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.