After a last race at November 1st I took one month off. For the first time I’ve decided to stay in US for couple months in staid of going home to a cold Ukrainian winter straight after an end of a season. I use to stay in Clermont, Florida, a great place for winter training, but nothing else to do there except of training. And an idea to travel for a little bit wasn’t the bad one. A first trip I took was the trip to Atlanta, GA to see my Ukrainian friends. For four days I have so much fun with a girl friend (I miss girls company sometime), we’d done so much: we took two classes of Bikram Yoga, that was new for me and I really liked it, although not every pose came out well during my first class; next thing we did was a shopping, you can’t find as good person as my friend Roksolana for a girl’s shopping; then we went to visit other friends and went to a park with them kids.

After that I spent another week in Clermont, before I’ve planned my next trip. I went to Arizona to watch a last Ironman race in 2008 and to visit my home stay family-friends from 2007 year. Next flight I took was the flight to Las Vegas, I never been there before. I don’t think I would go to Vegas by myself, I don’t think it would be fun. But my friend, Oliver from Germany stayed in Vegas for couple days. It’s hard to imaging better time than I had for those 3 days in Las Vegas: a helicopter flight, a Great Canyon trip, driving around city and walking around old down town.

After those trips it was time to start training again, get my fitness back at, then build some running and swimming mileage. And to my opinion a good place to start doing it is Los Alamos, NM, one of my top places in US. And now I am almost one week of training, still feel unshaped, but I keep it easy I have time.

You can find hundreds of articles online or in magazines on how to avoid the off season weight gain. This post will address none of that and instead focus on how to gain mass during the off season. Here are some simple rules on how to increase your off season weight.

1. Reward yourself: For anything… no matter how small, you’ve earned it.

2. Increase the number of times you eat per day: Don’t make any meals smaller, just try to eat one or more of the same sized meals per day. You can even try to have a meal of purely chocolate.

3. Donuts: Join the co-workers for a few. For a healthy work environment, competing with your coworkers is always beneficial, so why try to have a donut eating contest at work?

4. Get cable: there is no better way or excuse to plant yourself on the couch for endless hours of no activity.

5. Surf the web more often: It brought you to read this article, didn’t it? Sitting on you’re a$$ will only help to slow down your metabolic rate (unless you are getting excited about power meter posts).

6. Alcohol: preferably beer.

7. Add extras to your favorite caffeinated drinks: Double-doubles, triple-triples… frappacinos… you get it.

8. All you can eat buffets: this is a great chance to eat things that you would have never ordered off the menu in the first place, like chicken balls or cheesecake and blueberry pie (i.e. double dessert helpings)

9. Slurpees: These sugar drinks are simple but an effective way to gain weight. Please take caution, as slurpee headaches are exceptionally painful.

10. Anything worth eating is worth eating deep fried.

This week I interviewed Chris McDonald, he is Australian so he doesnt really celebrate Turkey day (see below) but we can still like him. Chris won Ironman Louisville (the s is silent) in 2007, in 2008 he placed 2nd at Ironman Louisville and then won Ironman Wisconsin a week later. Chris is married to Canadian professional triathlete Marilyn MacDonald, who is currently racing bikes professionally.

LT: Have you ever run over a prairie dog while riding
your bike in boulder?
CM: Just once and i only caught the end of his tail and man did he yelp. I felt kind of bad

LT: When was the last time you went skinny dipping?
CM:To be completely honest I can say I have never been skinny dipping in 30 years .

LT: Your wife is a tiny powerhouse, when was the last
time she beat you up?
CM: She beats me up once a week on the bike but I think the last time she beat me up was about two weeks ago , when she wants to play fight I get kind of scared :-)

LT: What is the funniest thing you have ever put in a
Ironman special needs bag?
CM: Well I am real boring with this, nothing really funny, mostly nutrition and once I put a spare in my bike special needs. The funniest thing I have seen in a transition bag was this year when I vlountered at IMOZ and a guy had a full roll of TP and a packet of tim tams.

LT: What is the Australian equivalent of Thanksgiving?
CM: There is no real equivalent of Thanksgiving down under. We do have the queens birthday weekend, which is generally celebrated with a good party

LT: Do Aussies celebrate any holidays by eating huge turkeys?
CM: Funny, i do not think I have ever seen a whole turkey in the freezers in Australia. Aussies usually celebrate things with a BBQ and a whole lot of beer. The saying goes “A few quite beers and a bit of a bar B ”

LT: Have you ever been arrested? Feel free to
elaborate.
CM: Well I can say that this has happened a few times in my early twenties. I have been arrested twice and had to spend the night in the cell for drunken disorderly. They lock you up in cell at the police station until 7am the next morning. Let me tell you, that is a funny sight to see when they let you all out the next morning, a group of people that are either still a bit drunk or hung over to hell and you all stumble out into the light a 7 in the morning.

LT: Have you ever told a person working at the airport hat your bike is something other than a bike to avoid paying the extra fee?
CM: Heck yeah, I have said some things to some people at the airport. Lets just say I have a love hate relationship with the TSA

LT: If a movie was made about your life, who would you want to play the part of you?
CM: This a tough one… maybe Mayor Meeker… no really….. I think hugh jackman, he was just voted the sexiest man alive

My rookie pro season ended on a mixed note in Tempe, AZ on Sunday.   It was a last minute decision to race one last Ironman after Kona this year.  Given the length of the season, the proximity to Kona and other factors I knew my race was going to be ridiculous…the only question was if it was going to be ridiculously good or ridiculously bad.  It may sound obnoxious, and apologize if it does, but at this point in my career finishing an Ironman is no longer the goal, finishing an Ironman as fast as I can is the goal.  Unfortunately, my race was ridiculously bad and my day ended with a DNF in the medical tent, although there were many silver linings.  

I used this race to test my limits and see where things shook out.  My goals were to swim hard, bike hard (harder than I usually do) and see what was left for the run.  Quite frankly I accomplished my goals, so I can’t complain too much.  I set personal best times in the swim at 52 minutes, exiting the water with the main group and then had the 14^th fastest bike split of the day in a time of 4:39, another PR by about 16 minutes.  I learned a lot and have certainly gained some confidence and insight that will serve me well in the future and will ultimately help me to become a better athlete.  Enough about that…onto the days events.

The swim was a little chilly to begin with, as the sun was not even up at 6:50 when the pro wave started.  It was actually pretty hard to see while I was warming up because of the tinting on my goggles.  I lined up right on the front line behind some top swimmers and began hard right from the gun, yet made sure to not red line for too long as I have done in the past.  I also made sure to stay focused and if I was not right on someone’s feet then I pushed the pace to make sure I did not lose the group, as I have done so many times this season.  It was certainly a break through swim for me and I was able to figure out a strategy and pacing that works for me which will help me swim with some of the best in the sport.

As anyone who I have spoken to about IM biking pacing and power I certainly mixed thing up and tried a new strategy in this race.   Part of my reason for this tactic was because of the nature of this course.  IMAZ bike is a 3 loop, out and back course where there is a gradual 500 foot climb, which happened to be into a head/cross wind on the way out on race day.   I had decided to push hard the first hour, around 80% of my FTP to try to get into a group and then let others dictate the pace on the way back into town.  If the group slowed down too much then I would ride hard for 5-10 minutes to the next group if I could make it.  I continued with this strategy until the last 5 miles where I just cruised in an attempt to prep my legs for the run.  Despite this bike pacing I virtually evenly split all three loops at 24.09, 24.03 and 24.06 mph respectively.  There were some very tough moments on the bike course, particularly into the wind and up the hill, however, I felt pretty good on most of the bike and my total AP power was actually pretty conservative, however, it was not nearly as steady and consistent as I normally ride and I think this high variability was part of my undoing on the run course.

I was 19^th out on to the run at a race time of 8:35 with a top ten finish and a 20-25min Ironman PR within my grasp if I was able to run my “normal” IM run.  However, I was not taking anything for granted.  The first mile of an IM run is usually pretty uncomfortable but then things loosen up and I am able to settle into a rhythm.  However, around mile 2 I knew I was in trouble.  My lower back is normally a little tight for the first mile or two of the run, however, today the spasms set in pretty early, began getting worse and was effecting my run stride.  A very similar problem occurred at my first race of the 2008 season at California Ironman 70.3 in April.  I continued on hoping that things would work themselves out, after all as I constantly tell myself on race day “it’s a long day and anything can happen.”

At mile 16 the spasms in my lower back became unbearable and my run stride had turned into more of a hopple/shuffle.  As a perfect example of how interconnected the entire body is, due to my odd “running” form and interconnectedness of all the muscles in the kinetic chain involved in running my quads and hamstrings began to seize up as well.  I began limping, and at this point my run had turned into a side ways shuffle/limp.  Additionally I began shivering despite the sunny skies and temps in the mid 70’s.  I knew at this point I was in serious trouble and if I continued I was in danger of doing serious damage to my body.  I walked/limped for about a mile and a half before I finally made the decision to throw in the towel which was a very difficult decision, I could have walked the remaining 9 miles or so, but at what cost?  I deiced to limit my injuries and live to fight another day…and went to the medical tent. 

This was the first race I have ever DNF’d, in fact it was one of the first time I have ever quite anything I started.  I am certainly disappointed in myself, as I have mentioned in the past, quitting is just not my style.  However, given the situation, as painful as it was both physically and mentally to drop out, I know that I made the right decision.  The worst part is that, I feel like I let down, my family, coach, friends and everyone who has supported me in my passion to reach the pinnacle in the sport of triathlon.

I know this race and a DNF will only fuel my fire and I know that this race in general, the good and the bad, has put me in a much better position to take 2009 to a new level, as my coach said, “sophomore year will be much better.”  Additionally, my sister-in-law, who deals with famous, professional athletes on a daily basis, put it all into perspective.  “Pros get injured and sick but the rules are different since they do it all in the public eye.  What separates champions from the rest is the ability to refocus and learn from the imperfect days.  Tiger Woods has had rounds he’d like to forget.  Brett Favre has had games with multiple interceptions.  This is a great experience for a young pro….you went out too hard and now you know what happens.  You will have that perfect race and when you do, you will appreciate it all the more.”   I couldn’t have put it any better myself.

Lastly, a huge thank you to Timex, Team Sports, my Teammates and all my sponsors for a great 2008.  Thanks for reading…now a few weeks of down time and then back in the saddle with renewed focus on 2009.

 www.alexmmtri.com

IMAZ Nov 2008 race Results