how to interpret the time.

First, maybe he got faster (although he was 30 seconds slower than last year maybe due to (2) the course was slippery and sloppy. (3) I’m naturally getting slower, losing “top end” speed as I age. I managed to stave it off for a while, but (4) my accident accelerated that process. Who’s to know how much any one of these affected my time. All I know is that, 4 months ago, I doubt I would have been able to run this in under 30 minutes, and I went 21:16 in this race.

Other parameters for my running are even better. My training times are really the same as last year for the same workouts. My heart rate in the race was lower than last year. My resting heart rate is now at 39, which is about as good as it gets. My next test will be a half marathon on May 15. I haven’t done this course in at least 5-6 years; I’m hoping to just be 4 minutes slower, over 95 minutes.

Swimming, I guess I should be really pleased with my progress, even if I’m depressed with my performance. I swam a few times in Nov and Dec, but I was just paddling around ineffectively, and got between 10 and 20 minutes of work. After my oral surgery, I’ve been swimming 20 times, with a goal to steadily increase my time and distance each week, but not worry at all about my speed. Rather, I’m trying to adapt to the limitations on my swimming from my “orphaned” muscles in my arms. They make my stroke weaker, and tire more easily.

I started on Jan 16, with 550 meters of swimming in about 12 minutes. I swam twice in Feb, basically doing a 1000 yard time trial to get a baseline. It was depressing, being 2-3 minutes slower than I have always done it before. March 1st, I went 1143 meters in 31 minutes. I started adding about 2-300 yards a week. By the 17th, I was up to 1920 meters in 49 minutes. The next week I max’d at 2285 meters/55 minutes. And today, I did 2470 meters in 58 minutes. So not only has my distance and time increased, but my pace has gone up from 2200 meters/hour to 2600/hour.

This is encouraging, but compared to my recent past, it’s still a struggle. I REALLY don’t have any top end speed here anymore. If I used to have five gear, now, I can’t get any faster than 3rd gear. My right arm needs to learn a new angle through the water. And my ability to sustain a real effort for longer than 2-3 minutes is not there yet. For April, I’m going to keep adding time/distance, until I get to 80 minutes 2-3 times a week, and 3800 meters a session. Then, in May, I may be ready to start adding the speed/endurance combo.

What’s slightly depressing, is I’ve gone from having swimming be my “best” sport to being my worst, from being the one I really didn’t have to worry about to being the one I have to work hardest at, and give more time, attention and effort to than the other two. And as a result, I’m going to have to rely more, psychologically, on my running. I know that, technically, I’m a better runner than swimmer, and I always have been. But because I’ve been doing it the least, I have not developed confidence in my running. It always worries me, and also my biking has never felt like it could carry the load for me. I used swimming to start my races off in a good frame of mind, and then got progressively more scared as the race went on, trusting my skills and speed less and less as I go closer to the finish. I don’t know if I can turn that feeling on its head, and race to my run, rather than from my swim.

I’m also a little in the dark with my biking. This week, I’ll be starting to do a lot more biking outside, going longer distances, and trying to sustain a good effort for a long time, rather than work on shorter (2-20 minute) bursts of speed. My next big checkpoint will be my training camp in Aspen, May 18-June 6th. Riding there is one of the things I love to do in this world, like ski at Snowmass, race an Ironman, see my kids grow and improve, or write a good story.

I’m both scared and eager to find out what it feels like, and how strong I am, when I go riding up and the drainages of the Roaring Fork Valley. I want to glide down with power on River Road from Woody Creek to Old Snowmass. I want to delve back into the Fryingpan, past Reudi Reservoir into the aspen valley past the dam. And I want to ride to the end of Capitol Creek and Snowmass Creek Roads, turn around, and motor back down the hill and along the Rio Grande into Basalt.

There are a lot of tests there in the Valley of the Roaring Fork, and I want to be ready for them, so I can enjoy biking in paradise one more time.