I am most definitely biased, but I think cycling is the best sport in the World. Unlike many traditional team sports, it’s something you can do far beyond your school and university days. It’s a lifelong sport and one of the most effective ways to see the world. Cars seem to go too fast to appreciate the scenery and walking doesn’t get your far enough. On top of all of the enjoyable aspects of cycling, it’s also therapeutic with the rhythmic motion being cited as meditative, the aerobic aspect being good for your heart, and the nature of the sport makes it a common rehabilitation exercises for various injuries. Even the best things have their limitations, though. Here are 5 things that cycling and cyclists often lack.

1.) Weight Bearing

Wolff’s law of bone explains that bones respond to the forces placed upon them. In other words, if you stress your bones, they will become stronger. This isn’t a completely novel concept; we are used to the idea of the body getting stronger due to stressors. We place stress or force on muscles and we expect them to grow bigger and stronger. Bones are no different. 

Bones will get stronger from forces such as weight lifting or even running where there is pounding and force going through the skeleton. Cycling, though, is considered a non-weight bearing sport. 

If cyclists don’t stress their bones through other activities, they are at risk for their bones to become weaker and weak bones are more likely to succumb to injuries. Cyclists should take special efforts to load their bones through other cross-training activities. Personally, I do weight training year-round. I supplement my cycling workouts with 2 heavy lifting sessions each week. 

2.) Lateral Movement

Cycling occurs exclusively in the sagittal plane. This means that in cycling we are only moving forward. Unlike sports like basketball or soccer that require athletes to move both forwards and sideways, cycling mainly uses the muscles that move our bodies forward. 

Since we aren’t stressing the muscles that move our bodies from side to side, these muscles will often atrophy or become weak. Despite not using them for forward propulsion, we still need these muscles for stabilization, injury prevention, and being a well-rounded human. 

The Gluteus Medius is a muscle often underused in cycling that can cause issues when it fails to fire. A weak Gluteus Medius can result in knee pain, IT band issues, low back pain, and hip pain. In order to strengthen your Gluteus Medius consider adding fire hydrants, clam shells, lateral leg raises, and/or lateral band walks to your pre-exercise routine. I spend 5 minutes before every ride completing glute medius exercises. Fire hydrants and clam shells are my staples. 

3.) Eccentric Movement

Cycling is primarily an exercise of concentric movement. Concentric exercises involves the muscles shortening when working against resistance (the upward phase of a squat). Eccentric movements involve the muscles lengthening (such as the downward phase of squat).

There are many benefits to concentric exercise such as building muscle mass and concentric exercises are easier on the muscles (causing less soreness). Eccentric exercises often cause more soreness, but they also help to strengthen tendons and can be helpful for injury prevention. In order to be a well-rounded athlete, you should work to include both concentric and eccentric exercises in your workout routine. For me, eccentrics are as simple as emphasizing the eccentric phase of certain lifts I do in my weight training routine. For example, I will concentrate on a slow and controlled downward phase of my back squats.

4.) Good Posture

In a world where we fight against poor posture constantly, cycling seems to only make things worse. After leaning over our laptops all day with rounded shoulders and a curved spine, we then head out on our after-work ride with rounded shoulders and a curved spin as we reach for our handlebars. 

Cyclists need to spend special time working on posture. In my own routine, I include exercises like wall angels, cat cow, bird dogs, and open thoracic books to encourage my body to return to neutral after all of my many hours of forward slouching on the bike. 

5.) Upper Body Strength

Cyclists never miss leg day! Upper body day, though, some cyclists are actually scared of it. If you’re a road cyclist then you may wonder why upper strength even matters especially when looking at World Tour Cyclists. If you’re a mountain biker, though, you understand that upper body strength is critical for controlling your bike, avoiding crashes, and surviving the inevitable crash without broken bones. Either way, we need upper body strength to be functional humans. Don’t be afraid of lifting weights. Some of my favorite upper body exercises are overhead press, landmine rows, and single arm dumbbell snatches. If nothing else, start small with body weight exercises such as push ups, pull ups, and tricep dips. You’ll be thankful for your extra efforts when carrying groceries inside, lifting up your child or grandchild, or putting your suitcase in the overhead bin.

Everything in Moderation

I’m definitely not telling you to cycle less! In fact, a great thing about cycling is that unlike sports like running, it’s relatively easy on the body which means we can log more hours than most sports. That said, it’s still important to take everything in moderation and to supplement our favorite sport with some additional exercises to keep us strong enough so that we can ultimately do even more pedaling.

The post 5 Things Cyclists Lack first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

These days, it seems like every age group triathlete is an “ambassador” for some product or brand, from nutrition to apparel. 

And this is a good thing: it fosters connection between athletes and niche endurance sports companies. 

But it seems like some ambassador teams come and go, making a big splash for a year or two before fading into the ether. 

Not Team Zoot. 

Since 2008, Team Zoot has been hard to miss at triathlons across the nation and the globe. Their flashy kits and cacophony of cheers for each other make quite the statement at both local and IRONMAN-branded races. 

Now, with more than 5,000 members globally, Zoot Marketing Director Mark Goddard walks us through what makes Team Zoot so enduring and so special. 

Get to Know Team Zoot

ST: What is the background of Team Zoot? How did it come to be?

MG: So the team was actually started in 2008, and it was an elite team. It was called the Zoot Ultra Team, and it was for age groupers who were trying to go pro – at one point we even sponsored Beth McKenzie.

But eventually we knew we wanted to expand the team to be more of an ambassador team for all levels, and that’s when I took over team management duties in 2014. At that time, we had about 300 age groupers under the Team Zoot umbrella.

Today, we operate as one team, but we have about 20 team captains spread around the U.S. who help on a local level with the team and organize group rides and meetups and events. 

As we started growing the team, we’re really thinking about how the best part of being on an ambassador team, especially from a brand ambassador team, is the built in support on race day. 

And so what we wanted to do is we wanted to expand the team in a major way. Just like any business, we keep needing new people to get this triathlon foot in order for us to survive and grow, while at the same time wanting to provide a supportive space for age groupers to connect and train and race together. The goal of our team and why we want it so big is so that people can connect organically with each other within the same team and become friends, training partners, all that kind of stuff. 

Today, we have 5,000 team members in the U.S. and about 1,000 members across Europe.

ST: Who is the “typical” athlete on Team Zoot?

MG: We’re not one thing. We’re not a team trying to dominate in Kona every year, we’re not a team just for women or just for men. We’re truly for everybody. We launched a para division of our team this past year, too.

We do have a lot of fast people on the team, but we also have a lot of people who are doing triathlon just for fun without concern for time or placement. But that’s the thing – everyone on the team has to be here for the fun. 

We only have two real rules on the team: be cool and don’t be a prick, and wear the team kit for racing. 

ST: What are some of the perks of being on Team Zoot?

MG: First, I think there are a lot of misconceptions about Team Zoot. Many people think this is just a money-making opportunity for Zoot. And yeah, of course it is to some extent. We are indeed a business.

However, we don’t charge a membership fee to be on Team Zoot. We own our own factory, which means we own our supply chain. This means we can offer a 40% discount on all our Zoot apparel to our team members, and we have some great partnerships with brands like Quintana Roo, Rudy Project, Garmin, and Hed Wheels. 

We don’t require our team members to buy products from our team partners. You can use the equipment you want to use. We do pass everything down to the team member – Zoot does not make any money when a Team Zoot member purchases from a team sponsor.

And because we are such a big team, we often get free IRONMAN-branded race entries to give out to team members throughout the season, too.

ST: Anything else we should know about Team Zoot?

MG: My favorite thing about the team is the people and the friendships that I’ve made from people that I meet once at a team event and then see them again the next year. As big as Team Zoot is, it can be as personal as you want it to be. 

We don’t ask people to be on social media. There is no requirement to post a certain number of times a month. If you think something about the team is cool, post about it and share it with friends. But we want that to happen organically, not because we’ve required you to post about it.

Truly, the two rules of Team Zoot are: be cool and race in the Team Zoot kit.

ST: How can people apply to be on 2025 Team Zoot?

MG: Applications are open from September 7 through September 22 on the Team Zoot Website

Image credit: Mark Goddard

The post Team Zoot Has One Major Rule: Be Cool. first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

June 17th, 5:51 am. Day 3: Durango, Co.
Time Station 15 is complete. 39 more to go.

It became official around 7 a.m. that we needed to change from a 4-person to a 3-person plan. What did that look like? From a rider perspective, it meant they would now have roughly 20% more mileage (about 200 more miles) to contribute each. The original plan was for each rider to ride about 750 miles. With three riders, it would mean about 1,000 miles per rider. So, giving some credit for sticking it out for 36 hours, it’s now about 900-950 miles per rider.

The reality check of that news can be a punch in the gut when a rider has already been getting kicked around for the first 36 hours. It’s like swimming through a school of angry jellyfish within the first 400 meters of an Ironman. (It’s going to be that sort of race huh?) So, the riders would have to find their way again. The riders also had to decide if they could trust the crew to resolve our issues. With the tailwinds and the lack of experience with this race, we were getting our teeth kicked in trying to keep up and keep things on schedule. For example, within the first 24 hours of riding, the riders were about 100-120 miles past their estimated time checks. That’s a massive difference when you think about checkpoints for where to meet up.

At this point, Group A had left Durango about 2 hours prior and wasn’t privy to the knowledge that had just unfolded in the parking lot. And I wouldn't let them know the news until I talked with the crew and figured out a solid plan. Shane was around when this happened, and after about 5 mins, I looked at him and said go to sleep, and I’ll have a plan for you when you are up. (I could tell he wasn’t ready to call it quits).

As Aaron, Luke, and I huddled around the parking lot while the rest of the crew slept, our thoughts and perspectives were about how we could regroup, inspire, and keep them moving forward so they could finish the event. So, we tried to focus on the positive once we took a second and gave the idea of “quitting” the middle finger. The positive was that it allowed us to consolidate space for us and the riders. It also allowed us to try to keep the riders in the RV whenever possible. Since the tension in the room was no longer present, everyone could start to work together instead of walking on eggshells.

I began to do what I should have done before we left Oceanside. I started cleaning out all crap we didn’t need. It was donated. When you don’t have a fridge and start with an over-packed RV, things get tight quickly. I knew if the riders were going to finish, we needed to get more organized, which meant we needed to make more room in the RV. So, about 3 hours later, we donated everything that could be bought at a gas station to the ladies working at the hotel's front desk. Space became more plentiful, and it was time to wake up the rest of the crew. Tell them what happened, tell them the new plan, and GTFO and get up to the riders.

We are now entering Alamosa, Co. This is the moment, a crappy reality sunk in for all of us. We needed to catch up (the story of RAAM), and I was excited when we did. I was in a clean RV filled with room, and we had a solid idea of how we would press forward.

Then I saw Dede sitting in a Subway parking lot up against a light pole, looking like she was at death's doorstep, while DJ was in the following vehicle with Ice all over him, with a 103-degree fever. And suddenly, I felt like an asshole. How could I have let this happen? What could I have done better? How on earth are we going to press forward?

If you’re lucky, experience teaches you to listen to the wiser voice in your head: “If this sucks for me, then it’s got to suck for the others,” instead of the voice that says. “This sucks how you can continue.” We aren’t the only ones getting our teeth kicked in.

We quickly found a more prominent spot in another parking lot, and all were parked around the following vehicle. Shane was in the RV looking like death, and the medical director started getting ready to set up our mobile hospital. We knew no one was going anywhere anytime soon. So, Spoon and Luke began working on getting a diesel repair company out to get this generator up and running , Amy (or Crew’s mom), was taking everyone’s laundry to the laundry mat in the shopping mall and Aaron had IV’s started on Shane and DJ. Dede was hanging out on the phone and then talking to our good friends Lilias and David.

While getting our generator fixed, we realized that the RV needed an oil change (like bad). WTF, I thought. So, after the generator got a new fuel filter and the guys got it working, I asked the diesel repair guys if they did oil changes and if they could do it while all these athletes were sleeping. At this point, Dede is teasing the boys because she feels better than them. So, we drove the RV with Shane and DJ asleep.

While the oil change happened, I got Dede a Slurpee, and she and I got caught up. The rest of the crew headed to an RV park where we would let the athletes sleep until they wanted to start moving again. The oil change was done quickly, and Jordan was able to start cooking an authentic meal for everyone. Shane began to walk around with his bibs on. (3 hours prior, he was throwing up like a crazy person) I was like. Oh, are we moving? We got to start sometime, he said. I looked at our medical director, who gave the thumbs up, and we began to prep the following vehicle.

Everyone (except Dede) sat around a picnic table and went over the plan (Dede was now almost dead in bed with an IV) the new plan. Make forward progress. At this point, we needed to remind everyone we were only 4 hours behind, so there was no need to panic. Shane and DJ got into the following vehicle to go the ¼ mile to get back on the course. Dede was in the back of the RV sleeping, and I would get more than 3.5 hours of sleep. Yes, that was the amount of sleep I had had since we started almost 54 hours prior.

I'm out like a light. Then BLARGH!!!! BLARGH!!!!!! was the sound I woke up to. I jumped up.

Internal dialogue: OMG WHAT IS GOING ON!!!!

I’m grabbing a towel and rushing back to Dede. I'm thinking about how I’m about to clean up a lot of barf.

To my surprise, Dede somehow managed to place her entire head inside a double-lined trash bag and didn’t spill a drop outside of that bag. All I could think about was how on earth I could get her to teach my kids such a skill set. She kept telling me how sorry she was. I was like. Dede, you’re doing great. Keep it up ? I take the bag and put it in another bag. Spoon is asking me if he needs to stop, and I say when you see a trash can. I ensure Dede is okay, and then I go back to sleep. BLARGH, BLARGH. Holy crap, this lady can barf. Same thing. Perfectly into a double-walled trash bag. I lay back down and went to sleep. I wake up to us parking, and Spoon tells me we are done for the night. DJ and Shane had gotten in about 4 to 5 hours of riding, and we had found a cool park in the small city of La Veta, CO, to crash until dawn.

I got Dede into her normal bed, and everyone else grabbed a blanket and found a place in a car or roof tent to sleep in. Waking up was a breath of fresh air. I had managed to get about 4-5 hours of sleep-in total, Dede, Shane, and DJ looked like Jesus on Easter morning. Everyone started to figure out where to pee, and Jordan was cooking breakfast. Some really nice locals stop in and welcome us to their town. One guy even told us to come by for breakfast. (We should have stopped). The day was bright and sunny and the riders were ready to ride.

Moving forward, the plan was to ride like a two-person team. (At least, what I thought was a two-person plan.) We would try to get in 20 hours of riding in a day. We would ride until the riders couldn't ride, and then everyone would rest. Rinse and Repeat. The main thing was to take this first day slow. The athletes really needed to go easy. They had all been throwing up ( which actually was a good thing because they had all just suffered heat exhaustion which means their stomachs had shut down, which is why they all blew chucks after they got IVs) So now that the unprocessed food was out of their system we could get new food and calories in them and if they just eased into the day their body would start to process calories normal again. And ride smart was just what they did.

Up next? Rain, a bike crash, and more RV repairs.

The post The RAAM Chronicles Continue first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

How does this all work in the first place? 4-person team and nine crew members go on bikes 3,000 miles across the country. The original plan for athletes was the popular 8,4,4,8 ratio. The four-person team was divided into two groups, and each group would take their turns within their eight and 4-hour “on” time blocks. The great thing about the 8,4,4,8 is that it perfectly adds up to 24. This means if you start in Oceanside on EST and stay on EST, the riders and crew get to settle into what is and should be a structured time rhythm. The time blocks were set as follows. Crew members were divided into pairs that were also designed to float; 9 crew members, one was always floating around.

Group A: 11am-3pm
Group B: 3pm-7pm
Group A: 7pm-3am
Group B: 3am-11am

Group A are already night owls, so they took the 11-3 pm and 7-3 am ride times. While Group B took the 3 am-11 am and 3 pm-7 pm shifts. This allowed for 8 hours on,4 hours off, 4 hours on, and then 8 hours off. Because RVs aren’t allowed to be the following vehicle, we set up the following vehicle (Ford 350 low-height transit cargo van) to be the following vehicle, and we chose to make it the “Home away from Home” during the team's “on” time slots. The riders decided to have their bikes inside the van instead of outside on racks. This was so they could keep bikes out of the weather and allow the mechanics to work on a bike during the nighttime when the “Direct Follow” was in place from 7 pm-7 am. I wouldn’t say I liked this idea because I wouldn’t say I liked the lack of space it gave the riders for proper rest, but in the end, the riders had to be in the back of the van, not me.

The rules allow for “one follow vehicle” that can swap out when approved. This meant that every time the GROUPs switched, they needed to swap out most everything in the following vehicle. Which meant our shuttle van needed to be present for that. It was filled with the new riders and all their gear. During the day, that was easy because you were allowed to leapfrog (most of the time), which meant the following vehicle could let the rider go and then catch up. So, the shuttle van would show up to the switch-off spot, get the rider out, and have them ready to tag team the rider coming in. Once the tag had happened, the whole crew would swap out stuff, and the new riders and crew were in the following vehicle and the old riders where in the shuttle van and off to the RV and/or Hotel for some rest.

I will note that the first 24 hours were always a little off, as we needed to shorten or lengthen some of the pulls to compensate for the lack of perfect “8,4,4,8” time blocks. The riders had a plan, and I assumed they would figure it out by communicating with us.

Our firsthand-off was a complete cluster. To start, when the riders downloaded and converted the course map of the RAAM website, it was NOT right. So, the riders were all over the place, and the following vehicle was doing the same, trying to figure out where to go.

Terry from the crew dove in and started radioing the riders' turn-by-turn directions, squaring them away. But the score was now.
RAAM = 1
Slowtwitch GoodLife Racing = 0
The first couple of hours = Jesus Hold the Wheel.

The riders were flying, the crew was catching up in the RV, and the first-time check to Borrego Springs was coming in HOT.

This was our first TEAM blowup and our first and only penalty. We had all stopped (4 cars on the side of the road), we needed to get the first switch done, and we needed to gather our collective thoughts. The tailwinds were 30-40MPH, and it was 113 degrees. Some cars parked about 3 feet from the pavement instead of the required 5. As the official came up to tell me, “I'm giving you an official penalty.” (I don’t know; I get it, but I sort of thought of some of the lame Ironman penalties that have been called over the last year.)

Me, to the official: Can’t you see the huge shoulder the riders have, not to mention the huge ditch we are all trying not to get stuck in?

Official: The real issue is that you have all been here for about 20 minutes.

Me: Did you see the heated argument that caused that delay?

Official: Son, I have seen better; try to make it a real fight if you want to get out of a penalty.

Me: That might happen. Thank you for your time, sir. We will do better.

We then had 8 hours to figure out where we wanted to grab a hotel so that the B group could get some sleep and shower. Before the A group stopped, the B group did their first “8-hour shift”. We found a hotel only two blocks from the course route and three blocks from a gas station in Parker, CO. We had the RV set up, and the food was ready. But we chose to have the riders come to us and take a minute to do the swap—the nighttime swaps would also be a little longer. I decided to take an extra 5-10 Mins once every 24 hours to ensure that everyone had what they needed.

We needed to check in, gather our thoughts, and talk face-to-face with each other. Someone didn’t like this idea and let us all know it. So, we got the riders on the road and let everyone know when we were leaving. They had about 4 hours to get a shower and get some sleep. At that point, they could either get in the RV or the Shuttle Van and get some more sleep while we were moving toward the other riders for the swap. We were on the first night of RAAM, and our first day was behind us.

Day 2 was hot, leading us towards Flagstaff. Passed Flagstaff riders saw 115 Degrees during their time in TUBA CITY. Thanks to the tailwinds, riders were also still getting STRAVA RECORDS.

During that time, the riders continued to fly, and the crew continued to play catch up. The generator in the RV wasn’t working perfectly, so we couldn’t make meals, and we were forced to rely heavily on the RV’s front AC unit instead of the two substantial overhead units. It was working, but not really (did I tell you the fridge broke the day we arrived in Oceanside). We had just picked up our last crew member “Spoon” in Flagstaff, and the first thing he did was get the generator working again (sort of), but because of this CLUSTER F@#$ going on in the background, we were still making game-day decisions that needed to be made. For example, Group B at 7:40 pm stopped at McDonald’s, which took about 10 mins. We were about an hour past our allotted 4-hour “Pull Time,” and the athletes needed REAL food. It was past 7 pm, so the follow vehicle wasn’t allowed to play leapfrog, so that meant we all needed to stop. So, I assumed 10 minutes was better than an hour-long penalty. The other reason for the stop was we were in a complete DEAD zone. Our phones didn’t work, and our radios also had ZERO LTE service; we were getting ready to enter the deep parts of the Navajo Nation, one of the most scenic sites I have seen. It’s also the most nerve-racking place to be at night; the fewer stops after dark, the better. During the pass-off, the tension was high for some, and others enjoyed the sunset with a Big Mac.

Group A took off at about 8:30 p.m. into the sunset of the amazing desert, and we, the crew, had some work to do. By this time, riders were starting to hurt. The heat and stress had started to really get to them. I had been throwing up from dehydration, and the RV was lost.

We found the RV an hour later and went to the next stop. (Durango) We took the shorter route to get some time savings with the hope that we could get the riders to the hotel faster, and then we could get some of the crew some extra sleep. At about 2 am, I get a call on the radio that the riders are freezing and don’t have anything warm… WTF, I thought… So, I do the old Jason West slap myself in the face, grab the stuff they didn’t have packed, and start heading towards the mountain peaks 50 minutes drive away. Pass off the warm weather gear and head back to the hotel. Our chef was passed out in his hotel room by this time, and the other riders were dressed in warm-weather gear. At about 5 am, the cold riders arrived at the parking lot, beaten down and hungry. We didn’t have a hot meal for them from the RV because we had a Denny’s down the street, and the hotel was serving breakfast in about 30 minutes. (Oh, and our generator wasn’t working again).

Apparently, that was the straw that broke the camel’s back. Two hours later, on the morning of the third day in Durango, CO, the 4th team member had had enough of me and my crew leading decisions and decided to leave.

Up next….How a four-person team becomes a three-person team.

The post THE RAAM CHRONICLES first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

I’m currently in the midst of that phase of IRONMAN training where everything hurts, I’m dying, and I never want to see my bike again. In other words, we’re just about right on schedule for the end of a build and about to hit into taper time.

In my last installment on this, I talked about how much time I was spending training indoors. And I still am — my long ride earlier this week was finally checking Zwift’s Uber Pretzel off the route list. I do not recommend doing that as a route, ever. Rolling through four hours of riding and then getting to hit the Alp, and making a novel attempt at trying to climb it in under an hour, is a surefire way to hate everything when you’re done. But it’s also a good way to simulate the final push that the Lake Placid course requires, coming up from Wilmington on a steady climb (and almost always guaranteed to be into the wind).

The thing that made that particular ride so challenging, by comparison to some of the other long rides I have done, was simple — I was on my own for nearly the entirety of the ride. Because the Uber Pretzel features two of the most challenging climbs that Watopia has to offer (the Epic KOM / Radio Tower combination and the Alp), those roads are nearly empty in-game these days with Watopia’s ever-growing expansion. To be honest, I got bored having people minutes up or behind on the road. I got lucky in hours four and five of the ride, finding some wheels to chase through some of the flats, and then having a similarly matched rider to head up the Alp with. (Well, until I exploded.)

It made me miss some of my favorite training sessions I’ve done in prior IM builds. The weekly Tuesday Night World Championship rides; the early morning Masters swim workouts; the progression long runs with friends; the Six Gaps long ride during COVID (where the photos in this article come from). In other words — things that I’ve done with others that were challenging, but not impossible.

That long ride stood in stark contrast of the ride I’d done just the week before — a split ride of 100 miles where I started on Zwift, then rode over to ride check-in at the mid-station for B2VT (a 142 mile ride from just outside Boston to Stratton Mountain in Vermont) in my hometown, and then rode the remainder of the way to Vermont. It started picking up a Zwift event, pedaling along for 90 minutes with a dozen or so virtual friends in a pack. Then I hopped aboard my OBED GVR, taking the hilliest way I knew to get to the local fire station and pick up my packet.

After dropping off my gear bag and topping off bottles, it was time to wait for some of the riders doing the full course to arrive. Eventually, growing tired of waiting, I set off through my town. I knew the first 30 or so miles of the course by heart, as they are roads I’ve used for IM training before (including my 112 mile point to point ride up to Fit Werx in Waitsfield, VT). But a few miles in, and one of those “duh, you didn’t check everything before riding outside” niggles popped up — my seat post was slipping slightly. I pulled over, with two riders passing making sure I was set before continuing on their way, and I was back on the road.

I made one of those in the moment decisions that probably made the rest of my day — “I’m gonna go catch those two guys” — and hurtled down the hills to latch back on. After a couple of minutes, I made contact, we exchanged pleasantries, and I offered to pull. The two guys gladly accepted, and we were off on our way on a soon to be epic adventure. Why? Because, somehow, for the full ride, despite turning in different directions — it was somehow into a gusting to 35 MPH headwind at all times.

I only wound up catching one guy’s name — Ken. He worked construction in northern Massachusetts. If there’s one thing I’ve learned over my years in riding bikes, it’s that people who work construction for their day job and then ride bikes are some of the hardest people you’ll ever meet; they beat the snot out of their body for a living and then decide to add additional hard work on top of it in their spare time. So, my mission for the day became simple: ride with Ken at all costs.

For the first 25 or so miles, that was an easy task; Ken and I took turns pulling whereas the third guy just hung on to our respective wheels. I sat on the front longer, simply because I knew the roads more, but it was a fair assessment. After leading the group through the next town on our ride, I flicked the elbow for someone to come through, and Ken once again answered the call. And he turned the screws. Turns out I wasn’t the only one frustrated by a third wheel not coming to break the wind for a bit. So we put the bit between our teeth, took shorter pulls, and built up a sizable gap before the next aid station.

At the aid station, we refilled; B2VT does a phenomenal job at giving you a nearly fully catered experience at each aid station, with the biggest hit being ice cold pickle chips with pickle juice in cups to go. Ken and I forged onward, rolling past farmland, fields, cheesemakers, sugarhouses, and more, all with fewer than five cars passing us on this ten mile stretch of road. We talked about our respective training, life, work, and more. I acted like a six year old and took every town line “sprint.” And we faced more brutal wind heading to the last aid station.

After refilling, we tackled our final nine miles of the day that were straight uphill to reach the village at Stratton. This climb featured gravel sections, crossing over a river multiple times, and the steepest slopes in the final mile of the climb. Strava labels it a Category 2 climb, and I’m inclined to agree with that assessment. Luckily for us, this climb also overlapped with the gravel event courses, so midway through the leading 101 mile riders came up behind us.

You can probably guess, based on this article, what we did: we latched on for dear life, getting spit out the back of the group on the final steep slope before hitting the finish line.

We crossed the finish line. We racked our bikes. We hugged. We grabbed our free beers. And we went our separate ways.

It’s one of the most fun days I’ve had on a bike in a very, very long time. Was it what I should do from a perfect IRONMAN build perspective? Probably not. But it lifted my spirits; relit my joy of riding bikes. And a less than perfect ride is a lot better than not doing it at all.

So, I implore you — don’t make training needlessly more difficult to accomplish. If you have the option to swim, bike, run, adventure with others, take that option when you can. You might just find yourself having a bit more fun.

Photos: Doug MacLean

The post More Lessons From IM Training: Why Suffer Alone? first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

If you ride bikes you probably are familiar with what is affectionately referred to as the Super Bowl of off-road racing, Unbound Gravel. It’s 200+ miles in the Flint Hills of Kansas – a grueling race that is known for chaos, mechanicals and unpredictable weather and terrain. For me, this race has always been a career goal to podium and I built a lot of my off-season prep to do that. Unfortunately, if you read my last article, you can recall my plans were derailed with an ankle surgery 12 weeks ago. I remember after the surgery what it meant for my season and I said, “well, Unbound is off the table now.” I was sad, but I committed to the process of recovery and rehab and it wasn’t until 2-3 weeks prior to Unbound that I got the okay to line up and try to ride it. At best, I viewed it as a long training ride to get back into shape for the second half of the season.

So here I was on Saturday morning lining up against the best with low expectations. My main priorities were to protect my ankle to ensure I would not have any setbacks for the second half of my season. I also opted with my coach to train through Unbound, meaning we were in a pretty heavy block of training for the last 5 weeks leading into Unbound. I even remember going into Unbound week feeling slightly tired and feeling the impacts of what I refer to as “panic training” leading into the race. I had a lot of doubts. I had a lot of insecurities about my fitness. It also doesn’t help as an athlete reading race expectations, riders to watch and hearing about everyone’s build into the race. To the world, I wasn’t even an honorable mention or wildcard rider to watch and why would I be? I just had surgery on my ankle, and with no high level race starts this season, I don’t blame those predictions. But as a high performance athlete, you always want to be considered. You want to be seen – seen for your potential but really just seen for the hard work you’ve poured into the effort to race at the highest level. So I put all comparisons aside, opted to not even look up the other women in the field that I didn’t already know and instead just focused on what I needed to do that day.

The process goals I had for myself were easy – focus on what I need to do to keep me rolling smoothly. This meant riding conservatively on the downhills to avoid flats, entering technical sections at the front and committing to consistent fueling. I wanted to protect my body and protect my equipment and I felt confident that if I did those things I would finish the race. But as the race started, we had something special happen. The women had their own race – unimpacted by the men (for the most part). This meant we had a pack of 40+ women rolling together through the first 40 miles. From there, our group dwindled to about 20-25 women at the halfway point. At this time, I could tell I was riding well and feeling good. I honestly didn’t know if I might implode at any point as this was my longest race to date and my first Unbound without a DNF early on. But I also set a goal this season to be an animator and to be aggressive. So with that, about halfway through there was a long climbing section into Little Egypt which is an iconic part of the course for splits. I decided to sit on the front and drill it for about 20 minutes. This split our group in half and then we were down to just over 10 women in the front. We eventually started to work together cohesively and caught one rider who had taken a solo breakaway earlier in the day.

From there, I continued to set a hard pace on the climbs and slowly we popped off a few other riders and took NINE women to the line for a sprint finish at the premier event of the year. Going into this finish it was very tactical and for anyone who races bikes you know at the end of a race it becomes a cat and mouse game. The group slows and we anxiously await to see who will make the jump to get away. For me, I knew my top end fitness was not the sharpest so I made a choice when I got stuck on the front of the race for a long period of time entering back into town. Instead of slowing up and waiting for someone to launch an attack from behind, I opted to set a hard steady pace knowing that it would be harder for riders to come around me. For this finish, there is a hill called Highland Hills (or rather Hotdog Hill now thanks to GoodLife Brands) – and given the strength of the women in this group I anticipated it to stay together until the sprint. So I led into the hill, the attack on the hill strung things out and then I positioned myself into the back of the pack going into the final stretch. This allowed me to get more momentum and I was able to tactically move around and be in the mix for the win. I thought for a split second that I had the win, but I gave it my best effort which was good for third place overall. I felt nothing but gratitude at that finish line for how the day unfolded.

Not many know the amount of sacrifice and compromise I have had in the last 12 weeks rehabbing to get back and race this event. These sacrifices can be isolating, painful and grueling – but they make days like this past weekend worth it. As professional athletes, the wins are few and far between as the sport becomes more competitive so we cherish these moments more than anyone can comprehend. For me, knowing that I almost didn’t line up for this event, it was even more special to have such a surprising result and comeback.

So what do I think was responsible for my comeback at Unbound? Well, lots of things actually. I had an entire performance team responsible for my rehab including my surgeon, my PT, my skills coach, my strength and conditioning coach, my cycling coach and my sports psychologist. I have access to the best nutritional resources and I ruthlessly committed to not losing muscle mass through a high protein animal diet rich in collagen to also help my tendon heal. I also dedicated a lot of specific time to Unbound preparation in terms of course recon and equipment in the month prior.

Above all, I never gave up on myself. When it got hard out there, I never made excuses – and trust me a lot goes wrong in a 10+ hour race where you can easily come up with a reason to justify falling off when you are suffering that hard. But even when I knew the sprint finish was coming, instead of thinking about my lack of top end, I just ruthlessly committed to trying regardless. Commit to the process of showing up and trying – you never know when you might surprise yourself.

Photos: Eric Wynn / Slowtwitch Media House
Video: Courtesy of Paige Onweller / John Matthews

The post From Surgery to the Podium at Gravel’s Super Bowl first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

Swimming water quality issues have been a recurring theme over the last couple of years, so now seems like a good time to go over some basics to help you be more aware of what you’re jumping into when starting a race. When it comes to triathlon open water swim quality, there are two basic areas to cover:

1) What’s in the water?
2) How do race organizations respond to what’s in the water?

So first, let’s go over the major players in terms of water quality for open water swimming:

E. coli
Bacteria. It will give you diarrhea. Or a UTI if you’re really unlucky.

Heavy metals
Usually thinking about things like mercury and lead. Obviously not “good” to swim in, but unless you’re swimming in a literal pool of mercury, a one-time exposure isn’t gonna do anything to you.

Chemical waste
Also obviously not “good” to swim in, but unless you’re swimming in a body of water contaminated by a known industrial polluter (a famous example is General Electric dumping PCBs into the Housatonic River in Pittsfield, MA), it’s not a scenario you have to think about all that much.

Oil
It’s obvious if you’re swimming in a body of water that recently had an oil spill. And only a psycho of a race director would hold a swim in water with an oil slick on top of it.

Debris
Large debris won’t give you any illnesses, but obviously isn’t fun to swim through. I’d expect any race to do a sweep for debris before the race.

Particulate matter
By “particulate matter”, I mean dirt and decomposed plant matter kicked up from the bottom of a river or lake. This is fairly common in triathlons and isn’t a health issue. It just makes visibility poor which can be annoying.

Fecal Coliform
Bacteria. It may not do much to you in and of itself, but it can be used as an indicator for the presence of other bacteria that will give you diarrhea.

Enterococcus
Bacteria. It can give you UTIs, meningitis, and diarrhea. Usually not a huge concern in and of itself, but like fecal coliform, it is often measured to act as an indicator of the presence of other bacteria that will…. give you diarrhea.

Red Tide Algal bloom3
Huge bloom of ocean algae. Usually dinoflagellates. Can happen on any coast, but most common on the Gulf coast. Most algae won’t do anything to you, but some release toxins that you’d rather not swim through. They’re most likely to give you a small rash or diarrhea.

Cyanobacteria
Bacteria. They’re the first organism on earth to produce oxygen, so they’re pretty great! But if you swim through a dense patch of them, they’ll give you…you guessed it, diarrhea.

For freshwater races, water quality will often decrease markedly after heavy rainfall, especially if the water is near agricultural land. But one positive on bacterial exposure is that the diarrhea won’t hit you until you’re done racing. So you got that going for you! (note: while these little bugs can cause more than GI distress and diarrhea, those are by far the most common effects)

Now, how do race organizations respond to all of those nasty things that can end up in the water?

Ironman

Based on decision making processes used in prior events, it appears that Ironman defers to state and local authorities when determining water quality safety for events4. For reference: when setting water quality standards, states must set their limits to be at least as stringent as the EPA regulations. EPA guidance on the main bacterial offenders is shown below.

EPA’s recreational water quality criteria cover many more pollutants, but I’m guessing you don’t care that much and also don’t have 7 hours to read all of them.

World Triathlon

This is obviously more critical in 2024, given all the publicity surrounding the water quality of the Seine.

In 2010, World Triathlon adopted the EEC standards 2006/7/EC for bathing water quality, and ruled that swims should only be held in bodies of water deemed to be in the “excellent” category.

World Triathlon requires that venues measure and submit water quality testing data at least 4 times:
-when the venue site is announced (if this takes place at least 15 months before the first competition date)
– 12 months before the event
– Two months before the event 6
– 7 days before the competition.

More testing may be required if there are specific concerns for a body of water.

The exact WT standards are as follows:

Sea and Brackish waters (brackish waters are waters at the transition from fresh water to salt water)
– pH between 6 – 9
– Enterococci must be <100 cfu / 100 ml
– E. Coli must be <250 cfu / 100 ml
– Any visible amount of Red Tide Algal bloom is grounds for cancellation

Inland waters (lakes and rivers)
– pH between 6 – 9
– Enterococci must be <200 cfu / 100 ml
– E. Coli must be <500 cfu / 100 ml
– Blue-Green Algal blooms/scum (cyanobacteria) must be <100 cells/ml

However, there is some discretion involved. The WT Medical Committee may grant waivers if one of the above standards is violated but they deem the violation to not be a significant safety hazard.

The post What’s in the Water You Swim In? first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

We’re getting ever closer to my return to racing triathlon after a five year layoff. A lot has changed since my last go-round at this; just here at Slowtwitch alone I’ve gone from “social media guy” to editor-in-chief over some of that span. Then, of course, there’s COVID; daughter growing up and all the craziness that entails; job changes for Kelly; starting a youth triathlon here in New Hampshire, and more.

In a lot of ways, life’s a lot busier than it was the last time I tried to do one of these things. That means that the way I’m able to train has had to change, too. By the time we get to Lake Placid I’d estimate nearly 80 to 90% of this build has been done inside. (And a big shout-out to Wahoo for their KICKR — the thing is approaching 20,000 miles of indoor riding and I’ve never had an issue with the thing.) As I look at it, here are some of the pros and cons of doing it this way.

Positives

Being Able to Squeeze in Workouts Whenever You Can: By far the biggest issue that I have faced during this block is time management. Whether it’s work schedules or child schedule or life deciding to laugh in my face, finding chunks of time for workouts is a struggle. I can put blocks of time in my calendar all I want, but if a phone call comes up, it probably has to be answered.

Living where I do, that makes it difficult to be out on the roads, particularly cycling. We aren’t quite a cell signal desert, but we are cell signal challenged in places that are most safe to ride. So barring a ride on the weekend when I can get away and unplug, it’s almost necessary to ride indoors to get the mileage in. (In fact, once I wrap up writing this I’ll be hopping on Zwift for a long ride). Being able to bury a workout at four in the morning, or in the middle of the day, while still being able to parent and get my work done is mission critical.

Gamification Can Be a Powerful Motivator: Growing up, I loved video games. Although we were a few generations behind on the console wars, gaming on a Genesis and then a PlayStation. And there were few things more satisfying than finally knocking out an unbeatable level, or another team in the playoffs on a sports game.

That’s exactly what some of the indoor training platforms can offer you. I, personally, am on Zwift. Route badges have been an excellent motivator to complete some of my long rides during the course of this build, as we get into the meat of four, five, and six hour plus rides. Given the unrelenting nature of the Lake Placid bike course, being able to check off routes like the Mega Pretzel and its two ascents of the Epic KOM, or the PRL Full, have definitely provided some additional fuel for the fire.

Practicing Race Day Nutrition is Easier: I sweat. A lot. Like, double digits of pounds lost during some long rides if I underfuel lot. So my nutrition plan involves a high amount of liquid, electrolytes, and carbs. Being able to simulate that in training is important. And that’s frankly easier when you are riding indoors and can either pre-fill all of your bottles before the ride, or giving you an easy opportunity to re-fuel. I’m simply not as diligent about it when doing long rides outdoors, where I’m more likely to treat my body as a Mr. Fusion (it’s all fuel).

Safety: The unfortunate truth of our sport is that there are two types of cyclists — those that have crashed, and those that will. And although I am a member of the former group, that’s also no guarantee of not being a member of the latter one as well.

Statistics on that point, particularly regarding incidents involving cars, are grim — the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration reported a 9% increase in fatalities in car versus cyclist collisions in the last reported period. Anecdotally, I’ve had more run-ins in the last year on the road than I had in the first decade of riding on the roads. And having scrambled my brain once in a cycling crash, I tend to err on the side of caution when it comes to riding outside. I leave my outdoor rides to some of the gravel near my house; some remote rides in the middle of nowhere New Hampshire and Vermont; and certain routes in Lake Placid itself. Otherwise…it’s trainer time.

Negatives

It’s Getting Hot in Here: Heat is my personal enemy. I’ve always had a bit of heat-related issues, and it’s only gotten worse post-TBI and as I’ve gotten older. My trainer set-up is in our basement, which tends to be the coolest room in the house. But it’s not unheard of, even with windows open and multiple fans running, for me to raise the temperature of that basement area 5-6 degrees during the course of a 90 minute ride.

If you’re going to do this much indoors, invest in fans, towels, and a whole lot of anti-seize compound for key components.

Boredom: It took until this year for me to finally understand why some people will throw Netflix on while training inside. It can get awfully boring riding indoors all the time. This is particularly true if you’re doing yet another workout in ERG mode (a story for another time) and you have endless stretches of the same watts at the same cadence for the fifth block in a row. It can easily take the joy out of riding a bike away from you.

This is why I tend to throw in the random midweek Zwift event — it’s at least different. And you have to pay attention to what’s happening in game, else you lose the group in a hurry.

Lack of Real World Experience: There’s no replacement for actually riding outdoors — the constant change of surface, terrain, wind, slope, riding near other cyclists, etc. You can’t mimic that indoors, even on rollers. You can’t simulate missing a shift on a climb, having to balance on board, and handle it. And you can’t fake blasting downhill at over 50 MPH and a sudden gust of wind shows up.

Thankfully I have years of experience to fall back on. But for newer riders, you have to get some of that time in.

The post Lessons Learned From IM Training Indoors first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

One way you might parse technologies is hard versus soft. Direct versus indirect. Kinetic versus supporting. Per the old military adage: An army marches on its stomach. Or is it feet? Meaning, the sexy side of military tech is the smart shell loaded into a howitzer, or what goes into an M1A2 battle tank. But that tank doesn’t drive itself. If you don’t pay attention to the oil in the engine’s crankcase or the food in the belly of the driver (I believe they call him or her a “specialist”, is that right?) or for that matter the feet inside the socks inside the boots of that specialist, even I know bad things can happen.

I pay a lot of attention to the hygiene side of cycling but I don’t know that everyone does. Yes bibs are pricey. Nevertheless I am out of my bib immediately (e.g., minutes) after my ride and I never ride in a bib that isn’t freshly laundered and as quickly as possible after my ride I am freshly laundered. On longer rides (more than 2hr) there’s always chamois cream. And so on.

Today I’m writing about a couple of items not thematically connected other than they both fall in this category of hygiene and “soft” or “supporting” tech. A lot of you just toss your bottles in the dishwasher and in my experience there are two problems I know of and one that I suspect. What I know is that dishwashers can be hard on bottles, because the temps are quite high and bottle makers don’t anticipate you’ll wash your bottles this way. Second, I perceive a little bit of dishwasher detergent aftertaste. (I don't prefer the Fruit Punch + Cascade flavor.) So, no dishwashers for my bottles. (The problem I don’t know but suspect or at least mildly fear is the nanoplastic particles that are in the news today, and I don’t know that repeated dishwasher cycles are good in that regard.)

This means a bottlebrush and I have a few that I have around the property for my bottles. These brushes I do throw in the dishwasher, and they’re all at least “top rack” dishwasher safe. I have a few bottlebrushes and they all work and they’re pictured here. What you see here is the fruit of 3 purchases because you’ll note that 2 are identical and these come 2-to-a-purchase. I like these because of that sponge at the top. These along with one of the others come with a separate tiny brush that is buried in the handle and this is because the main use of these is to wash baby bottles. Those tiny ones are nipple brushes. In my case they’re to get into the hidden areas in and around the cap.

Honestly, they all work well enough so that the decision might be where and how you store these brushes. As you see some are freestanding, some you hook from, say, a pot and utensil rack, one of these has its own stand. They are all amazingly cheap, as in, $7 or $8. I got all of mine from Amazon. These bottle brushes, in a sink halfway full of semi-hot water and dish soap, constitute my bottle washing regime. You can wash a lot of bottles in a short period of time. Some bottles some with removable caps, but I don’t know which of my bottles these are and I’m afraid to find out. So I leave the caps on and just scrub with the nipple brush.

I don't ride with bottles I haven't washed. Keep your bottles clean. One helpful feature on some of these bottlebrushes are longer handles, which can come in handy for use on some of the BTA systems. One reason I'm not a big fan of inside-the-frame hydration systems is that cleaning these is not always a trivial pursuit.

This next one, it’s a little weird. Perhaps some backstory. I have always been vain in certain ways and my vanity is around aging. There are just some things I will not allow myself to fall prey to, and I will divulge to you two of them. First, I will resist with all my powers “old person’s voice.” I’m not quite old enough to have that voice yet but I’m not too far away either, and I don’t want anyone (on the telephone, say) to divine my age from my voice. Another vanity I have developed surrounds my feet and this is because, per the above, feet are important to infantrymen for a very good reason. I do everything I can to keep my feet young. But…

Some things I just have not been able to avoid. For example, a horse jumped up into the air and came down on my foot. Didn’t just step on my foot. Jumped on my foot. For emphasis I guess. Incidents like that have compromised certain toenails and the horse jumping episode has resulted in a big toenail that fell out, regrew, but regrew thicker and with a pronounced ridge. This caused me some pain when cycling. My options were to buy cycling shoes a half size larger just to accommodate dodgy nails, or to custom stretch my shoes, or to just manicure the nail.

My wife bought me my first-ever pedicure last year. The “specialist” (same title they give the tank drivers) pulled out her Dremel-like sanding tool and then the light bulb went off. They sell these on Amazon. This is the one I got. It’s got all kinds of attachments including a whole spitload of extra sanding bands.

They call this a “nail drill.” That name should give you pause, right there. This thing runs at 30,000 rpm. You could get James Bond to talk with this. I am not a specialist, but common sense tells me if you wax overenthusiastic with your nail drill you could cause yourself much bigger problems than the ones you’re trying to solve. Baby steps. But I must tell you my problem was solved (!!) using this targeted, surgical piece of smart artillery. No more cycling foot pain. Shoes now fit properly (as they once did). I can resume my side hustle as a foot model. Just, again, you and I can both imagine what could happen if you sanded a little too much off, so user beware.

The post Bottlebrushes and Nail Drills first appeared on Slowtwitch News.

Editor's Note: Paige Onweller is a professional gravel rider, winning the 2022 edition of Big Sugar. Paige quit her career as a physician's assistant to turn pro. She'll be contributing roughly an article the month through the remainder of the year.

I’m a professional gravel cyclist in the US. That statement alone should lead you to assume I very much enjoy riding my bike, and I also spend a lot of time doing it. Some would say it’s an obsession or addiction and I wouldn’t argue against that. The definition of addiction is “when you have a strong physical or psychological need or urge to do something” which is true, but the difference is as athletes, most of us (hopefully) have a healthy relationship with our exercise habits . At the professional level, most of my life is centered around my training and I very much adopt the “monk lifestyle” as many of us pros refer to it. Limited contact with social events to avoid getting sick, 20-30+ hour training weeks seamlessly strung together week after week and a strict routine of our daily lives to get all our training, rehab, lift and recovery in.

For some, this may seem boring but for me, I live for this. The long rides on chunky gravel, endless carbohydrate consumption and a plethora of hours bonding with my training partners. Many people often remind me, “Wow, you are living the dream!” But, what happens when a full time athlete gets injured? Well….there goes that dream. It’s easy for our lives to collapse in these moments, so I am going to share some insight into my process and recent rehab journey which can apply to anyone getting injured – whether this is your full time job or not, anyone who loves exercise can understand our need to restructure our minds and habits in these moments.

Maintain a Daily Purpose and Routine

As an athlete we often have structured days and busy lives. We get a lot done when we are motivated to finish a project to go train more. But as most of us have probably experienced when we have more time on our hands, we actually get less done. This feeling of less productivity can be additive to frustrations when you are injured because you already feel less accomplished when you cannot train. For me, what’s helped tremendously is every morning I write out 3 things: my focus for the day, my goals and my emotions. My sports psychologist got me into this habit when the injury first occurred, and it’s helped a lot. If I sat around all day with my injured leg elevated and at the end of the day was getting down about being a bum – my mindset changed when I looked back and saw my daily focus was recovery and my goal was to stay off my feet – well, now I nailed that! It helped me reframe to more positive, self affirming thoughts rather than negative thoughts of laziness or boredom.

Much of my life is focused on my routine of training, which I very much love and I’m sure many of you reading can relate. So when that routine is removed, you often feel helpless, useless or without purpose. So to counter this, I designed a routine for myself that I stuck to. Waking up at the same time, rehab exercises timed out throughout the day and general structure to my day that stayed the same. This got me up, gave me purpose and held me accountable to stay on schedule even if my routine looks drastically different.

Commit to the Rehab

Most athletes are really good at training. We can ride or run or swim all the miles, but at the end of the day most of us neglect the small little things off the bike or in the gym. Well, when you are injured, rehab all of the sudden becomes really important. But let me tell you, it’s not always fun. For me, I am working with a very progressive surgeon (this was intentional) so this means I am doing exercises that aren’t always fun…or let me rephrase this…they hurt like hell and I don’t want to do them. But I do, because I am committed to the rehab process. Currently, as I write this, I am about 10 days after surgery. I do 200 ankle pump motions and 5 minutes of quad holds and a series of ankle mobility which takes me about 15 minutes to complete. I do this 5 times per day in addition to 6-8 sessions of icing for 15 minutes each session. Then, aside from eating/preparing food, my leg is elevated 12 inches above my heart. This means I am lying flat most of the day, which doesn’t lend me to getting much else done. I also do a series of mental visualizations, which are pretty specific and require me to “get dressed” for the session and separate this from the rest of my day. It may not seem like a lot, but it requires me to plan everything out and commit to the process of rehab.

Adjust Your Diet

Prior to getting injured, I had about 4500tss in the 4 weeks prior (about 1225 tss per week for that month before) so without sharing all my training details, it’s safe to assume I was eating a lot. Most days I had about 4,000-6,000+ calories…the many perks of high volume training. Most of my diet was focused on carbohydrates, because let’s be honest, carbohydrates are king. But when you suddenly go from that to a sedentary life, a shift is needed in the diet. The first week of injury, I specifically did not log food and tried to focus on recovery and listening to my body. It was repairing the injury and also from the work of training the weeks prior. I ate when I was hungry and l listened to cravings. Often this meant consuming much more than my output. After discovering the injury would then require surgery and numerous weeks of no training, I got nutritional guidance and transitioned to a high protein diet that included only about 1800-2000 calories per day. Eventually my appetite normalized and the high protein diet really helped with hunger as well.

I had a tendon repair and another connective tissue structure (peroneal retinaculum) surgically repaired. So, I prioritized animal protein as my main source of protein and I did this for many reasons. Animal protein is superior to other forms of protein (soy, plant based options) because it has a higher bioavailability and a higher percentage of EAAs (essential amino acids); additionally, with my increase in the amount of protein animal protein is actually been proven to be more easily digested than alternatives. I aimed to get 2 grams of protein per kilogram of body weight and I made sure that I separated protein feeding windows since our bodies can only intake a max of 40 grams per feeding window. There’s a lot more that I changed in terms of timing of eating, supplements, etc., but in summary here is a really good article about nutrition, protein and timing of everything around a surgery if you are interested in reading more.

Focus On What You Can Do

I think when you are injured it’s really easy to dwell on what has been taken away from you. But for anyone who’s had surgery you can probably relate that in those moments you are painfully reminded of how helpless you are. You need help going to the bathroom, you can’t dress yourself, you can’t prepare your own food….the list goes on and on. But when your independence is stripped away down to nothing, you then start to rebuild again. This last week I finally took a shower on my own and could balance enough on one leg to do that. I celebrated that moment so much; it felt like a huge win. Look at me, showering on my own! I guarantee you do not usually celebrate taking a shower without assistance, but maybe you should. Currently, I take my crutches for a spin outside for a few minutes each day. I could choose to focus on that not really being much exercise, or on the fact that I have bruises under my arms from the crutches, but no – it’s an intentional choice to focus on being thankful I am able to go outside for a few minutes per day. It’s transformative when you focus on the positive and what you can do versus dwelling on what you cannot do or what you are missing.

In summary, I want to end with one of my favorite quotes from Theodore Roosevelt: “Comparison is the thief of joy.” That quote is applicable in many times of my life as an athlete, but even more so now. Don’t compare my current state to what I could do 2 months ago or what my competitors are doing. Focus on what I can do, and stop the comparison. If you can execute this, I guarantee you’ll be happier in the rehab process and you’ll be building joy and confidence vs negativity and doubt which will help you down the road when you start racing again! Best of luck!

The post A Pro Athlete’s Insights On Injury and Rehab first appeared on Slowtwitch News.