My run warmup routine

The other day a Facebook group I follow exploded with a discussion about what to do before a run workout. I was not surprised at the variety of what people shared, or that much of what was described does little to help and could even be harmful. I have witnessed the same kind of thing where runners gather. The two most egregious mistakes I see amateur runners make are to just start running cold, or a warmup consisting of a series of quad stretches, grabbing their shoe and yanking it up to their buttocks. No wonder their knees hurt!

There is an opposite extreme, warmup routines that take as much time as the run itself. Maybe you have all the time in the world, but I don’t. I need time to warm up, but it needs to be quick. One more dislike: I do not like laying on the ground, especially before a run.

The goal of a run warmup is to activate the nerve and energy systems that will be used during the exercise. There are a number of chemical processes that take place to fuel the muscles. Some work in parallel, some in series. There are nerve synapses that need to fire with precisely controlled timing, thousands if not millions of signals set off by your thought “Let’s go!” It takes time to get all this working smoothly. Running places extremely high loads on our bodies, notably the knees, ankles, and metatarsal bones. When we take off running without waking up the associated energy systems and nerve pathways we run the risk of injury. Pun intended.

Here is how I warm up for a run. Exercise descriptions follow. I begin before I push the start button on my watch, but the much of the routine happens during the workout's warmup period. That way I feel like I am saving time.

Before start

1. Leg Swings
2. Ankle Lifts and Heel Drops

After start, during first five minutes on the clock

1. March Drill
2. March Drill with Ankle Lifts
3. Sky Reach
4. Side Bend
5. Brisk 1Z walk for balance of 5 minutes

For long runs I use a 9/1 run/walk (creates ten minute blocks). I complete the above exercises during the first five minutes, then run for the balance of first nine minute minute interval (roughly walk 5 run 4). No strides here, the goal is to focus on fat burning for long duration fuel efficiency. We want to avoid activating the high energy systems.

For quality workouts (LTHR intervals, hill repeats, etc.) five minutes as above followed by ten minutes 2Z with two or three strides near the end to kick start high energy systems.

Exercise descriptions

Begin by finding a spot on the sidewalk with a pole you can hold. Avoid mud, broken glass, etc.

Leg Swings

1. Stand facing and to the right of the pole.
2. Grasp pole lightly with left hand.
3. Lift left (inside) knee so that foot 6-12 inches off ground.
4. Gently lift the knee a little, then push the leg back behind you.
5. Continue for 6-12 reps gradually increasing force and speed. Use more energy to throw your leg back, just enough to recover forward.
6. Repeat on the opposite side.

Do not lock your knees. Do not think about swinging your foot. Muscle activation is above the knee, primarily hamstrings and glutes. Do not go for maximum range of motion.

Ankle Lifts and Heel Drops

1. Walk around to the curb side of the pole.
2. Place balls of both feet on the curb so that both heels are hanging over the edge. Grasp the pole lightly to steady yourself.
3. Slowly lift with feet (calves) as high as you can go, hold, then down slowly and hold.
4. Repeat 6-12 reps.

Watch out that shoes do not suddenly slip off the curb, stop and adjust as required.

March Drill

1. Set left foot on ground.
2. Lift the right knee so that the thigh is parallel to ground.
3. Pause for one second (balance!).
4. Step out with your right foot and repeat on the opposite side.

It helps to hold the opposite arm straight out in front.

March Drill with Ankle Lifts

Same as plain March Drill except lift heel of planted foot as lifting knees rises. Pause one second (freeze) standing on the ball of the foot. Balance is tricky. Exaggerated arm swings help.

Sky Reach

While walking, reach one arm up and stretch as if to touch the sky. Alternate arms. No special coordination with feet.

Side Bend

While walking, reach both arms up then slowly rock from side to side. Focus on lengthening rather than compressing.

Conclusion

I learned these drills from Bobby McGee. It can take a little time to get comfortable with these. No problem, just start with leg swings and add the next exercise when you are ready. Follow the order presented here. Eventually this will be such a habit that you won’t have to think about it.

The biggest obstacle to doing these is when you run with a group. See if you can lead the rest of the group into doing them together. 

Say goodbye to 2020

Here we are, the last day of a year to forget. This time last year Pattie and I were celebrating the new year just as we have been for nearly forty years, at our friend Dr. Ric Trimillos’s condo in Waikiki watching the fireworks light up the sky. This year we will be doing the exact same thing, except we will be the only guests. The usual crowd will tune in on Zoom. That pretty much defines 2020.

This year began with what felt like an endless decent into chaos. I hope you join me in wanting to make 2021 the climb out of the abyss. Notice I said "to make" and not "will be." We each have a role to play in creating happiness.

I consider myself very fortunate in how little the pandemic has affected me. I’m still alive (yea!). I never got sick. I still have a job, although I sometimes work from home. Many people have not been so fortunate.

There is one thing I miss a lot. Playing in the U.H. Gamelan Ensemble. The music, and the social life. But it will still be there next year, or the one after that, just as if I had spent a couple of years studying abroad.

As for my athletic pursuits, after a precipitous nose dive during winter I managed to pull out and achieve some worthwhile goals. In July I started to participate in Ironman VR races, culminating in completing an Ironman 70.3 in August. I had been training as if I were doing Kona, and was delighted when the Ironman organization decided to honor what is known as Kona week -- the week leading up to the World Championship -- with a full Ironman virtual race. The fact that I did it just goes to show what can happen when we don’t act our age.

While all that was going on I decided to become a coach. I set up my website, I got my state excise tax licence, and I completed USA Triathlon Level 1 certification. I am putting off ordering a custom kit until I have a few paying customers. All in good time.

This was a year to deal with a couple of health issues. I got my heart fixed up so it does not freak out on long runs, and I got special glasses that fixed my double vision problem. My active side is so much happier. If only I could do something about my skin.

So far my 2021 plan looks exactly like how 2020 ended up. Training for Ironman 70.3 Hawaii in June, and Kona in October. I predict both will be virtual, if anything. I keep getting this romantic notion (call it a crazy idea) to reproduce the original Ironman course. (The first three Ironman races were held on Oahu before moving to Hawaii Island.) There are a lot of reasons not to do that, but it is fun not to act our age.

I have been and will continue to use my training as an experiment in how to train as a senior athlete. I rely heavily on the work of Joe Friel, in particular his groundbreaking book Fast After 50, but recently have uncovered a small but energetic women’s movement devoted to the same topic. Dr. Stacy Sims in particular is doing really useful work in this area. The way I look at it, I plan to coach senior men and women, so the more I know about women the better. As Stacy puts it, women are not small men.

What else happened in 2020? Oh yeah, I grew a beard. If we call it a COVID beard I will have to shave it off someday, so let’s just call it what it is, hair that still grows.

2021 - Normal, or Not?

 The winter surge in COVID-19 cases predicted by experts is here. The statistics are mind numbing. On the bright side we have one vaccine shipping and more on the way. But having a vaccine is not the same as ending the pandemic. For things to return to anything approaching normal will require 75-80% of the population to be vaccinated.

What exactly does "population" mean? For most Americans it means the people in their community. The places they visit as they go about their daily routine. If a community reaches 80% immunity the virus has little chance of survival. If, say, a stranger came to town who was infected (apologies to Tolstoy), the odds of coming into contact with someone who was not immune are reasonably low. Sad to say, if that did happen it would be someone who chose not to get the vaccine, and justice will be served, one way or another. The point is, with 80% immunity the infection is unlikely to spread. Compare this to building a fire in a backyard barbecue. Done right, the fire is unlikely to spread. What we have now, as I write this, is an out of control wildfire, and it is going to remain a raging inferno for quite some time.

If having a vaccine makes you optimistic, I have some bad news. Every year thousands of Americans die from the common flu. Most of them could have avoided death by getting a flu shot. Many more would never even get sick. Why does this happen? Because only about 40% of Americans get a flu shot.

When the polio vaccine was created people went all out to get themselves and their children vaccinated. Due to this remarkable effort we have virtually eliminated polio, not just in America but around the world. The same is true of smallpox. 

That's great, but what about measles? We were just at the point where it was gone when some ill-informed people began spreading erroneous information about the side effects of the measles vaccine. Frightened mothers decided not to vaccinate their children, and what happened? The virus took off again. It is still running around.

With COVID we have a new challenge. Politics. Even setting aside the crazy hyperbole surrounding the pandemic and subsequent vaccine -- created by radical left-wing technologists to insert microchips to control the world, etc. -- it is clear that to many people, getting the vaccine conflicts with their conservative position. A Texas doctor interviewed on NPR recently reported doing an informal interview at his hospital and found that only half of the nurses planned on getting vaccinated. 

My point in all this is that I do not anticipate a return to racing in 2021. I see where some IM races have already been held, even as the fall surge was underway. I consider that reckless. Now that the virus is totally out of control I cannot imagine any municipality allowing a race to go on. Maybe, with a lot of luck, things will improve enough by summer to allow groups going out to dinner and family vacations. Even small, local races might -- and I stress might -- go off much like they used to. But a big race, like an Ironman or a major marathon, where thousands of people descend upon a small community. I just do not see how that would be safe.

So where does that leave us? I see two paths. Remain on a marking time routine, or train for races that will not happen. And, for the second option, doing the race yourself. 2020 was the year of virtual racing, and we should expect no less in 2021.

TrainingPeaks has many articles on coping with the pandemic (here is a list). Philip Hatzis and others make the point that this is not the time to train hard, because there is evidence that hard training weakens the immune system and increases the risk of upper respiratory tract infection. Another way of looking at it is to take advantage of the lack of racing to focus more on aerobic threshold development, the long, low intensity stuff.

When I take into account what Joe Friel recommends in Fast After 50 I see good balance between high and low intensity. He argues that masters athletes too often fall into a routine of only doing LSD (Long, Slow, Distance) work, with the result of a steadily declining capacity. Why is that? I cannot repeat everything he writes about here, but to summarize, as we age our hormone levels drop -- testosterone for men and estrogen for women. That leads to a loss of muscle mass and a tendency to convert more of what we eat into fat. The skinny legs fat belly syndrome. Including some high intensity interval work will slow the decline in the efficiency of our energy systems, and lifting weights -- we are talking low rep high load efforts here -- will maintain bone health and trigger hormone production. We may not be able to perform as well as we did when we were twenty, but we do not need to sit and watch the world pass by, either.

To me it sounds like we have two choices. Throttle back and hold in place to protect our immune system, or keep going with a balanced approach to slow the aging process. Being an old guy specializing in coaching old guys and gals, I like the second option.

By the way, if you prefer plan A, hold in place, Joe Friel put out a terrific training plan for just this purpose. Available on TrainingPeaks and very reasonably priced ($10), it is a four week plan designed to be repeated indefinitely. It won't get you to the podium at your next Ironman, but it will keep you going until things return to normal. If you are under 50 (40 for women) I recommend this plan.

Since I am just getting started as a coach I am using this opportunity to hone my training plan writing skills. I mostly have the basics down. What messes me up are the little details. I tend to prescribe too much work and not enough recovery time. 

I have given myself two A race goals, corresponding to Ironman 70.3 Hawaii (Honu), usually held on the first Saturday in June, and Ironman Kona in October. Pretty much the same thing I did last year. We were so shut down last spring that I did not do a Honu race simulation. Later on I started to do some of the Ironman VR series. I did do the full Ironman VR Kona in October, but, as allowed by the rules, I did the events on separate dates with one or two rest days in between. My goal for 2021 is to do both races as single day solo efforts. Let's save the debate on which is harder, all in one day or spread out over multiple days. What I can say for sure is that route planning and support will be a big challenge.

More about that in future posts. My Honu training plan starts in three weeks.

Thoughts on workout goals

 

The COVID-19 pandemic threw a monkey wrench into everyone's plans. A lot of things were simply postponed, including Ironman races around the world. Some were moved on-line. The annual TrainingPeaks Coaching Summit is a good example. In the past it was a week-long live event held in a different location each year. For 2020 it is on-line and free. If you coach long course triathlon, or are self coached, or thinking about it, check it out.

One adaptation that has become increasingly popular are virtual races. When the Ironman VR series was announced I dabbled with it, then decided my training style did not revolve around doing a race every weekend so I gave it up. Next thing I knew, a couple of friends were doing them, and I got hooked on the idea of doing a virtual half Ironman. Along came a hurricane that was supposed to flatten Oahu the weekend of that first HIM, so I had to wait a month. 

Way back before COVID was a thing I decided not to do Honu because of the cost, but I decided to keep following my training plan. Then, as previously noted, I started looking to the vision and heart issues I have been struggling with for years, only to discover that, yes, I had some very real problems, but they are correctable. 

Honu falls in early June. My vision issue had cut severely into my long run progression so I decided to push my target race further to the right. I decided to train as if I were doing Ironman Kona. Why not? Everything was upside down. I needed a goal, and this was crazy enough to hold my interest. I have had a blast doing this, and have learned a lot along the way.

Somewhere along there I decided to become a coach. There was a lot to do. Website, social media, certification. On that last item and speaking of moving on-line, USA Triathlon used to require a live week-long training course and regardless of where they held it the transportation cost to me made it impossible. Due to the pandemic they have moved everything on-line, and have done a remarkable job given how fast they had to get it done. I just finished the on-line course yesterday. All that is left are a few formalities and I will have my certification. 

Having decided I wanted to be a coach I realized it was time to get my act together regarding what I would do as a coach. I see myself working with senior athletes who need a little help translating all the wild and crazy stuff they are bombarded with on-line into actionable plans that take into account the special needs of the senior athlete. 

Remember that Ironman VR series? I was still high-fiving myself for having finished the half Ironman when they announced -- out of the clear blue -- that they will host a full virtual Kona race. Like all of their previous races the event is spread over multiple days, except instead of three days we get an entire week, the same dates as the week leading up to the original Kona race in October. At first this sounds a lot easier, but let me tell you from experience that doing your own private race on open roads without support is tough. No police directing traffic, no aid stations, no cones, no signs, no cheering fans, no medical tent. Maybe it is not as tough as a one day race, but believe me, it is no picnic.

I plan on going into more detail about that race in a later post. For now I want to fall back to the underlying philosophy that guides my planning. Most of it is culled from Joe Friel's fantastic book, Fast After 50, which I have mentioned many times in this blog. Friel does a wonderful job making a case for why we need to do these things, along with commentary from other experts. I am going to leave that with him. Please, if you have any interest in that, buy his book. It is priceless.

Friel makes a good case that as we age we gravitate towards long duration, low intensity training. It feels good, and it is a better fit with social activity. While this is happening the aging process slowly erodes our ability to perform. There are aspects of aging that are visible: the loss of muscle mass in our arms and legs, an increase in belly fat, dry, wrinkled skin, graying or loss of hair, just to name a few. But there are changes to our metabolic systems that are more insidious in that we do not see them happening until we try to run a local 10K and wonder when we lost our ability to run.

Friel goes on to lay out in clear, easy to understand terms the generic building blocks from which a training plan can be constructed. It's like a box of Lego -- all the pieces are there, what is absent is a finished design. Follow his instructions and you will end up with your very own training plan. Well, it helps to know something about how athletes in any given sport train, and about periodization.

Here are the essential activities.

Aerobic Capacity

Best done as short intervals at or near maximum effort, separated by recoveries of equally short duration. These target the cardio vascular system, especially its ability to process oxygen. The benefits from work done on the bike carry over for the run, as since doing such high intensity efforts is much safer on the bike on a turbo trainer, that is how these should be done. Apparently this overlap does not work for swimming, but in my experience only the very best age group triathletes are limited by aerobic capacity.

Lactate Threshold

These workouts improve the body's ability to process fuel efficiently, using work intervals of moderate length separated by recoveries that are much shorter than the work interval. The benefits are specific to the activity, so these should be done on the bike and the run, and in the water for advanced swimmers.

Aerobic Threshold

These are similar to the workouts a typical senior athlete gravitates to, with one important difference. Most athletes do these too hard. This is especially true of group runs and rides. Unlike the high intensity stuff, these are not done as intervals; simple, long and slow is what is needed.

Strength Training

Recall what I said about aging and muscle mass? The best defense to loss of muscle is strength training. Moving heavy weights. The be useful this must be done with case. Too little and the desired response will not happen. Too much and an over-use injury will set back your progress. The goal is not body building in the traditional sense. The goal, rather, is to be lean and strong, with enhanced range of motion.

These activities are more or less relevant at various times over the course of a complete training program. The help with that Friel uses a concept of dose. For example, early in a training plan we may want to emphasize aerobic capacity development, so we assign those workouts at a high dose. To compensate we might assign aerobic threshold workouts at low dose.

Another critical component to manage is recovery. This will always be true regardless of the athlete's age, but as we run past fifty we find it takes longer to recover. To be clear, we can do the work. We just need a little more time before we can do it again.

This is where training plan design gets interesting. The goal should be to identify and focus on the athlete's weaknesses -- Friel calls them limiters -- early in the season, then gradually move into a workout balance that best supports the target A race, all the while managing training stress much more tightly than for younger athletes.

So, what do we do when there is no A race? That is the question that has plagued many of my fellow athletes.

One solution is to go into a sustaining mode. Several coaches have training plans designed with that in mind. Even Friel did one specifically for athletes under pandemic restrictions, and it only costs $10.00. That's a great deal. I chose instead to train as though I had an Ironman race. The pools were closed, but for most of this spring and summer the oceans were open, so I moved all my swim workouts to open water. The point here is, I never dreamed I would actually do an Ironman this year, but I trained for it anyway and had a great time.

When I began this project I was not thinking about becoming a coach. I would say that it was going though the process of developing my own training plan that allowed me to see what was possible. 

Perhaps there is something that you have always been interested in. Jump in, explore, learn all that you can. You too may find a new calling. At the very least, have fun.

What exactly does "relaxed" mean?

A few weeks ago I posted this question in a Facebook group devoted to triathlon coaching:

I was on my TT bike doing a turbo session and found myself studying what muscles I was using to hold aero position. Hold with the back? Hold with the chest? Relax as much as possible? Stay stiff like in plank position? Then I realized I have never seen any discussion about this, just get out and ride. That and get a bike fit. Is there a "Everything you wanted to know about riding aero but were afraid to ask?" I cannot say it comes naturally.

My post generated some interest, but little advice. Someone said to not use back muscles, rather use core. I find "core" to mean different things to different people. To many it means the abdominal muscles, i.e., the belly. 

The group was started by someone I think of as a good friend even though we have never met -- Suzanne Atkinson. She replied, "The posterior muscle group is just as important as the other muscle groups in all things tri including aero position. So the back is important, as is the core."

(Posterior means towards the back. In this case, the muscles on the backside of the body. In particular the calves, hamstrings, gluteus maximi, latissimus dorsi and the erector spinae.)

Having nothing better to do I happened to be looking back through Going Long, by Joe Friel and Gordon Byrn, and came across some relevant material in the chapter called Training for the Bike. The first passage is from the section on developing pedaling economy: 

There are two keys to improved economy. One is to refine the movements that take place at the top and bottom of the stroke, when the leg must shift from "up and back" to "forward and down," with the reverse situation at the bottom of the stroke. At the top of the stroke, the foot should feel as if it is pushing forward in the shoe. At the bottom, you should get the sense that mud is being scraped from the show.

The other key is to focus on the relaxation part of the pedal stroke. Tensing more muscles than are needed to apply force to the pedals is wasteful and uneconomical. Start with the muscles you have the most control over -- the face and fingers. Once you can relax them, try relaxing your calves and toes while spinning. The idea is to activate only the muscles needed when they're needed. No more, no less.

The next is from the section on developing cycling skills, specifically a fast cadence spin-up drill.

The key to this drill is relaxation. Relax your toes, your grip on the bars, and your face. Make it seem almost effortless.

These are just a few of the many times I have seen relaxation described as essential to success, nowhere more than swimming. I chose these passages because they relate specifically to my question about cycling.

Not long ago I purchased a book on triathlon (TT) bike fitting by a regular in another forum. In fact, I believe he created it. The Misfits Guide to Basement Bike Fitting, by David Luscan. A major theme of the book is that our body is capable of working efficiently all by itself. The key is to get our over-active mind out of the way. 

Here is something Dave wrote about posture, specifically when settling into the aero position:

[The rotation of our body] is centered around the hips, and the technical term is anterior pelvic rotation ... We don't slide to move forward, we roll. Then we relax. Like a drunk slumped over a bar, we want to forget everything we think we know about proper posture, and literally slouch down into the bars.

Colorful, and evocative. Later on in a section on the cockpit he writes:

This fundamental fit coordinate is the straight line distance from the tip of the saddle to the middle of the back of the elbow pads, and it is the primary driver of comfort on the bike. Too long or too short and we end up using too much muscle for support. Just right and we can execute postural directive #2 -- Relax.

I never did find any more postural directives from Dave, but that's OK. The key here is how these two passages connect through relaxation.

A yoga instructor once said that I could go further into a stretch only my muscles don't allow it. That if I were unconscious I could, for example, touch my toes. That image and the drunk slumped over the bar called up the movie Weekend at Bernie's. I am quite certain that if we put Bernie on a TT bike in aero position he would fall off. Even if we tied his wrists to the aero bars and his feet to the pedals.

Yesterday I rode the bike portion of an Ironman VR 70.3. By far the longest I have ridden this season, especially without a cafe stop along the way. I have made many improvements. I can see. A new and better saddle. Raised and shortened aero bar position. I would not go so far as to say I was comfy out there, but it was my best ride in a long time. 

As the hours ticked slowly by I found my thoughts returning to this question, again and again. Relax, but not so much I lose control of the bike. Where I ended up is best described by Friel, "The idea is to activate only the muscles needed when they're needed. No more, no less." He was writing about pedaling, but his words apply to, well, everything. 

That is what I call relaxed. Yes, we do use muscles to hold our position. A great many. But the key is to use the least amount possible, to feel as if you are not using any.

Virtual fun

Everyone is impacted one way or another by this pandemic. I am grateful for not having lost any close friends or family to it. And, I am grateful for a job that is considered essential and can be performed from home. I do have friends less fortunate it that respect. The changes in how we conduct our business demanded new application of IT capabilities, and that has had me running hard and fast to keep up and provide the best service possible. A year ago, who ever heard of Zoom? Microsoft Teams? Now, everyone I support has a headset and a webcam.

It is in my personal life that I feel the strongest negative impact from this pandemic. The loss of weekly gamelan practice and any hope of racing. I confess I have done absolutely nothing related to gamelan. I know I should. Review my notes. Browse YouTube. I have no desire to do that. Why, I cannot say. All I can think of is that my enjoyment came from doing. Not solo, either; in a group.

That I miss racing comes as a surprise. For a long time I felt like I did not belong. I had the audacity to show up Sunday morning and line up with people who have been doing this for years. People who can actually swim. Somewhere along the way I got over that without knowing it. I see myself as much a triathlete as I do a musician. It is not about being at the front, or being the best. It is what I do. That is all there is to it. It is what I do. Not who I am. What I do.

There is one thing that has filled some of the emptiness. Virtual racing. As we became acclimated to the restrictions imposed by this pandemic, more and more organizations turned to this format. It took me awhile to catch the bug, but once I got into it I must admit it adds a level of satisfaction that I missed.

This weekend I am taking on a real challenge, the Ironman VR 70.3. Because so many people lack access to pools, and a way to document results, the swim is replaced by a run. So it is a run - bike - run, all outdoors on the road. To simplify safety and support, participants are allowed to do the three events in any order, wherever they want and whenever they want over a bit more than a weekend. I plan to to the bike on Friday, which happens to be a holiday, the short run Saturday, and the long run on Sunday. I do miss the other athletes and the cheering onlookers, but not the sign the reads "Remember, you paid for this." Actually, the IM VR races are free. If you want some finisher's swag you can buy it. I already ordered my Olympic distance swag.

The training I have been following since last winter is my home brew Ironman plan, based on the concepts presented in Joe Friel's Fast After 50 and Going Long, co-written with Gordon Byrn. Not to mention Friel's Training Bible. The plan is designed as if I were racing Kona, so doing a half this weekend is about right as a practice race.

I was seriously (not) considering cobbling together some kind of event to take the place of the October race. I know some crazy people who have done that sort of thing. Chet the Jet for one. And there is Addy and Irene and their mega bike ride weekends. Then along comes the cancellation of the Honolulu Century ride, which I expected, and in its place the virtual Ride of the Century. Fool that I am I signed up to ride 100 miles and my intention is to do it on my TT bike, as though it were a race. Does that mean I should get up the next day and run a marathon?

The eyes have it

I was looking back over my posts and was surprised to see I have not updated my vision situation. The last time I wrote, back in February, I was trying a new set of contacts. A lot has happened since then.

For a week or so I was really excited. I loved the expansive field of vision. I was so pleased with the first rides and runs that I went right out and purchased new readers for working at the computer and plain, uncorrected swim goggles. Then on a longish ride the double vision returned, and as the days went by and my wear time increased, my vision got worse. I tried two different kinds of eye drops. No good. Finally I went back to my optometrist to get checked and he noticed that the lenses were not aligning correctly. No wonder my vision was so bad.

Fortunately some friends suggested I see an ophthalmologist. I got a referral from my GP and just got in for an exam before the COVID-19 lock-down went into effect. His diagnosis: double vision, probably correctable with prism lenses. Contacts were not an option. But he wanted me to see the expert over at Straub, and they were not taking new cases due to the lock-down. 

After what felt like an eternity I got in to see the guy at Straub, and he confirmed the prism thing. The really cool part was he has an optician downstairs who will add a stick-on prism to normal glasses. Look closely at the pic below and you can just make out a series of horizontal lines that cover the full lens.

After getting this stick-on I was amazed at how much better I could see on the bike. Not only was the old double vision daemon expunged, everything looked clearer. Simply amazing. Last Sunday Pattie and I rode Haleiwa and I never had to close one eye to see the road on the decent. I was flying down Pineapple Hill (Hwy 99) at 35 m.p.h. on the TT bike with total confidence.

The stick-on is only a temporary test. This week I went back to the optician to order real glasses. I decided to get what I have now and see how that works, because the real glasses use a different kind of prism. Apparently the correction will be optimal in the center of the lens and diminishing towards the edges. Since I look out through the top edge while in the aero position this may not work. If it does, the next step is to try the same thing with my Rudy Project glasses.

I cannot say enough how great it is to see two cars up ahead and know there really are two cars, and not have to choose which white line to follow.