Train smart, not hard

Xtri blogger extraordinaire Chuckie V. rubs me the wrong way. I'm not sure if it's his kiss-my-ass writing style or his ridiculous training advice, but I don't quite understand why he has a relatively large public forum.

His latest post favors "overly aggressive progressive overload." In short, that's a terrible idea for all but the most highly trained (and highly lucky) athletes. Even somebody as competitive as myself can only handle a little bit of added training stress at a time. My list of injuries, past and present, proves that fact:

• Stress fracture (ankle)
• Achilles tendonitis
• Plantar fasciitis
• Bursitis
• Morton's neuroma

And I don't even train that much (20 miles/week running, a couple bike rides, a few swims)!

Ironically enough, right now on Xtri's homepage, Chuckie's article is right next to an article about ITU world champion Alistair Brownlee suffering a stress fracture from overtraining -- and he is one of the best runners in the world.

So take it easy -- life is too short to spend sitting on a couch watching "Adventureland" with an ice pack around your ankle.

Food Works

This week was a great week in the kitchen of Drew Streip: omelettes on three separate occasions, served over cornbread, with spinach and diced tomatoes on top; lemon-pepper chicken, browned whole wheat gnocchi and sauteed spinach; fruit-and-yogurt smoothies to help keep my weight up. Maybe I went heavy on the produce this week, but you can never have too many veggies.

I encountered this article on inflammation, which I have been fighting all week in my ankle and IT-band (read: knee). So in addition to my firefighting foods, I've been on a steady diet of ibuprofen. And I checked with a researcher at UT Medical Center who basically confirmed that my intestines aren't going to hemorrhage if I take a little bit more than the bottle says.

Yay, science!

We're a month away from our first race at the Natchez Trace state park, so now is the time to take care of ourselves and start really training for the event. A spin class tonight at TRECS should help that.
UPDATE: It didn't help. My legs are now Jell-O.

Working the Splits

This semester, I volunteered to participate in a study that researches the effects of sports drink supplements on endurance athletic events. In my case, I do a series of four 12-mile runs around a 1k track in Alcoa. I drink 4oz of a supplement every four laps, or 2.5 miles. The first 17 laps are done at a medium pace, and the last two laps are at a maximum effort.

Run 1 // 1:29:44
Run 2 // 1:30:08

•  Splits (0.63 miles) // 4:30, 4:30, 4:37, 4:39, 4:54 (drink), 4:44, 4:40, 4:42, 4:57 (drink), 4:48, 4:44, 4:48, 6:05 (drink, tie shoes), 4:51, 4:47, 4:50, 5:07 (drink), 3:47, 4:01

Run 3 // 1:26:20

• Splits (0.63 miles) // 4:31, 4:39, 4:22, 4:31, 4:41 (drink), 4:36, 4:40, 4:36, 4:53 (drink), 4:34, 4:37, 4:36, 4:44 (drink), 4:34, 4:39, 4:37. 5:00 (drink), 3:37, 3:42
• Note: I ran faster, but my average heart rate was lower. Perhaps I controlled my body temperature better. Last week I didn't feel great anyway, but both my max effort laps were faster than even my first one.

Just one more one run, this Sunday (weather permitting). It's been real, but I'm ready to not run practically a half-marathon every week.

Weekend Roundup

What a weekend. A heroic Friday night venture to the Strip; a Tri Club engagement (Congrats, future Mrs. Nelson!); a great 12-mile run. Saw my parents, got some jeans that actually fit, ate some delicious cupcakes. Life is pretty good.

Except for former Tour de France winner cheater Floyd Landis, who has a warrant out for his arrest. The warrant will apparently only be served, however, if he goes to France. He'd be dumb to go there anyway, for two reasons:

1. His "team" will never get an invitation to compete in the Tour.
2. Everybody in France hates him. Why subject himself to the ridicule?

Landis was found by a French anti-doping lab to have hacked into test results and altered data, presumably in an effort to help his case and clear his name.

Irony: getting caught in a dishonest attempt to clear your name from allegations of cheating, thereby sullying your name even more. It's so beautiful.

Jobs I Want--And Why I Can't Get Them (Yet)

In the last few weeks, Competitor Group, the publisher of Inside Triathlon, has announced two openings as their editors have left. I should apply, because they are as close to my "dream" jobs as I can reasonably expect to find.

One problem: I haven't graduated yet.

UPDATE: I applied.


Yesterday (Wednesday) was a breakthrough day. Shouldered with the task of creating a last-minute spread for the Fall '09 issue of Scoop in the in the hours before it hit the printing press, Carly Bushong and I cranked out a darn-fine story, "First Look: Scripps Convergence Lab," by the afternoon.


The process led me to two conclusions:
1. Other people trust me with stuff that will be sent to 15,000 people.
2. I trust myself with stuff that will be sent to 15,000 people.

So why not see if Triathlete Magazine will take a chance on me? I wrote a cover letter, tweaked my resume, and sent them off last night around 11 p.m.  Who knows how long it'll take to hear a response...but as soon as I do, I'll let you know.

Coincidentally, it was a rotten day for training. Snow in the morning, deadlines in the afternoon, meeting in the evening. And I ate a metric ton of Hibachi chicken and shrimp for dinner. And I fretted over missing my swim. But it led me to The Top Three Reasons Triathletes Should Not Swim Year-Round.

Read and enjoy!

Lindsay Vonn's SI Cover Is Not Controversial. Here's Why.

The "controversy" surrounding this month's issue of Sports Illustrated is not US skier Lindsey Vonn's butt-in-the-air pose, but rather Oh-my-God-that-suit-is-ugly.

Google "Lindsey Vonn" and the current top hit is from Chicago Breaking Sports. In the article, kinesiology expert Nicole LaVoi-ces her concern about the "sexualized" pose and the objectification of female athletes. 

Unfortunately, every other article on LaVoi's personal website is devoted to the "controversies" of misogyny in sports. But what about the guys who waste spend all their time trying to grow Dwight Howard-esque boulder shoulders?

Vonn deserves the SI cover, exactly as it is, for obvious reasons. The facts:

• Everybody has a butt. Vonn's is better than most. Not because she starves herself, but because she is an exceptional athlete with tremendous dedication to her sport.
• Female athletes need attention in media. As LaVoi mentions, SI doesn't give a lot of covers to women. This is a step in the right direction.
• It makes the Winter Olympics a little more interesting. Put an attractive face (besides the Flying Tomato or Apollo Ohno, for cryin' out loud) with the event and see if it doesn't get more viewers. Ice dancing Figure skating has done it for years.
• She's wearing more clothes than all Swimsuit Issue covers over the last three decades combined.

She is one of the best in the world at her sport, and she also has very fortunate facial features--not unlike Michael Phelps, whose nipples we've seen way too often, chiseled though his torso may be.

Return of the Word Jedi

It has been a long while since the last post, but this entry marks my new commitment to updates. Although it is for a project, it'll no doubt alert you to my whereabouts on pretty solid intervals.

For JEM 422//Managing News Websites, I will be exploring the lifestyle I know best: active, exciting and reasonably healthy. In a word, triathlon.

This new sense of purpose has a double meaning. At 1:55 p.m. today, I finished my last session of three weeks of physical therapy at Foothills Physical Therapy. With my back feeling like a million bucks, I'm finally ready to put the last three months behind me and resume full-time training.

(For the record, in early November I had a mountain bike accident, resulting in a knot in my serratus posterior inferior that even the saltiest of sailors would have trouble untying. Huge, HUGE thanks to Amy Gregory for digging her elbows into my back on a thrice-weekly basis.)

Today's workout:

20 minutes, stationary bike

2 x 1 mile running @ 5:40

Dinner:

Spanish rice w/ sausage

New Belgium 1554 Enlightened Black Ale (my favorite)