Life of an Age-Grouper

The significance of tapering The focal point of a taper period or tapering is to ready the body, mind and spirit for a peak performance on race day.  This period of training fits roughly between your last Build period and race day.  The significance of tapering is to freshen your body, mind and spirit by ridding it of accumulated fatigue.  As fatigue vacates the body one should start to feel rejuvenated, energetic, sharp, snappy and excited to race. If one does not understand the significance of tapering, like most new endurance athletes, then ones athletic performance could be handicapped. Most new athletes or those making endurance sports more than just a hobby have a difficult time benefiting from tapering.  I believe that the major obstacle preventing athletes from benefiting from a taper is the way in which they view their fitness.  More often than not athletes associate their fitness levels with how hard they train or the level of fatigue they hav...

I have tested positive for BABESIOSIS.   Ummmmm, what? According to the CDC,  Babesiosis is caused by microscopic parasites that infect red blood cells. Most human cases of Babesiainfection in the United States are caused by the parasite Babesia microti. Occasional cases caused by other species (types) of Babesia have been detected. Babesia microti is spread in nature by Ixodes scapularis ticks (also called blacklegged ticks or deer ticks). Tickborne transmission is most common in particular regions and seasons: it mainly occurs in parts of the Northeast and upper Midwest; and it usually peaks during the warm months. Babesia infection can range in severity from asymptomatic to life-threatening. The infection is both treatable and preventable. I was assured by my doctor that babesiosis is treatable so I'm now taking two different antibiotics for the next 10 days.  One of the antibiotics is a pill to be taken once daily and the other is a neon yellow liquid to be...

By weeks end I will be one month out from Vineman 70.3, my first big race of the year. Being a month out I should be in the middle of a solid build phase and gradually transitioning to race specific training. I should be in the initial stages of creating a race game plan and taking care of any details in terms of traveling, transportation and race specific things ( packet pick up, racer briefing, bike check in, scouting of the course etc). I should be feeling extremely strong and mentally focused on Vineman and only Vineman. The excitement should be slowly bubbling inside. After all this was what I have been working for. In reality, I'm still dealing with fatigue from my last race, almost a month ago! For the past two weeks I have done minimal to no training and the two weeks before that I hadn't done much more. This demon, mood altering, gut wrenching, unexplainable, Debbie Downer, wet blanket, anxiety catalyst, dream crusher has thrown a wrench in my plans. It's s...

How I fought and (potentially) won against fatigue 1. REST. I made every effort possible to limit my everyday activity. At work I did my best to stay seated at me desk. When getting to and from work I made sure to take every elevator and escalator possible. When I was home I made sure I was sitting with my legs elevated. I believe that elevating one's legs when they are sore or tired is a huge aid in the recovery process, I used to underestimate its significance. 2. ACTIVE RECOVERY: I have mixed reviews of active recovery or doing very low impact, low intensity, short duration efforts. I understand that its purpose is to promote blood flow in order to get fresh oxygenated blood to the muscles and transport toxins away however I believe that it should  be utilized at specific points in time during the recovery phase. It should be used the first few days after a race or after an intense training session. I'm skeptical to say that it useful when dealing with heavy fatigue. ...

*this blog was posted a day late In my second bout with fatigue I'm proud to say that I'm emerging as the victor. Yesterday was my first major, progressive step forward toward absolute victory. Two days ago however was easily the lowest point of my season to date. My battle with fatigue appeared to be a loosing battle and all of my thoughts were uncharacteristically negative. Despite being an overly optimistic person I found it impossible to find the proverbial silver lining. I was questioning why I did this sport? Am I cut out for long course racing? Did I just waste the past 6 months of my life? I was even preparing to travel to Napa and not even bring my gear. I was thoroughly convinced that I had just blown another season. I was having a breakdown. How could something so important to me and that I'm so passionate about reject me? I'm not sure that triathlon was rejecting me rather I was rejecting it by forgetting why I fell in love with triathlon in the first...

As an endurance athlete you can expect to deal with some level of fatigue throughout your career. The level of fatigue can bring your dreams crashing down or simply sideline you for a few days. Hopefully it's the later. I'm currently dealing with an episode of fatigue. Yes, once again in my triathlon career I'm dealing with fatigue. Fatigue, a result of over training, prematurely ended my season last year. That event has embarrassingly traumatized me. I have now become hyper sensitive to my body and the feelings associated with fatigue. After last year's episode with fatigue I vowed NEVER to go to that place again yet, here I am. So what went wrong? In order to ensure that I never went into the fatigue zone I hired a coach, Matt Wontz, head coach of Organic Endurance. He has laid down a training plan that would ensure that the correct steps were taken to improve my fitness and help me achieve my goals in a healthy and efficient manner. I have kept a pretty r...

There are only a few things in life that get me really pissed off and in a bad mood. The first is being stuck in traffic. It makes me go crazy and think horrible thoughts. I could be in the best mood ever but the second I hit traffic my mood does a 180 and I'm ready to rage on anyone or anything. Secondly, I hate being sick. While I'm sick I'm only thinking about how much fitness I'm loosing and that I can't train, exercise or do anything productive. Here is the worst, most annoying and aggrevating feeling in the world, being tired. I'm not talking about feeling tired because you stayed out all night partying or because you had a bad night sleep. I'm talking about being physically tired to the point where you can't hit your marks while training. I hate, hate, hate having to rest or having a recovery week or having to, dare I say it? Take a day off. I want to be able to go as hard as I want, for as long as I want, when I want. It pisses me off when my b...