From Joe to Ironman

BUST!

2011-08-30T18:01:00.000-04:00

Canada or bust

2011-08-02T17:54:00.001-04:00

When I entered crunch mode last year for IM Louisville I had 8 weeks to go when I started training. This year, just under 4 weeks. Here's the situation:

I'm already financially committed to the IM Canada race with condo rental and what nots. I'm also sort of obligated since I talked Liz and Justin into doing the race. If not for those 2 things, I would not toe the line Aug 28th. The situation being what it is, I will toe the line. I got 3 weeks of training to get ready, and I'm not starting from a high (or even medium) fitness level.

I'm 173 pounds, up nearly 20 pounds from my weigh in at IMLOU 1 year ago. That's not going to help. I won't have a lot of time to train during the day, that's already a known limitation. So I'm training from 4:30am to 6am every morning. Today I kicked it off with a 5.2 mile run. I was slow, like a 10:30 pace, but it was fairly easy and I had no body pains. Today at lunch I sketched a training plan on a napkin, to peak at a 100 mile bike ride and an 18 mile run by end of 3 weeks. No rest days, rest days are swimming. I'm going for nothing but long, slow miles – it is ALL about aerobic gains and endurance. Speed is off the table.

It is helpful for me in scenarios like this one to define what success will be before I start. So that I may continually reevaluate things and align them towards my success. Success = finishing, in 17 hours or less. I hope it doesn't take 17 hours because that his a hell of a long time to be on one's feet. A lot of people think I can finish without much trouble, since my recent triathlon and racing career has been totally composed of just winging it…and with reasonably good results. But the truth is - it is pretty far from a sure thing. 3 weeks to train for an ironman puts me unusually deep into the "just roll up and fake it" cave.

I'll post again once I get some more days/miles under my belt and let y'all know how things are progressing. Or not.

Race Report - American TTT - Race 4

2011-05-23T22:42:00.003-04:00

Today was the half ironman. I think this was the hardest 70.3 I've ever done. Harder than St. Croix, Nutmeg (back when the bike course was hard), Mooseman, etc. As I told KK, when I put together training rides I hunt for tons of hills and link them together to create a tangled web of misery. This would even be considered a tough training ride.

[Swim: 46:43]
Wow, I finally had a decent swim experience this weekend! That's not to say I was fast, it is to say I didn't feel like was drowning. It felt like a nice swim and I just tried to enjoy it. No more anxiety attacks, suffocating feeling, etc. I guess the previous 2 days of racing got me back to point where I could start training. It was a 2 loop swim, same as yesterday except they moved the last buoys further out.

[Bike: 4:11:59 / 13.3mph]
This was a total suffer fest for me. Despite being difficult, the whole ride was awesome. You rode through the Shawnee State Park on 1 lane paved fire roads closed to traffic. These roads took switchbacks up the sides of big hills and winded their way along and over streams. There were some real roads involved but not much, and those were largely residential and untravelled. As far as difficulty goes, I think the hardest bike course I've ever done. It was hard for me on the 1st lap and to have to know you need to do it twice weighed heavy on my soul. In the first mile I put my head down to take a swig of water and got nothing but air. I forgot to fill my water bottle. There is no race support out on the bike, you bring what you need. I'd have to just conserve my 1 bottle of Gatorade and make it last the 1st loop. The temps reached well into the 80's so it was very hot but the shaded forest roads offered a lot of shelter from direct sun. Coming through transition to start lap 2 I filled up my bottles and tried to hydrate well on the 2nd loop. On days like today where you are doing nothing but suffering you try to find something positive. For me, it was not having to walk any of the hills. On the 1st lap I thought I might be faced with doing that on the 2nd loop. But I stayed clipped in the whole way and gladly finished it up.

[Run: 3:03:19 / 14:00 pace]
While heading out on the run I saw a sign that said 1st loop run cutoff is 1:45pm. I asked a volunteer what time of day it was and she said 12:20 I think. Oh my goodness, I might not make the cutoff!!! I mean, 1:25 should be a lot of time to cover 6.55 miles but I was basically fully imploded by this point. So I tried to run as much as I could, figuring I needed to keep about a 13 min pace (that's hard to do when you're walking, trust me). I didn't charge my watch the night before so at about 2 miles it went dead, so I had no way to know how I was doing towards the time goal. At every mile marker I'd ask people if they knew the time of day and then I'd judge my pace. A few people I passed didn't know about the cutoff and my news inspired them to step a little more lively. Too much work was already put in at this point to be pulled from the race. I finished up the 1st loop with about 7 minutes to spare I think. There was no finish cutoff so once I was on my 2nd lap I knew I would be a finisher. On my way back to the finish I passed some folk still heading out on their 2nd lap, miles behind me...so I can only guess they lifted the time ban or were very lenient with it. I finished in 8:06:29. It was the hardest race I've ever done. Congrats to KK for a killer weekend of racing, he's the fastest dude I know.

Summary:
- Can you fake TTT Ohio? I wanted this to be a training weekend, and it was. It was probably too much to bite off. You can't fake the American TTT Ohio, well, maybe you can since I just did. But if you do, you will be in for a lot of suffering.

- Is it harder than an ironman? I'll say yes. It is definitely mentally harder, having to come back and race when you're already dead is real bear. And the Ohio course is brutally tough, harder than any ironman course I've ever done or heard about. I still think an ironman is physically harder though, since you have new pains that come from biking for 6 hours straight and running for 4-5 hours straight.

- Will I do it again? Not for a couple years, at least. The memories of pain need to fade away first.

- What will become of me? I got jealous when I heard KK say he played golf in a Wednesday night league...I can't even pick up dry cleaning Wed night because I get home so late from work. The only solution I see to my problem is to remove my commute, because I don't plan on selling my house right now. Just thinking about how much of my life is sucked up by the companies I work for makes me depressed. Changes are eminent.

Race Report - American TTT - Race 3

2011-05-23T22:17:00.003-04:00

After a few hours of lounging around and relaxing we started the 2nd olympic race of the day. The format would be a little different: bike, THEN swim, then run. Cool.

[Bike: 1:45:36 / 14.2 mph]
It was a time trial start for the bike, a pair leaving every 3 seconds. If you were racing as a team of 2 you were allowed to draft off each other on the bike. Not that there would be many places where drafting would pay off. As soon as I started my bike ride I had a mechanical, I couldn't shift into the big chain ring. I pulled over, pulled out my all-in-one tool and pulled up some slack on the front derailleur cable. I tested it while off the bike and it worked, I got back on to start my ride and then it didn't. What the heck?! Off the bike again, loosened the allen bolt, pulled in more cable, etc. This time it worked and I was on my ride. I later realized that the cable housing came out of the grommet where it enters my downtube so the cable was splitting the housing every time I shifted.

OK, so I'm on the bike now, losing 5-8 minutes to that nonsense already. But believe, I could care less about my time this weekend. This bike route was MORE brutal than the morning ride!!! You did a long climb out of the state park, then a short downhill and then another climb. Then there was a very long decent to get to a section of mostly flat (but also partially windy) riding. The bike route was an out-n-back so all that descending meant 1 thing, get ready to climb your way back. That one long climb had to be a mile @ 8%. Then there were 3 annoying hills right before the same 2 mile descent into transition.

[Swim: 40:54 ]
Go get all sweaty and then try to put a wet suit on. Tell me how it goes. KK gave me 2 plastic bags which worked wonders to slide my feet through with no problem. I finally stuff myself into the suit and get down to the water where people start asking me if I know the back of wet suit is open. My wet suit zipper is a little busted and missing some teeth too. It was zippered up but the zipper was split wide open the length of my back. Some volunteers struggled to get the zipper back down so they could rethread it and zip it back up. That all took a couple minutes to complete and I was into the swim. The cool water actually felt quite nice through my wet suit. People complained/warned about severe cramping from sending hot muscles into cold water but I had no problems.

[Run: 1:21:32 / 12:26 pace]
Remember all those hills I walked in the morning race? Take all of those and add a few flat sections and that is what I walked in this one. I picked the wrong race to try and fake.

After the race you have to clear out the transition zone and take everything home for the night. After taking showers and cleaning up KK and I had a cigar before getting to sleep. I was wrecked and I fell asleep as soon as I hit the pillow at about 10pm, race time 7am lurking on the other side of those nightmares.

Race Report - American TTT - Race 2

2011-05-23T21:44:00.004-04:00

Saturday morning we did the 1st of 2 olympic distances races for the day. Swim 1500m, bike 25 miles, run 6.55 miles.

[Swim: 30:36 ]
The swim was a 2 lap swim, both laps were pretty crappy for me. I'm tipping in at like 170 right now which made the size medium race singlet and wet suit feel very claustrophobic. I felt like a tube of Pillsbury dough that was left in the car under the hot sun for too long and busted the seams. Nice mental image to have of yourself, right? Anyway, the water warmed to 59* but honestly didn't feel very cold.

[Bike: 1:39:51 / 15.1 mph]
Brutal. Just plain brutal. It was just as hilly as could be. I was packing just a bottle of Gatorade and my aero bottle filled with water. I was sporting a 12-27 cassette but I have to count the teeth one day because it feels more like a 12-25, I bet it is. A woman that looked like a Mac truck dressed in spandex passed me on the bike course, that's the moment I knew I hit a new low in my athletic career. I eventually re-passed her but the scars will last forever. The bike had a ton of climbing. One short hill lays claim to being 18% but was too short to be an ultimate threat. It felt like you never stopped going up. The last 1-2 miles is all downhill into transition which was nice, but by then the damage is done.

[Run: 1:11:13 / 10:52 pace]
What an awesome run, but also a killer. It's like an old 1 lane jeep trail of packed dirt and rocks. There are only a few flat sections in the middle, the rest is either up or down. It's an out and back run and you are running mostly up on the way out. There are a few very steep sections that are long to boot. I walked all of those. There is steep climb then a very long downhill heading into the turnaround point. I grabbed ice at that aid station and chewed it while I walked all the way back up that downhill. At the top of that hill is the 4 mile marker and it is largely downhill to flat heading back home. Only a few hills peppered in along the way. I made no effort to run anything that wasn't flat or downhill.

This race was brutal. Since it took me so long to finish KK and I decided to just hang out at the race until the next one started at 3pm. There is a cold mountain stream running into the lake we swam in that everyone used to soak their legs in for recovery. That was nice. At one point we tried to nap on the lawn by the lake and got woken up by cheers the last racer to finish, over 5 hours since we started the race. I thought this was the hardest race of the series and was no behind me. I would be wrong.

Race Report - American TTT - Race 1

2011-05-20T19:22:00.002-04:00

I'm down in Portsmouth, OH with Kristoph, who from here on out will be referred to as KK in these posts. I drove 6 hours to KK's house Thur night, arriving at midnight. We left his house this morning (Fri) at 9am and drove another 5 hours to Portsmouth, OH. A rock cracked my windshield on the way here, so now I hate KK because he's bad luck. We checked into the hotel 15 minutes from the race, then went to the race, checked in, and the weekend has begun.

What is TTT? It should be TTTT, because this is a 4 part race series over 3 days. Friday night you do a super sprint triathlon, Saturday morning you do an olympic distance, then Saturday afternoon you do another olympic, then Sunday morning you get to do a 1/2 ironman. All-in it's slightly longer than an ironman, and I suspect it'll be harder because:
A) racing multiple times in a row has an accumulation effect that wears you out vs just grunting out 12-13 hours in 1 shot.
B) the courses are supposed to be really hard (read this as LOTS of HILLS)
C) other than 2 1/2 marathons in the past 6 weeks and a 40 mile stroll on the bike...I remain completely untrained for any athletic activity at all.

Tonight we did the super sprint: 250m swim, 5 mile bike, 1 mile run. The water temperature was a chilly 58 degrees so I opted to wear a wet suit despite how short the swim was. It was a time trial start where you enter 1 x 1 about 3 seconds apart. I was 278th to enter the water out of...maybe 400? Not sure. I had a tough swim. I had something like a panic attack of sorts about 1/2 way through. I couldn't catch my breath, I was getting clobbered a lot by people passing me, the water was mud colored, it was freezing, I was just flat out struggling. Not good. I got through it but I have concerns for tomorrow and Sunday with the much longer swims.

The bike was a long stead climb (I'll guess about 6-7% grade) up to a camp ground and then you turn around a bomb it back to the transition zone. I did nothing heroic. Soft pedaled the whole way, it's going to be a long weekend, no need to be a hero.

The run was a short 1 miler up a small hill and then back down. Again, no heroic efforts by me, nice easy jog the whole way.

I don't have my times but the whole thing took me 34:35. I can say I definitely wasn't in last place. It was too short to be hard but the way I struggled in the swim leaves me anxious tonight. I hope I can just find my own water tomorrow and do a nice easy swim. I'm treating the whole weekend as a long training weekend. This is essentially the kick-off weekend for my Ironman Canada training. My goal is only to finish and that it is. My times will not be impressive but I should log some quality training miles if I can tough it out. I'll post an update after the 2 olympic races tomorrow, assuming I make it out of the water alive.

Race Report - NJ Shore Half Marathon

2011-05-20T19:12:00.003-04:00

I was originally registered to run the full marathon along with Jenny. Neither of us prepared much, me not at all, so we both decided to join Courtney in the half marathon. The non-racing crew for the race consisted of Roger (logistics and pack mule) and Kyle (team photographer). The race starts at 8:30AM. We were rolling by 6:45AM for the 20 minute drive to the race start in Long Branch. There with plenty of time to kill we walked around and relaxed in Pier Village watching dogs and people.

The race is a single loop and dead flat. There are 2 bridges to run over which are the only time you see an elevation change. Jen and I ran together for the first coupe miles, the game plan was to hold an even 10min pace. After 2 or 3 miles Jen was feeling good so she took up the pace and dropped me. Running by myself now I weaved along the race route through the neighborhoods of Long Branch, NJ. The weather was nice, reaching the low 70's in the race. I had no complaints. I didn't feel good, I didn't feel bad. It was just another grin-n-bear-it race I had to finish being completely untrained. To that end, I held a precision 10 minute pace the entire race and finished in exactly 2:10:41. OK, so that's actually a 9:59 pace…I'll have to adjust my metronome.

Jenny went on to finish in 2:02:15 (9:19 pace) and Courtney came in at 3:02:47 (13:57 pace). It was a lot of fun having everyone over for company, going out to dinner, getting ice cream, and showing off my killer 3D TV. It was a rockin weekend. Rock on peeps. Out!

Bring it!

2011-04-17T11:57:00.005-04:00

My sister Lesley and bro-in-law Matt had a surprise birthday present for me. I didn't find out until I was in the lobby of the auditorium waiting to go in. Tony Horton of P90X fame was in CT doing a tour to promote his new book and workout coming soon. We did about an 1:20 minute workout, then a good hour of Q&A, and then got pictures taken with Tony. That picture was professionally taken and I'll get a link to download it in a few weeks. The workout was good, especially for a sedentary person which I would classify myself as now. It didn't require weights and belts like the P90X series, it was a workout you can do with just your body and a floor. The Q&A session was kind of motivational, driving home some points you likely already know but forget about. It was enough of a reminder to get me doing something everyday instead of nothing. Tony is 52 and in insane shape, so that's something to look forward to as I age...that it doesn't have to be downhill if you don't want it to be. He has a cult following and most of them are insane (in the head). Some couple even got engaged when it was their turn for an autograph and picture with Tony. My comment to my sister when I saw this going down was, if I was Tony, I would have snipers posted at all times. I'd have a secret signal that meant, "take these whackos out!"

Thanks for the great present Les and Matt!

Race Report - Asbury Park 1/2 Marathon

2011-03-16T06:38:00.005-04:00

Apparently there never seems to be a good time to update this blog lately. Not sure if my life is really that busy or a sign of poor time management. In any case, I've opened my race season since you last visited me. This is my race report for the Asbury Park Half Marathon held in...Asbury Park, NJ.

Saturday night I went to bed late, it was 12:30am when I laid down. But in 2 short hours we entered daylight savings time, so I had to set my clock ahead 1 hour. It was now 1:30am in the blink of an eye. I got up at 7am for the 9am race. I got a little lost trying to find exactly where it started and then I had to fight with a uber slow Muni Meter machine to pay for my parking spot. By the time I got close to the starting line I missed the start by about 2 minutes. I don't mind starting late but I never like being rushed around and sprinting about to get to the start on time, leaves me out of breath at the start and not relaxed.

The course was 4 laps of a ~ 3 1/4 mile loop. The course roughly looks like a giant T. You start at the intersection point on the T and head left (north) along the boardwalk for about 1/2 mile. U turn and head back towards the start and then bang a right for a 3/4 mile-ish out and back (the stem on the "T"). After coming back to the boardwalk you bang a right for a ~ 1/2 mile, u-turn, back to the start. Repeat 3 more times. The course is all flat but the weather was windy. It was an offshore wind so you hit a strong headwind on the "out" 1 mile section and a tail wind coming back. There were 2 aid stations setup, plenty of fluids were made available along with Power Gels.

My first lap was good and I was running 9:30-ish miles. By the 3rd lap I was getting a little tired and the 4th really felt like the 4th. The "out" section on the last lap was tough. I wanted to walk but decided that would not be a good way to start off my season. So I kept at the task, albeit slowly, and finished the race in 2:11. Exactly 10 minute miles.

You get a white running cap as a finishing prize (and a white t-shirt just for showing up). It was a fun race, glad I made it out for it. I have the NJ Shore Marathon in 6 weeks. I figured I would race this 1/2 marry as fast as I can and then double that time as my time goal for the marathon. With 5 weeks of training and a week of rest that goal would be achievable. So my marathon goal time is going to be 4:22 - exactly 10 minute miles.

I'm not going to sit here and bitch that I should have run it faster. I know I'm capable of a much better time but it is what it is. Training during the week isn't very realistic right now so I'm doing what I can on weekends only. So be it. Rock on peeps! Out!

Check, check...one, two...

2011-02-06T23:07:00.003-05:00

Is this thing on? I almost forgot the URL of this blog to come back and give an update. But here I am. I got a lot of updates to give but I'll meter them out over time. Let's start with something fun. Back in like November I bought a Computrainer. For those not in the know, this is an indoor bike trainer where you use your own bike. The thing is, it's the best trainer you can buy. What makes it so cool is that you can hook up a computer to it and ride courses made up of computer graphics OR using real videos filmed on actual courses. I ordered 3 real course DVD's: Ironman Canada, Ironman Wisconsin, and Escape from Alcatraz.

So this very expensive device sat in a box on my dining room floor since November. Today I went out and bought the cheapest Windows laptop Best Buy had that had HDMI output. I wanted HDMI so I can eventually hook it up to a big screen LCD tv when I finish my basement gym...one day. I only own Macs and Computrainer requires Windows, thus the laptop purchase. I could run WIndows on my Mac but then I'd have to buy a WIndows 7 license and laptops aren't that expensive so I just bought a new one. I got home, unboxed everything and set it all up. I did a 10 minute warmup and then rode the 1st 16 miles of Ironman Canada course (I rode for 1 hour). This is the first time I've rode a bike since Ironman Rev 3 back in September. The ride was pretty cool. The faster you ride the faster the video moves, if you stop the video freezes. This video was filmed on the actual race day in 2008, so you see other racers on the course while you're riding, the aid stations, the referee motorcycles, you see it all.

The 1st hour of the course wasn't too bad, mostly flat, though I was drenched in sweat when I finished. You out of town with a lake on your right and mountains on your left for about 9 miles of flat riding. Then you veer off to the left for a little loop where you will hit a small climb that gets up to 11-12% grade. Wow, that killed me. I was in my smallest gear and out of the saddle climbing...and it was really tough for me. My heart rate strap wasn't working but I'll bet my HR was close to 200 at one point. I'm weak. Oh, I forgot to tell you that the Computrainer automatically adjusts resistance to coincide with the video. So when the course goes up the resistance cranks up. On the downhills the resistance goes way down but you still have to pedal so there is never a break from pedaling. Anyway, it was a lot of fun to ride the course and this will be great practice for the real deal since I'll know exactly what is coming and what to expect.

There are so many other things the Computrainer does but I'll fill you in later. I would have taken a picture of my setup but I was scanning a ton of paperwork and doing taxes so I have crap all over the place. So I'm not taking a picture of my mess. I'll clean up sometime and share a pic. Well, it looks like the 2011 training season has finally begun for me.

Race Report - Rev3 Cedar Point Ironman

2010-09-17T14:37:00.003-04:00

On Sunday, September 12th, I raced my 4th ironman race. And my first ever back-to-back ironmans, separated by only 2 weeks. This one is the Rev3 full ironman distance race in Cedar Point, Ohio.

On Saturday night was shot from my overnight drive and was fed and asleep by 8pm. I set the alarm for 4:15am so I got a full 8 hours of deep sleep, I felt well rested and awesome. My hotel had a fridge and microwave in the room which was really convenient because I brought salads and fruit bowls from home to eat. After the fatties in KY I don't leave food to chance anymore when going to a strange town. I was up at 4am and nuked 2 plastic coffee cups worth of oatmeal and had a banana. I took a shower then headed down to the race start to hang out with the CREW members also doing this race. I was a little nervous, wondering if I'd explode today or if my body would hold up. For sure, it would be a first and a new adventure.

Swim [1:25:50]
We walked down the beach of Lake Erie from the transition zone to the swim start. The swim consisted of swimming 2 rectangles separated by a short beach run. You swam straight out, bang a right at a buoy, then parallel to the short and bang a right at another buoy, then straight back to shore. Then you run down the beach for 50 yards and do the same thing again. You didn't repeat the 1st loop, it was a 2nd loop that the 1/2 ironman racers were using as their swim course. The swim was a little weird because the water didn't get past waist deep till you were 100 yards off shore. It was faster to power walk in the water than to swim so that's what most ended up doing. But that's a little extra wear and tear on the old legs who still have a lot of biking and running ahead of them. Other than that, the swim was uneventful. I got hit in the face a few times but not hard enough to bleed or get a black eye. One dude did it like 3 times and I almost "accidentally" ripped his googles off and punched him back in retaliation.

T1 [3:01]
The swim exit leads right into the transition zone. I got changed outside the changing tent since I don't change my clothes and it was too dark inside. I took my time but tried to make a little haste.

Bike [6:12:31] 18mph
The bike has a loop section that starts about 15 miles off of Cedar Point. So you ride to the loop, do the loop twice, and ride back. On the way off of Cedar Point I was fussing with my watch and wasn't paying attention...nailed a traffic cone head on doing like 18mph. It made a loud noise and I thought maybe I broke something on my bike but all was fine. I was lucky not to fall and crash. I was moving really good in the beginning, and it was really windy. In most cases it felt like a cross wind but there were a few turns where it was clear you were turning directly into the wind....usually reflected by a bike speed of 12mph displaying on my watch. The course was dead flat, like a pancake. It was so flat that there was never a good time to come up out of the aero position. Either you're flying with the wind to your back or trying to stay low while fighting a fierce headwind, or cruising at 20mph with a weird cross wind...none of them good times to come up and give the back a rest. So my back was killing me. I'm pretty sure it is because I have a week core, so my lower back has to do most of the work of keeping my upper body in the aero position. I need to work on core this winter. The wind eventually became annoying as hell. No sooner would I get a thought in my head and the wind would blow it right out. It was noisy in my ears blowing all around my aero helmet and what not. After 60 miles my quads started get fatigued. It was then that I knew I wasn't fully healed from IMLOO. But I just tried to keep hammering along and would slide my butt forward or backward to mix up the effort between my quads and hamstrings. The final 4 mile drag back to the transition zone was freaking endless. I seriously thought I was going to die an old man out there on the road.

T2 [3:10]
I was so happy to get off the bike. Another short and quick transition into my running shoes and hat and I was off.

Run [5:10:32]The run course was a 2 loop course. You ran down along the water and through a marina, along a paved walking path, etc. We ventured through some neighborhoods that this warehouse/SoHo vibe going on, very hipster and artistically feeling. The course was very flat, which was nice. So I guess as far as a marathon can go...it was easy. I felt good starting the run but the wheels started to fall off quickly. The temps didn't get very hot but it was hot enough in the sun...I mean, you were soaking wet in sweat. Shortly after starting the 2nd loop I hit a real bad patch. I couldn't run, I had these weird cramps in my sides and stomach. All I do out there is recalculate what pace I'll need to break 13 hours and after every mile it was looking bleaker and bleaker. Eventually I threw that goal out because there was no way I could match the required pace to achieve it. At mile 14 I started taking cola at the aid station. I also packed 3 Double Espresso PowerGels in my shorts for the end of the run. I tool one then, another about mile 20, and the last one at 23 miles. Things started to turn around. I could hold a jog from one aid station to the next, that's good! At the 20 mile marker, with 6.2 miles to go, I got real pissed at myself and reminded myself that I wanted to give myself a good hurting at this race. I wanted to be in pain. So why was I walking if the pain could be found in RUNNING?! So with 6.2 miles to go I decided I would not walk again until I crossed the finish line. It was hard, and I was getting heavy doses of pain like I wanted. With 3 miles to go I saw I made up enough time that sub 13 was still on the counter. I sped up. I still walked the aid stations to take in more cola but I was running the rest. I blew by everyone on the road in the last 3 miles and no one re-passed me. I turned myself inside to not have to walk, it was awesome. With 1/2 mile to go I knew I was going to bad a sub 13 which I felt was a reach coming into this. I don't remember many times in my life when I was more proud of myself. My personal stock went through the roof when I crossed that finish line in 12:55.

Thanks everyone for all the emails and txts after my race! And all my sisters taking screen shots of the live video feed as I crossed the finish, thx! Congratulations to the rest of the CREW on their accomplishments and very special "holy crap" to Philthy Phil who went 10:25 in his race that day. That is ridiculously fast dude. So as I shut down my 2010 triathlon race season I take 2 things into the long winter with me as fuel...my sister Liz going 5:39 in Timberman a few weeks ago and Phil going 10:25 at Rev3. These 2 events will be my inspiration to train like Rocky and go 11:20 or better at Ironman Canada in 2011.

Unreal!

2010-09-13T07:36:00.005-04:00

Hey yo! I'll give a proper race report later but wanted to drop a quick note to say everyone who followed me yesterday is awesome. When I finished the race I had like 30 emails/txts from family and friends, it was awesome. I was running high on emotions as well because I could not believe I went sub 13. I had written off ANY chance of that after 15 miles in the marathon because my pace dropped so bad that min/mile pace I would need to bring it back was too much to ask my body for. Turns out I was wrong. The last 6 miles saw no walking except aid stations and I flew the last 3 miles averaging 9-10 min miles for the most part. At the end of an ironman, that is flying for me. WIth about 1/4 mile to go I knew sub 13 was actually going to happen and was beside myself. I told you all I would bury myself and leave it all on the course and I certainly did. I took a 30 minute ice bath and my legs are still wrecked. This is the carnage I was after!!!! hahaha, I love it!!! My dream time was 12:59 as you all know and I finished in 12:55. Unreal!

My body is screaming for scrambled eggs, I must really need protein. Yes, I'm staying vegan but the day after ironman I'll eat whatever my body asks for...so eggs it is!!! Thanks everyone so much for tracking me yesterday. Having people cheering (even remotely) makes all the difference. I'm off to breakfast then driving home. And, no more ironmans for me in 2010.

It's on!

2010-09-11T19:41:00.002-04:00

Yo yo! I'm here in Sandusky, OH! I ended up driving from 1am to 4am, slept in my car from 4-7am at a rest stop, then finished the drive from 7-11:30am. I couldn't check into my hotel till 3pm so I went to the race site, checked in, and dropped off my bike and transition stuff. I was the last person to register for the full ironman and they couldn't find my race packet. They gave me a new #, I'm racer #1397 now, and when I checked online I'm not in the system yet. Maybe that will get fixed overnight.

I'm going to sleep now, I'm tired from no sleep. Alarms are set for 4:15am. It looks like they'll have live race coverage and tracking available @ www.rev3tri.com. If you can't find me by name, try my race # instead. I'll stop by the timing station in the AM to have them double check that I'm setup. I think the athlete tracker is here:

http://iifvaweb1.iifdata.com/CedarPointSep2010/Athletes/Default.aspx

But check the main site, too.

Rock on peeps. Let's get this done. Out!

Jerz goes to Ohio

2010-09-10T14:07:00.000-04:00

Sunday is the Rev3 full ironman race I signed up for last minute. It's in Sandusky, Ohio which I'm figuring is an 8 hour drive. I'm either going to leave tonight at 1am and drive 4 hours, sleep 4 hours, drive 4 hours. Or, wake up at 5am and just drive 8 hours straight through. I'll see how tired I feel later tonight. I want to get there by 1pm so I can do my race packet pickup and bike check-in by the 4pm deadline, leaving myself a couple hours padding just in case. Maybe I'll download an audio book for the ride, learn something new along the ride. I'm packing all my meals with me (salads, fruit, etc) because it is stressful finding food I can eat in a strange town.

Believe it or not I have a race plan for Sunday. The forecast keeps bouncing between t-storms and showers to partly sunny. In any case it should only be low to mid 70'sF which is perfect. KK told me it can get really windy along Lake Erie so that'll be the enemy on Sunday, as the course if very flat from what I can gather. I prefer hills over wind, hills have a start and and end, headwinds last foooorever. But, whatever.

Swim: I'll be in a wetsuit which will help my form so I hope to knock a few minutes off my IMLOU swim time. The swim is 1.2 mile swim, short beach jog, then another 1.2 mile swim. It's a mass start so I should have company the whole swim. I have no idea what to expect in terms of current, waves, etc but...let's shoot for a 1:20 swim time.

Bike: The bike course sounds like it favors me, no real hills, pretty flat. The only factor should be a headwind on the returning section of the course. If the wind isn't too bad I have hopes for a good bike time, on par with the 6:15 I laid down at IMLOU. If the wind is horrendous than all bets are off, it'll be what it'll be. I won't have heat to deal with so let's try to best my IMLOU time by 5 minutes and pull down a 6:10 bike leg.

Run: Again, this run is supposed to be dead flat so...should not be too bad. Then again, doing another ironman 2 weeks after completing one that I barely trained for could be a changing factor in that equation. I went 5:33 in IMLOU and that was in crazy hot conditions. I fought back strong on my 2nd lap there and I'll hope for a repeat effort at Rev3. I think it would be cool to go sub 13 hours. I don't know who long transitions are but I'll figure 15 minutes all-in to estimate them. If I hit my times above I'll be sitting at 7 hrs 45 minutes which leaves me 5:14 to complete the marathon. I need to shave 19 minutes off my IMLOU time, which I'm hoping will come simply from not having to deal with oppressive heat.

So there... 1:20 swim + 7:30 T1 + 6:10 bike + 7:30 T2 + 5:14 run = 12:59 FINISH!

No matter what, I'm super stoked to go racing again. I'm having a blast out there and trying pull these finish times out of my...hat....makes it even more fun. I want to hurt myself on this one, I want to be in pain the next day from my effort. So believe me when I say, I will leave everything I have out on that course this Sunday. JoJo will rock the Rev! OUT!

Another ironman?

2010-09-04T09:16:00.005-04:00

I've felt really great after my ironman last week, ever since I got out of the ice bath I've been totally fine. Absolutely no pain, no cramps, no soreness, nothing. My old triathlon coach/pro triathlete/friend, John Hirsch, instant messaged me at work yesterday (Friday) to congratulate me on Louisville. During the course of the conversation I asked when the Rev3 ironman was that he and Phil were doing, I knew it was very soon. He said next Sunday, Sep 12th, and I should come do it!

I quickly googled the the size of the road trip (it is in Cedar Point, OH), and it would be 7 hours or so each way. Hotels are cheap, I felt great, always wanted to do a Rev3 race, so things were starting to align. Registration had closed several days before so I emailed the race directors with a nice request for late entry. An hour later I got an email back from Heather Gollnick herself, a pro triathlete and multi-time ironman winner, with a passcode for late entry. That was cool.

So now I had till midnight to decide if this is a go or not. Do I drop $1000 in a weekend (entry fee, hotel, gas, etc), lose a critical weekend of finishing up my house renovation, burn up another vacation day from work...or do I not? Well, let me explain how easy this decision was. From the second the thought of doing another ironman in 1 week popped into my brain, it was like I did a shot of tequila. I was literally drunk with excitement. Endorphins were pumping over my brain and through my body. This will push my home renovation into November but...whatever, it's been 2 years in the making already so who cares.

That's it folks. Next Saturday morning I'm off to Ohio to race my 2nd ironman in 2 weeks. I don't know how my body will handle the stress but I'm really curious to find out. I'll do a short 7 mile run this weekend and maybe a 50 mile easy spin just to flush out my legs, but that's it. I am getting myself amped up for next weekend baby!!! Rock on peeps. Out!

Race Report - Ironman Louisville

2010-08-30T05:28:00.017-04:00

On Sunday, August 29th I raced my third ironman, Ironman Louisville.

Swim [1:26:18]: The swim start is about 3/4 of a mile upstream from the swim finish and transition area. Since IMLOO has a time trial start you line up single file and by the time I got up there at about 5:30am the end of the line was a good 3/4 of mile past the swim start. Despite heading down there at what I thought was early, I was nearly at the back of the line. Most athletes had a lot of family with them which bloated the line. Is walking 2.25 miles on race morning just to start a 140.6 mile ironman really necessary? Well, at least in Kentucky it is.

About 30 minutes after the canon went off I finally made my way down the ramps to the pier we were jumping off of. We were running the last bit of it and then launching off the dock, music blaring, it was really fun and I was quite pumped. The water was warm, had to be low 80's. It wasn't too congested to start but there was some contention for space. The water was very murky so you couldn't see if someone was around you while your you were face down. By the time you realized someone was there you were already swimming over them. The swim was fairly uneventful, just long and slow. You entered the Ohio river between the eastern shore and a small island, swam upstream past the island for about 1/3 of the swim, then turned and swam downstream for the last 2/3rds to the exit. On the way back you swim under an old railroad bridge that they tried and failed at converting into a pedestrian walkway and shortly after that the main bridge connecting Kentucky to Indiana. If there is ever a troll or goblin in a fable, he lives under a bridge. I thought about that as I swam but made it through unscathed. The locals were saying there was little to no current to speak of that day since there hasn't been much rainfall lately. Later when I asked a few athletes on the run how their swim was they concurred their time was notably slower than they were expecting. I also think not wearing a wetsuit accounted for at least 5 minutes extra in my time. I was surprised my time was over 1:20 but I didn't really care too much at the time...today was about just getting through it in one piece.

T1 [7:20]: It's a couple hundred yard run from swim exit to the transition entrance. I ran into my family on the way there and stopped to say hi. They also brought me my running socks which I failed to put in my run bag the day before at check-in, so I grabbed those. There were very nice volunteers all through the rows of bags helping us find our bag and directing us to the changing tent. I had to put my race top on since I swam naked, then load some gels into the pockets, put on my heart rate strap, put on my bike shoes, don my helmet and glasses, and stuff a 7 hour bottle of Perpetuum down the back of my shorts and I was off. Volunteers were slathering sunblock on our arms, shoulders, and backs and I got a good dose before I left. You fetch your own bike in this race which I think I prefer.

Bike [6:15:59]: I really had a great bike leg. I ate a granola bar coming out of transition and tried to find a good feel for my pace. I kept telling myself to hold back, take it easy, just spin and tick off the miles...but it was not long at all before I disobeyed my own orders and started racing the other bikers. We drove the course on Saturday so I could refresh my memory of what to expect. It ended up being much easier than I thought it was going to be while in the car, so it was a deceptive drive. Being that I started at the back of the swim I was passing a lot of people. It's not like my bike split was crazy fast or anything but I was picking them off 1 x 1 all day long. The course really suited my strength because I was able to power through most of the rolling hills in my big chain ring and keep the pace up. I lose time against people when the climbs are steep and there were none here. Even on the "steep" hills I was quite readily cranking up them and passing people while seated. I tribute that to my three 100 mile training rides with all that climbing, it paid off with dividends.

There was a section leading out to La Grange on the 1st loop that had some downhills and rollers. A pro male was coming through on his second loop during one of the slower sections for me (more uphill). But once we crested, I re-passed him and led through most of the rollers. It wasn't till a longer uphill that he retook me and then disappeared. I thought that was cool and just reinforced that if I find races that suit my strengths I might be able to cause some damage in the age group category!

For the rest of the bike I hammered when it made sense and pulled back when it didn't. I ate up a lot of people out there. I knew I was screwing myself for the run but sometimes it's just too fun to RACE and that's what you have to do. The final 34 miles or so back into Louisville were against a pretty stiff headwind. That stretch lasted forever it seemed. All along the route I saw people that simply melted on the side of the road. The usual site was a bike laying in the grass and someone sitting with their head between their legs and hands on their head. It was totally understandable, the heat was radiating back off the pavement making it feel like you were racing in a pizza oven. I think it hit mid 90's that day. My back was starting to tell me it had enough and my hamstrings and glutes were also sending me some warning signs. So I dialed back for the last 6 miles and happily finished up the bike leg.

T2 [6:17]: Coming into transition a volunteer grabs your bike and you run back to the rows of bags to get your run bag. I got mine and hit the changing tent to put on socks, sneakers, and a hat. I think I hit the bathroom real quick on the way out too. I stopped for another application of sunblock, the sun was still raging high in the sky.

Run [5:33:23]: Oh my god. When I started the run I thought "this day is over, I'm going 17 hours." I mean, I was just starting a marathon and my core body temperature was already skyrocketing. It was around 3:30pm and there would be no relief for 3 or 4 more hours. So I thought the worst. The run starts with a quick run halfway over the bridge to Indiana and back and then you do two 12 mile loops straight up 4th Ave. I ran into my family right before the bridge and I think I asked for my room key. I didn't want to do this marathon right now. They happily rejected my request and I started the first of my 2 run loops. The 1st loop was a real bitch, I mean just horrible. There was all sun with no reprieve for 6 miles on the way out but at least a few sections of a shaded tree line on the way back. I was reduced to walking most of the straight sun sections and I'd run anytime I hit shade. We ran through Old Louisville which was quite nice and residential. Then we ran by University of Louisville and Churchill Downs which was much larger than I expected. The course was very flat with only a few mild inclines/declines here and there. But that didn't matter, when you're in Louisville the heat is your enemy.

My sister Jen ran around the block with me as I ended my first loop and started my second. I told her I wasn't doing great and it would be a struggle to hold a 15 minute pace for the 2nd loop to break 14 hours. Funny thing happened on the 2nd loop though...the sun started to go down! I started walking less and jogging more. I was usually running about 3/4 of a mile and then walking the aid stations. At every mile there was an aid station and I filled my hat with ice. It felt so good. When I was running my pace was about 10 to 10:30. There weren't a ton of people running, lots were walking. My body is getting much better at starting running again after walking, that used to be very hard for me to get my body moving again. I got a tip from a friend last year at IMLP to hold off on drinking cola for as long as possible. Once you get the caffeine hit it's gone, kind of like nitrous in a car. Use it up too early and you have nothing left in your bag of tricks. I held out till mile 16. My stomach was getting very upset and I felt like I might throw up...it was time for cola. I haven't had caffeine in over 7 weeks so the cola did wonders. It settled my stomach and pepped me up. I started recalculating my pace and seeing if 13:30 was still possible. It was but I'd have to really man up to get it. My pace dropped to around 9 to 9:30 between aid stations and I only walked the length of the actual aid station before running again. I was in immense pain but the chance of hitting 13:30 kept the drive alive. My sister Jen caught me at the corner going into the finishing chute but I out sprinted her to the finish so she couldn't get a video of me finishing. Sorry Jen! I was 30 minutes ahead of my estimated arrival time so the rest of my family missed my finish too, though they did hear my name as I finished. I ended up doing a negative split on my marathon (2nd half was faster than the 1st half). When I saw on my watch I finished in 13:29 I was truly impressed with what I had just done. I came in under my "dream" goal time by mere seconds. The last 12 miles was all heart.

As I write this, the news just did a segment on the ironman aftermath. It reached a high of 96F that day (and Louisville is currently setting a record by a lot for the hottest summer on record). 73 people were taken to the hospital and 9 had to stay overnight. I took an ice bath back in my hotel room and it made me feel like a new man. The next day I had very little soreness and could function completely normally. From what I could gather there were close to 3000 people who started the race and only 2157 of them finished. I finished in 988th place overall, safely in the top 3rd. I had an awesome day and I definitely exceeded the expectations I put on myself. I just love racing ironman distance races, it's an all day chess game of you versus yourself. You take chances, adapt, and do what you can to persevere. Whether you're finishing 1st or last, we are all facing the same challenges. It's why I keep getting everyone I know to sign up for one.

Special thanks to my awesome support crew on race day: mom, dad, Jen, and Roger, who braved the heat to help me along. I know how hard it is to spectate one of these events and I am truly appreciative they made the trip. Also a special thanks to the rest of my family and all my good friends who texted, IM'ed, emailed, and called to wish me well. When things got really tough out there I played back all your comments back in my head and it made me stronger. I say it after every major race but it is true, I have the best support network I could ever want. So thanks to everyone for being part of my day.

The day after the race I signed up for Ironman Canada which will be on Aug 28th, 2011. It's held in Penticton, British Columbia, Canada...out by Alaska and Washington state. Supposed to be one of the most beautiful ironman races there is. I can't wait!!! Liz and Justin (sister and bro-in-law from DC) also signed up. It will be a ton of fun, I had my heart set on doing this race for a while.

It's go time!

2010-08-28T22:23:00.002-04:00

I'm locked and loaded. Had my pre-race cigar and I should be sleeping. I'm getting up at 4am to eat, load the nutrition on my bike, and get my butt down to the swim start. Today we came out of a museum at 3pm (roughly when I'll start my run) and it was crazy hot. The run is going to be b-r-u-t-a-l. I can't wait, this is so awesome! Totally pumped.

You can track me live at http://www.ironman.com, find the athlete tracker for Ironman Louisville. I'm #1849. Thanks for all the text messages, emails, and calls this weekend...I'll take it all with me on the race and it DOES make a difference.

Dude, it's time to rock this thing!!! Out!

IMLOO race plan

2010-08-22T22:15:00.003-04:00

Folks, it's the home stretch! I am taking off this Friday to drive out to Kentucky with Jen and Roger. My parents are coming in on Saturday. I took a look at the weather forecast for race day and go figure...it's going to be HOT! Look at the temps climb straight into Sunday. It's going to be really hot and muggy so that will translate into slower race times for me. That's cool with me. Give me your worst KY!

Let's talk about my race plan!

Swim: I am predicting that wet suits will be illegal since it will be hot all week and water temp will be above 78. I think technically I can still wear one but I'll be ineligible for awards. Not a big deal since I won't be winning any awards, but I'll follow the rules and swim naked. The swim starts in the Ohio River upstream from the finish. You swim upstream around an island for about 1/3 of the swim and then downstream to the swim exit. It's a time trial start (1 x 1 into the water) and I plan to line up early to get out early. This might help me draft off a few feet as they pass me. I'm going to swim comfortably and shoot for a 1:15 to 1:20 swim time. That would be sweet.

Bike: I rode this course before and it wasn't easy. There is a fairly hard out-n-back that you do only on the 1st loop and the rest of the double loop is all rolling hills. The last 30 miles back to T2 are mostly downhill and should be fast. I don't remember that but I'll hope it is true. I'm going to pace my bike speed for a 7 hour finish which is 16mph. My previous 2 ironman bike splits were 6 hours so this pace is conservative (I hope) - better to deal with the heat and being under trained. I really want to feel fresh going into the run if at all possible. If I'm going to "hammer" anything it'll be the last 30 miles coming home as I tend to be faster than the average ironman racer in a flat to downhill scenario. I'll have my 32oz aero bottle mounted on my aero bars for water only, a 7 hour concentrated bottle of Perpetuum stuffed down the back of my shorts, and I'll keep sports drink given out on the course in the cage on my down tube. I'll keep my flat repair stuff and Gu's in a bento box on my top tube.

Run: Let's make the assumption I haven't melted by now. If I meet my time goals above I'll be 8 1/2 hours into my race and it'll be about 3 or 4pm. The sun will be raging. The humidity will be insufferable. And I will be blissfully suffering in a world of pain from my own creation. I would love to break 14 hours and would be ecstatic to hit 13:30. Can I run a 5 hour marathon? Hmm, not likely, but that will be the challenge I have given myself. I'm going to start out on a 5 hour pace (11:30 mile). It's a 2 loop run course so I'll know by the 2nd loop if I can keep the pace going for the bell lap. I can fall off the pace to a 5:30 finish to break 14 hours or, quite possibly, the heat could completely melt me and I'll fall short of even that goal. But that is the my plan and I will fight through the pain to achieve it (but I will not push so hard that I'll need the medical tent, at least not on purpose). I am so curious to see how I'll do, this will be very fun adventure for me. I only use the Gu's, sports drinks, and water they provide on the course...I won't be bringing anything with me on the run.

I will rock the LOO in 6 days! Out!

Pain installment #3 - paid in full

2010-08-16T13:55:00.002-04:00

On Friday my office had a company BBQ in Westchester, NY so I spent the weekend in CT since I was in the area. I pinged Phil who is a fellow CREW member and one tough SOB. He's dong the Rev3 ironman in a few weeks so his training blocks are peaking now as well. It seems we only get to meet up once a year, and it is always to do the hardest bike ride imaginable. He wants to know why I hate him so much, but I tell him I just express my affection with tough love, that's all. Like 8+ hours of grueling climbing on a tri bike. So, we make arrangements to do the Hilly Hundred ride on Saturday morning. This crazy bastard rides his bike 20 miles to my parent's house to start the ride at 7am. The Hilly Hundred ride itself is 117 miles long. I'm telling you, Phil is nuts.

This is the same ride we did last year where I sheered off my rear derailleur from generating 1700 watts on a climb at mile 72 (or mechanical failure, the investigation was inconclusive). It's hilly, thus the name. The route goes through the CT section of the Berkshire mountain range. A lot of the climbs were in the 8-10% grade, which is just a nice, hard grind - but not a killer. A few long climbs spiked into the low-mid teens, and Treasure Hill Road was long stretch of 20% with some parts steeper. I made it up Treasure last year on my road bike but this year on the tri bike it bested me and I was forced to dismount. It wasn't all the bike, I'm not as strong as I was before at the moment. Just prior to that hill was about a 6 mile haul up Warren Hill, a steady and relentless 6-10%'er. It was just amazing training territory. Over the day we hit several miles of ripped up pavement and even dirt, we didn't seem to catch a lot of luck in terms of road conditions. The final climb back into Ridgefield would have been Cains Hill Rd which we bypassed to take a longer but less severe climb, even Phil had started to crack in the last few miles.

Phil bricked a 30 minute run after this 137 mile bike day and the SOB took my running shoes so I couldn't run. That's the kind of sacrifices I make, nice guy, right? hahaha Anyway, the data on our ride is here, we came in just 215 feet short of 10,000 feet of vertical climbing so it was very similar to the ride I did in NJ the past 2 weekends. The jury is still out on which one I think is harder. I gave Phil a ride home in my car, another 20 miles home was a bit much for sure.

I ran out of time to do a long run on Sunday due to golfing and traveling home so I need to get that in tonight or Tuesday night. Then that's the end of my big training. It's all the cramming I can do, now it's time to rest and get ready for the race...which is now less than 2 weeks away! My weight is down to 153 pounds, and everyone I see keeps telling me how skinny I am which I like. I will put in a final push to try and get below 150 before race day (in a healthy way of course). That would be totally sweet. Jury is out on if I'll bring meat, poultry, dairy, bread, or any of the other things I've given up back into my diet after the race. I have some thoughts which I'll share in another post sometime.

Phil, thanks for joining me on the sufferfest, it was an epic day of training. And your craziness to bike to the start is inspiring. By the way, that photo is Phil on one of our pit stops clearly not sticking to his nutritional plan. I believe on that stop he ate a bag of beef jerky, a bag of hot fries, a coffee, and part of a chocolate candy bar. The pit stop of champions.

What I was really thinking

2010-08-09T20:25:00.004-04:00

Remember that 3 mile brick run I did on Saturday after my excessively steep 100 mile bike ride? After 1 lap what I was really thinking was...I'm dead meat. No way I'm ready for an ironman, no way! I felt like absolute hell. I couldn't even imagine walking a marathon at that point let alone run one. Granted, the IMLOO bike course will be 5000 less vertical feet of climbing and NONE of their hills are stand-up-and-mash-your-pedals-with-all-your-might-or-you'll-fall-over hard. But emotions are rarely rational, especially when the body goes in survival mode.

Sunday I did some electrical work in my kitchen and "recovered" best I could before my long run. I started an 18 mile run at 7:30pm and finished at 11pm, with no walking, but hardly running fast. My hip flexors felt much better this week, though my left side did started acting up late in the run. I ran with 2 water bottles both filled with Gatorade Endurance mix. I ate a Gu at miles 6 and 12. 2 bottles wasn't enough liquids for a 3:30 effort. At mile 14 (about 10:15pm) I passed the Rumson, NJ post office who was watering their trees with hose and a trickle nozzle at each tree. I slammed a whole bottle's worth of water and then refilled both before running on. Just a few minutes later I started to feel awesome. I sped up my pace quite a bit for the final 4 miles. I suspect my body couldn't assimilate the Gu's I ate because I wasn't drinking enough water with them, and slamming a full bottle pumped it through.

Today I was a shell of man, just like last Monday. My left hip flexor is sore from the run (overuse) but I can get around. One more monster block weekend coming up and I'm done with all I can do for now. My weight is down to 155-157 and I'll probably go crazy with my diet the last 2 weeks before race day to get as close as I can to 150. I'm wondering if my planned 20 mile run next Sunday is wise if it takes almost 4 hours. Long runs shouldn't usually go over 3 hours-ish, you start to cause too much muscle damage to recover. No, I can't run it faster, not the day after ridiculous centuries. The last 4 miles of my run last night gave me lots of hope though, I sure hope I get an amazing feeling like that on race day. Rock on. Out!

Pain installment #2

2010-08-08T00:02:00.006-04:00

Today's training ride was a repeat of the Hillier Than Thou ride I did last week. Last week was the 1st time I did the 2009 course so it had an unknown factor which made it mentally a little bit easier. This week that was not the case because I knew the course, which made it soooo much harder to willingly go destroy my legs again. I got stuck at work pretty late Friday night so I got a real late start today, was riding my bike by 10am. Weather was insanely nice today, low/mid 80's and sunny. I see some weird stuff on my rides, like the picture above. It's a shrine for the Blue Army of Our Lady of Fatima. It's 1/2 way up one of the climbs in the 1st 1/2 of the ride.

They put oil and crushed gravel down on several of the roads in this ride. The road heats up and car traffic presses the crushed gravel into the pavement giving it a new surface. But before it gets compacted over time it's an inch, sometimes 2, of just rock and rock dust. I came dangerously close to going down last week because I didn't expect it...it's like hydroplaning in a car when bike tires plow into it. There was one hill that I wanted to try to get straight up where I stopped for a break last week. But they just graveled the road so when the incline hit 18% the back tire started spinning out and I had to dismount. That sucked.

The ride felt harder than last week, and let me tell you something...the last 22 miles are pretty much a 8-10% climb all the way freaking back (with some steeper leg busters sprinkled in as well). It's just brutal as hell and at times a little obnoxious. The ride spanked me good. After the ride I immediately did a 3 mile run. Every road leaving the school where I parked my car was a freaking hill, so I ran on the school's gravel track instead. After climbing 10,000 feet over 8 hours running was the last thing I wanted to do. Every lap of the track I wanted to quit. I have to run 18 miles tomorrow which is going to kill me. Probably going to be an end of day run so I can recover a little during the day.

I took a picture of those engineered corn seeds I told you about last week. I hope you enjoy these pictures because it's a pain in my butt to stop and take pictures during my sufferfest.

Getting excited

2010-08-05T22:22:00.005-04:00

I'm getting so excited for my ironman! It is 3 weeks from this Sunday! Wahoooo! I've ridden the course before so I sort of know what to expect although I forgot most of it. I've been reading every IMLOO race report I can find on the internet and watching bike course recon videos on youtube.com. I'm so stoked for this race. I got a swim in tonight, that's a picture of my gym pool up top there. It's a 20 yard pool which isn't too bad, 18 yard pools suck. I swam 3 x 1000 yard sets for a 3000 yard workout. When I used to swim I'd do each set in just under 18 minutes and take a rest until my watch hit 20 mins before starting the next set. The harder I swim, the more rest I got. Tonight I was coming in just over 18 minutes, like 18:20 per set. That's pretty good I think since my swim goal at ironman is to cruise well within myself and hopefully pop out in about 1:15:00. I seem to be on track for such a swim. From the race reports I've been reading IMLOO race day is usually mid 90's and humid and water temp is often above 74 degrees so wearing wetsuits are illegal. I think the majority of the swim is with a current so it sort of cancels out the time loss from not wearing a wetsuit. IMLOO swim times are comparable to other ironman race times so I'm not sweating the details.

Pain installment #1

2010-07-31T19:39:00.007-04:00

As promised, today I did what I call the 'death ride'. The Hillier Than Thou century course that is held out in northwestern NJ, out Rt 78 West near the Delaware Water Gap (which is actually PA). I got up a little late so I didn't start 1.5 hr drive to get there until about 6:30am. I was rolling on the bike by 8am so all was fine. The weather was incredible today so I wasn't too concerned about beating the afternoon heat. The ride was difficult for sure. Just look at the elevation graph above, it is oddly has the same tooth pattern as the key to unlock the Grim Reaper's wrath...and it did! I don't see any flat sections in there, do you?!! I climbed somewhere between 9300 and 10,000 vertical feet (the numbers differ on my Garmin data depending on what software I look at them in). A handful of the climbs were just plain violent, with sustained grades of 18% to 24%. If that doesn't mean anything to you, it means it is steep as hell. Ever here of the famed Alp d'Huez in the Tour de France? It has an average gradient of 8% and never exceeds 10% at the steepest parts. On one of the earlier climbs of the ride I hit a 24% section and I had to go completely all-out just to get up it without falling over. It's violent attacks like this that take a toll on your legs and you'll pay later in the ride. Like a bank account, you can only make so many withdrawals before you run out of cash. I had to stop on 2 hills for a 30 seconds breather but rode the whole thing except for Ironbridge Road which came at 80 miles, I had to walk the top 1/2 (or 2/3rd's). It's just too steep and long, even on fresh legs I don't think I am capable of climbing it.

The ride was beautiful as hell. There is a lot farm land up on those hills and I rode through most of it. For most of the ride I didn't see many cars, only a few stretches down busy roads or through town centers. It was a little unsettling to see most of the corn fields were bio-engineered crops. Rows of corn had big white signs stating the genetically altered seeds that were planted and the bio company that made them, clearly they were doing some comparisons of new seeds. Seeing that just looks wrong to me. I'm really inclined to only shop organic foods at this point.

For nutrition I brought 3 bananas, 2 Nature's Valley granola bars, a bottle of Perpetuum (a protein drink for endurance sports), a bottle of Gatorate Endurance, and a bottle of water. I mixed the bottles extra strong so I only had to pit stop at 50 miles to buy another water and I was good all day. I alternated sips of Perpetuum and Gatorade every 15 mins and ate a banana or 1/2 a granola bar every hour. It worked out really well, I felt good nutritionally all day. The bananas and granola were awesome, I think this might be my race food plan for IMLOO.

Many may look at my last ditch plan and say it is foolish, that I can't get enough fitness in this time frame and it might even be too much. They are right. I will get a little stronger from all this but today I realized the real benefit I'm getting: I'm raising my pain threshold. These rides are so stupid hard that if I can pull off 3 of them and dig deep enough to finish them and not quit...I'll raise my pain threshold enough to deal with IMLOO on less-than-ideal legs. I guess you could say this is my 30% physical and 70% mental training block. I'm not totally wrecked from today's ride but I am tired. We'll see how the 15 mile run goes tomorrow, it should be pretty easy in comparison. Peace yo! OUT!

The hard stuff is yet to come

2010-07-29T20:46:00.003-04:00

Yo peeps. I'm still vegan/raw/whatever. I thought I was cheating because i added beans to my diet for dinner but found out that's not cheating. Breakfast is fruit. Lunch is always a vegan salad. My dinner is a bowl of kidney, pinto, and black beans. It's been long enough since I overdosed on veggie smoothies and puked so I'm going to try to go back to them this weekend. I went down in weight as low as 158 but I'm back up a couple pounds to 160, been here for over a week. It's because I haven't done any big training in 2 weeks. I had to postpone my death ride for 2 weekends in a row due to excessive heat. It's too dangerous a ride to do by myself in 100 degree heat...crazy hard, unknown spans where I can refill water, and very rural so I won't see many cars if something happens. I take a lot of risks in life but I felt high potential doing the ride could end very badly for me. But this Saturday is go time! IMLOO is 4 weeks from Sunday and I'm putting in my final ditch training block, these are my weekend plans:

7/31 - 100 mile death ride
8/1 - 15 mile run

8/7 - 100 mile death ride / 30 min brick run
8/8 - 18 mile run

8/14 - 100 mile Hilly Hundred ride (in CT) / 30 min brick run
8/15 - 20 mile run, start a mild taper (I'm not a big taper person)

8/21 - 50 mile EZ spin / 30 min brick (very easy, part of my taper)
8/22 - 13 mile EZ run (very easy, part of my taper)

8/29 - IMLOO!!!!!

It's one thing to write this plan down, it's a totally different thing to execute it. That death ride is so freaking hard, my god is it hard. If I can somehow brick it on 8/7 I'll be tough as nails and ready to go. There's an equal chance my legs could fall of my body too. The truth is, it doesn't really matter which outcome happens...it's how I handle the situation and persevere that matters. That's what ironman teaches you, and what makes you a better person from the experience. I'll check back in this weekend after death ride #1 is hopefully in the bag.

Race Report - Long Branch Sprint

2010-07-11T14:31:00.006-04:00

The sea was angry that day my friends, like an old man trying to return soup at a deli. --George from Seinfeld.

Today was my first race in the Long Branch sprint series which is 3 sprint triathlons over the summer and a final 'War at the Shore' finale at the end. I got to bed at midnight, got up at 4:45am, ate a bowl of oatmeal (Almond milk, not real milk), and was cycling to the race by 5:15am. It was just over 12 miles which took about 40 minutes. After I setup transition I went down to the ocean for a warm up swim. The waves were huge, one of them knocked me clean on my ass and filled my shorts with pebbles and baby mussels. Awesome! (the picture above was taken after the race and the tide had turned by then...those aren't the mutha waves we had at 7am)

I was doing the long course sprint which was a 600 yard swim, 20 mile bike, and 5 mile run. Extend the swim a bit and you almost have an olympic distance. We went off first at 7am, actually 7:15 or so since they were having trouble anchoring the buoys in the angry surf. It was a time trial start, not a wave start. This just means you enter the water 1 x 1 and cross the timing mat as you go. I ran into the surf and pierced a giant incoming wave, and then again, and I think a few more times. The course was a rectangle, swim out to a yellow buoy, bang a left, swim to the next yellow buoy, bang a left and swim to shore. It was choppy the whole way but fun. I took in a few mouthfuls of salt water out there which wasn't fun. I don't think I had a great swim time but I'm not sure since I don't know my splits yet.

I rocked the transition in a hurry, I can't wait to see how I ranked. The guy next to me looked like he was setting up a campsite with all the crap he had going on in his transition spot...freaking hoarders. The 20 mile course was a 2 loop course, very flat and very fast. Most of the time I was banging 20-24 mph. I think I finished the bike in under an hour, so I'll guess I averaged about 21 mph. My legs weren't useless but I felt like I was building up some lactic acid. On slightly pre-tired legs it was harder than it should have been to hold those speeds. Road etiquette at this race was a little worse than the normal crop of idiots you get at triathlons...morons not keeping to the right and even worse PASSING on the right. In the end it was a fun, fast ride..the kind I like.

After another kick ass transition I was onto the run and feeling pretty good. The 5 mile group ran north for 1 mile to a turn around and then joined the short course racers for their 3 mile out-n-back heading south down the boardwalk. It was getting a little warm and was very sunny. I was sweating a lot but the heat wasn't so bad to make a huge difference. I felt like I was holding a decent pace and my last watch split shows 40:10 so it would appear I might have rocked 8 minute miles. The run was as flat at the bike so that is entirely possible.

I checked last year's times before going to bed last night just to see how fast people were. From studying the times I thought if I could break 2 hours it would be a pretty respectable time. My watch says I finished in 1:51:27 !!! Whenever they post results we'll see how I ranked, I was quite surprised when I looked at my watch.

NJ rocks. Coming over the Sandy Hook Bridge on my bike at 5:45am, the sun was just above the ocean horizon. The ocean view runs as far as you can see from that bridge (unless you can see England) and the massiveness of it all always mesmerizes me.

Fast Improvements

2010-07-10T11:25:00.006-04:00

Improvements are coming fast, which is what I was secretly hoping for. I did two 4:30am runs of 5 miles this week and neither was great. It was in the 80's even at that hour and my legs were still whooped it seems from the death march last Sunday. It is Saturday morning and I decided to do the same 75 miler I did 2 weeks ago. I am much stronger now, I dare say I almost felt like a cyclist on my ride. I put in a medium+ effort for the whole ride, I didn't want to hammer it nor did I want to relax, so I kept my effort just above the comfort zone. Believe me, I was putting in a decent effort. My improvements over 2 weeks are pretty good: my time dropped from 4:54 to 4:24, a 30 minute gain!!!; average speed went from 14.9 to 16.7; and my average heart rate only went up 2 beats from 138 to 140. This kind of improvement makes me happy. I know it won't continue at that pace but I can use all the leaps and bounds I can get right now. There are no big climbs on this route but I didn't allow myself to shift out of my big chain ring for the whole ride. There is 1/2 mile grind with a 6-8% slope in the last 3 miles that was kind of hard though. I thought that was a cool looking old church so I took a picture, it is now the Holmdel Historical Society, according to the sign out front. Click here to see the Garmin data for the ride.

I signed up last minute for a long course sprint tomorrow morning in Long Branch. It's a short ocean swim, 20 mile bike, and a 5 mile run. I live about 15 miles from from race start so I'm going to bike there, race, and bike home. That'll give me 50 miles of riding, with the middle 20 at a hard race pace. Starts @ 7am so I probably need to be biking there by 5am...geez, that sucks. You don't get to be as handsome as me by missing beauty sleep!

Too much!

2010-07-05T21:19:00.005-04:00

4th of July weekend I went up to my parent's place in Ridgefield, CT. Liz and Justin who recently moved from Boston to DC were going to be there as well. Although they are not racing anything longer than a 70.3 this season, they suited up and joined me on my rides to keep me company. Saturday morning we rocked out a short 30 mile loop in Ridgefield as a warm up for Sunday. It's a fun route, scenic, on great cycling back roads, and still throws 2500 feet of climbing in there over that short distance. It's my go-to ride from my parent's house if I need something in the 2 hour range. Then all of us, and my other sisters went to the beach in Fairfield, CT where my sister Lesley lives. We got there at about 2pm and Lesley and I did an open water swim in the ocean, Lesley was in for 1/2 mile and I did a full mile. The water was a little choppy for the 1st 1/2 mile but started to settle down for the 2nd and then went dead smooth after I got out. Figures. I felt great on the swim considering I haven't started my swim training yet. No idea how long it took since I didn't wear a watch.

We got a good night's rest and started our 100 mile ride at about 6:30 am Sunday morning. When we started the ride it was 65F and when we finished it was 105F. A very large portion of the ride was well shaded so even though it was hot as Hades I can't really complain about that. We took a 10 minute break when we got to Lake Waramaug at about mile 40. 20 miles later we took another break under a giant tree at the end of a road. It was HOT. We were all laying on the ground on our backs in the shade trying to cool off. The homeowner came over from the house across the street and asked if we knew it was 100 degrees out, or if we were just insane. After finding out we were just insane he filled out water bottles back up with cold water and offered his garden hose if we wanted to squirt down, we declined the hose...but took the water.

At about mile 80 or thereabouts, we hit some long stretches of roads exposed to the sun and significant amounts of climbing. Every road on my Garmin GPS bike computer had either the word "HILL" or "RIDGE" in it. We all started to crack out there, possibly me the worst. We ran out of water with still 20 miles to go which wasn't good since we were already physically in "the hole" a little bit. OK, 17 miles to go, try to grin and bear it. 16, 15, 14...hmm signs saying "bridge out ahead, no through traffic", that can't be good. With heat exhaustion doing our thinking for us, we continued to the bridge...I mean, how "out" could the bridge be, right? We got to the bridge and it was completely gone. The detour route would have been a few extra miles which NONE of us were interested in. So we dismounted and used some cyclocross-meets-rock-climbing skills to cross the bridge construction by foot. That's the picture up top of Justin and Liz coming up the side of it. I would have swam across a river if it meant not adding another mile to the ride...just to give you an idea of where our heads were.

With only about 4 miles left to home we faced Cains Hill. I was pretty sure I couldn't make it up, it is STEEP and I was TOAST. Justin didn't know how steep it was but didn't care, he justed wanted fluids. So he went direct up the hill while Liz and I took a short detour that spread the climbing over an extra 1/2 mile. With just 1 mile to go, Liz and I pulled into a gas station to get water. I felt like that survival show where the dude squeezed elephant dung to just get a few drops of water out of it, I think I would have done that too at this point. We sat on the sidewalk drinking PURCHASED water wondering how 1 lousy mile could seem like such an epic task to complete. But alas, we climbed the last little hill and made it home.

The ride was supposed to be "easy" since the maymyride route I saw only listed 3400 feet of vertical. We did a LOT more climbing than that. My computer logged 7222 feet of vertical over 104 miles. That's kind of a lot, especially for 3 people just winging it. But, it's in the bag and I'm stronger for my ironman and Liz/Justin are stronger for their 1/2 irons.

I'm still on the vegan/raw diet. My steady weight now is about 160, so I'm down about 9 lbs in 2 weeks. I am well on my way to 150 or beyond, whatever weight I end up at where I'm super lean. I have a feeling it'll be under 150 at this point, in the 140's. Unfortunately I will probably need a new wardrobe in another 10 pounds. But those are good problems to have, I'll deal with it.

The comeback show is in full effect! Thanks Liz/Justin/Les for training with me! And again, sorry about the 105 miles...I really didn't intend for the mileage to be so high once the heat kicked in. Totally my bad.

Radio waves from space

2010-06-27T14:27:00.007-04:00

Yo yo. I've been sticking with the vegan/raw food thing. I only cheated at a business lunch Wednesday where I had a vegetable burrito (opted for brown rice, whole wheat wrap, and tofu version of sour cream). Then on Thursday I was out sick throwing up. I think I got sick from too much juicing. I over did the vegetable intake I think. I don't know. I drink only water and an occasional green tea when I'm feeling wild. I dropped 4.5 pounds this week and I've been holding 164 for the past 2 days. It hasn't been too bad to adjust even though the diet changes I made are rather drastic. I'm looking forward to dropping all the unneeded weight before IMLOO, and mandatory if I don't want to place last. I'm chasing 150, or low 150's.

On Saturday I kicked out a 47 mile ride at about 6:45am to beat the heat. It was the Battle of Monmouth ride b/c I ride right through the battlefield as part of the route. Bad ass. It was night 'n day better this week over last week (same ride), I think mostly due to going early in the morning when it is cooler. I never noticed this crazy monument thing before this ride, but apparently aliens searched out THE most intelligent life forms on our planet (Jersey people) and started yapping to us via radio waves. Maybe they wanted to know why we let Snooki in. Anyway, what I thought was a water tower is actually a giant radio antenna or something so we can text message back to them that Snooki is what happens when you don't go inside when they start crop dusting. PSA: Go inside when they start crop dusting!

I need to get my bike mileage up fast so I can log 100-ish milers on the weekend. I need to invest heavy in my bike legs. I risked road side abandonment from full body implosion and scheduled a 75 miler this morning. I toyed with the idea of 90 but then wised up. I was scared even 75 was too much too soon. I took an extra $100 on the ride to pay for a cab home when I died. I'll tell you what, my butt is killing me right now, it hurt to sit most of the ride. Any new cyclist goes through that period where you toughen up your butt bones...some people go through it several times when they take too much time off...like me. But my pistons were firing for the full 75 miles and I really surprised myself. I'm quite proud of my effort and frankly a little impressed with myself today. This sets the stage for a 90 miler next weekend (I think), and that's the kinda riding I need to be doing right now. Welcome to the JoJo comeback show.

Rock on peeps. OUT!

Going Raw

2010-06-21T16:59:00.002-04:00

Yo yo peeps. I had a panic attack about how unready I am for IMLOO. I realized that this is about as far as I can delay things or I'll be risking a DNF (mom, that means DID NOT FINISH). IMLOO is 10 weeks from this past Sunday, subtract 2 weeks for a taper of sorts, and that leaves 8 full weeks of training before the piper comes knocking for his pay check. So, how does one train for an ironman in 8 weeks?

I am making 2 attacks on this effort. One is to just get as much fitness as I can in 8 weeks, which means actually doing some training. Preferably some hardcore training. I rode 46 miles yesterday starting at high noon with the heat soaring, with only 2 water bottles. It sucked. I was sapped after like 25 miles. I used to do 50 milers for coffee as recovery rides, now I struggle to just complete it. I lost 4.5 pounds on that ride to give an idea of the dehydration I had. Anyway, that kicked off my training...running, swimming, and lots of biking will follow. I'm putting off everything with my house to make room for training. It's the 11th hour for sure.

I won't gain a ton of fitness in just 8 weeks so the 2nd part of my plan is to be as light as possible come race day. I got a Blendtec blender a few weeks ago, and I had a nice juicer from years ago...so Saturday morning I went vegan. More than that, I'm going totally raw food only. My intake consists mostly of nuts, greens, and fruits. Usually blended into a veggie smoothie. It's not as bad as it sounds, some are very tasty. I even bought a book of raw food recipes which I'll try out over the coming weeks. I suffered migraines all weekend as I detoxed my body from it's normal diet of coffee and manufactured foods. I hope I'm through the worst of it now, 3 days later. I like doing crazy crap like this, it's a test of my will power and dedication. As long as I keep having my DNF panic attacks I'll have no problem sticking to it.

Totally Stressed

2010-05-25T22:31:00.002-04:00

I've been beating the crap out of myself lately, physically and mentally. My kitchen renovation project has suffered from scope creep that has lead to it basically doubling my expected budget. All day house construction work on the weekends (and a whole week of it 2 weeks ago) means no relaxing or decompression time from work. Which isn't good b/c work is no walk in the park right now. I had to let some people on my team go, and another has left due to life circumstances...all at a time where the project pipeline is busting at the seams to meet super aggressive goals. (Why did it just take me 3 tries to spell aggressive correctly?) Anyway, this isn't a pity party for myself, I'm just painting a picture of a stressed out Joey. But I make it worse because I berate myself non stop for not training. I mean, what can be better than a self inflicted guilt trip when life is already testing your stress limits. I was reaching a breaking point and those around me could tell.

Tonight I came home from work and did the 2 things I really enjoy doing. I mowed my lawn at 7:30pm while smoking a nice cigar. Did I ever tell you I am the self proclaimed Tri State Lawn Jockey champion from 1991 through 1993? I'm surgical with that machine! Then I laced up my shoes (which still had the timing chip on them from the marathon) and went for a night run. A nice easy run down dark, desolate, heavily wooded back roads. I remember I used to scare myself out on those spooky roads at night, but fear is not an emotion you feel when you just don't care anymore. When I say I don't care anymore, what I mean is I am at point where my reaction to everything is a dejected "whatever". I'll snap out of it eventually, but what good is having highs in life if you can't contrast them against some lows. And right now I'm rummaging around at the bottom looking for the ladder back up. Perhaps tonight was the first rung up.

Race Report - NJ Shore Marathon

2010-05-03T13:23:00.003-04:00

NJ is awesome. The weather is hot, the girls are hot, and anyone with a true Jersey accent will make you chuckle when you listen to them talk. On Sunday, May 2nd was my running of the NJ Shore Marathon in Long Branch, NJ. It's only a 15 minute drive from my house so it's uber convenient as well. Michael (the dude I did the Knickerbocker 60K with in Central Park) came out Saturday evening and we hit packet pickup and had dinner. Turns out, I forgot to register, probably the result of one of the 1000 interruptions in my day. I pleaded my case and the gave me a registration on the spot. Try that at any other marathon.

Race morning we ate breakfast and were at the venue by 7am, the race starts at 9am. With plenty of time to kill we chilled. The start/finish is on the Atlantic ocean, in Long Branch. You only run along waterfront for about 1.5 miles and the rest is through neighboring towns. The course is 13.1 miles long and full marathoners do it twice. The day was hot, real hot. You had a cool breeze off the water at the start but 15 minutes later you were on black pavement with no shelter from the sun and no breeze. On the plus side, the course was dead flat, even flatter than Disney if that is possible.

I started pacing 10 min miles. Then 10:30's because I knew 10 was too fast for the heat. The heat was just brutal and there was just no escaping it. Believe me, I tried. At about mile 12 you turn back onto the ocean front for a 1 mile haul back to the start/finish. The cool ocean breeze was easily 15 degrees colder AND a tail wind to push you along. Imagine the most amazing, awesome feeling you've ever had and that breeze was 10x better. I felt like I could run endlessly along the water. But, then the course turned off at mile 14 and reentered the 9th ring of Dante's Inferno. I've run through a lot of brutal races before but never while being in such poor physical condition. Soon after the 14th mile I started to get a little dizzy, and my vision got bleached. It was so bright from the sun and I was having trouble seeing. Clearly the onset of heat exhaustion. I walked a mile to cool down, drenching myself at every garden hose I passed. I managed to get back into run/walk cycle ranging from 13 to 17 minute miles. It's one thing to ask your body to fake a marathon, and another to ask it to fake it in this weather. All I wanted was to reach that turn back onto the water for the breeze from heaven. When I finally did, the breeze had shifted a bit to an offshore breeze which was warm. What the hell.

5:19 was my time. I thought breaking 5 would have been feasible but not under these conditions. I have to say, it was so hot and I am so out of shape that the race wasn't all that fun. I mean, the race itself is awesome and I'll probably do it next year. But I can't do any more races half assed prepared...it gets me down. Jersey rules! Out!

Marathon training plan

2010-04-28T05:34:00.002-04:00

I have a marathon this Sunday and I haven't run since my last marathon, Florida back in January. With just 5 days till the race does anyone have a good training plan I can follow to get ready? Anyone?

I don't really feel bad about not training. Training just isn't important to me right now. I got other responsibilities right now that take my time and that's cool. Honestly, I could be waking up at 4am like I started to do a few weeks ago and get the training in if I really, really wanted to...but I don't care enough about running or triathlon right now to warrant doing that. So I don't. I may have some regret about that on Sunday, but like all things...regret will eventually pass.

Hope I can find my running shoes by Sunday...

The 2nd half

2010-03-13T08:20:00.002-05:00

My older sister (much older!) is turning 40. This morning (Saturday) I didn't set my alarm but I woke up at 3:50am in a panic that I was late for work. I bolted to the gym b/c the NJ coastline is getting hammered by torrential rains and flooding. I decided to make today my long run of 10 miles, which would be double my longest run this week (gotta build up distance slowly). At the point in a race, or a training run, or a long bike ride when you reach the 1/2 way point - it's somewhat uplifting. You know that you are no longer heading away from home anymore, you are heading home. And that changes things. You don't feel as much need to hold back, to save a little something for later. And with my sister reaching midlife I reflected during my run. On the way out in life you start oblivious as a baby, first aware of others, later aware of yourself. You make friends, school sucks, life is giant vacation but you're too broke to do anything, all you want is to be a teenager. As a teenager you get in lots of trouble, test your boundaries, then test other's boundaries. Still broke though, sure would be nice to have some money to do stuff. Then in your 20's you're working, starting your career, you can do anything, smarter than everyone, gonna be real successful and own the world. In your 30's you realize it's not always how smart you are but more about the powers that be believing in you and opening doors for you, to give you that chance. Finally making some coin, but now money isn't everything, there must be something more. You realize 9 out of 10 people will let you down, best not rely on anyone but yourself. For some these are the family years, I can't speak to that. And then you hit the turnaround point - the big 40 - that aid station way out on the backside of the course. You make the corner and hope for a tailwind, because the headwind on the way here sure was brutal.

I don't know what to expect on the way back but I'm sure it'll be fun. At least Lesley doesn't need to hold back, saving that extra something for the return trip. Let it rip! Put the hammer down! Go like hell! I hope you catch that tailwind, but if life is anything like training rides you can almost be guaranteed a headwind in both directions.

You never regret a run

2010-03-11T08:33:00.003-05:00

I've been struggling to find a successful way to merge my workaholic lifestyle with training. There's a lot of stress involved when the work day starts getting late and you know by the time you get home there's little chance you'll have the energy or gumption to get that workout in. And I'm the worst of anyone at that. I was talking to my CEO, he's a runner and a sub 3 hour marathoner. He told me, "one thing about a run is....you'll never regret one when you're done." That's been kicking around my head for a few days now, and it is what got me out the door this morning at 4am to get in a 5 miler. It sucked more than anything to get up at 4am and get out the door, I must have procrastinated for 30 minutes before I tied my shoes. It was a great run, and I am showered and in work by 8am. And I don't have to stress this afternoon when the workloads starts piling up...I'm done for the day! Anyway, it is so true, I've never regretted a run in my life. There were runs I hated, and runs that were almost impossible to start...but once it is all said and done, I've never, ever regretted doing it...you always feel good afterwards. So with that I will struggle to lace up at 4am every day, and enjoy my hour and half commute knowing I am not a lazy piece of sh...

By the way, it is no coincidence that the CEO is a runner. Everyone knows runners are better at doing everything. Healthy body = healthy mind, there is a preponderance of active lifestyle people filling the C-level positions in corporate America. I didn't make this up, I remember reading it somewhere like Runner's World or something.

Celebratory Run

2010-03-08T22:47:00.003-05:00

For those that read this that don't know I changed jobs in December. My new job is demanding, mostly because I have open headcount - 1/2 my team is missing. Last week I hired a lead for 1 team and today I hired a lead for another team - both were key positions to fill because they will make my life so much easier. I fully realize I can't do everything. Just 1 more lead to hire and a couple developers and I'm home free...the dream team will be complete and we can make software magic. It is such a weight off my shoulders to have these 2 spots filled that I went for a celebratory run tonight.

After a quick email exchange with Rooney last week, I signed up for NJ shore marathon on May 2. That's just 6 weeks of training and 1 week taper, not much time but I am hoping to pull off an upset by cranking out a 3:55 marathon (supposed to be a flat course). So tonight I started, with a 5 miler @ 10 min pace. It hurt, my lungs burned, my bones creaked, I am starting from scratch here. Anyone that's had to start over like this knows there is only one thing that will get you through these times, and that is consistency.

So here's to consistency, and the almost-completed-dream-team that will set me free.

What have I become?

2010-02-20T19:24:00.002-05:00

So I've been meaning to talk logistics with Terrence who also signed up for IMLOO. Flying, driving, where to stay, etc. So we decided to take an easy ride from his place in the Park Slope section of Brooklyn to Pierrepont and back. This was my first ride since my ride during IMLP race last July. We left at 8:30am and picked up Nathan a few blocks away on our way. I was repeatedly dropped the whole way up. I think I rode with them for a total of 10 minutes all day. Round trip was 65 miles and it took almost 5 hours to do it which is 13.2 mph. I don't have a problem with how long it took, this is slow, easy base work. But the ride destroyed me. I didn't expect to be strong on the ride given the amount of time I've taken off but I was alarmed at how weak I was. It was a struggle to get it done. After the ride Terrence's fiance, Michelle, fired us all up a veggie dinner that was outa this world.

I am treating this as a 300db wake-up call. My first registered race is only 3 short months away with KK, a 3 day race that is promoted as being harder than an ironman (sprint tri Fri night, Oly race Sat morn, Oly race Sat night, 1/2 iron Sun morning - all on a super hilly course). It will spank me good if I don't prepare. So tomorrow I'm going to pick up a 2nd running kit, from sneakers to hat, that I can leave at my office for running in Central Park a couple nights a week after work. Rollers and bike are moving into my family room. I guess I need a training plan as well, I better put one of those together tomorrow. 11 week cram, the whole time doing a down-to-the-studs renovation of my kitchen and bathroom - I'm not scared! (actually, yes, I am very scared)

Race Report - Goofy Challenge

2010-01-26T13:15:00.007-05:00

The weekend of Jan 9th I flew down to Disneyworld to do the Goofy Challenge. The Goofy Challenge consists of running a 1/2 marathon on Saturday and a full marathon on Sunday. I got to bed at 1am Thur night and was up at 5am Friday morning to get to the airport. I met up with sisters Jen, Cork, Liz, and bro-in-law Justin down in Florida. We rented a treehouse cabin at Saratoga Springs resort on the Disney campus. We checked into the hotel and then went to the marathon expo to pickup our race packets. The packet pickup and expo were a breeze to get through with no lines. Justin's parents flew in for race support and we all joined up race dinner back at our resort, a pasta special with chicken and vegetables which was exactly what I wanted. We got to bed about 11pm and had a 3am wakeup call so we could get on a bus to the race start, Epcot, by 4am at the latest.

Half Marathon [2:04:25]

Got up at 3:15 and suited up. Race forecast was high 20's with snow, sleet, and rain. Awesome, just why I flew to FL to do a race. I freaking hate being cold more than anything. I wore winter running tights, a technical long sleeve shirt, my Mizuno base layer shirt, mild winter gloves, and a mild winter hat. Sucked back some coffee, a banana, and an English muffin and we all headed to the bus. Walking out the door was like getting punched in the face. We stood around for 30 minutes waiting for a bus to come which made us even colder. Ugh.

At 4:15 we finally boarded a bus for our 30 minute ride to Epcot where the race started. It was a long 15 minute walk from the bus drop off to the actual race start and as we walked there it started to snow and sleet. At every chance we were seeking crowds for warmth and when we could not find one we formed the 'circle of trust' amongst ourselves to share body heat. And then finally at 5:50am the fireworks went off and the race was on. I was with Liz and Justin at the start but Cork was in a different starting corral starting a 40 minutes later, it was a wave start. We 3 ran together for for the first 6 miles at about a 10 minute pace and then Justin took off to get a sub 2 hour finish. The course was dead flat and super easy. It was a shame to be so under trained for this race b/c you could really lay a fast down here. The only hills we would hit were the highway overpasses which didn't amount to much. There were some off camber access roads we ran along that were kind of a pain since one foot was lower than the other which messes with your form. The course was a little boring. You circled Magic Kingdom at the start but then it was mostly access roads and too dark to see anything the rest of the way. We go to

see Jen and Mr. and Mrs. M on the course a few times and stopped quickly to say hi, so that was cool. Jen runs a tight ship when doing race support, moving all over the course to meet us at strategic locations. I'm not sure Mr. and Mrs. M knew what they were getting into when they signed up with Jenny. Surviving the cold as a spectator took some toughness, hats off to all of them.

Every restaurant in Downtown Disney was booked from 3:30pm till 11pm. So we opted to just eat a big lunch and then maybe make a small plate of pasta for dinner back at the treehouse before bed. We ate at an Irish pub where I had a not so delicious meatball sub. Then to bed by 10pm and up again at 3:15AM to catch a bus to race start for the marathon.

Marathon [4:38:26]

At the marathon start it was colder, now 23F but no rain, sleet, or snow. At 5:40 AM the fireworks went off and the marathon was on. We were all a little spent from the day before, being cold, and getting up so early so we took an easy pace from the gate, around 10's. The marathon route does a loop around Epcot and then heads up to Magic Kingdom, Animal Kingdom, Hollywood Studios, and then finishes back at Epcot. It was a much better course than the 1/2 marathon, you got to see stuff. There were all the Disney characters dressed up along the route and I ran with a camera so I could get a picture with them all. Clearly not going for a PR here. In Animal Kingdom one of the employees had a donkey on a leash on the side of the road. Donkeys are my favorite animal so that was cool to see. Again, it is a dead flat course which was nice being that I'm not fit right now. I ran with Justin and Liz for about 9 miles and then fell back. The Irish pub meatball sandwich was the wrong pre-race meal but I think I knew that when I was eating it. I had 3 full bathroom stops during the race, THREE! The finishing few miles of the marathon were really nice and had pretty good crowds since the parks were now open. I enjoyed the marathon course a lot, I thought it was laid out well and entertaining.

In general, both races seemed to have slow runners. I was dragging my feet and was surprised at the number of people I was passing. My take is that Disney 1/2 and full marathons are geared more for just having fun and enjoying a long run. Not so much for laying down a PR. Most people ran with cameras and stopped along the course to take pictures, sometimes even waiting in lines. I think that's kind of cool, a fun friendly race. We got 3 shirts which were high quality and really nice: 1 for the 1/2, 1 for the full, and 1 for doing both races 'The Goofy Challenge'. The race medals were awesome and to be honest the reason I wanted to do the race. I saw the Goofy medal at a NYC marathon expo one year and new I wanted in my collection. The 1/2 medal was Donald Duck, full medal was Mickey Mouse, and of course Goofy medal for doing both.

Congrats to Cork, Liz, and Justin for a great race and thanks so much to Jen and Mr/Mrs M for surviving the brutal weather!

Holy crap, I ran

2010-01-01T20:23:00.002-05:00

I went out for my first training run in months. A 7.5 miler at a very easy 10 min pace, I am starting from square 1 after all. I started at 7 pm so it was pitch black out but I was wearing my super reflective night vest for running. I run against traffic as the law requires and I'm not one of those jerks that hogs the road so everyone is forced to acknowledge he is there. With about 2 miles left in the run some jerk in a blazer lays on the horn as he passes me and doesn't give me single inch of leeway. These are small town roads I run on, not much traffic, that was not necessary. I spit on his windshield as he passes, yell an obscenity, and then throw my hands up in disgust as I turn and starting walking back towards the car that passed me. He's down the road a bit by then and I see him start to brake, and, oh boy....I am absolutely ready to throw down with this punk. I start taking off my ipod and stuff as I keep walking towards the brake lights thinking it's on. Then the brake lights turn off and he keeps going but the car coming in the other direction starts to turn around. They would have seen everything that just happened so I'm thinking it is just a concerned citizen going to get this punk's license # for me. As the car becomes sideways in the U-turn I see the lights on top and "POLICE" on the side of the car. LOL, I'm even laughing as I write this, I mean seriously...how PERFECTLY screwed is that punk now that he tried to run me down in front of a freaking cop! Hahahaha, I LOVE IT! Off the cop goes to chase him down as I hook my iPod back up and turn to finish my run with the mild satisfaction that justice may actually be served tonight.

In my fantasy world that I created for myself and choose to live in, the driver gets a big, fat fine that his broke ass can't pay and so he loses his license for a few months while he collects soda cans on the side of the road to save up enough cash to pay the fine. But sadly I know that likely won't be the case. More likely, he'll use his condom money to pay the fine and end up procreating with his step-sister in the neighboring trailer park thus furthering the decay of society. So now I have to live with the fact that because I went for a run tonight the world is one inbred family richer and one step closer to its demise. And for that, my friends, I am sorry.

Race Report - Knickerbocker 60K

2009-12-18T09:16:00.006-05:00

Alas, the long awaited Knickerbocker 60K race report! The race was on Saturday, Nov 21st at 8 AM. Today is Dec 29th and 9:30pm...I guess I've been busy or something. Anyway, I made plans to meet up with fellow CREW member Michael Rooney at 7 AM to pick up our numbers, we were going to run the race together. My job had been putting me deep in the hole for sleep deprivation so when I finally woke up the clock read 6:30AM, I was supposed to be on the road by 6AM at the latest. Damn, DAMN! I threw a quick bag together and hit the road in a flash. I was FLYING up the NJ Turnpike. I'm not going to say how fast I was going because my mom reads this blog and worries too much to begin with, but I'm fairly certain I would have been arrested rather than given a ticket if I had gotten pulled over. I didn't, thankfully, and made great time...from my house to Central Park/UES in 1 hour, that's moving! I couldn't find parking, or even a parking garage and started to panic, it was 10 minutes to race start. Michael had picked up my race # already so all I needed to do was ditch my stupid car. I finally found a garage over on 2nd Ave and sprinted the 1/2 mile back to the start in Central Park. The starting gun fired right as I got there.

No breakfast, no coffee, 1/2 mile sprint, 1 hour of stressing...good start so far, right? Michael and I took a few minutes waiting in the port-a-potty line before starting our run so we were like 7 minutes behind the race clock when we started. The weather was awesome, 60 degrees F and mostly sunny. Our race plan was to go 11 minute miles and finish in 7 hours. You start at the 90th St entrance in the park and run north to 102nd st, turn around and come back and then start 9 inner loops of the park (each loop being 4 miles). Yes, I said NINE loops. Remember, this is a 60K, which is 37.2 miles, which is roughly 1 and 1/2 marathons. After the first mile we ran into Matt, a super fast runner that used to work at Conde Nast with me. He ran 1/2 of the 1st loop with us and then split off. Then we ran into CREW peeps John and Christine and their horse sized puppy at 102nd St for a quick hello. As we wrapped up lap 1 I decided I'd give full disclosure to Michael on some issues I've been having. I told him that I've been having pretty bad dizzy spells lately and have even fallen over before. Not that anything would happen today, but, if I should fall over and start having seizures I thought Mikey should know what to tell the medics. He was strangely OK with that info. (Writing this a month later, the dizzy spells are now magically all gone.)

Lap 1 down. I was STARVING since I missed breakfast so I sucked down a few pretzels at the aid station. There were 2 aid stations roughly 2 miles apart which was nice. I'd take water and pretzels or chips at the start/finish aid station and then gatorade at the other aid station on the west side. Lap 2 down, this isn't so bad. Lap 3 down, still not so bad. On lap 4 we picked up CREW members Neil and Jesse, who I haven't seen in ages. They both did a lap and a half with us which was the like miles 18 to 24 and I was starting to fade. Like just about every race I've done this year I was racing on ZERO fitness and no training. I wanted to chat and catch up with the guys but I was also starting to shut down inside. It's my body's way only way to get back at me for this abuse. So I didn't talk all that much, hardly at all. Mikey, on the other hand, OMG! The boy can chat like all get-out!

Let me break here and say Michael is one of the nicest, well intending, considerate, and well spoken people I know or have ever known. I take great comfort in knowing that Michael exists because this guy is so nice and altruistic that I can go to bed at night knowing it is OK for me to be evil to my core. For every ounce of distaste and disgust I have against humanity, he has 2 ounces of faith and hope in mankind. There is balance in the universe! His ability to gab is second to none, and I must say quite impressive. Even with a non-respondent running partner he could fill the air with his thoughts and ramblings. I feel honored and privileged to have experienced such a master at work, it was transcendental. Luckily, I grew up with 4 sisters which enabled me to master some skills of my own - to effectively go deaf on demand.

Laps 6, 7, and 8 progressively sucked more and more for me. I was sucking wind, taking walk breaks up some of the hills. My sister Jen and her fiance Roger came in to watch the race and I was glad to see them on each lap. Michael's girl, Alison, also came in to cheer on Chatty Cathy, and even though I didn't know her all that well I was glad to see her on each lap too! The final lap I remember clearly. Michael could have easily took off a few laps earlier with a stronger pace but insisted on finishing together. That was cool of him. Or, perhaps he knew someone talking to himself with no one around would look insane so he wanted my dead body to continue marching along next to him so he could keep talking. Anyway, I remember the last lap not being so bad except for when I had to get moving again after one or two of the walk breaks, that was excruciating pain.

Michael and I finished in 7 hours 27 minutes which is a 12 min/mile pace. I swore on that day I would never do another race I didn't train for again. But I'm flying down to Florida next week to do the Goofy Challenge in Disney, a 1/2 marathon on Saturday and a full marathon on Sunday. But seriously, after that, no more races with no training. It makes them less fun. Special thanks to everyone that came out to join us on that day, it meant a lot to see you even if I wasn't able to talk much. And Michael, seriously, thanks for being out there man. It would have taken me over 8 hours for sure if I was going solo. The evil thoughts I was wishing on you while you were talking took my mind off the pain. You're a saint and a savior, don't ever change a thing. Out!

P90X - into week 3

2009-11-16T22:30:00.002-05:00

I've been going along pretty good with P90X. With 2 weeks in the bag I can say there have been improvements. For example, total push ups of varying types for this workout in week 1 totaled 100. Tonight I did 139. Total pull ups in week 1 was 43, tonight I managed 68. Some of those, a lot of those, were assisted pull ups where I used 1 leg on a bucket to give a just little help in order to get enough reps to make it worthwhile. And weight bearing exercises where I started with 15 pound dumbbells I am now using 25's, and even 30's in some cases.

My abs are really taking a beating. I am completing much more of the ab ripper workout, but I'm still not able to keep up with it. I can definitely tell my core is getting stronger every time I come back and try to make it the full 15 minutes of the ab workout. Like tonight I made it through 5 moves before I had to curse at the DVD and then curl up in a ball to dissipate the burn. I rest for 5 reps or so and then jump back in. Maybe by week 12 I'll be able to make it straight through.

The 50/30/20 (protein/carb/fat) diet has been tough. It's not easy to eat that much protein w/o getting carbs along with it. You have to be careful. And finding 7 servings of vegetables a day is equally as hard. I've been using protein shakes to help supplement the protein requirements and V8 juice to help out with the veggies. The rest is from normal foods that you chew and swallow. I definitely have not gone hungry, that's for sure.

By the way I haven't been running because I don't have time, P90 takes 1 to 1.5 hours at the end of every day and that is all I got. So my 60K effort this Saturday will need to be strategized and executed perfectly in order to fake that distance.

P90X and me

2009-11-08T23:13:00.003-05:00

I'm going balls to the wall in Ironman Louisville next year. I will do everything it takes to set myself up for an opportunity to go sub 12 hours. I'm coming in with the same feverish excitement that I had for my first ironman in 2008. I need a stronger core. I need more muscle, not really muscle mass but definitely strength. And I need to get my body fat down. To help with that I started P90X this week, finished up week 1 today. P90X, though plagued by somewhat cheesy marketing, is a 90 day extreme workout and nutrition plan that includes weight lifting, plyometrics (which is a lot of ballistic jumping movements), yoga, stretching, Kenpo, and cardio. It stands for Power 90 Extreme, the 90 is how many days it was designed to take before you either repeat it or move on to something else. Since I still need to get some running in to at least be able to finish the races I'm already signed up for between now and January, I'm doing what is called P90X Doubles, which just means I am supplementing the program with additional cardio in the form of running. Doing Doubles is really hard for me to do it in terms of both time and effort, I wish I didn't have any races on deck like I do. But it is what it is. I did a 12 mile run today and felt OK considering P90X slapped me around pretty hard this week. My butt/glutes were so sore from doing the plyometrics Tuesday that it hurt to sit down on Wednesday during the ab workout.

I took half naked before pictures and measurements so I can see if progress is being made. I'll need this most of all to stay motivated. I suppose I'll reveal some before and after shots after 90 days. I can say after only 1 week that this is the real deal. You don't get big results from watching a DVD 7 times a week. The workouts are pretty intense, and I don't even come close to being able to keep with the 3x a week ab workout called Ab Ripper X. There are also a lot of body weight type workouts like pushups, pullups, etc. I struggle there too, sometimes I can only do 3 pull ups on my own and have to put one foot on a chair to assist. Most workouts are about an hour long and you work your butt off.

But the other key ingredient is diet. The P90X nutriti0nal guidelines are very good. All the principles I paid a certified nutritionist to tell me last year are all covered...and more. Phase 1, the first 30 days, is a fat burn period so carbs are way down and protein is way up. You slowly up the carbs and lower the protein over phase 2 and 3. The idea I guess is to put your body in a deficit for energy from carbs to make it use fat stores instead. I won't go on and on, but their nutrition plans are quite good and they make it pretty simple to follow. I'm following the 2400 calories a day plan which will provide enough fuel to build muscle and complete the workouts, so you can see it is not a starvation diet.

My plan is to come out of this in February with a solid, strong core and lower body fat, ready to start ramping up my endurance training for IMLOO and have a season of personal bests. Rock. Out!

Race Report - Bimbler's Bluff 50K

2009-10-26T08:45:00.006-04:00

This was my first race longer than a marathon. Technically, anything longer than 26.2 miles is called an ultra marathon but in my book ultras don't start till 50 miles. That was my thinking before the race.

I drove up to Guilford, CT on Saturday afternoon and stayed over at an old buddy's house - Rob Cohen and his beautiful wife Chrissy, who are the proprietors of Cohen's Bagels. Sunday morning I had a bowl of oatmeal with maple syrup and bananas and a cup of coffee. The race started at 8am and I got there about 7am, as this type of race was an unknown to me. I signed up for this race thinking I could cruise an easy 31 mile jog in maybe 6 hours or so - even on zero training. I clearly had NO idea what I was getting into.

As I milled around the start I checked out the other runners and what gear they were using. I had nothing. One dude asked me "you just gonna run with nothing, no food, no water?" I told him this was my first time and wanted to come in naked and learn my lessons the hard way. There were 5 aid stations, usually 6 to 8 miles apart. I thought that was a stretch I could make easily with no aid. Let me explain why that was stupid...

The race started and after a short lap of a soccer field we were on the trail. The trails were riddled with rocks from the size of a can of soup to a 1 liter soda. These were loose rocks and mixed in with leaf cover so you really had to pay attention to where you took your next step. It was like running through a bed of hot coals, jumping back and forth to get that foot hold you spotted. If you can imagine, between the concentration required to pick a path and the agility to spring around like that - it was incredibly tiring. I realized within the first 30 minutes that I was in way over my head on this one.

About 10 miles into it, we hit the Bluff. The Bluff is a ridge line along a high cliff with incredible views of the area, especially in the prime fall foliage right now. It was a steep, hand over foot, climb to get up to the ridge line with sections that were even difficult to walk up. It seemed like we were constantly going uphill and I was quickly becoming spent. So the reason is was stupid not to bring at least a water bottle was, even if an aid station was only 6 miles away - it would take 1.5 hours to get to it. 2 hours to reach the ones 8 miles apart. That's a long time to go without any fluids or calories.

So lack of conditioning and dehydration completely kicked my butt. I walked most of the last 2 hours of the race and even that was taxing. I am well aware now that trail running is NOTHING like road running, it is 15x more difficult. You use so many little stabilizing muscles to keep from falling and to land your footings, muscles and tendons you don't use when running road. Even if I was in good road running shape this race would have destroyed me. It is a superior workout and I would like to do more trail running to get better at it. It is definitely a skill that needs to be practiced.

Out of 101 people who started the race, 88 finished. I was finisher #81 in 8:32:15. It was an incredibly long, hard day and I got the punishment I deserved for not training. While walking to work today from the Port Authority I had to stop and rest against the side of a building. My legs are screaming. I won't take any pain killers though...I earned this pain...and I plan to savor it all week long.

Next stop - 60K in Central Park in November!

Race Report - Ridgefield 1/2 marathon

2009-10-05T15:54:00.005-04:00

The weather was really nice - high 60's and sunny - an unexpected treat from the forecast of just rain. My sisters Liz (left) and Jen (middle) were also running today and sister Cork was on the course to take pics, cheer, and hang out. This race was a 'must do' for me to break my streak of sitting on my ass. Since IMLP I've done two 7 mile runs totaling 14 miles all-in. That's, um, not much. I have a 50K race in 3 weeks, a 60K a few weeks later, and a marathon 1st week of Jan. So enough is enough, time to get out the door.

The game plan was for Jen and me to run it together in the 2 to 2:10 range. She's done about as much training as me in as many months. Liz is fast so she was going off the front on her own. I've run this race once before a long time ago, maybe 1999 or 2000, don't remember. The race is awesome. It is a small venue just over 500 runners and the course is a flat and fast double loop through a quiet part of Ridgefield with little to no traffic. Jen and I ran together as planned but our mile splits were too fast. I wanted 9:30's but we were clocked an 8:50 out of the gate and then a couple 9's. Jen reminds me of my old running partner. He would run just an inch or 2 off my shoulder in the lead, and that inch would make me feel like I had to catch up....and the cycle would begin spiraling to a faster and faster pace. Most of the run was an easy pace so I was talking with Jen and catching up on events. As we ran by some lady on the side of the road she smiled at us and called me a Chatty Cathy!!! What the hell! I don't think I like that much!

At mile 9 or so I ran ahead hoping there was an off chance I might finish in under 2 hours. Mile 9 was around a 9:10, mile 10 was a 9, mile 12 was an 8:50, and the last 1.1 was probably in the low 8's. I ran so hard in the last mile I thought I was risking a pull but it was a downhill finish and sub 2 was going to come down to seconds. I made the last turn and heard "if you can hear my voice you can still break 2 hours" over the loudspeakers...and sprinted to the finish for a 1:59:48. Going sub 2 was completely unexpected given my low fitness. I am ecstatic with the results and my legs are very sore (even 2 days later as I write this). It was a great kick start to my cram session for my 50K coming up in 3 weeks. Out!

Iron whore

2009-10-01T13:52:00.003-04:00

I couldn't stay away! It's like a drug! I need it! I crave it! I tried to stay away and get fat but it drew me back. I was not strong enough to stay away, and so that make me....an iron whore.

I signed up for IMLOO 2010! That's Ironman Louisville for those not down with the stupid IM lingo. Here's how it went down...

My training sucked this year. I hardly did any. I coasted through IMLP in 13 hours and just had fun on race day. But my original intent was to go sub 12, with proper training. So though I had a very enjoyable day, I have a hole inside that was meant to be filled by a sub 12 ironman. It's OK if I went for it and failed, but I never even gave it a shot! IMLOO has been sitting in the back of mind for a few weeks now and today I started to think a lot about it. I IM'ed my sister Liz, and through the miracle of mindless chat, I came to the realization that I still owed myself a sub 12 ironman attempt...in a place that doesn't rain all the time.

And so here we are. I'm registered for IMLOO 2010. I even suckered an old work buddy into signing up who never did a triathlon in his life. Terrence, you're insane dude. We will rock the LOO. Out!

Race Report - Ironman Lake Placid 2009

2009-08-03T21:09:00.003-04:00

That was one hell of a race! I drove up after work on Wed and arrived around 2:30am. Thursday, Friday, and Saturday were spent just milling around, registering, getting some easy swims in, shopping, short easy jogs, eating, cigar smoking. A real Adirondacks vacation. We had a great rental house in the perfect location 2 miles out of town but ON the run course directly across from the olympic ski jumps.

Pull up a chair for this posting, cuz I'm going to rant and rave for a bit and then get a little granola on you at the end.

Race morning started at 4:50am, I think, with a cup of hot oatmeal and a banana. I tried to throw down a bagel too but I couldn't. Jus' mom, "Mrs. M", gave Liz, Jus, and me a ride to the race start. I checked to make sure my tires still had air in 'em, filled up my aero bottle with water, made fun of all the people who cover their bikes with plastic bags, and then stripped down to my race suit and checked in my dry clothes bag with the clothes I wore to the race. I met up with Phil in the transition zone, he was doing his first ironman but I knew he was very well trained for it. He looked calm but a little anxious so I suggested we head down to the swim start to get away from all the nervous energy. I got body marked on my way down, #637, my new favorite number for the day.

What a world of difference race morning was this year compared to last. I had no time goals that I really cared about and I really only had 2 aspirations for the day....
1) above all I wanted to have a blast this time and really enjoy the day, last year I was too focused on time
2) I wanted to have a good marathon. I had a rough 2nd half on the run last year and I wanted nothing more than to at least enjoy the run and at most maybe nail a 4:30 marathon.

Given my rather underwhelming goal set for the day I was sort of dead inside. I had absolutely no nervousness, no fear, no anxiety, nothing. I admit when I waded out to the starting line a jolt of a adrenaline shot right into my heart, I was pumped and ready to have an awesome race.

Swim time: 1:16:46 [ 1:49 / 100 yards ]
At the start of the swim it was raining like it always does in Lake Placid. God must hate that place b/c he is always trying to drown it. I waded out to about 10 yards off the end of the dock where Mike Reilly, the announcer, was standing and maybe 3 rows back from the start line stretched across the lake 10 feet above the water. It's a deep water start so you have to tread water for 5 minutes or so till 7am when the canon goes off. I put my face underwater and checked out the 2500 pairs of legs kicking and thrashing in the water...it would have been a cool picture. As Mike apparently says every year just minutes before the start is "the one thing you can always control out there is your attitude". When I heard it this year it rung true and I was in the perfect state of mind for this day. Booom!!!! The first 200 yards are slow, hectic, and I don't dare put my face in the water for fear of catching a kick to the nose or teeth. I swim defensively during this time and always have an arm extended in front of me as a shield, not pulling back on my swim stroke until the other arm is already out in front. This lasted for a few minutes and I eventually found a pocket of space meant for me about 5 feet inside the swim line. I had moments here adn there where I was in a good draft but overall I found my position annoyed me. Either someone was trying to steal the feet I was drafing from me and I'd have to put a deliberate elbow into them or I'd be drafting off some swimtard who had an onorthodox side kick or something. Hey man, face down and enjoy the swim...the difference between a great swim and a crap swim is like 5 lousy minutes so who freaking cares. I swam slow it felt like, I could have swum to England at that pace I think. My experience has shown me that I can't go too hard in the swim, I can always recover on the bike if need be...but I was comfortable just hanging in the pack. I expected to be 1:15 and 1:20 in the swim and that's right where I was, only 77 seconds slower than last year! I guess swimming is a little like riding a bike...once you get some level of proficiency at it...it's there for good.

I did a nice, easy jog up to T1 where I got ready for the bike ride. It had stopped raining and the sun was beginning to shine, I'm not sure what this meant...does God take breaks from trying to drown towns? Usually as you're running through the transition zone someone is yelling out your race #'s so by the time you get to your bike rack someone is holding your bike for you ready to go. This year they missed me so I fetched my own damn bike, I don't need your stupid help anyway! : )

Bike time: 6:50:31 [ 16.4 mph ]
OK, so I'm out on the bike and I knew this was where my whole day would be defined. If I couldn't show constraint and hold back on the bike I was going to melt down on the run like last year. I wanted to go 3:30 for each loop for a 7 hour bike total. It didn't quite work out that way. I did start easy, very easy. But here's the problem...generally speaking I don't like people. So my whole race is basically trying to get away from all the other racers so I can enjoy myself all alone on the open road. When I started the long descent into Keane I was absolutely cooking. I know I've said this before in posts but you have to understand, it's freaky how fast I get and I do NOT touch my breaks b/c I get a mad rush of adrenaline from the excessive speed. There were biketards out there in a full tuck passing people going down that hill. They think they're crazy fast so they hang out in the left side of the lane, basically blocking me. Then I come along and passed their candy asses going down the double yellow line like they were standing still. I shake my head after I passed them so they would know what I thought of them, and then I'd take back into the right until I had to pass again....like a GOOD racer should. I felt awesome and was actively trying to slow myself down knowing how different things are 10 hours down the road. I would take it easy up all the hills and not crank too hard on the flats. But any rolling terrain and I put the hammer down. When I did it was awesome. On the long climb back into Lake Placid, about mile 50 or so a chick slowly passed me on the left and then tucked back in front of me and let off the gas. The rules of racing state that once I am passed I must drop BACK 7 meters before attempting to re-pass. I had no intention of re-passing her right now, not up the hill, and I'll be damned if I'm going to drop back 7 meters while going 7mph up a hill because Shania ran out of steam after her pass. Instead I moved about 4 feet more to the right basically riding in the shoulder so it was clear I was not drafting and dropped back about 1 bike length....not that you can even draft at that speed anyway. Well, it didn't matter. A referee on a motorcycle rolled up next to me and showed me a red card which was a drafting penalty. I said "for what, for her?" and shook my head. Have you ever sized someone up as a complete loser at first sight...like you can just tell this person is a lost cause...that was the case here with the ref. Apparently someone was sucking my wheel and I didn't know it so he got a drafting call too...there must have been a quota this ref was trying to fulfill. You serve your penalty on the course that way the winner of the race is really the first one across the finish line and can get all the glory. I decided to relieve myself and get a good stretch in while serving my 4 minutes in the penalty tent. I had the company of 3 other delinquents serving time with me in jail. Justin passed me at this time and yelled out my name as he went up the hill they call Pappa Bear. Wow, he must of been cruising to make up all that swim time on me in just 1 lap. Nice! As I was freed from jail and started peddling up Pappa Bear, Liz was suddenly pedaling next to me and says "hey, Joey". I told her I was a cheater and a criminal and she should not talk to me for her own good. Then I gave her her split to Justin which was only like 3 minutes at this point and got the low down on how her swim went. We rode together through town for the most part and then I took off during the descent and long flat section following it. She came back onto me on the out-and-back section which was about mile 90. There was blatant drafting all over the place out there and I saw Liz get sort of surrounded by a small peloton. I didn't want Liz to get a drafting call so I rode up next to her and said "that's how I got my penalty on the 1st loop" and then cranked away leaving the peloton in my dust. I had to dig deep for that effort though and I was kind of pissed that I had to do it. Liz pulled away as well leaving those deadbeats to pull their own weight.

At mile 104 of a 112 mile bike I feel my back tire getting slightly squirrely. I keep looking back at it but it looked fine. It was mostly slow climbing on the last section so I asked some spectators if my back tired was flat and they said it looked a little low. After a 1/2 mile more I decided to pull off and check it. Completely flat. Ugh. What I am about to say is completely my fault and I accept full responsability for the amount of time I lost. I put that inner tube into that back tire and onto that back race rim over a year and half ago. It never saw the light of day since. I checked my stopwatch when I started the repair thinking I could do this change in like 2 minutes, it ready 7:25. As I tried to work the tire lever around the rim to pop the tire off it kept snagging on the tube. It was because the tube sort of like bonded or dry rotted to the tire over that span of time and became 1 object. Once I finally got it off I have extra long stems b/c the rear race rim is a deep dish and I didn't have the tool to remove the stem extension form the old tube and put it on the new one... so I improvised and used my teeth after trying a few other bad ideas. As I inflated my tire and got ready to rock my stopwatch read 7:35, 10 minutes to change a freaking flat. Then I realized, I didn't check the tire for what caused the flat to begin with before remounting it so I could have another flat right away...and I only packed the 1 spare tube and CO2 cartridge. Screw it, nothing I can do now. I made it back to town, thank goodness. That was my first flat during a race ever, kind of a less than ideal race to have it happen on. Oh well, if I subtract my penalty and flat tire I would have rolled a 6:35 bike leg which was way too fast for what I wanted to do. I wasn't rocking a spedometer cuz I wanted to race completely by feel and I felt good. So to hell with my plan of constraint. And since I got a bathroom break on my penalty stop I managed 112 miles without peeing in my pants once.

I was methodical in T2, not really going too fast but not dogging it either. There was trough-type urinal which I made use of before exiting. On to the run, the part I was looking forward to all week.

Run time: 4:44:39 [ 10:52 min/mile ]
This year I didn't bring anything on the run with me, deciding to use the course nutrition only. Last year I had a Fuel Belt which quite simply sucked. I even saw a few on the side of the road during the run, evidently from other people realizing that fact on the run as well. I only had my stopwatch going and took mile splits starting at mile 3 just to keep track of pace. I was averaging between 10 and 10:30 which is spot on. A 10:30 pace is a 4:30 marathon which is exactly what I wanted. When I ran by the house we were staying at I saw my family who gave me my splits to Justin and Liz who were down the road by like 12 and 9 minutes by now. I wasn't really trying to run them down, I was just trying to enjoy my marathon. My pace felt awesome, it felt slow, it felt like a man in control of his race. There was another guy near me who was pacing just as slow, letting everyone pass us and making mental notes about what they were wearing cuz we would see them again when we reversed the pass in a few hours. I ran the entire 1st loop and started walking the aid stations on my 2nd loop. Of course I got to see Jus, Liz, Phil, Jesse, and a few others out there - everyone looked really strong and fresh. Kristoph's friend Steve, who were both volunteering to sign up for next year, mentioned to hold off on the cola for as long as possible because you get that caffeine boost and if you use it up too early you got nothing left for later. So held off cola till about mile 22, and it tasted sooooo good. For the run I lived on Power Gels at every other aid station and a cup of water, and an occasional Gatorade. I walked some of the real steep hills on the 2nd loop coming back into town but I sort of power walked them, fast like. I was quite literally moving at the same speed as my jog but exerting about 1/2 the energy. My pace dropped to around 11's in the 15-20 mile stretch which took me off pace for a 4:30 marathon. I started to speed it up on the last stretch by our rental house and the final trip back into town. I was doing maybe a 10:15 mile pace, which was pretty much hammering it for me at that point and I was passing people left and right. I must have passed 50-75 people in those last few miles to the finish. THIS is the way I wanted to finish my marathon, running strong and in charge of my race. With just a mile to go some dude on the side of the road saw me putting in this final big effort and said "don't stop Joe, whatever you do...don't you stop till you finish!" (He didn't know me, our names are printed on our race bibs). I wasn't even thinking about stopping at this point but putting together this kind of finish on such a great race day and hearing those words got me totally stoked. My body switched over to 100% adrenaline for fuel, my stride opened up, and it was on. I saw my family as I entered the finishing oval and high-fived my dad on the way by. Ironman #2 was in the bag in 13:04:01!

I can't eat right after races anymore, I seem to need an hour to settle down before introducing solid food. So I got a post race massage and found my family and Jus and Liz to congratulate them. They both had stellar races and very impressive ironman debuts. I was proud of them both. My family was all decked out in custom support t-shirts and were a huge help that day, they did an awesome job as usual.

OK, so let's cut to the granola part I mentioned at the start. Something is different in the air, something has changed in triathlon in the 3 short years that I've been doing them. Let's just say, I don't think I identify with that crowd anymore. I definitely don't identify with most of the tools that did IMLP. Of course, present family and friends are excluded...you are all cool cats with me. But I need a new scene! I got into triathlon b/c I got bored with just running. Now I kinda miss 'just running'. So I'm gonna run a lot. Fall marathon, then a 60K, the Goofy Challenge in Jan and then a 50 miler in the spring. If that goes well, maybe a 100 miler. When the snow thaws I want to run the Lake Tahoe Rim Trail over 5 days covering 30+ miles a day. Next year might be more Xterra/offroad triathlons than on-road triathlons. I get the sense that leaving every race bloody keeps a lot of the tools away. I'm gonna grow out a madman's full facial beard and run through the woods in cutoff jeans and no top only stopping to hug the occasional tree. I'm going granola baby!

Ironman!!!

2009-07-26T05:51:00.001-04:00

Today is IRONMAN DUDE!!!

Ironman.com. Racer #637

See you on the flip side.

Sent from my phone.

Day 4 - done and done

2009-06-29T14:13:00.002-04:00

The final day of this madness. I'm back at work now posting this final update. The picture here is of the swim start Sunday morning with all the tri camps out there doing practice swims. It was actually sunny and nice out that day, a once every 20 years weather phenomenon for Lake Placid. Liz, Justin, and I did a 2.4 mile swim which even included the short beach run between laps to simulate the actual race. My times were just as slow as my last swim, pretty much confirming for me the course was long. I swam easy and just concentrated on my stroke and getting more distance with each pull. My arm turnover was slow in favor of long, gliding strokes - just sort of cruising effortlessly through the water. It was quite relaxing actually. If I lived in Lake Placid I would do 2 things: first I'd build a dome over that entire dump so I could control when it did and did NOT rain, second...I'd swim that swim every single day, it's that nice.

After Liz and Justin finished up their swims we all did a long run together. By now it was around noon and getting pretty hot out. No one except Liz wanted to do the run. Justin and I were tired and I think Liz just wanted to see the run course. I thought Liz and Justin would drop me on the run but they ran a little slower and I ran a little faster so it all worked out in the end. By now I had a lot of miles in me and my quads/hamstrings/calfs were all slightly twitchy...feeling like one of them would seize up on me at the slighest wrong move or miscalculated hard effort. Luckily, nothing on me broke and I had a good run, replacing any bad memories on the run course with happy ones. Justin and I ended the run at just over 12 miles (2:10) and Liz did an extra 1.5 or so on the out-n-back along Mirror Lake. Personally, after 4 days of this crap, I had reached my limit.

I felt better as the days progressed. Like on the Spain trip, your body reaches a theshold of pain at which it does not get any worse and you just maintain your work at that constant pain threshold. Ironman is a lot about breaking down false barriers and continuing on when your body says no more. I think once you break down those barriers they are down for life, you just need to let your heart remind your body who is in charge and then everything abides. I had some cobwebs and weeds growing around my barriers and this 4 day session helped clear them out. I'm not well trained in the sense of having sustained weekly mileage under my belt but I am mentally ready to overcome the challenges I am about to face in 4 short weeks. Out!

Day 3 - no more rain!

2009-06-27T23:37:00.001-04:00

It seriously need to stop raining, I can't take it anymore. We started the 112 mile bike as a group today - me, Justin, Liz, Vodoo Phil, Guru, and Jav. I did the first loop mostly with Guru, the others were out in front by 10 minutes or so after 56. I did the 2nd loop solo cuz I stopped for a coffee, the rain was making me cold, cranky, and miiserabe. I finished it all a bit faster than on Thursday and finished with some dignity instead of laying on the side of the road. My legs got under me and I was able to hold a decent pace, was shooting for around 7 hours but it took 20 minutes extra. The hills weren't as bad and I think I've made my peace with them. But me and mother nature are no longer on speaking terms. It was raining when I finished and I was frankly spent so I skipped the swim today. We all sucked back some burgers and called it a day. Liz was putting the guys to task, apparently putting the hammer down and making them chase, hahaha, I love that. One more day of big training and then back to normal life again. My legs have a lot of miles in them and I'm feeling it today. All in all I'm happy I was able to pull off another big ride. I did have some doubts going into it. Swim and run tomorrow, in the rain no doubt. Rock on peeps, be good. Out!

Sent from my phone.

Day 2 - the crew arrives

2009-06-26T23:19:00.001-04:00

I checked out of my hotel since our house share starts today. I woke up and had a hardy breakfast then cruised down to Mirror Lake. I did to loops which should be 2.4 miles but I must have done more, pretty sure I did more. There was a green swim cap on one of the buoys someone put out there to show where to turn around but it was too far out I think. The double loop took me 1:33 which is about 13 minutes too long, so I'm guessing I swam extra 600 yards or so. Whatever, the swim is awesome so all good with me.

I lounged for a bit and then did my run after a monster tstorm passed through. Was going to do 90 minutes but ended up doing the whole run course loop and some extra. I think I did about 14 miles or so, I ran for 2:22, slightly over my planned distance. We'll see how that pans out tomorrow on the bike. The whole crew is up here now so it'll be fun to share the pain with others. We are going to do the bike course again and this time I hope to not die. I'm going to go out easy so I expect I'll be dropped by everyone before 15 miles. But I am a wise man in my old age..and maybe I'll catch them on the 2nd loop if they didn't pace properly. This course can be brutal as you know from my last post. I'll swim afterwards but most are going to run instead I think. I think my legs are starting to come around a bit...we'll see. Rock on peeps!!! Out!

Sent from my phone.

Day 1 - the cruel reality

2009-06-26T11:28:00.001-04:00

Day 1 was a 112 mile bike followed by an 8 mile run. In triathlon these workouts are called "bricks" because that is what your legs feel like coming off the bike. It was hot and sunny, probably 90 in the sun. I had an OK 1st lap of 56 miles doing it in 3:30. There is no such thing as a 112 mile race simulator when you haven't ridden over 56 miles in months. There is only 'get it finished'. On the 2nd loop I completely fell apart around 85 miles. Reduced to a puddle at a gas station I drank some cola and txt messaged my defeat to a few peeps. My coach said "you're fine" and I trudged on. Rolling time was like 7:38 or something for 113 miles...I was hoping for 7 hours. I sat on my ass on the side of the road for a long time too which I didn't count in that time. Not good!

I only had enough toughness left in me to bang out 5.2 mile run afterwards taking 51:33. I was too tired to go out and get dinner when I was done so I drank recovery drink, showered, and passed out for 10 hours. I was really hurting...felt just like I did after my ironman last year where everything hurts and no movement is easy.

Today is an 'easy' day. About to hit my 2.4 mile swim now. Do the run later on today. Maybe I'll have time to go ride the bobsled in between.

Rock on peeps, wish me luck.

Sent from my phone.

IMLP Training Weekend

2009-06-24T11:07:00.005-04:00

Yo, wassup. I'm taking Thur/Fri off from work to head up to Lake Placid for some sick training. The goal is to completely bury myself and smash myself to pieces. If there is any doubt about if I am a masochist, let me share my training plan with you...

Wed
8pm - leave NJ
1am - arrive LP
2am - sleep

Thur (kick it HARD, full on race sim!!!)
BRICK: 112/8 (112 mile bike followed immediately by an 8 mile run)

Fri (easy day, the storm is brewing...)
SWIM: 2.4 miles
RUN: 90 min (about 9 miles or so)

Sat (base miles and climbing)
SWIM: 2.4 miles
BIKE: 112 + skip out-and-back on 2nd loop and climb Whiteface
mountain instead, must start climb after: 5:15pm due to road regulations

Sun (pick up the pieces, if any pieces of me remain)
RUN: 20 miles
SWIM: 2.4 miles

Totals
SWIM: 7.2 miles (12,672 yards)
BIKE: 224 miles
RUN: 37 miles

Kick it my brothas! Time to man-up and get this piece of work done! Out!

Race Report - Mooseman 70.3

2009-06-09T21:36:00.005-04:00

Race date: June 7, 2009
I left my house Saturday at 11am so I could pick up my race packet before it closed at 7pm. The drive was supposed to be a little over 6 hours or so to get up to Newfound Lake, NH. I will never, ever, ever take I95 again anywhere from the GW bridge through CT. It's the corridor of idiots. Bumper to bumper all afternoon making me stress I'd miss packet pickup and ruining my trip. I ended up getting there in time, barely, got my race packet and then bolted over to Camp Wicosuta where they had a free carbo load dinner and also where I would be camping that night. I downed some pasta and then setup my tent. Everyone camping there was setup on a big soccer field kind of thing. I just picked a free spot on the edge next to big tent that was empty. Ended up being home to 3 little kids who didn't shut up till 10pm, I was seconds away from collapsing their tent on them.

I got up at 4:30am, downed a short stack of pancakes, some eggs, a couple sausage links, and couple cups of coffee. I felt good. The camp was about 2.5 miles to the race start so I grabbed my transition bag and rode my bike to the start. This is my last race before my ironman in 7 weeks, this is it! I checked my phone when I was setting up my transition and I got a text message from Liz and Justin wishing me good luck. They said I'd have to go sub 5:50 to own the fastest time of the season. I laughed as I read it and replied "sub 5:50 would be a reach in my current condition". I said it and I believed it. But it was also now my unofficial goal time today: JoJo-Wanna-GoGo-Sub-5:50!!!

Swim time: 37:25 [ 1:46 / 100 yards ]
I got down to the swim start early. I love swimming in this lake, it is where I first when sub 40 minutes on a 1/2 iron swim last year. I got in a nice warm-up. The water was maybe 60F, cold enough to make your toes cold but didn't hurt your face. I loved it, it's the perfect temperature. I lined up on the far right for this counter-clockwise rectangle swim course. I was in the 2nd wave, each wave only 3 minutes apart. I went out hard as always and then caught a few feet to draft. It didn't last long though. Either the feet become too slow for me or I don't like their line, in either case I end up on my own which is cool with me. I kept telling myself you can't go too hard in the swim, so go HARD, you can catch your breath on the bike. Each leg of the rectangle was not even so it was hard to gauge my pace. But I got the sense on the return leg that I was making good time, possibly even heading for a new PR. When I was exiting the water my watch said 32:XX but after the race my time was 37:25 so maybe someone hit the lap button on my watch 5 minutes into the swim. I didn't know that until after the race so as far as I knew I just totally smashed that swim, a new PR by minutes. That was a good mental boost, but this isn't my first half ironman...I know it is a long day still ahead.

Bike time: 3:00:11 [ 18.6 mph ]
There are stippers at this race to pull off your wetsuits for you. I had a horrible time getting it off. I couldn't get one sleeve past my watch and it just took forever it seemed. Finally free, I booked to my bike, shoes on, helmet on, glasses held by my teeth, Cliff Bar in one pocket, 2 gels in another. I bundle a spare tube, tire levers, a single CO2 cartridge with a Microflate head on it into a small bundle with a velcro strap. I usually put that in my back pocket but my new race kit from John only had side pockets so I jammed my repair kit down the back of my shorts, Faris Al Sultan style. It worked out well. If you remember in the Jersey Man race a few weeks ago I wore my Camelback which didn't work out so well. So this time I put a new Profile Design aero bottle in my aero bars, one of the redesigned ones with a lid that won't piss fluids all over my cockpit. It worked very nicely for me, no issues at all.

This year they paved the roads around Newfound Lake, which were complete rubbish last year. They were better but not perfect, it was still a rough ride on parts. It's a 2 loop course so I wanted to go conservative on the 1st loop. I remembered John saying I might of had a better run at JerseyMan if I did a more conservative bike so I tried to heed his advice. I went with no bike computer again so I had no idea on speed or distance covered except when I passed the occasional mile marker. I'm not sure but I think I'm running a 11-23 cassette on my tri bike right now. And I seemed to remember the hills being harder than they seemed this year. The first loop was a breeze. For nutrition I had 3 scoops of Gu2O in a bottle on my downtube, and just straight water in my aero bottle. I took a gel after the first loop and another around mile 50. I didn't get any hunger pains so I decided to forgo the Cliff Bar. I didn't feel like I needed calories so I would see if I could manage on liquids and gels alone. My lower back got achey on the 2nd loop. And my right shoulder pain came back strong too. I really think this is due to a weak core, which I've done nothing about even though I said I would after Jerseyman. I may have mentally gone easy on the bike but the last 6 miles of the bike had me feeling slightly spent. I was scared at how I felt, thinking I just used too much up and was going to blow up on the run. But I had that 5:50 time in the back of my head. I knew a sub 2 hour run would be impossible so I had to be off the bike before 3:40 if I was going to have any chance. That would leave me with 2:10 to do my run and break 5:50. So I was just trying to make that time goal even if it meant using too much energy up on the bike. I think I was off by like 3:38 or 39.

Run time: 2:02:31 [ 9:21 min/mile ]
I came humming into T2 ecstatic to get off the bike, my back was killing me. I ran down the wrong isle to rack my bike and had to lift it over and duck under the bar in a bare spot to get on the right side. That was stupid. I wear socks during the run for half ironmans, it's a long enough run to be worthwhile to me. I sat down to put my socks on and couldn't find 1 of my socks. C'mon man! Do you understand I just put in a hard bike effort to gain precious minutes to pad my run with and now I'm pissing them away looking for a god damn sock! hahaha, this is bad. I thought I'd take off the one sock I already had on so it would feel even but finally realized I was sitting on my other sock. Fully socked now, I grab 2 gels, my running visor and race number and headed out on the run, slightly pissed about the retarded transition.

It's a 2 loop run course and I remembered from last year how brutal the 2nd loop can be if you blow up. I went out easy, purposefully easy. It was very enjoyable, like a nice easy long run that I love so much. I felt fantastic as far as runs go, but I know the run doesn't really start till mile 7 so just go easy and enjoy it for now. Out on the turn around there was a quartet of guys singing acapella 50's songs which was cool. I hit my lap button at ever mile marker just see my pace and make sure I was truly going easy - I was always between a 9 and 9:30 mile which was perfect. There were some PA speakers out on the run course with music cranking and btw, Earth Wind & Fire sing some great songs to run to. When I started my 2nd loop I decided I still felt really good and wanted to do this run with no walking. I don't think I've ever done a run in a 1/2 ironman without walking a little of it, maybe I did but don't remember. But I don't think so. There are 2 pretty hard hills on the run course, 1 is longer and the other is short and real steep. It made no sense to run up them but I did, my pace going up was the same as walking it seemed but required more effort but whatever, it's all a mental game anyway. I told myself miles 7-10 were going to suck, you know they will suck, just get through them. After that it was a count down, each mile I knocked off I recalculated the worst case scenario and still be able to go sub 5:50, it was looking good, real good. At mile 11 I started pushing my pace a bit. I though my PR here last season was a 4:45 or something I was going to be close to it. I might get a PR today, this is insane. Mile 12 I went faster, really feeling it by now though in my legs and getting labored breathing and a tight rib cage. I was passing people, I was finishing strong, I was so excited about how my race was unfolding. I didn't expect this! There is a short beach run before coming into the long finishing chute where I passed the last dude between me and the finish line. With the exception of the crappy transition zones I had, this was the best executed race I've ever done.

I crossed the line in 5:44:42 which I later found out was not a PR, I went 5:43:28 last year. I was so much more trained last year though, this was such a surprise result. I raced my heart out, and I thank Justin and Liz for that friendly text message, it's things like that that give you little goals to race towards. It always helps to have those goals in such a long race. It gives you purpose while you're out there. My legs were completely thrashed though, it took all of me to go 5:44. I had to ride 2.5 miles back to the camp site which included that 1 long hill on the run course. I almost couldn't get up it. Breaking down my camp site was painful and the 7 hour drive was even more painful. I squirmed in my seat the whole way home, my legs were so sore. I felt nauseous, really nauseous in the beginning of my drive. I thought I might need to go to Boston instead and crash with Liz and Justin, unable to drive 7 hours home by myself. I stopped for a meatball grinder, some Coke, chips, and a coffee. I felt much better after I got some food in me. I got 4 weeks of hard core, last ditch training before my taper into ironman. I have renewed faith in what I can accomplish even when under trained. The sub 12 hour ironman dream is still alive my friends, it is alive and strong. Peace, out!!!

Race Report - Ridgefield Sprint

2009-06-09T20:21:00.004-04:00

Race date: May 31, 2009
This is the third running of the Ridgefield Sprint triathlon and I've done all 3. This is my good friend Evan's race and he knocked it out of the ball park this year. The race was absolutely perfect, I wouldn't have changed a thing...except maybe make myself a little faster. I rolled up to CT late Saturday night for the sprint race Sunday morning. This year I had two sisters doing the race with me. Courtney (in the middle) has also done all 3 years of this race, and my sister Lesley (far right) was doing her first triathlon ever. I sort of put together Lesley's training plan for this race and an olympic distance race 2 weeks later so her execution of this race was somewhat on me in a way. She stuck to the plan perfectly so I was confident she'd have a good race. OK, so let's do this thing...here we go!

Swim time: 15:48 [ 1:47 / 100 yards ]
Coach John was in my wave as well as Vodoo Phil. I told John when I passed him on the bike this year to not slap my ass as I went by him. I got more smack talk than anyone and I like to use it liberally. Of course, I would never see John again once the gun fired. Everything about a sprint distance race is short so my race plan is always pretty much to go redline right from the start. It was actually fairly crowded and I took an outside line all the way around making the swim a bit longer than it needed to be. Not much, but a wee bit. I swam as hard as I could, I was winded, but I knew it would all be over soon so I told myself to just man up and deal with it. I might have gone a hair easier than normal because Liz and Justin were in Hawaii doing the 1/2 ironman out there for their honeymoon so I didn't have to defend my title as "The Most Awesome, Fastest, Super Bad Ass Triathlon Racer Of Them All". It's a coveted title to say the least.

Bike time: 36:10 [ 20.2 mph ]
I fumbled a bit in T1 with my bike shoes, for some reason I didn't leave them unvelcroed to put them on fast. Once I was out on the bike I just put it in the big chainring, put my head down, and just cranked it out. I have a new race strategy this year, in that I don't wear anything that will give me feedback on my pace or HR. I just go out and race as hard as I can. It was actually quite cool and liberating to race like this. I had no idea how fast I was going, I just knew I wanted to reel in the next person in front me, and then the next, and so on. It felt more like racing to me, more animalistic. It was nice. About half way through the bike course I was head down and cranking along and this dude rolls up about to put a pass on me. I glance over and he's riding a hybrid bike with bog knobby tires on it, and the best thing of all was it had a freaking luggage rack on the back. Here I am riding almost $7K worth of carbon with aero helmet and all and I'm getting passed by homeslice on his daily commuter bike. For Christs sake! I told him he was cranking and would probably win it all if he had a road bike. He laughed, made a comment that he was thinking about getting a proper bike, and then I put down the pedal and left him behind. I would seriously need to put my stuff up on eBay if I let his pass succeed. Yes, I do have pride. The course says the bike is 14 miles but last year my computer said 12.2, I believe my computer. There ain't nothing wrong with a 20+ mph average speed.

Run time: 22:19 [ 7:11 min/mile ]
I never put elastic races on my running shoes so I just left them tied but loose enough to be able to slide on. I don't wear socks in a sprint, it wastes too much time. In a sprint race transitions really matter a lot, you can't afford to lose any time there because there just isn't enough road to really make it up. The run was straight up hill for the first half and all down hill for the second half. I like that. You put your work in early, I love a fast downhill finish. As I was just a few minutes into my run I saw John coming down to the finish in 1st place, awesome job man. I was going at hard but comfortable pace when I ran up on this dude towards the top of the hill. We figured there was maybe a mile left or so and he said "let's catch that guy in red up there before the finish, help me do it man." Hells yeah brotha! I said let's do it, dropped my pace with renewed enthusiasm of our new goal and was thinking we'd take turns pulling each other until we passed The Red Man. After a few minutes I heard the heavy breathing of that guy behind me start to fade. I didn't need to glance back, I knew it was all on me now. I started reeling in Red Man slowly, trying to time so I'd make the final pass right before the finish. I was going full bore and right on the edge of going too hard and risk fizzling out at the end. I didn't know how my untrained body would behave. Right as we turned into the parking lot to the finishing chute I laid out a full on sprint and made the pass. Red Man answered it and repassed me, finishing a full stride in front of me by the time we crossed the finish. It was awesome and we high fived each other for the showdown.

My total time was 1:17:46 which was 58 seconds faster than last year. Last year I was training through this race and had a big workout the day before so I was racing on tired legs but still, I was amazed of my time this year. Congrats to Cork and Les on another great race. Les was battling a bum hip which ended up bring her to a walk on the run. A few days later an MRI would show a hairline femur fracture so the pain was real. So looks like only Cork will be moving on to the oly race in 2 weeks. I on the other hand will be moving on to The Mooseman 70.3 next week. Peace out!

Race Report - The Jersey Man

2009-05-09T20:36:00.005-04:00

My triathlon season opener was The Jerseyman on Saturday, May 9th, 2009. Kristoph drove all the way out here from Erie, PA area (about 7 hour drive) to come race as well. So he arrived Friday at 7pm when I was getting home from work and we went out for pasta dinner, my first dinner out in my hood since I moved in 5 months ago. Early to bed, early to rise - we hit the road at 5:15 AM. I backed out of my driveway and saw Kristoph picking something up in the driveway where my car was just parked. I had left my front race wheel, a $1K Zipp 404, behind my car and backed over it. It just happened to be right in the middle of my car so it didn't actually get run over by any tires. Dude, how crazy lucky is that?!

Swim time: 40:00 [ 1:53 / 100 yards ]
Kristoph and I setup our transitions then walked around a bit to make fun of people, because most of them deserve it. Then down to the swim start for a warm-up swim. The water was low 60's and very refreshing. I hate cold air but I don't mind a chilly swim, though you're not chilly once your body warms up the layer of water trapped inside your wet suit...or pee, in Kristoph's case. It was an ankle deep beach start and we were in the 1st wave. The swim was a counter clockwise out and back rectangle with easy sighting. When the race started I stayed on Kristoph's feet for like 25 yards before he pulled away, the dude is too fast. I didn't find any feet to follow so I just swam solo like I usually end up doing. I felt good and wasn't having any trouble catching my breath. OK, so, I know I haven't trained worth a crap since like December so I was just trying to get through the day with some dignity. I saw a few black caps around me now and then so I knew I wasn't dead last in my wave which is all I cared about. I thought it would be cool to break 40 minutes, and from my splits I thought I would, but my swim ended up being 40 flat. 39:59 would have made me happier, but I'm retarded. Training note: if you don't train in the pool your swim will suck come race day.

Bike time: 3:11:33 [ 17.5 mph ]
You run up the beach and through a little underpass to get to T1. I was looking forward to the bike leg to see what doing one big training ride a week does for you, with no other training at all. My race fuel was 1 bottle of Gu2O on the bike mixed up 3x concentrate, a chocolate Cliff Bar, and 2 Carb BOOM gels. I opted not to use my gas tank looking Never Reach hydration system b/c I was too lazy to install it. Instead I tried using my Camelback Rogue which holds 70oz of water. It worked well except for a few flaws. My aero race helmet is longer than my normal road helmet so it kept scraping the Camelback, and the helmet acted like a big speaker so it was loud and annoying. It also kept pushing the helmet forward over my eyes so it was a pain to sight up the road. And lastly, the mouthpiece and tube kept hitting my legs and bugging the crap out of me so I had to tuck it into my shirt every time. I like the idea of it but it was too big for racing with an aero helmet. I think Camelback makes a smaller one for racing, I'll check it out.

Anyway, back to the riding. The roads were nice and the scenery was very nice. But who wants to look at scenery when they're racing? I was working so hard I wanted to burn the scenery down and toast marshmallows in its ashes. My hamstrings were screaming at me and were very tight. My lower back started nagging me after 30 miles, and the helmet/Camelback contention wasn't helping things. There were a lot of mostly flat sections and also some short climbs. I felt like I should have been going a lot faster, but I wasn't. I thought breaking 3 hours would be nice but I'd have to settle for 3:11, which actually felt like 5+ hours. Training log note: if you don't train on the bike you will suck come race day.

Run time: 2:30:12 [ 11:27 min/mile ]
A lot of people say don't try new things on race day. Bunch of sissies! I ran in my brand new pair of Brooks Glycerins I bought a couple weeks ago but have not yet been on their virgin run yet. For that risk I was rewarded with hot spots on the balls of my feet for nearly the entire run. I don't know if it was the shoes not being broken in or my feet not being calloused from running, who cares, it sucked. The run course wasn't hard at all but it kicked me in the face. Right out of T2 I knew the non-training buck was stopping here. I could fake the swim and bike, but no way you're faking the run. I felt like I was running at a snail's pace, I don't know my actual pace b/c my Polar RS800 is a piece of junk and I don't wear it anymore. I timed off a couple mile markers and knew I was in the 10 min/mile ballpark. I forget when it happened, I think after about 6 miles...the wheels completely came off the JoJo bus. I tried just running to aid stations but couldn't make it. hahaha So I always wanted to try this run 3 minutes/walk 1 minute type thing and it worked well for a bit but then even that was too much. Wheels were off and the engine was on fire at this point. I took 2 gels with me on the run and I was sucking them back like they were some magical elixir that would bring me fitness out of the clear blue sky. The fitness never came, but an upset stomach did. Training note: if you don't log training miles out on the road you will suck come race day.

I finished 6:26:07 which is 103/141 overall and 19/25 in my age group. I had a tough time out there. I didn't put the work in that was needed and I paid the price. I don't want to ever feel like that again, so I'll juggle some priorities and get to training for my next races. I'm not sure which priorities I juggle yet, but I'll get it done. Kristoph finished in 5:08:xx - the dude is sick fast man. Sick! The 2009 race season is now in effect! Out!

Race Report - JoJoMan 83.0

2009-04-13T20:55:00.008-04:00

I had another birthday on April 10th. So on Saturday I raced my birthday age as a triathlon - like the tradition I started with myself last year. 37 years old meant a 3 mile swim, a 73 mile bike, and a 7 mile run...my JoJoMan 83.0 birthday triathlon.

The race started Saturday at 7:30am with the bike leg. Yeah, I did things out of order due to scheduling conflicts. I was up in CT visiting family for Easter so my sister Liz joined me for the bike part. The forecast was for rain coming to an end in the morning and going up to mid 50's. It wasn't raining when we left and it was in the low 50's (it felt) so I dressed fairly light thinking it would only get warmer as the day drew on. The course I selected was the southern section of the infamous "Hilly 100" ride that is well known up in those parts. I threw in a bonus out-and-back to Hilltop Road to start things off with a bang. We climbed Hilltop, descended down the other side, and then made a U-turn to climb back over and head back to the course. I had never climbed back up the other side like that before, it was cool, and very steep in sections. Sustained 12% sections and kicks going up to 20% for short bursts. Very nice. We road up and over Birch Hill Rd which goes over Thunder Ridge ski area. That is just a very long 6-8% climb, but not very hard in the sense of steepness. Shortly after that though, there was a real tough climb, sustained 16% and sections over 18%. Luckily on all these climbs you could see the top, and the top was achievable. It was tough for sure but the efforts were not so long that you felt like giving up...like on the Hillier Than Thou course I did a couple weeks ago. The picture on left there is overlooking some of the hills yet to come and Candlewood Lake which you really can't see because the Treo camera sucks. About 2 1/2 hours into the ride it started raining and dropped like 10 degrees. We were freezing. By the time we finished the ride I had no feeling in my hands or feet and was shaking uncontrollably. I jumped in the shower to try and warm up which was a mistake, the warm water burned my frozen feet so bad I had to get out. Liz and I sat in front of a space heater for about 30 minutes before actually thawing out. 73 miles, 6200 vertical feet, 5 hrs 36 mins. I was pretty impressed with Liz' riding, she hung with me the whole time and never let me put much of a gap on her going up the hills. She may be a force to reckon with this season if she keeps training hard like she's been doing.

After thawing out I drove over to a NY Sports Club in Somers, NY to do my 3 mile swim. I met Vodoo Phil there from the CREW who was getting his swim workout in. I was kind of tired and considered doing 3000 yards instead of 3 miles (5300 yards) but once I got started I knew I was going the distance. I had a lane to myself the whole time which was awesome. The pool wasn't bad at all. I must say I am very glad I joined NYSC and got the Passport which gives me access to any club from Philly to Boston. It's been coming in quite handy since they have so many locations. I did 4 x 1000 yard sets and the last set was 1300, taking 1 minute break in between sets. Swim time was 1:45:49 plus 4 minutes of resting so 1:49:49 all-in. I felt great the whole time, it was a really enjoyable swim. I got into a nice methodical groove and just zoned out. I'm not in any sort of swim shape right now as you know from my last swim post so I was just making sure I could go the distance. I never raised my effort level to go hypoxic, always kept it comfortable and relaxing.

I was quite tired when I got home and kept putting off my run. I really didn't want to do it. Knowing I couldn't live with myself if I didn't do it I finally jumped on the treadmill at my parent's house at 10pm. I had zero energy, which made it a difficult run. Hmm, actually, it was more like a jog. I set the treadmill at 5.7mph or a 10:30/mile pace and just jogged till I hit 7 miles. Ugh, the agony. Took me 1:13:13 to get 'er done which is like the slowest 7 miles I've ever run. But honestly, I was lucky I got the mileage done I was so tired so I'll take it - could care less about how long it took me.

JoJoMan 83.0 Final Results
Swim: 3 miles (5300 yards) - 1:49:49 [2:04/100yds]
Bike: 73 miles - 5:36:48 [ 13 mph]
Run: 7 miles - 1:13:13 [10:27 / mile]
Total: 8:39:50

Another year down, another JoJoMan in the bag. This year was hard because my training took a hard hit from my job. I got my life back now though, so I hope to jump start things and get my fitness back to a sub 12 hour ironman level by July. This year's JoJoMan was much steeper and much more mellow...I liked that. I can tell my climbing is getting better even after just a couple hilly rides. I plan to continue the hill theme as much as I can, it's making me stronger and the results are starting to show. On deck for this Sunday is that crazy Hills++ ride I posted in the blog before this one. I'll have the company of fellow CREW members Javier, Vodoo Phil, Justin, and Liz. Misery loves company.

JoJo has left the building. Out!

Hills++

2009-04-07T12:35:00.003-04:00

Just when I thought I found and rode the hilliest century within a short range missile of me I find this:
http://trail.motionbased.com/trail/activity/3212465

About 40% more vertical, topping out with over 14K feet. It's on my to-do list now, but probably not until May. I'll need more training for this one.

Holy Hills!

2009-04-05T20:09:00.006-04:00

Today was the most ridiculous ride I have ever done. I googled 'hilliest bike ride nj' and found the Hillier Than Thou century out in Clinton, NJ that boasts 100 miles and 10K feet of vertical climbing. It was absolutely insane. I can pretty much sum up how I felt today with this clip where I am Brian (the dog) and today's ride is Stewie. This ride c-o-m-p-l-e-t-e-l-y destroyed me. Let me start with the final stats: I covered 100 miles with 9,851 feet of vertical gain and was in the saddle pedaling for 7 hours and 50 minutes. I was out on the actual course for nearly 9 hours so that means 1:10 was spent in the fetal position crying, sucking my thumb, and praying for the good Lord to blast my burning legs off my body with a bolt of lightning. One of those times was on the bank of the Delaware River across from those nuclear reactors in the picture. Yikes!

Some things I now know about myself. I can climb 6-10% grades all day and all night. I can easily keep my butt in the saddle for anything up to 12% no matter how long. 13% is the critical threshold for me, I can stay seated for short efforts but feel better popping up and doing the climb standing. Today, anything below 11% was a gift, a breather. I felt like I was resting during those climbs. Mind you I suck at climbing so I'm not saying this in vain, it's just that in comparison to the steep climbs 11% felt easy. Now onto the steep stuff...

The steep stuff was crazy STEEP, even too steep. I had to walk 2 sections today. The first was on Fiddler's Elbow Rd. I hit this hill about 67 miles into my ride and I had already climbed over 6K feet so my legs were pretty far from fresh. Let me preface this by saying Fiddler's Elbow is the steepest climb in all of NJ (that is it on the left here as I approached it). As it kicked up steeper and steeper I started to tack from one side of the road to the other like a sailboat trying to come into port against a hurricane. Then it happened....the fiddler took his elbow and knocked all my teeth in. I hit the final section, the last 200 yards or so which was a sustained grade of over 20%. It was even hard to walk up it. Honestly, I don't know if I could've made it up that hill even on fresh legs. Then I walked again on Iron Bridge Rd which I had the pleasure of meeting at about 95 miles into my ride. Iron Bridge is ranked #3 for steepest climbs in NJ. I made it to the actual iron bridge and then dismounted to walk the rest. Again, not sure I could even crest this hill on fresh legs...I'm gonna say maybe on this one.

After I got back to my car I ran down to the lake and waded out in the freezing water for 20 minutes as an ice bath for my legs. As I lay here typing this my legs are throbbing and moving about is labored. I suspect I'll have a restless night of sleep now due to my mangled legs. I need to see how I feel this week before I decide if this will be a weekly ritual or not. This was easily the hardest ride I have ever done, and using it as a training tool will surely make me strong as an ox. My major weakness is climbing so I need to face it head on. I just hope this ride isn't a little too over the top making it so I can't recover quickly enough from it. We'll see. Out!

I can still swim

2009-04-04T22:15:00.004-04:00

There is a NYSC about 30 min from my house that has a pool. I had never been there before so today I decided to get a swim in before running some errands. I was pleasantly surprised to find it is a monster pool, 25 yards and easily 6 lanes if they wanted it to be. I had the lane to myself for 80% of the time and then shared it with a cute girl the rest of the time. I noticed my 100 yard intervals sped up by 5 seconds per when she arrived, even though I swear I wasn't trying to show off. Anyway, I haven't swum in ages so I am pretty slow. BUT, not all that slow. I did 4000 yards in 1:16:36 which did not include about 6 minutes of resting total between all the sets. That is only 2 laps short of the ironman distance, so I figure I could do ironman in 1:20 right now...in horrible swim shape. I will kill myself over the next few months to get that down to like 1:10 or better by race day. Hardly seems worth it...all those yards ahead of me training for a lousy 10 minutes. Yes, I'm oversimplifying...sure I'll be fresher out of the water after all that training, etc, etc. Plus I really enjoy swimming long so it's not a chore for me. But still, the bike and run...that's where you find the big time gains. I'm super stoked the pool near me is so awesome and desolate. I should have moved out of the city much earlier than I did.

Big ride tomorrow, big, big, big. Just over 100 miles long and over 10K feet of vertical. These hills are so steep that I fully expect I'll have to walk some of them. And I've never walked a hill in my life. It's an hour's drive from where I live so I'm out of here at 7am. It will likely be my new training ground until Lake Placid. I'll give you all the juicy details tomorrow if I have any energy left when I get back. Out!

Bad Mamma Jamma

2009-03-22T20:15:00.006-04:00

I'm all geeked out with my new Garmin 705 so on Saturday I put together a 55 mile ride that would take me out to the Battle of Monmouth and then a scenic return through the Highlands. I figured out the whole route/course thing with the Garmin so this time it gave me turn-by-turn directions. It was sweet. No matter what screen you have the Garmin on it will give you a heads up by beeping once and flashing the next turn you need to make about 2 minutes before you get to it. Then when you get closer it beeps again, the map screen comes back, zooms in on the map to street level, and counts down the feet and seconds till you reach the turn. Fantastic! THIS is why I wanted it, so I wouldn't have to look at it all the time...only when I needed the next direction. It allowed me to forget about where I was going and just ride, check out the scenery, and enjoy being out for a long ride. The picture above is a monument located on Monument Rd, very fitting. No idea what the monument is for, didn't stop. I was out for a training ride after all not a history class. I tried to take a pic of the turn-by-turn screen below. I haven't gotten around to taking my old bike computer off yet.

Saturday night I was plotting a 100 miler that would hit every hill I could find in Monmouth County. There aren't a whole lot of them so you have to hunt them down like criminals. This took a lot of planning and I had about 15 bike maps up on my screen as I tried to interconnect them all while not turning it into a 200 mile ride. I fell asleep at the helm and woke up Sunday morning with no ride mapped out! So I just grabbed an existing route on mapmyride.com that is the course for the Twin Lights Century ride. I don't want to hate the Garmin just yet but it started to piss me off today. The route I downloaded must have been done by someone in a plane because the course didn't follow roads, it cut across water, fields, all sorts of crazy stuff. Something was definitely wrong here. And when the Garmin needs to recalculate a route that is 100 miles long it takes FOREVER. Without exaggeration I pulled over about 5 times and waited 5 minutes each time while it churned out nonsense. I finally said to hell with that course, maybe it was a bad file, and beelined over about 15 miles to pick up my 90 miler I mapped out last weekend. When I switched the course over the Garmin kept giving me directions back to the start. Why do you hate me Garmin, why? It was very frustrating and a big waste of time. I ended up only doing 71 miles today because of it all which was sort of alright because to tell you the truth I was getting a little tired. Must have been all that energy I wasted cursing at the Garmin. I did today's ride on my tri bike, aka The Interceptor. I don't remember the last time I rode it and it is so much fun to ride. As the tri season starts kicking into gear I'll do more and more riding on The Interceptor so I'm used to being in the aero position for 6 hours again.

I put together crazy playlists on my iPod for my rides. If I ever lost it I would never claim it because I'd be too embarrassed the person who found it might have plugged it in and listened to it. The best thing is, I sing out loud and I sing loud - I've seen people raking their yards turn and look. lol - dude, what do I care...I'm out there to have fun. Bad Mamma Jamma is one of my favorite Stevie Wonder songs and I think I can nail the high pitched freestyle section he does at the end now. Only problem is, I nearly wreck every time I start bobbing my head and clapping my hands - but if you don't feel the music you'll never hit those notes baby! hahaha Rock on peeps!

LBS visit for my LSB

2009-03-15T22:37:00.005-04:00

I knew I had to get a LSB (long slow bike) ride in this weekend so I went down to my LBS (local bike shop) to pick up some Perpetuem, a drink mix that has protein in it for long distance endurance. I'm chatting up the dude at the shop trying to get the dig on where the good riding is and he pulled out a map and started showing me..."like, this whole area in here is really good riding. And you definitely want to hit Sweetman Rd, it's got hills." The area he was pointing to was pretty much all of southeast Monmouth county which is a 30 mile ride just to get to from my house. I knew right then and there I would no longer be putting off a certain purchase. I bought myself a Garmin 705 GPS for the bike with color maps. I wanted one for a while but I used to ride up and down 9W to Bear Mountain all the time, don't need any maps for that. Now I live in the country, sort of, and there are endless roads to go explore. It was time. If you actually want to use the maps on the 705 you can't get the base model as it only comes with 'base maps' that don't have any detail. So I got the 'deluxe bundle' that comes with a SD card with the detailed maps and they also threw in a cadence sensor. Last night I took an hour or 2 to map out a trip to Sweetman Rd and back with some scenic detours on mapmyride.com and downloaded it into my Garmin. It was going to be about a 90+ mile ride.

This morning had a small stack of pancakes and coffee. Mixed up 12 scoops of Perpetuem (2 scoops per hour according to the label for my weight) in one bottle, 12 scoops of Gu2O for electolyte replacement in another bottle, and stuffed another bottle of straight up water in my jersey. I fired up the Garmin and off I went. Now, I don't know what I downloaded to my Garmin but it was a 'course' instead of a 'route' or something, I don't know. I've been a software developer my entire professional career and have no idea what the heck they're talking about half the time. What this meant was it wasn't going to tell me the turns as they came up, which is kinda what I wanted. Instead it was just a color map with a pink line of the route and I'd just have to follow the line like a video game. Fair enough I guess, but having it tell me to turn right in 9, 8, 7, 6, ...seconds would have been the bomb. I had no problems most of the time except that my route had a couple overlapping sections so sometimes I didn't know which way to follow and I messed it up more than once, adding to my mileage after I'd realize 2 miles later and have to double back. I'll blame that on me being an idiot and Garmin writing the most non intuitive software I've used in a while. I'll figure it out before my next ride. Aside from that, the thing is awesome, really awesome. I can even tell it to find me the nearest gas station, food store, etc and it'll show me a list with distances. I guess this is nothing new to you, everyone has this in their car now...but on a bike this is fantastic.

I stopped to refill water once about 50 miles into it and snacked on a granola bar during the pit stop. Other than that I survived on my liquid nutrition which worked out really good. I never got bonky but I did get tired. It was about 80 some odd miles into it and my legs were just tired, it was my lack of fitness not nutrition. It ended up being 95 miles and took 6:09. When I got home I showered, took the trash out, and then went down to the beach to smoke a cigar. Been living here almost 4 months and that was the first time to the beach. The water looked so nice and calm, I wanted to grab my wet suit and go for a swim but then I stuck my hand in the water...I think not.

What month is it?

2009-03-09T21:43:00.002-04:00

My mother apparently uses this blog to determine if I am alive or dead. The lack of training updates has concerned her. Hey Ma, I'm alive.

I went to Spain since I last logged an entry here. I got in some good training and rode every single day I was there, I think 8 days of riding but I don't remember. The crew there was really strong and I got dropped often and quickly. That made the trip kind of suck for me because I like to talk a lot of smack, and smack talking is most fun when you can attach a can of hurt to it. The weather in Spain was too cold for me, for now on if I'm going to fly somewhere to ride a bike you can bet it is going to be damn warm. Now that I'm back I managed to get a 60 mile ride in one weekend and a 70 miler in this past weekend. But that's been about it. John's got me on some insane bike focus in my training that calls for like 10 hours of biking every weekend. He's out of his damn mind. But seriously, I'll give it a go. My work hasn't completely settled back to normal and I'm mentally starting to burn out on it. Complete freedom will come in early/mid April when work load will normalize and I'll be able to carry on a normal tri-addicted life where every minute is spent either training or thinking about training. Ah... the good old days. Sorry I left a void here while I was getting clubbed senseless by work, things will get much better over the next 3 to 4 weeks. I'm going for a full load of training this week, will keep you posted.

The explanation

2009-01-27T22:48:00.002-05:00

So things went downhill fast after my last post. Work has kicked up a few notches so I pretty much have just worked and slept, not a single run or workout. It's been long, stressful days but I find it hard to complain when so many have lost their jobs all together. I listened to a podcast that talked about people getting so mad at the weather that they called the weather bureau to complain. Yes, those people are idiots but the point is getting mad at something that is beyond your control accomplishes nothing. Better to just make peace with it and move on. So I've made my peace with my job and the project I am on. I will work now and not train, I will skip my training trip to Spain next week to get the job done if things don't go well this week. The situation is not ideal but it is what it is. Anyway peeps, I hope to be back training again soon...but for now I work/sleep/work/sleep/....

Sent from my phone.

No Hunting

2009-01-17T11:03:00.002-05:00

I got up this morning and ran an 8 miler. It was still very cold but running in DAYLIGHT made a really big difference. My legs felt fairly fresh considering the short gap between last night's run and I had no pre-fatigue or pain. Running my 8 mile route in the light of day I saw a sign that should put me at ease on my night runs now. The section through the woods had white signs posted every now and again saying "NO HUNTING". I am assuming these rules apply to both humans hunting animals and animals (and Jerz Devils) hunting humans. So there you go, I have nothing to worry about now as long as everyone follows the rules. This will change my night running experience forever. See all the stuff you learn when you can see. I will rock out another 4 or 5 miler tonight which will catch me up with my lost mileage from Thursday. Stay warm peeps! Out!

Coldness

2009-01-17T00:24:00.003-05:00

I thought this would be a funny progression of pictures as it gets colder and colder. It was low single digits tonight not counting wind chill. Hey Mikey in Lake Placid, tell those Canadians to piss off with this jet stream already, ay! I got slammed at work yesterday and didn't get home till 11:30pm. I would have still tried to get some miles in but I had more work to do remotely. Determined to meet my goals this week I have to make those miles up now. Tonight I couldn't start my run till 9:30pm and did 11.5 miles. It was bitter cold so I wore my thicker Craft base layer, my kick ass Mizuno pullover, and then my outer shell to fight the wind. I broke out my balaclava which I never wore running before, just used it for biking in the winter. And I wore my winter running hat on top of that with the whole assembly held together by my headlamp. I upgraded to my Craft gloves meant for colder weather. They did ok but I didn't keep my thumbs in their glove finger cuz they went numb, I kept them tucked under my palm near my fingers which helped. I just went butt ass slow, like a 9:45 pace, b/c I'm a little apprehensive of the mileage I'm going for this weekend and next week. It's a lot for me so I'm proceeding cautiously. I'm planning 7.5 miles Saturday (tomorrow) morning and another 5 miles later that night. Then with my 20 miler on Sunday I'll be at 63 miles for this week.

Candy Asses

2009-01-14T22:55:00.003-05:00

Dude, did you see the forecast? I had to open my big mouth in my last post and say how warm it was at 34F. Well that certainly changed. It was 21F on my 11.5 mile run tonight that I started at 8:30pm. Tomorrow, single digits with a negative wind chill..and even colder on Friday. That's gonna suck. So, a couple of things... On my run I was thinking how cold it was and how much that sucks and how I hated all the candy asses in warmer climates who get to workout in anything above 40F. Next thing is these gloves I have suck. They were really expensive, like $45 if I remember correctly. The Manzella Hatchback they're called, great concept but I've been inside for like 30 minutes now and I have little feeling in my hands so typing this is very hard. I know you were just dying for another picture of my handsome face so I took a picture of my late night running setup. The Tekka headlamp my sister got me for Xmas last year has been key on those Jerz Devil infested dirt roads, I shut it off on the paved roads b/c that's just being a sissy. It lights up animal's eyes so bright they look electrified. I saw one pair of eyes watching me run (I think it was a cat) who's eyes were so bright in my light I though it was an electric transformer or something as I ran closer. Tom the cat or Rocky the racoon I don't mind, but seeing 2 glowing eyes in the woods watching you is just unnerving. OK, I need to take a break and sit on my hands to warm up.

I'm on a seri0us spending freeze because my heating bill was $450 last month and also my new awesome dentist had to fix a bunch of stuff my old sucky dentist messed up. But I did splurge a little on some tri stuff which I'll break out over the coming posts when I have nothing much else to say. There is one thing that is just super awesome, something I've wanted for ages but noone made one well enough to purchase. Until now, so I got one. I think it will get delivered to my work tomorrow. If it does I'll break it out on tomorrow's post about my 11.5 mile run through a frozen hell. Stay warm. Out!

63 miles

2009-01-13T21:27:00.003-05:00

I already took Monday off because I got home from work real late and it was way cold for running. I started the week off easy tonight with a 7.5 miler and I felt amazing after my rest week. I went really easy and it ended up being about 9 min miles. It was 34F out tonight but no wind so it felt like summer time. It was awesome, I wish the whole winter stayed like that. Anyway, I'm going easy because I want to set a PR for mileage this week:
Tu 7.5, We 11.5, Th 11.5, Fr 7.5, Sa 5, Su 20 = 63 miles

And then I want to beat that PR next week with 72 miles. Why 72? Cuz that was a great year.

It takes a lot of self control to hold back early in the week on pace so I can get more on volume. I kept creeping up the pace because I felt so light on my feet but then I'd catch myself and slow it down. By Sunday my legs should be a bit fatigued and I'll be glad I reserved myself. I just hope work or weather doesn't spoil my little challenge here this week.

Ring it in

2009-01-05T09:07:00.003-05:00

I sit here and my legs are shot today. On New Year's Eve, Friday, I ran 11.5 miles in a very windy -2F wind chill and then followed up Saturday with a 17 miler. I planned on a 20 miler that day but my legs were tired from the get-go, it was dark, freezing cold, and frankly I didn't give a crap about those 3 miles at the time. So now I know when the going gets tough I am perfectly capable of quitting. That's good to know. Then on Sunday I left at 6am and drove to meet Nathan at 7am in Brooklyn for a ride. The forecast was for 40F, they may as well said it was going to be 80F because they were clueless. It was more like low 20's in the morning but felt even colder. The picture above is the cliche shot over lower Manhattan coming over the Brooklyn Bridge. My legs were useless on the ride and even the slightest incline posed a threat. I felt weak and bonky all teh time but couldn't get in any fluids because both water bottles froze solid. It was a tough ride for me and I cried like a baby the entire way. After coffee, muffin, and a good thawing out at The Runscible we started back. It was warmer coming back so I could feel my feet and hands again. It was 68 miles round trip and I hated every mile of it. I smoked a victory cigar on the drive home where my check engine light proceeded to come on, indicating that life is likely about to get freaking expensive again. So much for small victories. I only got 48 miles of running in this week but I only ran 4 days. I'll use it as a stepping stone to 50+ and then 60+ after this recovery week. Peace. Out!

The Jersey Devil

2008-12-29T22:00:00.003-05:00

Hahaha, I scared myself good tonight. I forget how I came about it but last night surfing the web I found the site www.njdevilhunters.com dedicated to searching for the Jersey Devil. For those less inclined to follow the link here's the Cliff notes version. In the 1700's Mrs. Leeds was giving birth to her 13th child in Leed's Point in Egg Harbor near Atlantic City. Due to a painful birth she openly cursed "let this baby be the devil!" And so the baby was born of human flesh but was begotten from Satan himself. Believed to be the shape of a horse but with wings and horns and is identified by a high, screeching shrill. That's him in the picture. He has since haunted the state of NJ killing livestock ever since. As a child growing up in the south Jersey and not that far from where the devil was born it was a terrifying ordeal to walk home from friends' houses at night through the thick pine barrens and swamps. One night when I was like 10 years old I was awoken by high pitched screams from the front yard. When I looked in the front yard the next day there were hoof marks in the moss. Maybe it was 2 cats fighting and huge deer grazing, who knows, all I'm saying is...that'll scare the crap out of a kid.

Fast forward 26 years, I started my run at 8:30pm tonight and it was unusually dark out. When I hit the mile long stretch of road that is completely desolate and runs through some woods and marsh land my mind started wandering to the topic of the NJ devil. LOL, I actually scared myself a little just thinking about it and started looking over my shoulder. I got the chills right up my spine! It was more of an invigorating scare since my imagination doesn't quite have the control over me that it did when I was just a kid. But I'll tell you what, I think I PR'ed that section of road. hahahaha Anyway, 7.5 miles tonight at an 8:23 pace and I felt like a rock star the whole way. It's another short work week so I'm hoping for big run numbers this week, over 50 is my target. Rock on peeps...and don't let the devil get ya!

First ride

2008-12-28T21:46:00.002-05:00

This weekend I did a 16 mile long run from my house that I found on mapmyrun.com. It was misting the whole time but not particularly cold, maybe low 40's F. It started off with my normal run route but then shot over to Hartshorne Woods where I did the Battery Loop. It's a giant park now but used to be a military installation so you could see all the bomb bunkers from WWII era. I brought some Cliff Shots with me for energy and I do not prefer them in cold weather. I noticed this on a bike ride before too - when they get cold it's really hard to chew them and they stick to your gums and teeth. Same thing for Hammer Gels in the cold, they get very viscous and hard to squeeze the goop out. I think Gu and Power Gels are what I'll turn to sub 40F from now on. The run was good though and I had no issues other than getting a lost once or twice out in the woods.

Today I took advantage of the crazy warm weather (65F). I washed my bike (I can do that now!!!) and went out for a ride. I found a 50 mile route on mapmyride.com that was for some organized ride called Twin Lights Ride they do in the fall or something. You pass 2 light houses on the ride, which is where it gets its name. The 1st half of the ride wasn't all that great. The roads weren't as rural as I hoped they would be. And the head winds coming off the ocean were insufferable. Pedaling downhill in the big chainring and doing 12mph, it was tough. The 2nd half of the ride was much nicer, it went through some parks and was mostly country farm roads with little traffic. I haven't ridden in a long, long time. My butt needs to get used to being in the saddle for that long again. I chose 2 bottles of Gu2O and a Cliff Bar as my fuel today and my energy fell sharply at mile 45. The ride ended up being 48 miles and I was ready to get off the bike. I better get a long ride in each weekend in Jan to get ready for Spain.

Mudfest

2008-12-17T17:39:00.001-05:00

I'm taking today off because I went from 0 miles a week for 3 weeks to 27 miles in 3 days and my legs are a bit sore and tired. But I have to tell you about my run last night. I got home late due to weather and didn't finally get around to walking out the door for my run till 8:15pm. It was about 33F with a snow/rain mix trending towards just rain. It took quite a bit just to get out the door, the couch was my preference. Using mapmyrun.com I plotted another 3 miles onto my new run to make an 11 miler. About 1 mile into it things weren't so bad, then I planted my right foot ankle deep into a 1/2 frozen puddle. I dropped an F bomb as the freezing sensation took over my foot. There seems to be some drainage issues in my area as water puddles up on the side of the streets and in intersections. About halfway into my run is where I tacked on the extra 3 miles sight unseen. I started down the new road and I quickly deduced that I was running on dirt. The dirt turned into mud and there were puddles all over the place which was a menace to try and avoid. So now both feet are completely soaked and I'm kicking mud up on my back with every stride. This is cool. I hit this really long stretch of dirt road through the middle of nowhere at which point I thought for sure I was lost. I thought I had plotted paved roads. It was like a 2 mile long hurdle course jumping over the deep puddles in the ruts. It was really dark, raining, and no lights to be seen anywhere, it was pretty spooky. I think I actually scared myself a little bit out there thinking about how this is the kind of scenario where weird shit can happen to people. The dirt road finally kicked up steeply and I was greeted by an intersection I was familiar with from previous runs, I was probably about 8 miles into it by now. By 10 miles I was starving and didn't have much bounce left in my step. By 11 miles I was just glad to be home. I need to find some paved routes for when it is wet out I think. The safety vest worked great btw.

Xmas lights

2008-12-16T17:20:00.003-05:00

My new neighborhood is very festive with their Xmas lights, almost to the point of being tacky. Some might even say they passed the tacky point long ago. My sister Jen said that after walking her dog one night while visiting. But alas we are Jerz folk, and Jerz folk can really do no wrong. Be it 8 ft high Santas, animated sleighs with reindeer, or my favorite - the over sized Homer Simpson nativity scene. I need to make myself stand out to the drivers on the road against all these flashing lawn ornaments and lights. At lunch today I ran out to get a safety vest for night running. I haven't had any close calls yet but I do some long stretches down some really dark roads. I'd rather look like a dork then not be seen and get clipped by a drunk driver. I picked this fine reflective vest up at an actual running store even though it looks like standard issue road construction gear. Last night I tacked on a bit more to my run and did about 8.6 miles. Tonight is 1:30 run which should be around 10 miles. Forecast is for snow tonight so I'm not sure how much my 1200 foot visibility vest will help if general visibility is only 100 feet. Go out and run! Peace.

I'm back!

2008-12-14T23:12:00.002-05:00

Thank you to everyone who came down on me for not training. Combined with depression and self loathing it finally got me back on the horse. Before making my requisite 3 trips to Home Depot and 2 trips to Lowes this weekend I drove out a run route I found on mapmyrun.com that I modified just a bit. I ran it at 6pm today in the pitch black. It was a lot of fun running new streets in a new town. I love Central Park but I know that park better than the freaking squirrels at this point, it was time for a change! On the road I run against traffic, and at night oncoming cars make me blind where I can't see the road. With every car that passed I feared I'd put my foot in a pothole I couldn't see and sprain my ankle. But the roads were in pretty good shape and most of my route was not highly trafficked so no injuries on this run. I hit some good hills which I was pleasantly surprised by, you need those hills to be strong. After running up Serpentine Rd, which did just that up the side of a hill, I eventually crested at the Beacon Hill Country Club. The view from there was awesome. You could see the Jersey shore panorama from Atlantic Highlands to Port Monmouth and straight out to the Verrazano Bridge, Coney Island, and the Manhattan skyline. It's no wonder they put a richy rich country club right there. I ran 7.5 miles tonight in just over an hour, an 8:48 pace with no troubles. My life has changed drastically with my move and all my routines were turned upside down. I have to get a new routine in place quickly, one that allows for massive amounts of ironman training. This week I start imprinting that new routine. I'm dropping the marathon, repeating the last 3 weeks of my run focus, and following my QT2 diet to the T. It feels good to be back in training again, JoJo IS BACK!

From Ironman back to Joe

2008-12-11T12:15:00.002-05:00

This is bad. I haven't done any workout in 3 weeks as of yesterday. I moved and had to do some renovations to the house to make it livable. Combine that with a project that is making me pull 12 hour days on a regular basis and 1:30 commute each way...Iron Joe starts to turn into just Joe. I'm only getting 5 hours of sleep per night so I'm not sure where I can pull an extra hour each day to train. The house work is coming to an end but the work project will go till Feb. I need to make this work somehow. Something has to give, I'm ruining my run focus. I think AZ marathon in 1 month might be a waste at this point.

Pit stop at the tavern

2008-11-16T22:44:00.003-05:00

I headed out on my 2.5 hour long run tonight in Central Park, I generally do all my runs in the park. I ended up doing 17 miles which worked out to exactly a 9 min pace. I felt great but definitely started getting a wee bit tired around 15 miles in as I haven't done many runs over 12 miles lately, except for the marathon. On my 2nd loop of the park, 9 miles into it or so, my GI system started threatening to shut down my run again. This problem is starting to get a bit aggravating as it happens on just about every run I do over an hour. Luckily I was passing by Tavern on the Green so I ducked into their bathrooms for a quick pit stop. Tavern on the Green looks like Christmas Wonderland at night 365 days a year. As I was using their facilities and pondering how I have to change my diet to fix this problem, there was a dude in the stall next to me emptying the contents of his stomach into the toilet. Now either he was also a member of the QT2 Systems diet and was purging a naughty meal he should not have had or he was blitzed and the spinning room was too much to handle. We ended up washing our hands at the sink at the same time and his slow methodical movements and cherry red eyes told me he was clearly drunk and not an aspiring QT2 triathlete. I thanked the attendant for letting me use the facilities and went back on my run. It's cool how the body will let you abuse it up to a certain point and then it takes over the operation, calls you an idiot, and then makes you puke up all the toxic fluids you ingested. You, my friend, were just saved from yourself.

Riders on the storm

2008-11-15T13:39:00.004-05:00

The Doors suck big time but their song title does capture the day today. I met up with Rooney, as he's affectionately known around the prison yards, for a little spin up to Nyack for a belt of coffee and a spat of rain. On the way to meet him the Knickerbocker 60K (that's 37.2 miles for us Americans) was just starting at 8am. The picture above is the winner finishing which happened just as I got back, I think his time was 4:32 or something. That's pretty damn fast. I can't wait to try one of those out one day, probably at least 1 more season away though as I'll be focusing on a Boston qualifier after IMLP next year.

Today's ride was wet but we kind of lucked out a bit. It was warm at least in the low-mid 60's, and just sprinkling up to Nyack. While we had coffee it downpoured, and then it went back to sprinkling again for the ride home. So we got pretty lucky considering they're calling for Noah's Ark type floods today. Rooney and I had an awesome ride. Nathan was going to come but apparently L'Oreal came out with some brand new 'Lusty & Luscious Red' nail polish color and he didn't want to scuff the fresh coat he had just put on his toe nails the night before. So he stayed home and warmed his ovaries by the fire instead. Good for him though, a woman should pamper herself every now and again and anyone who says differently is just a tyrant.

Sometimes people don't suck

2008-11-12T23:04:00.004-05:00

This is my attempt at a self portrait because, quite frankly, I'm just simply not in enough pictures. I took this pic to show off my new colder weather running gear. The top is a Mizuno Breath Thermo 1/2 Zip and it is simply awesome. The fabric reacts with your sweat to generate heat, while still wicking it away to evaporate. 40F at night right now with just that top and shorts on and I'm perfectly warm. It is completely awesome. Hmm, are my legs getting too skinny? I don't want chicken legs!

Every once in a while you meet someone who doesn't suck. Mark, who is the proprietor of Kilometer's running shop in my parent's home town of Ridgefield, CT is just such a person. Mark is so awesome that I don't buy running clothes or shoes from anyone else, regardless of price. He's an expert on the products and a runner and coach himself - so he knows how to geek out on gear. But most importantly, he stands behind his products like no one else I've ever met. If you don't like something for any reason, anytime down the road - just bring it back to him and he'll make it right. This dude is sincere in making sure you are a happy runner. If I were to own and operate a running store of my own, Mark would be my role model. But until that day, I'll just buy all my stuff from Mark so that people who don't suck can prosper.

Race Report - NYC Marathon

2008-11-02T21:10:00.004-05:00

I ran the race this year as a guide for a hand cyclist, who's goal was to complete it in 5 hours. We were part of the early start which means or gun time was 7:30am. At 3:50am my alarm went off, by 4:20 I was in a cab, and 4:40 I was in midtown looking for my athlete. We hooked up, found the other guide who was going to join us (this job entailed pushing) and by 5:45am the buses were in route to the Verrazano Bridge. It was cold, maybe low 40's (F), and really windy.

At 7:30am we were off and we took off fast. But as soon as we the hit the incline of the bridge (and all following inclines) we had to help push the hand cyclist. I saw 154 on my HRM on the bridge and thought, this is not going to end well going this hard from the gun. On the downhills the hand cyclist would really get moving, like 15 mph. So every push effort was followed by a full on sprint to catch up. Crikey, not what I had in mind for an 'easy long run'. Me and the other guide took turns on the efforts, taking 1 minute pulls while the other ran solo and rested. The head winds were really strong from the start all the way up 4th Ave into Queens. After the Queensboro Bridge (mile 15) the wind wasn't much of a factor anymore.

1st Ave was a blast, as it always is. The crowds are insane and NYC will always be the best at that. I think we held about a 6:45 pace for most of 1st Ave b/c it is a slight downhill for a mile or so and we were sprinting to catch our freewheeling cyclist again. That was followed by a push up and over the next 2 bridges and most of 5th Ave as it kicks uphill after 110th St heading towards the park. The other guide was a first time marathoner and started to feel the miles heading into the park. That left just me to do the pushing at this point. I didn't care, I felt pretty good still and was there to do a job - and do it I will. All 3 of us finished together in 5 hrs flat - I am a seriously awesome pacer dude.

Physically I feel awesome right now. My legs and hip flexors are a little sore but nothing crazy. Going up and down stairs is a non-issue and I suppose I could jog if I had to. I'll take Monday off, swim on Tuesday, and resume run training on Wednesday. I'm not sure if it's b/c I have a lot more endurance training in my legs than ever before or if it was the slower pace, but a 5 hr marathon hurts nowhere near as much as a 4 hr marathon even though you're on your feet longer. Subtract the pushing and sprinting and I think an easy 4:30 marathon would have been a no-brainer today if I went solo.

Jen shattered the 4 hr barrier with a 3:53:47. Liz made her marathon debut with a 3:55:38 which is pretty insane for a 1st timer. Both impressive times, and good chunk faster than my own PR of 4:01. So we have new fast times posted, of which I will go after with aggression to take back my reign as the family super champion runner/triathlete. Enjoy the glory for now though, you kicked some ass today Jen and Liz. And a special thanks to mom, dad, Cork, Les, Jillian, Haley, Justin, and Roger for enduring yet another endurance event. : )

I'm here!

2008-11-02T08:00:00.000-05:00

At the start, 30 minutes away. This the VIP entrance to the race start!

Sent from my phone.

Nothing like your first

2008-11-01T14:21:00.002-04:00

I was reading my youngest sister's blog, Liz over here and started reflecting on how I felt at my first marathon - NYC 2000. There is NOTHING like your first time. I remember being nervous as hell the night before, I think I only ended up getting about 2 hours of sleep. On the bus ride to Staten Island I just listened to all the conversations around me of all the veterans hoping I'd hear something that would be a key on how to unlock this whole race. When the canon fired and we all headed over the Verrazano Bridge I distinctly remember thinking the words "holy crap dude, you're actually running a marathon". I had gone from running 2 miles a couple times a week to a marathon in only about a year and half - so this was HUGE for me. So many unknowns were about to be answered. I had an awesome race and loved every step of the way. When I crossed the finish line I had never been more proud of a personal accomplishment in my life. Marathons are still fun after your 1st one but nothing like your 1st, they lose that "holy crap" feeling. And so I'm a little jealous of Liz, because the next 24 hours are going to be a totally awesome experience for her.

Also, I'm hooked up with a 76 year old handcyclist, running as her guide. We are part of the 'early start' which goes off at 7:30am. That's 2.5 hrs before the general population gets to start so we'll have the roads all to ourselves. I'll get to see the male, female, and handicap lead groups pass us at some point probably close to Central Park. It's gonna be sweet.

Good luck Liz and Jen - hope you qualify for Boston!

Giving it a purpose

2008-10-28T13:01:00.003-04:00

I have no time goals for NYC marathon this weekend other than to run slow enough so I can train through it and not total my body. It is going to be really, really hard to treat a race as a training run - when I race I like to RACE. So I was looking for something that would give my race some direction and force me to go at a training pace. I volunteered to be a guide for a blind runner with the Achilles Track Club. The idea came late in the game so I'm sort of on standby with them right now. They said they could probably use me though. Other guides might get injured or sick or whatever and they'll need a last minute fill-in. I offered to pace someone to a 4:25 finish or slower. I'm actually really looking forward to this opportunity now and would be pretty let down if they ended up not needing me. If I don't get the chance to be a guide for someone on Sunday I think I'll keep my name on file with them for other races. I could see myself getting into this. Rock on peeps.

The "leafers"

2008-10-26T20:01:00.006-04:00

Today was an easy 1 way ride up to Bear Mtn and take the train back. Nathan and I picked up John by Grant's Tomb on the way up. We took River Rd, which was totaled from the storm yesterday with high winds. The yellow "do not cross" tape strung out across the road that we had to duck under to get on the road was a good hint there would be poor conditions ahead. So we sort of cyclocrossed for a few miles till we got back up to 9W, but it was a lot of fun, the most fun I've had yet on River Rd. John was only in as far as Pierremont so after coffee we split, Nathan and I continued up to Bear. At the top of Bear Mtn it was like Grand Central with all the NYers who drove up there to see the leaves changing colors. It reminded me of the Family Guy episode where NY "leafers" invaded Quahog in the Fall and Lois had to kick all their asses. Rather than take a picture of all the pretty leaves, I took a pic of the mob scene of people. I don't know what that chick in the picture is looking at, move on lady, there's nothing here for you. Then we rode just past the Garrison train station to have lunch at this pulled pork deli we found on an earlier trip but hadn't tried their food yet. Been waiting to try this pulled pork sandwich for months now. We finally get there and they were out of pulled pork. Seriously, par for the course it seems for me.

We rode easy today, sort of. We certainly rode easy on the uphills, maybe pushed a little everywhere else. I'm kind of spent right now for such an "easy" ride. I got slightly bonky at the top of Bear Mtn, here is me waiting for some Cliff Shot Blocks I ate to kick in so we could leave. I should have taken in more calories during the 4 hours of riding it took to get there. 2000 calories out and only 600 calories in = big energy deficit.

The day democracy died

2008-10-24T00:22:00.003-04:00

I'll always remember this run tonight. Tonight was the night that democracy died in NYC. All I can hope for is that my fellow New Yorkers vote Bloomberg and all the council members who voted 'yes' for extended term limits out of office come election time. But they won't, and I honestly can't stand it. All the run clubs were out doing speed work again tonight, I think Tues and Thurs are big days for speed work. So I fired out a 5.6 mile run tonight at an 8:25 pace. It was kind of easy, so I think I'm just getting faster. Easy used to be a 9:15ish pace, now it's 8:30ish. I'll be stoked if I can race around 8:20 pace for 1/2 irons next season for sub 1:50 run splits. That'll certainly grant me a 5:3x 1/2 iron PR, maybe at Mooseman next year! Before Roxbury Marathon in Dec I need to race a 1/2 marathon and see if I can go 1:3x, I've always wanted to go sub 1:40, always wondered if I could one day. Here's a good pace chart. Good night peeps, and to hell with government.

D-Bag of the week

2008-10-19T11:52:00.004-04:00

My running is coming along pretty good. At the end of 2 weeks now all the rusty kinks are worked out and I'm feeling good out there. My base training speed is up from last year at the same HR, that's good. I did a 1:45 long run today and managed to get in 12.2 miles, it felt damn easy. Might be the brisk air, it was 45F this morning. I suspect I could get close to 8's or better if I raced a 1/2 marathon right now.

On my run today I was coming up Cat Hill in Central Park and some dude in front of me out for a run as well ate a Gu and tossed the wrapper on the ground as he ran. As I passed him I touched his shoulder and said "you really should use a trash can for your trash". He pulled an attitude with me, asking if I was the mayor and to mind my own business. This is not how you want to talk to me, even if you can beat me up...which this guy could not. I instantly went into predator mode and verbally ripped him a new one loud enough so everyone around us could hear he was a scumbag. I made my point and he knows he was wrong, it was just his ego fighting with me. When he lays down tonight to go to bed he's gonna reflect on our little altercation and think to himself, "you know what, that dude was right, I am a total d-bag". And with that thought I find solace. Rock on peeps, and don't be a scumbag...use a trashcan even when no one is looking.

I picked my Dec marathon

2008-10-15T22:54:00.005-04:00

I cranked out 8.5 miles tonight for my 1:15 run, which is an easy 8:50 pace at 141 HR which I should be happy with but I'm not because all you fast jerks got me feeling down about myself. Let me reiterate that I hate you. On another note, I finally decided on my A race marathon in December. It's going to be the Roxbury Marathon in CT on December 12th. I wanted to do Jacksonville, FL but I priced out the weekend and it was going to be about $700 to go down there and run the race, and I don't have the time to make it a vacation right now which might justify the expense. With home ownership on the way I decided to go local and low budget. Roxbury marathon is $5, no finisher's medal, no souvenir t-shirt, and little to no support or spectators on the course. Something like 15, yes I said fifteen, people show up for the race which almost guarantees you'll be running alone the whole time. This is running at its purest if you ask me. The course is off-road and on-road and is supposedly brutally hard, like add 45 minutes to your normal marathon time hard. So it won't be a PR but it'll be fun. I'm not sure I'm going to do anymore M-dot ironmans after Lake Placid this year. We'll see, but I'm not into the crowds and all the bullshit associated with registering for them. I'll do independantly organized ironman distance races or maybe even some self supported ones. Let's keep it real people.

Everyone is so fast

2008-10-14T21:48:00.003-04:00

When the heck did everyone get so fast? Gee whiz. I mean, that's awesome and all but what the heck is going on! Liz and Justin ran low 1:40's in the Boston 1/2 marathon last weekend and Jen is doing 8min/miles over 18 mile long runs...bloody hell! This is great for me though because I am competitive even when I say I am not competitive. I want to go fast too! I'm into my 2nd week of my run focus and I'm 30 seconds per mile faster than where I was last year during base training. I know I need to make the most of this run focus and come out of it with a new PR in both the 1/2 and full marathon distances. I'd like to train myself into a sub 1:40 in the 1/2 and 3:45 or so in the full. Those are aggressive goals for me but I think they are attainable if I train really smart and hard. So I ran a little harder tonight, squeezing in 7.6 miles in the 1 hour run instead of the usual 6+ which is like 8min/miles. I thought I was going good but Tuesday is speed night in the park so every running club in NYC is out there laying down 5 minute miles making me feel slow again. Screw all you fast people, I hate you.

PS Kudos to Cork who ran her 1st 1/2 marathon in Boston. You're dipping your toes into the harder core stuff now...don't it feel good?!!!

Dump it over there

2008-10-05T00:23:00.005-04:00

Once I finally get into my training plan I'm unstoppable, I train through everything. Coming out of my off season has been hard and I've been lazy. I've missed most of my anatomical adaption phase workouts the last 3 weeks. This is probably why I should not take an 'off season', once I get it going I should keep it going. Anyway, despite some light rain this morning I was joined by Nathan for a spin up to Pierremont for a coffee. It's freaking cold out now (high 50's low 60's I think). Every year as the seasons change I'm like a newbie who doesn't know how to dress for the workout. Mostly because I forget. It takes me a few weeks to figure it out again. I was under dressed today and froze my ass off. On the way back we spotted this barge loaded with retired subway cars heading out to sea to be dumped. I know it's hard to see, it's a phone camera, give me a break. Once dumped the subway cars become artifical reefs or something. It's nice to know mankind can continue to rape mother earth everyday and all that is needed to fix it is to dump our stainless steel crap back in her oceans.

Race Report - The Jersey Man

2008-09-28T16:05:00.003-04:00

I am a Jersey Man! In more ways than one. I was born in south Jersey, grew up in south Jersey, just bought a house in NJ last week - so I had to do this race. The land of Bon Jovi, Springsteen, Frank Sinatra, world famous tomatoes, hot Jersey girls, Iron JoJo, and the inaugural Jersey Man triathlon - Jersey simply rocks! This is another 'fun' race that I rolled up to untrained and just gave my best effort. The race was held at Spruce Run Recreation Area in Clinton, NJ about an hour west of NYC. They put on a 1/2 ironman race and a sprint, I was doing the sprint.

Swim time: 23:14 [ 2:12 / 100 yards ]
It was an ankle deep beach start. The .6 mile swim was a counter-clockwise triangle in a lake. The water was pretty warm, low 70's I think so most everyone was in a wet suit including me. My stomach felt a little unsettled at the start not due to nerves but rather the yogurt and granola breakfast I ate before I left for the race. I had a good start and got out fast. After about 3 minutes of sprinting I started to fizzle out. I haven't been swimming at all in my season break and I lose my swim pretty fast if I'm not putting the yards in at the pool. I settled in at pace that was comfortable and could not find any feet to draft. I saw other caps around me so I knew I wasn't dead last but I accepted I wasn't going to have a fast swim. The water was clean and refreshing and spotting the buoys was not an issue. My swim ended up ranking 79 out of 195.

Bike time: 1:05:05 [ 18.0 mph ]
It was a long beach to walkway to grass run up into T1 which I did in 2:43 which was pretty fast compared to the field. The bike course was 19.5 miles long which is rather long for a sprint race. I mounted my carbon fiber steed and tried to attack the course since the bike has become my strength right now. The weather was a mix of light and heavy rain which made everyone scrub speed on the few long fast downhills. The course wasn't really hard but I wouldn't say it was easy either. It was fun, and lots of nice country to look at along the way. A few out-of-saddle climbs but they were kind of short and a few fast flat sections that allowed you to gain some time back. There was one intersection out in the middle of the course where the cop stopped me to let some cars go. That was the first time I've unclipped from my pedal and stopped during a race to wait for traffic but I didn't really care too much today. My bike leg ranked 31 out of 195.

Run time: 27:19 [ 8:48 min/mile ]
I got out of my shoes while still on the bike again and it was a fast downhill sprint back into T2 to start the run. I had a blistering fast T2 time of 48 seconds which looks like it was the 7th or 8th fastest out of everyone. How so fast? I rack my bike head first, slip on my shoes sockless, dump my helmet, and put my race number belt and hat on while out on the run. I spend about 5 seconds at my T2 station. I felt awesome as I started the run with a nice quick cadence and keeping pace with some fit looking dudes. There were no mile markers out on the course but somewhere around mile 1 I had a sudden and massive attack of my GI. Why did I eat yogurt for breakfast when I'm semi-lactose intollerant? Oh my word. I'll save you the details but let's just say I entered the woods off the side of the road and did not emerge again for another 5 minutes. It was not good at all. I finally got back into the race and cranked out the remaining miles. I ran straight through the finish line, into the rec area's shower pavillion and took a shower. I painfully learned my lesson today. My run ranked 135th/195 and with my 5 minute pit stop removed I actually ran 7:11's not 8:48's. But oh well, it is what it is.

I finished 1:59:08 which is 55th overall and 9/22 in my age group. I'll probably do this race every year, maybe do the 1/2 next year. Coach John was racing the sprint and would have won by a huge margin but got sent off course so far on the run that he DNF'ed. Mandy was racing the 1/2 as her final prep before Kona and placed 5th female. Those 2 are pretty damn fast. Later, OUT!

Race Report - Nations Triathlon

2008-09-18T17:09:00.005-04:00

It was Liz, Cork, Justine, and myself racing and Kyle on camera duty - he's got mad video/camera skillz. We walked about 30 miles on Saturday looking for the registration site to pick up our race packets, that way we could have nice tired legs for race day. Good planning, I know. It was a crowded race, maybe 3000+ athletes racing. Must have been some sort of a Team In Training club race cuz there were purple monsters everywhere. Ok, so it was really hot and humid on Sunday - I loved it.

Swim time: 33:55 [ 2:08 / 100 yards ]

This was a deep water start just off the pier where we started. I was the 3rd wave to go off. You swam a standard rectangle out under the Memorial Bridge and back again in the Potomac River. There was no visibility in the water but it didn't seem dirty or polluted. No foul smells or tastes. I swam alone the whole time mostly because a lot of people were going slightly off course and I chose to swim the shortest distance and follow the buoys. I caught some of the slow dudes from the earlier wave just before the bridge early on so I thought I was going good. I finished in the meat of my wave but my time sucked. Maybe there was a current or something, b/c even for an untrained swim that is slow.

Bike time: 1:10:52 [ 21.2 mph ]

My only chance to beat my sisters and Justin was to lay it out here, on the bike. I freaking hammered as hard as I could. It was a fast course being pretty flat and not a single climb on it. It was big chain ring from the start just go-go-go. I started to feel the effects of not training for 8 weeks when my legs started to get crampy some 18 miles into the bike. It was just b/c I was hammering. I'd stretch out my legs a little mid stroke and just keep on hammering. I decided if the cramp was gonna come it was gonna come, I wasn't going to lay off the effort. 21.2mph average speed is pretty damn fast for me. And the roads were awesome, freshly paved for the most part and also a closed course so NO CARS!!! Sweet! I did my first ever bike dismount while leaving my shoes in the clip. For you none tri folk reading this, you take your feet out of your shoes at the end of the bike section while still riding and pedal with your feet on top of the shoes. This saves you a few seconds during transition since you don't have to take your shoes off then and also allows you to run faster to your transition spot since you don't have the bike shoe cleats slowing you down. It was cool, I'll do this for now on.

Run time: 56:45 [ 9:09 min/mile ]

I started the run knowing I did all I could do on the bike and just wanted to hang on during the run. It was getting a lot warmer out, probably in the 90's by then and pretty humid. It was a beautiful run along the water and through a tidal basin before entering the National Mall with all the monuments and museums. Crowd support was pretty good along the run which was nice. I was running a good clip to start out with and by 3 miles I was toast. From then I was just pretty much trying not to walk. My pace averaged 9:09 but felt more like 11:09's cuz I was dragging out there. I seriously wanted to stop, I kept imagining I was hunting down my prey and would die if I didn't catch it. That kept me running. On the final stretch to the finish I seriously thought I was going to vomit, I was holding back my effort just enough to prevent it. It was seriously as hard as I could go w/o breaking down.

Total time was 2:45:37. I waited for Justin to come in who started a few waves behind me and then had to bolt to get up to NJ for an appointment later that day so I missed Liz and Cork finishing. I called them from the road a few hours later to see how much I lost in my battle cry bet in the previous post. Nothing baby! I had faster splits across the board, even the run which I entirely expected to lose. Those kids aren't ready to take this old man down yet, they still need some schooling.

But in all seriousness, congratulations to Cork for completing her first oly distance tri in 3:47:33, to Liz for racing handicapped from a training fall down in 3:05:05, and Justin who nearly ran me down with a total time of 2:52:22. Thanks for Justin and his family for letting us stay at their sweet condo downtown and to Kyle for putting up with tri stuff and shooting footage in between reading and studying for his Masters degree.

Training started this week for me, I'm gonna be so fast in '09 it's going to be ridiculous. Let the pain begin!

Battle Cry

2008-09-09T23:55:00.004-04:00

What up my good peeps! I'm finally back, went for a 5 mile jog last night to dust off the muscles and see if everything is still working. There were a few creeks and stitches here and there but all in all it was a good run. I have an olympic tri coming up this Sunday that I'm going into having not trained a lick since my ironman, nearly 2 months ago!

I have one thing I need to accomplish - to beat Justin, Liz, and Cork who are all racing it too! This is going to hurt and I'm gonna have to dig deep and race like a freaking animal. AN ANIMAL DAMN IT! Jesus, look what you did, you got me all pumped and I'm trying to go to bed. Thanks a lot. I dropped my aero bars one more spacer tonight so I can get really low cuz this is a FAST course and that is where I need to put my time into them, lots of time. They are all fast runners and will try to run me down, I need to put some major space between us on the bike which might be hard to do over only 25 dinky miles. Then it's an all out sprint on the 10K run to try to hold on to whatever lead I might have by then. Unfortunately my wave start is before all of them so I have to fear the pass for the whole damn race.

To make me race harder I'm offering premiums to anyone that can beat me in these categories:

Swim preme: a new pair of swim goggles of your choice for the 2009 season ($20 max)
Bike preme: I'll personally wash your bike and detail it while chanting how great a cyclist you are and how you can totally kick my ass at will
Run preme: Jamba juice or frozen yogurt of your choice
Overall: lunch or dinner on me, and my utmost respect for destroying me

I'm putting myself on the chopping block here guys, this is your chance to take me down. After this race I am going to start training like a man possessed and my speed will become untouchable! An untouchable possessed madman I tell you!!! Let the battle song play my friends, let it play...I'll see you in DC...where it is surely on.

For a hill men would kill, why? they do not know
Suffered wounds test their pride
Men of five, still alive through the raging glow
Gone insane from the pain that they surely know

For whom the bell tolls
Time marches on
For whom the bell tolls
--Metallica

I just ate what?

2008-08-26T22:37:00.005-04:00

Yeah, I got a food theme going here...so what. I've been doing good sticking to my plan lately, rarely staying at 1220, usually going over by 100 or 200 calories. I've been as low as 164 pounds so far but it goes up and down with water retention. I'm gunning for the 150's pretty hard. Anyway, at work we do this monthly party for people who had birthdays that month, catered by Crumb. The cupcakes are huge, nearly 4" in diameter. That's a Crumb on the left and a real Hostess on the right. I ate one. The whole thing. I went back to my desk to log the calories/carbs/protein/fat and nearly fell over. That son of a bitch has over 700 calories in it and 25g of fat! I nearly pulled a supermodel move and went to the bathroom to purge. hahaha, dude, that is like 3 slices of pizza right there. Unbelievable. Their web site says baked fresh with love. Giving people cottage cheese ass and diabetes is love? When I got home tonight I ran 6 miles which is about 700 calories to cancel it out. I was thinking the cupcake would be like 300 or I would have never touched it. Just goes to show you, the world is out to kill you man. If not from the outside than from the inside. I sound like such a chick writing this. God I'm lame.

Body fat

2008-08-21T21:50:00.002-04:00

My body fat calipers came today. Settle down, settle down...I'm just using this to track my progress following the QT2Systems nutritional plan. I tried them out tonight and they are very hard to use to get a consistent reading. Very, very small differences in measurements make very big differences in the final number. So grabbing 2 extra mm of a skin fold adds up. With this unit you put in your gender and age and then take 3 different measurements: the chest area, near the naval, and the upper thigh. I would take 2 or 3 measurements on each spot and when the numbers were pretty consistent I would accept it. My measurements varied as much as 5mm at times. That's where operator skill comes into play, grabbing the right amount of skin and in the right place - and doing it in the exact same spot every time. Like I said, it is just very hard to get consistent. I suppose I'll get a little better over time, some web sites say 50-100 measurements is minimum to have any sort of skill at it. Doing the best I could I think I am about 18% body fat. I had readings of 14%, 17%, and 18%. I feel like 18%. That could be high or low by about 4% or so. I guess I don't care if this number is close to actual, it just gives me a baseline to compare against over time. Once I get better at using them that is, because it is hard to compare results when they vary by as much as 4 points from one time to the next.

It also came with a handy body tape measure (on the right in the picture) that pulls the tape tension just right to take a good measurement. So l took 9 measurements from my neck down to my calves and I'll compare those week to week. As you can tell I like numbers. And I like to see measurable results. It will show me progress or lack of progress, and that will keep me motivated and focused.

Shut it down

2008-08-19T21:19:00.002-04:00

I spoke with Coach John today and I decided to shut down my season. This means no racing and no more SBR. I've been "off" already for about 4 weeks now, since IMLP, sans a few bike rides on the weekends. I start things back up again Sep 14. That will be 8 weeks off all together. I'm still going to do the olympic tri down in DC on Sep 14 but I'm not going to train and I am going to suck ass. It was an expensive race but also Liz, Cork, and Justin are in it so I want to roll down there and enjoy the day regardless. I'm going to spend my training break doing anything but SBR, probably lift some weights to gain strength and find cardio on the rowing machine or something. I'll sneak a couple jogs and easy spins to Nyack for coffee, I can't give it up completely. When I come back I begged John that we focus on my running, I want to be much faster. Maybe a January marathon is my future (and a PR!).

I'm going to concentrate on my nutrition and my work until then. Maybe it's time for a girlfriend, too. After all, I'm not getting any younger or better looking. Am I? hahaha On a high note, I actually hit my calorie goals today - 1216 for the day! I had cottage cheese with some fiber one cereal on top for dinner to get in under the wire. I almost puked. Not b/c of the taste but b/c the texture of cottage cheese is so Shasty McNasty that it triggers my gag reflexes. I really hope I can overcome my adversity to cottage cheese. I lost 4 pounds in the first week of my plan, but that should level off to a more reasonable and safer pound per week soon. I'm digging it though. Later peeps...Out!

Don't eat that

2008-08-13T20:16:00.002-04:00

If you eat too many calories early on in the day you end up with a dinner looking like this picture. That's what happened to me today. I had a delicious fruit smoothie that I made for breakfast which put me in the hole for about 400 calories right off the bat. Believe it or not, my sedentary daily caloric intake is set at 1220! If I workout 7 hrs over the week it bumps up to 1820. I haven't restarted any of my workouts yet other than a long ride on the weekends so I'm in the anorexic calorie club until I do. It sucks in here! Do you have any idea how fast you can spend 1220 calories? Trust me, it goes really, really fast. In fact, I have yet to hit 1220 in the 3 days I've been doing this plan. Today will be my lowest so far at 1600. And I plan to start working out again soon, if for nothing else than to get my calorie allowance to go up.

Couple things I've noticed so far - you HAVE to log everything you eat to start a plan this strict. It really brings light to the many bad habits you have or places you are cheating yourself. I've already switched to skim milk instead of cream for my coffee, that's 40 calories per cup right there. I've also noticed I eat simpler b/c I'm lazy and don't feel like listing some complex meal out on my food log. So my meals have very few ingredients - like tuna straight from the can. I'm having trouble getting my ratios of carbs/proteins/fats correct by days end. I'm usually too high in carbs and too low in the others. Too high of a carb ratio is a problem shared by most American's in general, in addition to insanely large portions. But I'll get better as I learn what foods fill those needs better than others. And as I starve myself to a faster body I'm getting better and better at proper portioning. The biggest change so far is accepting that you are eating for only 1 thing now, to fuel your body for what it needs to do over the next couple hours - and that's it. No more eating for epicurious pleasure, fun, socializing, depression, boredom, or whatever else drives you to put food in your mouth. I think if you accept that then making a wholesale change to your diet like I am doing is manageable and sustainable. If not I think the power of food may eventually overcome will power. I've made that switch in my head, at least I sure hope I did! I can tell after only 3 days I will be dropping a lot of body fat on this plan. It's not easy for me but once tangible results start to happen it will keep me motivated. Peace!

New diet in effect

2008-08-12T12:38:00.005-04:00

Last week I sort of limped into my new nutrition plan to try things out but on Monday I made it official. I'm logging everything I eat on a spreadsheet for now which you can check out here. I'll probably just track what eat in this much detail until I am fully accustomed to the new foods, quantities, percentages, etc. There is an awesome fruit cart lady on 45th St in front of my office building that sells fruit salads and shakes super cheap and everything is freshly cut right there. The massive fruit salad in the picture is $5 and is about 2 or 3 smaller meals worth of fruit. You can't go wrong!

I think I've put together the rest of my season which has a oly tri, another 1/2 iron, some 1/2 marathon road races, and possibly the NYC marathon. I'm trying to make the tough decision on whether to do the marathon or not. My coach would ideally have me take off end of Sept and most of Oct and start a run focus into Dec. Switch to a bike focus for Jan and Feb (Spain!) and then balanced training leading into my first race and build to IMLP09. I want to run FAST next season, very fast - so I need a run focus badly. NYC marathon interferes with that. The only reason I'm doing the marathon is I have 2 sisters running it as well - Jen and Liz - so it will be fun. Ugh, decisions, decisions. Leaning towards dropping the marathon and being a spectator.

Long fun ride

2008-08-09T22:35:00.006-04:00

Today I am up in CT at my parent's place visiting, all my sisters are here as well to do dress shopping for Liz' wedding. I came up b/c Justin was coming down from Boston and wanted to ride 80+ miles. I found a ride on mapmyride.com that was posted by Megan, a Ridgefield triathlete and mother of 3 who earned her Kona slot at IMLP a few weeks ago. I tossed together a quick cue sheet for us and we were off. We took an immediate detour after crossing the NY state line to go climb Hilltop Rd. We can't go near that road without climbing up it, it just draws you to it. Up and over, that was fun, and then back on course. The ride was really nice. There were a few hills that took some effort to get over but they were spread out and it was nothing too bad. The weather was incredible and just meant for cycling. A little breeze in the morning and then very pleasant all day. When we hit Rt 6 up in Carmel it wasn't the greatest, very commercial and busy. What I think was part of the North County Trailway ran through there so we jumped on that. It is a paved path for cycling, running, and walking that links into other pathway for what will one day cover the whole east coast. We were at mile marker 46 at one point so, it must go pretty far. I took a picture as we crossed over one of the bridges that spanned small rivers and sometimes highways (pic above). I think this trailway used to be railroad at one point. Back on Rt 6 we came within 6 miles of Bear Mtn. The cue sheet said take the Bear Mtn Parkway East for a short bit - but you can't take bikes on a parkway. So I had to call home and have my dad google a new route to get us back on track. On the way home we rode by the Katonah Museum of Art on Rt22 which had this gigantic head on the lawn (pic below). It was bizarre, probably 8 feet tall, but strangely I liked it. All in it was a great day of riding, we covered about 82 miles in about 5:25. It was just a fun, easy day riding the bike - not really training. Justin had a bit of a rough go late in the day as he's been running a lot lately and his bike legs started to fade. But he toughed it out and had a great day too.

People hate cyclists. That was clear today, and made clear on many rides. Most people just try to come really close to you while flooring their car or truck. Sometimes people yell shit, I have yet to have anyone throw anything yet but I'm sure that will happen too. I don't really care if they don't like cyclists but I do care when it starts to jeopardize my safety. Some cyclists are complete jerks and deserve to be run off the road, but those folk are not the majority. I can only hope that Karma, or this giant head, is keeping track of it all and one day they get theirs.

Tomorrow there is talk of doing a self-supported olympic length tri - Liz and Justin dreamed it up. We might trespass at a lake before it opens to get the open water swim in, then just bike 40K and run 10K on local roads. If it goes down I'll post some pics. Rock on peeps, and don't be a cyclist hater - we're not all bad people.

And the rest

2008-08-05T18:24:00.003-04:00

The rest of my nutrition plan order came today - all stocked up on protein now. No, the palm plant is not part of my nutrition plan. Rock! Out!

Nutrition plan

2008-08-04T20:19:00.005-04:00

Don't quit smoking, go on a diet, start exercising, and start learning how to play guitar all at the same time. It's too much change at once and you'll likely fail at them all eventually. My first big change when I started this all was ramping up to a proper minimum weekly ironman training workout volume, about 10-15 hours on average for me. That was enough to get used to for one season. Now I'm adding the next big change, correcting my diet. I hooked up with Gloria, a Registered Dietitian from QT2 Sytems, to help me put together a nutrition plan to fuel my workouts, recover faster, and lose weight so I can race faster. I now have a nutritional plan to live by for the next year of training. Gloria did an awesome job. When to eat what and why - it's all in there. It takes into account % of carbs, proteins, and fat depending on weekly volume ranging from 0, 7, 14, and 20 hour workout weeks. To lose weight she calculated my equilibrium calorie requirements for each workout volume (the number of calories required to stay at current weight) and reduced by 500 cals per day which equates to roughly 1 pound of fat loss per week. To give you an idea of what that means to me: for a sedentary week of no exercise I'll eat 1220 cals per day and on a peak 20 hour workout week I'll eat 2,910 calories per day. Not that much, is it? My goal is to lean out a LOT for next season and gain all that free speed. I wonder if I'll be cold riding my bike this winter with no body fat. Yikes!

Bear Mtn Virgin

2008-08-03T16:14:00.004-04:00

Picture of bikes on Metro North train home, rode to Bear Mtn summit vi River Rd and then caught the train home from Garrison. 65 miles in 4:45, but lots of climbing. It was an easy ride, today we wanted to just ride bikes and have fun. Weather was perfect, just a few drops of rain on the mountain descent, of course...right. Sarah joined the ride today, a Bear Mtn virgin...not anymore. She rode strong. I work with Sarah's sister Rachel who sort of got me started on my triathlon kick. She did the NYC triathlon 2 years ago which reminded that I always wanted to try that race out. I was about 209 pounds back then and looked it. The rest is history. Nathan is fully back in action now that his broken ovary, I mean clavicle, seems to be healed enough. Awesome day, awesome ride...we rocked the Bear, and the Bear rocked back. Out!

Sanford and son

2008-08-02T17:37:00.000-04:00

Triathlon cross training moving sister into new aprtment in Stamford. My old mn has a totally Sanford and Son setup with his pickup truck, a beater he bought to plow the driveway. I guess that makes me the Son. Anyway, feel fully recovered from ironman..ready for group ride to Bear Mtn tomorrow morning. Rock!

Sent from my phone.

Just go for a ride

2008-07-27T20:07:00.002-04:00

Hey there peeps. The training blog will continue. It does motivate me and I enjoy writing. I also got a few comments and emails that many of you enjoy it too. I'm down with that. I can get past the being a private person part. After all, a 12:55 ironman is hardly good enough for me so there is a lot of work ahead in which I'll need this public accountability.

Today was my first day back doing anything since the Ironman. I met up with Nathan this morning early to watch the NYC 1/2 marathon before riding up to Piermont for a coffee, a nice 45 mile ride. I had a few friends running in the race but I ended up not seeing any of them because apparently I am a horrible spotter. I did get to see Adam Gaucher run by who was about a minute+ off the lead at the 6 mile mark. Gaucher was a legend at CU during the late 90's and the cross country team captain while the book "Running With The Buffaloes" was written. He doesn't do a lot of road races like this so it was cool to see him. I took a picture but my phone doesn't have a very good reaction time and I missed everyone.

Nathan and I were to do an EASY ride up to Piermont for coffee. It ended up being a series of hammer intervals and short attacks all the way up and back. I blame Nathan for it even though it was me doing the attacking sometimes. It felt really good to squeeze the leg muscles during an acceleration. Anyway, we need a 3rd rider to come with us from now on to keep us in check. Someone who understands the meaning of "easy ride" and can properly stick to the plan. Nathan and I are like two idiots attacking each other all the way out there.