Lititz Training Camp Day #4

Recovery!

Riding through a covered bridge

Bike
We settled for a "gentlemen" ride, an easy 2 hour ride at snail pace where we were able to enjoy the view, the empty roads, and the fresh air. We covered 28 miles and really took the time to appreciate the area and loosen up those sore legs, talked about everything and nothing, and enjoy the moment.
Riding is fun when we push hard and get some good speed, but it's also about discovering new areas, seeing new things, and enjoying the sport of cycling. We accomplished it, riding amazing roads in a beautiful, yet chilly weather. And after 3 intense days, it was a perfect way to start up the day.



Jared showed off his #TeamTribeBike cycling kit and "posed" in few occasions...why not? After all, it does look good.

TBT team member Jared 

           

            well deserved - Great training this year!

Ok, I think we got it, Jared! :)

               



         

Dedicated to ride from door to door! 

Run
We capped off Lititz 2014 with a 35-min cool down run in Lititz, running towards the sandwich place to pick up their menu and order food to go. Speaking of food, Matt cracked us up when he complained about how tiny his portion was, bite-size portions that he finished in probably 3 bites...and they forgot his bacon, compared to mine where I could barely take a bite as my bacon, eggs, and cheese sandwich as too big...Matt wasn't happy, but it made for a good laugh.

...Lititz 2014 in the books!
Great training camp this year. I learned a lot about nutrition, training, pacing, and my limits. There is a lot of work to do, but that's the beauty of our sport: the learning curve is endless and always steep.

Triathlon will take me to Maryland in June, Switzerland in July, and Canada in September and I look forward to the challenge, fun, and excitement that all these places will bring.

Thank you Lititz, Jared, and Matt for a great camp, and see you next year!

Lititz Training Camp Day #3

After 11+ hours on the saddle and ~14 hours of training in 2 days, the focus of the day was on the run, without disregarding the swim and bike.

Swim
We swam 4,050 yards in the morning with some fun exercises in the water, chasing each other in a 12x200 drill. 1 lead setting up the pace, 1 follower, and 1 chaser who started 10" behind. The objective was for the chaser to catch and draft. Each one had to do it 4 times. On the last set, Matt challenged me to not only catch them, but also passed them. I gave it all I had and did pass them, at the expense of the rest of the swim that wasn't pretty for me. Oh, and obviously it was chaos in the lane. Jared did not know what was going on when I tried passing him (he was in the lead), and it wasn't pretty when I passed Matt...but CHALLENGE ACCEPTED!

Bike
We rode 56 miles and climbed 2,700 feet. This ride was amazing. It was the first ride of the season wearing short sleeves and bib shorts, no shoe or toe covers, and no gloves! Feeling the air on the skin was great, and though we rode and trained a lot in the last 2 days, we had the legs to go at it in the last 6-7 miles, averaging 26-29 mph, each one of us taking relay and pulling the group. Big Kudos to Jared who rode his roadie the entire weekend. It felt like we were riding a breakaway the whole ride. Not necessarily with the intensity, but in the cohesion that we showed, taking nice and seamless relays, up and down the hills on, again, empty and smooth roads. We all agreed that it was the best ride of the camp so far.

               

Run
Oh boy! on the menu: 4-mile run at high tempo, followed by a 10x1-mile repeat. Amazing! We had a great first run, with high intensity, focus, and motivation. We were all in it to win it, with a unique objective of bringing quality to this training session. I think we achieved just that on the 4-mile run.

The 10 x-mile repeat was physically and mentally tough. It is a training exercise that Jared picked up from one of the pro tri team. The idea was to run 1 mile, rest 1 mile, increasing the pace every interval. We changed it up a bit and did 1mile run, 5 min rest in between.
Running with Matt and Jared was a unique and invaluable experience. Both have PRs on the half marathon around 1:16 (and it may be faster), when mine barely breaks 1:20, so I knew it would be a great learning experience.
They showed consistency and determination to get those miles in with high quality. This exercise not only puts you through 10 miles after a long day of training, but it also challenges your ability to stay focus, your mental strength. I think it ended up being a 1h30 run (excl. the 4-mile run). The last 3 repeats were tough. We gradually increased the pace to reach what was a faster than race pace for me on mile 9 and 10. Tough, but GREAT! Legs are sore, but this training was very good as it boosted my confidence.

PowerBar Wafer Bars are the BEST!

Going to Lititz with the intention to try out new combinations for my nutrition, I think I found the winner for Ironman Zurich...POWERBAR WAFERS!

Here is why I liked them so much...
Easy to swallow...
I was looking for a food that would have a different texture than the traditional gels or energy bars, and something that would be easy to chew and break. It was important to me that the food did not "stick" in my mouth or oesophagus like some thick gels do. I wanted something I could chew on and rapidly swallow, with no residue in my mouth. The Wafers were perfect for that. They are easy to take in, and don't "stay" in your mouth where you have to rinse it 3-4 times by swallowing your saliva, or by taking a sip.

Easy to digest...
I know that I can easily get GI issues, and finding a food that would fill me without requiring too much digesting is key. This is obviously specific to my needs and cannot necessarily apply to everyone, but it is something I learned about my body through all the training of this winter, and through my racing last year.
On a long race day like IM Zurich will be, I need all the blood possible to be sent to my muscles, not to my stomach.

Perfect option with liquids....
Water bottles heavy in calories and electrolytes work for me for shorter distances, but for long distances, I realized that I will need a more balanced combination of "food" (if you consider gels and chews food) and liquids.
300 calories per bottles would most certainly lead to a disaster on race day. Wafers give me that balance. with 170 calories per package, it gives me the flexibility of having a light bottle of water with roughly 100-120 calories, and food I can chew on and digest easily. The wafers are very easy to chew and give that crispiness that makes your feel like you are eating real food...only difference is that it is jammed with the necessary calories! At least I like the sensation of eating something and not
swallowing something like gels. I notice after the first hour that my stomach was not upset, and did not require much work either. I had another wafer in the 3rd hour of the ride, and felt great. I was able to maintain my form all throughout the 7-hour ride, and had 4 wafers todal (720 calories), and alternated with some gels and Powerbar Perfrmance Energy Blasts chews.

Lastly, it tastes great...
The berry yogurt ones tasted great! I'd be interested to try out the chocolate peanut butter ones. Though not a big PB fan, I think the savory tastes that will come with it will be much appreciate at around mile 100 on race day...let's try it in training!

Lititz Training Camp Day #2

Day #2 of training and a long ride in the books! We rode 119 miles total and climbed 10,500 feet. 

After a good first day of training yesterday, I expected more soreness and tired muscles, but I felt great.
We had a long ride scheduled today, with a 20-30 min cool-down swim after. After a big breakfast with baked oatmeal, fresh fruit, yogurt, and coffee, we started the day around 8:30 and rode towards Columbia and across Susquehanna River.
Our first hill came in early, at around mile 25 with Turkey Hill, a nice, steady, steep 2-mile hill. We then rode our favorite section of the ride, a flat, fast section along the river, and right before crossing the bridge to get to the other side of the river.
We climbed some more hills before reaching the highlight of the day with the highest (as we claim it to be) peak in Lancaster County, 80 miles into the ride. A fun, 1.5 mile climb that starts easy and has 2 massive walls in the last section, with the first one to average 23% gradient, while the top of the second one averaged 26%. Needless to say the legs burnt, but it was one of those burns that I was looking for. I knew I was working hard, and that it will only
make me stronger in the long run. I enjoyed it a lot!

Nutrition to the rescue!

The rest of the ride was a succession of hills, up and down Lancaster county. One of us started feeling weaker, so we slowed down the pace. I carried an extra PowerBar Performance Energy Blasts and gave it to him. it helped him a lot! We hate the whole 8-9 chews in 2-3 minutes, which totaled 200 calories (give or take, we took in 100 calories each). We washed it down with few sips of energy drinks, and he felt much better almost immediately,  allowing him to rally home. I love these chews! There are easy to chew and taste great (all flavors I tasted were delicious). The sugar and calories kick in right away, and with some water or energy drink to help wash it down, it is the best combination I could find to get the extra boost of energy I needed during this ride. My friend clearly loved it too.

We wrapped up the day with a 20-minute swim and 1,200 yards. Needless to say a good stretch was much appreciated. Quads, calves, and IT bands were tight, but was a great day!

Lititz 2014 Training Camp Day #1

For the next 4 days, Jared, Matt and I will be training in Lititz, PA in the heart of Lancaster County. This is the second time we are coming down here (7th for Jared), after last year's 2-day training. This year we had a whole different mindset, focusing on high quality training, high volume, and over 3.5 days, from today until Sunday afternoon.

What did we do today?

Swim

5,300 yards in the pool. The most I have done before today was 4,250 yards back in March. We had a great swim, and Lititz Rec Center provides a great facility, beautiful pool, and warm water. 

Bike 

63 miles riding up and down the hills of Lancaster County was fun! It was a nice ride, yet a bit chilly and windy for April 24. Leg warmers and long sleeve jacket was in order for this ride. Unfortunately I couldn't work on my farmer's tan today! We did not push too hard as we have a long ride scheduled for tomorrow (6+ hours with hopefully 120 miles in), but it was amazing to finally ride on nice and smooth roads, without having to swerve around potholes or tranches like we have to here in the NY area. The other great thing was that we had the roads to ourselves, often finding ourselves riding side by side, and taking the entire road. There barely was any car around, and we did see bogeys...yup we are in Amish country after all! Overall, we covered 63 miles and climbed 3,500 feet. 

Run - We got LOST! 

Matt (left), Jared (center), me

That was one interesting run today. Matt found a trail with a 8-mile loop that looked good. And it looked good, indeed. I enjoyed it. It was how I envisioned it, technical, with lots of rocks and roots on the way, forcing us to be very vigilant with our foot work. Matt and Jared weren't on the same page,
though. The main concern, clearly, was ankle sprains. But that did not happen. Instead, we got lost! Yup, lost on a trail with the sun setting on us. It started to get dark, and though we weren't too far from the car, we just did not know how far. To top it, Matt had stomach issues and could barely walk, let alone jog. Not the best, but I'm sure we still all thought that we were going to make it back to the car before dusk. 

Me running the trail @ Governor Dick Park

Funny fact: Jared, aka Papa bear, started talking about how he would cry, should we have to sleep outside! We were on a trail with trailblazers, so I thought to myself that we were fine. We also were walking back the same way we came from, so it would take us longer in the dark, but we would have made it back to the car eventually...just a fun, unexpected adventure out of what was supposed to be an easy trail run. 

Day 3/3: Great 3-hour ride to wrap up the weekend

Incredible ride this morning despite the wind. I left earlier, around 6:20am, to avoid traffic and it paid off. I got 3 hours in with barely any traffic and found the perfect road for tempo interval workouts!

I rode up to the GW Bridge and through the Palisades Park. After the Ranger Station Climb that averages 9-12% for about 1 mile, I continued towards Piermont and Nyack to start my interval sets. 

On the way back I decided to go onto route 340 (Southbound), and about 1.5 miles later we were forced to make a detour, which turned out to be awesome! I got on a road called Knickerbockers Road and what a delight for interval training! I rode it until I reached Englewood. The road is in much better conditions (less potholes) than 9W, and traffic is much lighter than 9W. It is fairly flat with some false flat, which makes it a perfect one to do long interval sessions.I highly recommend it to all NYC area cyclists!

Great ride and great weekend overall. I totaled around 140 miles on the bike in 3 days, which should help me be ready for Lititz training camp next week. 

Now onto some Post-training fun with the Mets - Braves game at the Citi Field ballpark with Mariesa, and dinner date at Landmarc in Tribeca! Yummy! 

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!