{"id":7127,"date":"2020-04-27T17:27:00","date_gmt":"2020-04-27T17:27:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/2020-april-27-thoughts-spurred-from-a-run4fun-dialogue-in-facebook"},"modified":"2026-04-12T18:48:26","modified_gmt":"2026-04-12T18:48:26","slug":"2020-april-27-thoughts-spurred-from-a-run4fun-dialogue-in-facebook","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/happyinthehills.com\/zentriathlete\/2020\/04\/27\/2020-april-27-thoughts-spurred-from-a-run4fun-dialogue-in-facebook\/","title":{"rendered":"2020 \u2013 April 27 \u2013 Thoughts spurred from a Run4Fun dialogue in Facebook"},"content":{"rendered":"

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<\/p>\n

Checkin\u2019 IN!!!<\/h3>\n

So, some context.\u00a0 I belong to many groups in social media circles, but I have been paring back my interactions in a lot of them.\u00a0 I tend to only engage in the ones I find essential.\u00a0 To that end, I would like to compliment the groups founder of Run4Fun.\u00a0 Like me, an imperfect gentleman trying his best to stumble into being his best self and over time, focus, diligence, discipline and determination has yielded great dividends.\u00a0 Although I believe we share a lot of similarities we are quite unique one from the other, and the participants in the group are often similar.\u00a0 From the newbies to the long and overworked (shunning recovery) runners and we have lost a few good ones along the way.\u00a0 This group has been ever valuable in my growth mindset journey, and slapped me a few times when I was that triathlon guy that no one likes, you know Shane the douche-bag.\u00a0 It took me awhile to learn the following:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

Grateful, that the patience and tolerance from Dave and his Run4Fun group participants has fostered a lot of opportunities for personal enrichment and growth, and I imagine I am not the only one affected by this group.<\/p>\n

Facebook topic \u2013 Shin Splints from Shane H<\/p>\n

Shane H. and Dave E. \u2013 since we went there \u2013 yes, ego and over training are the most common. But let me see if I can verbalize my red flags, and I have had stress fracture before in my outside right metatarsal, and arguably in my shins during high school, but I was tough and played through it \u2013 I ran miles with my soccer club in 89-92 wearing Adidas samba flats \u2013 I was hard core! (i digress, lol).<\/p>\n

In 2015 \u2013 I bought a pair of Rapa Nui Trail by Hoka One One<\/a>. I liked them, but I had paired them incorrectly to me. I was coming back to running after an extensive break. Honestly I was FAT for me 240-ish lbs- (accountability mirror anyone?).<\/p>\n

I still wear the rapa nui\u2019s in the garden.\u00a0 they are a bit unstable due to the aggressive rocker.<\/p>\n

Click Here to read about my 2015 thoughts highlighting the shoe<\/a> \u2014 I blog about it here in my first paragraph.<\/p>\n

2 major things of note \u2013 looking back \u2014 In 2015, I wasn\u2019t as detailed in my journaling of things back then but here are some vague memories \u2013 pain tends to help my recall (admittedly they may be a bit skewed given lapse of time).<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. I was over trained and didn\u2019t have a good base phase, sure I was hard core and pushing through, but my body was destroyed and wearing the Hoka\u2019s \u2014 which may have been a good shoe down the road, were too aggressive and not paired right for where my body was at. It culminated in my knee locking up on the run portion of my half ironman in 2015, and extensive 6 week break and PT. I grabbed the Hoka\u2019s mainly to address the shinsplints and pounding my 240\u2014ish lb body at the time was going through, even though my mind was \u2013 harden up and c\u2019mon!<\/li>\n
  2. I recall even though I said in my blog I was pain free \u2013 I wasn\u2019t, not in the slightest. I was doing a lot of training late at night in East and West Hartford CT. There, the streets and sidewalks I was running on next to the river and in other beat up parts of town in the immediate suburbs of Hartford, had a steep pitch and aggressive camber and I was running on angles everywhere. I remember feeling 3 \u2013 4 inches off of square and trying to compensate. Unbeknownst to me, I was trying to re-shape my running stride (wearing Hoka\u2019s) and my foot strike impact. At the time, I was a heavy heel-striker and trying to move to my toe or at a minimum my mid to fore-foot. These were all adjustments I was trying to make while my body was shifting and adapting to the \u2018change\u2019 of lifestyle I was going through. Like the other Shane, I think my mind was masking the re-flags I should have been paying attention to at the time \u2013 but I was clueless, and admittedly still am ?<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    So, the red flags. I recall having a lot of little niggles, you know those phantom pains (or are they really)? From the back of my calf, sore shin splints and the burning and radiating numb aches in the shin fronts. And then after a rolled ankle, just muscling through. I didn\u2019t stretch or pair in active recovery or bike rides \u2013 or swimming. I was tighter than a rubber band ball. I recall the soles of my feet being just fatigued and the radiating warmth above my sock line in my shins. It was different then when I ran in Merrill gloves, and soccer flats, but the annoyance was there. Had I no rolled my ankle, I imaging stress fractures would be next.<\/p>\n

    So for me, I have learned when my shins are sore, time to investigate first my body tight spots. Address those issues, through recovery, stretching or lastly gear. Look at my shoes and the EVA \u2013 even though mileage may be high or low, how is the structure of the shoe. Also, shoe structure for me is critical, the Hoka Rapa Nui trail was a moderate structured shoe, and I have to have a NEUTRAL structure. The little nuance paired with my flat feet create angles and the overall bio-mechanics of my body just go haywire. Looking back, the camber and angle in the streets probably delayed what should have torn me up faster, and I was also riding my bike a lot and that served as active recovery stretching as the bio-mechanics were being awakened \u2013 again I knew nothing other than \u2013 \u2018if it doesn\u2019t hurt I am not improving \u2014 NO pain no gain \u2014 which is BS \u2013 but that\u2019s another topic.\u00a0 Another key indicator for me, is my previous stress fracture.\u00a0 IF it is radiating pain or discomfort, I know something else is off.\u00a0 Its a good gauge for me to know if my builds are correct.<\/p>\n

    I think the most difficult thing I have learned in preventing injury for me, is allowing enough space for grace.\u00a0 To know that a single data point in a training plan won\u2019t wreck it.\u00a0 I also know that over training manifests in different ways.\u00a0 While I would not want anyone to have injury, it, the injury is a key red flag telling me\/us that something is wrong, and I MUST address that.\u00a0 That is why I appreciate that Shane H brought it forward and entertained my banter.<\/p>\n

    MINDSET and other thoughts spurred by above<\/p>\n

    I also know that unsolicited advice doesn\u2019t often stick, so I am also grateful for Dave E. pressing a bit to try and tease out some stories here.\u00a0 I only know things from my point of view, I\u2019m not a professional, not a coach, but I do know me.\u00a0 IN fact, with our 4th kidlet almost here, I am tethering the line of how to do things correctly.\u00a0 I am coming back out of a period of concentrating on family first.\u00a0 This focus and hinge-point for our family was quite needed.<\/p>\n

    After years of infertility, my transformation Tuesday journey and many points along the way including 4 70.3 Ironman\u2019s in 5 years and my wife having 3 children in those five years, I have a lot to be grateful for.\u00a0 I have been relatively injury free \u2013 physically.\u00a0 I did have a HUGE mental injury.\u00a0 I toed a cliff of burnout for far too long between my 3rd and 4th 70.3 Ironman,\u00a0 I had to skip the 2018 event and going toward that date, I wanted a change.\u00a0 The change I selected was so wrong, but so many lessons learned.\u00a0 I blog about in a bit in my posts labelled 2017 and 2018.\u00a0 In summary, after almost walking off course in 2017 \u2013 I had PR swim and bike \u2013 but fumbled nutrition and let that get into my pain space and my mind faltered.\u00a0 So much so, I was in a very dark and gritty space of almost walking off \u2013 and I still had nearly 2 hours of time to finish \u2013 but that was irrelevant at the time.<\/p>\n

    Haunting reflections of the 2017 70.3 Ironman<\/p>\n

    Seared deep in my memory was that moment as I was walking around the round point.\u00a0 I had just stopped and said hello to Liz and Dennis, and I knew something was off, but I sauntered away in about 60 percent run form.\u00a0 As I rounded the round point, some crazy gal \u2013 yes you Ms. Jenni Archibald \u2013<\/p>\n

    \u2013 SHANE, Why are you walking!\u00a0 Get it back together and finish!!!<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    I am positive that my phrasing is waaaaaaaay off, but she freaking scared me to death.\u00a0 I was walking for a moment, battling deep within \u2013 but it hadn\u2019t come all the way forward.\u00a0 The haunting questions of, What am I doing?\u00a0 Why am I doing this?\u00a0 What am I trying to prove to anyone beyond me?\u00a0 What I didn\u2019t know at that time is I was learning.\u00a0 I was learning that my lifestyle choices were not only a good pattern, a step in the right vector, but I was actually finding joy in this journey that was far more than just me.\u00a0 Sidebar, I observe a lot of folks in this journey become very selfish or selfless.\u00a0 And to be honest I feel wither is correct in their own ways, as long as it stays contained to that person and their circles of influence.\u00a0 For me, I was still being quite selfish, and I was for me, maturing into selfless.\u00a0 More on that later.<\/p>\n

    Jenni shook my world.\u00a0 I didn\u2019t know it was her.\u00a0 I was told she was helping at the swim, and that was it, i didn\u2019t think she\u2019d come look for a few of us from the Run4Fun and other groups where we all collide together.\u00a0 This irreverent soul, that befriended my wife years ago during an EPIC relay, pierced my gut.\u00a0 I started moving and made it about a mile.\u00a0 That is where the next battle of climbing into red cliffs parkway and surviving continued.\u00a0 I was not where I needed to be with nutrition, and that definitely derailed everything else.\u00a0 I just endured 20 MPH winds with monster gusts through Snow canyon and down the parkway, white-knuckled into town.\u00a0 But that didn\u2019t matter, I was hungry, I was miserable, I was in an Ironman and hanging on by a thread.<\/p>\n

    About 2\/3\u2019s up the parkway I hear a good friend Chris (Buddha) B.\u00a0 He called out to me.\u00a0 What was said is long forgotten, but he shook me off my cliff.\u00a0 I was about to just walk off, right there.\u00a0 I was ready to just sit down and call in a med vehicle \u2013 what was I thinking \u2013 like I am that special to get a med or event car to take me in. In that moment, that was like the paddles needed \u2013 CLEAR!!!!\u00a0 It was my hey, this isn\u2019t all about you anymore.\u00a0 In the forefront of my mind came Liz, my wife \u2013 who puts up with all my shenanigans.\u00a0 The one that begrudgingly, but also grateful that I came out of my \u2018numbness to life\u2019 phase.\u00a0 There was my boy, who just gave me a high five and in his own way projects that dad is ok and cool.\u00a0 There is my extended family, who came to this event, and supports our family and stays with us and participates as they can.\u00a0 There are all the other folks, close friends, acquaintances,\u00a0 peers and colleagues.\u00a0 But that surge only carried me for another 3 miles or so.<\/p>\n

    Then there was Sara G.\u00a0 She pulled me aside the day prior.\u00a0 We had connected loosely in another FB group called Pathetic Triathletes Group.\u00a0 This distilled and seemingly inert connection, totally helped during the event.\u00a0 She was crossing my path a few minutes behind me and catching up.\u00a0 Again what she said is long forgotten, but the multiple check-ins from her initial \u201cgo-Shane!!!\u201d helped carry me to the last 5 miles, and the red-bull shots helped too.\u00a0 If it wasn\u2019t for Sara\u2019s simple check ins the next 3-4 miles before the long downhill into the finishers chute, I probably would have encountered the cliff again.\u00a0 I felt so lost.\u00a0 But i hung on, finished with more than 1 hour to complete the course and I went off to lick my wounds and recover.<\/p>\n

    In that recovery, I had a brilliant idea.\u00a0 I am going to run the Bear 100 (a local 100 mile ultra in my backyard).\u00a0 Whiskey Tango Foxtrot???\u00a0 Who the crap do I think I am?\u00a0 I just fumbled my nutrition in a 70.3 triathlon, with only 13.1 miles of running, so hey, let\u2019s go do a 100 mile course through the mountains from my town up to Bear Lake \u2014 I mean I run a mean Crimson Trail (5 mile-ish route).\u00a0 That\u2019s a brilliant idea.\u00a0 Seriously \u2013 Dunning-Kruger would be so proud of my self-centered awareness.\u00a0 NOT!!!!\u00a0 But in my defense, from that event until late November\/December \u2013 I trained well, I did it right and I was ready for a 50 miler \u2013 but we decided to sell our home and move.<\/p>\n

    And absolutely nothing was wrong, a lot was going right<\/p>\n

    So why did I go here.\u00a0 This is an example of where I was much more mindful and present in my growth-mindset journey.\u00a0 In the moments, I was blind!\u00a0 I was just on the ledge of a cliff, and instead of jumping there, I went down the next accessible\u00a0 rabbit hole.\u00a0 I found the next dream, not because I was down with Ironman or triathlons, but I needed something \u2018new\u2019.\u00a0 Something fresh!\u00a0 Something ridiculously stupid and unintelligent!\u00a0 So, where I landed though was much farther than I could have ever imagined.\u00a0 I was running 2 hours 4-5 times a week.\u00a0 I totally ignored my bike, and swam here and there to stretch and catharsis all of the trash my mind acquired during this time period.\u00a0 Little Astrid joined us in September, and the down time of juniper and Astrid in their sleep cycles allowed me the timing to get in the runs, mainly late at night.\u00a0 I have a hard time doing early mornings but I can do late nights.\u00a0 Well, this post isn\u2019t about that but apparently I needed to got here.<\/p>\n

    So back to the original thoughts that prompted this post, I almost lost myself.\u00a0 Red flags, journaling the experiences.\u00a0 Looking back for rear view moments from time to time, to remind myself where I have come from and the distance covered is at times needed.\u00a0 But, mind you, I need to do it carefully.\u00a0 Those red flags, aren\u2019t so much a governor \u2013 although I often treated it as such, rather they are critical points to say \u2013 ok \u2013 review, re-calibrate, adapt, adjust, overcome.<\/p>\n

    And so, here I sit, the last week I have been without energy.\u00a0 I have had a few good runs, an outdoor ride, indoor trainer rides.\u00a0 But I am still fueling and eating like crap \u2013 my fault.\u00a0 I think I need to tune in to that if I am going to be successful going into the build up toward September 19.\u00a0 I don\u2019t think the event is going to happen, and I think I just need to mentally accept that and get beyond whether it will or not, and just get to the discipline and diligence of find consistent and boring lifestyle of ironman triathlon training.\u00a0 I miss the pool.\u00a0 This covid disruption of no swimming is the worst part for me.\u00a0 To look back, and see how I treated my first swims \u2013 its laughable and terrifyingly scary.\u00a0 I would assert and argue that more than 50% of long distance triathletes do the same thing.\u00a0 So I re-focused and respected the swim and along the way it\u2019s become my sanctuary, my safe space, my place of personal catharsis \u2013 I WANT IT BACK!!!!\u00a0 Lol<\/p>\n

    Anyway, sorry to ramble for me, but I like what Shane H said concisely before I jumped off and wrote this diatribe of sorts \u2013 see what not swimming does \u2014<\/p>\n

    Yeah, I think my EGO is probably the #1 cause of injury. Hopefully I can be back in 30 days & just slowing it down.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

    I opened my banter with Shane joking about not reading the David Goggins book \u201cYou Can\u2019t Hurt Me!\u201d<\/a>\u00a0 I have really liked this book,\u00a0 and it\u2019s been a good reminder of sorts.\u00a0 So, who knows, serendipity, or I just needed this small reminder.\u00a0 Regardless, I am grateful for the small connections.\u00a0 I ma grateful for the feedback \u2013 unsolicited and more importantly the solicited feedback.\u00a0 I am sure along the way, I have offended some, and I have sincerely tried to repair where I can, but also I have had to accept this too:<\/p>\n

    <\/p>\n

    So hopefully, I can keep an ever present mindfulness.\u00a0 I hope I can be still enough, to let yesterday serve as options for wisdom and allow tomorrow to happen.\u00a0 I can persist in being prepared along the way, learning, adapting, adjusting and overcoming along the way.\u00a0 So um yea.\u00a0 Hoka one one Rapa Nui\u2019s tore up my knee.\u00a0 ?\u00a0 Is that muddy enough?<\/p>\n

    a look in the rearview mirror \u2013 look at that beautiful valley and mountain!\u00a0 What lies ahead?<\/p>\n

    #zentriathlete #familybalancetri #zenfamily #fitbalancehealth #lifestylenotjusttraining #desire #Dedication #determination #discipline #grateful #gratitude #LifeLessons #c26 #sanctuary #justbreathe #perspective #itisntalwayspretty #consistency #fearthebeard #sharetheroad #wildtriathlete #wildrunner #walkthecliff #burntheisland #beatyesterday #garmin #hydratefaster #smithoptics #speedfil #teamzealios #teamzoot #teamzootmtn #zealios #zootsports<\/p>\n

    Activities \u2013<\/h3>\n

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    I use the following trackers:<\/p>\n

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    1. Garmin Connect (which pushes the files to the following services):<\/li>\n
    2. Training Peaks<\/li>\n
    3. Strava<\/li>\n
    4. and the ones I don\u2019t remember (Map my stuff via Under Armour and things like the Great Bicycle ride initiative stuff)<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

      Honestly, I mainly use Training Peaks as I pay for an annual subscription on it now, and it is the most detailed in data and other helpful information to keep me where I want to go. Use the \u2018Links\u2019, then \u2018Track me\u2019 section to find and stalk me if that\u2019s your thing.<\/p>\n

      Relevant Pics<\/h3>\n

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      #2020 #triathlonlifestyle #swimbikerun #trilife #Checkin #roadtoimca2021 #teamzoot #triathlonlife #ironmantraining #familybalancetri #triathlontraining #teamzootmtn #triathlete #triathlonmotivation<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

      Checkin\u2019 IN!!! So, some context.\u00a0 I belong to many groups in social media circles, but I have been paring back my interactions in a lot of them.\u00a0 I tend to only engage in the ones I find essential.\u00a0 To that […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":19443,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"nf_dc_page":"","_eb_attr":"","pagelayer_contact_templates":[],"_pagelayer_content":"","rs_blank_template":"","rs_page_bg_color":"","slide_template_v7":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-name":"","wprm-recipe-roundup-description":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[817,455],"tags":[828,832,835,836,838],"class_list":["post-7127","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-prnci","category-2020-check-ins","tag-tag-reflections","tag-tag-rituals","tag-tag-triathlon","tag-tag-endurance","tag-tag-tn"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/happyinthehills.com\/zentriathlete\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7127","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/happyinthehills.com\/zentriathlete\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/happyinthehills.com\/zentriathlete\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happyinthehills.com\/zentriathlete\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happyinthehills.com\/zentriathlete\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7127"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/happyinthehills.com\/zentriathlete\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7127\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":24407,"href":"https:\/\/happyinthehills.com\/zentriathlete\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7127\/revisions\/24407"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happyinthehills.com\/zentriathlete\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/19443"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/happyinthehills.com\/zentriathlete\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7127"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happyinthehills.com\/zentriathlete\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7127"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/happyinthehills.com\/zentriathlete\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7127"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}