Race Report #2: Bronx Half Marathon

Wrapped up my second race of 2009 this past Sunday. The Bronx Half--second of five NYRR half marathons--was a set of loops up and down the rolling hills of the Bronx. Unlike the Manhattan Half two weeks before, the weather on Sunday was beautiful and warm--so warm, in fact, that I ditched my long-sleeved jersey at mile 2 and had to wander back along the course to pick it up later.

All in all, a decent race. Finished in 1:37. I had been hoping for a 1:34 but was happy with the time considering my 5-hour bike ride and hill repeats the day before. In fact, my legs didn't begin to feel the previous day's workout until I hit some reasonably bad hills at Mile 10 and slowed up significantly... Guess this bodes well for my run off the bike this season.

Posie was awesome and came up to hang out and watch the early AM race. Looking forward to running the third half (Brooklyn) with her in May.

A few pictures of the finish from her camera:

Coming in to finish up.

Looking over my shoulder to see if I'm going to be caught in the last 10m.

Sponsorship!

So some pretty exciting news... I recently was selected by my team, SBR Multisports, to be a sponsored athlete for the 2009 race season. As an SBR Ambassador, I will lead a few team workouts a week and receive sponsorship benefits from SBR, Zoot, Blue Seventy, Rudy Project and Squadra! Now all I need to do is get some podiums and qualify for Kona and Clearwater....... More to come on this front.

Manhattan Half Pics

Just a few pics from the Manhattan Half.

Coming in for the finish with Nic from Trilife. He and I ran the last 5 miles together.

Ditto the first comment.

Crossing the line.

Chugging away around mile 8.

Starting to speed up for the last 3 miles.

Nic and me starting our kick for the last 200m.

Race Report #1: One down, four to go

This morning I finished the Manhattan Half Marathon, the first of the five halves making up the NYRR Grand Prix.

Woke up around 7, had a small snack of Cheerios and headed down to the start at 63rd and Central Park West. One word to describe the conditions: cold. Twelve degrees cold. Nonetheless, the 5000 racers took off promptly at 8 and completed just over two loops of Central Park.

The first half of my run was mediocre. I was cold, not all that happy to be awake early and a little sluggish. Paced myself with two guys from my team but let them go when they took off during series of rolling hills. Found my stride by mile 7 and caught a guy from a rival tri team, TriLife. He and I hung together for the rest of the race and talked about the upcoming Ironman season. Made the rest of the run pass by quickly.

Finished in 1:40 (7:37min/mi). Not that fast but a good start for the season and a nice shock to the system. Last year, injury had me wait until May for my first race. This time around, I'm (knock on wood) uninjured and four months ahead of last year's fitness. A good start to hopefully a great season.

Bring on the racing!

The Manhattan Half Marathon, tomorrow, marks my first race of the 2009 season. I'm still a little sluggish coming out of off-season, but am excited to lay down some miles tomorrow and gauge my fitness. For reference, this time last year I was laid up with a pretty bad case of ITBS that kept me from running for more than two months. In fact, my first race last year didn't come until the Brooklyn Half Marathon in May. So, if all goes somewhat according to plan, I should score a decent time tomorrow and be four months ahead of last year's schedule. Not a bad way to start the year, especially with Clearwater and Kona as big goals for the season.

Also, of interest, I've started to figure out the finer details of my training plan for the year. So far, I have Base 1 complete and Base 2 and Base 3 mapped out. For those who are interested:

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