Week Six: Splitting Hairs on Pain

One week on and it's fair to say that all is indeed on when it comes to high volume training. Since last we spoke, I have had three strong swim workouts, three bike workouts of varying difficulties, and a day off once again rung in with bizarre waves of soreness which don't seem to translate to any particular swim or bike overuse.

With that in mind, though, I think it's important to discuss this issue of pain. Twice this week, I have had to cut workouts short due to pain issues -- this is quite normal in a high volume training regimen, and, in fact, the results of pulling off of the reins just a smidge seem to have had immediate results.

For those who have trained as part of a regular routine, whether on a team or individually, you'll likely understand exactly what I mean when I compare pain to soreness. Soreness is expected and, frankly, you live with it through the entirety of the process. If I'm being 100% honest, soreness is also quite nice -- sure the actual discomfort and inflammation can have negative results, but usually an Ibuprofen or four will take care of them each night before you hit the hay. On balance, soreness is like fatigue -- you know you feel it, but you also know you've done something to "earn" it, for better or for worse. When it comes to doing a workout burning anywhere from 600-1200 calories, generally I like to think of that as better.

The flipside of the coin, however, is pain. Certain things happen when you swim 7000 yards and bike five hours in a week -- first of all, your ironman coach (which I don't have, save for the book) will tell you that you need to "pick it up a notch." In seriousness, though, certain muscles are being worked more than others and the potential for balance inequities are significant. In addition, there are simple issues of overworking from time to time. Throw in the effects on some cross-training, which in my case means the odd run-out for a softball, soccer, or basketball game... or maybe a hike... and you can experience real acute pain.

For the experts, experiencing pain is not something that should shut you down altogether, but rather something that you smartly manage. Look, you're not going to tax your body to this degree for 24+ weeks and not tweak something. As an example, I give you my left knee. In the hill workout I did late last week, I clearly left my bike in two high of a gear and left the ligaments in my left knee a bit out of whack. When I hopped on the bike on Saturday for a long ride, intending it to be 2:45, the pain began to grow and grow and grow until with about 1:30 under my belt I decided to call it quits.

The reasoning for this is as simple as the cause for the pain -- if you take a part of your body that is under duress, as opposed to experience soreness, and you continue to push it, you are only extending the recovery time. The 1:15 on the bike at the gym will NOT make or break your Ironman effort. The six weeks off recovering from a ligament strain most surely will.

The same thing happened later in the week during a high-effort swim workout, one in which I was supposed to do "sprints," defined as literally swimming as hard as one can, for 600 yards. About 200 yards into it, I realized that my anterior deltoid muscle and surrounding tendons, which I have had treated recently, were screaming out with something more than general soreness. It wasn't until I had hit the showers afterwards that I gleefully recalled throwing a runner out at home plate from deep center field the night before, but clearly that is why I was having a sore shoulder day -- swimming the rest of my set at a slow, building pace rather than chopping down on the water like a weightlifter was exactly what the doctor ordered. With a brick workout combining the disciplines right around the corner (Sunday), I hardly think that reducing the intensity of a swim for less than 1000 yards will have anything more than a nominal impact on my training.

Which is not to say it was a week where I was constantly pulling out of the tough assignments -- far from it. In fact, my swim on Sunday was my longest swim set since I was in college -- 2600 yards, or a little over a mile and three-quarters. I accomplished a few things on that day -- first and foremost, I managed to get it in under one hour. Considering it's nearly 2/3 of my race day total and I've always said I'd be happy to be on my bike within two hours of the race gun, that's a great thing for my confidence. Okay, it's in a pool and not in a mass start in the Russian river, but still, I left myself a good 20-minute cushion there at worst. I also managed to continue to stretch my mental preparedness for the marathon 2.4 mile swim that awaits on the day of the race. Every time I burst through a new distance hurdle, it's amazing to me that it's not THAT much more difficult than the previous high, which was generally a couple hundred yards shorter. In getting out of the pool on Sunday -- and don't get me wrong, I FELT it -- I was convinced I could have swam the remainder of the Ironman length right then and there. Could I have ridden 112 miles afterwards? Hmm... are there rabid dogs behind me? But, I'm getting there.

The final thing it taught me is that this training is working. Both parts of it are paying off when it comes to the swim. First, the long weekend swims and overall volume of swimming are making me more and more comfortable in the pool for long stretches of time. It's boring, to be honest, and mental acuity improves with every long swim. Second, the sprints and fartlek workouts do make a standard race-speed swim feel relatively easy.

As for the bike, it was another week of building endurance. It's slower than with the swim, but that's probably because while I'm looking at a 90-120 minute swim during the race, the bike will be my home for upwards of seven hours. It's awful hard to do a seven hour training swim with a wife and two kids -- it can only happen on the weekend and, even then, to do a ride that long takes more recovery time than one has. So, the long rides tend to max out at about three to four hours and the weekday workouts need to be intense -- which they have been. I am a virtual fountain of sweat when I hit the bike for my weekday workouts, keeping the wattage needle pinned at 180-220 watts of output. That's high, much higher than I can keep on my bike outside, but it all drives towards the goal of endurance on raceday. With the knee issue reminding me that volume should be done a comfortable gear level that allows for spinning rather than "pushing," it's easy to get into a rhythm as well -- and I have of late, feeling good, strong, if not a little tired after each ride. On Sunday it's 1750 in the pool and 25miles on my bike if time and weather permits. I'll let you know how that goes as it will be a good measure of how things are going. I'm confident it will go well and the recovery week next week (which is moved up a week because of my travel to the UK next weekend) will let it all soak in.

Until then...