Kona and Weekend Wrap Up

October is my favorite month. It is apple season and I loooooove apples, especially cider, but MOSTLY Cider Donuts!!! mmmmmm......the best around here are up at Outhouse Orchards, which is off of my personal HIM bike course. I am wanting to do a ride for the donuts one of these weekends.

First, Dogfish Head from Delaware brings out their seasonal beer, Punkin Ale, which if you haven't try it yet, is in my opinion, the BEST Pumpkin spiced beer out on the market. I recommend taking a pint glass and dipping the rim in shallow water then dipping it in cinnamon sugar, then pouring the beer in. It is seriously heaven!

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And more on the beer front. Friday night my friend and I brewed an Apple Triple. Go HERE to read about the Tripel Style. In short, it is a high gravity Belgian Ale that involves a shit-ton of malt which means a LOT of alcohol, usually between 7 & 10%. Well, because we added apples, and because there was NO rain this past summer, the local apples this year are small, but PACKED with sugar.

More sugar = more happy times for yeast  = more alcohol. Our final gravity? 1.095. What does that equate to?

13% beer!!!!!!

Yeah buddy!!!!.....might need to shock it with some more yeast in a few weeks to kick start it again. Those yeast cells are gonna be tired after chomping through that much sugar.

On the workout front, running is SO FREAKING EASY right now due to the 0% humidity we have in the mornings with the cool temps. I love running in this weather! I knocked off an easy 4.5 miler Saturday morning.

Sunday morning I set out to find some new roads and knocked off a 40 mile ride. I made it to tony New Caanan, CT and found a few good roads that are perfect for some time trialing. Here is my route. I just loooooove my S2.

Finally, let's talk about Kona.

The day was somewhat ruined when Chrissie Wellington pulled out before the race even began. Bummer. She got the flu. Major bummer! Chrissie is a class act and thought it to be best to let the healthy folks duke it out. So the #2 woman who was expected to be Chrissie's competition, Mirinda Carfae, let it rip on the Marathon and won. Next year is going to be an EPIC battle for the women's race, something we haven't seen since Chrissie started dominating Kona.

On the men's field, I didn't expect Macca (Chris McCormack) to pull out a win like he did. And what a way he won it!!! He pulled some gutsy moves on the bike and they paid off. He had to get as much time on Crowie (Craig Alexander, the past two year winner) as he could on the bike so he could hold him off since Crowie is the best runner out there. His strategy worked, but not without some fireworks! The 2nd place finisher, Raelert, caught Macca within the final 10K, then Macca basically mind fucked him and pulled out the win. Raelert's lesson learned? DONT hit the aid station with 2 miles to go. Boy did Macca exploit that stupid move! It was game over from that point on. BEST men's finish I have ever seen since I started following Triathlon and Kona.

Congrats to Mirinda Carfae and Macca! If Macca returns, its going to be one heck of a 2011 Kona, especially if Lancey boy shows up to lay down the law on the bike.

It's a Religious Holiday in the Triathlon World Today: KONA!!!!

The Ironman World Championships are TODAY out in Kona Hawaii. This is the Superbowl of Triathlon events. No race is bigger or harder than Kona. It is every triathletes dream to go to this race and it is the HARDEST to qualify for. You can't just run a certain time and get in, you have to usually finish in the top 3 of your age group. Talk about high stakes!

My picks for the winners are:

Men:
#1 Crowie (Craig Alexander)
#2 Raelert (my dark horse pick)
#3 Chris Lieto

Other guys I want to see really well and sneak a podium spot are:
Andy Potts (expect to see him first out of the water!)
Terenzo Bozzone (dude is younger than me and finished no less than 2nd ALL year!!!)

Women:
#1 Chrissie Wellington (duh....)
#2 Mirinda Carfae
#3 Sam McGlone (she ran right past me @ Mooseman like I was standing still!)

Go Chrissie! Just remember our moment together....haha!

I Learned the Backstroke! Why (I think) it is important for Freestyle

I learned the Backstroke tonight! It really wasn't that hard, you just had to break it down to its core elements and then build it up.

Kicking on your back is all about balance and propulsion. Balance is keeping yourself perfectly horizontal in the water and propulsion is kicking from your hips to MOVE.

Here were my steps to learning the backstroke:

• #1 Kicking on your back with fins
• #2 Kicking on your back with fins, one armed backstroke
• #3 Putting the two arms together and doing the backstroke with fins
• #4 Kicking on your back, NO fins
• #5 Kicking on your back with NO fins, one armed backstroke
• #6 Putting the two arms together and doing the backstroke with NO fins

So basically I started off with the fins for confidence, propulsion, and flotation aids, especially when introducing the arm elements. The flotation aid and confidence thing go hand and hand, since worrying about sinking and getting water in your face and up your nose distracts you from your shoulder rotation and arm swings. Take that out of the equation, and you can concentrate on what your shoulders and arms ARE doing.

The added propulsion you get with using the fins also aids your balance. The faster you go, usually the more balanced you go. Its kind of like riding a bike. You know how if you go REALLY slow that your balance is more unstable? And once you get moving pretty quickly its really easy to balance the bike? Same thing in the water.

So once I graduated to doing the one armed backstroke, I concentrated on leading and following action: aka you use your shoulder rotation to garner the movement to get that arm out of the water. You aren't simply swinging your arm straight up and out of the water, its a WHOLE body movement. You are using your core to drive your body's rotation to get your arm out of the water. The more shoulder rotation, the easier the arm is going to come out of the water.

After 4 x 25 of one armed, I put the two together. It was a bit of a coordination effort, but once I figured out the timing, it became quite smooth and I was on autopilot from there.

Then I took the fins off.

And it was frustratingly slow. Fins make you go FAST.

So I started all over (step #4 listed above) and built my way back up. Other than going slower, my balance was still good and I got it figured out.

Done and done!!! (I have now accomplished 2 out of my 3 swimming goals this off season)

Things to note:

• DONT lift your head. You will immediately sink and water will go over your face and up your nose. When this started happening to me, I looked up and the problem went away.
• Once you cross the flags, you have about 3 strokes and then its time to flip over, else head meets wall and OUCH!
• When you are lifting your arm out of the water, imagine a line that is going directly over the middle of your body. You want your hand to go through that line. Correct body rotation will allow this.

AND now for why (I think) backstroke is important for freestyle:

ROTATION

I will admit that my freestyle rotation sucks. I get lazy with it. After a 100 yards of backstroke, flip over for some freestyle and you will be AMAZED at the ease of rotation you will suddenly have. Remember, rotating that core is added propulsion!

I am a new follower of Laura @ Authentic Living and she has a GREAT post on freestyle rotation. Its a great read and has given me a lot of great swimming tips and ideas. Thank you Laura!

New Workout schedule is posted

If you look to the top left of this blog ^<, you will see my updated workout schedule. Its a new form of periodization. People will be writing books about this new training regimen for years. Its going to revolutionize the fitness world!

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But in all seriousness, I haven't written about any new workouts in awhile! So here goes:

• My left foot is healed
• My back is healed
• I have been running 3 miles at a time taking it easy. My body is agreeing with running finally.
• My super swimming buddy threw the kitchen sink at me in the pool on Monday with an 8 x 100 kicking set of dolphin kicks with 6 beat freestyle followed by a 4 x 200 pull set. THAT kicked my butt considering I put in a whopping 5000 yards all of last month.
• The bike feels AWESOME. I am out on the road bike now and after getting refitted on it, it fits OH SO COMFY! I rode in the rain today @ lunch and it felt like a new baptism.
• Its getting cold enough that the arm warmers and knee warmers are coming back out
• I slept in by accident this morning and missed my 2nd Kettlebells workout. Doh! Gonna try for Thursday then write up my "Intro to Kettlebells" post.

Basically I am going short but frequent. Mary:IronMatron today asked what you do to transition from the crazy uber season to the off season without going mental. I thought about and I see it like a taper. As long as I am doing SOMETHING, I don't go bonkers, even if it is a short workout.

Fall is my favorite season and the smell of the woods while riding my bike is the best ever!

Had My First Ironman Lake Placid Nightmare

No idea why, but I had my first Lake Placid nightmare last night. By the time I hit T1 (or did I even make it to T1?), I think I was about 3 hours into the race. OUCH!

Basically everything that could have gone wrong, went wrong. Even the format for the race went bonkers! Just follow along here:

I think I showed up early to the race, but before I knew it, I was 30 mins late. They gave us these wristbands (not the usual paper ones) that had a countdown timer on it, starting at 17 hours. I remember getting into the water at 16:30. I guess it didn't matter when you started, as long as you finished within the 17 hour mark. There were no cutoff times?

Well the swim was bananas. Because I was running late, I had to park my car on the side of the road on the other side of Mirror Lake and hop in and get started. Except I wasn't the only one not starting at the official swim start. Below is the direction of how everyone was swimming (the purple arrows):

So EVERYONE was swimming from the outside in towards this island that is now in the middle of Mirror Lake. Get that? There is an island in the middle of Mirror Lake? AND! NOBODY was following the course. For some reason there was this rule that stated as long as you get in a 2.4 mile swim or longer, you can continue. I had a GPS watch that somehow worked in the water.

I remember I had this watch because I swam from my starting point to the island, looked at my watch that said I had already swam 2.35 miles in 1:35:XX. Holy crap I was slow! So I walked across the island, jumped back in and swam to the swim start.

Its a dream, I know....

Now for transition to the bike.

Well, T1 was not at the swim exit, it was on the other side of the lake. So they bussed you over to T1. Remember this is a dream?

I got to my bike and realized that I had no Chocolate Gu for the bike. So I decided to run back to my car because that is where my Gu was, then run back to T1 and get on my bike and off we go. Except by this time I was already 3 hours into the race and just starting the bike.

I forced myself to wake up because my brain just HURT.

I think this dream was spawned from the fact that my worst fear is being late for a race, I hate bonking on the bike, I am wanting to head up to Lake Placid this fall, and the bus from the swim to T1 was brought on from using the bus so much down at Disney World a month ago.

My next Lake Placid dream better be me getting a Kona slot!!!

On Letting Go

Over the last 12 months, when was your peak? When was your A++++ race? Did they coincide?

My peak was either at two points this past season. Around July 4th, or around August 1st, so let's just lump those two dates together and say the month of July.

My A+++++ race of the season was August 22nd. So I basically peaked about a month too soon.

I knew I peaked in July because I could have thrown the kitchen sink at myself that month and not felt a thing. I was knocking 60 mile rides out of the park and running 13.1 mile training runs and feeling like I had just done a 10K training run. My swimming was at its fastest. I felt great and my body would recover from workouts in less than 24 hours. I felt like superman!!!

I lost that peak in the beginning of August but held enough of it to knock my A++++ race, Timberman, out of the park. Revenge was made on that race; I was happy; I met my #1 goal of the season; CASE CLOSED.

Then injuries knocked ME out of the park, and my "form" declined.

It felt like somebody died. I could no longer run a 10K training run, let alone a 5 miler and feel like $50. I felt like 2 cents. On the bike I felt like I was riding on a flat tire. Why was my speed so sluggish?

I had to let go. My form of 2010 was gone. I used it all up.

Mentally I had a panic attack: "I need to maintain this form! How the heck am I ever going to do Lake Placid if I can't ride a 56 miler in less than 3 hours let alone run a 13.1 miler for fun. How the heck am I going to double that distance? I am so screwed!!!!"

Fun, right?

Then the calming side of my brain interrupted and said, "You have been out of shape before. In fact 12 months ago you were in the same position. After taking off 2 weeks from running an easy 3 miler felt more like a Half Marathon. But remember how you bounced back 3 months later and the rest is history?"

In other words, its OKAY to get out of shape during your off season. I think of it as all of that stress from this past season is just marinating inside my muscles ready to explode in 2011.

Enjoy your offseason! Drink a beer; eat a huge bowl of ice cream; stay up late; sleep in; call in sick @ work. You aren't a professional triathlete, so enjoy life!

September? Good Ridance! October? *HOPE*

September has to have been one of the WORST months in terms of working out in a loooooooooong time. Don't believe me? Look at these stats (ducks and hides!)

Swim: 5750 yards
Bike: 92.86 miles
Run: 20 miles
Strength: 1 hour

No folks, that is NOT a week's worth of work. That is a MONTH's work! (ducks and hides again!)

I think I owe it to myself to hash out exactly what happened this past month:

• My foot bent bananas on me 4 days after Timberman (8/22). I could hardly walk!
• Then I went on vacation for 9 days
• Upon return, my foot still wasn't 100%
• I dropped the NYC Marathon
• I got back and things started to look UP!
• Then I got a back spasm...that split second back spasm really F-ed me up!
• The NYC Marathon was REALLY out now....
• 5 days later I finally was able to swim.
• October was already upon us

In other words, my body revolted on me. It was a rather injury ridden month. So good bye September!!! You WONT be missed this year!!!

Besides, aren't I allowed a month off? My body made sure of that WITHOUT the brain's consent...

But what goes down, must come back UP, right?

That is called October.

The foot is healed

The back is feeling MUCH better. Tuesday night I got a 40 minute deep tissue back massage and immediately I felt 100% better. I even did strength training yesterday morning and the back felt fine.

The goals for October?

• Start running again. I got ONE full solid week of running in in September, or 9 miles. Otherwise it was sporadic runs here and there. Yeah....
• Start building up run mileage conservatively. HELLO 10% rule!
• Kettlebells!!! Gonna do a more in-depth post on this. Short story: I hate weights. But I Loooooove Kettlebells as a substitute. More later....
• Flip turns in pool....I did a few crappy ones last month and got my confidence up to flip @ the wall, but that back spasm K-O'ed me and my back's bending confidence
• Learn backstroke....my posture sucks and this stroke opens your chest up. Also, I really want to learn backstroke
• The biking is going to be tough. Too dark in the morning, too dark after work. Basically its lunch time 2X a week and the weekend. Fortunately due to my biking background, that is the one sport that I can slack on and regain the quickest.

I hope you had a successful September! I am putting mine behind me and moving on UP!