Triathlon Update: Suck it Up!

The last time I wrote, I was complaining about my elbows and I wasn't sure if I was imagining it. The pain seemed to be moving around. It seemed to be moving around between my forearm and my tricep and everywhere in between. Finally, last Wednesday, I had enough. I told myself that I really must be imagining it and decided to go swimming the next day. Although my elbows felt a little tight afterwards, on the whole they were fine. I ended up swimming 1700 yds that day and am now back into the routine. So the lesson learned is, if it feels like your mind is playing tricks on you, it probably is. So just suck it up and deal with it!

On Saturday at our team bike practice, Lisa and Sara, two of my teammates, told us a story of their friend Rita who had recently died from Leukemia. Both of them joined Team in Training shortly after Rita was diagnosed. She was an honored teammate for several seasons and used to cheer on the team during practices. They told us that whenever they feel like they can't climb another hill, swim another lap, or run another mile, they tell themselves to do one more for Rita. I found that pretty motivating and used it get myself to do one more climb up Mt Soledad on Sunday.

My totals for last week were: biking 91 miles, running: 10.5 miles, swimming: 1700 yds.

Moving on to another topic near and dear to me, I'd like to talk about the world cup. The TV coverage this year has been great. The fact that every game is being broadcast this year shows just how far soccer has come in this country. Also surprising has been just how great the turnout has been to watch the games at the local San Diego bars. I never would have guessed that I wouldn't be able to get into a bar to watch a soccer game due to the bar being at max capacity. Like everyone, I was pretty disgusted by the US performance against the Czech Republic. But I've got to give them a big hand for the spirited effort they showed against Italy.

Triathlon: Problems with the Elbows While the Legs Keep Going

In the past, I've always liked running and swimming. However, I've frequently had problems with my knees when I've gotten into an intensive running routine. Beginning in my senior year in high school, I've experienced reoccuring tendinitis in my elbows from swimming. These injury problems were the reason I got into biking (almost zero impact). But they were also the reason I decided to give triathlons a try. I figured that if I didn't overtrain in any one sport, I wouldn't experience any of my old injury issues.

As the title alludes to, I've had great luck so far with my knees while my elbows have recently started giving me troubles. Beginning after my swim workout (2500 yards, mostly low intensity) last Tuesday, my right elbow has been bothering me. The weird thing is that the pain is sometimes just forward of the elbow and other times on the back of the elbow by the tricep. Because of this, I'm not sure if there's actually anything wrong or if I'm imagining it. Maybe the pain is there because my mind is focused on my elbow so much that it never really relaxes. I'm going to take a 1.5 weeks off and then start swimming again.

The good news is that my knees haven't had any issues yet. The running is going very well. Last Wednesday, we had a 3 mile time trial that I completed in 19:28.

On the fundraising front, I've raised $850 so far. I'd like to thank Roman Kogan and Nathan Luther for their generous donations. Again, if you'd like to donate, please click here to visit my fundraising page.

Overall, my totals for last week were as follows: swimming: 2500 yards, biking: 95 miles, and running: 11 miles.

Triathlon: The World According to Gurujan: What do When You Really Have to Go

Back when I was still on submarines, we used to say that one of the marks of a good officer was having a 6 hour bladder. That way you could make it through your watch without getting someone to relieve you for to go to the bathroom.

So as I was sitting on the ground at our triathlon team's running practice, I started laughing when one of the girls on the team asked our coach, Gurujan, what to do when you have to go to the bathroom on the course. Going with my old submarine instincts, I muttered to myself, "You hold it stupid." How wrong I was.

Like the answers to all difficult questions, Gurujan said it depends. First, if there's a port a potty or a gas station along the course, you could stop and use one of those. The positives are that you will have some privacy. The down side is that you lose time by stopping and leaving the course. Also, you need to make sure not to make any forward progress when you reenter the course as that would lead to potential disqualification. Secondly, you could go on the side of the course. Another girl on our team said this is what she did at the Lavaman triathlon. The positives are that you don't lose as much time looking for a real bathroom. The downside is that you can't be easily embarrassed. The girl who did it a Lavaman said that she had zero bushes/trees to hide behind and everyone passing by could see her. Another downside is that nudity is often against the rules at most triathlons. Gurujan told us that it would probably get us kicked out of the race at Pacific Grove as the 70 year old millionaires who live up there wouldn't feel good about seeing us piss in their roses. Finally, the best option according to Gurujan is just to wet yourself. He said that trying to hold it is a definite no-no and the aforementioned options all have too many downsides. Therefore, your best option is to just to go in your wetsuit (preferred as it also provides warmth) or in your shorts while on the bike or running. If you're embarrassed, he recommended camouflaging it by dousing yourself with gatorade. Apparently, wetting oneself is easier said than done. He was very proud of having completed the trifecta at the recent Wildflower Triathlon. I was half expecting that he was going to include this as one of our practical factors for one of our upcoming workouts. Luckily, he left that out.

Triathlon: Surprising Strengths and Weaknesses

I'm now two weeks into training for the triathlon. Apart from my body being very tired, it's been going great! Here are the stats for last week: Running: 8 miles, Biking: 88 miles, Swimming: 4700 yds. Going into the program, I was already in pretty good shape. But this is definitely a ramp up from what I was used to.

Going into the program, I was already averaging 30-60 miles per week on my bike. Although I was doing some running and swimming, it was at most 1x/week. Thus I expected the bike to be my strength. However, this weekend we just completed our last time trial that we'll use to divide people into groups for our organized workouts. What I found was that the bike is actually my weak area. Out of 42 people, I came in 3rd on the run, 4th in the swim, and 7th on the bike.
For our workouts, we've been doing shorter distance, high intensity workouts for our team workouts. The program has us focusing on longer distance, low intensity, base building for our individual workouts. For the base building, we are aiming to do the workouts at 75% max intensity. As our coach said, if you can feel burn in your muscles, you're working to hard. The goal for these workouts is to build up an aerobic base, not to build muscle mass. This was by far the hardest thing to get used. Like most people, I've always tried going as hard as I could in all of my workouts. After a long ride, it just doesn't feel right seeing that I only average 13.5 mph.

The fundraising is off to a good start. I'd like to thank my mother for a very generous donation of $750. I'd also like to thank FedEx/Kinkos for donating copying services for my fundraising letter.

Lastly, this is a good article I recently came across in the San Diego Union Tribune which talks about one girl's fight against leukemia and her association with Team in Training.
http://www.signonsandiego.com/uniontrib/20060602/news_lz1s2herdream.html