  It has been a long time, over a month I think, from the last time I posted. I can tell you that I did not post because of a lack of adventure. The time since I last posted has seen me travel to multiple states and a foreign country. After my podium finish at the TN state Crit championships I decided to take some time off. I was planning on taking off one week to recoup and refocus. Removing all temptation of riding my carbon steed my wife and I hopped in the car and headed towards the Atlantic Ocean. Back in March I surprised my wife with cruise tickets, in celebration of our 3 year anniversary. We were set to ship out from the hot but beautifully preserved city of Charleston, SC. “Welcome to Charleston” was indeed a welcoming sight. I’ve visited Charleston a handful of times, whether it be for racing or for relaxation. I always get lost in the beauty of the history and architecture that makes up downtown. My wife and I got there a day early so we could spend some time actually exploring Charleston. My wife hadn’t been to Charleston in a long time (or at all) so I wanted to show her around. Charleston hotels are expensive, especially around the summer time when vacationers flock to the city and beach. Luckily for me, there is an Air Force Base just outside of Charleston that is host to a nice hotel which we could stay at for cheap. For anyone in the military, take advantage of Space-A deals! My wife and I checked into the hotel just prior to dinner. What did we have planned for the night? Some quick research on my favorite food blogs Making Thyme for Health pointed us towards CO Charleston. A modern Asian restaurant with options for the vegetarian (me) and the meat eaters (my wife). I recommend this place to anyone in Charlotte, Charleston, Myrtle Beach, Savannah, or Atlanta. After filling up on noodles and spring rolls we walked down the street to the Carolina Ale House, which is a rooftop bar overlooking historical Marion Square. We had a couple of beers, laughs, smiles, while silently participating in trivia night. The next morning we awoke in our typical early fashion and headed back downtown to break the nightly fast. We ended up going to Kitchen 208 which ended up being somewhat disappointing, at least in the food aspect. The coffee was delicious but neither of us were happy with our food choices. Lessons learned the hard way. We couldn’t board the ship until 2pm so that gave us 5 hours to explore Charleston. We hit up the major locations like The Historic Charleston City Market, Charleston City Hall, Waterfront Park and the adjacent beautiful neighborhood. We filled the final hours by eating an amazing lunch at Carmella’s and people watching next to the US Customs building. What I expected to be a long and painful wait to board the ship ended up being a smooth and easy process. Carnival, unlike Walmart, actually used all computers and counter space available to check in guests. The entire process took less than 30 minutes. A tip to anyone that drives down and needs to find parking; there are parking garages around King Street that charge a maximum of $35 or so for “lost tickets.” Park at one of these garages and walk to the dock. Parking at the dock will cost you $60-70. The cruise we decided on was aboard the Carnival Ecstasy, an older and smaller ship, that leaves Charleston and stops in Nassau for a total round trip of 4 days. The entire cruise experience was amazing. Choosing the smaller cruise ship for my first time was perfect. My wife and I are similar in that we enjoy smaller crowds and a slower pace during vacation. Don’t get me wrong, there was always something to do on the ship. We filled our time and never felt bored. The service was spectacular every day. The entire crew was always happy and almost felt like family at the end. We ended up getting really close to a couple of the crew members, especially the bartenders at the Alchemy Bar. We spent time really getting to know the crew members. I am always fascinated by the stories from other humans, especially foreigners (which makes up 95% of the crew). On top of the perfect service was an amazing food menu for every meal. My wife and I ate in the dining hall for breakfast and dinner every day. Every day we were astounded by the flavors, atmosphere, and selections. There was always at least one vegetarian option. We were never disappointed by the food. The only thing that we were ever disappointed by in the dining hall was the morning coffee. The coffee in the dining hall was extremely watered down. Fear not though for we purchased the drink package which allowed us to visit the specialty coffee bar. There we could get our tasty espresso and cappuccinos. Overall, I would definitely do this cruise again. The week we returned from the cruise happened to butt up against an extended weekend for Memorial Day. I took advantage of the long weekend to put in some big rides and jump start the fitness. So, I actually had intentions to start riding immediately after returning from the cruise but a small fainting episode and a concussion prevented that plan. On the final night of the cruise I ended up fainting after standing up too quickly. I fainted hard into the closed wall closet. I definitely gave myself a concussion because for the next 3 days I could not focus and anytime I had to think my head began to ache. I took it very easy, even reducing hours at work, in order to properly recover. By Thursday I was feeling a lot better and began to train again. I ended up getting in 14.5 hours of riding into 5 days (13.5 in just 4 days). But alas the next weekend began my 2 weeks of Annual Training. Annual Training is a 2 week period during the summer where reservists go on active duty orders to train up. This time we spend a week in the field and then a week in WW2 clam shell huts. Our objective was to practice some of our basic warrior drills but more importantly grow our unit cohesion. I believe we accomplished the mission and got some really good training. Annual Training is always a tough place to develop any bike fitness though. I ended up getting in a handful or workouts the first week but ended up getting a head and chest cold the second week. The cold was so bad it prevented me from doing any training which caused my fitness level to plummet. Alright, so what is next for me? The peak of the mountain is the Cascade Classic. The Cascade Classic is one of, if not the top, American stage race. Just like Joe Martin, it brings the top cyclists from around the nation (and world) for 5 days of racing around Bend, OR. Currently, I have just under a month to prepare. I have used TrainingPeaks to plan out an aggressive build up but if executed perfectly will get me to where I need to be to finish in the top 10. Included in the aggressive buildup will be 3.5 race days. This weekend I am making the trip up to Cincy for the Hyde Park Blast (3/4 and P123) as well as Madeira Criterium. Once I return I will do the final Knoxie Crit (as long as I remember my shoes). The final race day in the lead-up will be Hot Doggett 100 which is a Gran Fondo that takes place just north of Asheville. Luckily, in the buildup I don’t have any weekend obligations and major stressors so all I need to do is execute and I will be ready. 
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 Matt Bach is a storied Age Group Athlete that has a long list of victories, including Ironman Maryland. He has the experience of balancing a normal work life and setting sights on a World Championship title. Along the way though Matt started to notice signs that were not normal to endurance training. Matt couldn't shake the constant fatigue, and he struggled to find any enjoyment in racing or training. Matt, similar to me, suffered from chronic overtraining which lead to some severe low testosterone. Matt dives into his experience and his new found knowledge about low testosterone in this guest blog. You might recognize the name from his appearance on ENDURANCE PLANET podcast, TRS Radio, as well as Slowtwitch and The Wall Street Journal. Overtraining and Low TestosteroneWhat it is, how to prevent it, and how to get back into balance May 2017 I may look healthy, but I’m not. I am a triathlete suffering from fatigue, low libido and osteoporosis. I have the bones of a 73 year old. I’m 29. I write this blog so that you might be aware of the issues that can arise from too much endurance training, but also to inform you that it is preventable and reversible. Life is about balance, and I screwed up my balance and my health. You may like what you see in the mirror, but you may not be healthy either. I am a case study for what NOT TO DO, and I hope you will learn from my mistakes. Symptoms of Low T (<300ng/dL) It has been shown in numerous studies since the 1980’s that overtraining in endurance sports can cause reduced testosterone levels. The most common symptoms include fatigue, low libido and impaired performance, but low T can impact many aspects of life including energy levels, sleep patterns, mood, sex life, fertility, cognitive ability, frequent illness, bone health and body composition. The symptoms that each person experiences are different; for me, it was fatigue, low libido, and impaired bone health (osteoporosis at age 29), but for other people it could be any combination of the other symptoms that I listed. Careful! Most people, including myself, write off their fatigue and lack of desire to the rigors of their training, but in many cases, it is something deeper. Prevalence If you have low T like I did, know that we are not alone. It is a very common thing for triathletes, and if you have the type A, overly-disciplined personality that so many of us triathletes have (and many take pride in), then you are at high risk for suffering from low T. If any of the below apply to you, then you might be driving yourself into a hole:
It’s not just triathletes that suffer from hormone issues, but other endurance athletes too. Many of you may be aware of Ryan Hall’s story, which has helped to bring the low testosterone issue into the limelight. Ryan ran the fastest marathon time ever by an American in the 2011 Boston Marathon, 2:04:58. He also broke the American record in the half marathon running a blistering 59:43. Last year, he retired from the sport, at the young age of 33, struggling to run just 12 easy miles per week because of the devastating effects of low testosterone. Soon after I discovered I had low testosterone, I went on a fact-finding frenzy. I wanted to see how common low testosterone is in endurance athletes, and ask them what they’ve done to manage it. I chose to focus on elite endurance athletes, about half professional and half elite amateurs, because they typically take on higher volumes of training, which I’ve come to understand is the biggest factor leading to low T. I polled 22 elite triathletes and an astonishing 13 of them have had diagnosed hormone issues due to endurance training. Out of the remaining 9 people, 6 of them have experienced symptoms of low testosterone but have not been formally diagnosed. Just 3 out of the 22 elite triathletes I polled claim to have never experienced hormone issues! Further, at least 6 from the list have also had low bone density due to hormone imbalances, and bone stress injuries like I have. Finally, a researcher in the area of exercise-induced low testosterone has informed me that a study will be published soon that reports low testosterone in approximately 50% of male Kona athletes.  Matt Bach, A Case StudY Below I will describe what I’ve done over the past six years to cause such devastation to my health. I do this so that you might have a better understanding of what it took for me, and you can compare to yourself. We are all different though, and some of our bodies can sustain a lot more stress than others before they break down. Note that you may be training far less than I, and may be getting more rest, but still could experience issues. On the flip side, you might be training far more and sleeping 5 hours a night, yet haven’t experienced any problems health-wise. Lucky you! How I Dug My Hellth Hole Overtraining / Under-recovery 2010 – The year my wife and I began triathlon. Spinning classes, some running, practically drowning in the pool, and some killer abs classes at the gym. This was not when I began overtraining. Weekly Average: 6 hours 2011 – Met a group of tremendously dedicated triathletes in Hoboken while I was living in Jersey City. Saw their knowledge and company as a way to get good quickly, and I was right! Upped my training and they showed me the ropes. I did 3 half Ironman events that year, along with some shorter triathlons and running events. I was self-coached and partook in “leech training” where I would join in on my training partners’ workouts, usually created by their coaches. Weekly Average: 12 hours 2012 – My body seemed to be able to cope with more training, so I gave it more training, as I was still self-coached. I saw improvements in fitness over the past couple of years simply by increasing volume, so I, like so many others in our sport, figured improvement must be linearly correlated with volume. My attitude drifted in the direction of trying to fit in as much training as possible given my work and sleep schedule. I noticed that if I got under an average of 7:15 sleep per night, I would get sick, so determined that 7:15 was the right amount. While it was not my goal, I missed qualifying for Kona by 1 slot in my debut Ironman going 9:59 at Ironman Lake Placid. Weekly Average: 16 hours 2013 – Seeing how close I was to qualifying for Kona, I was determined to get there. I remained self-coached, increased my training even further, and fit in as much training as possible. In fact, I stretched the limits of what was possible to put into my schedule. I rarely saw my wife during the week, and spent only a handful of hours with her each weekend. Nearly every Saturday for three months, I rode a century+ then tacked on a run afterwards. For a five week period before tapering for Placid, I had not given myself a single rest day. I ended up having a terrible race at Placid, missed Kona by 1 slot again and went 9:58. Frustrated but knowing the fitness was there, my wife allowed me to sign up to race Ironman Louisville four weeks later where I succeeded in qualifying for Kona by winning my age group. Another factor was that Jared Tootell, a training partner and friend of mine, informally coached me after Placid, and taught me the value of the trainer and quality vs. quantity. This was my first foray into “less is more” and likely saved me from digging myself even further into this hellth hole. I competed in Kona 7 weeks later to complete my 3rd Ironman in as many months. This year was the peak of my overtraining / under-recovery, and when my life balance was most out of whack. Weekly Average: 17 hours
2015 – Having won Ironman Maryland in 2014 in a 51 minute PR of 8:51 on what felt like “light” training, the prospect of going pro became real. I felt compelled to train more this time and see how big of a ripple I could make in Kona, targeting the top amateur spot. A great result there would put me in a good position to go pro either in 2016 or 2017. My volume stretched again and I felt as though some of that extra bandwidth was gone. Then in March, I noticed two symptoms of low testosterone, unusual fatigue and low libido, for the first time, but I didn’t know that’s what my issue was until August when I was first diagnosed. I had total testosterone of 153 vs the “normal” range of 300-1000. By then it was too close to Kona to just stop training, especially when the only things I noticed were fatigue and low libido, and I was continuing to improve performance-wise. In fact, I had a number of massive breakthroughs in training last year and was top amateur at Eagleman 70.3 by over 5 minutes. I kept the testosterone issue in mind, but decided to continue training at a high level through Kona, and then I would address the issue. I placed 72nd overall in Kona, failing to execute the race I knew I was capable of, and then took time off. After 2 weeks, my testosterone levels had already risen to 256, more than a 100 point increase over my known low point, though still not in the range of “normal.” Several more weeks off would help, and learning more about what could be done to improve my levels naturally would set me up well for 2016. Weekly Average: 16 hours 2016 – This is when I finally started doing a lot of the right things, though it turns out it was too little too late. I developed a stress reaction in my right femoral neck in May due to having low bone density, the low bone density being a result of low testosterone and underfueling. I slashed my training to near zero and after gathering tons of info from doctors, studies, google, Cody Beals, and ancient cave paintings, I decided to pursue a smattering of natural methods to improve my testosterone levels. By September, my testosterone levels had climbed to 599ng/dL, just shy of the “average” T level for 30 year old males of 625ng/dL. I gradually resumed and increased my training throughout the remainder of the year. Weekly Average: 13 hours until injury, then 0 building to 8 hours by the end of the year 2017 – I was running ~10 miles at a time, or about 20-25 miles per week when I suffered a recurrence of the stress reaction in my right femur. While my testosterone levels were back to normal, my bone density levels were still very low (it takes a lot of time to regrow bone and bone loss is partially irreversible). I stopped training again, then resumed swimming, then had my first child on April 7th. Weekly Average: 5 hours until injury and baby, then 1 Weight In early 2015, one of the experiments I ran on myself was to see how low I could go before losing muscle mass or feeling like dirt. I had begun employing metabolic efficiency training in 2014, so thought that maybe with my new nutrition regimen, I could go lower than 140lbs and still feel strong. Every pound less I weigh is one pound less I have to carry for 138.2 miles (the swim doesn’t count) through the lava fields right? Right, but it’s not sustainable! My body rebelled and I couldn’t even drop below 145. I pushed and pushed and just couldn’t do it. It turns out that your body’s response to having low testosterone is to retain body fat. Also, by not giving the body enough fuel, it goes into survival mode and begins to draw from other resources in the body (i.e. your reproductive system, your bones, etc). Note that in females, this biological mechanism results in a loss of their period (amenorrhea), but it’s not so obvious for men. It all makes sense now, but I am fairly certain I did some damage during those months. I’ve always wondered why professional triathletes are all heavier than me, even if they are shorter. I think I now understand the reason why. I think I also understand why Mark Allen said “be fat in July to race well in October.” Doctors Time for a little side story! After Kona 2015 when I was determined to get a handle on my testosterone levels, I met with an endocrinologist. I thought I had a good idea of how the meeting would go…I’d explain that I have low testosterone, and that I thought it was because of overtraining. The doc would say, ok, we’ll slap this testosterone patch on you and you’ll be good to go. I’ll say “no, doc, I can’t do that because I’m an athlete and it’s against the anti-doping rules” and then the doc would say “ok, then let’s take natural measures to remedy this.” Doc would then list a bunch of natural ways to do it that would probably overlap quite a bit with the methods I had already learned from Cody Beals. Maybe I’d learn a thing or two, and would consider the appointment a success. NOPE! We didn’t even get past the first part. I explained that I have low testosterone due to endurance training, and the endocrinologist, someone who is an expert in hormones, wasn’t even aware that the link exists! Needless to say, I walked out and never saw that doc again. The point I am making with this anecdote is that while hormone imbalance is prevalent, it is hardly spoken about. Barely anyone understands the problem or how to fix it, even among the medical community. In order to help the multitude of athletes dealing with this, I’ve begun offering consultations to help them get their health and performance back on track. You can email me at [email protected] to request my Athlete Questionnaire, which you would fill out and send back to me in order to get started.  Performance Enhancing Drugs I won’t take supplemental testosterone, and here’s why:
Natural Remedies for Endurance Athletes with Low T
 Emotions These last couple of years have been a roller coaster emotionally. Though I typically excel at remaining rational, it’s been hard to keep my head on straight. At one point I was on the verge of turning professional in the sport, but have since been nearly driven out of the sport altogether due to health issues that I never even knew could arise because of a sport that I thought was healthy. Am I doing the right thing for me, my wife and my newborn daughter? Should I be trying to be competitive at this sport, at a pro or age group level, if it’s going to be a detriment to my health? Will I find the right balance between training and recovery? Will that equilibrium translate into enough training to compete at a high level? Or should I just throw in the towel? While I’ve wavered periodically between the two extremes, quitting the sport and pursuing triathlon at a pro level, and everything in between, the place I seem to be settling is that I will do what I can to restore my health and to return to the sport. Whether I am able to compete again or not, though, will not impact my desire to help those suffering from low testosterone due to endurance training. Let’s all raise awareness of this problem so that others can prevent the hellth hole I’ve fallen into, and so that those who are facing the debilitating effects of low testosterone or low bone density can recover. Preserving your health and being competitive at the sport is possible. What I Hope For You Get blood work done. It’s either free, or nearly free (just a co-pay) and really easy to get. Simply talk to you primary care physician about your level of exercise and concern that it may be affecting your hormone levels. Routine blood work does not typically call for testosterone measurement, so be sure to have your doctor request it specifically. If you think you have experienced symptoms of hormone imbalance, do not hesitate to email me at [email protected] and I will send you my Athlete Questionnaire. Also, if you meet the following criteria, and want to be considered for a research study will be starting in the coming months, then email me. The study will be over the course of a year and will assess endurance training’s impact on testosterone, general health, and performance for endurance athletes. Criteria: 1.) Male endurance athlete 2.) Average 10+ hours of aerobic activity per week 3.) Have either: a.) qualified for Kona (or have come close) or 70.3 worlds, with an overall placement that would be considered "elite" (i.e. a 75 year old man who qualifies for Kona, while very respectable, would not be eligible unless he were capable of being in the top ~third of the overall field) b.) run a marathon under 2:50 c.) raced competitively in 3+ sanctioned cycling events d.) or have achieved something in an endurance sport that would be considered "elite" 4.) Can commit to testing once every 2 months for 1 year at either Rutgers University (New Brunswick, NJ), Ohio State University (Columbus, OH) or Armstrong University (Savannah, GA) If you are interested, you can subscribe to my blog by entering your email address in the upper right hand corner of my website (www.ironmattbach.com) and you can follow me at @IronMattBach on Facebook, Instagram and Twitter Keep your priorities straight. Remember what is important in life! We love endurance sports, but your health comes before training and competition, as does your family, and if you’re not healthy, you’re not going to be there for them.  There comes a time when you have to admit to yourself that you’re on the way to over-training. As most of you readers know, 2017 is my first year focusing completely on cycling. I began with a pure focus on running in 2013, moved to duathlon, added in swimming in 2016, and dropped swimming and running in 2017. I also started to completely self-coach myself. I started out the training season in November of 2016 coming off of a bout of low testosterone and chronic over-training. I vowed to myself that I would not fall back into that trap. Did I fall back into it? To just answer the question right off the bat, physiologically speaking I don’t believe I am over-trained. Looking at the mental side, also called burn-out, I don’t believe I am at that level either. Now, I do think if I keep going on my current path I will quickly approach both of these levels within a month. There are a couple of obvious signs, besides my flat TrainingPeaks fitness level, that brought me to the conclusion.
The second point is pretty obvious. TrainingPeaks has a tool called the power curve which shows your maximum power from 5 seconds all the way to 3 hours. You can overlay two curves, which I usually choose last 90 days and last 180 days. I choose 90 days because most of the time that chart gives you a good representation of your current maximums. It allows you the ability to capture data from a wide variety of workouts and races while not being too wide of a range to capture workouts that won’t be affecting your today. 180 days out is wide enough to capture the tail end of the previous seasons end as well as this seasons build up. So how do you know if you are doing it right? If you are supposed to be peaking today and your 180 day values are still higher then you probably timed it wrong or are starting to become over-trained. Let’s look into my power curve from February and compare it to today’s. One thing that is obvious is February’s lack of power on the upper edge of the curve. This is completely normal for winter training. I was also just coming off of my triathlon training, where peak power means nothing. Looking at today’s chart, we can see it is a smoother curve, which is definitely one of the goals of training, but my bread and butter power is starting to drop. Over the past couple of weeks I have noticed a little bit more gray. I have also noticed that workouts involving 2-5 minute power have been harder to hit, almost impossible. So do these charts really show any signs of overtraining, not really. I would say I timed my peak wrong but power overall, my power levels are still close to where they should be.
Finally, another important chart to look at for clues into overtraining is the Performance management chart. This chart gives a good picture of your fitness and fatigue. You can see from my chart that I have been stagnant since pretty much November. There was a big drop in fitness at the end of October because of forced time off from a crash. After that I never seemed to have enough volume or intensity to gain any true fitness. Just prior to the crash I was doing 15-17 hours a week on the bike. I was keeping the intensity lower but volume high. Once November hit my volume dropped because the weather got rougher and I was relegated indoors. I didn’t pay a ton of attention to the chart because my power curve chart was showing good improvements. My performance chart was still being affected by the previous year where I was training 15-20 hours a week for triathlon. I had a higher daily/weekly stress score than I could match with just cycling training. The problem is that I haven’t allowed any significant time for the chart to drop and my body to recover and adapt. It is never good to keep your form level in the -10 to 10 range, which I have been stuck in for 6 months. This means you probably aren’t doing as much as you actually could (not taking into account life events and work stress). If you are building you want to be under -10 and if you are racing you want to be above 5. Staying in the one area is a recipe for overtraining because of a lack of variety and stress in training. You are going just hard enough to put some fatigue in your body but not enough to make any real changes in fitness.  What is next? Well I have one more race next weekend, the Tennessee State Criterium Championships. After that I will take just over a week off, go on a cruise with the wifey, and relax mentally and physically. Once I get back I will start a build for Cascade Classic and the second half of 2017. I will end this with my current Power Profile. This compares your maximum power to weight ratio from the past 180 days to what the average Cat 5 - World Tour rider can do. I will use this chart as a stepping off point with the goal to get 1 minute, 5 minute, and 20 minute power up to CAT 1 level by the end of the year. Always keep in mind that raw power doesn’t mean you will win races though, it just helps to be strong as well as smart.  Hello All! I wanted to finish the Coach K daily life post. We last left off with me crunching numbers, fiddling with physics, and engineering at work. My job is a pretty standard 9-5 engineering job so I won’t go into details. I will go into details with the time surrounding my required time at work. My first “break” comes around 11am when I head out for lunch. Now, my routine can change drastically depending on one thing; two pups at apartment or not. If my rambunctious pups are at my apartment, versus being in Asheville, then I will head there for lunch. I’ll get back to the apartment, make a quick lunch, and then head outside to play with the dogs. My lunch meal is usually pretty consistent. I always have a pack of flavored tortillas on hand so I can through together some sort of lettuce wrap. Most of the time my wrap consists of lettuce, hummus, cheese, tomato, potato. On the side I’ll have some colorful fruit; today was strawberries! While I am shoving food down my trap I turn on the tube (Youtube) and watch a random Ted talk. Ted Talks have really tickled my fancy recently. I don’t think there is a more enjoyable and entertaining way to be lectured on different topics. After food is consumed I hook up the puppies and we venture over to a field near the apartment. Luna and Adelaide, the pups, love to run around the field and tackle each other. But since this is a lunch break, we only have 10 minutes to play at the park. Luckily, they play so hard that 10 minutes is the perfect dosage. We hurry back into the apartment, give them a treat, and I’m out the door and back to work.  3 or 4 hours later it is time to shut the computer down and walk out the gate. If it is summer I will typically ride the back home and then commute by bike the next morning. Since I am watching the dogs and it is cold and dark I have fallen into the driving commute. Either way, I get home and immediately snack on some fruit, veggies, or carbs and then take the pups on a short walk. After the walk, I will hop on the bike for 1.5-2.5 hour workout, depending on the focus of the day. Completing the workout will put me right around an acceptable dinner time (7 or 8pm). So I will start my rice or grilled veggies and then hop in the shower. Now, I don’t like to waste my time or energy deciding what I want to eat for dinner each day. I have fallen in love with Making Thyme for Health’s weekly meal plan. Sarah assembles a list of FIVE vegetarian meals and all of the ingredients. It is so simple and makes cooking dinner tasty. The fun doesn’t necessarily end when dinner is made. Dinner gives me 30 minutes to relax and just “veg” out. I’ll turn on some documentary or TV show and watch it while I eat. After eating I will pull out the laptop and fire it up for a little more side work.  Side work, a true passion for me, is coaching athletes. The last 2-3 hours of the day are spent programing athletes, digging through their data, reading articles, and reading books about athletics. I could spend more time doing this but, as Scott Proscia would say “Coach K is a delicate flower”. My body tends to start shutting down aroun 9PM with eyes closing at 10PM. I make sure to finish off my day with at least 30 minutes of reading. Right now the book is “Your 15th Club” by Robert Rotella. I will write up a summary once I am complete. Stay tuned for that and more! And with that, it is lights out and time to enter the dream state. Some days are spent differently and I can adapt when necessary but there is extreme value in entering “auto-pilot” mode for a lot of your day. It can help optimize schedules and remove decision fatigue from your life. This gives you more mental and physical energy at the end of the day for doing more of what you want!
I want you to take a moment and think about how your day goes. Maybe start a journal for a couple days and see how you travel through your day. Are there things you can optimize or put on auto-pilot? Do you already follow a pretty standard routine? Become aware of how you live your life. Killing time is wasting time. There are so many minutes throughout the day that are spent with no return. People need to start looking at their time as currency. Ask yourself, what is the ROI (return on investment) for this minute? Is there value added to my life? I don’t necessarily tell you how to spend your time because we all see value added in different ways. For some, slipping into a music coma or getting lost in a good fiction novel are value added minutes. That is not the case for me. I am at a point in my life where I want to learn. I want to consume and grow my knowledge base. The easiest and most time efficient method is through audiobooks and podcasts. Listening to podcasts can be done on long bike rides, at work, and commutes. All of the podcasts I listen to can be broken into three categories: health, lifestyle, and history (news). The following list is in order of favoritism.
I wanted to write a two part blog about how my day usually runs. I am nobody special, I am not any more successful than anyone who reads this post. I simply want to document how I am living today, so in 5 years I can look back and be astonished. I have ambitious goals for how I want my life to run in 5 years. I won’t share those specifics now, but I have the path established. Alright, let’s start from the beginning. My morning I have one simple goal in the morning, keep consistent. I believe in the power of establishing a healthy and proactive morning habit. It needs to be something that can be completed without a ton of cognitive activity. It needs to be something that warms your mind and body. The first thing I do is roll out of bed, grab my phone (which is on airplane mode). I then shuffle to the bathroom, to empty the tank, followed by a stroll to the kitchen. I turn on the stove top to warm up the kettle. While the kettle is heating up I will grind some coffee and place it in to my huge red French press. Honestly, French press coffee is a game changer. Limited investment of effort for huge return in flavor and health benefits. Since the water takes about 3-4 minutes to heat up, I’ll head over to the TV and turn on NBC news or some other streaming news source. After that I pull out my lacrosse ball and start working on some spinal mobility. I have had some chronic low back pain and finally found a routine that drastically reduces pain. So I will roll out with the lax ball, digging into the erector spinae, serratus posterior, and the thoracolumbar fascia. Once the kettle starts to scream I’ll start the brewing process. The French Press takes about 4-5 minutes to steep. While the coffee is steeping, a deep earthy aroma fills the apartment, awaking the nose. I continue on with my lumbar relief program. My program consists of 3-4 strength and stretching movements. It depends on how motivated I am in the morning. If you are interested in this program leave a comment or send me an email! Finally, it is time to sip on that oh so glorious first cup of coffee. My two dogs have finally woken up by this point and decide it is time to play. Daddy (aka Colin) is not ready to play at this time so I get barraged with balls and whining. After a minute they get the picture and decide to lay down. I enjoy my coffee and watch the news for a while before it is time to get dressed. I walk into my clothes covered bedroom and dig through the pile by the wall. I don’t have a ton of work clothing options so it doesn’t take me more than a minute to determine what I will wear. Typically, the pants need to be ironed. Ironing only takes two minutes and makes me feel better about my appearance. After I get dressed it is dog walking time. My black lab starts bouncing around the apartment in excitement. I put the leash on the dogs and they bolt out of the door.  The goal is to get in a short walk, give them exercise and get the “dookie” out. The walk also serves another purpose. Walking around the deserted apartment complex and adjacent business park provides me serene time to focus on the day ahead. It gives me time to formulate a game plan for the day. After the walk, I return to the apartment, grab my keys and out the door. On the way to work I enjoy some podcasts. If you are interested in what I listen to I will release a list of podcasts I consume in the coming days! After a short commute, I pull into work, sign in and head to the bland cube. The first hour of work is usually the same; check and respond to emails followed by my routine breakfast. Breakfast is prepared whenever I am hungry and consists of oatmeal, cacao powder, and a heaping scoop of peanut butter. This combination provides me the energy I need to work hard as well as the satiation needed to last until lunch. At this point, after breakfast it is just work, work, work. My next post will dive into my afternoon habits. How do I refocus after a lunch? Do I avoid the run down feeling of the mid-afternoon crash? When do I workout???
The internet is all around us, literally. You cannot go anywhere except for some extremely remote areas and be disconnected. The sad thing is that in a couple years this won’t be the case either. Facebook has created an initiative to bring the internet to even the most remote areas of the world. Nobody will be able to escape the grasps of the internet. Why do we think that internet connection is such a necessary tool? Is our society any better because of our ability to easily connect to the internet? First, the internet was developed off of a US Department of Defense project, ARPANET, which connected a couple computers on a single network.1 I would bet that the DoD never predicted the size of today’s internet. There are now over 3.5 billion users of the internet.2 1.18 billion of that 3.5 billion use Facebook on a daily basis!3 There is a ton of information being uploaded, shared, and consumed every second. This creates such an overload to our minds that we can easily get addicted. Humans can develop this “fear of missing out” of information and social changes.  http://www.sandhurstcoop.org/2016/03/unplugged-technology-family-limits/ How many times do you check your phone/email daily? Maybe a more manageable way to phrase that question would be replacing the word daily with hourly. I can’t count the amount of time I am on my phone daily. There are too many times where my wife and I are sitting on the couch, Netflix streaming, and we are still both on our phones scrolling Facebook. There are times where conversations are going on and I am not listening because I am too enveloped in the internet. I am missing out on what actually matters because of this made up anxiety of something new on Facebook. Physical human interaction is on the decline. There is nothing that will stop that train. Technology is making it easier for humans to stay indoors and talk through keystrokes. Every year we hit this time where holidays kit back to back. One common denominator between all of these holidays is family. But, how can we focus on family if we are too caught up in Googling “Top Black Friday Deals”? So, I challenge all of my readers to join me in a Disconnected December Challenge.  The Disconnected December Challenge (#Disconnect) is about gradually disconnecting from the internet from 1-25 December. The number of the day corresponds to the amount of hours that you need to disconnect from the internet. So, on 2 December you will need to disconnect for 2 hours and on 24 December you will be disconnected from the internet for an entire day. On 26 December you can go back to your normal internet consumption rate. The first week will be pretty easy. You won't even notice the time away. It is when you begin to enter 8+ hours disconnected that you will really notice a change. You will have less stress, more free time, and stronger relationships. There are multiple ways to do this too. If you feel that disconnecting completely from the internet is too challenging; start by just disconnecting from social media or email. Either way, take this time to enjoy human contact and physical interactions. Take the time away from the internet to enjoy your family and absorb those holiday moments. "Chaos in the world brings uneasiness, but it also allows the opportunity for creativity and growth." Joshua Colp, founder and CEO of Culprit Bicycles knows this quote all too well. Shaking up the bike industry has been his job. Joshua fell in love with the bike industry when he moved out to Taiwan as a missionary. While he was there he started working closely with manufacturing plants and building strong relationships with leaders in the industry. He built a solid base of experience through working with a wide variety of brands, including Token. Josh then got married and his wife pushed him to follow his dreams and to make his designs a reality. Culprit Bikes was born. Culprit's big thing is being a little different. Look at his bikes and designs, disc brakes??? Culprit bikes created the second ever road disc bike and was the first company, even out of the big boys, to release an aerodynamic disc bike. The Culprit Croz Blade brought some big changes to the bike industry. Now you can turn on a UCI race and see at least a couple bikes with disc brakes. Another big innovation, right on the horizon of production is the Culprit Legend. This thing has been all over the big triathlon blogs and websites. Slowtwitch, TRS Triathlon, Tririg have all written a piece about the Legend. The Legend is one of the big things that got me interested in Culprit. I remember reading some posts on Slowtwitch about the Legend so I decided to send Josh an email to learn more. We sent a lot of emails back and forth talking about the Legend and Culprit bikes in general. The Legend is still waiting on some funding to be able to create the necessary molds. Joshua is an extremely passionate and determined designer and owner. I can see he really cares about creating top of the line product while still affordable and with custom options! Another thing that makes Culprit stand out from its competitors is the awesome frame designer tool.  If you wanna be pro, you gotta look pro. What better way to look professional and stand out than having a custom painted frame. Yes, a custom painted frame and even better is that it is included in with the frame pricing. You buy a bike from Culprit and you get a custom painted frame, Culprit cycling kit, Culprit mini-tool, and a solid warranty to back it all up.
I am beyond excited to be working with Joshua and his rising brand of Culprit Bicycles. I will be riding the Croz Blade as well as the Bullet for next season. I'd say keep an eye out for me but I won't be hard to miss. Check out these reviews: http://www.slowtwitch.com/Products/A_Culprit_Croz_Blade_review_4623.html http://trstriathlon.com/TRSForum/discussion/comment/30755/#Comment_30755 http://culpritbicycles.com/products/culprit-legend http://aerogeeks.com/2014/08/27/culprit-croz-blade-one-bike-arsenal-first-look/ http://www.tririg.com/articles.php?id=2015_10_New_Culprit_Legend_Prototype  If there is one thing I have learned in the past couple of weeks, and years, is that I don't like to travel a ton. Now, you might say this is counterintuitive when trying to be a professional athlete. Yes, that is true and it is something I will just have to adapt to and overcome. For three weeks in a row I was out of town and traveling to some family event. It definitely makes training a little tougher but I still managed to get the work done. More important that getting the work done is spending time with family, especially around the holidays. While I didn't enjoy the traveling aspect, I did really enjoy seeing family and exploring some locations on the bike. The firs stop was to Frankfort, KY or land of a lot of distilleries. There was this one distillery that looked like a castle and was tucked into the hills. It is called the Old Taylor Distillery and I guess it was abandoned in 1972 but recent plans have been made to renovate it. Such a neat looking facility and the crazy thing is it still smelled like straight alcohol riding by. The next week brought me back to Ohio to see some amazing friends celebrate their vows to become life partners. Even though that had pretty much been established as they have been dating for over 8 years! I have a new found joy for dancing and celebrating! And finally, a trip home to Pennsylvania. The long trip from Asheville was made even more challenging due to horrible rainstorms and heavy holiday traffic. But, alas, Wifey and I made it home and had a great time. We even failed at making some cookies! My favorite Christmas cookie has to be the hamantaschen (had to look up the spelling on that one.) I suck at folding up the sides so mi madre had to come and rescue me. Training updateThe past couple months of training have been a little more relaxed. It was more about just getting in some volume and having fun. I found some enjoyment with a cheap mountain bike and some gnarly trails, explored new areas by foot, and even took the dogs! Now that Christmas has passed the "off-season" is over and it is time to start training. Today I did 18 hill repeats! I spent more time in Zone 5 then I ever have before today. Not having the stress of a job definitely helps on the recovery side. I also have seen some great improvement now that I am using INFINIT's Nocturne shake. It tastes amazing and sets me up for a great nights sleep [but sadly I am not actually sponsored by INFINIT...yet ;)]. I just like their products.  The figure above gives an overview of how training has gone the past couple of months. The blue arrow points to a large break for the sesamoiditis that was giving me troubles. Rest, which is usually not the answer for most injuries, did not solve the problem. I eventually figured out how to cure it by placing a gel pad under that joint to reduce the impact. This allowed me to build up to where I am at now. The red arrow on the figure shows my effort at the Hincapie Gran Fondo. This was such a cool event and I ended up doing the first climb with Ted King and finishing 6th overall up that KOM (9th overall on the day). I just didn't have enough endurance to make it all the way to the finish with my group. The black arrow shows the down week I took last week. The down week was used for a wide sweep of endurance testing like a MAF test and FTP test. The good thing is the build of the CTL (or blue line). The goal is to continue to see that rise and prevent any long dives like the blue arrow. Lastly, video updates and stuff. I was in the process of making a November and December training video but travel and obligations got in the way. I will make some more effort into putting out some more videos.
Until next time, Stay Strong, Stay Determined |
