Fox On The Move

Tri-State Super Spartan 2015

2015-09-16T09:15:00.001-07:00

Ok, so it's not a triathlon, but it's a race and and it's fitness related and I've done a Tough Mudder report, so I'm gonna give a rundown of this weekend's Spartan Race.

I'd never done a Spartan before so I didn't really know what to expect. I had heard through others that it was more competitive than a Mudder, and I had done some light research into the different obstacles, but other than that, I was going in without expectations.

Training for the Spartan was fairly limited. Since my last big triathlon, I've been trying to do more of Crossfit-style workouts, incorporating strength and high intensity interval sessions (HIITS). Oh and lots of burpees and pullups. The burpees would prove to be quite important.

I registered for the Spartan Super well in advance. A few days before the event we got our bib numbers and exact wave start time. I signed up for the Sunday event, so on the morning of, I drove down to Vernon, NJ, particularly enjoying the fact that I drove through a town called Sparta.
After taking a short provided shuttle for the parking lot to race venue, I picked up my race packet, which included a numbered headband (the Spartan equivalent of a race bib), along with various wrist bands.
The event grounds were very festive, with a nice handful of vendors, sponsors, bag check, and a fairly large warmup area that included a few ropes, and mini jungle gym to jump on, pull up, or otherwise prepare for the race.

My 8:30 wave started almost exactly on time. Obviously, you had to climb a 5 foot wall in order to get into the start coral, and we were off....straight up a ski slope. The first few miles were really quite slow, being very hilly. Hills would be one of the biggest challenges of the day.

For the most part, I found that the obstacles were pretty easy. Here's what I remember and how I did;

Hurdles - what they sound like. maybe 5 foot high walls to climb over. Nothing exciting
Inverted wall - a wall angle towards you. Options are to jump and pull yourself over, or somehow climb up the "rungs" underneath. I went for the former route.
Cargo Net climbs - again, what it sounds like. The tip I found was to try to stay on a vertical rope line as much as possible to avoid sagging and swinging. It seemed to work well.
Swim - bit of a misnomer. Was really a very short wade through a stream.
Slip Wall - a slippery sloped wall with a rope to pull on. Trick was to stay straight and feet firmly planted. No problems with this one.
Barbed wire crawls - there was a short on about halfway, and a long stretch right at the end. I loved this one. I rolled most of it, and spider-crawled the rest. Not challenging per se, but strenuous nonetheless
Atlas stone - pick up a small boulder and move it over 30 feet. I couldn't get much of a grip, and when I finally got it in the air, I also got a cramp. I opted against a second try here.
Sandbag / bucket brigade / wood block carries - these events were straightforward. Take a heavy object, lug it uphill, plop it down for the next sucker. Physically difficult, mostly due to the incline/decline than the weight itself,
Rope Climb - climb to the top of a rope, hit a cowbell, climb back down. was made more difficult because you had to start in water. You can probably try to just muscle it up, but better way is to use a rope climbing technique called a J-hook. Look it up. It works.
Monkey bar and multi bar - I failed on both of these. The monkey bars were farther apart than i anticipated, and slightly wet. Same goes for the multi-bar, which started with having to swing from ring to ring. I'll be working on this for next time.
Spear throw - throw a spear at a target. If you miss, do 30 burpees. Yeah I missed. Burpees sucked.
Sandbag hoist - using a ropes and pulley, hoist a sandbag a nice amount into the air. Most of us ended up on the floor using nearby gate as an anchor point. It had also rained recently making the damn things heavy as hell.
Fire Jump - more of a cool photo op than obstacle. Get a running start and leap over flaming and smoking logs. And don't forget to smile at the camera (or scowl like me ).

All these obstacles aside, I found that most of the race was really just a long trail run, mixed in with some hiking. Trail runners definitely have an advantage on this type of race, at least at this venue. Covering the 8 miles quickly and efficiently helps cut down your time, and the obstacles only occasionally require a large amount of upper body strength.

I definitely had fun, and would love to go for the Trifecta, which is when you do all 3 distances of Spartan Race in a single calendar year. Sure it's a marketing gimmick, but its a good one!

After finishing you get your medal which includes a trifecta piece, there is hoses set up to clean off. I dubbed this the shower-orgy because...well... look.

You also get a free beer, which is always nice!

Jersey City Triathlon 2015 Race Recap

2015-08-24T06:46:00.002-07:00

It's race report time! Can i just write "fiasco" and call it a day? Blech....ok here goes anyways.

Yesterday was the inaugural Jersey City Sprint and Olympic Distance triathlon. To me, it was appealing mostly because I generally enjoy the "wham-bam" nature of sprint distance races, and because it was so close to home. So I signed up, and challenged my buddy Zach to do the same. I know he's a fast guy, but I figured I could give him a run for his money.

Leading up to the race, it was becoming a little apparent that was some .... "disorganization" . The race director had evidently only gotten the required permits a month before the race, and the website is rudimentary at best. The swim location changed just a couple days before the race itself, and some details were unclear.

Race morning

Registration and Packet pickuup

Thought packet pickup was available Saturday, I opted to just do so on race morning. With pickup and Transition beginning around 5:30AM, I was there by 6AM, easily found parking just a couple blocks away, and walked my bike over. Pickup was fairly orderly, but here we ran into disorganization point #1; not enough Medium shirts. Considering shirt size is a field to input when registering, I don't see why they would run out of the needed size. I ended up with a Large. Now...no offense to all my Athena and Clydesdal friends out there, but I'm not a Large anymore, and wearing a Large just looks silly on my. The timing chip was also this massive anklet instead of the usual chip/velcro, but that's just the technology being used, so not really the fault of the race staff.

Transition was a fun mess as well. Rows were marked every 7 feet or so, but not for each bike, so some racks ended up very crowded, and nobody really knew which way to have the bike facing. Race officials were walking around trying to help organize, and along the way I ended up in a discussion with one as I heard her going over the rules with a first-timer. "The smaller sticker goes on your swim-cap". Wait...WHAT?! So we are supposed to put the sticker on the neoprene cap, NOT the helmet like every other race in existence? I tried to explain that this really didn't make sense to me since it would come off quickly in the the water, but she was adamant that that's the way the race guide said to do it, so that's the way it had to be. Fine, I'll do it, but I'm chalking that up as disorganization pint #2.

Swim start was about a quarter mile away from transition, so we all made our way over. The officials there tried to organize everyone, but nobody really knew the swim course well enough to go over it with the athletes (Disorg point). We mostly stood around until the race director came by to talk to us, In the end we started maybe 10 minutes late. Olympic athletes first, then sprint, Male followed by Female for both. The swim wasn't really the worst layout, Personally, I haven't swim trained in 2 months, so my swim sucked, but that's totally my fault and problem. My second mistake...not starting my watch for the first ten minutes or so. According to the timing people, I finished the 750M swim in 21:52. Crappy, but I knew I'd be slow. I had shoes ready for me, so I stripped my wetsuit and ran the 1/4 mile back.

T1 - Crap Crap Crap Crap

Got to my bike a little winded from the run there, but quickly got on my cycling shoes, helmet, and sunglasses, grabbed my bike and made my way to Bike-Out. But on the way I saw I had a rear flat. I called out for bike tech support, but there was none (disorg. point!) . After a minute or two, one race staff member called me over and met me with a pump, but was told it was broken (DP!). Looking around and still not seeing any tech support around, I decided to just fix the flat myself. I got out my tools, took off my wheel, stripped the tube, and then turned to smile at the race photographer, who apparently thought that my mishap would make for a good photo-op. Now this is entirely my fault as well, but I've never actually used the CO2 inflater, so I messed that up. I ran back into Transition looking for any bike pumps that I could "borrow". I eventually saw one, but my tube wasn't holding air. Finally, bike tech arrived and helped me properly inflate my new tube, and I was back in the game.

This pretty sums up my race.

T1 Time: 19:43

Bike

I kind of figured that at this point I wasn't going to catch up, so I decided to just treat it as a training day that I haven't really been able to have lately. The course ran partially through downtown Jersey City, complete with light rail tracks, plenty of potholes, and generally not so great road conditions.

Overall, fairly uneventful. I rode along, occasionally pushing a little but not going all out by any means. At one point, I saw a women 100 yards ahead of me wipe out after getting caught in a light rail track, so I stopped to offer any help, but she was up and walking, though visibly in pain. There wasn't anything I could really do, and she told me just keep going. After ensuring that there wasn't anything I could help with, I got moving again. Oh, and just to add a personal fiasco point, in my rush to change my tube, I had knocked my cadence/speed sensor out of alignment, so for the first 15 minutes or so my watch was constantly auto-pausing and resuming, until I managed to nudge it into proper place with my foot. This means I also had no way to really gauge how much farther I had to ride.

Bike Time: 50:50

T2 + Run - Too little too late

Now, I love the run portion of a Sprint race. I'm not super speedy over a long-course, but I can usually haul ass for at least a little bit. I got through T2 as quickly as I could after searching for my stuff (apparently other athletes had not racked their bikes properly, making it more difficult to find my own spot), My T2 time is for some reason not officially posted, but my watch has it at roughly 1:33.

The run course was mostly out on the nearby streets. Weird disorganization point, the run was not closed to traffic. It was monitored by police sure, by runners were still getting passed by moving cars, making for an interesting and potentially unsafe situation. I was making good time, with my pace somewhere in the 7min/miles. I had opted not to bother wearing a HR monitor, since I figured I would just red-line the whole race so I went by feel. Approaching the finish line and Transition, I took a look at my watch and thought there must be a mistake, since I was only at a little over 2 miles. Turns out we had to actually run PAST the finish line, and back out on the quarter mile run to where Swim start was. From there, we had to do a couple extra loops and out-and-backs which the directors obviously threw in just to cover the distance. From the athlete perspective, this was stupid and annoying. I'm calling these disorganization points #24-25.

The quarter mile run back I tried to pick up the pace even more, and finish strong. I crossed the finish line, got my medal, and it was done.

Run time: Officially 24:31, but I've got 23:34 on my watch. I don't really know how to account for the full minute difference but I'll take a look at my GPS data later.

Post-Race food consisted of bagels and coffee... Yup that's about it. Honestly for such a small event, i don't really need a full spread, but I guess I'm used to local events having more local food sponsorship. Water bottles were also available, but it was getting pretty hot and the water was lukewarm. Not exactly desirable at the end of a race, but still welcome.

Total Race time 1:56

What's really frustrating is that the race was so small, that if I had raced the same time, and NOT had to deal with my tire, I would have gotten on my AG podium for my first time ever. But alas it was not to be. Oh and Zach, he decided to blow his legs on a bike threshold testing the day before, so he decided to skip the race. At the very least...this means I beat him. So there's that.

I Finished My A race of the Season... Now What?

2015-06-26T11:57:00.001-07:00

"Joe Shmoe...YOU ARE AN IRONMAN!"

These are the words that most long-distance triathletes want to hear. Or at least something fairly similar. We've trained for months, often in the winter while cowering on trainers watching Netflix because of the weather. We've drag our asses out of bed at 4 something in the morning to head to the pool, jump into the freezing cold water, and bang out a workout. We went through enough running shoes to put a post-Spartan race donation pile to shame. We've eaten right 80% of the time, and snuck in a few Oreo's during the other 20%, because that's what our coach told us we need to do in order to hit our goals. Yup....we've done all the work, we went to the race, and regardless of how the big day went, it's now over. We've drank our victory beer. Uhhh...ok beers.

The A race is over.

ALMOST DONE!!!!!

This is a "problem" that I'm going through right now. I finished my big race for the season and now I don't know what to do. I took a week off from training altogether. I ate some stuff that I normally wouldn't have, let myself be lazy, and got my wife to put loads of aloe vera on my insane sunburns.

I don't have any more races planned this season. Due to family commitments (I'm becoming a daddy in like...a few days maybe!), I haven't committed to any more races this season. So the big question is; Why should I keep training?

To be honest, I hated my week off. I loved training because it gave me something to work towards. It gave me a goal and a finish line and a reason to wake up before the rest of the "normal" world. It let me eat absurd amounts of food, and laugh at my MyFitnessPal daily balance of needing to somehow cram in an extra couple thousand calories each day. Damnit, I like to sweat! Pretty much the only thing I don't like about it is not having as much time to spend with my family. Oh, and the laundry. Oh god, that laundry just never ended.

Truth.

I've started "training" again after my week off. My workouts aren't quite as structured, and I'm trying to fit in more crosstraining. At least for the time being, I'm staying away from my typical triathlon training schedule, because I can. But the important thing for me is that I train. I didn't get into triathlon just to be able to say that I did it. I got into it for the medals baby!!! Joking...I got into triathlon because I love feeling healthy, and it's constantly an awesome challenge. And yeah, ok, also the medals. Just because my race schedule is a little more in flux than I enjoy, why should that stop me from training? I'm gonna keep training, and when I find myself with enough time, money, and bravery to sign up for another A race, I'll get back into my normal schedule.

So what do you do after your race? Do you sit back on the couch, or get right back on the saddle? Let me know, and as always...

Keep Tri-ing!

Eagleman 70.3 2015 Race Report

2015-06-17T06:41:00.002-07:00

Sweet medal. Photo credit to http://www.yousignedupforwhat.com/

Half Ironman number 3 is in the books! It was a crazy hot race weekend, but definitely a fun one. Here's how it went down;

Check-in and weekend buildup

Located in Cambridge, Maryland's Sailwinds Park, athlete village was tucked away into what seemed like a pretty small area, complete with the usual retailers and massive Ironman store. Check-in was held in the park center gym (?). I got there Friday afternoon when things were pretty quiet, so my check-in was really quick and painless. I hit the store to give WTC some more of my money, because the hundreds of dollars on registration just want enough.

In terms of accommodations, there aren't so many hotels in the area, and things get booked very quickly. By the time that I registered in January, everything was gone. An option that came up was to rent this awesome house about 15 minutes from transition, that slept up to 18 people. I spent a few months posting on different Facebook pages gathering stranded athletes, and so this weekend we held The Real World; Eagleman. Honestly, it was awesome having athletes from all across the country to hang out and share stories with.

Yuuup...sure beats a hotel room

Hung out in the pool over the weekend,

View from the back

Riverbank beach walkway.

Race Morning

Just a typical triathlon house before 5AM

At 4:30AM, the house was wide awake. Most people were munching on bananas and oatmeal with a side of fresh coffee. Last minute preparations and then we made our way to Transition. I got there around 5:30, got body marked (sadly, not Tri Tats), and got my area set up. The biggest challenge was that I have a pretty large Transition bag, and we were not allowed to lay out bags along the fence. I got lucky because a couple athletes near me didn't show up, so I stashed my bag in their spot, but I don't know what I would have done otherwise.

Just me and 3,000 friends at 5AM

Race start and swim

The male pros started at 6:40, and the women followed shortly after. My AG was the last wave -once again- , so I had to hang around until 8:17. Wetsuits were not legal for this race, but I wore a skinsuit.

The first couple hundred meters were so shallow that you could easily stop and stand. I did some standing and dolphin diving because, well why not.

The swim was a simple out and back loop. At the first turn, I checked my time and was disappointed to see I was at 25 minutes. In the pool, I'd been doing the full distance in about 35 minutes,so I was frustrated that I was going so slow. Honestly I felt like I was moving pretty well, but my time said otherwise.

I finished up the return part of the swim,and the last 100 meters or so was once again shallow. Even though I told myself that I should swim for as long as I could, I ended up trying to walk through the water. Big mistake there. Wading through the water like that burned my quads and was probably slower than swimming. I was already frustrated with my slow swim, especially considering all the swim training I've been doing. After the race, I found out that many people had slow swims, likely due to a strong current, and also a possibly extended swim course. Many were commenting online that their watches recorded 1.4 miles rather than the prescribed 1.2 . Final swim time: 55 minutes.

Take-away on the swim:

practice open water more prior to a race
practice sighting
do more drills
learn to kick!

T1 and Bike

I took my time in T1 because I was already frustrated and didn't think an extra minutes or 2 would make a difference. I put on 2XU calf sleeves that were not allowed for the swim, socks helmet sunglasses, and prepared my nutrition. For the bike, I had prepared enough Perpetuem for a 3 hour bike ride. I had also loaded my Saltstick dispenser with Hammer Endurance Aminos, and had a plastic vial with Endurolyte capsules.

Eagleman is pretty well known for being very flat, hot, and a little windy. It all lived up what was promised. My plan was to take alternating Aminos and Endurolytes every 15 minutes, and drinking water.

The first two thirds of my bike were great. I think I was averaging around 21mph, and feeling strong. Then….I died. As I had read would happen, after about mile 35 the wind picked up, and it started to get very hot. My pace dropped significantly, and I found it increasingly difficult to stay in aero position. I had been hoping to finish the bike in under 3 hours, but ended up going a little bit over.

Final bike time: 3 hours, 16 minutes

Take-away on the bike:

Make sure to get in the long bike rides during training
Train in aero for longer
Work on bike power in the off-season

T2 and Run

My T2 was a little faster, though still long for my standars. At 3 and half minutes, I sure wasnt hustling but I’m ok with that. i had to find my spot and rack my bike, change shoes (regular laces, not lock-laces), and apply a new coat of sunscreen. Boy was that ever useless. At the point that I started it was at least 80F outside, and there is very little shade cover. It took a little while to get my run legs back, and so my first mile was surprisingly tough. Well...the next 12 miles were no cakewalk either. It was hoooooot. Apparently the Real-feel at time was over 100F. Aid station were spread out about every 1.5 miles. To their credit, the aid station were pretty well stocked. In general, they had ice-water, ice, wet sponges, GU, orange slices, bananas, pretzels, chips, and friendly volunteers. My basic “strategy” was to survive for as long as I could between aid stations. I ran when I could, and then walked when I couldn't. I made a lot of friends along the way, taking the chance to make quick joke with other athletes about the heat, the awesome tan lines we would have, and anything else to take our minds off of the general pain we were in. At the aid stations, I’d double fist ice-water, toss ice in my hat, in my top and sometime…..down my pants. Gentleman, this last point felt amaaaaaazing. I also tucked sponges under the shoulder-straps of my top. I’d often carry a cup of ice for a while after each station to chew on and sip freshly melted water for as long as it would last. I continued to pop Endurolyte capsules every half hour or so, and had 4 Hammer Gels that really provided nice bursts of energy to help me run.

There’s no other way to say it other than that the run was painful. My feet had been damp for 6 hours, and I could feel blisters forming. My shoulders were burning and there wasn’t much I could do about it other than ignore the pain and focus on finishing. What could I have done differently? Honestly I don’t know. Maybe try to run in the heat more? Who knows. The one “good” point was that I basically even split it, covering the first half in 1:14:59 , and the back half in 1:14:48 . Overall pace was 11:26 / mile.

Final run time: 2:29

Take away from the run:

- HOT!!!!!!!

- Yeah that’s all I got

Property of Finisherpix...someone want to buy it for me?

Final Total time: 6:50

Overall, Eagleman truly lived up to what I had read to expect. The swim was a little rough, the bike was flat, windy, and hot, and the run was a furnace. Would i do this race again? Absolutely. what would I do differently? Maybe i’d take a small bottle of sunscreen with me on the run, or wear some kind of cooling bolero thing that I’ve seen people wearing.

Post race....i've got some pretty fun burns on my back, arms, and legs making for a pretty miserable week. After the race I kept up the tradition of downing a pint of Ben and Jerry's cookie dough Ice cream, a bag of Ruffles Sour Cream and Onion chips, and butt-loads of water.

Well deserved in my opinion

OK, this has probably been one of the longest race reports I’ve written, so I hope you’ve enjoyed it or found it useful

Have a good one, and keep tri-ing!

Lifetime Fitness Indoor Tri 2015 Race recap

2015-01-07T09:52:00.000-08:00

We're not even a week into the new year, and I've got a triathlon in the bag!

This past Sunday in the Lifetime Fitness Indoor Triathlon, which is a national race series that they are putting on in partnership with Ironman. The cool thing about this race series is that instead of any traditional distances, this race is based on time. So the way it breaks down is

10 minute swim

10 minute transition

30 minute bike

10 minute transition

20 minute run.

Distances are measured at each stage , and points are allocated base on how far you went compared to everyone else. So if there were 100 athletes, then the person who goes the farthest in the swim would get 100 points. second place 99 points, third 98 points and so on, for each stage.

When I heard about this race, I forwarded it to the Central Jersey Tri Club, and we actually managed to work with the organisers to get our own wave, so that the CJTC would be racing as a group.

Everything at the Lifetime Fitness we went too was beautiful. Great facility, from the lockers, to the 2 indoor pools, cycling studio, and massive cardio equipment room.

Here's how my race went;

Swim; 16 lengths, 50 points

In the 10 minutes of the swim, I managed to eek out 16 length. Ok, I'm slow, but having only swam twice since Princeton, it was good enough for me. I also grabbed 50 points (out of 97 athletes), so in truth it was right in the middle of the pack.

Bike: 10.3miles, 76 points

Just warming up

The bike was done in the cycling studio. We had time to figure out our positioning prior to the race, so in the 10 minute transition we had to hustle over to the studio, get everything set up, and grab a quick warm up. With the sound of a bell we started. The hardest thing about this stage was the lack of air and apparent lack of proper air conditioning. It got HOT. And I'm a sweater (one who sweats, not a type of clothing). My strategy was to warm up for the first 10 minutes, push for the next 10, then take it a bit easier on the end to help my legs prepare for the run. I think I maybe could have pushed a bit harder but overall I'm pretty happy with my position among the field with 76 points. Video of the bike portion

Run; 2.71miles, 89 points

The run was obviously done on a treadmill. We were given the bell to start and from there we could control our own speed or incline (though I don't know why anyone would add incline for this kind of race). Employees were helpful and offered towels, water, or gels as we ran. My strategy for this was to start "easy" at 6mph and increase it steadily every minute or so until I found a good pace. i really wanted to hit 3 miles total. By midway I was running at about 8mph, but I was realising that it would be tough to hit 3 miles so I kept increasing the speed. for the last 5 minutes or so I was zipping along at 9.5mph, watching my distance climb. Unfortunately I had probably been too conservative at the start, and ended just shy, but still good enough to grab 89 points.

Overall; 215 points, 18th overall (tied for 17th technically)

WOOHOO! First race of 2015!!!

After the race there was a complimentary massage/stretch table offered to athletes, along with some snacks and water. Really, I think everyone had a great time at this race and I personally would do it again in a flash. No medals handed out, but did I mention that every participant got to snag an awesome "I'm a Triathlete" shirt? Yup. Totally worth it

CJTC Representing!

*All photos courtesy of http://photos.rnvillaphotography.com/

Off-Season Mini-post: Crossfit (part 3)

2014-10-23T09:19:00.000-07:00

OK almost made it! This was the third straight day of Foundations class for crossfit, and I was happy to be almost done. Honestly, triathlon and marathon training have made me used to having sore legs, and occasionally sore arms or shoulders from swimming, but I've never been so thoroughly sore across my body. My legs feel like tree trunks as I stomp around the office, my shoulders are sore, and now even my lats are aching every time I raise my arms. Man, it feels great.

So here's what we learned on Day 3:

This day was meant to be all about Olympic lifting. Really it was only 1 or two moves which was focused on doing a dead lift and the snatch. Here's what the snatch is supposed to be and how to do it. The Jerk is basically the same except you stop with the barbell in the rack-squat position at your collarbone.

It seems like an easy thing to do, or at least understand conceptually, but stringing together the movements was actually pretty tricky, and will definitely need more practice in the future. There really wasn't time to learn anything else, and for the most part I think the coach covered most of the movement and scaling options that we would be needing in most classes.

That's all for the foundations classes. I'll be posting an update with my thoughts on Crossfit in about a month, once I have real class experience.

You can go back and check out my recap of Day 1 here, or Day 2 here

Off-Season Mini-post: Crossfit (part 2)

2014-10-22T06:16:00.001-07:00

So the adventure continued last night with the second of three Foundations classes to get ready for real classes at Crossfit KOA. Whereas the first day began with a mix of dynamic and static mostly leg stretches, last night we got introduced to a few new friends.

First, the coach gave us all foam rollers. Not the kind of roller I have at home, which is basically blue foam that I've used after long runs/bikes, but a nasty Triggerpoint roller with a hard surface and grooves. Honestly I didn't even have the worst one. Another participant who was apparently very stiff got a roller full of knobs, which must have hurt like a bitch.

We began by rolling our backs (heard a few nice clicks), then moved on to our legs, then did our triceps using a lacrosse ball, and finished off our stretching session using heavy duty elastic bands anchored to an overhead pole.

Then, the fun stuff. This class focused on overhead lifting. I honestly don't recall all the names, but we went through lifting a barbell from our chest, lifting it and jump-splitting our legs, lifting with legs hopping just an inch outwards, and pistol squats, which is basically parleying a bbarbellsquat into a launching motion overhead. We didn't use much weight, but it was still definitely tiring.

A rowing machine. Pretty simple, right?

To finish the session, we got introduced to the rowing machine. I've used one before and you've probably seen them at the gym. While not incredibly complex, it's actually a little tricky to get the sequence of moves in properly as you pick up speed.

We did the rowing game for a few minutes while the coach helped us with our form, and that was it for Day 2. No time for a workout, which I think the other participants and I were totally OK with after yesterdays vomit-fest.

On Day 3, I'm told we are going to delve into the world of Olympic lifting. Stay tuned to see how that goes, or you can go back and read about Day 1 here.

Thanks for reading, and keep Tri-ing!

Off-Season Mini-post: Crossfit (part 1)

2014-10-21T06:21:00.000-07:00

Now that race season is pretty much over, I want to try to expand my exercise library and work some different aspects than the usual endurance stuff that I'm used to. So, after doing some searching on Groupon, I found a deal at Crossfit KOA, a box that's pretty close-by to home.

A nice touch about KOA is that they have new members do a 3 day "Foundations" program, where you and up to 9 others get some time to learn the basics of proper technique for the different moves that Crossfit uses.

I'll be giving a quick summary of my thoughts here during the Foundations period, and later once I've been doing it for a month or so.

Foundation ; Day 1

I showed up to sign up for the program and found the staff at KOA to be really friendly. Multiple trainers (coaches?) came up to me while I was waiting for the program to start and introduced themselves. The facilities is pretty much what I expected. I has plenty of ropes, cages, weights, and is generally appropriately rugged looking. A class was in progress and I got to watch a handful of participants with what looked like widely varying fitness levels doing barbell squats. No meatheads, no steroid junkies, just a bunch of every-type athletes trying to be healthier.

My class started and I met my trainer and the other 2 participants (small class). For the first 45 minutes or so, he showed and has us practice doing some squats, various barbell squats, and box jumping techniques to maintain proper form. Because we were such a small group, we finished pretty quickly and so he gave us a workout. On a whiteboard he wrote;

14 mins
10 WB
10 Burpees
200m run

So, 14 minutes, 10 wall-balls (squat with heavy ball that gets thrown up as you rise, 10 burpees, and 200 m dash outside.

Wall-Balls. They suck almost as much as Burpees

I thought 14 minutes was a tonne of time to get this done, so when it came to my run, I gave it all I had. Trotting back in and out of breath, I heard the coach say "Great job Eddie, only 10 minutes left". At which point I realized that we had to do sets of the workout for 14 minutes. Crap.

The next 10 minutes were painful, tiring, nearly vomit-inducing. By the end, my lungs were burning and I was done.

So...overall the first class was pretty fun.

Check back tomorrow to see how Day 2 goes.

Thanks for reading and keep Tri-ing!

NYC Triathlon 2014 - Race Report

2014-08-05T07:01:00.002-07:00

Expo and Packet Pick-up
Because of the size and technical factors involved in this race, the event coordinators make it mandatory to attend an information sesion before being able to pick up your packet. The half hour info session covered a brief outline of the course, transition, and a few of the tricky spots to look out for. It was held along with the expo at the Grand Hyatt in New York City. It really wasn't all that painful, and afterwards I headed to packet pickup, which was organized by number. I was number 4958, out of somewhere near 5000 so I just marched over to the last table.

Chip scanning station

Waiting in line for my packet

After a few minutes in queue, I approached the table, flashed my USAT card and a piece of ID, and had to sign some USAT waivers, probably promising not to sue if I died in the Hudson.
I then had a wristband attached to my arm which would serve as my identification as a participant for the weekend.

Then, we just had to get our chips scanned and we were let into the Expo.

The race expo

Getting my ankle taped

The Expo was fairly large, though not as big as I've seen for some marathons. They were selling a lot of event apparel, and also had many different vendors. There were sports/recovery drinks and food available to sample from some smaller companies, as well as Muscle Milk, Clif Bar, and Natural Valley. There were also booths set up by some of the race sponsors selling their merchandise, like Vitamix, which had an Infomercial wannabe showing off the blender, and X-terra. I actually ended up buying a new Vortex 4 sleeveless which I later wore for the race.

I also decided to buy some KT Tape from a booth that they had, and the guys over at KT had a rep offering free taping, so I got my ankle wrapped, to hopefully help some of the nagging that I've been feeling.

After staying for maybe a bit too long, I picked up my goody bag, race t-shirt, and headed outta there.

So many bikes!

Bike check-in was set for Saturday, and I showed up pretty late in the night to do mine. It was actually pretty amazing to see so many bikes all in one place. This was probably one of the largest races I've done so far, except for maybe Tremblant 70.3 . In any case, it was nice to be able to walk through and rack my bike in peace and quiet instead of fighting for space and rushing around with many other athletes. The one negative thing I noticed is that the space assigned for each athlete was really quite small. There was barely enough room for my different shoes, and I also had bags with my change of clothing.

Race morning (yes it's morning, despite the 5am darkness)

In retrospect, the once thing I would have done differently is that I should have completely set up my transition during bike check-in, instead of coming back at 5am to do this. My wave only started at almost 8am, and I would have liked to have gotten a few extra hours of sleep!

Swim

Pre-race. I don't know what's going on with my hair.

The swim was organized a little different than most. Instead of a mass start or one wave per age group, you were divided into waves, and then lined up onto a barge about 10 or 15 athletes at a time. They would release each "mini-wave" every 15 seconds or so. I found it to be unique, and really much more relaxing than trying to avoid being swam over by 200 other people. The best thing about this swim is of course the current! I'm a bad swimmer and I know it, but even when I stopped, I could tell that I was moving fairly quickly by looking at the nearby shoreline. The swim was uneventful. There were no dead fish, dead bodies, condoms, trash, or jellyfish. Really the water is just kinda murky, vaguely salty, and it MOVES. At the end of the swim there are volunteers to literally pull you out. My total swim was 24 minutes. Slow by the race standard, and one I don't expect to beat anytime soon (until the next time I do this race maybe).

T1+Bike
At the end of the swim, volunteers literally pull you out of the water, and then you run a few hundred yards to transition. I had a little trouble unzipping my wetsuit. Being brand new and the first time I'd worn it, I maybe should have practiced beforehand. Anyway I eventually caught the zipper cord and peeled it off halfway while running. Getting my bike shoes on seemed to go a little slower than I'd like, and I was fumbling with deciding if I should wear sunglasses or not before I decided to just shove them in my back pocket since it was quite overcast, and the lenses had gotten all wet from the rain. I ran to Bike-Out, crossed the timing mat, and was about to mount my bike when I realized I had a flat rear tire. Yuuuuup.
Sooooo I ran back over the timing mat back into transition where there was a bike tech helping out. My wife was checking my progress through an app, and since Bike Out/In use the same timing mat, I apparently posted and amazing bike time of 200-something miles an hour. After waiting for the tech to help out another athlete, he got to helping me change my tube, and I was off again. According to the official results, my T1 was 5 minutes, but I'm not sure how accurate it is. it seemed like the process took longer, but maybe I was just anxious.

Sampled from MarathonFoto.com

Immediately after mounting you make a steep climb, so its suggest to be in an easy gear. This was definitely a good idea. Since the ground was also wet, I think it would have been easy to spin out and fall otherwise. The course itself was a straight shot up the West Side Highway, with generous rolling hills up through the Bronx before turning around. I found the way out to be more difficult than coming back, and the hills were definitely tiring me out. My goal was to try to make up as much time as I could from the swim and flat tire fiasco, but with my muscles burning I didn't move all that fast. Still, I think I managed to pass a nice amount of people, a few with a number between 25-29 on their calf. Along the way I tried to give as much encouragement as I could to Team in Training athletes as I could when I passed them. There are no aid stations on the bike, so all nutrition has to be with you, which I found to be fine given the overcast weather. Towards the end of my ride, the weather finally started to clear up and get warmer as the sun came out, At that point, I had drank about half my Hammer Perpetuem, and refilled my Aerodrink bottle once. I should point out that I didn't actually DRINK all my water, but rather end up spitting a bunch of my legs to cool them off. Total bike time is posted as 1:39, though again I'm not sure if any of my tube change is included here or not. A 15mph pace is kinda slow for me, but it is what it is at this point. Ill be focusing on my biking a lot leading up to Princeton 70.3, so hopefully it will pay off.

T2 +Run

Sampled from MarathonFoto.com. And yes, I am flying

As I mentioned, the Bike-In is the same as Bike-Out, so the bike finished going back down a rather steep hill into transition. I quickly ran my bike to my rack, and ended up just leaning my bike against another, because I couldnt seem to get it in all the way to properly rack it. I got my helmet off, took my watch from the bike, jammed my feet into my Zoots and was off. My T2 was 1:45, quite different from T1. The Run course ran towards and through Central Park. I'd never ran here before so it was really cool to finally have the chance. The interesting part was that since Central Park is such a popular area for runners/cyclists, there were tons of each moving towards the race. Our Half the path was blocked off for the race while rest was open for general use. The park is somewhat hilly, and it definitely was a little tough. There was an aid station every mile or so offering Gatorade, water, and in some stops ice, gels, and I think towels. I kept up a fairly decent pace, since I really wanted to make up some time, and I know the run is my strongest sport of the three. I passed a lot of TNT, as well as a nice amount of people oin my Age Group. 5k split time was 28:15, and total run time was 50 minutes, so I'm pretty happy with a having posted a decent negative split. I thought I might have been running too fast at the beginning, but it's good to know I was able to hold on and push through until the end. Total Race time was 2:59:24, setting a new PR, and finally breaking the 3 hour mark!

Finish+Post Race
The finish line was in Central Park, and nicely marked off to prevent overcrowding or crashing into pedestrians as I've seen in other races. Immediately after crossing I was handed my finisher's medal, and had a ice-cold towel slapped on my shoulder by another TriSports Champion, Anthony. I was also handed a bottle of cold water, and picked up some banana and apples as I got the timing chip removed by volunteers, and was then ushered out into the family reception area. I got some ice wrapped around one of my calves in the medical tent for no real reason other than to speed recovery, and then met up with my wife. I didn't spend much time looking around, but I was surprised that there wasn't more of a finisher's celebration. Again, there might have been and I didn't see it, but I was hoping to buy some sort of race-apparel there instead of having to go online.

As usual, I rewarded myself with some much needed junk food. Pizza, home fries, Birthday-Cake M&M's (Really good!), and more generally crap food throughout the day were on the docket. Gotta love racing ;)

Thanks for reading!

NJ State Olympic Triathlon 2014

2014-07-24T06:02:00.001-07:00

Last week was the New Jersey State Triathlon, so I've been wanting to get this race report out while it's still fresh in my mind. To me, this race was especially cool because it was my first since getting married, and was also my first in New Jersey. The race, organized by CGI Racing, is the largest in NJ, and is split between a sprint and Olympic distance races on the Saturday and then Sunday.

Expo and Pickup

Packet pickup for the Olympic distance was made available on Friday, Saturday, and on race day if pre-reserved. I had initially reserved race day pickup, but thanks to a change in my schedule I was able to get out on Friday afternoon. I don't really love that I had to drive all the way out to Mercer Park for it, but it was just under each way so not horrible. The bigger trouble than I ran into, and so did many others that I met en route, was that the location was not easy to find through my GPS. I had to actually follow the GPS location through a link in one of their emails before being able to direct a small caravan of athletes to the race site.

Overall, everything was pretty organized, I walked up to a desk, signed a release form, flashed my USAT ID, and was promptly handed a plastic sac containing my timing chip, athlete bracelet, bib, tech T-shirt, and leftover Finisher mugs from the Love Run (a Philadelphia based half-marathon also organized by CGI).

The Expo was fine. There were a couple shops selling triathlon related products, as well as a few health-oriented companies with booths.

Race Day

Transition opened a little before 6AM on race day, and there were plenty of volunteers on hand to assist with body-marking. The transition area was pretty large, well organized, and each athletes space was big enough to comfortably rack a bike and have shoes neatly laid out next to it. Fun note, I had somehow forgotten to bring water, but a quick holler to nobody in particular and a fellow athlete handed me a large jug to fill one of my bottles with, Another funny moment, is that close to when transition was closing, someone anounced over the loudspeaker that a bike tire had blown. Ok not so funny for that athlete but overall pretty nice of someone else for getting it announced. After setting up my stuff, I headed over to visit the Central Jersey Triathlon Club tent for a quick chit chat. Another nice thing about this race is that CGI provided space for any club with more than a certain number of athletes racing, as well as (most excitedly) a DECICATED PORT-A-POTTY!!!.

A couple minutes later and I wandered to the lake to get in a quick warm-up.

Swim

Due to the water temperature, the race was not wetsuit legal. It was allowed, but would remove eligibility from awards. Even though I had no expectations of hitting the podium, I felt like I didn't want to be both overheated and constricted so opted to go sans wetsuit. I only had a few minutes to warm-up before the started singing the national anthem. I made my way and towards the start corral, since I was in the first wave. Not long after I was wading out for the open water start. After what seemed like too long of a wait the race started and we were off! OK, most people were off. I kinda just went. I'm not a great swimmer to begin with, and I chose to not wear a wetsuit in a race for my first time, and I got a lovely kick to the head early on that dislodged my goggles. Anyway after about 40 minutes I emerged from the water happy to be done swimming and in a hurry. UPDATE: Apparently the swim WAS westuit legal. I guess I never got the memo. Oh well.

T1+Bike

Sampled from ChessiePhoto.com

Luckily, transition area was just a short distance from the water, and I wanted to get through T1 as fast as possible. I grabbed my pre-Body-Glided shoes, sunglasses, and helmet and was out in 2 minutes flat. The bike course covered two loops of mostly flat terrain. It took me a little while to get my legs moving comfortably, and I held off from taking in any nutrition until about 15 minutes into the bike. I had frozen a bottle with 3 scoops of Hammer Perpetuem mixed in, and it was still perfectly cold but melted at this point. I also had my aero-bottle filled with water, as well as my secret weapon; sticks of gum tucked between the elbow pad cushion and metal. Why do I need gum during a race? I have no idea but I find it keeps me focused. I wanted to try to push on the bike, but for whatever reason I was feeling the burn and couldn't keep my pace as high as I'd have liked. Still my total time for the bike was 1:23.

T2+Run
The course had aid station about every mile that carried a mix of water, Hammer Heed, Hammer Gels, and at two aid stations, wet towels. LOVED the wet towels. Also I should point out that the volunteers here really rocked and were cheering plenty. 5K in I was feeling pretty pooped, so I kept sipping on Hammer Gels, and slowly squeezed the towels over my head when I could. My finishing time on the run was 50 minutes, giving me a total race time of 3 hours flat. Not great, worse than what I wanted, but not bad considering my recent injury, and general business what with getting married and moving to a new country and all.

Post-Race

After crossing the finish line I was handed a medal ( a HUGE medal), a bottle of water, had my timing chip removed, and was released back into the expo. A catered tent was open for athletes with chicken breast, grilled veggies, some fruit and drink. Nearby, a local company was offering athletes free chair massages, which I signed up for as I always do after a race. There were also a few other food vendors handing out free samples, and an ice cream truck. A massage, free food, and Drumstick later I was satisfied and went back to the CJTC tent to pick up a few things, wish congrats to other athletes, and head home.

I totally recommend this race to others, and definitely plan on racing it again in future years. It was well organized, fun, a nice course, and pretty close to my home.

Montreal Hypothermic 2014

2014-02-23T17:07:00.000-08:00

Last weekend was the Montreal edition of the Hypothermic Half-Marathon, organised by the Running Room. The draw of winter races tends to usually be the same; runners and endurance athletes like to have races as goals and benchmarks for their training. After September or October, there tends to be very little in the way of race options when you live in a Northern climate like Montreal, as a result of the unpredictable weather and sometimes brutal cold. Nonetheless, some organisations put together winter races to give us something to do, and something to humble-brag about. "What did you do this weekend?" "oh not much, ran a half-marathon in -20C, just normal stuff".

Anyways, after doing the full Winterman Marathon last year, I decided to scale back this winter and do the Hypo instead. The fact that there is a local edition instead of having to drive to Ottawa also helped my decision. Also, a draw for the Hypo is that they always give out a "gift" to participants. In past years I was told that they would always give a Running Room jacket, but this year they were handing out glove/hat packs along with your bib at kit pickup. I'm happy with the gift since I can't find my running hat and my current gloves aren't all that great. One thing is that i wasn't so happy with the pickup location, which was at the Running Room in the Quartier 10-30, a shopping area off the island. Pickup was also available near the starting area, but I felt it would be too busy and stressful. So here is my review of the race, as well as my personal experience.

The race starts on Jean Drapeau, an island just off of Montreal. It's pretty easy to get to, there was apparently nearby parking, and is accessible by metro (subway for non-locals). After leaving the metro, you just had to do a small (but cold) hike to the local Aquatic Centre, and everyone just milled around for a while until the race started. In the wings of the Centre they were preparing the complimentary brunch (more on that later).

About 10 minutes before the scheduled 8:30 race start the officials began shuffling us toward the start line. Strangely, we had to walk about 500M out, pass the finish chute, and then turn around, which was awkward and unusual since we had to keep moving backwards as more people came. It also didn't help that it was pretty cold and they started almost 10 minutes later than they said they would.

The first 13 or 14 kilometres of the race were actually quite nice, pretty scenic really, with lots of packed snow. The area that concerned most people was the section of the course on the Gilles Villeneuve racetrack, which is prohibited from being salted and de-iced as it damages the road. We all thought it would turn into a slip-n-slide skating rink but it was actually very nice.

Toward the end of the first 14km loop the course ran along the river, and this is where the problems occurred. The path was very narrow, and no snow-clearing had been done so the snow was very fresh and powdery. It was very hard to catch your footing, and personally my glutes were burning as I was trying to stabilise. Also, the design of the course was such that we had to do 3 loops through this section. By the end, I was burnt out.

I think that the rough patches negatively affected everyone, including the elite, since the winning time was only 1:28. Its a great time, but I've seen better and would normally expect better on a more stable course. I finished in 1:53, with a solid sprint the last 2km or so. Not my best performance, but I'm happy with it given the course conditions.

After the race was the complimentary brunch! They had out an array of pastries, fruit, wraps, and salads, as well as coffee and hot chocolate. The food selection was really quite nice compared to the apple/banana that some races hand out. Unfortunately, as a Paleo person there wasn't much for my except for the fruit, so I accepted a post-race fructose bombing and made a mental note to devour some protein later on.

Source: http://www.hypothermichalf.com/

Overall, a nice race with a very friendly atmosphere. The course obviously needs to be redone but can easily be fixed. I don't know if I'll do it again, only because I keep realising that I don't like winter races all that much, but I'd recommend checking it out to anyone who is looking for a challenge this time of year.

The TrainingPeaks data for my race can be found at http://tpks.ws/ywSN
Thanks for reading, stay safe, and keep trying!

Carbs or Fat? How to Fuel For Endurance Sports

2014-01-30T18:27:00.000-08:00

Nutrition is often referred to as the fourth sport in triathlon, because of its importance and impact on performance. This is especially true as you start to participate in longer events, from the Olympic distance, and of course more so for the Ironman, but also for sport-specific events like a Marathon. The questions that often comes up is; what do I eat and when? When I began racing endurance sports, the primary method of fueling that I was aware of were energy gels, or drinks like Gatorade. The gels generally come in 1oz packets that easy to tuck away, open and discard. Usually they have around 100 sugar based calories per gel, and nowadays you can get them in a wide variety of flavors. Most people are familiar with the Hammer, GU, or Probar labels, but it seems like every year more and more companies are entering the market. Some companies try to fill a specific perceived niche in the market, creating gels with all natural ingredients, different sugar types (such as maltodextrin versus sucrose), and I've even seen one that has chia seeds in it.

Now, traditional knowledge has been that your body only contains a certain amount of glycogen (basically stored carbohydrate) that your body can call upon to fuel itself through an endurance event. This is basically where the idea of "carb-loading" comes from, and has probably caused hundreds of thousands to stuff themselves with pasta in the nights preceding a race. On average, most people have about 200 grams or roughly 800 calories of glycogen in their liver, which is the most easily accessible. After depleting those stores, your body will try derive glycogen from other sources like your muscle, as well as fat, but those processes are more difficult. So, considering that you have limited glycogen, you need to make sure that you continually supplement your exercise with additional carbs to compensate and fuel yourself. Performance using this method is pretty easy to see, as many professionals use this method without problem. The constant fuel provides constant energy, and drinking energy drinks provide additional carbohydrates and electrolytes to prevent muscle cramping and proper energy usage.

Depending on how long the activity is, and your individual strategy, most marathon strategies have athletes 1-2 gels every hour, in addition to whatever liquid calories they might be consuming. For longer endurance events life a Half or Full Ironman Triathlon, you'll need more calories to fuel yourself, since you probably
burn more than the 200-300 calories per hour that I just described, and you'll eventually just run out of energy otherwise. It's generally considered easiest to take in calories on the bike, since your water bottles are being carried for you, and it involves less movement than running, which minimizes food/liquid sloshing around in your stomach. Gel's are still a staple on the bike, but many athletes like to use calorie and electrolyte enriched drinks, like Hammer Perpetuem, or energy bars.

Lately, many athletes have started switching to a fat-adapted basis for fueling. Essentially, through a strict obedience to a diet and training regimen, it has been found that your body can be adapted to use fat as the primary source of fuel instead of carbohydrate. The benefit is that since fat is a slower burning energy source, and is practically inexhaustible during a 1 day race, you won't need to consume nearly as many calories during the event. The catch? Your diet has to remain pretty low in carbohydrate (usually around 25% or less) and you have to tailor your training. Even in a a fat adapted state, your body will only use fat as fuel when you exercise aerobically. This means if you go too fast and enter an anaerobic state, your body will switch to using carbohydrates again, and actually stay that way for quite a while, even if you get control of your heart rate. Another potential benefit of this strategy is that by consuming less calories, you minimize the risk of GI issues. While your body is in "performance mode", it becomes harder to break down some food, so the idea is that the less you put in, the less risk of unpleasant effects.

So, which method of fueling works best? That's debatable and deeply personal. Different people might respond differently to each method, and a recent (albeit limited) study showed that as long as your metabolism is accustomed to one of the fuel sources, they will work equally well. I should also point out that even when fat-adapted, its still necessary to consume SOME carbohydrates, so many athletes will drink a honey-water mixture (recommended by Phil Maffetone) as their sports drink alternative.

This may have come as a really long post, but really could have been so much longer. I'd be happy to expand or answer any question that anyone has to the best of my abilities, or at leas point you to someone else for information.

Thanks for reading, keep Tri-ing, and stay safe!

Looking back and looking forward to 2014

2014-01-16T17:48:00.001-08:00

Now that New Year's has come and gone, and events are starting to pop up on my calendar (remember my last post about planning?), I like to pause and look at my overall goals for the past, and set new ones for the coming year. This post is gonna very self-focused, but will be one of the few such posts that I make during the year (aside from race reports, which I try to make useful for all anyways)

Last year my overall goal was to double the distance that I both ran and biked (blog post here), bringing those numbers to a target of about 550 and 650 miles, respectively. Swimming technically should have been there, but I'm pretty bad at keeping count of laps by myself, and my watch doesn't measure pool swimming.

Since I actually do manage to log most of my run/bike workouts in TrainingPeaks, checking is easy and it
turns out I did pretty well. I was pretty much spot on with my running (493 miles), and passed my biking goals, covering over 1200 miles. Looking at distance isn't everything of course, especially when considering that I do races, but the times tend to be skewed because I often leave my watch on after training and races, and it gets added in. I use races and individual training sessions as better measures of my overall pace.

For 2014, I don't want to just double my distances again, since I feel that finding time to train might be getting harder this year as I will have to handle some personal challenges (for lack of a better word) like getting married. Instead, I'll be focusing on the quality of my workouts, making sure that every workout has a point. Also, I've been refocusing on my nutrition both in-race and general life, which I'll be sharing in future posts.

So what are my goals for 2014? Well I've got two Half-Ironman distance races scheduled (Vineman and Princeton 70.3), so from a purely time-based perspective I'd like to go sub-7. It's not such an ambitious goal, but considering the GI issues at my last race I want to be conservative. For running, I want to break the 4 hour mark on any and all marathons I do, and do at least 1:45 on all half-marathons. My time goals might not be crazy competitive to some, but I am after all just an average age-grouper, with other things going on. Though I am extremely passionate about endurance sports, I believe in having a well balanced life.

Just a short post today, so happy training and stay safe out there!

My Famous Fails

2013-12-27T08:03:00.001-08:00

"There are two types of riders; Those who have gone down, and those who will"

I don't remember where I heard this adage, intended to reference motorcycle riders, but I feel that it applies perfectly well to cyclists as well. Everyone has a story about either a close call or an actual spill. As an ICEdot athlete, I thought it would be appropriate to share some of my more memorable accidents (yeah, there's been a few).

My funniest falls were probably back when I just started getting into road cycling, specifically when I made the big switch to clipless pedals. When I got them, I was worried that I would't unclip in a high speed accident and risk breaking my leg. The salesmen assured me that wouldn't happen and that they were designed to unclip in that situation. What he didn't tell me was the risk of not unclipping when barely moving. Yup, the first few falls on my brand new bikes were a very slow teeter and collapse while rolling to a slow stop. Literally barely moving, a wobble as I failed to unclip, and just toppled over. Honestly it barely even hurt. Might have bruised my ego more than anything. One time though this happened near an intersection as a city bus was turning and I nearly ended up under of it's wheels. That was pretty scary. Lesson learned from these few falls was that it was pretty important to make sure that I got good at unclipping my pedals quickly and smoothly to make sure I don't look this silly again.

I've also had some more serious falls. One happened to me towards the end of last season, that left me pretty banged up. I was on a long ride, actually coming back from the shop where I bought my bike, having just received a quick tuneup. I was in an area that I'm not entirely familar with, and though i knew I had to get up onto a bridge, and saw it, I wasn't sure where the best place was to get up. Thinking I saw a way, I rode quickly across an empty parking lot. While turning, I was looking up at the bridge to follow the road, and didn't see a small patch of sand. As soon as I rode over it, my wheels went out from under me, I fell, and my bike continued another 10 feet (notice how my shoes unclipped though!). I was on the ground in pain for a minute or so when a women who was waiting at a nearby busstop ran over, telling me that she "heard" the fall. Because I was turning, I mostly hit my side. I ended up with a nice bruise on my hip that lasted over a year, wolverine-style scraps on my arms, and some nice road-rash on my legs/knees. Though it's hard to say because it happened so fast,, I'm pretty sure I hit my helmet to the ground, which is what I think the woman heard Overall, I still consider myself lucky to have walked away without breaking anything

My accidents have been pretty tame compared to some of the high-speed wipe outs my friends have told me about, which is why I'm glad to be part of the ICEdot team and to use their system. Accidents happen, and if they do, it's important that everyone has your information.

Feel free to share some of your famous fails!

A cold Demi-Marathon des Microbrasseries (Microbrews, hurray!)

2013-12-12T11:34:00.000-08:00

Yes. There was beer

I'm Canadian and proud, so have races in the winter seems like a God-given right! With that in mind, this is a recap of my second ever winter race (the first being the Winterman Marathon 2013), which when translated from French comes out to the Microbreweries Half-Marathon. This race is part of the Gourmandes series, which features local food companies from various regions. It was also the first year that that this particular race was held, and from what I've read from the organizers might be last.

The race popped onto my radar by a Team in Training staff member, and what caught my eye was that I would get a free beer flute if I registered early. I don't even drink beer at home much, but hell I can always use a new glass. Online registration was done pretty fast through the Quid-Chrono system (kinda a simplified French version of Sportstats.ca). As the race got closer, the race organizers sent out plenty of emails with information about packet pick-up, travel, parking, race info and the usual "get pumped" emails. The only thing I didn't love was that everything was in French. I don't mind reading French, but going through long detailed emails gets tiring, and makes it easy to miss important information.

Where's Eddie?

Driving to the race was pretty easy, as the site was only about a half-hour from Montreal. The only bad thing was that the parking lot (actually a soccer pitch) was on a side street, so there were dozens if not hundreds of people stuck waiting for the turn signal to be able to go, causing a fair bit of congestion. There was a little office/chalet to huddle before the race, before we all headed out to get ready. They did a good job of keeping music pumping to keep us motivated, but I feel that we stood there longer than we really had to. They started late, meaning we were all waiting outside in the cold without moving for a good 10-15 minutes.

The race itself was pretty nice. Mostly flat with very light rolling hills through quaint neighborhoods with little no to traffic. Honestly I don't even know if the roads were closed, or there is just so little traffic there. Some locals were waving from their windows or doorsteps, which is always nice to see. Water and sports drinks were set up every few kilometers. Nothing special, just the basics here.

The finish line was where the party really started. There was a great arrangement of fruit, chocolate milk, hot food from local sources and plenty of beer (remember the name of the race?). Unfortunately I was feeling pretty cold, so skipped the beer. However the local McDonald's got in on the action and had a trailer parked and handing out free hot beverages. I helped myself to a hot chocolate with whipped cream because, hey, I just ran a half marathon.

Now is where the trouble started... Something that I didn't mention is that the race was a point-to-point. As in you don't finish where you started. Thanks to only glancing at the all-French emails, I didn't realize that I was a full 18km from the start. The organizers had rented school-buses to shuttle people back to their starting point (were different spots for the 5k, 10k, and 21k routes). The problem is that they only had 2 working buses, which the majority of runners needed to use. Being a race with a few thousand participants, this meant that A LOT of people were stuck standing in the cold, wet and tired, for a while. I think I had to wait a good 30 minutes before being able to get on a shuttle. As much as it sucked, I could forgive the organizers for this one misstep, seeing as it was the first edition of the race, and everything else was pretty much smooth sailing. I finished in 1:49 on the dot, which though I felt like I had given a decent effort, I'm happy with considering I hadn't genuinely trained for it.

This race also marked the official end of my 2013 race season. I took the medal, along with the others from this year and added them to my now quite full shadow box. I'll be on the lookout for other ideas of what to do with medals/bibs.

In the meantime, thanks for reading, feel free to comment below, and keep tri-ing!

Catching up

2013-12-10T19:11:00.001-08:00

Wow it's been too long since I've gotten a blog post out. I figure I've got about half a year's worth of catching up to do, so I figure the best way to do so without overloading one post will be to spread it out. This post will focus on what's been going on most recently, then I'll add some older race reports in the near future.

So....first big change has been in my nutrition (as the title suggests..duh). I've basically gone Paleo for the past month or so and it's amazing. Paleo (or at least my version of it), means no grains, no dairy, and as little processed sugar as possible. The reason I say that I'm doing it in my own way is because I don't necessarily agree with all the tenets of the Paleo movement, but I agree with the main principles.Fit, Fast, Fat", and doing my own reading, I've decided to give it a go and see how my body reacts. In addition to following the Paleo diet, I also try to focus on reducing my carbohydrate intake in general, focusing instead on consuming healthy fats.
Eating more whole foods is downright better for your body, and after listening to podcasts like "Ben Greenfield Fitness' and "

I can't say all this has been easy. Or cheap. I've slowly begun stocking my kitchen with coconut oil, "Paleo-friendly" flours, non-processed sweeteners, and more Kale than any one person should have. The hard part is coexisting with my family at dinner's, who don't understand all my choices or that I really do feel like I am doing what is best for my health.

The results so far have been pretty awesome. As an endurance athlete, I was already pretty lean, weighing about 160-165lbs. Since switching my diet over, I've dropped down to closer to 155lbs, and lowered my overall body-fat to just over 11%. Keep in mind that just a few years ago, before starting Triathlon, I was weighing in at almost 190. No, it's not Biggest Loser style weight-loss, but I think thats pretty damn good.

Since nutrition is so important, I'm going to add a "Recipes" tab soon and link to posts with good recipes that I've created or found that are simple, healthy, or just really delicious, all made with an ingredient list that you can pronounce.

On the endurance sport side of things, it is officially the off-season! That means a slightly reduced load of the 3 main sports, and putting in some time to improve general conditioning. My personal goal is to use the next few months to regain some muscular strength through weight training. I am also trying to introduce the maphetone method of training, whereas a majority of your training is done below lactate threshold, which happens to also be the point at which your body switched to using carbs as fuel instead of fat. Since it's winter and icy, this is fine by me since sprints and hill training could be a bit dangerous.

Vineman 70.3 2014 - L'chaim!

For next year, I'm starting to build my race list, and the first major race looks like it will be the Vineman 70.3 in California with the Dozer Team! I love how triathlon gives me an excuse to do some traveling to places I've never been. Also, since I'm moving to the New York area soon, I'm looking at races in that general area, which of course there are many. I was lucky enough to win the lottery entrance to the NYC Triathlon, and I'll be sprinkling in a few short course triathlons, as well as some half-marathons, a full marathon or two, and maybe even a Spartan Race.

As always, thanks for reading, and keep Tri-ing!

Tough Mudder Montreal 2013

2013-07-09T09:17:00.000-07:00

Aside from a quick stint in the Dead Sea, I’ve never really been the type to enjoy putting mud on my body. Apparently it’s quite good for you though, and is supposed to even be relaxing. The Tough Mudder is anything but. On July 7, I participated in the TM just outside of Montreal, alongside a small airport landing strip. Though I’ll be calling this a race report, TM is quick to point out and remind participants that it is a challenge, not a race, and that completion is the point of honor. To that end, there are timing mats, no pacer bunnies, no prizes for finishing faster than the guy next to you.

I’m going to try to cover most of the obstacles in the order that they appeared on the course, to the best of my memory.

My wave started at 10AM, a pretty late start for a race but fine by me, since I had to drive an hour to get to the site. Check-in started a bit late in my opinion but was fairly fast, with many tables to check in at depending on the first letter of your last name. Some quick body-marking and bib-attaching later and that’s it. Actually, not quite. In order to get to the starting corral, participants have to first make their way over the 10 foot tall “Wall of Pain/Shame”, a kind of warm-up and quick physical test.

After reciting the National Anthem and TM code of honor and much cheering, the “race” began. The off-road nature of the course meant that you had to be careful how you stepped, or easily risk spraining an ankle. With around 20 official obstacles, and a 16km course, there was a good mix of running and obstacles to keep you entertained even if you find running boring.

The first obstacle, Arctic Enema, involved jumping into a cargo container filled with ice-water and swimming to the other end, bobbing under a couple of planks at surface level along the way. For the first few seconds it wasn’t so bad, then I realized just how cold it was and breathing started to become difficult, but by then I was almost out.

After that was some more mud-covered ground with some natural hill/mud pits. The next major obstacle involved crawling in mud under barbedwire while being sprayed with water. Not really challenging per se, but I had to make sure to really hug the ground to avoid some low hanging wire. Muddy for a few minutes, Iquickly came up to the next obstacle, the Boa Constrictor which had me crawling and sliding down a pipe into a water hole, then trying to make my way up another pipe, which was a bit more difficult since the wetness made finding a grip pretty tough.

OK, at this point I’m gonna start forgetting which obstacles came in what order, but basically there was a fair bit of crawling through mud, running/walking in mud, and general mudiness. There was the “Berlin Walls” obstacle, with 2 10-foot walls, which participants were generally very friendly and were helping each other mount. Same goes for Everest, where you had to run up a half-pipe ramp. Though theoretically possible to do on one’s own, most were helped along by grabbing the arms of waiting mudders. In general, participants across the course were very friendly and helpful to each other.

The most memorable (and painful) obstacle was by far the Electric Eel. This obstacle has participants crawl in the mud and water under dangling wires that electroshock you if you get to close! According to TM, the shocks can be up to 10,000 volts. The craziest part is that because you are wet, you don’t even have to be touching a wire to get shocked. I started as low down as I could get, but still got shocked quite a bit. I was expecting it to feel like a jolt, the way you sometimes get when touching someone after walking on a shag carpet. Instead, the shocks felt to me like punches, and for some reason they focused on the left side of my lower back. I really wanted to get out fast.

Aside from the Electric Eel, some obstacles were actually pleasant, like Walk the Plank, where you climb up some angled scaffolding and then jump about 15 feet into water. Unless you’re really afraid of (average) heights or water, there was really nothing to it. According to the TM website, there was supposed to be some fire-jumping and obstacles involving smoke, but I guess due to local permit restrictions these obstacles were left out.

At the end of the course you had to jump some 5 foot pits, and then face off against a larger version of the Electric Eel, with two valleys with wires divided by a small hill. In this one you could actually stand and run, or risk crawling through. I chose to scream, cover my head and charge, somehow making it to the hill without feeling any shocks before diving under the second set. The I just mud-crawled my way under the remaining and came out unschocked (but completely covered in mud).

After crossing the finish line, I was awarded with the staple Tough Mudder orange headband, finishers t-shirt, and a can of Dos Exes beer. Then, courtesy of Samsung I got a giant bubble bath before hitting the shower (actually a bunch of high pressure garden hoses lined up.

All in all, a fun “race”. Maybe not quite the toughest thing in the world as advertised, but definitely challenging. Make sure to bring along a few friends if you are going to do a Mudder, because it makes the experience way more memorable.

2013 Mont Tremblant 70.3 Race Report

2013-06-28T13:50:00.000-07:00

My first 70.3

This past Sunday, I raced my first Ironman 70.3 in Mont-Tremblant, Quebec. Though my race did not go as I wanted, it was by all other accounts a great race.

The race weekend began on Friday, with athlete check-in (also available Saturday) taking place in the main Mont-Tremblant village, which is in itself a picturesque vacation village. The resort village looks somewhat what I would expect of an old town in Switzerland, with colourful roofs and quaint storefronts.

Friday

Check-in was quick and painless. All I had to do was bring a piece of ID, find my bib number from a wall of athlete names. From there I was given some consent and emergency contact forms (OK, maybe a bit overboard here, I felt like I was getting a mortgage) which didn’t take too long to get through. Next, everyone had to get weighed. I’m assuming this is for medical purposes, such as if a participant passes out during the race, it would be important to know their original body weight to determine how much fluid loss occurred. After that, I just simply moved down a line to pick up my goodie bag, swimcap, race chip, free t-shirt, merrel headband-y thing, identifying wristband, and that’s it. The goodie bag is actually a pretty nice version of your typical 2-string backpack. Inside was just some local flyers, a 2-pack of deodorant (like it would help over the course of a 70.3).

Saturday

Bike check-in was on Saturday, which again was simple and clean. The transition area was easily navigated, with signposts and name markers for each spot. Later in the afternoon was a mandatory athlete briefing, where various speakers went over some rules (such as not needing to wear a number bib on the bike) and some course details. Really most of the course specifics was redundant to anyone who had read the athelete guide, which I’d be surprised if anyone had not at that point.

Race Morning (Sunday)

Transition and body marking began around 5am lasting until 6:20. Since I was in the last starting wave at 8:05 (IM has recently introduced wave starts instead of mass starts for safety reasons), I went towards the end of the allowed time, quickly set up my transition, got marked, then headed back to my hotel room. Unfortunately my stomach was feeling a little off, which I attributed to pre-race jitters. Though I would normally stay for a quick warm up swim, I didn’t feel like “hanging out” for 2 hours, not to mention that warm-up swims would not be allowed once the first wave started.

By my fault alone I got to my wave corral pretty late because I was unsure of where it was, and I was doing some last minute packing Sunday morning. With maybe 5 minutes to spare, I quickly slipped into my wetsuit (more like squeezed into), and ran to my corral. Shortly after I was lining up and then with a bang was running towards the water. Immediately the cold water caused my chest to contract making it hard to breathe properly. Also not helping was that my brand new goggles (no choice, lost my regular pair) did not fit properly and my right goggle kept filling with water. Within a few minutes I started to breathe more or less normally but I was pretty far at the back of the pack. A slow swim for me, and with the aid of a couple of cayaks guiding me, I got through the swim in 58 minutes.

Coming out of the water, I realized my stomach was giving me serious issues, so my T1 took a little longer than it should have for a potty break. After that I was on the bike. Being in the last wave and one of the last out of the water at that meant that most of my ride was alone, mostly seeing athletes coming the other way.

For most of the bike, I was actually surprised that the elevation profile wasnt as bad as it had seemed when I looked it up earlier. In the first 70km, there were maybe 2 or 3 big hills, but aside from that fairly flat/rolling terrain. Looking at my watch, I seemed to be on a pretty good pace. The big challenge came in the last 10km or so, going up Montee Ryan. What a bitch! I was forced to get off my bike and walk a few times, again not helped along by my cramping stomach. By the time I pulled into T2, I been biking for 4:10, and missed the bike cut-off by maybe 5 mins.

A quick transition later I was on the run. Leaving the village was a little hilly, and my overall fatigue had me walking up some of the larger hills. at about 5km I met up with a nice couple from Ottawa who were doing a 1 minute walk, 15 second run pattern, so joined them for a bit until about 9km, at which point that I might be pushing the course cutoff once again, so tried to do more running. Still having stomach issues, I had to stop again for some potty time. From aroun 15-19 began walk/running with a former TeaminTraining participant from NY, and then pulled ahead, sensing the finish line.

The last kilometre was great, the last 500M even better, as I began running into the Tremblant village, and down the finishers shute. I finished my first 70.3 Ironman at 8:10:00 , and though not happy with my results, am still happy to say that I did it.

For after the race is a nice lineup of typical post-event food for participants, bagel, fruit, yogurt, chocolate milk and so on. Bike pickup was painless with just a flash of the wristband to match with your bike number and the day was over.

I highly recommend this race to anyone who dares take on a few challenging hills amidst beutiful scenery. My race could have gone better, but after taking a month and a half off due to injury (and getting engaged), and a less than 100% race day, I still feel like I got my full IM experience.

TIMEX athlete Tim Hola stopped by the TIMEX booth in Kona

2013-05-27T07:01:00.003-07:00

TIMEX athlete Tim Hola stopped by the TIMEX booth in Kona

#IAMARUNNER

2013-05-27T07:01:00.001-07:00

#IAMARUNNER

A New Foam Roller Front Plank Move for Triathletes

2013-05-23T07:14:00.001-07:00

Courtesy of Timex
A New Foam Roller Front Plank Move for Triathletes

Scotiabank Half-Marathon 2013

2013-05-22T19:29:00.001-07:00

You never really know what you're going to get on race day. Train all winter in the cold for an early-season race, and you'll probably end up with race day hitting record high. You can end up with races in extreme heat, pouring rain, bitter wind, and everything in between. Fortunately, as I toed the starting line at last weekend's Scotiabank Montreal 1/2 Marathon, I didn't have to worry about the weather. Though the weeks before had been strangely cold with a full-blown snowstorm hitting Montreal 2 weeks earlier, race day was perfect. It was about 20c, but with a gentle cool wind. Not enough to make it harder to run, just enough to take the edge off of the sun.

The Scotiabank Half is an annual race held in Montreal that includes a 1k, 5k, 10k, and half marathon distances. The start and ending point for all distances are about the same, with everyone running in/out of Parc Jean Drapeau. Near the start are sponsors tents, washrooms, and lockers available for rent. While it was nice to have everything in one place, I found it also created some confusion. This is because there were different start times for different race distances. By the time I got to the general preperation area for my 10AM (I got to sleep in) race start, other runners were already finished or finishing. I was thoroughly confuse about where the race begin and end were. As a past Team in Training participant and coach, I found my way to their tent, met up with some friends, and we all found our way to the race start.

This summer, I'm doing a few of my races as part of "Team Dozer", a small split-off of Team in Training alumni who keep racing and raising funds for the Leukemia & Lymphoma Society of Canada. So at 10AM, we Dozers were lined up in our respective corrals, wearing bright yellow team jerseys. My goal time as prescribed by my coach was to run a 1:40. The thing that scared me the most is that i was really just barely recovered from a nasty cold that had been troubling me for a few days. That Friday night, I went to sleep early and logged an impressive 11 hours of sleep. I was hoping that getting enough rest would help me hit my target time. For the first 10k or so, I was actually keeping close to on pace to hit this goal, but I was realizing that I was working too hard to maintain that pace and soon had to slow down. I ran a few kilometers with my past coach Sacha, but ended up telling him to run ahead since it was clear that he could hold the faster pace better than I could.

The course did a couple long loops over Ile St. Helene and the Circuits Gilles Villeneuve, also passing by the olympic basic. It was at this point, around the 15 or 16 km marker that I began to really fade, and even had to resort to walking a bit. The last few kilometers were becoming painfully exhausting, but I tried to run as much as I could. Ultimately, despite some walking and slowdowns, I finished with a new PR of 1:47:42 , beating my Lake Placid Half marathon record by about 2 minutes! I know I could have paced better, but I still know that the methodology of my training helped me hit a PR, and am happy to see solid results, despite recovering from a cold!

Thanks for reading, and keep tri-ing!

Racing in Paradise

2013-05-22T07:04:00.001-07:00

Oh man I wish - Timex
Racing in Paradise

How To Ride A Triathlon Bike

2013-05-21T07:02:00.001-07:00

wish i had known this or the past year - courtesy of timex
How To Ride A Triathlon Bike

2013 Mother's Day Gift Guide

2013-05-17T07:25:00.001-07:00

2013 Mother's Day Gift Guide