Take care of yourself

I would recommend trying acupuncture for pain issues, at least on a trial basis. It's virtually painless, and it's a good way to learn more about how stimulating some nerves over here can relieve pain over there.

Or try acupressure, too. Same basic concepts, but with manual stimulation instead of using needles.

 

Like Atkins? Only for brief stretches. It does help you drop weight quick. It always made me sluggish and irritable, though.

 

Most of these fancy diets are really just ways to spend more money while doing the simple things you should be doing anyway: Exercising and controlling your portions.

 

I think that Atkins/low-carb diets are a pretty big departure from that, though. You are literally depriving yourself of your body's primary source of energy from food and trying to re-set your body to burn fat or protein first (don't remember which). Some people swear by it. It would never work for me.

 

My wife does it for arthritis and swears by it. But...not sure how translatable those results are to other ailments.

 

Fat, right? Burning protein first would be cannibalizing your muscle. Which would be suboptimal. So, I assume it's gotta be fat.

 

As far as I can tell from my trial run, I’m in pretty decent shape for my triathlon.

The one time I did all three events in succession, a few weeks ago, I finished in 1:45, with some down time in between, due to logistics. That’s about 25 minutes off last year’s winner.

 

Tell us the distances again, if you don't mind. 5K and what else?

 

The swim is 750M, and then 20k on a bike.

My times were as follows:

Swim (in pool — race is in open water): 18:34.
Bike (in two parts, 6 miles each): 56:20.
Run: 29:43.

 

Any details? What would you diagnose as issues with your preparation or your performance? Approximately what were your first-half/second-half splits?

 

I think I was 1:34:46 for the first half - so dead-on, and I stayed that way for quite a while.

Really, it was the three Hs that kept me from a 3:10: Hills, heat, and hamstring. Fall marathons are great because you go from running in heat and humidity all summer to running in the 40s or 50s on race day. This was my first spring marathon, and it’s the opposite - 20s and 30s all winter, and suddenly you are running in the low to mid-60s. Throw in the hills, and it’s tough to get ready for.

After I had the flu in January, I really had to scramble to get back into the 70-80 mile range. I also had to do more mid-long runs at marathon pace than I would have liked, and that led to left hamstring issues a couple times. Nothing that shut me down for more than a day at a time, and it was cleared up by race day, but it had two lingering effects: (1) I couldn’t put in the speedwork I wanted and needed to; and (2) I probably over-tapered and surrendered some fitness because I had to get healthy. I also was doing long runs at 23-24 miles multiple weeks in a row. That’s not optimal, but I had to do it and go for broke. In hindsight, I’d probably keep those to 20, but at an 8:00-10 pace instead of the 8:30 I did do.

Going in, I really didn’t know what might happen. Anything from 3:07 to my hamstring blowing up five miles in seemed equally possible. All things considered, I’m pretty pleased with another 3:17. I grinded my ass off through the dead of winter to get to that 3:17.

I’m going to try to adhere to the Pete Pfitzinger 18-week program that peaks at 93 miles for my fall marathon. I’m also picking a flat course.

Oh, and I can stand to lose my last 5-10 pounds. I need to face up to that once and for all and get it done sooner than later.