Kona or Bust - Week 20

Do you believe things happen for a reason?

Several weeks ago, 3 weeks to be exact, I traveled to St. Croix with a group of friends and Cyclonaut teammates to race the 70.3 Half Ironman and enjoy some time away. Three weeks ago I unknowingly toed the line for the luckiest race of my life and the start of an athletic journey that many strive for but only a few are actually able to live. Three weeks ago I finally learned that things really do happen for a reason.

As some of you may know I qualified for the Ironman World Championships in Kona, Hawaii AND the 70.3 Half Ironman World Championships in Mont-Tremblant Quebec, Canada with my 2nd place age group finish in St. Croix. To those of you that know little about the sport of triathlon both of these races are reserved for the best of the best.  You just raced your tail off to earn an age group placing so you deserve the right to go and see what you’re made of against the best in the world.

What makes all of this so incredibly unbelievable is that there are only a handful of Ironman 70.3 races that offer age group qualifying slots to Kona. Typically there is only 1 slot per age group, maybe 2 if you’re lucky. St. Croix happens to be one of those races.

Before I go on I feel as if it is important to provide you with a bit of my back-story. I’ll spare you from most but as you've probably noticed I keep repeating a few keys works like incredible, unbelievable, and lucky.  I started training for and racing triathlons 12 years ago this summer. Along the way I have learned the ins and outs of the sport and have been successful (very successful/lucky) in most of the races I've entered. I have qualified for and turned down more 70.3 World Championship slots than I should admit.  My professional life as a collegiate coach was always more important than my racing success. An unbelievable act to some, but to me, my life was on field hockey field coaching, recruiting, and mentoring collegiate athletes.

This past January my professional life changed forever. Coaching collegiately is a tough job, far tougher than you can imagine, and when the pieces just don’t go together as some think they should… well…you get the point. I was devastated and without a plan other than to put one foot forward and keep going.

At the time I should have realized I was thrown this curve because it gave me an opportunity to join the staff at CPC and surround myself with co-workers and friends that believed in me as a professional and as an athlete. But, the most unbelievable piece to all of this (to me at least) is what happened on May 4th in Christenstead, St. Croix. I raced the race of my life. With the worst few months of my life behind me I entered the water with the hope of racing well and enjoying the hell I was going to put myself through for the next 5-5:30 hours. Yes, you read that right …enjoy.

Incredibly, I crossed the finish line in 5:17. Good enough for 2nd place in my age group and a spot to the Mont-Tremblant 70.3 World Championships. As my Fall calendar was now much more open than in years past I was finally able to accept my slot. Here’s where the luck comes in. At the Awards Banquet that night as I was preparing to go up and accept my award and slot to the 70.3 Worlds the MC made an announcement that they were re-allocating a Kona slot to the 35-39 Women’s age group because the 65-69 Women did not finish. That meant there were now 2 Kona slots for my age group and I WAS GOING TO KONA!

In that moment, I was hit by a flood of emotions that, to be perfectly honest, I haven’t felt or allowed myself to feel in a long time. I cried. I laughed. I was elated. I was overwhelmed. I was relieved. I was grateful.

My life as I now knew it was finally starting to make sense. THIS was the reason why my life took the unexpected turn it did.

So you may be asking yourself (if you’ve managed to read this far) why am I blogging? For several reasons.

1. The next 20 weeks are going to be some of the most challenging weeks I will endure. I’m training for KONA! The Ironman World Championship. The Superbowl of Ironman races. And to be honest this will be MY FIRST IRONMAN. Yeah, I bet you didn’t see that coming. I want to remember it all.
2. I’d like to think that maybe I can provide a small piece of inspiration or motivation to those of you that will follow me over the next 20 weeks. You should try your hand at your own “KONA”. I’m lucky enough to know and train side by side with some incredibly people. THEY motivate me. YOU motivate me! Hopefully I can do the same for you.
3. For some crazy reason, despite my success and ability to lay down a killer race in St. Croix, I just don’t feel worthy. I feel as if I’ve cheated my way to Kona. I’ve watched so many of my Cyclonaut teammates train their asses off for an Ironman. I never entertained the though of doing an Ironman, nevermind qualifying for one at a HALF! This might be a small way of repaying the triathlon gods for the good fortune they bestowed on me.

And finally…

4. To say THANK YOU! There will never be a way for me to repay all of you that have and will continue to support me. I write for you. I write to say thank you for your generous donations of time and money. I write to say thank you for the out pouring of congratulatory text messages, high fives, hugs, smiles, and head nods. I write to say thank you for the days down the road that you will pick me up when I will feel like I can’t take another step or spend one more second in the saddle.

Stick around; it’s Kona or Bust in 20 weeks.

- SK

IIFYM ... what?

What’s this new flexible dieting or “IIFYM” trend?

There are so many “diets” out there like Atkins, Paleo, and Gluten free, that I could go on forever. One of the newest diets taking social media by storm is “flexible dieting” or “IIFYM”, which stands for “if it fits your macros”. “Macros” is short for macronutrients, which consist of carbohydrates, fats, and protein. In short, this diet states that you have a set amount of calories based on your level of activity each day. You must try to eat X amount of carbs, fats, and proteins that total up to your daily calories, giving you the flexibility to treat yourself. Instead of regularly eating clean and then binging one or two days a week, this diet is encouraging people to eat clean and enjoy a small treat on a regular basis if they feel the need. However, this is quickly becoming one of the most misunderstood diets today. 

People automatically think that on this diet, you can eat junk food such as donuts, Pop-Tarts, etc. because “it fits your macros”. You may see people posting pictures of themselves eating donuts, ice cream, and other unhealthy treats, yet they are ripped. What you don’t see is that they’re eating a strict diet on a daily basis while leaving room to treat themselves. Do you really think that someone could just eat these treats on a regular basis and still look the way they do? No! It’s impossible to eat junk food throughout the day and have a healthy balance of fats, proteins, and carbs. 

My thoughts on this diet? 
I think the concept of eating a balanced diet of fats, proteins, and carbohydrates is great. We need to have all three to have a well balanced diet. Do I think that eating poptarts and other processed crap is good? Absolutely not! It’s good to treat ourselves once in awhile, but do it the right way. Don’t go for those processed snacks because all of the artificial stuff is doing more harm than good. Eat a well balanced diet and do what works for you; don’t let all of the social media images get in your head because a certain diet worked for someone else. What works for them may not work for you!

- SW 

Activity Avoidance - Deadlifts Don't Bite

Most of the active community work towards their goal of being healthy. A healthy lifestyle 
encompasses many different domains, including exercise. The exercise domain can be broken down into resistance exercises, cardio, agility training, and many more. Without even knowing it, you subconsciously sabotage yourselves on your way towards being a well rounded person by avoiding specific exercises. 

“I HATE RUNNING!”

A statement I have heard so many times. Your body is a master at coping and will prefer the type of exercise that you are good at and your body is built for. In most cases, that exercise type or even specific exercise that you DESPISE, is the one that you need to do the most!

Early in my training career I would avoid deadlifts, sometimes on purpose and sometimes 
subconsciously. This effected the benefits I received from the exercise. A year prior, I had 
sustained an injury that, unbeknownst to me, would limit my hamstring strength on that leg. OF COURSE I liked to squat more, I was better at it! It was easier for me. My body knew that and directed me accordingly. This mechanism is the same way that people get hurt every day, through compensations and avoidance of at risk areas. 

This is an easy fix! Hold yourself accountable for your own health. Have someone asses your workout routine or have them develop a program for you altogether. Put the responsibility into the right hands to make sure that you give your body everything it deserves!

To Roll or Not To Roll?

Most of you know that a good dynamic warm up, foam rolling and some light stretching are beneficial before and after exercising.You all have your own variations on these routines or techniques you apply to your pre/post workout regimen, which is great.However, I’ve noticed lately there are many of you who don’t have a pre or post workout regimen.I have two goals for this blog post. First, I want people that aren't doing any kind of rolling for myofascial release pre/post workout to start adding it in. Second, I would like to get people that have a routine to think outside the box and add some new techniques or focus on some new muscles groups rather than the usual suspects.

 

If you haven’t considered the benefits of rolling, here's the short version. Rolling is very much like a massage, it manipulates the tissues in and around muscles or joints to increase blood flow, increase oxygenation, increase flexibility, break-up muscle tissue (knots), and increase movement. During exercise all these tissues can get tight which is why you need to spend time before and after a workout "working out the kinks". Skipping this step subjects yourself to an increased risk of injury or limiting your ability to get better from an issue that has been a constant problem.

Many of us get stuck repeatedly rolling the same areas, which don't get me wrong isn't a bad thing. If you have a tight IT band then go ahead and roll the crap out of it, but a lot of us don't think to do anything other than the big things (IT band, quads, hamstrings, glutes). Everything is connected, a common statement that you might have heard around CPC before, and it's true. A lot of times that nagging tightness or soreness in your glute isn't coming directly from that area. You can roll the hell out of it, and it will feel better for a while, but may never go away. You need to look to other areas. Look to the lower leg for example. Our feet hit the floor first in the morning and are the last off of it at night (I didn't come up with that I stole it from somewhere). Many of us are constantly on our feet, if they aren't happy then that is going to work it's way right up the line. I want people to start thinking outside of the norm for your routines, in order to treat your ailments. You can roll virtually any muscle, and if you don't know how then ask.  

If you're looking for a more in depth look at rolling, I seriously encourage you to sign up for the Trigger Point workshop we have coming up here at CPC on Sunday, May 18th. It's open to the public, you don't have to be "in the field", and you shouldn't feel intimidated. The workshops are fun, informative and enjoyable. You'll get a lot out of it and most of all you'll probably learn how to fix some of those aches and pains.

- MS