Getting Back On Track

So today was Monday and after another weekend where my job stole precious time I could have used for training or recovery or various other things I "could" have been doing, my buddy Celeste sent me an email at 8 this morning and asked if I wanted to go for a run.

Of course I said, "Yeah!"

She was doing a 9:30 AM yoga class and I typically do a class at the same studio at noon so, we decided to meet at 11. This could have been the perfect compromise except we ran out a little further than normal and thus had to really turn on the jets to make it back in time for my class. But here's the thing. After running leisurely for about 40 min, I was able to crank out an 18:30ish 5k in order to get to class before the door was locked. And while this wasn't a what I would consider a hilly route, it certainly wasn't flat either. Especially not the last 1000m or so, which was all up hill.

While I am lightyears from where I want to be fitness wise, I am starting to see things fall into place. All of my "Ironman-itis'" appear to have resolved themselves. The groin pull is almost nonexistent, the stuff with my feet from all of last year is completely gone, and the strength in both of my legs is balanced. What I felt today while I was running to make the yoga class was a strength in my legs I was sure belonged solely to my younger, 35 year old self. I was barely breathing and my legs had no intention of stopping until I was ready. Jeez that felt good.

The rest of the day after yoga was an easy 30 min spin on the trainer and some upper body functional strength work. Tomorrow will be more running, a longer ride and some easy swimming. Feels great to be back!

Endurance Yoga - Getting and Staying Aero on the Bike Part 1: Bakasana (Crow Pose)

Recently, I was asked by one of my students if there was anything they could do to help them get ready for staying in aero position on the bike for long races like 70.3 and the Ironman distance. I smiled and told him, "Yes."

I don't think he knew what he was asking for when he asked if we could spend a couple of classes working on being comfortable for long periods of time in aero position. Last month I wrote about a pose called Malasana, or Garland Pose, which is essentially a deep squat. At any rate, we were using Malasana in order to both open the hips and experience a greater connection to our feet which can be useful in running for moving with greater ease (especially after a hard bike leg) and generating more power resulting from greater range of motion.

Like many yoga poses Malasana can be a preparation for or a segue into other more challenging but very useful poses. And as it turns out it can also be a great beginning to an exploration of getting and staying aero on the bike. So what we are going to do over the next few posts is move from Malasana into a few more poses that can be added in sequence to promote the necessary bodily transformations that can make long bike legs less difficult from a positioning standpoint which in turn, ultimately, can lead to more efficient runs.

The next pose we explore in our sequence of aerodynamic building yoga poses is a pose called Bakasana or Crow Pose. The reason this pose is so important in our quest for aerodynamics is that it can promote the necessary core integration we need to support our torso out on the aerobars. Although in yoga Bakasana is an arm balance and when you first see it you might think it is a pose for strengthening the arms. Nothing could be further from the truth. By and large arm balances in yoga are core cultivators. And for our purpose of getting aero and being comfortable on the bike, Bakasana can train us to properly engage our core to provide the "lift" we need to comfortably maintain a flat back.



To come into Bakasana, we start in Malasana - a deep squat with our heels together. Place your palms on the floor out in front of you about a foot and a half away from your feet. You want your knees up even with your triceps. Shift your body forward bringing your weight fully onto your hands. Bending your elbows keep shifting more and more of your weight into your hands while keeping head up and your gaze on the floor in front of you. With your body centered over the palms, try bringing one foot off the ground. Engaging your core by bringing your navel in and up toward the spine as though you are lifting and filling the area near the kidneys with air. It is this internal movement that provides the lift in the hips and keeps the knees high up on the triceps. Technically for our purposes, you could stop at this point and work the pose by alternating between lifting your right and left feet off the ground and bringing them up toward your hips. Trust me 3 to 5 reps with each foot is a workout.



If you are comfortable with balancing on your hands and have no problem with the pose while one foot is on the ground, then try taking both feet off the ground at the same time. Again, be sure to keep your head up with your gaze out in front of you and in between your hands. If you have open hips and can get the sense of lift through your core you may find you are able to get quite a bit of height in the pose. If so try holding the pose for about 6 to 8 unhurried breaths before bringing our feet back to the ground.



If for some reason the arm balance doesn't work for you, say balance is an issue, or you have weak wrists, you can still reap the benefits of the pose by taking the balance aspect out of it and practicing Bakasana on your back. In fact almost all yoga arm balances can be practiced while on your back allowing you to strengthen the core as you work your way up toward practicing the actual arm balance.



Coming into Bakasana on your back is very similar to practicing it upright. Start with your heels together and your knees apart. Your back will be flat against the ground. First you will rotate your pelvis up toward the ceiling which will cause your knees to rotate toward your shoulders. Now, as if you were doing crunches, bring your shoulders off the floor and move the torso up toward your knees. Hook your elbows on the insides of your knees and draw your navel down and in toward your spine. This will assist in deepening the fold. Hold the position for anywhere from 4 to 8 breaths, then relax. Repeat the movement 3 to 5 times.



Working Bakasana regularly, aside from being a neat trick you can show your Tri-minded friends, will give you the core awareness and integrity that we will need for the next pose in our aero building sequence. There aren't to many issues with practicing Bakasana other than wrist issues and fear of falling so if you have any reservations, try the version where you explore the pose on your back for a while. I actually find that version more difficult. Until next time, train well....

Know Thy Body

The subtitle for this post "could be" Triathlon Taoism 101. Last week I was getting ready to go to the track with the Wed night RunTex group. I teach a short yoga class after this workout which is in retrospect the only reason I should have been there.

Aside from teaching the yoga class, I like doing this group simply because it forces me to go to the track at least once a week. I think I was on the track maybe 3 times all last year. But there was a reason for that. I wasn't running for most of it so there was no need to be on the track. At any rate that isn't the point of this post. The point is as I was standing in the store before the warm up jog up to the School for the Deaf where the workout is held, I look at my heart rate monitor and it is reading 98bpm! I walk 20 or so feet to the bathroom and come back its 121! It should be like 55~60bpm at this time of day if I'm standing around. Crap!

I'm pretty annoyed by this because there can only be 3 reasons for it. I'm nervous - I've had this happen before races and it usually goes away when the gun goes off. I'm panicked (see nervous, but on a scale of 1 - 10 a 10) and that has only happened once with my standing heart rate coming in at about 140, so not applicable here. Or I'm fighting off an infection of some sort. Its probably the latter because I've been helping a sick friend lately or I've been exposed to something at work (also highly likely) or both. Crap!

Normally something like this would not bother me much. I'd just go home and rest. If I'm going to come down with something (which pretty much NEVER happens anyway) I'd rather it be this time of year when I'm not racing than later when I am. The only reason it is bothering me now is because I want to find out what pace I can run at MAF. I've been waiting for the last 3 weeks to do this test and the weather has been uncooperative serving up large doses of rain and cold. So I was there, the track was there, the weather was cooperating, I had my HR monitor. Resting HR? 98bmp! Crap!

So what did I do? I go to the track and do the test anyway. Why? Because I wasn't going to be running hard and I would get data for when my system was understress. I also went because I want that to be a weekly test and I wanted it to become a habit. And I think on a deeper level, it was sort of the sense that I needed to accept where my fitness was at that moment, so I could start learning to accept it at any given moment. The funny thing was, after warming up, and struggling through the first mile keeping my heart rate under MAF (I had to walk quite a bit the first mile), the second and third mile got progressively faster and I wound up averaging 10:35 pace at a 144 HR for 3 miles. That really surprised me because, to be honest, that is about what I expected without the jacked up resting HR. And granted if I throw out the first mile and only focus on the last 2, my pace drops considerably to get me that overall average at the end. But my heart rate sticks right at 144 even though I was running faster.

I'm more familiar with that type of response on the bike because I've been more consistent in training this way while riding. One of the things I've noticed over time, which is why I've been able to ride at lower heart rates without becoming overly concerned about losing fitness, is for me slower movements seem to lead to the discovery of more efficient movement patterns. And aside from the changes that happen chemically in the body allowing for more efficient fuel usage, discovering these efficient patterns of movement can also be beneficial. I think this is what happened on the track. I certainly didn't speed (this term is relative) up because I was running "harder." So I think I'm going to explore this more as I run more this year.

The rest of the week I rested swimming a bit and doing a couple of yoga classes. I was sleepy all week and took that as a sign that I indeed was fighting off something. I kept my training minimal and slept as much as possible, going to bed as early as 8pm some nights. I think sleeping more and my diet kept whatever it was from developing into something nasty. My friend had a fever for almost 10 days.

Oh yeah, the Taoist theme for this post could be:

"Deal with it before it happens

Set things in order before there is confusion..."

Monday, Tuesday

So I've got the new website up and functioning. You can check it out here. Right now its basically a reorganization of this blog. But that will change as I start to shift my emphasis in what I write. But for now its just a matter of organizing things. I feel like I'm moving in to a new house. But the good thing is now that the site is up, I can get back to the matter at hand and that is simply training. I've gone back to doing my strength work. I'm pretty consistant about working out my lower body but I tend to stop working the upper body except for my core as racing season approaches. This is largely because I find I'm not as flexible which negatively impacts my swimming. But I'm not racing now so that excuse is baseless.

I like to do my upper body strength training on Monday because its the beginning of the week and I like to get it out of the way first thing. Probably because I don't like it. And because it hurts. And if there is anything I will find an excuse not to do it is this workout. The session isn't very complex, it just hurts is all. So here's what I did:

1. 2 x 30 sec max rep push ups
2. 2 x 30 sec max rep pull ups
3. 2 x 30 sec max rep mil push ups
4. 2 x 30 sec max rep rev grip chin ups
5. 2 x 30 sec max rep decline push ups
6. 2 x 30 sec max rep close grip pull ups
7. 2 x 30 sec max rep diamond push ups
8. 2 x 30 sec max rep towel pull ups
9. 2 x max rep divebomber
10. 2 x 30 sec max rep isometric chest press

Then I went to an hour and a half all levels yoga class. The class just so happened to be pretty core intensive and included a lot of standing poses which really emphasize leg strength and balance. Later that day did an indoor MAF ride for half an hour which included two sets of single leg drills.

Today, I ran for an hour with an average heart rate of 140. I've been training at completely MAF (maximum aerobic function) for the last couple of weeks. A lot of folks discount this type of training or don't stick with it for very long, but I've seen the results and am willing to do it. Then I came home and got on the trainer for 40 min also at MAF with an average heart rate of 127. That was today's work. Gonna swim and run tomorrow.

Yoga For Triathletes - Malasana

One of the popular workouts these days for athletes of all disciplines is the "Core" workout. This type of work goes far beyond the 6 pack ab craze that came before it. There is a great benefit to be had in all endurance activities by strengthening the core. But once we've done the work and strengthened our core, our next question should become, "How can we access that strength and put it to work for us?"

To be honest, that question, the one about gaining "access" is a far deeper rabbit hole than a single post about a single pose can cover. That's because it is one thing to "tighten your core " or "keep it tight" (something that is commonly said when referring to the gross muscles comprising the mid section during activity), but accessing strength through the core to produce a desired muscular response while running, cycling, or swimming is something else. Understanding this, my goal is to simply get you started thinking about this concept of "gaining access" to the core and integrating it into the other movements that comprise your sport of choice.

To start us on our way to gaining access to the core, we need more access to our feet. And our feet need to gain a sense of being firmly engaged into the ground. Said another way we want to have a sensation of what it is like to have our feet "planted" (as in deeply rooted) into the ground. And for that we are going to explore a pose called Malasana or Garland Pose.

Essentially Garland pose is a deep squat. If you've travelled, especially in countries like India and throughout Asia, you will notice people sitting low to the ground, squatting deeply. This has several benefits, one of which is an opening of the hips. Another benefit of the pose is the opening of the ankles which can allow for a better connection to the ground by engaging through the feet for balance.

• Malasana Variation where the feet are separated and point out 45 degrees

To come into the variation of Malasana that is most accessible, we start with our feet a bit wider than hip distance apart (the toes should be pointing forward but can be rotated out to about 45 degrees to facilitate lowering into the pose if needed). Then with the arms extended out straight in front of you for balance, lower your body bending at the knees. The torso should remain upright as the hips drop below the knees. If you hadn't started with the toes rotated out at 45 degrees initially it may become necessary to rotate them out as your hips move closer to the floor. You may need to widen your stance as well once you get your hips closer to being level with your ankles. You want to hold this position for about 8 even breaths if you can. If you can't don't sweat it, hold it as long as is comfortable. You should be able to stay in the pose for longer and longer periods of time if you work the pose consistently.

Now for some housekeeping. These are some things you want to keep in mind. Throughout this movement the spine should be kept long even though the torso can have a tendency to tilt forward. You can get and keep more length in the spine once in the squat by bringing your hands together in prayer position and using the connection of the elbows to the shins for a bit of leverage to articulate the pelvis by bringing the navel in to the spine. It is possible that as you lower down even after rotating your toes out to 45 degrees and widening your stance, you cannot come into the full squat without your heels leaving the ground. If this is happening you can still work in the pose by placing a rolled up blanket or towel under the heels and then lowering down onto that. While this will change the sensation of grounding somewhat, it does not diminish the effectiveness of the pose.

• A rolled up towel or blanket can be used as a wedge if the heels don't reach the ground.

If you still find it difficult to maintain your balance in Malasana, another option is to practice it inside a doorway. I use this when I want to experience the squat with my feet and shins together holding on to the door frame as I lower my hips to my heels. This allows me to get a sense of the opening in my ankles and hips necessary to access this movement now while I wait for my body to allow me to do it without assistance. To come out of the pose simply ground into the feet and straighten the legs or bring your palms to the floor and come to all fours. Lastly use good judgement when doing this pose. Save the pose for strength days at the gym or lower intensity training days. Because of the deep squat, if you have knee or ankle issues Malasana is not recommended.