David's Ironman Trip

2007-04-23T15:15:00.000-07:00

Hello.

Well, I raced this weekend at the Playtri 1/2 IM in preparation for IMCDA. I had a great day and finished a personal best of 5:28. I stayed in my IM heart rate zones the whole day and felt really good. My swim time was 31 minutes, bike was under 3 hours and the run was 1:53. The only time I pushed it was the last 3 miles of the run.

I needed a good day and run considering my longest run to day has been 10 miles. It validated for me what I have been practicing, going long and staying within controlled heart rates is more beneficial than speed work for the IM distance. I stayed in control the whole day as I have with my training and it is starting to pay off. I remember the first 1/2 IM I raced took me 6:20 minutes. I smoked the bike in that race but had nothing left in the tank for the run. Yesterday I actually had a slower bike time than my first 1/2 IM 3 years ago and still did better by almost an hour.

I have rambled enough, I included some pics and am doing well. The key now is to stay healthy and focused for the next 6 weeks and then I begin my taper for the next day.

Take Care
David

All is Well

2007-03-19T05:47:00.000-07:00

I finished my second century this weekend in the very windy climate that is Dallas, TX. I purposely headed into the 20 mph winds for the first half of my 6 hour ride so that I could reap the benefits of the wind coming back. I can definitely feel the differences over the century's I was riding for the Florida IM. The biggest difference is, my Heart Rate is lower but at the same intensity. Low Heart Rate training has paid off.

The run is coming back, I finished 3, 30 minute runs last week with no pain and minimal tightness afterwards. I will bump that up a little this week.

The swim feels good right now but not quite were I want it. I am swimming longer sets now and am confident that I will be good to go. It would be nice to have a faster swim than IM Florida, and should not be a problem to do so.

Well that's it for now all is well and I can not believe that I am only 14 weeks away from IM CDA. It is sneaking up.

2007-03-03T06:09:00.000-08:00

All in all a good week. I finished my 90 mile ride and felt good afterwards, obviously tired though. I averaged 17.5 and kept my heart rate in the 2.2 zone, 145 avg. My Heart rate definitely spiked coming back in the wind.

I have started back on the elliptical and even threw in a 5 min run on the treadmill afterwards. I will increase my time on the treadmill Sunday to 10 minutes after 30 minutes on the elliptical. Hopefully this is pain free and I can get back on the road in another week or so.

The groin is doing well, the only discomfort this week came after doing squats without weights. I am going to have stay away from legs in the weight room and just lift upper body for now.

Things are looking up and my mindset is very positive for Ironman. As long as I am able to focus on the bike right now I am confident the run will be fine. I figure if my long runs are only 2 to 2.5 hours and I am strong on the bike this could be my best race yet. We shall see.

Take care and have a great weekend.

Update to the Update

2007-02-26T14:10:00.000-08:00

All

Well, I saw the Ortho today and he told me more of the same, wait a few more weeks. I am in fact doing better but had a couple of bad days last week with the contusion. I think my bike fit had something to do with it but the Dr disagrees, never the less I made the necessary adjustment and things are better.

I spoke with Ron and we are in agreement to get on the ellyptical and ease back into it. I will do 20 minutes today and swim. If all is well I will do 40 minutes on the treadmill Wednesday and progress to 20 minutes with a 15 minute treadmill run on Friday. Cross your fingers and legs and lets hope it goes well.

The bike is comming along nicely, I am logging about 130-140 miles a week and an additional 10,000 yds in the pool. All at a nice easy pace. I will be adding some speed on the bike this week but for only one ride.

That it for now.

David

He Has Spoken

2007-02-03T13:24:00.000-08:00

Well, the news is a little late but I got my results Monday of this week, and it is bitter sweet. The good news is, NO Stress Fracture, the bad news is I have a pubis contusion, don't laugh. He believes that the crash is the cause of this and says no running for 4 weeks. I have a follow up appointment on Feb 26, hopefully all will be well by then.

He has treated IM athletes while living in Hawaii and feels confident that this was not a serious injury and would heal on its own. I am allowed to bike, swim and lift weights but he says no elliptical. I have tried to lift and it took me 3 days to recover and relieve the discomfort, so no weights. I am biking at least 4 days a week and swimmining 4 days a week. I think 3 months will be plenty of time to prepare for IMCDA, hope Im right.

Thank you to all who have checked on me it is greatly apprecated.

Stress???

2007-01-25T04:36:00.000-08:00

I went to see the Orthopedic Dr. today for my pelvis/groin. He took an xray and could not see anything conclusive. He said the discomfort I described concerned him and he suspected a stress fracture. I have an MRI scheduled Friday, and follow up visit Monday, pretty quick turn around time.

If it is a stress fracture, he said I am looking at 6 weeks of no running. It will be 2 weeks this Sunday since I have run, so I would be out until March sometime. He said to swim and bike to my hearts content and even encouraged these activities, as they promote healing in stress fractures. So as of now biking and swimming only, I will no more Monday. If it is a stress fracture I need to find out if elliptical training is allowed, if so that will really offset any time lost from running, we shall see. Could be this is all for not and its just a nice groin or soas strain.

If this is Carma talking, I am sorry for suggesting to Curt that Pelvis has left the building. If its not Carma well then I meant every word of it Curt.

2007-01-20T10:24:00.000-08:00

Houston Marathon

2007-01-17T17:29:00.000-08:00

Well I had a DNF for the first time in my short racing career, and it probably will not be the last. The groin repeat injury that I strained playing football this fall was seriously re aggravated after the bike crash. The first 3 miles were fine and I felt no pain. The nagging pain started at mile 6 and grew progressively worse, in fact by the time I hit mile 8 I felt like I should have felt at mile 18.

So I made a tough, and smart decision and as soon as I saw Christie at mile 13.25 I took my number off and had a little hissy fit. Christie and her family were great and very encouraging, I appreciated their support.

So, what did I learn? First, a marathon is nothing to scoff at, it is a tough distance and you have to have respect for it. Secondly, if you are injured it is okay to skip a race. Finally I will never take for granted the success I do have. When I was pouting and visibly angry about dropping out, Christie's aunt looked over at me and said you did more than any of us have ever done and you should be proud. She is right we often underestimate the things we do as athletes. So my main take away is to be proud of what we do as well as the effort we put forth no matter the outcomes.

Peace
David

Taper that will never end

2007-01-06T07:46:00.000-08:00

I began my official 2 week taper this week. I guess the bike wreck was somewhat of a blessing in that it has forced me to take it easy. I was extremely concerned after my 6.5 mile run on Thursday. The wreck really jarred my lower back, lefthip and reintroduced a groin strain I found on a flag football field. It was bad enough that I was ready to drop out of the Houston Marathon, considering IMCDA is the priority this year. I am still not sure doing a Marathon is the right thing to do but here I am.

I went to see Pauline and she really got into the muscles and worked out the kinks. I saw Ron right after and he put everything into place and loosened the muscles a bit. I feel much better today, although very sore. I am not running again untill the marathon and will only be swimming easy or on the eliptical. I plan on having a great day in Houston, but if something does start to reaggravate itslef or I do not feel right I will in fact stop, IMCDA is the priority here.

Wish me well, and Happy New Year.

The attack of the pot holes.

2006-12-31T13:56:00.000-08:00

Unbelievable, I am averaging a bike wreck a year now, and I don't like those odds. All in all I was very lucky but what a pisser. I was riding with a group of about 7 and we were on a pretty lousy road. The best that I can remember is reaching up to down shift with my right hand while my left was still on my handle bars. I hit a small pot hole and my handle bars turned to the left and I could not recover and down I went. I scrapped my shoulder, elbow, butt, and knee along my left side. The good news is their is minimal damage to the bike, I rode home, and no broken bones.

The unfortunate thing of it all is Dan Banse was behind me and went over my bike then flew over his handle bars. I hate to think about my responsibility of his accident, I feel terrible for his accident. Luckily he is okay, I am not sure about his bike though, but he rode home as well. Again we were both lucky.

Be careful and keep moving, we may have scrapes, bruises, sprains and breaks but we sure are having fun along the way.

White Rock Half

2006-12-11T16:58:00.000-08:00

David L McCullough M3539 406 58/341 334/2075 1:42:13 7:49

Well, I did it again, I had a PR for the Half this Sunday by about 1 minute. This run was really tough and I pushed harder than any other race. The great thing is I sustained the high effort for the full 13 miles with a HR average of 172. In retrospect I probably should have started out easy and build but I had that demon in the back of mind prompting to me do better than the Half in November. I had a side stich for the majority of this race as well, I definately was not true to my form and biomechanics, it felt kind a sloppy.

For the record I am very happy about this perfromance and am only reflecting on those things that I can approve upon. The Houston marathon is looming large and I am very excited about doing this race. I have one long run of 20 miles left in 2 weeks and then I begin my tapper. I wonder what the weather will be like, I guess it does not matter, that is uncontrollabe.

See yah

Good Day

2006-12-03T16:30:00.001-08:00

It was a good day. I ran 20 miles today and felt better than I did on my 18 mile run, so the nedurance is starting to kick in. Even more importantly the Cowboys won in dramatic fashion, unbelievable.

Run to the Hills

2006-11-19T17:36:00.000-08:00

Tried my go at trail running this week. It was nice to mix it up and do something different. I was truly concerned about spraining an ankle and not be able to run the Houston marathon, and was unable to really enjoy it. I can see trying again in the future but for now the streets are calling my name.

This week will be low mileage but Sunday starts back up with an 18 miler, followed by a 20 miler the following week. This is a little unorthodox but I really want to run the White Rock half in December and this is the only way I could fit it in my schedule.

Hope everyone has a great Turkey Day and How Bout Them Cowboys!!!!!

Long Week

2006-11-12T11:35:00.000-08:00

Well it has been a long week. I had a one day travel stint to Atlanta for work and was pretty worn out after the Half on Sunday. I recovered nicely Sunday AM and had a nice easy long run, 17 miles at 9:13 pace. I was a little concerned about this run because I have not had a run over 14 miles in a long time. The only problem to mention, besides sore legs that have been iced, is a soreness on the outside of my right foot. If it continues I will get it checked out, it started after the Half and has gotten more sensitive.

Plan on getting some time on the bike this week hopefully the weather will allow it. Hope everyone has a great week.

C ya

Pelvis is in the building

Race Report

2006-11-07T13:45:00.000-08:00

I was in such a hurry to post a bunch of thoughts and noise that I did not give a race report, so her it goes.

I woke up at 5 and ate 600 calories w coffee. The race started at 8, but it was enough food to hold me over, I did continue to take in fluid. I met Dan at 6 in Irving at a Starbucks and he drove us to the race start at White Rock Lake. We were there way to early but it was nice to see and visit with folks who I have not seen in a while.

The race started and as usual it was slow going. Dan and I ran together for about 1 mile but we had different motives, his was a training day and as per Jim today I was going for it. I settled in at a nice sub 8 min pace and cruised along. For some strange reason I kept finding myself running behind pretty girls, I hope Christie does not read this. I really did not have a plan for the hills, so when I approached the first one I decided I would attack them smartly and let my HR recover on the downside. This worked great especially with my new found Chi running approach to hills. The only hiccup to mention was taking a gel at mile 10 without making sure there would be an aid station, there wasn't. I had to Wait another mile to take in fluid, but it worked out.

It was a fun day, I am curious to see how the next half goes in December.

C yah.

To Chi or not to Chi

2006-11-05T14:20:00.000-08:00

Today I had a PR at The Half in Dallas, TX. I ran 13.42 miles (Garmin distance not the official race distance) at 7:43 pace. Two years ago at this same race I ran a 2:07, so progress is making its way down my road. I am not bragging, trust me I know I have a long way to go and there will always be someone faster. Ultimately, I owe my latest running breakthroughs to hard work, many miles and a new to me style of running called Chi running.

The basic theory is that you run using your core with a forward lean from the ankles. There is much more to Chi running but that is the basic concept. Anyway, it has allowed me to pick up the pace and run much more comfortably for a longer time. So this begs the question, does it matter what running technique you adopt? Or is the importance in finding a running technique, period.

I vote Chi, but only because it is my running technique of choice and I am truly bias. I find it funny that I have spent so many hours learning nutrition and studying swimming technique, but have never taken the time to focus on running or cycling techniques. So, the ultimate answer to my question, "To Chi or not to Chi," is, I think, to learn the proper forms and bio mechanics before logging in huge miles. Something I should have thought about 3 years ago.

Here is to continue progress. By the way thank you to my spouse who so patiently takes care of many things while I gallop off to races so that I may once again feel the burn.

C ya on the other side

Is it ever enough?

2006-10-29T12:24:00.000-08:00

Congratulations to Todd and Curt, great running. I spoke with Luther briefly today and he said the same thing to me we all seem to say after an important race, "it could have been better." I am not trying to call out Todd, I find it amusing and it is something we all do. So it leads to my next question, are we in trouble if we ever reach the point that an outcome exceeds our expectations? The bottom line is we are a little crazy if just not completely insane to do what we do, but I wouldn't change it for the world.

This was a good week. My running feels strong and comfortable. Something happened to me after my 14 mile run that has never really happened before. I recovered in a couple of hours and had no soreness the next day. I believe the strength training and massage are paying off, not to mention the smart running miles. One problem, no happy endings.

Good luck to Storchie next weekend in New York, no doubt he will catch the Kenyans. Run monkey boy, you can do it.

C Yah on the other side

2006-10-26T02:59:00.000-07:00

What a day that was. Curt, Todd and myself moments before the Gulf Coast 1/2 IM.

10/22/06

2006-10-22T15:39:00.000-07:00

Hello all, this is my first posting and I have absolutely no idea what I am doing.

Today was a nice easy 8.5 mile run in the very chilly streets of Coppell, TX. I am training for my first marathon, (that does not follow a 2.4 mile swim or 112 mile bike ride) and had an easy week. The fun picks back up this week.

I tried to momentarily relive my youth, and played flag football last Thursday. The next day I could hardly walk because I strained my lower abdomen and groin muscles, I am lucky to have run today with minimal pain. That's it for my whining, see you soon.