I’m not sure if I can call myself a ‘trail runner’. I always liked the idea that as soon as you run, you’re a runner, so according to that logic, I can. I run on trails during training and I’ve completed a trail race. I prefer being under shady trees to being beside houses and buildings, and the natural earth is easier on my Achilles’ tendons than pavement or concrete.
Through running on trails, I’ve changed as a runner, both mentally and physically.
Pay attention to the environment. Both trail races and triathlons disallow headphones while running, so it pays to get used to running without music. Instead, you listen to the birds, the wind through the trees, and potential threats too (fitmomintraining has a great series on running safely here and here; being able to spot potential threats is part of it).
Pay attention to the terrain. When you’re on an uneven trail, every step counts, so you end up taking in what your next 5-10 steps are going to be. I found this paying off on inclines and declines. Not the big steep monsters you fear (though trail running helps with these physically), but the subtle ones you tend not to notice. The inclines have you slowing down and wondering how this got so hard if you don’t notice them; when you do notice, you can accommodate or compensate for them. The declines give you a chance to get a free speed boost, if you know how to run downhill (which trail running gives you lots of practice for) and again, if you notice the decline.
Be ‘present’/’in the moment’. Running is an opportunity for us to let our minds wander – every runner I know tends to use it as a form of meditation. Still, most new age/zen wisdom preaches the idea of being ‘present’. If we start thinking of all the things we have to get done next week (the future) or beat ourselves up in regret of things that have already happened, we miss the wonder of now.
If you want to read more about trail running (maybe from a ‘real’ trail runner 😉 ), then head over to Mountain Kait‘s post here.
Recently circumstances led us to become a 1 car family, and I wanted to use the opportunity to commute to work by bike; our overall schedule will only allow this twice a week, but still, better than nothing.
It was Friday the 13th, and I found a flat tire on my morning ride. My attempts to patch it didn’t really take. And without my own car to run errands, I still haven’t replaced the inner tube. No problem, I found another way to keep my commute active.
Inline skating! a.k.a. Rollerblading. I’ve always wanted to do more of this, especially once triathlon season is over to start to get in shape for cross-country skiing. It’s been fun, and I’m lucky that my way home is more downhill than my way to work, so that getting home is less of a slog.
Here’s a few tips I’ve picked it up if you want to try inline skating to work.
Don’t underestimate hills. Going up is harder than you think, and a decline will get you going faster than you want. The better your ability to break, the happier you’ll be.
Sidewalks are navigable, but some of the cracks are nastier than others, so be alert, and prepare to step over the uneven parts that might make you stumble. You can time your strides so that the foot you want to put down for the next stride clears the discontinuity and lands on the flat part of the sidewalk tile.
When passing other pedestrians, stop striding and start gliding. You can pass slowly with your hands at your sides this way, taking up less room.
When crossing intersections, even when you have the green light or right of way, try to make eye contact with motorists. That way you’ll know they’ve seen you; it’s a good practice on a bike too, but on skates you’re even less anticipated by drivers.
Pack your shoes near the top of your bag so they’re accessible when you want to change into them at your work’s front doorstep.
Rollerblading to work has been a great way to cross-train. It’s a moderate workout, yet I know I’m working my glutes and a lot of lateral muscles in my legs that might get short shrift during running and biking. Have you ever used inline skates or another non-conventional way to commute?
My wife has been taking a Gravity Machine class at Goodlife Fitness, and invited me to give it a try. I’ve been sorely lacking in any strength training, and I love to try new exercise methods so I gave it a try.
The class started off with a 15 minute session in the Spin studio; most triathletes won’t turn down an opportunity like that, and if you’re in dire need of more cycling work, it’s even more true. After breaking a sweat and getting the muscles primed up, we were ready to hit the machines.
The instructor, Kim, made sure everybody was getting settled into the machine properly; it’s easy to imagine the sliding mechanism crashing or pinching something if you use it wrong. It was a small class, so the overall feel was like a semi-private personal training session. The workout progressed through the body, starting with wide stance squats, then progressing to single-leg squats (which I’ve read is one of the best strength exercises for runners) then moved on to upper body work.
Pulling the cables down to make the slider (along with your body) go up was probably my favourite exercise as it worked the same muscles used on a freestyle swim pull. The cables give you solid resistance throughout the movement in a way weights can’t, and though there are cable machines in most gyms, I find it hard to get them set up for a complete range of motion, and to be honest, there’s always someone else using the cable setup. Speaking of complete range of motion, I ended up shortening some of the pulls to avoid the top end of the range; I’ve been advised to not do exercises with weights directly overhead, that range seems to always aggravate old shoulder injuries. More upper body work followed, with us pulling ourselves on the slider using rows, and bicep curls.
A lot of the exercises had core work thrown in on top in the form of a crunch or glute bridge at the end of the motions, but we had an explicit core workout to end the session, which we did upside-down (though at a very shallow angle). Hanging like that feels great on your spine, and extension/traction is a common form of treatment for lower back pain, so that was a bonus.
After the session, Kim (having noticed my good form in spinning and my triathlon t-shirt and figuring me for a triathlete of some kind) showed me other exercises they use to work the swimming stroke muscles. These were shoulder pulls while facing down, but also with an oblique twist to emphasize the core.
While I was skeptical of a machine-based workout, I think I’ll sign up for a few more classes and hope it pays strength dividends into my triathlon racing. Plus, it’s an opportunity to workout with my wife; the couple that sweats together, stays together. What strange/new classes have you done?
Last week I got a chance to do not one, but two Burbathlons, and I tried a few new things.
On Tuesday the weather was warm enough for shorts (in March! in Toronto!) so off I went. I had a water-bottle belt packed, but I’d been missing the bottle itself and I figured I’d hydrated enough in the morning to not need anything along the way… WRONG!
I found my mouth parched fairly soon after starting. I ended up doing a little extra hill work with a climb straight up the Centennial Park Ski hill and another going up the service road (in addition to the hill that takes me out of the Etobicoke Creek Valley to the park, and the berm near Eglinton road. I mixed in some squats, single-leg squats, push-ups, spiderman crawls and sprints (not necessarily in that order) into the overall run. I also took the opportunity to start to prepare for the Spartan Race by practicing some jiu-jitsu rolls.
Jiu-Jitsu practices a lot of break-falling to avoid being hurt when being thrown, but at higher levels you can use them to dive over obstacles and land in a roll. Unfortunately I’m so rusty that I was mostly practicing them in the grass from a walk. Still, if I keep up the practice, maybe I’ll pull one off on race day.
For Friday’s workout, I swore I’d be better hydrated. Pulling off random jumps and strength exercises (never mind jiu-jitsu rolls) with a bottle in the small of my back didn’t seem too comfortable, but it gave me a chance to try out a piece of equipment I bought last season with this sort of thing in mind…
Salomon hydration packs seem to get good reviews (and I’ll write up and post my own soon enough)… I liked the idea of this one not only for hydration, but as a good way to have extra pockets for gadgets like my phone, camera, iPod, whatever. Pockets are always hard to find on running gear, don’t you think? I decided not to do rolls while wearing it though, since the hydration bladder might burst.
Speaking of gadgets, this was the first outing with the new Garmin Forerunner 910XT. I’d lost my Forerunner 305, and I think I bought the new one out of some kind of bout of self-pity/retail therapy. After the workout I joked with someone that my dirty little secret is that I’m only into multi-sport fitness for the toys. Yet another gear review post for me to write, but I will say that I got up and running with it without having spent a lot of time to set it up beforehand.
The other bit of gear I stuffed into the vest pockets was a skipping rope. As I’ve mentioned before, I’m interested in some of the benefits barefoot/natural running has to offer without being willing to go ‘all-in’ on the craze. This video really caught my attention:
What struck me is that he’s actually going pretty fast and his technique looks much closer to ‘normal’ running than most stuff I’ve seen. I have real problems not heel striking even when I’m actively working on this sort of thing, but I loved the idea of using the jump-rope to implement the ‘natural’ stride, so I gave it a try for around 100m or so on this workout.
With the spring coming, I’m looking forward to doing more Burbathlon workouts, and maybe getting some of my own video to share.
My main ‘go-to’ circuit/strength workout is the the Spartacus Workout from Men’s Health. It doesn’t require much other than dumbbells, and I can get it done in around 40 minutes, though it gets me sweating and breathing heavily like anybody’s business. Last time I did the workout at home, Shark Boy was having a nap, but the Lightning Kid (4 months) was ready to rock. My wife went out for a run, so I was watching him. I managed to keep him somewhat entertained with the following modifications to the Spartacus Workout:
And when I’m on the bike trainer, I let him watch me. He seems to find the noise and motion of the spinning wheels fascinating. The trouble is, if I find myself tiring, and the cadence backs off, he starts to squawk of boredom. He’s like a little coach not letting me slack off!
The Lightning Kid is lying on the mat on the far side of the bike.
There hasn’t been much snow in Southern Ontario this year, but when we got some, we managed to take advantage with a visit to the Mansfield Outdoor Centre. It was our first time out cross-country skiing since we grew to a family of four. We didn’t get too much mileage in, as getting the gear and kids into the car, driving there, and still meeting somewhat of a sane nap schedule limits time a fair bit, but I’m proud that we’re still getting out to do one of my favourite activities as a family.
Shark Boy in the Chariot, the Lightning Kid in the backpack carrier.
As much as the off-season is more of a mental construct than a true necessity due to climate; I’ve found myself unable to train and exercise to the degree I’d like in recent weeks (largely though not solely due to a health issue). I was being kept from the bike trainer, I was kept from running, swimming and the gym for any strength training. When I find myself stymied in my efforts to get in shape, I have a bad habit: I’ll dive into exercise with abandon, rather than easing in to accommodate a body that isn’t ready for the sudden shock. So I found myself saying yes to a ‘Welcome Back to the Mats 2012’ session of my old club.
This is a triathlon and multi-sport blog, so I’m way off-topic here, but on the other hand, it’s my blog, and I think I can swing a little justification of this post. And if you still have a problem with that, you have to face these two:
Let me give you a little background. From the Jitsu Foundation website: “Jitsu is a martial art based on the traditional styles of Jiu Jitsu that originated and developed in medieval Japan. The core of the art comprises a system of throws, joint locks and strikes. Based on the principal of using an aggressor’s energy to their own disadvantage, Jitsu skills can be used by men, women and children to counter aggressive situations ranging from unwanted harassment to armed physical assault.”
(The Jitsu Foundation is the organizational body for Shorinji-Kan Jiu-Jitsu, the style I practice/practiced).
So here are the top similarities between jiu-jitsu and triathlon:
Multi-disciplinarian. A full jiu-jistu technique might involve blocking a punch, a counter-strike, a joint lock (to put the aggressor off-balance), a throw, then a restraining technique. So, a jitsuka (a practitioner of jiu-jitsu) needs to be well-versed in many categories of techniques (including chokes, pressure points, etc.) where most other martial artists get to stick to one or two categories. Swim, Bike, Run…. Strike, Throw, Lock. Get it?
Technical Geekery. Triathletes are often called tri-geeks – even the more casual participants will use Garmin’s or Apps to track their speed, pace, distance and heart rate. The hard-core know their anaerobic threshold, VO2 Max, the materials science that goes into making their bikes faster or lighter, and nutritional tweaks to get the best out of themselves on race day. Jiu-jitsu uses a variety of anatomical principles and physics (like torque and leverage) to ‘use the aggressor’s energy (or strength) to their own disadvantage’. There is a technical finesse that occurs at higher levels of proficiency that lends itself well to the the more analytical or ‘geeky’ mind.
Masochism. This may not be universal across all styles of jiu-jitsu (and yet also not unique to jiu-jitsu as a martial art), but doing a grading (where you are testing for the next belt level) is most often a painful, tortuous experience. During them, you question why you bother to do this in your free time, and afterwards, the rewards make you forget (or at least mentally diminish) the trauma of what you just went through. Just like a long bike ride, run or brick.
Efficiency. An attacker can be decimated by a good jitsuka who hardly seems to be doing anything at all. Proper technique means not using your own strength so much as that of your attacker, ideally with a relaxed demeanour (at least in terms of your outward disposition) rather than gritting your teeth and huffing and puffing. The motto is ‘Maximum Effort, Minimum Impact’. Triathlon has a lot of energy conservation, where the work you do to improve technique is meant to make sure you will have enough fuel in the tank to finish the race instead of wasting energy on unnecessary movement.
And here’s where they are the most opposite of hobbies:
Social. You absolutely need at least one partner to execute a jiu-jitsu technique. In fact, the more (greater variety of) people you practice on, the better. Triathlon and endurance sports can be trained in groups, but they don’t have to be, and for me, the appeal has always been in the flexibility in going solo… I like the time to clear my thoughts, and doing it when my schedule allows, not by appointment.
Fitness. Being in good shape is a good idea in martial arts, and I don’t want to say it isn’t good exercise, however… ‘Maximum Impact, Minimum Effort’ – remember? I know excellent jitsuka and high ranked instructors who smoke regularly… I can’t say the same for triathletes.
Indoor/outdoor. Triathlon can be done indoors and jiu-jitsu can be done outdoors, but usually… not so much.
Anyway, that’s enough of a digression for this blog, I hope to bring things back to the core of triathlon in the next entries. Thanks for reading!
You may remember me talking about Burbathlon before and the unusually mild weather we’ve had this past week let me get out and give it a try again. I decided to do live tweets with photos as I went along (though I wish I had turned on the Add Location feature). I had written up various exercises with links in a Memo on my Blackberry so I could cut and paste the tweets; still it took up time I should have been putting into working out harder. I don’t apologize for the fun I had, though. I’ve marked the exercises I did on the map from Endomondo at their approximate locations. Have a look at the descriptions below.
1.) The trail is gravel till here, but I run up the hill to get into the more forested area. See the tweet.
2.) I did a balance beam routine down this log. See the tweet.
3.) Our company running group uses this for hill training. See the tweet.
4.) This pic didn’t turn out so well (maybe next time I’ll bring a real camera instead of my Blackberry), but it’s Incline Pushups against the fence. Not the most challenging but I had done a 100 Pushups workout (Week 4, Day 1) prior to heading outside so there! See the tweet.
5.) Next I did Single Leg Squats while holding onto the lamppost. This area has benches and tables and little fences that I use for Box Jumps, Squats and other exercises. Maybe next time, more. I realized I was running long with all the tweeting and picture taking, so I started to head back from here. See the tweet.
6.) This tree looks climbable with a good run-up and jump. It is not, at least to me. #FAIL. See the tweet.
7.) The trail seems to be used by mountain bikers/BMXers. That doesn’t stop me from jumping off or over these on foot! See the tweet.
8.) I found a tree I could climb (it was leaning at an angle against another tree. As any cat can tell you, the hard part is getting back down! See the tweet.
So that was a successful (albeit short and sweet) Burbathlon. With the new snow, it’s going to be a little challenging to do these, but I hope to post more of them in the future.
As soon as autumn rolls around, triathlon training in most of Canada gets more difficult. I think this is most felt in cycling, since it is the most time consuming of the three disciplines, and you feel the cold more when your zooming along that fast. Somebody came up with the sport of cyclo-cross as a kind of end of season training for road and mountain bike cyclists.
At first glance, you might have trouble telling the difference between Cyclo-cross and mountain biking (at least, I did). Indeed they both involve getting muddy – in fact, Cyclo-cross can be performed with a mountain bike. While I’m no expert, I don’t think mountain bikers dismount and carry their bikes over obstacles in most circumstances, whereas this is fundamentally part of Cyclo-cross. Overall, it struck me as a little less ‘extreme’ and more friendly to novices since even an old road bike would have been acceptable (though a little tricky). I’m getting ahead of myself by giving my impressions, first I want to tell you the story of how I ended up trying this out.
A Cyclo-Crosser jumps a barricade, carrying his bike. I have a bunch of photos like this. I have a lot to learn about settings on my camera – especially those dealing with low-light and action photography.
What I saw was a course sketched out with police tape and little flags that went up, down and alongside the less steep parts of the ski-hill and some 40cm barriers to be hopped over. I apologize for the poor quality of pictures; photography is not my strong suit, and never will be.
I spoke briefly with Craig, who was directing the cross riders on how many laps they still had before quitting time, and got a feel for whether I would even be able to attempt this thing. It sounded like my old mountain bike would be alright, if less than perfect for gripping and steering under some circumstances. At any rate, I resolved to show up a week later ready to go.
One week later, I pulled into the parking lot wearing my cycling gear, with a helmet, and an old Cateye light that drew a few laughs from more hard-core cyclists I had to purchase a one-day licence from The Ontario Cycling Association and once my admission for the night was paid, they suggested I hook up with one of the more experienced riders for tips on how to navigate the course. The usual format for the evening is to spend time at each station in a kind of ‘lesson-circuit’ before participating in a race to finish a certain number of laps of the mile-long course, but they opted to forgo that since it was near the end of season, I suppose.
I approached a man named Pierre and asked him to show me the ropes. After a few jokes about how this would turn into a new obsession which would threaten my marriage, he gave my bike (an old hybrid that I use for commutes and more recreational riding with my son) the once over.
The ‘Before’ shot… even if it is technically an ‘after cleaning’ shot.
Then we were off on the course. As we rode, Pierre gave me general tips on bike handling that allowed me to get traction going uphill and around the sharper turns, of which there were plenty. Every few hundred meters he’d have us stop so he could point out specifics that I was maybe doing wrong, or specifics of the course to watch out for. In particular, he identified a way of looking where you’re going (not where you are) that helps you balance and set up your turns. There was one hairpin turn I didn’t make all night – it was set up in such a way as to purposely slow riders down so that they wouldn’t accidentally hit a pipe from the ski hill’s snow making equipment.
One of the most unique features of Cyclo-cross is barricades, where you dismount, pick up the bike, and hurdle over a 40cm (a little over a foot) barrier (or two). Apparently I’m not the first beginner to find this aspect the most exciting; good technique however, requires calm grace and not holding your breath as you hop over.
After a couple of laps, Pierre left me to give it a try on my own, which not only amped up the adrenaline factor, but also took a bigger toll on my cardio-vascular endurance; without the pointer sessions to catch my breath, I could really feel each and every lap.
The ‘After’ shot. Notice the mud and grass caked everywhere.
I found Cyclo-cross to be very different than most of my training rides that I do for triathlon. The twists and turns demand a lot more mental attention; no more ‘zoning out’. In fact, bike handing is much more of a priority overall as it becomes a struggle just to stay on the bike. The slippery grass and mud keep you in the lower gears and higher cadences, while the up-and-down of hills (and the bursts of strength you use to pick your bike up and jump the barriers) make it more of an interval workout than I’ve had in a long time.
Here’s a video from my last lap (I had my camera helmet-mounted); it’s a little dark and shaky – rest assured I could see fine.
Describing a cyclo-cross ride in short is easy: it’s the way you used to ride your bike when you were a kid: Without consideration for destination, appropriate terrain, keeping clean or anything but having fun. Despite how much fun I had, and my desire to do it again soon, cyclo-cross isn’t threatening to become an obsession to me. After all, in the multi-sport mind, everything is just cross training for something else!
This post is going to be a bit of a rave again. I’m going to talk about the Flexible Warrior Yoga for Triathletes DVD series. I don’t get any compensation for this review, and I purchased these products myself.
You’re already having to fit in time to swim, bike and run. Then there are bricks to consider, and if you’re really good you have some strength cross-training in there. Maybe you even work in transition skills, or emergency bike repair practice (I haven’t done that last one). And now you’re supposed to fit in Yoga?!?!
Yes! And here’s why:
Stretching. You have to do this anyway, you might as well do it through proven, Eastern, thousand year old techniques.
Strength. Done right, a Yoga workout can be a strength workout only more functional than lifting weights or using machines. Holding a pose is more about muscular endurance than raw power and that’s very important to the endurance athlete.
Balance and core. These can be a little weak in endurance athletes so it’s good to shore them up, especially for…
Injury Prevention. When you get injured, you can’t train, so given that Yoga is a low impact form of cross-training, time spent doing it is like an insurance policy. When I get those little aches and pains, I find it really helps to do a little Yoga.
Days off. It can be inclement weather, the aforementioned aches and pains (or even injury) or even just the chaos of everyday life that keeps you from getting outside and working out. When that happens, having a Yoga DVD handy and knowing it will do you some good can take the edge off the disappointment you feel at having to scrap the original workout.
This DVD series is created and hosted by Karen Dubs. Karen has a lot of familiarity with endurance athletes (stemming from, I believe, an affiliation with Spinnervals’ Troy Jacobsen) and it shows in the videos. The people demonstrating are triathletes of a variety of levels, the sequences are designed to address the issues that triathletes have, and she even forgives athlete’s for the tight calves, hamstrings and hips that might keep them from perfect technique. Karen’s instructions are clear in illustrating what’s important to the technique, while her laid-back attitude keeps you from getting frustrated by any mistakes you might make (e.g. “As long as you’re breathing, I’m happy”).
Volume 1 has 3 different workouts or sequences, each lasting 20-25 minutes. They are titled: Energy, Power, and Flexibility. They can be performed in that order if you have about an hour to devote to your Yoga workout, or you can do them separately.
Energy is a sequence that can be used as a full body warm up before the other sequences or even other workouts. It also includes some core work. The beauty of this one is that it can be performed when your muscles and joints are cold, i.e. first thing in the morning. You don’t need a warm up – it is the warm up! I can tell you that it does indeed energize you and makes it easier to start your day.
The Power sequence may be the most challenging; it certainly is for me, especially since I seem to get the least opportunities to practice it – which is a shame, as some of the poses involve technique and balance that need to improve through practice. You need to be warmed up to perform it, but when you get through, you’ve broken a real sweat and know you’ve had a workout.
I like to use the Flexibility sequence as a post-workout stretch session when I have the time. This is the reason Power is the least used: I can do Energy first thing in the morning, and Flexibility post-workout, but Power needs its own timeslot to be a workout unto itself. The Flexibility sequences poses stretch all the important ones for triathletes, notably opening up the hips, elongating the hamstrings and calves.
I also own Volume 2 of the Flexible Warrior series. I’ve spent less time with it, so I have less to say about it. This one has shorter sequences, but more of them, with slightly tweaked goals. Energy is similar to Volume 1’s version (warm-up). I’ll make you guess which muscles the Core sequences is designed to address. The Cross-train sequence is for “total body strength, stability, and endurance for upper and lower body”, while the Balance and Recovery replaces the Volume 1 Flexibility routine, albeit with more technical poses that work on your balance.
Family demands continue to outweigh both training and blogging, but I did find enough time to discover the 100 pushup program. I’m sure consistency is key, but it looks like several sets of pushups (with 1 minute breaks) 3 times a week.
I did the initial test today and I can do 32 push-ups; that sounds about right. I’m sure I used to be able to do more than 40, but I’ve been away from exercise for a few weeks, and away from strength and push-up based exercise for longer. It may not seem triathlon-centric, but Steve Speirs, the program’s creator is a triathlete and ultra-runner (and dad!) so I’m game too.
I’ll log and tweet my progress, and if I get to 100, I’ll be sporting the ‘I did 100’ badge here at Iron Rogue.
UPDATE: Things haven’t been going well, and I’m not keeping up with the workouts. I’m not going to quit, but I ‘ll have to restart from Week 3 Day 1.
