Day 1 and 2 

“New does not best. I am sick of being right about everything I said.” Slipknot 

I am racing Israman. The hardest race I ever did. Training the last few months have been solid and I am stoked to just focus and crush it then next two weeks and figured it’s fun to hear what that’s like? So here is my journal of full time training. 

Day 1: 

I am Pumped, so pumped (after crushing Boston common Coffee)  so I hit the gym early to do an hour of core, light strength / Mobility work and yoga before heading to a brutal cross event. Cold and boring rain. And worse it was a cat 1/2/3/4 race so they made it long. Worse they clearly miscalculated the length of the race so the total race time was 1:06 hours. Most cross events are 40-50 minutes and so going all out for that extra 15 was great training! I didn’t finish high but I got into a battle that kept me going max out and I am grateful for the push. 

A My Spring Gel and it was off to do an easy 50 minute run after to polish off the day with a recovery bar from Pure Fit.

Day 2: was a 5k Swim LCM. Did a 3.8k (IM distance) simulation race swim with 200 all out and then 800 tempo to simulate the start. Finished in 59:30. Felt good.  I popped a My Spring Gel to keep going for another set.

Then 1000 more of drills and such to make the 5k mark. Did a nice little reckThe rest of the day is traveling to Florida to the National Training Center to get work! Love being around other motivated athletes, and having good weather after slogging it out in cross races and 200k rides in snow. 

As a lawyer Before I work, I clean my office. As I clean I touch all the files and notes, letters and papers that I need to address. Each time I touch one of them I do the task that needs to be done. This gets the ball of productive rolling and gets me focused so once my office is clean and distraction free I can tackle the bigger tasks of the day. 

The same is true for me as an athlete. As I looked forward there was a lot of clutter that needed organizing. Sponsors needed to be reached out too. Shoes ordered, bike parts, non training work obligations that I need to do and clear away so I could focus, and of course the big projects: picking a race, making a training plan, and doing the basic foundational training to get the ball rolling. That’s what the last three weeks has been for me. 

Training was focused on 3 strength sessions a week, a long base ride (built up to 5 hours) a long base run (built up to 2 hours) and swim form. After three good weeks of that, and life organized I am ready to focus on the bigger task at hand. Returning to the ironman distance this winter at Israman. 

My calendar is clear, it’s time to focus and slay this! 

After that it was off to ITU world championships in Denmark where I was representing the pro team for USA. I had the swim of my life and came out on the heals of some very good athletes. Sadly it was obvious that I spent the last two years only running and just wasn’t good enough for a world class field on the bike. OR maybe I just was having a bad day. I really don’t know. But the result was that I turned in a really bad bike. I compounded this bad bike with taking the first 10 of the 30k run way too hard and walk-ran the last 20k in disgrace. I crossed the finish line and cried because I was so disappointed in myself and my performance but it happens and after many years of racing I know it’s part of the game. 

A few weeks later and still pretty tired I lined up for the Block Island Tri. My hometown race of sorts. Again I lead out of the water but the past champ came screaming by me on the bike and again I was shocked that my bike just wasn’t there. I ran down a kid going to Kona to grab the 3rd spot on the podium out of 500 athletes so not exactly a bad day, and two out of three disciplines isn’t bad right lol???? 

Next up was the Pawling Cross series. Yep, I found some early season cycling-cross to do because I NEED to work on my biking ASAP! I had the worst start you can imagine and failed to clip in properly and was at the back of the field into the first turn. I spent the next 30 minutes making up for that mistake chasing in a nice rain fall on a muddy course when I ended up the caboose of a train of riders that were 3rd,4th,5th, and 6th. 3rd and driving the train was my teammate Kyle if C3 Racing and it was a chore to follow at his effort. Good for me, and bad for him, he rolled his tire off his rim. At some point the guy in front of me crashed and the guy in front of that guy later crashed, while I went with a My Spring Gel because if you add the warm up time I needed some calories. I think that is why I didn’t crash, and just like that I was 3rd and napped the final podium spot and a little cash. Everyone was muddy, bloody and happy, yay cross! 

The Tyathlon in Mahopac NY, was the final race of the year and it’s among the best. A supper well run, really well supported event, it has an open elite field that was nicely full with maybe 30 people and two college teams. I got a great swim start and gapped everyone but my friend Michael who hung on until I accelerated around the final turn and got a little gap on him. After that I put in 30-120 seconds on everyone else and that really was the only thing that mattered it turns out as that was the winning gap over everyone else. I road the course 1 minutes faster then two years ago and ran super hard after taking a My Spring Energy Gel to the turn around before realizing I had a 2 minute lead and could enjoy the run back to the finish line for a really enjoyable win. This race is dear to me because it’s a charity event for a friend who lost his 4 year old Ty to cancer and you can’t help but be moved when you hear the father speak about why he organizes and does this race and I saw him on the course and got to cheer for him which was very special. And by cheer I mean shout curses and encouragement for him to climb the biggest hill on the course with me 🙂 

So that’s a rap on 2018! 

I did some races this year and needed to give the quick and dirty version of how it went 🙂

After Am Zof I did a local sprint in Bridgeport CT and the Seaside Sprint. The totally closed course in a town park was great and I had the need, the need for speed. Well sadly maybe the need for speed work! This was the only short race I have done in years and it was obviously I had lost a step. I still took second over all losing out by only a few seconds to some young fast kid. 

After that it was The quassy CT classic: the Pat Griskus tri. The original race in this theme park is a classic with a brutally hard bike course. I found myself out of the water 4Th behind a trio of college and high school swimmers! Damn they know how to crush the water! Out on my Valdora bike I found my way to the front and ran away with the win…or not???? A guy in a wave behind me was smashing it and had a better chip Time! Gah! Another second place! 

After that it was Winding Trails off road tri where I lead out of the water in my fancy and fast xterra wetsuit suit!  This summer classic was HOT. Like 90 degrees. I got caught on my heavy old Mt Bike as we hit T2 (I really need an ERC carbon MT bike!) and while the run was close I did some short course tricks like surging on corners and made a 10-20 second gap on the 5k trail run and crossed the line with my first win of the year finally! Lol. 

American Zofingen is a classic. I have been racing since 1997. Of the hundreds I have raced this race is one of the top 5 of my favorites of all time! It’s epic. It’s so so so hard. It’s so hard that the “short” course has 10 miles of nothing but steep up and down hill running and the ride has exactly zero flat and two mountain passes. It’s a cult classic with a cult following of people, who like me, praise this race like the vision quest it is. I have won it a few times at a few of its distances so after my lay off from multisports it was exactly where I wanted to re-enter. Close by in New Paltz, NY, the Boulder CO of the east, it’s one of my fav towns. It’s now got a new race direct Mark Wilson and he did a flawless job both embracing the spirit of the event and also delivering perfect execution of the event. 

The first run saw me roll to the front and within a half mile I decided to go “Pre” aka Prefontane: hammer and make everyone hurt and whoever is left standing wins. My first run leg saw me enter T1 with a nice lead and I dropped the hammer the bike straight away to build in the gap through the dirt access road (got mad cross skills yo) and also sold out on completely on the first climb thinking I would recover on the downhill. 

Sadly I picked the wrong front wheel and it was too deep of a rim (88mm) so on the downhills I couldn’t really let loose do to wind induced “death wobble”.  Dumb move by me and second place caught me. As we got done with the bike I launched an attack into t2 hoping to drive the gap on the dirt again. Again it worked. 

But as we left T2 I felt something was reallllly off. My legs were smoked. I successfully blew up the front of the race but it was a bit of a suicide mission it seemed. I got passed about a mile or two in. But me and the new first place ran I he pulled up and screamed “cramps.” I passed him. We were like two boxers in the 15th round on dead legs hobbling around! He recovered and repassed me with two miles to go or so and the world was spinning. 3rd place came by me like I was standing still (because I was totally smashed and barely moving) and I dragged my sorry ass in for the last spot on the podium. 

It felt great to be out there. To go hard for as long as I did. A good first race back, now I just need to build a bit more fitness but I know it’s coming.

“Know suffering.” – the first noble truth of Buddhism. 

I took 12 months of of cycling to focus on OCR and so when I came back I was excited to ride again. I did some early season training and got myself ready for Strong Like Bull, my cycling focused training camp in Spain. I got stronger daily until I could keep up with Continental pro Adam Carr for 10k while he was working kinda hard (let’s be real he could attack and drop me any time). I also crushed a few local climbs in Spain in the final days and felt ready to race again. 

Race 1:

It’s been two years since I did road cycling and my first race reminded me that road cycling isn’t for the faint of heart. I jumped into the Prospect Park series: a lovely and reasonably long event at about 40 miles with a good climb every 3.3 miles. I worked hard but was neither a factor at the front or in danger of going off the back. Mostly I got in some good riding with nice efforts and knocked the rust off. 

Race 2 and 3 Coxsackie. 

Pronounced Cock-sack-e it’s the butt of a lot of jokes. Like “Coxsackie is long and hard.” “When it’s cold out Coxsackie shrinks.” Etc etc etc. but what it really is is a long hard day with brutal cross winds, cold biting weather and a sick hard field and at 50 miles long a legit road race in first week of April. I did the 3/4 race and the 3s that show up to this tend to me the most dedicated types since it’s not near anything but close enough to draw from everywhere in the north east. The first week the field was surprisingly small and I got off the front a few times but only once had anyone else interested in joining me and we didn’t last long. With the small field you didn’t get much time to recover and attacking and getting caught often meant hanging on for dear life when the counter attacks came and your chasing single file totally blown from your own attack! In the end the race finished in a field sprint while I put my hat in the ring for only to totally botch it in a display that was totally pathetic missing the right wheels, right line and being totally shamed by finishing deep down the results table. 

The second race was totally different. While the first was 40 degrees and winter, the second was warm and pleasant and the field was big. The wind was still strong and you got the sense that it was just a matter of time until wheels touched and body’s hit the floor. Sadly I was behind the crash when it came 1/2 way into the race and ended up showing off my cyclo-cross skills riding in the dirt but paused too long before riding hard again and got dropped by the field. A group of 5 guys were super motivated so we chased and road insanely hard for the second half. This proved to be a sick workout! 50 miles of hard effort and I went home satisfied. 

Race 4: the return to Brooklyn 

We went around and around. I tried to get off the front and so did others but it was kinda negative racing and ended in a field sprint after 40 miles of effort. For racing in a park in nyc, it’s shockingly safe feeling. At least I felt like I was making progress and attacking even if it was feeble. 

Race 5: Tour of the Battenkill

Everyone there was curious how this would go. It’s not a traditional USA-Cycling style race for the first time this year and had a mass of 700 people. But it was scored like a scratch race, with winners and such all based on who gets to the finish line first. It was a lot like a running race: you had people at the front racing; people in the middle kind of racing themselves and a lot of people testing themselves against the course but taking their time to finish. I loved the old Battenkill and when I found out my buddy/teammate was going, I was in. 

The front of the race was like any other race I do. Early attacks, teammates working together to chase, etc etc. 

If you don’t know Battenkill it’s brutal. A mix of road and dirt road with insane climbs and a lot of steep stuff and some 17% sections that break the field over its knee. This race played out just like the prior ones did, the first brutal climbs came and it was like a bomb went off in the field and groups of riders were scattered all over the road. I ended up in a group of 5 most of the way in about 20th place over all. We crushed each other with effort and the next 2-3 hours was spent near LT until a pack of 10 more caught us on at mile 70 with 5 miles to go and 1 nice dirt climb left. I attacked the final climb and 9 of us came into the finish together and I ended up 26th but most importantly I had spent 4 hours totally on the rivet and really happy for that level of a workout.  

Race: 6 NJ Fair Ground Crit 

This is my favorite crit ever and I have done it before. Fast but interesting with a nice climb but only 1 true crit like corner so it feels a lot like a circuit race not an urban crit thank the gods.  The 1/2/3 race was fast but very dynamic. The biggest difference between 1/2/3 and 4/5 is the style of racing. It’s smart and aggressive not just 70 guys chasing down everything and everything. Well That and no one whines/complains (dude if you have to whine about others riding 1) upgrade or 2) go to the front. Somehow you got enough air to sit at the back and run your mouth so I suspect you could work harder bro). The race was endless attacking. Literally every 30-90 seconds. As soon as we caught a break another or two we launched. The teams were organized and if a break left a team out that team chased while others blocked or at least sat in. I got into a few breaks and tried to go with almost every one of them until I realized I was cooking myself. One break got a big gap and I was sure they would stay away as they were but with 5k to go the team not represented put in a monster effort and me and a few others helped and with 500m to go we caught them. It was wild. A sprinter from the break took the finale and that felt just and proper. 

Bomb A$$ Ital stew (Rasta stew)

Heat some garlic and onions at the bottom of a pot with a touch of oil. Add coconut milk (I go with light bc it’s more low cal and I can’t taste a real difference).

Add in chopped yucca, string beans, carrots, and other veggies. If you don’t come across yucca in your life you are likely racist/classist and finding yucca will be an eye opening experience as to why building boarder walls is stupid. Cook on low until dope. Add kale before it too late.

Season with a ton of pepper and hot sauce and salt to taste. Adding a touch of curry can be fun.

Serve over red beans and rice.

EVERYDAY IS HALLOWEEN POT PIE

Buy two vegan pie crusts bc an’t nobody got time to make that.

In a sauce pan rock some garlic and onions. Add veggie broth. Add string beans, carrots, peas, cubed potatoes and what not and cook that until rad. then using flour sprinkle it like Magic fairy dust until it’s exactly as thick as it should be. Add salt and more pepper than is sane and then pour that gloop into the pie crust and put the other on top. Making it an anarchy or pentagram top is strongly encouraged but not by capitalists. Bake that at like 350f and About 30-45 minutes later your good.

Serve with vaccines for kids.

Spain travel guild

Over the years people have come to SLB and wanted to travel around. Maybe they have a friend or partner meet up with them, or maybe they just want to extend the trip without spending it on a bike. I have taken a vacation after most years and here is what so here is what I have done and what I suggest.

The easiest thing to do is leave your bike at the camp and rent a car and drive around. Antequera where we are based out of is the cortison De Andalucia (the heart of Andalusia. It’s dead center between Sevilla, cordoba, Granada and Malaga. Each of those cities is worth seeing.)

Seville is the capital of Andalusia and super romantic. The canal at sunset is sublime. The gardens are Dorn from Game of Thrones and worth visiting even if you aren’t a fan. There is an iconic tower attached to the Cathedral and is also amazing and the views wonderful. Sevilla also haves the best food I have found. I strongly suggest Casa Paco, El Palagar and Bar Eslava for some of the best authentic tapas style food.

Córdoba is smaller but historically no less important. Home to the first university it’s why western society didn’t lose all knowledge during the dark ages. It’s home to the Moscita one of the cooler bits of architecture from the Moorish empire that ruled here. It’s old thick ancient walls are pretty dope too.

Granada is my favorite place on earth and pure magic. The Alhambra is a world heritage site and full of history. The Albazin, a famous old neighborhood is one of the best places to rent a hotel room and walking the old narrow streets and will make you fall in love. It’s happened to me thrice. The Moorish baths called the Hammon is also blissful and relaxing and totally zen. The food is amazing as is the punk-metal scene at the club El Tran.

Sevilla and Granada are also home to flamenco and for sure check out a show if your in the area.

Malaga is the most diverse city and perhaps the least Spanish. But with beaches and such it’s popular and fun. Famous for legit night life you can get your party on. But it’s also home to Pablo Picasso’s house and museum and other cool historical stuff. It also is home to a top tier soccer program for those looking to take in a match which is great fun.

Gilbrator is also close by and you can go get poop thrown at you by monkeys and also bump shoulders with Brits. You can also pass into Africa there via ferry but I suggest you plan more than a day trip as the better cities in Morocco are deeper inside the country.

Rhoda is a smaller town but amazingly pretty; as it’s a two mountain top city with a famous bridge that spans the two peaks. It’s a very cool stop over for sure.

For those looking to go a bit father away I love Barcelona and Madrid. Madrid can be done as a layover as many airlines fly through there. As the capital it is a Spain it’s a major city and the Prado is one of the worlds best museums. The Goya collection will slay you. Barcelona is one of the worlds foremost centers for art, music and culture in the world and worth a trip. This vibrant City will have you up all night. I strongly suggest the classic guitar show held in the old nunnery.

Those looking to hit other countries can fly through Dublin, London, Paris and Portugal. You can find info on London and Paris anywhere but Dublin and Ireland are less traveled and dope. That time of year is 50s and mild so the improvement in weather is nice. Ireland had the friendliest people anywhere and they speak English, kinda. I would plan 2-3 days in Dublin and check out Battle Of the Axe comedy show, the Rose metal bar down the street and Viking museum and of course every pub you can with local music and grub. Also if you have time hit the road and check out the west or north or both. I went surfing in Dunagal and it was rustic and wild. The North has all the Game of Thrones spots you could ever hope to see but also it’s just great to be in the middle of nowhere staring out at the sea. Read the Book of Kells before you go.

SLB athletes loved flying into Lisbon and driving to SLB. A progressive city it’s full of art, culture, and it’s own amazing history and located a days drive away.

so come to SLB and reg here: https://www.bikereg.com/slb2019 but feel free to bring others for a great recovery week or vacation before.

“Spanish Songs of Andalusia…I am flying in tonight.” – The Clash

First and foremost, reg for next years SLB is open! Www.bikereg.com/Slb2019 ! Join us! 8 days per camp and only 1085 if you sign up now! Check out our Facebook and Instra #slb2018 to see all the great photos from this year! It’s a great community, great people and a great experience all for super cheap (1/3 the price of other camps like it). We have a certified health food chef, pro photographer, two pros-coaches a good wrench and all the sun, mountains and pain, errrr training, you could ask for!

As for this blog post: today was dia de rapido. My training goals at the start was simple. Train enough to train. Since moving to Spartan racing I had ridden a bike only a handful of times in the last 14 months. So I simply needed “tits” aka time-in-the-saddle as they call it (I don’t call it thay bc it’s vulgar). So my goal for the camp was to just ride and ride and ride. Which is exactly what we do here. But after doing a 100 mile ride with 7000 feet of climbing I felt good about my tits; that sounded wrong but you get it. It’s nice to have good tits?

So now it’s time for some intensity and for that I mixed in some super hard work and tried to drill a few parts of rides, basically intervals within longer rides and one ride where I “only” road for 2 hours but Did two brutal efforts. One flat to mimic the course I hope to focus on and the other a steady climb because I love it: Cuesta Del Romeral which is a lovely 5% and 4k long (1000 feet). Both were done at above LT effort and hurt like a mofo Hahahah. Crushed a honey Burst Energy Gel half way up which helped. Also had A Pure Fit bar as recovery so I could hike El Torcal and hang with some wild mountain goats.

my near future: hard work to get my cycling back on par. I will likely be jumping into some longer road races at Coxsackie too. Feels good to be able to do hard work! Feels great to be a cyclist again.