On January 29, 2012,
in 
2011 has been an interesting year, to say the least. I began the year in great shape, with big racing plans, and was primed for a busy season. This wasn’t to be, unfortunately, as an ankle break in mid-February derailed my racing plans for the year. I did a bit of writing on the topic (I did have a little extra time on my hands) and the following posts pretty much cover the ins and outs of the adventure.
The Dangers of Winter Running – Part I
Plates, screws, and Bone Sutures
Recovery, Rehab, and Thoughts on the ER
Needless to say my training this winter will involve a few more trips to the gym to use the treadmill when the roads might be a little suspect. I don’t need a repeat of this:
Ouch
The downtime this year did, however, give me the chance to be introspective and really look at how I want to be involved in the triathlon community moving forward. I’ve been coaching a handful of athletes for a couple of years and have really enjoyed the time and effort that goes into the process. More to the point, the satisfaction that I get from helping an athlete achieve their goals is more than I could have ever imagined. I also had some time to look back on how I got hooked on triathlons.
How it all Started: How I Became A Runner
From Running to Triathlons
More importantly, I thought more and more about coaching. I took advantage of the… Read the rest
As many of you may have heard, Ironman New York is alive and among us. It’s been deemed the US Championships. Also, as you may have heard, it sold out in less than 15 minutes as soon as registration went live online. I love this sport. Love it. And I’m thrilled that New York City is getting another great triathlon.
This is all good news. But there’s a race here in the New York area that’s my complete fave. It’s held up the Hudson Valley in September. If you haven’t heard of it yet, you need to get familiar with it now. And I mean stat.
The Toughman is a half ironman distance race held in northern Westchester county. It starts and finishes in Croton Point Park, in Croton on Hudson, New York, and is really one amazing race. Why? I’ll tell you why:
Location:
Croton Point Park, along the Hudson River, is an amazing setting for the swim start, transition area, and finish line. It’s a beautiful park, with campgrounds, easy access to mass transit for those coming up from the city and is easy to get to from most any major city in the tri-state area.
Course:
In addition to the park itself, the course is amazing. The swim, in the bay that is naturally created at the park, is mostly free of river current and provides a great location for the swim. More importantly, for those familiar with the Westchester Triathlon, there… Read the rest
I read a good post the other day on TriCrowd.com. It was titled When Life gets in the way of Tri (click the link and give it a read) and it reminded me of the time-management, structure, and sometimes sacrifice that can be required for triathlon training.
Unlike the author of the post, I don’t have kids. While that makes it much easier for both me, and my wife, to train and race, I do work full time. I’m not sponsored to race, or independently wealthy enough to work part time (or not at all) and train full time (reminder to play the lottery tonight). What this means is that longer workouts during the week require starting the ride or run du-jour early in the day. Usually in the dark.
I remember fondly (yes, fondly) my training for the Toughman 1/2 Iron triathlon just a summer or so ago. I needed to get long brick workouts into my schedule, and for some strange reason my brick days fell on Thursday mornings. (For anyone who isn’t quite sure what a brick workout is, check out this link from Ironman.com on brick workouts and training). To get in the workout I needed – a 45+ mile bike ride, followed immediately by a 6+ mile run – I would set my alarm for 330a. Some toast and peanut butter, a banana, a little coffee…..air in tires, bars and gels in the… Read the rest
As I was saying in my previous post, things snowballed quickly and the running thing really took off in my house. My wife JL and I were eating better (thank you, JL, for seeing that we were indeed in need of a dietary makeover) and we both benefited from losing a lot of extra weight. We thrived, and still do, with this new active lifestyle.
I became totally engrossed with running. I still am. I love to run. It’s what gets me out of bed in the morning (well, the coffee maker actually does that). It gives me energy, and makes me feel great. Running the trails with my good friends Tom, Mark, and Matt is always a highlight of any given weekend.
The club that JL and I joined – the Sound Shore Running and Multisport Club has a regular Saturday club run that we used to attend on a religious basis. On one particular Saturday, 5 or 6 years ago, a few of us were chatting it up, talking about what we did – in regards to athletics – back in the day. At some point the conversation came around to me and I mentioned that I swam through high school and into college. Someone then immediately asked: “Do you own a bike?” I didn’t, and their immediate response was: Why not? I can’t recall who it was that said this, but the conversation flowed into how I would… Read the rest
As I’ve been ranting and raving about recent swim workouts recently, I was thinking back to some of the better swims I’ve had over the past year. I love open water swims with my triathlon club and once in a while get in a good pool workout at the local gym. But last summer there were two great mornings that I recall fondly.
I was in Indianapolis last summer for work – just a few days, but enough to have to work training into the schedule. Yep, the few days during the week was just enough for the old type-A / OCD to kick in and I began to worry about getting in my workouts. The timing was pretty crappy, as I recall. It was in early June, and I had two races coming up that month. I can run almost anywhere, but where the heck was I going to get in a swim workout? I went to Google Maps to locate my hotel, and saw that across the street was the NCAA Collegiate Athletic offices (cool), the NCAA Hall of Champions (still cool) and the National Institute for Fitness and Sport. I didn’t really know what the NIFS was, but it had to do with fitness and sport so I was thinking that this was getting cooler by the minute. Anyway, as I mapped what looked to be a good running route through the Indiana University campus, I stumbled across my savior for the upcoming week:
As my knee injury earlier this summer caused me to pull out of my last few races this year, I decided to help my friend Rich and I worked the bike course for the Toughman Half Iron triathlon this past Sunday. I’ve know Rich for a number of years, and train with his tri club. Rich is also the race director of the Toughman triathlon, and the mastermind behind it’s inception 3 years ago.
It was a little tough mentally on Saturday as we were out marking the bike course – putting up signage and chalk-painting the roads. I had a few moments where I would think back to last year (when I raced the Toughman) and would think that I should be home resting and hydrating. But, alas, not this year.
So, Sunday morning my wife JL and I headed out early to our section of the bike course and awaited the other volunteers so that I could assign duties and positions along our section of the bike course. It was really a perfect day for racing. Cool. Overcast. Dry. Really just about idyllic conditions. My volunteers started to arrive and once we were all gathered I went over the key points that were covered in the race captains meeting the previous day: What corners were going to be troublesome, where traffic was going to be an issue, and what corners we would have police assistance.
I sent everyone on their way,… Read the rest
Let me first state, as clearly as possible, that I’m by no means an expert in triathlon training. All the opinions expressed in this mighty blog are mine (as well as my friend Steve’s) and those of the websites referenced. I’m sure that, had I dug deeper, I could have found differing opinions to varying degrees and I urge everyone to research, and train, with the methods that best suit them.
A month or so ago (when I was still racing and my season hadn’t yet gone down the tubes), I was standing around after a triathlon and struck up a conversation with a swimmer from a relay team. He (Steve) did the swim leg for a friend of mine who runs and trains with the Sound Shore Runners and Multisport Club. (Great club, by the way – it’s where my wife and I got our start in competitive running and triathlons). Anyway, it was post-race and we were talking about how we both swam in college and we ventured onto the topic of the differences between competitive swimming, and swimming for triathlons.
I mentioned that I had trouble with implementing a lot of the ‘best practices’ for triathlon swimming as I have the muscle memory from my days (years) of age group, high school, and college swimming. By best practices for triathlons, I mean:
Streamlined body position: Looking down, not forward. Rotation of shoulders is key in both, but keeping shoulders… Read the rest
Last year’s race was fantastic. Rich, who I’ve known for years training with the Westchester Triathlon Club, had a goal to make his race the best run race in the region. He’s a veteran of numerous full Ironman triathlons and wanted his Half-Iron distance race to have all the same support and amenities that you’d receive, and come to expect, at a full Ironman distance race. And he’s doing just that. More bands on the course, cheerleaders on the tough climbs of the run, wetsuit strippers as you head into T1. Really top notch amenities.
Packet pickup: One of the most well run I’ve been to. Incredibly well organized and very quick “in and out”. And let’s just talk about the SWAG. Great stuff. Tech shirt from Zoot, water bottle, Hammer products. Very nice.
Vendors and race village: Having massage therapists on site for pre-race was nice. A nice, easy rub down (no deep tissue the day before a race please) was great. Lots of local vendors, including Westchester Road Runners, was a nice addition. Everyone in the greater New York area knows about Andy’s store in White Plains. In my opinion, the… Read the rest
I was a strong middle of the pack finisher a few years ago. I was doing well, and training with some folks from the Sound Shore Runners and Multisport Club. It was a great group – it was the first running club that my wife and I joined when we moved to the Northeast. We wanted to find people who we could run with during the week and for long runs on weekends. As I had been training on my own up until then I improved quickly as I now ran with people who were faster than I. This improved my performance and I became a stronger runner, thanks in large part to Joe G who introduced me to the pain and joy of hitting the track for speed-work.
At some
