cams-world.de Podcast

http://camsworldde.libsyn.com/rss

As you may have seen I have started a podcast. This is to promote science in sport. Each episode I will talk about an aspect of sport performance. At the moment I am looking a different products and explaining some scientific terms.

I believe as athletes we are in a very hard position, we want to go fast for longer, yet most of us have work, family and other commitments that stop use training or resting as well as we would like and we are all so short on time. So when we hear about the next magic product we look to see if it works. Yet I know in the past I was never able to really know if something worked. I had to trust the advertisements, and sponsored endorsements. Now no more! 

I am studying Sport science and management, and have access to research libraries and now know  how to read and understand the science. I can cut though the marketing Mumbo  jumbo and look for the quality in a study or product claim. Once I started doing this personally I was shocked at the claims I was seeing and hearing…. Things I took as fact or proven were not as they appeared. Scientific data on companies’ websites suddenly went from looking really impressive to looking  weak.

I had had enough and the cams-world.de podcast was born. I am learning the ropes of podcasting. I welcome feedback, so please email me with comments or ideas. info@cams-world.de

I am now at  itunes. Just type cams-world.de podcast in the search bar in itunes. Please subscribe.

Or find me at libsyn.com

http://camsworldde.libsyn.com/rss

Thank you and I look forward to hearing from you!

Cam

Ups, downs and around

www.cams-world.de

So much has happened since my last blog post, and it is time to bring everyone up to speed. 

First and most importantly is my website is finally online! Check it out www.cams-world.de  .It  is in German and English. This blog isn’t yet…. Sadly, only English at the moment. Yet check it out!

Now let’s get into what I want to write about - mainly our ‘head space’ and I will talk a lot about the  Biel 100km race. From this race I learnt so much about myself, or perhaps a better way is to say I learnt some new stuff and confirmed other things.

Now I will define a couple of things;

First of all Biel is a 100km ultra marathon that starts at 10pm, so you run through the night. It is 80% road. 

‘Head space’ is your racing, training, and personal process of dealing with everything that happens. It is also the motivation and depression that can go on for you. It is the space that is used to think about everything. I want to focus more on the racing side here. I will go into what I think about everything else another time.

Head space in racing is so important thing, and I am sure the all the athletes who read this will agree. Yet ask yourself this question…. “What brings you into a good head space for a race?”  Well, what is it? Can you define it easily? Is it simple or are any number of things intermixed? Is it purely mental or is it physical as well?

For me it is a complicated process that starts long before the event.  For the Salt Flats 100 I had it sorted ok.  To get me onto that start line in a good head space took these factors plus many other small things. My training was ok, my motivation was high, I had desire to start, to really test myself, to see what would happen when fitness stopped and the mind took over. 

It is interesting because I felt my training wasn’t the best for the 4 weeks before the event, yet this feeling of the lack of training can really damage that head space. Have I done enough? Could I have got an extra couple of runs in per week?

So after the Salt Flats I went into recovery mode….. And I have to say that was the hardest thing I have ever had to recover from. Ironman was a walk in the park compared to how long it took to recover from Salt Flats. The Ironman is a killer event and it is so very hard, yet with only 42km of running to destroy your legs, it makes recovery faster.  I didn’t expect the level of damage to my body and most importantly my mind.  It wasted me….. Truly wasted me it a way that I have never experienced. 

This put a real damper on training for Biel. In fact, it sort of sat on it!  The desire to go training had left me - the sofa looked so very good. I would run and feel bad, more mental than physical, yet I kept trying…. I had to run Biel….. Why?…. Looking back, I don’t know.  I just felt I had to.

So come race time, I was looking forward to it. I was worried about how much was on the road, yet thought  “I can get through this”. My head wasn’t really there, yet I kept telling myself it would come. The race started and I felt really good, my legs were ok.  I did start a little too fast and had to keep pulling myself back. As the kms ticked away, I felt worse and worse.   I was running within myself and controlling my heart rate, yet my head wasn’t there.  I couldn’t focus. The road started to take its toll on me. The camber was killing me, it seemed very extreme. As the night turned into morning I just wanted to sleep. I wasn’t enjoying the road at all, then suddenly we were in the bush and my pace increased and I felt so much better….. And my focus came….. This ended as soon as we hit the road again.

My ankles started to hurt, I think from a mixture of the impact and the camber. It started as a dull pain and grew to a stabbing pain.  It was at this point I said enough was enough. I pulled out after 80km and about 75km of no enjoyment. 

For me, I think if the race had been off-road I would have been happy and finished ok, yet road running is not what I enjoy.  I knew that going into the race and learned the hard way that it was a mistake for me. I have a bucket list of races I want to do before I die, and after this one event I have taken 3 events off it.  Why? Because I know that it is pointless going to do an event I now know I will hate. 

This event showed me the one major factor I had forgotten about was Context or the environment for an event. Training and planning isn’t enough.  You have to want it, to enjoy the process of racing. Racing is the reward at the end of the training plan.  It is the candy that gets me training, yet to do an event that is not “fun” (however you class fun!) is madness in a true sense to me. 

The plus side is I am now back on my bike and loving it. Riding and enjoying the sun, feeling that burn in your legs. It is so nice. It is one thing I laugh at about myself… When running I enjoy offroad running, yet cycling I am so road focused! So I will have to get my Mountain bike out and start doing that again as well.

I did do a running race 2 weeks after Biel. It was only 8.4 km and on a hard little hilly course. 3 laps of just over half on road and the rest on a shingle trail. It went well…. When you think I hadn’t run since Biel and I had start riding again, plus eating WAY too much. I ran 34:16 which was 4 seconds faster than 2 years ago and placed 15^th overall from 167 starters. It also hurt like hell….. Trying to run that hard over such a short distance = Painful.

So remember these factors when you are planning your events. Make it things you want to do, for reasons that inspire you! 

Train well! Because I am!

Cam

About the Salt Flats 100!

Salt flats and the USA

Golden Gate Bridge

Yes it is long overdue. Still here I am, this blog is going to be about my first 100 mile run.

We (Joachim, his girlfriend, my wife and I) headed to the USA mainly to do the Salt Flats 100 mile run. It seemed like such a good idea 8 months out from the race, still as the last couple of weeks rolled around we headed away. 

We had a nice holiday for about a week before the race. It was really nice, road tripping and seeing bits of the USA. I have to say…. Man that place is huge! Long wide roads with nothing as far as the eye can see, then coming into a city and so many people… WOW.

So we did the tourist thing…. Las Vegas, LA, San Francisco. It was great. The only big thing that I really want to tell you about was the Golden Gate Bridge. Before heading away I had said I wanted to run across the Golden Gate Bridge. It was the one really big this I wanted, and Joachim suggested we run it at night. Naturally I thought this was a great idea, so we got our running clothing on and drove to the parking area next to the bridge, ran to the start and found a really big gate and a sign saying “No Pedestrians after 9pm”. I looked at my watch and it was 9:15. We couldn’t believe it, so I tried to sweet talk the watch tower into letting us run it quickly. After much talking and saying please… No go. The nice guy in the guard tower did say the bridge opened again at 5am. We headed back to the hotel and came up with a plan. Sadly that plan meant getting up at 4am, getting ready and driving back to the bridge. 

Run across the Golden Gate Bridge

This time when we got to the gate, it was still closed. We were 5 mins early, finally the gate opened and we were off. First people on the Golden Gate Bridge for the day! It was awesome, the city lights, a few lights in the bay. Truly a very special moment of my life! I will include a couple of photos and my Garmin data. 

After the holiday we made our way to Wendover and the home of the Salt Flats. Most people haven’t heard of Wendover, yet is the town that is the base for the land speed record attempts, you know the fastest cars and motorbikes in the world, (for the New Zealanders) The world’s fastest Indian movie. All that happens on the Bonneville race way, or once you are there a flat bit of salt! Standing at the Bonneville speed way looking over the Salt Flats is mind bending. You know it is flat, yet it seems to disappear so fast as the earth curves and the mirage kicks in. Then it hits you, you have to run straight for 30 kms and then it hits the islands you see floating in the distance!

Nervous before the start.

Morning of the race came, Breakfast at 5:15 am and then the final prep to head to the start. The only thing I had a problem with was getting my compression socks on over the top of the tape I had put on, that took about 15 minutes. Once at the start it was really easy - put the aid bags down in the right place and then have a very nervous pee. 

At long last I stood on the start line and waited for the gun to go off. It was a very relaxed start once the gun went off, everyone seemed to get into a rhythm and just slowly run in a very straight line. We had been told there are toilets at 5, 10, and 16 km (the first aid station was at 16km) so you and running along looking ahead waiting to see the toilet, and it isn’t there. I was thinking I must be able to see it…. No I was wrong, but suddenly you see it coming over the horizon.  So weird. 

It was very nice at this point of the race. Everyone is chilled and you have this big open place and can talk to each other. I meet 3 really nice guys along the first 40km and had a good chat. This made the mind bending Salt Flats so much easier, fresh legs, people to talk to and this vast landscape. 

Looking along the race course!

Once I hit the 3^rd aid station (40km) that was the end of talking to people, it was also the start of the hills and the heat was starting to really kick in. The first climb was runable, yet I power walked most of it. Thinking I had 120km yet to go and maybe now wasn’t the time to hammer myself. The sun was nice and high now and it was getting hot, and there is no shade on the course. I didn’t see one tree in the 160km, so the sun was unrelenting. Once up the first big climb I ran down the hill nice and smoothly and feeling good happy as till the next aid station (52km) suddenly I wasn’t feeling so good. I think it was the heat, coming from a cold German winter to 30 degrees was hard, still I kept moving and that was all I kept telling myself, keep moving. It was all very up and down till about  70 km, and then it flat for 10km. What I didn’t know this was 10km is sand, Yes Sand. That was tough, still kept moving. It felt endless at this point, only 75km and I felt cooked by the sun and was fighting hard in sand, still keep moving. 

Salt Flats 100 from my Garmin. What a course!

Finally I was off the sand and back in the hills after a nice climb, I started a mix of jogging and walking, my legs started to feel better and better as the sun got lower and lower. I had been worried I had left my head lamp on an aid station too far, yet these fear turned out to be groundless.  I had got my plan just right and had an hour before it was dark and when it did finally get dark it cooled off and that was so nice. I was back jogging along happily listening to my favourite podcast laughing away. I must say I was feeling good, and covering a lot of ground. Running in the disc of light from a good headlamp is such a nice thing. 

Aid Station at night.

All was good and I was in a happy place, right till the second to last aid station. It was about 3am and was happy, sat down in the aid station, had something to eat and a couple of drinks and then I stood up took 3 steps and felt broken! I was suddenly so cold, 100 metres out of the aid station I had to sit and put more clothes on. My quads were smashed! After 142km I wanted to sleep or cry, if not both, my legs were empty, still I had keep on moving. It is only 10km to the next aid station and most of that is downhill. Till this point I had run most of the downhills and enjoyed it, this one I could only just walk. The downhill felt 7 times longer than the uphill and finally I got to the bottom of it and just had to find the aid station. Ok…. Where is it….. I thought it was right at the bottom of the downhill….. It’s been 10km from the last aid station…. Am I meant to be on the road again? I thought we were meant to be back on the Salt Flats? I can’t see any lights for an aid station. I was lucky I had taken my phone and started txting my wife…. “Where is the aid station?”….. “Is it on the road???”. The answer came back yes, so I power walked on, hoping I was in the right place. It felt like forever till I found it and yes I was on the right way.

I had lost so much time in the last 12km I couldn’t believe it. I was completely finished, my legs were smashed I was tired and been awake for over 24 hours and most of that time on the move. At the last aid station, all I wanted was a coffee, and guess what was the one thing they didn’t have… Coffee. My wife was there and was really supportive, only 8km to go. So I got up and started power walking for all I was worth along the road. 

All I was looking for.

I thought being on the road would be nice, yet it wasn’t. The road surface is so hard on the body, and after 154km it was very hard. At last we turned off the road and back onto the salt for the last 5.6km. I was looking at my watch and seeing the time and willing myself forward, keep moving. I would run a little and then power walk, run a little, power walk. I couldn’t see the finish, yet I knew it was getting closer. The dawn was starting and I was still moving. At long last I saw the finish, it looked so close, yet felt so far. As I got to the finish line, so many thoughts and feelings were flooding though me, “I had made it, and under 24 hours”, “wait a minute, my Garmin has 163km on it, not 160km”, “Where is my wife!”, “Where is my belt buckle”, “Can I sleep now?” and many more. 

The moment when Vince the fantastic race director handed me the belt buckle I just about cried, I really had to hold it back. Then a couple of nice photos with my wife, and all I wanted was to head back to the hotel and sleep, after a hot shower.

I was so cold, my body was empty and my legs didn’t want to work anymore. I somehow had a shower. Well, I sat in the shower and washed myself. Once I managed to stand again I headed to bed, shaking really badly, so cold. I slept for 3 hours before we had to leave for Salt Lake City. The 24 hours after the race were the worst 24 hours of all my years in sport. I couldn’t walk well or bend my legs, I felt like my bones were bruised. I couldn’t eat well, I couldn’t drink well. Yet I had done it! I had completed my first 100 mile run, and that made the pain well worth it. 

So all I have to do now is pick my next 100 mile race….. And so many to choose from!

The Belt Buckle. So worth it!

Been Away!

Hello. Well I have been away running! I have completed my first 100 mile Ultra Marathon (160km).

I will write all about it very soon. Yet here is a picture just to say hello!

Getting started!

Making changes in your life can be one of the hardest things to do. I am sure we have all tried a “Diet” or planned on doing more core training or most importantly start to get fitter.  Now remember back to trying this and how hard it was or still is. It is hard I know, it still is for me, and I see myself as a motivated person. Now try and see this start from someone that is trying sport for the first time, or at their first event, or going to a gym for the first time. I really try and see the world from their eyes… When you try what do you see?

What I see is a scary thing, whether it is an event, a Gym, or a training group. What do you see?

Fit people, focused people and more often than not, unfriendly and unwelcoming people! This is such a great way of getting rid of so many people fast! At a running group I go to, one person talked to me, and then the second time I went they couldn’t believe I came back…. “You are the first that has come back for a 2^nd time”.

I think we all need to be more welcoming to everyone… I know I am very guilty of not being as friendly as I could, and in a new group this is very hard, yet when I am in a group of peers then I should be the one that is welcoming. 

I had a customer talking to me once and he told me about an experience he had: He was talking to the local triathlon club about the club…. The person in the tent wasn’t friendly or open and when this person finally asked what event my customer was interested in, they looked him up and down laughed a little and said that event isn’t for him!

I couldn’t believe this when I heard it… And this came from the local club. This one experience could have been more than enough to make my customer go home and never go training again. Just from one person’s misguided judgement. This really upset me. Why would someone say that and step on someone dream?   Maybe thinking it is unavoidable, yet saying it is unforgiveable.

I want to be more welcoming with sport and fitness.  I don’t care who you are, what you have done, as all that matters is from the moment we meet I can be a positive influence in your life. If you are unhealthy and want to start getting fitter, talk to me.  I can help. Making a change in your life is hard enough without anyone making you feel bad or out of place for it. They should make you feel proud for having the courage!

So look at yourself and what you have done. Maybe change your outlook a little, and make sure you encourage others, it could be the difference to achieving a goal or sitting back on the sofa!