Lots of Learning

For the past two and a half months I have decided to quit training for triathlons. I like to take on physical challenges and reach my goals that I set for those physical challenges. With triathlon I reached those goals. I proved that with hard work and dedication I could be fairly successful. Maybe not the best in the sport but do fairly well and be satisfied with myself. Well mostly. You see, I seemed to figure the swim part out okay. For whatever reason the swim came very quick and easy for me. Yes I put a lot of hard work into it but I saw huge results of my training. The run was the other easy part. I grew up a runner and being, I guess, naturally athletic or inheriting good traits from my parents, I was able to run fairly well without putting a lot of work into my run. The bike was a different story.

At first I approached the bike like a did with running. More miles at the beginning and intensity towards the end of the season. Of course I got better just because I was training hard but something just seemed off. For instance at first when I started swimming I was decent just because I was in good shape but there were a lot of much faster people than me whom I swam with. Over time I learned technique and form. Within the next couple of months I could see how one swims fast and could see myself being the best swimmer at the pool if I simply put in the time. But not with the bike. I put in so many incredibly hard miles and hours on the bike only to get completely blown away at races. I could just not see how it was possible to ride that fast. I was frustrated, without answers, and completely over trained.

I took five or six weeks completely off missing my last race of the season (Lake Stevens70.3) to regroup and take a break from beating myself up. During that time I really started to think about the bio-mechanics of biking form. All along I was simply pushing with my quadriceps. Well the quadriceps is a huge muscle and gets tired very quickly so I discovered. I watched some videos of Lance Armstrong and other top cyclists and noticed how they push down with their toes pointed up then through the bottom of the petal point the toe and pull through the bottom of the stroke. I had a lot of learning to do. When I started back up I tried this method and instantly my calfs and hamstrings cramped up. My true cycling muscles were, as I saw it, highly underdeveloped. I kept my cramping Lance Armstrong technique up for maybe an hour 4 or 5 days a week. Just four weeks of riding like this I had my major breakthrough race.

Going into the Elephantman Olympic Triathlon I had no expectations because I was in (as I saw it) abysmal shape. The bike just clicked for me at this race as it never had before. I felt I had reached one more major goal in my journey through triathlon. I could now see the mountain peak and a clearer view of the rout. I will get a second chance to see how this bike training works on December fifth when I try the local Polar Bear Triathlon at White Sands. After that I plan to scale things back quite a bit then slowly get back into things after I feel I've had a good rest. That's my plan as of now. Subject to change which it probably will.