Posts from — May 2005

Thursday was my last day off before starting my new job. I took two weeks off between jobs. The time off was great while it lasted. I could really get into living the life of a fulltime Triathlete. Wake up late, do a workout, eat, nap, do another workout, eat, play with my children, write, read, eat, watch TV, sleep. It is an existence for which I was born. I just have to figure out a way to make it pay well.

For the day, I did my first Brick workout post IMAZ. I felt pretty good and had a good session. Here are the stats: Bike: 25M in 1:17:00 Run Distance 3.1M in 26:00

Friday was the last day before my 40th birthday. Starting with my next race, I will be one of the youngest people in the 40 – 44 Age Group. It will be nice to have an advantage.

I am not sure where Friday’s workout came from, as I thought I was tired. A 1 mile warm-up and then increased the pace until I reached between 85-90 percent HR. It took a while to get above 85%, but once I did I was able to hold it. I wasn’t sure for a while that I could get above 85%, so I was pleasantly surprised when I did. I didn’t think I had that type of effort in me today.

After about 5.5 miles at 85%+ effort, I kind of had enough. I took the last 1.5 miles relatively easy at 78%.

I definitely got something going on in my lower abdominals. I can now pinpoint the muscle. Possibly a groin muscle? I will have to get a doctor to check it out. It doesn’t affect my running, but I definitely feel it.

Here are the run stats:
Time: 1:02:20
Hr: 153/168
Lap Splits: 2.8M – 22:40, 2.5M – 17:52, 2.5M – 19:51, .3M – 1:59

Today is my 40th birthday. I am going to celebrate it by driving up to Harriman State Park and ride 100 miles worth of hills in the rain and wind. I couldn’t get anyone to join me in this endeavor. I will have to train very hard so I inflict so much pain upon myself that I don’t think about getting lonely. I am sure I won’t see many other people with the foul weather.

Today was a pretty standard training day for me. 4000 yards worth of Masters Swim followed by a 12 mile run in Central Park. It was a gloriously clear and sunny morning and the run was uneventful. My body is starting to feel the effects of training hard again, but the feeling is more satisfying than anything.

Later in the day, I did some supplemental bike riding with my 5 year old son. Those 3 miles of riding were more thrilling for me than any race I’ve done. Here is a training summary before I get to some remaining items on my mind:

Masters Swim: 4000 yards in approximately 1:13:00

Run -
Distance: 12M
Time: 1:36:00
HR: 147/164
Central Park Upper 5M Loop 1 time: 40:29
Central Park Upper 5M Loop 2 time: 38:41

On to other items –

It appears that I am stirring things up on my Tri Club’s discussion board. I responded to a couple of postings and certain people took my messages the wrong way. For my response to the posting about a group ride being cancelled (see Abuse Ride), I received the following response:

I just want to say Charles I think your email was a little harsh!!! We have a lot of people just getting back into their training and they don’t need to feel bad about not wanting to train in the rain or for canceling rides do to bad weather conditions, whether its good for race day or not. Thank you

Oh please… There was nothing so bad about what I posted. Fortunately, someone came to my defense:

In mild defense of Charles: it’s probably a good idea to be prepared for all conditions…and riding in the rain is one of them. I just hate to get my bike all crudded up and have to take it apart and clean it…and leading a pack of beginner riders on wet roads, during the 5 borough bicycle tour, seemed like a perfect storm (so to speak) of hazardous conditions.

I also couldn’t let that response go unanswered. Here was my retort:

I am sorry if my email was harsh. It was meant more to inspire than to criticize. I do understand people’s desires not to ride in foul weather, especially if they are beginners.

However, the ride was for Intermediate riders, not beginners and it was completely cancelled. If people didn’t want to show up because of bad weather, then that is their prerogative. What if others wanted to go? I just don’t think the ride should have been cancelled. Adjustments to the planned ride could have been made to accommodate the bad weather conditions.

Later this week another message was posted that I felt compelled to reply to. The posting went like this:

Subject: Alley Park Duathlon – Queens, NY
Posted: May 3 2005 8:43PM
Message:
is anyone doing this race? it’s a 3mile Run/ 18mile Bike/ 3mile Run duathlon. Since i’m new to multi-sports this seems achievable to me. if you are not embarrassed by someone who may come in second to last (notice not DEAD LAST) i am planning on doing it and we can go together.

This is a favorite topic of mine. I have no fear of finishing last. In fact I stand a much greater capacity and chance to finish last in a race, than I will ever have of finishing first. Here was my reply:

I would rather be dead last and finish, than to quit and post a DNF because I gave up. Good luck at Alley Park! You will do great.

Of course, someone took this message the wrong way. The person proceeded to disagree with me and write a lecturing message about DNF’ing if you are injured, sick, etc. and the stigma associated with posting a DNF. I would post the whole ridiculous message here, but the more I read it, the more I didn’t want to have such blather posted on my blog.

This person missed the whole point of what the original message was about. The original poster was concerned about being embarrassed with a poor performance. The only thing in my opinion you should be embarrassed about is quitting just because you think you are doing poorly. One of the people I will admire for all time is Luvsanlkhundeg Otgonbayar, the 22 year old female marathoner who finished dead last, over 30 minutes after the previous finisher at the 2004 Athens Olympics Marathon. Now that in my opinion takes a tremendous amount of guts to do, especially being on a world stage. I only hope that I have so much courage if I am doing that badly in such a public forum. I replied as such in another retort.

I am feeling very feisty lately. However, the person who started the discussion later sent me an email thanking me for my second reply.

Today I worked out some inners demons while on my bike. I’ve been feeling very sluggish and mentally blah the past couple of days. I was getting annoyed at myself for these feelings so I decided to gut out a tough workout to beat them out of my system.

Today’s workout called for me to “stand on all hills using big chain ring and hard cog. Spin on downhills. Sprint long down hill. Aero position when not standing.” I for the most part held true to this workout, except towards the end when I decided to sprint the last 10 miles.

At around the 15 mile mark of my ride (10 miles remaining), I spotted a peloton about a half mile in front of me. I decided to chase them down just to see if I could. Within a loop of the park I caught them on the downhill section. I could tell from some of the riders looks that they were wondering “who is this guy”. I was feeling good at this point and decided to be the Gingerbread Man, thinking to myself that they can’t catch me. The riders started to form on my wheel, but in the end only one person was able to hang with me. The rest of the peloton was long gone.

Like the Gingerbread Man, I was probably foolish in the end. My workout didn’t call for me to go so hard for so long, but mentally it made me feel much better. I will just have to sacrifice some short term physical recovery for some mental rejuvenation. Hopefully I didn’t eat up my strength for the weekend ahead.

Ride Stats:
Time: 1:15:00
HR: 141/166
Distance: 25
TiZ2(148/130): A – 26:49, I – 33:53, B – 14:22
Calories Burned: 940
Calories Consumed: 350
3.4M loop splits:
10:52
10:24
10:09
10:14
9:38
9:18
9:16

Today was an abusive workout. Steady rain, wind and an air temperature of 51 degrees. I already started the workout tired from my past two training days. I really didn’t feel like being outside in the muck, but I forced myself to do it. My inner sadist drove me to continue, while my mind tried to rationalize what I was doing. I told myself to give the sadist at least 50 miles and then maybe he would be happy.

I was the only rider in the park for the first hour or so. Eventually, I saw another two riders. They made a comment about seeing another rider in the park as I passed them. That was the only time I saw them. I suspect that the elements were too much and they bailed out of the ride.

At one point during the climb up Prospect Park’s lone hill, I saw a bunch of young children tying ribbons around a May Pole. I thought it was odd to see them so early in the morning and in the rain. They didn’t stay for long after completing the pole and neither did the pole itself. After another hour or so, some people in a truck came to remove the pole. I didn’t understand the point of making a May Pole so early in the morning and removing it before anyone could come out in the park to see it.

I continued riding and the laps, miles and hours started to pass. One hour bled into two and then two into three. By now I knew I could finish my 75 mile ride as I figured I could keep lasting one more hour. I was very wet at this point and I started to feel a blister forming on the palm of my hand from my wet glove rubbing against it. My hands were very cold and when I stopped to take a piss break, the thought of running my hands under my urine stream to warm them up crossed my mind.

I was just over the 50 mile mark at this point and then my cellphone rang. ST called to let me know he was just rolling out of bed and would be in the park shortly. With some company soon arriving I knew it would be easier to pass the remaining miles.

On my next trip up the hill, I finally noticed that my front tire was looking a little soft. I checked it out when I reached the top and realized that it was probably just about flat for a while now. It has been well over a year since I got a flat so I really couldn’t complain. I sat down on the wet ground and took my time to change the tube. I used a CO2 cartridge to inflate the tire. The sudden decompression of the cartridge caused it to freeze. This is ordinarily not a problem, but since my hands were wet, the cartridge froze onto the palm of my hand causing immediate frostbite. Having a CO2 cartridge freeze onto my blistered palm is an experience I will not soon forget.

When I restarted riding, the ground had started to dry. The sun was starting to break through the clouds offering a glimpsed of the beautiful afternoon the day would soon become. ST finally arrived to the park at this point. He blamed his late start on some late night dinner companions, but I suspect he just wanted to avoid the rain. He is such a fair weather athlete.

By the time I arrived home, my bike was as messy as I have ever seen it. The chain was completely washed clean of lubrication and the drive chain sounded like an old car being started in the dead of winter. I took the bike to my backyard to hose it off, degrease and clean it. It took the better part of an hour to get it back into a somewhat presentable state. At least the sun was brightly shining at this point and the sun’s rays felt good against my still chilled body.

I spent the remainder of the day with my children in Prospect Park where we practiced hitting, catching and throwing a baseball (plastic). I am glad the weather cleared up to allow me this time in the park with them. It would have been terrible if I hung around the house until the weather cleared to begin my ride.

I read an email posted to my tri club (http://www.agtri.com/) message board about the group ride being cancelled because of the weather. What a bunch of slackers. Here is the message I posted in response to the cancellation:

——————–
Hmmm. Come on people, you need to toughen yourselves up!!! What are you going to do if it is raining come race day? Bail out? You must train through all conditions to be prepared. You never know what race day will bring.

I back these statements up by reporting that I started riding at 7:30am this morning in the pouring rain and finished 73 miles in 4 hours. Full details of my ride will be posted on my blog later.

Of course, if conditions were dangerous; i.e. lightening, hail, hurricane force winds or tornados, I would have bailed out. In bad conditions, just stay local in Central or Prospect parks. Persevering through tough conditions will give you the mental fortitude to excel on race day.
—————-

I probably insulted or pissed some of them off with this posting, but I don’t care. You need to be tough to do your best. This includes training in bad weather.

Here are my ride stats:
Time: 4:00:41
Distance: 73
HR: 139/163
TIZ2: A – 0:44:25, I – 2:38:08, B – 0:38:08
Calories Burned: 2933
Calories Consumed: 1000
Water Consumed: 48 ounces

Lots of gunk today!

I am a bit sore today. Yesterday I ran 13.5 miles through the hills around Lake George. The climbs were long and steep and wound along country roads. It was raining slightly, which made the several streams I passed flow with a touch more urgency. I was thirsty and tempted to sip the clean cool water. I covered a 4.5 mile loop three times. I could tell by the look of the locals that they were not used to seeing runners pass through these road, especially more than one time.

While I didn’t have difficulty climbing the hills, I could tell my body is just not used to climbing anything more than a half mile long. My legs were kind of surprised at the extra exertion needed to reach the top of a hill and my calves and gluteus are letting me know that they are less than pleased today. It just goes to prove the old training adage that your body adapts to the stresses you place on it. Doing the same type of training over and over again, will only you extremely efficient at that type of training and won’t prepare you for new or different challenges.

The toughest part of this run was the downhill section. While the main uphill segment was over a mile long, the trip down was covered in what felt like a quarter mile. Running down such a steep incline kind of freaks me out. There is such an out of control element to it and I feared slipping or tripping. I had to be very careful with my footfalls or else I braked too hard, causing a severe amount of stress on my knees. The first time down was difficult. The next two times, I just relaxed and flew down the hill. I bet I was running 5 minute miles. I just sort of leaned into the downhill and let my legs fly; kicking back high and spending a lot of time off the ground like I practiced previously.

So now I am back in Brooklyn and going for a 75 mile ride around Prospect Park. It will be nothing like riding country roads through the Adirondacks with trees and stream crossings every couple of miles. I always marvel at the contrast of the roads from just a few hours driving. At around 5pm last evening, I was on one lane country roads with the forest on both sides of me. Three hours later, I was driving on worn out asphalt roads around the housing projects along Third Avenue Brooklyn, near the Gowanus Canal. I was thirsty and not even slightly tempted to sip the water.

Here are the stats:
Time: 1:52:25
HR: 140/164
Dist: 13.5
TiZ1(155/137): A – 0:12:02, I – 1:03:45, B – 0:36:39
Calories: 1429
Loop1 – 43:20
Loop2 – 34:22
Loop3 – 34:43

My Lake George run route. Points 1 and 5 are connected by a road.