By Phillip Kriss D.C. of Kriss Chiropractic

Getting it all done

Why Victoria?

Several of my in person peeps and online buddies had signed up for Ironman Victoria 70.3. I had heard something like 25 people from RTB had signed up for the race. I do not like it when others are having fun without me. It’s like not getting invited to the high school dance. Some don’t care, but I didn’t want to sit that one out. Plus, with 6 very local people going, I thought I would be training with them anyway, so why not race.

A 140.6 distance race is a daunting task. Too much for my will power these days. Going that distance takes a ton of work. And a few minor miscalculations and the suffering continues for hours. I have great fear and respect for that race. A 70.3 race has room for error and can be accomplished without requiring 20 weeks out of your life.

Here is what I observed

• We live in different geographic locations but are linked together electronically. Strava and Facebook brought together people who we normally would have little contact with. Using Strava what the boys are doing in Renton without having to ask is convenient. Pictures and stories get posted on facebook. Imagine not having an athlete tracker?
• Victoria is a great place to race. I loved everything about the race. The canadians treated us very well. They actually respect the rights of bikers on the road, a rare thing these days. The weather was perfect.

The swim: Mark Casey and I started with the 35:-40: minute swim group because we usually swim that distance in about 40 minutes. Poor choice! I was passing swimmers most the day, and if I were not doing that I was getting kicked, pushed and shoved around worse than other swim races.
The ride: Fun! Lots of rolling hills and turns. Vancouver island is a beautiful place to ride. I noticed about ¼ of seasoned racers chose road bikes with clip-ons to take advantage of the turns and hills. Should I do the race next year, I will do the same.
The run: Good Stuff! A mostly gravel trail with a few hills and occasional root. It was shaded most of the time as it ran around the scenic lake. It is would be easy to turn in a fast run split if there would be such a thing.

It is the people that make a race an event! Training with others takes the sting out of doing it alone. Yuk. It is great getting to know new and different people without the distraction of the local comfortable stuff. Grazing on food together and swapping stories with those you don’t know is a plus! Even the travel up there was fun between a short road trip followed by a ferry ride. What is not to like about that?

(Almost) everybody was happy with their race! So far as I know, it was fun for all. We all earned bragging rights. It was great to see so many familiar faces before, during and after the race. RTB now has gelled into a real team complete with good attitudes and humility even though some totally rocked the course.

What did I learn? Mostly, you get what you deserve. Put in the time, work, planning and energy and it will come back to you with the result you deserve. That is a simple non-negotiable fact!

Things don’t always go according to the plan! Tires flat out. Nerves or a poor food choice may wreck your whole training plan. Maybe you didn’t click “save” when you purchased that ferry ticket. The growing comes when your stretched to make the training, travel and whatever happens during the race work out to your benefit. It forces growth and betterment of yourself.

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By Holly Pennington, PT, DPT/Outpatient Physical Therapy

      Does the combination of seventy-five degrees, race season and seventeen hours of daylight per day conjure up visions of more training time than you’ve had all year? How will you know if you are doing too much of a good thing?
    Triathletes are especially susceptible to overtraining syndrome (OTS), a condition that affects up to 30% of non-elite swimmers, cyclists and runners. A complex condition involving multiple body systems, OTS is not easily identified by predictable physical symptoms such as muscle pain or fatigue. Here are three common signs to keep in mind as you log more minutes and miles this summer:

• Changes in mood: Psychological symptoms are numerous and common in athletes suffering from OTS. Lack of motivation, anxiety, depression and irritability are just a few of the commonly reported signs. Characteristics of clinical depression overlap with those of overtraining syndrome, including biochemical markers such as decreased blood cortisol levels. Just as stressful life events can lead to depression, stress is linked to increased rates of OTS. If you ramp up your training and experience a psychological backlash, consider reevaluating the frequency, intensity and recovery time of your workouts.
• Changes in sleep patterns. While aerobic exercise is generally associated with improved sleep, an unexpected sign overtraining is disturbed sleep. If you experience difficulty falling asleep, resulting in later and later bedtimes, or notice more nightly sleep interruptions, you could be training too much. OTS is also linked to a reduction in both REM sleep and total hours of sleep. So, before you blame your lack of sleep on the kids, work stress or getting old, take a look at recent changes in your training schedule and consider the possibility of OTS.
• Comfort food cravings.  As in, your comfort food. From caffeine to sugar to salty snacks, cravings of seemingly uncontrollable proportions have been reported by athletes experiencing OTS. Abnormal hunger and cravings are one of the body’s responses to exhaustion, so if your thoughts about food start to resemble those of a starved castaway, think OTS.

    While overtraining syndrome is not easy to diagnose, it may be even harder to prevent. Zeroing in on the optimal intensity and frequency of training, as well as recovery periods between workouts, could take years, experts and thousands of dollars. Countless theories, formulas and coaches are at your Googling fingertips. High-quality training programs and exercise dosing information are out there, but you must ultimately pay attention to what you know best: you. If you increase your training efforts and experience any of these three signs combined with decreasing performance, overtraining syndrome may be the culprit.

Questions about your summer training program? Call the OPT clinic near you: www.outpatientpt.com. (7 convenient locations including Covington, Kent, Maple Valley, Auburn and Puyallup)

References:
https://journals.lww.com/nsca-jscr/Citation/1991/02000/Overtraining__A_Review_of_the_Signs,_Symptoms_and.6.aspx
https://journals.lww.com/acsm-csmr/Fulltext/2015/05000/Overtraining_Syndrome.7.aspx
http://www.exercisemed.org/research-blog/overtraining-its-effects-on.html
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First, I would like to thank everyone at Raise the Bar for the opportunity to tell my story. I was honored when I was asked. Having read many of the other RTBer stories on the blog, I am also humbled. My story is not as emotional or inspirational as others, but it is my journey.

Since I started working out again, I like to think of fitness as a journey. My journey started about three years ago.

Leavenworth:
My wife Nikki had been running for a couple of years and was training quite diligently. In the meantime, my training consisted of golfing. In January 2015, she asked me if I would do the Leavenworth half marathon in October 2015 with her and some of our friends. She sold it as it will be so much fun hanging out, running and then going to Oktoberfest after the race. I must have had a couple of drinks, because I said sure why not, and she signed me up. Over the next few months she kept reminding me that I said I was going to run the half marathon, that I should start training. Five weeks before the race she asked me if I was really going to do it - I said fine…I will start training. I went on the internet and looked up couch to half marathon in 5 weeks. I think the internet was broken, because I could not find any training plans! I made up my own plan, increasing the volume from a couch to 5k training plan. Over the next 4 weeks I worked up to a 9 mile run, and thought I would be fine. The night before the race, I drank a few beers “carb loading”. The race did not go that well, but that was to be expected with my lack of training and dehydration. I started cramping up around mile 9 and the cramps did not go away until I was done. I think Nikki sold me a bill of goods about the before and during the race but the beer garden in Leavenworth after the half marathon was fun.