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.  

A Nice Easy Run

i'd like to start with a slight addition to yesterday's entry, first, read this blog for content, not for grammar and spelling, i know i'll make some errors, but this is about my progression, not an english lesson. Also, i'd like to add, this blog is as much a training tool for me as it is entertainment for all of you. I'll need to keep track of my progress as i work towards 8/30, and this will be an easy way to track it.

okay, on to today. Throughout the day i think about what type of workout i do each night. right now i don't have a real training plan, that will probably arrive later in the week, so for now, it's just about getting out, running, swimming and cycling. Last night i went for a run and I usually don't run on consecutive days, but it was over 40 degrees in the NYC today. So I bolted from work like Fred Flintstone at 5, went to see my friends Patty and Susie to get cleaned up, grabbed a quick snack and got ready for a run. Like i said it was over 40 degrees so i wanted to take advantage of the "warm" weather and go for a run. I laced up the sneaks, grabbed my ipod and headed out the door. I'm going to try to use my heart rate monitor during these workouts as it helps provide some measurable items. I have some regular running routes from my apt., most of them are along the West Side Highway path b/c it's about 100 yards outside my front door. Tonight i was doing my most common 4 mile route that starts at my apartment, i head north about 2 miles to here, then turn around and come back. The goals of these runs are to keep my heart rate/breathing under control and negative split the run. if you aren't familiar, the negative split is running the 2nd half of the run faster than the 1st. Tonight I ran out in 18 min and ran back in 18, so that's okay, but i didn't get the negative split. the HRM monitor also provides calories burn, it's an estimation based on my height, 6'1 on a good day, weight, 215 lbs, yeah the christmas cookies were good to me, and heart rate during the workout. According to the monitor i burn about 600 calories tonight, seems a little high to me, but whatever.

I heard from coach Ramon this morning, sounds like we will be getting together this week to get things going. After I meet with him, i'll have more structure in my workouts.

Ready To Get Started!!

Here is it, my first blog post ever.  I wasn't sure I wanted to get into this whole blog thing, but after discussing it with a variety of people, they convinced me it's a good thing.  I'll start by saying this blog is going to follow my progress through my training for Ironman Louisville.  The race is 8/30/2009, obviously in Louisville Kentucky.  

I've been involved in triathlons for a few years now.  I raced in a variety of distances and really wanted to complete an ironman.  I think i've finally gotten to the point where my stomach doesn't turn when I think about covering 140.6 miles in a race.  For those of you that aren't sure what the distances are, the swimming portion is 2.4 miles, followed by a 112 mile bike, finishing up with 26.2 mile run.  

Yesterday was a big day for me, my coach for the race was finalized.  I'll be training with a great coach named Ramon Bermo, he is an accomplished athlete and coach and will help not only get to the starting line, but the finish line as well.  He has recently started a triathlon club called Tri2Be.  It will be a good situation for me, I will have an active enthusiastic coach and some great teammates that will help motivate me to get to the finish line.  

I'm not sure how this blog will go down, but my thought right is I will update it pretty regularly, with my workouts, distances, my thoughts and feelings about these workouts.  I hope it's very entertaining, so please check back often.