It's been a while......

It's been a while since I last wrote, over 9 months, which is an interesting observation since that is approximately the length of time it took my new son to arrive, but more on that later.

So what happened in the interim, well it went something like this.......

January

On the day of my last entry (January 4th, 2010 for those of you who forgot) I started the season by taking my first test, a 3 mile all out effort on the trainer. This is a test I use to get a general idea of my fitness. I was a little under the weather that day and turned in a pretty poor time (for me anyway). This was my first wake up call of the season. I knew I had a lot of work to do to get ready for my goal race in May, the Columbia Triathlon. Last year I did Columbia (a great race,you should try it!) in 3:02:29. I remember thinking after the race, that if I had known I was so close to breaking 3 hours I would have pushed a lot more on the run. So my goal for 2010 was to break 3 hours. Everything was going to be secondary to that until I found out my wife was pregnant!

When the good news arrived, I knew breaking 3 hours would be even more of a challenge. My goal was made even more challenging by the unseasonable cold weather we got this winter. I started January with a bit of a cold, but I managed to get in a fair amount of training. In particular, I added some strength training and yoga to my training regiment. After a few weeks I began to feel much stronger,particularly in the pool.

February

February arrived and so did huge amounts of snow and morning sickness! My wife was suffering through a bad bout of nausea and with the huge snow fall the trainer was my only sanctuary, until of course we lost power! This was a really challenge, no power, no way to leave home, and a wife swamped with nausea. Thank goodness for out next door neighbors who helped us through this tough time. Since the first week of February was lost to all the various impediments to training, I was looking forward to restarting my training when the roads were cleared. Once again I turned to my 3 mile time trial and knocked 16 seconds off my January time. More importantly I recorded a 7% increase in average power. This assured me that my training was progressing in the right direction. I spent most of February concentrating on swimming since it is definitely my weakness. I was looking for a swim coach but my work location made finding a convenient coach virtually impossible. I was resigned to getting better so I picked up a copy of "Total Immersion" and studied the book and tried to follow the suggestions as best I could.

One of the real challenges being a self trained swimmer, is that you can't see yourself! Unlike running or cycling where I can get on a trainer or treadmill to critique my technique and position, this is almost impossible to do while swimming. I did come across a pool once with mirrors on the bottom of the pool in one lane, but even then its hard to keep a good head position, while trying to see if you legs are dropping too much. Just one more reason to get a coach.

March

So March rolled around and it's time to take another test and get an idea of where my fitness is. I tackle my 3 mile TT test and knock another 21 seconds off my last test and my average power has increased another 9%! I also noticed my heart rate for the effort had dropped by 10 beats per minute, a sure sign that I was now more aerobically fit as well! Armed with these numbers I decide some racing was in order. When I first started cycling seriously, I used to race in the NYC Spring series, a series of cycling races in Brooklyn every weekend. So I signed up figuring this would push me. I had no intention of trying to win this race, I just wanted to hang with the field and get some tough miles in. I managed to hang on for about 1/2 the race before getting unceremoniously dropped on the only hill in the race. Still, the race provided a good hard effort much like I would need when doing the Columbia Triathlon (especially the last 10 miles of chasing alone! and no I didn't catch the field....).

April

April was my first big volume month as the weather was finally improving. I hadn't planned on doing any races this month, I just wanted to focus on training. One of my good friends, however, wanted to race a 13 hour mountain bike race but needed another team mate. Now I dabble in mountain biking, but strictly for fun. So when she approached me about racing off road, for 13 hours at that, I was a little apprehensive, especially since my mountain bike hadn't been off-road in the better part of 3 years. Not wanting to disappoint, I agreed to help out. This turned out to be the toughest workout all year. Almost 5 hours on a hard tail mountain bike over tough terrain was more than draining, but it a great experience, even if I never want to do it again..... The picture at the top is a look at my first (and last?) foray into competitive mountain biking. After taking a little bit of a recovery after the race, I decided now was a good time to re-test myself. My time dropped by 22 seconds and average power increased by a little over 11%! I am on a roll! At this point my power on the bike was about 5% above what it had been in 2009 right before I did the Columbia triathlon. I was feeling pretty good and I still had about a month of training left. So now it was time to fine tune my training.

May

With my goal race now in site, I started tapering, working on my transitions, and planning to ride the course, you know, all those little things that can screw up an otherwise good race. The one thing I didn't plan for was lack of parking and pouring rain the day of the race. When I arrived at the race site, traffic was backed up for a good mile and it was pouring. I dropped my buddy Mike at the entrance since he went off in an earlier wave then me, and then drove back to look for parking. I found a spot about a mile away and then made a mad dash to get to transition before it closed. The soggy conditions and bad weather just added to the mayhem that is race morning, and in a big race like Columbia it was compounded by all the people. I managed to get my transition area set up just as the transition area closed. Unfortunately in my rush, I forgot to use my Body glide to put on under my wetsuit. I was resigned to having a bad neck rash after the race, when I saw a woman spraying herself with Lemon PAM. I had always heard people used the stuff, but this was the first time I had ever witnessed it. I decided now was as good a time as ever to give it a shot, so I asked her if she could spare some. She gladly obliged and I was lemony fresh and relieved to not have to worry about having a sore neck for the next week. I ambled over to the swim start and waded into the water a few minutes before my wave was set to start. Getting into the water initially is always the worst part of a triathlon for me. It took me a good 3 minutes to get over the initial shock of the cold water and after exhaling under water a few times I started to feel better. The gun went off and I waited for most of the insanity that is a wave start to go out ahead of me and then I started my race. I remained cool and calm for most of the swimming, feeling OK, if not great. I just wanted to get out of the water and onto my bike. I went badly off course in the second part of the swim, which cost me some time, but I recovered and head for the swim exit. I had a brisk transition, and I was happy to notice the rain had stopped as I mounted my bike. Since, Columbia is a fairly hilly bike course, and the course was wet, I decided to forgo aero bars and just use my standard rode bike. I felt the extra comfort and better handling would make up for the lack of an aero advantage on certain parts of the course. I powered my way to a bike split that was 3 minutes better than the previous year. As I was leaving transition to start the run, I noted I had a little less than 1 hour if I wanted to break the 3 hour mark. I had fueled well on the bike and I planned to go with gels every 30 minutes on the run. I knew staying properly fueled would be a necessity if I was to break 3 hours. Columbia has a notoriously tough 10k run. I knew I would have to push a little in the first 5k to stay on my goal pace. At the 2 mile mark, I was concentrating hard when I heard a blood curdling scream! It was Shelly from my tri club at the water station cheering me on! I couldn't help but chuckle inside! That really bolstered my resolve to keep my pace up. I was well on my way to a good 10k time at the 4 mile mark which is where some of the toughest hills in the course come up. I managed to maintain a decent pace and when I hit the 5 mile mark I turned on the jets in the knowledge I had little more than 1 mile to go and a mostly downhill run to the finish. As I crossed the line I looked at my watch and thought Mission Accomplished! 2:58:06. My main goal of the year accomplished, I now decided to enjoy the good fitness that I had acquired over the previous 5 months.

June

In June I started my Thursday evening rides we call Thursday thunder! We try to hit just about every hill in Rock Creek Park. It a leg searing, gut busting hammer fest for most of the ride with breaks at the top of the tough climbs to let people catch back on. It's usually fun too and has most of the elements of a fast group ride. About this time my wife was finally starting to show, for the first 5 months, you could barely tell she was pregnant. So trips to the doctor were becoming more interesting, especially since we were adamant about not wanting to know the sex of the baby. I had but one race planned for June, my annual sprint triathlon, Tri to Win, which raises money for melanoma research. I hadn't trained specifically for this race, but I was confident since fitness had been sky high during the previous weeks. A number of my friends were also doing the race, and this made the event all the more fun. Since it was a sprint, my goal was to push as hard as I could for the duration of the race and see what I had in the tank. Who knows, maybe I could even snag an age group award. I pushed my way to a course PR and just missed an age group award coming in 5th. Oh well, maybe next year!

July

By the time July rolled around I was starting to feel pretty burnt out. My fitness was still high but I had come down noticeably from my peak. As a result, my training tapered off quite a bit from late June to early July. Some due to the impending birth of my child and some from lack of desire to train. Normally this would have been fine, except I had registered for the NYC Triathlon on July 18th! I was not really motivated to do this race but once I pay for a race I'm going to do it unless a meteor strikes. So I traveled to NYC, and was greeted by absolutely the worst humidity I had raced in in a while. One of the reasons I really wanted to do this race was the allure of swimming in the Hudson River (although allure might be the wrong term). Growing up as a kid in Brooklyn the Hudson was always maligned as too nasty, too dirty, too dangerous to swim in. I was also intrigued by the fact that the race director GUARANTEED everyone a swim PR! Well he could not have been more right. Watching the pros the morning of the race, it looked like they were hydroplaning in the water they were swimming so fast! I found out why when my wave started. The race director gave you the option of starting the race in the water, but he noted as soon as you jump in grab the rope attached to the dock. I jumped in and went under, immediately I could feel myself being pulled downstream! It felt like I had rocket propelled flippers on the current was so strong! A couple of guys who jumped in had to be grabbed before they were swept downstream by the current. Of course, the highlight of the race had to be the tire I spied floating by at the 600 meter mark! At least I didn't have to swim through it! Getting out of the water 15 minutes faster the usual was great! Then came the back course which was typical NYC, and by that I mean badly paved! It was so badly paved somewhere on the course I lost my trusty Garmin Forerunner, making this the most expensive triathlon I have ever done! By the time I got to the run it was blazing hot and the humidity was oppressive. I struggled through the run, but still posted my best ever triathlon time. Now I could schedule some down time for the season and get ready for the really tough stuff, having a child!

Hope to see all of you out there in the pool, on the road, and on the track......

Peace

Rob...

P.S. Part II of the season soon to follow.

Happy New Year! Now Let's Get Started!

Greetings to all! I hope the new year finds you happy, healthy and fit! I am looking forward to the upcoming season and I am hoping to make serious strides in each of the three disciplines we triathletes engage in. I also hope to re-acquire some skills in my first true love, basketball! More on that later.........

Improving each discipline

While I did well last year with my fastest ever Olympic distance race, a careful examination of my training, showed the need for improvement in each discipline. That's not all bad news however, since some of my necessary improvements just require missing fewer workouts. Taking a look at both your strong and weak disciplines can be very enlightening.

The Swim.

After last year's efforts I learned two things:

1. I'm a much faster swim
2. But not necessarily a much better swimmer.

How did I come to this conclusion? Well I posted a personal best of 35:45 at the Columbia triathlon knocking almost 6 minutes of my best swim time. Along with that however, I had quite a bit of shoulder and arm pain. After talking with my chiropractor it was determined to be due to my habit of only breathing on my left side. I was determined that by my next Olympic tri I would be a bilateral breather. It was so hard to change this habit that I learned some 30 years ago, I actually took 2 months off from swimming and when I went back to the pool I was determined to only swim by breathing on both sides. After about a month and many mouthfuls of water later I had become comfortable, if not proficient, at breathing every 3rd stroke. I should note that while I was making the transition I didn't focus on any other aspect of my swim. All I worked on was being able to breathe on both side comfortably. I didn't track my pace, worry particularly about body position (except how it affected rolling to my "other" side) or worry about stroke count. I was actually prepared to become a slower swimmer, with the idea that the better technique would suffice in the long run. When I was finally comfortable, I went back to one of my standard workouts, and lo and behold, I was actually faster! Without doing anything other than going to bilateral breathing, I had actually picked up between 10 and 15 seconds per 100! I attribute this to 2 things, I now breathe every third stroke which I believe enables me to keep a better body position throughout the course of my swim. Second, I believe my swim is more balanced, i.e. I swim on my side more as a consequence of having to roll to the other side to breathe. I have also noticed I swim straighter and I make fewer corrections to remain on a straight course. I was somewhat skeptical that bilateral breathing would have such a profound effect, but I never write anything off until I at least try it. In this case trying paid dividends, always a good feeling.

The Bike

In general I had a good year on the bike. While I did lament not having the opportunity to participate in any bike races, I felt I had a successful season. One area I found lacking was the amount of intervals I did over the course of the year. I was generally really good at the beginning of the year in preparation for early season races, but afterwards I was slacking a bit and allowing some fast group rides to substitute for interval sessions. This isn't always a bad idea but in general group rides don't always fit into the type of training you may need for an upcoming event. I resolve to be a bit more disciplined this year and hopefully I will be able to reap the benefits.

The Run

OK, let's be frank, I don't really like running all that much. Most workouts that I blow off are run workouts. I love cycling, I need swimming, but really I just tolerate the run. So this year I plan to make sure I don't miss any of those run workout (or at least not as many). I noticed that last year I really didn't do nearly enough speed work either. Speed work, for me anyway, is far more mentally taxing that physically taxing. Once I get out there I'm OK, but actually getting out there is the problem. I'm gonna work on that, but I think I need a partner (any takers????) .

Other stuff

I joined a tri club, Tri Unify which has been great. Meeting like minded people of color who also take an interest in a healthy life style is AWESOME! Check them out at Tri Unify.com

Among other things Tri Unify has open water swim practices, meet and greets, and a wealth of highly motivated people of all levels so no one has to feel intimidated or left out.

Every few months I get an uncontrollable urge to go back to the sport of my youth, namely basketball. One thing I like about triathlon is, no matter how hard the race it is essentially a non-contact sport. Not true of basketball! After just about every game, something is cut, scratched or bruised! The other thing about triathlon is essentially you are always going straight ahead, basketball is about going in 20 different directions, one right after the other, or even at the same time. This requires some specialized preparation since I rarely need to practice running backwards or side to side to prepare for a tri. Anyway, I have caught the bug again and I am about to play in a league or two this winter, I'll keep you posted and let you know how the body holds up.

The Season

I already have 3 races scheduled on my calendar and I am considering whether to step up to the half ironman distance in the second half of the year. A lot depends on how the first half goes, so I figured I would re-evaluate after my sprint triathlon on June 20th. Since we are being hit by unseasonable cold weather I see a lot of indoor training in my future (and yours too!). Don't let this ruin your season, hop on a bike trainer, treadmill or into a spin class somewhere. If this doesn't do it for you get in the pool more often and work on all those things you never work even though you know you should.

As some of you may know I am a personal trainer and I am applying for my USAT coaching license. I will be creating a 16 week training program for the Tri to Win sprint triathlon which is on June 20th. The program will include group training on the weekends and a training schedule for the entire 16 weeks leading up to the race. The training program will be aimed at first time triathletes and those with no experience following a training program. I will be hosting an information session later this month. The training program is schedule to start on March 1st. If you are interested please e-mail me at robert@clarencesoftware.com.

I hope to see all of you out there in the pool, on the road and on the track......

Peace

Rob