Mary Eggers

I raised one eye brow (yeah, like I can do that) as I downloaded the Garmin from my run. It’s my second land run. Everything went fine. It’s been about 5 weeks I believe. But something is different. My typical pace for an endurance run is 8:30-8:40. (as a reference my tempo pace is then about 7:15-7:20). The data was there from the run, endurance run average pace of 8:09.

Someone attributed it to the cooler weather, my muscles being looser…….  the last time I ran the temps were the same, and with the extra bike volume there ain’t looseness going on here.

I am not going to get excited until I have a 60 minute run under my belt but…. the run injury protocol….. it works. The Wizard has several examples, he could rattle them off to you all day long. But I am understanding that it does work, and that perhaps it’s not something to ignore. Should following a week of the protocol when you are not injured be part of recovery? something to think about.

The Wizard is very public about his protocol, but I have gotten a lot of questions about what it is, so let’s break it down.

The article I am referencing can be found right here.

The whole premise of the protocol is this:

“The basic concept is that a triathlete’s gluts, hamstrings, and quads get adequate stress on a daily basis from bike training. The only major movement (relative to running) that is neglected is hip flexion. Another less significantly neglected area would be the calf (soleus and gastroc), although this does get some stress through cycling. These identifications make it intuitively obvious that if you are not running and would like to stay in “run” shape, you must keep these areas engaged and fit.”

Now additionally as this all relates to Ironman,

“The other major piece of information that we have to use to our advantage related to IM racing, is that bike durability plays a significant role in being able to run well off the bike. The simple way to say this is you want to be trained such that you get off the bike as fresh as possible as if you were just toeing the line of a marathon. Wait a minute, you are!! It amazes me how many people forget that very simple fact.”

Think about that for a minute. How well do you run off the bike? What’s your half marathon time? I will use one of my athletes, Alexa as an example. Her stand alone half marathon time in April was a 1:50. This past weekend she competed in the Tupper lake 1/2 Ironman. Her previous best 1/2 Ironman was a 5:40. At Tupper she ripped off a 5:16 with a half marathon time of: 1:50. THAT is a well paced bike, and THAT is evidence of how good her bike fitness is right now.

If the run split is too far off the stand alone 1/2 marathon time, then that is an indication of poor bike fitness / poor bike execution.

I use that example to demonstrate just how important bike fitness is. Not speed, but endurance, remember that speed actually comes from a very deep aerobic base. This means riding slower on the slow days. If you average 22-23 miles per hour on race day you likely should be hanging back around 16-18 in training. But this is an entirely separate post. We certainly don’t dictate training on a bike by mph. DUH!

Working the run injury protocol helps that bike fitness become even stronger because in an Ironman it’s ultimately what you need to run the marathon. If you can run a marathon off the bike that’s within 10 min of your stand alone marathon time, you’ve done your bike homework then. Most people fall into the trap, if they see this gap, of thinking they need to run more.

Back to the protocol.

Here are what Jesse outlines to be the key components for the protocol (with some comments inserted by me)

1) Take half of your planned run volume and add that time to your bike mileage. This will improve your bike durability a huge amount and therefore help you run better, or arrive at the marathon start fresher.

If you currently bike 6 hours a week and run 3 hours a week, you would take 1.5 hours of running and add it to your weekly bike volume, which would then equal 7.5 hours of biking. Now we still have 1.5 hours of running to cover….

2) Take the other half of your planned run mileage and add that to devoted time of engaged hip flexor work. This can come in the form of water running, Power Cranks on the bike, or kicking in the  Of those, I’d have at least half be pool running. While pool running, execute the workouts just as you would have if you were real running except note that pool HR zones are typically about 10% lower than on-land run zones. This is due to the venous return you get from the water pressure in the pool (like wearing a giant compression sock). Your body just doesn’t have to beat as much to move around the same amount of blood.

So let’s say you devote 30 minutes per week to hip flexor work, eccentric calf raises, and possibly powercrank work (using 30 as a round number). Then you’d use the additional 60 minutes to run in the pool. Pool running is tricky. We used to really emphasize emulating running form in the pool. Most athletes don’t do it, they do a form of treading water. Think about marching in the pool (deep water). Bring the knees up, press the heel down. Engage the hip flexors is what we are trying to accomplish. Stop trying to move from one side of the pool to the other so fast, covering 25 yards pool running does not equate to minute per miles of running.

3) Spend three days a week doing Calf raises and hip flexor exercises. Just 3 sets of each on each day is sufficient for these.

I think there is a tendency to want to do more, so try to limit it to three days a week. Get yourself some cuffed tubing, the cuffs go around your ankles and march. Calf raises, eccentric. On a step. The criteria the Wizard used for me was that I had to be able to complete 3 sets of 12 without pain. We waited until then.

Jesse’s got several examples of this protocol working. I am hoping that I am one of them. Was the 8:09 a fluke? I will believe it when I see a few more runs at that pace. What I am really focused on now is returning to the roads safely. This week it is 3 X road runs separated by a day of pool running. I am very sure I could run a good 1/2 marathon at the Mussel next week off the bike, but I know again, the right thing to do is the Aquabike. Steelhead is right around the corner, so I have to be patient. I write that more for me than for you. Have to keep myself honest!

So the run injury protocol is a way you can keep your training moving forward. Just because you can’t run at the moment doesn’t mean your game is over. And it certainly does not mean that you still can’t run your best.

Still not sure? Hang around for a bit, let’s find out.

Keep the questions coming! Next week we will talk heart rate training, wheels, powermeters, running, and more. My email is at the right.

We review the Ironman Lake Placid course this week in our free webinar! Click here for details.

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Cross Fit. Everyone is doing it. Everyone wants to know if it’s “good”. Everyone wants to know if it will help them become a better triathlete. The answer is not simple, yes and no.

Let me start at the beginning because this post will involve some controversy.

When I go to a Cross Fit Certified Instructor I assume that they come with a level of expertise. Just like when you come to me as a USAT Triathlon Coach, or better yet…. as a Registered Nurse. I trust that my Oncologist knows his field as an expert. My dentist knows teeth better than I ever could. and my Massage Therapist is an expert in her field as well. I trust that when you earn a certain credential you have met certain qualifications, and to me that also mens you hold a very high level of professionalism.

There has been some chatter around here with the folks that do Cross fit. Apparently their Cross Fit instructor has educated them to the fact that …. and I paraphrase……a long run and or a long bike can be replaced with a Cross Fit session and you will be faster. And any coach who doesn’t agree with that doesn’t know what they are doing.

The first time I heard that I dismissed it, owing it up to the fact that the person just heard the Cross Fit instructor wrong. But then I heard the same thing from 7 different people.

Sigh. Eye roll. Deep breath.

Let me start with the obvious. Any coach or instructor worth anything would never break the number one rule of professionalism. Never, ever make a statement about another fitness professional that you A. Don’t know, B. Have never spoken to. The fact that this instructor apparently told several people that their coach didn’t know what they were doing if they didn’t believe a long run or long bike could be replaced with Cross fit says volumes about that instructor and negates my theory and belief that those who go through the certification process for their chosen field have a certain level of expertise.

I won’t even engage in a debate with someone like that.

Secondly let’s be realistic. Cross Fit will not help you become a faster swimmer, cyclist, or runner. Weight training will not help you become a faster swimmer, cyclist or runner. To become a faster swimmer, cyclist or runner you have to…… swim, bike and run.

In reality, weight training will do more to slow you down.

Would I replace a long bike with a Cross fit class? Would I ride 100 miles to bench press 400 pounds?

No silly. Our sports require specificity. Plain and simple.

Now, with that being said let me back up. There are certain things we need to think about when it comes to weight training and endurance sports. There is a place for weight training. Absolutely. Is there a place for Cross Fit? definitely.

I believe that weight training becomes an insurance policy for muscles. Many of us have certain postural imbalances. If we add a force to those imbalances, over time we can sustain cause injury. Many of us have muscular imbalances. Over time if we add force to those imbalances we can sustain injury.

Weight training should first address postural and muscular imbalances early in the season. Most general strength training programs will take care of this.

Next we want to build strength. The purpose of building strength is not so you can run hills faster or swim your 100 yard repeat in sub 1 minute. Running hills will help you run hills faster. Swimming to target a sub 1:00 100 will help you achieve that.

Weight training is going to help strengthen the muscle to prevent injury, protect the joints and to help us become more durable.

So which modality is the best? Is it Cross fit? P-90X?

I think they are all good. I think they all address the needs that we are looking to be met. I think they are all fun. We have to keep things high on the fun-o-meter to encourage adherence.

If you are using Cross fit through the season I would recommend dialing it back a notch. The cool thing about Cross fit is that you up the ante all on your own with each session. If you can focus on performing the movements without destroying yourself and trying to hit the next target all of the time, I think it can be a great complement to triathlon training.

Unfortunately in my experience, athletes are not good at dialing it back. I have a few athletes who do Cross fit and they will write something in their training log to this effect on Tuesday:

“Man, GREAT Cross fit Class! I finally mastered burpees. I did all of the sets and added the jump at the end. I worked really really hard.”

Then subsequently Thursdays run log will look like this:

“Totally died on the run today. did the hill repeats but felt horrible. I must need to gain more strength in my legs.”

No. Back up. What trashed your run was likely what you did on Tuesday. The proper way to execute Tuesday would have been to perhaps not work quite so hard in Cross Fit Class. Focus on the form, not on the intensity.

100% of the time however it doesn’t happen that way.

A final thing we need to think about where weight training is concerned is that as we age we begin to lose muscle mass. For all of us the magic number at which this happens is different. 35-45…. who knows. So we try to preserve what we’ve got with weight-bearing exercise. Weight training, and yes Cross Fit is a good way to do that.

In conclusion:

1. If your Cross Fit instructor tells you that a long run and or long bike can be replaced with a Cross Fit Class, I would think carefully before I took that advice. If your Cross Fit instructor tells you that your swim, bike, run or triathlon coach does not understand Cross fit if they don’t agree….. ask your coach. Do they know anything? No one ever asked me what I know (turns out I know it well). And consider this: in your chosen field would you make that statement about a professional that you don’t know? Then make your choice.

2. Cross fit has a place in multisport. It’s a good program. It’s fun. It works the right muscle groups and it is functional strength training at it’s best. Discuss with your coach about why you are doing it. Let them help guide you into how to tweak it to fit your current phase of training. AND LISTEN TO THAT ADVICE.

3. Remember: to become a faster swimmer, cyclist and runner you need to swim bike and run.

4. Remember the goals of weight training are to protect the muscle and the joint, correct imbalances and to help create a more durable muscle. If you want to become a stronger cyclist then cycle through a strength on the bike cycle. Don’t add more leg presses.

In case I have not said it before: the key to faster swimming, cycling and running is to swim bike and run.

The key to bench pressing 300 pounds….. does not lie in riding 100 miles to prepare.

We made it to Hershey and are on a little break from the park. Did you know that Hershey is located on the sun itself? Yes, it’s true. And the moment we left Rochester, it shook. Earthquake! We don’t get em often but the little ones are always kind of interesting.

I am still answering questions so go ahead and keep sending them! either by comment or by email: maryeggers ”at” gmail ”dot” com. Strangely at the hotel we are at Gmail is blocked, so my email replies are going to to be sparse for the next few days.

Today’s question appropriately addresses the question of how to fit training in while traveling? I do a lot of traveling that is race related, those trips are on airplanes and I fly my bike with me if I need it. for the smaller trips like the one I am on it just takes a bit of creative scheduling.

1. Talk to your coach. I have always learned the hard way to not attempt to rearrange my schedule myself. If you have a coach remember they plan your week a certain way for a reason. There is a plan. So rearranging just messes everything up. This week we loaded my bigger workouts before and after travel so the ones I have to do on the trip are short.

2. Don’t train on family time. I really make it a priority to train on my own time. We all have our own time of day that is our own, but on a trip we might have to make adjustments. I have located a pool that opens at 5am. I brought my computrainer. Luc is used to the whirl of the trainer while he is sleeping. But he will never be sat at the end of a pool while I am swimming. call me a snob but to each our own. My workouts are done on his sleep time. Curt and I work out a system. I have heard of people who leave their kids under the age of seven in a hotel room, even in their house while they are out riding or running. If I swim, Curt rides the trainer. If Curt runs, i ride the trainer. It is a rarity that we both ride the same size bike and wear the same sized bike shoes. We bring one bike and one trainer.

The opportunity might also present itself where I can head out for a 5am ride. I utilize things like www.mapmyride.com or more recently www.biketoaster.com to help me find a route to ride.  That goes for running also. And I have good running news to share! That’s tomorrow!

3. Be portable. even I travel my aquajogger and my TRX come with me. If I can’t get a road run in, then I pool run. The TRX i can do anywhere, I have a door mount for traveling.

4. Use what your hotel has. do some research, is there a fitness room? What does it have? use it. Not many others do!

Whether or not I was training for an Ironman, I would bring all this stuff along. It takes up no more room in the car than our normal lives. don’t stop training for travel, be creative!

Hershey is going great. There are 11 rollercoasters here and Curt has so far ridden 7 of them. Tonight he has a date with the ferenheit. The biggest baddest rollercoaster in Hershey. Now me, well, that’s sort of another story. I have what you might call avoidance of rollercoaster-itis. We are a family of three, I am “the coat holder.”

I won’t be on it. Hell.No.

This morning I executed my typical round of eccentric calf raises, eagerly awaiting the day when they are pain free. It was still a tightness, not a pain but a tightness. I frowned. I am being incredibly patient. But I feel like a bear in a cage. I miss running terribly.

I worried how walking around Hershey park for hours would cause it to feel. Do I boot it? I decided to give it a go. I wear these shoes, not only because they are high fashion but because they are more supportive than Crocs yet allow the feet the freedom to move on their own. And they are wicked comfortable. Two hours into our adventure I thought to myself, wow is this Achilles feeling really good!

While waiting for the boys to go on a rollercoaster, I did a set of eccentric calf raises it felt awesome. so I did two. WTF? Why does it hurt one minute and not now? That’s the nature of muscles and the nature of injury, and before I get ahead of myself I will ice the craziness out of it tonight and if the morning goes well, I will try my run on land.

Try to get some sleep wondering how it went! of course I will update!

But we have some Hershey to get back to!

At camp I rode a motorcycle. Pictured here. If you are a nurse the obvious will stand out at you. I am riding a motorcycle in shorts. Rule #1 of how to try to die. Granted we were just circling Mirror Lake and we were just going a much too freaking fast 40 miles an hour, the entire time the thought skin graft was loud and clear through my mind. And apparently when riding a motorcycle you need to lean with the bike, not in the other direction. Which was apparently annoying to Jake, the driver, as my incessant screaming “WE’RE GONNA DIE” may have been as well. By the way Jake doesn’t swim, bike or run. He is the other half of Kim and jake and he drinks beer. However when he hops into the water he throws down a 57 100 yard free. Yeah, he’s one of those jerks.

Riding a motorcycle: checked off the list of fears I am conquering. No need to do that again anytime soon.

We’re back from camp and preparing for another departure. This one I like to call “Camp Hershey.” Luc has two more days of school and we essentially say screw that. We declare school over today. It’s June for crying out loud. The kid has worked his ass off. He needs to be rewarded. Which means before the crack of dawn tomorrow we are bound for Hershey Park. We’ve even got a house sitter. Big time we are.

We made this trip last year and we knew the moment we left there that we would do it again. And we will do it again next year. It’s three days of belly laughs, rides and water slides. Just the three of us. for me it’s an opperuntiy to clear my head before the biggest month of business, with Musselman and lake Placid coming up I have a boatload of work to do. I never take vacation from my athletes, and I say I will but I won’t. But I will try.

One of the things I love most about traveling is finding places to swim. We found this neat little place just a little outside of the Park to hit before it opens on day two and maybe just to hang out on day three. We bring my bike and a trainer and we do short workouts that don’t interfere with family (we ride the same sized bike) and we party it up Eggers’ style. I was thinking I would have another beer on this trip, but that would bring me to three, and I have promised my athletes a post Ironman beer in Lake Placid when they finish Ironman, that’d bring me to four, and if I drank an entire six-pack in one year my own eye brows would begin to raise!

Super exciting and wild times in the Eggers’ home. I know. Someone stop me.

My Achilles is healing fabulously. The criteria to be able to run again is to be able to execute 3 sets of eccentric calf raises with zero pain. I am miraculously at a one. Just to give you a little history here. in 2006 I partially tore this Achilles as pictured. Now where the red area is… is where I tore. I partially tore and then ran through it for four months so the recovery was the remainder of the year. I spent four months in a walking boot and that part has been absolutely rock solid ever since. Now pictures here is where the tendonitis currently resides, and what you will notice is that the hot spot is right where the Achilles inserts into the bone.

The Wizard went back as he amazingly can and traced the chain of events that led to this issue. I have been running too much in the Newtons, rather than alternating them like I should have been. If you’ve ever worn these than you know how freaking comfy they are, easy to happen. I also rearranged some key workouts instead of asking my coach for some help when i ran out of time. This goes back to the whole training to get it done or training to get faster issue. And it got tweaked on one easy 30 minute run. When this gets strained it can get strained good and because of the poor blood flow to the Achilles in general, plus the fact that if you spend a lot of time on your feet it’s a tough muscle to rest…… now you can see how easy it is to exacerbate your condition.

I put myself into my walking boot and became very diligent about my recovery. This included:

1. Wearing the boot to rest the Achilles
2. Adhering to the running injury protocol.
3. receiving Active Release Therapy and the Gaston Technique. Which hurt like a Mo-fo but work.

Again our criteria for running is being able to execute 3 sets of eccentric calf raises without pain. It’s to the point where I am like, is that pain, yes, no I don’t know. But we are being cautious. I have a big goal in November and I am not going to blow it when I have the power to recover and heal properly. Injuries happen in this sport despite our best efforts. It’s life.

Due to this we’ve revised my race schedule. I will be aquabiking at the Musselman on July 11th, which is the right thing to do since we have already planned to race Steelhead 70.3 on July 31st. I knew the moment we sat down in December and mapped out the year that Musselman would be a C Priority race. Many of the amazing women I know around here are competing, K-Roe, Julie Rosa, Kim Ammon…. and I wanted the chance to get in there and have some fun with the classiest group of chicks I know. But they would tell me to be smart. And so is the Wizard. So that’s the decision.

We will do a proper build to Steelhead then and carry on. Ironman Florida is calling my name. There is something about the redneck Riviera, the coozies and the cut off t shirts. The wide open beaches that I pray pray pray will still be as beautiful thanks to the oil spill. There is something about looking to the edge of the ocean, where ocean meets sky and watching the sunset drop.

Onward we go. first stop, Hershey park. Stay tuned for more adventure!