So…training hasn’t been going as planned but I wanted to go out and most importantly have FUN! This being the first tri of the season I wasn’t expecting too much out of myself. Luckily the weather has been great in Rochester, so the lake was much warmer than last year (high 60’s vs. high 50’s).

Day Before Race
Took it easy, did some yard work, laid out in the sun for a bit to try to even out my very, very (very) bad farmer’s tan. Had trouble falling asleep but I was out before 11:30pm.

Gear
Zoot Synergy full sleeve wetsuit. Awesome Team Trakkers tri top and bottoms. Black Trakkers visor for run. Saucony Fastwitch 4’s. Felt B12. Garmin 305. SBR Foggle and TriSlide. First Endurance PreRace and EFS Sports Drink. All-in-all just awesome gear! I looked fast and felt fast!

Course
750m swim in beautiful Keuka Lake. 14 mile bike with ~450 feet of gain. Very flat out and back 5k along the lake.

Weather
We saw a little bit of everything. It was down pouring for my entire drive there. Sprinkling in transition then eventually more downpours. Overcast/partly sunny for the entire race until about 5 minutes left then it rained again. Bright, WARM sun shining after the race which then turned into high winds and sideways rain with threats of lightning. I also heard someone mention HAIL on the bike course at some point. Did I ever…

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Categories: Race Results, Triathlons

Over two weeks since my last post, but life has been more hectic than ever….

Work
Things are starting to pick up with many of my projects and I’m finding it difficult to keep the ball rolling on every one of them simultaneously.  I’m not overwhelmed, per se, just trying to keep everything prioritized correctly!  There seem to be have been many stumbling points with some of them, but most are progressing nicely now.

Training (Work)
Working on training for my 3rd Cisco certification – CCDA (Cisco Certified Design Associate) – I currently already have CCNA and CCNP.  This has taken up some time and I have a test scheduled 3 weeks from now, which leads to my next section…

Travel
Two weekends ago was Boston Fri-Sun for a wedding.  In 3 weeks I’m gone for 8 days in Las Vegas for a convention.  Four weeks after that I will be vacationing in beautiful Bruce Peninsula for a week.  Come this Fall, I’m sure there will be traveling to new markets in PA and/or Maryland.

Beer
I started brewing my own beer – this should be fun!

Motorcycle
Before last Winter started, I purchased a 1985 Kawasaki Ninja 600 from a friend who needed some cash.  It needed some work.  Well, a week ago, the work was finally completed and I’m now the proud owner of a fully functional motorcycle.  I currently have my permit and in two weeks I…

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Categories: Triathlons

…for a long run, and a bad day to lose my gel flask.  My training schedule called for a 1h 45m easy run.  Well, the weather was too nice to limit it to just that so I decided to push myself a little further, which has been my theme for the year.  I decided to set out on the Erie Canal Trail because it is relatively flat and running near other people always makes it a little more interesting than empty roads. 

Armed with 10 oz of water, 10 oz of grape EFS Sports Drink, and 4 oz of Vanilla EFS liquid shot, I was on my way.  I was feeling good and decided on a 9 min/mile pace to keep it somewhat light (I was still feeling the 100 mile ride from Friday in my legs). 

About 45 minutes in, I reached down for my liquid shot and realized it had fallen out of my belt.  A decision needed to be made – should I turn around or press on?  The right decision probably would have been to turn around…running on a cup of coffee, a lone banana for breakfast, and minimal calories from a sports drink probably wasn’t the best idea.  Against my better judgment I continued on with the goal of beating my previous long run of 15 miles. 

At mile 8, I turned around and started back.  I felt surprisingly great until…

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Categories: Running, Training

On Friday, I completed my first official Century for a great cause – the National Center for Missing and Exploited Children (http://www.missingkids.com). The main goals of this foundation are to 1) raise awareness of the dangers to children and 2) to help find missing children.

The ride left at 8am with ~300 riders. We passed 2×2 through local neighborhoods with stops at various schools. The children were all outside cheering us on and loved every minute of it. It felt so great to be part of such a large group of people supporting a cause like this, and the looks on the children’s faces were unforgettable.

Although it was a long day (the ride didn’t end until 6pm), it was worth every minute of it. It’s nice to remember sometimes that it’s not always about just racing to win – we should also be giving back to our communities!

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Categories: Biking, Events

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Categories: Running, Training

Peace and quiet.
Birds chirping.
Coffee.
Dew.
Sunrise.

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Categories: Running, Training

I have never been “good” at hills.  I’m sure many of you feel the same way.  This year that is going to change.  It’s going to take some work, but I’m going to confront my fear of hills and incorporate at least one day of hills per week in my cycling routine.  Unfortunately, this means I’ll have to drive at least 30-40 minutes vs. 10 minutes of just leaving directly from my house.  Around my house, though, it’s not uncommon to see only 300-1,000’ of climbing per 20 miles, whereas I have a friend who trains in the Ithaca, NY area who can see 2-4,000 over the same distance.

Last Wednesday was a beautiful day and I decided to scratch the planned run and go search for some hills.  I found them in Canandaigua, NY (about 40 minutes away).  To some, these may not be much but I found a nice set of 250-600’ 1 mile climbers over a 10 mile stretch of road (http://connect.garmin.com/activity/30081108 to see a few of them).

 I started about an hour later than I had hoped, armed with First Endurance EFS sports drink and SBR TRISLIDE (more to come on this later).  The plan was to pretty much zigzag between two roads in the area so that I was going uphill and then back down towards Canandaigua Lake – repeat as needed.  All-in-all I hit two fairly substantial hills, the second being much rougher…

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Categories: Biking, Training

…until my first race of the season – The Rochester Flower City Challenge Half Marathon. This is also my first half marathon. Training has been going pretty well all along. I followed a training plan I found on Beginner Triathlete and put in close to what was scheduled each week besides 2 when I was on vacation and didn’t work out at all. I know I can complete the distance – I put in another 15 miles at a slow pace (9:20’s) yesterday – but I don’t know how I should pace the run. Can anyone provide any tips? I can comfortably run 9 minute miles for fairly long periods of time. I can run 8 minute miles for quite a while too. Should I start out slow and gradually build pace? Should I plan on running at the same pace for the entire run? Should I take in gels at any point during the run? Any experienced help would be greatly appreciated!

And the picture of the day…if you look hard enough you can find beauty everywhere in life.  It’s great to start seeing flowers mixed in with the still-dead lanscape around Rochester! :)

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Categories: Running, Training

 For those of you who haven’t heard of CrossFit, it’s basically a training program that is meant to confuse and challenge your body in a way that results in an overall level of physical fitness.  According to Wikipedia it “says that proficiency is required in each of ten fitness domains: cardiovascular/respiratory endurance, stamina, strength, flexibility, power, speed, agility, balance, coordination, and accuracy.”  In short, it hurts…bad…but, what a perfect way to mix in a strength training plan into my busy training schedule. 

 Wednesday was my first ever 1 hour CrossFit class.  The instructor spent the first 10 or 15 minutes explaining each exercise and the purpose of the class.  I haven’t done much weight training yet this year, so this was all pretty tough for me.  Warm-up consisted of 4 exercises:  pull-ups, sit-ups, push-ups and squats.  We were at each station for about 4 minutes and were supposed to complete as close to 50 of each exercise that we could.  I was able to do 50 squats and sit-ups.  Push-ups were ok, but I had to do some on my knees.  I couldn’t even come close to 50 pull-ups.  Yea, yea – I’m a baby! :P

 The next 10 minutes we spent doing various stretches in preparation for 12 minutes from Hell.  These 12 minutes are a little difficult to explain…but here goes…   Everyone was tasked with completing 3 sets of “burpees” and 6 single-legged lunges.  A burpee is basically…

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Categories: Biking, Training

For the most part I’ve been following a training program for a half marathon that I found online. Training has been going OK with exception to the vacation I took a couple of weeks ago – I really missed out on some important runs. Regardless, I’ve been feeling pretty good since I’ve been mixing swimming and biking in with my runs recently.

Yesterday’s workout called for a 2h 15m run – 25m warm up, 2x(25m at race pace, 25m just over race pace), and a 10m cool down. This seemed like a little much for half marathon training, but I went with it (at least to the best of my abilities).

I knew that for this run I was going to have to break out the First Endurance stash that I purchased a couple of months ago. I started with a breakfast of banana, home-made Clif-type bar (oats, chocolate whey, applesauce, and craisins amongst other things – yum), and a coffee. I then decided to mix up a supercharged pre-workout drink of Grape EFS sports drink, half a serving of PreRace and a tablespoon of chia seeds. I filled up my race belt with 10oz of water, 10oz of EFS sports drink and a few ounces of Vanilla EFS liquid shot and I was on my way.

I hit the Erie Canal trail around 11. The temperature was around 40, but the sun shining made it comfortable. After…

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Categories: Running, Training