2009, here we go!

So I haven't posted anything in a good long while. But I can bring everyone up-to-speed in about two sentences: Post Ironman, I spent 6 weeks doing very little... except losing fitness and putting on weight. And, it was everything that I thought it could be.

Ok, well here are the details for those who are interested. Right after the Chesapeakeman, I decided to take it easy. Good decision. Then I decided to start cycling and swimming a bit. Not a bad decision. Then I decided to jump back into things. This was about 10 days out from the race. Bad decision. You really need time to let the body heal and I was on track for skipping out on this.

"Luckily," about one week after the Ironman, I was visiting my girlfriend at school. We went out on a Saturday night and a combination of slippery floors, alcohol, loud music and general chaos ended with broken glass on the floor and (by extension) in my foot. At the time, it didn't hurt very much... in fact I didn't notice until I looked down and found a pool of blood. Needless to say, I tried to treat the wound myself but couldn't stop the bleeding. A quick midnight trip to the school's infirmary--which, by the way, is embarassing to do as an alumni--confirmed that I needed stitches. So, I was off to the ER in the early morning and was all patched up by noon. I had five stitches in my toe and foot and was left to limp around.

Now, I said "luckily" earlier because the stitches prevented me from doing anything and actually let me have the recovery I needed. Turns out, I was way more exhausted from my season than I realized. I slept abou 8 to 10 hours every day for about 4 weeks and still felt tired. Even after my stitches were removed, I had trouble getting back into light training. I started planning out next season but really didn't have the zest for racing that I needed to really commit to it. But, so goes the build-and-break Ironman process.

Anyway, this week, I went out for a 10-mile run. It was pitch black out and just above freezing. Anyway, something clicked--I'm not sure what--and it hit me that I'm ready to get back into it.

So, here's the rough plan for this year. My big plans for early 2009 are to:

1. avoid last year's early season injuries by emphasizing some lifting, extensive stretching and slow volume build up
2. get some road racing in early this year
3. try some bike racing

And the big goals for the year:

1. qualify for Boston
2. qualify for Clearwater
3. qualify for Kona

To get any one of those would be phenomenal... so let's see how it goes... Time to get training!



Oh, and for those who are interested, the races I'm planning for this year:

Spring Series Cycling races in Central Park

Ocean Drive Marathon in Cape May, NJ

NJ State Triathlon in Princeton, NJ (fourth year in a row!)

Rev3 Half Ironman (new race with big prize money and awesome venue) up in CT

Amica Ironman 70.3 in Rhode island

Ironman UK

Some Ironman pictures and videos

Just some pictures from the race. More to come once the race-day photo people put them up for sale.

All ready to go in the wetsuit. Bottle of AminoVital+RedBull in hand, of course.

Unpacking my bike special needs bag. Not looking too bad. Even smiling a bit?

Headed out for lap 2 of the bike. About 64 miles in.

Dismounting the bike after 112mi. Not looking as good... Just been through 2 hours of torrential rain.

Heading out over the timing mat to start the marathon. I'm hurting.

The run improves as I find a buddy to hang with for the middle miles. I'd say the picture is blurry because we were going so fast, but it's probably just my dad struggling with the new camera.

Run special needs bag. Trying to figure out what I still need.

Discarding my bottle around mile 18. It was starting to feel heavy.

Finishing. I sprinted the end but didn't really have the energy to put my hands over my head.

Getting body-marked.

The final "sprint."

Splits and age group podium

So I got my splits:
Total: 11:39:12.90
Swim: 1:27:16 (9/10)
T1: 5:13 (4/10)
Bike: 5:45:31 (3/10) @ 19.4 mph
T2: 3:21 (2/10)
Run: 4:17:55 (2/10) @ 9:51 min/mi


And, came 3rd in my age group... and got a nice crystal paper-weight thingy... Not too shabby.

IronCam

Yesterday, I became an Ironman in 11:39 at the Chesapeakeman.

Instead of the usual race report followed by some thank you's, I'd like to give a quick shout out up front. As Margaret says, "It takes a village to raise an Ironman," and I really would not have been able to do this alone. First off, thanks to my parents, Posie and Blake for making it out to my race yesterday. Having you guys there made all the difference. To my friends at SBR and all my various training buddies: I really would never have pulled this off without you. When I needed advice, you had plenty of it; when I needed support, you had even more. (And, of course, David, when I needed to get yelled at so I wouldn't wimp out, you had tonnes of that to give!) And finally, my friends and coworkers, thank you for being there for me and for also reminding me (constantly) that there's more to life than training. In the words of Clarke, "This Ironman shit seriously needs to go. It's killing fun."

So now, on with the race report. I showed up to the race site on Thursday and on Friday did the usual registration, bike check-in, drove the course, etc. In general, I just laid low, did a short spin, and pushed the water/Amino Vital/salt pills. Quiet dinner with the family on Friday night and off to bed by 10pm. As expected, I had a little trouble sleeping. I was especially worried about the weather which forecast anything from high humidity/80s if the sun came out, to thunder storms and torrential rain. In the 6 hours of sleep, I also dreamt like nobody's business. The best dream had to be the one where I started the Ironman and then blacked out and woke up to be told that I had finished it... If only that's how it all worked.

On Saturday, I woke up around 5am, had a little breakfast and headed over to T2 to drop off my special needs and run bags. I headed back to the hotel for a little GI relief and then over to T1/swim start. I had about 20 minutes to get ready for the swim which was nice. Just enough to be comfortable but not so much that I would start to panic.

The gun or horn or whatever it was--I really don't remember--went off and we were off. The swim was a 2-loop swim in the Choptank River. Originally we were supposed to do a single straight swim with the current but conditions were spec-ed to be rough, so they revised the swim the day before. The 2 loops were nice because they allowed for a time split... but I didn't get any help from the current and was definitely tossed around a bunch by the chop. At this point, I'm not sure about my splits, but I put swim + T1 at about 1:30. Not as fast as I had hoped, but it was a nice, relaxed pace and seemed decent given the roughness of the water.

As I headed out on the bike, the rain started. Or at least, it seemed to start. Apparently, it had been raining like mad all during the swim but, of course, I didn't really realize this. The bike was a flat, but windy one. It borrows from the Eagleman 70.3 and is essentially a 2-loop course. During the first 10 miles I saw upward of 10 flats so that had me a little concerned, but I ended up being lucky and went flat-free for the whole ride. In general, the bike was good. It was quite windy at times but it always seemed to be a tail- or head-wind so I didn't regret having a disc/808. The course was beautiful but rainy. With no hills, the only really noteworthy part was a 1-mile section of flooded out road. It was so deep that my shoes actually dipped beneath the water tugging me left and right with every pedal stroke. Discs make funny noises, in general; in 5 inches of water, they are ridiculous!

I wrapped up the bike in about 5:45--not bad! The final 10km sucked, though. Two hours of torrential rain had taken their toll on my mind. I really wanted to be off the bike, I was losing my focus and was just really dragging. The prospect of running a marathon afterward was so daunting. This was definitely the lowest point in my race.

I moved quickly through T2... Figured I was better heading in the right direction rather than sitting. The first 3 miles of the run were brutal. I felt sluggish and exhausted. The course was quiet and I just ran from aid station to aid station. As more people got off the bike, the crowds picked up; it was a 3x8-mile out-and-back course and this really helped me get into a groove as I started to recognize faces. By mile 5, I caught up with a nice guy--Garth--from Virginia and we stuck together for about 12 miles. He was a 22-year Army career man and we had a nice long chat which really killed time. Around mile 18, he was starting to slow so I took off. I spotted him at each turn around and we cheered each other on.

The final 4 miles were tough on the mind but knowing that I was headed home made a big difference. Also, at the final turn around, there was a Hawaiian-themed aid station. The guys there must have been drinking because they were more excited and sloppy every time I saw them. I got 'laid' with a lei on my final pass... glad to know I have game after 136 miles. In the last mile, I passed someone with "14" written on their leg. Must be their race number instead of their age, right?

"So you're not actually 14, right?"
"Ya, I am," he says. As he smiles, I see his braces.
"Wow, crazy! You're doing an Ironman!"
"I did my first last year..."
"Must be some kind of world record!"
"It is."

I laughed out loud and headed to the finish line. At least I beat the 14-year old, right?!

As I headed into the finish, Posie, Blake and my parents cheered me on. I could tell in my head that Blake wanted to say something like "Hurry the fuck up... Why are you so fat and slow?!" But, he held back. Thanks man.

Anyway, I finished in 11:39. Very, very happy with that time! And I beat David's prediction of 12:40-12:46. Also, ran my first (on-the-books) marathon in about 4:10.

Well, that's it folks. Thanks for reading and thanks for everything you've done throughout this year. It's been the most phenomenal journey of my life. Honestly. At this point, I haven't really digested the whole thing so I don't have many words of wisdom... I guess all I can say is that training for this has given me a focus and clarity that I never thought was possible. Am ready for a break and ready to get a little fratty for a while... But I'll be back at in not so long.

- IronCam.

PS: The finer details...
Swim:
David's Orca wetsuit--thanks!

Bike:
Cervelo 2008 P2C, 808 front, 900 rear

Run:
Brooks Adrenaline GTS

Nutrition/Doping:
1 bagel
4 x 700mL water
6 x 700mL Gatorade Endurance
8 x 700mL Cam's Special Cocktail (1/3 can RedBull + Amino Vital)
20 x Gu (Vanilla, Espresso, TriBerry)
20 strands of Twizzlers
6 salt pills
8 x 500mg acetaminophen

So this is it...

Figured I'd throw one more thing up on the blog before I leave to race in Maryland.

First, a quick training update. I've been a bit AWOL over the past month-and-a-half. I've (sadly) been avoiding social activities and even team workouts. As I see it, I needed to be a bit of hermit, dig in deep and put down good solo efforts to feel really prepped for this race.

I spent the end of August going for long weekend rides (6+ hours) and decent runs. Weekdays were filled with shorter, faster work and some recovery efforts as well. I took a brief break for some fun over the Labour Day weekend and then was back at it.

The last three weeks have been all over the place.

Three weeks ago, I put down my last really long workout: a practice almost-Ironman. I swam 2 miles, biked 110 miles and then ran about 11 miles. I was very lucky to have some help from my great teammate Margaret. She stayed with my bike while I swam, facilitated a quick downtown Manhattan T1, then met me out on the bike to do a bottle swap. Finally, she dropped off all my leftover gear back in the City. I really couldn't have done this workout without her. As a whole, things went well (all-in-all, about 9.5 hours of work) and I felt quite sore but not too, too brutalized afterward. Nutrition was nearly perfect.

Two weeks back, I had the pleasure of doing my last long ride with my buddy Nick Frey. He spent this past year riding pro with Time Pro Cycling and really gave me a good workout. We were out for about 4.5 hours and had a good time. I could tell that I was holding him back and really appreciated him taking the time to ride with me. We had a good long chat about life, his opportunities for next year and the possibility of me doing some serious cycling next year.

This week has been very tough. Taper is a lot rougher than I had expected. I feel abnormally anxious--guess that makes sense going from 15-20 hours of training per week to about 6. Also, I've felt extraordinarily tired... Guess the body is grabbing whatever rest I'll give it. At this point, I'm really, really nervous for the weekend. But, in my heart, I know that I'm going to finish this. There will be rough patches--it wouldn't be a challenge without them--but they will pass and I will get through this. I'd like to finish between 11 and 14 hours. My teammate David has pegged me for a 12:46; he claims to be nearly perfect at finish time prediction. Guess we'll find out.


And now, with the training update behind me, a few final thoughts as I head into this weekend:

For me, the best word to describe this past year is "weird." Fifty weeks ago, just after having finished my first Half Ironman, a fellow racer told me: "Well, you know what they say... If you can do a half then you can do a full." And so this journey began.

There have been ups and downs this year. Injuries. Bad races. Personal bests. Brutal winter runs. Early morning swims. Wonderful, summer-time rides. I've had bonks where I nearly fell asleep on the tarmack. And there have been 6-hour efforts out on the bike where I've felt like I have been reborn. When I look back on this year, I've gone through a lot of change, but my committment to this Ironman has always been constant. I've come to know myself in a completely different way and I can only imagine that this feeling will be amplified on Saturday when I cross the finish line.

So here I stand a year later, 26 lb lighter and 1000 hours more trained, waiting to undertake the biggest challenge of my life. Thanks to everyone who has been with me throughout the year--all my teammates on SBR, my early morning bike crew, my friends, my coworkers, my parents. As a teammate told me, "it takes a village to raise Ironman."

Catch you all in 140.6.

New Jersey State Triathlon, Race Report #5

One week after the NYC Triathlon, I raced the third annual NJ State Triathlon. I've competed in this Olympic distance race since it began in 2006 and it holds a special place in my heart as it was the very first triathlon that I ever did. My first year, I finished in 2:59--my goal had been to break 3 hours. This year, more experienced and much fitter, I was hoping to go sub-2:20.

The week between NYC and NJ State was a light one for me. I had decided early in the year that I'd try to pull off good performances on these shorter races by taking training light in July and then just kick up my volume right after. Although this decision might hurt my base that I was developing for the Ironman, I think it was the right decision in retrospect: it gave my some speedwork and variety in my training and I really did end up getting the chance to nail these two triathlons.

Anyway, coming in off of some easy weeks and basically having had 0 training post-NYC, I was nervous about how I'd perform in New Jersey. Also, I've neglected my swim pretty badly this summer and with no wetsuit and no current, I was a little worried about the water.

My parents had come down to the US with some friends to watch the race... exciting since they'd never seen me compete during my three years as a triathlete. Of course, this also added a little pressure to kick it hard.

I spent two days before the race just taking it easy with the family and showing them around the area--the race takes place right near Princeton. On Saturday, I checked in at the race site and heard the standard pre-race talk. I also took my bike out for a little spin just to check on the race wheels and do a little last minute tuning. I hadn't ridden these roads since I graduated over a year before and, much fitter now, I decided to have a little fun and gun it around my old haunts.

Here's a picture of me headed out from the hotel to explore the area... I'm sporting my SBR team bib-shorts with my old Princeton jersey for kicks.

Saturday night, my parents, their friends and I all had a nice meal and then I was off to bed. I had already warned everyone that Sunday was going to be an early morning but I don't think it really hit them until I woke up at 4:45 am. My dad drove me over to the race site and I got all prepped in transition while he swung back by the hotel to pick everyone else up. I had a lot on my mind that morning--we had received news two days earlier that my grandfather had passed away suddenly--so I spent a little extra time in transition making sure everything was good-to-go and trying to clear my mind.

The week before had been a relatively easy race in my category; Ironman Lake Placid had a lot of the competition tied up. This race, however, had a really strong U25 heat and I definitely spent a good amount of time sizing up the competition.

We all headed over to the swim start (about 1km away from transition) right around 7am. I had to kill a fair amount of time while the sprint waves left... as usual I spent this chatting with people and giving a few tips/encouragement to first timers.

My wave headed out around 8:10. The start was fast but not too, too crowded. Only got hit a few times. Took me a long while to find a pace and, stupidly, I spent a lot of the swim trying to draft off of fellow racers. Unfortunately, I chose guys who really couldn't swim straight and this ended up costing me time and focus. Oh well. After the final turn, the swim just seemed to take forever and I couldn't really spot the exit. I eventually got out of the water, sprinting to the ramp out of the water. I checked my time on the way out: 32 minutes. Faster than last year, but in general, a pretty shitty time. I knew I'd have to make it up on the bike.

I gunned through transition and was out pretty fast. Having spent a good amount of time improving my transition technique, I think I was able to make up a few seconds here. The run to the bike start was long and that favoured me; I leave my shoes clipped in and slide into them while riding, so I'm able to run much faster with my bike during T1.

The bike went well. The first half has a lot of stupid turns to make up mileage and this becomes annoying. I spent a good amount of the race passing and then being passed by this one guy. At first, we were pissing each other off because everytime you are passed you're required to fall back about 10m to avoid drafting penalties. By the end, we were laughing at each other... we both had such close paces that we just couldn't manage not to do this back-and-forth.

Coming in off the bike, I had only been passed (without passing back...) once. A good sign. I gunned it through T2 and headed out for the run. It was a HOT day and I had trouble keeping cool. Thankfully, they had tonnes of icy towels and that made a huge difference. Managed 1 Gu during the run and a decent amount of fluid. By mile 4 (like the week before), I was hurting. I held strong through the final hills and had a decent kick at the end. I sprinted to the finish hurting, but ok. And, again, like the week before, I almost collapsed at the end. The race officials are so funny. They go to catch you but let you stumble as much as possible before grabbing you to avoid (if possible) getting covered in a mixture of lake water, sweat, Gu, "sport drink" and potentially other nice fluids. In the end, I was ok, lay down and checked my watch. 2:19 by my count. Personal best for the course and for Olympics in general. Nice! I'd like to think that my grandfather--an avid athlete--would have been proud.

My family gave me a little time to settle and then I grabbed my stuff and we headed off.

And now, a few pictures from the race...

Exiting the water after the swim.

Sprinting up from the swim exit into T1.

Running my bike out from T1 to the bike mount point.

Headed out on the bike and getting ready to put my feet in my shoes.

Defeating the purpose of a Giro aerohelemnt by looking down at something...

Running my bike into T2.


Headed out on the run.

About 1/2 mile into the run.

Grabbing some aid at about the 3-mile marker.

Headed out to the second half of the run.

Finished and ready to grab my stuff and go home.

My parents first time watching a triathlon!

Sue and Blaine--cheering section and official photographers.

Cleaned up and headed home.

Lots of thanks to Sue for providing most of the great pictures!

Nautica New York City Triathlon, Race Report #4

The Nautica NYC marked the beginning of my 2008 triathlon race season. The event, an Olympic distance triathlon (1500m swim, 40km bike, 10km run), was a pretty lightweight challenge given my Ironman training and was a good chance to just go all out and see how I could do. From the moment I got out of the water, I had planned to go as hard as possible and, in the end, this seemed like a pretty successful strategy.

My only beef these days with Olympic triathlons is that they're pretty short for the amount of preparation involved. Having not raced anything but road races since my Half Ironman last October, I had completely forgotten what goes into a race weekend. On Saturday, I spent an hour checking in at the official race hotel and then took it easy for the afternoon. Later that evening, I hauled over to the west end of Manhattan to get my bike checked in and prep my transition area.

By the time I arrived home from all of this, it was 9PM and I still hadn't started getting my nutrition and swim and run equipment ready. It took about two hours to get everything ready (since I hadn't done real race prep in so long) and by 11 I was finally ready for bed.
I managed to squeeze in 5 hours of sleep and then got up so I could eat a little and get down to the race site. Although my wave didn't leave until 7am, the race started quite early and the transition area was closing at 5:45.

Unfortunately, when I went downstairs, I found that a massive party had gone down and a bunch of drunk people had moved all my nicely prepared gear in every direction. After 30 minutes of scrambling to find my heartrate monitor, shoes, wetsuit, etc. I was finally out the door. I greeted the local corner drug dealer and hopped in a cab headed down to the west side.
The transition area buzzed even though it was only 5am. I took my time doing final preparations on my bike and running gear and laying things out nicely. At 5:30, I met up with other guys on my team; we all Body-Glided up, grabbed our wetsuits and made the 1 mile trek uptown to the swim start.

The race consisted of swimming about a mile down the Hudson River, hitting transition, biking north on an out-and-back 40 km bike course, transitioning again and then making the final haul--a 10km run--into and around Central Park.

The swim went quite well, although currents weren't nearly as favourable as expected. I tried to do some drafting but the group broke up a fair amount and this was tough. Adding to the difficulty was avoiding the many jellyfish--only got stung 4 times-- and navigating around the physically challenged wave. (As an aside, hats off to these champions. Everything from the legally blind to people with various amputations, these guys really made you realize what can be accomplished with hard work and dedication.)

I finished the swim in about 22 minutes, jump up on the make-shift pier and gunned it to transition. I wasn't really sure how far back I was but I suspected that my swim had been pretty weak (I've neglected this leg far too much this year). As I ran towards transition (which was more than 500m away), I passed a bunch of guys. This was all in keeping with my plan to go as hard as possible and not worry about blowing up.

Out on the bike, I blew past a bunch of people in my age category in the first 20 minutes. Then, I just started picking off people from the swim waves that had left 30 minutes before me. My legs were screaming, especially on the hills, but I settled into a decent pace and felt reasonably good out on the bike. The aero helmet and Zipp 404s really added to my confidence and, in the end, I think I took down about 400 people on the ride.

Getting back into transition, I was worried about my legs. I hadn't done much short course preparation this year and was pretty sure that a hard ride was going to kill me on the run. But, in the end, the legs were pretty good. I made it out of transition, worked my way up the first hill and then picked up my pace as I headed for the Park.

Things didn't start to really hurt until about mile 4 of the run and, at this point, I was so close to the end that I just sucked it up. There was a brief moment of in-the-mouth-vomitting but other than that, things went pretty well. Passed a good number of people on the run and gunned it at the end. Crossing the finish line, I had no feeling for how I'd done in my age category, but given that I nearly fell over a few steps after finishing, I knew that I had given it my best. I was also quite happy with my 2:25:29 as it was a personal record.

A day later, I checked online and found out that I had come 3rd for U25 men and had qualified for the age group national championships out in Dallas. Now, I'm just debating if I can race those post-Ironman. More to come on that front.

And now for a few pictures from the race...

On the way out on the bike, drinking from my aero bottle.

Downhill coming back around kilometre 21.

Drinking from the aero bottle.

Goldman Sachs Tech Cup and JP Morgan Chase Corporate Challenge, Race Reports #2 and #3

These are long overdue, but I figured that they were worth getting down.

GS Tech Cup: This Spring I competed in the "Goldman Tech Cup" for the second time--this race was formerly the "GS Unofficial Corporate Challenge" but we wanted to add a little bit of prestige to it this time round. The race is organized by managing directors in Technology who basically all want to vie for having the fittest employees. Each of the six teams had five runners, one of whom had to be a woman and one of whom had to be the MD. The race course was a 4.2 mi loop of Central Park.

We had won the race last year--a good thing since our MD is extremely competitive and made it clear that it was going to be a bad time if we didn't clean up. This year, we were aiming to take a second win. Oh, and beyond bragging rights, winners get the chance to drink for free!

The teams were definitely much more stacked this year. When we rolled into the Park the evening of the race, we were shocked by how strong the competition looked.

My boss, John, and I had decided that this year we were going to try for 1st and 2nd. We had taken 2nd and 3rd the year before and were looking to improve. Our strategy was simple: run as fast as possible and try not to blow up.

When the gun went off, the front runners bolted. I was wearing my SBR team kit and figured that I needed to stick out front for a bit to at least justify the way I was dressed. (Note: most people we wearing standard t-shirts and shorts.) I took the lead around 300 yards in and lead the front pack through the 1st mile marker. By the end of mile 1.5, the pack had narrowed to 4 runners. Although sticking in 2nd or 3rd place for the first half of a run is probably a better place to be than out front, I figured my best bet was to lead the group and try to control pacing. This worked pretty well and by 2.5 miles in, there were just three of us left out front. At the 3rd mile marker, I started to break down. The two guys I had been leading pulled ahead by about 100 yards over the course of the next minute. At this point, I didn't have any real kick left and I was forced to resign myself to sticking in 3rd (with the hope that one of them would blow up before the end).

I crossed the finish line pretty torn up. The humidity had been awful and I was decently happy with my 6:06 / mile pace. John came 5th with a solid finish considering how little training he's been able to do this year.

Once everyone finished, we all migrated to the bar. After an hour of drinks / suspense, it was announced that we had won again. Nothing could trump the smirk on my MD's face as he walked around and (sort of) congratulated the competition. The night concluded with many more beers than it should have and my boss playing wingman. All in all, a good race!

Some pictures:

My MD, Damian, stretching alongside the competition.

The startline. I'm obscured in the second row in my yellow and black SBR singlet.

The announcement that we won. Damian's immediately pumps his fist into the air!

The winner's circle.

And the second annual champagne Tech cup chug!

JPMorgan Chase Corporate Challenge: This was a race that should not have mattered. Only 3.5 miles and awfully big crowds. But, I had gone in March and made a bet with a friend that a) he could not break 24:30 on the course and b) he couldn't beat me. There was a significant amount of money riding on this run and so, when I showed up feverish and sick from some bad training-related heatstroke, I was reluctantly forced to take things seriously.

I got to the race really early so I could queue up in the elite coral. This was a good decision since there were some 17,000 runners in the race. The humidity was awful and storms were brewing. As I stood around waiting for the start, all I could think about was how sick I felt and how little I wanted to run. Oh well!

When the gun went off, I kicked out of the start as fast as possible. I was across the startline in 3 seconds and proceeded to gun it through the first three hills of the course. The rain had started and slippery conditions made it difficult to really light up on the downhills.

All my training has been for long-course so I'm not really used to the pain of a "short" run. This caused some issues around mile 2 when I started to feel the lactic acid build up and my legs slow down. I tried to pace myself but really couldn't and just ended up throwing as much as I could into the run without blowing up.

I ended up finishing in 22:36, about 1.5 minutes off of my desired time. I crossed the finish right next to another guy from Goldman and we both agreed that conditions had really slowed us up.
The silver lining was that my fever subsided that night, I came 3rd in all of Goldman Sachs and my buddy (failing to break 24:30) owes me some drinks at the bar.

Hanging with the greats

It has been 2 months since my last post has gone up. Training has been going really well save for one week of pretty bad, sun-induced illness. Lots to talk about... Will try to get a few updates posted in the next few days to cover my bases. Well, possibly one of the coolest things to happen in the last few weeks was SBR Tri Team's special event in Central Park with the Challenged Athletes Foundation (CAF). The event consisted of a short run of 5 or 6 miles lead by none other than Dave Scott (6-time World Ironman Champion) and Scott Tinley (2-time World Ironman Champion)... We are talking the best of the best! The event was designed to give people the chance to meet Dave and Scott and to promote the CAF's work.

Scott Tinley

Dave Scott

The CAF is group responsible for promoting athleticism in physically-challenge athletes... And they certainly do not mess around. Among the athletes at the event, for example, was a young swimmer--both of his legs removed beneat-the-knee--who is competing at the ParaOlympics in Beijing for fly and IM. Also in attendance was a remarkable young lady--the first woman with an above-the-knee amputation to complete the Ironman. Absolutely remarkable!

Anyway, the evening was great and really sparked an interest for me in the Foundation. I am now thinking of trying to do some work with the group. Oh, and the run was definitely amazing. Dave and Scott are just the friendliest guys and to spend a short jog with two of the best triathletes in history was incredible. Haha, and along the run whom did we pass? Lance Armstrong, who was out for a short run himself. Only in New York....

And the perfect way not to recover from Saturday's race

... is crowd surfing for 3 hours on Sunday.

'nuf said:

Brooklyn Half Marathon -- Race Report #1

This past Saturday I officially fired up my 2008 race season and ran the Brooklyn Half. I had originally hoped to do the Ocean Drive Marathon back at the end of March, but that plan was nixed when I managed to really mess up my IT band in mid-January. Since hurting myself, I've spent a bunch of time in the pool and on the bike. I know that the break has definitely taken a toll on my running but I have decided this is the year to be smart and take the long-term approach to racing; With my big races later on in the year, recovery is way more important than maintaining fitness and risking further injury. Anyway, with my leg finally recovered, I decided that it was time to test the engine a bit and get a race under my belt.

As a preface, I'll begin by saying that the Half didn't really go all that well. Nonetheless, I took a lot of lessons away from it and, in that regard, I think that it was a decent race.

As usual, I introduced a little pre-race stress by not registering ahead of time and then cutting my timing really close on race day. I always seem to have a pre-race plan but more often than not I find a way to throw it to the wind... Well, on Saturday I woke up at 6:30. Registration was open from 7:30 until 8:30 and I figured 2 hours was more than enough time to make it to Brooklyn. Of course, the subway wasn't as fast as I had expected and I ended up having to run a decent clip when I reached Coney Island to make it to the registration tent. Oh well, call it a warm-up. Lesson #1: sign up ahead of time.

After registering, I headed to queue up in the second corral. The race was relatively small -- 5000 runners I've been told -- so I could actually see the front of the pack before we took off. There were a few pre-gun comments from the organizers and then we were off. My plan had been to take the run pretty easy and just get a feel for my race fitness at this point in the year. Having gotten a lot of course-specific tips from my SBR buddies and a very detailed race strategy from Lidia, I figured I'd run 7:15s or 7:30s for the first 9 miles and then pick it up once we hit Prospect Park. My legs were pretty juiced from 3 hard weeks of periodization and I could always pick up the pace later. I even decided not to wear a watch so I wouldn't be tempted to gun it.

Lesson #2: Not wearing a watch does not prevent you from gunning it. When we took off I found myself moving a little faster than I had expected... Probably about 7:05s. At the first turn-around I caught a glimpse of a my friend who ran Cross Country for Princeton. I remember thinking, "Hmm, I'm only about 300 m back from her, maybe I'm going a little too quickly." Well, needless to say I wasn't running 7:05s. When I hit mile 4, the clock read 27:45. "Uh oh!" Now, back in my day, I have run 1:30 halfs but I knew my running fitness post-injury just wasn't there and this was probably a little fast for me. "Oh well," I figured... My legs were a little tired from my training but my heart rate didn't seem too high... "Maybe I can hold this... maybe I'll even hit 1:30." Well, by mile 8, things starting falling apart and all I could think about was how I hadn't even hit the hills yet.

Anyway, the race got bad quickly. And the worst part was that I basicaly spent the last 6 miles just flipping out on myself in my head. "Why aren't you running as well as you used to?! Why did you take the opening so fast... everyone said to pick it up at the end and you've just done the opposite?! Why isn't my gel sitting as well as normal?! How does this possibly seem harder than the half at the end of a 70.3?!" (Lesson #3: gels go down much better when you plodding along during a slow run at the end of a tri than when racing a half.)

Once we got into the park I just tried to hold the hills together as well as possible, but I really couldn't get my focus back. At some point, Hillary passed me and gave me a little encouragement which picked me up for a mile or so. Then I ended up just trying to hold on. And of course, as a newcomer to the City and having never run Prospect Park, I had no idea that the race was basically some rolling hills for the last 4 miles. Great...

I hit mile 12 and was really slowing down. At some point, a cyclist passed me and yelled out something like "let's hurry up SBR." It was the kick that I needed. Pulled it together for the last mile and gave a pseudo-decent kick at the end.

I ended up finishing in 1:42. Oh, and then I walked the 0.5 mile to the train shivering because I didn't bring a warm-down jacket... Lesson #4: check a bag with warm stuff.

So, I guess the morning was pretty disappointing. In the end, it was even the time that got to me but that the race just felt so bad. I'm doing my first Ironman this year and to have such a bad half marathon was big wake-up call.

The upside of the race was that I then went home and put down about 70 miles on the bike. The legs were cooked at the beginning but I found a good rhythm by the time I was headed back to the City along 9W. Also, my nutrition went nicely on the bike and I had no problems with the gels/bars at all. By the time I got home, I had a smile on my face and was at least proud that I got out and had a nice ride.

So, I think the take-away from Saturday is that a) my running has definitely suffered from my injury and I'll have to put in more time there but b) my riding is coming along nicely. And, I have a good amount of time until the IM so I'll definitely have a chance to get a lot more racing (road races and tris) under my belt and build up that confidence.

Thanks to Hillary and the unidentified cyclist for race day encouragement and to everyone who gave me pre-race advice... I promise I'll listen better next time!

First update in a while

So my friends have been running out of things to make fun of me for and have asked that I get back to blogging so they can pick up steam. Anyway, here's a quick update on my training and how things are progressing.

My ITB really killed running for the last 8 weeks. Having said that, with a combination of stretching and homebrewed physio, it's feeling pretty good and I'm starting to build up mileage again. On Monday, I put down my first 7+ miler in 8 weeks and everything felt great. Even better, with all the riding and swimming I've been doing, I didn't notice that much deconditioning. Ran 6:45/mile and that felt fine.

While I've kept the running mileage to a minimum, I've been riding a tonne. I joined a local triathlon team (SBR Multisports) a few months back and have been putting in a lot of time on the bike with those guys. I've adopted their training system that is heavily based on periodization and it has really helped improve my fitness level. I build up mileage and duration over 3 weeks and then take a low-volume rest week. The 4-week process continues up until about 2 months before my Ironman at which point I start to work primarily on intensity.

Training highlights over the past few weeks have been long 5-hour rides in and aroudn Nyack, NY. I've been trying to get these workouts out of the way early on Saturday mornings to reduce the impact on my weekend. That said, it has been draining a lot of my energy and I've needed a lot more sleep -- in the words of one of my friends, "this Ironman shit has to go... it's seriously affecting fun." Oh well.

My race schedule is pretty finalized at this point, with my A race being the Chesapeakeman and my B race being the Lake Placid Marathon and the NJ State Triathlon. C races include the two corporate challenges and a possible sprint in upstate New York.

Not much other news. Getting pumped to pick up my P2C this month and little bit of other gear. Oh, and for anyone who is interested, my buddy's new bamboo bike business is really taking off and is definitely worth checking out.

IT Band Blues

On Sunday, I took the train down to Brooklyn to meet up with my friend Andrew for our 17-miler. It was cold and pretty grey out, but we got the chance to run over the bridge and along the bottom tip of Manhattan just as the sun set so that was nice. However, the run quickly entered a downward spiral, with the wind picking up and the temperature dropping. Around mile 7, my knee started to bother me a bit and I had to pop an Advil. Of course, it didn't get any better and as we entered the park at mile 11, it became clear that I was done for. I hobbled 3/4 of a mile to the subway and froze the whole way there.

The next day, the mile walk to the subway nearly killed me. The 10 steps down to the platform actually did kill me. I was in less pain when I broke my arm snowboarding. The walk from the subway to the office was even worse. Monday night, I ended up working late just so I could take a car home and not have to face the brutal walk.

The final self-diagnosis is iliotibial band syndrome (ITBS). The IT band is a superficial thickening of tissue on the outside of the thigh, extending from the outside of the pelvis, over the hip and knee, and inserting just below the knee. The band is crucial to stabilizing the knee during running. The continual rubbing of the band over the lateral femoral epicondyle, combined with the repeated flexion and extension of the knee during running may cause the area to become inflamed, or the band itself may suffer irritation.

I haven't dealt with this type of problem since freshman year of college, but I have noticed tightness in the area during the past few bike rides so I guess I should have seen this coming. Anyway, the pain yesterday had me very, very worried that I'd have to scrap the marathon and take 2 months off to recover. Luckily, an aggressive icing regime has killed most of the pain. I've done a lot of research the past two days and it seems that I may be ok if I start a really good habit of stretching out the band, doing self-massage and wearing an IT band strap on my leg. So, at this point, I think I'm going to play it careful but try to keep on track for the marathon.

Most of my research indicates that a) I'm a prime candidate for this problem (flat feet, bowed legs, over-pronation, mileage, biking and running, etc.) and b) I'll really have to be vigilant to deal with this.

So, here's the plan.

1. Stretch my IT band 3 x 10 minutes per day.
2. Start wearing an IT band strap above my knee to reduce movement of the band over the lateral femoral epicondyle.
3. Ice my knee 4 times daily.
4. Hold off running for a few more days.

In the end, I think I'm going to have to keep up some regime for long-term management of this issue because I'm sure that, given my predisposition towards ITBS and the fact that I'm upping my mileage for the Ironman in October, I could be in for more problems...

One last change of plans... and a trip!

So, I was out on a long run and had some time to think... It donned on me that the `hardest Ironman in North America' was probably a bad first Ironman. So I think I'm canning the Silverman and choosing yet another Ironman. I have now settled on the Great Floridian. It is supposed to have fantastic race support and a great turnout. It's in Orlando which (while not the coolest place on Earth) is convenient to get to and reasonably close to the beach if I want to take a little vacation afterward. I don't think wandering around Disney World post-race will really be my cup of tea. So, that's that.

And now for my trip... I'm off to Arizona on Saturday for a nice 4-day vacation. Looking to relax, do a little training and hang out with my parents -- my dad's down there for a conference. We're staying at this pretty posh looking Marriott spa and resort so that should provide some good R&R and a fantastic place to put down some runs and swims. May even rent a beater with my dad and go for a ride.

Change of plans

Just a quick post... with some change of plans. I've carefully considered things and given the time, commute, etc., I think I'll be scrapping IronmanUK this year. In the end, I've decided that 140.6=140.6 so doing an official Ford Ironman isn't a real necessity. I've revised my schedule to do the Silverman Ironman in Nevada. It'll be a little later in the year, easier/cheaper to reach and leaves me a little extra cash to spend on my bike. Even better, I can throw in a few days of post-race enjoyment in Vegas!


The only drawback is that Silverman is considered the toughest Ironman in North America, with over 9700 ft of climbing in the bike over 112 miles (think, 1/3 the height of Mount Everest). The run is equally challenging with 2000 ft of climbing! That said, it'll be a great challenge and the course is absolutely beautiful. Some pics that I've found.

So, here's to a new plan!

Back in the saddle again

First post of 2008, so I'll start off with a Happy New Year!

The past two weeks have been busy but fantastic. I wrapped up my trip to Canada with a few good workouts and some time with friends. New Years was awesome as always. A little less insane than usual (which doesn't take much) but still a very good time. One picture from the night... with me in surprisingly good form and my buddy Duncan on his way to being "drunken Duncan."

Had a great first two weeks back in the City. Been riding my new Kreitler 3.0" rollers a bunch and it has definitely improved my spinning and the quality of my pedal stroke. For those who don't know what rollers are, they're like a self-powered treadmill for your bike. The challenge comes in balancing yourself and not varying your path more than 6 inches in each direction. I don't have a picture of me on my set yet, so I've just included a random Google image search so you can take a look.
Anyway, it took some practice riding between a wall and a treadmill and bouncing back-and-forth like a bowling ball in a lane with bumpers, but I think I have the hang of it now. At this point, I can ride with just a wall or chair on one side to get started and can put down an hour no problemo.

That said, the weather has been so fantastic the past three days that I just had to get outside. Put down two 5 AM rides in the Park and a few nice runs along the eastside. Fantastic! However, looks like we're headed back for winter -- the ride this morning was a little cold -- so I imagine I'll be back on my Kreitlers in no time!

In the world of fun, my buddies all had friends in from out of town this past weekend. Highlights included:
- going to the Met and the Museum of Natural History (probably good since we all pay NYC rent and never take advantage of the City's amenities)
- a party that was nearly 85% dudes and basically turned into a massive frat/drinking game event
- trying to ride my rollers at said party... and not hurting myself by some miracle
- a two-guy competition to prove their love for my buddy Clarke's visting lady friend: who can burn their hand the worst with a cigarette lighter

Well that's about it for now.