Powderfinger concert

Powderfinger are touring Australia on their "Sunset" tour, they're last before they hang up their hats as a collective band after 20 years or so. I've enjoyed their music for years, can't exactly say why, but that doesn't matter. Now it's sad there'll be no more new songs from them, which makes this tour all the more special.

Although tickets went on sale for this concert months ago, it was only on Thursday that good fortune shone on me via Andrea, whose friends Lawrence and Gill had 2 extra tickets to Friday's concert. It seemed too good to be true, since Friday was also my birthday and this would be fantastic way to celebrate it. So as quickly as Andrea asked if I'd like to go I said yes, and we changed our plans to attend Rod Laver Arena for a live concert...my first one in many years.

On Friday we met at Southbank for a nice dinner then headed along the Yarra river, over the Swan St bridge alongside lots of people heading either to the concert or the AFL finals match being played at the MCG, only a few hundres metres away. We met Lawrence and Gill outside, got our tickets and headed in.

I'm more used to going to the tennis centre for it's primary purpose, tennis, so this was unusual in not having to keep quiet, wait for a break in play to move around, and seeing part of the court covered in stage and about 25% of seats being blocked out (behind the stage). There was also a haze of "smoke" in the air, or whatever it is they pump out to create that atmosphere.

Finding our seats took us up and up, to the second to row - nosebleed seats - directly behind where the umpire would usually sit. It was a bummer to be so far from the stage, however my fears about whether the sound would travel to us were well and truly put to rest by the support act, "Jet", who are very loud!!!

So after the preamble of "Jet" finished, it was time for main act to come out. They were fantastic!! The impact of the live peformance was amazing, the liberty of the band to extend songs beyond their usual studio length, and the dynamic range of the songs was amazing. To hear favourite songs performed live was a treat - I knew all but one song, and they've been playing through my head ever since.

It was a great part of my birthday, the best one I've had in years with two cakes and some lovely birthday wishes...not the least of which was from Andrea.  :-)

Here's some photos and video snippets from the concert.

Why HR-based training is out-of-date

"My heart is a muscle and it pumps blood
Like a big old black steam train
My veins are the tracks
And the city is my brain"
Cruel Sea - "Black Stick"

It's obvious to say that your heart is an important organ. Like the song goes...at a basic level, it's simply a muscle that pumps blood by contracting and relaxing non-stop, speeding up and slowing down in response to your body's demands for energy (and oxygen). When you consider that, unlike skeletal muscle, your heart doesn't get any rest period it's an amazing little machine that no engineering can yet replicate.

Of course, as an athlete the role of your heart is crucial to your performance. The more blood your heart can pump the greater the supply of oxygen and nutrients to your muscles and the greater your capability. Research has shown a link between the level of effort and HR, with HR ranges equating to different training zones that bring about a training response. To that end, HR monitors (HRMs) have become prevalent amongst athletes wishing to optimise their training and improve their performance. I know because I've worn an HR strap around my chest for more hours than I can count, and established and understood training zones to improve my own performance.

But now I believe that HR-based training is out-of-date. That is, adjusting your work effort in response to what your HR is in order to achieve a training (or racing) outcome is out-of-date. It seems blasphemous to say that, but I'll stand behind that statement and explain why, and what is a better way.

In what might seem like a contradiction, however, using an HRM is still a valuable tool in endurance sports. The key is how you use the tool over time.

Remember that your heart beats in order to meet the demands you place on your body. It's reactive. The things your brain gets your body to do - consciously or subconsciously - is the stimulus. Your HR lags behind the stimulus, and is effected by numerous other things...like temperature, arousal, fatigue, hydration, and so on. Lab tests are done in a controlled environment, whereas you live and exercise in the real world.

To use an analogy, think of a car with the tachometer (rev counter) being a direct measure of the stimulus you exert through the accelerator. In that case, the speedo is a response which takes into account which gear you're in, whether you're driving up or down a hill, and so on. The fuel tanks empties and the engine wears based on the work the engine is doing, not necessarily on the speed you're going at.

So applying that back to exercise and sports performance, relying on your HR to dictate your actual work rate is subject to too many flaws to be reliable. There's a joke that says "an athlete was on track for a PB until their HRM told them to slow down!!". You should be dictating your work rate via the stimulus, that is, the amount of effort you exert through your muscles. I'll explain this more in a moment.

Having said that, monitoring your HR as a measure of how your heart is responding to the circumstances does provide valuable feedback on how your body is going. The key point there is that it's feedback - information on the output of your performance. Over time, and with experience in monitoring how your body responds under various conditions, your HR is one of a number of very valuable feedback streams on how your body is responding...which in turn may influence how you dictate the input / stimulus.

So how and why do you dictate the input / stimulus? Most endurance sports are measured in a very black and white way - time, which equates to speed over the set distance. There's no results list for what your HR was. And for each person there's a direct relationship between the input work rate and the outcome performance. To an extent it's a mathematical equation. If you can maintain a defined work rate then you will achieve a particular time performance.

These days there are ways of measuring input work rate which are far more relevant, usable and helpful to achieving performance than HR ever was. Here they are:

Relative Perceived Exertion (RPE) - Although it's 100% subjective to each person, those who can master RPE in any circumstance have a built-in input gauge for dictating their input work rate. The Borg scale of Relative Perceived Exertion (RPE) is a commonly referred to scale.

Bike Power Meters - In my opinion, simply the best training (and racing) tool for bikes ever invented. Measuring work in terms of watts, there's a range of terms, measures and zones which are defined to dictate the input stimulus you apply to the pedals. There's a range of power meters available which measure bike watts.

Swimming and Running Pace - When used in flat and calm conditions, pace is directly equivalent to bike wattage. That is, the effort you use to swim or run at a particular pace relates directly to a work rate with the same measures, terms and zones as for bike wattage. GPS or footpod watches are the tools for measuring running pace, and the lap clock beside the pool is the tool for swimming.

How you use these tools and methods is the subject of many articles and books, along with defining baseline measures to give the watts and pace context. Once you are familiar with the concept of training based on managing input work rate then a new world will open up to you in terms of how you plan and - importantly - execute your training and racing. For people used to HR-based training it's a paradigm shift, but once you do you won't look back.

Achilles update - milestone approaching!!

Back when I first saw the surgeon in early June he mentioned a recovery time of 12 weeks until I'd start running (or walking / running). He said it in a kind of flippant way, and could have simply been an arbitrary number he plucked out of the air, however it was backed up with a printed timeline of what to expect during recovery from the operation. It seems that what I had done was relatively common and rather than repeat himself to everyone like me who goes under his knife, he provides a written explanation, which perhaps explains the passing way he said 12 weeks.

Well, 12 weeks comes up on Saturday - it feels like 12 months - but I won't be heading out the door for a run...or even a walk/run. Probably not for another couple of weeks.

However, far from meaning that things have taken a wrong-turn, it's just that Achilles tendons take a long time to get better, especially when it plays such a crucial role in running. It'll be ready when it's ready and not before, and in the meantime I can do more and more things that are measurable steps towards being able to run.

Since the last update I've gradually been able to do more and more on the Achilles, as it progresses in being able to handle increased loading and activity. I've been 100% CAM boot-free for about 3.5 weeks, which was a great feeling being able to consign it to the back of the cupboard and get around on my own two feet. The main on-going things I'm aware of are the stiffness in the heel / ankle (more so in the morning) and the weakness of my calf / lower leg, but both of these are improving.

So while I can't run there's a lot of things I can do, and for most people the state of my Achilles at present wouldn't appear to be all that limiting. I'm swimming with concessions being little kicking and being careful not to push-off too hard with my left foot. I'm riding my commuter bike but not standing up on the pedals...although I think that will be soon. Walking is no problems, having done some quite reasonable walks (5-6km) on recent weekends, and I'm starting to do some uphill walking reps - not long but a great progression to actual running. Gym is all OK, and now doing some heel / calf raises which this week are off a step. Very weak calves...

The 12 week milestone will come and go with little fanfare, and little significance, but nonetheless has given me a point in time to work towards. The next BIG milestone will be when I actually do go for a walk/run...and that it goes OK. I'm still thinking how to mark the occasion...

7 ways to succeed in Kona

Note - Phil from firstoffthebike.com asked me to write this article, with Kona only 5 weeks away. It will appear on that web-site soon.

Aside from winning an Olympic Gold Medal in Triathlon, winning the Hawaii Ironman triathlon is the pinnacle of our sport. Much like winning a Wimbledon title, Tour de France or the US Masters golf at Augusta, a Kona title puts you amongst the pantheon of triathletes forever, even in a sport as young as triathlon is.

The aura Kona has is not just limited to the elite professionals, since it's one of the few events - and sports - where the mere mortals (if Kona qualified Age Groupers can be called mortals!) compete on the same course at the same time. You just need to witness the drama at an IM rolldown to understand the emotional (and material) investment many people make in trying to qualify for Kona. And it's getter harder and harder to do so.

Just being at Kona during IM week, let alone competing, is an honour. It's the highest quality field in every category, and even being a spectator demands that you look fit, tanned and ripped. Pity the pasty white southern hemisphere athletes travelling there after winter...

There's so much I could write about Kona, the Big Island of Hawaii, and the Ironman event itself. But, alas, this article is focused on 7 ways to succeed at Kona. So here goes:

1. Qualify

This sounds just too obvious, but needless to say the only way you're going to succeed is by being there in the first place!! Qualifying can often be harder than the Hawaii IM event, and takes a lot of planning, preparation and execution, which is a demonstration that you've learned what it takes to train and race over an IM distance.

No one qualifies by accident, and once you're in Kona no one questions how you got there. You're all equals and members of an exclusive club worthy of respect, envy and admiration. Only a small percentage of aspirants qualify so you'd better bring your A game to your qualifying attempt, since they don't come around very often.

Training and qualifying for Kona is worthy of an article on it's own, but suffice to say that it may take a few attempts to earn one of those elusive slots to "the big dance". Once you do, however, it marks your true arrival into the world of Ironmans.

2. Set your objectives and expectations

Racing at Kona will likely be the biggest race occasion you'll ever experience, and you'll share it with 1800 or so other people in a similar situation. Of course, everyone wants to do their best, have their best race and put in their best ever performance. However Kona is unlike any other race you'll do because:

1. the conditions are so unpredictable and (likely) extreme,

2. the quality of competition is the highest you'll ever line up against.

What I mean to say is that you can never reliably predict your race time because of the ocean swells and currents, the wind on the bike and the heat on the run. Nor will you never know how good, or who to look out for from your competitors. So setting time and placing objectives can be futile and frustrating.

In this situation the old adage stands true - concentrate on the process and the outcome will look after itself. Train so you're confident in how you will execute the race, how you will respond in different circumstances, the physical state and emotions you'll encounter during the race, and more. Do this and you'll have a successful day.

But aside from the actual race itself, decide what kind of experience you want to have as part of the Ironman World Championship. It's an honour and privilege and if you treat it with respect and humility, you'll be rewarded with memories to last a lifetime.

3. Plan your preparation

Also worthy of a separate article, preparation and training for any IM needs good planning (and execution), let alone training for Kona. However, remember that Kona is just another Ironman and by just qualifying you've proved you can train well enough.

Nonetheless, everyone wants to have their best performance at Kona which means making incremental improvement over your previous races (see previous point for how you might measure that). It is good advice to align yourself with a coach who understands your goals, capabilities, the event, training opportunities / constraints, etc, to help build your plan and guide your progress.

Planning your preparation in most of Australia means training during a cold and dark winter for a hot race, with few opportunities to race beforehand, and not as many training partners. You might consider your own training camps with fellow Kona bound athletes, and building a support group around you to share the load. Acclimatisation is also important to consider, which will mostly be achieved by arriving early, however there may be ways available for creating warmer conditions.

There's a myriad of things to think about, and as an old boss of mine used to say, "Plan the work. Work the plan."

4. Plan your Kona logistics

Do you actually know where Kona is? Do you know that Alii Drive is not a little cul de sac but the main road through Kona that runs along the coast for 12km or so? Do you know there's zero public transport around town? These and lots and lots of little things can make a BIG difference to your stay, and race day.

Google maps is an invaluable resource to knowing the layout of the town and where various accommodation options are, but it doesn't tell you basic little things like where shops and supermarkets are, traffic flows, training options, good locations to stay and more. For these you need to ask around to people who've been there before and take tips from them.

Everyone drives a car in Kona...with numerous locals choosing monster cars jacked up on 6 feet high suspension!! You need to plan ahead to get around, not just in Kona but around the course and the island. This extends to meal plans and how much shopping you'll need to do, and whether they'll have your favourite breakfast cereal (probably, and many more!!).

5. Know - and respect - the course

The Hawaii Ironman is spotted with landmarks along it's course, especially for those with an eye for history. From the Kona to pier and the big fig tree alongside, the chapel on Alii Dve, Palani Rd (aka Pay 'n Save hill), Queen K Hwy, the airport, the Energy Lab, Waikoloa, Hawi turn-around and more. Of course, Alii Dve along the break wall to the finish line is akin to Wimbledon centre court...a hallowed place.

But a course is a course, of course, and any keen athlete will travel the course as part of routine due diligence before the race. Additionally, being familiar with the course under various conditions to key to success in Kona. Things like:

• spotting landmarks on shore to mark your progress to the swim turn buoy, and getting a feel for the kind of swells and currents.
• knowing the bike course route through town before you get out onto the Queen K.
• experiencing the winds on the Queen K, and understanding how they change during the day.
• riding the hill to Hawi, and down again in the winds, and long road back into town.
• knowing how hot it will be as you run out and back on Alii Dve early in the run.
• being familiar with the Queen Q out to the Energy Lab entrance (it seems to go forever). Ditto for return leg.
• knowing the route back to the finish line - it does a "dog leg" before you get onto the finish straight.

Knowing these things reduces the unknowns on race, allows you to prepare for what's ahead and to visualise how you want your race to go.

6. Don't do anything (too) different

We all know the golden rule of not changing anything before a race, and the same applies to Kona (to an extent). Throughout your planning, preparation, travels and pre-race routine, you're well advised to generally stick with what your familiar with and only use/do things you've built experience and confidence in. After all, this is just another Ironman!!

However this runs contrary to the need to change things so you don't get the same outcome, at a time when you want to lift your performance up a notch. So the practical application of this rule is to only make gradual changes to things during race lead-up, and of the things that you do change, make them based on sound reasoning and introduce them in a low risk way. I'm all for doing things differently, but in a measured way. When things are going well, be conservative.

This also applies to your race execution, which is contributes about 90% of your performance on the day. The honest reality is that you won't do anything in a race you haven't proven you can do in training - you won't have a miracle race - so use smart judgement, race your own race, be smart and race within the range of performance you honestly know you can.

7. Smile (..and the world smiles with you)

This one is simple. Americans love supporting, and you'll hear encouragement like never before during the race. They'll reward a smile and a little wave with even more hoot'n and holler'n to urge you along your way. Give out good karma to your fellow competitors. Pay it forward. Thank the volunteers. Then support and encouragement will be returned to you ten-fold!! Above all, enjoy the day.

8. Supplementary...see the island(s)

The islands of Hawaii are beautiful. Rugged, lush, spectacular, you name it, the islands will challenge your senses. The Big Island alone has something like 10 of the 13 recognised climates, from desert to rainforest and so on. It would be a shame to travel so far to Kona and not take off the blinkers even just a little bit to see your surrounds. Day trips (or part-day) are possible pre-race on the Big Island, or you might spread out a little post-race and go to another island, and not just Oahu (I'd recommend Kaua'i). If nothing else, it's reward for you and a treat for your family / partner / friends.

Training your best

Athletes train a lot. I mean, a LOT!!! Rob de Castella used to say that it was 98% hard work and only about 2% fun. Powerbar even made an advertising campaign highlighting the fact. Featuring an image of Haile Gebrselassie's (or other champion athletes), written over the top were the words "Train, train, train, train, train, train, train, train, train. Race. Train, train, train, train...". So you get the idea that you'd better enjoy training to be a (champion) athlete!!

But what are you doing to make sure you get the most out of your training? That is, are you training your best, and learning from/about what you're doing? Or to put it another way, are you an athlete or a thinking person's athlete?

Most often you'll think of training as the grunt work. The effort, sweat and tears. Go out and do the training session and surely good performances will result? Quite often they will, however it may be a little hit-and-miss of putting more faith in hoping things turn out well rather than tipping the odds in your favour by influencing and controlling your own performance from what you've learned about yourself during training (and racing).

Training should never be a mindless activity. Managing your performance comes from knowledge about yourself which you learn - and continue to learn - during every single training session you do, and race performance you achieve. Your race performance is based on how you train. Over time you'll build a database of training experience from which you can call upon, but it will only be populated if you're aware of and interpreting what you're experiencing.

Let me give some examples:

• You train through all kinds of weather experiences...from which you can learn about technically handling the conditions (equipment choice, dealing with wind, balance and turning in wet, etc), physically handling the conditions (heat, cold, humidity), and more.
• You train in all kind of physical states...from which you can learn how to read how your body is feeling. Sometimes lethargy masks a great performance once you get started. Other times you might be sleepy but not too physically tired. Or you could be on the borderline between being tired (from a recent hard training) and fatigued (a more chronic state close to over training). Experiencing these in training will help you interpret them in a race, or when good training performance is needed in your preparation.
• Similarly, you train with all range of emotions...and knowing how to manage your emotions, arousal level, anxiety, and more will make a big difference not just in sport but in life.
• Tactically you'll learn your strengths and weaknesses during training, and be able to practice different strategies to see what are the most optimal tactics for you in various race circumstances you encounter, eg, when you use your strength, or defend your weakness.
• Preparation for training will vary and differ in terms of timing, location, circumstances and more, which has a big impact on your training effectiveness. Over time you'll learn what is the best way for you to prepare for training, whether it's the routine upon getting out of bed or avoiding coffee for 2 hours before an afternoon session. Then you can follow the same lessons for races.

So you can see that each training session will present a new opportunity to learn about your body, evaluate it against what you've experienced before - and what happened in those situations - and add a new record in your database of training experiences to call upon. Review your session later on, write a journal, discuss it with your coach - these are all ways to digest what you've just completed.

Don't ever breeze through a session without tuning into your senses and acknowledging their feedback, in this way you'll get the most out of each training session by being able to execute it with maximum effectiveness, and be in more control on race day by knowing how to 'tune' your body based on learned experience. Training experience will tell you how to control the controllables, which mostly relates to yourself.

When you hear people describe a performance as something like 90% mental and 10% physical, it can often relate to how much - or how well - they use their experience from prior training or racing as part of their performance. The people who train their best, and get the most from every session, are best placed to maximise what their body can achieve when it matters most.

Weekends away

Over the last two weekends I've been lucky to go on separate winter excursions out of Melbourne, to different places, for different reasons. As a get away from glum, mundane winter weekends in Melbourne they've been just the tonic, event better that they've taken me to new places.

The first weekend was a trip up to a small farm run located near Alexandra and Eildon, over the other side of the Yarra ranges. The farm has been in A's family for decades and has been a favourite place for them to go for years, and I can see why...it reminded me of my own childhood growing up on farms in various locations in Victoria. Some of A's friends also came up to stay, and we fitted nicely into the farm house.

We headed off on Friday evening, after work, which unfortunately meant it was dark as we drove through the Yarra Ranges beyond Healesville and missed the beauty of the Black Spur and the national park. We also missed seeing the burnt out areas left from the Black Saturday fires 18 months ago, however the scars do linger on. We stopped for dinner at the Buxton pub, and contemplated buying a souvenir black hoodie emblazoned with the slogan "What the bucks going on at Buxton". It was all class...

A fire is the only form of heating in the house, in a combustion stove, and Steve got to work establishing himself as our fire-maker for the weekend and quickly warmed things up. The farm house was small, and as far as I could see in the dark, perched on the side of a hill with a garden all of which was surrounded by paddocks with "angry cows" (actually, steers) which in past have terrorised the meek!!

Morning bought daylight and the magnificent views from the house of the countryside. Everything is very wet and very green, and was like I remember farmland looking all those years ago. A big breakfast cook-up, walks up the hill, a car drive to Lake Eildon, lunch at Alexandra all made for a really pleasant day. Cool but fairly clear, it was typical farm weather. BBQ for dinner and a long game of scrabble was a great conclusion...even if some dubious words scored points!!!

Sunday dawned miserable - wet and misty all day, but in keeping with the winter farm setting. We were house bound until we packed up and headed off, making our way home via Marysville to stop at the bakery (which amazingly survived the fires) for a hot chocolate. The rain was on and off for the drive back home, at least being able to see the countryside this time. In all a great weekend away, and a lot of fun.

The farmhouse, surrounded by a garden with fruit trees in it.

Some spectacular birds outside the front window feeding from the bird bath.

Just five days later A and I packed up again, this time headed for the airport and onwards to Sydney for a Friday afternoon wedding of a friend of mine, Alexis (aka Will) and his lovely fiancé Tamara (Tammy). I was honoured to be invited, knowing Will through triathlons and having coached him for a year or two before he switched to cycling. Together Will & Tammy are a lot of fun to catch up with, full of enthusiasm and energy.

The wedding was right in the centre of Sydney, which made it easy to get to as we dressed up in our finery and walked from our hotel over the St Mary's Cathedral, next to Hyde Park. This was no suburban church...it was gigantic from the outside and once we found the right door to go in, the aisle seemed about half-a-kilometre long beneath the high, high ceiling, between the pillars, statues, paintings and more. It was more the venue for a state ceremony than the wedding of our friends!!! Nonetheless, Will was at the front waiting with his groomsmen as the audience trickled in...filling a fraction of the seating.

Tammy arrived looking beautiful and the ceremony was spectacular with the backdrop of the altar.

I've never been a church person, to the extent that back at school a mate and I set a "record" by wagging chapel 12 weeks in a row before being caught, so I must say the religious service part of it all was lost on me...at least we didn't have to sing any hymns!! Anyway, after the ceremony were some group photos and then a gap until the reception, also held in a stately venue at the Queen Victoria Building...literally 50m from our hotel door. Despite knowing no one other than the wedding couple, we had a great time with some really nice people at our table. The service, food and drinks were top class, and the speeches were all great - in all a wonderful wedding.

The good thing in having the wedding on Friday meant we had a full weekend available in Sydney, for which we'd made plans for a Saturday trip to do a boat cruise down the Hawkesbury River. It was about a 90min bus trip to get to Palm Beach, and then onto the boat for a further 1:45hr cruise to Patonga and then up a tributary to the Hawkesbury river, all within the Ku-Ring-Gai Chase National Park. The scenery was spectacular, with bush all the way down to the water's edge as we snaked our way upstream, passing inlets, bays, other boats, paddlers, fishers, settlements until we reached our turn-around point at Bobbin Head.

Bobbin Head is a lovely, secluded area tucked into the bush with the main featured being a marina for large and expensive cruising boats, a picnic ground and a cafe. It was very serene, and on a lovely, sunny winter day was very peaceful and relaxing for the hour we had there until the boat departed back to Palm Beach. The return trip was also peaceful, as we watched the scenery pass in between reading the newspaper and talking with other passengers. By the time we got on the bus back to Sydney we were getting a little weary, but it felt like a holiday which was good.

Sunday dawned to even nicer weather, and we took the opportunity to walk through the Domain, botanical gardens, along the harbour to the Opera House, around to the Rocks area and alongside the Harbour Bridge back to the hotel to collect our bags. We could well have been mistaken for tourists, but I was adamant we were "visitors" instead to avoid any potential stigma associated with being a tourist!!! Whatever, it was good fun.

We had an almost inevitable delay flying out of Sydney, but eventually got home to Melbourne OK to conclude a couple of winter escapes to break up the routine of work until our next escape / holiday...whenever that it will be...

 The happily married couple in the cathedral.

 Palm Beach with the wharf in the middle with our boat moored.

 Heading out from Palm Beach, looking north at Lion Is.

A small beach on the cruise up the river. 

 Cottage Point with a flying plane tied up the wharf.

 Some of the many paddlers we saw during the trip.

From the Bobbin Head bridge looking at our boat, and back down the river.

 More scenery from the boat - it was like this all the way.

 A lone dinghy boat with a bird on it a Patonga.

Spring Into Action Running Seminar

In a few weeks time I'm speaking on my favourite topic of running form at a seminar organised by LSD Sports and supported by K-Swiss. Here's the flyer (click it to enlarge):

If you can't read that, here's the details:

When: 7:30pm, Wednesday 15th September (rego from 7:15pm on)
Where: The Champions Room, MSAC, Albert Park
Topics:

• Running Form - In Theory and Practice, Campbell Maffett
• Running Mechanics and How to Choose the Right Shoe For You, Andrew Steele
• Shedding Those Few Extra Winter Kg's Before Racing, Tim Thornton
• Running and Footwear, K-Swiss

Light refreshments will be provided and attendees will receive a free goodie bag from the seminar sponsors.

Attendance is FREE, but seats are limited. Reserve your seat by emailing to admin@lsdsports.com

The 3 rules of successful athletes

My wise swimming coach is full of much wisdom which he offers up from time to time, in particular when you’re facing a challenging situation. One nugget of wisdom is the 3 rules of being a successful athlete. Here they are:

1. Don’t get sick.
2. Don’t get injured.
3. Don’t break rule 1 and 2.

Pretty simple, really. Just remember and follow the 3 rules.

Part of our coach’s style is to leave you to figure out the rest of the details, to read between the lines and interpret how these rules actually apply. The devil is in the detail and these rules are no different. At face value they seem to skip the most important part of being / becoming a successful athlete, which is how to train. However, these rules are all about training...let me explain.

In essence, the rules are saying you can do anything you want in training and racing and inevitably you’ll improve and become a better athlete, just as long as you don't get sick or injured (or both). The problem is that when most people do go out and train and race as much as they want, they almost inevitably do end up sick or injured (or both).

Training is a repeating cycle of training and recovering, which eventually leads to improvement. They need to work together, and need to be in balance so that you do, indeed, improve. Training is a form of stress on your body which takes energy to perform, and it's easy to think that you have separate buckets of energy for different activities, for example, a bucket of swimming energy, bike energy, work energy and so on. However, this is incorrect that it takes experience to realise that everything you do dips into the same bucket.

But when the bucket gets empty and you keep going back for more is when you're most likely to run into health issues. So it takes even more experience to learn about and understand your body enough to know how much energy you can use up - and how to use it up (ie, training) - in order to get the necessary training benefit while keeping your health and welfare in control.

The topic of how to best use your energy to train in the most effective way is beyond the scope of this article, but suffice to say that in general, the more training you can do the more you will improve...just don't break the 3 rules!!

It's worth emphasising the strain that living takes on your body and the amount of stress you experience. This goes beyond your training load, and includes your whole life and all that it encompasses. It is critical to factor this into your balance of training and make adjustments as necessary...it's the sum of all the components of training and living that's important. Remaining healthy should be the number one priority for you each day.

So with those 3 rules in mind, go out and live...and train...and race hard and fast, and enjoy every moment of it!!

Achilles update - hiccups and roller-coasters

It's been a couple of weeks since I last wrote an update on how my Achilles is going, which might not seem long but has covered a range of ups and downs along the slow road of progress. This week I have two doctor appointments...one with the surgeon, Mr. Mark Blackney, on Tuesday, and then with my referring doctor, Mr. Karen Holzer, on Friday. It will be good to get their educated perspective rather than my own irrational fear and opinion!!!

Anyway, the last update was full of excitement about getting out of the CAM boot and back onto my own two feet. In reality that was more of a symbolic milestone since the actual instruction was to gradually reduce my usage of the boot and gradually increase the amount of walking and general use of my ankle / leg. So it wasn't complete freedom and it's only today that I'm having my first day of 100% non-boot lifestyle. Hooray!!!

Those first few days out of the boot were weird. My leg was weak, and my ankle stiff enough that I could only walk slowly and not very far, not to mention lacking some confidence in my stability. So I did little bits of walking and it seemed to loosen up during each day and it didn't change much. Reality hit home when my physio, Rosie, confirmed my fears (I was in denial) that it wasn't all good since the Achilles area was still swollen and puffy, and the spot where the stitch went into the Achilles was tender. I was pretty disappointed that whatever I'd done hadn't been good for it and felt that the whole recovery had been set back.

I was pretty bummed and backed off on everything to let it settle down, and started on some anti-inflams to help with the inflammation...and it worked!! Within 4 days or so there was a big turn-around where the swelling went down, the tenderness went away and the flexibility improved to the point where I could walk normally again for the first time in almost 8 weeks!! It was quite remarkable, and although there's still a long way to go I can see some positive progress which will allow me to do some measured, productive re-hab now.

I since learned from another, former AIS physio friend that it is common for a foot / leg to feel worse the first week out of a CAM boot before it gets better, something to do with the flow of blood returning to the foot and follow-on effects of that.

Funnily enough, last week on the Runner's World forum a fellow from USA posted a question about his upcoming surgery which sounded almost exactly like mine, right down to being the same heel. I replied with comments about my experience, and as is the way of the internet I got a Facebook friend request from him - Ali Engin is his name. He had his operation last week and is currently sitting around with his foot up...and telling the world about it, multiple times a day, via Facebook!! One thing he did post was a photo taken during his surgery of the operation, which was great to see since I was curious about how it looked. See the photo below (or not if you don't like surgery photos!!)...it show what my surgery would have looked like, except my scar is a lot longer.

So here I am 8 weeks and 2 days post operation and my heel feels great. I can walk normally, can stand on my toes (this is BIG achievement), do gym exercises and look ahead to gradually doing more. In theory I'm only 4 weeks away from walk-jogging, but in reality I think it will be longer since I want to make sure it's really ready to run on when I do start...whenever that is.

For now the roller coaster ride is on an upswing, and I'm hoping there's no more hiccups ahead!!

Not my surgery, but one just like mine except my scar is waaay longer!!

Barefoot running

Barefoot running used to be what you did chasing the ball during beach cricket. These days it seems to be more like a religion amongst runners, separating the community into those who do (aka believers) and those who don't. How has this happened during an age when running shoe manufacturers are putting more and more rubber and foam between our soles and the ground? Why has this happened in an age where better technology is available to improve our running and protect our feet and legs? What the heck is going on?

The following is my take on barefoot running, a view that has evolved in recent times after a lot of reading, thinking, discussing and experience from some practical application (not mine). There's dozens expert opinions on the internet, many of which are very well considered and balanced (other which aren't!!), with only some general agreement in their conclusions. So my opinion is just another addition to the noise!!

Barefoot running does not necessarily mean running in bare feet!! The term has become synonymous for minimalist running, that is, with minimal support, cushioning and structure on your feet. Very few people run in bare feet because of things like stones, glass, and other abrasive things. Minimalist running is somewhat akin to folks who "live close to nature", but is starting to become served by the very shoe manufacturers who also have - and promote - numerous product lines of super cushioned shoes. Can you see the irony in that??!!

In a perfect world we shouldn't need shoes other than for protection from stones, etc, just as we shouldn't need supplements in our diet. Consider children, who from a young age run around in bare feet or at best, in minimalist foot wear, a pattern which continues for many years into primary school. The amount of running they do with their little bodies is possibly similar to adults who actually undertake "running" as a sport. Yet, you don't see young kids turning up with running injuries. So what happens? What changes?

The human body is an incredible organism which has evolved over millions of years. It's only in very recent times (the last century or two) that our lifestyle has significantly changed to being more sedentary, yet we still bare the traits of our ancestors who evolved to live in the conditions they did, which included minimalist footwear. Remember, the Romans used to walk around in sandals 24x7. During those times they built their musculature to support an minimalist footwear lifestyle, whether they were walking or running. Our feet have evolved wonderfully to support this.

Runners a century ago only had minimalist footwear, right the way through to Ron Clarke and Derek Clayton, and seemed to be OK. I bet all these guys had fantastic strength and durability in the musculature of their feet and lower legs, because they needed to, and besides, there was no supportive footwear like there is today to wear. To that extent, they're a lot like the kids we mentioned before who run around oblivious to their footwear. There would surely have been people back then with over pronation, flat feet, etc, yet their feet and lower legs developed to support their biomechanics. Their bodies adapted.

This is the essence of barefoot / minimalist running, based on the ability of your feet and lower legs to adapt to your natural foot function, and for your musculature to be strong and durable enough to support it. It's letting our bodies perform in the way they evolved.

So what role is there for the 'traditional' running shoes? In taking the purist minimalist footwear approach, there is no role for them other than to protect your soles. However, in reality and practicality, there is certainly a role for running shoes, and here's why.

Far from being a 'crutch' supporting our feet, for a huge majority of us running shoes are crucial because switching to minimalist footwear would almost guarantee an injury, simply because it would take almost as many years as you've been running in shoes, to adapt to running without shoes and their associated support and structure. Also, the cushioning of shoes provides additional comfort beyond what your feet can, not to mention protection.

Nonetheless, for people who are indeed inspired by minimalist running - in fact, for any runner - it's never too late to start working on the strength and durability of your feet and lower legs as a progression to moving away from overly supportive shoes. Just as strong and durable core muscles help resist many hip and knee injuries, strong and durable feet and lower legs help resist injuries in that region.

I think there is room for a small amount minimalist running for most runners, although it needs to be approached is a very, very careful and measured manner. In between times, just doing a little more walking in bare feet - or minimalist footwear (very adequate versions which cost $9 from Big-W) - will go some way to achieving a similar outcome.

Having said all that...some people want to switch to barefoot running to become mid-foot / fore-foot runners based on the fact that people tend to run moreso in this manner in bare feet compared to in shoes. However I have a few problems with this philosophy. First is that there are many runners who run mid-foot / fore-foot in shoes, so it's not shoes that stop people from running this way. Second, aiming to change your running form from the feet up is taking the wrong approach. As I've written before, good running form starts with the hips, which is why some people run mid-foot / fore-foot in shoes. Thirdly, and most importantly, throwing away your shoes and reverting to mid-foot / fore-foot running is a guaranteed fast track to an injury.

In summary, barefoot / minimalist running is based on sound principles and promotes a rounded approach to running and the development and durability of your body / legs. The problems are with the implementation of minimalist running, and the miss-guided motivations people have for wanting to try this approach. An old adage rings true...if it ain't broken, don't fix it.