“whatever happened to a good old fashion ass kicking?” Eminem

This weekend was the www.citytri.com Mothers Day Du. Held in Brooklyn NY its a fantastically run local event. Pre-race was cool because as I got to chit-chat with a bunch of fast folks i know and me and Christine joked that this was the most stacked field ever. NYC has a ton of duathlons and a real Du scene, with a lot of Duathlete specialists and some sick locals that can rock tris too. Add them all together and you get a lot of fast people in a race.

The gun went off and pro Greg Close dropped everyone in the first 100m. I checked my watch as we went through the first mile. I was getting dropped by 4 guys as we ran uphill and 5:30 for the mile. I normally would be really bummed about getting crushed by so many people but honestly, as I ran a 17:30 for the first of the two 5ks I could hardly complain about my fitness. That’s damn fast but not fast enough to keep contact with the leaders.

Out on the bike it was more of the same: me not winning. The second run was not competitive as I wasn’t going to catch anyone or get caught.

I had good splits and good fitness but Brooklyn is ” New Boulder” and all I could do was shake my head at how many great multisport athletes there where at the race. In a city of 8 million, finding 5 guys that can beat me doesn’t make me feel awful but it’s the first time I can recall not being on a podium in a long time. But that says as much about the strong local tri scene as it does about me. In the last two duathlons I raced in the city the best the defending champs could do was 4th. Thats a pretty impressive rise in local competition. The sport continues to evolve; and like all competitions in nature; you evolve too or you go extinct.

Huge congrats to City Tri for another fine event and for bringing out so much local talent.

Foto: Christine rocking first place in her Age Group

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“I asked him where are you going and he said down to Yasgur’s farm” Crosby Stills Nash & Young.

This weekend was the first Tri of the season; the Woodstock Tri Fest. True to the place and the history made in Bethel NY in the summer of love, 1969 the event gave out tie-dye race shirts and played Hendrix’s version of the National anthem, which if I ever come to power will become the official version and played at every sporting event in our great county.

Unlike the hippie forerunner we had no rain and perfect weather that showcased this now amazing art center. After eating an Amrita bar, my bew pre-race meal, I went down to the lovely lake. The water was cool and crisp but not too cold. I skipped a warm up as I had had great results with a dry swim warm up to avoid getting cold afterwards. But as I hit the water I quickly moved into first and then second when division I former LaSalle swimmer and life saving Aussie competing fish-man took the lead. At that point my chest seized. I have asthma but rarely do I have a full on attack. The only other time was WildFlower in 2009. My first though was “he is getting away!” my second thought was “oh and I gonna die.” I flipped onto my back and focused on breathing out and pushing out the air. But the issue with being off the front is everyone is coming at you like a giant farm reaper made of arms and swimmers not looking to run Into a stationary guy just floating. I flipped back over and swam easy to just not die. In a few minutes my lungs were back to normal and it was “game on.”

Out of the water in 22:30 and after a bit of a run to my bike it was off for the best part of the race for me. I moved into 3rd early on and was riding well. The smooth empty roads and 2000 feet of climbing made for a great course. At 28 miles it’s a bit long so athletes doing the half ironman can do two loops. If there was one positive take away it was my riding was strong. Also my new TT bike, the Valdora phx2 is sick good. A compact frame it climbs and descends like a dream. Lighter bc it’s smaller And easier to handle for the same reason I can honestly say there is no bike I would want more, and at 16 pounds built with Evil Racing Cult wheels its a sick ride.

Out on the run the top 4 were all within maybe a minute or two and you could see everyone as we dis a stunning cross country style first mile or two running of the farmland that once had naked hippies rolling in mud high on LSD. 11k isn’t a lot of time to pull people back and Worse, the winner, Timothy Felegie wasn’t coming back to me, he was walking away. A short course stud eying a pro card he was on his way to a clear win and with 3k to go I knew I wasn’t gonna catch 2nd place either. With 4 races in 16 days I didn’t bury myself and I strolled it in and just kept a watchful eye on 4th to make sure I didn’t slip off the podium though the hills on the run made sure nothing was every easy.

It was my first Olympic in like 5 years and a total blast! Great speed work for my ultimate goal of Ironman Lake Placid.

Now it is Quick turn around to the www.citytri.com Mothers Day Tri Sunday in prospect park. Hope you come out and race!

[note: I wrote this in the middle of a 16 day training bloc. I had night courts stacked up, training to do, a huge trial looming and all the other coaching, sponsorship and part-time law stuff to do plus some inter-personal stressors. I was feeling pushed around, and pushed down. This was my response, written en route to a race I won. Since writing this I trained awesome and won a second race and had my best Battlekill Bike race. I also lost weight, and rocked all my jobs. It wasn't easy. It wasn't fun. It was a massive fight. But sometimes a massive fight is better than getting Your ass kicked.]

“did you give all you had to give or did you give conservative.” – Pennywise

I have a real issue with authority. I have a real issue with control. I hate bullies and injustice. When life comes pushing, I prefer to shove back. Lately life has been pushing me around. In the past I accepted it. I took overtime shifts, extra work, and other of life’s knocks and let it change things. Let it change what I ate, I what did for training, how I felt.

But here is what I found. I can shove back And taking control of what’s in my control has changed everything
Inside my head. So while I am working 3 extra night court shifts this week I am not getting off my nutritional plan. I am not skipping all my training (some modifications need to be made so I don’t die).

It’s easy to say “I had to work until 1am” so I have to eat pizza. No. I don’t. It’s easy to say: I didn’t sleep. I am eating a pile of sugar (soda, candy, pie). No. I don’t. It’s easy to say: I am working so much I can’t do all my training so I am not doing any of it. My new rule for myself is if I have time to get down on myself I have time to go running. Try getting down on yourself during a run, it’s hard because your winning the battle at that moment. Maybe I only get in a 40 minute run. Guess what, that’s way better than nothing.

instead Of getting down and frustrated I am getting plain old mofo pissed and that anger and rage is a 1000 fires that burn brighter than the darkness of the world that would pull you down. Shoving back feels amazing.

I may win this fight. I may lose it. But I know this. It feels good to pick the fight. It feels good to stop complaining and seeing it as all beyond on my control. It feels good to shove back.

Battenkillers

“And what do I get all for all my pain? Betrayed desired; and a peice of the game.” smashing pumpkins

If your a pro roadie the best and worst day of your life is Paris-Rubiux. If your an American racer it might be The Tour of Battenkill. Swapping the famed cobble stones for the historic and iconic red bridge and dirt roads the American version touches on the same themes: make it epic, brutal and awesome. If you build it hard, they will come, and Tour of the Battenkill is the largest bike race in the USA. While triathlete flock to easier ironmans like Floriduh bike racers full this event. Triathletes should learn something here.

I made the mistake of signing up for the Masters 35+ field. Based on age not ranking it allowed a lot of 35+ pros, former pros and top category road cyclist a way to grab some glory rather than race in their normal field.

The days leading up had been cold and rainy. Reports from those on site was that the dirt roads were mud and that the whole event just went to 11.

At the start I made my way from CREW teammates house in VT (thanks Augie!!!!) to the start. There was 4 inches of fresh snow. Yikes. The snow was rain and had stopped at Battenkill, but it was below 40 as we rolled out. The first 20k of the 105k are easy, rolling and generally chill as people know this is a long day. Unless people attack. So at the 2k mark people start attacking. Game on. I was nicely in the top 10 and worked to stay there. As we came under the bridge I was 4th which leads to the first climb. Get stuck in the back and your race is over on the first climb as a huge selection of the field gets dropped here. I made it over comfortably despite a suicidal attack by two guys who went off the front. The top men in the field just picked up the pace and reached out and grabbed the would be escape artists but the chase hurt a lot of guys. The second major climb is a huge selector and we normally lose 1/2 the field or more here. Make it over this one and your good for a while. I sold out on the climb and was near the front when we came over the hill only to have our race stopped. Turns out in the field ahead of us had two comrades who were getting loaded into ambulances.

From 20k maybe to 40k it was up and down, road and dirt. Attacks, chases, counter attacks and just a lot of general pain. I kept myself in the top 20 as I like the cleaner lines through the dirt roads. At 50k we hit a long long long dirt climb and I slide from the front to the back which happened in a moment as the back of the field was mostly gone from the early efforts. Me and two others chased like freaks and I totally sold out for 5-10 minutes to chase back on. Safely in the now field of 40 riders or so out of the 90 registered, I did my best to recovery but the next climb was where my time with the pointy end of the race would come to an end. ( see photo).

A group of 25 went on ahead dropping 10 of us who regrouped and chased. But 10 second grew to 20 to 3 minutes and then all we could do was work hard to catch as many of the men who would pop between now and the finish. Lucky for me my training buddy from my 2003 Kona and team Timex stud Chris Thomas was in my group and since he is a sub 5 hour bike split Kona guy I knew we could make the next part hurt; and good training.

Bike racing is about intervals. The group goes ape for 3-5 minutes on a hard section or during an attack but between that its an easy ride drafting and sitting in. These attacks are great training but not something a triathlete trains for. The 3-5 men who wanted to work in my group made it more steady and we took turns pulling and rotating through. These steady-state but hard work efforts suits triathletes and myself and with 10k to go I had come around.

We were coming up on 3 hours as well and the longer the better for ironmen. The last climb is at the 10k to go and I attacked dropping all but 1 other guy. A group of racers from another field came by us having caught us because of our stop for the ambulances earlier and mixed in was one of the riders from my race who got dropped behind my group of 8. That’s cheating and lame but whatever. Me and the other rider from my group road hard and sprinted at the line but he got the better of me and took 27th, I got 28th. My highest finish here.

I also got to go for a run in the snow later that day. Oh triathlon, you make everything just a little harder.

“the last shall be first.” The Bible.

As years tick by small training races become there own classics. The 3 weekends of Coxsakie has enough history to me to feel that way. It’s silly hard for the time of year with races of 50-60 miles in March. It’s so stupid it’s brilliant. The people have answered the call and unlike running and Tri were the easy races fill first, Coxsackie stands for the proposition that if you make something insane, they will come. In fact it sold out most fields most weeks even though it’s double the length of everything else, held in the middle of nowhere and close to no-one. Oh and it’s 20-40 degrees and windy. There is no podium, production or even sponsors. Just pure pain. Come get some!!!

I had skipped weeks 1 and 2 to race elsewhere this year but wanted to make at least one installment. Also my coach and Grant were in my field and Christine got to line up and race too (in a different field) . The 100 person or so field was cut in 1/3 200m into the race when the peloton went around a turn and the attacks began. For 5-10k it was 30+ mph average then we hit more hills and more people got to spend some quality time with their own thoughts after getting dropped. But since most people get cracked off at some point groups form and work to make the day hard and you can get in a full 2+ hour group effort if you want and the riding is very good.(unless you break your shifter like my homeboy Grant did.)

I race dumb but it makes for a lot of extra work which is good for training purposes. I did a lot of work at the front and tried to attack and bridge to attacks. I also tried to learn a few things by following my coach Jim Ortel around the field. He is a bike racer first and his mastery of the million little things that make for smart bike racing was awesome to study. I didn’t follow him when he attacked off the front up the climbs but that wasn’t by choice.

By mile 45 I was nicely worked and with 3k to go some people were dangerous as they tried to keep up, others were taking risks to win. I just wanted to win by keeping upright and I wanted no part of either the dangerous nor the brave so I rolled off the back and left the sprint to the sprinters.

My reward for my hard work was an Amrita recovery bar and a trip to the pool for 3k. I Meet a fast young man at the pool so we did a nice set of hard IM which always makes me feel like I worked. We even did a “good job” cheer afterwards. Then it was out to dinner with Christine and an early trip to the top of MT Harlem the 9000 foot like altitude tent. (which you can rent from me for 200 a month if I am not using it.)

The early bed time was because the next day was race day too! It was the Wild Cat 5 miler for me and half marathon for Christine. We meet up with Annie from SLB/CREW fame and During the warm up And 30-40 minute pre race run i felt every bad idea I had in the bike race 20 hours prior.

I wasn’t sure if bad to back racing was possible but I had 2 Red Bulls and was good to go. Wiings!!!!!

But when the race started my legs felt amazing from the RED BULL and I quickly jumped out to a lead as I bounded down the wAsh out course like a gummy bear. Sadly I missed a turn and like a drunk band leader sent the top 6 off on an adventure. After scaling a cliff people realized I had no idea where I was going. But just like your husband I refused to stop an ask direction, in fact I just went faster! Finally we turned around and I went from first to last. This would give me a chance to do a few things 1) work harder 2) re-pass an entire field, something I have never done and 3) run 6-8 miles something I wanted to do as I felt the 5 miles was a bit shorter than I wanted. Really this was all good I thought.

I went crazy to try to make my up to the front. It was fun and I was running recklessly jumping off rocks, down trees, and other peoples skulls (ok maybe not skulls). By the time I couldn’t see anyone else down the trail I was happy as I felt really worked and the frantic running had left me cooked. Being cooked and staring at the start of a 1 mile steep climb is an interesting combination of dread and regret. But I made my way up and up and then down and down until I crossed the line.

“did I win?!?” I asked. “yes.” I was told. Cool. Das (that german for the) Winner gets free entry and I wanna keep doing these races.

Again I treated myself to an Amrita bar but not the recovery one just yet as I had another run to do to make this my long run. I also had a gym session and swim and had to hustle to get them done by 4 because I was working the 5pm to 1 am shift at my part time law job. I switched into the shift to make room for May and June when all this training and racing goes to 11.

I missed Woodstock in the 60s. I missed the alternative music Woodstock too. But since my grandmother is having a birthday on 5/5/13 and turning 90 I needed to find a race on 5/4 so I am doing the Woodstock Tri!

Come race with me and use the code JH2013 to get 10 bucks off!

It’s a fantastically pretty area and 90 minutes from NYC! Hit me if you wanna carpool.

“i walk empty streets…while the city sleeps.” -Green Day

With both Passover and the Christian Holy week this was a great week to make myself gone from the office to train.

Monday was a recovery day from the 90+ mile run week I had just finished up. I did work at the office that day but after that it was off to the Russian Baths. This was a bucket list thing to do with Christine for a long time. The hot and cold contrast baths, massage and sound thrashing I got via Victor and his oak leaves made me feel anew and relaxed unlike anything I can explain. It’s old school, like 3000 years ago type of health and recovery, but a wild and fun experience and one my dad did back when this was his city.

Tuesday I swam then headed into NJ for a bike race. I need the all out efforts of bike racing and the primal fear of getting dropped to really find those brutal efforts. I made a bunch of mistakes and in a pro/1/2/3 road cycling event I don’t have a ton of talent to waste so I spent a lot of the race suffering and getting in a few attacks but nothing that amounted to anything other than my own suffering which is kinda the point I guess.

Wednesday was a swim then a trip to RI for the www.www.blockislandsport.com.com camp. We did 3.5 hours with all the hills we could find then a brick run at tempo. It was awesome to hang out with my coach, his teammate Ned a strong cat 3 roadie, Christine and www.frayedlaces.com was there making it a happening.

Thursday was a nice swim at Brown U which has a sick pool. I also got in a lovely run at my college Connecticut College with the group plus Brooke the daughter/runner of my coach who got admitted there. I have mad Camel pride and remembering the times spend there was a great way to spend a run. I also hit the weight pile to deaden my legs for all my other workouts in case this all seemed too easy. Or because strength training for athletes over 35 is critical, one or the other.

Friday was a century ride with all the hills. Lil Miss Laces had good form and rode impressively as did my coach Jim Ortel who is on great form for a few choice road cycling events that are coming up. Christine and I had a typical day for this kind of training, we didn’t come around until 100k in but after that we road strong to the 100 mile mark.

Saturday was another race day with a trail 10k or half marathon. Christine, And The Frayed One were pretty cooked and I oped for the 10k wanting more speed work while the other two entered the 1/2. I took the lead out hard but was red-lining it and had no strength given the last 15 days of training. 5 guys sat right behind me and frothed to pass me but at the turn that separated the 13.1 from the 10k I found all the local big guns were doing the 13.1 including Sport Shop teammate Steve Brightman who is normally a force at any race and an odds on favorite to beat me most days (I did nip him by 7 and 1 second twice but since then he has beaten me like a rented mule in each race winning by minutes over me. I was VERY happy he was in the 13.1! I kept the tempo legit but this race was over 5k in which was good because I took the first 5k like it was a 5k not a 10k! I even had a 5:30 mile in there which in trails is wicked hard. my over all time was 39 minutes but that reflects a few wrong turns that we’re my fault as this race was well marked. I honestly didn’t think I had a race in me but 2 Red Bulls had me good to go. Wiings!!!!!

After the race I ran another 80 minutes for a total of 2 hours so it also doubled as a long run.

I went back to my sister’s Kate Hirsch, who is the most bad ass personal trainer ever and she had a circuit strength training session set up for me and the camp. That hurt. You can do her boot camp functional strength work group too: her info is at www.endresultri.com I attempted a second run later but my heel was PISSED so it didn’t last very long.

Sunday was the last day of this training block and Easter so had to motivate hard to get it all in and early. I ran at dawn and it was 27 degrees out on the NH border where we had transferred to Saturday for the holiday. I got lost and got in a bit of bonus fitness for a 75 minute run. Heel was happier which was nice. A quick bit to eat and me and Christine hit the bikes still before the spring air had a chance to shine bright like a diamond. I did a fav workout 4 x (2 minutes over-big gear/ 3 minutes hard tempo/ 2 minutes big gear/ 3 minutes easy recovery)

The last workout was a good 4k swim. I maybe doubled up on the Red Bulls for this one, but with no break from run-bike-swim I needed the extra…wiings. The workout was short court meters and looks like this: 1500 w/u build to tempo. 100 kick. 4×50 drill/50swim. 4 x (100 fast, 100ez, 100IM, 100mid, 100 kick.) perfect for the ADHD athlete like me

Huge thanks to Block Island Sport Shop for hosting! Also thanks to Amrita bars for making sure on this road trip I didn’t eat junk! Also I road my new Valdora TT frame for all but the road race and it was SWEET! Also much love to Champion System for providing clothing from 27-67 degrees and making sure I was comfy all the time. Also thanks to Red Bull for being Red Bull.

Photo: My modeling debut. I liked it way way way too much! Thanks to Amrita for the gig and Scott Ettin for being so skilled behind the lens!

For the last two years I really haven’t put in a true run focus at any time. My ironman bike split has never been a true strength so I have been putting efforts there. But over time my run slipped a bit and with a week full of a brutal combo of work and bad winter weather the best bang for my buck was a run focus. Since I haven’t been at it that long this year I decided the runs I needed should focus on volume and base to help lean me out, and build the solid foundation of base and mileage before I move to more dynamic running. I figured 100k was a nice start….then I got carried away.

Day1: two hour run to make sure I had my starting point for a long run. Also did 90 minutes of cycling as a commute. First 45 min to the office was zone zero. True recovery. Way home was a nice base effort. Also hit the pool at lunch.

Day 2: 1 hour run with a lift right after then a ride to worked to spin the legs out. Match is a big lifting month for me and I went heavy and legs were crushed from this effort. Missed my lunch swim because of work. Grrrr. Still got in 3 sessions. I assure all te age- groupers out there, I can totally relate when you tell me work “lifed” you. (lifed= life screw over your training.)

Day 3: 1.25 hour run. Legs wrecked from the lifting. 45 minute base/zone 2 ride. Great swim and felt strong in the pool for the first time this year.

Day 4: run 1 hour in morning with extra hills. Skipped swim because I thought I was getting sick but it was only allergies! Damn you mother nature! Did a second 45 minute run and just feel awful. Nearly crawling because of the combo of the DOM legs still from lifting, the prior run and allergies.

Day 5: 90 minute run. Legs feeling surprisingly snappy. This is where I realize I could make this a HUGE week. No real bad type of pain and starting to feel strong run economy. Scale shows I dropped a pound or two and things are looking up. Another strong lunch swim too. Plus 45 minutes two and from work for some extra volume plus spinning the legs out is always smart.

Day 6: run 90 minutes in AM. Feel exhausted and starting to come undone. 60 minutes PM run and felt way stronger. Weird. My reward for coming around is getting to play super model and do a photo shoot for Amrita bars. So fun! I am such a ham!

Day 7. Smashed. Couldn’t sleep and grumpy. My body is at its breaking point. But one big day and I hit 150k and that’s pretty awesome. Fuel with two Amrita Bars before and one during and hit 2.5 hours with a ton of climbing. Even drove out to the Palisades to run some place new! Mentally needed that and the trails there are outstanding. Passed a bunch of ultra runners who likely ran out of the city. Cool stuff! Skipped gym session and just dented my sofa. This was a BIG stretch for me and I am stoked I did it. It’s snowing now and I think I really made the most of a tough week life wise. Huge ups to Christine for hitting nearly the same amount.

Foto: one of several ice baths. I did a few tricks to survive this. 1) rotated shoes to keep them fresh 2) ice bath 3) slept as much as I could 4) did most of my runs on soft surfaces 5) mixed up where I ran hitting 4 different parks and doing different routes.

“This time I will try, for the first time in my life. Let’s start today.” -gorilla biscuits

The defacto start of the multi sport season is www.citytri.com ‘s Prospect Park Duathlon. A fund raiser for the park and a great event it is a chance for people to race outside for the first time of the year. With 3 different distances 2/10/2 3.1/14/3.1 and 6.2/24/3.1 you can do everything from sprit to “international” which is might long! Last year I did the longest of the events and loved it but with a booth at the Tri Mania expo to staff I opted for the classic middle distance which was a nice challenge and plenty long for me right now as I just for going 10 weeks ago. lucky for me I had 2 Red Bulls so I had WIINGS!!!!!

The race went off with me jumping out to an early lead. At the first turn around I had a bit of a gap but a big pack was right behind me. At the second turn I was sill leading an decided to put in a surge to see who was for real. Peter Jacobs from NYC (not the Aussie) was for real and the defending champ. He has the kind of swim that makes him good at Duathlon But this isn’t a Tri and my normal head start from the swim was spotted to me. After my surge he came around me and put the stamp on the event heading into T1. He was the champ and he wasn’t gonna go down without a fight! Peter and I are friends, training partners and he and I spent both Strong Like Bull and CREWAPALLOZA together and I know he can ride better than he runs. But as we hit T1 Jonathan from Acme Bikes in BK came up on me as well and the 3 of us entered T1 more or less within ear shot of each other with a 4th guy right behind.

T1 cost Peter and I left first but Jonathan is in great form and caught and dropped me as we hammered around the hard 3.33 mile loop. He also had another guy right begin him (like really right behind him) and they were quickly out of sight relegating me to 3rd. With 3 of the 4 laps down Peter came up on me and passed me. He had spent T1 doing his taxes, or making an omelet or something and lost a lot of time (I think he had issues because it was chilly and we all had on gloves). He entered t2 ahead but again he lost time and I left with a big lead. It’s possible he out split me in both runs and the bike and lost to me. Ouch.

I chased and chased and was really stoked with how good my legs felt on the second run but couldn’t close the gap on the 2nd or 1st and just was happy to be feeling ok for the first hard effort of the early season. At the finish i Was told I was 2nd but I later found out I was 3rd which seemed right and I secured a nice spot on the podium In a Duathlon which isn’t a sport I generally do well at, short course which isn’t my thing, and its early on in the season after starting late after a long 2012 season. Of course non of that takes anything away from the Jonathan who beat my ass badly!

I can’t say enough about this great event, the great race company and how nice it is to race a du early on. I wasn’t cold at all, and that first run really kept me warm.

Photo: best thing about a true NYC race, a real pumpernickel bagel!