A more mellow pace of life might be what I need to get healthy...and better weather!
I got results from last weeks lab tests and T-levels still low at 13 nmol/L but at the "healthy" range (10-38). Earlier value 2 weeks ago was 8 nmol/L but the samples were now taken a couple hours earlier and T-levels are said to be highest in the morning, thus evening values could still be below healthy. (edit: lowest measure for me has been 5,6 nmol/L in March 2007 and highest in August 2007 at 14 nmol/L, during im-build).
Anyways all other markers seem to be OK, though blood sugar after a 12-hour fast was 5,7 mmol/L (healthy range 4,2-6). Don't know what the doc will say about that. Too bad actually we didn't test cortisol levels because that, via high stress levels, is one possible cause for low T. Consultation with doc isn't until next Tuesday so all I can do now is to try my best to reduce emotional stress...and find cheap flights to Maui :) I could do with a little vacation for, say, a couple years!
First prep week is now in the books and as always getting back to a training routine is hard. For that simple reason I have only set myself frequency targets and with 3 swims, 4 trainer rides and 6 runs I hit those. Swimming felt really horrible and basically I'm learning to bike and run from scratch so no much to cheer for there either. I had a PT assessment this week and basically we concluded that my biomechanical issues stem from some severe muscle imbalances and really tight hamstrings, especially on the left. Basically my left leg doesn't work normally at all so I need to work a lot on glute strength and activation. I have also very strange foot structure and will get orthotics to hopefully correct that problem.
I also had another visit to another doctor and got results from last weeks lab tests. T-levels way down again, even after over a month off training. So at least the condition isn't from training. I've been regularly tested since the spring of 2007 when I experienced my first serious burnout and those levels have been low every time: after extended rest, after a high-volume training camp, 3 days after an iron-distance race... So basically either I just have always had low T-levels, I am chronically very stressed or I have some disease that causes it. I got another 5 bottles of blood taken on Wednesday so hopefully something comes out. Though I do have some painful and embarrassing memories from teenage years that could have relate to abnormal production...
Anyways this has naturally had a negative impact on my health and life quality. I want to find out the root of the problem quickly....before it's too late!
P.S. I have some great bestseller triathlon books on sale here
I recently had the chance to try out some new clothing samples from a custom kit supplier, Carvalho Custom. They make personalized cycling and triathlon clothing for clubs. The clothing feels and looks good. I am going to have my race and training kit made by them this year and will be the best dressed triathlete in Finland :)
Sain äskettäin kokeilla uusia harjoitus- ja kilpailuasuja Carvalho Custom -nimiseltä personalisoituja pyöräily- ja triathlon-asuja valmistavalta firmalta. Koko laaja valikoima vaatteita tuntuu käytössä erinomaisilta ja mikä tärkeintä: ne näyttävät todella hyviltä. Carvalho Custom tulee valmistamaan harjoittelu- ja kilpailuasuni seuraavalle kaudelle ja minulla on ilo tulla olemaan parhaiten pukeutunut suomalainen triathleetti :)
It takes often too much time to get to a real doctor so I need to always play my own doc. I removed my last post concerning the possibility of yeast syndrome/diet as the cause for my problems. Well after keeping a food diary for a couple days it just seems foolish to think my diet is rubbish! only maybe lacking too much in energy...
So the self assessment continues and here is where I think keeping this blog helps me...looking back I can see clearly some recurring patterns when my health "crashes". And there always seem to be quite a few similar things contributing.
The combination always seems to come after a period of sitting for a long time accompanied with too much cognitive stress/information overload and some kind of change in climate/time/sunlight. My new theory is that I have sciatica and when I sit for a prolonged time the nerve compression accompanied with the other stresses mentioned just burns all of my energy leading to fatigue and other issues. I will receive results from my last bloodtest on Tuesday and if nothing comes up on that I'll present this therory to the doctor. I'll also have a gait analysis on Wednesday and hopefully I'll get orthotics this time. My left leg is about 1cm longer than my right and both feet hyperpronate so those are likely contributing to the overall picture too, who knows. Human body is quite a complex system!
On another note the beginning of November marks the start of new training season. I will start probably writing more about my training here. I haven't been very good at keeping track of feelings and such in my training diary so maybe writing about training here will get me to evaluate the training better.
First of all if you haven't done so yet please visit the SRM blog and read my article and give me some feedack on it! In fact if you have questions or comments on anything I do, product I use ect. I would like you to get in contact with me! Or if you want to work with me and do something great together or even get on a date with me, we might be able to make that work too... :)
I have some very cool new stuff coming for next year which I will unveil soon after things are being confirmed. Swimshop Triathlon Challenge for this year has ended. The interest and attention was good, but there could have been a lot more participants. But a big thanks and congrats to those who took part! It just seems that Finnish people are too intimidated to do anything where they can't be completely anonymous! I'm especially disappointed that no one of my friends took part! Anyways please give feedback on this also so that we can make things better next year!
Oh yeah regarding the lack of feedback: IT KILLS ME!!! seriously people, I have written a 12-article column for a newspaper this year and I have had 2, two, dos, due, två, kaksi!!! people comment on those. If you want me to stop writing please let me know that too. even that would be better than no feedback at all!
Ok, enough ranting (maybe).
No real training happening yet. Just some unstructured excercise for about two hours a day. I need to be super careful with my nutrition when being less active as I seem to have become metabolically quite efficient (don't need a lotof fuel to survive). It's a good thing but I need to be constantly hungry not to gain weight!
I have been thinking why my run has been so sub-par and why I've been injured so much lately and there are some biomechanical issues I need to correct. Please notice that I'm not speking in golf-terms when I say sub-par. So it's not birdies, eagles or albatross I'm speaking about! I'm not that active a golfer anymore (nor a big bird-fan) but of course if someone wants to make a movie of me or want to get me starring in a movie, I'm more than happy to get an invitation to Florida or anywhere for a few rounds!
I've had a ton of schoolwork in the past couple of weeks and I try to get as much done as possible before X-mas so that I can devote more attention to training and recovery again when training starts to ramp up.
Ok, I lied about the ranting. Here's some more:
TO DOG OWNERS: please keep your dogs on a tight leash when walking in public areas! I got bitten to my hamstring yesterday on my run and that damned thing hurt! Fortunately nothing majorly bad happened but next time I might bite back!
Lastly, over the years I have gathered quite a bit of useful stuff that has gone unused and I would like to get rid of all that to ease my (hopefully nearby) move. So check out my sales page here and you can find good bargains there. It's in Finnish but if you don't understand then ask.
Nothing interesting have been happening lately. A lot of schoolwork almost to the point of exhaustion, watching the weather get worse and worse and days get shorter. This really is a tough part of the year as trying to get re-energized in these conditions is not easy! BUT I'm in a much better space mentally this fall as opposed to years past as I seem to be able to take things more mellow now. And at least I've managed to get on top of my knee issue although with all the sitting in school it requires about half a day of stretching every day!
Planning for 2010 is ongoing although I can't commit to any races yet before I know exactly with what resources I am capable of attacking next year. But one thing is for sure: I will give my absolute everything to make it to Kona in October. I really just NEED to get there no matter what! I was devastated when I learnt that the guy who got the spot before me in Honu 70.3 didn't even race in Kona!
Training-wise I'm taking things really easy until December. One of the biggest mistakes I've made over the past years has been to train too hard too early and it has done no good. So now I'm just trying to keep myself active to be in good mood.
I started writing this note while watching the 2009 Ironman Hawaii unfold yesterday. I thought this was quite an appropriate time and reminder as my season’s goal was to be there myself. However after a lot of thinking I feel it’s best to leave the Ironman until I can confidently race it and do well there. This race is not a nice nor financially wise one to “only” participate in. There are many nicer events around for that purpose! (though some even seem to go over there for eating contests!)
2009 season didn’t get a very good start as I got a stress fracture to my left shin in the fall last year. This put me off my legs for a couple months and I was only able to start running in December when visiting my parents in Brazil. In the early spring I suffered from more health issues and very low energy periods. To be honest I was scared I had chronic fatigue syndrome as I had been feeling very stale for a long time. However frequent blood tests didn’t reveal anything too serious, though the doc I was consulting really had no knowledge about athletes. In addition I was starting to feel strange hip and back pains probably owing to the crash I had in summer of 2008.
I am not a quitter however and I set myself the goal of qualifying for the Ironman Wold Championships. However with nearly all M-dot races selling out a year in advance one of the only opportunities to try qualify was to race at the Ironman 70.3 Hawaii on the BigIsland. At least I was going to get some experience racing in the tough conditions the island offers.
In order to try cram some training in between heavy school schedules I lined myself two training camps: one in Spain and one in San Diego, CA in the states just prior to the Honu 70.3.
My camp in Spain got a very bad start as I hurt my knee and wasn’t able to do the training I wanted. When I came back home I had to take some time off from biking and running and things weren’t going well. Through in the overhyped swine flu that I got in my head, troubles with accommodations and huge stress at school and I was almost cancelling my trip to the US. Fortunately I had began working with MarkyV (coaching relationship ended after Honu 70.3 as the long-distance coaching didn't work for me), who had helped me improve on the swim and bike so I still had some confidence left when I finally left home for almost 2 months to an adventurous trip to the west coast USA.
Almost straight off the plane I raced in my first ever running race and ended winning the race with a CR. However my training in San Marcos near SD didn’t start and go as well as I had planned. In addition about a week before Honu 70.3 I started having issues with my shins and my nevous system was collapsing.
My trip to Hawaii was a great learning experience though my race was not what I wanted thanks to my shins hurting like nothing ever before during the run. I was however very pleased that I didn’t seem to crumble too badly in the wind and heat of Kona despite not being very fit. I only missed qualification for the Ironman by less than 2 minutes and the frustration and anger that followed didn’t do me any good!
When I returned to California I skipped my planned rest and just started training the house down. With the nice weather and cool people around to train and hang with things were going well and I was getting fitter but when I got back home to Finland at the end of June, the race, jetlag, environment change and training fatigue caught up very badly.
I felt totally spent and sick for about a month after which just before the half-iron nationals I hurt my knee and had to pull out of the race. Even more frustrating was the fact that I had to take time off running again. Also I wasn’t able to swim because I didn’t have a wetsuit, lakes were quite cold and pools in the summer were closed. I did increase my bike training however and that was good as I still had a race featuring a very tough bike course awaiting me at the end of September.
Somewhere along the way I just decided to take the risk and run through the runner’s knee issue I was having and I managed to get in a good three week training block before Elbaman 70.3. After all the struggle for a couple years I was pleased to finally have a good race although my run still wasn’t what it was 2 years ago. Though with so much time off running, a max of 2,5h of running in a week this year and the fact that only a few weeks before I was unable to even walk pain-free, a good run would have been a miracle.
So what did I learn this year? First of all there isn’t anything more important than staying healthy and injury-free. This will be my number one goal for the upcoming season. I have missed too much training and racing the past two years and I dearly need that training and racing!
Secondly anger as a training motivator is not a good one. It might work for a while but in the longer run it wears you down. Also building a plan for the year both racing and training wise is something I have to work on in the future.
Finally, despite all the issues (that are quite minor after all) I just have to be very thankful that I am able to do the sport I really love doing!
I would like to get this opportunity to thank my family, friends, sponsors and supporters for making it possible for me to race. Thtanks to Swimshop for awesome Blueseventy suits and other aquatic apparel, Intersport for crucial material support, R-kioski, Hattulan Apteekki and Apteekkiverkko for getting me to races, Kuvapalvelu and Olympus for photographic needs, SRM for making my bike training much more effective and Hämeenlinnan Kaupunkiuutiset for media support!
If anyone wants to join team Lionbeach for 2010 and beyond please do not hesitate to contact me. We will make something great happen together! As we saw in the race yesterday: nothing is impossible!
James recently asked me the hardest question there is this week. And in comparison I still have a merchant law exam in a couple hours time!
So here are my predictions for that little race happening in the other side of the World.
Lets start with the girls Top 5 first.
1. Chrissie Wellington (this is a no-brainer) 2. Mirinda Carfrae 3. Rebekah Keat 4. Catriona Morrison 5. Linsey Corbin
And boys side of things (Top 10)
1. Craig Alexander 2. Cameron Brown 3. Chris McCormack 4. Eneko Llanos 5. Terenzo Bozzone 6. Timo Bracht 7. Chris Lieto 8. Mathias Hecth 9. Normann Stadler 10. Luke McKenzie
The mens race isgoing to be an Ironwar threesome between Crowie, Cam Brown and Macca. After swimming and riding together (legally of course in the "main pack") Macca leaves T2 sprinting! leaving Crowie and Cam to catch back up. There's Philip Graves, Lieto, Llanos, Normann and Terenzo up the road battling it through the first 10miles when Macca zooms past shortly followed by Crowie and Cam. By Energy lab the 3 are together and the win is decided on Ali Drive! Places 6 to 15 are also decided in a mass sprint! This will be the most exciting race ever! U heard it hear first!
On Giro d'Italia TT route
