still Adjusting

I'm moved in to my new place, but not totally settled. I don't have internet access in my apt yet, so I'm left type this on my blackberry. Isn't technology great.
I feel like Rev Run typing on my b berry, maybe I should go get in the bath tub.
I missed a lot of swim practice being in the hotel, so I went back to the pool last night to see how much I've lost lucky for me, it wasn't to bad. I swam 2000 yards, didn't run our of gas and felt good at the end. I was expecting some soreness today, but really only felt it in my neck.
Last weekend I was in Memphis for a wedding. Weekends away always present special challenges bc I don't have a bike, nor is swimming a good option. After touching down in Memphis, we headed out for BBQ and beers. Neither diappointed. Great BBQ at Central BBQ, then Beale St for beers. Beale st reminds me of a mini Bourbon st or even downtown Mobile Al. Lots of people out walking around and drinking. We went to a bar that has real live goats in the back and they drink beer. Not anything like this in NYC. I heard lots of jokes about this, the funniest being, I've been to bars with lots of pigs and dogs, but never goats. This turned into a little beer tour of Memphis. My night ended at about 4 a.m., this put me at about 23 hours of being awake. Not the best way to get a good workout in on Saturday. Saturday Erin and I headed to a park to do a run. We only ran 5 to 6 miles and I balttled all the way. It was a preview of the summer, the humidity was pretty bad. The park was pretty cool though. There was more wildlife here, this time buffalo. Also there happened to be an xterra triathlon going on. It looked pretty awesome, I may to do one of these some day. The xterra series are off road triathlons. This was a 1 mile lake swim, them a mountain bike ride through the hills of this park, then a trail run. The bike was the coolest, seeing these guys bomb down this hill covered in mud looked like a great way to spend a saturday. Sunday didn't leave me with any time to workout due to travel, so I started the week ready to get back to it.
I've had a few good runs and bikes in addition to last nights swim. This weekend ill be back at it and out in some warm weather. Saturday will be a long bike ride out in Jersey with my teammates. It should be a good time. Sunday will be a long run. I'm ready for the weekend.

consistently inconsistent

i got a few of you with my April Fools Joke, the best being my mother who was ready to get on a plane to come take care of me. She's greatest, and I definitely got the best reaction from her. I was laughing uncontrollably and she didn't appreciate it.

My training has been a little inconsistent for the past 10 days b/c of my move. I moved my stuff into my new apartment on the 31st, but was not able to move myself in, yet. The building I moved into didn't receive it's Certificate of Occupancy from the city, so myself and 27 other suckers haven't been able to move in. The company that owns the building also owns a nice hotel in midtown, so i have been living there for the past 10 days. It could be worse, they could own a Best Western by Laguardia, but i'm ready to move in. Hopefully this coming week, it will happen. Living in a hotel room has made me feel like i'm on tour or something, I'm thinking of myself at the 4th Jonas Brother these days.

This living situation has left me without my regular routine. I'm a guy that loves routine, i try to create routine in everything that I do. I like the consistency of it. That being said, one positive thing about the hotel is it's about 4 blocks from Central Park, so I have been able to get out there before work to run and cycle. My swimming is probably suffering the most, but I can get that back quickly. There is a pool at the hotel, but dodging all the rugrats that are here on spring break, has made it less than appealing. It's also only about 15 yards long, which give me about 5 strokes before I hit the wall at the other end.

One other positive thing, i purchased a brand new triathlon bike. I'm officially one of those guys, i struggled with being "that guy" on one of "those bikes", but i decided to go for it. I'm happy I did. My new rig is faster and puts me in a more aggressive position. Once my body gets used to it, it will be great and hopefully will help in the long run. She needs a name, so send me your suggestions.

a temporary end to a dream

it's official, i'm out for Ironman Louisville. I have been seeing a doctor on the sneak to deal with some ankle pain that i have been suffering though. the toll of the long workouts i have been enduring has wrecked my ankle. My ankle problems are rooted in too many bad sprains playing hoops growing up. The pounding that my ankle was taking cause some real problems. My doc was doing everything he could to fix me up to train and race, but today he told me it was a no go for this year. he' suggesting some surgery to tighten everything up and then rehab, then we'll dicuss Ironman. I'm not happy, but I also don't want to be total broken at a young age. So I'll hang it up for now, concentrate on riding and see how it all goes. the end, for now.

7 Day Recap

it's been a week since i posted, i guess i've been busy.  Actually, i know i've been busy.  Work has been busy, i'm moving this week and training is taking more and more time.  

Last Monday was a speed workout followed by some core.  Most of my teammates were still out of town or recovering from their marathon's.  Ramon was also away coaching, so it left a small group of us to run some fast paced hills on Monday.  We ran Cat Hill in Central Park, running at 85% of max up the hill and recovering down.  I completed 7 of these loops and then we did our core work.  Planks and crunches and more planks and crunches.  

The rest of the week was early morning rides, swims and runs.  Nothing monumental, but good work.

This weekend was a long ride and long run.  Yesterday I was primed for a long ride in Jersey with a bunch of my team members.  We had great intentions but they squashed when i woke up to a rainy morning and 8 messages from my teammates letting me know they were out.  I took my time, got ready and headed out to ride anyway.   The rain stopped, leaving thing pretty wet, but also kept the crowds down.  I headed to the Park.  I rode some six mile loops, lower loops and ran into a lot of my friends.  A lot of people doing Bricks and running, it always makes time go by quickly when I see people i know out there.  Part way through the ride, my bike was starting to fail me.  I was having some issues with the gears on my bike.  I was left with utilizing only about 3 gears so i finished my ride, riding lower loops.  I made it home, covered in city dirt.  I logged about 2.5 hours of saddle time, felt good, but my back and neck were sore.  

This morning I made a great discovery, my bike was covered in city dirt from yesterday's ride, I was able to use a hose from my building to do some clean up work on my bike.  It makes cleaning up a lot easier than trying to fit my bike in the shower and keeps all the dirt out of my apartment.  What a great discovery, except i'm moving on tuesday.  oh well.  After the cleaning session, i headed out for a run.  My schedule showed a long, easy paced run.  I went out and ran for about 90 minutes.  It was nice, slow pace, good temperature, really foggy and all in all an enjoyable run.  Lots more characters on the path this morning, a guy riding a bike smoking a cigar, and some B level celebrity from italy or something.  I only knew this b/c i saw the paparazzi and had to ask them what they were doing.  i also ran past the one major tourist attraction that I've never been to, the Intrepid.  It's pretty cool to run past a aircraft carrier, see it's size and see the planes parked on the deck.  I need to go check it out sometime.  I would say i ran about 20 miles this week, cycled i'd guess about 80 miles and swam a mile and a half.  A solid week.  If you aren't aware, check out this link, it's the history of the Ironman.    

Endurance

This weekend was all about endurance.  Yesterday morning I woke up early with intentions to go for a long ride outdoors.  I woke to see the temps in the low 30's and that quickly sapped my motivation to head out doors.  The prescribed workout was a 3 hour ride to get some saddle time.  There is a fair amount of acclimation that my body will need to have in order for me to  good ride for the race.  A great race bike time will be around 6 hours for me, and sitting on that seat for six hours will require my crotch area getting used to the bike seat.  This workout wasn't supposed to be about mileage, but more about this acclimation.  Because of the temps, i opted for the trainer and logged about 2.5 hours on it.  That is an eternity to be riding on a trainer.  I did watch a great show about ants on the discovery channel.  Ants are pretty amazing, destructive killers.  My interest in visiting jungles around the world has greatly decreased after seeing ants that will kill you via suffocation.  That's not how i want to go out.  I got my weekly dose of 30 Rock and a few episodes of Jeopardy.  I wanted to get this done early because the NCAA tourney games started up around 1 and I was looking forward to watching.  

Today was another endurance workout, this one a long run.  I headed out on my usual path up the West side Highway.  I was supposed to run 90 to 120 minutes.  I was determined not to bonk on this run and was prepared with a few gu's to keep me going.  I ran about 11 miles in about 95 minutes.  I felt really good, especially on my return trip.  I utilized my nutrition and hit a few water fountains to keep me going.  Such a simple addition made my run and post run so much more enjoyable.  This caloric consumption isn't a new theory for me, but for some reason i think i can do these long runs without ingesting any calories.  In my last post I talked about all the crazies on the path and encountered a few more this morning.  In no particular order, these were the highlights of what i saw on my run:

what seemed like hundreds of European tourists on rented bikes

a guy riding a bike in an army helmet

a women on roller skates

a kid rolling down the hill behind the trump building in the 60's on the west side

what had to be another euro tourist, this women walking on the path in pink open toed high heels.  She looked what I imagine a eastern European hooker would look like.  As a matter of fact, she was my favorite of the morning.  She was turning heads all over the place, it was fantastic.  

a broken down cab

3 bikes painted white in honor of cyclist that we killed while riding on the path

countless runner and cyclists

two fathers playing catch with their sons, this one brought back memories of playing catch with my dad in the back yard.  

It was a great morning run, I felt great, the sun was shining and it was a great temp to run.  Plus, when i got home, there were more college hoops games on.   

Swim, Bike, Bike, Run and Bike

Those were my last 5 workouts.  Monday night we had our first "team swim".  We were up at Riverbank with the masses.  There were about 10 of my teammates there and another 100 people jammed into about 4 lanes.  Ramon was there and not coaching, wink wink.  He wasn't supposed to be coaching, as it is against their rules.  He really wasn't coaching per se, we'll call it giving pointers.  Having all those people in such few lanes didn't really allow for any consistent swimming, but I did my best, got some drills in and as the crowd lessened, it got a little better.  The funniest part of the night, or at least now looking back at it, was where i parked.  I was in this lot that was really shady.  the ticket they gave me appeared to be the only one they actually had.  I'm fairly certain, if i go back again, they will give me the same ticket.  this was a cash only business, but some of the cheapest parking in the city.  10 bucks for 2 hours, you can't beat it, my car was safe and sound when i got back, so what was i worried about???

Tuesday morning I woke up early and got an endurance ride in before work.  I was a little sleepy so i'm not sure i rode very hard.  I made up it for after work that night.  It was a nice day in the big city, so I joined a few of my teammates in Central Park after work.  We rode northern loops, which for those of you that aren't familiar, they include the biggest up and down hills in Central park.  We did four loops, standing for a couple and seated for a couple.  We then did a complete loop and and lower loop.  At that point it was starting to get dark so I headed home.  I got two solid hours of riding in that night, so I was pleased.  

Last night, the weather was very pleasant agin.  After work I headed out for a 6 mile run.  I wanted that negative split and ran some pick ups during my run.  I went covering the first 3 miles in 27 minutes and back in 25.  I got the negative split and felt really good coming back.  With the warm weather, it brings out all types on the West Side Highway Path.  I saw rollerbladers, all kinds of bikers, runners and even a guy on an electric skateboard.  NYC is full of people that must not have received much attention as children.  I say this b/c the cast of characters out "exercising" never ceases to amaze me.  The guy on the electric skateboard really took the cake.  I'm not so sure I think adult men should be on a human powered skateboard, but an electric one is not acceptable.  This guy, who was about 6'6 in shoes, was about 6'10 on this skateboard.  He had the biggest sh-t eating grin i've ever seen.  At this point i was really pushing it and his smile basically made  me want to punch him.  Lucky for him, his skateboard was motorized, so i couldn't catch him.  Between this guy and all the stupid rollerbladers, I had all the competitive/anger juices flowing and getting me moving down the path.

This evening was another trainer ride and another prescribed endurance ride.  In case you haven't heard, the NCAA basketball tourney is one, so I rode and watched some hoops.  This workout included utilizing all the gears on my bike and varying my effort in burst of output.  I felt good and rode for about an hour.  As the weather turns warm and I inch closer to race day, i'll be spending more and more time cycling.  With about half or more of the total race time spent cycling, i'll be logging many hours riding before 8/30.     

Weekend Wrap Up

It's been a while since I have posted, the past week was rather busy and i wasn't feeling in the mood to write.  I'll start with the 2ND half of last week.  I was experiencing a fair amount of pain in my left foot and ankle.  I'm sure this was from all the running i had done the week before.  I think between last Thursday and last Monday night, i logged about 30 miles in those 4 days.  My body wasn't ready for that.  Due to my ankle pain, i stuck to the bike at the end of last week and logged some solid workouts on my trainer.  I can tell I'm getting into better shape, I'm not breathing as hard and I'm sweating more.  

Saturday most of the team competed in an 8K race in Central Park.  8K is just short of 5 miles, just and FYI.  I misunderstood the meeting point and had a mile "warm up" to get to the start line.  It was a little faster and a little more hilly than i would have like to warm up to.  I met a few of my teammates that had my number/chip.  As I was putting the chip on my shoe, the race started.  I made my way to the back of the pack, and got in line.  Lucky for me, there are many participants in these NYRR races, so I had a chance to collect myself and get ready to run before i crossed the start line.  the only problem with running from back of the pack is, although I'm not very fast, i am faster than most of the people in the back of the pack.  I spent the first mile weaving my way through the pack to find some open space.  I will never pass that many people in a race ever again.  I ran pretty consistent splits for the 3 middle miles and finished the last just short of a mile in 8:30.  I'm still trying to figure out what my race pace is, especially at this distance.  I was happy with the finish especially because i was rushed at the start of the race.  After the race, i caught up with some of my teammates, chatted a bit and then headed out to finish my run.  From the park i was going to run home.  My guess is it was another 6 to 7 miles back to my place.  Once again, the lack of calories ingested, got the best of me, as I was starting to feel it by the time i got home.  I got cleaned up and met my family for my nephew, Will, the wildebeest, Bystrom's 4Th birthday.  We had a great lunch and it was great to have the family together.  

This morning was another bike ride and i opted for my trainer.  I got a good hour plus ride in and got caught up with some 30 Rock episodes.  Tracy Morgan is one of the funniest men on the planet.  Tomorrow night will be our first team swim, I'm anxious to hear what Ramon has for instruction.  

A 4 Day Recap

Let's start with this past Saturday.  Saturday was our first team Brick.  A Brick in this case being a bike followed by a run.  My morning started at about 5:15 with breakfast.  A peanut butter granola bar, an orange, some coconut water and a little bit of coca cola for some caffeine.  We were meeting in the park at 7 and I wasn't sure how long it would take me to ride up there.  It's about 5 miles to the park from my place so I left about 6:20, making it up there with plenty of time to spare.  The team assembled for some instruction from Ramon.  The ironman part of the team had a 25 to 30 mile bike followed by  a 6 mile run.  The ride was supposed to be an easy one.  I set off on my way with Bernie, we did our 6 mile loops at a pretty easy pace.  We logged our miles, changed out of our bike gear, had some nutrition, laced up our sneaks and headed out for our run.  Part of the definition of Brick is how your legs feel after riding and then trying to run.  I shoot off the heaviness of the ride and had a pretty good run.  We assembled again as a team, chatted a bit, it was interesting to hear all the marathoners on my team that hadn't ridden then run before, describe how slow they felt.  That gave me some satisfaction since most of them dust me on the team runs.  Ramon appeared again and completed a pretty comprehensive overview of a bike.  He explained all the components, did a tire change demo and worked on his trainer to show form and body position.  It was a good first Brick and only made better by the great preview of spring that was happening in NYC.  

Sunday morning seemed earlier than it should, but the day light savings time made the morning come sooner than I wanted.  I was joining a few of my teammates for an endurance run in NJ with Ramon.  All of my teammates that were out that morning were training for marathons and doing there long runs.  I had expectations of trying to run 20 miles but Ramon quickly squashed that goal telling me I didn't need to go that far and I was risking injury if I did.  I took his advice and only did a 15 miler.  The run was an out and back format on a great trail near the Rutger's campus.  Most of the run had a canal on one side and a stream on the other.  It was nice, no ipod, no traffic, just me with my thoughts, moving water and some birds chirping.  The first 10 miles were pretty good, I felt great and was moving at a good pace for me.  The last 5 I basically bonked.  I didn't have enough calories that morning and fell apart. I slowed down considerable, but made it back.  I'm writing it off as a learning experience.  Ramon gave me a nutrition lesson when he returned; specifically about the number of calories burned yesterday compounded by my run this morning and really needing to ingest a fair amount of energy to power these workouts.  

Monday night was another group workout.  Lucky for me after my weekends workouts, I only had a recovery workout which was a nice and easy run.  After the run we did some great stretches as a group and worked our core.  I'm happy to say my core is getting stronger and that will pay off on race day.  

This morning I had intentions of getting up and riding my trainer before work, but that was quickly dashed when i stumbled out of bed with a really sore ankle/foot.  Instead of riding, I opted for an ice bath for my foot.  I loaded up on Advil and opted for my compression socks to wear to work.  This evening I went to the pool for a non impact workout.  It was an endurance swim and i logged a couple thousand yards.  I worked a variety of speeds and distances and felt pretty good.  There were a couple of negatives to tonight's swim.  The pool was really crowded, there were four of us circling swimming in my lane.  That was compounded by two of the guys being not the best swimmers.  Not only were they not great swimmers, but they did that froggy kind kick out to the side, which left me dodging them when we passed as we swam.  One more thing, one of the guys smelled.  Not only did he smell, he stunk!  I could smell this guy as he swam past me.  Keep in mind this is in a super chlorinated public pool.  I ran into him again in the locker room, he appeared to be post shower and he still smelled.  This kid was like Pigpen, there was just a cloud around him.  I don't think he was homeless, he had a blackberry, but he didn't seem to have clean clothes or soap.  

I think this weekend's workouts were a good indication of what's to come.  I'm happy to say I've dropped about 10 lbs since I've started training, and weekends like this, I'm sure the next 10 will come off pretty quick.  

A Busy Few Days

The honeymoon is over.  I like writing this blog, i find it almost therapeutic, the problem is, most nights I'm to tired to write.  After my post work, workout I'm more interested in eating and sleeping than writing.  Don't you feel sorry for me....  Anyway, on to the workouts. 

Tuesday evening I headed off to the pool for a technique workout.  I'm going to blame my poor performance on the fact that I was still not 100% from my previous days sickness.  It was all technique.  I did a series of drills with a low light of using a kickboard.  I'm fairly certain my 5 year old niece would be fast down the lane using a kickboard than me.  I also dusted off the pool buoy and used it as well.  The pool was pretty crowded and I never really got into a good rhythm.  

Yesterday I woke up early and rode before work.  It was a series of pick ups and recoveries which left me dripping.  I had to do a little mop up work after my ride.  After work I headed back to the pool for an endurance swim.  I wasn't in the greatest mood, so getting to the pool to work out my bad mood was much needed.  I had set out to swim at least 2000 yards.  I was using the buoy again and was feeling really good.  I think I had a minor epiphany with my swim stroke.  For as bad as I was Tuesday night, I was the opposite last night.  I ended up swimming 6, 500 yard sets finishing with a 200 yard set, giving me a total of 3200 yards or two miles.  Much like my 17 mile run a few weeks ago, this was a big confidence builder for me.  I'm fairly intimated by the 2.4 miles I'll be swimming for the Ironman, but this went a long way for my confidence.  

This morning was another trainer ride.  I'm thinking it's probably best for me just to get up every morning and ride.  Only waking up early a few days a week probably does more harm than good.  I did a real easy ride this morning, just got my legs moving and watched some ESPN.  This evening I ran with the Nike running group.  Nike sponsors runs a few days a week in NYC, you meet at Niketown and head out with a group.  There are a few distance options and pacers so it's a pretty organized group.  Ramon also is a coach for this group, so it's good to get in front of him another night during the week.  Tonight was a 6 mile loop in Central Park, the first mile was a warm up, followed by a tempo run for the last five miles.  I feel pretty good about what I ran for the five miles.  I would say it was the toughest five miles of the six mile loop.  Toughest equals most hills.  I had one of my teammates running with me and she really  set the pace for us.  I couldn't let her run away from me, so it was a good way to keep me going.  We did the 5 miles in 44 minutes.  I'm pretty happy with that effort.  Tomorrow I guess I'll wake up and ride, but it will be another easy one, as Saturday morning will be our first BRick and I want to have somewhat fresh legs.   

The Last Weekend in February

Last Friday was all personal, no training.  After work I signed a lease for new apartment.  Who knew going from 4 walls to 8 would be such a great thing.  I'm really looking forward to April 1 when i'm in my new digs.  After the lease signing I met up with my good friend Dr. A and his lovely wife Dr. A.  They were in town for a speaking engagement and had the weekend to relax here.  I met them for a beer then headed to bed to rest up for Saturday's workout.  

Saturday morning was a  7 a.m. start in Central Park.  Another tough workout concocted by Ramon.  We did our usual warm up and headed off to a pretty steep hill in the park.  This workout, as most are these days, about strength and speed.  We ran up this hill, it was about 300-400 yards at about 70%.  Once we reached the top of the hill, there was a small path that was another 300 yards or so.  We ran hard on this path, pushing it even harder than the uphill, followed by a recovery down to the bottom of the hill.  We did these loops for about 40 minutes, leaving me pretty spent.  My quads were totally blown out.  From here we did a slow jog for a mile or so, then turned it back up for a 1.2 timed mile back to Bethesda Terrace.  That was the end of the coached part.  From here, Ramon suggested that Lawrence and I do some additional miles.  We did another 3-4 miles and finished at my car at about 9:15.  I totally lucked out.  I was parked in a metered spot that you have to feed the meter by 9.  As I was walking up to the car there was a Meter Maid at my car about to give me a ticket.  Lucky for me, he didn't give me one.

Sunday I had a longer ride on the schedule.  I woke up not feeling so well and ended up sleeping the whole day.  I had "flu like symptoms", that's how NBA players are described when they are sick.  I'm not sure why, they just don't have the flu???  So no ride for me.  

Today I didn't go to work, spent most of the day sleeping/relaxing again.  By this evening, I was feeling a lot better and decided to brave the cold for a short run.  I was restless and needed to get out of my apartment.  I also knew it was going to be really cold for the next few days, so I wanted to get out there before it was to miserable.  There was a Nor'easter that dropped a some snow and ice and created a mess in the city.  All the melting/freezing will create a lot of ice out there, so i'll probably spend more time on my trainer and in the pool over the next few days.  

Lacking Focus

The past few days have been tough, I've been lacking focus on my training.  My sessions haven't felt like they've been very productive.  I've done the workouts, biked last night and this morning and I also got a swim in tonight.   I think I have been focused on other things the past few days. Barring any unforeseen problems, i will be signing a lease on a new apartment tomorrow.  I'm moving about four blocks to the north to a brand new building.  It will be a great set up, leaving "the box" for a real one bedroom apartment.  It's a great building, gym, roof deck, screening room and a lot of great services.  I think once i get this sorted out, I'll be ready to return my focus to training.  Saturday morning should be good, a tough coached workout to get me back on track.  

The Past Few Days

I'll start with Sunday, the "day after".  Saturday's long run left me expecting a rough time trying to get out of bed on Sunday.  I woke up early, as usual and hopped out of bed.  My legs were definitely sore, but honestly, not as bad as I expected.  I had a trainer ride schedule for Sunday.  I got on my bike and realized very quickly that I may not be sore but I didn't have much juice in my legs.  I did the minimum prescribed workout and got off.  As the day went on, I felt worse and worse.  My legs were hurting and I was feeling run down.  I stayed off my feet the rest of the day and made it to a couple of fun Oscar parties.  

Monday night was a group workout.  We met Ramon and he offered two workouts for the evening, and easy and hard one.  Like the true motivator he is, he "convinced" everyone to do the tougher workout.  We did our usual warm up followed by a series of sprints up and hill in Central Park.  We then did a tempo run of a couple miles, followed by a serious core workout.  We did some more sprints and finished the evening with more core.  I'm still working on the six pack, but these workouts will help me get there.  

This morning was another early wake up call and hour trainer ride.  I followed Ramon's workout and caught up Sunday night's Amazing Race episode.  I know, I know, reality TV, but this show is great, you should watch it if you don't.  I'm still trying to figure out what my angle is to get on that show.  I bailed out on tonight's swim, but I'll make it up later this week.  I needed a night to myself.  I'll be ready to run tomorrow.

Longest Run of My Life

This morning was the first of many long runs I will have leading up to August 30th.  I covered between 16 and 17 miles and experienced the following things during the run.

1.  Two States

2.  A Bridge

3.  Near the site of the most famous duel in American History

4.  A Landslide

5.  A Chain gang

6.  I think I was hallucinating at mile 15 and may have seen the Virgin Mary in a rock formation.

7.  Some fine car dancing to a Beyonce song.

It's time to eat and take a nap.  

The Past 24 Hours

The past 24 hours has been full of training. Yesterday, the schedule called for a weakness workout. The weather didn't allow me to get out and run, so i did the same bike workout i had done on Tuesday. It was a pyramid type ride utilizing all the rear chain rings. I rode hard for a hour, worked up a good sweat and then had a great meal.

This morning I woke up early and went for a 40 minute run. I guess I'm so tired these days that I can't read a my workout plan. It wasn't part of my workout plan for this week to run this morning, but no question I need the time running so it's not a big deal. I worked, got my teeth cleaned and came home and went to the pool. My swim was about endurance tonight and it was another pyramid type workout. I did the following: 4x25 yards, then 4x100 yards, 4x200 yards and finished with another 4x25 yards.

These pyramid type workouts are used to raise your heart rate, then recover, then raise it again while pushing the distance. I'm guessing this is a good way to build endurance, or at least that's what it seems to me. We've been doing so many of these pyramid type workouts, I'm expecting Dick Clark and Nipsey Russell to show up at my apartment. The only thing that I would ask if they did, is that Nipsey lay down one of his dope rhymes. (skip to the 1:35 mark to hear the OG Nipsey Russell spit some rhymes) Nipsey Russell has been gangsta since like 1978, RIP.

Two For Tuesday

I'll actually start this with Monday night's workout.  We usually have an evening team practice on Monday but due to the holiday, the coached practice was moved to a morning swim up at Riverbank.  Unfortunately for me, i had to work so i missed the a.m. swim.  there was a group session in Central Park that night, but I chose to run on my own from my apartment.  the run workout for Monday was a series of out and back runs with pickups built into the run.  if this doesn't make sense, it was basically running hard for a certain distance then slowing the pace, then picking it up and so on.  I obviously didn't need the park to do this run, so I headed out on the West side Highway Path.  My knees and ankles were pretty sore from Saturday so I wanted to get warmed up before i started my pickups .  I'm a person that likes to know how long or how far of a workout I'm doing and tonight i didn't really have that.  I kind of felt like Forrest Gump, i just started running.  It took me over 3 miles to finally start to feel good, my legs got loose and my knees and ankles warmed up.  I got to 60th St. which is about  4 miles from my apartment and was feeling great.  After I made the turn to head back home, i knew I had these four miles to do my pickups.  I did these pickups by running hard for a few street lights, then slowing the pace for a few.  I continued this for my 4 miles home.  I logged about 8 miles in total and was out there for about a hour and a quarter.  By no means a blistering pace, but it was a good amount of time on my feet.

Okay, onto to my Two for Tuesday.  Unlike every classic rock station that was playing two tracks from the B side of Dark Side of the Moon, I was doing two workouts today.  My morning started at about 5:30 with a ride on my trainer.  Ramon's workout today was what he called a pyramid ride.  I rode on the big chain ring in the front and worked my way up and down my rear chain ring.  I spent about 30 seconds in each gear and did this progression 4 times.  I had a 10 minute warm up to start, the pyramid took about 35 minutes and cooled down for 10 minutes.  I clocked just short of a hour this morning.  Tonight i hit the pool for some more work on technique.  I knew I'd be in the pool again on Thursday night, so i tried to not get caught up in distance, but work some good technique and drills.  I swam about 1600 yards working in a variety of drills and doing some  two beat kick as well.  the pool was crowded tonight, a lot of Chinese people and i was lucky enough to share a lane with a women who didn't share the same grooming habits of most American women.  I finished my swim and headed to Whole Foods to pick up some dinner.  They have a lot of great prepared foods; I opted for the roasted chicken, mac and cheese and veggies which included sweet potatoes and brussel sprouts.  As i waited in the annoying long line to check out i did see Nicole Ritchie; who knew she'd ever been seen in a place that has food...  It's been a good few days of "star sightings".  

A Very New York Weekend

My weekend of training started early on Saturday morning.  Once again the team met at 7 for a tough workout in Central Park.  We started with a mile warm up from Bethesda Terrace up to the Reservoir.  Once we reached the reservoir we did a 2 sets of the following workout.  A half a mile warm up, followed by a half a mile at 75% of max, repeat, then the same effort for a mile instead of the half.  Like I said, we did this twice.  The goal of the workout was to maintain a similar effort and similar times through the sets of runs.  I successfully ran the half mile splits between 3:58 and 4:08 and the hard miles around 8 minutes.  We finished with a cool down and I covered about 10 miles in total for the workout.  I felt good about my effort and times, and was happy to log about 10 miles.  

I got back to my apartment, got cleaned up and headed up to Bryant Park to see a fashion show.  It's fashion week in NYC and i had an opportunity to see a fashion show in the tents.  You can insert your gay joke here, but I will say this is something that was on my list of things to do in NYC.  It was interesting; a lot of faux hawks on guys, and the highest of high heels on the women and these were the spectators.  On my way out I had my one legitimate  star sighting, Jennifer Love Hewitt was there being interviewed by someone.  she looked good, not like this, the pics she had some much recent press for.  I also saw one of the yentas from the Real Housewives of NYC, but she doesn't count.  I hopped on the subway and headed home.  The "star" sightings didn't end at Bryant Park, as I walked down N. Moore St. to my apartment, i saw Damon Dash, Jay-Z former partner from Roca-fella Records.  He lives on my street a few blocks down.  He's not the biggest star, but had a lot of cash at one point.  Not sure he's doing so well anymore.  

A solid Saturday starting in the park and getting to see a real NYC event.  

Sunday morning i was up on the early side again, logged a hour and half ride on my trainer and headed up to my teammates apartment to get fitted for my team tri gear.  I bought some bib shorts, tri top, tri shorts and a cycling jersey.  It will be cool to have some team gear in 4 to 6 weeks.  

I'm now waiting for the single greatest grouping of athleticism anywhere in the word to start, the NBA All Star Game.  Also the most entertaining all star game in all of pro sports.  

Two A Days

Today was my 2nd double dip workout of the week.  I woke up early this morning to do an endurance run.  My training schedule showed an endurance run and endurance swim for today.  I was up at 5:45 to do my run.  Motivation was very low this morning, I was sore from last night's run and would have rather stayed in bed.  My first dip into some internal motivation was provided by my newest cousin in law.  Ann had emailed me yesterday to find out about accommodations in Louisville for the race.  She also mentioned that she and my cousin Ryan had been waking up at 5:25 to workout.  Now I could have taken this two ways, one, the supportive if we can do it, you can do it, or the other, stop complaining about getting up early, we get up earlier than you and we're not doing an ironman.  I'm sure it was meant in a supportive way, but i needed the motivation so i considered both.  I may lob a little challenge back at them sometime soon.....  I got myself out of bed and out on the West side Highway path to do my 40 minutes.  It took all of 15 seconds to realize that this wasn't going to be very pleasant.  This brought me to motivator number two.  When i'm out there running, i try to set little goals, they usually involve trying to catch other runners that are out there with me.  I also try to create some rivalry with people, i happened across a guy running in a Michael Strahan jersey which was just what i needed.  My first thought was why would anyone be running in a football jersey, my 2nd thought is what would any adult male be wearing a jersey.  I have a real problem with men wearing jerseys, i just don't think it works because usually the guy is like 400 lbs and appears to never done anything athletic in his life.  if you wear a jersey, sorry it's just the way i feel.  I'm not even sure I like a girl in a pink version of her favorite teams jersey.  When i'm running i'm left with my thoughts.  This morning I was thinking what was the root of my hatred for men in jerseys and i figured out where this came from.  My freshman year in college there was this guy in my dorm who wore a Patrick Roy hockey jersey 3 days a week, strike 1.  He also used to sit in front of the dorm attempting to play a guitar, strike 2.  He wasn't good and i often considered pulling a Blutarsky on this guy.  The story gets better.  My good friend, we'll call him PD to protect his identity, also had a similar hated for this guy.  PD and i weren't really friends freshman year, so when we became friends the next year and discovered our similar feelings about this guy, it made our friendship stronger.  PD informed me that one day he couldn't take the crappy music anymore and shot this kid with a pellet gun.  God i wish i could have witness this.  I imagined it much like the JFK assassination and totally would have been the 2nd shooter on the grassy knoll if i had the chance.  We lived on the 3rd floor of our doom, so it took a good shot.  PD sized him up and shot him, i don't remember where he hit him, but it had to hurt.  I did remember that there was a specific point when the douchey Patrick Roy wasn't out there playing.  I have to thank PD for his efforts.  Anyway, back to the run, I ran down Michael Strahan this morning and finished my 40 min run covering just over 4 miles.  Over the next 6 months i'll be experiencing these types of workouts where I don't want to be out there and will need to call on some internal motivation.

I went to work, got home and headed out to the pool.  After my poor swim the other night, i decided to focus on doing more technique tonight by doing a variety of drills and working in some distance as well.  I did some finger tip dragging, catch up stroke, longer strokes and fist swimming.  I ended up swimming  1600 yards.  The drills work different parts of my stroke during the swim.  They work on elongating the body in the water, feeling the water with your hands and forearms and increasing efficiency.  My swim was better tonight and after the early morning, i felt pretty good about it.  I'm off tomorrow, but will be back at it Saturday morning.   

3 Fine Days

Okay, time to rehash the past few days of workouts...

We'll start with Monday night.  We had a group practice tonight; we meet at Bethesda Terrace in Central Park.  From there  the group, about 10 that night, did a warm up run of about a mile around and met Ramon at the bottom of Cat Hill.  Ramon explained we would be doing some strengthening exercises with fast runs up Cat Hill.  The first round of strength exercises were squats.  We did what seemed like about 100 of them at varying levels of a squat and got a good burn in my butt and upper quads.  After this first round we headed up hill utilizing a pretty fast past.  My guess is Cat Hill is about 400 yards in length with a pretty steady uphill grade.  Run hard up and recover back down to Ramon.  The next round of strengthening was a variety of lunges, this time working the quads and hips.  This was followed by two trips up and back on Cat Hill.  Upon our return we moved to a variety of leg lifts which were not pleasant at all.  I had no idea there were so many variations of a leg lift.  From there 3 trips up and down Cat Hill.  After the 3rd trip back we worked our core doing planks and side planks.  A great workout and I was expecting severe soreness the next morning.

Tuesday was another double dip day.  I hopped out of bed at 5:45 feeling like the triathlon version of Ernie Banks.  Surprisingly I wasn't to sore from Monday night's workout.  I rode a hour and headed off to work.    After work I was in the pool and swam 1600 yards.  Definitely not my best swim, I felt like my form was off and I really struggled through it.  Oh and my secret is out, the pool was pretty crowded, for most of my swim there were 4 people in my lane.  At this point the soreness from Monday night had really kicked in.  I've been stretching every day, but I was really hurting last night.  Just before I got into bed I lubed up my quads and butt muscles with some natural version of Ben Gay and hopped into bed.  It took about 45 seconds for me to realize that some of the lube had made it's way to my privates.  I felt like Ogre from Revenge of the Nerds.  I jumped out of bed, made my way to the kitchen to find some relief with some wet paper towels.  

On to today.  My workout schedule said today was a "weakness workout".  My weakness is definitely running. so tonight I was going to run.  I set out up the West Side path unsure of how far I would go.  I did notice very early how easy it felt to run at a normal pace and not up hill.  I ended up logging 6 miles in about 54 minutes.  I felt good.  Got home and had some of my newest addiction, coconut water.  It's billed at nature's Gatorade.  A good dose of electrolytes and Potassium as well.  Only 60 calories for 11 oz.  I stretched and finished the post workout routine with a bucket, some cold water and a tray of ice cubes.  I put the water and cubes in the bucket and stick my feet in there.  Maybe it's mental, but I feel like the ice bath helps me recover.  That pretty much sums up the last few days, we've had a taste of Spring, especially today, hopefully it will hang around.  Also, check out my teams website at www.tri2b.org, so you can see all my teammates.    

A Taste Of Spring

As i sit here watching the Cavs v. Lakers game, I thought it was time to recap a good weekend of training.  

I'll start with Friday morning, once again I woke up early to ride my trainer before work.  Nothing monumental to report, rode for a hour, did some drills, watch some Sportscenter and VH1.  It's interesting, it appears the only hours that there are videos on TV anymore are before 9 a.m.  That morning, I rode, got cleaned up for work and got dressed.  I sat down on my couch to put my shoes on, got one shoe and and fell asleep.  I guess I was tired, b/c i woke up with one shoe on, 20 minutes later and almost was late to work.  Needless to say, I was in bed by about 10 on Friday night.  

Saturday morning I was up before 6 a.m. again b/c I had a team practice at 7 in Central Park.  I really like these early morning practices b/c it's the only time NYC is really calm.  I can drive the 80 blocks from my apt. to the park without getting stopped by a single traffic light.  No one is on the streets, it always reminds me of the Tom Cruise movie where he's in Time Square and there is no one there.  Anyway, i get to park, meet the team and we start our workout.  Ramon explains we're going to work on more technique and then get some miles in.  We warm up with a run to The Great Lawn.  Once we are there we do laps around the lawn counting foot falls at different exertion levels.  From here we went back out onto the loop and did what I used to call an Indian Run, maybe more PC called a native american run??  Okay or a pace line, basically you run single file, we had 6 runners, the person in the rear runs to the front and sets the pace for a few strides, then the person who is now last follows suit and runs to the front.  We did this for a few miles and finished by running some hill repeats on Cat Hill.  These were a fast pace up the hill with a cool down on the way back down.  I'd guess we covered 6 or 7 miles all before 9 a.m.  I think this is a great way to start a Saturday.  After all the serenity and calmness I experienced that morning, I was reminded where I was as I was exiting the park.  As I walked by the Imagine mosaic by Strawberry Fields, I walked past a homeless guy who had his  pants down for some reason.  Nothing like some homeless nudity at 9 a.m.  

Skip ahead to this morning, our workout plan showed a endurance ride or run.  The temps today reached into the 50s so it seems like a good chance to get out and ride.  I put on my bib shorts, which i think make  me look like a 1940s weightlifter, it's a good look, trust me, but they do provide a lot of padding for the boys when out for a ride.  I headed up the west side path and over the park.  The warm weather created a lot of snow melt, which in turn created a lot of Rhode Island sized puddles.  I felt like I was on the Log ride at Kings Island circa 1982.  I got to the park and did a few loops in a crowded, crowded park.  Everyone was out, runners, walkers, rollerbladers, families, dog walkers all the usual suspects.  There is a lot of rivalry amongst all the groups.  Depending on what i'm doing, I'm in a couple of these groups.  The dog walkers are annoyed by everyone and they are usually the cause of most of the problems in the park.  They never control their dogs, have those super long leashes and seem to think everyone should be exercising around them.  Most of them are middle aged Upper Eastsiders who probably were never spanked as children.  You know what kind of attitude this brings.  I really have a lot of animosity towards them b/c I saw an out of control dog take down one of my teammates on his bike a couple years ago.  He was probably riding to fast, none the less ended up with a dislocated shoulder and broken wrist.  He crashed right in front of me.  It was awful.  The dog owner seemed to think it was all his fault too.  Between the dogs and the people not paying attention b/c of their cellphones or ipods, it can be pretty dangerous to ride in the park.  The fear this creates usually means i don't ride super hard b/c i don't want to end up splattered all over the road.  I rode in the park for about an hour and headed by the west side path to head home.  As I was riding across 72nd street towards the path, i was thinking i was kind of surprised I didn't see an ambulance in the park picking someone up.  When I made it into Riverside Park, where the path is, low and behold there was an ambulance there.   An older gentleman was laying on the path next to his bike, not sure what happened to him, but when the roads are wet and your brakes are as well, it's pretty tough to stop.  I'm sure he was fine but these are the dangers of riding in the city.  I made it home unscathed but covered in water, salt and dirt.  I stripped down outside my apartment door and went into clean up mode.  Another issue with living in NYC is I don't have access to a hose and my bike needed a bath.  So I went with option B, which was putting my bike in the shower.  It took some good maneuvering, but I was able to give old blue a bath.  Washed all my gear and was finished.  Tomorrow night brings another group effort, and I'm sure another challenging workout.

Game Night

I got up early again this morning. I might be able to get used to the 5:45 alarm, it would be in my best interest so I could get in a workout in the a.m. Once again I mounted up on the trainer and rode for an hour. I did some drills and worked up a good lather. I wanted to get this done b/c I'll be at the Garden tonight when the Cavs come to town. What's your over/under on Lebron's total points tonight???? Can he answer Kobe's performance from Monday, I hope so.

Double Dip

Unlike this kid, my double dip didn't involve any ice cream.  Today was my first morning/evening combo workout session.  I woke up at 5:45 this morning and dragged my sore butt out of bed.  I managed to get in a solid one hour ride before work this morning.  I spent some time doing drills on the bike.  Single leg riding, varying the rpms and changing gears to mix it up a little bit.  My legs were pretty sore when I woke up, but the biking did help loosen them up.  I showered and headed out to the office.  I stopped to grab a bagel after my hour commute, hopped out of my car and nearly fell into the street.  My legs got really tight on my hour ride out, even after some stretching post ride.  I'm pretty sure you would all be attending my funeral had my legs really given out b/c there was  a bus rolling down the block and i'm pretty sure it would have run me over had i fallen into the street.  

I hobbled around the office all day, headed out around 5 and dealt with a long snowy ride home.  After a hour and half commute, i got home, put on my bathing suit and headed out to the pool.  Tonight was my first night utilizing Coach Ramon's swim workout.  I did two sets of the following exercises.  2x100 yards, 2x200 yards, 1x400 yards, giving me a total of 2000 yards.  This is just over half the distance I'll be swimming in August.  Swimming is all about technique, my swimming experience, up until 3 years ago when i started doing triathlons, was cruising around a pool, basically doggy paddling.  Not much technique there.  From my first coach I learned a technique called a two beat kick.  The idea here is to utilize your hips, core and upper body to propel yourself through the water.  In triathlon you obviously need to save your legs so you can cycle and run.  I'm sure my form is far from perfect but I can propel myself through the water and get myself through any race swim, hopefully.  I've heard from many of my friends that are Ironmen about how much they ate during training, today was my first experience with this.  I was hungry all day, all day.  The biggest challenge I'll have with this hunger, is not resorting to eating slices of pizza and other garbage to help satisfy my hunger.

Technique, Speed and Strength

After a super fun saturday night, I had a few cobwebs on Sunday.  It took me a good part of the day to shake the headache and then I forced myself to ride my trainer for an hour.  I worked up a good sweat and felt much better after the ride.  Lucky for me, I had the Cards and the points last night, so I enjoyed the game.  That, of course coupled with having some friends over to watch, made for a good end to the football season.

Tonight was Tri2Be workout number 2.  We met on 72nd street in Central Park.  It was another run tonight and we had two options.  A speed or technique workout.  Ramon suggested that I do the technique workout, so I followed orders.  We started with a mile jog to get the legs warm.  After the warm up we did a series of drills to build foot speed, lengthen our stride and build strength.  The drills we did reminded me of basketball camp, back in the day.  The most physically challenging one being a kind of quad based leap frog thing.  Next time you see me, remind me to show you this one, your quads will be sore  for a week.  After the drills we did some strengthening exercises and then some stretching.  I really can't put into words how sore i'm going to be tomorrow.  I'm still trying to shake the soreness from Saturday's sprints and tonight was just a "dog pile" (stick witih the one or skip ahead to the 3rd mintute) on my leg muscles.  It was brutal.  I got home tonight and did some additional stretching which left me lying on the floor in my apartment feeling like this women.  To top it off, it's my intention to get up and ride before work tomorrow.  I can only hope I can get of out bed to do it.    I had some dinner, a shower and now I'm relaxing.  There is some quality entertainment on TV  tonight, I just watched Kobe drop 61 on the Knicks and now I'm watching the greatest French export of all time, Andre the Giant, in the Princess Bride.  I'm sure I'll pass out shortly.

All the Potatoes Were On the Table

Today was the day, day one of coached training.  The team met this morning at 11:30 on the track over by 6th St. and the FDR.  I arrived early and chatted with some of the team.  From what i understand it was "real feel" 10 degrees out there.  Ramon showed up and sent us out for a 15 minute warm up, his instructions were to head out slow and get our legs warmed up.  We ran by the site where they're building the set for the big air competition and had the snowblowers give us a little shower.  Back on the track Ramon explained what the goal of the work was and how it would go down.  The idea was to find your maximum heart rate.  We did this by hitting the track and doing a variety of sprints.  Everyone checked their watches to make sure we were getting a heart rate reading and we started.  The first 3 rounds were 300 yard sprints with the idea of raising your heart rate to max.  We didn't run 400 yards b/c the southern part of the track was all ice.  After 3x300, we switch to 2 min of hard running, same idea, get your HR to the max.  We did 3 rounds of this, then did a 4 min. hard run, followed by a 6 minute one.  I'll be honest I have run this hard since I was trying to beat out a grounder in softball tourney back in Chilli-Vegas, oh and I pulled my hamstring on that 60 foot sprint.  I was able to get my heart rate consistently over 180, which was okay, i think...  We will utilize these numbers as a baseline for our training, getting workouts based upon a percentage of max heart rate.  This also was a good reminder about why i do triathlons, b/c at no point do i have to sprint, other than maybe the last 10 yards.  All in all, it was actually pretty fun, I enjoyed the challenge and like to push myself.  We'll see how the legs feel tomorrow. Oh, and 210 days, until race day.

1st Day of Practice Eve

It's been a few days and it's time for an update.  Let's start with Wednesday.  I rode by bike on the trainer for a hour, again.  Another boring ride of catching up on game shows and sitcoms.  I shouldn't complain, or let me rephrase that, i'm going to be riding for 6+ hours come spring, so I better get used to sitting on that seat.

Last night we had our Tri2Be kick off party at a bar on the UWS.  Basically it was a meeting and greet.  It was a really good time, I met most of the team, of which I knew very few of them.  I was really impressed by the athletic  accomplishments of the team that i'm now a part of.  Most of the team came from Team in Training, specifically the marathon program.  Ramon, our coach, is the coach of the marathon team.  There must have been 6 or 7 Boston Marathoner qualifiers in the group, guys that run sub 3 hour marathons, women that are just over 3 hours.  Oh and 7 or 8 Ironmen/Ironwomen as well.  I'm both impressed and intimidated.  I'm hoping this group of runners will be very helpful to me and my training b/c the running portion of the triathlon is by far my poorest leg.  I would venture to say i've never had a good run in any triathlon that i've done.  something else i notice was how supportive this group was.  everyone seemed genuinely interested in my race, me, getting to know me and was really excited about triathlon.  I left the bar feeling good, and not just from the beers.

This week i've received my first official training schedule.  Tonight was my first day of following it.  Guess what, it was another bike ride.  I mounted up on the trainer again, banged out and hour, worked my core for 20 min or so and was done for the night.  In preparation for our first team practice tomorrow, i of course had two of my favorite things for dinner.  Those would be spaghetti and meatballs.  I'm a big fan of pasta, so training season allows me to indulge often.  It's now a few minutes to midnight, time to get into bed to be ready to run with the team tomorrow.  We are meeting at the track on the FDR and 6th st. to establish a maximum heart rate.  This sounds like sprints to me.  god help me, i run at one pace, so tomorrow should be interesting.  stay tuned...........

Tuesday Night Swim

I headed to the pool tonight for a swim.  I had a busy day at work and was looking forward to a good swim tonight to take my mind off work.  When I got there, i had a lane to myself.  About 15 min into my swim I was joined by a young lady.  She proceeded to kick my butt up and down the lane.  I've done a fair number of triathlons and been dusted by women many times.  I can handle getting beat by a women, I just wasn't expecting tonight.  There usually aren't very many fast swimmers at my pool, so this was a little different.  I'm convinced she was Michael Phelps sister or something.  We'd never know b/c whenever his family was interviewed, his big obnoxious mom was always running her yap.  that always annoyed me.  I did outlast her in the pool, so I guess I was just pacing myself, that's what I'm going to tell myself at least.  I swam 1900 yards and according to a calculator i found on line, i burned about 750 calories.

A Solid Weekend

As Sunday afternoon rolls around it's time to recount my weekends workouts.  I took friday off and Erin and I carbo loaded at my favorite cheap Italian joint in Soho.  It's a great place, tough to get a table, but worth the wait if necessary.  I had my usual Papperadelle with Sausage, headed back to my apartment and fell asleep.  

I got up Saturday morning knowing I was going to run 8 miles.  I needed some fuel before I headed out.  I grew up in Ohio and we never ate grits.  I'd eaten them on my travels in the South but didn't know until recently you can make then fairly easy.  I had some instant grits that I had purchased for a previous meal and cooked some of those up for my morning fuel.  Plain grits are kind of boring and lacking flavor, so i added some honey to provide a little sweetness.  I had some water and a few sips of Coke, yes Coke, I like it, it's a good sweet/caffeine combo in the a.m. with my grits and headed out for my run.  

It's approximately 8 miles from my apt. to 60th St.  and back on the West Side Path.  It was pretty warm yesterday morning, in the upper 30's with the temps dropping all day.  With the cool air coming in, the wind was blowing really hard on the west side.  Heading north up the path i started slow, getting my legs warmed up.  I ran the first two miles in 19 min. and 20 seconds, slow....  The 2nd two were a little fast 18 min and 40 seconds for a total of 38 minutes for the first 4 miles.  I was dealing with the wind and wanted to start slow, so this is what i expected.  I also expected a much faster trip back.  Miles 5 and 6 total 18 minutes and the last two i ran hard and made it back in 17 min 20 seconds.  I shave about 3.5 minutes off my return trip and was happy with that.  According to my HRM i burn 1234 calories, not to bad.

Since I usually run on the path on the west side, I'm starting to see some regular faces out there, my favorite being this guy who looks exactly like Napoleon Dynamite's uncle.  This guy is a dead ringer and to top it off has a funny gate when he runs.  He's like a gazelle, bounds down the path.  It always makes me laugh.  I can also tell it's cold in NYC b/c when it's warm I undoubtably see a few rats on my run out there.  I guess it's to cold for them so they moved in doors somewhere.  

I got home from my run, had some chocolate milk, a gatorade and a meal replacement bar.  I warmed up and put on my bathing suit and headed over to the pool.  

As usual, it was me and my chinese friends at the pool.  It was good only about 8 people in the pool and i had a lane to myself.  I swam 1700 yards, just over a mile.  I felt pretty good in the water, with a total swim time of about a half hour.

Sunday morning came and I woke up to more grits this morning to provide the fuel for my trainer ride this morning.  I filled my water bottles, grabbed the remote and mounted up to ride for a couple hours this morning.  I rode two hours and emptied my DVR again.  I watch games shows and MMA as usual, oh and great episode of 30 Rock.  I know I 'm late to the party, but this show is great, if you don't watch it, you should.  I wore my HRM this morning and it said just over 900 calories burned.  

This will be my last week of me creating workouts, I start my coach/team training this Saturday.  I'm really looking forward to this, it's very motivating to be out the with others and a coach, it helps keep you going.  Tomorrow night I'll be attending a symposium about triathlons, training, injuries, gear, etc. it should be interesting.

A Short Run

1 rat

2 guys running in backpacks

3 mile run

25 minutes

Now to provide my workout in Haiku form

A 3 mile sprint

sprinting for me is still slow

dinner, Williamsburg

BORING

I had a tough go tonight. I had great aspiration for a good workout tonight and didn't come to fruition. I had a meeting this afternoon in the city, actually about 100 yards from my apt. so I was home earlier than usual and i planned on a big workout. I got on the trainer and planned on riding for two hours. I had a full DVR ready to provide some entertainment while i rode. I watched a Cash Cab episode, two Jeopardy shows, UFC Primetime: St. Pierre vs. Penn and Seinfeld. If you're a fan of UFC, you should checkout the show. It's very similar to what HBO does leading up to the fights they're going to televise. Bottom line, tonight i didn't have it, i battled for a hour and half and ran out of steam. I don't think I had enough carbs today and this was a good reminder that I need to focus more on my diet during this training. I crashed when i was done and fell asleep on the couch. I did remember the HRM, and it said i burned a nice round 800 calories during my ride. I guess i'll have days like this.

A New President and a Solid Run

Today was a big day in American History, President Obama was sworn in today.  I'm not going to get into any great discussion about politics or how great Obama maybe as a president.  I am excited about the change and I hope he can step up to the great challenges that are ahead of him.

On to tonight's workout.  I know I need to focus on my run as it is my weakest part in a triathlon.  Tonight I decided to head out for a run.  As usual, I laced up my sneaks, strapped on my ipod and headed out to the path on the West Side Highway.  I decided to do 6 miles tonight and hopefully negative split the run.  I called upon two of Brooklyn's finest to provide some motivation for my run.  I'd be remiss if I didn't take this opportunity to thank another one of Brooklyn's finest, my good friend, the Grand Poobah of the blog, Brian Bell.  He's been schooling me like a young Skywalker in the way of the blog.  He's one of my oldest friends, we go back to when whiffle ball was a game and kids rocked painter caps.  He does some creative blogging, you should check it out here and also check out some great work he does with his main squeeze here.  All joking aside, he has been very helpful to me in creating this blog.  

Okay, enough witht he fluffy stuff, back to the workout.  Fueled by Biggie and Jay, I trudged through a strong headwind on my way out and did my first 3 miles in 29 minutes, kind of slow, but my legs were tight and the wind was strong.  I finally got loose and made it back in 26 minutes.  The return trip was unquestionable wind aided, I felt like Tyson Gay at the Olympic trials, but I'll take it, I needed the help to get me to my goal of the negative split.  I wore the HRM and it said i burned 924 calories.  Once again, i'm not sure i believe this, but i'll take it. 

A big part of endurance events is having a strong core.  I started working out the core tonight, i banged out some crunches and did some pushups for good measure.  All in all, it was a good workout, I felt good on the 2nd half of the run.

MLK Weekend

It's Monday night and after a great weekend, it's time to reflect.  I didn't train very much this weekend, technically not at all.   This weekend I was invited to head to a friend's family's house on Shelter Island.  Your first though might be, why head to a summer home spot when it's freezing cold in NYC?  It was a great chance for me to get out of the city for a few days and just relax.  We made it out late Friday night, the trip included driving my truck onto a ferry and cruising across the Long Island Sound to Shelter Island.  My weekend consisted of building fires, eating, eating more and relaxing.  It was a great time.  I also got a great history lesson about my good friend Tom and Nina's families.  Tom is from England, every time we get together, it gives me a chance to ask a lot of questions about England, what his upbringing was like, college, etc.  Nina is from an equally interesting family.  Nina's family has a long history in politics and more recently in religion.  I saw some incredible old pics of her grandfather with JFK, RFK and even Ted!  I love history, and was really turned on by the history lesson.  

This is training blog, right, so here we go.  I got back to the city about noon, was wiped from all the sleeping i did this weekend, so i decided to take a nap and finishing sleeping off last night's margaritas and beers.  I finally made it on to my trainer, rode for a hour and then channeled my inner Rocky IV, and headed out in the snow for a run.  Lucky for me i wont' be fighting any Russians during this training, just regularly challenged by a Spaniard.  This combo workout is affectionately know as a BRick.  For those that don't know, it's called a BRick b/c the bike and run combo and also your legs feel like bricks when you're done.  This was a baby BRick, as i only did about an hour on the bike and about a half hour run.  Also, this is good practice to prep your legs for race day to deal with the adjustment from hours on the bike then running right away.  It wasn't too cold tonight and the path on the West Side Highway was basically empty, so i was left with some good music and my thoughts.  A good way to start the week.  

Winter Cycling and Meeting

Tonight was a great night!  I got home from work, had a quick snack and jumped on my trainer.  Once again, it's a super cold night in NYC, so riding outdoors wasn't an option, oh and it snowed most of the day today.  So winter riding consist of utilizing a trainer, it a machine that you hook your road/tri bike to make it a stationary bike.  It's an efficient way to b/c you don't stop pedaling, so it's different than riding outdoors where you may coast.  It's also very boring, tonight i entertained myself with a couple episodes of Cash Cab.  I love game shows, so I've watch many episodes of Cash Cab or Jeopardy while logging some miles on the bike.  I banged out a quick hour ride, showered, had some dinner and went up to the Time Warner Center to meet Ramon and Lawrence.  Ramon was filling Lawrence and I in on what to expect for the ironman training, he asked us some questions about our experiences, pool options, etc. etc.  Ramon is an interesting guy, i don't think he realizes how motivating he is and how much excitement he builds in me when i see him.  this enthusiasm paired with his Spanish accent make him very motivating.  You can't help but believe what he says, I can tell he's going to be a great coach.

SWIMMING!!!!!!

it's freezing in the NYC tonight, so after some discussion i decided i'd head to the pool tonight.  I'm going to let you in on a secret, the pool at Stuyvesant HS is the best place in NYC to swim.  Any who has ever tried to swim in NYC knows there are very few pool and even fewer that aren't so crowded, it's not any fun to swim in.    Lucky for only me, about 3 people read this, and my parents live in columbus, so i feel my secret is pretty safe.  Anyway, to swim at Stuyvesant you have to be a member of the community center or pay 10 bucks for a one day pass.  I'm a member, it also happens to be a pretty good deal, i think about 250 bucks for the year and by NYC standards this isn't to bad.  It's always kind of an interesting scene at the pool, it's one of the only regular occasions where i'm a minority.  Since the pool is pretty close to chinatown, the pool tends to be mostly chinese people.  More often than not, i'm the only non-chinese person there.  No big deal to me, it's just one of those things that only seems to happen in NYC.  tonight it was even more interesting b/c there was a team of women kayakers or rowers or something practicing paddling on the side of the pool.  Something else that make NYC so unique, people will go to great lengths to do what they enjoy doing.  It's about 10 degrees outside so the only option these ladies had was to paddle in a pool.  I think this is a good example of the spirit in the people of NY.  I swam 1600 yards tonight in just over 30 min.  I usually break my swim up into 400 yard sets.  Once i get a regular workout schedule i'm sure i'll be doing more drills, those aren't my favorite but help in the end.  So the pool usually isn't to crowded, i may have to share a lane with a few people, but nothing like the horror stories i've heard of others trying to get in a workout while sharing a lane with 4 others and the pool only being about 18 yards long.  This is a full 25 yard pool and i rarely have more than one other person in a lane with me.  tonight i was sharing with a couple of 50+ asian women who weren't even putting their head in the water.  needless to say, i was lapping them pretty regularly.  no big deal, they did their best to stay out of my way.  I finished my workout, headed into the locker room changed and headed out.  The locker room is great, just like every movie HS locker room you've ever seen.  All the lockers are beat up and bent, the 1950's lead paint is peeling off, but it functions.  I walked home, another good thing about this pool is it's only about 500 yards from my apt., so i don't really have an excuse not to go.  Got home, drank my new favorite recovery drink, chocolate milk and checked the blackberry.  One of the emails was from the community center informing all members that a kid in the HS had died from meningitis.  This is awful news for the obvious reasons, but also it kind of skeeved me out, i couldn't get in the shower fast enough.  The email had a link to what the city had to say about it, and I guess how contagious it is,  i'll read it tomorrow.  So it was an interesting night, freezing weather, an all female rowing team, and meningitis, all this after 7 o'clock.  All in a days works i guess.