The training camp in high altitude. Posture alignment therapy.

Almost every year I have a post with similar name "... high altitude training..." and most of the times I mention the same place, Los Alamos, a small town in high mountains in New Mexico, one of my favorite towns in North America. Beautiful nature, nice friendly people and very sports oriented town. I really enjoy to train here: hundreds of trails, different variety of roads for biking and 50 miters indoor swimming pool, a dream town of a triathlete, who doesn't like crowd and ready for the hard training, because Los Alamos is at an elevation of 7.200 ft and there is no easy course for the bike ride except maybe a spin on a bike trainer. I am training here for the first Ironman this season, Ironman St. George, which is coming up in less then 3 weeks.

My biggest goal this year was to stay injury free. Since the middle of year 2009 I wasn't 100% free of injuries and most of the time there is something's going on in my feet: planter fasciitis, achilles tendonitis, heel bursitis, stress fracture. I do, massage the calf muscles and stretch , I do ice the feet after training, I stay hydrated, but I still have some issues in that area. When I got to Los Alamos my friend told me about a method, called The Egoscue Method and that there is a girl in town who can help, using the same method, to get better with my injuries. At the beginning it sounded like some kind of magic, but listening to my friend it actually was making seance. I wont describe the whole method, there is enough information online, here is what I am doing, Aligned Play, with coach Jessica. I just want to share my experience. First of all we found out that my body is all twisted, one hip is higher and same with shoulders. It's not surprise that right and left sides of the body are not symmetrical. But sometimes when you are training hard through so many years this can cause injury related problems. And when you can find the right exercises to make the body more even it can also help to relies those problems. And that what we were doing. I got the list of 10 drills, which I need to do every morning (takes about 30 min). After a few days I could tell that my body motions have changed: I noticed on the bike ride, that my paddle stroke is more straight; I stay tall through my runs and I can maintain to run long runs without pain in my feet. This is life long commitment to the 30-40 min of exercises every day, but if it helps to stay injury free I'll stick to it :-)

Early season races.

The changes in my schedule didn't happened. And the first race of 2011 season was meant to be Ironman 70.3 San Juan. I was into two weeks of running (jogging) and my goal for that race was to finish the race..... Let just say it was a bad day: I finished the race, but I suffered from the start to the last steps of the race, which leaded me straight to the Medical tent, where I got two IV(s) and an oxygen mask. Not the best race to start a new season.

The second event in my competition plan was Ironman 70.3 Oceanside, California. It's always a very competitive race and this year wasn't an exception. I felt much better this time although I finished out of top 10 (11th place), but I didn't drop to far from the girls in front of me and I mostly lost my time on the swim. "Andy Potts and Mirinda Carfrae each earned their third Rohto Ironman 70.3 California titles, winning tight races over Rasmus Henning and Heather Jackson, respectively."

Originally from: http://ironman.com/events/ironman70.3/california70.3/brad-culp-recaps-todays-exciting-race-in-oceanside#ixzz1KIgyrDis

Ironman 70.3 California race results

2011, winter training.

It's already the end of April and I haven't updated my blog for several months, no excuse here. I'll just try to catch up on news like I usually do :-)

The time off and recovery past very well in my home town, Lvov. Lot's of fun, lot's of Holidays (in Ukraine it's kind of Holidays season from the end of December till the end of January) and a little bit of exercising: I took a few dance and a few fitness classes just to do something different and maintain not to lose my shape :-), which didn't really happened. The off season didn't last forever and at the beginning of January I already left Ukraine for much warmer and outdoor training more welcome place, Clermont, Florida. Trying to get in shape faster and lose those "few" pounds of winter weight I pushed myself very hard, probably too hard, because in 6 weeks into my training I got an injury (a stress fracture in left calcaneus). Here I want to say thank you very much to Meadowlands Hospital in New Jersey, which provide me with MRI for my left foot and doctors, who found a couple injuries there and also thanks for the correct and fast diagnosis. And huge thanks to Ronnie Barnes, Vice President of Medical Services of New York Giants who found a minute in his busy schedule and made a recovery plan for my foot. How I got to meet him??? Timex is one of the biggest sponsors for New York Giants and at the end of February we had Team Timex every year camp at Giants facility:

Great 4 days at the camp, everyone, the new members and the old crew were Happy to meet and Celebrate 10th Anniversary of The Team Timex.

Coming back to Clermont from New Jersey I knew that it was time to slow down a little bit with my training. I still was able to ride the bike and swim and aquajog (thanks Team Timex for the present,

Apple Ipod shuffle. Aquajogging can be fun). It's took 4 weeks of no running till the bone healed. I've tried to run after 3 weeks, it's never happened. Believe me, I am experienced person in this area: 4 broken toys, one broken leg and a few fractures. 4 weeks is minimum. It also meant that I might change my race schedule....