Wrapping up Good Friday with 3.8K in the pool

Full day of training yesterday: 4.4+ hours on the bike, 30min run, and 1 hour in the pool. I went to Asphalt Green in Battery Park City for 1 hour with Mariesa and Carsten. I did not have much will power to do it, but forced myself and it turned out to be a good session.

I did 3.8K yards, split as follows:
Warm-up: 700 yards total: 400 Freestyle, 100 Kick, 200 Pulls
Drills: Pyramid swim with 100F, 200F, 300F, 400F, 500F, 500 Pull, 400F, 300F, 200F, 100F
Cool down: 100F

I am exhausted, but I feel good about my training. I learned a lot today on the bike and on the run, about myself and about my limits.

Asphalt Green - Battery Park City, NYC

Day 1 of my 3-day training turned out harder than expected

Training is ramping up. Yesterday's good Friday meant an additional full day of training, a test before Lititz. 

Morning Bricks: 4 1/2 hours bike ride & 30 min tempo run

Though it was a chilly morning (34 degrees), I was very excited about riding my first 4+ hour ride of the season...outside! With IM Zurich being a hilly course, I chose a hilly road today, going through the Pallisades Park, Tweed (near Piermont, NY), and little Thor. I believe I totaled 5K+ of vertical climb, which, if my Garmin is accurate, is pretty good for a long ride.  

I took time to prepare my drinks and nutrition, and really thought that I did it right, only to realize that I forgot to add EFS to CarboPro in all 3 bottles! I was on top of my liquids intake, taking a sip 10 minutes into the ride. I thought that the taste was light, almost tasteless, but I felt good in the first 2 hours. I started to feel weaker in the 4th hour, and struggled to rally home with 10 miles to go. Not fun, but these training sessions are eye-openers, and though very difficult, they are very important. Someone twitted once: there are no failure in training, only positive feedback. I prefer messing up my nutrition on a training day, than on race day. I ended up riding with less than 150 calories/24Oz per hour, well below the 250 calories/hour I was supposed to take in. 

I got home with little energy left in the tank, and knowing that I had a 30 min tempo run was not the best. I figured that being negative about it would only make the run tougher, so I took it positively,

convinced myself to look forward to it and accept the challenge of running in an empty tank. I was determined to get it done, and not just going for the sake of putting the minutes in, but I went out with the objective of hitting my target. I ran the 30 min at a 7:17min/mile pace, not my best, but I focused on keeping my HR in my zone, and more importantly focused on my form and strides. The 30 min went faster than I anticipated, and not as bad. What the power of the brain and self-motivation, persuasion can make your body do is pretty impressive! I am glad I powered through this tough workout, and really think that it was an important one to go through. 

TRI COACH athletes rocking IM 70.3 Puerto Rico!

3rd of his age group and 27th overall, papa bear is off to a great start! What an impressive start of the season after a harsh winter where he hibernated in his garage, spending hours on his trainer focusing on his wattage. And it's paying off. 4:41 in a hilly and hot race! Congrats!

C.W Moran, who turned pro last year while working with my coach Kevin Danahy from tricoach, raced his first half ironman as a PROFESSIONAL TRIATHLETE. for his debut, he finished at an impressive 5th place and on the podium in 4:16! Way to go!

All these results make me want to race! June cannot come soon enough, though there's a lot of work to be done!

I needed that recovery week

Tired physically and mentally, I really appreciated having less to focus on my training and refill the batteries and be ready for the last 2 weeks of April, which should be exciting and intense.
Next week is Good Friday and my client is observing it, which means 3 days of training! The following week I will be taking 2 days off from work and head down to Lititz, PA, for a training camp with 3 other GCTRI members.

I am looking forward to this training camp. I did it last year and learned so much in 3 days. This year we are leaving on Wednesday night and things will get serious the following day. Swim, breakfast, bike, run, eat, sleep, repeat for 4 days, with some interval work during the long rides and runs. It should set the tone for May, and also be a good indicator of where I stand physically.

Bike Fit with Hilltop Bicycle

The weather is finally getting nicer in New York, spring is in the air, and a bike fit for this season was in order.

After my first year into the sport last year, I have great ambitions. The season has kicked off with Queens half marathon last month where I got my personal best in 1:20, a great sign as I still suffered from a Peroneal tendinitis at the end of January. Training is going great and the coach change I made at the end of last year has so far proven to be a good decision.

 It's now time to really focus on all three disciplines, and especially on the bike. I have to make sure that I train in the best possible conditions, with the best possible products, and surround myself with people that I can trust when it comes to working on my bike. Hilltop gives me this guarantee.

I know Chris Yeager's Hilltop Bicycle services are top notch. Every time I show up to their shop Chris takes care of my bike as if it was his, which gives me great peace of mind. He fixes my bike on the spot and walks me through everything he does. Fantastic experience there!

Chris' expertise with Bike Fitting is worth spending the extra $!

On Monday night I went to their Summit, NJ shop after work to get fitted on the bike. Chris looked at everything: Saddle position, handlebars position, knee angles, Tri and bike shoe positions (cleats), and of course he looked at my back to make sure that there'll be minimum stress on my shoulder blades while racing Eagleman Ironman 70.3, Ironman Zurich, and Ironman 70.3 World Championships later this year in Mont Tremblant, Canada.

Glenn and Raph rocked IM 70.3 Texas!

Some great results from TX today!

I have a lot of work to do to be up to par with Glenn this year. He kicked off his season at IM703Texas in Galveston today, and crushed it with a 4:14:40, 2'11 on the bike and 1'27 on the run...Blazing fast! That's a new PR for him, and a great start to 2014.

Raph shed 15 min off his previous PR, finishing in 4:37. What a great start of the season for him, and a huge boost of confidence before his IM Brazil in May and IM Canada in July.
That's exciting to see that my training buddies are doing great already. It gives me more reason to stay focus and give it all I'll have at IM 70.3 Eagleman, IM Zurich, and IM 70.3 Worlds in Mt Tremblant.

Back to training...

It was a tough weekend, especially today. 3.5 hours on the saddle in chill temperatures (37F average), followed by a 45 min brick run, going against the wind for a good 15-20 minutes. It was mentally challenging, and physically I felt limited as I did not do a good job with my nutrition on the bike. Though I carried around 950 calories, I only took in about 600 calories in 48 oz of liquids. That's not enough for a 3.5-hour ride (my intake should have been around 1,000). You don't necessarily realize it on the bike, but it hits you on the run.

Next week is rest week, and I'm looking forward to it!

The weekend is off to a great start

Yesterday...

After a long work week, I could not get myself to wake up yesterday morning for my swim. I woke up but felt under the weather and decided to stay in instead. The week has been rough with the move to my new place, and sometimes staying in and getting an extra hour or sleep is better than pushing through another training session.

Can't skip 2 sessions in a row...

Last night I got home around 6:30 and prepared for a tough brick with 90' interval ride, followed by a 15min run in my aerobic zone. I got on the trainer around 7pm, after pouring approximately 300 calories between Carbo Pro and EFS (I am trying different flavors at the moment, and I have to say that EFS lime is pretty good, especially when it's cold). After 30' at an easy wattage, I had 10x3' at 103% of FTP (Functional Threshold Power), increasing by 1-2 watts after each interval. The legs burnt and my HR was through the roof in the last 4 intervals. I managed to get the 1-2 watt increase after each set, but had no juice left for the 15min cool down.
The 15-min tempo felt good. I expected it to be much harder, but after taking a look at my 310XT, I saw that my average pace was only around 7:20min/mile.

Today...

Nice and sunny out with temperatures reaching 50-53 degrees in the Liberty State Park. Though it made for a tougher run, I could careless about the wind as I was too happy to finally run in the sun! I got 85 minutes in with a 15-min warm up at an easy pace (zone 2), and 70 minutes in my zone 3. I felt good, and I think taking nutrition (around 300 calories in my fuel belt) helped in the last 15-20min.
I wrapped up the day with 6 striders before going to Connecticut this afternoon to hang out with Will, aka the guy who got me hooked onto the sport! Can't wait to see him and his family!