March 12, 2010

Product Re-test - Optygen HP

I cherish my sponsors, why, because I love the products. Sometimes my athletes must hate me because I push some of the products so hard. I use them, they help me, so I must tell others. However, sometimes I get scared that I use the products to much or too consistently, especially supplements or sports drinks. So I had a conversation with Robert Kunz at First Endurance when I realized I had been taking Optygen HP for the last 4 years non-stop and didn’t know if there were any side effects. Well besides urine the color of green koolaid, that is normal for endurance athletes, right? Robert recommended that once (or twice) a year for a period of 3-4 weeks I not take Optygen HP. I am 10 days in one of those blocks, and WOW, I can tell the difference. For example, while swimming, my hypoxic 5 stroke breathing, is REALLY hard now!!! Also when I go to the TRACK now, I really see different results. I have been doing the same workout last 3 weeks, and I've done this workout in past years. I am seeing heart rates that are way above what I've seen in the past 5 years, on the average it seems to be 10-15 beats per minute difference.

Okay one more Optygen story for now, this is from an athlete who just set a new marathon PR, 2:46:33. Here is what he said, “I don’t remember but I think the morning of this race was the long race (marathon or ironman, and maybe half) that I actually took Optygen the morning of the race. I usually forget to pack it, or take it in the am because I am so nervous. Well I remembered, and it as well as Peter’s workouts seemed to be the secret ingredient to a great race. I stopped to go to the bathroom at mile 12 and I noticed that my legs didn’t feel like I had been running at pace for 12 miles. The biggest difference seemed to be the peaks and valleys you feel in a long race like that seemed to be flatter. I felt strong and fast when I felt good and if I started to feel rough I felt like it just a fence I had to jump not a wall I had to climb. Until my 24 these seemed to be easy to overcome, but nothing is easy to overcome in the last 2.2 of a marathon. Thanks First Endurance for good products.”

February 20, 2010

First Endurance


Slowtwitch.com recently ran a great story about one of my sponsors: FIRST ENDURANCE. An interview with one of the founders Robert Kunz. Personally I've been working w/Robert on developing, testing most of their products for the last 7 years. I got to know Robert personally - what a GREAT guy. Another good thing about their product - they believe in it themselves so. Here is the link: FIRST ENDURANCE.

January 13, 2010

Winter Blues

With crazy cold weather in SC, riding my Beyond road bike outside in freezing temperatures - I've trying to find any motivation I can. This brings old memories, from long time ago - yes over 20 years ago this was my sport.

January 11, 2010

Ultraman Recovery

Before Ultraman when I told people about the race they looked at me like I was crazy, but then again I guess I am crazy. I shared with you faithful readers about my prerace efforts and hopefully that was interesting. However not many people ask about how one feels 2-3 days or even 4 weeks after these kinds of races. People ask me what I wanted to eat when I finished and to be honestly my palette wasn’t craving any great foods, I just wanted to lay down and chase some more gnomes.

The day after the race we went to the awards ceremony, if you think people looks funny the day after an ironman or marathon, you should come to this awards ceremony. Everyone is so sore that people are scared to get close to others because they fear a touch may send their fellow competitors into cramps or spasms that would lead to death, its pretty funny to watch the athletes interact. It’s the fourth day of crewing for the crew as they must help keep the athlete upright while standing or even worse…walking. I think the debilitating factor of Ultraman is the double marathon, on pretty hard asphalt, after 2 days of racing. Also by the third day your body is already confused (I guess that’s what you call it) so you start the run extremely dehydrated. And then the 3rd Day of 6+ hours pounding on the roads makes your muscles flushed from liquid and pretty sore. Don’t you want to sign up now?

However, this year moving around was better than my first ever Ultraman. After that race I didn’t get out of the bed for a week, hell it might have been 2, I don’t remember. No matter what it still hurts really bad after each one. Now you definitely want to register! Of course the flight home didn't help much either. Last year I flew out right after the awards ceremony, not a smart move. This year was I stayed in Kona another 3 days after the race so my legs were not as bloated on the flight home. It took probably 2-3 more days before my walking stride became normal. Of course all this is to be expected after 3 days of pushing the limits during Ultraman.

Now comes the part that nobody talks about and few think about. The weeks after the race are where the recovery gets hard, the glow of the race begins to fade and the soreness declines but your body still isn’t back to 100%. For about 2 weeks all I wanted to do is to sleep. Not being able to focus on things is pretty hard especially since you have to rejoin the regular world. During this phase I really made sure I kept taking the usual supplements such as Multi-V, and Optygen to aid in my recovery. The stress on the body is hard enough that even walking into a room that some body was sick a month ago would put me under, so I had to be careful. The training was light, yes training, what you think I was gonna just do my work and sit around and watch T.V.! I trained to simply keep moving, to not let the body get stiff, to simply aid in blood flow. The problem is I really had no energy for anything, nothing at all, so it was more moving and not really training. My legs, and even cardio system returned to normal after about 3 weeks, but even as of now; 4 weeks later; there are days that my body is empty, and all I can think about is either sleep or a nap. I figure that 1 or 2 more weeks, and hopefully “Peter” will be back to normal the way everybody knows me.

After that – its time to start over again, with the preparation for the Ultraman Worlds 2010!