It's the final countdown!

Europe definitely said it best! Two days from now I'll be at the finish line of the Mighty Hamptons olympic triathlon. In 48 hours I will hopefully have completed something I've been working towards for the past 8+ months. I've gone over this day in my head dozens of times, but I imagine it will feel like nothing I could have thought. I will be racing twice as long as I have in my short triathlon career and I'm sure there will be a huge range of emotion I will go through during the race.

I feel very prepared for the race. My training hasn't been as frequent the past few weeks, but I think that will be good because my legs will be fully rested. The two weeks leading up to the race has been very similar to past races where I've felt strong even with fewer training sessions under my belt. I've also driven the course so I know what to expect and where I need to take it easy and where to push myself. I feel very confident with my race plan, and I feel confident that if something goes wrong I will be able to react positively and move past the obstacle.

All that's left to do is stretch and hydrate as much as possible over the next two days! I'll post a race report after the race.

Rain Rain Go Away

...And don't ever come back! The weather over the past 4 days on Long Island has not been great. It's been cool and overcast since Sunday. I don't mind the cooler temperatures, in fact it's a nice break from the heat, but the rain has not helped one bit. I haven't been on my bike since last Friday! With less than 3 weeks until the race this isn't good. I've also only been in open water once this week, having to move my long swim into the pool. Doing 80 laps in the pool is not fun! The weather has also brought my spirits down and training has been a lot harder this week. This is just one of the many obstacles triathletes must face and I need to just power through it and not let it affect me. The weather should be clearing up by tomorrow and hopefully it will help raise my energy levels because I'm right in the thick of training and I can't afford to miss too many sessions.

Smith Point Race Report

Swim: My swim could not have gone any better. The swim started out in the water which made things better because it wasn't a mad sprint from the beach. I found myself at the front of the starting line because my friend Louie was there and I started getting a little nervous when I looked behind me and dozens of people were lining up. But I figured why not I'll just go hard to start and find some open water. Which is exactly what I did heading over to the right of the course so I could stay away from the pack. This was the best decision I could have made because I had nice clean water the entire swim and I only bumped into people right at the start. I swam at my pace and kept myself calm throughout the swim. Making the last turn and heading towards the swim exit I saw people getting up and walking in from 20 yards out, but I kept going right until the end and then got up to high knee out of the water. I felt great heading into transition and quickly got out of my wetsuit, into my bike shoes and headed for the bike exit.

Bike: The bike course overall was nice and flat with a slight incline going over and coming back on the bridge and a few short but steep inclines out on the course. I was able to get into a groove right away and keep a high pace. My legs felt great and my mind felt great, I knew I would be able to power through the course at high speeds. A little before the halfway point I passed Louie who had a few minutes on me. This was the same thing that happened when we raced in June and he was able to quickly catch me on the run, but I was going to do everything I could to prevent that this time.

Run: I headed into transition and was out in 40 seconds onto the 5k run course. I felt decent at the start of the run and knew I had to give my legs some time to get going. Unfortunately I left my watch at home so I wasn't too sure how fast or slow my pace was. But I hit the halfway point and Louie hadn't passed me so I knew I was keeping up a pretty good pace. I still felt strong but with a little more than a mile left Louie passed me. I headed over the bridge and down the other side prepared to turn left into the parking lot for the finish but realized the course kept going to a different entrance of the parking lot. This was a brain buster because I was ready to start picking it up for the finish line only to realize I still had a good distance left. But I pushed through and made my way to the finishing straight. With around 100 meters to go someone passed me and as I quickly glanced down at the back of his leg I saw 23 (his age) and I wasn't going to let someone from my age group pass me right at the end. I was able to somehow find a final kick in my legs and sprinted as hard as I could to pass him right before the line. (I found out right after the finish as we congratulated each other that it actually said 33 on his leg!) My run time ended up being 4:30 minutes faster than my last race which was a huge success!

In my short triathlon career, this was easily my best race. I went hard and fast throughout and didn't swim, bike, or run into any problems. Louie beat me by over 5 minutes when we raced in June and this weekend he only beat me by 42 seconds. My 5k time was 10x better than last time, and my bike and swim were solid and consistent. I can also tell there is still a lot of room for improvement for next year. Now it's time to increase my training over the next 5 weeks to prepare for my first olympic race in September!

Smith Point Triathlon: 500 meters/12.4 miles/3.1 miles

Swim: 7:21

T1: 1:19

Bike: 39:11

T2: 0:40

Run: 25:12

Total Time: 1:13:40

Race Week

This coming Sunday, August 8th, I'm racing in the Smith Point Sprint Triathlon here on Long Island. Since this race is only 5 weeks out from my 'A' race in September I've decided not to taper this week and to train through the race. My reasoning is two-fold. Smith Point is not my main focus at this point in the season and I've had a really good two weeks of training. My taper usually consists of taking the 2-3 days prior to the race off and that would have some negative effects on this training block before the olympic race in September. At the same time, I will still be racing this weekend and taking it very seriously. I've seen huge improvements in my running over the past 2 weeks and I think I can shave a few minutes off my 5k. I also have an open water race swim under my belt and I know how to handle it better now. Even though I'm training through this race, I'm also trying to be smart in my preparation for the race and I have taken down the quantity of my training to a point where it will still help for September but not hurt me for this weekend.

Race report to come...

One Year

One year ago today my life was changed by triathlon. I started training in January 2009 but my first race wasn't until August 1st; a pool-sprint triathlon with a 400m swim, 6 mile bike, and 2 mile run. While the race was short it was an amazing first experience for me and I probably learned more from that race - about triathlon and about myself - than I will from any other race for the rest of my life. I've learned so much throughout these past 12 months and I will continue to learn, but there is nothing and will never be anything like my first race. After that race I was immediately hooked on triathlon and hooked on pushing myself to levels that I didn't think I could reach. Triathlon has taught me to be more self aware, and more importantly that if I work hard enough I can do anything I want to. My hope is that someday I can return the favor and help other people see the amazing benefits triathlon can provide.

I feel the need...the need for speed!

My past two days of training were focused on speed. Last night I did a swim speed workout and today I was at the track for the first time in a while. I'm going to try and consistently add these workouts into my training between now and the end of the season. I've done speed workouts in the past but very sporadically. I feel like I'm at the point in my training where I can start to worry about speed. Since I'm mostly doing sprint races I know I have the necessary endurance for this distance, but there is room to lower my time. Even though my 'A' race, the Mighty Hamptons olympic, is 6 weeks away, and my first olympic, I think the inclusion of these workouts will help me overall.

Here's what each workout consisted of...

Swim (yards)

Warm up: 3x100 (swim/kick/pull)

Main Set: 4x400 pyramid (25/50/75/100/75/50/25) with 10 sec. RI between reps and 2-3 min RI between sets

Sprints: 10x25 with 10 sec. RI

Run (meters)

Warm up: 1x1600 @ easy pace

Main Set: 10x400 - 200 @ 8:00/pace, 200 recovery

Sprints: 10x50 (yards)

2x100 (yards)

Portland to San Francisco

This is only about 2 weeks late but I figured I should post about it. I definitely need to get my act together and get back into blogging. The last week of the trip was a catch 22. Everywhere we went was beautiful but I was starting to get a little burned out from traveling and needed a break that I didn't have time for. The highlight of the trip from Portland to San Fran was the Redwood Forests. I had seen plenty of pictures of Redwoods but it's impossible to appreciate their size unless you see them up close and personal. A huge portion of the Northern California coast is covered with Redwoods so we stopped at a handful of places to walk on the trails and see these behemoths. At one point we drove along a road called The Avenue of The Giants, a road surrounded by redwoods, and this led us to The Drive-Thru Tree, an old redwood that was cut out to fit a car through it. Even though it was a tourist trap it was still cool to drive a car through a tree. The drive through Napa Valley to San Fran was very windy and curvy, so much that I started felling sick. But once we got into the valley and drove through the wineries it was beautiful. I was reminded a lot of the four months I spent in Florence.

San Francisco was a beautiful city, and it was the first place on the west coast I really could have pictured myself living in...for the most part. It reminded me a lot of Boston and New York, just with a lot of hills! You hear about the fog in San Francisco but much like the redwoods, you need to be there to fully experience it. When the fog rolls in it covers the entire city within a matter of a few minutes. At the end of the trip on our way to the airport you could see the fog coming over the mountains into the valleys like someone was pouring it out of a pitcher. We did a lot of the touristy things around the city like going to Alcatraz, riding the cable cars, driving down Lombard Street, and eating at Fisherman's Wharf. We also headed out of the city down to the Monterrey peninsula and drove along the 17-mile Drive through Pebble Beach. After Monterrey we had dinner with our cousins at their home in Menlo Park, which seemed like a really nice suburb of the city. After being in the city for only an hour or so it's easy to see that San Fran is a very active, fit city. I imagine it's filled with triathletes who love climbing hills and swimming in cold water! I had a great time on the trip and I can't wait to go back and explore the rest of the west coast, but I was happy to be home and get back into training!