Let's get this party started already!!!!

Oh man oh man oh man I am chomping at the bit to get started next year! For the last two weeks I have been in this weird limbo stage just trying to do something to stay active so as to not fall flat on my face when training "officially" starts next week.

I am currently waiting for an email from my coach for the first installment of my training plan. I guess this sense of anticipation is killing me right now because it will be interested to see how he concocts his training plans and how difficult they will be to execute. I am REALLY looking forward to getting started!

We had an early release day from work today, so @ 3PM I was outside running in 40 degree temps in shorts! It was wonderful! I don't know why, but I keep visualizing the Lake Placid running course. I have only ran the loop once, but I feel like I know the thing backwards and forwards. I really like the course, if you can't tell.

So I finally decided on what I will be doing next year. The racing will be kept to a minimum:

• Ironman Texas 70.3, April 10th
• Tri Ridgefield Sprint, June 5th
• Ironman Lake Placid, July 24th
• edit: POSSIBLE REV 3, Cedar Point, Sept 11th: either cheerleading/beer parade leader, or racing the half.
• and if my body doesn't self destruct, NYC Marathon, November 6th.

So I am either going REALLY long, or really short.

Have a great New Year's!

The Holiday Race Report

Yes, I call I am calling this a RACE REPORT because sometimes fitting everything in on the Holidays feels like a race. Fortunately the "Aid" stations are pretty yummy, if you know what I mean. Further more, with Christmas (for those of you who celebrate it) falling on a Saturday, it really eats into the free time off from the factory.

Here is how my "race" turned out:

Drove up Thursday night to NH to visit the family. It was an easy 5 hour drive. Little traffic once I got north of Hartford. The family dog, Aachen the German Shorthaired Pointer, LOVES to make his bed. I witnessed him many times making it and finally my brother filmed him:



Friday AM was a nice morning. A bit chilly and windy, but I headed over to the Timberman run course and did one loop. My face was frozen for the first two miles (running into a headwind) but I was really warmed up by the time the run ended. It was SO clear that I could see Mt. Washington 47 miles away! Unfortunately my camera phone is unable to capture that wonderfullness. I did get a photo of the Timberman race site! haha!

Saturday was a wonderful day of opening presents, food, and family, and Aachen making his bed numerous times. I got some tri related gifts. Mom got me some awesome Pearl Izumi gloves. You can never have too many pairs of gloves! Got some more Gu and a Honey Stinger packet. I know Lancey boy likes em, so it will be good to give that a try.

My sister got me an AWESOME gift from customsportsproducts.com, a custom water bottle. She stole photos off of this blog and uploaded em and had em print RIGHT onto the water bottle. Perfect!!!

this will NOT be going through a bottle exchange

Sunday is when the "race" REALLY started. You probably heard about the blizzard that socked the east coast all weekend long?

I had to get the heck out of Dodge by 8AM to return back to White Plains before I got stuck on the roads. We got DUMPED on! Look @ this radar image!

I think we got a foot or more.

This doesn't tell the whole story. My place has GOOD plowers and shovelers

This meant that work was canceled for today. With crazy high winds and the pools closed, it was trainer city. I popped in the Lake Placid course and video for the first time on the CompuTrainer, got as far as to the top of the first set of hills before the descent into Keene, and my computer died. Doh! Its old.

 

Hope you all had a wonderful holiday weekend and Happy Almost New Year!!!

Calling it a year

The last few mornings have been VERY hard to get outside to run. Its not the cold, its the dark. Light @ 7:15 am? My apartment is FILLED to the brim with Christmas presents and there is NO room to get the trainer out.

Yeah, yeah, send me a box of Kleenex and a broken violin and order me the whaaaaaaaaaambulance.

Motivation to bike and run is at an all time low right now. Work has been piling it on me more and more and more and that is exhausting me more than anything lately.

The only silver lining is that I AM motivated to hit the pool as much as I can. Been totally riding that high this past fall!

But basically structured training until January 1 is going bye bye. My right leg has been giving me the middle finger for a few weeks now with a sore hamstring, sore knee, and blisters on the right foot. I am NOT feeling as "sharp" as I should be for this time of year.

With structured training with my coach starting up in the beginning of January, I think I am going to rest the legs as much as I can and just alternate days between riding and running, doing little volume and little intensity. No sense starting the season already burned out and beat up, right?

Besides, I think I have done enough this year.

Wanna hear some totals?

Swim: around 250,000 yards
Bike: just shy of 3,500 miles (will hit this next week)
Run: around 925 miles


Race totals:

• Half Ironman: 4
• Sprimpics: 1
• 25K: 1
• Half Marathons: 2 (well, 6 if you count the ones from the HIM)
• 15K: 1
• 10K: 1
• 5 Milers: 2
• 4 Miler: 1
• Slept in: Twice I think?
• Races in 4 different states
• and a BUNCH of PR's!!!

Like I said in my last post, this was a season of growth. I have NEVER swam, biked, or ran that much EVER in a year's time. Looking at my logs, ~3,000 of those bike miles were from from January to August. This past fall was a "fun" period of riding for pastries.

Now I must do one final transition of the year from large volumes of swim, bike, and run to large volumes of food and wine.

I shall call this, T3.

Have a wonderful Holiday and New Year's everyone!

2010, the Year in Review!

I did this post last year and it was a great reminder of if you put in the work, you will get the results. It also helped me learn my strengths, weaknesses, and mistakes that I made during the year.

Because the first half of this year was SO race heavy, I ended up doing a January to July 1st year in review post so as to not make this post UBER long!

So here is the last half of my year, from July 1 to now.

Starting July I was on target for Timberman (my A+++++ race for the year), but I was getting bored with the training. Since Mooseman, the training was so monotonous. I needed a break and spice it up! Fortunately in the schedule, another somewhat local HIM fit smack in the middle between Mooseman 70.3 and Timberman 70.3, Ironman Rhode Island 70.3.

The race did NOT turn out to be a success. I had a great bike split, but the swim, and especially the run, were HORRIBLE! The swim was rough and by the time I hit the run, it was pushing 90 with little shade.

I felt sea sick!

Felt @ home on the bike

I think my face tells of the misery!

Smiling just to be done. That sucked! Actual finish time: 5:41:11

I look back now on that Rhode Island race as a good ass kicking. It wasn't a race meant for a PR. It was meant for another HIM experience to go through the motions of that distance. This race was just money in the bank.

But the biggest thing to happen in July was volunteering and signing up for Lake Placid. Yes, THE Ironman! What a weekend this was! Perfect weather and an incredible atmosphere of energy.

I worked the transition area as a volunteer

I immediately fell in love with the town and it was a no brainer to sign up for 2011's race!

From Lake Placid onwards I noticed that my body was starting to peak. I was knocking off 56 mile hard rides followed by super fast 5K runs. I felt like superman!

Then I didn't feel like superman anymore. I wasn't recovering properly anymore. I didn't feel "sharp" anymore.

Fortunately though my body held out just long enough for my A+++++ race of the season, Ironman Timberman 70.3 on August 22nd.

The goal of this race was to seek revenge upon the distance. I did this race as my first HIM in 2009 and had never been so humbled in my life!

This time though, I think I humbled the race. I blew 47 minutes off my time and finished with a 5:08:20 and finished in the top 1/3 of my age group. This was my first race where EVERYTHING came together. I PR'ed the swim, T1, the bike, T2, and the run. It was a good day!

Me and the family

Almost there!

Me and the Queen of Triathlon!

Like I wrote above, my body held out until that day @ Timberman, then it broke! haha! It saved the best for last.

My calve muscles were unusually tight after that race, especially the left calve. In fact it was so tight that it pulled on my plantar and and some other tendons in my left foot and knocked me out of running for almost 4 weeks.

I had planned on running the NYC Marathon in November, but it was a no brainer that due to this injury that running a marathon was suicide, especially since I am doing an Ironman next year.

I did however, regroup and get my run back in shape for a late season 10K in Central Park on December 5th. 104 miles of running in November lead to my first sub 45 minute 10K, and a new PR by almost 2.5 minutes. The finish line to that race was the same spot of the start line of my first race back in January. Symbolic?

I guess I could describe the 2010 season as a season of huge gains and growing up. I now understand what is like to put up large volume and sustain it for 4 months. I know what it takes my body to recover from long distances. I know my body doesn't do well in the heat and fumidity! I learned that I run faster out of the gate after a swim or a run.

Looking forward to next year, I am going back to being coached. I probably won't race as much or as far other than Placid. I know that the more I race, the less hungry I get to race. Its a supply and demand kind of thing. With fewer races next year, hopefully I will be hungrier on July 24th.

See ya @ the finish line!

Nuts!!!!

Yes, I like Almonds and Pecans. They are my two favorite nuts to eat and I usually eat them both on a daily basis. Note: Healthy fats!!! Pecans also make an AMAZING topping to Sweet Potato Casserole.

Aside from the edible nuts, life has been NUTS!!!

Sorry I haven't been commenting very much lately. I feel really bad!

Work has been INSANE. Everyone @ work is sick or is getting sicker except for me (I owe it to living this active lifestyle AND eating an insane amount of oranges, grapefruit, and clementines. Anyone else notice this year has some AMAZING citrus so far?) so I have been picking up the slack. Movies don't make themselves! Picking up the slack means less downtime to read all of your blogs and comment during the day.

Outside of work, whether I want to believe it or not, Ironman training HAS BEGUN! I am just telling myself I am in an accelerated prep program priming myself for the onslaught that will be next year. I have been looking at my numbers for November and Decemeber, and they reflect mid season Half Ironman training minus the bike.

Its going to get harder than this?!??!?! YEP!

Already I feel a level above where I finished up last season. I guess its mostly a confidence thing. I finished another brutal run this morning with my coach after a 3000+ yard swim. Yes, I got dropped on the run again, but hey, I have to remind myself that these guys are Kona qualifiers, sub 18 min 5K'ers, 70.3 World Championship Qualifiers, multiple Ironman finishers. The fact that I hung with them for MOST of the run means that I am doing my homework. They are probably at an easy pace the entire time! haha!

Its a good group that I have found. I am leaching off of their extensive knowledge. Been thinking of switching to a compact crank for Placid and after talking it over with a few guys, it's the right choice. Anyone happen to have a Shimano Ultegra 6750 170mm Compact Crank that you want to offload?

Finally, I finally pulled the trigger and signed up for the Memorial Hermann Ironman 70.3 Texas (long name, eh?), formally known as Ironman Lonestar. This will take place on April 10th and will be my first Triathlon of the year.

Other than this and Placid in July, most of my season schedule is still up in the air. I did NOT get into the NYC Half Marathon, which is a bummer because that is a FAST course. Then the Manhattan Half Marathon on January 22nd is the same day as one of my swim workshops with my coach, so that is out. Doh! Fortunately there are a few other races on those same weekends or on surrounding weekends that can fill the void.

I may just not do a lot of supporting races this season and just stick to the big guns for 2011. I do want to do a triathlon the weekend of June 5th-ish. I have three options, a Sprint, an Olympic, or a Half Ironman and they are all within an hour of my house. Decisions Decisions Decisions.....

SPAM recipe

This is actually pretty tasty:
Sauteed Spam covered with couscous and maple syrup!

The back story to this (oh, there has to be a back story to a recipe like this!) is that I was out camping for 10 days in early march in the snow up in the White Moutains of NH. This was our last morning and we were out of food, except for SPAM, couscous, and maple syrup. Hey, it worked! The previous morning we tried to make pancakes out of powdered milk (powdered milk looked the pancake mix). THAT didn't work so well! haha!

But back to that SPAM. SPAMmers are getting through this blog again :( Boooooooo! I HATE CAPTCHAs (the word verification thing when you make a comment). I really hope the SPAM dies down, or else I will have to put that back up. Boo!

Now to swimming. Despite my monday night swim class being more chill, this coach still knows how to drop the HURT. We basically did 2400 yards of drills, including a 500 yard set where you pull AS HARD AS YOU CAN. OUCHY!!!

Amputation might be the only remedy to my sore shoulders. Holy crapola if I can just endure this swimming abuse for a few more weeks, hopefully my body will adjust to this added work load.

Then it snowed last night.

Our first snow of the season.

So this morning I hopped onto the trainer for 45 minutes then went outside into the 20 degrees and snow for a 3 miler.

THIS IS THE OFF SEASON?!??!?!!?

P.S. I am REALLY behind on reading everyone's blogs. I hope to catch up with you all ASAP! I love reading about all of your experiences.

28 and beyond

Thanks everyone for the birthday wishes! Wow, turning 28 was great, but I will be 29 in 2 weeks already! (Thank you USAT and you race your age as of December 31st)

Turns out December 12th was also a birthday for two other bloggers. Small world, eh?

Kristin @ Triathlon Dreams celebrated her birthday.
Jason @ Life of an Aspiring Triathlete also celebrated his birthday. And want to see how even smaller the world is? Jason used to live RIGHT down the street from me. He now lives in Texas.

I attempted to run yesterday morning, but up in Northern CT @ my brother's house everything had a thin layer of ice on it and it was POURING rain, so I opted to take it easy instead and eat pancakes and bacon.

This morning I did get out for a 4 miler. It was a balmy 43 degrees so I wore shorts! So great! My legs were still a bit sore from Saturday's beat down.

Tonight I am off to my other swim class. Have a good week everyone!

Finishing up 27 years with a BANG!

I will never forget the last day of my 27th year on this planet. My coach whooped my boo-tay this morning!!! haha! This morning was week #2 of his swim workshop. He really knows how to drop the hammer on us!

Swim:
100 WU
5 x 100 (25 right, 25 left, 50 @ 3 stroke drill)
100, count strokes per 25
5 x 100 (50 shark, 50 swim)
5 x 100 (50 paddle, 50 swim)
5 x 100 (50 fins, 50 swim)
5 x 100 (hard on 1:45, held 1:25's)
400 CD (50 paddles, 4 x 50 hard,  50 REALLY hard (35.5), 100 easy)
-----------------
3100 yards

My coach loves my stroke. I learned today that I am in the "fast" lane in the group of 16 folks (Sweet!) and that I have a very efficient stroke. We counted how many times we stroked with our right arm per 25, and my count came to be 8, as in I take 15-16 strokes per 25. The other two in my lane were @ 11 or around 22 strokes per 25. One guy is much faster than me, the other is slightly slower. So even though the one guy is faster, he uses up more energy to go faster. I feel good about this!

The big thing pointed out to me this week is that I need to work on my "catch." If I "catch" the water sooner, I will be pulling more water sooner, meaning propelling myself sooner and farther. One final thing that I am proud of is holding those 1:25's on 1:45 so late in the workout. There is one thing about hitting a 5 x 100 set in the beginning of a swim workout, but doing this at the end really skyrocketed my confidence in the pool, and its only December!!!

Sorry if I am gloating too much, but this was a REAL breakthrough swim for me!

Then we ran. 10.16 miles in 1:20:25 / 7:55 pace

Let me first mention that the group was small, only 6 of us. These guys include multiple Ironman finishers, first place podium finishers, a 9 time Kona qualifier (my coach), 17:xx 5K timers...........and me. You always hear that if you want to go faster, train with faster people. Yeah I totally signed up for the "fast" and "experienced" group. You don't get this kind of training experience by reading a book!

This run was humbling not only because of the pace, but also the freaking terrain!!! Look @ this course!

Multiple Slices of Humble Pie were eaten on those giant uphills.

And my resulting run splits:
Mile 1: 8:30
Mile 2: 7:33
Mile 3: 7:26
Mile 4: 8:36 (first big uphill)
Mile 5: 7:43
Mile 6: 7:14 (yay downhill!)
Mile 7: 7:14 (yay downhill!)
Mile 8: 9:26 (grumble grumble GIANT uphill!)
Mile 9: 7:48
Mile 10: 7:34

I needed this run. After last weekends 10K PR, this was a good eye awakening that last weekend was good, but its time (already) to step IT UP!


My poor right foot though, has taken a beating with the blisters lately. Time to bust out the moleskin and tape!

Sorry, its kinda gross....

That is all for me this weekend. Tonight I celebrate my brother turning 30 and me turning 28! Our birthdays are only 4 days apart. I am taking tomorrow OFF!

It is getting colder!

16 degrees this morning! I had a good 10 minute back and forth with myself over whether or not to run this morning or at lunch today. Since running at lunch SUCKS, it was best to HTFU and get out there and get the run done. See, I do my killing BEFORE breakfast!

Just like age, temperature is just a number, especially when you have the proper clothing.

I basically put on every piece of cold weather gear that I own.

I had on as base layers:

• tri shorts
• jersey
• socks

2nd layer:

• arms warmers
• cycling tights

3rd layer:

• running pants
• running jacket
• ski gloves
• balaclava
• headband

Other than my face being cold for the first mile or so, I was COMFY. I think because there was no wind that it was a very tolerable run. I could have gone down to probably 10 degrees in this outfit. Any colder and it would be time to invest in a facemask, I think.

What is the coldest you have ever ran in?

Triathlon crime!

From the Associated Press

Authorities today seized more than 196 packets of "Gu", also known on the street as "Triathlon Junk," from a small 1 bedroom apartment 30 miles north of New York City in posh Westchester County. Gu is highly addictive and is found to greatly enhance one's ability to run further and faster.

A 28 year old man has been identified as Jon Campbell, a 3 year "Triathlon Junkie". Mr. Campbell was arrested in his apartment after a tip by neighbors complaining of a constant "whirring noise" heard for approximately 1.5 hours three times during the week, and up to 4 hours on the weekends. Police surveillance observed the suspect leaving his apartment before sunrise 5 times a week and returning anywhere between 30 mins and 90 minutes later. Chocolate Gu stains were noticed on the suspect's clothes and lead to the warrant for house inspection.

Upon questioning the suspect, the suspect fled the scene and was clocked going 8.5 mph, or approximately a 7 min per mile pace. A police blockade and pepper spray was used to apprehend Mr. Campbell after officers on foot became too winded to capture the suspect.

After searching the suspect's home, Police found other illegal substances, including Infinit, known as "Triathlon Fairy dust," 100's of Amino Acid Pills, and multiple large volumes of Protein powders. The shear volume found will also give Mr. Campbell another charge of "intent to sell."

Weapons charges may be considered by the DA's office when officers discovered a large box of C02 cartridges.

A hair sample was taken and confirmation of the chemicals chlorine and saline were found in large concentrations.

Mr. Campbell will be arraigned in Westchester County Court on Friday. When questioned about his involvement in a "performance enhancement ring" Mr. Campbell responded with "no comment." He will be represented by the law offices of Friel Wellington & Potts.

Swim, Swim, Swim your arms off

December is all about the swim! But it is so early, you ask? Not for refining swim technique its not!!

Last Saturday AM, @ 6:15 in the pitch black, I did my first of six swim workshops with my coach over in Monroe, CT. Yes, the 1 hour drive is worth it. I-95 @ 5AM is awesome to drive on since there is NO traffic!

16 of us signed up for this workshop, and it is awesome to know that most, if not all of us, are coached by this one guy. AND! I think we are mostly Ironman distance focused. It is a good group I can tell, and hopefully NO egos, since were required to leave them in the car.

Session #1:
400WU
One arm drill, 8 x 25, alternating between left and right arms
Shark Drill, 3 x 50 (will explain below)
Fists, 3x 50, 25 fist, 25 swim normal (will explain below)
10 x 25
5 x 100 (50 shark, 50 swim)
9 x 50 ((2 50's with paddles, one 50 without) x 3)
150 video

Shark drill: Helps for rotation and following through with the catch. Stick a kickboard between your thighs like a pull buoy and swim. Work the rotation so that you can reach back and touch the top of the board to finish your pull, aka following through with it. GREAT DRILL!

Fists: Obvious drill. Make your hands into a fist and swim. I have always done this drill, but sucked at it. Why? NO ROTATION!!! Add proper rotation, and your core is doing most of the work to propel you forward. This drill is great because when you open your hands back up, they feel like the size of tennis rackets pulling you through the water.

I am glad that I put in some swim volume this fall. It really paid off for this workout since what I wrote above isn't that bad speed related, but those are the kind of drills that will hammer you when you have no swimming base.

Coach did some above water video of us and of the many things wrong, the most glaring thing to fix is that I am opening my kick up (scissor kicking) when breathing. I am compensating for balance to breath. I have overall good balance in the water since I am not sinking, but my balance goes to crap when I breath. A good challenge to fix!

Coach also asked me if I have a "competitive" swim background. Haha! Nope! But it was a nice compliment and I am trying really hard not to let this go to my head ;) I am neither the fastest nor the slowest out of the group, which is fine. Speed doesn't matter in this workout anyways, at least not yet. ;)

--------------------

Now last night I started my 2nd workshop. This one lasts for 10 weeks. I would say that the workshop with my coach is for a much more advanced group, since most of his athletes are Ironman focused. This 2nd group with the local tri club is not as gung-ho, but is a really fun group. NO egos in this group and it is the kind of group which will work hard and have a ton of fun in the process.

The guy who leads the class is a really nice guy, but not a swim coach. That is ok though! The way he structures the workouts makes sense and the drills he had us do are right down to the fundamentals of swimming and are just what I need.

So last night the theme was GET LOOOOOOOOONG. Just look @ my AWESOME diagram for visual stimulation. What out Da Vinci!

This is what 4 years of art school gets ya! haha!

So if you look at the above masterpiece, which stick figure do you think is going to go faster? Well, that depends on the density of the wood of the sticks, right? (ok, lame joke)

But really, I had been swimming more like the stick man on the left, which creates a LOT of drag in the shoulder areas. These following drills had me swimming like the stick man on the right by the end of the night:

Thumb to thigh: Swim like normal, but brush your thumb along your thigh for a full pull, then bring your thumb along the side of your body on recovery. Teaches you to be more streamlined.
Catchup: Both hands touch before the pull.
Catchup with Board: Same as above, but use a kickboard
Catchup with pull buoy: Same as above, but use a pullbuoy.
One arm with board: Swim one armed at a time. DONT let your pulling arm tough the board. Let your arm extend past and under the board for proper rotation!

By the end of the night, I felt like a 50 foot sailboat: Loooooooong in the water with the MOST effortless glide I have ever felt.

Both classes have their strengths and weaknesses, but I have a feeling both with compensate for the other. I feel progress is ahead in my swim!

In fact, we had to do a 500 yard TT for a base time last night. I bested my previous time for a 7:30 flat @ 1:30 pace! Boo ya!!!

New 10K PR!!!!

I just got back from the NYRR Joe Kleinerman 10K in Central Park. I busted up my old stand alone 10K PR by 2:28 for a new time of 44:54. I wanted to break 45 mins today and I GOT IT!


Splits:
Mile 1: 7:23
Mile 2: 7:12
Mile 3: 7:02
Mile 4: 7:15
Mile 5: 7:25 (that mile HURT!)
Mile 6: 7:04
Last .2: 1:30

Course:

The course was one full lap of the park in the counter clockwise direction plus a bit extra. Mile 1 was on top of the Harlem Hills, so getting in a good warm up was key. I ran from 83 & Lex all the way to the park and around the top of the park and a bit extra to the start. I guess I did a broken 30 minute warm up with one good hill. I am glad I did this hill at the beginning of the race instead of the end (a bit of foreshadowing here...)

After mile 1 I was on cruise control until about mile 3 when I didn't feel so great anymore. The effects of going hard were catching up with me. It was mostly mental now. I just tried to put my mind elsewhere. Hitting the mile 4 marker helped me fantasize about PR'ing every distance from 10K and shorter. (which I think I did for the 4 and 5 mile distances).

Unfortunately mile 5 just killed me. There is this hill just past 72nd street & The Boathouse that is one of those hills that isn't steep, it isn't short but it also isn't long. It is just at that right pitch and length that it doesn't let up. I could hardly breath by the top and I knew my pace for this mile was shot. The 7:25, the slowest mile of the race, showed it.

Fortunately after this hill it is basically flat to the finish. I was able to recompose and redeem myself with that 7:04 mile 6 split. At mile 6, I looked at my watch and saw something like 43:3X. I knew it was going to be a close call if I wanted to hit my goal of breaking 45 mins in the 10K. I honestly think I wasn't going to do it. When I turned the corner onto the transverse, the finish was right there and I had a few extra seconds to spare.

Overall the race sucked! haha! No no no, the time was awesome, but 10K's just suck in general because they HURT! They are the most F-ing painful distance in my opinion, or else I need to run some more 5K's. With a 10K you just gun it from the start and hold on for dear life to the finish, since its going to be over before you know it. THAT is why it hurts because it is a redlining paced race that you wish would end about 10 mins sooner.

But 10K's are also a good measure of fitness, in my opinion. It shows how much volume you have, BUT also your speed work, since it is basically a 45 min sprint, in my case.

I think this is why I prefer the Half Marathon distance the most. You don't have to be breathing hard, but yet you can still hit the gas.

The 2010 Season is officially over for me. Kinda symbolic that it ended in the SAME EXACT place is started @ East 96th Street in the park last January 9th. After becoming injured after Timberman and scrapping the NYC Marathon, I wanted one last hurrah! before 2011 started. This was it, and it was a good one. I feel like 2010 was a complete season.

Now let the DOMS show up in 36 hours! haha!

How Triathlon Habits Have Bled Into Every Day Life

The other day at work while I was walking to the bathroom there were a few folks in front of me who were walking a bit slower but in the same direction in the hallway. Because I was walking faster, I came up upon them, settled into their pace for a brief second, looked over my left shoulder and then proceeded to make the pass.

Waaaaaaait a second! Did I just do this in the OFFICE?!?!?!?

Where else in my life do I do such a thing?

You get one guess. *hint* its in the title of this blog.

Then I thought about it a bit more as I came to a urinal at the same time as another coworker, finished my business, washed my hands and was out the bathroom door before he even zipped up his pants.

Yep, triathlon has made a full fledged weld into every day life.

You should time me when I get dressed in the morning. I can change into a new pair of clothes in the blink of an eye!

When I sit down to eat breakfast, I look @ the clock, inhale my food, take a sip of OJ, look at the clock again, and I am off to my next task. Why do I look @ the clock? Oh right.....

Coffee in the morning? That is for amateurs. I just shoot a Chocolate Gu.

Every time I walk up to a wall, I feel this urge to do a Parkour forward flip off of it...

I sometimes think about how many watts I produce while typing. I don't type 95 words per minute; I generate 95 watts per minute!

When shopping for formal shoes, I ask the salesman how many miles I should expect to get out of them.

When shopping for formal clothes, I make sure they can breath and are flexible and will endure many wash cycles.

I don't shop for breakfast, lunch and dinner. I shop for recovery meal #1, #2, and #3.

There is no such thing as "patience". It is actually called "urgency".

One time I was in a deadline @ work. I had to ship my character within the next hour because I was leaving for vacation for a week and this was the only time I could get it done.

I had to pee. I also had to hit the finish line with this character. What do I do? Easy! Waaaaaaaaiiiiiit, none of my other coworkers go right then and there to hit their finish lines.

Maybe I should just walk to the bathroom. Maybe if I draft off a few folks I will get there faster ;)

Running from November; Swimming to December

November was a great running month for me @ 104 miles, my highest ever run volume month and 2nd 100+ mile month ever.

This was also a huge confidence boosting month. After my foot injury at the end of August and all through September, my running confidence broke. I dreaded rebuilding my way back.

Well, I did it by following the 10% rule and stayed injury free. It took a solid 6 weeks, but it worked and I am ready to knock a 10K literally out of the park (Central Park) this weekend.

What helped was I am running 5 times a week and keeping the long runs down. My longest run since August 22nd was a 10 miler done only this past weekend. Frequency, I have found, has been paying bigger dividends than shear volume. I added a speed workout on the track once a week for some variety.

December will be a swimming month. I am taking two swim workshops that will go into January. One will be with my coach, the other with a tri club over in Greenwich, CT. The cool thing about the tri club workshop is that we will do a 500 yard TT the first week, then repeat it the last week to show if we progressed, and if so, by how much.

Today I did one for practice with my super swimming buddy, Bob, who back in the day once went 4:50 for the 500 @ a meet. He gave me a good strategy for the 500: Cruise the first 200, build the middle 100, then gun it for the last 200.

I did just that today and wound up with a 7:38 for a just-under 1:32 pace. Considering I went a 8:47 18 months ago, I am going to take this as a HUGE improvement considering I am not in the best swimming shape right now.

Looking forward to the swim workshops ahead and hopefully I can get my long distance pace down.