The Journey

The journey is more important than the destination.

Several years ago a friend of mine asked me if I would do the Fairlee Triathlon in Vermont. After training for three months, feeling like I was going to drown in the swim, feeling nauseus on the run, I crossed the finished line and was hooked.This led to my triathlon journey.

Please consider supporting my latest effort to raise money for Bretton Woods Adaptive through the Janus Charity Challenge at Ironman Lake Placid this July. Check out the Links I Like section of the blog or explore the BWA Fundraiser links.

Wednesday, June 25, 2008

Cement legs

Up early this morning for a short run. I only did 4.5 miles but my legs felt like cement for the entire route and I felt like I was going slooooow. It ended up being an 8:45 mile, which for most people is probably slow anyway, but for me whose legs didn't feel great I thought for sure I'd be over 9 minute miles.

A pleasant surprise.

Hopefully the legs will feel better for my ride tonight. 90 minutes is the plan.

Tuesday, June 24, 2008

3:30 on the trainer - UGH!

My brother got married this past weekend (another post on that later) and that meant I was limited in my scheduling for the long ride and run on the schedule.


I was able to get up on Sunday morning (after being the Best Man at Jon's wedding and dancing most of the night) to get a 12 mile run in. I actually felt better than I expected with the humid weather and hills that were on the route I had chosen. But, the rain started to fall about a 1/2 hour in it kept me comfortable for the rest of the run.


The real challenge was the 3 hour 45 minute brick I had to fit in. With the schedule I had I couldn't do it until Monday afternoon after a 2-hour drive from Hanover. There were thundershowers expected most of the afternoon so I was left with a choice - chance it on the roads with the heavy rain and potential lightning, or ride on the trainer for 3 1/2 hours. I had a couple of movies from Netflix so I opted for the indoor session. It was the 2nd longest ride on the trainer, the longest I have ever done was four hours while training for Ironman Lake Placid in '06.


Definitely an exercise in mental toughness, and on top of it all I did a short 15 minute run! Here's hoping for the payoff on race day at Patriot.

Sunday, June 15, 2008

Tough weekend

It's been a while since my last post, I hope to have my Mooseman Race Report up soon.

This weekend I struggled. Amy had surgery on Friday and while everything went well in terms of the result, it was still a surgery and the recovery will take several days. As a result I've been picking up all of the household duties this weekend with the help of Connor and Skip.

I was able to get a ride in yesterday. I was out for just about four hours, down to the Massachusetts border and back. It was a windy day, which made Route 1A a blessing on the way south with a tail wind and a curse on the way back with the wind in my face. It was the longest ride of the year and I definitely had some ups and downs.

The plan was to run today and swim also. I got the swim in but had to move the run until tomorrow morning. I had a lot of errands to do today between grocery shopping, buying clothes for Connor for my brothers wedding next weekend and keeping up with the house. I decided to get some things done around the house this morning and then get the training in this afternoon.

I was reminded of how much my eating schedule is determined by the training schedule. Because I decided to not trainin in the morning, I decided to have an actual breakfast, which included a rare cup of coffee. Bad idea. By the time I went to the pool around 11, my energy level had spiked and plummeted. I had 2,500 yards straight swim on the schedule and I struggled after the first 500. Because I was so wiped after that I decided to put my run off until tomorrow morning.

We'll see how that goes given the Celtics are playing tonight starting at 9 PM!

Wednesday, June 11, 2008

Mooseman

Mooseman was last weekend and overall I was pleased with my performance. Admittedly I didn't feel optimally prepared after missing some key workouts for various reasons but the distance was very manageable and I've done the course several times in the past.

The race has grown in popularity over the past few years. I used to arrive at the race around 5:30 and was able to park right at the state park lot. This year I arrived at 5:45 and not only was the state park lot already full but so was the overflow lot. I ended up parking about a 1/4 mile away, gearing up and riding my bike to the race site.

One downside to not being parked on site was having to remember everything you need for the race. Which I did not. I wasn't able to register the night before so the plan was to register on race morning. Which I did, after having to go back to retreive my USAT card and license that I had left back in my car.

The most interesting part of the day was the swim. The swim was delayed by about an hour. Not a big deal. What was a big deal was the 57 degree water temp. The announcer was saying the water temp was 60 degrees but I heard after the race from the fire department that it was actually 57. On top of that, the fog that delayed the swim for so long never really lifted. So, as my wave started I was swimming into this unknown area where we were told there was indeed a turn buoy. In fact race officials had shortened the race so we weren't swimming so far out into the lake.


T1 transition was a little slow, I had a tough time with my socks, which after thinking about it, I probably didn't really need for the race distance. I took it steady on the bike course never pushing it too hard. I was this race as a training race just to get the race bugs out before the Patriot in July. I finished the bike with an average speed of just over 19 MPH. Not great but not terrible.

My T2 transition was great, just over 1 minute. I was a little sluggish as I started the run. I saw a colleague from Direct Capital and magically my pace picked up a little bit! Funny how that happens.





After about 2 miles on the run I started feel my stride and the last 2/3 of the race felt great. Overall I finished in 2:37. Again, not great but not terrible.






Monday, June 2, 2008

Tune Up weekend

Mooseman is this coming Saturday so this past weekend was my last chance to get some good training volume in.

By the look of the forecast on Friday night with a chance of rain predicted most of the day, I thought I'd be riding the trainer. When I got up it was gorgeous so I was able to get a 2-hour ride in before the rain started to fall later in the day.

Sunday I was going to head up to Wellington State Park for a GSTC Mooseman race prep training. Paul and I were going to drive up together before Paul bailed and I started to wonder if I wanted to drive 3 hours round trip for a 2 1/2 hour training. Particularly with gas at close to $4/gallon and the weather being so nice. Instead, I did my own triathlon training camp.

It started with a 15 minute bike ride to the pool. I swam for about 30 minutes before getting back on the bike and riding for about 30 miles. I finished up with a four mile run which was harder than I expected. The temperature had gotten pretty warm and I haven't gotten a lot of training in the warm weather yet.

Good thing because the forecast for the race this weekend is temps in the 80's!