Off Season Swimming: back to the basics

As much as I dislike off season, I try to take advantage and analyze how my year went. For having left shin and hamstring problems I was pleased with my run. As expected need to dramatically increase and improve on the bike. Last winter I made a point to improve on my distance swimming which in the end my times improved both short and longer distances. As I was extremely pleased with my swim times this year, I also had a feeling it was slipping toward the end of season. Couldn't tell whether it was my stroke, training, conditioning, etc because I was too engaged in upcoming races. Whenever i'm lost I always revert back to the beginning, in this case the basics. After AG nationals I decided to take a month off of swimming do a small body recovery. The past couple weeks dipping in the pool I've been reverting back to the basics concentrating on form, stroke technique and actually using my legs. For those that know me, my legs have always been useless in the water, but that's going to change this winter. This going back to basics has given me the opportunity to take a step back and truly analyze what is going on and i'm glad i did. The first trip back in the pool I quickly realized how badly I was crossing my arms, not utilizing my legs and how WEAK my core was. As i'm not an expert swimmer, but do pay attention to my coaches and read what I can it didn't take much to realize these issues and how much they affect my efficiency in the water. So the past few weeks i've taken up Cross Fit and increased my core doing basic daily workouts. With these minimum corrections of not crossing my arms, utilizing my kick, increasing my core and concentrating on my form I can already feel the difference in my swimming ability. The Olympics is a far reach, but i'm hoping to continue with these efforts and see where it takes my swimming next year. We all have these barriers once in a while. When in doubt, back to the basics.

2012 Age Group National Championship Olympic: Pushing through Pain

Experience describes it all.  Morning started out with nice cool weather and feeling great turned out to be the most disastrous race.  I walked over to the swim start and saw a fellow CVE athlete Mark North.  Had a nice pre race chat and ready to hop in for our practice swim.  During my few minutes of practice, was going through my strategy for the swim.  The wind had picked up so was expecting some minor increase in wake and trying to mentally prepare for that.  The horn blew and I started off as expected nice and smooth with a good stroke and breathing to the first buoy.  With the expected athletes attending I placed myself in the back of the pack to try and keep good and honestly hope to get some draft in the water.  I’m an average swimmer, but by the time I got to the first buoy they were already ahead of me and spreading out fast.  After I turned the first buoy the wake hit me all at once and my swimming groove was out the window.  I think my adrenaline had kicked a little, but after a couple minutes I realized this was going to be my toughest swim to finish.  I would swim a few strokes and notice when I went to breathe on some I’d be breathing into the wake and felt like getting smacked in the face.  I tried to time my breathing with the wake and that wasn’t happening.  As I made my last right turn heading back to the swim finish I didn’t realize the sun came blazing out of nowhere and couldn’t see the next buoy.  This made it incredibly hard to site.  I have a two pairs of racing goggles; one for sun glare and one regular.  When I went into the water there was no sun and within 30+ minutes it came blazing out.  I made the last turn to the swim ramp and swam Kristen plus the other spectators and I was never so happy to complete a swim.  As I had a rough swim I didn’t want to go into the bike with heavy breathing or legs so I tried to control my breathing and get the legs moving in transition with more short strides.  After looking at the bike elevation and driving part of the bike course I expected the first half to be a little hill climbing, what I didn’t expect was short steep hills and good gradual climbs throughout.  Burlington very much reminded me of Charlottesville where you don’t see many level roads.  One issue I was concerned with going into the race was my neck as I’ve had issues for two months.  Soon as I hopped on my bike there it went, couldn’t lift my neck without throbbing pain.  I got going in hopes that my neck would sooth out and could ride in aero position.  Even after the 5 mile point my neck was not getting any better.  The thoughts running through my head were not good, but I kept trying to remember the initial goal…finish.  I didn’t see myself able to ride 24 miles with this neck pain so I let the pride down and stopped to rub my neck and stretch.  Though it didn’t cure the pain, it did release a little tightness which helped go further.  Although I wasn’t feeling the bike, it was amazing to see the speed of the other triathletes passing me and how they were taking the hills.  The bike course was a good mix of short steep hills and good distance gradual climbs which both made hard, but not impossible.  Here and there would I try to sit in aero position, but wouldn’t last more than half to a mile at most.  I got to mile 19 and at this time knew where I was which was a great mental motivator as all I wanted to do was get off that bike!  I stopped one more time to stretch my neck which was unbearable and again that stop helped relieve a little.  I was able to finish up the bike in a not so great time, but at this point I didn’t care about time.  As I got to dismount I could see Kristen and hear her cheering from a great spot above.  To give you an idea of how disoriented I was, I told her “That was a great spot to sit on top of that rock.”  She gave me that funny look and told me it was utility piece of property.  I was glad to hook my bike onto the rack and slip into my running shoes which is my favorite part of the race.  Even though running is the last piece and hurts, I always love the feeling in my hamstrings and the free flow on the road.  I run around transition and cross Kristen again while joking from a previous race I said “Ok baby, be ready to miss me this might take a little longer than expected.” Being the smart supporter she said “Don’t worry; I’m not close to missing you.” Let alone did I know this would be the most painful run I’ve ever done!  The legs felt good for a minute until I got to the water stop and saw fellow Richmond triathletes Jay Peluso and Don Rodgers cheering did I just remember the steep hill at the beginning.  I told myself “Just get to the top and then recover from there, just get to the top and it’s easy from there.” I was able to muster to the near top and then out of nowhere there it went first cramp in my left leg quad.  Squandered to the top and quickly stretched it and it hit me I have another 5.75 miles to run so I told myself “better get started to finish.” Although I started feeling some stabbing pain in my lower right chest area the next mile and a half was a nice smooth run, the legs were feeling great again.  The road was nice and level with what seemed to be good scenery to enjoy.  Nearing the two and a half mile point saw another quick hill climb where I got near the top and again this time my right leg cramped.  I did not understand this as I trained really well for the run.  I quickly stretched and continued on where I ran maybe a quarter mile and then both my legs cramped: quad on my left leg and hamstring on my right.  This was not a good feeling or mental boost knowing I had another 3 miles to go.  A man ran up behind me and said “soldier through the pain let’s go,” that gave me a nice little boost so I ran with him for a mile and didn’t feel too bad to where we caught up with Grayson Cobb for a minute.  We had turned and started running around a park which felt like we’d run about two miles.  I see a water stop and feeling good running with others whose whole intent was to just finish.  I see the next mile marker at 3 and that hurt.  Right before the water stop my left leg cramped up again so I stopped to stretch and hydrate.  At this point I figured my chest hurt from over hydrating, but with my legs I needed the liquids and didn’t seem to feel the chest.  Think I had a Major Pain break through on the “Want to know a little trick to take that pain away?” I knew the next 3 miles were going to be a test of how much pain could I handle.  I was able to do a nice run walk the next mile which I knew would be the rest of the run portion.  The next two miles my legs seem to take turns cramping.  Each time stop real quickly to stretch and press on.  It hadn’t occurred to me about time limit of the race and figured I was nearing it. All I could see was my watch at mile 5 stating 3 hours 15 minutes. For some reason I had another 28 minutes which normally is forever to run a mile, at this point it felt like a 10 minute mile I had to run.  A crept up to the last water stop at mile 5 to lay down stretch and hydrate.  At this point I was feeling pain, but told myself just keep run walking and you’ll make it.  I had a good stretch and was able to do a good half mile run and then out of nowhere….bam….both my quad and hamstring in my left leg tightened up and fell into the grass where I had to physically push my leg out and give a few moments which felt like forever for the muscles to loosen up.  I’ve never known what it feels like to break down and I think this was my first encounter.  I tried to get up and the slightest movement of my leg it tightened up again.  I’ve never felt pain like this and what hurt the most was that minor thought of not ABLE to finish being only a half mile away.  All I could do was lay there and stretch the best I could.  I quickly remembered how I never give up and wasn’t planning on starting now.  Failure isn’t in my nature.  Pulled myself up and tried to stride with a straight leg in which I could feel my quad, but not near as bad as my hamstring.  Luckily I was able to do this to the last .33 mile point in which my 2nd Surge must have kicked in and adrenaline kicked in when I saw Kristen cheering because my legs weren’t cramping up and was able to finish down the red carpet with a strong finish a conger up a very sarcastic smile.  Finished!   Amazing part is soon as I crossed the finish line….the pain was gone!   After processing this race and the events that occurred, it was truly a learning lesson into training and racing.  I came into this race feeling at my best on the swim and bike and feeling confident on the run. I had been dealing with hamstring and ankle injuries all year which I was happy with how I went about my run training.  Although I thought I trained well, it appears my training wasn’t up to par with the course I raced.  The swim was much more difficult than anticipated with the wake and the bike course was much hillier and my neck didn’t help. All these factors play into both the physical change in your muscles and your mental stability.   Not only did I learn that I need to re-look at my training and up it more, but realized you never underestimate the power of your mind.  I was physically broke the last couple miles on the run, but it was mental that got me through this race.  The mind is a beautiful powerful thing to waste.    When I completed the race I told my girlfriend “I’m never coming back and racing this course.” At the time I didn’t want to think about the course, but what’s my name? Brian Lilley doesn’t give in….nor give up!  I hope the race continues in Burlington….i’ll be back!  

Nutrition Lesson Learned:

Nutrition Lesson Learned:   Whether you work out an hour a day 5-6 days a week or thirty minutes a day 3-4 days a week, how is your body able to sustain the endurance of your workouts?  When first starting triathlons it never occurred to me how much Nutrition played a factor in my training and racing.  Since being informed, researching and talking with others about nutrition I’ve seen great improvement in my races and how I feel training.   One thing I’ve noticed with nutrition is how easy it is to get off course with diet, vitamins, liquid intake, etc.  For me I needed to plan out what I would start with in the morning, drink and eat throughout the day.  One of the keys to ensure I started off right was checking my nutrition stock every couple weeks (Accel Gel, Accelerade, Sport Beans) and my nutrition stock weekly (Water, Gatorade).    I really started my nutrition planning back in January of this year and have been pretty good about sticking to it.  I was good until very recently when I got caught up with life’s fun distractions.  To ensure hydration is readily accessible I’ll overstock by keeping a case of water in my work office and my vehicle.  One case runs out usually on a weekly basis I have my vehicle as back up and know to restock that day.  Sunday’s are my normal check and restock, but a week ago Sunday I did neither.  Presuming I still had water in my vehicle come Monday, driving to work realized I had none.  Ok so I thought I’ll have some in my office, in which I had none.  Busy work day with no time to buy I went without water and other liquid intake.    I was able to snag about 12oz and food (starving) before swim practice and our Coach had a different “fun” practice in mind.  I’m about to swim with very little liquid intake and no extra nutrients, plus eating a decent meal before swimming.  I to say the least had the worst feeling during this swim practice.  My muscles were screaming right off the bat plus adding in different swim styles using other muscles.  Throughout the swim I could feel my stomach in knots from what I ate and my breathing was completely off.  I don’t know if the liquid intake had anything to do with it or the food, but my heart rate was higher then had ever been in a workout.  The swim practice was a great workout, but I wasn’t prepared for it.   Sometimes we forget what presumed are little things and this was a great reminder that nutrition is not a “little” thing.  I could feel how much my muscles were not fueled properly to perform the workout.  Yes I completed the swim, but I did myself a disservice by not properly preparing my body.    Nutrition should not be an option; it’s just as important as your physical workouts.  I’m not going to say never, but know I’ll remember that day when thinking about my workouts.