New Year, New Goals

As the year comes to a close I'd like to do what most people do, or should do, and reflect a bit on the year. In January I was in the middle of some high volume training for the first time in my life. I've ran for years but I would never consider 50 MPW high volume. You can do that off 6 hours per week, and 50 miles per week was usually high for me. I probably averaged 10 hours per week consistently December-March with a few 12-13 hour weeks. I also had started following a Paleo diet pretty strictly. I was down to 148-150 lbs by January of 2013 which in hindsight was a little early.

The first week of March I went on a 3 night vacation with my girlfriend and family. While training continued on vacation, I even got a 12 mile long run in on a Sunday, my diet took a nosedive. To say I have a massive sweet tooth would be a massive understatement. So while on vacation I was indulging in all sorts of sweets, which normally wouldn't be a problem. The problem was when I returned from vacation I continued to eat. I probably only put on 2-3 lbs before my half marathon at the end of March. 

At the end of March I ran my first half-marathon which was pretty awesome. While it was extremely cold <24 degrees and windy, I ran tough to finish in 1:25:43. It was a cool experience because it was honestly my first real endurance event. I don't consider 5Ks and 10Ks to be an endurance event. You could call them endurance races maybe. But something like a marathon or half iron man is an EVENT. 

Post half-marathon things got a little tough. I was already signed up for my first HIM on June 1st but I lost sight of things a little bit. I made a lot of mistakes in my preparation for the race:

First off my nutrition fell off a bunch in April again. I actually probably raced in June at 156-157 because my nutrition had been so poor. I'm talking devouring donuts, cookies, cheesecakes on a regular basis. I'll be making two corrections going forward. I will A. make sure I'm not at race weight 6 months prior to my A race. I consider race weight to be around 150 give or take. I'd probably like to hover about 4-5 lbs above that. I will also B. Not be as strict as I was with the whole paleo thing. If I've learned anything from being a strength and conditioning coach, its never take anything to too far of an extreme. You need balance and while I do understand the merits of a Paleo diet, I think it is a bit extreme. 

Second I needed more time on the bike. My longest ride was 150 minutes but I was mostly doing just 2 hour rides on the trainer. This is nowhere near enough. Plan for this year is to consistently ride 3+ hours and a few 3.5+ hour rides.

Third. I did not ride outside enough. Prior to my HIM I probably got in less than 7 outdoor rides.

Fourth. I skipped too many hard rides. If I was ever feeling run-down I always backed off too easily. I skipped my hard bike ride way too often and instead just did an easy 60 minutes. Even though I have an early season HIM goal, I think the Olympic distance is going to be perfect for me. And in order to be good at the Olympic distance, those thresh-hold rides are extremely important. 

So needless to say with all these mistakes, I clearly fell way short of my goals for my HIM at Quassy. I ended up finishing in 5:45.XX and was hoping for 5:15ish. Sure it was like 92 degrees and its one of the tougher courses on the circuit but I really feel like I underachieved at that race.

For many reasons I ended up taking the entire summer off from training. So I just worked, ate and got fat. I ended up getting up to 170 lbs. I finally started training again in September and man was I out of shape. But fortunately for me I can back to it pretty quickly. I ran a few races through October. First was a 5K in 20:XX. Second was a marathon-relay. I ran the 10 mile portion of it at 7:41 pace. Then I surprised myself at the Rockland Road Runners 5 mile Turkey Trot with a time of 30:18. It was pretty impressive considering I had done only 1 run at 7:15 or faster. 

My last race was my HM. It was a complete shock. To be able to set such a huge PB in those conditions was amazing. While I still think given my high-school and college ability I should be able to run faster I'm extremely happy with where I'm at. 

In addition to all my training I bought a condo with my fiance, added a family member (dog), am now going back to school, got my USA Triathlon certification, and most importantly am now engaged to my girlfriend of almost 5 years. Pretty life changing stuff. 

This ended up being much longer than expected. I'll give away my 2014 goals in my next update. Happy New Years to all!

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/hellinaforumradio/2013/12/27/pb-nation

Merry Christmas Eve!!

Seasons Greetings!

Christmas is by far my favorite holiday and its not even close. I'd like to think I'm generally a pretty jovial person and I love it that most people are in good moods as well this time of the year. I was talking about it with my fiance last night. Good moods are infectious. Smile at a random stranger and I'd say the overwhelming majority smile back.

With regards to my training. I was unable to get my long run in Sunday morning because I was up until 3AM Saturday night and had 12 hours of work & basketball the following day. So I ended up taking Sunday off, and did my long run of 80 minutes yesterday afternoon. Not bad considering I did a 60 minute ride in the AM. Today was a very easy 50 minute zone 2 ride followed by some strength work. Again this is my down week so I'm likely only getting in about 9 workouts for a total of < 9 hours of training. Compared to my usual 12-14.

I now have 4.5 weeks until the Fred Lebow Half Marathon. Making sure I don't push myself too hard this week so I can really work hard the following three weeks. Tomorrow I'm scheduled to do my only hard workout of the week which is 4 X 10 minutes at half-marathon pace (6:20 or under), 90 second jog in between. I suppose that's a Christmas gift to myself.

The goal for the next two days is to not stuff my face too much. I'll be celebrating this afternoon with my family at my moms house. Then Naomi and I will be heading up to Saratoga Springs NY to be with her family. It sounds a little crazy but I'm making sure I pack some nice healthy meals to snack on. Its not like her family doesn't eat healthy but its really important to stay in a routine, even if it is just 48 hours. I find anytime I'm out of my routine I overeat. Gotta make sure I get down to race weight following New Years!

Hope everyone enjoys their Christmas!


http://www.blogtalkradio.com/hellinaforumradio/2013/12/20/pb-nation

Welcome To My Blog

So my first post was a bit of rambling post-race and how excited I was with a big PB. I'd  first like to thank everyone for taking time out of their day with interest in my training & thoughts on training. This blog will essentially cover all things triathlon but more particularly my training. While I coach several triathletes and use feedback to help improve my training philosophy, I feel there is no greater truth than "Experience is the best teacher."

So I'd like to go into a couple factors that affected my race, and why I think I can go faster on January 26th, my next half-marathon. I'll start with the factors that might slow me down the next race, or negative factors. The course was literally as flat as it gets. I thought my first half-marathon was flat, but I don't think I'll ever see a pancake flatter course than this one. Now I think my sickness 10 days prior to the race could have actually benefited me. First I lost 4-5 lbs. Now some people may say "this is water weight" or "you lost muscle" and both are partially true. But I think shedding those extra couple lbs helped. Furthermore I had to take 3 days off completely from training, where I just rested in bed and on the couch. This could have essentially been a massive taper. Lastly while some may say you were sick!!! This sickness was a complete stomach virus, it did not affect my lungs.

So Negatives :
1. Flat course
2. Lost 5 lbs prior to race
3. Tapered while sick

Positives
I'll start with the fact that I had a very intense week of training prior to the race. Both high volume and fairly moderate intensity. In fact did a moderate workout 3 X 10 minutes at Half marathon pace with 90 second jog 2 days prior. Two days prior I also did some strength training including single leg squats. I also was only on 30 MPW with tri training, as opposed to strictly run training(50-60 MPW). Then of course there was the snow. While it wasn't a blizzard I have to imagine the footing slowed me down a bit. Lastly was the complete hairpin turns. I easily lost 5+ seconds at the turns, which there was 3 of.

Positives
1. High same week volume including strength training
2. Only one 30 MPW
3. Snow
4. Hairpin Turns

I'd like to think of myself as a realist and truly believe that the positives far outweigh the negatives and can shave a decent chunk of time off my next race. So my goal for January 26th is going to be sub 1:22, which is about 5 seconds per mile faster.

I had debated taking a down week post race but it hasn't turned out that way. The volume has been up with 2 fairly intense workouts. The run volume has been low because my left calf has been torn up since the race. In fact I've only done 1 run in the past 5 days. So I've been doing some foam rolling and rest to heal up. Lastly, next week will be used as a down week, and then I will have 4 weeks left until my race. 3 Hard, 1 easier.

I'd also like to add, please check out my weekly radio show. If your interested in training concepts as well as some good ole tri banter check us out.

http://www.blogtalkradio.com/hellinaforumradio/2013/12/20/pb-nation

Thats all for now. Check back in after this weekend.

Half Marathon Race Report: Near 3 Minute PB in Snow!

Hello All!!! 

This may be a bit long but feel free to refer to the cliff notes. 

Leading up to race 

10 days prior to the race I got a bad stomach bug, had to take 2 days off work, was in the bathroom for 2 days straight and lost about 5 lbs. I was unable to train for 3 days. That was the 1st week of a 3 week build period. So after getting healthy and taking it light Saturday and Sunday, I continued my build week 2. So I put in fairly significant volume and intensity Monday-Friday prior to the Saturday race. At this point in the season I have done 3 workouts/races faster than 7:00/mi pace. One was a 40 minute tempo at 6:47 pace, a 5 mile road race at 6:02 pace, and a 3 X 10 minute segment faster than half-marathon pace with 90 second jog in between (done Thursday prior to race). 

Race Day 
I came into the race with a 1:25:43 PB. The race was meant to be used as a hard workout, which would be a stepping stone for a big PB at a half marathon on January 26th. Race morning came in the NY and it was snowing fairly moderate. My fiance and I debated skipping the run because we had a 70+ minute drive to get there. Good thing we decided to go for it. 

Goal on race day was 6:40-6:50 pace. After a 10 minute warm up, we went to the line ready to roll. Prior the the race the announcer was kind enough to let us know joining us would be 2 professional triathletes including a sub 9 hour IM guy. As the gun goes off the 2 pro's and 1 kid take off. Must have been 5:50 pace or faster. I start off in 4th place and begin chugging along. After half a mile random guy pulls up along me and we're talking a bit for first 2 miles. He ends up being a strong triathlete and 2:48 marathon guy. At 2 miles I know we're going faster than I wanted but the guy is a massive talker. And I got sucked into staying at his pace. I ask him what we're hitting and he said we were bouncing between 6:05-6:20 lol. So much for 6:50 pace. 

For the next 2 miles, probably 6:30ish pace, I tell him about 3 times to go ahead without me but he refuses and tells me to tag along. I do my best to stick with him. This was a straight out and back 2 loop course. So we had to make 3 hairpin turns. At my 7, the second hairpin turn we were about 75 meters back on third place guy. He looked like he was struggling when he ran past us so after the turn we picked it up. The adrenaline of actually seeing a top 3 overall place so close was awesome. 

We catch the kid and he hangs for a mile or so. He asks what pace we're hitting and apparently 5:55ish lol. We slow it down a bit but I'm feeling great and before I know it I'm gapping both talkative guy, and former 3rd place guy. WTF all of a sudden I'm in 3rd place by myself about 30 meters up on 4th. As I approach the last hairpin turn, I see the top 2 running together, casually talking about 2-300 meters up. So I realize I'm not catching them. 

The last 1.5 miles were absolute hell. The race was meant to be a hard workout, not me dying the last miles. Coming from a running background, I've never puked during a race. I was pretty close here the last mile. Regardless I'm still pumping as hard as I can because I would be unbelievably pissed off if I lost a top 3 overall spot in the last mile. I come to the finish looking like complete shit but cross the line at 1:22:54.X for a 2 minute 50 second PB and third place overall. 

I couldn't believe it. Again this was supposed to be a hard work out. I was looking to hit 1:29ish, but with the snow I had no idea where I would be. Combine that with the hairpin turns, my workload for the week, and I was shocked. 

Moral of the story? I didn't wear my Garmin for the second straight race, and for second straight time I surprised myself. I know if I had my Garmin and saw my splits I would have forced myself to slow down miles 1-5. Sometimes we just gotta go by feel. I felt awesome after a few miles, went for it, and was rewarded with a huge PB when I least expected it. 

CLIFF NOTES: 2 Minute 50 Second PB in the snow, did not intend to race flat out 
Go by feel, not watch/pace. 
Fiance finishes with 6 minute PB in snow.