2008 Closing Thoughts

2008 proved to be a bit more of a roller coaster than I initially expected. Overall, I am very pleased with the end result. However, I would be remised if I wasn’t a bit disappointed by it too. There were two main themes for the year—personal bests and injury...a ying and yang of sorts

The beginning of the season demonstrated tremendous success for me. I focused on running during the off season and it proved one of the best (and possibly the worst) decisions I made. I mastered two half marathons in the winter and dropped my PR between the two by nearly 10 minutes. I also experienced a PR of several minutes in a 10k. I loved this feeling and more so, I loved running 100 miles a month.

The season also saw a number of multisport PRs. I took over 10 minutes off my time at Powerman only to come up seconds short of my goal. I crushed my previous time at Buster Britton sprint and managed some hardware along the way. At AmeliaMan, I dropped 30 minutes off my previous Olympic time and had a tremendous race. And of course, Ironman Florida saw a 90 minute improvement over IM CDA from the year before. All in all, it was a great season in the results column.

It is really hard to not ask, what if? What if I never got injured. Would those results be even better. How fast could I have gone at IMFL? I try not to think about it yet the question lingers in my mind. Injury. It was easily the most dominant story of my season.

I don’t know who was more fearful me or Coach Dan. He took me on as a client only to have a hidden injury rear its ugly head. This was a huge challenge for both of us all season. What I hoped would just a small nagging injury turned into a huge one. Instead of just backing off training, I shut training down all together. When that didn’t work, two rounds of cortisone shots provided some assistance.

There were times where I thought my whole season was in jeopardy. And I guess it was. I didn’t know if IMFL or Duathlon Worlds were even possible. I went to Belgium pumped full of cortisone and uncertain if this would be just one expensive trip. Fortunately it held together; unfortunately I had my ass handed to me. Something miraculous happened on that trip. I think I began to turn the curve with the injury. Conventional wisdom said the opposite would be true. But the race did me good. My running started slowly coming back around. IMFL became a real possibility.

The injury was never really resolved. I am not 100% sure what is going on. I worked hard to take November and December for recovery. But I think the body needs more.

What worked:

• A kick ass ride from Jacksonville to Valdosta. This really prepared me for IM FL. It was a good call by Dan and a strong testament to my will to not give up…even when the bridge said NO bikes
• Infinite nutrition. I highly recommend it. This was my primary source of nutrition for the final months of training. It worked wonders for me.
• Lots of swim training. It gags me to say that. But swimming hard helped maintain my fitness.
• Running base in the winter. I am convinced that this is the reason I was able to run in Belgium and Florida. The recent training wasn’t available but the base was there.
• Training with intensity. Doing multiple laps at columns was what built the speed
• Recover-ease. It needs to be a staple in my diet.

What didn’t work

• Triple T. It was probably the catalyst for the injury. Yet I am going back
• Bike fit. I ultimately feel this IS the source of the problem. It was adjusted a few times but I am not dialed it properly.
• Training through injury. That didn’t really work
• My diet. Ultimate fail.