outa (outdoor) running shape

Today's outdoor run was a doozy. It was my usual 3.5 mile loop that I had been running for months. Unfortunately this was the first time I have ran outdoors in 2 weeks. So running on the dreadmill is cool, but again, its NOTHING like running outdoors.

I basically got my ass kicked today. I went exactly 3.5 miles in an 8:58 min/mile pace. I was whipped @ the end and had a side stitch. Also, my right outside calf muscle is feeling a little tight. I guess that happened during my 45 min treadmill run last Saturday up in NH.

I think I am going to move my outdoor running to lunch time now that the studio is in a place where you can actually run outdoors on some decent roads.

i went outdoors

on the bike! it was in the low 40's and really sunny, so why stay inside! this beats the trainer any day. This is also the first ride that I have done outside with the PowerTap. Here is what the graph looks like:
I had to smooth the heck out of it to make it resemble something readible. At the default settings the graphs were just a gobblygook mess. Here is the elevation profile so you can line up the hills with the graphs (somewhat):
So if you look at in the middle of the graphs, you will notice that the blue and purple lines cross, this means that I am climbing up the largest hill of the ride. In other words my speed (blue line) drops, while the torque (purple line) spikes along with the wattage/power (yellow line). This gives me a better understanding of how torque, speed, and wattage all play together, especually while climbing. The opposite is true between the 10 and 12.5 min marks when speed increases, and torque and power tank....this means I am going down a hill.

Pretty cool stuff!

increasing run-nin-ning

did 45 mins on the dreadmill up here in snowy NH. so thats about 5 miles. That comes out to ~13 miles this week. I am slowly ramping my mileage back up in the runner department. I remember averaging 15 miles per week over the summer and I didn't realize I was putting that much in. Now it takes so much effort to just get through half of that.

Im becoming better friends with the treadmill....able to tolerate it more, BUT I'm looking forward to getting out onto the road. Its supposed to be in the 50's-60's tomorrow, but alas I will be in a car driving.

BUT! Monday and Tuesday are looking like possible biking days!

run, swim, and MOVED

Did a 36 min/4 mile dreadmill run yesterday afternoon. Yeah, a 9 min/mile pace on the dreadmill is a lot freaking harder than a 9 min/mile pace on the road, even going uphill. I sustained a 3 min 9 min/mile interval but realized at the end of it it was more like an 8:30 pace on the road.

Then today I did a half mile swim in about 25 mins. My swimming endurance is completely shot. I was doing mostly 50's and had to stop and take a short betwen between. I'll get it back, and this time with MUCH better form.

And I am excited to say that my company has moved right smack in the middle of my training ground over in northern Greenwich, CT/Armonk, NY. Now I don't have to drive up there everyday after work, i'll just go FROM work. And to top things off, I will still be able to go the pool during lunch. Its gonna be great and our new facility is just gorgeous.

updates

Did a 35 min super boring indoor training ride this past Thursday AM. I was holding about 200 watts and was suffering a bit. Who knows.

Took yesterday completely off.

Then this morning ran 5 miles in 45 mins on the dreadmill. It actually went by fairly quick since I was doing an extended ladder interval session. It hurt, but I am maintaining my running really well now. I upped my mileage 10% from last week, and I can up my mileage another 10% this coming week if I just do 4, 4, and 5 mile runs.

Monday the 5th of January I will be on a treadmill doing my anaerobic threshold(AT) testing which will set me up for my first running race on the 10th. I am all signed up as a member of the New York Road Runners club (nyrr.org). This race will be a 5 milers around Central Park. I have never ran around Central Park, but I look forward to it and I hope that it won't be too freaking cold!

easy run and early next season

Did 30 mins @ about a 10 min/mile pace on the dreadmill this morning. Just wanted to take it easy and recover from last night. I did 3 miles.

So last night @ spin class I talked with my coach about coaching and early next season. I am gonna be busy! Once per week I will be doing yoga, Kettles and Bells, a spin class, and the next level up swim class. The Kettles and Bells class is a soviet era style dead weight lifting class that works on your core and strength muscles. This will help with explosive energy. Its gonna hurt @ first (prolly will continue to hurt no matter what) but it will help tighten me up, I hope.

so so spin class

I coulda gone harder tonight, and my power data showed! You can't hide when using this thing. If you look in the middle of the graph, you can see 6, 4 minute efforts. You will notice that the 4th has the highest power and speed shown, this is due to the fact that I was working REALLY hard during that interval. Then if you look @ #5, you will notice that it is the lowest overall out of the 6, and this is due to the fact that I could have (and definately should have) used 1 harder gear.

I slacked off, and I will admit that.

As for #6, you can see high cadence #'s and speed. This happens when you pull up while pedaling. Amazing what happens when you engage a full range of muscles during a pedal stroke. YOU GO FASTER!

outdoor run and final swim class

I actually ran outdoors this morning. It was 50 degrees, so why not take advantage of that!

I was quickly reminded (as I was on Saturday AM) that a treadmill does NOT replace running outdoors. Sure, you can run fast on a treadmill, but that is peanuts compared to the variability of running outdoors on uneven and rolling terrain. I put in a good run: 3.82 miles in 33:45, or about 8:50 min/miles.

Then tonight was my final swim class. We were videotaped completely above water this time, which was good, because it showed off this funky right arm recovery swing that I did, some strange left handed flippy thing before the recovery, and a left armed cross over. YIKES! Thats quite the list on my "bad habits to break" list. Fortunately I think I have kicked the squiggly arm, but I am going to monitor that sucker to make sure it DOESNT come back. At least with swimming its pretty dang clear on what you need to fix. Well at least I will have goals!

I am still writing up my adventure relay race from this past weekend. Its a looooooooong one.

fast dreadmill run

Did the usual 30 mins this morning, but I upped the last 30 seconds of my longer intervals to 8 min/mile paces. I am feeling it now....oops! I think I went a bit too hard. Hopefully I will be recovered enough for the relay race this weekend.

the meaning of fatigue

Wow tonight was just nothing but pure torture and pain. I couldn't swim a single 50 yard straight without finishing completely out of breath. I even managed to get in 3 100's, and I thought I was gonna drown by the end of em.

I'm gonna contribute this to 2 things. #1 is that I am finally swimming a bit more correctly so that I am now using a fuller extent of my muscles, which are not as toned up because I am using them correctly, so I am using more energy to enable them. Or rather #2 (which this is more likely the case) I got my ass wooped so bad from this past monday's swim class that I am not recovered from it yet. So I am gonna go with 1/3 of #1, and 2/3's of #2.

spin class, with POWER

Did my second to last spin class tonight, but my first using my PowerTap. You can see below in the graph the different sets that we did over the hour long workout. The last set before the cool down were 3 30 second spinups, increasing cadence every 5 seconds. I peaked out at 565 watts! SWEET! I again came out at an average power of 245 watts, so since I have hit this number 3 different times, I guess I am gonna use this as my functional threshold (FT) wattage.

NO MORE SQUIGGLY ARM!!!!

Woo hoo! I didn't do the squiggly arm tonight! YES!

So I am pretty excited, and the entire class cheered for me! FINALLY! I broke the curse of the squiggly arm. But whats funny is that I developed an arm crossover on my left arm. Oops! Well thats nothing major compared to a bad squiggly arm. I'm gonna see if I can get the video to show a bad example of what I used to do, and what I did tonight.

But in the meantime, here is that MAP test that I tried to do last weekend:

back in the pool and a "normal" run

Got back into the pool yesterday for 30 mins working on drills and working on fixing my squiggly arm. I think its getting better, gotta wait for the underwater video tonight to see if its looking better. Besides a bad roll to my right, I think when my hand enters, I rotate my palm inwards, causing my to swoop my hand to make it straight again, this I "think" might be contributing to the squiggly arm. So to combat that, I am not rotating my palm inwards, cause there is no point to it, and by keeping it straight the entire time, there is no need to swoop it. Afterall, I don't rotate my left palm inwards, and that arm doesn't squiggle.

Then this morning I hopped onto the dreadmill for a 30 min zone 3 run. It hurt a bit, but it was good that I did this because it again showed that I still have that runner's edge. Our relay race for this saturday is gonna hurt, but at least I should be able to do it with some sort of speed.

first run in a long time and more wattage fun

I ran for a solid 15 mins on the treadmill this morning, my first run in 2 weeks. Surprisingly, it felt like I hadn't stopped running. I even did the usual 4 X (30 second on/90 second off) intervals to see how my speed work was doing, and again, it felt fine. After the 15 mins though, I did feel like my overall endurance was not the same, and that was confirmed when I got off the treadmill and I felt some inflamation in my quads. That went away quickly, which means that I haven't lost my running shape entirely, I just need to reclaim it and get back to doing a 10K and feeling fine afterwards.

Then I took a small break, ate some food, let it digest and hopped onto my new trainer, the Kirt Kinetic Road machine:

I did another test, this one is for finding your MAP, or maximum applied power. My coworker is a self proclaimed "wattage junkie", he gave me some rough instructions on how to conduct the test. Basically warm up for 15 mins, then get into a 90 RPM cadence starting at about 170 watts. Every three minutes increase your wattage by upping one gear in the back, while maintaining that 90 RPM. Stop when you can't hold 90 RPM any longer. It took me three iterations before I could no longer hold 90 RPM. I'll post the data when I get back. I think I got the same number as my previous test, since I haven't really had time to improve over a 2 day period. Still, a good test! I am gonna need to consult my coworker to see how to do the test better, as 3 interations was not enough data to clearly find the number I was looking for.

first powerTap test

Just did my first powerTap test yesterday. It was basically a 20 minute @ lactate threshold time trial to find my power threshold power level, in watts. Here is what it looks like:


I averaged 245 watts @ lactate threshold. This would put me at the bottom of being a CAT 3 cyclist, if I were a pure cycling racer.

ass kicker spin class

Got it handed to me as usual last night at spin class. I was using my TT bike again, and my coach pointed out that my aero position can be made better. Sweet!

The main set of spinning was utterly brual. Basically 90 seconds above LT, then 90 seconds rest.....7X's!!!!! Oh man, the first and fifth hurt the hardest. Amazing how if you can just concentrate on something and stay focused on it, how much it makes the pain hurt a teeny bit less.

Then I was like, phew the hard part is over. WRONG! 90 seconds more of the same thing but in one easier gear, then 45 seconds back to the same LT intensity, then 45 MORE seconds at an even harder gear. Yeah.......OUCH!

fast dreadmill run

33 mins on the dreadmill, with lotsa intervals. It was good to be indoors running! I did about 3.5 miles. Intervals are the way to go!

5 min WU
2 min speed increase with incline increase
4X (30 seconds fast, 90 seconds recover)
1 min fast, 1 min recover
2 min fast, 2 min recover
3 min fast, 3 min recover
2 min fast, 2 min recover
1 min fast, 1 min recover

coooooold ride!

it was freaking cold this morning....sub 30, which isnt bad for running, but for biking it is so cold because of the wind factor. 3 miles out of the gate i couldn't feel my fingers, and once the feeling started to return, they started to burn like nothing else! finally they settled back to normal and I was good to go from there. Man that burned!

We only did about 26 miles in an hour and 50 mins, so we were averaging like 14.5 miles/hour, and we are both fast riders. It was just so freaking cold!

I actually used my time trial bike for the first time in about 2 months because my road bike is in the shop getting a new headset. The headset on that bike kept freezing up, and when they opened it up yesterday the bearing cage completely dissolved! Yikes!

But it was good to be back on the TT bike...I felt totally comfy on it and riding the 25 miles didn't hurt even though I was not in the TT position for 99% of the ride. I did get onto a flat section where I was booking a constant 25-26 mph average. I like that!

dreadmill run

First run in exactly a week. Oops! Never felt like I stopped running, which is good. I did the usualy 30 mins of boredom. Thankfully there are intervals.

a moderate spin class

We did mostly strength training last night. Mostly it was sets of 60 rpm @ a high resistance. I prefer this over the fast stuff. The last 5 30 second sets were the hardest of the night. Basically it was the same resistance, but building ever 5 seconds until the last 5 seconds are all out. My heart rate got up there pretty high.

Now I gotta get back to running, something I haven't done in almost a week! Yikes!

a tough swim class

We were worked pretty hard tonight at class. I am really sore right now. Basically we are learning how to make our stroke as long as possible, so we are using muscles that we aren't used to using. I got a few pointers on fixing my squiggly right arm on my pull; I should not force it and just pull lighter.

I am going to do an endurance swim this week so that I am not dying so fast at class.

wiiiiiiindy long ride

Today's long ride was very windy. So much so that at times I wondered if I would get blown off of my bike! This ride went over a couple of race routes, so it was strange to be back on these roads and not be at a race pace.

This is also the longest ride I have done I think since I last crashed last July. My legs felt fine and I was zooming up the hills. Perhaps now that I am 14 pounds lighter on the bike that it is helping me go faster? I think its due to how I have been constantly keeping my shape up.

We did 47.7 miles at about a 15mph pace, kinda slow, but it was because of the wind and the hills. Here is the profile for this ride:

short

Short swim last night, like 850 yards in 22 mins (yeah crappy time, but it was all drills).

Then this morning I was determined to get out for a short spin. It ended up being 40 mins in drizzle. Blah...nocked off 11.5 miles with a 16.5 mph average. Whatever, its keeping my legs moving.

ran a bit longer than had anticipated

aka, I took a wrong turn. oops! I only ran an extra half mile, so no biggie. I did 6.77 miles in an hour flat. My feet are a bit sore. I haven't ran this far in about 3 weeks, so I think I have lost some of that longer endurance. I think I am going to try to put in 1 10K per week until the season starts in January.

the timing is getting better

Hit the pool tonight for 37 mins, working on drills drills and more drills. So one thing my coach has been harping on me is my timing with my arms, especially when my left arm enters and my right arm catches and pulls. I keep my right arm out too long. So tonight I did a bunch of drills that MADE me pull my right arm earlier. Then when I would practice the timing during normal swimming, I was getting it. I found a constant rhythm from right arm to left arm, etc. Now I gotta get my catch and pull looking better, as those two things look like utter poo.

a difficult swim

Tonight nothing was clicking at my swim class. I think everyone was struggling too. This is ok, though. I think in 1-2 weeks it will click and everyone is gonna look like different swimmers. We are all starting to realize our specific faults with our swim techniques and we know how to fix it, we just gotta get out there and do it.

I HAVE to get to the pool 2-3 times more this week to make this stuff stick! Plus I WILL watch my swim DVD a few more times to review and to see proper technique.

a good ride and an 80's style run

Saturday morning I went out and did a 34 mile loop. The first half I felt like crap and wasn't sure how this was going to pan out, as I haven't done this distance in months. By the 2nd half, my climbing legs finally kicked in and I started flying.

This was also my first ride in a LONG time where I was riding with a computer that told me how fast I was going and at what cadence I was spinning at. Its cool to see that I can maintain a cool 20 mph on the flats, and can get up to 28 mph on the flats when pushing it at or around my AT/LT. :)

As for cadence, spinning at 100 RPM is really not that hard and I was naturally doing that. Yay!

Here is the elevation profile:

And then yesterday I was up in a hotel in Massachuesets where their gym had these old 1980's style treadmills. They had a sign that said "dont go over 6 mph". Was this because the thing was so old that it would break over 6MPH or its too loud? I had the place to myself so I went over 6 MPH. The thing held up, but it got boring afterwhile since I was staring at a wall for 30 mins. I'm looking forward to getting back outside.

fast run

My friend and I did a fast paced run today. He led and I shadowed his pace. He is a much faster runner so it was good to be challenged, especially now that I have a solid running base. Here is the elevation profile for today:


So this mean that he pushed me up and down the hills. We were going pretty fast down the first hill, which meant that we then went pretty fast back UP that hill. I was huffing and puffing by the top of it. I definately went over my lacate threshold, which is good.

a constructive swim and a day off

Last night I went to the pool and put in a solid 1300 yards in under 40 mins, all drills. I basically redid my swim class from Monday night. Basically I was trying to get rid of that wonky S shaped wild swing that I do with my right arm stroke. I need to rotate more when catching and pulling with my left arm to set up my right arm. If my body is too flat before my right arm, I will do the wild swing thing. Also, I need to widen the entry of my right arm more. I had some luck, and when I wasn't paying attention, I would go back to bad habits. I think I am figuring out how to nip this technique error.

I am taking today completely off. My knees have been bugging me, especially during some kicking drills last night. Also I am noticing it while climbing stairs. I think a day off will not only strengthen me, but will help the joints heal a bit.

3.87 mile run, and new elevation maps!

Did a quick 3.87 miles this morning, with ~.75 miles of it being on the Greenway trail, which is totally AWESOME to run on now that there is enough light in the morning to be able to see where I am going. I am looking forward to running on it again. To get to it you have to go down a hill, then to get back from finishing it, you have to go back up the same ridge, just on a steeper but shorter incline.

So I was curious to see how steep it really is, so I mapped it @ mapmyride.com and to my surprise they have a new elevation profile with color coded elevation %'s. Sweet! Here is today's run profile:

And as an extreme, Mt Ventoux!


Finally, I weighed in today and I weigh a measly 732 pounds. I think my scale is broken. I did weigh myself in after Saturday's run and I broke 160 and was down to 159.5. Thats down 14 pounds for '08!

an easier spin class

sorta easier. I don't think I had the correct amount of resistance by about 10%, so I couldn't get into as hard of a gear.......oooooorrrrr, it hurt but I was putting out some awesome power? I did .1 more miles in the same amount of time as last week, so what does that mean? I don't know. I am looking forward to metering my output with power, that should tell once and for all if I am putting out enough output.

Run early tomorrow AM.

I am feeling good though! (with no pressure!)

run and swim

Yesterday morning I hit the dreadmill for 30 mins. Did some intervals, with an interval @ a 7:30 min/mile pace for 30 seconds. I felt like I hit a peak yesterday, and that was coming off of my 8:25 min/mile pace from Saturday AM's run, I think my running form has hit a new level. I just need to start extending my distances again to a 10K level.

Then I had my 4th swim class last night. Things are starting to click except for my right arm stroke. I do this really wierd S curved thing that was ingrained into me when I learned how to swim as a kid. Unfortunately I take it to a new level and make it look extreme. I will be doing one arm strokes this week for sure.

8:25 min/miles

Felt like crap this morning, but I wanted to get another run in to make it 3 runs in 3 days. I did 4.17 miles in 35:07, or 8:25 min/miles. Wow! I REALLY felt like crap, but I knew I had another gear to go faster. Hmmmmm, running more often will make you go faster? Noooooooo!

Signed up for the NYC Triathlon, '09

Because I am a USAT member, I got the privilege of signing up early for the NYC Triathlon '09. This means I don't have to skip out of the Halloween party @ midnight to sign up! Phew!

Whats crazy is that this race is super expensive for an Olympic distance race. I am basically paying $240 for an under 3 hour race in which I will swim in the Hudson river. Whatever, its freaking NYC, where I will be 1 of 4000 racers, making this one of the biggest races that I will EVER do, aside from a marathon.

Workout wise, I did a short 23 min swim Wednesday night, then did two dreadmill runs yesterday morning and this morningfor 30 mins each, with some speed intervals thrown in there to mix things up. Nothing much, just something to maintain things. I actually broke my personal record this month for running mileage. I did a little over 56 miles! That is 5 more miles than my previous 2 months, which happened to be exactly the same. My biking mileage was a poor 76 miles, while my total swim yardage was a measly 7000 yards. Blah!

It has been good to ramp things down for a bit and recharge. I can say though that while my swim volume has decreased, my swim technique has already seen huge gains through my swim class.

another ass kicker on the bike

Wow, I got it handed to me tonight. I think that awesome 26 miler on Saturday did me in and I wasn't fully fully recovered, although that is really a terrible excuse. Tonight's workout was just plain old hard, doing some hard fast cadence stuff at an incredibly hard intensity. I think I am gonna feel this one tomorrow!

So looking into the future, I have decided to seriously consider going the power route in my training on the bike. Going with power means your rear wheel's hub is a special hub that is a power meter and meters the output of your biking in watts. The more watts you put out means the harder you are working. This data is a bit better than heart rate because it doesnt get all screwy with certain variables such as temperature, how you are feeling or weather. Basically if you aren't putting up the numbers, you flat out aren't putting up the numbers, and it works opposite as well. If you are putting up the numbers, then that means that you are doing something right. Then as you start to compile all of this data you can graph it and start to see how you are doing over the long term. Are you improving? How are you improving? Are you on the verge of overtraining? Undertraining? Plus your coach can look at the numbers and see if you are cheating or exceeding his or hers expectations.

Numbers don't lie!

I will be having a serious chat with my coach this week about going with power for next season. Forcing yourself to put up the numbers will only make you faster and stronger, and I look forward to that. Some folks say on average you will increase your race average speed by 2-4 mph. That will put me into the 22 mph range on a semi hilly course. Damn!

easy 3.44

Its too freaking dark at 7AM to go running anymore. So I have to wait an extra 15 mins.

I did 3.44 miles in 30:11. Whatever, I have no idea how fast that is, and I don't really care. What I do care about is that the temperature this morning (42 degrees) felt AWESOME to run in.

raced a garbage truck

And won!

This was my first outdoors road ride since the ITPMan relay race. Yikes! That was almost 4 weeks ago. I hadn't even taken the race number sticker off of the front of my helmet! So since then I have done 2 indoor spin classes, and hour each.

So considering all of that, I had a good ride today! I was standing up most short/steep hills and was powering through them. I ended up doing a 26 mile loop in 1:33:02, so a little under 17 mph/avg.

So before the final downhill into Purchase, there was this garbage truck on the side of the road waiting for traffic to clear so it could pull out. I knew this fricking thing would come around me, then be unable to pass or would stay right in front of me, giving me the most wonderful perfume smell of all: GARBAGE!

I wouldn't have any of that! So when the garbage truck got behind me I gunned it and kept a pretty good speed up so that it couldn't pass me. Take that garbage truck!

7.9 mile run, and got a little lost, sorta

Today my running partner and I set out for this trail that he had done once before. We departed at 6:40-ish and it was pretty dark. When we hit the trail at a little under the first mile, I couldn't see much, but fortunately the trail was clear of any major debris. Still dark....

Then when we got to the end of the trail, it just stopped practically in someone's backyard, so a little awkward that we ran through these people's backyard as they were eating breakfast. Fortunately they didn't see us. Then by seat of our pants we just ran in a general direction that we thought could get us to a major road. Well that major road turned out to the Saxon Woods Rd, a hilly road that I would pound up on my ROAD BIKE. Yikes! We were a good 5-ish miles away @ this point. Whatever, I am still in good running shape from the half marathon and I was feeling good so far. So I pounded down a GU and we were off.

What a nice crisp morning for a run. 34 degrees @ the start, but I was shedding clothing and unzipping shirts by mile 2. I think I can do this cold weather running, as long as I have someone to run with.

Oh and last night I went to the pool to practice those balance drills. It was a long 30 mins and I only put in 900 yards. Yikes! I am getting better at the balance drills, still not perfected, but a LOT better than when I first started doing these.

not as bad tonight

My spin class went a bit better tonight. I didn't do as much speed work, but instead did the bulk in a low cadence high resistence @ 60 rpm with some standing work. Basically it was a strength building class.

I think last week hurt so bad because it was the first time back on the bike in about 2-3 weeks and I wasn't used to the different kind of resistence from the trainer. Tonight I was a lot more adjusted.

Oh and my cadence monitor showed up as I was leaving the door. Doh! I will have it working next week.

swim class #3 and a dreadmill session

Last night was a sort of a breakthrough night in the pool. We have been doing balance drills for the 3rd straight week, and last night it finally clicked. I have also got myself down to a consistent 17 strokes/25 yards, which is down from 19 during the season. No class next week, but that gives me 2 weeks to further master these balance drills. They are already paying dividends!

Then this morning I hit the dreadmill for 30 mins. Blah blah blah blah blah....the usual the dreadmill sucks blah blah blah blah.....it sucks.

BUT! I am out on the road thursday AM for a trail run! Woo hoo!

And tonight I will have my humbling painfest on the bike for spin class. My cadence monitor/computer should be here today. Hopefully I will have time to hook that up before the class.

a full day's rest and dreadmill intervals

Took yesterday off completely. Ahhhhh, it felt good, but I am still sore from Sunday's run. The most nagging injury is my left hamstring. It just plain hurts. Oh well.

This morning I hit the dreadmill for 30 mins. Intervals are the way to go to kill time on that dreaded piece of equipment, plus the intervals will keep my fast twitch muscles sharp for this off season. My goal is to maintain a 5K - 10K fitness until January. If I can do that, I am going to be able to put in an enormous running base for next season.

2nd swim class and an ass kicking on the trainer

Monday night I had my second swim class. My warmup was basically torture since my body was essentially trashed from Sunday's half Marathon. Fortunately the swim class loosened me up by the end and turned out to be the greatest form of active recovery.

Oh so I thought....

Until last night when I went to my first of about 10 spin classes this fall. I basically got my ass handed to me. My coach had me spinning in these freaking huge gears that were unrelenting. At some points I just wanted to stop, get off, go home and cry. I have only been off of my bike for 2 weeks!

But anyways, this ass kicking will good for in terms of keeping me active and in shape with some intensity. I need to get a cadence computer for my bike, since some of the spin sets are cadence based.

Half Marathon

Wow so this time last year I had just finished up my 2nd round of the couch to 5K program where I ran about 2-3 5K's then went into hibernation/gain weight mode for the rest of the year. I had NO IDEA that a year from then (now) that I would be running my first half marathon and thinking that it was no biggie to run such a distance.

It was easy, and yet it was hard.

Easy because I had the physical strength and endurance to do it no problem. If you can do an Olympic distance triathlon in under 3 hours, you can do a 2 hour Marathon no sweat. That I learned today.

I came in at 2:02:05 for today which I am very proud of. Breaking 2 hours would have been icing on the cake, but I still have to remind myself over and over again that this running thing is still brand new to me!

The coolest part of the day was the hills. I freaking powered up the hills and was perfectly fine at the top of them. In fact it hurt MORE on the downhills then the uphills. I guess its because I am a sick hill loving freak?

Now for why running a half marathon is hard: My feet and knees freaking hurt at the end. Last week's 10 miler proved that my knees were going to hurt today. What I didn't know was that the balls of my feet were gonna hurt so badly. Funny how when my knees hurt, I would concentrate on the pain of my feet, then switch. No relief from pain, just the location.

Now going forward from a half to full marathon? Totally do-able, but its a totally different game. This is where I realize that I will need another year or two to harden my joints and feet up to withstand that kinda of punishment. I know that I could possibly put in a sub 4 hour marathon on a first try because I am pretty good shape now, but I also know that I have a LOT more potential in terms of running. So maybe a marathon in 2 years would be good.

I will do this race again. Absolutely perfect course up and down the Bronx River Parkway. Perfect weather today as well.

attack dogs come in all shapes and sizes

Ran to the track this morning for a couple pickups. Legs felt fine, I actually had to tell myself to slow down to preserve myself for Sunday. On the way home this little white mop dog on a leash decided to charge me. Its attempts at tripping me with the leash failed. Sorry dog, better luck next time! His owner was clearly embarrased. I just said, "Don't worry about it....dogs love me that much!"

toasty arms

Got back into the pool tonight and repeated most of the drills that I did from my class Monday night. The dreaded drill where I am 45 degrees rotated face down with my arm 45 degrees extended downwards went a heck of a lot better. Prolly 300% better! I am finally getting the hang of this drill. FINALLY!

I only did about 900 yards in 30 mins. I was finding that by the end of the night I was pulling way left, even more left than usual.

My arms are freaking sore!

no knee pain

No knee pain this morning during my adventures on the dreadmill. I did just 30 mins with 3 short 30 second intervals to get me through the last 6-8 mins of boredom.

It was ~42 degrees this morning. Time to buy some warm weather running gear!

swim class, week 1

Just got back from week 1 of my 10 week underwater video swim analysis class. There are 11 or 12 of us, so a pretty good sized class with 4 people in each lane. I'm in the middle speed lane, but about the slowest in the middle lane. Oh well, we aren't here for speed, just technique.

We started with an 8 minute warmup and I swam however far it takes to do in that much time. I was feeling it by the end. I have only been in the pool once since the Westchester Tri over 2 weeks ago. I soon found my rhythm again.

Then we moved onto drills. The first was easy, just kick on your stomach while pressing your chest down. Then we did that dreaded drill that I always choke on water on. Swim 45 degrees on your side with your arm 45 degrees down. Every time I roll I sink and I swallow water. Well guess what I get to work out this week!! Yay..........blah.....

Then we got to the swim video part. Upon review of the tape, I actually looked pretty good in the water. My body was horizontal and my kick was nice and conistent. My arm work is what was pointed out as not being so good. Basically I am trying to do a catch drill and I am letting my forward arm hang out in front too long. I am also crossing my arms over, which is making me zig-zag in the water, also not good. So already I am getting some great feedback.

LSD

Did my first LSD run this morning. LSD stands for "Long Slow Distance," and I think I accomplished that. A coworker and I ran 9.85 miles in 1:44:01. Yeah that definately accomplishes the slow part. We averaged 10:34 min/mile averages. haha

Eh whatever. I'm not out to set any records next weekend other than finishing my first half marathon. Besides, I am done with speed work for a LONG LONG LONG time. My body and mind is pretty cooked from this past season. It is good though to accomplish some goals through this off season.

As for today's run, I ran on a new (to me) path that is well paved the entire way, has some decent scenary and has some small hills. Its always good to find new terrain to switch things up from time to time. By the end of the run I felt really good, besides my knees being a bit sore. But my legs felt fine and I wasn't hungry or tired or wrecked. When I got home I was extremely hungry and I could feel my legs starting to feel a bit sore. Now my quads are pretty sore.

Tomorrow night I start my swim classes. Then Tuesday and Thursday I will be putting in some short runs for next Sunday's half marathon.

getting recovered

Just ran an 8:23 min/mile pace for 3.5 miles this morning. 8:23?!?! Where did that come from? Does this mean that I am finally recovered? I didn't feel like I was running that fast, but I guess I did!

I mean since the last two races I have done a 9:30, 9:15, 9:08. 8:53 min/mile paces, but then all of a sudden it DROPS to 8:23? Well the numbers don't lie, and I think that I have finally recovered.

And I just signed up for the Westchester Half Marathon for the 12th. No backing out now!

registered for my first HIM

Just registered for my first HIM (half Iron Man 70.3), Timberman, in Gilford, NH. This race is only 25 mins or so from where I grew up and is on the very same lake that I grew up on. I am excited as this will be a "home" race for me.

Wow, Swim 1.2 miles, Bike 56 miles, then run a half Marathon (13.1 miles). Should take me 6 hours or less. GULP!

Oh its gonna be awesome!

Timberman is one of the signiture races of the season, especially in the northeast. They had Kona's female winner, Chrissy Wellington, win the the female Pros this past year, along with Andy Potts, who almost made the US Olympic team. Who knows if they will repeat next year, but the race draws some big names.

August 23, 2009, here I come! Oh, and my race age @ that time will be 27. Yikes! I'm still ONLY 25!!!!!

back in the pool

Got back into the pool for the first time since Westchester 9 days ago. My form hasn't changed and I didn't go more than 50 yards at once. Mostly I just did some drills on my back with some freestyle mixed in.

I just want to make sure that come next Monday I can still swim a few lengths without being totally wasted!

It also felt good to be able to swim for only 20 mins and not feel guilty :)

a few runs

After my race on saturday, I actually felt well enough to put in a slow run Sunday morning. I did a 5K, it hurt, but I was able to do it feeling ok. My right calf flared up a bit and was sore for 1 day and a half.

Then this morning I ran 5.33 miles while doing a 9:08 min/mile pace. Slow yes, but I think I am still recovering from the Westchester Tri. Of course, speed doesn't matter anymore! Yay!

The cool thing about this morning is that I felt better and better as the run went and finished feeling awesome, which is good. I think I will be ok for the Westchester Half Marathon on Oct 12th. Just gotta sign up @ this point.

My right hip is bit sore and was a bit sore after Sunday's run too. But I don't feel that soreness while running.

Feels good to only have to run. No pressure!

31st on the bike

I took part in a triathlon relay team this morning at the ITPMAN triathlon in Darien, CT. What a blast! Our team came in 2nd among all relay teams, and 26th overall. We had a super fast team!

I personally did a season best with a 20.2 mph average, coming in with the 31st fastest bike time among ~320 total people.

We lucked out big time today with some perfect weather. No wind, no rain (it was supposed to DUMP on us all morning) and cool temperatures. It was a little humid, but not enough to make things miserable. The roads were a bit slick though. I had a guy go down right next to me on this very sharp and steep downhill. Poor guy, his carbon bike with nice wheels. I heard it and saw him flipping before I looked straight so I didn't go down. Yikes!

My legs took about half of the bike to get warmed up. They were screaming at me the entire first half. I even warmed up! I guess my warm up needed to be longer and have some more intense sprints in it to get the juices flowing better.

I am so proud of my team, and we all want to repeat our efforts for next year to see how much we can improve.

not recovered yet

Did 3 laps in the cold this morning on my bike up @ Purchase. I was wearing most of my cold weather gear, and it was only in the low 50's!

My legs had some power going into the pedals, but it sure didn't feel that way.

During my 2nd lap my left bar came loose and fortunately only swiveled side to side, and not up and down. What a pain! I spent a good week getting that position perfected. I had to stop and tried to get it back, but the position still isn't correct. Doh! I think it will be good enough for Saturday.....speaking of which, its supposed to rain. Blah!.

I think I am going to hit the pool tonight to shock my body.
Recover damnit!

first run back

Did a 5K this morning, my first run since Sunday. I felt pretty good .I went super slow, like 9:30 min/mile slow. I don't think I could have gone any faster. My right calf is being really stubborn and still hurts.

I will be spending the next 2 days on the bike preparing for Saturday. Unfortunately its supposed to rain that day. Blah!

quick spin and stretch

Did a 10 min quick indoor spin to get the blood flowing then stretched.

The stretching hurt @ first but during the 2nd round it didnt as much and I was much more flexible.

I feel good now. I skipped steps when I ran up the stairs in the parking garage to test out my legs. I felt fine.

Now I can still feel some soreness, but that massage last night did the trick!

Back to running tomorrow AM. It will prolly hurt, but I am not going fast @ all. Prolly a 9:15 min/mile pace or slower.

results are in

They posted the results. I had an ok swim time, awesome bike time, and an expected run time.

Total time: 2:52:35
Swim: 36:53
Average: 2:15 min/100

Bike: 1:16:07
Average: 19.74 mph

Run: 55:20
Average: 8:55 min/mile

Soooooo, this race has basically been a "year in review" type of race. It showed off that I did NOT put enough time or effort into the pool. Basically I know I could do the work, it was just a mindset or a mental game for me.

Cycling: The fact that I could hold 19.74 mph for 25 miles on a challenging course, I will take that as I am pretty good cyclist and next year with a bigger base and with a few extra pounds off of the mid section, that the sky is the limit in terms of improvement.

Running: The same is true as above, minus the good runner bit :) Serious running was new to me this year and I learned that you need to put in a lot of mileage to see those peaks.

So to sum up my goals for next year:

Swimming: I'm doing a 10 week swim techniques class with underwater video review. Then I will be doing 1 or 2 sessions of master's swimming for volume and speed.

Cycling: Rinse and repeat from this year and do even more hills if possible.

Running: Bigger base. I am planning on doing 9 NYRR races next year to qualify for NYC 2010. These races will be for training and qualification only, obviously not for winning.

Oh, and do Timberman in August :)

the day after

Sitting here at my desk at work this morning, my legs are pretty sore. I finished yesterday's race in under 3 hours (my goal) for an unofficial time of 2:52:35. I am super happy about that time and I still have to remind myself that this is still my rookie year of triathlon and the fact that I just did an olympic distance triathlon with confidence just shows that I made some HUGE gains this season.

No official results have been posted yet on the interwebs, but they did tape final times to a van at the finish line, so here are my thoughts on the race.

It was pitch black and cold when I arrived. The transition area was freaking sweet and everyone had a numbered slot on the bars for their bike and gear. Oh and there were about 20 porto-pots!

Again, it was cold. When we made our way down to the beach for the start we soon learned that the sandy beach had sand that was prolly 50 degrees in sub 60 degree temps, so when I walked into the 70 degree water, it was like walking into a bath. AAAAAHhhhhhhhhhhh! I didn't want to leave the water it was so warm.

I was in the last wave so I waited for about 27 mins before I began, which was fine because with the sun in my eyes I couldn't really see which way the bouys were so I just watched the clutter in the water make a path to give me an idea where the bouys actually were.

So once in the water I was fine. My wave wasn't that big there really wasn't any contact whatsoever and to sight I just saw where the mass of people were going. Again, the water was WARM and felt perfect. My arms didn't hurt and I just swam my pace and just "did' the swim. I think I did it fast enough.

Now onto the bike, my thighs were like blocks of ice at the start. I was trying to spin it but my legs just wouldn't loosen up. And as usual, I was passing people left and right. I just stayed on the left side and passed people. Not a single person passed me, other than the ironman guy who would pass me, then I would pass him, rinse and repeat. Basically he couldn't climb hills but was fast on the flats. I could climb hills but was slower on the flats.

Anyways, I knew I was rocking the bike and I was feeling so fast. I was actually kinda worried that I was gonna burn too quickly and lose all of my energy before I hit the hills. Thinking that would happen, I didn't slow down and kept my pace and that would prove to work out!

Onto the first hill, I just burned up it, passing lots of folks. I got into my pace up the hill and soon found an awesome strength that put me into this super consistent spin. It was great. I popped my first GU at the top and continued.

Onto the 2nd hill by the the new studio's location, again I just got into my pace and kept it going. On the downhill portion, I got stuck behind some stupid traffic where this SUV just decided to stop. Yeah, I almost had to stop behind him. So basically instead of booking 30 MPH down a hill, I just maybe 20-ish. GRRR!!!

From this point, I knew the fun part of the bike would begin cuz it was basically 12.5 miles of all downhill. And I flew! It was just a matter of doing it at that point.

Now onto the run, I started out strong, and kept it strong for as long as I could. This didn't mean running an 8:30 min/mile pace, cuz that wasn't happening. It felt like a 9 min/mile pace (and I will find out shortly in face what it was). I just tried to keep it consistent and I think it worked out.

Now the run portion was called flat and fast. Mostly it was flat, but there were 2 hills that almost did me in at times and towards the finish it was a false flat that went up the entire way. I was happy to have finished that run. I had never felt my knees hurt that much during a run!

Overall, this distance obviously more of a challenge than a sprint distance and tested you a lot more than a sprint distance. I immediately figured out right before I entered the finishing chute that doing a few of these each year will definately get your butt into shape!

Hopefully results and photos will show up in the next day or two.

I have a deep tissue massage scheduled for tonight at 6:30. My calves and thighs are pretty sore. My upper back as well.

the day before

Went down to get my race packet and swag bag. Most of the race course bouys in the water were all out there, up to the end of the bay between the dock and break wall. They didn't have the bouy's out beyond the bay, so a little scary! At least I will know that I am almost home free once I get back into the bay on the way back in.

After picking up the packet I drove the start of the course which is about 3.3 miles before it gets into familiar territory for me. The weather is going to be PERFECT. What a relief!

Then I went up to Purchase for a last second quick run and one lap around. I feel smooth!

Just gotta do it now!

The alarm is set for 4AM and another alarm for 5AM just in case. I'm in the last wave starting at around 7:27-ish.

and one last swim

Basically just took it easy and put in some easy laps, plus did 5 all out 25's for some speed.

23 mins to swim .5 miles.....haha

slow run

One last 5K run before the big day. I put on my heart rate alarm to keep me from running race pace.

Did a 28 min 5K. My legs don't feel wasted!

Butterflies continue.

last hard workout... yay!

Did 13.5 miles tonight in 45 mins flat, or almost 18MPH average. Just some short 90 second intervals over and over and over again.

I feel strong and happy that this is my last hard workout.

I have had butterflies in my stomach for the past few days and I know why.

The swim.

As long as I keep telling myself to do the swim at MY pace (with *SLIGHT* kick to the pace) I will be fine. I know that as soon as I get onto the bike that it will become MY race and I know that I will finish it.

I am actually looking forward to running this bad boy. Cuz I know that once I start the run, that I will not stop and after about 2-3 miles my legs will loosen up and its cruise control from there.

This race is like my first triathlon ever: something I haven't done before because this is a new distance with a different mentality. Pacing is key. I think this is why I did so much better on my last sprint triathlon (and the fact that I had done the course 3 times) and that is because I knew how to pace myself at that distance. I know my race paces in the water, bike, and run. I just gotta do it! Not much of a mystery when you know that those paces!

back in the water but outa gas

I hopped in the pool tonight with hopes of swimming one last mile before the race. I burned through half a mile in 20 mins and change and felt strong, but all of a sudden I was out of gas.

Doh!

Oh wait, I have already been in the water for an hour this morning.

I think I am water logged enough.

OWS in the ocean

Went swimming in the ocean this morning at Rye Playland, the site of my race this weekend. I am still not as confident of a swimmer in the ocean, but I am getting better. The water was WARM!....thankfully!

I was out with my coach and we were doing sighting practice and entrance and exits. Basically I learned how to do the dolphin dive in and out. No biggie, I just have to judge the depth of the water. Sighting on the other hand, was much harder this time out because of the current we had in the little bay. On the way back into shore I was getting pushed to the left pretty quickly, so much so that I was sighting every other stroke on every breath. I would look up, sight my coach, put my head down, do two strokes, sight, and he would be way to the right. I mean I was getting turned QUICKLY. Hopefully I won't need to deal with this during the race. Yikes!

I need to get back into the pool and do one last hard swim. I can't wait to get this swim over with!

flew like a bird

On the run! WTF?!?!

Yes, I had a super smooth fast run towards the end during tonight's run. I felt awkward starting the run since my last "real" run was during last Thursday's treadmill session; still definately some rust stubbornly attached to the muscles after last week's punishment-fest.

By mile 2 (out of 3.5) my legs loosened up and started to feel good. When I hit the final uphill section it was like running into the sunset as I ran up this hill with a sihouette of White Plain's twin towers over the horizon. I just felt GOOD and I started to pick up my pace.

Ended the 3.5 miles in 29:38 or a 8:28 min/mile pace.....uuhhhhhh, thats my race pace!

Confidence booster?

last long-ish ride

and boy was it a hot soupy nasty blah mix out today. No rain, just 100% humidity with 80 degree temperatures. These conditions just sap you. I was able to get through the humid conditions and get in a strong ride. I felt great up the hills and am confident for next sunday's race!

I think I played chicken with about 5 squirrels today. They were everywhere! Freaking squirrels! Everytime I saw one it just reminded me of the guy layed out in front of me with a squirrel in his wheel. They are like little kamakazi machine-suicide bombers!

And now the taper officially begins. No more super hard stuff until next sunday. Phew!

not cold, but dark

The sun slept in this morning. By 6:30 it was still unsafe-dark out and that was the time I needed to be on my bike. So I had to get a late start.

I had a good ride. Considering how bad my glutes and hammies still hurt from yesterday's treadmill extravaganza, I rode the hilliest part of the race course. Just going as is I averaged a touch over 16MPH.

Then I got on my running shoes and belted out 1.68 miles in 14 mins and change. I am a cooked goose again who needs a LOT of sleep.

fast run and a strong swim

This morning I was out with my couch for a run session. It was mostly done indoors on the treadmill. Fortunately the treadmill I was on was an awesome treadmill that felt really good to run on. I don't think I could have classified it as a dreadmill.

Anyways, I was doing intervals on the thing, 3 min zone 2, 1 min zone 3, 1 min zone 5, then rinse and repeat 2 more times. Funny how its a relief to get back down to zone 2 but yet it almost hurts ever MORE than the previous zone 5-my heart feels like its gonna come outa my chest-feeling. So my legs obviously hurt a lot right now from that.

So as of right now I just got back from the pool and am pounding down a bowl cereal in preparation from tomorrow morning's early brick workout. I think tomorrow will be my last brick of the season and I am looking forward to it. Getting up @ 5AM to prepare for this workout is taking its toll on me. Sleep is a commodity I can't lose.

Almost there....almost there.

Oh and for the swim itself, I did 1 mile in 43:20. Not super great, but I felt smooth and strong the entire way and my breathing couldn't have been better. I feel like I am in a good place for my swimming for the race......enough to get me through it, yet still keep reserves for the bike and run.

hill repeats and a tail

Got up @ the crack of stupid this morning for a hill repeat workout. It was freaking COLD and fortunately my workout only lasted 50 mins.

During my warmup to the hill I heard this rattling behind me and it never went away. I thought my bike was making strange noises until I looked behind me and I had a guy (who looked like a racer) drafting off of me. He seemed like the type to go fast so I picked it up and pulled.

It was awesome. I was expecting the guy to just pull around me and take off but when I would add more pressure to the pedals and increase my speed I could hear him changing to a harder gear to stay on me wheel. Now thats super awesome :)

Eventually I got to my turn and as I turned he said "You are looking strong, man!". I told him to have a nice ride and we parted ways. So that was a bit of a confidence boost. I felt strong and we were going pretty fast!

Now onto the hill intervals. Basically went up this hill 4 times, starting seated until the top when I stood up and gave it all I had. The 4th time I gave it all I had but my legs didn't have as much juice left. I still got in a quality workout and my legs were mostly recovered by the very end of the ride.

Run tomorrow morning with my coach.

blah swim

swam a mile in 56 mins....yeah pretty terrible

BUT! over a 3rd of that was for drills on my back. My legs are hurting and I have lost some form while kicking on my back.

My breathing is doing really well for extended freestyle sets.

I tried doing some 50 yard sprints and I died out pretty quickly. OUCH! gotta do some more of those in the next two weeks.

Good thing a hard swim lesson doesnt kill me as bad anymore.

Up @ 5 AM tomorrow. 7 hours away....

3.6 miles

I turned off the heart rate alarm this morning cuz it was going to be annoying and I just wanted to run at my own pace.

I took it easy mostly. My legs were actually hurting a lot for a good half of the run. I did a different route than normal (ran through Scarsdales big houses neighborhood) to switch things up.

I ended up going about 3.6 miles in 32 mins and change. Things are starting to gradually taper off. Its a welcomed relief. The past two weeks have been murder.

AM run

After sleeping in for two straight days, getting up this morning sucked and I didn't want to run, but I had to.

I ran an 8:48 min/mile pace with my heart rate alarm on. I basically wanted to run right under the limit of 162 BPM and to my surprise I had to push it pretty hard to get myself up to that limit, and I only broke it when I hit the small hit towards the end of the run. I guess that means my heart has hit a new level of conditioning?

I did 3.5 miles in 30:48. My legs actually feel pretty good considering last friday I was pretty cooked.

hill repeats

I rode on my road bike for the first time in about a month. It felt good! We got the remnants of Hanna last night so the roads today were covered with tons of broken sticks and leafs and other junk. One side of the road had been flooded and was completely covered with mulch.

I was supposed to do 9 short hill sprints so I headed out to the final big hill on the race course and quickly realized that this was not an appropriate hill for this workout. I zoomed up it once and searched for a better hill. Got to John street and went up it 3 times. By then it was time to head back and finish off the one hour workout.

I felt like crap after the sprints but was able to recover fully within 5-10 mins. Awesome! Good news for the upcoming race!

Oh and two weeks from now it will alllll be over. Kinda sad, but it opens the door for some fun-no-pressure races.

Easy runs for the next two mornings. Funny how running an easy 7 miles over 2 days is going to seem easy....this time last year I couldn't run 3 miles.

long swim

Back in the pool today after sleeping in for the first time since.......i can 't remember!

Did 2050 yards in about 54 mins with breaks. I did a ladder starting with a 50 and going up to a 250 then going back down to a 50, then repeating but only going up to a 200 before going back down to a 50. My arms are SORE!

And whats funny is that I spent more time in the pool this past week than I did on the bike or running. Prolly a good thing since swimming is what I have been lacking on big time.

and an exhausting swim

Tonight's swim went well. I accomplished what I needed to get done, but boy oh boy it was exhausting! I am actually feeling pretty good from this morning's punishment-fest, until I try to walk up some stairs. My body doesn't feel totally wasted, until I move quickly.

So tonight I did 1800 yards in about 50 mins, which included 800 yards of drills. So my overall volume in the pool this year has been low. This is something that I will need to concentrate on more this fall. In fact I am doing a 10 week swim program up @ SUNY with my coach where I will be filmed underwater. Then I will get feedback. Hopefull this will do the trick to get my stroke to where it needs to be.

punishing brick

After yesterday's run my legs were sore, but I didn't think that they were that bad. This morning I learned that my legs are basically a couple of cooked gooses.

Started off on the bike, which felt strong but hurt, for two laps to warmup. On the 3rd and 4th I was supposed to go race pace. The third lap I definately accomplished that, but starting on lap #4 it goes up an inclined hill that isnt steep but will kill you if you go too hard. I spun up it in my easiest gear. For the last half of lap 4 I found my legs again, sorta, and finished as strong as I could.

Now onto the run. It hurt from the beginning to the end. I was supposed to do intervals, but I knew those were out of the question. So what I did was set my watch timer for 3 mins and start off slow and build up to a race pace. Rinse and repeat. It helped. I finished the 5K in exactly 27 mins on the dot. Not bad!

I am actually looking forward to getting back into the pool now that the big pool is open again. I just need to rest my legs. They are spent!

water in the ear

Swam almost 1500 yards last night in 89 degree water! Blah! I got some water in my ear that would not come out, so during my 5.5 mile run this morning I heard a bouncing scratchy echo every time I landed on my right foot.

During the run on the way to the track I went past this small baseball field that had the coolest steam layer coming off of it. I was expecting to see the headless horseman to come riding out of the fog.

On the track, I put in some serious work. 3 x 4 min @ race pace or above intervals. Man those hurt! I felt pretty beat up when I got back home.

Brick tomorrow!

strong ride

I knew on my first lap around SUNY this morning that my legs were feeling stronger than last week. Even on the first 30 second surge I needed a few extra gears to keep from spinning out (an AWESOME feeling, btw!)

Then my legs didn't feel as awesome when I got into the middle of my all out efforts. Fortunately by the time I got into a race pace two lap section of the workout my legs were smooth and I was moving pretty fast.

Good ride. Swim tonight!

finally recovered

last saturday morning's run hurt. I was just beat up and drained at that point. It was only 20 mins!

Family was in town so I took off both Sunday and Monday. I am glad that I took both days off. My blister doesn't hurt while I run (still with moleskin and tape) and legs felt fresher. I felt the rust coming off of my muscles from last week's hurt fest.

I tried to go easy this morning and I did go easy, but I ended up running an 8:50 min/mile pace. Yay me!

brick, swim, run

Yesterday I basically did a sprint triathlon with a long swim.

I started with a brick in the afternoon. I wasn't sure how I was going to do because I was sore the previous day's 10K run and that freaking blister that showed up. I have determined that the blister was caused from running downhill because the impact of the foot inside the shoe is much more severe when running downhill that it rubs more than on flat ground. I have figured out how to run downhill, but unfortunately the one downside is this.

Back to the brick, because I was sore I did 2.5 laps of warmup before I started the race pace intervals. I think I had a tail wind because I was flying faster than I did two days before when it was an all out effort. So my legs started to loosen up and feel pretty good.

Now onto the run portion, I was super paranoid about the blister on my foot. I used a patch of moleskin directly onto the blister and then topped it with athletic tape just in case. It worked! Now only if my right calf was about to cramp up, I was good. It was that first uphill @ SUNY that always makes my legs feel like crap. Fortunately that downhill (that caused the blister) is always a salvation and smoothes things out. I finished the rest of the run out strong and the brick turned out to be one of the strongest and easiest ones that I have done.

Then came last night's swim. I was on the couch and twice I got up about to go and sat down without any motivation. I finally dragged my butt to the small pool and was excited to see that I had the entire pool and a lane to myself, for about 20 mins. Good thing the woman who I shared the lane with was good about sharing. I did about 50 lengths and had to get out because the water temp was 88 degrees! Then I continued and finished with 90, or 1800 yards. I don't know HOW I did that much with zero motivation.

Now for this morning's run I wanted to go outside, and tried to. I even walked to the start of my run, ran for about 10 seconds and realized that running outdoors was not going to happen with my blister.

So I turned around and walked home, then decided to hop on the treadmill. I did 20 minutes with 4 x 30 surges.

At least I got about 2 miles in in 20 mins. My body feels battered.

a successfull run

Ran 6.2 miles in under 54 minutes....53:24 to be exact, and I could have gone faster. We were doing intervals so it was a combination of fast and slow. Had we gone a more consistent pace, I think we could have held an 8:30 or under pace.

Unfortunately I got my first blister of the season. Doh! Good thing I am walking to work and can experiment with mole skin and tape. Hopefully I can nip this! I have to run for the next two days.

hard ride and the golden arches

Up @ 6 this morning, on the road by 7 for some HARD intervals. 4 x 30 seconds "warm up" sprints and then into my main set of 5x 5 min zone 4-5. Such great weather this morning. In fact the past two weeks we have been having perfect weather. I can't get over it!

Then I got home in time to quickly shower and get out the door to work. Didn't have time to eat @ home so off to McDonald's we go for breakfast. mmmmmmmm......mcDonalds.....mmmmmm

I guess I get to reward myself for a job well done this morning. I felt great on the bike.

another easy run under 162

Went out for another easy run....3.5 miles keeping my heart rate under 162. My legs feel great and I am ready for the onslaught of the next 3 days....which are gonna HURT.

Early bike ride in the AM.....INTERVALS!

flying dismounts

Did a transition session with my coach this morning. Basically my cycling shoes are cycling shoes and are not the best for a triathlon for getting them on and off. Oh well, next season I will go for some more appropriate shoes.

That being said, getting into my shoes ON the bike is really hard in these shoes due to the shape of the velcro straps and the shoes having a ratchet mechanism.

Fortunately getting out of them on the bike is easier and doing a flying dismount (getting off of your bike in motion into a run) is possible and actually not as hard as I had expected.

Still need more practice with the dismounts, but it should save me some time.

Sad to already think about this, but the season is approaching the end already!

I have Westchester Sept 21st in under a month, then I volunteered to be in a relay race on the 29th. I will be doing the biking portion, 15 miles, half of which is up, the 2nd half down. Then Oct 12th I am running a half marathon. The olympic I am sorta scared to do, the bike relay not so much, but the half marathon I am REALLY scared of doing. I mean I can run almost 7 miles and be fine, but I think there is a BIG difference between running 7 and running 13. I think upping my mileage for the half marathon now will only help the 6.2 I have to run in the Olympic.

the small pool

All pools in the area are closed for cleaning....ALL of them at the exact SAME time.

Fortunately the small pool at the Y is open for the next two weeks with a liveable schedule to get me through my next race. The downside is that its only 3 (or 4 VERY slim) lanes with a 20 yard length. Its like being back at Mr. Switzers when I was a kid. Unfortunately every triathlete in the area is going to have this one pool to swim in. Strange though...i had the entire pool to myself.

So my stroke count per lenth is pretty consistent that I know when I will hit the wall. Because I am in a pool that is 5 yards shorter, my count is off so I almost cracked me head once.

Then kicking on my back was deemed impossible due to no lines above me or reference to know when to stop to not crack my head.

Oh well...

I did get in 44 lengths for a half mile swim over about 30 mins---ish. It was just a recovery swim. No biggie.

race training ride

Did the Westchester Tri Training ride this morning with a HUGE group of people. I think there was over 100 people at this ride. I stayed towards the front so I could get into my aero bars and climb without passing everyone. I zoomed up the biggest and steepest hill and was happy that I could stayed standing without my legs hitting the bars. I wish I could use two bikes for this race....my road bike for the hills because my position is better suited for climbing and its a lighter bike, then use my aero bars for the flats. The 2nd half of the bike is gonna be fast. I know these long stretch sections pretty well and I know I am gonna be able to fly on this section. I am looking forward to it actually.

Today's ride took 1:45 and was 24.5 miles.....so with all of the stopping and going we only averaging 14 mph. Blah! Fortunately I was able to hit a few sections to keep my speed up.

I was sore going into today am still really sore. My legs were hurting up the climbs but I was still going pretty fast. These next two days I am gonna go EASY because Wednesday through next whenever is gonna be a 100% suffer fest. Bring it on!

and a hot run

Yeah heat does affect your heart rate. I tried to keep it under 162 as best I could but towards the end my body heat was getting high and it was hard even on dead flat roads going @ a super slow 10 min/mile pace my alarm was going off.

I wasn't supposed to do this run today because I have a course preview tomorrow bright and early! Hills here we come!

OWS again

Went up to White Pond with a coworker to do the usual swim. Its actually a .9 mile swim, which is perfect because that is the distance of the swim in my upcoming race.

It took us about 45 mins. Which is strange, because we were going at a really consistent pace the entire time, didn't take a long break at the other side, and got back at a good clip as well. Maybe the distance is further than .9 miles? Who knows....

My arms didn't feel totally wasted at the end which is good because this is the distance that I need to do in about 4 weeks!

casual ride with a hill

This was supposed to be a 30 min recovery ride today but who cares, I wasn't feeling totally wasted from yesterday's run and I know with tomorrow's swim that I will be fine for Sunday's ride if I go a bit further and longer today.

So I did about 18.5 miles of mostly flat roads with one of the two big hills in my upcoming race. The hill is on Riversville Road in norther Greenwich, CT. Its certainly not Harriman but it will get your heart pumping and will make you use your easiest gear, but it certainly won't kill your cadence. I am thinking about doing hill intervals on this sucker next week.

So towards the end of the ride I am cooling down on this small street in Armonk when I start to approach these 3 13-14 year old boys who are walking the walk with their shades on and the bigger of the three sees me and walks behind the other two and into my path trying to look all bad and stuff. I burst out laughing so hard! It was hilarious seeing these kids do this! You could tell they were trying to stare me down and look all badass.....in Armonk, NY of all places! hahahhahahahahahahha!!!

OWS tomorrw AM bright and early.

the devil's run

Went out for a run early this morning with a coworker's husband for a long hill run. We ended up doing exactly 6.66 miles!

I did this run only opposite two weeks ago and I think its actually harder going the longer more steady uphill rather than the shorter but steeper way. Or maybe I am just in that much better shape in 2 weeks? Doubtful but I see the other way as more of a challenge.

So this is what it is like to run a half-half marathon. I gotta get some more longer runs in....

a fun ride

My ride tonight almost didn't happen. Got up to Armonk, pulled out my bike, and realized I didn't have my shoes. Doh!

Back to White Plains, tons of mental garbage and some big debating over whether to actually ride. I didn't have to go hard, so whatever, I'll just ride around the 'burbs for an hour.

I did just that.

And I found a purple house with yellow trim, in SCARSDALE! Across the street from multiple stone houses. Kinda didn't fit into the neighborhood, you know!?!?!?

Then I got lost and had to ask for directions on how to get back. haha!

And its getting dark a lot quicker now. Crap! Long run tomorrow morning up a huge hill. Should be fun!

bbblllaaaaaAAAAAHHHHHHH

thats the description of my swim tonight.

I think I did about 1500-1600 in the pool in about 44 minutes. I just couldn't muster the motivation to go further even though I should be knocking out 3000 yard swims consistently at this point if I want a prayer to do well in the swim portion of my Olympic tri in September.

I think I am not fully recovered yet from Saturday's race.

And I gotta get my head back in the game.

smoooooooooth run

I actually used my heart rate alarm for the first time today to force myself to stay under a certain heart rate level. It worked and I had a very smooth and somewhat relaxing run. This kept me from going too hard and helped me recover. I actually feel very strong and at first felt fast while my heart rate was shockingly low. That changed as the run went on ;)

Of course going up hills I had a hard time keeping my heart rate low and getting it lower when I got to the top of the hill was kinda hard.

Overall, I feel almost recovered. Just need to do a bike ride to smooth those other legs muscles out.

day off, soreness, and a recovery swim

Took yesterday off. I actually thought about riding for 30 mins but realized it prolly wouldn't do any good. Plus my left ankle is a bit sore still from running down the hills at the end.

Tonight I reluctantly went to the pool and slowly did 900 yards in about 26 mins. haha

Motivation right now is a bit......blaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh

I am actually looking forward to tomorrow morning's run. wierd!

Some official results

Got some official times: My swim was FAST, the bike was OK, and the run
was faster that I thought.

I think I put in a new PR on the run, even though it was a very hilly and
rough terrained course. What if I was on a dead flat course!?!?!

What was I doing in T1?!?!? Ouch!

Swim:
Total Time: 15:44
Pace: 1:47

T1: 3:12 (OUCH!)

Bike:
Total Time: 51:32
Speed 18.6

T1: 1:00

Run:
Total Time: 25:55
Pace: 8:22

Total Time: 1:37:23
_______________________________________________________
As for time differences between this race and the first race on
June 1st (excluding transitions):

Swim:
This race: 15:44
First race: 20:12
Difference: 4:28 (WOAH!)

Bike
This week: 51:32
First race: 52:04
Difference: 32 seconds

Run
This race:  25:55
First race: 28:09
Difference: 2:14

had a GOOD race

Just got back from my third triathlon. Funny how all of the triathlons that I have done this season were at the same venue. Oh well.

So I took over 7 mins off of my time from the original SBR #1 Triathlon. This race was SBR #2.

7 MINUTES!!!!

WOW!

In ten weeks!

Here is the race breakdown:

Pre-race:

I got 9 hours of sleep last night vs only about 3-4 for all of my other races. I think that made a difference. Last night I ate a big plate of pasta and couldn't eat any more. This morning I was forcing myself to eat and was only able to put down an english muffin with peanut butter and a bowl of cheerios with strawberries. I showed up 90 mins before the start and setup my transition area and put in a short 2-3 min run.

I think I like Saturday races better because I have to work the previous day and will stay busy to make me tired enough to fall asleep at 9 and STAY asleep. For Sunday races, I am ansy and doing nothing on the day before and usually take a nap midday making it hard to fall asleep.

Swim:
I did the swim in about 16 mins and change. Thats a 4 minute difference from the first tri. Finally my work in the pool has payed off. FINALLY! This swim had a lot more contact but I think it was a good thing as it paced me and let me off the hook from sighting since as a group we would go in the right direction. I actually passed people on the swim! Eventually I came out of that group and ran into one of the bouys. Oops! haha

I couldn't believe how fast I got out to the turn bouy. I was hurting after the turnaround but eventually found my pace yet again. I was happy to be outa the water.

Bike:
My legs just hurt from out of transition to back to transition. I gotta figure out how to get a warmup in on the bike. I couldn't get to that smooth feeling! When I got to the windy downhill I almost ate it on one of the many lazy corners. I didn't know what I was doing and almost thought I was going off the road. Fortunately I got my act together.

As for the big hill. It hurt even worse than the other 3 times I have climbed that hill. After awhile I set into a good pace. About half way up the hill it levels off slightly and I was able to gear up a few times, but by the time I got back onto the final steep section my legs just HURT again. I actually wished we didn't have the short break and the hill could have stayed steep from start to finish.

I didn't feel super fast on the bike, and I am curious to see what my time will be.

Run:
I went out fast because it was flat. Unfortunately when I started to hit the hills I slowed and started to hurt. I tried to go fast up the hills but my legs just wouldn't go. I tried to make up the time on the short downs. At mile 1 I was hurting bad and just wanted to walk, but kept going. I wanted to puke during most of the run. At the turnaround I walked for a few steps and got going again. It was what I needed and started to go faster. I felt a LOT better on the way down, but the route was pretty rough and there was a lot of loose rock. My left ankle hurt a bit on some of the loose sections.

I went as hard as I could on the finishing stretch and finished in 1:37:24. Bam! 7 minutes faster!

final tune up

This has turned into a pretty long taper for just a sprint race....oh well!

I hope to be able to take some time off the clock and I feel rested for this race tomorrow. I didn't feel rested during the last race.

Just did a 5 min warmup on the dreadmill, 10 min run with 2 30 sec surges with a 5 min warmdown. Then 10 mins on the bike with a 1 min surge. Just enough to keep me "sharp."

easy easy easy easy bike ride this morning

I haven't checked what my max heart rate was, but I am not sure if I even breathed out of my mouth I was going so easy.

I went exploring into Scarsdale and oggled at the huge houses. I found some new hills to run on!

new half mile swim record

(for me)

(in the pool)

which I did in 19 minutes flat or actually a little bit faster since the last length in the pool should only be about half the length, so a sub 19 min half mile swim. Sweet!

So during my first two triathlons I did about 19 min half mile swim in the open water in my wet suit. But around that same time the best time I could belt out in the pool was about 23 mins, so a 4 min difference between the pool and open water.

I don't think there will be a 4 min difference between today's pool swim and saturday's open water swim. (it would be freaking sweet if thats the case!) but I do expect a faster time. I am only racing against myself. This is kinda cool since this will be the third time that I race this swim. Hopefully the bouyies will be in the same place to make it even.

I feel rested and ready to race. I have about 2-3 more short tune up workouts prior to friday and each of them will introduce some speed, but nothing hard enough to send me negative.

Lets race!

solid run

Had to run 30 mins this morning, and when I finished I ran 29:58. I will call that close enough!

Did a 1 mile and change warmup to the track, with 4 laps including a 30 second pickup followed by a warmdown lap. Then ran back for an under a mile run to round out a total of 3.35 miles. 9 min mile pace.

Good solid run and I feel VERY confident for this weekend's run portion.

Oh, and I am down to 163 again....10.5 pounds down since January/February!

time trial intervals with coach

Up early again for a coached session on my TT bike. We went to a 2K road that was faily flat with enough rollers to add some variety. My coached drafted off of me while I was in my aero position and he liked what he saw. There were two things that I needed to work on, my upper body position and changing gears.

My upper body position is good, I just needed to relax my chest and shoulders slightly. Nothing big here.

So we worked on changing gears in anticipation for an uphill or downhill. I would change gears going up an uphill too soon and would change for a downhill too late. So as he rode behind me he would yell out when to change, and it made a huge difference. The last interval we were FLYING. I really felt it going uphill especially towards the crest of a hill, where I would upshift before the crest so that at the top along the small flat I was already into the speed going downhill. It was work, but that work kept my speed more consistent.

30 min swim

30 more minutes of drills tonight. Im feeling like my stroke is getting there, but at the same time my endurace is shot! CRAP!

I just watched Michael Phelps DESTROY the 200 meter @ the Olympics. He has a funky swim technique and from under water it looks like he is RUNNING horizontally along the surface of the water. That dude is a beast.

Oh and my comments have seem to have returned from vacation. This site is strange...

easy recovery run and no ride weekend

Went up to Lake George this past weekend for a family reunion. My aunt is a serious runner (like 7:15 min/mile race pace serious runner!) so she took it easy on me and took me out on an easy 3-3.5 mile recovery run.

Then Sunday morning I was supposed to get up at the crack of stupid and put in a 30 mile ride with a pretty good hill climb. I woke up at 6, felt like crap and really sore still from last week's adventures, and rolled back over in bed.

I feel better this morning. Hopefully stronger. I just didn't think that punishing my body for 30 miles was really going to accomplish anything. I feel guilty, but I hope I come back stronger for next weekend's race.

the hurt locker

the hurt locker: that whats what my coworker calls it when you are pushing it hard and fast.

I bricked it this morning up @ SUNY Purchase. After yesterday's hurt locker of a hill run followed by a 1900 yard swim my legs were crispy and sore this morning. Fortunately I had a 20 min warmup to get the blood flowing in my legs. It sorta helped?

So after 2.5 laps around SUNY warming up I hit it and hit it hard for 3 x 6 min intervals, or about 3 laps of pain and suffering with a few minutes of recovery in between. I was relieved to get the biking over with, but no cool down as I had to head right into the run. I did the bike in 54 mins and change.

Fortunately the run was broken up into 3 pieces, a 10 min easy run, followed by a 10 min race pace, then whatever was left to cool down to the finish of the 3 mile loop. I did the run in exactly 27 mins, which I was a bit disappointed in because I felt like I was going a smooth 9 min pace on both the warm up and cool down and with 10 mins at race pace I thought I would do a bit better.

Ah well. Put to look at it this way....I was VERY sore and hurting pretty bad starting this workout, and after 5 laps with 18 mins of faster than race pace effort, I think I eeked out a pretty solid run. I was just happy that I could hold that 10 mins of race pace and still feel strong.

swim @ lunch

Did my first swim during lunch today. Ended up doing about 1900 yards in exactly one hour. I think about 600 of those were drills. One drill in particular that I have been struggling with (kicking on back, body slightly rotated to one side, underside arm outstretched while rotating head into water and breathing) all of a sudden got a lot easier. So my swim form is getting there! I am hoping I can get in an OWS this weekend.

comments gone bye bye

Interesting how some comments that were made in the past 24-48 hours have disappeared.

I have NO idea why. Sorry!

running hill interval

Went on a run this morning with a co-worker's husband. He is a runner; he has that runner's body and can fly up hills. So this run was going to be a bit of challenge not only because of the route he introduced me to, but also him being a faster runner.

It all worked out great. He pushed me up some of the hills and I got a rewarding run in. The last hill I was starting to struggle to keep up with him, but again, it was enough of a push and at the end of 5 miles that this was a good thing. This run turned into a HUGE confidence booster.

We ended up averaging a 9:35 min/mile, which is slow, but then again we were going up some serious hills. I think a goal would be to do the run route backwards, which is even steeper!

One thing that I struggled with though, was running DOWNHILL. Not sure why. I guess I need to let my body "go" without falling. I guess more hills will do it!

hill intervals, spreadsheets, and a lingering injury

First my ride tonight. Very productive! I did 4x 30 warmup surges to get my legs speedy and somewhat loose. Then I moved onto the main course: 5X5 min zone 4-5 all out efforts. Yeah....ouch! I have this really good route by where I used to live in Armonk that has perfectly paved roads, no traffice, and enough flats/uphills/downhills ratio to make it an awesome course.

The first three sprints were hard and I was glad to get them over with. The 4th I just blew. I was in that perfect gear at a smooth cadence and just went. I wish I had a computer to tell me how fast I was going. The fifth my legs were getting pretty spent. I was able to do the effort, but my legs just didn't have the "oomph" to put the power to the pedals. I did a long spin home. My legs actually feel fine now.

I use a Polar HRM, which is a great HRM, but I wish the download options were a bit better. It will report in a logical manner what I did, for how long, and some simple heart rate reports. Unfortunately its overall addition and averaging tools are crap.

Sooooo, I am doing it the old fashioned way on a spreadsheet. Basically I want to see totals and averages and be able to calculate subtotals easier. I think at the end of the season I am going to invest in a better HRM system.

Finally, my upper left shoulder/lower left neck. I don't know what I did, but after my run Tuesday morning I was having trouble bending my neck and back and thought that it would go away. Well as I am writing this, it feels a little better but I can't rotate my neck fully to the left and in certain positions I have a hard time breathing. WTF!

It didn't mess with my workout other than I couldn't look over my left shoulder. Hopefully it will go away before I start swimming.

good run turned bad

Started with a good run this morning. My legs were crisp and stiff but after a few hills I came to a long flat stretch and the legs started to finally loosen up. I did two race pace surges to further loosen things up and I was finally smooth at a great pace. Then my GI issues cropped up again and game over. Walking.

I tried to run a few more times, but I was quickly stopped again.

GRRRRRRRRRRRRRRRR!

awesome swim and july's totals

Did an AWESOME swim tonight. I bought the Total Immersion: Freestyle Made Easy swim DVD and was doing its basic basic drills in the pool. This DVD is AWESOME! I swam with a lot more confidence in the pool and was a lot more boyant in the pool. I will be repeating some of the drills and continuing onto the more advanced stuff tomorrow night.

As for the month of July (wow I can't believe its already freaking August!) I clocked in 33.5 hours of training, only took 5 days off, but only went a total of 308 miles. How is that possible!?!?

I guess it doesn't matter as long as those are quality miles. I know I made huge gains last month. I also only did one race and I crashed once. A 10 hour week really doesn't faze me that much anymore. I guess I got over that initial volume increase when I started the coached regimine.

The goods news! I am in the best shape of my life!

same ride as friday

Did the same ride as last friday when I flew like a bird up those hills. I tried to repeat my feat this afternoon. I guess I repeated my effort? I was able to go up the hills just as fast, but my legs didn't feel as loose and fluid. However, I did do about 4 more miles that Friday's and still did the ride a LOT faster. Didn't have anyone flatting or getting sick....

I guess the good news is that I feel really strong on the bike, I just need about 10-12 miles of warming up before I can really get going. Unfortunately that distance is practically the distance of the biking portion in a sprint triathlon. I guess I need to warm up better....

OWS swim, finally!

The last open water swim that I did was during my last triathlon, June 8th. Yeah....too long of a time.

So two of us went up to White Pond and hopped in for the .8 mile swim. The water last time was 60 degrees and literally took my breath away. This time: bathtub water warm. It was nice!

So we get out to the rock across the pond and another swimming caught up to us. He asked us, "Why the wet suit? The water is so warm!." Before I could answer he was off back to shore.

We went slow, and I think we did it in about an hour. I worked on my sighting specifically trying to keep my head low and not lift it out of the water while I sit, to keep my feet from dropping and dragging. I think I did pretty well.

Overall, a good swim!